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@dooks
Pow! Man you really do hit the mark every time don't you?
I have upright in the band because I want upright in the band, I like the sound of upright, I like the look of upright, because my best mate who is the bassist in the band plays the upright. He is an upright bassist. That's why I asked for recommendations for upright bass amps, not alternatives to the upright bass. Blimey.
Our band does almost all of our gigging in pubs with either a small vocal only PA or no PA at all. In our regular monthly gig we have access to both a PA and an array of half decent amps. We tend not to use the PA as it ends up feeling too much like a performance rather than the "little country/folk band in the corner" vibe we like to try and foster at these things. We're not after the kind of thing that'll flap your trouser leg here. Bigger is not better.
We are about to try out at new venue, which I'm hoping will lead to another residency, but this place has no PA or amps. We have a small portable PA which is just about good enough for vocals and maybe a guitar but bass sounds shocking though it. It's just a stop-gap really.
Hence I have offered the bass player (who, as I have mentioned, is my best mate I've played with on and off since school and who bought the little PA out of his own pocket) the £200 fee from this next gig to go towards a new portable bass amp.
Ideally we need something we can get and from the gig in my tiny car, a cab, or on the bus/tube if needs be. He's perfectly capable of getting on the tube wheeling the bass and a having a little lightweight modern bass amp in a gig bag with a strap over his shoulder.
If a top quality bargain came up that was less portable we might have a think about how we could deal with but right now, what I want is a portable, affordable, and not terrible amp for upright bass. Those GKs are great. Another friend who's a jazz circuit pro in Brighton has one for upright and it sounds fantastic. But then he always sounds fantastic. Either way they're more than we've got to spend at the moment.
This is the sort of thing we've been using for the last year... meh. Does the job. http://www.thomann.de/gb/hartke_a70_aseries_basscombo.htm?sid=f4cb6e261a8fef4f6332b8e8113a65de
That's the kind of thing I was hoping for experiences with.