I have a Fender Rumble 25. Sold the bass that I originally bought it with, but kept the amp. It’s such a great little crate for a small space.
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Kustom KXB500. Great neutral amp, light, sounds great. Got a 4 ohm cab RevSound RS210T. This allows the full 500 watts to come through (if needed). Love this amp, if you want a pro-rig it can be found for maybe around $300-$350. I do have my eye on the Dark Glass Microtubes 500.
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Thanks for the tip Terb, that’s so cool. I didn’t realise that you have to have the mids fully rolled off but now I have five distinct pre-set tones! I’m guessing it would have told me that in the manual but who reads manuals? 
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Depends on the player really. I have my mids turned high. Les Claypool tends to put them all the way up. Lots of jazz and funk guys scoop em.
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Totally depends on the song for me. I am all over the place with them.
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yeah it depends greatly on the song and the mix. I almost always use the same base bass tone but I can adjust the mids with some post-EQing to place the bass line right into the mix.
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I used to love Peavey stuff…( Kinda shows don’t it?).
Then I got into using the Carvin head for the bass. The Peaveys were regulated to bi-amp and foot peddle bass duty…
I still have all this stuff but I’m too old and busted up now to lug it all around 
. (Yeh I know…Wahhh)
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I love Carvin stuff, always have. I had a Carvin guitar custom ordered back when I was a 20 year old punk. My buddy had a bad ass Carvin bass, but I couldn’t play it, he was a lefty. I always wanted some bad ass Carvin Bass Stacks, even back then, for guitar I had Randall.
I almost bought a Carvin BX500 a couple months ago. It was like new, in beautiful condition, and he was down to $200 oe $175, I can’t remember.
I was about to buy it, but I was feeling sick with a fever and headache and was nauseous. I rested for two days and the fever broke, but I woke up and my right leg was bright red brom above the knee to the tips of my toes, was about 3 sizes too big. So, 911 call got me to the hospital where I stayed for 20 days, getting pumped full of antibiotics until the flesh eating virus that infected my leg was contained, and eradicated.
When I got home, the unit was sold. bummer, it was on the market for like 5 months, and when I was finally decided to buy it (I knew what it was for the most part, but after reading all the reviews on an carvin’s old archived site and the people buying these when they first came out were going nuts for them, trading in their SVT cuz this was lighter and sounded same or better. now thats saying a lot) I get sick and it sold while I was in the hospital.
I have not found any others or similar Carvin models that I want.
So, there is an SWR head that I like alot too, and a church has it listed for down to $150. if they drop it any lower, I will have to get it. it is a very nice amp head too.
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I just love the SVT tone. So freaking warm and rich. Thing is I can get it with amp sims in the DAW…so like do I want to still get something that is $3500 and weighs more than a truck? Just to project that sound, kind of do lol. But logically no.
Tim Comerford is SVT loyalist, but his tone is incredible and I can see why he sticks with it. Listen to any Rage or audioslave and pay attention just to how the bass tone sounds. It’s an amazing sound.
That’s exactly it. Amp sims are so good now both in the DAW or in multieffects pedals that I haven’t wanted a real amp in a long time.
Guys, lets not forget that the powerful amps just sound better at low volumes. In other words,a 25 watt amp is just not going to sound as good as a 100 watt amp at the same level. Just a thought.
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Guys, lets not forget that the powerful amps just sound better at low volumes. In other words,a 25 watt amp is just not going to sound as good as a 100 watt amp at the same level. Just a thought.
Not sure if I fully agree with your statement. 
Sure you will have more headroom but sometimes there is that sweetspot that you can achieve with a lower watt amp where you have to crank up the volume/gain. While on a high watt amp your master volume is below 1 to play at a low volume.
To be fair I’m comparing between 500 ↔ 800/1200W amps and not between 25 ↔ 100 and I kinda assume that other rules apply to tubes amps?
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I’ve had multi-effects pedals in the past and hated them. Maybe they’ve improved but they were always just way too complicated, having to drill down through endless menus to find what you want. Just give me an individual pedal I can stomp on! As for DAWS, I need to look into them but I’m a 62-year-old who likes uncomplicated. I suspect I may feel the same way about them as multi-fx units. Just give me a simple amp I can plug into. Never thought of myself as a Luddite but I guess I am
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a tube amp needs to be pushed up a bit and does not sound good at low level in general. also a big speaker (15") generally needs more power to move, and does often not sound good at low level.
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Yeah I think a matching cab is quite important for the type/watt of amp you are using.
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And style. I doubt there’s a way a 15" would work well for me. 2x10 would be best.
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You’d probably like a 212 or 410 as well, but again, DAW. I have a 210 myself and that puppy is LOUD. But it’s a 4ohm cab with a 500 watt amp getting all 500
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Just depends. The interface on the high end pedals have touch screen and easy menus now. They have amp and cab simulators too, and do a pretty good job getting the sounds of that amp. So with a single device you could get an SVT sound, an Aguilar, a Mesa, a Bassman etc…
Mine isn’t as fancy, the Zoom B3n, but it is pretty simple to use. I don’t really use the effects on it much other than creatively and a few of them do give a pretty good tone, but the drum machine and looper are insanely useful. It’s more a practice tool now than anything else, and I use my regular stomp pedals for recording and shows.
Eric,
Here’s an update. Our BL has a handheld sound analyzer. We’ve been using it to find which amp settings will give the truest “flat” setting for any given room/environment. I then use the settings on my basses to alter my tone.
After working with that analyzer to really dial my Rumble 500 for the stage/room in question, I’ve developed a preference for using that amp.
I can only see using my big old Hartke head now for the rare instances where seriously high stage volume may be needed. And that’s not very often.
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That’s really cool. I didn’t know such a thing even existed. Can you share the brand name for this?
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