I am a happy newbie Stickist! (Ouch, I've already found muscles in my right hand/wrist I did not know I had). Gear question! (and yes I read the amazing looooong sticky "gig rig" thread - you guys are something else!! Love it!)

We play bass and guitar here and I am a complete tone junky. I have a few boutique tube guitar amps that have amazing tube tone. (Namely a Splawn Street Rod I use in my performing band) and a Goodsell Mark IV - loud and glassy clean with a 3-position midrange..amazing!). Now, ignore the fact I have guitar amps for a second...as they stay in a practice location or in our PA trailer.

My son plays/reads bass and we have a simple practice amp that is woefully inadequate.

Heres the Q: I am reading through the threads here and see some of you use a mini-mixer to sum the stereo out to 2 mono outputs from a Stickup, then run to a single amp; keyboard, PA or Bass rig. Makes sense to me.

We have to get a new bass amp anyway. I am not so experienced with buying bass rigs - I am wondering if there is such a thing as a "full range" bass amp solution I can use with both our Fender Jazz and the Stick. Ideally, I would be able to pass through my Line6 POD HDPro or my guitar effects on the melody side before I go into the mixer - then sum to this single amp solution. Combo preferred, portability a must.

Sound like that would work? Hey, I need a bass amp either way! What am I looking for?

Some folks consider keyboard amps like the ones from Roland pretty full range. I am pretty happy with my Roland as a Stick amp - of course it doesn't have the full oomph of a true bass amp but it's not horrible. I just don't want to be carrying two amps around to play Stick. I also use a traditional bass amp for my two handed funky Stick bass stuff.

Also my Roland is a mixing amp which is quite convenient.

And I'm a big fan of the Line6 POD. I have an HD500X which sums my signal (among other things!)

It seems that my recent posts are effectively previews of the upcoming "bass side amps" episode of Free Hands Friday (schedule to be announced). I should probably make this post a list of some sort...

1. Many non-tube bass amps are full range: it is the speaker cabinets that are the limiting factor.
2. Truly full range speaker cabinets are not likely to be found in a store.
3. Get a bass head with lots of EQ control.
4. Connect the bass side to the bass head's input, then connect the bass head's effects send to the POD.
5. Sum the signals in the last slot in the POD, then connect the POD's output to the bass head's effects return.

As far as bass heads with lots of EQ, I have to suggest Carvin's BX1600 (or the BX700 if you do not want to bother with a rack).

Now is the part everyone knew was coming, my fEARful recommendation. Yes, this has come up recently. Stick players would do well to either buy or build a True Three Way fEARful speaker cabinet. That is even more suitable for our instruments than the newer Fearless line, for which the plans are not public. The models I recommended in the linked post are what I would recommend to you, the only difference being the Authorized Builder (should you choose to buy): you want Greenboy Audio.

For a bit more about building a fEARful cabinet, look at where I bombed Gene recently.

Awesome. Thanks! Question on the above - do I plug the melody side into the POD front input? What do you mean by "last slot"?

As I look at the Greenboy with a 12" in it, I'm thinking that's probably a great sounding guitar cab too..interesting.

Mark Bass.... tone for days

Sorry, my mind still had a bit of AxeFX rattling around. I meant that you should run parallel for each side, then use the mixer block to sum.

The cab will have a very flat response, and the tweeter may reveal some hissing, so be prepared to use some EQ or filtering in the loop.

Which Markbass combos have you played through, Randy?

Didn't know much about the brand, so I was looking into their CMD 102P a little while back. I noticed that there are quite a few user reviews out there (~40 on GC/MF, bass forums). They're nearly universally over-the-top positive regarding tone and quality, and I can't seem to find anyone that's had one break down. Even a few mentions of using it as a keyboard monitor. Two 10" drivers and a tweeter sounds like it ought to have a good wide range that would suit a Stick, so I'm finding that the prospect of saving up $1000 for one doesn't sound as crazy as it should.

It would be wise to stop and think about why you have that impression. To wit: guitarists do not need to know much of anything about speaker cabinets because their instrument does not require a wide range of sound reinforcement, whereas bass playing community is effectively retarded (in the proper use of the term) because the entire culture is built on misunderstanding speaker cabinets.

If you look at the speaker cabinet critically rather than following the traditional presumptions of how a 2x10 sounds and what a tweeter does in a bass speaker cabinet, you will find that it is nowhere near as full range as what gtargreg wants. Looking at the specs, there is no way that is is -3dB at 40Hz. It is probably -10dB at the frequency, and even then the overall frequency response suffers because their is no midrange driver to help the 10 inch woofers extend that low (which hardly matters, since they are unlikely to support the necessary excursion). For the 101dB sensitivity to be achieved, those 10 inch woofers have to be covering the midrange with exaggerated bass extension via the cabinet's tuning frequency.

It is my contention that the old fallback of the musician's mantra ("If it sounds good, it is good") is not sufficient for Stickists because the instrument's range and timbre does not give them (I cannot write "us" yet) anywhere to hide. "Guitar and bass put together" is at least as mistaken a concept for gear selection as it is for the instrument itself. The Stick was decades ahead of its time in terms of full range sound reinforcement, but the last decade of progress has given us the opportunity to do it justice.

Please appreciate that I work very hard to avoid making anyone unhappy with equipment they enjoy.

I have owned the Jeff Berlin w/single 15, and the CMD121... both really fine amps, however, I prefer 12's for the Stick... the only reason I got rid of them is that I wanted to go with QSC K12 powered monitors, so that I could also run my Roland hp-20 through it as well . These would be an excellent choice if you are looking for a STICK rig... Heck, they are also great to run bass guitar through. We can through out numbers all day long, in the end.... what sounds good to YOUR ear??

I'm not a perfectionist here. I truly just need a portable rig that will allow me to practice and hear some good punchy bass and OK melody side. I can completely relate to the Carvin suggestion with a 2x10 + a tweeter standard cab. I'm not a performer yet, but I want to crank it up at home. I have a Gigrac PA, which would be great but I don't want to set up all that. Now when I get to perform with it.....then....ill.....