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HeavenDuff
Metal freak

Joined: Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:35 pm
Posts: 5158
Location: Montréal
PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2018 5:10 pm 
 

Hi there folks!

I’m a beginner bassist and I’ve been meaning to buy myself a new amp to replace my old broken one.

I like to play doom metal (Sleep, Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard) and I wanted to start learning some death metal (Bolt Thrower) and I was wondering if fellow musicians had recommandations when it comes to good starting amps. I want to put somewhere between $250 and $400 on this.

Thanks in advance! Stay brutal!

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headbangersahoy2022
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2018 2:20 pm
Posts: 8
PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2018 5:59 am 
 

I've personally used and enjoyed these two a lot - Vox Pathfinder, Behringer Ultrabass

I've also heard good things about the ORange Crush Bass 50 and Render Rumble 500.

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Iron1
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 8:04 am
Posts: 236
Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2018 6:44 am 
 

I would recommend something used from either Peavey or Ampeg. Both make great budget friendly amps in your price range that you can dial in really well. If you want the Jo Bench (Bolt Thrower) tone - which is amazing BTW, she uses a power amp, a tube screamer pedal and EQ instead of a traditional amp.
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HeavenDuff
Metal freak

Joined: Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:35 pm
Posts: 5158
Location: Montréal
PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2018 8:51 pm 
 

headbangersahoy2022 wrote:
I've personally used and enjoyed these two a lot - Vox Pathfinder, Behringer Ultrabass

I've also heard good things about the ORange Crush Bass 50 and Render Rumble 500.


Thank you very much! Orange :) :) :)

Iron1 wrote:
I would recommend something used from either Peavey or Ampeg. Both make great budget friendly amps in your price range that you can dial in really well. If you want the Jo Bench (Bolt Thrower) tone - which is amazing BTW, she uses a power amp, a tube screamer pedal and EQ instead of a traditional amp.


I don't understand much of this. Power amp? EQ ? I'm going to need some specifics :P

As for the other amplifiers, thanks. I'll look them up!

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hakarl
Metel fraek

Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 1:41 pm
Posts: 8817
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2018 3:55 am 
 

Basically, you can think of your bass amp as being composed of two modules: the preamp and the poweramp. Preamp is what generates most of your overdrive and does the lion's share of shaping your tone in terms of how much bass, mids and treble there is. Preamp has the biggest effect on your tone. Poweramp is responsible for amplifying the sound enough to come out as a massive wave of sound out of your speakers. If you're running a valve poweramp, it can still colour your sounds, especially when you're playing quite loud and driving the valves hard. Most amps you see in a store have a preamp and a poweramp, but some manufacturers also sell them separately, so you can connect any preamp you want with any poweramp you want.

Apparently, what Jo Bench does is substitute the preamp for a couple of pedals (a Tube Screamer and an EQ) that generate gain and shape the tone. Both of those units do both. Then she runs that signal directly into a poweramp. That sounds like the kind of a stack a professional might use, because it's pretty simple and convenient, and if she can get it to sound great, then it's fantastic. Most people want to get a little bit more experience from various pieces of bass gear before taking that kind of a route, and most people will probably find a bass amp that they really like, and prefer using that. Most beginners will want a starting amp before doing something that specific, and a stack like that will probably be quite a bit more expensive than what's ideal for a beginner. It's good to know that such an option exists, though - great bass tone isn't always about getting the biggest and baddest amp.

Also, it's possible to emulate Bench style stack with any amp that has an effects loop. Run the preamp completely clean, ie. use just enough gain so it produces some volume, and then use whatever pedals you want in the effects loop. Same thing, essentially.
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