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#267010 by JazzBasser
Sun Oct 09, 2016 4:16 am
Hi fellow musicians. I presently have a GK Backline 600 head...300 watts, the MBX 4X10 300 watts and the MBX 1X15 400 watts. What I want to do is move up now and wondering which to upgrade first. The head or the speakers. Planning on the GK 800 watt head and same speaker makeup but to match the output of the head. My thought was get the head with more power but don't dial all the power in so as to not blow the speakers I have at present. Or should I do speakers first and then the head? Thank you for your input on this

Jazz :D
#267119 by Paleopete
Tue Oct 11, 2016 1:01 pm
I mostly agree with Jook.

One option he didn't mention, bass usually works better if you use a line out to the PA instead of a mic. A mic will work, but unlike guitar, bass works very well with a line signal going to the PA. I find guitar amps with a line out usually don't sound as good as a mic in a speaker.

Also, I've been onstage with lots of bass players, 300 watts is plenty. The general rule when I was playing for a living was twice the wattage of the guitar amp, to get a clean bass sound and still have some headroom. It's not common to find many guitar players running 100 watt amps any more, most are going downward to 50 and even 30 watt amps, I'm playing a 15 watt Fender Pro Jr tube amp now most of the time, the 45 watt Fender Super Reverb if we have a high volume gig, which is not often. The Pro Jr is too loud for most of our gigs, I have to keep it down around 4. Our bass player is using an older Peavey 150 watt keyboard amp that does well, he also plays keyboards and uses one for drum machine.

I've played with bands with the bass run into the PA with a line signal several times, it works really well. If your amp has a line out, all you need to buy is another guitar cable. Run it into the PA, problem solved for 20 bucks. If you need onstage volume, that's what good monitors are for. I can do the same with guitar and a mic using the 15 watt amp. Mic the guitar amp, run it back through the monitors. Been there, done that.

Try a line signal into the PA before you spend any money, all you need its a standard guitar cable. If your amp has a line out. If not, a 300 watt amp with a line out is what you need. Your current rig will do the trick, or a different amp that can send a line signal to the PA.
#267125 by Planetguy
Tue Oct 11, 2016 2:22 pm
and i mostly agree w what paleopete said.

line out vs a mic on a bass amp is preferable. and in most situations it is best to keep the stage volume manageable and let the PA do the heavy lifting...but there are those times when you're dealing w one or two very loud gtrsts playing a stack on stage. and it's only worse when they slather on the distortion.

a 300 watt bass amp might cut it w a gtrst who's playing a 22 watt Fender Deluxe, but you might have trouble competing w a stack or a cpl for that matter.

a bass amp 3x the power of the gtr amp??? i dunno, i wouldn't want to try hang in there on bass using a 75 watt bass amp if i was playing w a gtrst using that 22 watt Fender Deluxe cranked to 7 or 8. I'd be invisible.

also keep in mind that a 300 watt tube amp is waaaaay different (louder and heavier) than a 300 watt solid state amp.

for us older guys who value and want to hold on to what's left of our hearing.....most of us want to haul smaller stuff that's kinder to our old bones, and we prefer to keep the stage volume "sensible".

but i certainly understand that youngsters still want to blast away from the stage and that many of them see a smaller rig or combo amp as "old guy's equipment".... seeing stacks as looking "cooler".

back in the day i used to love playing thru Ampeg SVT's.....these days, give me my 550 watt Ashdown MI 550 class D head that weighs 4 lbs and two EDEN 1x12 cabs that weigh in at 30lbs ea! that's MY stack.
#267187 by GuitarMikeB
Wed Oct 12, 2016 12:34 pm
One of these Markbass amps: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Markbass/Mi ... mbo-Amp.gc - just a single 12" speaker, can easily keep up with a band using a couple of guitar amps (Fender Deluxe and small Marshall or Blackstar combo) and drums, with nothing in the PA except for the vocals.

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