Amp advice needed - I'm completely lost

[Guest MoJo]

I play in a pub covers band with two loud guitarists with no PA support so I need an amp that will drive my Schroeder 21015 (1000W RMS & 4ohm), allow me to be heard and will give me plenty of clean headroom. Recent amps that I've owned and played through the Schroeder are Ashdown Spyder 550 which I really liked but had to be pushed hard, a Fender TB600 which I couldn't really warm to, a Gallien Krueger MB800 which was as loud as hell but (and this is where the OCD kicks in) I didn't like the plastic 'toy' look of it and more recently an Orange Terror Bass 500 which again was as loud as anyone would want to go in a pub but I hated it's pop-up toaster looks.

I have since bought a Peavey Tour 700, 700 watts into 4 ohms, plenty you'd think. I gigged with it last night, graphic pretty much flat except for a dip around 250hZ to remove some of the 'honkiness'. I had the Pre Gain wide open and the Post Gain set between 12 and 1 'o' clock. The rig was loud enough to be heard but the 'Protect / Clip DDT' light was flashing all night. I was expecting, because of it's specs and Peavey's reputation that I'd be running the Gain controls at about a third (10 'o' clock) but the truth is, the amp couldn't have gone any louder had I needed it.

Could anyone suggest an amp that will fulfil my requirements because I'm a) fed up of wasting money and fed up of being ridiculed every time a new amp turns up.

[hubrad]

Trace Elliot. Especially the older English-made ones. I have a 250W one which does more than I need; from your description I'd look for the 500.. those Essex Watts were just bigger than most!
Preamp gain setting depends on your bass output. Some combinations of pickups, wood and player are louder than others.

[Lozz196]

If you`re looking for clean headroom Mark, I think from experience either GK MB Fusion (less plasticy looking than the regular MB imo, due to the colour) or Markbass. I`d add Genz Shuttle or EBS based on reading other user opinions.

Having used the GK MB Fusion 500 with a Schro, it is amazingly loud and depending on where you set the gain, incredibly clean as well - the 800 would really be clean/loud. Not used a Markbass amp with a Schro but a Little Mark Tube 800 would give bags of clean-ness, and the added option for a bit of fur.

That said, what inspired me for my choice of amp? It was that whenever I heard a bassist in a bands tone that I liked, it invariably was a Markbass amp. So maybe look at whatever rigs you`ve heard that you find you always like.

[Guest MoJo]

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1388315405' post='2320604']
That said, what inspired me for my choice of amp? It was that whenever I heard a bassist in a bands tone that I liked, it invariably was a Markbass amp. So maybe look at whatever rigs you`ve heard that you find you always like.
[/quote]

Hearing Gary's (grunge666) Terror Bass inspired me to buy mine, I thought I could get my head around it's toaster looks but I couldn't. Strangely I heard a guy demo'ing basses through a Shuttle 9.2 in TR Music in Walsall yesterday and was impressed by how honest it sounded, how every bass's different character shone through. It was only at shop demo level though, No idea what it'd be like at gig volume

[0175westwood29]

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1388315405' post='2320604']
If you`re looking for clean headroom Mark, I think from experience either GK MB Fusion (less plasticy looking than the regular MB imo, due to the colour) or Markbass. I`d add Genz Shuttle or EBS based on reading other user opinions.

Having used the GK MB Fusion 500 with a Schro, it is amazingly loud and depending on where you set the gain, incredibly clean as well - the 800 would really be clean/loud. Not used a Markbass amp with a Schro but a Little Mark Tube 800 would give bags of clean-ness, and the added option for a bit of fur.

That said, what inspired me for my choice of amp? It was that whenever I heard a bassist in a bands tone that I liked, it invariably was a Markbass amp. So maybe look at whatever rigs you`ve heard that you find you always like.
[/quote]

if i didnt have my orange or the valve version id probs have some form of markbass the sd1200(way more than what id ever need) is an awesome amp and used to have the little mark tube 500 and it was loud as you would ever need it.

Edited December 29, 2013 by 0175westwood29

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Aguilar . Not too big, but great valvey type sound. They look cool as he'll too ! Btw; are your rehearsals/gigs too loud for practice/punters? Just a thought:)

[Japhet]

Can only speak from experience but I'd go for a Genz Streamliner. You can drive the valve preamp for grunge if you want and have bags of headroom with a 900. I use a 600 through a very efficient 2x12 cab and to be honest, if you need more volume that that you're ridiculously loud for a pub band and you might as well leave the drummer at home.

[ezbass]

Schroeder and Mark Bass are are a very popular combination, I had an LMll with my 1212L and that was clean all the way up to max; a fairly transparent, yet warm tone, at least to my ears.

[Guest MoJo]

[quote name='RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE' timestamp='1388316324' post='2320616']
Aguilar . Not too big, but great valvey type sound. They look cool as he'll too ! Btw; are your rehearsals/gigs too loud for practice/punters? Just a thought:)
[/quote]

On occasion, they have been. Our engineer did comment that the bass was a little too loud in the second set. I'm just amazed that I'm having to drive the Peavey so hard to get the same volume level as the Terror Bass at 10 o clock on the gain and the master

[franzbassist]

I'd have thought Aguilar Tonehammer 500 or GB Streamliner 900 would do the job.

[Phil Starr]

First of all don't worry about where the controls are set, Different amps have different levels of gain which have little to do with overall volume. Read this isf you haven't already [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/3730-gain-power-and-volume-a-confusing-menage-a-trois/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/3730-gain-power-and-volume-a-confusing-menage-a-trois/[/url]

If the bass was too loud then it is loud enough. It isn't extra watts you need.

I'm concerned that the clipping light is flashing though i do know some amps are set with the light more sensitive than others so check the manual. I don't know the Peavey amp so I'm not clear what the light signifies. One explanation may be that you are using a lot of bass boost. This won't make the amp louder as we judge this mainly by the level of the mids which our ears are much more sensitive to. The deep bass is what eats the power though and just a touch (3dB) of bass boost will demand twice the power from the amp. Bass boost to 3 O'Clock and you might be asking the amp to give 4x the power. This might be a problem.

I'd live with the Peavey before you rush out to change everything. Can you get the tone you want? Have you asked your engineer if the bass was just too loud or was it too bass heavy. It's all but impossible for you to judge your tone from the stage area, you need to be out where the audience are.

[molan]

I've tried a Tone Hammer 500 and a Little Mark III through a similar Schroeder and both sounded good and were pretty loud.

The TH is naturally a little warmer (but you can do a reasonable emulation with the MB VLE filter).

The yellow might put you off on some of the MB heads but you can created some really nice setups with the modular systems they offer. The 800 adds a fair bit of power over the 500 or, as mentioned above, the 1200 is something of a beast

Maybe a bit of an 'off the wall' thought but the Carvin B2000 is a cracking, very clean, muscular power head and it looks the business in black with chromed controls. It's kicking out around 1300w at 4 ohms so you'll need to be careful wig the master volume but it's a steal at £625 in terms of power to cost ratio. The 1500w head is good as well. It doesn't have the simple clean headroom of the 2000 but has a lot of onboard tone shaping, switchable graphic etc. plus it's even cheaper

[Guest]

I gigged my TH500 for the first time last night.with two DB112 cabs (vertical) and very little if any in the PA
Wedding gig, fairly long and wide room which was kind of split into two parts, dance at the front and the bar in the back, maybe 60ft long in total. 150 guests give or take.
The amp was set basically flat, drive at zero, gain at 11 oclock with a slight boost in the treble and passive jazz Bass with Chromes, volume on the amp..... 11oclock......and we have a stupid loud drummer.
Revelation sums it up really.
I've gone through a fair list of gear in the last 2 years so with the reputation the schroeder has for mids I'd say the TH500 would be well worth a place on your shortlist.

[tauzero]

I'll throw the EA iAmp800 and Tecamp Puma 900 in as further suggestions, just to muddy the waters a bit. Saying that, I used to use a Superfly 500 into a Tech Soundsystems 4x10 (so it was actually just 250 as I only used one power amp) versus three guitarists and a noisy dummer and it kept up, though I replaced it with a Superduperfly 1000 (hence 500) because it used to get disconcertingly warm.