Spark Amp

From my cab shopping, it was pretty obvious the loss on the low end in a 2x10 vs 1x12. The 2x10 had a lot nicer clarity though. I went with the 1x12 because of the low end for sure, but if I ever needed a giant sized rig (which I don’t and won’t) I would pop a 2x10 on top of the 1x12 and wait for the cops to come from the noise complaints.

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I hear you. My Rumble 100 is great and when we get back to playing in groups ie. Jams and Gigs will probably invest in the Rumble 500. Can’t let those drummers and lead guitarists steal the whole show. :rofl:

I cannot understand why so many people cheap out on their Bass amp.

A buddy or mine was playing his Bass through a Rumble 25 but that soon changed when I let him try my Rumble 100. He initially purchased based primarily on price but now the Rumble 25 just sits there unused so really he saved nothing. To me it was like dropping a 1500cc VW engine into a Ferrari :rofl:

I do realize that a lot of people do not have the cash to lay out for 100+ Watt amps and I do feel sorry for them because they are missing out so much on tone and versatility.

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People starting out may not know if bass is really for them (whether they have the money or not) and don’t want to invest until they know. I started with one Squier 70’s CV jazz bass and a Rumble 40 for that very reason. Some may choose to start out with a $100 bass from Amazon, for this reason or simply for cash reasons.

Others may have a living situation where they simply cannot go ‘too loud’ or ‘too thumpy’.

Everyone’s situation and choices are different, there is a lid for every pot and an a$$ for every seat.

Music is a lifelong journey, in learning, in gear, in lots of respects. Some people wear running shoes, some hiking boots, some folks take a plane…the destination is the same, make music. The path is individual.

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That was me. I started using my little Yamaha THR guitar amp that I already had. Perfect for low volume practice and using headphones. Then thanks to the lovely Bassbuzzers you made me buy a Rumble 100.
I think that little THR is going to be ideal for jamming with my mandolin/ folk friends with my U Bass.

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That was a nice post, John @John_E . . . :+1:

You touched on a number of good points . . .

Cheers
Joe

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That was me. Never took my Rumble 25 above 40% or so.

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at first, the amp seems to be nothing but a … thing that makes the sound louder … and the bass seems to do all the job. later you realize it doesn’t work like that, but who can blame a beginer to believe such a thing ? for a beginner it’s not obvious at all that the amp plays a huge role in the tone you get.

also a lot of people live in cities where neighborhoud noises are a problem, so they could easily go for a low powered amp, and then go cheap, and then have a shitty tone.

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Exactly.

I believe that it is time well spent learning what tone you can get by learning to use the controls on the amp and their interplay with the Bass controls but again I am talking about an appropriate amp with at least a 10" speaker.

How many beginners know that they can get different tones depending where they pluck the string between the bridge and neck? :slightly_smiling_face:

I would rather see a beginner get themselves a Zoom B1Four and use Bass frequency compensated headphones than buy a 10 15 or 25Watt amp amp with an inadequate sized speaker, but that’s me.

Oh well live and learn I guess.

I’m an amp geek and sometimes I ask myself if I’m playing bass/guitar or amp. the answer is that the amp, or the tone you get overall ; same if it comes from a plugin or whatever, is an instrument as itself and you play with that thing. it’s up to you how you use those things.

I play maybe 50% bass/guitar , 50% amp/preamp.

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Lol that’s about the same as me. Well maybe 40/60 guitar/bass.

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I spend at least 5x more time tweaking things in software than I do laying down instrument tracks. Actually playing the instruments is the least time consuming part of music production for me. So, 80/20 for me, software vs instruments.

Then again I mostly favor heavily effected styles.

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Jumping in late here, but I got the spark as it’s small for apartment living. It has the sound I need for the space I’m living in at the moment. I personally love it, but it honestly just depends on what your needs are. And it solves mine well.

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@terb, @Paul, and @howard . . . I never considered this concept before now. I suppose you could think of it as a “sub-hobby” within the bass playing field? . . . :thinking:

Cheers,
Joe

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I think of it more like, bass is a part of my music production hobby :slight_smile:

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I know a few guitar players that also play bass or vice versa. They are both string instruments so it isn’t really hard to pick up if you know the basics.

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yeah I agree with @howard , tone is a part of music, as is playing an instrument :slight_smile: and at some point playing an instrument includes playing with the amp

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I just happened to view this Sweetwater video by bassist Nik West, titled “Bass Tone and Feel.” She says that about 50% of tone is from the instrument, strings, amp; the other 50% is from your fingers and how you play. Obviously she doesn’t mention software, and perhaps “tone” in this context is different from what @terb and @howard mean by “tone,” but I’ll put it here for consideration if anyone is interested:

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I watched that too.
A pro can make just about any bass sound a lot better with technique.
Same goes for any instrument.
Been shown many many many times over.

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I spent a lot of time at the “beginning” coming up with a few amplitude profiles that I liked. A good bit of that time was figuring out the difference between what sounds nice alone and what sounds nice in a mix. Now that I’ve got that sorted out, I don’t play with things too much outside of adjustments on the bass and my fingers :slight_smile:

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I work on stuff and laugh to myself that I’m upgrading my fingers :slight_smile:

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