Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Good people of the RRF my practice amp has packed it in, no tears though, it's an opportunity to get a new one. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, Thanks!

Ted,

I had a Hartke Hydrive kick back with one 15 inch speaker, rated at either 200 or 250 watts, if I remember correctly. It was a decent amp pretty small and quite compact. I found all the controls a confusing, to be honest.

I tried an Orange 100BXT (Crush Series) and I loved it. Much simpler controls & plenty loud. I sold the Hartke and and Play the heck out of my Orange with no regrets! Not sure if the 100 watts will be enough to keep up with a heavy handed drummer or a guitarist with a bigger rig but for home practice, it works for me.

Sepp

What are you looking for in a practice amp? What do you have now, that is about to go to your local landfill?

My, obvious, suggestion is for a Markbass Minimark.

I'd suggest the MiniMark as well, but how much are you looking to spend?

If you don't need anyone else to hear you, then I must recommend the Vox Amplug. Loooove mine. $40 new.

Ouch! Jeff, that is quite some taillift on this bass!

I was impressed with Jeff's Minimark, too. I'm working on a reissue B-15, but if that doesn't workout, I'll probably go with the Minimark.

Highly recommend the Phil Jones Briefcase, works great with a live rig too.

http://www.philjonesbass.com/pjbdirect/ ... ucts_id=36

I had a gk backline 110, it was a good little amp for home. It had a DI out, so if the venue was right I'd use the DI to the board and use the amp as a monitor. For small venues it was fine.

I'm using a SWR Workingman's 10. They can be found used for <$150. Not too big but has 80 watts and alot of features. Read more about my recent purchase here.

teeder wrote:I was impressed with Jeff's Minimark, too....

I concur. It was very impressive for the size. You'd expect to have to lug a big cab for that sound.

heinpete wrote:Ouch! Jeff, that is quite some taillift on this bass!

Actually, it is only half as hight, the rest is just a mirror image of the tailpiece, so not too bad, and it still sounds great, just as good as my 4001 with the cast aluminum tailpiece.

The Carvin Micro Bass amp line has some very nice and affordable options. All MB series amps use the BX250 head which has a great eq section and on board compression. What I like best is the ability to add an extention cab. I have the MB15 and love it.

Thanks guys, great suggestions this was very helpful. For home lately I've been running my Aplitube app but I not thrilled about headphones, although they keep the wife happy. Looks like I have some shopping to do

My friend has been using a Quilter. He has the extension cabinet for live gigs but uses the main amp for practice. 200 Watts. He didn't like the quality of the speaker in the extension cabinet and replaced it with a better one, but the main Quilter Micro Pro 200 has been everything he wanted.

I just use one of those little Roland Micro Cubes ($110) and they are fun with lots of settings.

We are talking guitar here, not bass, however. But my 2 cents.

If its just home pratice you are going for I often use a Line 6 bass Pod into a spare input (tape 2 or aux) in the hi fi amp.
For any thing requiring more volume than that its got to be a bass amp but really the hi fi is well loud enough for solo practice
and of course you can go through headphones.
If you mean rehearsal with a band as practice then one of the suggestions like the SWR is a must.