View unanswered posts | View active topics It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 6:06 am



Reply to topic  [ 23 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next
Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep? 
Author Message
Simethicone
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2010 3:00 pm
Posts: 11625
Location: McMurdo Research Station
Yes/No: Yes
Less/More: More
Post Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
:krampus:

I need a bass head in some form. It needs to be cheap. And functional. And not sound like hammered asshole. Recommendations? If I'm patient- and I'll have to be before I have spending money again anyhow- I could find a cheaper used Ampeg or GK (I prefer Ampeg for heads. I'm partial to the sound. Even SS power Ampegs.) for like $200 on the 'bay. Worth bothering? Would an old Peavey suck less? I don't want shiny-clean; I like some grit in my bass, thanks.

This is for my heavyrawk bassing. We play at reasonable volumes (ie. as loud as the drummer... Though I'm pretty certain the drummer's biceps are bigger than my thighs. Dude is burly). A little extra oomph for gigging would be nice though; I'm always louder live, on any instrument. Full PA doesn't matter, it's the arrangement onstage.

I am not opposed to guitar gear. I have a Sansamp Bass Driver as a preamp into something if need be.

_________________
Member Of The Radium Water Gentleman's League Of Luxury.


Wed Sep 05, 2012 7:42 pm
Profile
Winston Wolf
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jun 16, 2010 7:32 pm
Posts: 11362
Location: ruining everything.
Yes/No: No
Less/More: More
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
I have a certain strong affinity for the old Peavey shit. It doesn't necessarily sound he most amazing. But it is: Cheap, Ubiquitous, Reliable.

In general, with bass maps though, i am very unpicky. 100w or more SS, clean sound or whatever. I will likely use an OD on it anyhow. If anything, i probably find a loud clean more useful in a bassmap than one that has any predirt to it.

My own (small sample size, like three amps) personal experience with the Ampeg stuff is that they sound good enough, but then they fry something at some point. I have fixed a couple of them, and in the case of the combos, they seem maybe to under-spec the speakers?

My current "bass amp" is i think a Peavey keyboard/pa combo thing that i inherited for frees from an old singer. The amount of abuse that the thing has received, as a quick/dirty vocal PA and as a bass amp, is practically comical, and yet, it still battles on. The thing blew its tweeter years ago, so we just removed it from the thing and left a hole, the 15" and the rest of it is still going strong. Heavy as balls though, all particle board and industrial 80s Peavey ugliness weighing it down.

Really, the biggest thing for me, is just how cheap the older Peavey stuff tends to go for in the used market. Everyone has some of it in their basements, and few seem to value the stuff very much at all, perhaps as a result. :idk:

_________________
STOP FIXING ROCK RECORDS.

START YOUR OWN RELIGION TODAY.


Wed Sep 05, 2012 7:58 pm
Profile
Simethicone
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2010 3:00 pm
Posts: 11625
Location: McMurdo Research Station
Yes/No: Yes
Less/More: More
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
The Peavey stuff does have that going for it. It's generally stupid cheap, and it all seems to work despite its age and disrepair.

I've considered finding some sort of powermap and just running the Sansmap as a pre with whatever else feeding it for additional filth (OCD, which is nice on bass as it doesn't cut low end; HM-2 perhaps for fuzz) and my Eventide for chorus and delay (á la The Cure, Isis, Tool, etc.).

I've actually been running the Sansmap into a 100w Marshall guitar head (not mine, obviously) for rehearsal as of late and I have become spoil'd by its inherent compressed squishiness as a bass head. Even if it does need something on the front end to make it not so midrangey-obvious (the Sansmap doing some really impressive work in that regard; I wish I had clips.)

I actually haven't minded using old Peavey bassmaps in the past. When I was doing the thrash cover thing a few years back I was jamming through one for a while at rehearsals as Garda's bassist was using my bass rig and it was too much of a pain in the junk to move it back and forth most of the time. I remember being able to coax a decent sounding light overdrive out of the preamp, too, which surprised me.

Cab isn't an issue, for whatever that's worth.

_________________
Member Of The Radium Water Gentleman's League Of Luxury.


Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:22 pm
Profile
Winston Wolf
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jun 16, 2010 7:32 pm
Posts: 11362
Location: ruining everything.
Yes/No: No
Less/More: More
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
And really, bass through 100w Marshalls has worked swimmingly for Lemmy for the last thousand years or so. :huzzah:

_________________
STOP FIXING ROCK RECORDS.

START YOUR OWN RELIGION TODAY.


Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:29 pm
Profile
Simethicone
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2010 3:00 pm
Posts: 11625
Location: McMurdo Research Station
Yes/No: Yes
Less/More: More
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
chris_d wrote:
And really, bass through 100w Marshalls has worked swimmingly for Lemmy for the last thousand years or so. :huzzah:


It does have that going for it. Alas my financial situation is such even a 900 would be out of my reach at the moment; I have no desire to hock more gear than is absolutely necessary, even if it is to buy other gear.

Said amp was a JVM, on channel 1/orange IIRC. Alas I have word its owner just... Sold it to pay the bills. Irony strikes again. Again, though, needed something on the front end to get the voicing right + have an acceptable amount/flavor of low end for my needs. Got a little farty sounding on its own for the low C#/B stuff, but really, it was fine with the whole band going. I don't suppose there's a tube guitar head kicking around for jackshit I should be aware of though, unless I find a ridiculous deal on something. (Yes, I saw the modded Silverface Bassman 100 on the 'bay, but it's a reserve auction and there are no gutshots. Also, I am too broke to take a chance on something like that.)

One thing that has caught my eye as far as probably-actually-nice gear are the little class D 350w Ampeg heads. I'm seeing them in the $250 range used, which is starting to sound too much like money and necessitates waiting longer or selling gear.

In the meantime, I should probably keep an eye out for used Peavey stuff. I suppose if I found a combo for super-cheap I could have one of my friends build a headshell from scrap wood...

_________________
Member Of The Radium Water Gentleman's League Of Luxury.


Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:52 pm
Profile
Winston Wolf
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jun 16, 2010 7:32 pm
Posts: 11362
Location: ruining everything.
Yes/No: No
Less/More: More
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
Yarr, those Peavey 100/200/300 SS heads are fucking EVERYWHERE too. If you have pawnshops, salvation armys, random used gearstores around, i really tend to think that you could just walk in almost anywhere and find a hundred or more watts of Peavey thunder for less than $200. :lol:

I even suspect that my Transtube 100w on the clean channel, might make a better bass amp than a guitar one. Not that this is saying all that much. :red:

I really like the concept of the class D amps that are popping up everywhere, but they are still just slightly too pricey for me at this point. I feel like they could come down a bit.

As i am thinking about this, i am looking at what i believe to be a class D Alpine automotive amplifier that someone gave me when they totaled their car. It is not a good automotive amp, but it is rated for 160w, and the the thought occurs to me that it might be amusing to bring a car battery to a gig to power one's head. I wonder how long it would go before it erupted into flame.

_________________
STOP FIXING ROCK RECORDS.

START YOUR OWN RELIGION TODAY.


Wed Sep 05, 2012 9:16 pm
Profile
Simethicone
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2010 3:00 pm
Posts: 11625
Location: McMurdo Research Station
Yes/No: Yes
Less/More: More
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
I was actually wondering about that re: your guitarhead, just out of curiosity. The output transformer/feel thing had me wondering, and as I said, bass + tubes has spoiled me. The feel and response is just as different- and, to my taste, superior- for bass as it is guitar. And I wouldn't hate having something to play electric through at home (seeing as my Pod XT is on long-term loan and my interface doesn't like having the settings dicked with that would bring softmap latency down to a not-annoying-the-shit-out-of-me level).

I haven't seen gear pop up at a thrift store around here- and my housemate and a friend of ours and I go thrifting on a regular basis to look for random weirdshit. There is a pawn shop next to the gas station at the one end of my street, though, and loads of random cheapshit at the guitar store near my house. (The guitarist I bass for is actually producing/engineering/drumming on an old-school DM album for one of the dudes who works there; I may be assisting on this. I'm in there often enough and talk gear; I'll ask them what they have laying around.)

The one problem with buying gear in Buffalo, though, is that almost no one has "good" gear- not that I'm looking for "good" here, really- and usually wants far more than it's worth. Even the Rochester craigslist beats ours handily. :facepalm:

Re: the class D stuff, I've liked the ones I've played, and I did own/gig/record with the Markbass head for a while. Too clean for my taste, though that's probably just the preamp section. The feel is superior to the normal SS stuff. I wound up on bass for a while at the Garda rehearsal (more of a writing session) last night and played through my bassist's GK 700RB and was not at all digging it compared to what I'm used to. Especially as he's running straight in these days and took the DBX comp out of his rack. Too clean and stiff; no give at all. I think I'd actually prefer an old Peavey.

The little Ampegs are more than I want to spend at the moment, and I have not played through one, but I suspect them of being the sort of "nice" gear I'd quite enjoy having and want to hang on to.

I like the automotive amp idea. I really do. I don't know if it would be better in some bizarre cobbled-together headshell (with car battery) or just as a pile of randomshit sitting atop/alongside the cab. Either way, I would enjoy seeing that onstage. Doubly so if it didn't even sound that bad. :lol:

_________________
Member Of The Radium Water Gentleman's League Of Luxury.


Wed Sep 05, 2012 9:43 pm
Profile
Winston Wolf
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2010 11:10 am
Posts: 7283
Location: in the valley of the shadow of death
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
Crate power block.

$125 used 150 watts, small, uber tough and can be used as a backup to yer guitar map. There one on HC now but they are always available. I had one for a short time, I wish I still had it.

_________________
Member of the Radium Water Gentlemen's League Of Luxury


Thu Sep 06, 2012 9:39 am
Profile
Best Supporting Actress
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jul 08, 2010 6:13 pm
Posts: 6423
Location: Trendyhipstertonville
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
Well I'll go ahead and gloss over the ol' Peavey recommendation, and if you are having trouble finding one I might be able to locate one down here cheap enough to justify the shipping.

I have also heard good things (very limited personal experience) about Ashdown's bass offerings, and since it isn't the most recognizable brand name in the world they can usually be found used on the cheaps. I think tor might use a chopped Ashdown combo for a head IIRC.

You might chuckle, but I have heard pretty decent things about Bugera's offerings, and they can be had new for cheap and used for stupid cheap. Fuck, if you can find a demo model you could probably snag it for peanuts from the right shop.

If you can find the old school Kustom (and maybe even one of their more recent additions, haven't kept up with them) amp, especially with the sweet plushy vinyl coverings, they are actually pretty sweet bass maps.

_________________
Dinosaurier live vor langer Zeit
Sie waren schrecklichen Echsen weißt du nicht,
Einige aßen Pflanzen und einigen Fleisch gegessen
Einige aßen Fisch und einige aßen Tiere


Thu Sep 06, 2012 11:00 am
Profile WWW
Winston Wolf
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2010 11:10 am
Posts: 7283
Location: in the valley of the shadow of death
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
Yeah I had an Ashdown, I liked it.

Also Dug Pinnick used Bugera for the XV album. True Story

_________________
Member of the Radium Water Gentlemen's League Of Luxury


Thu Sep 06, 2012 9:47 pm
Profile
Simethicone
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2010 3:00 pm
Posts: 11625
Location: McMurdo Research Station
Yes/No: Yes
Less/More: More
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
This looks like a good deal: http://buffalo.craigslist.org/msg/3266039324.html

These are actually supposed to be pretty good, from what I gather.

EDIT: never mind that... I failed to note the location. The distance is impractical for a broke bastard without a car; it's in the middle of the woods at least an hour south of here.

_________________
Member Of The Radium Water Gentleman's League Of Luxury.


Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:43 pm
Profile
Best Supporting Actress
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jul 08, 2010 6:13 pm
Posts: 6423
Location: Trendyhipstertonville
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
Wow I haven't seen one of those in a while. They are actually pretty fucking decent, and not exactly uncommon you just don't find them for sale as often anymore. I think word got out they were solid on the cheaps and people snagged up a lot of the used ones.

If you can manage to convince a friend to give you a ride out to check it out I would suggest it, though a lack of transportation does make shit like that difficult and expensive.

_________________
Dinosaurier live vor langer Zeit
Sie waren schrecklichen Echsen weißt du nicht,
Einige aßen Pflanzen und einigen Fleisch gegessen
Einige aßen Fisch und einige aßen Tiere


Wed Sep 12, 2012 5:29 pm
Profile WWW
Simethicone
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2010 3:00 pm
Posts: 11625
Location: McMurdo Research Station
Yes/No: Yes
Less/More: More
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
I'll ask the guitarist I work on the heavy stuff with. He might be up for it as I'm his bassist in perpetuity it seems so it's in his interest I have a good rig. Also, he's a gearhead and it'll give him something to do that's music-related so he can take his mind off everything else, poor bastard.

It seems you can even get them to break up driving the preamp (something I've noticed with Peavey bass gear in general) which is in my interest. There's some debate as to the quality of the dirt, but I am not looking for refined and heart pedals anyhow. The guitar store near my house has an old Peavey Mark-something-or-other 300w head for $200 (I'm sure I could give the guy a buck seventy-five in cash and walk out the door with it) but this is newer, cheaper, moar wattage and quite possibly (likely?) superior. Looks like these have a really good rep for what they are. Also, beats paying shipping. :red:

_________________
Member Of The Radium Water Gentleman's League Of Luxury.


Wed Sep 12, 2012 7:34 pm
Profile
Best Supporting Actress
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jul 08, 2010 6:13 pm
Posts: 6423
Location: Trendyhipstertonville
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
Snaxocaster wrote:
I'll ask the guitarist I work on the heavy stuff with. He might be up for it as I'm his bassist in perpetuity it seems so it's in his interest I have a good rig. Also, he's a gearhead and it'll give him something to do that's music-related so he can take his mind off everything else, poor bastard.

It seems you can even get them to break up driving the preamp (something I've noticed with Peavey bass gear in general) which is in my interest. There's some debate as to the quality of the dirt, but I am not looking for refined and heart pedals anyhow. The guitar store near my house has an old Peavey Mark-something-or-other 300w head for $200 (I'm sure I could give the guy a buck seventy-five in cash and walk out the door with it) but this is newer, cheaper, moar wattage and quite possibly (likely?) superior. Looks like these have a really good rep for what they are. Also, beats paying shipping. :red:



Those Mark-somethings are pretty fucking decent. I think they came in 200w and 300w.

ACTUALLY, I don't think there is a huge huge difference between a lot of the Peavey bass maps from that era. Basically they were built to be loud and take a lot of abuse, and by some stroke of luck they managed to make them all sound good. I do remember them being able to get a bit dirty, but I don't think it was the prettiest of dirt. And not like, so ugly it's cute, but more more just straight ugly. But they are super fucking loud, so a proper pedal in front of them would be pretty awesome.

DOUBLE ACTUALLY, if memory serves (and I think it was a Mark-bass-thing model) you can get a really flat sound from them. You could probably take one of those nice bass-amp-modeling/dirt pedals and cop a solid tone with that. That is, if you don't like a lot of the stock flavors. But, they are really solid bass amps, and they can take a stupid beating. AND it isn't going to lose any value at this point. Those amps have been going for the same price for the last three years, and a bit more than they were five years ago.

_________________
Dinosaurier live vor langer Zeit
Sie waren schrecklichen Echsen weißt du nicht,
Einige aßen Pflanzen und einigen Fleisch gegessen
Einige aßen Fisch und einige aßen Tiere


Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:58 pm
Profile WWW
The Cream Of The Crop
User avatar

Joined: Sat Jul 03, 2010 6:09 pm
Posts: 2119
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
Old Peavey for sure.

My Stereo Chorus could withstand Nuclear Holocaust without even being scratched.


It does weigh about 130lbs though... fucking thing is a beast.


And yes, they sound good. My rawk band bassist played through a TKO 75 for a while, kept up with the drums okay and sounded awesome maxed out.


Sat Sep 22, 2012 12:01 am
Profile
Simethicone
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2010 3:00 pm
Posts: 11625
Location: McMurdo Research Station
Yes/No: Yes
Less/More: More
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
The guy re-posted the Firebass for a whopping hundred bucks. It never sold. I mentioned this to my friend I Bass For Sometimes.

There was a guy last week selling a solid-state SVT head (full-sized head, non-rack) for two hundred near where Garda rehearses. That was undoubtedly gone before I saw the ad.

I really shouldn't be looking at any gear at all if I'm responsible, what with the No Real Job and all, but that's so cheap I could flip it if I hated it.

_________________
Member Of The Radium Water Gentleman's League Of Luxury.


Wed Dec 05, 2012 6:16 am
Profile
Henry Kissinger
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2010 7:00 am
Posts: 1105
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
$100 for a firebass? I'd have two at that price! I know a dude who has the firebass 700 and matching cabs and it sounds glorious. Such dominating tone.


Wed Dec 05, 2012 11:28 am
Profile
Simethicone
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2010 3:00 pm
Posts: 11625
Location: McMurdo Research Station
Yes/No: Yes
Less/More: More
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
Yeah, Firebass 700, whiteface. What sorta tones is he getting out of it? I'm assuming a gritty, overdriven thing? Any pedals involved?

_________________
Member Of The Radium Water Gentleman's League Of Luxury.


Wed Dec 05, 2012 8:18 pm
Profile
Best Supporting Actress
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jul 08, 2010 6:13 pm
Posts: 6423
Location: Trendyhipstertonville
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
Yo that is a solid ass gigging bass head for super cheap.

_________________
Dinosaurier live vor langer Zeit
Sie waren schrecklichen Echsen weißt du nicht,
Einige aßen Pflanzen und einigen Fleisch gegessen
Einige aßen Fisch und einige aßen Tiere


Wed Dec 05, 2012 10:36 pm
Profile WWW
Pendulous
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jun 16, 2010 1:17 pm
Posts: 7984
Location: Fung lung chung
Post Re: Ye Olde Bass Mappe-On-The-Cheep?
Yeah our bass player in Vesication runs a Firebass. Solid bass map right there.

_________________
Member of the Radium Water Gentlemen's League Of Luxury.

http://nachtmuse.bandcamp.com/
http://vesication.bandcamp.com/
https://divideconquer.bandcamp.com/
(I also play in a band called Human Compost but our bandcamp is banned)


Thu Dec 06, 2012 2:04 am
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Reply to topic   [ 23 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group.
Designed by STSoftware.