Hey friends! So far in my journey (of several weeks now ) I’ve been playing with an Amplug and headphones. My goal with learning bass is to be able to jam with friends, and I am just itching to start doing so.
I don’t have a car, and will need to travel by bus/train to play with friends. This would indicate that I need something light and compact. Ideally, I would love to purchase something that is also powerful enough to use during a small gig, as that is what we are dreaming of down the line. I am interested in rock adjacent genres, if that helps.
If anyone has any suggestions for specific amps, please let me know. I have been looking at Fender Rumble 100, which is light, but maybe a bit large to be carrying around? Any advice is appreciated!
PJB BG-75 (or bigger)
or
I had MarkBass Micromark 801 for a while, but then I swapped that for bigger studio monitors as it was too loud for “bedroom practice”.
PS.
Bear in mind that those might be not enough for practice with a drummer
What you’d be doing down the line is just that some time in the future. Best start would be the rumble 40. It’s portable enough to take it on the bus and powerful enough to jam with live drums.
If you are new to this you have to think for a minute the logistics of going around town with a 25lbs box while shouldering a bass in a gig bag and trying to protect both from getting damage or worse robbed or stolen depending on where you live.
It would be a while before you can gig if you are just starting you’d go through a few basses and amp before that so don’t worry about owning gig rigs right now. Just get one that suits your need now.
Anything above 22 lbs or 10 kg is a bit too much to carry around on buses and so on. Also, the bigger the speaker cabinet/amp gets, the more it becomes difficult to get into small car trunks.
You could get a Rumble 100 or 40 and use one of these:
I agree with Al1885 and would suggest a Fender Rumble 40 and with extra toys to play with the Rumble 40 Studio. I personally believe a descent amp with a good preamp, hopefully one with headphone input, is the best option. You could practice without the amp while modeling the tone, or shape the tone to the amp or gig through a PA system. Josh has a video/review of practice amps, too. Good luck and have fun! Best Bass Practice Amp | BassBuzz.com
I can’t offer much advice re the amp as I’ve only got a Rumble 15 as mostly play with headphones; but just wanted to say that your early passion to play is very evident. All the very best in your low end journey
I sure am having a hard time navigating the forum on my phone, so I hope this reply is visible to everyone! I absolutely would have used the search option, I just could not find it My apologies!
Thank you all for your great feedback. I agree that jamming with a full band where good sound quality is probably pretty far down the line, so let’s say I settle for something small enough that I can travel to play with my friend and his electric guitar. The Rumble 40 is definitely loud enough for that, but it seems like it is only slightly lighter and slightly smaller than the Rumble 100. So not really that much more practical.
As of now there is nowhere I can place the amp when I’m not at the location, so it will have to come with me back home. So if anyone has any more recommendations for tiny amps (smaller than Rumble 40, that is) for tiny jams, it is greatly appreciated!
Thank you for your input! I don’t think it is realistic to wheel something like this around on my commute, so I think I will have to leave the idea of such a large amp behind for now
When I jam with my buddy at his apartment we just plug into the computer and listen through headphones. At that point all you need is your bass, a laptop, and an audio interface.
That is what we did in this video. He already had the computer too so I just had my pedalboard, bass, and interface.
The boss dual is very nice. It’s probably the best battery operated (optional) amp you can buy right now. It’s highly portable and even restaurant gig-able mainly due to most just want lower volume output.
For home use and practice spark 40 is definitely nice the rumble 40. If price is not the issue then Genzler BA 10-2 is what I have and that one is future proof as you can definitely gig with that, I did.
Just to chime in about the Boss Cube LX - I personally do not like it at all. At higher volume (which it is not meant for), the speakers just fart out. Big no no for the price. The Phil Jones or Markbass 801 are not that much more expensive and hold up much better.
Stay away from the Cubes, they had their time but are overpriced now.
@linn_f Try landscape mode on your phone, the search icon does not show in vertical mode, afaik.
In the similar but different category when I go over to my drummer buddy’s place he already has his v-drums going through a floor monitor / keyboard amp that has three inputs. I just jack into that and we share the same speaker.
I’ve said it before, if I ever need to play live again I’m just buying a pair of PA’s to hang off my mixer and my bandmate and I will share that. The mixer is also an audio interface; technically I would need to get an upgrade for it though if I wanted more than two channels in.
Anyway from there into the computer for amp and cab sims. Synths are there too. If I was worried about CPU I would still buy something like a quad cortex and run the effects and sims in there, before buying separate amps.
Discrete amps per instrument are dead to me at this point
I agree. If you are already schlepping a bass, a Fender Rumble 100 is not that much worse! Due to the laws of physics, bass players can’t have an amp as small and light as guitar players use anyway.
) I’ve been playing with an Amplug and headphones. My goal with learning bass is to be able to jam with friends, and I am just itching to start doing so.
My apologies!
Kinda like when I visit my brother and we jam.
