Which do Bassists Prefer?

Bellycaster

@Blueingreen

I'm not an expert on Bass Gear, hence the Thread, but Ian Savage's Post further up explains about Class D rigs, Lightweight etc.

monquixote

Blueingreen said:

10 years or so ago I was playing bass using an SWR Grand Prix preamp into a QSC PLX 1602 and a couple of SWR 2 x 10s. Nice sound but a lot of stuff to lug around. Loud but it needed to be in a 9 piece funk band. I haven't even picked up a bass guitar in years so I'm well out of touch with recent changes in gear technology.  Would I be right in thinking that it would be possible to do a similar job with a much lighter rig these days?  

Yes indeed. 

Mark Bass, TC Electronic, etc produce some great light weight gear. 

mudslide73

Our bassist has gone from a MiniMark to a SVT Heritage. Much cleaner and sustained... heavier than a Twin too .. takes 2 of us to get it up onto the cab.

ICBM

There is a reason why the SVT is still possibly the most common single model of bass amp to be seen on professional stages, forty years after it was introduced.

But they're much better if someone else takes care of moving it, storing it, paying for revalving it...

equalsql

Tube pre-amps with a SS power stage.  I owned an early SWR head sporting that combination and the tone and power was awesome. The amp was pretty light too. Sounded like a dumpling hitting the wall 

ICBM

I had a very early SWR Studio 220 which sounded absolutely wonderful clean, but - extremely frustratingly given the valve preamp, and that it was small and light - terrible to unusable overdriven... just awful. Sadly I like an overdriven bass tone so it had to go.

koneguitarist

I have allways preferred SS amps for bass, or even DI into PA then back to bass amp as a monitor. But once I tried an old JV precision through a Marshall super bass 100 stack and I could see what the fuss was all about. That growl was awesome. Still use SS when I gig though.

fretmeister

SS or Tubepreamp with SS power for me. Currently Class D on both my amps. Both Genz Benz. TC's RH450 supposed 450w is only about 260w and relies on their power management doohickey.

UnclePsychosis

I've got to be honest...I'm really not fussy about bass amps. I'll plug into whatever's there, or just use my little preamp and DI straight into the PA. However, I "just" play fairly straight ahead rock music so its not like tonal subtleties are all that important. 

If I ever do buy a "proper" bass amp it'll almost certainly be solid state, unless I have roadies to carry it around for me...

Pyroman

   I'm in the SS group for bass amps as well.   My class D Markbass amp is hard to beat, tonewise- and it's silly how light it is.  No need to lug around hernia inducing, back breaking tube amps...

 I like the Fender Rumble series as well- they sound great, and don't break the bank.  If I ever get out of my bedroom with my bass, a Rumble 350 is quite tempting.

Drew_TNBD

Strangely, with bass it's one of those things where as long as the amp is loud and clean enough, I could get by. Also, I'm way more inclined to use pedals for the distortion than I am with guitar. Don't know why that is!

A blender of some sort is absolutely necessary for that though, because too often you end up losing all the low end.

ICBM

Drew_fx said:

Strangely, with bass it's one of those things where as long as the amp is loud and clean enough, I could get by. Also, I'm way more inclined to use pedals for the distortion than I am with guitar. Don't know why that is!

I'm the same - it's more a question of musical function, I think. The bass tone doesn't matter anywhere near as much as the guitar tone normally. And I'm saying that as a bassist as much (or more so these days) as a guitarist! The problem is that when the amp tone isn't good enough you're really screwed.

Drew_fx said:

A blender of some sort is absolutely necessary for that though, because too often you end up losing all the low end.

Depends on the pedal. Some have more low-end than the original bass tone.

I do like layered bass sounds though, when it isn't too much of a pain in the backside to set them up. A bass with split pickup outputs so you can run one deep and clean and the other gnarly and aggressive sounds massive.

ecc83

"A lot of Class D designs I've seen have underrated power supplies, and rely on discharging the smoothing caps to deliver peak power - that could be it."

When I try to quote you Sporks I get ICBM!......Anyhoooses. The SPECIFIED power output of guitar amps is a very loose quantity and for valves in particular is in fact very hard to pin down. Even X watts into Y Ohms resistive at say 5% distortion still does not really tell you much about the SPL into real, reactive speakers.

But, as you also say, LF needs prodigious power compared to a 6er for comparable levels so IMHO bass amps should be be rated at sine wave power at 1kHz AND 40Hz  for say 5% distortion?

Dave.

monquixote

I think it's a bit easier to find a "good" bass sound that with a bit of EQ would probably work for most bass players probably because bass tends to be a bit more hifi. 

ICBM

The difference in volume relative to claimed power into real-world loads can be astounding.

Some time ago I tried a Fender Bassman 70 valve amp (70 watts, as you would expect) and a (claimed - although I have no reason to doubt it could be measured as such) 400W Class D mini-amp, through a huge multi-speaker ported cab - an awkward load to be sure, definitely not 'properly' designed, with no crossover between the different-sized drivers and I suspect no real tuning - and the Fender was *louder*. Not kidding. It had a huge depth at the bottom end that the little high-power amp could not deliver at all - in terms of SPL right in front of the cab the little amp might have seemed a bit louder, but in terms of filling the room the old valve amp beat it hands down.

(I don't remember the name of the little amp... something expensive though.)

Blueingreen

Thanks for the comments on lightweight amps.  How about cabs?  

monquixote

Neo speakers are what you need for lightweight cabs. 

EBS make the best ones IMO, but they ain't cheap.

fretmeister

Cabs: Bergantino CN series. Or Barefaced Bass. Alex Claber's designs are really shaking up the bass cab world. I have severe GAS for their 'Super 12' cab.

ICBM

The Barefaced cabs are really tempting - they're so efficient that relatively low-powered all-valve bass amps become a serious possibility again.

Blueingreen

Thanks guys. I've no immediate plans to start playing bass again, but there's always that slight temptation because good gigs are so much easier to pick up.  If I thought I could get away with a much more lightweight rig, that would add to the appeal.