Posts Tagged ‘Bass Amplifier’
You Don’t Know What You Need Until You Don’t Have It
The title of this blog pertains to everyone I’m sure. Have you ever purchased something only to find out that you should have purchased something else to enhance that original purchase?This applies to the purchase of electric guitars and bass guitars, especially if you are new to the world of music. When you get your purchase home and take it out of the box you realize you need a case to store it in, or a stand to place it on when you are not playing it. How about that guitar amplifier or bass amplifier, did you know enough to purchase that at the same time?
Guitar packages come in electric guitar packages, bass guitar packages, and acoustic guitar packages, and are the solution to your problems. These guitar packs come with everything that you need, they even include things you would not have thought of, like guitar tuners and guitar polish.
When you purchased that electric guitar did it come with a stand or a case? How about a guitar amplifier or a bass amplifier if you purchased a bass guitar, or a guitar tuner.Those are a few of the things that are included in guitar packages when you pick one of them up. Guitar packages come in electric guitar packages, bass guitar packages, and acoustic guitar packages. They came be obtained with different size amplifiers for both bass and guitar. Guitar packages make great gift ideas because everything you need comes in one package, so whoever is receiving the gift only has to tune it and play it.
If you are in the thought process of playing electric guitars there are several things that you should be thinking about. First is are you considering playing electric guitars, bass guitars, or maybe acoustic guitars.
Your next decision is what kind of playing will you be doing, will you be content just playing at home for yourself, or joining or starting a band and playing gigs. Depending upon your answer lies electric guitar packages and bass guitar packages with different size amplifiers to solve your questions.
Many people are under the idea that you need a big guitar amplifier to have a great sound, the truth is yes you do, but at what cost? If you plan on playing on an individual basis, or maybe jamming with some friends just for the fun of it I suggest staying with a 10w or 20watt guitar or bass amplifier, depending on what you are playing. Even if you do plan on playing gigs at some point these two are the perfect choice for starting out, you can always move up to a bigger amp as you get better.
I have to confess, ever since the 1960′s I have been a bass guitar fanatic. I will do just about about anything to achieve a new or different sound.
From the earlier years I was resigned to purchasing bass guitars and bass amplifiers separately because there were no bass guitar packages at that time. Piece by piece I managed to increase my bass guitar and amplifier collection. One day I noticed that the one thing all my bass guitars had in common was that they were all solid body electric bass guitars, so I sought out a solution to my problem.
I found a semi-acoustic bass guitar in the shape of a violin made by Glen Burton Guitars. I found it was available in a bass guitar package and tried it out. It was just what I was looking for. It was a copy of a Beatle Bass which made it a great choice since I still am a big fan of The Beatles. The bass guitar had a softer sound, because it was semi-acoustic, and it was light weight because it not made from a solid piece of wood. It is now part of my arsenal.
Why do we do the things that we do? The answer is simple it is motivation. All walks of life has its crossroads and what we decide whether right or wrong will stay with us for a long time.
I decided to play bass guitar as my primary instrument back in the 1960′s. After hearing and watching The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show a group of us decided to start a band. Using The Beatles as the motivational factor I was drawn to the bass guitar riffs of Paul McCartney more than the electric guitars of John and George. From there I took lessons, purchased my first bass guitar, then my first bass amplifier, I had to purchase everything separately as there were no such things as bass guitar packages in those days.
I have played bass for more than forty years now and it is one of the best decisions I ever made. For anyone reading this just find your motivation and go for it, like me you will be glad that you did.
If you are in the market for a new bass guitar why not take a look at the one of the bass guitar packages that are available. Depending upon your level of expertise you can find multiple choices when it comes to bass amplifiers.
J-Bass, p-bass, or lp-bass, it doesn’t matter you can find a guitar package to fit. As far the different sized bass amplifiers you can always 10w, 20w or 80w bass amp there are reasons to look into any one of them. If you are just beginning either the 10w or 20w is a good choice, they are good practice amps for around the house. If you already play in a band and have your show amp the 20w amp is also a good amp because it is a good size for a practice amp. The 80w bass amp has a pre-amp on it that will make it a good choice for any occasion if you are in a band.
In today’s market you can purchase bass guitar packages and electric guitar packages that include many different sizes of guitar and bass amplifiers, the question is which one is the right size for you.
I use to own a Fender Bassman 100 amplifier in my younger days. It had a maximum wattage of 220, even for the gigs I was playing it was more than I really needed, but I was young then and I had to have the biggest and the best (you know how that is). I still have my Fender Jazz bass guitar but the amp I use now has a mere 20 watts of power. Playing in the house is about all I do these days so I find that is plenty of power for what I do. If you play electric guitar the same thing applies to you, a 10w amp is a good practice amp, while the 20w amp with its 8″ speaker gives you a good enough sound for intermediate playing. If you are planing to play gigs, you might want to step it up to an 80 watt amplifier
I now had my Univox bass guitar which was white with a black pick-guard and my Univox bass amplifier which I had to get separately because there was no such things as bass guitar packages in the 1960′s. To get around the streets with my equipment since I was to young to drive I converted a grocery shopping cart by cutting off the basket so it would accommodate my bass amp, which I secured to it using burlap webbing that was used to make seating. With my bass guitar in its case on top of the amp in the cart I could go from my house to wherever the band was practicing.
By 1969 I was ready to step up to a Fender Jazz Bass guitar. I went to 46th Street in Manhattan to Manny’s, a music store that handled all the big rock stars at the time. I walked into this music store and it was like nothing I had ever seen before, I was like a kid in a candy shop, there were electric guitars, bass guitars, acoustic guitars, guitar amplifiers, and bass amplifiers for what seemed as far as the eye could see, I was heaven.
My friends who played electric guitars and wanted me to be in their band told me of a kid who was selling his bass amplifier. I contacted him and he told me that he wanted one hundred and fifty dollars for the amplifier, however the amp was in a music store with a busted handle.
I found out from friends of mine that he was planning to cheat me, he wanted me to pay him one hundred and fifty dollars for which he would give me the receipt to get it from the music store, what he failed to tell me was that he owed the music store seventy five dollars, as he never finished paying them for the amp the first time.
That summer I got myself a job with Western Union delivering telegraphs. I worked full time and within a few weeks had enough to pay the music store their seventy five dollars and plum forgot to pay the kid that wanted to sell me the amp. The bass amp was a Univox and had a 15″ speaker and was the perfect compliment to my Univox bass guitar.
It was a long cold, snowy, icy winter but I kept up working my paper route to purchase my new bass guitar. I remember the excitement when I finally finished paying it off. I couldn’t wait to get it home and practice with it.
After a short while of playing the bass without an amplifier I set about looking for a bass amplifier. I group of guys I grew up with that played electric guitars in the old neighborhood told me of a kid that was selling a bass amp, you see although I was new to playing bass guitar I was already better than many of the other bass players they knew and they wanted me to join their band.