Cheap bass amp ($100 or so)

I have the best kids in the world. My 11-year-old daughter wants to buy my 14-year-old son a guitar for christmas. But he's got two of mine on indefinite loan so he really doesn't need another one.

He does have a bass (a nice SX short scale P-bass) but no bass amp.
So I'm thinking...

What's a good choice in the same price range as the guitar ($120)
Less is better, of course. He doesn't play in a band yet, but he might, so something moderately gig worthy would be great.

TIA. And Merry Christmas to all.

Hi Allen, it's Frank Doris; you might remember me from my days at The Absolute Sound.

Since this is going to be a gift I assume you want to buy new.

I owned a Peavey Max Bass 158 and it sounded great, and was surprisingly big-sounding (it held its own at an acoustic-guitars-into-PA-type jam I did a couple of months back), but the 8-inch speaker will probably not be enough if your son wants to play with a rock band. The more expensive Max 110 with its 10-inch speaker might be a winner if it sounds as good or better than the 158.

Guitar Center seems to be having a sale every day these days. Unlike other Internet pundits, I have no problem with GC--I deal with two people in the Commack store who are excellent.

I like the sound of the Acoustic B10 and B20 amps. On paper they seem like they might be underpowered, but I think they sound find and the B20 might be fine for rock gigs that aren't excessively loud. The B20 is on sale at GC for $129 right now and you might be able to get it for less--I think they're doing a 15 percent off $75 or more sale now.

It's out of your price range but I liked the Ampeg BA-110. It had plenty of volume and punch and seemed a cut above the Acoustics. I didn't play through the smaller Ampeg with the 8-inch speaker but if it's anything like the BA-110 I would check it out.

I have no experience with other under-$200 amps. The Fender amps look and feel good (they're heavy) but two friends' kids had Fender Frontman amps break on them in less than two years for what that's worth.

No idea about the long-term reliability of any of these amps.

GC has Fender, Acoustic, Ampeg, Peavey and maybe some other under-$200 amps in stock.

Frank
So nice to hear from you. Of course I remember you and I'm flattered that you remember me. I was kind of above or below the fray writing music (as opposed to gear) for Stereophile.
I read TAS cover to cover, chapter and verse back in the day, and I still have fond memories of the mag (and the quality of the writing which was, to be honest, (even) better than Stereophile.)
I'm also in touch with Art Dudley.

I'll check out the Peavey and the Acoustic.
Thoughts on the VOX Pathfinder 10? He's got the 15R as his guitar amp, and it's pretty great.
FWIW, I don't have an issue with GC for a purchase like this.

Happy holidays.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71uMONsN93k

Wait... You play bass through a bass amp? Whoh. Revelation.

When I had a bass, the Fender Rumble more than sufficed!

Frank
So nice to hear from you. Of course I remember you and I'm flattered that you remember me. I was kind of above or below the fray writing music (as opposed to gear) for Stereophile.
I read TAS cover to cover, chapter and verse back in the day, and I still have fond memories of the mag (and the quality of the writing which was, to be honest, (even) better than Stereophile.)
I'm also in touch with Art Dudley.

I'll check out the Peavey and the Acoustic.
Thoughts on the VOX Pathfinder 10? He's got the 15R as his guitar amp, and it's pretty great.
FWIW, I don't have an issue with GC for a purchase like this.

Happy holidays.

This is blowing my mind.

I grew up reading both of you guys. My dad was a hi-fi nerd (he build his own set of I.M. Fried designed speakers for the living room, and while he drove the cheapest cars on the market and kept them until they fell apart, he upgraded his state-of-the-art turntable about once a year and was constantly auditioning new amps and other equipment), so our house always had subscriptions to both of your magazines.

Anyway, I agree that the Peavey is a good route to go if you're trying to keep costs down. Unless you're willing to go used. You can sometimes find a room-shaker of a 15" combo for about $100 if you lie in the weeds of Craigslist long enough.

Hi MN and Allen,

Allen, a friend has the Pathfinder 10 and I don't like it as much as the other amps...it sounds a little thin and lacking in impact on many of the settings, although you can EQ it to have a good amount of depth. Funny, because I absolutely love my VOX DA-5 and actually use that amp on most of my gigs with Grand Folk Railroad, even though I own an original '65 Princeton Reverb.

MN: well, I did have my 15 minutes of fame! :-} Or 10 years or so...it was a lot of fun, and a lot of stress, working for HP, hanging with the reviewers and getting to know pretty much everyone in the high-end audio industry, and making lifelong friends who share a passion for music and audio. On the other hand, the stress level that would occur when we sent a manufacturer a pre-print of a bad review was extremely high, as was getting in between HP, the manufacturers and the reviewers. After I while I had to move on. I had an opportunity to join an audio/video oriented PR firm and took it. Somehow 16 years have gone by since then! I find that although essentially working as an extension of a manufacturer's marketing department is not without pressure, it's much more suited to my personality than being part of a review magazine. I hated having to write a less-than-stellar product or music review--but we had to be honest, unlike some of the "everything sounds great and everything sounds the same" audio publications like Stereo Review, which are now gone. Also, as you can imagine having read TAS and Stereophile, some of the egos were (are) titanic and I'm a pretty down to earth guy. Sometimes I felt more like King Solomon than a reviewer/music writer/equipment setup person.

I really enjoy doing the public relations for Audio-Technica and Audience, and writing for companies like JBL Professional and the Harman Music Group, as they make good products that I can get genuinely enthusiastic about. Like your dad, I am an audio geek (that's a compliment in my book) and will never get tired of all this stuff. By the way, I knew Bud and Jane Fried well and miss seeing them. The Fried booth was always a must-see for me at CES, and I listened to more than a few of their speakers.

Once a year I go to CES--it's coming up in a few weeks--and I always give myself an extra day to go and see the high-end audio exhibits and hang out with old friends.

My website is www.frankdoris.com if you want to see what I'm up to these days.

By the way, I was in Minneapolis once, for a CEDIA trade show a few years ago. The highlight was seeing the Zombies play at First Avenue. It was their first US tour in something like 25 years and they were fantastic.

I should also mention that I am even more of a guitar geek than an audio geek. I got into high-end audio so that I could hear my favorite music better. The first time I heard a high-end audio system at age 13, at a friend's father's house, it literally changed my life. I was astounded and could not believe that an audio system could sound that much like real life. (My friend's father had Marantz tube gear, an Empire turntable, Rectilinear 3 speakers and other great stuff for the time, the late 1960s.) Your father had his priorities straight!

I am also friends with Art Dudley. He is a great guy and I love his writing.

If you can swing a few more bucks, I'd be checking this out.

Acoustic B100 100W 1x15" Bass Combo (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/bass/acoustic-b100-100w-1x15-bass-combo/482900000000000)

Frank
I can understand your feelings. I wrote about music, so I stayed above the fray that way. If I told a few thousand Stereophile readers that Springsteen's Human Touch $ucked, no one cared. A bad review in TAS could literally kill a company, and I was a lot more sure of the fact that Human Touch sucked than I was about any given pre-amp.
I was content to hear the stories from Richard Lehnert and my other friends.
I still call my business the Allen St. John Publishing Empire in homage to Harry.

I'm still thrilled by great audio--my office is dominated by some Dunlavy SC IIIs and VAC and Audible tube gear driven by a Linn. At a certain point I decided to stop chasing better at huge cost, and be happy with the sound and enjoy and explore the music.
I got into guitars late, but it was nice to be able to spend my "toy" money on something that acted like an investment.
Did you see my book Clapton's Guitar, about my friend Wayne Henderson building an OM? I'll get you a copy if you PM me an address.

Anyway thanks all for the amp suggestions. My wife is wondering if this is a good idea--the kids tend to bicker over guitar amp volume-- so I'm not sure where this will go.