It’s back from the dead! The TB Mega Thread.

[D.o.S.]

To be honest dubs the microhead market for bass is replete with options right now. I've almost pulled the trigger on a Trace Elliot ELF a few times, the new tiny Portaflexes seem good as well, and these are $250-$350. There's also TC/Behringer options etc. Basically you just need to fine one with a preamp that sounds good for you.

[goroth]

I've got a portflex 350 or whatever it is called. It's pretty great.

[MaxMaps]

so let me ask you bass experts a question...i realized that if i'm going to incorporate the Jazz Bass into my loops i'll need a bass amp and probably a crossover at about 200 Hz (just below guitar range) because guitar speakers crap out at about 70 Hz. i want to get a 15' Hartke cab. what would be a good, reasonably-priced head? i don't really need drive on the amp; i would like big clean sound i can fuck up with pedals. and i won't need to fill a space larger than a big club in the foreseeable future, so i won't need 2000 watts of power, especially because solid-state amps are louder than tube amps watt-for-watt. whaddaya got?

Like D.o.S said there is a LOT of this type of head on the market, probably more than before. Coming back into to playing again, I realized that a whole lot has changed, just more options of the same style of head.

Hartke, makes really cheep and pretty good bass gear for the money, if you run everything at unity - you get a really clean bass sound. I have also tossed around the idea of using an Orange Amps Pedal Baby, which is just a 100w clean head and if needed grab a 1000 watt power amp to push cabs. (haha like that is ever going to happen)

[sears]

Quilter has a tiny little 50w bass thing, and probably a 200w amp as well. But like thy say, GK, Markbass, Trace all have mini amps. Is fan noise going to be an issue for you? Something to research.

I like Talkbass. I participate in the gear sections, not really in the social or band boards. I learn a lot.

[qersty]

a 51 p with flats

Is that the thing over there now? back when I joined everyone was anti flats and you'd get shit for using them....

I think on the "basses" forums that is the shit. It may be that I just don't get that an inside joke is a joke. The important thing is the use the one thing to do one thing attitude.

How about "He removed the concentric knobs from his jazz bass so he obviously cannot tone"

[qersty]

so let me ask you bass experts a question...i realized that if i'm going to incorporate the Jazz Bass into my loops i'll need a bass amp and probably a crossover at about 200 Hz (just below guitar range) because guitar speakers crap out at about 70 Hz. i want to get a 15' Hartke cab. what would be a good, reasonably-priced head? i don't really need drive on the amp; i would like big clean sound i can fuck up with pedals. and i won't need to fill a space larger than a big club in the foreseeable future, so i won't need 2000 watts of power, especially because solid-state amps are louder than tube amps watt-for-watt. whaddaya got?

Why not get something like this? https://www.thomann.de/se/crown_xls_1002.htm
It has DSP so it does crossover stuff in the box. Weightless too. I have a beefier model I had in my bass rig and it worked great. Only downside is that you ideally need a DI-box to drive it.

I hope I got what you were asking for. I felt I may have misunderstood

[Blackened Soul]

so let me ask you bass experts a question...i realized that if i'm going to incorporate the Jazz Bass into my loops i'll need a bass amp and probably a crossover at about 200 Hz (just below guitar range) because guitar speakers crap out at about 70 Hz. i want to get a 15' Hartke cab. what would be a good, reasonably-priced head? i don't really need drive on the amp; i would like big clean sound i can fuck up with pedals. and i won't need to fill a space larger than a big club in the foreseeable future, so i won't need 2000 watts of power, especially because solid-state amps are louder than tube amps watt-for-watt. whaddaya got?

Why not get something like this? https://www.thomann.de/se/crown_xls_1002.htm
It has DSP so it does crossover stuff in the box. Weightless too. I have a beefier model I had in my bass rig and it worked great. Only downside is that you ideally need a DI-box to drive it.

I hope I got what you were asking for. I felt I may have misunderstood

See it really depends on your sound and style... I’ve used one of those and hated it. It ended up distorting on low notes and just felt wimpy... don’t get me wrong I like and use crown power amps but my old 18watt tube fender bass man 20 has more umph

Could be I just hate all light weight amps... I’ve been trying the things since the mid 90s and even when the sound is ok and loud there is always something missing...

[qersty]

I have no good answer, really. I guess I do not have experience with better amps. I guess most amps I played before I had the crown/ampeg rig were class d too or tiny solid states so I never think I have had anything massive to compare it with. Haven't really had the proper chance to crank any svt I have played through. Once tho I played with the power amp gain as maxed out it could be and adjusted volume on the preamp and that wasn't puny I tell you that

I gotta find another one of the ampeg preamps I use. I want to reconstruct my bass rig but have it be some kinda-wet/dry thing since having it be practical was a waste

[Blackened Soul]

I gotta find another one of the ampeg preamps I use. I want to reconstruct my bass rig but have it be some kinda-wet/dry thing since having it be practical was a waste

It really isn't that impractical if you are already using a pre + power amp setup. The rig I am using for the duo stuff I am writing is 2 SWR pre's and a Crown XLi2500, if you know giving and stuff ever comes back [to like before 5 years ago.... I'd get a XLi3500 ] I use the setup for bi-amping though.. both chains has dirt

[Chankgeez]

I've almost pulled the trigger on a Trace Elliot ELF a few times...

Still wonderin' how these take pedals.

[coldbrightsunlight]

And I'm waiting for dos to buy one to find out

[Chankgeez]

[Dandolin]

Wasn't thrilled with the ELF. I was fine for rehearsals, but at shows it felt anemic in the bass frequencies and weirdly compressed. Like it was invalidating the Fletcher-Munson curve.
In one odd gig where I was alternating an old Ibanez Musician bass with passive-but-high output humbuckers and an EUB with a piezo through a Baggs D.I. it was infuriatingly hard to set levels between the two inputs even though at the previous gig with the same basses using a war-torn Eden Nemesis everything had been easy. I subsequently moved to a Peavey Minimax which was fine until gigs dried up Also, swapping cabs (with identical ohm ratings) really didn't seem to make a difference. Music-wise it was a mixed bag, but as the presence of the EUB indicates, overall pretty damn tame, although nobody gets through a gig with me on bass without hearing a shit-tonne of fuzzzz.

The problem with the ELF, imo, isn't really the front-end though, so it took pedals pretty well. It make a damn nice home/practice amp, lol.

[Chankgeez]

Did you try it with guitar too or just bass?

[Dandolin]

no - just bass - it might have been pretty good with guitar, or even baritone definitely was not up for a bowed low-B on an EUB