Bass rig for €500

Reoil

Hi Folks,
I'm looking to buy a bass head and cab for practice and gigging. Gigging generally requires the cab to be a monitor for me as we usually go through the main house rig. I wouldn't be recording through it.

At the moment, I'm looking at this:
http://www.thomann.de/gb/kustom_de300_hd_head_bundle_4.htm

I've never played through a valve pre-amp on bass and I'm not sure how it would affect the dynamics of the sound - I'm used to solid state heads, but this seems to provide pretty good bang for the buck according to reviews.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

Cheers!

MrECameraman

Generally, for bass, tube preamps provide a bit more warmth. If you need a really tight punchy tone, it may not be for you but if you want warm and smooth bass, tube for the win.

I may be out of date with the Kustom gear, but it use not be all that hot. Have you checked the second hand market? I got an amazing bargain on a pre-gibson series 6 trace elliot head & cab...

roast

That bundle isn't fantastic IMHO.
The DE300 HD head puts out 300w at 4Ohm. The cab included in the bundle is 8Ohm. Which means (according to the manual) the head will only be outputting 180w.
Now, to be fair, 180w might suffice for most gigs you play, but there's no point limiting yourself when you could get something more efficient for the same price, and a bit more headroom to play around with should you need more volume for bigger gigs.... maybe that's just me! :pac:

With that said, definitely check out the used market. There's some crackin' amps on Adverts at the moment.

slavetothegrind

http://www.adverts.ie/bass-amps/mesa-boogie-mpulse-360-bass-head-and-1x15-bass-cab-including-flight-case/2374636

i would if i could only raise the money!

Secondhand is definitely a winner , lots of value to be had!

ham_n_mustard

as said above, i hadnt heard great things about the Kustom stuff, but havent used it myself so i cant really judge it....

loads of decent stuff on adverts at the minute, i'd be going second hand for that type of money

wild turkey

Hold out & see whats in the Musicmaker sale Saturdy week.
Usually they have great value in amps & you should pick up something for way below normal price!

Email them & they should send a price list when its released.

EDIT ; Just saw you were in Antrim but might be worth the trip down.

Reoil

Thanks for the replies folks!
I would look second hand but for two things:
1) I'd be lumping this on the credit card and paying it off due to lack on immediate cash. We have a good few gigs coming up soon and a few possible supports, so need to buy sooner rather than later.
2) I'm aware that there are a good few problems with bass heads - for example, some being ok for 10 minutes then warming up and hissing/distorting etc. Basically, I'd like the comfort of a warranty.

I'm now looking at a combo with the option to expand with a cab if I need to.
I had my eye on this, due to its outputs and wide variety of tones, but it's not the easiest to get hold of for a good price.

Reoil

wild turkey wrote: »

EDIT ; Just saw you were in Antrim but might be worth the trip down.

I will be down before long, but it'll be for the tour which I need the rig for!
Actually, I'll be down for Bright Eyes in Feb...

MrECameraman

I definitely, DEFINITELY would avoid the marshall. I have experience of their bass amps and I thought they were all awful - to the last! Bear in mind if you have a decent head, you can probably DI into the desk and go back through monitors? Depending on style of music, something like this - http://www.dv247.com/guitars/hartke-ha2500-bass-guitar-amp-head--43992 - may be good. Then get a cab down the road?

slavetothegrind

in that case OP the TC electronics BG250 is your man.
Lightweight and powerful enough with a wide range of tonal possibility

Agree about the marshal stuff, the sheer amount of it being sold off on adverts!
Even musicmaker were trying to get rid of a lot of bass stuff there recently

Ravelleman

A good rule for life: if it's Marshall and it's cheap, send it back.

ham_n_mustard

+1 on the TC stuff, i have a full stack and its great