Affordable and rewarding bass amp for the home

[Hamilton Mackenzie]

The tag says it all. I just bought my first bass, a vintage LAG from France 1989. A Jazz style with a nice slinky neck.

I own a fender reverb pro 2x12 and a Blues junior. Made for standard 6 string electric obvs, they sound passable for the bass (barely) So I was wondering what direction to go for an acceptable practice amp for the bass, the Fender rumble seems to get good reviews, any suggestions?

style wise I’m starting on walking bass lines and outlining chord tones, melodic motifs. Not drawn towards heavy rock or slap styles generally speaking. 
 

ultimately, when I have my chops up to speed and I’m more used to the instrument (seasoned guitar player) I will convert to frettless and try and emulate some of the upright bass vibe. 
 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions xx 

[SurroundedByManatees]

I'd advice a Roland cube 30 bass. These amps just sound good, and have various amp simulations and effects to play with. 

[Bankai]

For home playing when loud volume isn’t required, I found the Ashdown Perfect 10 mini-stack to be exceptionally good. Very warm and lovely tone. Very lightweight. Reasonably cheap. Not very loud (you couldn’t gig with it). A vast difference to most Ashdown stuff which doesn’t sound very nice (generally)

Its now discontinued but you see them for sale second hand sometimes. Such as here (not mine):

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ashdown-Perfect-Ten-60-mini-stack/153851480727?hash=item23d2434a97:g:hUsAAOSwPjNeXUT9

Edited March 5, 2020 by Bankai

[Happy Jack]

For home stuff, where how you sound solo is more important than how your sound sits or cuts through in a band situation, I chose to go vintage.

For around £300 you should be able to pick up a WEM Dominator Mk.III, preferably the Dominator 25 model with the 15" Celestion speaker. Classic valve warmth and goodness, seriously old school, looks the business, and will go up in value instead of down.

If there are no Mk.III 25s out there, almost equally good would be a WEM Power Musette ... essentially the same combo but intended for use with an accordion.

Charlie Watkins (the W in WEM) started out making amplifiers for accordions in the 50s, and long after the accordion fad had died a well-deserved death he continued to make combos for them. 

[Teebs]

Ibanez Promethean P20 - 20W practice amp:

About £100 from the usual (Amazon, Gear for Music, Andertons etc.).

I didn't realise how much I loved mine 'til I broke it

(I didn't like to make a fuss... 

It's now mended and sounds better than ever   )

[Hamilton Mackenzie]

Thanks fellas - that's given me a good start to my search.

I have to say, I am freaking loving playing this bass, signing up to Scot's forum and getting stuck in.

How did I not know how much fun and music can be found in a bass?

queue jokes about guitarists? 

[lemmywinks]

You'll get a million different recommendations based on what here people own, probably better stating your budget, what sort of sound you want and how much space you want it to take up. Also do you need things like built in effects, a tuner, aux in for playing along to mp3s etc? All these things are handy for practicing and make life easier, everything in one device with less cables etc.

 

I use a small 1x10 cab with a micro head for ampilified home playing which is handy as I can take the head to rehearsal rooms and use their cabs.

[Geek99]

Ampeg ba108 or 112

small cheap loud

[Defo]

Hartke HD50 - also good for small/acoustic gigs

[Lozz196]

8 hours ago, Geek99 said:

Ampeg ba108 or 112

small cheap loud

And sound great with Fender style basses.

[AndyTravis]

On 05/03/2020 at 09:28, SurroundedByManatees said:

I'd advice a Roland cube 30 bass. These amps just sound good, and have various amp simulations and effects to play with. 

The cube 20 bass was good too

[Dan Dare]

8 hours ago, lemmywinks said:

I use a small 1x10 cab with a micro head for amplified home playing which is handy as I can take the head to rehearsal rooms and use their cabs.

This is a good suggestion. If you buy a dedicated practice amp, you will usually have to buy something else to gig with. 

[chris_b]

I use my gigging gear at home and get a much higher quality of sound than I would get if using a practise amp. Currently my home rig is a TH500 and 2 BF One10's. Even at front room volume levels I can get a sound every bit as good as the recordings I'm listening to.

[Jack]

IME, as long as you stay away from the really small, really cheap stuff such as Ebay brands you've never heard of or teeeeeny litle 10W, 8" speaker things then there really aren't many bad amps at all these days.

 

More specific than that? Ok then. If you're into all the digital modelling stuff (perhaps not based on the guitar gear you've listed) then the Fender Studio 25 would be great. I own the bigger brother and they're cracking little amps. If you've got simpler tastes in amps then my two favorite ever have been the GK MBE150 and the TC BG-208. Do you have the space for an Ampeg B100R? They're outstanding.

 

 

[Hellzero]

It also depends if you want to buy new or used. As already said, I wouldn't go for the low end unknown combos.

Depending on your style, you will maybe need some Watts under the hood even for home practice.

There was an old SWR Workingmans 12 for sale here on BC. This combo coupled to the high quality Jazz Bass Lag (before Lag bankruptcy) you own is really good (excellent, in fact) and will be more than enough for rehearsals or small gigs.

Sadly for you, I checked and it's gone.

Edited March 7, 2020 by Hellzero
Corrections

[lownote]

I'm interested you're ventually looking to go fretless or DB.  That's where I am and have rcently taken advice from @Clarky on here.  Just bought his minute and cheap Trace Elf head (200w) to partner with a small cab, and he says beyond that look at a Puma for upright. Purely MHO but beware buying low watts for the bedroom.  Means you'll have to gear up again when you do gig.

Edited March 7, 2020 by lownote12

[casapete]

I will somewhat inevitably heartily recommend the Fender Rumble V3 series combos. Tried most of the range and all sound great, and as others have mentioned if you get say the 100w model it could come in handy should you need it for band practice, small gigs etc. I have this model, 12” speaker, great tone controls, loud for it’s rating and weighs next to nothing. Perfect for home use and can be picked up new for around £260, s/h around £150. 

[ped]

Why use an amp at home at all? I never can because I don’t like to think it might be annoying someone else and at lower volumes I don’t like hearing the acoustic sound of my bass over the top of the sound from the amp. 
 

Solution - get a decent headphone setup. 

[lemmywinks]

38 minutes ago, ped said:

Why use an amp at home at all? I never can because I don’t like to think it might be annoying someone else and at lower volumes I don’t like hearing the acoustic sound of my bass over the top of the sound from the amp. 
 

Solution - get a decent headphone setup. 

 

This is what I do 95% of the time and all my learning is done this way with a USB mini desk plugged into my laptop.

 

OP this is what I use:
https://www.thomann.de/gb/soundcraft_notepad_5.htm

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32859161944.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dJuyhv6

[chris_b]

1 hour ago, ped said:

. . . . . . . . Solution - get a decent headphone setup. 

IMO this the best solution for playing at home. Then you can play at any time of the day or night. I'm restricted to the mornings and early afternoons. The only reason I don't have a headphone amp is I have spent enough on gear and atm don't want to buy any  more.

[ped]

Pair your headphone setup with a cheap class D head and an Eich Bassboard and you’ll never look at amplifiers again! (Ok maybe a bit)

[Paddy515]

Small Peavey minimax has a headphone socket yet has 500 watts avsilable at 4 ohms and sounds great for gigg use.

[binky_bass]

@Hamilton Mackenzie I'm a big fan of the Ashdown B-Social for a number of reasons.

A. Looks good in the house.

B. Sound is crisp and articulate and very much loud enough.

C. Comes with a rechargable wireless dongle so you can play wirelessly.

D. Has Bluetooth so you can play songs from your phone while playing bass at the same time.

E. Has separate bass and guitar inputs so you can (if you needed to!) Play 3 instruments through it at the same time while streaming songs via bluetooth.

For me it's the perfect all-rounder for the home. 

[Phil Starr]

I use a zoom B1ON (Now updated to the B1 Four https://www.zoom.co.jp/products/effects-preamps/bass/b1-four-b1x-four-bass-multi-effects-processors ) for home practice with headphones as do a few people here, you could then put that through a PA speaker or floor wedge if you want it in the room with you. As a guitarist you probably know the G1ON

It contains a load of amp modellers, all sorts of effects, a tuner and a drum machine/metronome and you can mix in a input from anything with a headphone out like an mp3 player or a phone. It's neat and well made and runs for hours on a set of rechargeable AA batteries. Through headphones it sounds great.

[Hellzero]

At home, I play totally unplugged most of the time. And it helps a lot to hear the default in your playing too. I could play through my soundcard or my preamp through headphones, but I don't like the unnatural sound coming out of them (and they are high quality, before you ask), especially with a bass.