[pfox14]

Since my wife would never think about buying me a bass for Xmas, I took it upon myself to buy a T'Bird - Merry Xmas to me!! I've always wanted a Gibson T'Bird, but could never afford one, so I got a used Epi that the seller put a Gibson truss rod cover & pickguard on just for fun. I know that lots of folks do it and realize it's just for show. Now, can you guys recommend a good amp for it. I have an old solid state guitar amp that won't cut it and want to get something somewhere between a good "practice" amp and a gigging amp. Not too big, but with at least one big speaker (15" at least). Any help would be much appreciated.

[Hungrycat]

pfox14, on 23 December 2011 - 08:35 AM, said:

Not too big, but with at least one big speaker (15" at least). Any help would be much appreciated.

Check out the Hartke Kickback line. Nice little amp with one of the cool Hartke aluminum-cone speakers. One cool feature about these is that you can run a line-out to the PA and 'kickback' the whole combo to use as your monitor. Oh, and they're fairly inexpensive. I've got a Kickback 10, and it sounds great, and with the aluminum-cone speaker, it really excels at 6-string guitar too! I would encourage you to try to 10, 12, and 15 to see which one you like best. Sometimes a single fifteen can really muddy a nice bass tone.

http://www.samsontec...ck-combos/kb15/

[pfox14]

Very cool looking amps. Thanks for the advice. I assume the different model #s designate the speaker size?

[Hungrycat]

pfox14, on 24 December 2011 - 06:59 AM, said:

I assume the different model #s designate the speaker size?

Yes.

[CDRhom]

Gallien-Kreuger makes some nice small combo amps. The light weight MicroBass Series (MB115, MB210, MB212 and MB112) have the added advantage of not breaking your back.

[Hungrycat]

CDRhom, on 26 December 2011 - 09:06 PM, said:

Gallien-Kreuger makes some nice small combo amps. The light weight MicroBass Series (MB115, MB210, MB212 and MB112) have the added advantage of not breaking your back.

GK makes some really nice stuff, but it can get pricey.

[pfox14]

Those Gallien amps look very good. What do you guys think about Crate? Good amps? There's a used BX100 combo bass amp with 1-15" speaker - 100 watts for only $130.00 + $60.00 shipping on eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/...984.m1423.l2649

versus The Hartke VX115 300 watt bass amp w/ 1 - 15" speaker at $269.00 with free shipping. I know it's not a "kickback", but still an awesome looking amp. The Kickback 15s are going for $370.00 & up.

http://www.ebay.com/...984.m1423.l2649

[pfox14]

Nevermind - I just realized that the Hartke VX115 is a bass speaker cabinet only - needs an amp head.

[Parabar]

Check out these Behringers --- the BXL3000 and BXL900 are both less than $300. The bassist in one of my bands plays one for smaller club gigs and it thumps plenty!

Behringer Bass Amps

[pfox14]

The Behringer BXL3000 looks like a nice amp, but it doesn't have send/return or speaker outputs (you'd think it would at 300 watts). The Crate has all of these features, but the lower wattage.

[pfox14]

Just got the T'Bird in yesterday. Man, what a nice bass. All setup & ready to play. Sounds great and is in mint condition. Yay!!

[LPDEN]

Where are pics, and what bass amp did you settle on?