Bass amp suggestions

[Ant1981]

I'm thinking of buying a bass amp and need some suggestions. I've been cosidering Ashdown and Trace Elliot - to go the British/English route, nice to buy your countries own products.

Anything else worth considering? Will be mainly used for recording, as mic'ing up the cab is always best.

[Ant1981]

Hell, I might just get something cheap that does the job, like a Peavey.

[Ant1981]

If there is anyone out there who knows, I seem to have asked a question in a field there aren't many people familiar with here, but here's another part of the question - Would a 15" be too big?

[bduersch]

To be honest, I don't think it's worth it to buy a bass amp just for the sake of recording... 95% of the recording projects I've worked on, we've run the bass through some sort of a direct box and monitored it through headphones. At the most basic it could be a passive DI box, maybe an active DI like a Sansamp, or at most, a Behringer V-Amp.

Three reasons... 1) Cost -- you can get a good DI box for far less than a good bass amp. 2) Space -- a good consideration for cramped studio quarters. 3) Less effort -- typically it's simpler to plug & play with a DI box than to dial in the tone on an amp and deal with mic selection/placement.

My personal favorite option is the Behringer BDI21 direct box, which is basically a rip-off of the Sansamp Bass DI for about $40. Lots of tonal versatility and easy to dial in (the manual even comes with suggested settings which are good starting points).

Again, if you really want an amp for jamming, that's a different story, but for recording you can get by with a lot less.

--B

[Ant1981]

Thanks, I've never been a fan of DI, when I DI'd my guitar amps they sounded awful compared to mic'ing up, but I'll take a look at that box, if it doesn't cost alot then it's probably worth while - but also it would help to have an amp so that I can have a play on the bass aswell, improvise on it, mess around with it and I may even do a bit of jamming with it. I quite enjoy messing around with the bass too aswell as guitar.

[Ant1981]

Ok, for a bass amp, 2x10" OR 1x15" ?

Or maybe there aren't any bassists on jemsite, as i'm beginning to think.

[slugman]

It doesn't look like there are, because I posted a question 'which bass amp to get' and the only response I got was to get a Peavey Which I am looking into. After searching around a bit with two friends we liked this Hartke 2000 head we saw (when matched with the right cab) and the Fender Rumble 100. The appeal of the Hartke was sub $200 price used and a tube preamp. The Fender Rumble has a 15" speaker; it was louder than other amps we A/B'ed with. Not many features, which we like, and it wasn't too heavy. Runs about $200-250 used. I know there's lots more gear out there but after two days of searching about that's what we got. We didn't like any of the cheap Gallion Krueger gear, and the Ampeg BA115 was OK. Qualities we were looking for: high volume, low price, portability, punchy sound.

I ran across an old Peavey Mark III but the salesman was trying to push this Ibanez amp to us and wouldn't let me hook it up. Boo!

[supermau]

Originally Posted by Ant1981

Ok, for a bass amp, 2x10" OR 1x15" ?

Or maybe there aren't any bassists on jemsite, as i'm beginning to think.

I'm a little late to the party but I am a bass player as well as a guitar player. I like Ampeg and SWR although Ashdown and TE make excellent gear as well. I like the tightness of four 10's as opposed to one big 15 but that's just me. Truthfully, recording bass direct with a good DI generally IS the better way to go, it works out better than recording a regular guitar. Tech 21 makes some a good bass DI.