Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I'm looking to buy a bass rig, and although I've been playing for 20 years, I'm not sure how many watts I need. I've been told 300 is the minimum when playing rock (due to the volume of the other instruments), but I don't know if I need more. I'd like to get a 300 watt combo, but I'd hate to limit myself just for the sake of portability. I need enough power to play everything from classic rock to metal. Thanks.

ok and what sort of venues are you looking at doing? 300 watts, hope they're playing at least 500 you'll kill them with the lows, but after 20 years you outta know that sorta thing, assuming you're just doing small scale indoors gigs then a 300 watt 4 head package should do the job but I really don't know I haven't been gigging I just pay attention when I'm in the crowd

"after 20 years you outta know that sorta thing"

Maybe I'm not asking the right question. I've played bars with a Peavey TNT 130 watt bass combo, and because I was running into the house PA (via direct box), it was no problem. I've played through various amp/speaker combinations, 300 watts, 400 watts, single 15 inch cabinets, double 15 inch cabinets, tube amps, solid state...what I'm getting at is...what do I need to do it all? When I was younger, I never paid attention to such things. Someone always was there to say, "this is what you want", as far as equipment went (beyond the actual instrument, of course). I read people on here talking about bass players auditioning with "poor equipment", and I know that they're talking about me showing up with my "pawnshop gear". I'm willing to spend the money for better gear. I don't know the venue sizes...The bigger the better, right? I've played high schools, clubs, outdoor festivals, hole-in-the-wall bars...but that was ten years ago. Back then I was more worried about...well, pretty much anything and everything except for wattage, I assure you.

I've played with a Peavey TNT 115 for many years. Although I don't play classic rock or metal, I've never had a problem with it not being enough watts. I can't find another bass amp that gives me that tone I get from the TNT. There's something special about Peavey bass amplification. I don't see anything wrong with miking your amp and putting a little more of your bass through the board if needed (your main PA speakers have to be able to handle that low end though). I've played through many more powerful bass amps. Volume doesn't cut it for me, tone is the thing. I've never heard anybody sound like me. Even people playing my bass through my amp don't sound like me. I've had numerous experienced players compliment me on my tone. The thing to do is find the amp that gives you the tone you want regardless of wattage and then work with that first. You can always mike it.

I've used combo amps all my life. Last year, my SWR 160 fried the circuits so I chose to upgrade to a head amp. I chose Carvin. My first combo amp was a Carvin 100 watt but that was in my high school band playing in barns on the weekends. I also have a custom Carvin LB20 fretless. Their gear is actually quite good. For my new head I chose the BX600. 600 clean watts of power. It will work for any size venue. Lots of headroom too. I paired it up with a custom Jensen 15" cabinet and use another 4x10 when needed. My guitar player bitches that its too loud. Then I tell him my volumn is at 3!! I love this amp. Just one opinion. Good luck. There is a lot out there.

Thanks for the responses. I plan on using my Peavey TNT for auditions, maybe even smaller venues. When I played in a blues band, I used a similar Peavey combo and it worked fine. I'm looking at the Peavey Tour 450 watt amp (with who-knows-what for speakers). I've used Peavey on and off for 20 years, and I feel comfortable with them. The thing is, I'm so "all over the place" musically, I have to cover a lot of ground.

Bass amps a Ampeg Portaflex is one of the best sounding little tube amps Ive heard.

I taught beginning bass last year at a local rock school and someone loaned one for the week to the program. I feel in love with that amp for bass. I would guess it was around 60-100 watts. It just had great tone. It was very responsive to finger input.

A decent "poor mans rig" that will play loud and sound good....

...start off with a mid sized combo bass amp, the line outs can drive both sides of a cheap dual 15 band eq -one side having the low frequencies down and the mids up, the other side just the opposite ... this in turn feeds a simple stereo power amp that has about 200 watts per channel into 8 ohms (300 into 4 usually), this would drive two different cabs -one being a used inexpensive 4x12 guitar cab -these are typically about 102 db in sensitivity in the mid frequencies and would be blasting loud with 200-300 watts -this side would of course be ran by the "mids only" side of the eq.... this combined with a used single 15" cab connected to the other side of the power amp would make an inexpensive but loud bass rig.

Decent used bass combo -$200

Decent used stereo 15 band eq -$100

Decent used 200 watt power amp -$250

Decent used 4x12 guitar cab -$200

Decent used single 15" cab -$150

....starting from scratch for around $900 you could get a pretty damn loud setup, of course some purists will look down on this with disdain however the truth is this set up is very versatile, modular and with the combo amp on top of the 4x12 presents a undeniable wall of sound.

Huge bass rigs are cool if you like carrying around a bunch of stuff.

Our bassist has a Hartke, I think its around 500 watts. He has a 2x10 cab, a 4x10 cab and an 8x10 cab. For smaller rooms we use the 2x10, but I think I personally like the 4x10. When he uses this I ussually use a 100 watt half stack, they seem to complement each other well.

I think that if you are playing a decent sized room you will be in the pa anyway so why carry a monster setup. If you carry that much stage volume it gets into the drum mics and to my ears turns the overall band sound into mush, but thats just my opinion.

Our band plays a lot of heavier music RATM, Ozzy, Zep, AC/DC, Soundgarden AIC type material along with the more heavy 70s stuff. We play 3-5 times a month. I think if you are actually gigging regularly you will find that you can use a lot less than you think for bass.

Good Luck with whatever you decide to do. You made a good point, you could get a high powered combo and then just add another cab for bigger rooms if you need the headroom. The days of SVTs and a pair of 8x10s is pretty much gone. So dont break your back or the bank with some huge setup.

And I'll add once again that Ampeg makes a full complement of bass amps for any size situation. Hartkes are great, Trace Elliot makes great amps. But in the end your bass sound comes from your fingers. I play with a very talented bass player and I think that if we wired him into a ham radio he would still sound good. When we record he uses a little sansamp box, which sounds just like his big rig to me. So my advice is concentrate on your bass and fingering for tone, cause thats what determines what you sound like.

I picked up a used Boogie walkabout scout for $750.00, and if I need more power I can hook it up to a 4x10 cab. Pretty much fills out 99% of the places we play.

I don't remember what amp it is that Justin Chancellor uses, but I heard the wattage quoted as being one hundred...(yah that can't be right), the bass still carries the lead nicely (and they don't look like much more then a two person job so one guy isn't killing himself), but I'm gonna investigate and get back probably before any one else posts hahaha yah right more like 6 knew some tard drummer wouldn't know what he was talking about, and he's using two amps at that wattage....

I've used alot of amps over the years, combos, heads, DI. What I landed on was a 4 x 10 hartke Aluminum cones with a horn. An old Peavey bass pre-amp, and a QSC pa head. Good clean extra loud power when I needed it down to a whisper if I wanted it. Just shap the sound with the pre-amp and drive it. The 4x10 box was as loud as I ever needed even outdoors playing classic rock. But like keeps being said the tone is the king. Pluck-on.