Help me with decision making. I wish to purchase a new bass amp rig to be shared by multiple bands during music festivals. It will most often be used on a certain outdoor stage that is 30 feet X 60 feet, high ceiling, and no side walls. It will be DI'ed into the PA, but I cannot provide side-fills for the stage. Thus, I need something that is big and loud enough to be heard across stage. The less knobs the better, because I don't want first-time users fiddling away during festival changeovers. Budget is flexible, perhaps in the neighborhood of $2000 US. Any suggestions?
I play bass in a couple of bands and my and I have an events company that books musicians. I'm often hired to also handle the stage, sound, lighting for festivals.
I use my bass rig for backline. It's an older GK400RB head and a Low Down Sound 1x15 8ohm cab. I actually have two of these rigs. I set them both up on stage and keep the spare head for backup. Bassists can play through one or both cabs. It's always DI'd into the house, so the rig is basically a stage monitor for the bassist.
I've been using this for rig for about seven years for events; no complaints yet. The GK400RB is about as simple as it gets, too. Our biggest festival is around 2,000 people, and we get national blues acts like Bettye LaVette, Dave Specter, Magic Slim, Glenn David Andrews, Mike Morgan.
I bought the heads (used) for $250 (w/a rack case) and $185 (plus a used rack case for $20) each and the cabs were $225 and $250 each.
Many riders call for the SVT head and an Ampeg cab (4x10 usually), in my experience. The GK400RB (and the GK800RB) are such staples, though, that nobody has ever demanded the rider-specific gear.
I've owned a ton of bass rigs over the years (Morgan, Thunderfunk, GK, SWR, Acoustic Image, Bag End, Acme and more). The Thunderfunk is gorgeous sounding and a slamming 550 watts, but way too many knobs for a lot of bassists (me included!). The Morgan MP200, if you can find one, is a masterpiece that is hands down the best sounding bass head I've ever owned OR played through. I got one used for $1,200 -- and kick myself daily for offing it. The knobs are as simple as it gets; all tube; hand-wired (easy to service) and loud as hell. I can't imagine any bassists not being inspired to play once they plug into a Morgan.
All that said, if I had $2,000 to spend on a backline bass rig, I would get (used) an Aguilar DB750 and an Aguilar DB212. There is a head for sale on talkbass (
http://www.talkbass.com/threads/aguilar-db750.1049144/) for $1,200. And there's a cabinet there too for $450 (
http://www.talkbass.com/threads/aguilar-db112-with-tweeter-black.1070045/).
You'd have a rig that would stop a rhino, is incredibly simple to use, has a great DI, would thrill any bassists, provides more than enough sound on stage before you even plug the DI in, although heavy it's still lighter than an SVT, does not look like a refrigerator, and will leave you enough money to buy one helluva pair of earplugs. You'll need 'em.
I'd use that system myself, but for 95% of my band's gigs, it would be overkill. And I can't afford to have a gig rig and a backline rig.