Hziak

Tons of great info here, thank you, everyone! 'ya know, my googling yielded a ton of $800-1600 power amps, threads where people only talked about really premium brands and the little pedalboard amps that only go up to 50 watts. Never saw the Crown stuff... Hadn't thought too hard about how leaving "guitar" out of the search terms is fine, too, since as long as it's flat, it's... the same... The old "What's the difference between an office chair and a gaming chair? - $200..."

I appreciate the response, but it doesn't really answer any of my questions. I'm trying to assess the technical viability of the rig concepts completely independent of the subjective aspects at the moment. Specifically, what's the highest amount of mostly-flat versatility that I can get in hardware for the most reasonable price to cab up my helix between both bass and guitar cabs, and why is or isn't it a bass amp that has a power-amp in?

Hi, I've seen a lot of topics about power amps, but not so many about what makes them any different from the power amp side of a regular amplifier... To make this thread a little different, I want to talk bang-for-buck a bit with my situation and answer the question of why not just always use a bass head for a power amp? I want to have the option of outputting line-level or hooking up to a cab in both of my bands, one where I play guitar, the other I play bass. It's not economical for me to buy two amps and cabs when I've already got a helix, but for an alarming amount of local venues, I need that cab-compatibility. So I started thinking about a dedicated power amp when I realized that FX loops are basically just a shortcut to the power amp built in to the amp. Is there a even a difference between the two things? My assumptions are: A 150w bass amp will cost a fraction of what a 150w power amp costs, same generally with higher wattages until you get to fancier models. Any amp with an FX send has intrinsic value greater than a power amp because it is both a fully capable power amp and a fully featured amp If you're not using the preamp section, bass or guitar, it doesn't matter... A bass amp will generally have higher wattage than a guitar amp, so bass amps have greater compatibility across cabs than a guitar amp, just maybe it's a little louder... So what's the magic sauce in a power amp that would make me spend $400-1200 when I could get more value for the same or less on a bass head?