Bass head & cab suggestions? Mesa Powerhouse cabs? Peavey Firebass head?

Josh Burgess

Josh Burgess

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Feb 18, 2008
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I'm thinking about selling off my RG2228A 8 string in order to help fund a bass amp and cab, since I don't really need two guitars at the moment and I've been having a LOT of fun playing my new Ibanez SR5006E 6 string bass.

Over the last couple of years experimenting I've found that good enough bass tones can definitely be had entirely in the box, but I haven't ever had results that really blew me away, and it's just not as fun... So, I want a bass amp and cab to put a mic on!

The Mesa Powerhouse 410 and 610 look like the most appealing cabs to me right now. Anybody here have experience with them? Is the 4x10 satisfying for recording?

As for heads, I really have no idea what I want. I know Andy has used the Peavey Firebass. It looks like they can be picked up VERY cheaply... Are they that good? Does anybody have any example recordings of them?

Besides the Firebass, I'm interested in the Sunn RI 300T/Fender Bassman 300 Pro, but those are quite a bit more pricey than the Firebass.

For the most part, I'm just looking for a nice & loud, warm clean tone for jazzy finger style playing. Think Cynic, Between The Buried and Me, Scale The Summit, etc.... I plan on using all of my guitar pedals along with it for various tone shaping/effects... I've tried the tubescreamer on bass before and I quite like it for more aggressive/picked stuff, and I'll probably get a Sansamp pedal too for when I want a really clanky, distorted bass tone, but most of the time I'll just want a clean finger style sound.

Suggestions?
 
My go to rig is either an Ampeg SVT-3 Pro or SVT-4 through a Mesa Powerhouse 410 (great for a deep and punchy metal and rock bass) or an Ampeg 810 for the classic Ampeg sound. I also have a lot of fun paying with mics on ported cabs for sub frequencies, so that is something to look into as well.

No experience with the firebass, but I have used a number of Sunn amps for bass and have had great results. The SVT pro heads I mentioned are very versitile and have a wide range of EQ options on the front end. You can pretty much cover all styles and sounds with them. Very loud amps...
 
LoftMusicRob said:
My go to rig is either an Ampeg SVT-3 Pro or SVT-4 through a Mesa Powerhouse 410 (great for a deep and punchy metal and rock bass) or an Ampeg 810 for the classic Ampeg sound. I also have a lot of fun paying with mics on ported cabs for sub frequencies, so that is something to look into as well.

No experience with the firebass, but I have used a number of Sunn amps for bass and have had great results. The SVT pro heads I mentioned are very versitile and have a wide range of EQ options on the front end. You can pretty much cover all styles and sounds with them. Very loud amps...
Click to expand...

Cool. Can you describe the differences between the Mesa 4x10 and the Ampeg 8x10? Would you say the Mesa is cleaner/tighter sounding?

That Sunn reissue amp is actually the same exact amp as the Fender Bassman 300 pro. I got interested in it, because that's what Dan Briggs of BTBAM uses along with an Ampeg 8x10E. I think it'd probably be a nice amp for clean guitar tones too...

I'm just curious about that Firebass since apparently Sneap has been able to get good results out of it, and they are ridiculously inexpensive...
 
Mesa is definitely a cleaner cab and has a smoother low end. I use it on more radio-rock tracking than metal but it works for everything. I think it would fit your needs better if you are going to be playing jazzier bass through it. I love the 810 for metal. It really emphasizes the 1k-6k range and helps the pick/finger attack come through in a mix. I like the 810 better for dirty bass tracks too. The Mesa will help mask shitty playing a little better. Bad bassists sound REALLY bad through an 810.

I love the Bassman (or any Fender for that matter) for cleans. The Bassman creates a really warm tone. You have to watch your tone controls on the neck pickup with them though. As for the Firebass...I'm going to have to look into getting one of those.
 
I have a firebass, love it. This isn't a clear representation cause it's a mix between a DI signal from bass and the Line out of the Firebass (there's also a tubescreamer in the chain before the amp) but it's all I got, I've used it for many live shows but this is the only time I've recorded it so far. It's also a mix in progress: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/954292/Ad Intra Stuff/Inside us all/Quick test.mp3

I agree great bass tones can be had entirely ITB but for most cases I think an amp will give you a very different tone and it just might be what fits best for your mix. I just love the warmth an amp gives a bass tone.
 
I LOVE my Warwick Tubepath 5.
It replaced an Ampeg SVT3 Pro.
I have it connected to 2 4x10 cabs.
Peavey is smooth and Warwick has more attack in 800-1.5k range so I put the mic on whatever suits the song better.
I have no intention of ever changing the head and if it broke beyond repair I would track one down to replace it.
With Lo and Hi boost, 2 mid shifts, rough or smooth contour and second valve stage I can get any sound I need.
Bass%20amp.jpg
 
At the rehearsal place I go to there's a Warwick Profet head, that thing sounds monstrous, and if you get the gain real high so it's always peaking and hit the on board compressor quite hard, you can get some killer driven/distorted tones. Not to mention the Eden 4x10 it's connected to.
 
Firebass is pretty nice, the older Peavey Mark III heads and so on are actually pretty cool and incredible cheap.
We have 2 of them at our rehearsal space and our bass player plays through them, a 2x10 and a 1x15, sounds
nice (but he's a killer bass player, so that might help :D ) different, but not worse than his rig he uses with his
other band (Warwick Xtreme, DBX compressor and TecAmp 4x10).

If you get the chance, try the T.C. Electronic RH750 (or 450) these things just crush, you have to get used to
them a bit because you can go from a warm vintage sound over a ultra clean hi-fi sound to distorted and compressed
to hell and back with that thing, it even has a multiband compressor in there.
 
older Peavey Mark III heads and so on are actually pretty cool and incredible cheap
Click to expand...

yes!

i've jammed on these things a couple of times...they have the old-school cheap/cheesy/shitty peavey look, but they're capable of cranking out a wide range of awesome tones, and can be found used for dirt cheap. they're also built like tanks...as long as you can get past the ugly, these will perform just as well as newer/prettier amps that cost many times as much
 
about the built like a tank part: one of the amps at our rehearsal was bought in the year they were released, it was on tour for a
few times with different bands, used in 3 different rehearsal spaces by something between 30-50 bands, 2-3 hours every day for
loads of years, felt down from a 8x10 and what not-a few bottles of beer crashed in there, it looks soooo ugly, it smells, a few
poti knobs are missing, but the damn thing still works as it should, no crackling pots or stuff like that, it just works.
 
I was really impressed with the Peavey VB2 and VB3 valve bass heads and their matching cabs. I keep saying that if I start playing bass live, the VB3 is probably what I'll go with. My old bassist had an SVT Classic, Mesa Big Block, SVT 4Pro, 2Pro, 6Pro and 5Pro, the VB2, and a few others (his rig changed month to month) and he sounded best with the VB2 through an Ampeg 6x10.
 
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