DIY Bass Amp

[wui223]

Might be OT. But i currently planning on building a bass amp. It is now in brainstorming stage so suggestions are very much welcomed.

Anyone has idea what circuit design should i go for? SS or tube?
How much power i need? Consider it is a bedroom practice amp and maybe used for small club gigs. 
Speaker size?

Thanks in advance.

[rockgardenlove]

There aren't many tube bass amps, as you need a huge amount of wattage to get loud, and if you want to get there with tubes, you've gotta have monstrous transformers.

I've got a '68 Bassman that is nice for just jamming in my basement.  Mine is a 50 watt, you might be better off going for one of the later ones that are 100 and 135 watts.  There is of course the Ampeg SVT, which is a 300 watt monster, but this sounds like overkill.

I like my tube Bassman, it sounds very nice for bass and guitar too, and it's nice how you can crank it to get some distorted bass sounds.  It's a cool amp for sure.

[Meanderthal]

 In a bass rig the most important part by far is the amp, which is very much a matter of taste! First ya have to ask yourself what type of tone you're after... for instance, a Bassman sounds all wonky and weird to my ears(on bass, but on guitar it rocks!), an Ampeg roars too much(and the 100 watt v4b is also way too loud), and a Behringer SS sounds sterile.  So ye see- there are many directions to go... But my suggestion would be to go with something very clean and powerful(SS), sterile is the easiest of these problems to fix... There are a LOT of tube amps for bass, but they all color your sound in one way or another, and will be expensive to build and maintain.

I would also suggest 1 15" speaker(Eminence should work fine) and sealed cab to keep it relatively small but still move a lot of air...

[JonFrum]

There's been talk about a bass tube amp over at ax84.com - give them a try.

[rockgardenlove]

In a bass rig the most important part by far is the amp, which is very much a matter of taste! First ya have to ask yourself what type of tone you're after... for instance, a Bassman sounds all wonky and weird to my ears(on bass, but on guitar it rocks!), an Ampeg roars too much(and the 100 watt v4b is also way too loud), and a Behringer SS sounds sterile.  So ye see- there are many directions to go... But my suggestion would be to go with something very clean and powerful(SS), sterile is the easiest of these problems to fix... There are a LOT of tube amps for bass, but they all color your sound in one way or another, and will be expensive to build and maintain.

I would also suggest 1 15" speaker(Eminence should work fine) and sealed cab to keep it relatively small but still move a lot of air...

The Bassman is a bit "wonky"  on bass, but I like the tone for the stuff I play.  I like how it's not super stiff sounding and you can get cool muddy slurs and stuff going on if you want to.  It's very warm sounding.  It sounds very nice if you put a mute under the strings of your base at the bridge and play it like you would a stand up. 

[wui223]

Thanks for the positive inputs. I have an weird idea(i guess so).

Currently i have a working McTube2 which i use for my guitar. Can i combine the McTube2 with a SS power amp like this one:
http://www.electronics-lab.com/projects/audio/032/

If the answer is YES. Should i do any changes to the McTube2 to suit bass guitar?
Thanks.

[Antero]

Sure, why not? 60w SS is small for bass unless you're just recording, though.

What about a DIY preamp like the Acoustic 360 and buying a power amp?

[Bernardduur]

Check out this site

Much of bass amps

[wui223]

Acoustic 360? Any link to the schematic? If build only the preamp, then have to buy poweramp and cabinet seperately which i think would over my tiny little budget.
What speaker would you guys recommend?

[David]

Might be OT. But i currently planning on building a bass amp. It is now in brainstorming stage so suggestions are very much welcomed.

Anyone has idea what circuit design should i go for? SS or tube?
How much power i need? Consider it is a bedroom practice amp and maybe used for small club gigs. 
Speaker size?

Thanks in advance.

Wui, I think you're going to work too hard if you take this approach.  Is your goal to have the amp, or to build it?  If you just want to have an amp, track down a Presonus BlueTube, ART TubeMP or other tube preamp.  Mate that to a PA power amp that's 100W or better into 8 ohms (per side because it'll probably be stereo).  Pick up a PA speaker with at least a 12 and a duct in it.  Done.  Not DIY, but solid as a rock and very, very satisfying in the sound department.

[wui223]

It might be a good idea if i can find those Presonus BlueTube, ART TubeMP. But i dont think these stuffs are available in my region, so far i havent seen one. PA amp might work fine compared to building a power amp from scratch. So the only problem left is the speaker cabinet.

[George Giblet]

I'd start by asking you what commercial bass amps do you like the sound of?

As David said,  100W min  12"x1 min in a ported enclosure.  Anything smaller is pretty useless in a live set-up.

The size of the speaker affects the tone/character - do you like that tweeter sound?

You can buy small rigs cheap from Peavey and Behringer; second hand ones even cheaper.  Peavey stuff is easy to mod.   A lot of small commercial amps use a limit that prevents the power amp from clipping this makes them sound louder (a good idea for small bass amps).

There's a sh@tload of bass preamp/amp schematics on the web!

[fikri]

Dont forget the Alembic F2B tube preamp, i have built it, but havent test it completely, but so far, it is so much fun ! Check R.G.Keen's website for schematic.

[wui223]

Just take a look at the Alembic F2B tube preamp schematic. What is the secondary voltage for the transformer, how much is the B+ ?

As George Giblet said, i should take a tour to the local music store to test various bass amp. Honestly, i am newcomer to bass, thats why i look for opinions here.

One more thing, what is "tweeter sound" ?

[moosapotamus]

I put together an F-2B using a B+ of ~300V. Sounds great. I'm still working on racking it up, tho. Here's some info I put together...
http://moosapotamus.net/IDEAS/F2B/alembic.htm

~ Charlie

[wui223]

Thank alot for the info. Now the preamp is going to be Alembic F2B tube preamp. Whats next? The poweramp? The speaker cabinet?