Buying a bass head for gigging...

[cloy26]

Joined a new band. Very promising. Found a great guitarist/bassist. Since we have 2 guitarists and he's still interested, he said he'd play bass. Only problem is that he doesn't have a legit bass rig. I've been thinking about buying a good tube head and he can just worry about spending for a cab. I don't want to be stuck with a bad bass sound because of equipment reasons...

I am a student, but can cough up some cash if I need to... What kind of head should I look for? Tube suggestions only. I''m thinking an svt but I don't know the differences between them all... And any better suggestions? Sounds like a "core" band... ie. oh sleeper, the word alive, etc.

 

[AllanD]

Get a used B4R, has tons of power and they go pretty cheap. It doesn't need to be tube, just get this and a Sansamp BDDI and you have instant awesome tone.

 

[cloy26]

why the sansamp?

and why do you say no tube? I hate SS guitar tone... is bass tone any different?

 

[MatrixClaw]

What kind of music?

Last week I went and tried out a ton of bass heads, thinking that I'd love the tube heads like the SVT Classic and Orange AD200b, and I couldn't have been more far off. IMO, the SVT sounded the worst of all the higher end amps I played. I could see it working for classic rock type stuff, funk, R&B, etc. but it just lacked the balls that all the solid state heads had, it didn't have the tube character I've grown to love from guitar amps, either.

I'd REALLY suggest you try out a bunch of amps before you buy anything, because having always loved the Ampeg tone on recordings (including their solid state line-up), I left each and every store thinking that the Ampegs were less than impressive. Like I said... for Rock, I guess they could work, but there was just nothing special sounding about any of their amps IMO. They were just too "clean" sounding for my tastes, while that's a cool sound for some things, it was nearly impossible to dial in an aggressive grit to them.

The Mesa M6 Carbine was my favorite one that I tried. HUGE bass sound, and I was extremely surprised by the Mesa 2x12 bass cab it was plugged into. It made that amp sound beastly... I could literally dial in every kind of bass tone I could think of in that thing, with enough bass to rattle the walls to the point where I thought things were going to start falling down (obviously, that can be toned down if you don't dig that sound). It can be as clean as you want, or as gritty as you want, no SansAmp needed. I was very surprised as to how loud the M6 got as well... for half the wattage of the SVT 4, it could easily keep up in volume. I tried it through an Ampeg SVT 8x10 and it just wasn't the same. The Big Block was also pretty bad ass, both definitely worth looking into.

I really liked the Markbass tone as well, those Little Mark heads pack a huge punch. I just didn't think they were quite as refined sounding as the Mesas were, though the lowend on them was enormous

 

[Sepultorture]

Ampeg SVT Classic tube head, also there is alot of great SS and SS/tube tones for bass out there, just listen to Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse, his stuff is usually SS/tube

 

[StefTD]

I like the classic SVT+Sansamp tone, but imho it's just way to expensive, Orange Bass Terror is awesome,
TecAmp has great amps, too. For bass, I wouldn't go full tube, they're most of the time very pricey and
heavy as fuck (weight) but there are really cool amps that are solid state or have digital poweramps and
a tube preamp that sound really, really good, are very lightweight and sometimes really cheap, like the Orange.

If you have the chance to try some bassamps, try everyone of them!

http://www.thomann.de/gb/ebs_cl_450.htm
-cool rock sounds, like the name says, classic, but the SVT is classic, too

http://www.thomann.de/gb/tc_electronic_rh_750.htm
-really great digital amp, loud as hell, multiband compressor, loads of distortion if you want

http://www.thomann.de/gb/mesa_boogie_m9_carbine_head.htm
-my favorite mesa bass amp, in my opinion better than the SVT but still overpriced

http://www.thomann.de/gb/markbass_little_mark_rocker_500.htm
-pretty cool small amp, sounds pretty nice and is very light

http://www.thomann.de/gb/hartke_lh_1000.htm
-pretty cheap amp with just a few options but a good sound

http://www.thomann.de/gb/kustom_de300_hd_head.htm
-really cheap amp, but it sounded really, especially for the price


don't forget that many people are using pedals for the bass sound, like the sansamp or stuff that wasn't
created for bass, like the metalzone or tubescreamers, it really depends on the bass, the strings, the
player and so on. In my opinion way more than at guitar.
The bassplayer in my old death metal band was a hell of a player, he used a cheapass Ibanez with an old
Vox guitar amp in the beginning and still had a decent sound, I think you get how awesome he sounded
when he switched to a nice Warwick, better strings and a SWR amp
At the same time, I met a band, rich bassplayer who sucked ass, he had a 2500$ Spector, an Ampeg SVT-Pro
Ampeg 8x10 cabinet, Sansamp, a second amp that was setup clean into a 1x18 cabinet and his sound sucked.

If you're after a modern metal sound, played with pick, distorted (at least a bit) I would go for an amp that has
a nice, clean sound that can be shaped a lot and use a pedal with it, that way you can get a few different
sounds and it's even cheaper.

Oh, and don't forget the cab!!!
I would go for a 4x10 or 2x12, 8x10 are just to big imho and 1x15 aren't that tight most of the time.

 

[Maybelater]

I love Ampeg! Ive had an Ampeg SVT3 and then in 97 bought the SVT3 pro. I think the American made Ampeg SVT3 pro sound awsome! It has a very nice brutal percussive sound. I cant say for the newer ones. I'm not a fan of the Classic though.