Best Amp for Ric bass?

[serpentdan]

I want to get a vintage 60s sound with my Ric bass. A reputable Ric dealer recommended to get a Fender Bassman or Ampeg Ampeg B-15 Portaflex, tube of course. Curious if any of you have other recommendations. Thanks!

[brycycle]

those are good choices...i've had the best luck w/ vintage Ampegs: v-4 (100 watt), SVT or V9.

[chefothefuture]

SVT with a B8 cab. Hope your back is strong tho...
I also like the Orange AD200B.

[4stringnosing]

Any tube Ampeg will work -- I'm using an SVT 3 Pro. Only 26 lbs!

[jwr2]

Pretty much anything ampeg makes works fine with a Rickenbacker bass.

[ricaddic]

any tube ampeg or an ashdown, they work great with all basses.

[Flagg]

You know, it's a good question....I mean, I have used everything from Acoustic to Ampeg to Sunn to Traynor and back again. All had acceptable tone.

My current rig consist of a SVT4Pro and a SVT6X10HLF....sound good? You bet! But here's the kicker...I also recently was turned on to MarkBass (I bought the CMD121P combo) and to be quite honest - the Ric has NEVER sounded better!!

Now, for this 58 year old back.....a 30 pound 450 watt combo that CRANKS out the Ric is (to me) more impressive than a 4Pro at what...with rack and all the goodies something like 65 pounds and the cab weighs in at like 125 pounds....

I have yet to find a venue that this little combo couldn't handle....we play everything from small clubs to large outdoor festivals (just did a show tonight!) and with PA support worked like a champ!

Long story short.....I think it's Craigs list for the Ampeg gear!

[gshadoan]

In my opinion, it depends on where and what you are doing, to get the correct "RIC vintage" sound, Rock pop, heavy prog/metal, country, 60's british invasion. If your just playing for yourself, or in a quiet/studio environment, Rock pop,country, 60's british invasion, then the bassman, or the porta flex are great choices, or even an old VOX, but frankly, they will run out of headroom pretty quickly. Even the 100 watt versions. If you trying to get the "sound" in a heavy prog/metal band, a generally loud band, or in lage public area's, then I would consider a modern approch, as suggested (Mark bass-although I have presonally never played one yet) or, a more conventional approch, like the verniable Ampeg. An SVT tube head, and an 8-10 cab will reproduce the RIC sound honestly with little colering. Yeah, they are big and ugly, but that is part of holding down the bottem end. No pain, No gain. I myself love my early version ampeg B2, and very old 8-10, or what ever cab I happen to hook it up to. However, I do use a tube parametric inserted in the FX loop. My idea is to make the bass the master, and the amp the slave. So I tend to keep a simple signal path. Bass - cord - volume pedal - amp. The fender bassmans I have, frankly are better for guitar amps. They work great, and with good PA support, you can use just about anything. If your amp is the only thing that projects your bass, then you may need more power. 3,4 to 1 vs guitar amp power typically. I had a band I was doing sound for the other day, and the guys amp malfunctioned. Ran him all night DI only. It worked fine. It is a bigger PA though.

So, what is it your going to do with that classic RIC sound? What is your playing environment? That would be dependant on what opinion I would give.

[ricnbacker]

I have An Ampeg B100R that my Ric sounds great through. I play Classic rock- Heavy Metal through it and it holds its ground.

I was a diehard Fender Bassman user prior to geting the Ampeg

[atomic_punk]

That's kinda the problem, innit? If you want that "Classic Rick Bass Tone", you tend to get stuck using the "Classic Rick Bass Amp."
Remember back in the day, pretty much all there was were Ampeg, Acoustic, Fender, Sunn maybe, a few others.
Now there are a lot more choices, and you owe it to yourself to look around, listen, and investigate. I've heard so many good things about the Markbass stuff, I need to try one out. Heck, I know players who can get that tone with just a Sansamp!
But I have used Ashdown, GK, Yorkville (Which I am using a Bassmaster 200 now and it KILLS), and an Ampeg which fried an hour into my first gig with it. But what matters is how it sounds to YOU. Everyone's ears are different. And when you crank up on stage and your tone sounds so good and you play well and YOU are happy, that is what matters.

[jwr2]

You got that ampeg used from GC. Somebody traded it in because they knew it had a problem. The GC people missed the problem and you got stuck with the problem.

I have had very good luck and very good tone with my Ampeg b2r solid state amp. I no longer mess with tubes of any kind.

A good way to buy a bass amp is bring your bass to the store and try several amps right at the store. Then you can A/B test them and see which gives you your tone. I did this and went into the store determined to buy a GK but came out with ampeg because it had "THE" sound.

[cheyenne]

Im pretty happy with this for the time being. Sorry for the "non Rick content", yesterday was Rick day.

Carvin DCM1500/Sansamp RPM/ Carvin RL210/ Ampeg B15.

[bigbajo60]

Having run the gamut of amp formats in my many years of gigging... I can say with some degree of certainty that a Rickenbacker bass is best paired with an all tube amp.

I've tried the tube preamp/solid state poweramp approach... and while that's satisfactory with most any other bass... a Rick just seems to beg for those glowing power tubes!

My current amp (Mesa 400+) fits the bill quite nicely in this regard!

[triantavas]

Ashdown Mag 300 works FINE for my 76' 4001. Avoid cheap Ampeg 115T. I sent it back due to tweeter buzz to headache!!!

[serpentdan]

Thanks to all of you for the great advice. It seems bass players are not as adverse to solid state amps as guitar players; several of you recommended solid state models, and some recommended tube models. Why are solid state bass amps more acceptable by bass aficionados?