Amps For Bass and Guitar

[HowardMusic]

Trying to find a amp that will do both well and drive a 2x12 or 2x10 or 1x15 cab - nothing monstrous. Looking for a compact / relatively portable set up. Maybe 50 watts or less.

Fender Bassman
Traynor YBA-1
Marshall 2061x

What others are there ??

Thanks.

 

[ugameus]

I use a YBA-1A. It is a beast of an amp though. Heavy as hell.

 

[Stu Blue]

The JMT45 was the Marshall used for bass and guitar '63 to '67 and beyond. I often had trouble getting my JTM45/100 back from bass players in the '70s.
EDIT Dave Stewart's Tourists often borrowed my "little" JTM45 (30watt 2x12) for bass and sounded really good.....

 

[Heady Jam Fan]

I don't play a ton of bass, only for recording, but my understanding is 50w is not usually enough for a moderate to large gig.?. When I record Bass, I usually do it DI, but I recently sold a BF Bassman and I have a Mesa now. In my last recording, I ran the bass through my Mesa and thought it might have been some of my best Bass sounds yet. I thought the Bassman was only so-so.

 

[XmasTree]

my first amp was a 1x15 peavey bass amp
worked real well for me with a big muff

i imagine a lot of solid state bass amps would work okay. ...because they're solid state

 

[Thinline_slim]

I have yet to try it but I've always thought of using my THD Flexi-50 loaded up with 6550s for bass. Line out on the amp to get more volume in the PA too.

 

[blackba]

I don't play a ton of bass, only for recording, but my understanding is 50w is not usually enough for a moderate to large gig.?. When I record Bass, I usually do it DI, but I recently sold a BF Bassman and I have a Mesa now. In my last recording, I ran the bass through my Mesa and thought it might have been some of my best Bass sounds yet. I thought the Bassman was only so-so.

My Jazz bass sounds great through my mesa mark IVA into an Ampeg bass cab as well. I am was surprised. Its cool you have tried your bass through your mark III as well, I thought I was the only one crazy enough to do that. I also agree that I liked my mark IVA for bass better than my SF bassman.

I think the key is use a bass cab when you play bass and a guitar cab when you play guitar, there are a number of amps that will fit the bill. Look for a nice and beefy output transformer.

The '67 Silverface Bassman I had worked well for guitar and bass (I see that is on your list). I then tried a '69 Fender Bandmaster Reverb, which didn't work well for bass, the extra saturation of the small output transformer just made for too wooly of a sound with my Jazz bass.

I have other amps to try with bass, I just haven't gotten around to it. I am curious how my Marshall 2553 Silver Jubilee responds.

 

[Heady Jam Fan]

My Jazz bass sounds great through my mesa mark IVA into an Ampeg bass cab as well. I am was surprised. Its cool you have tried your bass through your mark III as well, I thought I was the only one crazy enough to do that. I also agree that I liked my mark IVA for bass better than my SF bassman.

I think the key is use a bass cab when you play bass and a guitar cab when you play guitar, there are a number of amps that will fit the bill. Look for a nice and beefy output transformer.

The '67 Silverface Bassman I had worked well for guitar and bass (I see that is on your list). I then tried a '69 Fender Bandmaster Reverb, which didn't work well for bass, the extra saturation of the small output transformer just made for too wooly of a sound with my Jazz bass.

I have other amps to try with bass, I just haven't gotten around to it. I am curious how my Marshall 2553 Silver Jubilee responds.

Yea, I didn't expect anything great with my Bass through my Mesa, but it worked out well. It does, after all, have the beefy OT necessary. The recording I did previous to that one, I DI'ed it and it felt lifeless, so I wanted to mix it up. I had it going through my Ross comp, Deja Vibe (by accident at first) and my El Cap, which gave me a cool prog-rock kinda thing. I was not using a bass cab though, it was just a combo loaded with an Eminence Red Fang.

I like the amount of compression on a Mark series Mesa, and I think that is really helpful with Bass. I was able to dig in and get cool, rhythmic dynamics whereas a bass that is not seeing enough compression just has too much range in amplitude and I feel like I am wasting concentration on dynamics and keeping notes at the right levels.

 

[FFTT]

50 watts will not give you alot of clean headroom or punch,
but it should do to add life to a companion DI track for recording.

Just for light jamming and rehearsal a Fender Blues Deluxe
will work, though you won't have much bottom, it will cut enough for rehearsal.

A vintage Hiwatt DR-103 or Reeves Custom 100

Ideal, Hiwatt DR-201 or Reeves Custom 225

Sunn 200S or 2000S

Vintage Bassman

Marshall Super Bass