VTypeV4

FAL.. oh dear!

[quote name='BILL POSTERS' timestamp='1359742464' post='1959798']
Yeah, you could buy them as kits, there was a 15W ( 2XEL84) and a 30W, based on Mullard designs, if you google Mullard 5-20 its pretty similar.

Had one working with PL36 TV line output valves at one time, bloody lethal come to think of it, but I was young and could get them from work for free.
[/quote]

Shame you don't still have it, or do you?

There's one on John Chambers site that runs with a pair of 807s..

[url="http://www.chambonino.com/work/linear/lin2.html"]http://www.chambonino.com/work/linear/lin2.html[/url]

[quote name='longtimefred' timestamp='1359737649' post='1959678']
fun reading this. I dont think i have ever owned a crap amp, quite lucky really. Even my first one was an Ampeg B100R!

Most unreliable one i had was an old Hartke 3500 thing. Always broke and i got rid quite quickly, sounded good... just a duff one.

I vaguely remember playing through a carlsboro thing at a rehearsal studio that had a "suzz" channel. that was pretty sh*t and the knobs fell off all the time.

[i][b]My college's old Peavey TKO was probably the most terrible. no matter what you did with the eq, it didnt really change much and wouldnt go very loud.[/b][/i]
[/quote]

Agreed with how they had 'that' sound, but how much punishment did we give those old things, man!? Smashing them into the limiter with every note!

[quote name='BILL POSTERS' timestamp='1359730653' post='1959530']
I was thinking of one of these...

Probably much the same Mullard based design though. With the Anodes of the EL34s usually glowing cherry red.

[attachment=126562:misc8c.jpg]
[/quote]

I think thats how mine started life but the previous owner decided he wanted a 'stack'. It's apparently played the Albert hall. Thankfully my EL34s aren't glowing as this would certainly be cause for big concern! Are these Cathode biased?

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1359671667' post='1958747']
Just to be clear about it...
I said 'Linear Concord' (yes, that's RSC...). What are these 'factors' of which you speak..? Reliability..? Value..? Volume..? I'll say it again. Linear Concord.
We had great fun, and learned through (bitter-ish...) experience how to seperate the chaff from the wheat. That's why I ended up with Hiwatt, but for 'worst amp' awards, we're not talking 'tone', here, or personal taste. Try it yourself. Obtain a Linear Concord, and tell us how it rates for (what was that again..? Oh, yes...) Reliability. Value. Volume.
Happy days...
[/quote]

[IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/LinearStackL30.jpg[/IMG]

I've had this Linear L30 Conchord for ten years and whilst it will never win any awards for SPL, it does sound sweet and it's been perfectly reliable including the vintage Goodmans speakers with the exception of a couple valve swaps.. It now has one Mazda and one Mullard EF86, a Sovtek ECC83, a no-name GZ34 and a pair of Ruby EL34Bs..

Will it compete with a group / drummer? Is it flexable tonally? No, not at all.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to defend it as a 'good bass amp', it isn't but it certainly has vintage charm..

Personally, It'd be the Orange out of those two. I tried one at the guitar show in brum years ago and it was great. It was much better than the Warwick amps I tried that day. Never tried the Ag.

My own choice would be a 400SMX Trace w/410 and 115 because it would do 'my' sound and lots of others to boot!

[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1359449644' post='1954788']
I've got a British made JJ500 that's far from wooly sounding.

[i][b]Looking at Ashdown's new website they appear to have dropped the 12 band range[/b][/i]
[/quote]

Shame, I would have liked to try one and compare it to the [i]real [/i]thing. It might have been an Ashdown that I actually got on with. I tried the Mark King 2x10 combo a while back and couldn't get that to work for me.

Nice topic..

I used a Carlsboro keyboard amp as a bass amp once and that was pretty diabolical. I know it could be argued that it wasn't really fit for purpose but it had no balls and when asked to do a bit of low end, the speaker complained with that horrible paper/flap bottoming out sound.

The worst amp I ever owned was probably a '80s 100w Hiwatt L100H. It had no balls whatsoever and must have been really quite ill but my Linear L30 Conchord would have walked away from it. A new set of valves didn't improve it so I returned to the shop and he honoured by giving me my monies back. Don used to run a great shop. Shame becuase at low level it sounded really quite nice just a pain it wouldn't turn up!

And not meaning to jump on the band wagon but I'm not into Crashdowns either although I've never had one fail on me, I just can't get them to do my sound.

I'll bet this is stunning, I still love 'Alive in LA' after all these years..

Some good points there, many thanks..

I'll preface any further thoughts by saying that I'm really happy with my sound and my rig as it's capable of doing pretty much anything I need it to. The BUT comes in where by 'my sound' inspires me to play in a certain way plus having the extended range of a 5-string also has me taking a 5-string way of looking at things too. Am I making sense? Some more scampi and or wet fish needed I think!

Looking at it from a GAS perspective, I can easily get my hands on the Jazz Bass and I have a 'typical' valve head (not the Ashton) to hand although an old-school horn-loaded speaker is less easily available. The concept of having a band limited rig is a total spin on the current setup. I also saw a Bassman 135 & Pyramid 4x12 on ebay which also got the juices flowing. I never really considered it to be a GAS thing but I'm considering it is a little more driven by it than I thought.

With regards to style, it would require me taking a 'step back' and attempting to pulling it back to bare bones. Maybe I need to simply put myself in the position by joining a group and see if I sink or swim at it?

I'm not sure if I'm simply going through a phase (quite possible!) or whether I really should think about taking a retrogressive step with my gear, my sound and most importantly my style..

I've been listening to the things I listened to as a teenager including some of which I was into before I even started playing bass. It's probably due to watching 'My mad fat diary' on E4 but the sound tracks have reminded me of how good a lot of the music was back then. Don't get me wrong, I'm probably seeing it with the old rose tinted specs but as I recall, it was truly a golden era. A few searches on Youtube quickly found 'Moving' by Supergrass and 'Beautiful Ones' by Suede which I hadn't heard for years but instantly took me back and are still IMO some of the best songs ever.

Now, my playing style (and those who know me will confirm) is very much in the funk / disco / groove sector and this was always my aim as a player. I remember hearing Lee Ritenour's 'Rio Funk' at about 15 and thought, thats how my bass needs to sound. Up until that point, it had been Indie of the time all the way. I have played in a number of soul bands that have covered motown and all that, I played in a '70s disco band that was great, I loved that one and have done countless other projects from duo with a loop pedal through to full scale original bands. I feel my style has always fitted with these projects and feel that my musical maturity has shown that I don't always have to play 100 notes, infact it's nice to play none sometimes.

But I'm considering taking it all a step further and looking back to players of the era such as Alonza Bevan (Kula Shaker), Alex James (Blur) and dare I say it... even Paul McGuigan (Oasis). All great palyers, largely simple but still great grooves that fit the bill perfectly. It's like they got the balance between artistic flair and what the song needs right on the money..

So, the question is: do I say sod it, buy an old 100w valve amp (Fender Bassman for example) with a matching cab or even build an old style 15" W-Bin or possibly a 2 x 15 horn loaded box and get my old 4-string Jazz bass back off my friend?

I don't think I'll look to sell any of my existing kit (Ashton and Warwick) rather make some additions, bit like my bike collection!

Maybe I'me being nostalgic or having some sort of crisis now that I've hit 30 but I'm ineterested in peoples opinion. Has anyone done this and loved it or possibly regretted it? Have I gone gone mad and simply need a smack round the face with a wet fish? All thoughts and opinions welcome.

Ashton 410 and 115..

Normal sized cabs loaded with Celestion Truvox.

Normally I'll just use the 410 but if I'm feeling extra flash, I'll take the full rig..

If I'm feelin lazy, I'll take one of my old WEM 1x15 cabs as they're compact and reasonably light.

I truly love my real MS20 and the comment about them all sounding different is very true. My friend has an earlier (I think at least) serial number model and his is a bit more 'fizzy' and 'snarly' whereas mine is an altogether smoother sounding example.

The new mini one looks a really cool little weapon tho..

[u][u]Trace Elliot V8[/u][/u] and [u]1084! [/u]

Love the Stak stack Mr F!

I've long been seduced by those beautiful glowing bottles and the 'magic' contained within..

A very hippy and airy fairy response from me but I love 'em.

The early stuff and into the mid-eighties, I believe came loaded with Fane drivers. The 15" is the easily identifiable in old 1518 cabs as the frame isn't entirely circular much like a Peavey Scorpion.

[quote name='Pow_22' timestamp='1358496920' post='1940107']
I do really fancy a go on one of them there Ashton BV300 efforts
[/quote]

They're really under rated IMO..

I too don't get on with them.

I have tried many times but I simply cannot get them to work for me. I find a lack of lower midrange the problem which seems to accentuate this wooly bottom end thing.

Oh, go on then..

[IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/AshtonWarwick.jpg[/IMG]

As per sig, Warwick Streamer LX5 and Ashton BV300H..

Bump anyone?

Any swapsies? Anything considered from vintage Celestions, Goodmans and Fane to more modern drive units such as Black Widows etc..

Lovely!

I think the original drive units were made by fostex or possibly Audax and aren't available anymore..

I think your best bet is possibly with Fane, I'm quite sure they make a suitable replacement..

I couldn't help myself by just messing with one of my WEM cabs could I? No, I couldn't..

[IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/Cel1.jpg[/IMG]

So I got myself this vintage Celestion on the cheap from a very pleasant gentleman..

[IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/Cel2.jpg[/IMG]

I removed the (perfectly serviceable) 4 ohm HH drive unit from the cab. It's actually a really good speaker thats taken a lot of use and abuse over the last 15 years including bass guitar, heavy synth and PA subwoofer duties when needed. I have also grossly over-powered it's 150w rating by using it hard with a 500w amp and it's never complained. Why am I taking it out of service? Not sure yet..

[IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/Cel3.jpg[/IMG]

The new/old (1975) G15C loaded into the cab just before I bolted it into place. I haven't had a chance to run it up yet but I like the idea of running it with my old 60w head if nothing else, just to see how it sounds. I understand these drivers were popular in double fifteen bass enclosures of the day..