to combo, or to head and cabinet, please give me some advice

scorpionldr

ok, i'm having a hard time deciding here, on what type of amp to get. right now i've only got 65 watts giong for me, so i'm thinking of upgrading once i get money. lately i don't see any heads that i like cuz they've all got stupid EQs and i don't want to go to GK cuz i'm hearing more horror stories as i keep on going around about frying amps. i HAVE found a decent combo though, from ampeg, that packs 220 watts into a combo with a 15 inch speaker and tweeter. it's the BA115HP (which is shunned from the public for some reason, someone explain why THAT is a mystery). sounds like i'm going to get a great deal, but another thing that gets to me is, is it really that valuable to have an extension speaker option? all it really has is headphone or lineout to PA, but aside from that i hear great things about the power and tone it has. somebody please give me advice so i know what i'm going to be earning my money up for??

God of Rapture · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2003 12:58 pm Post subject:

Just be reasonable with your eq and you would be fine. I use 2 eq's in my rig.

If you want a really good combo amp I would suggest the Roland DB-700. I have been using one ofr a couple of months and I love it. It is a 250 watt amp with a 15" speaker. It is a very healthy 250 watts though. This things can *Holy Censor, Batman* near compete with 500 watt amps. I would suggest giving it a try. I imagine that it would be easier on the bank account than the Ampeg would be.

scorpionldr · Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 12:44 pm Post subject:

is the tone good? and is it loud enough to drown guitarists with 100 watt half stacks?? it's just i don't often see roland on the list of quality bass amps, so i'm careful and that's why i just trust name brands like ampeg a TINSEY little bit more. does it rumble alot?

PorkChops · Kitten Joined: 01 Oct 2003 Posts: 137

I've used GK for 20 years, from the 200RB on up to the 800RB and never had a moment's trouble. There was a brief period of time after the "RBII's" came out that GK was having trouble with amps frying, but that's ancient history these days.

Slyder · Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2003 7:25 pm Post subject:

Basic rule of thumb... bass amp needs to be about twice the wattage of the guitar player. If the guitar amp is a tube amp add another 50-100 watts. I'm playing a 4x10 cab w/ 350W behind it and that darn guitar player can still kill my groove with a 100W tube quater stack. Lucky for my back we're starting to player smaller venues (same crowds just smaller venues or inside not out) So I'm looking to unload my whole stack and scale back to a 250 watt combo....

The moral of all this useless information is...... is your not playing large venues you'll be better off with a combo or a light weight half stack just for the sake of portability.
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2slick4u · Big Hamster Joined: 07 Sep 2003 Posts: 97

well were playing smaller stuff so all im using right now is a 350@4/240@8 head witha 400@8 vx410 cab... is that bad?

Slyder · Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2003 3:14 pm Post subject:

I wouldn't call it bad... if you talking about a Peavey TVX10 that's what I'm playing through and that thing is a back breaker and considering my amp goes a good 75 lbs it's too much for me to haul around every weekend, maybe I'm getting too old.
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scorpionldr · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2003 6:47 pm Post subject:

no offense, slyder, but it's wierd, cuz i was putting my Peavy TKO 65 against a 75 watt crate combo, and it overpowers it easy. it holds up prety well against an ibanez toneblaster head and cab too, if the head of that isn't cranked to mroe than 7. i think it has more to do with the size of the speaker itself, cuz a 15 IMO gives more effect, whereas a 4 10 cab just gives definition

2slick4u · Big Hamster Joined: 07 Sep 2003 Posts: 97

this sounds weird but i got the chance to try a a bucnh of ampegs, (i was looking fora 410) and was only impressed with the extended bottom ones.
this: SVT-410HE i was very disappointed with. it had almost no gutsy bass to it, it sounded like a guitar amp. (i was VERY impressed with the HLF tho, cept it was quite on the expensive side) i tried the hartkes (what i ended up gettign) and at first i was a bit skeptical, the price being so low it lowered my standard bar from the start, but i was quite impressed with the sound. it near matched the bass of the hlf and when u crank up the tube on ur head it sounds awsome, basically im saying shop around... ALOT.

Slyder · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2003 9:02 pm Post subject:

scorpion... no offense taken... just a bit of misunderstanding. One question, are you sure your TKO is only 65W? I'm not calling you a liar, I've just never seen one. All the one's I've seen are either 150W or 200W, can't remember. I also miss-spoke (mis-typed) what I meant about getting pushed around by my guitar player. When I'm playing the 4x10 cab with my firebass head we're normally at a gig and I don't like to touch my amp after I start playing and the guitar player doesn't either. But if we're both turned up to 7 on the guitar's and he kicks into a distortion channel I can turn up wide open and not make a dent it seems like on stage. (Note: not a good Idea to turn up anyway, low frequency waves travel farther and easier through a crowd so if you turn up too much all that the people in back will be able to hear is the bass) This also might be caused from listening to too much bass in my life and my low end hearing is starting to go. IMO I don't think there's much difference in the volume between 10s, 15s and 18s. But you are right in that a 15 or 18 gives more effect because you can feel the bass better.

moral of this long drawn out jargin..... If you're still reading this then your just as bored as I was when I typed it.
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scorpionldr · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2003 5:18 am Post subject:

no, it's rated at 65 watts @ 80 ohms, looked at the back. i donno, that big *sometimes angry female* just manages to pump out some *Rotund Being* wattages

scorpionldr · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2003 5:19 am Post subject:

oh, it's old too if that helps, nothing like what peavy is today

Slyder · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2003 8:55 pm Post subject:

thanks for clarifying because I got really confused this weekend at our gig, the bassplayer for the band that opened for us was using what he called "an old keyboard amp" I looked at it and it was a mid 90s model TKO 65 and checked out the back and it was 200W so I'm standing there wondering what the heck the 65 stood for?..... Peavey just needs to get the act together.
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gibson_thunder · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2003 3:51 pm Post subject:

are you sure it wasnt 200w power consumption?
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Slyder · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2003 8:28 pm Post subject:

could have been... the amp had seen it's better days and I just took a glace at the back but the info was located in about the same spot as it is on my TKO....

Off on another topic for a second.... Anyone had any luck building their own amp combo.... I got an old set of Cerwin Vega Woofers and a really nice furniture building shop... thought this might to solve my combo deliema. I know it sounds a little far reached but if I bought a good set of bass drivers instead of the woofers would it still be feasable?
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