Well, I noticed that there are no articles on amps for the low end crowd, so I'm starting one. Hopefully, some of you others who also gravitate towards things bass will share about your discoveries.

A little history first. I am a so-so guitar player who decided after a number of years that bass is where it's at. So, the first thing I did was go out and buy a bass and a little practice amp. Well, the bass, although quite nice, just wasn't me, so a replacement was sought and found. As time progressed, my best friend and I spoke about doing a gig together. Originally, it was to be me on bass backing up his acoustic guitar, but we began to talk electric too. Oops, my little practice amp began to look kind of small.

I started to look for a replacement, and put the small amp up for sale (I'll write a separate appraisal of it). It sold. Some young man in the northern suburbs of Chicago had a nice Christmas!

Well, I realized that I would get more bang for my buck buying used rather than new. While wandering around the GC in Chicago, I came upon a Peavey TKO 65. It sounded pretty good in their showroom with a new Fender Jazz through it, so I thought I had my amp. Well, I got home and plugged old Frankenbass in, turned up the volume and tone, and, oh no, it sounded like garbage, breaking up terribly. I'm guessing a cracked magnet so, back it went. The search continued. I came across a great deal on a Firebass 700, but it was Christmastime, and money was a little short. I answered a couple of other ads, and was about to seriously consider this one SWR Workingman's 15, when I got a reply on the amp I today own, a Crate BXH-220.

I'd forgotten about this one. The price was really reasonable, and when I didn't get a reply right away, I figured that it had been snatched up quick, but that wasn't the case. The seller had gone out of town shortly after placing the ad. Anyway, it was still available, so I went into the city to check it out. Everything seemed to work just fine, and it was in pretty decent condition with but one small tear in the Tolex on the 4x10 speaker cab. We loaded amp head and speaker cab into my truck, and back to McHenry County I headed.

So, how is it? Well, I'm impressed enough. While I don't feel that it is competition for a Genz-Benz or an Eden, it's a good little amp that holds its own. I think it's a decent gigging amp, and I'll probably have it for quite some time into the future.

The BXH-220 is a solid state amp head that puts out 220 watts RMS into 4ohms, or 160 watts RMS into 8ohms (my setup). Among its features are an 8-band graphic EQ, automatic power limiting circuit, variable input gain, a switchable contour, an effects loop with blend, and a headphone jack with its own volume control.

Everything works as described. It sounds every bit as good, and then some, as the Workingman's 12 that I had checked out at a guitar store some time back. It handles my Bartolini P with the active tone turned up to the limit. Using the J, and with the treble end of the EQ rolled up, it can almost get me sounding like a baritone guitar!

Anyway, its a great amp that I would totally recommend to anyone that wants to pack a lot of punch on a budget. It is truely a "bang for the buck" champion, no doubt.