ZT Lunchbox amp?

[Mbechmann]

I am looking a little bit for an amp I can use with my bass. I am thinking like a practice amp, that I can bring to practice in the local worship band. So nothing really big.

However, doing my search I came across this ZT Lunchbox. It fits perfect with my budget, and it does get good reviews. But is it any good? Anybody know this one?

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/ampli...rdir=1&nN=true

[mindlobster]

I have one and it's great with guitar, but I'd be really hesitant about using it for bass. Especially without trying before buying.

[Mbechmann]

That is also what I am thinking. I will try it out, but I wonder if it is actually powerful enough for a bass :)

[RomanS]

I've got a Lunchbox, and like it as a small, portable, OK-sounding solution for taking to jam sessions or tiny cafe gigs - but even for guitar, the Lunchbox seriously lacks bass/depth (unless you hook up an extra cab).
I doubt that you could get good-sounding results with bass at all...

[Mbechmann]

That is what I am worried about as well.

So which amp would you choose instead? The sound I love, is the old clean sound. My dream is to get a tube amp, but the budget does block that a bit. :)

[mindlobster]

Got a PA? Get a bass preamp or pedal like the Tech 21 VT, and go direct.

[Mbechmann]

Nope, well kind of. I have a small usb mixer that I use with my computer for music. Not at PA that can be used for this.

[mindlobster]

OK, how about Line 6 LD 15, should be about £100-110, or Roland Cube Bass 20XL, about £195. I've just been through this with my bass player, who was looking enviously at my ZT. Those were the other combos we looked at, but in the end he went for the direct option.

[RomanS]

Originally Posted by Mbechmann

So which amp would you choose instead?

That really depends on how loud the band is that you play with (mainly: how loud the drummer is...)

Plenty of options...
- If money were no object: those Markbass combos are tiny, sound AWESOME (but are bit pricey)
- The bass player in my band uses one of those Hartke Kickback combos (older model, with a 1x12" speaker), and that sounds quite good (we are not a very loud band, though).
- Used Gallien Krüger MB112 - awesome sound, relatively light-weight and compact (nowhere near a ZT Lunchbox, though - but speaker size is the limiting factor here, for bass size does matter!)
- What about one of those nifty ultra-lightweight bass tops with a digital power amp that almost everybody makes these days (Markbass Little Mark 250, Gallien Krueger MB200, Fender Rumble 150, Ashdown Little Giant, Ampeg PF350, TC El. BH250, etc.) and a 1x12" speaker cab (you might even get away with a 1x10" if you've got a very quiet band...)

[Mbechmann]

Hehe money IS an object. My budget is around 250€ wich roughly is 300$. The band I am playing in, is a normal Sunday worship band. The drummer is boxed in, and all the amps go through the PA system - which is quite good. So the main thing I need it for, is practice at home.

I have been looking at those Roland cubes. I had one for my electric guitar a while back, and they do sound fairly good. The thing is, I traded up for a tube amp back than (now sold) and I love that pure clean sound. That is why I am dreaming for a tube amp again :)

[Mbechmann]

Thank you so much for the help, guys. I got my new amp 1 hour ago

I was going to drive to this 1 shop, that have both second hand and new amps. About ½ a mile before my brother and I arrived, I turned, and tried an other shop. Dont know why I did that, because I had already been there, but couldnt find anything I wanted. But I did.

I had brought both my bases. My main instrument, a Daion Power Mark XX-B bass, and my backup, a Warwick Corvette $$4 Nirvana black bass. I talked to this one guy, and he quickly knew exactly what I was looking for. I did try, Roland Cube (didnt like it), and a Fender Rumble 150 (also didnt like that one) and a Marshal tube (way to metalic sound).

At this point he said: "I have this one amp here, that is a solid state amp, but you can trim it exactly like you want. Trust me, it will sound exactly like the sound you are looking for. It is a lot more expensive than your budget, but how about doing a partly trade with one of the basses?"
Well to make a long story short, he got my Warwick bass (that I only paid 90$ for 5 months ago) and I paid 225€ (about 240$) - and I got this Ashdown amp. He was right, it does sound EXACTLY like the sound I was looking for. It is VERY sweet. I also didnt know that Ashdown was made by Trace Elliot - which I do know quit a bit

http://ashdownmusic.com/products/1/B...T600-EVO-III-/

So I am now the happy owner of an awesome bass amp. Ashdown MAG C410T-600 EVO II.

So thank you for the help. It really did help when I tried the different amps. So thank you so much.

[mindlobster]

Excellent result!

[vjf1968]

Originally Posted by Mbechmann

I am looking a little bit for an amp I can use with my bass. I am thinking like a practice amp, that I can bring to practice in the local worship band. So nothing really big.

However, doing my search I came across this ZT Lunchbox. It fits perfect with my budget, and it does get good reviews. But is it any good? Anybody know this one?

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/ampli...rdir=1&nN=true

DO NOT USE THE LUNCHBOX FOR BASS! It was designed for guitar and other instruments but not the bass. There was supposed to be a bass version of the Lunchbox coming out but it looks like that was scuttled when they came out with the Lunchbox Junior.

[Doug 54]

I thought it didnt sound good at all, but if you're going direct or using a larger cab, it should sound good.

[ValveFan]

I've been using a Lunchbox for guitar going on two years now. I've plugged an mp3 player and a drum machine into the aux input. The amp has a pretty aggressive HP filter somewhere in the signal path that rolls off the low frequency response. It does not affect guitar very much, but I'm thinking for bass you would find it unusably thin. Just to be clear, it's not the small speaker that limits the low end response. Low bass is actively filtered out, even with an extension cab that can reproduce it. BTW, I really like it for guitar. I do use an EQ pedal pretty much full time to warm up the tone a bit.

[MN Punk]

Originally Posted by vjf1968

There was supposed to be a bass version of the Lunchbox coming out but it looks like that was scuttled when they came out with the Lunchbox Junior.

In a recent interview, they said they were going back to the drawing board on the bass amp when they realized their likely street price was not going to be very competitive. Their company philosophy is built around making pro-quality amps that are affordable, not making "boutique" gear.

Between Eden, Markbass, GK, Genz Benz, PJB, etc., there are A LOT of nice little digital amp combos for bassists in the $600 - $1000 range that you can tote with a hand free to carry your bass yet are still very stage-worthy. If ZT wants to make a splash with their bass amp (which they clearly do), they need to come up with something that is notably cheaper or better than those other options, and what they showed off at NAMM in 2011 was neither.

[DallasWeston]

I ordered one of these from, I think, musiciansfriend, when they first came out because, let's face it, who hasn't dreamed about a lunchbox sized amp you could actually gig with. All the claims were just too enticing to pass up.
I tried really hard to fall in love with the amp. I found it to be loud but not nearly as loud as advertised. With just the built in speaker, it simply didn't move enough air to compete with bass and drums. The basic tone was, I thought, nice for blues and crunch but not very well suited for the other stuff we played.
Adding an external cab helped a lot but that sort of defeated the whole purpose of a lunchbox sized amp I could gig with.
MF, if that was the place, had a two week return policy and reluctantly, I sent it back. I wound up with going with a Vox that was considerably larger and heavier but actually had the volume and the sounds I needed.
This was three or four years ago. I haven't kept up with them but I hope ZT actually finds a way to deliver what the lunchbox promised. I'm getting too old to be lugging 80 pound amps up two flights of stairs.

[DeadSquirrels]

I have the LunchBox and LB extension cab. Let me tell you! This little amp is no joke. Lots of headroom and at full gain, it's voicing is a nice blues overdrive tone. I play mine with a 91 50's reissue tele and a 12 50's reissue strat (both stock). The tone is nice and full with a little tweaking and the volume is killer. I can easily play bar sized venues without micing my amp. In fact we typically play an American legion hall every week and I can't turn this little guy up past 4 or 5 (again, not mic'd). I typically put the rig in front of my board with the cab facing the audience and the amp back at me for a monitor. The real beauty is that the voicing is pretty "generic" and dry so if you typically rely on your amp to give you a room full of sound and you use your pedals to add flavor, you'll be very pleased. This amp almost demands stomp boxes and seems to bring out the best in them. I also use it with my martin acoustic guitars and a gretsch rancher jumbo. It works well on acoustic as long as you spend a little time tweaking your eq pedal or preamps. I set the gain on the amp to about 3 for the acoustics. As far as hum on single coils, a decent noise gate set properly will keep this at a minimum. Hope this helps. IMHO, for $350 for a gig gable amp and cab that sound great and don't break your back, this is it!