Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

For Bass that is.. I understand the advantages and disadvantages as they relate to guitar amplifiers, but with bass heads, I'm not so sure..My gut feeling is go with a tube head, because I have an ideology that music should be kept analog as much as possible..
Basically, my wife says in a year or so, I can upgrade my head, and add another cab (Peavey TVX115)..This is going to be my full rig for many years to come...thoughts? opinions?

Opinion only as I have little experience to draw from.

Best multi channel tube head you can possibly afford.

Just sayin ...

If you're prepared to spend a TON of money for a decent tube head, a good tech to work on it, and tubes ($$) every six months or so, then tube is the way to go. Of course, you will probably need a SS head to use as a backup.



If it were me, I would get the best SS head I could buy and a good cab to go with it. Cheaper up front, cheaper to maintain, and works every time you plug it in.

I've never used tubes with my bass. I've never had a problem on stage with my amp, either, after playing for 11-12 years.

When I have used other ppl's stuff, I've seen & experienced prob's with tube heads.

I'm sticking with SS.

I have a good cab Peavey TVX 410, and when I get the head I'm also getting the matching 1X15 as well, so cab wise I'm good.
SS seems to be winning, the tone advantage of the tubes dont outweigh, the expense and trouble...thanks guys, I really appreciate your input.

If you want to do some more intense research before you buy, here is a site that might help:


http://www.talkbass.com/forum/

OK

Just to add to my own learning experience let me play devil advocate for a moment.

If the "tube amp" is the holy grail for the guitar player.

Why is this not so for the bassist standing beside him ??

Well ??

sans... I don't think it's not. I recall this band I saw where the bass player was playing an alembic into a 70's ampeg - all tube - head with two cabs... it was literally heart stopping.

I've also heard many great sounding solid state setups... harke comes to mind...

tubes want to distort... and that's not always ideal for bass - unless you like that. (I always thought those bassmans sounded great for bass!)

in my experience you can't go wrong adding tubes to anything... vocals, guitar, bass, probably even sound good on trumpet!

still I think for bass I like a tube pre to warm it up but a solid state power section that will maintain a higher degree of clarity on the those low notes.

just an opinion like everyone's

Hummm ... Yes ... in that line of though I have to say I like a good clean but heart stopping bass line behind my guitar distortion.

Never considered that aspect.

thanks, Sans, you've pretty much hit on what my original dilemma was, I don't want distortion in my bass, as much as I LOVED Cliff Burton, I don't want to emulate his sound, lol

I think I'll look into this..

mistermikev wrote:still I think for bass I like a tube pre to warm it up but a solid state power section that will maintain a higher degree of clarity on the those low notes.

Thanks Mistermikev

Tronix wrote:For Bass that is.. I understand the advantages and disadvantages as they relate to guitar amplifiers, but with bass heads, I'm not so sure..My gut feeling is go with a tube head, because I have an ideology that music should be kept analog as much as possible..
Basically, my wife says in a year or so, I can upgrade my head, and add another cab (Peavey TVX115)..This is going to be my full rig for many years to come...thoughts? opinions?

Depends on your goals:

Sweet overtones and harmonics = tube (Fender Bassman, Ampeg SVT)
Reliable, Chest kicking bottom with lots of clean headroom = SS (SWR, Sunn, GK)

TheJohnny7Band wrote:

Tronix wrote:For Bass that is.. I understand the advantages and disadvantages as they relate to guitar amplifiers, but with bass heads, I'm not so sure..My gut feeling is go with a tube head, because I have an ideology that music should be kept analog as much as possible..
Basically, my wife says in a year or so, I can upgrade my head, and add another cab (Peavey TVX115)..This is going to be my full rig for many years to come...thoughts? opinions?

Depends on your goals:

Sweet overtones and harmonics = tube (Fender Bassman, Ampeg SVT)
Reliable, Chest kicking bottom with lots of clean headroom = SS (SWR, Sunn, GK)

I dig your stuff man. "Pipeline"? Haven't heard that done in years - and you guys do it well!



Really makes me miss Cali.

90 dB wrote:I dig your stuff man. "Pipeline"? Haven't heard that done in years - and you guys do it well!

Really makes me miss Cali.

Hey, thanks for the props!