Working bass players have two great things going for them: They’re bass players and they’re working. The downside is that the per-gig pay may not be able to buy that retirement cabin in Gatlinburg. You know what? It doesn’t matter. Free hot wings and small stages be damned. We want to perform and be heard, and for that we need some amplification. Luckily, today there are lots of low-cost, powerful options available.
Combo bass amps are a fantastic option for working players looking for a balance of price, features, and portability. With class-D technology, today’s combo amps are much lighter and more powerful than in years past, and while we may miss the vibe a tube amp can bring, modern alternatives come closer to their feel and saturation than ever. Designers are keeping players in mind by also offering useful features such as aux inputs and headphone jacks, to make their amps a great option from practice to rehearsal to gig. Are you in NYC and need something small and lightweight for the subway commute to the Bitter End? Is there a guitar player pushing you to be louder? Do you need switchable overdrive? How about the typical size of your gigs? Coffee shops mean less wattage (trust me on this!), but maybe you need an extension cabinet in case you are hitting some small festivals this summer. There is a lot to consider when choosing a modern combo bass amp—and this story doesn’t cover all that’s available—but now let’s look at some practical, affordable, and highly playable options.
Ampeg Rocket Bass RB-210
The Rocket Bass RB-210 from Ampeg is a lightweight, easy-to-use, class-D amp. The little powerhouse has two 10" custom Lavoce speakers, a high-frequency horn, and 500 watts. The RB-210 weighs in at just under 40 pounds, which makes the lower back happy during load out at the end of a long gig. If you feel nostalgic for Ampeg’s signature big-brother amp, the classic SVT, the Rocket Bass features Ampeg’s switchable Super Grit Technology (SGT), designed to add the dirt of a full SVT rig to the bass signal. SGT’s two dials allow the dirt to be piled on or peeled back and for volume adjustments of the overall sound level of the SGT circuit. You can really drive the rig hard without dealing with the refrigerator-like mass and weight of the original SVTs. Ampeg’s Legacy preamp is onboard, as well as their standard ultra-hi and ultra-lo switches to boost the 3-band EQ. This combo also has a 1/4" speaker out (rated 250 watts at 8 ohms), which makes the Rocket Bass a suitable option for those needing the air-moving flexibility of an extension cabinet for bigger gigs. The 1/8" aux in and 1/8" headphone out makes this a great practice amp as well. Vintage Ampeg grille cloth and knobs rounds out the design with a touch of old-school style, all at $649 street. Ampeg.com
Fender Rumble 500
Here’s a punchy option from the company bearing the name of the man who changed the bass forever. We all know about Fender’s basses, and they have been making amps to complement their instruments for almost as long. But the Rumble series is relatively new, having been introduced in 2018. They bring a lot of options in vintage-inspired housing and user-friendly design. There’s big wattage available from the aptly named Rumble 500 ($649 street): 350 watts internal, bumped up to 500 at 4 ohms by adding an external cab. Two 10" Eminence speakers drive this train. This amp was designed for gigs of any size—although its 19" x 4" footprint might challenge some coffeehouse stages—and with another Rumble extension cabinet (a 2x10 streets for $499), it could grow enough for pretty much any stage.
The bevy of features in the Fender Rumble 500 will also help cover just about any situation. Like all Rumbles, it has three EQ voicings (bright, contour, and vintage) built in, which makes quick work of getting good tone. The switchable onboard OD has drive and level controls, with a button for on/off. The compression horn also has an on/off switch, which is a nice feature for the discerning player, and there is a dedicated XLR out for front-of-house. There is also an 1/8" headphone jack for practicings, and like Fender’s Tone Master guitar amp series, it’s a lightweight heavyweight, clocking in at 35 1/2 pounds. Fender.com
Peavey MAX 300
Peavey’s MAX series delivers a lot of punch for the money. The MAX 300 is a 300-watt combo with two premium 10" speakers and Peavey’s clip-limiting DDT speaker protection technology, which guards the speakers from high-output damage and breakup. The MAX uses Peavey’s switchable KOMOS-C low-end enhancement, which enhances harmonics and subharmonics to add tonal character. The enclosures are also tuned and ported. Keeping with our “working bassists” theme, the MAX has an 1/8" aux in and 1/8" headphone out, making this a suitable practice and media option, and has a built-in chromatic tuner with a mute switch, which means one less pedal you have to worry about bringing to the gig.
The tone-shaping section of the MAX has useful options onboard as well. The EQ has low, mid, hi +/-15 controls, as well as a switchable onboard overdrive called TransTube technology. This technology emulates the sound of tube saturation and warmth, pre-gain. You can also use the panel switches to control the contour (mid scoop), the mid shift, and the brightness of your bass signal. The MAX is also constructed with an angled baffle design, which eliminates the need to tilt back your bass amp to better hear it. At $549 street, the MAX weighs in at just under 58 pounds, so bring a roller cart for load out. Peavey.com
Hartke HD500
Hartke’s contribution to the lightweight combo world, at $649 street, is the HD500, a 500-watt class-D amp with a load of features built into its portable frame. The 3-band EQ has +/-15 for each control, giving the player a wide range of options out of the gate. The secret sauce in the EQ section is the shape control, which works a sweepable 20 dB notch filter that allows application from 900 Hz to 100 Hz. This control is switchable.
Several decades ago, the introduction of the all-aluminum Hartke bass speaker turned the bass world on its ear. More recently, Hartke moved the needle yet again with a hybrid speaker, called the HyDrive. The HyDrive series of speakers are constructed of a paper cone on the outer edge for deep frequencies and an aluminum cone on the inside for advanced mid and high projection. The two 10" HyDrive speakers provide the HD500 with rich, resonant tones.
The HD500 also has practical features that working bass players may need. First, the amp weighs in at 35 pounds, which makes it easy for the drummer to carry. The XLR DI keeps setup easy, and the effects loop and 1/8" aux input can help connect all the toys needed for the gig. With a 1/4" headphone out, the HD500 can also be a great practice option. Other assets: a rugged perforated-steel grille and a top-carry strap. Hartke.com
Blackstar Unity Bass U250
Blackstar was founded by former Marshall employees, so you know there’s power and crunch at the heart of their aesthetics. Also from the 15" speaker camp, the Blackstar Unity Bass U250 has its own impressive qualities. They are engineered with versatility in mind, so they have plenty of virtues. Like what? Well, there’s 250 watts ripping through three selectable power-amp stages—classic, modern, and flat. Chorus and suboctave effects are built in. Dirt also gets its due, with controllable OD, distortion, and fuzz options. The speaker is an Eminence Opus, and there are three preamp voicings—classic, modern, and flat—as well as an effects loop. If you’re looking for a bigger sonic wallop, there’s an integrated link for a sister-powered cabinet. That’s the Unity U250ACT, which adds an extra 250 watts of power. The U250 also has a 10 dB pad, to best accommodate active and passive instruments. Once again, the goal is a ton of flexibility, but the U250 weighs considerably less than that, at just under 49 pounds. The street tag? It’s $619. Blackstaramps.com
Trace Elliot ELF
First came the 200-watt ELF head, which packed a lot of low-end into a box small enough to ride in a backpack. Its successor, the ELF combo, is also light, at 18 pounds, with a 1x10 speaker that is surprisingly beefy for its size and solo standing. This 200-watter has gain (with a single level LED), tone, and volume knobs, with a 3-band EQ—all along the top—and there’s a 1/4" jack for input and a headphone/line out. In the back, there’s an XLR line out and an additional speaker output. It‘s built for rich and articulate modern bass sounds, but can cover the waterfront handily. With an external cab, it can go toe-to-toe with much weightier amps. P.S.: There‘s a ground lift with the XLR DI out, too. Simple? Effective? You bet. And it fits our affordability profile at $599 street. Traceelliot.com
Bugera BXD15A
At $459 street, the Bugera BXD15A is a bargain that’s designed to compete with the combos of more established amp builders in terms of tone, reliability and price. It’s a 1,000-watt class-D combo—yes, you read that correctly—blending power and portability. Loaded with a 15" aluminum-cone speaker designed by Turbosound, the combination of woof and high-end brilliance projects. But if you’re impressed by the power and air being moved onstage, just wait—there’s more. Bugera has installed a lot of tone shaping controls. The company uses Gryrator circuitry for tube-inspired tone. The 3-band EQ becomes very flexible quickly, thanks to a selectable mid-frequency switch that provides five options. There are also bass and treble boost switches to get exactly the tone sought. The studio-grade compressor on the BXD15A brings a transparent, smoothing effect to peaks in your playing. There is also a feature called the Dynamizer, which splits the signal into two separate paths, compressing one and leaving the other clean.The result is a punchy yet natural tone. And there is a mute switch, an effects loop, and a footswitch control. Plus, the BXD15A weighs just under 48 pounds. Bugera-amps.com
Acoustic B600C
Acoustic Control’s combo series applies features found on larger amps to a smaller scale. The B600C, like all Acoustic combos, has a tilt-back design, which allows players to use the amp like a monitor or a traditional upright amp. The 600C has a formidable 420 watts as a standalone, and hits 600 watts (at 4 ohms) by adding an extension cabinet. This amp is loaded with two 10" custom low-frequency drivers and a piezo horn tweeter.
Tone control is king on this combo. There is a 6-band EQ with an on/off switch, as well as separate low and high EQ controls, with extended super-hi and super-lo switches for top and bottom boosting. With the onboard notch filter, the user has a switchable option to help dial in midrange tones. Need some overdrive on your signal? Acoustic has you covered there, too, with a blendable overdrive circuit that’s footswitch-controlled for the right amount of dirt. Need that signal squashed a little? Don’t sweat. There is also onboard switchable compression, which can help smooth out all the tone alternatives built into this amp. The amp also has a mute switch and -10 dB pad for active basses. There is an effects loop, 1/8" headphone, and 1/8" aux jacks for practice/interface options. The XLR DI will make sound engineers happy with a selectable pre/post control, a level control, and a ground lift. The Acoustic 600C comes in a little heavier on the bathroom scale than most amps in this guide, at 68 pounds. However, the added features may be worth the lifting if you are seeking an amp with a lot of power and pro adaptability. The street price is $599. Acousticcontrolcorp.com
A rig meant to inspire! That’s Jerry Garcia with his Doug Irwin-built Tiger guitar, in front of his Twin Reverb + McIntosh + JBL amp rig.
“I met Jerry Garcia once, in 1992, at the bar at the Ritz Carlton in New York,” Dark Star Orchestra guitarist Jeff Mattson tells me over the phone. Nearly sixty-seven years old, Mattson is one of the longest-running members of the Grateful Dead tribute band scene, which encompasses hundreds of groups worldwide. The guitarist is old enough to have lived through most of the arc ofthe actual Grateful Dead’s career. As a young teen, he first absorbed their music by borrowing their seminal records, American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead, brand new then, from his local library to spin on his turntable. Around that same moment, he started studying jazz guitar. Between 1973 and 1995, Mattson saw the Dead play live hundreds of times, formed the landmark jam bandZen Tricksters, and later stepped into theJerry Garcia lead guitarist role with the Dark Star Orchestra (DSO), one of the leading Dead tribute acts.
“At the bar, I didn’t even tellGarcia I was a guitar player,” Mattson explains. “I had just heard him play the new song ‘Days Between’ and I told him how excited I was by it, and he told me he was excited too. It wasn’t that long of a conversation, but I got to shake his hand and tell him how much his music meant to me. It’s a very sweet memory.”
The Grateful Dead’s final studio album was 1989’sBuilt to Last, and that title was prophetic. From 1965 to 1995, the band combined psychedelic rock with folk, blues, country, jazz, and even touches of prog rock and funk, placing a premium on improvisation and pushing into their own unique musical spaces. Along the way, they earned a reputation that placed them among the greatest American bands in rock ’n’ roll history—to many, the ultimate. Although no one member was more important than another, the heart and soul of the ensemble was Garcia. After his death in 1995, the surviving members retired the name the Grateful Dead.
“I think Jerry Garcia was the most creative guitarist of the 20th century because he had the widest ears and the sharpest instincts,” opines historian, author, and official Grateful Dead biographer Dennis McNally, over the phone. “What we see after his death are the Deadheads coming to terms with his passing but indicating that it’s the music that was most important to them. And who plays the music now becomes simply a matter of taste.”
Dark Star Orchestra guitarist Jeff Mattson, seen here with Garcia’s Alligator Stratocaster (yes, the real one).
Photo by Susana Millman
This year marks 30 years since Garcia’s passing and 60 years since the band formed in the San Francisco Bay Area. Today, the guitarist’s musical vocabulary and unique, personal tone manifests in new generations of players. Perhaps the most visible of these musicians is John Mayer, anointed as Garcia’s “replacement” in Dead and Co. But dozens of others, like Mattson, Tom Hamilton Jr., and a young new artist named Bella Rayne, strive to keep the Dead alive.
The first few Grateful Dead tribute bands began emerging in local dive bars by the late ’70s. More than mere cover bands, these groups devoted themselves entirely to playing the Dead. A few of these early groups eventually toured the country, playing in college towns, ski resorts, and small theatres across the United States. Mattson started one on Long Island, New York. He tells me, “The first band I was in that played exclusively Grateful Dead was Wild Oats. It was 1977, and we played local bars. Then, in 1979, I joined a band called the Volunteers. We also played almost exclusively the Grateful Dead, and that was a much more professional outfit—we had a good PA and lights and a truck, the whole nine yards.” The Volunteers eventually morphed into the Zen Tricksters.
Garcia’s death turbocharged the Dead tribute band landscape. Fanbases grew, and some bands reached the point where big-time agents booked them into blue-chip venues like Red Rocks and the Beacon Theatre. Summer festivals devoted to these bands evolved.
“The first band I was in that played exclusively Grateful Dead was Wild Oats. It was 1977, and we played local bars.” —Jeff Mattson
Dark Star Orchestra launched in 1997, and they do something particular, taking an individual show from somewhere out of Grateful Dead history and recreating that evening’s setlist. It’s musically and sonically challenging. They try to use era-specific gear, so on any given night, they may be playing through recreations of the Grateful Dead’s backline from 1971 or 1981, for example. It all depends on the show they choose to present. Mattson joined DSO as its lead guitar player in 2009.
Something else significant happened after Jerry died: The remaining living members of the Grateful Dead and other musicians from Garcia’s inner circle embraced the tribute scene, inviting musicians steeped in their music to step up and sit in with them. For Mattson, it’s meant playing over the years with all the core members of the band, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart, plus former members Donna Jean Godchaux, who sang in the band from 1971 to 1979, and Tom Constanten, who played keyboards with the Dead from 1968 to 1970.
Tom Hamilton’s Lotto custom built had a Doug Irwin-inspired upper horn.
In the newest post-Garcia tribute bands, many guitar players aren’t old enough to have seen Garcia perform live—or if they did, it was towards the end of his life and career. One of those guys sitting today at the top of the Garcia pyramid, along with Mattson, is Tom Hamilton Jr. Growing up in a musical family in Philadelphia, Hamilton saw Garcia play live only three times. Early on, he was influenced by Stevie Ray Vaughan, but Hamilton’s older brother, who was also a guitar player, loved the Dead and Garcia. “My brother wanted to play like Jerry,” he recalls, “so he roped me in because he needed me to play ‘Bob Weir’ and be his rhythm guitar sidekick.” Eventually, Hamilton leaned more into the Jerry role himself. “Then I spent my entire twenties trying to develop my own voice as a songwriter and as a guitar player. And I did,” Hamilton says. “And during that time, I met Joe Russo. He was not so much into the Dead then, but he knew I was.”
A drummer from Brooklyn, by about 2006, Russo found himself collaborating on projects with members of Phish and Ween. That put him on the radar of Lesh and Weir, who invited Russo to be a part of their post-Dead project Furthur in 2009. (And on guitar, they chose DSO founding member John Kadlecik, opening that role up for Mattson.)
“When Joe played in Furthur, he got under the hood of the Grateful Dead’s music and started to understand how special it was,” Hamilton points out. “After Furthur wound down, we decided to form JRAD. We weren’t trying to do something academic, not some note-for-note recreation. We were coming at it through the pure joy of the songs, and the fact that the five of us in JRAD were improvisers ourselves.”
“We were coming at it through the pure joy of the songs, and the fact that the five of us in JRAD were improvisers ourselves.” —Tom Hamilton Jr.
Today, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (JRAD) is considered to be one of the premier Grateful Dead tribute bands. They formed in 2013, with Hamilton and Scott Metzger as the band’s guitar frontline, with Hamilton handling Garcia’s vocal roles. Eventually, Hamilton, too, found himself jamming onstage with the ever-evolving Phil Lesh and Friends. That, of course, further enmeshed him in the scene, and in 2015, he started a band with Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann calledBilly and the Kids.
Now, there’s a new kid on the block, literally. Bella Rayne recently turned 18 and grew up in Mendocino, California. Her parents were into the Dead, but even they were too young to have really followed the original band around the country. At her age, they were big into Phish. By the pandemic, Bella started embracing the guitar out of boredom, woodshedding while social distancing in quarantine. She explains, “Like any other teen, I was bored out of my mind looking for anything to do.” Rummaging through her garage, she came across her mom’s old Strat. “At the time, I was really into ’90s Seattle grunge. I put new strings on the Strat, and then I tried to teach myself Pearl Jam songs, and I learned how to play them by watching YouTube videos. Then, I started posting videos of my journey online as I became more serious about it. I hit a point where I knew it would be my thing. The next thing I knew, one of the Bay Area Dead bands [China Dolls] reached out to me and asked me to sit in. I thought, ‘no way.’“My parents are huge Deadheads,” she continues. “That’s theirthing. I grew up with the Dead being pushed on me my whole life. But I ended up going, and it’s just been this awesome spiral ever since.” Bella calls her current Dead-related project Bella Rayne and Friends, and she, too, has been recognized not only by the new generation of Garcia players in the Dead tribute bands, but also by Melvin Seals, the Hammond organist who played for years in theJerry Garcia Band. “I was hired to just sit-in for a couple of numbers withMelvin and his JGB band,” she recalls, “and we were having so much fun he said to me, ‘Why don’t you just sit in for the whole second set.’ It was an amazing night.”
Bella Rayne with her Alligator-inspired Strat, with a JGB Cats Under the Starssticker on the body.
Photo by Sean Reiter
Jerry Garcia played many different guitars. But for those guitarists wanting to emulate Garcia’s tone, the focus is on four instruments in particular. One is a1955 Fender Stratocaster known as “Alligator,” which Garcia had heavily modified and began playing in 1971. The other three guitars were hand built in Northern California by luthier Doug Irwin: Wolf, Tiger, and Rosebud. Garcia introduced them in 1973, 1979, and 1989, respectively. Sometimes, in a jam-band version of being knighted by the Excalibur sword, a chosen member of this next generation of Dead players is handed one of Garcia’s personal guitars to play onstage for a few songs or even an entire set.
Although they started their journeys at different times and in separate ways, Mattson, Hamilton, and Rayne all have “knighthood” in common. Rayne remembers, “In March of 2024, I was sitting in one night with anall-girl Dead tribute band called the China Dolls, and no one had told me that Jerry’s actual 1955 Strat, Alligator, was there that evening. My friend [roots musician] Alex Jordan handed me the guitar unannounced. It’s something I’ll never forget.”What’s it like to strap on one of Jerry Garcia’s iconic instruments? Tom Hamilton recalls, “It wasRed Rocks in 2017, and I played with Bob Weir, Melvin Seals, and JGB at a tribute show for Jerry’s 75th birthday. I got to play both Wolf and Tiger that night. I was in my head with it for about one song, but then you sort of have a job to do. But I do recall that we were playing the song ‘Deal.’ I have a [DigiTech] Whammy pedal that has a two-octave pitch raise on it, real high gain that gives me a lot of sustain, and it’s a trick I use that really peaks a jam. That night, while I am doing it, I had the thought of, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I am doing this trick of mine on Garcia’s guitar.’ Jerry would have thought what I was doing was the greatest thing in the world or the absolute worst, but either way, I’m cool with it!”
“I was sitting in one night with an all-girl Dead tribute band called the China Dolls, and no one had told me that Jerry’s actual 1955 Strat, Alligator, was there that evening. My friend [roots musician] Alex Jordan handed me the guitar unannounced. It’s something I’ll never forget.” —Bella Rayne
Jeff Mattson has played Alligator, Wolf, Garcia’s Travis Bean 500, and his Martin D-28. He sums it up this way: “I used to have posters up in my childhood bedroom of Garcia playing his Alligator guitar. I would stare at those images all the time. And sowhen I got a chance to play it and plug it in, suddenly there were those distinctive tones. Those guitars of his all have a certain mojo. It’s so great to play those guitars that you have to stop in the moment and remind yourself to take a mental picture, so it doesn’t just fly by. It’s just a tremendous pleasure and an honor. I never imagined I would get to play four of Jerry Garcia’s guitars.”
With young people like Bella Rayne dedicating herself at the tender age of 18 to keeping the Dead’s music going, it feels like what the band called their “long strange trip” will keep rolling down the tracks and far over the horizon. “People will be listening to the Grateful Dead in one hundred years the same way they will be listening to John Coltrane, too,” predicts McNally. “Improvisational music is like jumping off a cliff. Sometimes you fly, and sometimes you land on the rocks. When you take that risk, there’s an opportunity for magic to happen. And that will always appeal to a certain segment of people who don’t want predictability in the music they listen to. The Grateful Dead is for people who want complete craziness in their music—sometimes leading to disaster and oftentimes leading to something wonderful. It’s music for people who want to be surprised.”
