What's the least bass amp you can buy & still play in a band?

[Okieactor]

I'm interested in what is the cheapest investment I could make if I wanted to play bass in a band (let's assume rock, but I've heard country bands that play damn loud. Not quiet jazz, let's put it that way.)

-Does playing with a DI or SansAmp and hoping that bars will have a PA work? Could you get away with a practice amp for the house, and either mic it or use a DI box for gigs??
-If you absolutely need a bass amp to play with drums & guitar, how much wattage do you need, at a minimum?

Recommendations?

[soulman969]

Minimum 200w with a single 12" or 15" speaker and you may have to dime it to be heard depending on how loud your guitarist and drummer are. More desirable with some headroom left over would be 500w. rig with a 2x12" or a 4x10" cabinet.

None of these options are what I would call cheap. You're starting at around $300-$400 or so for a 200w combo and you can easily double those number for 500w combos and then upwards from there for separate heads and speaker cabs.

Using a DI will work if there's a house PA or you toting your own but you'll need a monitor feed back to hear yourself. Depending on just a DI or a SansAmp probably won't work in all cases. You don't know if everywhere you'll play has a house sound system capable of handling your bass.

Based on least cost alternative but still keeping staying with a dependable brand I'd suggest a GK MB112 200w 1x12" Combo like I use. By itself it works fine for unplugged or small club gigs doing blues or even country numbers with a 3-5 piece band. When I need more I run it through the PA via the balanced output jack. Mic'ing smaller bass amps for live performance doesn't work near as well as running direct to the PA.

I have it up on a stand so I can hear it better and it does just fine in any setting I use it in. This one runs around $300 when you can pick them up on sale. There's a GK MB115 200w with a 15" speaker that runs about $70 more. Either one is great as a home or rehearsal amp too. They're very small and very light. Mine always sits in my den right next to me so I can play anytime I like. For a gig I can carry it in one hand and my bass in the other and be out the door.

That's about the best I can suggest to you based on what you've posted. Any less than 200w and you'll have a real tough time cutting through a bass and drums unless they're playing very quietly.

[SamClemons]

Disagree with the above. I have played some pretty big crowds in all kinds of bands with crowds up to a couple of thousand. For years in a 3 piece rock band that did stuff like Van Halen with both 100 watt Fender Bassman. I have also used a 100 watt Roland Cube for some pretty big outdoor events. They want rattle your teeth, but never ran into a situation where I thought I needed more power. Lot of bass players around here in bands use Peavey TNT's. another smaller amp. Watch craigslist. You can often pick bass amps at reasonble prices 2-300 dollars including some in the higher wattage range. I think some brands and models just play out stronger than others. Speakers make a big difference, the 100 watt Bassman I had was throught 2-15" JBL's.

[garyd5158]

The least amount of amp I had was a Peavey 100 watt head and a cab with 2 15's in it.

[dan1952]

I've used my Ampeg B100R (100 watts, 1x15) for outdoor shows, bar gigs, lots more, works great. In fact, the drummer claims it's louder than my 400 Peavey through a 4x10 cabinet. Plus it looks really cool!

[blowtorch]

You can go direct. We had a fill-in bass player do that a week ago.

[losergeek]

My wife and I both played a Ampeg BA115 for several years (100 watt through 1x15) and it was perfectly fine....she wanted more beef recently though so we upgraded to a 500 watt portaflex. I also played through a friend's Cube 100 amp which is 100 watts through a 12 inch speaker and super light and it was fine. Personally I wouldn't want it to be my main rig because I like to know that I have more headroom if I need it, but if you really want to stay lightweight then it's a great option. The other possibility would be to pick up a micro amp head (like the portaflex or the galian kruger options) and get a really efficient 1x10 speaker - that would give you a nice control over the DI with the head and an onstage monitor for yourself.

Whether you can go DI would depend a lot on your bandmates - I would never play with a bass player that didn't use a proper amp - it's just putting too much reliance on the PA and soundguy. Especially for the drummer - if he can't hear the bass clearly on stage then you're screwed. It also probably means that you're going to have to blast everyone else in the monitors (assuming no dedicated mixes) in order to hear yourself clearly. This is the reason I stopped only using a DI for keyboards - I need to hear my signal clearer then everyone else, so I need to have a dedicated speaker closer to me if I don't want to destroy everyone in the monitors.

[superlightweigh]

I had a GK 200 or 210 watt 2X10 amp that didn't really cut it even for rehearsal with a loud drummer but with a separate 15" cab added on it was fine and I gigged with it for a summer. That was the smallest rig I ever used.

I have also gone direct with excellent results but unless you know for a fact that there will always be an adequate PA and hopefully a soundman too...well I wouldn't go there.

[spauldingrules]

Yes. Do this - it works fine, especially relative to a cheap bass amp.

Originally Posted by blowtorch

You can go direct. We had a fill-in bass player do that a week ago.

[Tim Armstrong]

I've tried playing through a preamp straight to the PA, and couldn't hear the bass onstage. Turn it up in the vocal monitors and it distorts (and messes up the vocals. And I've blown PA speakers, too.

I used to recommend using a small amp for onstage monitoring and feeding a signal to the PA, but not anymore.

Tim

[brookdalebill]

I sure like my Roland Bass Cube 120.
I gig/rehearse with it all the time, and it's all this geezer wants or needs.
It was around 500 bucks, and has a tuner, effects (I don't use) and looper.
Great stuff!

[Jakedog]

Just buy used. Used bass gear is cheap, and usually plentiful. I bought my rig last year.

Hartke 500 watt head, hartke 2X10 cab, and a hartke 1X15 cab. The entire rig was $390. Not a bad price at all for a rig that will blow a band off the stage.

I've done lots of gigging with a Hartke 200 watt 1X12 combo, it was plenty for small clubs, but I odn't really like the sound of 12's for bass. Let's just say the volume was there, but the tone was not.

I'm about to get another combo, I'm ordering one of the new Carvin Micro-bass combos. Small, light, 200 watts, under $400. Hard to beat.

If you can find one, and don't mind the weight, Peavey and Fender have both made combos with single 15" speakers in the 300 watt range, which are plenty for gigging, and they pop up on Craigslist pretty frequently for under $300. SOmetimes as low as $150.

[dconeill]

Originally Posted by Okieactor

I'm interested in what is the cheapest investment I could make if I wanted to play bass in a [rock] band...

-Does ... hoping that bars will have a PA work? ...

Hope is not a plan.

Best suggestion, I think, is to look at what other bands in your area that play similar music to yours in similar venues use, in terms of wattage and speaker complements. If you as bass player have to be self-contained, that leads to a different answer than if you can go direct in all venues.

Suggest separate head and speaker for versatility and to reduce package weight a little, but a combo would be OK too.

One possibility would be a Peavey Headliner head (about $350) and a Peavey Headliner 210 ($200) speaker or 115 ($250) speaker, or both. The head with one cab would therefore be around $550-$600.

Another head/cab setup could be an Acoustic B600H head ($500) and a B115Neo cab ($250), total $750.

By comparison, here are a couple of higher-dollar options:
- Markbass Little Mark III head ($600) and a Markbass Std-102HF cab, around $650, for a total of $1250.

- TC Electronic RH450 head ($700) and a RS210 ($550) is another high-dollar option, totalling around $1250.

So I think you're looking at a minimum expenditure of $500-$750 for new gear.

[SamClemons]

There are a ton of nice used bass amps on Austin craigslist for 150-300 dollars. 125 watt GK for 150 bucks. 280 watt GK for 300, Fender Bassman 100 Combo for 180, 450 for a 350 watt hartke half stack, 300 watt fender combo for 350, Ampeg and Carvin Speaker for 300, I would take a look at that,

In the 400-600 range, you can move up to some bigger rigs.

[jefrs]

A bass amp doesn't need to be all that big. We've been using an 80W Marshall bass combo single speaker to fill a small hall or pub. More than adequate.

Otoh an 8-lb Ampeg Portaflex will slip into your pocket.
Note with "Class D" you do not get what is written on the tin. You cannot get 500W out of a device that only consumes 100W of mains, that's two quarts out of a pint pot, not going to happen. Nephelokokygia.

Another option is a 30W valve head (usually guitar) into suitable bass speaker. These are very window-rattling loud.

[mr_big_trouble]

According to our bass man, if you go through the PA, either direct or by mic, be sure the PA is a good one, with good subwoofers. Otherwise, drag out your 4x10 cabinet (I think that's what he uses).

[Jakedog]

Originally Posted by jefrs

A bass amp doesn't need to be all that big. We've been using an 80W Marshall bass combo single speaker to fill a small hall or pub. More than adequate.

Otoh an 8-lb Ampeg Portaflex will slip into your pocket.
Note with "Class D" you do not get what is written on the tin. You cannot get 500W out of a device that only consumes 100W of mains, that's two quarts out of a pint pot, not going to happen. Nephelokokygia.

Another option is a 30W valve head (usually guitar) into suitable bass speaker. These are very window-rattling loud.

This is not my experience at all. I have not tried any class D bass amps (although I plan to soon) but my PA is class D and is the most wonderful thing ever. Super light, and puts out a TON of power. I sold an 800 watt standard PA head for this 1200 watt class D, and I can tell you without doubt that is noticeably MUCH louder and cleaner sounding while drawing much less power and never heating up.

[dconeill]

Originally Posted by jefrs

...Note with "Class D" you do not get what is written on the tin. You cannot get 500W out of a device that only consumes 100W of mains, that's two quarts out of a pint pot, not going to happen. ...

While it's true that you can't "get 500w out of a device that only consumes 100w of mains", I suspect there's something about Class D power supplies that you don't understand. None of the specs I looked at made a claim anything like this. A typical statement was on the order of "draws 80 watts at 1/8 power" for a 450w-output amp. If consumption scales linearly, then such an amp would draw 640 watts at full output.

Moreover, most industrial countries have laws that specify how one must describe power consumption and output. While specs can be misleading, they're not quite this misleading.

[rangercaster]

most bang for your buck is a used Peavey ... i checked your local CL and there is plenty of stuff... $1-200 and you are there ...

[Tim Armstrong]

There's a Hartke LH500 head marked at $275 or so (offer them $250 and you'll probably be taking it home) at the CashAmerica pawn on Guadalupe and 34th. I gig with one, it's a GREAT amp. Get a speaker cab (again plenty of cabs for cheap out there) and you're cooking with gas!

Tim