Best home amp/cab setup money can buy?

I’ve eyeballed the hell out of that, but never got to hear in person…if it has that tone though…does it have real tubes, can’t remember.

I like how the Darkglass amps sound, but that’s the clean tone. I like the distortion they make, but it is a modern distortion sound. Clean though it’s a great sounding amp.

no, it’s a full solid state class-D little amp. the really smart thing is that the 2x10" matching cab is the same that one of the four sections of an original 8x10. sounds very close but with way less weight (and necessarily less projection). in theory if you have 4 of those cab it’s identical to an original 8x10.

all that because the original 8x10 and 6x10 are internally separated into 3 or 4 2x10 :

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Thank you this all makes sense, a lot of sense.

Yes, I will be playing with others, jamming, just not out ‘gigging’.
If that happens, I will cross that bridge when it comes.

I played with Amplitube last night for a long while, and, well, I don’t think that is for me overall. Like you said, a good option, but already don’t like being tied to the PC, etc. I have that setup with the Vox plug in amp and focusrite, and although i can add more dimensions to sound with Amplitube, I don’t think this is the route i want. I like the ambient sound of an amp, and would like the ability to move it around more freely than PC + monitors, etc.

I do have a bunch of effects pedals already, which are fun and been enjoying exploring them, and use them all with my saxes too (even more fun!!) but want to explore the cleaner bass+amp tone to start part in more detail.

Too many options!
So what I didn’t mention is…I have a few low end basses, a Squire 70’s Jazz, Yamaha TBRX5, and then a ESP LTD Rocco Prestia model, but…I just splurged for a Fender Custom Shop ‘61 Time Machine P bass, and once it comes next week, want to see how to bring out the best in it via the amp side of things.

I did not know there is a Rumble Studio series vs. what I have, will check that out, thanks (I am a sax player first, bass is the ‘second hobby’…i love it, just still learning all the gear, etc).

RE power, this is my biggest concern. My Rumble 40 never really goes over 30% volume, and it seems like ‘better’ or tube amps etc in general go hand in hand with more power, and I didn’t want to buy better and choke the heck out of it and end up with bad tone (does this make sense?).

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Agree, I am very much in the ‘analog’ camp. I am 54 and grew up in the 70s and 80s when I could understand all of this and recite specs of hi-if equipment up down and backwards. The explosion of digital almost paralyzes me with options, and my ear always leans towards analog. I have a decent vinyl collection and play them whenever I can over my iPhone, and yes, the difference is huge, and makes me smile to be annoyed that i have to flip the record every 20 minutes. I do like the ‘equipment’ itself. The digital stuff, to me is fun to play with, but not the end solution.

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Given all this then, what I would recommend you do instead is just buy a tube bass preamp and then it literally doesn’t matter what amp you use.

I like the EBS ValveDrive; there’s also the Two Notes Le Bass and several others.

Here’s a thread complete with sound samples:

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Yes this is on the list. Finding one is not as easy. I live near NYC and between Covid and weather and general supply chain issues and stores reducing inventory, its a pain in the butt to find anything. Hoping to do some exploring this weekend and see how has what. The local Westchester Guitar Center and Sam Ash (which downsized this year) are really only good for low end gear now if at all and I find even getting strings I want at either is difficult. Will be heading into NYC this weekend to try the bigger stores to try some things, just a big pain.

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Be careful, or you might end up with another bass too. :laughing:

So fun shopping for stuff like that. Enjoy!

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I installed the ASIO drivers (https://www.asio4all.org/) on my pc and it minimized a lot of the latency I was experiencing.

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I only use ASIO for sure.

Im going to throw a different perspective from amp experts like @terb or DAW experts like @howard. This might not be popular with lots here but it worked really well for me.

I found out that the sound I loved the most was the Ampeg SVT sound. Not only the weight but also the cost was prohibitive for me.

I also found out that the DAW experience, even though very extensible, really hampers my experience flow. The DAW is awesome (and humbling) to hear the shortcomings in technique/timing. Great learning tool. Highly recommend it.

I also discovered that pedals is really not my thing either as I really did not want to deal with lots of issues (for me) these brought up

  • Cable clutter
  • Hissing noise due to X, Y or Z
  • Very limiting
  • Space

I then went with a multi-effect processor: Zoom B1 Four. Great little thing!

  • Cheap
  • Got the SVT sound I wanted through my Rumble 40
  • Built in drum machine (loved this)
  • Looper. meh
  • Bunch of effects

Granted, Im sure that you will get better sound with dedicated pedals and what not, but for me this was enough.

Then my son said that he wanted to play bass as well and needed a bass and amp. Opportunity to sell it to him and get something else.

Short story, I got a Fender Rumble 800 Stage Modeling amp and I’m loving the thing. (Got a 15% on President Day weekend)

Pros:

  • Has tons of amps models, Ampeg, Orange, Marshal, Fender and more (18+, more added with firmware update)
  • Same with cabs
  • Lots of effect pedals. Chorus, Compressors, Octovers, Fuzz, etc
  • Great sound off 2 10" + 1 horn speakers
  • Bluetooth. Laggy as hell, but still useful for drum/metronome if your not using any visual aids. The Zoom has these moving dots that I was using maybe too much as a crutch. Also works well to stream say from Trasncribe! (slower/Minus bass, etc) from your laptop
  • Mobile app, that allows you to select any of the 100 presets and/or add your own and modify the presets. This is convenient as you can create your Favorites.

I have a limited list of Plain SVT + Cab, RATM, Hooky, Dont Give UP, Tool setups. Only the first one is a preset.

  • App allows you to easily modify/change settings of pedals/amps without using the onboard dials and screen
  • App allows you to download community/artists created models. Cute
  • Great tuner (from the onboard screen).
  • 4 button pedal board for presets or pedals on your setup.
  • Wifi (to upgrade the firmware. Latest one included a few more amps)
  • Not too heavy. Portable by all means.
  • USB. Use is as a DAI. Have not tested this yet.

Cons:

  • Not cheap $900 MSRP. Im sure @terb would find 3 awesome amps for that price and @howard would get all the plugins under the sun.
  • Takes 20-30s to initialize. I got around this, by first turning it on, then grab the bass and connect with no hurry. No sound while its initializing.
  • BT is super laggy. Fender knows this and recommend disconnecting their app if you want to use say DrumBeats on your phone. Still laggy.

But as you can see I have more pros than cons. Do some research, but this solutions really worked for me.

Loving the amp so far. Hope this helps

Sergio

PS. Here is a link to the manual. Amps on page 16. There is addendum manual on Fenders site for latest firmware changes.

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Oohhh, it took a fun turn…now we get to talk gear!

I’d go one tube, one solid state. Ampeg and Kustom both have some great sounding tubes. Is the 80 pound SVT worth it? Yeah, nothing else sounds quite like it in the analog department! It’s a great tone! Pair it with a 410, 610 or 810 cab and you are in analog heaven! I’d look at (and try if possible) Orange, Kustom, Mesa and Ashdown too for tube options.

So why a solid state too? Well, tube amps all have their “baked in” sound. Some Solids do too, but a good neutral sounding amp is good to have. Darkglass and Kustom are good for neutral amps (Darkglass has built in OD too). Hartke has some good ones. Hartke cabs are good with their aluminum cones also!

I love the Zoom multieffects boxes :slight_smile:

I has a B1on and a B3n. Both great.

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Yeah I can understand that. I loved my Big Muff to death.

Then again, for me, sometimes the VMT is just the thing. I like using it lightly to get that Darkglass bass and mids thing going:

That’s actually the NeuralDSP plugin but it sounds exactly like a real VMT.

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I love the SVT sound and RATM specifically as well. I was able to get that tone on the DAW so that made me happy. I also have a zoom B3n pedal (which I love) and the SVT sim is not bad on it.

That Fender sounds interesting. 800 watts is more than enough!

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Yeah. Forgot to mention that. Thing is loud and clean. I practice with it mostly at volume between 0-1. I think its enough to play with a live drummer. We will see.

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It will be more than enough for a live drummer and several guitarist with full rigs!

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That’s a great tone!

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sounds excellent @howard !

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oh yes it will be enough. with my last band I used a 250w Ampeg combo and it has always been way more than enough. I don’t think I’ve ever put the master louder than 3 or 4. Honestly I don’t know who can ever need 800w.

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