VTypeV4

The V4 had a little hiccup a few months back with a horrible cracking through the speakers, lightning inside one of the EHX KT88s and ultimately a fried fuse. The EHX are still currently untested but being safe rather than sorry, I replaced the fuse and installed some old SED 6550C that I'd acquired - these thankfully brought it back to life. They've been fine but I wanted something a bit newer and special for the big Trace so having done a bit of research, I came across these 'Linlai' branded '88s. Initially, I thought they were re-branded premium Shuguang but seemingly, I was wrong and it's a new factory set up by former emplyees of both Shuguang and Psvane specialising in big hifi tubes such as 845 and 811 plus smaller 6SN/L7 and ECC83/2/1 types.. With only about 45 mins on them so far, it's nowhere near enough time to evaluate them but initial impressions are very good. They look fantastic, biased up and remained stable after about 25 mins plus I noticed an exceptionally low noise floor - the V4 isn't noisy anyways but it was near silent with these. We'll see how they go - I got the best part of ten years out of the EHX (and there's a chance they're still ok) which is longer than I've had out of any other set that have ever been in there. Whether these will match the Russian built valves is yet to be seen but having paid £150 including delivery, the V4 feels great and I'm a happy camper.. 🥰

Many thanks to Wayne for a great transaction. My old Trace Elliot 122H has gone to a loving home in the North East. Have confidence and faith in this guy - he's 100%.

There's the Ampeg book, too although it covers all models up until about twenty years back. It's little out of date now but is still an easy and interesting read. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ampeg-Story-Behind-Gregg-Hopkins/dp/0793579511 Thanks, I'm reasonably confident we'll put something together as the fella that owns it is a good mate. 😎 For the record, it's number 191 / 500.

In a change from my usual love for 'all things green and black', I've been using this lovely old thing of late. It's an '87 Skunkworks SVT-HD which I don't yet own it but there's a deal in progress. It's got bags of power plus it's amongst the most 'musical' of things I've ever plugged into, and yes, it's totally worth the weight..

Making use of Mark's Wing at St Joes although thankfully the college now has it's own Wing and two SD16 stage boxes. There's almost as many photos of M32 consoles as there are 02Rs on this thread. 🥰 This particular example has been my trusty steed at Bloodstock Festival for the last 5 years, now - still reliable, still up to the job and still great to mix on. Yes, they're showing their age a little, now but I'm more than happy to mix with them. It's looking likely that a different company will be providing the audio on both Sophie and my stage so next year so A&H and Yamaha are a possibility. Thankfully the new company have retained the staff so we've all kept our places for next year - it's just different gear, seemingly. The mighty Midas HD96 pictured here at the 2025 Notting Hill Carnival. This was one of two examples at the Hornimans Garden site - I used both but not at the same time. The above pic was my mix / recording console used for the 'Panorama' Steel Bands night whilst the other was somewhat under-utilized as FOH console. They're an intuitive machine taking the best of the Wing and the best of the Pro series into one console - I'm more than happy to have one of these.. ❤️ Various stages and consoles pictured throughout the UK on the recent TOH 45th anniversary tour. Allen & Heath and Digico have been common place on this run with a single Soundcraft VI and a solitary Pro2 - not a single Yamaha in sight! 😬

Thanks for the replies so far, folks.. 👍

Very recently, I picked up an exceptionally cheap Ashdown 2x10 cab. It works perfectly and sounds really very nice but I want to use it with all my amps so it needs to be 4 ohms not eight. The V4 will operate happily at eight but the Ampegs, Beavis and the V6 need two or four.. I've looked at various drivers and a while back, remember modelling some Celestion Pulse (not the XL) in the very similarly sized Trace Elliot 2x10 cab with seemingly favourable results. Frustratingly, my Eminence cab modelling software doesn't like this computer. The cab itself is just over 100 litres and tuned to around 50Hz. Tonally, I'm after non-rising-rate mids so a smooth, flat-ish response and the Celestions seem to fit the bill quite well. Has anyone done similar or used different drivers and found great results?

I think my 400SMX sounds better than my 300SMX - only by a hair but there's something about it that just 'breathes' in a slightly more natural way.. Hope you get to the bottom of what it is - very cool. 👍

Looks like it could be a MK1 GP11 although I'm not so sure the case is original.. With the first couple of generations of Trace Elliot gear, I believe all woodwork was painted black before the change to the grey 'pimple' type that lasted until the mid / late '90s ie, the early SM and SMX ranges.. Hope you have fun with it..

You've all seen it before but I thought it looked particularly good with a bit of light on and the Fender / Ampeg back drop..

They're a lovely amp - not big power but usually enough through the right cab(s).. Mine seems to have no problem working at 8 ohms on the 'extension' output although it usually works at 4 ohms on the 'main' output with it's matching 2x15". The line out is after everything so it's level is proportional to the output level but it really sounds great - I have a cheap passive DI box attached with some velcro in the back so I can use it as a balnced line. Not recently but I've done quite a bit of recording using it.