New Amp Recommendations

This is why I couldn’t do the tubes thing. Because what about the rockerverb and 5150 then?

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Oh definitely - also for G-K too of course (I like the sound of the newer Fusions).

You know for solid state the recent PortaFlex might be pretty good.

One thing I know for sure is I won’t be getting a SLO-100 any time soon but that would for sure be my pick given the choice.

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I’m imagining the attenuator you’d need to be able to use a 100 watt high gain tube guitar amp in your apartment and it’s really entertaining me.

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yeah exactly, I am picturing a big heat sink

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I mean on one hand its only 100 watts. But on the other, it’s a mean 100 watts

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not a big fan of Orange amps actually but the 5150 is great. and the 6505 is stellar.

Not mandatory for bass amp but honestly for a guitar amp, you need tubes.

Not sure. The recent Portaflex’s sound pretty flat IMO. But the newest Venture series seems really excellent !

Yeah, not the cheapest ones. And the recent low power ones are really not as good. You want the real 100w one.

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… and for having a 120w Soldano head, personnally I prefer the dirty Marshall sound. I have 7 Marshall’s currently :smiling_face_with_tear: Big fan of Vox’s (I have 2) and high-end Vox-likes (the best amp that I own is a Bad Cat)

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I mean my guitar amp use is for a violin, so not the same thing precisely. That said I’ve been to a few shows at midsize venues recently with no amps in sight and the guitars sound good to me.

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Definitely a classic sound.

I also like Orange a lot for guitar but that is mostly because to me they sound like rounded off Marshalls that don’t clean up as well :rofl:

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That’s pretty much it, yeah. I’m fine with my '81 JCM 800 … :grin:

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It’s just a V4 - not the B version. I was on the fence for a while but I’m glad I scooped it up!

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Yeah exactly - once you’re talking about that spending level there’s the dream choices. Of course a SLO-100 is in the dream league, but for its price you could probably get a 5150, a JCM-800/900, and a Rockerverb.

I thought the 6505 was a literal rename of the 5150? Is there a difference?

(edit: ahh I guess not, they look quite a bit different, superficially anyway.)

Yeah the 6505 is somewhat more useable. the 5105 has tons of gain, it can be too much even for metal. Also if I remember, the clean channel is better on the 6505.

I must confess that the 6505 is on my amp wishlist :v::grin:

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Wow used Backlines ARE really cheap now. Not that they ever were expensive, but wow. I would definitely go for one if I needed an amp. The sound of those and the RB’s are basically my favorite solid state amp sounds for bass.

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Just to put a period on the thread…

I had a Rumble 40 for a long time, and a Rumble 100. Both were too boomy for my current situation.

I did wind up getting a Spark 40. For my current needs, it’s perfect. Yeah, the speakers are small, and they don’t move a lot of air, but that’s not what I was looking for. I was just looking for something I could play through without headphones and not make the other people in the house hate me. And for that, it’s perfect.

Thanks for all the feedback!

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I heared, there is an easy way to improve the sound: closing the bass reflex tube.

Like this:

You should be Modding_Dutchman :stuck_out_tongue:

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My friends call me Mocking_Dutchman :slight_smile:

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So, just wrapping a bow on this thread, the Spark 40 is a great little amp for bass, across the board, when used with headphones. When used without headphones, it’s pretty good, until you ALSO want to play a backing track (like, maybe a song through the app, or through the aux in). Then it leaves a good deal to be desired.

I went to Guitar Center the other day and did some trade-ins with some basses I wasn’t playing and wound up taking home a Boss Katana 210. Very different from what I wanted in my original post, but it has a built-in DAI over USB, and has a “1 watt” switch where I can cut the power output down to a minimal value, which works great in my small space. With full power output, 160 watts with 2 10" woofers is too much for my little house, LOL.

Anyway, that’s that. I’ll probably end up selling the Spark 40, now that I have the Boss.

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I have a Rocket Bass 30 and 50 watt. The 50 is a work horse. Highly recommend.

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