The blues standard, “Born Under a Bad Sign”, has a famous lyric:
Hard luck and trouble is my only friend
Around here, we’ve changed that line to:
Empty pockets and new gear is my only friend
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@Barney If you have a music store near you it’s worth it to go around the stack of bass amps and plug in to all of them one after another. Being able to compare them back to back lets you know pretty quick what you like.
I was really close to getting an Ampeg before I chose the Rumble. That was before the Rocket amps came out. Everything about them seems better made than the previous generation of Ampeg amps in that price range.
If I was comparing the two today it would be a much tougher choice. Ampeg did a pretty fine job coming up with something to compete with the Rumble.
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… which is not very hard … 
(if we’re talking about the BA range)
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Yep. The BA was not a favorite. 
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what you say make me want to try a Rocket 
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They’re nice, just don’t go into it expecting a more traditional Ampeg sound. Judge them on their own merrit compared to the market they were built for.
@terb you have always struck me as somebody that might be happier with a powered cabinet and a preamp of your choosing.
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oh yes, that’s probably true. or the old way : a rack with my preamp and a big power amp, and a 4x10.
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Have you considered the VT Bass DI or any of the tube based preamp pedals out there?
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no, I’m still happy with my old Bass POD Pro
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@terb If you wanted to, could you install an ICE power module in the rack you made for the Bass Pod Pro? It seems like you already have the skill set to do that.
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Is it really old if they still sell it in stores? Was looking at it yesterday 
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it’s 22 years old … I highly doubt a store would have one new !
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Was used. Still cool
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this one is a Pod X3 Pro (I own one as well), but the Bass POD Pro I’m using is much older :
here are the two I own, my main one in the amp-style rack, and the spare one on top.
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Is that the one that has the LA2A compressor model in it?
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yes
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but I think that other Bass PODs probably have also a LA-2A model, but not the same model. the X3 (which is the only POD that works for guitar and bass) also has a LA-2A model. well, the X3 has so much models that it would be surprising if there were no LA-2A !
that said, I love the particular LA-2A model on the Bass POD / Bass POD Pro.
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You are correct as usual @eric.kiser about trying different amps in person but I live in the boonies. So it’s about 8 hours to a music store of any size!
I have the Rumble 100. I’m very happy with it. So a logical step (at some point) would be the bigger version.
However I spent most of the weekend setting up my HX Stomp patches to get the levels right for both headphones and through the speaker.
Plus I dragged in both the Darkglass BK7 pedal emulation and the SansAmp21 Pre amp to experiment with. The BK7 is a lot of fun.
I also tweaked my Ampeg SVT-4 Pro amp patch.
I think the days of buying an amp to get a certain sound are probably not in my future. A nice, light amp like the Rumble combo plus the Helix makes the most economic sense.
Sorry for being sensible in the GAS thread.
Here’s the Amp simulations I’m currently running on my Stomp into my Rumble. Spendy if I bought them for real.
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not sure a bigger Rumble would be an upgrade, unless you don’t have enough power with your 100w.
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No it’s not @terb it would just be volume I think and at the moment it’s plenty loud. So the money stays at the bank (for now!)
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