Good cheap and small bass amp for recording?

Trick Fall · Post by **Trick Fall** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 9:48 pm

I'm doing some tracking at low volume without headphones and need to get a bass amp. I'll be using a sf champ and a blackstar five watt amp for guitars. There's lots of cheap small guitar tube amps around. Has anyone tried these out for bass?

markjazzbassist · Post by **markjazzbassist** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 9:53 pm

as far as all tube the ampeg b-15 is the best, but they run 1500 for a nice vintage piece.

try an old fender bassman ten combo (all tube) or mesa boogie scout (12 or 15).

EasyGo · Post by **EasyGo** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 10:19 pm

I recently grabbed a tiny Eden Nemesis N8 practice amp at a pawn shop, specifically for low volume recording. Surprising tonal variation, and it actually sounds like a bass amp.

Trick Fall · Post by **Trick Fall** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 6:09 am

Would love a B-15 but that is way out of the price range. The Eden looks suitable to my purposes. I wish someone made something like a fender musicmaster.

E.Bennett · Post by **E.Bennett** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 6:25 am

I was just going to recommend a fender musicmaster. they're still pretty reasonable. during the 1484 era, there was a piggyback silvertone bass amp with a 15" speaker. wish i didn't sell mine. sounded way nice.

KennyLusk · Post by **KennyLusk** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 10:19 am

Cheap? Honestly I like the modern amps Kustom has been producing the past few years.

Loved their amps from the 60's and played guitar through a Kustom 200 head and their 3x15 tuck n roll cab. But even their modern little cheapies sound pretty substantial to my ears.

blungo2 · Post by **blungo2** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 2:09 pm

I keep wanting to check out the Markbass amps, they're not cheap though, at least for my pocketbook...

markjazzbassist · Post by **markjazzbassist** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 6:38 pm

i was just thinking maybe fender musicmaster amp. also check out univox, guild thunderbass, and traynor bassmaster.

CraigS63 · Post by **CraigS63** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 9:09 pm

You only get to pick two out of those three!

Jettison · Post by **Jettison** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 9:10 pm

+1 for Traynor. The YBA-2 Bass Mate is a small two output tube bass amp perfect for lower volume-with distortion-recording. 1 Yorkville 15 and 2 EL84s or 6V6s depending on which one you get. Late 60s to early 70s. Not very loud and they start to get distorted at around 3 on the volume control. They go for around $200 on eBay. Get matching tubes and you'll be happier. Excellent guitar amp too. Easy to fix and mod if you're into that sort of thing.

Trick Fall · Post by **Trick Fall** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 5:34 am

Jettison wrote:+1 for Traynor. The YBA-2 Bass Mate is a small two output tube bass amp perfect for lower volume-with distortion-recording. 1 Yorkville 15 and 2 EL84s or 6V6s depending on which one you get. Late 60s to early 70s. Not very loud and they start to get distorted at around 3 on the volume control. They go for around $200 on eBay. Get matching tubes and you'll be happier. Excellent guitar amp too. Easy to fix and mod if you're into that sort of thing.

This sort of thing sounds like it would fit the bill, but does anyone make anything new like this?

GREGL · Post by **GREGL** » Wed Aug 03, 2011 11:28 am

+2 on the Bass Mate. If you can spend a little more the Bass Master head (often used by guitar players too) is an excellent bass amp also. Probably not loud enough for most rock gigs (50 watts) but very sweet bass tone into a good speaker. Records nice.

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Wed Aug 03, 2011 2:04 pm

Get a Sansamp Bass Driver or a good direct box, send XLR output to record, 1/4" output to your guitar amp for monitoring. You'll probably get a better tone and have something that you'll use for many other applications.

Trick Fall · Post by **Trick Fall** » Wed Aug 03, 2011 2:24 pm

kayagum wrote:Get a Sansamp Bass Driver or a good direct box, send XLR output to record, 1/4" output to your guitar amp for monitoring. You'll probably get a better tone and have something that you'll use for many other applications.

I've actually got the bass driver but the best tone I've gotten sonar is using my champ. The problem is I'd like to use the champ for guitar while tracking. I remembered my guitar player has one of those cheap epiphone tube heads so I think I'm going to try the bass into that.

Brett Siler · Post by **Brett Siler** » Wed Aug 03, 2011 6:29 pm

The new Acoustic bass amps sound pretty good. I've played on the 1x15 before and liked it. You can adjust the tweeter amount. The EQ sounds good and is versatile. It has a narrowing Q on it which is pretty cool. You can turn up loud enough to play with a drummer. It takes distortion pedals well too.

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Good cheap and small bass amp for recording?

Good cheap and small bass amp for recording?

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