Studio strength bass amp for under a G?

[tuj]

Check out the Carvin Microbass series.

[technicoloraudio]

Any love for that Phil Jones? Just started looking at them last night. Those cute little speakers make me feel pretty.

[Deltaphoenix]

Nah, we're more about Peavey Kvlt.

[Strange Tales]

Nah, we're more about Peavey Kvlt.

If we're going Peavey, definitely the Firebass 700. Would love to have one of those.

[BoatRich]

Nah, we're more about Peavey Kvlt.

If we're going Peavey, definitely the Firebass 700. Would love to have one of those.

I regret selling mine all the time. It had one of the coolest breakups I've ever heard from a solid state amp and loved fuzz. It was also way louder than anything I could afford at the time.

[Jwar]

My God guys. Peavey. Am I the only one on this forum that would never use one? I had one and it blew up. Was a complete POS. lol.


For what you're looking for I'll reiterate (this say pretty clean to really clean and take pedals well)

Gallien Krueger, preference to 700 rb II or 1001 RB (I or II really)
Hartke anything (I've never heard a colored tone out of these. DOS you must be different in the ears than me? This was the cleanest amp I've ever owned)
Eden amps (I liked the tube amp 300T but you'd have to mic a cab as it doesn't have a DI that I remember?)
Mesa (yes it has it's own tone but you can get clean straight tones out of it)
Fender (tubes!!!!!!!)

I can't say Peavey because I've owned several things from them and they all had issues. Except the Peavey bass I had. That was great.

[Strange Tales]

I've never tried the newer GK amps, but everything I've heard about them is that they pale in comparison to the 80s 400rb and 800rb with the horizontal switch. I used a 400rb until I got an Acoustic 370 and it was very clean/took pedals pretty well. I was able to record with it with the volume around 5 or 6(?) I think. If you have the money and find one definitely get an 80s 800rb, monster head.

[D.o.S.]

Dude Hartke is like the definition of sterile tone -- which, ok, that isn't a flavor in and of itself, but similar to how white is the absence of all color, Hartke is the absence of flavor. And their upper midrange sounds like dogshit (particularly because it isn't dialed out. Upper mids sound like Michael Manring and pain).

GK amps are rad.Never used an Eden. I liked the Mesa 400 I tried a whole lot but that wasn't enough time to really dive into it.

[Deltaphoenix]

My God guys. Peavey. Am I the only one on this forum that would never use one? I had one and it blew up. Was a complete POS. lol.


For what you're looking for I'll reiterate (this say pretty clean to really clean and take pedals well)

Gallien Krueger, preference to 700 rb II or 1001 RB (I or II really)
Hartke anything (I've never heard a colored tone out of these. DOS you must be different in the ears than me? This was the cleanest amp I've ever owned)
Eden amps (I liked the tube amp 300T but you'd have to mic a cab as it doesn't have a DI that I remember?)
Mesa (yes it has it's own tone but you can get clean straight tones out of it)
Fender (tubes!!!!!!!)

I can't say Peavey because I've owned several things from them and they all had issues. Except the Peavey bass I had. That was great.

I have had that Eden tube amp, it was good.
I had an Orange AD200B, fucking sweet! But OMG, so expensive.

Regarding Peavey, I used to use a Peavey Mark IV. So much grind. Way grindier better than a GK (which I dig for solid state).
I currently use a Peavey VB-2, that is a sweet tube bass head. For the price, it can't be touched...period. I don't miss my old Orange.

[D.o.S.]

As someone who owns a "real" Orange, I would go for an SVT before considering the AD200.

[coldbrightsunlight]

GK stuff is rad. So is Hartke stuff, actually -- they definitely have a tone you can't dial out though (and it's gross, particularly in combination with those aluminum speakers).

The aluminium speakers can die in a fire but I think the heads sound ok without them. GK are definitely way better though, best clean bass amps I've ever tried. I'd recommend going GK for cleans.

For a slightly left field idea to all these other suggestions since you did specify studio, the Ashdown Little Bastard is perfect for dirty tube bass sounds at low volume. 30W, sounds great, giggable by itself in small venues and has a DI out that sounds pretty good to me. I love mine, I'm going to get a bigger amp to have clean power and headroom but for small gigs, studio use and jamming I don't see how you could beat it.

[Jwar]

Dude Hartke is like the definition of sterile tone -- which, ok, that isn't a flavor in and of itself, but similar to how white is the absence of all color, Hartke is the absence of flavor. And their upper midrange sounds like dogshit (particularly because it isn't dialed out. Upper mids sound like Michael Manring and pain).

GK amps are rad.Never used an Eden. I liked the Mesa 400 I tried a whole lot but that wasn't enough time to really dive into it.

Again, girl you crazy. Lol

[D.o.S.]

I really would like to try out a Little Bastard at some point.

[coldbrightsunlight]

I'd suggest a meetup but we live on different continents so... Sorry!

[oscillofuzz]

To make things even more confusing, the only amp I can really recommend is the one I've been using for the past 7 or so years: Marshall VBA400. Which isn't quiet, under a grand, or currently in production for that matter... But while I have looked at and played through other amps, there's a reason it's still with me (even though it has broken down a handful times, with high repair costs as a result) and that's the high quality sound paired with a no frills approach (it has like 6 knobs and 2 switches and that's it).

Oh, and before that I had an Ashdown MAG300 combo. That was also pretty good, I guess in hindsight I just didn't bond with the 15 inch speaker in the combo. And I hadn't heard a full tube bass amp yet (I was 15/16 at the time) when I bought it.