What bass set up for around £500?

[thebeagle]

I agree after being told a tiny Ashdown amp with a 12 inch speaker was capable of 300 watts I was dubious to say the least. Take the Peavey amps they used to be rated at 115 & 130 watts respectively with a 300watt version that had a black widow speaker, now the same TKO/TNT amps are rated at 400 & 600 watts, I know things have moved on but that seems a bit of a leap.

Totally, and it's been going that way for over a decade - back when I was working at Studiomaster they'd just changed the names of their 600D/900D/1200D/1500D PA amplifiers to 900E/1200E/1500E/2000E to reflect the power that they'd supply into two ohms, rather than into four as they were previously rated.

They WOULD do it (having had a bit of a redesign to cope with lower loads), but running the amp hotter and closer to its limits than the previous ratings suggested. Trouble was, because Behringer et al had started rating their amps on the absolute maximum power that they COULD supply, rather than on what they'd reliably supply night in, night out without being able to cook eggs on it after a few hours the old ratings looked uncompetitive and they had to start playing silly buggers with the figures.
Frankly, if you regularly run a PA power amp flat-out into 2 ohms you deserve to have the thing fry, but Joe punter might not know that.

[guitarfishbay]

Thanks for your help guys.

He picked up a used Ashdown AMB 500 Evo ii 4x10 combo today for exactly half his budget, and he seems pretty impressed for the cash.

One of these:

[fretmeister]

That will do!

A long time ago I ran a UK built Ashdown MAG400H head into an ABM 4x10 and it was very nice sounding indeed.

Shame about the weight!

[chrispy108]

That's alot of amp for two-fifty squids!

[therose789]

Orange Bass Terror!

I have an AD200mk3 and it is the most rock sounding amp i have ever owned and from what i gather the bass terrors are pretty close in sound to that with the added versatility of a DI out.

From my experience of buying and selling bass amps i find its always best to keep it simple, messing about with amps with graphic eq's and 'tone shapes' you are never 100% happy with your tone. Get something good quality and simple. Get a nice bass and you're away!

Nice gear doesn't have to cost you the earth, Don't waste the money on buying gimmicky things that you would never use and will 'spoil' your tone.

I would also recommend some of the ashdown kit too. I had the chance to use an abm500 a couple of weeks ago and and it was lovely! (not quite as good as my orange like!)

[paultheoneyoulove]

I was going to recommend this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trace-Elli...item2a2b93edc5

But you seem to have done brilliantly well already. Quality looking amp, and (though I've never used one) probably sounds sweet as a nut.