I am currently using a Hartke B90 to practice with, I bought it at a local second hand shop for only 12€. It was so cheap because it has a fault, the volume disappears after around 90 minutes of use, it’ll cost me around 130€ to get it repaired so I’m thinking of buying a brand new amp instead.
This is where my problems start, what do I buy? Do I get a combo or do I get a head and a separate cab? My budget is around 500€ so I can’t go crazy.
I eventually want to be gigging in local bars playing covers (rock/indie) etc so I doubt if I’d need anything above 200 watts. I’d also eventually like to be able to connect to my pc/laptop without having to buy a separate audio interface.
These are the amps I like so far, the Warwick Gnome i with the Warwick Gnome 12/4 cab, the Markbass CMB121 Black Line Combo, the Boss Katana 210 Combo and the Blackstar Unity 250 Combo. Of these the Boss Katana is the most expensive but it has lots of tricks up its sleeve and I believe it has a tube style sound.
Are there other amps in this price range that I should be considering? My budget won’t stretch to amps like the Fender Rumble 500 V3 and I don’t want to buy anything second hand due to warranties etc.
I think this is a mistake.
There are loads of amps out there that someone else has taken the hit on buying new that can be had for 60% or so less. Especially when you are starting out and not quite sure what you want (and will likely get swapped out at some point).
I would also contend that you want 300W just to be sure in any live situation.
An amp’s sound can be tailored with any preamp pedal down the road, so, most importantly, you should think about:
Do I want one specific tone out of my amp, or…
Do I want a clean Class D amp that I can color with preamps any way i want along the way.
Since I see Euros I am assuming you have access to Thomann as well.
Don’t discount their house brands, especially their class D amplifier.
In the end, this is all a matter of personal taste, and you should go play as many as you can.
I went through 2 amps before settling on mine (which I did buy new as it is quite higher end and I wanted no issues, but, since have bought 2 other smaller ones used, learned my lesson).
I understand your point of view but for my own peace of mind I want to buy brand new, besides I doubt that I’d be able to get credit on used equipment, so thanks but no thanks.
I’m currently leaning towards the Blackstar as I can get it for less than 400€
I can see your point gigging can be pretty rough on gears, especially big bulky ones.
I’m in general in the @John_E camp. Bassist either gig or don’t, if you can pickup an amp from people who does not gig with it you can get an amazing deal and in general they are pretty durable. I left my GK amp out in my patio under the roof for a few years it’s still works amazingly well and I got it used for $60, instead of $250 new.
I have not tried the Mark bass model you listed but it’s an amazing amp in general. Obviously the Katana is awesome, love the whole package although, I don’t care much about their app enhanced features, it’s just simply annoying. I have the MKii artist Katana amp it’s stupidly awesome.
Here’s the kicker, I paid about $700 for my used Genzler 10-2 BA combo opened box condition and it’s just another level altogether. The point is there are deals out there.
Is this what I need if I want the true tone of my bass? I have an rumble 20 and an positive grid spark amp and both disappoint me especially playing the e-string. If I play a bit louder the tone sounds cracked.
I don’t have that problem but if you want a little louder and clean maybe moving up to 10" speaker would definitely help. I like 10s and 12s they are fast enough 15s seems to be slower.
Yeah, you don’t even need the DSP; any PA will be more flat across the range than the average bass amp/cab. Many bass amps have an intentional mids scoop (it’s the Fender tone stack sound).
These are all solid choices. You can’t really go wrong with any of them. Try to listen to some samples online or try them out to see which preamp you like best?
I don’t know if the technology has evolved but a few monitors that offered room correction only fix one thing, the obvious thing. Sometimes there’s more, but anyways I usually use the headphone for the final mix anyways.
Ah. I take the “everything I control in the signal chain is part of my instrument” philosophy and I’m sure there could be a reason to want that sound. I was confused about whether this is a typical thing to do or not though. At least the signal out of a bass actually sounds pretty good unlike some other instruments.
Yeah that’s the nice thing about PA’s and monitors (including headphones) - you can pick and choose sounding like whatever amp/cab you want, including none at all. And since they are software they take seconds to change, assuming you recorded the track dry. Which is why I no longer own hardware effects and do all that in software now too
I think it works pretty well…
Dry recording:
Toggling on the effects, amp and cab sims:
Later I thought that last one sounded a bit too “wet” so I tweaked everything before the final mix:
Doing everything in software w/dry recorded tracks makes this a very simple workflow.
So, a PA speaker is nothing more (or less) than one of those much hyped FRFRs, but without the marketing blabla (and costs)
@Billn - just like with FRFRs you can play clean or use any (external) cab sim you like… I see that as an advantage.
In terms of DSP - I was quite impressed what I could do with the EON after having measured with REW and set the parameters accordingly.
The DSP has: feedback suppression, ducking, up to 100ms speaker delay, parametric EQ and a simple 3-channel digital mixer.
The parametric EQ is 8 channels, if I remember correctly and you can set frequency, gain and Q freely, both at the PA itself (which is tedious) or from the app (which is great).
I managed to get very (!!!) good sound out of it after some tweaking, and all effects and cab simulations sound (almost) like from my monitoring headphone (the “almost” referring to a slight lack of bass on my 10" model. If I had space I would go for 12" or even 15").
The EON has no humm or hiss whatsover (an issue of analog Class D amps that the digital ones not have) and it’s also not “boomy” like many other cheap speakers.
