JHBASS Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Hey All, I've had my little Fender Rumble 15 as my bedroom practise amp for 3 years now...and sadly shes starting to crack up! So I was wondering, are there any tube powered practise amps (20 watts ish)? This may seem a wierd request, but I thought I might as well check! Also, has anybody got any other suggestions as to a new practise amp? Cheers, Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nash Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 ask matamp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Foxen Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Get a little guitar combo, with an fx loop, rig a bass speaker into into it. Play stright to the loop, maybe with some sort of preamp to avoid the guitar voicing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delberthot Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 I used to use a trace TVT9 guitar combo to practice in the house - I now use a Meridian guitar combo with a Celestion driver and still there's too much bass for the neighbours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umph Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 bassmans are great for low volume type stuff, also look into epiphone juniors, should be loud enough to practice with and if you've got some spare cash you could get one modded into a great amp! Which i could do for you if you want Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardH Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 I made a couple of 1watt all tube amps recently - more for guitar than bass, but they sound fantastic, and are plenty loud enough for practice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 [quote name='umph' post='627494' date='Oct 16 2009, 12:30 AM']bassmans are great for low volume type stuff, also look into epiphone juniors, should be loud enough to practice with and if you've got some spare cash you could get one modded into a great amp! Which i could do for you if you want[/quote] +1 for the Valve Junior, especially once modded, but more for geetar than bass IMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Funk Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 I have a Cornell Romany w/ a Jensen P10R speaker. It sounds great for guitar, bass, clavi, rhodes, wurli etc. If you ask Mr Cornell he'll build a bass practice combo for you. Not cheap though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmywinks Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 [quote name='RichardH' post='628028' date='Oct 16 2009, 04:07 PM']I made a couple of 1watt all tube amps recently - more for guitar than bass, but they sound fantastic, and are plenty loud enough for practice![/quote] They look ace, i want one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Funk Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 [quote name='lemmywinks' post='628087' date='Oct 16 2009, 04:46 PM']They look ace, i want one![/quote] Yeah, details please! They look a bit like the tiny ZVex valve amp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 Wem Bass Dominator with 15" speaker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardH Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 (edited) [quote name='The Funk' post='628088' date='Oct 16 2009, 04:48 PM']Yeah, details please! They look a bit like the tiny ZVex valve amp.[/quote] That's how it started. The guitarist emailed me with a link to a ZVex, and said "how about one of these as a practice amp", and I fell over backwards when I saw the price. I knew that over on the [url="http://www.ax84.com"]AX84 forum[/url] there was a project for a tiny amp, and a quick look round found a [url="http://web.me.com/calhoun/Site/Firefly_PCB.html"]pcb for it[/url]. Some jiggering around and some swearing later, these chappies were born. They're not clean by any means. [url="http://dustyend.com/audio/firefly/firefly_celestion65_sample.mp3"]Here's a sound sample[/url] with my chum on guitar, with me varying the boost and gain to give an idea of how it sounds at various settings. It also sounds totally superb as a harp amp - really saturated "Mark Feltham" sound. When I get some time I'm going to experiment with changing a few things to get a wider clean range for bass use. Edited October 16, 2009 by RichardH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umph Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 [quote name='RichardH' post='628122' date='Oct 16 2009, 05:20 PM']That's how it started. The guitarist emailed me with a link to a ZVex, and said "how about one of these as a practice amp", and I fell over backwards when I saw the price. I knew that over on the [url="http://www.ax84.com"]AX84 forum[/url] there was a project for a tiny amp, and a quick look round found a [url="http://web.me.com/calhoun/Site/Firefly_PCB.html"]pcb for it[/url]. Some jiggering around and some swearing later, these chappies were born. They're not clean by any means. [url="http://dustyend.com/audio/firefly/firefly_celestion65_sample.mp3"]Here's a sound sample[/url] with my chum on guitar, with me varying the boost and gain to give an idea of how it sounds at various settings. It also sounds totally superb as a harp amp - really saturated "Mark Feltham" sound. When I get some time I'm going to experiment with changing a few things to get a wider clean range for bass use.[/quote] i've been thinking about making one of these but i've got sidetracked into building a 1.5watt single ended amp into one of my basses! i don't think the firefly design will ever lend itself to bass very well unless you really stiffened up the power supply. That clip sounds the dogs though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pentode Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 Got one of these arriving any day now - [url="http://www.ampmaker.com/ak01x.asp"]http://www.ampmaker.com/ak01x.asp[/url] Probably need to pop in a low gain preamp valve to clean it up a bit. Also half way through building one of Mr Fitzmaurices' Jack 12s to go with it. The idea, hopefully, is to have a nice little(ish) practice rig for home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krispn Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 I have a Fender Bassman 20 - hand wired PTP made by Paul Rivera when he was at Fender back in the 80's Its nowhere near loud enough for anything other than practice but with an acoustic jam or playing in the house its such a good tone - before i got it it lived in a recording studio and was the go to bass amp when mic'ing up. Its got a 1x15 and sounds great for bass and not too shabby for guitar either! Actually running it flat out thru a 4x12 cab will give you some healthy all tube dirt ala SVT. Its up for sale if any y'all are interested as I never get to use it these days. I'll try and add it as my avatar pic as Im having trouble up loading pics. If someone wants to give me advice on how to up load feel free Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henry norton Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 How much have you got to spend? If you go for a custom made Matamp or suchlike you're probably looking at the same money as a 200 watt valve head, maybe more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 Epiphone Valve Junior? The combo isn't great for bass but I've played the head through my GK cab and loved the results so much I'm thinking I want one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umph Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 [quote name='Jack' post='628868' date='Oct 17 2009, 05:25 PM']Epiphone Valve Junior? The combo isn't great for bass but I've played the head through my GK cab and loved the results so much I'm thinking I want one.[/quote] i've just seen how cheap the thomann clones of these are and it's becoming very hard not to grab one for a modding project! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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