What's the best practice amp for my requirements?

[highwayman]

Well I now have a gorgeous Stingray bass and have had my second lesson, now I need a practice amp.

I have been considering the Roland Micro Cube RX as I'd previously found the guitar ones to be very good; perhaps I might seek your advice please?

I certainly don't need anything loud (ideally something that will sound good turned low in fact, as my apartment block isn't the most soundproof!), what I'm after is great tone - think mid to late 80's Killing Joke as my perfect sound.

My hesitation regarding the aforementioned Roland is that I would happily forego its plethora of features for a killer sound.

Thoughts/suggestions please?

[Phil Starr]

It would probably be better to tell us what your priorities are in a practice amp. If it is 'killer tone' then a practice amp probably isn't the way to go. All amps can be turned down low and the reasons most of us go for them is cost, simplicity and lack of space. I doubt many of us use a practice amp for practice. Many will ether use headphones or some version of something big enough to at least handle a rehearsal.

The Roland is going to set you back £190 so it isn't cheap and you could get something fairly good on the used market for that. I'm a fan of Roland's design and quality however. If a battery powered amp is what you want there aren't a lot of options. I doubt you are going to do justice to your Stingray with it though.

For headphone practice you can't do much better than the Zoom B1ON which includes a tuner, metronome, drum machine and effects along with a good sounding headphone amp and the ability to mix in from an mp3 player. It runs on batteries too, all for about £45

For compact practice with a nice meaty sound there are a bunch of small combo's to choose from. I use a Hartke Kickback which I picked up barely used for £125. They are a bit bigger than a practice amp but sound great even at low volumes. Plenty of other small combo's to choose from but i haven't tried them.

Edited March 23, 2016 by Phil Starr

[Bigwan]

I'll roll out my old fav again - find a used Line6 Studio 110. A 12" cube with 10" speaker, 75 watts, 4 amp models (plus a synth and a secret hidden amp model), aux in, headphone socket and DI out for recording or, gasp, gigging through PA. Absolutely adored the one I had and would buy another tomorrow. About £100ish used, but seem to be universally loved (never heard anybody say they didn't like them to be honest, unlike some of the bigger Line6 amps) so don't seem to come up for sale that often.

As Phil says, the Zoom B1ON would take some beating, but count on buying decent headphones. The PJB ones are excellent.

Edited March 23, 2016 by Bigwan

[mcnach]

Those Kickback amps are pretty good.
The Roland is ok, but it's not very loud at all. It sounds like that is not an issue for you and the ability to run on batteries may be cool, although I feel for that price you can get something better... yet a bit heavier.
Sometimes there are surprises, like Behringer's BXL45A. I doubt it's in production anymore but they may have something similar. I bought one back in 2007 for around £100. It's a 'kickback' design as well, with aux input so you can plug in your mp3 player/laptop etc... I just wanted a cheap small amp at the time. It is surprisingly good! Over the years I've had a bunch of better amps, some small too, but I kept using the Behringer at home. It just sounds like a bass, whilst many practice amps just sound boxy. It gets used every day, pretty much. Moral of the story: don't ignore brands that may not look great, just try as many amps as you can and see. I'd go second hand if I were you, so you can get a pretty good amp with £200.

As for headphones... if you want that, many practice amps offer that option, but many don't sound great. If headphones is something you want, then an amp with "amp simulation" and effects etc would be your best bet, like Line6 or the Roland you talked about. Headphones themselves are very important too, of course. I had the PJB ones and sounded alright. Good but not amazing. I hated their fit on my head 'though... way too loose. Mine malfunctioned after 2 years or so... I thought it was the cable and Phil Jones sent me a cable free of charge,, awesome! ONly it wasn't the cable. I was careful with them but... oh well, I have a pair of Audio Technica M50-X that are a bit more expensive but much better sounding and fitting, in my opinion.

[highwayman]

Thanks for the replies, excellent all of them. I've been impressed by the Markbass range and am looking at purchasing the Minimark 801 (best price £299 delivered?) - it's modestly loud but I suspect a decent keeper even after I progress to more power.

[mcnach]

[quote name='highwayman' timestamp='1458770155' post='3010820']
Thanks for the replies, excellent all of them. I've been impressed by the Markbass range and am looking at purchasing the Minimark 801 (best price £299 delivered?) - it's modestly loud but I suspect a decent keeper even after I progress to more power.
[/quote]

That's actually a very nice amp, good choice!

[gjones]

I would recommend a Fender Rumble 100 V3. They are as small as an average practice amp, insanely light (you can pick them up with a finger), and loud. I've played a gig through one and it dealt fine with the volume of a moderately loud drummer.

Having never played through a Markbass 801, I can't comment.

[SubsonicSimpleton]

Yamaha THR-10 and PJB double 4 might be worth investigating if you want an amp specifically for low volume use.

[JapanAxe]

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1458843826' post='3011528']
I would recommend a Fender Rumble 100 V3. They are as small as an average practice amp, insanely light (you can pick them up with a finger), and loud. I've played a gig through one and it dealt fine with the volume of a moderately loud drummer.
[/quote]

Doubles as a practice amp and a gigging amp then.

[gjones]

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1458846804' post='3011574']
Doubles as a practice amp and a gigging amp then.
[/quote]

Yup

[Grangur]

If you like the Mark Bass, then you could go for a Little Mark III and cab and have the versatility of being able to change the cab. I use a Barefaced One10 with mine for practice and its loud enough for gigging too.

[Dan Dare]

Agree with Bigwan re. the Line 6 110. It also has a nice preamp, so you can use it on gigs with an add on power amp and cab(s).

[JapanAxe]

If you only want a practice amp, the smaller Fender V3 Rumbles are cheap as chips - typically £188 (40W) and £110 (15W). Shouldn't be a problem to find one to try at your local Fender dealer.

[Wonky2]

If your budget will afford it, without question, the markbass 121 combo. Small, light, unbelievable tone scape and will serve you well fir small gigs too. If you ever need mire sound the additional 121 ext cab will give you 500w of everything you will ever need.

These amps use the little mark 3 head and are simply outstanding value for money.

[Lightlyseared]

+1 on the Rumbles, the 40 is a great little thing, and capable of adding moderate drive at practice volume for those Youth (or Raven) tones.

[KevB]

Having done a bit of reading around and also found out that a local music shop was doing them as cheap as Tomann etc I opted to pick up a Fender rumble at the weekend. My little 25W practice amp is beginning to occasionally cut out (15 yrs old, doesn't really owe me anything) so was looking to replace that initially. Then I thought about a lightweight alternative and the fact the basis of my gigging rig must be knocking on 20yrs old. I have absolutely no back up so I tried out the rumble 40 and 100. In the end I opted for the 100 as I'm sure this will be loud enough as an emergency backline if my Trace combo ever needs attention. I have a dep gig on Apr 29th so I'm looking to gig the runmble as a trial, it feels half the weight of my Trace combo and I can get some usable tones from it even without the bassattack pedal I normally use at gigs. It's light and compact enough so it can sit on the set of drawers I have in my study/practice room where the little Marshall B25 was, its taking up no extra space and light enough to carry up and down stairs for the occasional dep outing. Sensibly priced too.