Choosing Your First Bass Guitar Amplifier

If you have a solid-bodied bass guitar you are going to need an amplifier. As usual, there are a few choices to be made such as tube or solid state, combo or separate components, power output, speaker size. To help you make your decision, this article describes which options you should consider before purchasing your bass guitar amplifier.

These days, the majority of bass guitar amplifiers are solid state. Most of them are reliable, reasonably priced and will give years of service if looked after. Tube amplifiers are also available, cost more and will require more maintenance. Solid state amplifiers produce a clean bright sound while tube amps have a warmer tone. Tube amps also produce a pleasant distorted sound when overdriven.

Another choice to make is whether to go for a combo or separate head and speaker cabinet. A combo amp is more compact and you have only one item to carry around. It will also cost you slightly less.

Separate components are more versatile. For instance you could have one speaker cabinet for gigs and a smaller one for practice both using the same amplifier.

An amplifier’s power output is measured in watts. Guitar players can manage perfectly with 100 watt amplifiers, but because bass frequencies require a lot more power to reproduce, you should really have a minimum of 300 watts available to you. A 100 watt bass amplifier may be adequate for rehearsals and small gigs, but it will struggle to cut through at a medium to large gig.

You should also be aware of something called impedance.This is the electrical resistance of a speaker. Typical speaker impedance ratings are 4, 8, or less commonly 16 ohms. Let’s say you have a bass guitar amplifier that puts out 350 watts at 4 ohms. This means that the speaker cabinet must be rated at 4 ohms or more. One day you decide to add a second speaker cabinet. Now you have two cabinets each rated at 4 ohms so the total impedance is 8 ohms right? Wrong! The impedance will now be 2 ohms and running the amplifier through them will cause it to overheat and could damage it severely.

As far as bass speaker cabinets are concerned, it used to be that bigger was better, especially for bass. Bass players used to lug around huge speaker cabinets. These days things have changed and there are some very compact rigs that put out a big sound. The speaker size really depends upon your personal preference. Large fifteen inch speakers will have more bottom end while two or four ten inch speakers will have a tighter, punchier sound. Some players will use two cabinets: one with a fifteen inch speaker and the other with two or four ten inch speakers to get the best of both worlds.