Small bass amp for home use

Rocker

Regulars here will be aware that I purchased a bass in the last couple of months.  Since then I have used it through my Orange Micro Terror and a Blackstar 1 * 10" cab.  I don't think the amp, or the cab, is doing the bass any favours, so what would be a decent quality, not too costly and small bass amp - preferably a combo.  Max spend would be around €150, could wait for New Year sales to get something near that price.

Thanks. 

ThePrettyDamned

My mate has a 30 watt peavey with a 1x10, used it cost less than 50 quid I think? Very cheap.

Sounds fine for home practice though Actually, the 15 watt version sounds okay too!

Or a zoom B3.

samzadgan

agree with PrettyDamned...get a Peavey...they are great bass amps and cheap...at the Zoom B3 for your effects and you are set. That would all cost under 150.

ICBM

Fender Rumble 15. £100 new, simple and works well.

The smaller Behringer ones are OK too, although I haven't tried the newest series. The BXL450 is under £100 new too and is a lot bigger - 10" speaker - and with more features.

I also haven't tried the current Peavey ones but they're generally good, and the Max 158 is in the right price range.

UnclePsychosis

Unless you actually need it to be an amp get a zoom b3 and a pair of headphones.

ICBM

I love my B3 - I always use it for playing with my band - but I would never choose it and headphones instead of a bass practice amp unless I had to practice when any volume at all was not allowed. A real amp with a real speaker just sounds better.

Grunfeld

Roland Bass Cube -- had mine for years and can't fault it.  Small, solid, might be pushing the upper end of the budget if bought new but sounds great and it is so tidy.

fretmeister

Grunfeld said:

Roland Bass Cube -- had mine for years and can't fault it.  Small, solid, might be pushing the upper end of the budget if bought new but sounds great and it is so tidy.

This.

Blueingreen

I used to use Peavey Microbasses, not the most refined sound in the world but they used to have a decent reputation at around £100 a pop - practically the "industry standard" bass practice amp.  I recently tried to sell a couple locally at £25 each and got no takers, so I suspect if you hunt around they can be picked up for next to nothing these days.

noisepolluter

Grunfeld said:

Roland Bass Cube -- had mine for years and can't fault it.  Small, solid, might be pushing the upper end of the budget if bought new but sounds great and it is so tidy.

Another recommendation for the bass cube here

hobbio

I bought a Belcat 35w bass amp, cheap as chips and I can't fault it for home use.

littlethoughts

I still regularly use my line6 lowdown 150 watt 1x12 for gigging. I've not tried the low wattage models from the range but if one popped up local and cheap I would get it.

guitargeek62

Has anyone tried a Yamaha THR10 with an active (or passive) bass yet? Thinking of picking one up for home practice

guitargeek62

Has anyone tried a Yamaha THR10 with an active (or passive) bass yet? Thinking of picking one up for home practice

lasermonkey

I like my Orange Crush 35B. It's a 1x12 combo, has gain, bass, mid, treble and volume controls.

It *just* about kept up with our drummer after he bought his stupid-loud Mapex kit, but was pretty warm afterwards!

Dave_Mc

guitargeek62 said:

Has anyone tried a Yamaha THR10 with an active (or passive) bass yet? Thinking of picking one up for home practice

Nope, but Gear4Music is blowing out the Peavey Vypyr VIP 2 for ~£130, and it can also be used for guitar and bass, and at 40W with a 12" speaker might be more useful as an all-round thing than the Yamaha- which seems very much aimed at home practice, though I should stress I haven't tried either. But at double the price for something which seems less versatile, I'm coming down on the side of the Peavey, at least on paper. ) But maybe that's a bonus for you or you don't have the space for the Peavey. Also IIRC it said in the Peavey's manual that it was designed for passive instruments, so that might be a problem if yours are active.

strtdv

Go used and you'll get a pretty decent amp for that. I picked up a Warwick Sweet 25.1 for £100 locally (obviously that's much bigger than a practice amp), which I then sold for a profit and bought a MarkBass Combo Head 2 for £270.

There are definite bargains out there and I'm sure you could get something that was both small enough to practice at home, but also do small gigs with if the need arose.

Rocker

How long will it take for my fingers to harden/toughen up. Fifteen minutes playing bass "chords" with a cd and my fingers are sore and tired. And they have big rut marks (which clear away fairly quickly)......

UnclePsychosis

Depends. Assuming you play guitar as well, probably not that long but it really depends how often you play. If you're really playing full chords then probably a bit longer, those can be tough! 

Bass is a very physical instrument, so its really important to make sure that you use the correct technique, I used to get really sore hands and fingers but two lessons with a good teacher sorted me out. You expect a bit of pain but it needs to be the "right kind". 

erky32

I've got agree with @Dave_Mc , I've had a VIP-2 for about 6 months, basically bought it to satisfy my hybrid needs with a Godin A6. It does a great job, abiet the acoustic channel does lack headroom, but I rarely use that because for acoustic the "Twin" ch is so clean it works great. Latterly I've been pairing it with my Blade-Lev' tele, and its the best amp for that guitar in my amp collection, ....it is really clean but warm sound, but with the guitar boost on and some preamp drive (orange led) on the twin channel it gives a really nice warm valvey sound - certainly for home/studio use, ...and the 12" brings the whole sound spectrum out. I've heard bad vibes on these amps for reliability, so so far no probs, solid sound, versatility , relatively light (much less than FBJ) .....with the Sanpera - everything you need for house/studio/cafe gig ....having said that I dont use the pedal much, round the house etc, prefer to just dial in what I want. It might be a computer with a speaker on it but it does deliver the sounds for small money!

erky32

...just realised I'm commenting on a bass amp discussion. I havent used the bass mode but I'm sure it will cope OK, it handles power guitar chords with a nice bottom end thump!