If you think of the creation of a song in the same terms of building a house, the bass player works closely with the drummer to lay the foundation that the other instruments build their parts on. Unfortunately, the bass player is probably the most disregarded player in a band. Let’s face it. When was the last time you saw a great looking house, and thought, “What a great foundation that house is built on”? As sure as a house without a foundation will fail, so will your song without the dedication of a great bass player using the best tools of the trade.

If you were to design a poll for both professional and semi-pro bass players on what the best bass amplifiers on the market were today, I would be willing to bet that Ampeg would come out as the clear winner. I have personally seen more Ampeg amplifiers on big stages and in small venues, than any other company’s product. To put Ampeg’s popularity in perspective, you could ask the same players their opinion on the best bass guitar on the market. You would probably get a very wide and diverse list of companies, and not one guitar brand would even come close to the percentage commanded by Ampeg's line of bass amps. This is largely in part due to the fact that for over five decades, Ampeg has led the industry in the creation of innovative bass amplification products for all levels of musicians.

The bass guitar is a unique instrument in the fact that it is felt as much as it is heard. I recently received an amplifier head and speaker cab with incredibly great tone and enough raw, clean, chest thumping power to make your heart feel like a BB rattling around in a basketball. If you want to know more about the Ampeg SVT-6 PRO and the SVT-410HLF speaker cabinet, please read on.

About a month ago I was in New Orleans for a meeting. As many of you are aware, this city has always been a rich source of American culture. What you may not know is that New Orleans gave birth to the musical style known as “Jazz”. Following the devastating hurricane that broke the levees, most of this amazing city and its music was silenced. However, I am glad to report that the city is beginning to recover. Off an on during this four day business meeting, we were treated to some of the best musicians that New Orleans had to offer. These were not street corner buskers. Amazing artists such as Irvin Mayfield and Charmaine Neville entertained our group of around 1500 people.

The point of this introduction is that, here I was, watching these stunning performers, and from across the room I can see the equipment these guys were using. Being a quintessential GearHead, I catalogued the jazz guitars, trumpets, pianos, fiddles, and harmonicas used on stage. Funny enough, I managed to notice one interesting thing. Guess what amp almost all their bass players used? The answer is Ampeg. (Well, except for one strange cat with a weird Marshall head and some ancient cabinet). The really great thing was that I knew that I had an Ampeg BA-115T bass amp in my studio just waiting for a May review!

Several years ago, I played in a band that lacked one very important element. A bass guitar player! At the time we wanted to record our music, but it lacked the life and fullness that the bass guitar adds to the overall sound. We were also relegated to using a cassette tape recorder, so I could not go back and record the bass on another track later. This left us in a situation where our keyboard player tried to add the bass notes so we could get out and play all the gigs we were booking. While this helped, it did not give the same depth of sound that a real bass guitar adds.

As digital home studios become more affordable for musicians, many guitar players are turning their attention to learning other instruments like the bass guitar. With much of the computer based recording software on the market you have access to more tracks than you will ever be able to use which allows one person to play several instruments on a project. The bass guitar is a logical transition for a guitar player to make if there is not a bass player available for recording.

Most guitar players do not want to sink a lot of money into a bass rig, so they are going to try to find an inexpensive bass guitar and amplifier that gives them the best results. The BT100 bass amplifier by Crate is a great value with tons of features and tone.