My lad is a keen drummer. And often a loud one now he has his acoustic kit in his bedroom 😔

He wants me to get a bass guitar so I can learn it and play along with him. (Actually I suspect he wants a bass guitar but never mind). For the sake of having something to do together I’ll go along with that. He’s got a little 15W amp for his guitar but he tells me I need a bass one.

How many watts, if that is the parameter to use, would I want to be able to play alongside him? Presumably too small would be totally drowned out. Don’t want to overdo it though!

Go big. You can always turn it down.

How big?

15W valve, 100W transistor is about the minimum. You need a lot of speaker to pump the air too. A 1 x 12 will just do it but a 1 x 15 or 2 x 10 will do it better. 100W valve and a 4 x 10 or even 8 x 10 if he’s a good drummer and you want to gig.

I wouldn’t imagine I’ll be playing anywhere other than at home.

Do you have a budget in mind? I’d suggest £200-250 used would be the minimum for playing along with a drumkit. That would do a small gig too in case you play a song at a BBQ or something.
The bare minimum would likely be an Ashdown Electric Blue combo. You see them a lot in practice rooms.
About 200W or so. If you’re searching second hand, have a look for Ashdowns, Peaveys or Trace Elliots. They’ve been making good, budget stuff for decades so there is decent old gear around.

To fight against a loud acoustic drum kit I’d say minimum 200W solid state, 1×15 cab

If there’s also someone in the room with a Marshall 4×12 & 100W guitar head, I’d go 300W & 4×10 minimum. Then of course the drums will need micing up & it starts to get rather silly…

Oh yeah. Don’t forget the ear plugs, snare drums & cymbals are rather loud at close quarters

They’re loud enough from the other end of the house 🙂 He’s already got earplugs, I’ll get some too.

Have a look at the Fender Rumble range. The 25 watt version for under £130 will be more than enough for bedroom playing.

I’ve used one of these 300w and 2×10

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ashdown-EB180-15-Prime-Bass-Combo-Amplifier-2nd-Hand-COLLECTION-ONLY/372923668923?hash=item56d3fb99bb:g:VswAAOSwA75eKEMF

I’ve also used a vox guitar amp 50w with on 10 speaker

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vox-AD50VT-Valvetronix-50W-Guitar-Amp-Amplifier/333462203485?hash=item4da3e56c5d:g:YhoAAOSw1qVeDF1O

The vox is ok with a drummer and a quiet guitarist.

The ash down was not quite loud enough with a loud drummer 2 guitarists and a keyboard.

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I’ve just had a son and admitted I’m not going to need my current bass amp for a looong time. I’ve ended up with A 300w head and a pair of 2×10 speakers. This was easier to get in and out of cars.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genz-Benz-6-0-PARTS-ONLY-Shuttle-Bass-Head-Amplifier-Amp-Tube/174143007180?hash=item288bbb69cc:g:KNkAAOSw5eNeDOIa

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hartke-210-Bass-Cabinet-XL-Series-Item-in-very-good-condition/143510743049?hash=item2169e82809:g:DdgAAOSwApleKvCt

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Drop me a line if you are interested 😀

Cheers!

Have a look at the Fender Rumble range. The 25 watt version for under £130 will be more than enough for bedroom playing

Not with a drummer in the same room 😉

I have a Fender Rumble 25 & no way could it compete with my drums. Not that I’d be playing them both at the same time, obvs

My drummer has a fender rumble 25w which I used on occasions. It keeps up surprisingly well. Maybe he doesn’t play very loud?

We swapped drummers 3 times in a band.

One treated the crumbs as a work out and refused to consider playing any quieter than MAX VOLUME at all time.

It was much nicer playing with someone who practiced on an electric kit : )

tall_martin, you are Spinal Tap & I claim my £5

Isn’t speaker sensitivity going to be as or more important than power, given that 15W into a sensitive speaker is going to be louder than 50W into a low sensitivity one?

tall_martin, you are Spinal Tap & I claim my £5

That crossed my mind but then he did say they were swapped rather than spontaneously combusted or a bizarre gardening accident so I ruled it out.

You’d get away with 100W if you are playing at home with drums, the limiting factor to volume will probably be your neighbours calling the police not the amp. If you get into it and want to start gigging and also overcome the guitars I think you’d need a min 250-300W. I use a 500W 2×12 combo in the band I play in…..but the drummer is a gorilla and the guitarists have Marshall stacks. I’d prefer to play at lower volumes as I don’t like having to wear earplugs to prevent myself going deaf, but everyone else in the band seems to like playing at 11 so 500W is required.

At full pelt an acoustic kit makes about 300W worth of sound. Is the general rule of thumb.

But indoors, a small space, you should do ok with 100W amp and a decent 15” speaker.

I have nothing to add other than muddmuncher’s last lines made my day.