Amp for band practice and home (definitely not gigging)

[ProfStoof]

Hi,

I'm looking for an amp for use at home (I live in a flat with neighbours...) and in a practice room with the rest of my band.  I want some good oomph for the band practice, but want something portable.  A shop has recommended a Mark Bass CMB 121 Blackline Bass Combo Solid State Amp.  

What do you think?  Are there other amps I should consider?

I've got a Fender Rumble 15 at the moment, and that is definitely too quiet for the practice room.

 

[I'm an amateur, adult, but not massively strong]

 

Thanks!!

[Lozz196]

That Markbass I`m sure will be good enough, as would a higher powered Fender Rumble, even the 800 watt version is only 12/13 kgs, so would assume to 100 & 200 to be lighter.

[synthaside]

I second a used Markbass combo. While it's a little spendier, if you can find a deal on a CMD121 rather than a Blackline, you will find yourself more or less set for life. I used mine solo for rehearsals for years and smaller gigs, plus it has the guts to add a second cab for larger stages. It's super small and robust and versatile. at low volumes, the fan noise and horn hiss can be louder than the bass, which is great.

As tempting as it is to find a lower power alternative to make sure its portable anything that says its "100 Watts'"  for bass s in my experience is going to struggle at practice volumes to stay "Clean" usually with combo's these are paired with a cheaper speaker and the gain needed to bring up your volume will shape your tone, So going from bedroom levels  " to headroom" is going to be a struggle,  Last night,  I used one of the new Fender Rumble 100's   (new rehearsal room for us)  I't sounded  Dire .... I've used the larger ones before on shared stages happily but I've not been enough of a jerk to want to adjust their settings.

I'm sure I'm going to anger the folk who love them but I found it totally boomy,  undefined and saturated no matter what I did with the Eq, to get any volume to compete with the guitarists I needed to run the gain quite high and it was so bass heavy .... i ended up with its  eq controls with the bass totally cut and both low and high mid and treble and 70%,  perhaps this is because its designed with fender bass'es in mind which can be a bit more " mid focused" but it was an experience that made me wish i'd brought my markbass .

Edited 5 hours ago by synthaside

[gjones]

I have a Markbass CMD 121 P combo. It's great for home practice and gigging.