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In my opinion, the aforementioned Ampeg SVT is the gold standard of rock bass rigs. It's the amp historically employed by everyone from The Ramones to The Stones. They are not cheap, and procuring mine has been a real saga:

My previous rig was actually my bandmate's Gallien-Krueger 800RB, a respectable amp in its own right, but a little bit tonally thin and cold for my taste. I needed the warmth that only vacuum tubes can give. After religiously watching Craigslist, I found an SVT-CL for sale. The amp, probably an early 90s model, was in great shape and the guy selling it seemed very much on the level. So, I bought it. Even plugging into my original 4x10 speaker cabinet was like a night and day change. It sounded amazing -- rich, thick tone and tons of punch in the middle register, where the GK800RB tended to get thin. I dialed up the gain a little bit for some natural tube crunch, and all three of us were grinning wickedly. Time to find its counterpart, the huge 8x10 SVT cabinet.

Wallet aching, I begrudgingly headed to Guitar Center, the pit of all human existence, to buy a brand-new 8x10. Twenty minutes and just into the four-digits later, I had a 160-pound box in the back of our van and I was excited to hook that bastard up. I lugged the beast into our studio, plugged it in and was immediately impressed. My rig was complete -- or so I thought.

After two songs, my amplifier blew out. It crackled a few times in despair, then went silent. I started to freak out -- did I mismatch the impedance of the cabinet to the head? Nope, 4 ohms. Check. WTF? The amp had been fine with the old cabinets. So, either coincidence is not on my side, or the cabinet is defective and somehow pulled more current out of the head than it wanted to give up. I suspect the former, specifically a blown transformer -- at least that's what it sounds like to me. Or what I want to believe, take your pick.

So, it's off to the amp repair guy, which I'm sure will run me another $300 to fix. Tube amps. Gotta love 'em.