bass amps/cabs
 

so i'm a cornetist and hence know shit all about amplification. however i'm playing a stupid electric instrument and wish to set up some sort of rig.

basically what i need is something good enough for small punk shows, like an average club/small hall environment

what am i looking at for watts/ohms size and all that? i really don't know anything. i guess head+cab is better than combo?

any of these look good for my purposes(mostly cabs,mostly cheap crap)

http://calgary.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-s...AdIdZ259130183

http://calgary.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-s...AdIdZ263414891

http://calgary.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-s...AdIdZ257025387

http://calgary.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-s...AdIdZ262630769

David Eden stuff is waaaaaaay far from crap and from cheap too, the guy put in new speakers, would be a good idea to hear which model he used coz most well built cabs (like Eden D series stuff) work wonderfully with their custom speakers (I think now they use eminence ones for newer models?), but results may vary with replacements.
Not that it's the most important point, assuming you have to play punk stuff, because eden and SWR with original speakers tend to sound quite "hi-fi" to an extent.
Same goes for SWR (the nice ones like that son of bertha, at least) are not "cheap cabs". That's a 15" speaker, you may want to go for 10" to have faster-better attack/highs without necessarily having to use a tweeter..
The Marshall stuff weighs a lot to be carried around at shows (like 50kgs), and it usually sells for way less it's actually worth (meaning: prices are low, quality is mostly good, weight can be a pain in the ass). I heard low prices are coz people won't consider Marshall a "brand for bass stuff", but if you like the sound their cabs/amps are not bad at all.
Peavy usually has good volumes, and are cheap but still decent enough if actual "sound fidelity" isn't an issue.
To answer your question better, there are some more questions to be made:
how "loud" is the rest of the band? Is it drums+guitar+you(bass?)?
what instrument will you play through your rig?
Ever reharsed with those other guys yet?

http://calgary.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-s...AdIdZ263847200

uuuuuuuh this is nice but weighs a ton and a half, probably.

don't really have a band yet, know a guitarist but no drummer, but a 3 piece like that would be realistic.

i use a knock off j-bass with nylon strings, usually play with the lows turned-up and the highs down.the strings sound kind of thumpy and percussive. not looking for really bright sound but want some definition instead of just mud. some times i play stacatto-picked stuff like nirvanaesque and i do play reggae, which would require the ability to get at least a little muddiness

the marshall does seem huge, and i would need to hear the speakers on that eden for sure(maybe they sound ok)

my main concern is getting something powerful enough for average practices and shows, because i don't want to end up in the situation where i need to buy another cab a few months down the road

going to try see what kind of stuff i can play test at some of the local music stores

i was looking at that. i have a traynor practice amp that is really bad, plus the low price i thought maybe it wouldn't be very good.

for $200 i'd be pretty interested if it's good/works well

depending on the venues you think you will be playing, if they are small and the cab is not going to be mic'd you will need something that will give you enough to match the other guys in the band, however if you are playing in venues where the cab will be mic'd more often than not then something smaller with good tone would be ideal. the problem with getting bigger amps with small bands that are playing small venues is that guys go and buy massive cabs that are built for biger stages and if the sound guy knows what he is doing will ask them to turn them down. remember if you are playing in venues that will be full mic ups that the amp is basically for your monitoring and doesn't need to be super loud.

maybe have a look at the hartke stuff as well as the swr stuff. my advice is if you are going to be using it alot, then buy somethin good; if you buy something shitty you will end up replacing it quickly for something else and you would have spent the money that you would have if you bought something good to start with.

the sound guy who i know always mics the amps, then again he's quite good, i'm not sure what the other horrible soundguys in town do. i don't have any issue with keeping the volume low however, i'd probably prefer to keep it at a moderate volume but have the ability to go loud.

i'm talking with the guy selling the traynor linked by nicfit. if he's willing to plug it in and let me hear it for a few minutes i think i might go with it since it's only $200.

i think picking a head is going to be harder and more expensive though

Just a word of advice, hearing a cab without "your" head is generally not a good thing...
I mean, cabs can sound pretty different depending on the thing you drive them with, so what you like/dislike in a cab's sound can become something different with another head. the best scenario would be hear/try head+cab together.

Again, the traynor is 2x15", I think you'd be better off with a 2x12" or 4x10" for punky-ish stuff in the end, less muddy, but still able to go "low" (decent cabs, not crappy ones with 10"s that sound bad and tinlike).

You have no ideas on heads yet?
I do love SWR stuff (I use a 240w head with valve pre taken from a swr redhead combo from like 20 years ago), I used it with a number of cabs (a 2x12 Eden, a 4x12" Peavey beast, a 1x15" ampeg...) and always got nice sounds out of each cab.

I want a SWR Big Foot II cab now. :)

the main problem is that, as of now, you have 2 things to focus on:

1- HEAR what you play while you reharse with the band
2- think about your needs when playing live in clubs etc

if you have a practice space with no mics/PA wathevvvva you may need some decent power to stay on par with a PUNK drums sound and a loud guitar...

On the other hand, yes, if you're confident :D in sound guys/decent "equipment" in the venues you'll be likely playing, a smaller amp (or at least one with niiiice tone at lower volumes) is a good choice...but it's a hard choice if you have no experience with bandmates yet...

so If I were you I'd wait to hear how loud the rest of the band actually is, if you have the chance to borrow some equipment to take different approaches to the situation :D (say, a good combo, a decent head + cab, different "wattages", etc) , that would be a nice starting point to go on the infamous amp-search quest..

edit: not sure I'm making sense, I'm kinda multitasking with the brain between 7 different things in 3 different languages...

you make sense. somebody told me about really liking this cab

http://www.avatarspeakers.com/B410%20NEO.htm


any feelings on these hartke's
http://www.axemusic.com/product.asp?numRecordPosition=8&P_ID=4819&PT_ID=71

i've actually kind of written off that hartke based on reviews.

going to spend some time at second hand music stores this week see if i can make some decisions

for the time being i am thinking an avatar 4x10 seems awesome,someone told me they play it with a carvin bx1200 head


i don't really want much high end or brightness. the only things i really need are to be able to play percussive/staccato notes with reasonable definition. and hopefully get some thickness for fingerpicked at the neck/fat dub notes. i guess my favorite bassline would be(in crap quality) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15rONZELG3A

One thing to keep in mind:
I live in a country where there are no pawn shops, and the used market is a strange beast...anything "old" by sunno and ampeg etc cost A LOT of money usually...so, regarding actual used gear prices or bang for bucks value it's better to get advices from people in your area (or country :D), to get a better idea of the actual market value etc. , perhaps lots of stuff I could write off because of the high prices I'm used to could be found way cheaper.

I heard only good things about avatar cabs, but I never got a chance to try one. I shiver in fear thinking about shipping costs :D :D !

500 watts, 37 lbs
enough said hopefully:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MB212/