cheap bass rig

[manboy]

here's the deal:

the bassist in my band is looking for a new bass amp. he's been playing through my crate bfx-100, the the subject of much derision in our band. he's had trouble hearing himself through it and wants an amp that will be louder and sound better. also he's on a painfully small budget (neighborhood of 500 bucks). he's looking for a classic sound (he's really into ampegs). also he pretty much has to get a brand new amp because his mom's helping him out and will probably want for him to get a sparkly new amp.

he was looking at an ampeg solid state combo, but i was concerned about volume level.

i suggested a yorkville xm200, but i don't know what they sound like and they look kind of goofy to me. also i thought maybe a gallien-krueger backline 250. and it would be possible to turn my crate into an extension cabinet.

finally, since he's a fan of the sound of a fender bassman too, would 50 watts tube sound much louder than the 100 watt crate for bass? i had the crazy idea of running a pignose g40v through a bass cab.

by the way, we play kind of lo-fi garage punk. infer from my rig the kind of levels he'll be competing with.

anything?

[Beaudie1]

you should test out the Hartke Model 1415 Combo. you can find plenty of info on the web for it. www.zzsounds.com has it for $469.00. it's supposed to be a great amp.

[wheel]

I don't know if this will help, but the best sounding bass rig I've heard was a stingray through a swr combo. Wow. Unbelievable.

[Lenin]

The Ampeg 115 SS combo is used in my band and it is hella loud.

[manboy]

wheel: i agree with you there. swr's great. it's too bad they don't make those super-cheap models anymore. even their budget combos are pretty high up there. it's a quality product though.

Beaudie1: i'll tell him about the hartke, he might like the idea. i can't find whether it has an extension speaker out or a line out, though, both of which may be important. that amp looks solid though, nice and straightforward.

Lenin: is that ampeg 115 a 100 or 220 watt combo? (i think you can tell by whether it's the model that leans back like a stage monitor or not) i mean is it possible that a 100 watt ampeg would be louder than a 100 watt crate with the same size speaker? i do like ampegs, and that's originally what he was looking at, but we do play at pretty high volumes.

thanks everyone so far.

[cubby]

Well you can't get anew one - but I would suggest a Sunn Beta Bass amp. They are an awesome value (usually can be found for less than $250 US).