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GardenoftheDead wrote:I will say it's worth the money to go head/cab. In my experience, bass combos aren't very good.

agreed. I love guitar combos, but other than an old Ampeg B15, bass combos usually suck.

I'm betting for around $600 you could find a used 400rb and a Mesa Diesel 1x15". that would kill.
if you want tubes, you might find a Mesa Buster 200 head for cheap - those are decent.
there's actually a Mesa Diesel 115 cab with a JBL on ebay right now for $325 shipped - that shit probably kills.
that and like a little GK MB200 and you're in bizz.

if you think you want tubes, spend a little more and get a V4 or V4B!
that way you have a cool bass head and a good ridiculously loud guitar amp!

It's a to do or not to do question. There are two answers. Buy an SVT or not.

^^^ SVT would wreck me financially every time I would have to tube it.

I bought a GK MB210. It doesn't really have any cool cred/mojoz, but it sounds really good.........so far. I'm slightly stunned, but I'll jam tomorrow and really see if it is worth a damn.

And I like combos. I understand the pros and cons, but I'd rather just pick one thing up and call it good.

However, I REALLY wish the companies would make more bass tube bass heads in the 60-120w range.

There are tons of "guitar" tube heads that sound perfectly fine on bass between 60-120 watts.

Moustache_Bash wrote:but it sounds really good.........

all that matters, right here.

D.o.S. wrote:There are tons of "guitar" tube heads that sound perfectly fine on bass between 60-120 watts.

Right, right, right. I feel like I can't think of any, though, that are around $400.

Eh, you can snag one off of eBay sometimes. I have a friend that got a Univox 50W head for like $300, and a friend that got a 100W Bogen for like $200.

Moustache_Bash wrote:

D.o.S. wrote:There are tons of "guitar" tube heads that sound perfectly fine on bass between 60-120 watts.

Right, right, right. I feel like I can't think of any, though, that are around $400.

Both the Traynor Bass Master and Laney GH50L can be found in that price range, and they are both killer w/ bass.

Other tube Traynor combos from that era are great. I've seen Laney GH100L's sell for @ $400. If you like dirty Motorhead bass, Peavey Windsor's work fine and are easy to find & cheap used. There should be a few less worshipped Fenders in that range.

Make sure you get a good, loud cab. These 4x10 cabs that handle like 2000 watts are crippling bassists. They think they need 1000 watts because that's what you need to make these cabs loud. People talk about these old amps being louder than new ones, but it's not the amps-- it was the cabs.

100 watts and a good cab is all you need, yo. Maybe less!

I use an Ampeg V4 and it does me fine. It's like 1/3 of an SVT.

Snagged an old Kasino 2x15, replaced one speaker. Sounds like a monster with fuzz. For simplicity, I also use a GK 4x10 with all four speakers replaced by Eminence Legends. Punchy little bastard.

Got the head for $500 shipped. 2x15 for $50. 4x10 for $200. Poke around long enough and you'll find something worthwhile.


And yes, avoid bass combos.

McSpunckle wrote:Make sure you get a good, loud cab. These 4x10 cabs that handle like 2000 watts are crippling bassists. They think they need 1000 watts because that's what you need to make these cabs loud. People talk about these old amps being louder than new ones, but it's not the amps-- it was the cabs.

100 watts and a good cab is all you need, yo. Maybe less!

I've been preaching this for so so so so long. People are all like "Wha?" when I say my Coliseum 880 is only like <300W RMS. IT'S BECAUSE I'M NOT USING SOME 1000W CAB DUMBASS

Wait, so my cabinet is 2x15 that's 1400 watts at 4 ohms and my head is 100 watts at 4ohms. I'm assuming that's bad.

I have an Acoustic combo bass amp I want to sell. On the cheaps too...just sayin.

The4455 wrote:Wait, so my cabinet is 2x15 that's 1400 watts at 4 ohms and my head is 100 watts at 4ohms. I'm assuming that's bad.

Not always.

The spec that maters on cabs is sensitivity. You want that to be as high as possible, and differences that seem small on paper are actually huge (kinda...).

For instance! If your cab has a sensitivity of 97dB, getting one that's 100dB would be the same as doubling the power of your amp or using a second less sensitive speaker. A lot of speakers made to handle lots of power are also less sensitive. I think you get some extra control out of it... maybe tighter low end? I dunno. I just know that I was running a 100 watt amp into a 4x10 that can handle 1000 watts, and my 15 watt amp with a 1x12 is quite a lot louder.

Sensitivity is usually how loud a cab is from 1 meter away when it's given 1 watt. I think usually at 1kHz, but it could vary, I'm sure.

But, also remember that a 3dB difference is just enough difference to be noticeable. In other words, a 100 watt amp is just barely louder than a 50 watt amp, and two speakers is just barely louder than 1. Weird, huh? You need 10 times the power/speakers to get your amp to sound twice as loud. Ears suck like that.

My whole point is... don't fall into the trap of thinking you need a ton of power, and be careful about the cab you buy and you can get away with a much less powerful amp.

Returned the combo for a Bag End S15-D, and am just gonna use it with my Ampeg J 20 (playing git). In the owners manual, the MB210 says "Do not open this amp. There are no serviceable parts inside." What the fuck. So I guess when the time is right for a sexy lil' head to come by, then the time will be right.

Also, I'm kind of confused by what you're saying McSpunckle. I always thought sensitivity, and power handling were two different things and did not necessarily correlate with each other. But, I don't know much. so.