HOW TO BUY THE BASS AMP AMPLIFIER THE BEST SUITS YOU ?

The amount of bass amps and cabinets can be overwhelming when you are in the market for one. There are just so many options. They can come in all types of configurations and sizes. In this two part series, we explore some issues you should be aware of when looking to buy a rig that suits your needs. In this first part we look at the all important amplifier or head as its commonly called.

FIRSTLY.....

Firstly some housekeeping issues. It is a good idea to take your own bass in when testing amps. Bass amps will respond differently depending on the quality and type of instrument that is pluged into them. To get the best idea of what you will sound like you must test each amplifier with the instrument/s you will be using. Also be sure to plug them into different configurations of speaker cabinets.

AMPLIFICATION - 10 W or 1000 W ? HOW MUCH VOLUME WILL YOU NEED ?

Every speaker needs an amplifier to drive it, but what is too big ? and what is too small ? A 100 w bass amp does not give you anywhere near the room a 100 W guitar amp will provide for a guitarist. This is because low frequencies use more power to move the big heavy speakers they use back and forth. Bass instrument amplifiers are more likely to be designed with cooling fans than regular guitar amplifiers, due to the high power demand of bass amplification. So your thinking , "well I should just get some 1000W beat then and there will be no worries". Well before buying consider that a bess head will generally have sweet spot. You need to puch an amp to get a good tone out of it. Not hard enough so everything is on 11 but enough so it will sing its complete tonal qualities in full voice. When you try out an amp in store it will sing its complete tonal qualities in full voice. When you try out an amp in store it will appear to be a lot louder than when you get it into the rehearsal room next to the drums or onstage at the noisy pub. It is important to understand how loud the amp can really go. For the majoirty of practice or small rehearsal rigs, you can get by with 100 W or less, but for gigs you should be thinking about 200 - 250 W unless you want to bypass the FOH speakers when playing at the Vodaphone Arena then you should look at the 1200W range.

WHAT ABOUT THE EQ THINGYS?

Usually the EQ will be either a simple 3 knob version, or a more sophisticated parametric or graphic EQ. Equalisation controls that are designed for bass instruments may extend down to 40 hertz or below and go up to 12k. A three knob version bass, mid and treble (or something similar to this combination ) is set to a specific frequency and when the knobs are increased that frequency is boosted. A graphic EQ is called such because it graphically represents the wave that you will create when manipulating your tone. You should look for a graphic EQ that contains a healthy range of frequencies that you can manipulate. A graphic EQ gives you plenty of control to manipulate frequencies and hone in on that sound your after, but it does take some more getting used to than the simple bass, mid, treble version. A parametric EQ allows you to select certain frequencies and boost or cut them as you see fit. To explain it simply they work simlilarly to a three knob version except you get to select the frequencies which you want to boost or cut. So which type of ED is better? Well that is a matter of how much flexibility you are after in your tone. A lot of the world's greatest bass moments have been created on the simple three knob version. It is really about understanding how much control and flexibility you are after versus ease of use.

WHAT IS BETTER SOLID OR VALVE ?

This is truly a subjective and a practical issu. Here are the difference. Valve amps are generally regarded as providing a warmer tone and when overdriven they sound much more musical wen compared to a distorting solid state amp. Solid state amps are generally less costly and are less fragile that valves. Keep in mind that a bass amp should be built with enough headroom to avoid overdriving them. There are also alot of hybrid versions on the market today so the possibilities are really three fold. Try out a few versions of each with different types of basses to see what type will suit you.

WHAT ABOUT EXTRAS ?

There are alot of features that can come on bass amplifiers. There are bass boost switches, distortion and other effects, headphone jacks, CD line-in, effect send and returns. D.I plugs, bypass switches and the list goes on. The one I believe most important to discuss is compression. Compression eradicates any unwanted or gross fluctuations in noise when playing. It is a good idea to have a quality compression on board to limit the unmusical noises that occur when playing. There is no need to go overboard, just enough to tighten up your sound. However, it is the quality of the compression that should be the main issue here.

THE GOLDEN RULE

There is so much more to voer but that should get you started. The golden rule when it comes to bass amplification is Headroom !!!! it is a good idea to get something that has that little bit of extra power in reserve because if its not there you can't use it. Good luck and remember to try try try before you buy buy.