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Rick:
Surf Bass Amplification is not as straightforward as Surf
Guitar amplification, but I'll give it a shot:
The Fender Bassman is a totally good choice. An all-tube
Bassman built before 1968 will usually do the trick for
most situations, although the 50 watt head may leave you
wanting more power for live gigs. The 100 watt Bassman
head is definately a Surf Bass powerhouse. I have a 1966
Bassman 50, and I use it for almost all my guitar and bass
recording applications, and I still drag it to smaller gigs
and garage jams every now and again...I love that amp's
sound.
The Ampeg SVT is a nice sounding and powerful amp, but it
weighs a ton. Ampeg makes several amps besides the SVT, and
they sound real nice and round and full.
Mesa Engineering makes a great all tube bass amp, but it
will probably clean out your wallet and your savings
account. Mesa also produces great sounding tube/solid state
hybrid amps...awesome stuff, but often real expensive.
Right now, I am playing a Gallien-Krueger 800RB in most
live gig situations, rehearsals and practice sessions...and
I like it a lot. It's a biamp with a built in crossover
that seperates the signal into treble and bass channels,
two amps in one so to speak. A 100 watt amplifier section
drives the trebles while a 300 watt section drives the bass
end. The GK 800RB sounds great: loud and clear with awesome
tone definition...no muddiness at all.
I believe good old Sam from Slacktone has been playing the
same GK amp with Dick Dale recently...but, I'm not sure if
he uses the GK with Slacktone at gigs...
well, there you have it,
-dp
--- "Johnston, Rick" <>
wrote:
> Great article DP,
>
>
>
> As far as the amp references, what are some other
> suggestions you could
> make???
>
>
>
>
>
> Peace, Rick!
>
>
>
>
>
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--- In , DP <noetical1@y...> wrote:
>
> I believe good old Sam from Slacktone has been playing the
> same GK amp with Dick Dale recently...but, I'm not sure if
> he uses the GK with Slacktone at gigs...
>
When I saw DD 2 years ago Sam was playing through a Showman head. I
don't remember what he had a few months back, but I'd be surprised if
it was anything but a Showman with DD.
Great bass article, DP, thanks for the link.
BN
What is your take on a SWR Mo bass 900 watt head???
What would you suggest for a cab???
I play a Jerry Jones bass and really want to be able to get vintage sound...
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
I think the last show pics I saw had Sam using a
Showman head, which I imagine he'd have to have dimed
to keep up with Dick. Fortunately bass amplification
has come a long way since the 60's. I think that as
long as you can get a pretty decent vintage-y bass
sound out of it pretty much any amp will work. You'll
always have more volume and cut than the lowenders did
in the old days. I personally found a used Mesa
Boogie Buster head (now discontinued) which is
basically a Bassman clone loaded with 6L6's. At 200
watts it's a beast.
Richard
--- Brian Neal <> wrote:
> When I saw DD 2 years ago Sam was playing through a
> Showman head. I
> don't remember what he had a few months back, but
> I'd be surprised if
> it was anything but a Showman with DD.
>
> Great bass article, DP, thanks for the link.
>
> BN
>
>
>
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Rick:
I don't know, I have never tried that particular SWR...
I have played some SWR combos at the music store though...I
thought they sounded okay, but a litle "flat
sounding"...not much dynamics...
lots of people really like SWR amps, though...
-dp
--- "Johnston, Rick" <>
wrote:
> What is your take on a SWR Mo bass 900 watt head???
>
>
>
> What would you suggest for a cab???
>
>
>
> I play a Jerry Jones bass and really want to be able to
> get vintage sound...
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> .
> Visit for
> archived messages, bookmarks, files, polls, etc.
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
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YIPES! Mesa makes great bass amplification...you are a
lucky surf ducky...that's for sure..
-dp
--- Richard <> wrote:
> I think the last show pics I saw had Sam using a
> Showman head, which I imagine he'd have to have dimed
> to keep up with Dick. Fortunately bass amplification
> has come a long way since the 60's. I think that as
> long as you can get a pretty decent vintage-y bass
> sound out of it pretty much any amp will work. You'll
> always have more volume and cut than the lowenders did
> in the old days. I personally found a used Mesa
> Boogie Buster head (now discontinued) which is
> basically a Bassman clone loaded with 6L6's. At 200
> watts it's a beast.
>
> Richard
>
> --- Brian Neal <> wrote:
>
> > When I saw DD 2 years ago Sam was playing through a
> > Showman head. I
> > don't remember what he had a few months back, but
> > I'd be surprised if
> > it was anything but a Showman with DD.
> >
> > Great bass article, DP, thanks for the link.
> >
> > BN
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
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Without having read any of the other comments made in
the subsequent posts in this subject line, I wanna
pipe up and say I agree with Dave here. I think that
SWR's sound "flat" too, or maybe the word I'm looking
for is "sterile." I have two SWR cabinets that I've
run several heads through, and they just don't sound
as good as my Ampeg B100R with the single 15. They're
not vintage sounding amps at all. I use my SWR cabs
in the metal/rock band I'm in, which they work for,
but I don't like the way they sound.
Richard
--- DP <> wrote:
> Rick:
>
> I don't know, I have never tried that particular
> SWR...
> I have played some SWR combos at the music store
> though...I
> thought they sounded okay, but a litle "flat
> sounding"...not much dynamics...
>
> lots of people really like SWR amps, though...
> -dp
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I have a Mo bass SWR 900 watt head and would be open for suggestions on
cabinets.
I'm currently looking at an Eden 2 X 15 with a tweeter, but would like to
find the most Vintage sounding cabinet possible...
Any suggestions???
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Ampeg. I love Ampeg.
Richard
--- "Johnston, Rick"
<> wrote:
> I'm currently looking at an Eden 2 X 15 with a
> tweeter, but would like to
> find the most Vintage sounding cabinet possible...
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Richard:
"Sterile" is a great way to say it...ultra-clean...like
1980s "pop music" bass...like Duran Duran or The Power
Station...
I think what's missing with the SWR amps I've tried is a
full-bodied "warmth"...sort of like a little "rumble" and
"thump" is missing...maybe it's missing that elusive entity
called "transient response"...you know volume dynamics
caused by player attack...
man, bass is so subjective...it's very difficult to write
about...
-dp
--- Richard <> wrote:
> Without having read any of the other comments made in
> the subsequent posts in this subject line, I wanna
> pipe up and say I agree with Dave here. I think that
> SWR's sound "flat" too, or maybe the word I'm looking
> for is "sterile." I have two SWR cabinets that I've
> run several heads through, and they just don't sound
> as good as my Ampeg B100R with the single 15. They're
> not vintage sounding amps at all. I use my SWR cabs
> in the metal/rock band I'm in, which they work for,
> but I don't like the way they sound.
>
> Richard
>
> --- DP <> wrote:
>
> > Rick:
> >
> > I don't know, I have never tried that particular
> > SWR...
> > I have played some SWR combos at the music store
> > though...I
> > thought they sounded okay, but a litle "flat
> > sounding"...not much dynamics...
> >
> > lots of people really like SWR amps, though...
> > -dp
>
>
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Rick:
Richard's suggestion is right on: Ampeg cabs are sweet!
A few more suggestions to consider:
Old fender cabs are cool: I have a 4x12" Fender Bassman cab
loaded with Eminence 300 watters...sounds like 1963 to my
ears. I had a Fender Showman 2x12 cab before, and bass
sounded good through that too.
For my treble end (biamp bass setup, remember?), I have a
"homemade" 2x12" Celestion 150 watt cab. I bought the
empty cabinet off of ebay and loaded my own Celestions into
it...a nice "John Enwistle-y" 1965 trebble sound comes out
of there.
I had some Sunn cabs before: a 1x15" and a 1x18'+ 1x12"
setup that I stacked under the Fender Bassman...sounded
tight and real cool.
A lot of bassist are going for the 4x10" cabs...but, I
don't think "surf bass" sounds too good through 10"
speakers..too small...the 10" speakers do great for slap
and pop Flea style bass, or MetalThrashGrunge, or
Punk....but...not for big-ass surf bass tone...
good luck,
-dp
--- "Johnston, Rick" <>
wrote:
> I have a Mo bass SWR 900 watt head and would be open
> for suggestions on
> cabinets.
>
> I'm currently looking at an Eden 2 X 15 with a tweeter,
> but would like to
> find the most Vintage sounding cabinet possible...
>
>
>
>
>
> Any suggestions???
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> .
> Visit for
> archived messages, bookmarks, files, polls, etc.
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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--- DP <> wrote:
> I had some Sunn cabs before: a 1x15" and a 1x18'+
> 1x12"
> setup that I stacked under the Fender
> Bassman...sounded
> tight and real cool.
Agreed, Sunn stuff, especially older Sunn stuff, is
awesome. I'll always kick myself over and over and
over again for not buying the Sunn 300T and 2x15
speaker cab that was for sale used at a local place a
while back. Just too much oomph for my meager needs.
> A lot of bassist are going for the 4x10" cabs...but,
> I
> don't think "surf bass" sounds too good through 10"
> speakers..too small...the 10" speakers do great for
> slap
> and pop Flea style bass, or MetalThrashGrunge, or
> Punk....but...not for big-ass surf bass tone...
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I don't
think that ANY bass sounds good through 10" speakers.
On paper the different in the frequency response (or
low-endedness...how should I put it?) is minute, but
in my experience 10 inch speakers simply do not push
the lows. I honestly prefer the sound of a single 15"
speaker to four 10" speakers. My two SWR cabs are a
1x15 and a 2x10. I keep the 2x10 in their solely to
split the signal from the head so as not to fry the
weak cabs. ALL of the low end and sound is coming
from the 15". The 2x10 by itself sounds positively
anemic. If I were going to get another cab I would
get another, higher quality 1x15 like an Ampeg or
maybe an old Sunn if I could fine one. I would
imagine that 12" speakers would at least have some of
the low end of the 15 inchers, so if I wanted more
surface area I would go with multiple 12"s before
10's.
Richard
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Kuri from the Surf Coasters had to play through and old Sunn amp at
the Vancouver gig. I thought it sounded great.
--- In , Richard <errant_jedi@y...> wrote:
> --- DP <noetical1@y...> wrote:
>
> > I had some Sunn cabs before: a 1x15" and a 1x18'+
> > 1x12"
> > setup that I stacked under the Fender
> > Bassman...sounded
> > tight and real cool.
>
> Agreed, Sunn stuff, especially older Sunn stuff, is
> awesome. I'll always kick myself over and over and
> over again for not buying the Sunn 300T and 2x15
> speaker cab that was for sale used at a local place a
> while back. Just too much oomph for my meager needs.
>
> > A lot of bassist are going for the 4x10" cabs...but,
> > I
> > don't think "surf bass" sounds too good through 10"
> > speakers..too small...the 10" speakers do great for
> > slap
> > and pop Flea style bass, or MetalThrashGrunge, or
> > Punk....but...not for big-ass surf bass tone...
>
> I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I don't
> think that ANY bass sounds good through 10" speakers.
> On paper the different in the frequency response (or
> low-endedness...how should I put it?) is minute, but
> in my experience 10 inch speakers simply do not push
> the lows. I honestly prefer the sound of a single 15"
> speaker to four 10" speakers. My two SWR cabs are a
> 1x15 and a 2x10. I keep the 2x10 in their solely to
> split the signal from the head so as not to fry the
> weak cabs. ALL of the low end and sound is coming
> from the 15". The 2x10 by itself sounds positively
> anemic. If I were going to get another cab I would
> get another, higher quality 1x15 like an Ampeg or
> maybe an old Sunn if I could fine one. I would
> imagine that 12" speakers would at least have some of
> the low end of the 15 inchers, so if I wanted more
> surface area I would go with multiple 12"s before
> 10's.
>
> Richard
>
>
>
>
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DP,
I always seem to be talking to you...not intentional
of course, just that certain comments make me want to
go out of lurk mode.
I have to agree w/your comment about Ampeg SVT amps. I
have used, for about a decade, an Ampeg SVT-15T combo
with 15" EV speaker that despite being solid-state,
sounds *very* tube-y.
I played this at an *outdoor* gig with a concert band
a couple years ago and it sounded surprisingly clear.
The proof's in the pudding -- an MP3 of the mobile
recording of one of the songs is here:
Yeah, not "surf" I know, but we're talkin' gear. It's
a nice lil unit with built-in limiter and a line-out
that sound guys appreciate. Alas, it's no longer in
production, but the lil sucker still works and sounds
good....
Though I play a little guitar, too, I'd imagine we
bassists are outnumbered 4-to-1 on this list?
~ Jonathan
--- wrote:
Message: 8
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 09:34:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: DP <>
Subject: RE: Surf Bass (Amp)
[snip]
The Ampeg SVT is a nice sounding and powerful amp, but
it
weighs a ton. Ampeg makes several amps besides the
SVT, and
they sound real nice and round and full.
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Jonathan:
I played a real cool old solid-state SVT at my "practice
place" (a warehouse) when I lived in Northern California
back in the early 1990s. Sweet awesome space-filling tone.
re: "Though I play a little guitar, too, I'd imagine we
bassists are outnumbered 4-to-1 on this list?"
well, this list obviously reflects "the real world" quite
acurately then!
...in fact, one of the main reasons I took up bass way back
as a 14 year old lad was because all the music dudes i knew
played guitar...like 6 or 7 friends all playing guitar.
when i started lamely plunking "Batman" and "Louie Louie"
on my Hohner solid body six-string, i found i got no
invites to the neighborhood garage jams...there was already
three other guys there, and they already knew "smoke on the
water' and "paranoid"...and they had real guitars and amps
too.
so, i got a Sears short scale bass and my dad found a guy
at work who sold me a tube driven fender champ...next thing
you know,I was the only bass player in the ninth
grade...and i was hitting all the garages in the
neighborhood...
true story,
-dp
--- Jonathan Villegas <> wrote:
> DP,
>
> I always seem to be talking to you...not intentional
> of course, just that certain comments make me want to
> go out of lurk mode.
>
> I have to agree w/your comment about Ampeg SVT amps. I
> have used, for about a decade, an Ampeg SVT-15T combo
> with 15" EV speaker that despite being solid-state,
> sounds *very* tube-y.
>
> I played this at an *outdoor* gig with a concert band
> a couple years ago and it sounded surprisingly clear.
> The proof's in the pudding -- an MP3 of the mobile
> recording of one of the songs is here:
>
>
>
> Yeah, not "surf" I know, but we're talkin' gear. It's
> a nice lil unit with built-in limiter and a line-out
> that sound guys appreciate. Alas, it's no longer in
> production, but the lil sucker still works and sounds
> good....
>
> Though I play a little guitar, too, I'd imagine we
> bassists are outnumbered 4-to-1 on this list?
>
> ~ Jonathan
>
> --- wrote:
>
> Message: 8
> Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 09:34:49 -0700 (PDT)
> From: DP <>
> Subject: RE: Surf Bass (Amp)
>
> [snip]
> The Ampeg SVT is a nice sounding and powerful amp, but
> it
> weighs a ton. Ampeg makes several amps besides the
> SVT, and
> they sound real nice and round and full.
>
>
>
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--- In , Richard <errant_jedi@y...> wrote:
>
> I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I don't
> think that ANY bass sounds good through 10" speakers.
> On paper the different in the frequency response (or
> low-endedness...how should I put it?) is minute, but
> in my experience 10 inch speakers simply do not push
> the lows.
Richard - I am absolutly positive that my former bassplayers AMPEG 8x10
cab not only pushes the lows, but in fact will actually physically move
an entire SWR cab placed in front of it. (of course, he loaded it with
an ampeg overkill amp, with enough tubes to light the Hollywood Bowl)
there was a thread on this a while back - after some thinking we
figured that, since it actually is the back-front movement of the
speaker that creates sound waves, as long as that flexible rim around
the speaker is wide enough, the cone will move back and forth plenty -
indeed,its over 1.5 inch in those bass speakers.
In my experience, the 8x10 cabs are a lot more tight and direct
sounding then 15's - good for some things, not so good for surf. but no
way do they put out less low. But I agree with you completly, I like
the sound of 15's WAY better for bass, and for guitar i don't really
like 10's either actually.
So that leaves just one question for Marty: in order to do a fair A/B
test, shouldn't I be comparing an 8x10 cab with an 8x15 cab?
WR
Most experienced bassist who are technically sound have told me that the
structure of the cab is more responsible then the size of the speakers when
it comes to the over all sound quality. In using a 1 X 18" cab on a
typical hollow stage, it turns the entire stage in to part of the speaker
and resulted in a flat, mushy tone.
I have heard the old refridgerator or 8 X 10 cab sound like enough low end
to move what ever needs to be moved and that brings up the thought of
tweeters in bass cabs. If smaller speakers are to punchy for bass, why
would so many 2 X 15 cabs comewith tweeters???
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
