Newbie Needs Amp Advice

Guitar player switching over to bass and loving every minute of it.

Have an old Fender Sidekick Bass Amp that I'm about to outgrow.

What's a decent amp that'll fit in a car and still kick the proverbial?

Thanks, y'all. Any and all input welcome!

GK lots of models depending on how loud, how deep you want to go. The MB series combos are quite good. I own the mB 200 and MB 500 heads. I run then with a variety of cabs depending on the gig. For my main gig, Willie and Nelson - acoustic guitar, bass, percussion, all of us sing, I generally use the 200 and a 1x10. I send a line to the PA as our stage volume is quite low. Lots of 3 part harmony so hearing is very important. For louder gigs I use the 500 and often a fEarful 12.6 and maybe an additional 12.sub. It's a friggen awesome rig... And I'm glad I don't need to be that loud, that often.

What I like in GK is the voicing, the clarity and the punch. They are very cab friendly. I've only ever had one failure. It was on my first GK, roughly 34 years back. A beach bar power aurge took out my amp, along with a lot of other stuff. It was a 400B. GK fixed it under warranty in spite of the big burn mark on the boards inside. I've heard countless similar stories of their customer service over the years.

Bob Gallien is also Talkbass member RAG. He is real active and seems genuinely concerned when it comes to fixing problems. Great sound, great service and very few issues that really need the attention.. There are a lot of good brands out there, GK is sitting right at the top of the heap IMO.

I've been wanting to replace my Big bass rig with a Mesa Walkabout Scout ever since my amp tech showed my how well his worked. Hopefully someday finances will permit, they are not cheap but I think it would be my last bass amp.

Hartke, GK, Peavey are all solid. Mark Bass make excellent small combos with a big sound. Carvin also has some combos worth checking out.

There are a lot of small but loud amps nowadays ...

Depends on what you want to spend ...
Markbass, MESA, Genz Benz and others make good powerful amps.
Not so expensive but also good is the Ibanez Promethian combo. You can add an 8 ohms cab.

Another good, small, loud amp is the Roland Cube 120XL Bass.
Maybe not for Metal, but loud enough for a blues, rock, top 40 band ...
Don't think to much about the 120 watts! It's much louder than other 120 watts amps!
Test it ...

You can get old Peaveys, like a TNT that are solid amps, but I really like the Roland Cube. They are a little pricey. I have two amps, but it is my go to amp and I am not looking to replace it, in other words I am very happy with it. If you are on a budget, I buy, sell, and trade gear and an amp that went through my hands that I was impressed with was an Ibanez bass amp. These can often be purchased cheaply. If you got dollars to burn, Mark Bass is very good, but I am not sure the Roland isn't better.

Any others with advice?

I went with a GK MB115 combo, which is reasonably loud, not overly bulky, and very light. Also sounds good with my guitar (I use a sansamp with both guitar and bass).

If I had to start over, I think I'd buy one of GK's tiny yet powerful heads:

http://www.gallien-krueger.com/products_mb.html

And two small markbass drivers like this maybe:

http://www.markbass.it/product_detail.php?id=37.

In the end you'll have to find a balance between price, bulk, weight, sound and oompf. The more you're willing to pay, the more oomf you'll probably get woth less weight and bulk.
However, heavier cabinets will often sound better than light ones, and (matter of opinion), heavier analogue or even tube poweramps sound better than modern digital class-D amps.

Personally, I aim for as compact, light and loud as possible, with a fairly neutral sound. I colour it with a sansamp character pedal, which will also allow you to go direct or into a different amp and sound pretty much the same.

But nobody's mentioned the Fender Rumble series.

Should I take that absence as commentary on 'em?

Do you have a price range in mind?

I don't have a price range in mind yet, just trying to see what y'all would recommend.

Then start looking for that as a used amp.

And BTW, thanks very much for all this so far --- helping this new guy find his way around a bit in the world of bass.

But nobody's mentioned the Fender Rumble series.

Should I take that absence as commentary on 'em?

Just looking at the specs:

Fender Rumble 350:

350w, 2x 10" speakers, 29.5kg

GK MB210:

350w (500w with extension cab), 2x 10" speakers, 15kg

To me a no brainer, but I don't know what the Fender sounds like.

How loud do you want to be? A lot depends on the type of venue and type of band you'll be playing in, and the type of sound you want to make. Rounding out the bottom end, or really getting the stage to rumble are two really different things.
As a minimum to be comfortable in most situations where you'd be expected to provide the db's, I'd suggest a combo with either 2x 10" or 1x 15", and something over 150w (modern measuring).

I have played through a Rumble 100 I think it was (one speaker) and it was a decent sounding unit, plenty good for practice room or small performance. The 350 2x10 obviously has more power and that's good. Ideally in a bass amp you want way more power that you plan on actually using, that way you don't have to drive the amp hard. The amp tech I use explained to me a long time ago that if you've got the volume way up trying to keep up with drums and guitar you'll likely be damaging speakers a lot faster. It's better to have your volume up at 25 percent and be at the volume you want to be at rather than running the volume knob at 75 percent.

Folks with tube bass amps sometimes do want to drive them hard to get the tubes rumbling but with solid state bass amps lots of clean power is good to have.

I second the post above this one, a good 2x10 combo is a great way to go if you want something fairly portable and effective. My first choice for my next bass amp is the Walkabout Scout which is a 300 watt head nestled in a nifty cabinet with 1 12" speaker. I also like the Eden 2x10 combos, 2 of my friends have those and I really enjoy playing through those, they have lots of power and sound great. Another of my buds has an older SWR Redhead, I would highly recommend one of those too if you can scare one up used at a decent price.

Hope you find something you really like.

Good friend couple of weeks ago was raving about the Walkabout.

Might be best to look for one of those and be done?

Amp peg micro series head 200 watts and 2x10 cab.
Light weight, pretty loud, xlr direct out, built in limiter and pad. We had it on the road for over two years and it's a work horse. 600 bucks.

But nobody's mentioned the Fender Rumble series.

Should I take that absence as commentary on 'em?

Personally I don't think you'll find them anywhere as good as GK or Roland combos in that price range. Much of this as far as recommendations go depend on how much you wish to spend and just how big to you to go. If it's combo you want with power to play most any gig I'd sure looks at a GK MB212 500w.

I would never buy (and carry) a 30 kg (65 lbs) amp again!
No matter if casters or not. The next steps will surely come!

The GK MB212 mentioned weights 16.7 kg (35-40 lbs?) an has 500 watts ...
The GK MB210 weights 15 kg. It is loud enough for sessions but can be extended with a cab (the MB212 not).

Amps not mentioned yet are the TC Electronic amps.

The MESA amps are surely extra class!

There's also a guy on the bass forum who uses two MB210. If he wabted to, he could also add extra cabinets and get a huge setup!

Don't care for the Fender Rumble series. Alright amp if you get it at a decent price. I would prefer nearly any other brand of amp.

And loving it.

Thanks for all your advice.

I recently started playing bass also. At my age I do not want to be packing around big heads & cabs. I bought a Fender Rumble 150 head & built 2 single 10 cabs & 2 single 8's w/piezo horns. This way I can mix & match cabs for my needs & no single piece weighs more than I can lift. Plus I saved a bundle by building my own cabs. The Rumble performs good enough for me, but I also use an Eden WTDI pedal & control my sound with it.

AMPEG BA-112. Under 300 bucks. Great tone, and enough for band practice and to rattle your windows. Nuff said.

AMPEG BA-112. Under 300 bucks. Great tone, and enough for band practice and to rattle your windows. Nuff said.

Hmmm...the BA112 is only 50 watts and is a little under powered. I've been using my wife's ba115 for a couple years and at 100 watts its more suited to all purposes although even this one we've found a little underpowered once or twice recently (mostly with my wife's big muff pedal) so we're planning on upgrading.

I'm with 4MAL on this one......I've tried lots of different amps and I always come back to GK. The MB2 500 head will serve you well and is really hard to get a bad sound out of it. Loud, punchy, clean and a growly little bugger. I purchased a used version 002 and was having noise issues with it. I contacted GK and they installed a new updated pre ( version 007) for me at no charge. Talk about your customer service....Gk is second to none!