Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2003 4:11 am
I just got back from the St. Petersburg, Russia, area where I got to hear several small combo bass amps in the Liverpool Club (Beatles bands), Jimi Hendrix Club, and Corsair Club. The music was Beatles/Stones, Blues/Rock, and maybe an occasional Country Rock number. The best bass amp I heard was a small Ampeg combo. Don't know the exact model, but it was probably a 100 watt solid state model. It was played through an Ibanez bass built on a Fender P-bass pattern using a single split-coil pickup and inline tuners. Plenty of volume for these small club settings. The Ampeg sounded good in a band setting, but I would prefer more mid/treble punch in a home solo practice setting. Maybe it had more treble capability that the bassist wasn't using. The main point is that it was noticeably the best sounding amp. The odd thing was that although several guitarists used Fender Tele guitars, not a single Fender bass was seen, although one Beatles band bassist used a Hofner, which is incredibly expensive for a Russian musician. That bassist was a bit blown away by the fact I had a Rickenbacker bass, and his reaction indicated he had a very high regard for Rickenbacker basses. The Russian woman I was with had a cousin, Vladimir Schumacher, who is a well known drummer in the SPb area, and he met us at the Liverpool Club and introduced me to the bassist. Didn't have much time to discuss equipment though, as we had to split before the Metro closed.
The Ampeg bass amp that suits you the best seems to always be a safe recommendation.
For $1000 you have a lot of excellent choices, especially if you do not rule out clean used gear. There is nothing wrong with late model used gear in excellent to mint condition, and is my first preference when seeking value in electronic gear purchases. A couple of choices that nobody has mentioned is the new Peavey BAM 2x10 combo that you can pick up for around $1000 and has received excellent reviews. I once developed a prejudice against Peavey bass amps, but it was because I bought a folded horn cabinet instead of the correct cabinet for my situation. Reliability was never a problem with the Peavey amp I had (or any Peavey amp owned by anybody I ever met). I saw several Peavey amps in use in Russia, and Russian musicians demand high value for very little coin. I am personally interested in the new Phil Jones Bass 2x5 bassman's briefcase combo since I want a home practice combo with very easy portability, good tone, and battery operation as a standard feature. You can mike it up if the house PA system is of sufficiently high quality. I could also add a UPS with sine wave output to my homebrew 20 watt Marshall AVT20 1x10 combo with Eminence B105 bass driver.
Don't forget a Sansamp RBI or Bass Driver DI for those situations where the house PA system is of high quality and you don't want to lug a heavy bass amp around. You can have a new Ampeg combo amp for home practice and small clubs and use the RBI or Bass Driver DI for big halls with a good PA system for under $1000, free youself from the slavery to large bass amps, and suffer almost no sound quality loss in the process (most of the time you will gain in sound quality over old classic bass amps). Geddy Lee uses the RBI in live concert situations.
The Ampeg bass amp that suits you the best seems to always be a safe recommendation.
For $1000 you have a lot of excellent choices, especially if you do not rule out clean used gear. There is nothing wrong with late model used gear in excellent to mint condition, and is my first preference when seeking value in electronic gear purchases. A couple of choices that nobody has mentioned is the new Peavey BAM 2x10 combo that you can pick up for around $1000 and has received excellent reviews. I once developed a prejudice against Peavey bass amps, but it was because I bought a folded horn cabinet instead of the correct cabinet for my situation. Reliability was never a problem with the Peavey amp I had (or any Peavey amp owned by anybody I ever met). I saw several Peavey amps in use in Russia, and Russian musicians demand high value for very little coin. I am personally interested in the new Phil Jones Bass 2x5 bassman's briefcase combo since I want a home practice combo with very easy portability, good tone, and battery operation as a standard feature. You can mike it up if the house PA system is of sufficiently high quality. I could also add a UPS with sine wave output to my homebrew 20 watt Marshall AVT20 1x10 combo with Eminence B105 bass driver. Don't forget a Sansamp RBI or Bass Driver DI for those situations where the house PA system is of high quality and you don't want to lug a heavy bass amp around. You can have a new Ampeg combo amp for home practice and small clubs and use the RBI or Bass Driver DI for big halls with a good PA system for under $1000, free youself from the slavery to large bass amps, and suffer almost no sound quality loss in the process (most of the time you will gain in sound quality over old classic bass amps). Geddy Lee uses the RBI in live concert situations.