LeftyBassist.com

i need help on buying a new bass amp and i want something that will be loud enough and hold up for small gigs iam playing thru an ampeg ba-115 now for practice in my drummers basement but we are going to be doing some gigs now and i wanted to get something better for gigs something solid and loud iam looking to get another ampeg or a acoustic something by one of them and i dont really have a whole lot of money to spend here ao please any help you guys could give me that would be great thanks.

If you want an amp that does loud for cheap I'd recommend the Gallien Krueger 800RB. You can find them used for cheap, they're rugged, decently loud, and have a great tone for punk and hardcore music. There's plenty of cheap but decent used cabs out there. Two that work great with the 800RB are the old Mesa Diesel 2x15 cabs or Ampeg 8x10 cabs. If you want smaller look at a 4x10.

What's your budget for a new amp?

wow looks like iam not getting a decent amp anytime soon my budget is $400 gotta start selling stuff i dont need or used anymore and save up

$400 is a bit low for what I recommended, but not by much. Scrape together another couple hundred dollars and you should be able to get there.

Of course if you don't need an amp so big you probably have a few other options that might fit your budget now.

Other amps I'd consider are the older Trace Elliot amps, which you can still sometimes find for cheap. I always liked the AX-SMX series. I had an AH400SMX and it killed with a P-bass.

Watch your local Craigslist and I'm sure a deal can be found soon.

BTW, how portable/lightweight do you need the amp to be?

Is the BA-115 loud enough for your needs now? Can it take an extension cab?

Couple G-K 400RB options on CL.

http://newyork.craigslist.org/lgi/msg/2212294260.html

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/msg/2212802880.html

well the ba115 is great for practice loud enough but the problem is i dont know if would be loud enough for a gig and no i cant hook up any cab too it

and i would like the amp to be some what portable and not a total back breaker to move

and if i were to sell the the ampeg ba115 for some extra cash for a new amp how much do think i could get for it

Find out what venues your gigs will be at. When I played in a metal band, I used a 150 watt amp but was directed into the house subs which pumped about 2000+W and just completely made people shit bricks it was sweet.

On that note, I've been using a line6 Lowdown 150watt for about 4 years now. I use it for auditorium sized rooms in jazz big band + jazz combos. It is ideal for my quartet needs, and when I need something with more power, the house usually has something.

this is always the "amp dilemma"....

will it be loud enough to play with a full band?
will you have good PA support at every gig that a 100watt amp and a 1x15 will work?
can you use that in practice with NO PA?

that was the main reason for me to sell off all my 100-200 watt "bass amps", and buy used PA gear.
I use an older Mackie 1400, and never had a volume issue thru a 4x10 and 2x12 bottom I made.

400-500 bucks to spend?

the top rack is what I use, the bottom is spare equipment.......


the amp, ganiac preamp, washburn EQ, rack mixer and Hartke 4x10 was around 500.
the 4x10 is 400watt peak@ 8ohms, and the Mackie is 300@8ohms so I am confident when cranking it I wont self-destruct the 4x10.
The amp is 2ohm stable, and at 4ohms bridged well over a 1000 watts for the multi-cab usages...

Used equipment is where you want to concentrate your search.

I would strongly advise you to look for Peavey amps and cabs. I have been playing through my MkIV bass head since I bought it new in 1983, it has never failed me and it sounds great. You can find MkIII, IV, Firebass and sometimes even Tour 400/700 amps for ridiculously low prices. I see MkIIIs and IVs sell for around $100 on ebay quite often.

You can often find Peavey cabs for low $$ too. Look for the older 2x15s as well as the TX series cabs. Yes they are a bit on the heavy side, but they are virtually indestructible and if you get cabs with Black Widow speakers they are easily repaired if you somehow manage to blow up one of them.

okay thanks everyone for your great help

+1 on the Peavey MkIV head. Great, great head IMHO.

however, i always found the older (pre-mid-90's) Peavey cabs to be too skinny to push serious air. Even when equipped with B.W. they pharted out on me at loud gigs where there was no P.A. support.

what about something like this
http://cgi.ebay.com/Acoustic-B200H-200W ... 2c5a52568a

I'm not familiar with the tone/quality of the new Acoustic gear but I believe you'd get more for your money going with used gear. I've heard the new Acoustic stuff has some reliability issues too.

I wonder how loud that Acoustic gets in a live situation......

My 2 cents: a used Ampeg combo like the Ampeg SVT 350 or a B2R combo should be way powerfull enough and can be found on CL within your price range. The option head/cab is more functional but usually more expensive.

i see alot of crate cabs for dirt cheap are they any good ?

I'd say you have better options out there.

Would you prefer to buy new instead of used?

What are some bass player's tones you like?