Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I have to throw in my $.02 here...I like the portability and power of my Markbass F1, but I'm not in love with it's tone...tone is subjective...try before you buy.

jps wrote:For a while Mike was/is using a RI Ampeg B15R with the matching extension cabinet.

Really? Cool!

It's expensive, heavy, not as easy to find, discontinued, and only 100W, but sounds really nice!

rickaddict wrote:not as easy to find

Especially so, the extension cabinet.

I have not yet bought an amp. I tried the MarkBass Jeff Berlin at GC. Great clean tone, I'm sure I would like it, but seems to be missing something. I liked the tone from the Ampeg BA 300, but the amp itself just did not feel right. Tried a number of other amps that made bzzz bzzz bzzz sounds at 10. Not going to work. I have a few Craigslist amps I saw that I hope to check out this weekend.

Finding a bass amp I like is much harder than finding a guitar amp.

Coming in late, and this may sound trite, but go for a head/cab combination rather than a combo. It will give you way more flexibility... and there are some excellent lightweight cabs out there that will handle a lot of power (GK and Ashdown come to mind) so you won't have to compromise between tone and getting a hernia shifting your rig.

As has already been said, a newish Traynor or silverface Bassman 100 should get you a great tube tone an sufficient power for reasonable dollars. If the Markbass leaves you a bit cold, old-school technology might be the ticket.

Len wrote:...Tried a number of other amps that made bzzz bzzz bzzz sounds at 10. Not going to work...

I would think that just about any amp is not going to be sounding very good at 10...unless maybe it goes up to "eleven!"

Like Spinal Taps Amps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! \m/ \m/

Len wrote:I have not yet bought an amp. I tried the MarkBass Jeff Berlin at GC. Great clean tone, I'm sure I would like it, but seems to be missing something. I liked the tone from the Ampeg BA 300, but the amp itself just did not feel right. Tried a number of other amps that made bzzz bzzz bzzz sounds at 10. Not going to work. I have a few Craigslist amps I saw that I hope to check out this weekend.

Finding a bass amp I like is much harder than finding a guitar amp.

Len, go for an older Ampeg SVT-3 Pro that looks like this one or newer (as long as it is made in the USA). This one is way overpriced for the missing parts.... It is the era I am talking about.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ampeg-SVT-3PRO-SVT3 ... 35a5c0b1f5

Len wrote:I.....I tried the MarkBass Jeff Berlin at GC. Great clean tone, I'm sure I would like it, but seems to be missing something.....

Try a VT Bass pedal in front of it.

jps wrote:

rickaddict wrote:not as easy to find

Especially so, the extension cabinet.

Agreed. But there is also this option from Fliptops.net:

http://www.fliptops.net/catalog/product ... cts_id=693

According to the Niimi book, Mills played Mitch Easter's 4001 through the studio's Ampeg B-15 on "Murmur."

- Scott

My 2 cents:

If you don't mind shelling out 600 bucks, I would consider this GK:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Gallien-Kru ... 1473233.gc

It has 500 watts and 2 10" speakers. An xlr line out, plus a speaker out connection so you can daisy chain another cabinet. The greatest feature is that fact that it's only 33 lbs!!!

I have for my RIC 4003 amp ampeg svt3pro (450W) and boxs ampeg svt115(200W) + svt112(300W)
The sound is very nice.

jack1953 wrote:My 2 cents:

If you don't mind shelling out 600 bucks, I would consider this GK:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Gallien-Kru ... 1473233.gc

It has 500 watts and 2 10" speakers. An xlr line out, plus a speaker out connection so you can daisy chain another cabinet. The greatest feature is that fact that it's only 33 lbs!!!

Ha!

I like how Guitar Center shows three different angles of the speaker grille and none of the control panel!

rickaddict wrote: I like how Guitar Center shows three different angles of the speaker grille and none of the control panel!

Of course!

G-K does have a photo of the control panel at http://gallien-krueger.com/products_mbCombos.html.

I'm not yet in the MarkBass camp, but I did drop by Guitar Center the other day and played an SD 800 through a 4 x 6" cabinet (I think it was the NY 604?). Those little 6-inchers put out a punch. I was impressed -- of course, I'm from the old school. When I was learning to play bass, no one attempted to play bass through anything small than a 12, and 18s weren't unheard of (back in the day, one of my rigs was a Sunn Concert with 2 215BH cabinets).

Unfortunately, I didn't have my Ric with me, but an uncharacteristically helpful GC sales dude let me check out the amp with a Schecter Elite (which, btw, is a sweet bass). If you've got the bucks (a big if for me) for MarkBass and weight is an issue, you could do a lot worse.