Gotcha. I wanted a small 500 watt power amp and ended up doing a bunch of research on what it would take to build it myself. It ended up being cheaper to buy a 500 watt head.
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no doubt at all ! what head did you buy ?
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I haven’t yet. Figuring out what amp to buy has been a lot more difficult for me than choosing a bass.
Aguilar Tone Hammer 500
The one time I got to play through one it sounded better than anything else I’ve tried. Very warm. But that price tag is pretty steep for something I didn’t have enough time to play around with. I came back the next day to spend some time with it but it had already sold. To make it harder, I’ve seen some videos where it sounds great and some where it sounds awful. All of that makes me second guess myself.
Orange Terror Bass 500
Completely different type of amp. I haven’t been able to find one to play. But some of the videos sound awesome and the tube pre-amp is very enticing.
Rumble 800 Head
Yet another completely different head. Way more power than I need but it provides a very clean and neutral foundation for doing whatever I want.
Part of me just wants to go ahead and get a Rumble 500 Combo and call it done. And then I start thinking, screw it just get the best thing I can for $200 used and save the rest of the money till I really know what I want.
If you have any advice, I’ll take it.
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hard to say. as you perfectly understood, the amp is a big part of the signal chain and of the final tone you’ll get, it’s a very very personnal choice. A very good friend of mine, who is a pro bass player, has the Orange AD200 full stack : all tubes, 4x10 + 1x15. he plays with a Fender Precision (what else ? 
) and get a pretty nice tone with this setup. but I’m not a very big fan of the Orange tone overall, just not the tone I want. again, a very personnal choice. The impressive thing here with Orange is that they managed to get a really “orange”-tone from the cute and tiny Terror Bass 500. I think it’s a good choice … if that’s what you want.
The Aguilar is not what I would buy but again, it’s not to say it’s a bad amp, just that it’s not what I’m looking for. I think it would be a good choice for a modern clean tone, but not cold (or not too cold). At least that’s how I see the Aguilar tone.
About the Fender Rumble 800, if I’m right it’s a modeling amp ? when the Rumble 500 is not. I don’t know much about the current Fender modeling technology, @joergkutter could say more as he has a Rumble Studio.
And about the Fender Rumble 500, let’s just say it’s probably the one I’ll choose for myself 
but again it’s personnal. In my case, I make the tone itself with my Bass POD Pro preamp and I just want a very transparent (and powerful enough) combo, the idea being to plug the Bass POD Pro into the Return of the combo and then bypass the Fender preamp. Pretty much the use of a PA, but in a combo format.
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After taking the time to write all that out and reading what you wrote. I’m going for a used Rumble 500 I’ve had my eye on. I can’t bring myself to commit to either the Aguilar or Orange without having time to test either out in person for some significant time.
The Rumble 800 I was talking about was the 800 watt head. I’m not ready to mess with all the modeling options that come with the Rumble 800 Stage.
Thanks for asking @terb. I’ve been fighting with myself over this decision for a while now. I needed this to get passed it. 
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yeah sorry about the Rumble 800, I didn’t realize there are two 800 versions (one analog and one modeling). the Rumble range is a bit confusing.
May I ask why you want a 500 ? it’s really plenty of power ! The best deal in the Rumble series seems to be the 100, from what I saw.
(in my case : I want more a 500 because I think I would need the horn to reproduce all the frequencies from the POD, and I plan to join or create a band and gig again, sooner or later)
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For me, I’ll be using headphones 90% of the time.
To play with my son all I need is to compete with his Vox AC15 and he doesn’t play very loud to begin with.
To play with my brother, that’s a different matter. He’s a drummer and although he’s capable of not playing loud. I want him to be able to play as loud as he wants. Hoping to recapture some of our playing when we were young. For that, I want the 500 watts.
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The Rumble 500 has the capability to add additional speakers when needed (As does the Rumble 200).
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yeah, it’s “only” 350w with the integrated speakers (at 8 ohm), and 500w with another cab added (4 ohm). not a bad thing, it’s modular.
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Can you find any used SWR WorkingMan or Black Beauty’s to play. They sound so damn rich and fat, and price wide, they are a steal. I know I may have gotten a little better deal then what is common out there, but there are still great deals out there.
If you can find a used one to at least test and play thru, might be worth it in case you can’t find a used rumble, or instead if you like it same or more.
What I got, both PCs, were surprisingly light, and easy to move around.
There is a SWR WM 10 for sale here, I am considering getting it for my daughter if I can get it for $75 or less. It’s 80w 10” and sleek looking. Wou
D be an awesome super portable practice amp.
There are WM 12’s too. 160w I think
The 10 is listedhere for $100
The 12 is going for between $120 and $160
The one Black Beauty is $200
Most are newly listed as well, price tends to be flexible after a week or 2
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