Studio bass amps

[ItsaBass]

Re: Studio bass amps

If you need a practice amp that you can also record with, a used, U.S.-made Ampeg BA-112 is decent for the price, and small and light (plus has a headphones jack). I picked one up for my g/f several months ago so we didn't have to haul my bigger amp to practice every time. It is not as good sounding as my bigger Ampeg, but it does the job fine, and would be even better for recording than for practice. It cost me $180 and it is a very convenient amp.

As much as I love a good amp for recording, what many consider to be one of the best bass tones ever recorded was done direct. People think Jamerson used a flip-top Ampeg to record all those Motown tracks, but that was his live amp. In the studio, he went direct, as did the guitarists (sometimes three of them). However, they weren't plugging into some plastic whiz-bang gizmo from Guitar Center. They went into the board's lush and warm sounding preamps. So maybe a nice sounding tube bass amp with a line out would be a good choice as well. Ampeg B200R, maybe? That is relatively inexpensive, good sounding, and pretty convenient. It has a tube preamp and a SS power amp, and plenty of power for gigs as well.

[9unslin9er]

Re: Studio bass amps

Well here's the thing, before we all jump the Direct route.

I have no plans to XLR the amp.

I make a lot of youtube videos and have a great hd camera with XY mics. Ampeg's have a great reputation, but that Line 6 really does sound phenomenal for the size. 12-15" speaker is excessive for my app.

I'm just wondering if it pushes enough air that a drummer doesn't need to back off.

[Chris of Arabia]

Re: Studio bass amps

I'm really concerned with amp hiss. With these mini speakers, it always seems to be a problem without a built in noise gate or tweeter mods.

Anybody have problems with hiss on these?

The one I have has a 12" speaker. Do you class that as small in bass terms?

As to hiss, I've not noticed anything untoward with it. I'm not sure of the current options in their range, but the specs on mine look like this

[CapoFirstFret]

Re: Studio bass amps

I know you're looking for a studio/practice rig, but one of the best live bass tones I've ever heard came from a bassist running a sansamp into two Roland Cube 60 Bass amps. He had insanely good, deep, punchy tone. I can't get it out of my head.

[jtougas]

Re: Studio bass amps

*nods* A guy I know runs a SansAmp Bass driver into some handmade power amp, then into a Yamaha 1x12 speaker cab, IIRC. Sounds great, and we used the XLR out for recording when I recorded the group. Uses the same rig for electric bass, and stand-up for his jazz gigs.

[9unslin9er]

Re: Studio bass amps

How are the Rolands by themselves?

I had no luck with the guitar cube line. They just sound super sterile, like a Boss pedal through a Crate solid state.

I should add the bass I intend to buy is a Dean Hillsboro Jazz bass.

I tried out an Ampeg Ba112 today at GC and it sounded pretty decent.

Mind you, I'm pretty much deaf to the bass frequency. I just know it goes *Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum* a la Scott Pilgrim.

[Chickenwings]

Re: Studio bass amps

the cool things about sansamps are that they are also killer for live...dial in your tone and send it to the FOH. If you have a pretty much any amp, you can run the 1/4inch out to the fx return of your amp and use that as an onstage monitor.
I use my PA as my bass amp/onstage monitor and can send a signal to the FOH as well, so the FOH and my monitor sound more or less the same.
If you have say, a bass amp you really like the tone of and want to use that as your main sound with the FOH just as sound reinforcement, you can also take the mix level down to zero which bypasses the amp sim/speaker emulation part. Then you have just a really nice clean active DI with level, bass and treble trimmers if thats how you like it.
Its kind of a swiss army knife both for studio work and for live.
Direct into the desk for recording, its a lot easier to dial in the right bass sound for the song mix too, cos you can listen to the studio monitors as you play, and dial in the right tone from the sansamp. Its much easier than micing a bass amp, and often sounds much better due to mic limitations recording low frequencies. One of these direct will record way better than any cheap bass amp.You can of course run a parallell to a really sexy bass amp with a mic and record that in parallel as well if you feel the need.
The sansamp has 3 outs: direct (balanced with 2 switchable levels), 1/4 inch out and parallell out which bypasses the whole box . So you have a choice of runing either pure pass into your amp and mix it with the foh, or use intrument out and have the effected signal going into your amp also.
There is alos the obvious option too, of not even engaging the pedal in the first place and just using at as a high quality direct box. You can set the eq etc to give you a different tone when you engage the pedal.
There is now a programmable version of the sansamp too, its still all analog except for the switching so you can save 3 preset sounds if you need versatility for live.

[everdrone]

Re: Studio bass amps

Can anyone recommend an affordable and quality bedroom sized bass amp?

I plan on using it mainly for studio recording maybe over a drum track..

for bass,
I have 410 rig, 215 rig, an 8" combo, and line 6 toneport

for what your OP said,

I recommend a modeler and IRs. why? cause you need low end and to push air, in order to get a great recording. IRs are great cause they dont just roll off the highs with an EQ curve. I like my sansamp and recabinet.

[NevermindUs]

Re: Studio bass amps

not to be the 10th person representing the sansamp, but after years of searching for bass tones, ive found none better. the best bet is like other people have said, the sansamp into a power amp or even into another very flat amp. let the sansamp do the work

on another note, ive gotten an great, jazzy clean tone from an emg 707 in the bridge by plugging into a sansamp directly into the interface. i wish my amps sounded as good as this thing did

[Powdered Toast Man]

Re: Studio bass amps

For recording, you're not going to mic the bass amp - just run it DI through a good preamp/compressor and you'll have a great bass tone.

As for a good quality bedroom/jam amp for not a lot of money? Anything Peavey. Seriously, their bass stuff rocks! I played a Peavey bass combo for almost a decade. That thing was a tank. We used to joke that I could probably roll it down a flight of stairs and it would still just plug in and work.

The Traynor bass line is also excellent. I currently own a YBA200 and it's an amazing sounding head. DI out on it is real nice and warm too.