Hi all,

I have a fender P-bass and a Neve portico II channel strip that I have been using for recording. While this works well enough, I find it hard to work out bass lines just using headphones. And, I don’t seem to enjoy using my monitors either. So, I had thought I would buy an amp to play my bass through, to accompany tracks playing through my monitors, to work out bass lines.

My question is whether an amp (a combo or an amp+cabinet) would be best, or if it would be as good or better to plug my bass into the instrument port on my Portico II, and then connect that to a bass cabinet?

If the Neve + cabinet idea is recommended, would I also need a power amp of some sort? (As you may have noticed, I’m no engineer).

I’ve been guilty of overthinking before…so do let me know if the simple idea of buying a bass amp is the best solution here. But if I’ve already got a much better set up with the Neve, then it seems obvious I should work with that.

Thanks all!
Mike

the portico won't be able to amplify a speaker cabinet, you will need an amp and then there will be no need for a di.

personally, i have a shelford channel di, and i prefer to run my bass through a real amp/speaker cabinet. ampeg svt is a popular amp head for bass.

Since you are studio/recording only, I would suggest something like an Aguilar 1x12" cab. Small. Light. Sound good. Then top it with a low wattage amp that will give you decent cleans and decent driven sound, but not blow the house down. I prefer tube, but whatevs.

And congrats for wanting to play through an amp/speaker. You are now human.

If I understand you, we feel the same about using a dedicated bass amp & cab, or combo, as opposed to other options.

You might look for a small amp & cab with relatively clean sound, provision for effect send & return, and direct out. Mine is an old Genz Benz Shuttle 3/10 which I adore.

I also have an Ampeg BA110 combo for variety's sake. Has no bells or whistles but got it dirt cheap. It sounds great and is fun with guitar too. Recommend it for your purposes.

Over at TalkBass I think most would steer you toward a Fender Rumble 40 combo if you are okay with "much better than merely adequate" rather than "absolutely need that last 10% of highest quality" and want to buy new.

I favor 10" for this sort of role because I've seen too many reports of disappointment by people who tried a single 8" driver for the use you describe. (Multiple small drivers are a different story.) In general a 12" is going to be quite bit bigger and heavier, overkill IMHO.

But if you intend to play out on bass someday I would recommend getting a 12" cab to start, along with an amp that will do well with two 12" cabs. If you follow this route, maybe start by going dirt cheap (got a strong back? heavy old stuff can sound great).

Good luck hunting!

Lol, yeah…I know it’s strangely uncommon to be human.

Any recommendation for a nice tube amp to pair with the 1x12 cab? Would something from ampeg be suitable?

I’d like to find a sound that I love. I’m at that point with all of this.

Also: Do you think something suitably powered for a home studio could also be worth recording alongside a direct-in signal through the portico? Or should I just be thinking of this amp as a tool for playing and working out parts, and not for recording?

I’m a long time guitar player (mostly acoustic), and quite new to bass.

I run mine through a Sansamp pedal for shaping, then into a Two Notes loadbox. It attenuates the signal -20, then out to a cab, but also allows for a balanced line to go DI. I'll record both and use whatever I like best, or use them blended.

I use a couple class A tube amps custom made to be 5E3 Fender or Vox copies (10 or 15 watts). Technically they are guitar amps, but those types of amps are really just power amps, and sound fine pushing bass. (I'm mainly guitar too)

I had a few Ampeg models, but they were big mothers for live use. I've had vintage Bassmans and still have a cheapo Ampeg BA115 (?), and had a Fender Rumble. I prefer tube because they offer just a bit more of a compressed feel, not so sensitive (others will disagree). I've also picked up that popular for live (Ampeg) isn't always popular in studio. But you'll probably never go wrong with an old Portaflex. I really don't have enough experience with various other smaller amps. Aguilar has a little head that seems popular. If I were buying new (or newer used) I'd probably go all Aguilar or vintage Portaflex. Do some searching and see what turns up. Match your guitar/song tastes to bass choices. Try the bass site mentioned above.

No need to get anything big.

Got it, thanks. I’m now searching amps!

good luck! i use a vintage marshall super lead, it's meant for guitar but it does fine on bass for my purposes. i've heard good things about trace elliot amps, also the fender bassman mentioned, and sunn amps

The ampeg tube heads (pf-20t, the name is something like that) would be awesome.

Don’t discount the micro vr and its matching cabinet either. It’s not tube but sounds fantastic.

My neighbor bought one of the little ampeg combos (rocket bass I think) and it sounds great and is very light.

If it’s just for figuring out things at home, then really anything will work. I loaned my genz benz streamliner head and my 112 cab to a friend since I’m not playing bass gigs anymore, and at home when I want to record or just play, I have a hotone thunder bass head with a 110 cab I built from a car sub box and a speaker from MCM electronics. It works great for that. The cab was less than $100 to build, following plans on Talkbass for the “coffeehouse cabinet.” I have used that cab with the genz Benz on gigs too in the past.

Hey thanks…interesting tip about the micro vr. In the end I came to your same conclusion: that if it’s just for working out parts, it doesn’t really matter as much. I recently gave up on the idea of getting a bass that would be suitable for recording (for now anyway…maybe at a later date I’ll buy an old Ampeg sb 12 or 15 for that purpose). So, browsing the store yesterday, and not finding much of a selection at all, I ended up buying a fender rumble 40 — with a 30 day return policy. So I’m trying it out. They didn’t have a rocket bass or I might have bought that instead. I may not keep the fender, but I’m happy for the option to try it out. I’ve spent a fortune at this store over the years, so I’m not above the idea of using their return policy, to exchange or just to return it. I wish they had a better selection, but as a guitar player new to bass, I feel it’s also quite informative to start with a more modest amp.

From this perspective, I think It would be cool if, after a month of playing through the rumble, I end up wanting/needing a richer sound

Thanks for all the replies!
Mike