- Joined
- Oct 11, 2019
- Messages
- 46
- Reaction score
- 53
- Age
- 62
Part 1 (we're limited to 10,000 characters here... so Part 2 will follow)
I found a used Ibanez SR375E 5-string bass for $300 at a pawn shop. It needed some love, new strings and a trussrod tweak. Then of course I needed a new amp. LOL.
I'm mainly a guitar player that dabbles and dribbles in bass. I wanted to find a bass amp that could handle the low B 5th string on my 5-string. I did a lot of research for small bass combos. Some of the manufacturers these days have some feather weight bass combos that sound really great on paper, and they feel really good while lifting. My old fart 60 year old disabled body loves light.
I funneled my choices down to three or four brands. I also set a budget of $300.00. I was willing to go more if the amp did more or sounded to my ears with more, but that was my bottom line. 300 bucks. I found that 4 manufacturers did stuff for poor disabled boys like me...
Peavey - MAX series combos
Ampeg - their new Rocket Bass series combos (my last bass amp was an Ampeg BA-112v2)
Hartke's HD series of combos
Fender - Rumble series.
If you're a "I gotta know where it was made" kind of person, all of the above are made in China except for the Fenders, they are made in Indonesia. So... "only USA for me" snobs... you can stop reading now... haha.
For the rest of us...
First, I don't ever send any money Peavey's way. I think they make "decent" stuff but I refuse to open my wallet for them after a couple severely bad experiences with their gear. In or around 1981-ish I bought a brand new Peavey Classic 50 watt 2x12" combo. I hadn't had it 6 months and had already had it back in for warranty repairs FOUR TIMES. One of the tube socket blew out, then one of the 12's blew... then a second tube socket blew... then of course the second 12" blew. That was enough Peavey for me for a boycott of about 28 years and wouldn't touch their stuff with a 15 foot pole. Then, around 2007-ish I was giving guitar lessons out of my home and I needed a simple amp of some kind for my students to plug in to. I found a brand new Peavey Solo (tiny little bugger)... brought it home and it lasted all of 2 weeks before the instrument jack went bad. So regardless pof how great the Peavey MAX bass combo series is, I did compare specs, watch YouTubes, and download picture to stare at, but I'll never buy another Peavey anything off the shelf.
One semi-positive word about a Peavey I do own. I found a 1980-something Peavey Bandit 65 on the Facebook Marketplace for $100. That's about anything any Peavey is worth IMHO. Its a bit heavy, but it's loud as hell and doesn't have that very typical old Peavey scratchy pot syndrome. It works great as a boat anchor (just kidding) or an amp I might take to the biker blues bar that I don't care if beer and such get spilled all over it. 'Nuff said about Peaveys...
First off, on all the amps I tried, I set the EQ at 12-o'clock. On the Hartke w/ the 7-band graphic EQ, I set all the faders to flat/0. I also just had the volume turned up just a little so it made sound, maybe at 10-o'clock on everybody. I wanted to hear clean and I wanted to experience headroom before any break up.
I found a local music store that had all the other three amps in stock, and a variety of each brand's models. They also had a five 5-string on the wall, and I had the bass room all to myself. At another store I tried the Fender Rumble 40, and it did not cut the mustard with the low B/5th string. Later, I determined it sounded like a fart. I got to try The Rumble 100 (1x12" and 100 watts), and the Rumble 200 (1x15 and 200 watts). My ears were not impressed with anything that rumbled. Both did "so-so" with the low B, but back in behind the rumble I could hear distortion just slightly, and my ears were trying to hear clean. There was just something lacking in the Fender's sound. Plus they were the most expensive of the amps I demo-ed. (In the 15" comparison)
Next I couldn't wait to try the Ampeg Rocket Bass series, and this store had all of them. I tried them in order, 10", 12", 15"... then went back and forth between them all. They did "ok" with the 5th string, of course the 15" was the best with the low B. Until I really riffed on the low B string, and all of the Ampegs distorted and not in a good way. I was super disappointed because from my last great Ampeg experience (a BA-112v2) I would have just went in and bought another Ampeg sight unseen, sound unheard.
There is MUCH to be said about going to the store and test driving your gear. I can't emphasize that enough. It saves a lot of time, makes sure you get exactly what you want the first time, and you don't have the PITA of returning to an Internet retailer within 30 days something you don't bond with... I generally don't buy sight unseen, sound unheard off the Internet just by looking at pictures and watching YouTube videos. I do all that before I show up at the store and generally I will know more about each model than the typical pimple faced sales kid.
'Nuff said about test drives...
OK, so the Fenders and the Ampegs farted out... what next... ???
(please go to "Part 2")
I found a used Ibanez SR375E 5-string bass for $300 at a pawn shop. It needed some love, new strings and a trussrod tweak. Then of course I needed a new amp. LOL.
I'm mainly a guitar player that dabbles and dribbles in bass. I wanted to find a bass amp that could handle the low B 5th string on my 5-string. I did a lot of research for small bass combos. Some of the manufacturers these days have some feather weight bass combos that sound really great on paper, and they feel really good while lifting. My old fart 60 year old disabled body loves light.
I funneled my choices down to three or four brands. I also set a budget of $300.00. I was willing to go more if the amp did more or sounded to my ears with more, but that was my bottom line. 300 bucks. I found that 4 manufacturers did stuff for poor disabled boys like me...
Peavey - MAX series combos
Ampeg - their new Rocket Bass series combos (my last bass amp was an Ampeg BA-112v2)
Hartke's HD series of combos
Fender - Rumble series.
If you're a "I gotta know where it was made" kind of person, all of the above are made in China except for the Fenders, they are made in Indonesia. So... "only USA for me" snobs... you can stop reading now... haha.
For the rest of us...
First, I don't ever send any money Peavey's way. I think they make "decent" stuff but I refuse to open my wallet for them after a couple severely bad experiences with their gear. In or around 1981-ish I bought a brand new Peavey Classic 50 watt 2x12" combo. I hadn't had it 6 months and had already had it back in for warranty repairs FOUR TIMES. One of the tube socket blew out, then one of the 12's blew... then a second tube socket blew... then of course the second 12" blew. That was enough Peavey for me for a boycott of about 28 years and wouldn't touch their stuff with a 15 foot pole. Then, around 2007-ish I was giving guitar lessons out of my home and I needed a simple amp of some kind for my students to plug in to. I found a brand new Peavey Solo (tiny little bugger)... brought it home and it lasted all of 2 weeks before the instrument jack went bad. So regardless pof how great the Peavey MAX bass combo series is, I did compare specs, watch YouTubes, and download picture to stare at, but I'll never buy another Peavey anything off the shelf.
One semi-positive word about a Peavey I do own. I found a 1980-something Peavey Bandit 65 on the Facebook Marketplace for $100. That's about anything any Peavey is worth IMHO. Its a bit heavy, but it's loud as hell and doesn't have that very typical old Peavey scratchy pot syndrome. It works great as a boat anchor (just kidding) or an amp I might take to the biker blues bar that I don't care if beer and such get spilled all over it. 'Nuff said about Peaveys...
First off, on all the amps I tried, I set the EQ at 12-o'clock. On the Hartke w/ the 7-band graphic EQ, I set all the faders to flat/0. I also just had the volume turned up just a little so it made sound, maybe at 10-o'clock on everybody. I wanted to hear clean and I wanted to experience headroom before any break up.
I found a local music store that had all the other three amps in stock, and a variety of each brand's models. They also had a five 5-string on the wall, and I had the bass room all to myself. At another store I tried the Fender Rumble 40, and it did not cut the mustard with the low B/5th string. Later, I determined it sounded like a fart. I got to try The Rumble 100 (1x12" and 100 watts), and the Rumble 200 (1x15 and 200 watts). My ears were not impressed with anything that rumbled. Both did "so-so" with the low B, but back in behind the rumble I could hear distortion just slightly, and my ears were trying to hear clean. There was just something lacking in the Fender's sound. Plus they were the most expensive of the amps I demo-ed. (In the 15" comparison)
Next I couldn't wait to try the Ampeg Rocket Bass series, and this store had all of them. I tried them in order, 10", 12", 15"... then went back and forth between them all. They did "ok" with the 5th string, of course the 15" was the best with the low B. Until I really riffed on the low B string, and all of the Ampegs distorted and not in a good way. I was super disappointed because from my last great Ampeg experience (a BA-112v2) I would have just went in and bought another Ampeg sight unseen, sound unheard.
There is MUCH to be said about going to the store and test driving your gear. I can't emphasize that enough. It saves a lot of time, makes sure you get exactly what you want the first time, and you don't have the PITA of returning to an Internet retailer within 30 days something you don't bond with... I generally don't buy sight unseen, sound unheard off the Internet just by looking at pictures and watching YouTube videos. I do all that before I show up at the store and generally I will know more about each model than the typical pimple faced sales kid.
'Nuff said about test drives...
OK, so the Fenders and the Ampegs farted out... what next... ???
(please go to "Part 2")