i dont think my fender 10 should be allowed to plug in to the direwolf. so i am asking for some help
i dont really play out- yet
so am looking for a good rig probably 12 maybe 15. my neighbors would love me.
would probably cap at around $1000 preferably less
like a good low end rumble but not too punchy

So, something like old fashioned Ampeg tone?  Try the higher-end Ampeg and Mesa combos.  Also, I heard an Ashdown combo out at Bass Northwest that sounded much warmer than my SWR super redhead.  I also have an SWR baby blue (the original from around 1990) that has great tone in a very size-friendly package.  
 
Putting an F-1X in front of any combo will make it sound that much better.  I have a Hartke kickback 12 that is tight and clean, but warms up nicely when fronted by the F-1X.  If you do that, then the Fender might even sound good at low volumes.  
 
 
 
(Message edited by bsee on November 11, 2004)

Another vote for the Baby Blue, and my Ampeg B-100R gets a nice sound. They tend to go for $300 to $350 used.

reviews of ampeg are good. i wouldnt go used. its like buying a used lease car..but i did like the redhead with my orion. def want a 12,2x10 or a 15 maybe
ty
jeff

Flax,
 
   I use an Ampeg BA-115 for a small amp, and it works fine.  It has a direct out, plus it has a headphone jack and two plugs so you can plug in a CD player.  Single 15 with horn, and I've used it on smaller gigs.  100 watts, so it won't be too loud.  Ampeg also makes other small combos with tuners, etc., so you might want to check them out.  It's not tube, so you won't have that warmth, but it sounds pretty good to me.  As I recall, mine cost about $400 brand new, so it's actually quite a bargain.  
 
Besides, anything sounds good when an Alembic is plugged into it!  I know that for a fact. Last night I went to an open mike night here in Fayetteville, and played my Europa through a Fender BXR (hope I got that right) combo, with one 15.  All the other bass players kept asking me what I was doing to make it sound so good.  Had to tell them, dial 1-800-Ale-mbic, and you too will have this sound!
 
Best of luck,
 
Alan

thanks- not to be a total moron
if i went with an f-1x - all i need a cabinet?
think about this. when i first started playing bass, transistors were the hot thing,,, now its tubes again... wheres my edsel? lol

F-1X is only a preamp.  You would need power and a speaker.  This can be separates or a combo.  Using a combo works best if it has an effects loop and the F-1X can be placed to come back through the effects return.

after my first cd comes out basee- thanks-lol
anyone experience the phil jones briefcase??

I know a guy who had one of the first Jones Briefcases off the boat (from China); after raving about it, he dumped it a few weeks later. How much of that was GAS and how much was related to the performance of the amp we'll probably never know.

I'm quite happy with my Peavy TKO 115 Sheffield that I picked up used at my local music store for $240- only problem is it weighs about 80 lbs. Michael

bsee-
Does your Hartke have an effects loop, or do you just run from the F-1X to the input? Does the loop tap in after the combo preamp? My BAM 210 doesn't have an analog effects loop(but it has MIDI, go figure!), and I was under the impression that adding a preamp before the combo preamp was wrong. What am I missing?
 
Larry

The Hartke doesn't have an effects loop, but the preamp stage is pretty simple.  The SWRs have a tube preamp stage similar to the F-1X, so I go in through the effects return on those amps to avoid multiple levels of tube preamplification.  It's not that that is bad by definition, just not what I want.  This config approximates plugging the preamp into a power amp and then a speaker cabinet in a smaller package.
 
At the simplest level, a pre-amp is just a means of raising the power of your source signal to match what the amplifier expects to receive.  There are a couple ways that multiple preamp stages could be bad.  If you cranked them all up to a point where the signal was way too hot for the power amp, the distortion would probably not be what you wanted.  Also, every time you alter the signal, you add noise.  Usually the numbers are very low, but the less processing, the cleaner the signal is likely to be.  
 
To go back to the real world example, if I get all of my gain out of the F-1X and very little out of the Hartke, it seems to work out okay.  We are talking about a low-power 1x12 combo here, though, not a state-of-the-art system.

Okay, so if I'm playing a small venue, and I don't feel like lugging heavy Baltic birch cabs and power amps. Do I chain SWR Workingmans 15's Send to the SF-2's (in mono)channel #1 Return then Send from channel 2 to F1-X's Return then Send from F1X to SWR' Return?
 
Oh for an owner's manual....

I would go bass into the F-1X, mono out to the SF-2, then effects return in to the SWR.  That would give you the F-1X preamp stage through the filters of the SF-2 and then the power amp section of the SWR only, bypassing the preamp.  

Thanks Bob, I'll give it a shot this weekend.