dan670844

[quote name='fryer' post='1091130' date='Jan 16 2011, 10:03 AM']I may have a chance to tour with my mate's reggae band, in JAMAICA. So I've gotta learn some reggae. How ??[/quote] Most important thing to learn in my opinion is the drum beats, you need to know what One drop, Rockers and Steppers are etc, what they sound like and where the bass fits in with the Riddum with these beats. Always play loose on the beat drag and forward. Its is fun to play, but you need to know where you are all the time, yes reggae dudes play loose on the beat i.e. around the pocket, but they always know where they are, playing loose is a way of adding tension and release into the music........... Have Fun I love Reggae and old school ska, but I would only have a go at white boy Reggae! gettin the feel of it is genetic, its a lot harder than you think!

[quote name='daz' post='1092594' date='Jan 17 2011, 03:13 PM']i have had a scoot round looking for diy [b]bass[/b] amps. These seem to be scarcer than hens dentures.[/quote] There are a few, mainly from the US London power do one, there are a few german kits Tube amp doctor do one for example. But look at the cost of them! the kit will cost as much as a Matamp/ Orange fully built, Its not worth the bother, the circuits used for bass valve amps i.e. multiple valve push pull are a nightmare to get running properly from new and thats with a proper scope etc etc. A matamp bass amp for example will spend a good time on the bench being tuned up and that means filddling about with the circuits. The main problem as I have said before with bass amps is the output transformer, ones good enough for bass i.e. go low enough for bass and with enough output are pretty darn expensive as they just arent made in quantity anymore. A 200watt output transformer which has good low end i.e. UL or very nearly UL is going to cost £200-300 on its own as its a serious bit of iron.

[quote name='PaulE' post='1092226' date='Jan 17 2011, 10:27 AM']thanks for that reply dan, really what i was looking for. I think I'll start with a few of the pedals, a headphone amp etc, similar to how you did yourself. I'm in the process of building a cab, I know thats nothing compared to a head, but I dont expect anything soon, I dont care if it takes me three years to be where I want to be, purely something I'd consider a hobby. I do like the look of the pp-36 kit though! [url="http://www.ampmaker.com/pp-36-18-36w-plexi-amp-1490-0.html"]http://www.ampmaker.com/pp-36-18-36w-plexi-amp-1490-0.html[/url][/quote] Would love to see the results of your cab building, I had a go, the results were shocking! I am a terrible cabinet maker. The results of my efforts sans speakers and stuff, were used as fuel, to burn Mr. Guy F. The glint in the Mrs eyes when she lit the bonfire, was also telling

[quote name='PaulE' post='1092226' date='Jan 17 2011, 10:27 AM']thanks for that reply dan, really what i was looking for. I think I'll start with a few of the pedals, a headphone amp etc, similar to how you did yourself. I'm in the process of building a cab, I know thats nothing compared to a head, but I dont expect anything soon, I dont care if it takes me three years to be where I want to be, purely something I'd consider a hobby. I do like the look of the pp-36 kit though! [url="http://www.ampmaker.com/pp-36-18-36w-plexi-amp-1490-0.html"]http://www.ampmaker.com/pp-36-18-36w-plexi-amp-1490-0.html[/url][/quote] PP-18 is the muts! A mate of mine has just built one, Its well loud enough for gigging with the right cabs, 2x12 vertical alignment is best, It sounds exactly like a marshall 1974X....... But my little WF-55 kit from ampmaker is also brilliant. 4 watts valve is pretty loud, I am of course a bass player its my day job, but I dabble on the guitar, I love the blues, peter green type stuff. The WF-55 is basically fender champ circuit, class A so its very touch sensitive and clear as a bell. There is no where to hide! its defo ironed out my dodgy playing, as its so transparent, responds to every nuance or mistake! It was not that difficult to build, but find someone to help you first go, Steve the radio ham guy, who helped me, really got my WF-55 working great and taught me so much, he made me do all the soldering!. My other option was to find a electronic evening class, which i might still do. I have since bought a ready made amp cab for it and it looks a million dollars. The difference in sound from this and the rotten little transistor combo i was using, its just another world. I have a lot of free time so making these kits was great. Beats gardening, daytime tv, keeps me out of the pub! But my advice would be not to rush it, take your time, Its really important to make good solder joints, get the right components in the right place and test as you go, you really need a multimeter and know how to use it and a good soldering iron and for that matter good solder (most solder is crap, you need to get some from a proper electronics place, the solder from halfords etc is Pee poor) One day I will have a go at making a bass amp, but to be honest the costs are pretty high due to the quality of output transformers etc all told its easier to go and buy one the quality of the Orange, Hiwatt, Matamp, stuff is just outstanding and would be difficult to replicate in the shed! I am going to have a go at the Musikding Bass fuzz pedal next, just for a laugh, maybe you can start there! they are only 20 euros

[quote name='PaulE' post='1091912' date='Jan 16 2011, 10:29 PM']Surely its something I could get PAT tested or something. I wont lie, i'm a novice at electronics. I'm not saying I want to do it now. Its something I want to look into, start with some smaller things, and progress. I was looking for more a forum/community, like stated above. Cheers.[/quote] If you really want to have a go, I would try a kit first and not bass,a guitar amp would be a better bet, I say this as there are a lot of kits around. Have a look at these websites www.musikding.de and www.ampmaker.com, both of them do 'champ' style kits musikding does a little one watt head, both of them sound good for guitar. With Ampmaker kits you will get a lot of support and help and at least a couple of them! are relatively simple to build and set up. Musikding even do a bass preamp / pedals, which would be even safer for a first go. I would avoid building up something more complex to start with and probably even avoid building a valve amp (to start with), try a valve driven pedal or even a valve headphone amp as they tend to work at 9-24 volts from a regulated power supply. (check on the web there are loads), as a fair deal of knowledge about HT electrics RF shielding etc will be required to make a decent job. Start reading the websites etc. Locally to me there is a club (in london) for valve radios and radio ham etc. They helped me a great deal, how to solder, getting the components the right way round etc, shielding wire etc I started small the first thing I built was a 12UA7 headphone amp, It was a disaster (lots of hum etc) but in a safe way, it taught me what i was doing wrong (it runs at 24 volts dc) even though 24 volts gave me a few zaps. I had got a few dud capacitors in the circuit, but i changed them all and with a great deal of help from the ham guys I got it working well. After that I built a WF-55 kit from ampmaker, this is where I learnt even more, about shielding, reducing hum etc ts fun but very dangerous if you don't know what you are doing.. even inside this little monster the voltage is 350volts plus but its dc so you really stand no chance! Have fun

[quote name='citymariner' post='1072706' date='Dec 30 2010, 01:42 PM']Hi guys and gals, Right, I have real predicament I'm hoping you can shed some light upon. I own: Ashdown MAG300 210t combo (308w @ 40hm) with an Ashdown 15" cab. Fender MIA P-bass A range of Boss effects (bass>FV50>OC3>ODB3>BF2>CH1>DD3>GEB7>amp) The place where we rehearse has some gear and due to me suffering from the festive period, I could not be bothered to lug it to the rehearsal space. The bass amp they have there is a Fender Rumble 100 (210t like my Ashdown) 100w @4ohm Now looking at the amps side by side mine should easily be more powerful, right? Band practice last night the lead guitarist (a very nice reasonable guitar player I'll add) commented on how punchy my bass sounded. Now I rolled some low mids and boosted the high end a little bit for a couple of punky numbers we did but other than that left it flat. The question: Why is the Fender cutting through more than my Ashdown rig? I'm thinking it has to be me messing around with the EQ. Is it that I'm sharing the power of the amp adding the 15 and that is effecting things. This has been doing my head in, that comment keeps rolling around in my head to the point where I'm thinking of trading my rig in and getting something bigger (4x10 and a seperate head...) Anything you can suggest to try would be great (next band practice is Monday) Thanks in advance, Josh[/quote] Sounds like your mids to me, Ashdowns tend to have rather a scouped eq even 'flat' so the lows are a bit boosted and the mids attentuated while the highs are also boosted. Have you got the mid shift off, deep, bright, contour thingy's off or on? try turning it all off, have your compressor turned up halfway, everything flat see where you are, you might need to boost your mids a bit, for the particular place you are playing. Amps are never 'flat' they do have a certain eq profile even if you don't twiddle the knobs, the fender amp may just a more neutral flat eq i.e not attenuated mids . Mids are very important part of your sound, too much your sound will be boxy, to little and you won't cut through. Try to listen to what you amp sounds like over the other side of the room up close, where you get all the off axis malarky going on, is not represnetative of what you are sounding like. Ashdowns gear is very powerful in the vein of the old trace elliot stuff, The woolly sound everyone is going on about is fact that they, due to the power (even the 300 watt mag) they are able to really push some serious low end out. In most situations you might find you will need to cut your low end to pull everything up sq. Years ago I used to use a ABM 300 watt head, it was a seriously loud bit of kit (it had the same output section as your system). Once you work this all out you will love your rig, it will be extremely punchy, tight, with great low definition. The Mag is a very underated unit. Just cos its cheaper doesnt mean its not good. But never pass up the opportunity to play live on other amps,its a useful experience. Eq'ing you bass to a room, to your cabs, to create your sound is all part of the journey, but I will say Ashdown manuals guidance etc is shockingly poor, all their amps have quite a few bells and whistles and their own unique personality and it takes a bit to tune them in, even a seasoned hack may struggle for a bit!! but when you find the sweet spot they are good amps.

[quote name='Steve Spector' post='1089353' date='Jan 14 2011, 02:07 PM']Just picked up a used Aguilar cab and it dounds really distorted on the low notes. One thing I noticed was that the material inside seems to be hanging down in front of the ports (see pics) - could this have something to do with it? Steve[/quote] Yep if its 'official' wadding it should be attached to the inside of the cab walls, contact Aguilar show them the pictures, their customer service is amazing. If you are lucky the blockage of the ports is causing the distortion as they can't 'breathe' and do their job to provide the nice lows, if not its a buggered driver (prob unlikely) I am afraid, again contact Aguilar, they used to do a exchange service i.e recone your frames, so it was not as expensive as one might think. However I am not sure they still do this as I am not sure what drivers they are using now (In the early days they used to make their own)

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='1087953' date='Jan 13 2011, 01:38 PM']For those of you with more money than sense, you should rush out immediately and purchase... [url="http://www.russandrews.com/product.asp?lookup=1&region=UK&currency=GBP&pf_id=1558&customer_id=PAA1237014111701KYWGGSXPYLGKRJPJ"]http://www.russandrews.com/product.asp?loo...YWGGSXPYLGKRJPJ[/url] I have never heard such blatant BS.[/quote] I am stunned !!! you could probably make one out of silver wire for less. This is the rub with HIFI gear, I love valve hifi gear, but have you seen the price of some of this gear?, outragous really but people fall for it every time, specially when you can build your own using the same circuit for 20% of the price. Ultra high fidelity stuff usually has really complex DC power supply with a lot of filtering that is heavily shielded. Is it just me, but i can't see that some wire with some wooden knackers on it can do the same job, this stuff is for people can find water with coat hangers.............

[quote name='perogato' post='1087536' date='Jan 13 2011, 06:50 AM']A 300 watt all valve amp, new for £622? Come on, that IS tempting![/quote] Is is I must admit it a total Ampeg clone so should sound ok simple so it should be reliable, but with the exception of the output valves, which are going to probably be junk, to fit a set of winged C's (the best) in there is going to cost another £200 so its a £800-900 quid amp really, still cheap I guess but not as much as you think, especially now you can pick up a Laney Nexus for around the same, already has decent tubes, made in the uk and does the Ampegish sound rather well after a bit of playing about and offerings from Ashdown (which are good) Organe etc are not so far away from that....

www.bugera-amps.com/EN/products/BVV3000.aspx Anyone seen one of these? noticed it on the web the other day, looks like an Ampeg copy/clone, but using el cheapo components no doubt. Anyone brave enough? ha ha ha, but it will probably be more reliable than current Ampeg stuff, it makes me cry... Ashdown are at it with their B15 a like (looks nice though) Interesting though, seeing all the new stuff everyone is bringing out check out Ashdown website for example, Markbass, Ebs they are all at. I would hazard to suggest the timing is a little out, with recession etc and people loosing their jobs. I would of thought buying a new bass amp is the last on everybodys agenda! especially one costing the thick end of a grand +

[quote name='steelbeard' post='1085954' date='Jan 11 2011, 07:37 PM']It's got to be rackable I'm afraid [/quote] I forgot the Ashdown 550 spyder that is 2u 19" UK made But if you pay for it i.e. a custom case you can rack anything, you can have a custom shelfy tray thing made, most things are put into racks these days, even pedal boards, how mad is that, a remote control pedal board...... the latest craze is to put three valve heads in a 12 u rack box, mainly for publicity shots... they are all at it James Johnson, Bass player from van Halen (i can never remember his name) even Geddy Lee (he only has two in a flat box) they are usually grimacing next to their tower of power

[quote name='Adrenochrome' post='1085163' date='Jan 11 2011, 09:10 AM']Exactly what I thought. A 'flat' response [i]might[/i] sound a bit boomy, depending on the room etc, which is something that wasn't asked for in the OP. Having plenty of headroom seems like a good idea but again 'warm' was asked for which isn't the same as clean. If a sound that doesn't have obvious distortion was meant, then that's probably a good idea for a function band, with plenty of juice to cover transients and any gigs when more volume is required (eg outdoors).[/quote] +1 on that you need some method of Q ing out a room i.e. cut bass, cut mids, whatever you need. Maybe he should look a 'making a bass amp' I.e Mic preamp/ DI whatever with a good amount of neutral gain, decent graphic and a decent power amp like a QSC crown etc. But the power amp is going to cost the best side of a grand.................

[quote name='steelbeard' post='1084824' date='Jan 10 2011, 08:48 PM']Can anyone recommend a manufacturer here in England of hand made (not imported as assemblies or re-badged) rack-mountable bass amps that also warrant and support them to the same level? I heard say once that Ashdown sort of carried on with hand made stuff where Trace Elliot (UK) left off, any truth there ?? If so which of their models can anyone suggest with respect to the above question ??? Thanks..[/quote] Bass amps Check out AUDIO KITCHEN causing bit of a stir amongst old hacks, He is a bass player who builds amps!!! Made in UK boutique builder for valve stuff +1 on Matamps Made in UK Orange Made in UK (higher end stuff) Hiwatt Made in UK (higher end) Ashdown (Klystron and Valve series ) made in UK would def stand by these its very reliable a lot of the hire companies use them so they must be bombproof. Klystron is a UK made ABM with a bit more whistles, BTA's are valve power amps with ABM pre's, then there is the 427 LB30 etc. They are about to launch a load of UK made stuff in 2011. (i think they have realised that people want reliable uk made stuff) Trace Elliot were but now made in the USA plenty of good older gear about from UK production and its easy to fix if it goes wrong Dave Hall amps very nice DH400 expensive but worth every penny Laney Nexus my fav at the mo made in the UK With the exception DH none of the above are rackable, but they come with there own box cab or whatever so no problems!

[quote name='jonboi' post='1083962' date='Jan 10 2011, 10:05 AM']Hi there does anyone know if theres an internal fuse in ashdown 515 combo? as theres no power and mains lead been swapped?[/quote] Just Phone Ashdown or send them a mail, thier customer service is very good. If you mail them they will come back in 24hrs usually

[quote name='Blademan_98' post='1083514' date='Jan 9 2011, 07:56 PM']I use a Korg Pandora (I have a PX3 and a PX4) They are great. Plug in your headphones and MP3, dial in a bit of chorus and off you go! I got one off Ebay second hand for £40. Just a brilliant bit of kit [/quote] +1 on that I have a PX4D I use it for guitar and Bass great for jamming along to tracks via ipod through the Aux in. Most of the presets are ok, but you can play around with it and really get some nice sounds out of it. But if you get one get the optional mains power they eat batteries seriously cheap batteries only last 30mins or so Duracell Ultra's probably 3 or 4 hrs hours max costs soon rack up! If you want to check out what you can get out of one of these check out Marlowe DK on you tube He does all his recordings via these

Arrgh as usual I didn't read the post properly, this amp isnt for me then! But if I had to choose an all valve design for live work it would be 200watt output KT88 output transformer that is as linear as possible Baxandall Tone Stack with frequencies set appropiate for bass then you have some hope of controlling the mid range and cutting your bass boom if required, maybe the treble is set at 1-2.6khz to control harmonics, Bright pot? 5khz to control attack dynamics!!!! Mid shift circuit to pull the q down at around 400hz self biasing a must a push switch bias would be great Tone stack bypass just for me............ adequate cab ventilation 100 year warranty Free exchange output valve service And a sensible plate voltage so not right of the edge of oblivion to assist with reliability An automatic NO!! sensor when someone tries to move it when the tubes are still hot A decent instruction manual which informs the purchaser how to look after it, and not assume anything as most people who now use this stuff were not born when valve equipment was the primary amplifier equipment for bass

[quote name='BassNovice' post='1080805' date='Jan 7 2011, 10:31 AM']Can anybody recommend me a good pair for practicing at night when the missus and kids are in bed?? She's finaly snapped...there I was last night happily slapping away at the verse for Tell me baby when she came running downstairs with a look on her face that sent a shiver down my spine!!! I'm fearful for my gear now!!! Help a brother out!![/quote] AKG K44 and K77 are good and cheap a lot of studios use them they use the same drivers as some of the more expensive stuff. Be careful slapping with headphones you could seriously kill your ears if you have it too loud! but as someone else said the acoustic noise from the bass is going to be pretty loud slapping, why not try some fingerstyle! at least you can work out the movement, then you can slap when you ok to.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='1080868' date='Jan 7 2011, 11:32 AM']He did! He started out building PA systems...[/quote] +1 he designed some of the greatest valve amps ever, so good in the begining even jim marshall copied them, thats not to mention some of the music man amps that everyone has forgot about they are absolute gems and if he was still alive he would agree with me! the music man bass amps he design had solid state preamps ! they bombed but they are fantastic

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='1080640' date='Jan 7 2011, 12:37 AM']For the purposes of a valve amp, yes. All that other stuff you said, doesn't belong in a what do you want in a valve amp thread, because, as you specify, they are all in amps that are already made. I use separate pre and power amps according to need. Building all of them into one amp would make very little sense. People that want fiddly can make something fiddly out of bits. For the purpose of a valve amp, what I describe is what I want.[/quote] He he I was in fact not assuming someone was going to copy existing designs, i was responding to the comment about SS preamps, yep its a touchy subject, but in a live environment If you really want good control of your signal then a good SS circuit, in terms of price performnace and cost is defo a consideration, it need not be like the ones i mentioned it could be a new concept

[quote name='kingbee' post='1071469' date='Dec 29 2010, 09:07 AM']Hello everyone, just joined this forum - which looks excellent - and will cut to the chase. Sincere apologies if this topic has ben covered elsewhere - happy to be referred to other threads. For some years now I've been using a Hartke Model 2000 Transient Attack 200w head with an Ampeg SVT-115E Classic cab, and have always been delighted with the sound. However, I ain't getting any younger (62 in March) and recently tore a shoulder muscle which makes lugging the Ampeg (72lbs weight) more and more difficult, especially when lifting into the boot of the car. Ergo, I'm looking for something lightweight. I've never liked combos. I don't do much by way of keeping up to date with developments in bass amplification technology, but I wonder if the new Neodynium speakers might do the trick? Ideally, depending on weight, I'd want a single 15 but am open to suggestions from those who think 12s or 10s could be the way to go. I've been looking at Ashdown cabs, for example, the ABM 115 which, at some 47lbs, could be the answer - any good? As for my current head, it's still perfectly serviceable but it's now - dare I say it - getting on for 15 years of age. A great recommendation for Hartke, but heads don't go on for ever so might look to change this also. Incidentally, now need something with a Line Out which, bizarrely, is not available on the Hartke. Whatever package I get, it has to be able to deliver in a wide range of venues (as my present package has easily done), from small venues to hotel ballrooms. My bass playing style is 'standard' (eg, no fancy slaps) and I don't need loads of brightness, more interested in a controlled bottom end. Within reason, prepared to spend on quality kit, with absolute reliability being the main criterion. All suggestions and advice gratefully recieved. Many thanks.[/quote] Check out the Nexus 15 from Laney its very light and sounds great as its loaded with celestian green labels which a defo the best neo stuff around very warm and controlled, if you want more attack you can always fit in the orange label versions, brill considereding how cheap they are and made in UK which is always good, but get a cover for them as the tolex is not that hard wearing or have a look at a hydrive cab from Hartke not my cup of tea but they are light. Heads? Hartke good sounds for not much beans

[quote name='dan670844' post='1080597' date='Jan 6 2011, 11:43 PM']Yep Leo Fender was a genius he did the SE-5 tone stack and deluxe when in the 50's? You really think SS preamps are lame? even the trace stuff and modern days the ABM, SWR, Genz, Aguilar? I think they are pretty on the nail, I am just talking about the design here. All very different, but give you great control of the mid range which is important for the gigging musician. I love valve stuff don't get me wrong. But accurate control of your feed signal with a valve pre could be tricky in a middling live situation. I have some valve preamps from Thermonic culture great, clean amazing stuff, but you would need to incorporate this sort of stuff i.e stuff with sowter transformers etc to get the level of control you need so its quiet enough, its very expensive and can you imagine how big the amp would be if the preamp was all valve and offered the same functionality of say a Trace GP12-SM it would be the size of a filling cabinet. I guess thats why valve bass amps very often come with two preamps one simple passive tone stack for purists and another SS with a decent control circuit, so when you realise that the Bassman, B15, stack can't q a room out properly you can flip it. This is why I have recent come to realise the Laney Nexus/ Ashdown BTA is really the muts, clever stuff. Having said that in a neutral environment like a studio forget about it, a champ circuit is good enough! I do think the SS/ valve is the best option, palatable to joe public hell no! its just knowing how to use it, the old trace gear for example was great if you only cut the signal and never boosted, it says this in the manual, but no one listened. Our guitarist cousins rave about shoving boost pedals in front of there 1974X, JTM45's and Plexi's the best ones are of course powered by germinium transistors like the Dallas etc But a valve power amp for bass matched and booked with a good OT thats something that SS really cannot replicate,( I have only really realised this in recent years) the liner nature of the output from .Hz to KHz evenly represented, distortion yes but its natural warm and never sterile and so dam powerful at the low end where SS looses definition. and its what you expect and really want to hear, no distortion and the wrong kind of distortion you can get from SS thats bad an unnatural sound. So maybe a selection of valve poweramps is the answer light medium and powerful for each situation that everyone is talking about, then you can front end it with your preamp of choice. Then you keep it simple and lower cost[/quote] Sorry to ramble on but if these poweramps where self biasing and a bit of education was thrown in on how to look after them, and get people to realise the valves need burn in time etc when they first buy the stuff that would also be cool, most of the time valve amp unreliable image could possibly be attributed to a lack of understanding of the human that operate them!

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='1080432' date='Jan 6 2011, 08:52 PM']For the people demanding 3 band EQ, check out [url="http://www.duncanamps.com/tsc/"]this program.[/url] I shows how much more flex you can get from a 2 band tone stack, and less knobs is less cost. Going solid state for the pre is a bit lame, and active valve preamps give you the issue SC120 mk IV have with noise, because they have all the noise of three gain stages.[/quote] Yep Leo Fender was a genius he did the SE-5 tone stack and deluxe when in the 50's? You really think SS preamps are lame? even the trace stuff and modern days the ABM, SWR, Genz, Aguilar? I think they are pretty on the nail, I am just talking about the design here. All very different, but give you great control of the mid range which is important for the gigging musician. I love valve stuff don't get me wrong. But accurate control of your feed signal with a valve pre could be tricky in a middling live situation. I have some valve preamps from Thermonic culture great, clean amazing stuff, but you would need to incorporate this sort of stuff i.e stuff with sowter transformers etc to get the level of control you need so its quiet enough, its very expensive and can you imagine how big the amp would be if the preamp was all valve and offered the same functionality of say a Trace GP12-SM it would be the size of a filling cabinet. I guess thats why valve bass amps very often come with two preamps one simple passive tone stack for purists and another SS with a decent control circuit, so when you realise that the Bassman, B15, stack can't q a room out properly you can flip it. This is why I have recent come to realise the Laney Nexus/ Ashdown BTA is really the muts, clever stuff. Having said that in a neutral environment like a studio forget about it, a champ circuit is good enough! I do think the SS/ valve is the best option, palatable to joe public hell no! its just knowing how to use it, the old trace gear for example was great if you only cut the signal and never boosted, it says this in the manual, but no one listened. Our guitarist cousins rave about shoving boost pedals in front of there 1974X, JTM45's and Plexi's the best ones are of course powered by germinium transistors like the Dallas etc But a valve power amp for bass matched and booked with a good OT thats something that SS really cannot replicate,( I have only really realised this in recent years) the liner nature of the output from .Hz to KHz evenly represented, distortion yes but its natural warm and never sterile and so dam powerful at the low end where SS looses definition. and its what you expect and really want to hear, no distortion and the wrong kind of distortion you can get from SS thats bad an unnatural sound. So maybe a selection of valve poweramps is the answer light medium and powerful for each situation that everyone is talking about, then you can front end it with your preamp of choice. Then you keep it simple and lower cost

Controversy abounds but why would you want a DI box on a valve amp anyway? In almost every situation the DI always goes out dry, i.e uncoloured as the sound guy has the room acoustic mix etc to contend with, DI are useful on amps so you dont have the opportunity to forget your little grey box. If you go to the trouble of a valve amp, you want a dry DI and a micc'ed cab to get the sound as the speaker cab has just an important effect on your sound. Then the engineer can use the dry DI and coloured it with a bit of speaker. If you want a DI on a valve amp it would probably mean another winding on the power tranny as 9-18v is probably not used in the circuit = more expense when youcan by a radial di for £20 and push your signal through it!!!

[quote name='henry norton' post='1080139' date='Jan 6 2011, 05:16 PM']+1 on that - my main amp's an old 100 watt valve combo which is plenty loud enough for just about any venue I've played that doesn't have a PA you can't DI your bass off into. There's a niche worth filling, especially if price falls significantly short from SVT & Hiwatt levels.[/quote] You can make your own for studio a fender champ kit and junk the output transformer for a hammond 1628 good enough to run a speaker box, what goes in comes out

[quote name='bumnote' post='1080169' date='Jan 6 2011, 05:38 PM']The trouble is we have got used to relatively cheap gear and we wont pay the same for equipment that we once used to. My first amp in 1965 was a marshal 50w combo which cost £115. I earned £5 12 6 a week That was about 20 weeks wages on probably the equivalent of a min wage now. That was for a "budget" amp. So when Jim Marshall was making his amps, thats why he could afford a team of people making amps by hand. Now, we use printed circuits, make them in a low wage economy, or pay loads for the privelege of making them in the UK.[/quote] +1 on that, combine that with the fact that most cheap electronic components caps resistors etc are not made for HT vis valve amps and geared towards SS i.e. low voltage high current and the fact that the caps and valves for this gear is still stuffed by hand we have got no chance! But I bet you wish wish you had kept that combo, what was it a JTM Bass? worth a fortune! I still can't believe a friend who chucked out an AC100 way back, cause it blew up, probably only a cap, output valve etc, must have been an easy fix with all those radio and tv repair men!