Gigantic Tube Amps for Bass

Make it loud here.
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46346
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Re: Gigantic Tube Amps for Bass

Post by 46346 » Fri Jan 04, 2019 12:49 am

P.S. it sounds like you're able to get a happy sound from a variety of amps. so just go forward and enjoy! you can always get a decent return on a used amp purchase if you bother to maintain it and keep it running. or if it's not what you had hoped from the start, just sell it before it breaks down and becomes a burden. if it breaks, get it fixed and decide if it's a keeper or not. somehow, playing and restoring old amps and guitars, i think i did better than playing the stock market! though i don't look at it as an investment - i'm just eschewing experimentation at retail prices.

i can understand the appeal of playing through dual amps. i do this a lot on guitar. i think it's great you are exploring that on bass.
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Drewbertca
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Re: Gigantic Tube Amps for Bass

Post by Drewbertca » Sun Jan 13, 2019 11:28 am

rumfoord wrote:
Tue Jan 01, 2019 7:50 am
Great suggestions everyone, thank you! (and Happy New Year!!!)

It's so hard for me to imagine a Bassbreaker 45 being loud enough! But that's awesome. My current cab is sooo inefficient. That's probably mostly why I can't picture it.
The Hempdog and EVM15B are both approx. 102dB 1W @ 1M. I have them in series so the simple calculation puts the cab at 105dB 1W @ 1m. So it's almost like playing a 100W head through an Ampeg 8x10 (100dB 1W @ 1m). It can be loud....

I can confirm the analogy. I used my Bassbreaker 45 with an ampeg 8x10 and I had to turn up from normal gig level a little bit to cut through, but I like the tone of my butchered old Traynor Cab better and it's louder with my amp.....

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Re: Gigantic Tube Amps for Bass

Post by mezcalhead » Sun Jan 13, 2019 12:56 pm

I often see bass players with a solid state head and a valve pre-amp, so there's that option I guess.
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Re: Gigantic Tube Amps for Bass

Post by Steadyriot. » Tue Jan 15, 2019 4:24 am

I like your love for all things Peavey!
I'd tell you to look for a Peavey Mace, which would be my choice for a tube amp with enough oompf for bass (six 6l6's!) at an affordible price but you already have a MX so that would make the Mace a bit redundant.
I'd look for a Fender PS400 or more modern a Super Bassman if you're after a lot of tube power.

Other fun things to look at would be a Vox AC50 or AC100 (or other (SS) old Vox amp's that are quirky and cool), old Plexi / Superbass copies (London City, Marquis etc.) and Hiwatt copies (Sound City, Floyd).
An Orange could also bring some of that crunch!

Really curious what you'll think about that Peavey Penta, they're pretty rare and have always intrigued me (that offset chassis is so cool).

[edit] I forgot to say adding something Sunn in the mix would also be a lot of fuzzy fun!
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Re: Gigantic Tube Amps for Bass

Post by budda12ax7 » Sat Jan 19, 2019 12:37 pm

Peavy mark series bass amps.

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Re: Gigantic Tube Amps for Bass

Post by cestlamort » Sat Jan 19, 2019 7:46 pm

budda12ax7 wrote:
Sat Jan 19, 2019 12:37 pm
Peavy mark series bass amps.
Seconded. Cheap, sound good, will run forever.

That said we upgraded to an Aguilar th500 (for a tour) and it sounds fantastic. And the size and weight of a cookbook, rather than the oven itself.

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