Best Bass tube amp?

[tubeswell]

Looking for opinions - hopefully some ideas from the '50s and '60s

Doesn't (necessarily) have to be 'high' powered.

(PS - I like the tone of the bass on the Shadows version of "Stardust" and I'd be curious to find out what that bass amp was (- if anyone knows?))

[txstrat]

As I stated before in some other thread the best sounding bass amp IMHO is the Ampeg Portaflex B 15-N. I 've learned "Duck" Dunn recorded almost everything with it from his early days up to the Blues Brothers. Geniune 30w out of two 6L6.
I built one with a 4 6L6 power stage and a 85 - 100w OT. Sounds adorable.
Here's the schematic: http://www.schematicheaven.com/ampeg..._portaflex.pdf (it's the '68 one)
I built it with one channel only.
You might read some reviews of it on the net to be convinced. There's word going round of "Tone of glory" etc.

[mac1amps]

Depending on the situation, sure B-15/Portaflex amps DO sound great, but they have such little "headroom" which makes them un-useable for a bassist that isn't going for a bit of a "cruchy" sound (unless you're playing with a low volume Jazz trio or something comparable). NOTHING comes close to a good old SVT (the older the better......okay, maybe not the early 6146B power tube models). That goes for the wonderful 8x10 cabs as well as the amps......Yes, I know, they're heavy as hell and a "bitch" to move around (it's the outstanding transformers in them, which is also why they sound so good), nevertheless they've been an "industry standard" for bassists for many years. There's a good reason for that.

[txstrat]

they have such little "headroom"

I agree mac,
thats why I built the clone with 4 6L6 in the power amp.
It had the SVT preamp first (everything up to the midrange coil etc.) and sounded very versatile. Great circuit.
The B-15N isn't that versatile IMHO but when you hear it, it sounds like a mouth full of whipped cream and I think that's IT.
For the bigger stages you can mic it or use a DI-box
And it sure depends on the music you make.

[tubby]

IMHO the bass sound from an early SVT is hard to beat, just like mac1amps mentioned. it is probably THE classic bass sound, you just can't go wrong with it.

other tube bass amps that i like for their sound are the Fender 'rumblebass' head, the Weber 'mywatt400', the Reussenzehn 'Monoblock Mk2' and an Eden (i think the et300). eden is also developing a bass amp with aston 'family man' barrett (BM & Wailers fame), dunno if it's a tube amp though, cause as far as i know he was playing acoustic amps among others with marley. in any case, that should be an interesting...lots of bass

[mac1amps]

Yah, 4x6L6's is nice, but it still doesn't come close to (6) 6550's + the outstanding O.T.'s that Ampeg used....BTW, since you brought up 4x6L6's, another excellent [tube] bass amp (if you don't quite need 300 Watts of headroom) is a good old Fender Showman. The moderate gain preamp in those makes it easy to stay relatively clean at a nice volume......Oh and, FWIW, I know you can mic the amp for larger venues, but, speaking as a drummer for 45+ years (as opposed to an amp tech., which has been my profession for 36 years), if it's a large stage/venue and you're using a B-15, your drummer is going to have a real hard time hearing you. Sure, bass can be put through the monitor too, IF it's a good P.A. system, but it's just not the same as having an adequate STAGE volume.

[soundmasterg]

Another nice good old bass sound besides the Ampegs are the Sunn tube amps. 200S, 2000S etc. Easy to build as long as you stick with their layout and good power too. If you decide to build, transformers are all important, and they are available for the 200S, but the 2000S will be harder to source.

Greg

[Enzo]

Ah geez, I'm still trying to figure out how to make the Acoustic 360 a tube amp. Until the SVT came along and blew it aside, the 360 was a nice amp.

I like a high power amp for bass. The size of the waveforms and peaks is huge. if you don't have multihundred watt amps, you chop off your peaks. Talk about your headroom.

DOn;t see them often, but the PV Classic 400 has a ton of power and sounds good... if you can lift it.

[jrfrond]

For vintage tube bass amps, to me, it doesn't get any better than Ampeg. B-15, B-18, V2B, V4B, SVT.....all just super bass amps. Sunn and Traynor tube amps were nice as well, but Ampeg always had "it", and were very versatile and well-engineered. More hits have been recorded on B-15's than any other amp.

[nbtone]

I liked the tone of the Bass Tone Amplifiers from that era. They distorted at louder volumes, but had a much nicer tone than most others.

Looking for opinions - hopefully some ideas from the '50s and '60s

Doesn't (necessarily) have to be 'high' powered.

(PS - I like the tone of the bass on the Shadows version of "Stardust" and I'd be curious to find out what that bass amp was (- if anyone knows?))