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Thread: Bass Amph or SansAmp(h)?

  1. #1
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    Default Bass Amph or SansAmp(h)?

    Well, since I have a bass I'm researching a bass amph. There's a but more to it than might meet the eye. Because of the way the human ear hears low frequencies (poorly) you need a lot more wattage. The problem is that more wattage means more weight--a lot more weight. Since I'll mainly be a basement player, I'd like to have a practice amp that also has recording capabilities one way or another. It'd be nice to be able to use it for a small gig--say with acoustic guitarists or a drummer who doesn't use baseball bats.

    I've had a couple of thoughts:
    Acoustic B20: Acoustic amps are being made again and the B20 is getting rave reviews on the Talk Bass forums. It's 20W through a 12" speaker. Recording could be done through the headphones jack. It's only available at the various GC entities.

    Peavey MAX*: Peaveys are workhorses. My old Basic 50 served me well. A comparable amp to the B20 would be the MAX 110 except it has a 10" speaker.

    Ampeg BA112: Ampeg is well-known and loved in bass circles. The BA112 is low end, but still would be almost double the cost of the previous two--albeit with more features. Unfortunately, I've heard bad things about Ampeg's repair situation now that they are owned by Loud and built in China. Having said that, the previous two are made in China too, methinks.

    Marshall MB30: As recommended by Duff. Some nice features not included on the first two amps are a line out and effects loop. I could also get one from my favorite shop in Green Bay that I'd actually prefer giving money to. Something just seems weird about getting a Marshall bass amp though . . .

    Or I could just get a SansAmp Bass Driver DI. That's the one piece of equipment that it seems just about everybody loves. I could listen to it via headphones or my computer. Obviously it would be ideal for recording. When I'd get a regular amp, I could run the SansAmp through the effects return and use it as a preamp--keeping my tone. If I ever found myself needing more power, it's got an XLR output to run right to a PA mixer. The disadvantage, of course, is that one of my favorite parts of being a bass player is _feeling_ the notes you play. Obviously that won't happen without air being moved via a speaker.

    Thoughts?

    (As an aside, if I read one more practice amp review where the moron complains that he couldn't be heard over a guitarist with his half-stack, I'm going to scream.)
    Axen: Jackson DK2M, Fender Deluxe Nashville Telecaster, Reverend Warhawk 390, Taylor 914ce, ESP LTD Surveyor-414
    Amphen: Jet City JCA22H and JCA12S cab, Carvin X-60 combo, Acoustic B20
    Effecten: "Thesis 96" Overdrive/Boost (aka DVM OD2), Hardwire DL-8 Digital Delay/Looper, DigiTech Polara Reverb, DigiTech EX-7 Expression Factory and CF-7 Chorus Factory, Danelectro CF-1 Cool Cat Fuzz
    "I wish Imagine Dragons would be stuck in an Arcade Fire for an entire Vampire Weekend."--Brian Posehn

  2. #2
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    I used to play bass in a kinda punk/metal band and I'm sure there are bass players here who know way more about this than me, but 'cause I'm sitting here staring at a box of GFS parts wishing I was at home fitting them, I have time to kill

    So. Heavier? Depends on your perspective.

    I have an old Peavey bass head rated at 210W into 4 Ohms that I ran into a real vintage (1962 ish) bass cab with 4x12's. Given that both my tube combo and my tube head (60W and 50W) weigh -more- than the Peavey bass head, and that I use that same cab for guitar primarily now, My bass rig is lighter than my guitar rig

    Caveats...

    This is not a great rig for modern bass sounds. It lacks the clarity and sharply defined punch you'd want for modern funk or slap styles and that's partly the amps fault (it's old and stock so I assume the power supply could use some stiffening up) and much more the cabinets fault (sounds killer for guitar though those old 60's alnico's).

    You are bang on about power though. You typical bass amp will be rated for much higher power than your typical guitar amp. From what I've seen and heard, the sharper the attack you want in your bass sound, the more power you need on tap too. All depends on your style I guess though because the yummiest bass amp I played with (was in a store) was a 120W tube amp. While I was mucking around on it (with a Rickenbacker...M'mmmmmm) my bass player mate was dismissing it as drastically underpowered and "slow" sounding.

  3. #3
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    If you listen to any of Jonas Reingold's latest recordings either with The Flower Kings or the new Karmakanic album all you'll hear is the SansAmp and he gets a great sound from that. Incredible little box it is.

    This is all SansAmp
    This might be too

    "No Tele For you." - The Tele Nazi

    Ha! Tele-ish now inbound.

  4. #4
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    The Acoustic B100 is also a good deal at $249 for a 100W combo with 15" speaker. They claim that the effects loop send can be used as a line out. It also had active EQ and a serial speaker out for going out to their 4x10 or 1x15 cab.
    Axen: Jackson DK2M, Fender Deluxe Nashville Telecaster, Reverend Warhawk 390, Taylor 914ce, ESP LTD Surveyor-414
    Amphen: Jet City JCA22H and JCA12S cab, Carvin X-60 combo, Acoustic B20
    Effecten: "Thesis 96" Overdrive/Boost (aka DVM OD2), Hardwire DL-8 Digital Delay/Looper, DigiTech Polara Reverb, DigiTech EX-7 Expression Factory and CF-7 Chorus Factory, Danelectro CF-1 Cool Cat Fuzz
    "I wish Imagine Dragons would be stuck in an Arcade Fire for an entire Vampire Weekend."--Brian Posehn

  5. #5
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    I´d say Sansamp.. and the best is that the Bass driver sounds awesome with guitars as well!

    I can't say that I've given up on a flanger cause I've never liked the effect either. I also can't say the same about Tremolo. I hate them both equally. - Tone2TheBone 2009

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by SuperSwede
    I´d say Sansamp.. and the best is that the Bass driver sounds awesome with guitars as well!
    Cool video, although that guy certainly is Captain Annoying.
    Axen: Jackson DK2M, Fender Deluxe Nashville Telecaster, Reverend Warhawk 390, Taylor 914ce, ESP LTD Surveyor-414
    Amphen: Jet City JCA22H and JCA12S cab, Carvin X-60 combo, Acoustic B20
    Effecten: "Thesis 96" Overdrive/Boost (aka DVM OD2), Hardwire DL-8 Digital Delay/Looper, DigiTech Polara Reverb, DigiTech EX-7 Expression Factory and CF-7 Chorus Factory, Danelectro CF-1 Cool Cat Fuzz
    "I wish Imagine Dragons would be stuck in an Arcade Fire for an entire Vampire Weekend."--Brian Posehn

  7. #7
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    sansamp
    guitars-esp m1,esp vintage plus strat,85 gibson LP std,Hamer std,hagstrom xl-5,takamine 330r
    amps-egnater tweaker,epi vj w/brat mod
    efx-byoc/dvm comp, j cantrell wah,ocd,catalinbread dls,wampler plextortion,ibanez chorus,tech21 boost dla

  8. #8
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    I went to Green Bay yesterday and got an Access gig bag for it and a new set of Rotosound 66LD 45-105 string that I'll slap on today sometime. I got a chance to play through a Marshall MB30 and was very surprised at how good it sounded. The tone controls actually do quite a lot. I was also very pleased with the tone of my bass now that I was actually able to turn it up a bit.

    My problem with a SansAmp is that I still wouldn't be able to listen to my bass at volume without actually getting some kind of amp in addition.
    Axen: Jackson DK2M, Fender Deluxe Nashville Telecaster, Reverend Warhawk 390, Taylor 914ce, ESP LTD Surveyor-414
    Amphen: Jet City JCA22H and JCA12S cab, Carvin X-60 combo, Acoustic B20
    Effecten: "Thesis 96" Overdrive/Boost (aka DVM OD2), Hardwire DL-8 Digital Delay/Looper, DigiTech Polara Reverb, DigiTech EX-7 Expression Factory and CF-7 Chorus Factory, Danelectro CF-1 Cool Cat Fuzz
    "I wish Imagine Dragons would be stuck in an Arcade Fire for an entire Vampire Weekend."--Brian Posehn

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by marnold
    I went to Green Bay yesterday and got an Access gig bag for it and a new set of Rotosound 66LD 45-105 string that I'll slap on today sometime. I got a chance to play through a Marshall MB30 and was very surprised at how good it sounded. The tone controls actually do quite a lot. I was also very pleased with the tone of my bass now that I was actually able to turn it up a bit.

    My problem with a SansAmp is that I still wouldn't be able to listen to my bass at volume without actually getting some kind of amp in addition.
    You could always buy a cheap bass amph with a effect loop or poweramp input and use that to amphlifhy your bass driver.
    I can't say that I've given up on a flanger cause I've never liked the effect either. I also can't say the same about Tremolo. I hate them both equally. - Tone2TheBone 2009

  10. #10
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    Someday we have to have a thorough declension of the noun "amph."

    Anyway, had a pastors' "Study Club" today. I was going to have some time to kill after that until I picked up my kids so I brought along my bass. I got a chance to test-drive it with a Peavey MAX 112. I have to say that I wasn't very impressed. The voicing switch made a subtle difference and caused a "pop" whenever it was flipped. The tone controls didn't seem to do much. Even with the high-end cranked, I had a hard time getting any definition. I thought the Marshall sounded a lot better. That result surprised me a lot.
    Axen: Jackson DK2M, Fender Deluxe Nashville Telecaster, Reverend Warhawk 390, Taylor 914ce, ESP LTD Surveyor-414
    Amphen: Jet City JCA22H and JCA12S cab, Carvin X-60 combo, Acoustic B20
    Effecten: "Thesis 96" Overdrive/Boost (aka DVM OD2), Hardwire DL-8 Digital Delay/Looper, DigiTech Polara Reverb, DigiTech EX-7 Expression Factory and CF-7 Chorus Factory, Danelectro CF-1 Cool Cat Fuzz
    "I wish Imagine Dragons would be stuck in an Arcade Fire for an entire Vampire Weekend."--Brian Posehn

  11. #11
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    Get both definately. A cool amp with enough power for fun and the sansamp or similar for recording. I've recorded my Jazz bass through the POD 2.0 using the clean guitar model with some slight compression and it sounds awesome so I should imagine a sansamp would be even better.
    Guitars/Bass - MIM Fender Classic 50s Strat, MIM Fender Standard Strat, Squier Classic Vibe 50s Tele, Gibson Les Paul Studio, Epi '56 Gold Top Les Paul, Martin DSR acoustic, Sigma Martin Auditorium electric/acoustic, Squier Jazz Bass.

    Amps/Cabinets/Modelers - Model 2558 50 watt Marshall Silver Anniversary Jubilee combo w/ Celestion Vintage 30s, 4x12 Marshall cabinet w/25 watt Greenback Celestions, Fender Blues Junior w/ a couple of Billm mods, Line 6 POD 2.0, Roland Micro Cube

    Pedals/Effects - Cry Baby Classic Wah, Boss TU-2, Boss NS-2, Boss RC-2 Loop Station, Ross Compressor, MXR Micro Amp, Danelectro FAB Echo, Danelectro FAB Chorus, Danelectro Chicken Salad, Marshall Guv'nor Plus, Marshall Echohead, Duhvoodooman's Zonkin' Yellow Screamer, Digitech Digiverb, Digitech Bad Monkey, Dunlop Fuzz Face, Homemade Loop Bypass pedal, Duhvoodooman's Sonic Tonic (Maxon SD-9 clone +), Voodoo Labs Superfuzz

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