Having problems spending the rest of my money.....EDIT! HELP!

W

whyachi

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I've been doing crazy overtime for new music gear, since I had to sell off everything I owned last year while unemployed. I've got a Warmoth P bass on the way, so it's amp time.


There is ONE music store easily accessible to me. It carries a lot of Ampeg (no), Fender (still no), and Markbass (no, probably), but that's about it. I'm looking in the ballpark of about 500W and a 212 setup. I've hit The Internet, and since I don't have the ability to try any of these out in person, thought I'd ask for some reviews and opinions. All four of these stacks are in the same price and power range, with the exception of the Mesa which is 600W instead of 500.

As for my requirements, I'm really a set-it-and-forget-it guy so a 100-band EQ isn't going to do me any good. I don't need bells and whistles, but I do need to be able to play Rise Against on Saturday night and Tim McGraw on Thursday afternoons. Unfortunately none of these come with no knobs and just a Punk/Country switch, so I'll probably end up doing some EQing.



Anyways, this is purely for information. Which of these do you think would sound best with a P bass and a mediocre player? Links are to Musicians Friend and Guitar Center, if you know of anywhere with better prices I'm open to suggestions.

Aguilar AG 500SC and GS 212
Eden WTX500 and D212XLT4 212
Gallien-Krueger Fusion 500 and Neo 212-II
Mesa/Boogie M6 Carbine and Powerhouse 212


The Guitar Center has a few GK amps in stock but its just the Backline series and the one they have doesn't actually work. Great sales pitch, right there.
 
I recently bought my first ever bass amp but it's pretty applicable to your situation and brand new, so I'll just say check out the brand new GK mb210 or mb115 combos - they are very, very versatile as far as tone goes, plenty loud for a small  gig, weigh less than 40 lb, and the MB210 (I've got it) has an extension out which allows 500w @ 4 ohm operation. I paid $600 from Amazon for mine, and it I much, much prefer the tone over the Ampeg SVT workingman 450 8x10 in the practice studio. It's ultimately not quite as loud as that, but cmon.  Not to mention it's the size of a typical 1x15 cabinet and weighs less.
 
Id go with the GK as well.

Modern electronics and speaker technology suit bass really well.  It also suits your back really well  :glasses10:
 
I think they have a 212 version of that combo, I'll look into that. Thanks!
 
The four amp heads you have listed are very different.  Two of them are all solid-state, one of them is tube pre-amp, and the Mesa is all tube.  Of the ones you've listed, I'd go with the GK and avoid the Mesa only because you listed the Ampeg SVT as out.  The Mesa is the closest to the Ampeg.  The GK will probably be the most versatile.  You might check out the Carvin BX 500 and BX 1200.  The 500 is 500 watts at 4 or 2 ohms (kind of strange?).  Both BX's are rackmountable, and the 1200 is more watts than anyone should ever need.  The Carvin has more EQ than you may want, but the 9 band EQ you can switch off.  I also dig the built-in compressor, which the GK doesn't have. 
 
So far, everyone I'm giving that list to says GK. I'm going to call around this week and see if I can track down any GK dealers with a decent selction. They also have the Fusion 500 in mini form without the goofy motorized knobs, so I need to play with that one too.

I thought the Mesa was hybrid? Mosfets or something. 600W all tube would be obscene. Mesa's biggest all tube head is the 400+, which is 500W. The Big Block also uses mosfets and is rated at 1000-1200W, can't remember right now.
 
Maybe, I could be mistaken.  I was going off of memory as I was looking at that one awhile back.  My local neighborhood GC, besides being a Mesa dealer like all GC, actually carries Mesa's bass stuff in store now. 
 
My GC has a bathroom-sized bass department and if you don't want Acoustic or Markbass you're SOL. Of course, they built it in an old shoe store, so its pretty small.
 
I bought one of these which wasn't broken a few years back, and it does everything I want:

http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/SWR-SM500-Bass-Amp?sku=482032#used

Out of the ones you listed, I'd go with the Eden. There's also a bunch of used, high power bass heads available, and the SWR, Eden, G-K and Peavey stuff is really reliable. MarkBass & Aguilar are newer (amp) companies I've never encountered personally, but they have a good rep. Mind you, you also "need" a rack case, power supply and maybe a fan with some of them. That's not really evil, though - a 4X rack will have room to stash cords and stuff in it, and a power supply is a very necessary evil, I think, even if it's just one of these -
http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Furman-SS6B-Surge-Block-?sku=181297

Overall, it's likely to be a lot more expensive in the long run not to be in the habit of using good-quality surge protection.  :eek:

If you go to a rack and you don't mind the size, another common bass setup is to use a separate power amp, you can get a lot of amp for $400-$500 these days, and get a decent preamp, even the Sansamp stomp is pretty versatile. http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Tech-21-SansAmp-Bass-Driver-DI?sku=480206

I don't personally feel tubes are important for bass. There's a certain charm to the John Entwistle "exploding Marshall" tone & the Ampeg SVT's sounded great, but the reason that tubes are good for guitar have little to with a useful bass sound. I like Peavey Black Widow speakers. I just bought an Eminence Beta12-A that sounds great at low volumes, but I haven't had a chance to "open it up", so to speak. :guitarplayer2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVl39LBZGMw
 
I ran into a snag in plans, here. They cut out my overtime at work about the time I finished getting the money together to send the bass to Sims Custom Shop. Which means, my anticipated budget of $1500 is quite gone.

I am now in a position where I need to find the absolute most amp I can get for about $400. That's head, cab, or combo, whatever. I'd considered picking up a little combo for like $100 and just working on an amp later, but I'd like to be able to keep up with my buddy's Tele and his G-DEC 30, so a 10W Acoustic amp or something isn't going to fly.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Gallien-Krueger-MB115-Ultralight-Guitar-Combo/dp/B001R23G1A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1261111962&sr=8-1
 
I didn't realize how cheap the 115 is. I figured I'd have to go Backline series for anything GK under $400, so I hadn't even looked.  :tard: :dontknow: :doh:


I'm going to have my wife bake you some Christmas cookies, and to repay you I'm not even going to mail them. Saving you from her cookies is the best way to say thank you.
 
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