A few beers with a couple of bass player friends made me realise how little is known by so many about bass guitar amps, myself included. The misconceptions, the beliefs, the rumours and whatever ... While there are literally dozens of reviews on YouTube on every model of Hughes & Kettner, Orange, Marshall and Fender guitar amp on the market there is also an apparent near vacuum of info on bass cabs and amps...
While it doesn't take long to find some very basic info like power should be above 250W and a 4x10" cab is the most often considered ideal small venue rig, the "which amp and cab should I get" question seems to the one most often avoided. The comment of 'it doesn't matter for bass, they're all the same and DI is just as good' resulted in heated conversation, to which I have decided to turn to the brains trust of this forum for some opinions...
For reference, brand names like Ampeg, TC Electronic, Hartke, Mark Bass, Laney, Warwick and Gallien Krueger to name a few were all repeatedly mentioned in the heated discussion... on and in good, bad, ugly and beautiful terms.. and for me as primarily a sound Engineer guy it is somewhere between a newer TC Electronic rig for some tones and an Ampeg or a Hartke into a 4x10 for others, and if all else fails the ubiquitous reliable DI into the PA/recording desk.
What say you? Bass players please stand and be counted !!! For various genres of music, or for that pub/club gig, what would be your essential go to bass amp and cab rig ??