I'm Marc the Bass Wizard with TheBassWizard.com and in this video
I want to talk about Bass Amps. I got a question
recently from a viewer and decided to make
a video on it because I think it will help
out a lot of people. The question was: "I'm
in the situation where I need a new amp and
I really don't know where to start. So many
different brands and different speaker cabinets
2x10 4x10 1x12 etc... So I would love to hear
your opinion on this, explaining the benefits
of a smaller rig VS a larger setup.
So here's my opinion on Bass Amps. First off
I love speaker cabinets with Neodymium speakers
and Bass heads with Class D power amps. What
that means is basically all the lightweight
stuff, every brands has a different version
of this. When I first started playing, this
option wasn't available. Bass Amps were super
heavy and it was just a nightmare every time
I had to take a Bass Amp to a gig and I still
have back pain to this day from going up and
down stairs with really heavy Bass amps. So
I love the lightweight stuff, I think it sounds
just as good, really easy to carry and that's
what I tend to gravitate towards these days.
I actually have SWR Golight cabinet and a
Headlite which was their version of the lightweight
stuff. Really small head if you can see that
and the cabinets are super light. Unfortunately
SWR went out of business, so you can't get
this stuff anymore but every brand has their
own version of this, every brand has a lightweight
cabinet and lightweight head. There's great
brands out there, Gallien-Krueger is good.
Aguilar is good but their stuff is kind of
expensive. Markbass makes some good stuff.
Ideally if you can try this stuff out, if
you have a chance to play through it, try
it and see what it sounds like that's ideal.
I can't really recommend a brand for you,
I'd rather you just do the research.
As far as speaker size- 10", 12", 15"... I
love 10" speakers. I feel like they sound
really tight and punchy and they give me the
best sound. 12" starts to get a little muddy
for me. And 15" speaker is way too muddy,
you would never use it by itself. But what
you can do is combine 10" speakers with 15".
So you can get a 2x10" and a 15", or you can
get a 4x10" and a 15". I've done that before,
that can be cool as well, but nowadays I only
do 10" speakers because that just gives me
the perfect sound that I like. Gives me enough
low end and enough high end, doesn't sound
too muddy and it works out in a lot of different
situations.
As far as the size of the rig, should you
get a 2x10, a 4x10, 6x10... what should you
get? It really depends on the venue and the
type of music that you're playing, but I feel
that a 4x10 is more than enough for everything.
I have a 2x10 and a 4x10. The reason why I
have this is because a lot of times I'll play
a really small bars where I don't need to
be that loud and a lot of times the stage
at these places are really small too, so I
can't even fit a 4x10, so I'll just use the
2x10. And if I'm playing a stage where I need
more volume, I'll use the 4x10. Sometimes
I'll use them both together if I need to get
really loud on stage or if I just want that
look, if I want a really tall bass amp I'll
use them both. But a 4x10 is more than enough
for most situations.
If you're playing a larger venue like a club,
they usually have a PA and a front of house
guy, so your amp is just so you can hear yourself
on stage. The front of house engineer is going
to have you plug into a DI Box and that's
the sound that he's going to be sending through
the PA. So your amp is just for you so you
can hear yourself on stage. A lot of times
these engineers don't even want to take the
DI output of your head, because when you do
that there's 2 options- You can send them
the sound pre-EQ, which is just the raw sound
of your bass without any EQ to it, or you
can send it post-EQ, and that's a big problem
for them because the sound on stage is different
than the sound in front of house, and if you're
EQing your sound to sound just right on stage,
that's affecting the sound that you're sending
to him and the Pas are different, they got
full range speakers and the size of the room
in front of house is usually different, so
it's not going to be the same EQ and same
sound. They usually want it no EQ, so to avoid
the risk of you having accidentally pressed
that post-EQ button on the amp, they'll just
have you plug into a DI box, so your Amp really
doesn't matter for front of house, it's just
so you can hear yourself, so it really doesn't
have to get that loud. A 4x10 is usually enough,
maybe a 6x10 if you're playing with a really
loud band in a big stage. And a lot of times
if you're playing really big gigs like stadiums
and arenas, a lot of times these days they
use In-Ear monitors, so the monitor engineer
is going to feed you that same DI signal that's
going to Front of House. So you're not even
using your Amp at all, you're just hearing
your Bass from that DI signal into your In-Ears
and the stage volume doesn't really matter,
you're just listening through the In-Ears.
So 4x10 is usually more than enough, maybe
a 6x10 if you want to have a taller looking
amp and you're playing with a really loud
band and the stage volume is really loud but
4x10 for most situation. 2x10 if you're doing
smaller bars.
Another really important points is impedance.
For most heads, say a bass head says that
it's 400W. That means it's 400W at 4ohm. The
cabinets can either be 4ohm or 8ohm. What
that means is, if you plug a 400W 4ohm head
into a 4ohm cabinet, that head is operating
at full power. It's going 400W into that cabinet.
If you plug that 400W 4ohm head into an 8ohm
cabinet, it's going to operate at half the
power, so that head is actually going to provide
200W into the cabinet.
My cabinets right here, they're 8ohm cabinets.
The reason for that is because I'm plugging
a 4ohm head into two 8ohm cabinets, so it's
going to provide half the power to each cabinet.
If you have a 4ohm head, you can plug it into
two 8ohm cabinets. You can't plug a 4ohm head
into two 4ohm cabinets because that's going
to overload you head and it's probably going
to break it. So if you want to have two cabinets,
you got to make sure that they're 8ohm so
you can plug them in at the same time. If
you want to have just one cabinet, you want
to have like a 4x10 and you want the full
power of the head, you want to make sure that
cabinet is 4ohm.
I hope that wasn't too confusing, but that's
actually pretty important. So if you're going
to plug a bass head into one cabinet is has
to be 4ohm. If you're going to daisy-chain
two cabinets together, they have to be 8ohm
each.
So I hope that helps you out a little bit.
If you have any further questions just leave
a comment in the comment box. But once again,
the small rig vs large rig thing, I feel like
a 4x10 is going to be more than enough for
you. Don't worry too much about wattage, 800W
/ 1000W, you're very rarely going to push
that head to its limit. Unless you're playing
in some death metal band or something where
you're just ridiculously loud, but other than
that, most situations you don't need to go
that loud. A 4x10 is more than enough. Once
again, when you're playing the larger venues
it's just so you can hear yourself on stage,
you're not trying to amplify the whole venue,
so it doesn't have to be that loud. The loudest
you're going to go is probably in a rehearsal
room, because then your full sound is coming
form the Amp, but even then a 4x10 has always
been more than enough for me. So once again
I hope clarifies things. I hope that helps
you.
If you have any comments just leave them in
the comment box. Make sure you check out TheBassWizard.com
, Like my Facebook page, subscribe to me YouTube
and I'll see you guys next time. Thanks.
