

What Bass Amp Setup Should I Get?Īny bass amp setup you buy will need to have a preamp, a power amp (these two are often combined in a head), and a speaker cabinet. A half stack is just one cabinet with a head on top.

#BIG L PUT IT ON BASS TAB FULL#
A full stack consists of two cabinets with a head on top. Bass StacksĪ stack is a head and cabinet stacked together. More bass cabinet info is in the bass cabinet guide. You can damage the cabinet if you send too much power to it. A 4 x 10 cabinet contains four 10” speakers.Ĭabinets are rated in terms of how much power they can handle coming from the bass head. A 1 x 15 cabinet means it contains one 15” speaker. The size is usually described as the number of speakers and the size of the speakers in inches. The speaker is screwed inside and covered with a protective grill.Ĭabinets come in many different sizes. Cabinets are usually wooden boxes covered with carpet. Most bass cabinets are simply constructed. Bass CabinetsĪ bass cabinet is a box containing one or more speakers. So, the amplified signal is then sent to the speaker in the cabinet. The power is needed to physically move, or drive, the speaker in the cabinet. The power amp takes the signal from the preamp and essentially makes it more powerful. Once the input signal has been shaped and colored by the preamp, the bass signal is sent to the power amp. Always be sure to get a bass preamp unless you know for sure you want something else. A bass preamp is designed specifically for bass. A guitar preamp is designed to make the tonal properties of guitars sound good. Preamps are commonly designed with a particular instrument in mind. The preamp can make subtle or drastic changes to the sonic characteristics of the input signal. It might make it sound brighter or muddier, or it might make it sound boomier or brittle. The preamp shapes and manipulates the bass signal it receives in various ways. When you plug your bass into the bass amp input the first place your bass signal goes is to the preamp. Let me break down these two parts of the bass head. Many times these come together in one unit other times they come as separate units which you must link together. The head of a bass amp can be divided into the preamp and the power amp. Other times the head and cabinet are combined into one unit called a combo amp. The head and cabinet can be bought separately. The output of the bass amp head is sent to the speaker cabinet. The bass speaker cabinet, or just cabinet, is the box enclosure housing the speaker or speakers. The head is the part of the amp into which you plug your bass guitar. The bass amp head, or head, is the part housing all the main electronic components of the bass amplifier. The two main parts of a bass amp are the head and the cabinet. In other articles I will go into more detail about each bass amp component. In this bass gear article, I will explain to you the main components of bass amps and the ways you need to combine them. And, bass amp rigs, as they are called, can be purchased in several different configurations. Bass amps consist of several different components.
