Six months ago, I started the search for a new practice amp, having gone amp-less a few months prior and been unhappy with the results. I started with a Spark 40: a neat little amp, great features, but the bass support was underwhelming. I boxed it up and shoved it in the closet.
Two months ago, I picked up a Boss Katana 210. Great amp, really, but not a practice amp and WAY too big for my space. It was later traded for some other gear.
Today, as I got ready for my lesson down at GC, I thought I’d bring the Spark 40 with me, see if they’d give me a good deal on it. They did! Because I was there for a lesson, I had my Player Jazz bass with me. I looked at 3 different amps, all in the $250 range: an Ampeg, a MarkBass, and an Acoustic. I lined them up right next to each other, set EQs on each of them flat across the board, and played the same things (basically just some scales and some riffs from some songs I know) on each amp… once with both pickups wide open, once with only the neck pickup open, and once with only the bridge pickup open.
Knowing that the current Acoustic line is not the Acoustic of yore and that it’s pretty much just a GC house brand now, I figured the Acoustic was just a filler and the choice would come down to either the MarkBass or the Ampeg.
…
Surprisingly, I much preferred the Acoustic. I did not like the MarkBass at all… it seemed like it was scooped to the max, even with the EQ flat and only the neck or bridge pickup on. The Ampeg was really close and I almost got that, but… the Acoustic won the day.
So, I wound up taking home an Acoustic B50C… a 50w combo amp with a 10" woofer. It fits and sounds perfect in my space, and I really dig the way it sounds.