jimmarchi1's forum posts 8022

change the battery again just for the hell of it.... is there a little PCB with the active circuitry on it? because if there is maybe a semiconductor became unseated -- OH! and are the pots mounted to the PCB if there is one? gut her and really look it over to understand where the potential PHYSICAL failure points are besides just wire runs, those are the places that may be causing the problem...

9 times out of 10 you are looking at wear and tear on stuff like this and the weak links are the ones that break... active electronics are pretty simple circuits like a guitar boost pedal, not a lot to fail electrically speaking, but there are knobs and flimsy sockets and boards to get stressed

you're welcome.... I balanced it out by chewing you out in the Genre thread a minute ago. But you should read what I said because it might be informative and help you cut through some fuzzy logic where you're not separating content from marketing and that may inform your own music making in a powerful and liberating way...

yes and no. genres help so people see what kind of use those guitars/basses/equipment/bullshit get. thus, rock should be split into like rock, metal, punk, pop/rock, etc.

no, this isn't telling me ANYTHING about how they use stuff, seriously.... looking at settings or just critically LISTENING tells me how they use it. Marshall Plexi, case in point. All the hard rock of the late 60s. Cream, Zep, Free.... BUT also? the Police. You're thinking JC120, but if the sound's not chorused and mixed ins tereo its not a roland. Andy Summers plays a Tele with the amp pretty clean and spanky. Both are rock, what did the genre tell me about how its used? AC30? Queen and U2. Should I even get into this one? Its pretty obvious if you've listened to a song by each band in a more than cursory fashion. Listening to the records tells me how it was used. LISTENING. We learn music with our ears, not with our eyes. People have forgotten that and its pulling the art form down in a lot of instances. Reading the genre and looking at the gear? tells me nothing in reality. My old band? In the studio with a pile of Plexis and JMPs right? Most of the rhythm drive tones are a blackface fender cranked up. I actually used a plexi for a lot of clean parts because it had a nice andy summers sound. If you listen carefully you can figure that out, but if you see plexis and showmans and see rock as the genre you're like "oh, plexi for OD and showman for clean." but if you listened you would know you're backwards. On the record that reversed setup sounded good and you aren't getting that from a genre tag all of the time... heck, in many instances you will be MISLED.

you can take my word on this or you can take my winding, personal road to understanding music... plan A is going to make you better faster while plan B is more fun

'proper' genre.... you work at a label or management company don't you? I mean, whois the arbiter of whats proper in the arts? there's always some critic or executive SAYING theya re the arbiter, but I don't remember voting for those people.

I am voting to do away with genres in all but the broadest sense or make them optional. I wouldn't want a genre stuck to me on here. Hell, not in a record store either! I reluctantly stick them on my soundcloud and even then I might put like 20 because I am ahrd pressed to select as I will use elements from all corners of my broad musical taste and experience at every stage of a song from conception to mixing.

... can still get a rich sound with this. People listening hear what you tell them to hear, NOT how expensive your gear is.

YES! the more gear you have to run stuff through, the more it is processed and is given a unique sound.

on the whole, sure.... all the fancy tools are worthless unless you really know each one intimately whereas a guy who really knows his 4 track? he can own that shit and get the most from it. I remember the 1st session I did on an SSL console with a ton of classic outboard, I just butchered it. I managed to read the manual and learn to use the finer points of the G series (these are complex mixers designed for automated surround in film work) the night before, but I didn't know what any of these old Urei compressors did and Iw as experimenting on this guy's music! I wanted to sue all the stuff and not just stick with the VCA channel compressors and some 160s, but I didn't have a fuking clue. Yes, it was how I started learning the fancy gear, but I coulda made a much better mix for this fella if I had just set the console up like an older, in-line 4 bus and stuck with the compressors and EQs that behaved like the stuff I ahd at home. I knew how to use that stuff perfectly and all the secret sauce in the world did his song NO GOOD because I didn't know how to set it up and what to use it on. Now I could kill it in that mix room if it were still around, but then I shoudla checked my gear lust and made the best sounding record I could and that meant using what seemed to be pedestrian gear to my 22 year old brain! People make good records, not gear!

I will always sooner spend on an inspiring enw instrument than a mic pre or a compressor. If I have a tool that does the job adequately? fuck the secret sauce, the real flavor's in the music, so elt me drop 800 bucks on a moog! It'll make my arrangements better and no piece of processing equipment can do that... they just change what's already there musically.

If you know your basement and can manage it, pre-produce your songs to perfectly express the band's ethos, know garage band and your handful of cheap mics COLD? AND MOST IMPORTANTLY if you can get every musician expressing themselves and really emoting in tandem on one take? you can record at low bit depth or onto a fucking stereo cassette deck through a behringer mixer for all it matters. I record to CD quality all the time because I like sampling and my old samples are low bit rate because the 90s technology only went up to 44.1k 16bit! so rather than try and upsample I a lot of times do whole projects at 44.1, no one ever says the finished mix sounds bad, seriously. I can ehar that its not 192k and there's some tizziness in the conversion but its no more important than to the end listener than what color socks you wore when you cut guitars. Recording people talk gear because its hard to share experiences. Every band is different, but a 160 on a snare is generally pretty similar and we can communicate that experience with eachother. Its ubiquitous.... but when you get past the geeking, everyone who really loves recording music will tell you the same thing: its about the song and the emotion, not the tools and the medium.

"All you really need to make a record is some magnetic tape and a microphone and maybe, just maybe, some bad reverb." -Conrad Uno

if this case its a laptop and a microphone! start out by making the stuff being recorded as good as possible Evilbassist That means being rehearsed, songs thought out to excel in the limited bandwidth and dynamic range of recording media versus a rock club fulla hessians... and room placement and microphone placement and usage optimized to get cosest to your vision of the song.

I love my BF2 and I wish I knew what I did with it when flanging got really passe around 2001!

I kinda regret selling that FL9 last year too!

that's a weird problem, a short in the windings would kill all your strings... or should

are all your control pots functioning normally? is it a battery bass with active crap in it?

do it, say the boss bf2 or Ibanez fl9 Terry! I know you're going to and I agree! I played tons of gothy type shows with a BF2 way back when there were no boutique peals and no one ever criticized my Cure sound

actually I wanna split some of those combo categories like world music with country? not right... you're just new to the site, although the gear is really starting to overlap between Nashville and LA, dude... its crazyhow incestuous mainstream pop/country ahs become with pop, rock, r&b and some hip hop.... listen to a joe diffy record and prepare to scratch your head as to what sort of music it really is.... it takes the kid rock thing another step

I think you're trying tot weak me but tis not going to work... I made a pretty cogent point about the focus of a gear site and you kinda just changed the topic and made a winky face at me or whatever

but seriously, what makes Christian contemporary music distinct is lyrical content, so that's like sub-categorizing gangsta rap versus old school hip hop because NWA started talking about the realities of the streets in Compton whereas Sugarhill Gang was talking about block parties and just exhorting the audience to have a good time. But for our purposes the style is rap/hip-hop

I'm not for a separate punk rock category and that'sore distinctive ins tyle than Christian contemporary and rock music much of the time.... but tis not distinct from mainstream rock ing ear. Hell, its barely distinct from a lot of country unless there's a lap steel player on a country album these days.

y'know, I am typing this and wondering whyw e needed genres at all as a site for musicians and engineers... the whole discussion is kidna stupid.... this site's not for regular music consumers and the hard kernel of our regular user base is made up of extreme enthusiasts and working or retired professionals.... but people who are kidna past this marketing stuff, past WHAT and into HOW

these are just artificial distinctions designed to market records.... which is silly now since no one makes any money selling records and there's no more brick and mortar record stores with those little cards stuck in between the vinyl giving a genre

this whole conversation is feeling nuttier and nuttier from my musician's perspective (well, that and because I am mainly having it with myself).... the way I mix a hip hop record is not so different from what I do with a rock band.... I might have some dancefloor considerations for the rap song, but I am using the same plugins and gear.... its just immaterial. Its good or its weak, I like it or I don't and the genre is just kinda incidental to me as a 25+ year musician

I don't come here to discuss WHAT, its about HOW... if it turns into a fan site I'll stop coming

that's like a lot of stuff.... tis more delay and droning arpegiators with the LFOs sweeping the filter foolishly though.... kidna like the more compelx acid hosue (hardfloor) without all the skill needed to do it right and without any legit 303... ugh

oh yeah, and the jp8080 supersaw/pwm with lots of delay breakdown? that's an important trance thing.... or did I mean 'veajdown' ? even trance needs a veajdown

but the whole trance thing is sketchy.... all the dance genres bleed together, especially the 4 on the Floor ones, and I really don't know who comes up with these trendy terms for them

Christian music is not defined by what equipment they use. It is a record store category, a marketing beacon... the star in the record store that followers can flock to safely.

this is what I'm saying... its a niche marketing tag that Chaldean astronologers, Syrian shepherds and Midwestern farmer's children can all follow to the inn.... but, like, there's not any room there and the story is apocryphal.... okay okay, tangent tangent... umm, but really, I would say trance isn't a distinct enough genre even.... metal is the only rock sub genre that's so specific and specialized from the rest of rock these days that it might need its own EB category. On this site its 100% about equipment and methods. Emphasis on performance or psot productions.... just, like? GOSPEL? that's a Christian genre that's more distinct in tis approach than cotemporary Christian music. Or it was back in the day, its a little more homogenous these days and I should know, I used to have a job mixing the service at a massive gospel church in an abandoned theater.

alright alright, I'll stop.... but when is music just going to be music again between us, the music makers?

I really like a couple of fano models, in the offsets I kidna like both the JM6 and FB6(?)at one that was like mustang shape with some Gibson and strat features that I LOVED. But he stopped making them :-(

and the one that's like a bastard son of SG and epi Crestwood? that one's 'the sex' --- its kidna ugly but in a glorious way.... I mean, those old epis are hideously wrong and the SG is pretty tacky compared to a DC LP jr or special's elegance... but the poor taste was their strong point. It took me decades to get it and start collecting ugly double cuts... Fano just gets it

although fi I were buying an unobtainium boutique solidbody? the Kauer daylighter smokes the fanos, try one! I really like the Koll Duo Glide too in original designs.... so many influences, so unique both in looks and sound and a realy hybrid playing feel between so many old guitars I love...

I always play some old and historic RI gibbies when I go to CMI too because they get decent vintage stuff in and Gibson custom sends them much better examples of the historics than they send to anyone around philly.... even when iw as in DC, its funny, the new hsitorics were just okay in pauls and SGs and such, only the jazz boxes and semis were amazing examples in the Baltimore DC stores and there are some great dealers and great sued places there. I mean GREAT. I really refined my stash down there. I musta bought/sold/traded like 15 guitars in a year not to mention amps, mics, studio gear, cabs... vintage pedals? yeah them too

now that I'm abck in philly its rolling over to synthesizers because there's cools tuff around here being an old soul/r&b town more than a rock town

for vintage ya gotta go to Gruhn's in Nashville sometimes.... that is the cream of the cream.... other than 335s, there's this retired guy in Connecticut who is the best 335 dealer. Dude hunts them down around the globe, particularly 58-64 examples.... I wish iw as rich.

anyway, CME really excels at boutique.... or they did last time I blew through! I never hang out in Chicago to see the sites, enever been on the sears tower, but if I have a flight layover I make it a long gap where I'll get the red eye to Chicago and the redeye to California and inbetween I am at CME playing with cool stuff.... then I go out drinking if I can wrangle a staff member at close before I have to check back into the airport and got through security again. I just travel with a carry on usually, so its no biggie to schlep that shoulder bag around and buy anything I need at my destination.... leaves my hands free for guitars.

Chicago is rough from what I'm told because music exchange is based there among other fancy man stores. There's a lot of gear but CMI is scouting for their inventory so they soak up a lot. Nashville can be like that too, Gruhns is out there scoping for stuff to restore etc... but Indianapolis might be a good one. philly ahs been dry lately but it used to be good. I think the bests tuff doesn't make it up here anymore and the local shit is long sicne redistributed to permanent homes... but DC and Baltimore were sweet when I lived down there. Those second cities that are in driving distance of major gear towns.... Indi fits the bill.

you want to bust ass in class and at menial jobs on 2 horus sleep a night when you're young and energetic and hungry -- without debt, rent/mortgage, spouses, kids etc. That stuff encroaches so fast, man.

dude, make sure to go to EVERY guitar show/expo that gets near you.... that shits the money sometimes. People don't wanna carry heavy shit like pro bass gear and marshall stacks to the truck on the last day only to have to ebay them, pack them and ship them hoping nthing breaks in transit and theys tart selling with very slender profit margins.... only the HUGE dealers take their big stuff home. The small fry will cut you some deals just to travel light.

night job man... I used to work the door at night clubs in highschool and art school... okay moneya dn you could sell anything you confiscated in a bag search, split the money with the bouncer... then alter in art school I did front office at a studio/label and I started to learn engineering.... I mainly worked, you guessed it, nighttime.I started to really grow the gear haord at that time. Now I don't even know what I have entirely. Well, I do, but I forget sometiems and I never get around to posting it all. Once you're bought in it starts to become self funding as you sell stuff that appreciated in value or trade up with buddies... it takes on a life of its own, but it requires some low sleep years to get going. You want tog et going now ebfore you're paying student loans though.... IN SCHOOL is the time to jump start. Starbucks exists for a reason. We can replace sleep with espresso when we're young. If I did that now I would get sick.I need my 6 to 8 every night. But you? You're almost 20 years my junior I'll bet, young and energetic with fresh, highly functioning internal organs. If you are passionate about music you should sacrifice some R&R with the friends and some sleep on the altar of music tools. You may not get a 2nd chance in this economy.

that's a good deal.... don't you have anything you're not using? if not guitar stuff then maybe a kidney? we all have 2 of those and you don't need both

or you can just work extra hours or take a night job or soemthing

but dude, more importantly, you should totally go on Reverb today and buy a 70s bassman 100, just fucking buy one. It would be way cool if you did

oh! another cool, but more british mid sized tube bass amp? Selmer Treble n Bass 50 or 100.... my Treble n Bass head is nice for guitar but its a bass monster. Its a 2nd gen one so its got a solid state rectifier and punches like amule tanks to the tighter power supply.... you can get selmers all day for 500 bucks in beatup condition, especially the 3rd generation and later ones

warmoth? build one

I'm thinking of the mustang bass, my bad! I get those names mixed up all the time sicne the guitars are both shorties with modified strat pickups, weird switching and car names LOL

now I'm picturing like a fiesta red bass, full scale, block inlays.... that's the model, right?

yeah, no problem.... I love to talk about recording.... any questions at all just ask.... I have made 100s, maybe 1000s of location recordings in all kinds of spaces, using all sorts of gear from prosumer to fancy and with all kinds of bands and have a huge box of methods you can dip into as you go if you want to

the main thing to remember in music with live drums is that your goal is not to eliminate reflections but to manage them.... you want musical control of the frequencies and also the attack, decay and delay character in all the bands and this is done physically with live drums through managing the space and the mic positions as wella s electronically by using compressors, eqs, expanders/gates to shape a microphone signal to add to the song rather than wash it out.... the more you can control the sound before the mic the better! drums at festivals sound kidna shitty because they don't have enough sirfaces to reflect off of and our ears want that info to identify the size and position of a drum... maybe Africans with their crazy drum circles don't feel the same way, but as modern western folks we are used to indoor drums so deadening a room completely may not make for a satisfying drum sound.... dry, mic Fleetwood type drums still tend to have a lot of room shaping them, its just he balance of direct sound is really high

shortscale.... those pickups will perform so differently on a short scale..... scale is so much more influential on harmonic content than electronics

no, non sarcastic. i took all of my mom's couch pillows from her and lined the walls with them.

I would rethink that and try strapping them to mic stands and arranging them through the room as diffusers so that the walls reflect but the standing waves are controlled by the cushions. to break up bigger bass frequencies try getting 2 liters from soda and filling them with sand and then gaff taping them to more straight stands and experiment with placement around the room so you are just getting the good reflections... the goal is to rbeak standing waves and shorten cymbal wash decay but maintain ncie, reverberant lower mids you can use to give the mix power and a sense of place... for fast tunes try gating the stairwell mics too.... adjust the release time to fit the tempo and groove of the song and just print with the gate. This way you're shutting the reverb down before it can itnerfeere with the direct sounds but you can, as a result, use it more musically and mix a lot more in if it sounds good..... you can get away with compressing it a lot more too

I would take the ceiling out of the drum equation by mounting like a tent over the kit sort of.... like a drum umbrealla.... hang a quilt from the ceiling on S hooks, this way the cymbals won't get all that brash reflection from the low ceiling into the overhead(s).... I would do a stereo pair on the stairs possibly setup backwards or maybe a card and a bi-directional in m/s tog et room sound since we're drying up your overhead(s)... and/or you can go with a less direct mic approach like a variation on the glyn johns 2 mic setup.... a 4 mic ocer/udner arrangement can work magic in tight spaces with dead floors and reflective low ceilings

the P-bass is just so much more rockin.... I love Js soemtimes, but P-bass man.... desert island shit! best of both worlds? MIJ fender aerodyne bass.... has a P and a J pickup, trade for about $300 to 500, worth every penny

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic with that thank you, but I'll assume you are being legit and respond by saying: do you have any baffling available? if not can you make anything out of stands, couch cushions and blankets? is the ceiling high or low? is the floor carpeted, tiled? what? I could probably help you get this done a lot faster and also sounding a lot more like, well, your band at a show... I have done A LOT of guerilla recording as well as legit, fancy pants studio work

EDIT:

are there closets you can sue as amp booths? what's the stairwell sound like? does it have a cool reverb tail? maybe you can utilize bleed and mic the whole band setup from the top of the stairs to add depth of field

again, you are definitely better off just using the OD and EQ on the amp with an octave pedal or volume pedal.

really wanna stay simple, though, just the amp should do you.

unless it's a p/j jazz bass you aren't hitting mike dirnt's tone with a j-bass. you'd need a p.

you can get the style with a nice whack into the front end, henc why I suggested he use a compressor.... maybe a little bump in the mids from what mike what do since the lower mdis are so much stronger from a split single. I mean, exact tone? big fender head or sunn.... P-Bass.... LOUDNESS. Biggest cab you can afford.

I would justs tick with the bass he has and invest in a bassman, big cab that still fits in his car and a bass compressor for subtle levelling and a nice fat VCA boost into the front end

you want a 70s bassman 50, 100 or 120... not the enw ones and not the oens without the numbers on the front plate (the value on regular bassmans is higher and theya re better for guitar).... for Mike Dirnt the fender bassman 100 or 120 will get you in the ballpark. He uses those 300 watt 'bassmans' that are really fender badged Sunn heads. Sunns are great abss amps, but many they cost a lot now. Used to be a deal though. Sunns are pretty fender though. Not ampegy at all. I might get soemthign out front like an mxr bass comp pedal for 100 bucks or so more and call it a day. You want to even the response of your bass with the comp (either slow attack and release, low threshold and lowr atio or fast attack and release, high threshold high ratio) and then slam the output into the front of the amp until you get the amount of rattley drity grunge you like, then turn up until the sound starts to clip audibly and then back off 1 volume number so the power amp is breaking up a smidge on your hardest transients.

anyway, that's my bassman for bass advice.... you can also use a dirt pedal in lieu of the compressor for more preamp hair.... the old abss tubescreamer sounds okay.... the zvex distortron works a treat on bass with subs at 3 as does the red llama or SCOD type of pedals.... then there's lots of dedicated shit too that's come out lately. Lots ofs tuff to whack a tube bass head with. I always favored the compressor approach though since my playing was not always the most even when I used a pick to be ore rockin' I am a much better figner player on bass.

wow, I just looked up ampeg B25Bs? dude, they are upwards of $600 now for just the head. LOL I never paid more than $250, that's why I liked 'em. damn

you can still get a clean bassman 50 or 100 for 500 at least. They are n nice fucking bass amps, highly underrated. And super reliable. Can't kill a pre-80s fender

that's a lot though.... maybe stick with your rumble and get that fly rig for out front

You should probably just hold it and mix all of the songs together, keep it all separate. You might wanna focus on just rhythm section and knock out all the bass and drum tracks with maybe a scratch rhythm guitar... or maybe it was the way you said that that ash me thinking you plan to track a whole song, overdubs and all, mix it, then start the enxt one.... that's okay as a soloa rtist or soemthign more electronic. In rock music with a strong live band context I always dislike that.... well, often dislike it. There are some bands that do that's tyle with aplomb....

or just get in the room as a band, put up gobos and play your set with out vocals or lead guitar, Steve Albini style. That requires extraordinary tightness or stylistically appropriate slop, but its my favorite way to do a band and you tend to get the meat of the record down in a weekend's continuous work and maybe another evening of punches if'n at first y'all ain't so sure about a few spots in the best takes. A good vibe enhancer is to literally play the set, break, play it again, break, play it again, lunch.... listen back to 3 sets, select takes and identify any songs that didn't get a good enough take. This is efficient use of time and it keeps thigns on an exciting level, which is where rock n roll type things should be.... I also recommend starting to a click in the drummers cans but everyone else working off their amps or floor wedges for this method. Maintain line of sight and have the engineer slowly pull the click down and mute it as the 1st verse builds up. Anyway.... build up enthusiasm and inertia will follow. Get it done, don't labor it. I've made that mistake so many times. Next thing you know people are pounding on the studio door throwing you out because another band needs to overdub guitars and you only have half the songs done.

I don't know who those 1st 2 acts are but the black keys? tube amps, often more than 1 on bass and not usually the ubiquitous SVT.... y'know, when they have a dedicated bassist LOL they're one of those whitestripes bands

be it original garage and protopunk or this new fangled hipster stuff its a tube amp thing... its funny though, the lemmy bass aesthetic is not far removed from the modern garage sound

I'm really serious about that ampeg B25B though, I think it'll do exactly what you want with little to nothing out front... just turn up until it get hairy and tweak the very good EQ section to get the fur to sit where you want and the lows to kick against the drums the way you want.... you could split with a cheap passive DI out front or inbetween the pre and power sections of the amp if you wanna give a fairly dry signal to FOH as safety.... generally a good call to record DI as well as an amp too, even if you don't use the DI in the end. I have a very different take on bass than boom for instance who is like a bassists bassist. I was always a bass GUITARIST and I approached it a lot more like a Lemmy or an Auerbach. Even as a recording and FOH engineer I tended to drive rock bands in that direction. I was really notorious for keeping a dual showman on hand at festivals and we used the shit out of it over an SVT most of the time on my old band's record, Yes, its an old guitar amp, but tis got a ballsy bottom through bass speakers and a great grind that just says BASS GUITAR! STAND BACK BITCH!!! a solid state amp is never going to do that. It'll be loud, well defined but ultimately polite even with effects. The ashdown MAGs are like the one solid state bass amp I like for sleazy rock. But for what they cost there are a million options.

LINE6 ALERT!!!

y'know what? even the pre-HD pods for abss sound really great with the cabs disabled feeding a power amp and a decent 4x10. I forgot all about them. I knew a guy who swore by that rig and he always sounded great and he ahd all these presets and a foot controller to change them.... plus he sent an effected DI to FOH. It was just a good rig and it cost him nothing. I think he had like a 100 watt per side 80s peavey tube power amp and a stereo ampeg 4x10. It was a rack pod xt I think and eh had a korg rack tuner. It just worked. And the guy owned some sweet gear he recorded with, but live he did a lot of covers and he could dial in the right abss style for whatever and just recall it and instead of tweaking settings he used to adjust for rooms by changing the horn level on the 4x10. If the roomw as dark he cranked the horn tweeter up.

you could always be Lemmy and get a 100 watt marshall guitar head! Shit was always rippin'

how far into the record are you?

I dunno, for garage stuff I would look at a tube amp. That's me though. I would be thinking 40 to 200 watt tube head, bass 4x10 or 2x12 or if you wanna be really retro try a guitar 4x12 with a mix of guitar speakers and bass speakers.... I would maybe get a pedal compressor designed for bass and of course a pitchblack and that's about it

for like EVERY OTHER APPLICATION Boom's fly rig iinto your rumble idea is great, but that garage/punk/trash rock sound is very tubey... its a super specific sound

for tuner I've been eyeing a polytune for my guitar rig

great for guitar, my fave, but the korg's are better at accurately tracking bass.... when I played bass more often I had both

i was taking the approach of a guitarist, for me a form of drive/dirt and reverb are my essentials but idk for bass, I'm just feeling the water for getting a decent cheap rig

you definitely wanna watch out for ambiance on bass sounds and even guys who use delay are really careful with the tonality of that effect on bass.... fucking up the low end of your band is generally a disaster from a performance standpoint, all thatw ash kills the rhythm section lock and what reaches the audience isn't overtly effected, its more just mushy

nah I've got a loaner squier vintage modified

I was jus busting boom's ballsack, man LOL

I'm just looking for a good thumpy wish garage rock tone,

if you don't need excessive volume you should look at the 70s ampeg B25B, I used to have 2 of them, you could get them all day for 100 bucks.... maybe 300 now? Great portaflex, motowny cleans but turn it up past like 6 and fuck with the EQ voicing switches and you can get some gnarly driven garage sounds

the silverface bassman 50, 100 and 120 are still relatively cheap for fenders and they can get raunchy but also are fender's best dedicated bass amps to my ear, much better for bass than a blackface bassman which is a better guitar amp....

traynors, nuff said

a sans amp rack with an alesis 3630 or something similar can work a treat into a sound reinforcement power amp like a Crown too

wait, does he need a bass?

I wouldn't use reverb on bass, particularly not before it hits the mix desk and if you do wanna go that route definitely look at an advanced unit with comprehensive predelay, hi and lo cut to keep it out of the way of your attack and fundamental. But hey, that's a guideline, there are no rules and if you like it then tis good for you.... but don't expect to be ehard clearly when you break the rules. It depends on your goals