The Music Room

Here is a list of the bass equipment I currently use:

Amp: Pre-Fender era, Chrome SWR Bass 350 rackmount head in a 4 rack space case (350 watts into 4 ohms or 450 into 2 ohms) – 24 lbs
Cabinet: Avatar 2×10 Neo + foster horn – 4 ohm bass cabinet (500 watts RMS) – 45 lbs

Practice amp: Hartke B30

Basses:
Peavey Milestone II Precision 4 string bass (pictured below).
Strings: Ernie Ball Slinkys or DR Highbeams

Modified Douglas WOB 825 Natural Ash body 5 string bass with Aguilar OP-3 on board preamp (pictured below)
Strings: DR Sunbeams or DR Nickel Lo Riders

I have also previously owned these setups:
Ampeg B-5r rackmount head

Review: I loved my B100r, so when it came time to upgrade, I decided to stay with ampeg amps. This model is USA made by SLM (pre-LOUD era). They only made this head for a couple of years for some reason. 2 channel amp with a foot pedal for switching and combining. Solid state pre and power amp sections. The clean channel on this amp sounded great. Dense, warm and focused. Cleaner than the all tube ampeg heads and I never had a problem cutting through. It had plenty of connections and a good amount of power but not enough tone shaping in my opinion. Every bass I plugged into it sounded about the same and the 3 band eq really didn’t make that much of a difference. I found the 2nd channel (overdrive channel) to be pretty much useless. I did use the octave effect on occasion. It always bothered me that it had plastic connections and push buttons instead of metal. I sold this head and decided to give SWR a try because it had a cleaner sound, more tone shaping capabilities and a tube preamp.

Avatar B410 cabinet with eminence deltas + Foster horn

Review: Great, well built cabinet. I would highly recommend it to anyone. It can get loud without distorting and sounds great! My only complaints about the cabinet itself is it had some low end roll off and got muddy when playing on the b string due to the Delta speakers and the tuning of the cabinet and it had sharp edges on the grill. Overall, it compares to cabinets twice the price. Out performs most of the ampeg cabinets I have tried. It was just too heavy (95 lbs) and big for apartment life so I sold it to get an Avatar b210 NEO.

Ampeg B100r combo amp

Review: This amp featured 100 watts, a single 15, no tweeter, 4 band eq and made in the US by SLM (pre-LOUD takeover). Great amp, awesome warm tone and very solidly built. As close to a vintage tube amp tone that will come out of a solid state circuit. It was perfect!…except it was just missing one little thing. It did not have a DI out, so as much as I hated to, I had to sell it to pay for my half stack which had more power and a DI. Ampeg has since added DI outs to the new models of this amp.

Peavey Milestone I – Jazz clone
Review: Jazz Bass Copy. 2 single coil jazz pickups. The output on the pick ups was pretty low and had more noise than I am used to. The bass itself was solid, featured a hardwood body, even string response and comfortable to play. Same neck and string spacing as my Milestone II. If the pick ups were replaced it would be a pretty decent bass for less than a fender jazz, but I sold it to help pay for my 5 string.

Fender/Squire Precision Bass
Review: Your basic Precision bass. The build quality was pretty good. The tone was decent. It sounded it muddy compared to my Milestone II, which I personally didn’t like as much, and it was considerably heavier in weight. Great starter bass though. For a couple of months, I had this bass and the Milestone II. I found myself never using this one after I picked up the Milestone II, so I sold it.

Rogue P/J 4 string bass
Review: Total crap. Don’t buy it.