VTypeV4

The V4 was looking a little dusty so I decided a spring clean was in order. It's sounding just as good but looking much fresher! 🥰

There's been a few posts about various Squier models on here recently so I thought a collective space to post pics of all those wonderful instruments would be lovely. ❤️ My three Squier Jazzes: Natural finish 2006 VM series (Cort factory) Blue / Puprle 2007 Affinity 'J-Bass' model (Cort factory) Olympic White 2022 40th Anniversary Gold Edition (Sammick factory) Lets see yours. 😃

I appreciate I've paraphrased you a little here but I couldn't agree more. ❤️ 40th Anniversary Gold Edition - just fantastic.

I haven't owned a 'full fat' Fender for 15 years or more.. The VM and 40th Anniversary Squier Jazzes are the best passive basses I've ever owned. Compared against a lovely Japanese '75 reissue, an American Standard and an active Mexican Deluxe V, I'd pick the Squiers. Incidentally, I played both back-to-back when I got home last night and even 6 months later, I couldn't choose between them.. ❤️ I can't help but feel Fender may well have shot themselves in the foot with the quality of the high end Squier basses. Based on my own experience (YMMV), other than the 'it says Fender on the headstock' kudos, the Squier models are at least equal to most of the Fender basses I've played both historically and recently. I have an Affinity series Jazz, too and even that is a useful tool - I've gigged it on occasion plus it's made it on to more than a few recordings at the studio too - I can't say it was ever lacking. It's had some cosmetic upgrades over the last few years but still has the stock pickups, electrics and hardware.

Can't say that I've ever used one of those (or even seen one in the flesh) but it looks like a useable tool.. 😀

02R implemented at the studio - it's part of the 'old studio' setup using the old Windows PC and a spare MOTU interface. There were a few projects that I started at home but now I can now finish / add to using the studio facilities which is great! It's largely separate from the main Mac / DM2K / ML5K but the monitor and main L/R out is still via the GL / big ML so it could still technically work via my master rack with external EQ and a WA Bus comp if needed. Great for it to hear some music again. ❤️

I'll just leave this here.. 😅 I've been very impressed with my SVT although Trace is my usual choice - you may well be equally impressed.

Purely cosmetic - vanity! My affinity currently has plates on it and they're easy enough to work round on that. 😃

Maybe this doesn't quite fit the 'unsung hero' category but the old Peavey HiSys 2 always sounded pretty good for bass. I powered one with a Trace 300SM on a gig once and it really sounded great - I can't imagine why I wouldn't have had my cabs with me but Peavey was minter. 😃

It's a fantastic tool, thanks. 😀 Enjoy the V4, I expect it's equally useful but with a bit more 'vintage mojo' going on - super cool. 😀

Thanks for that. 😀

Double sided tape! Genius idea! 🥰

I love my Squier VM Jazz. It's an early one (2006) that I've owned for a long while now (2008/9 ish) as such, I've done many shows and studio sessions with it over the years - it's a time-proven keeper. Recently it's fallen out of favour a little given the arrival of the 40th anniversary Squier Jazz back in January although the other day, it looked great in the light so I dusted it off and mocked some plates on it. It's just the screw holes leaving a permanent scar that bothers me.. 😬

I was looking for one of these last year but failed after about 3 months keeping an eye out on here, FB, eBay etc but not one appeared.. I was only after the head as I wanted the SVT flavour for use at the studio but without the bother of the expensive 6550s and the weight.. In the end I bought an entire stack with a 'full fat' SVT CL, 410HE and 115E - far more than planned! Glad you've brought this lovely amplifier back to life, it's very cool indeed - hope you enjoy it as much as I do my SVT. ❤️

My SMX having a little service sometime last year. It's CB power stage can clearly be seen and is still working great - plenty of horsepower. 😀

Oh man! I am really quite tempted although I really don't need any more black and green boxes saying 'Trace Elliot' on them, ha! I expect they'd be the ultimate 'rough and ready' gigging machine a few years back - small enough to go in the boot of the car and pokey enough to knock a hole in a wall! As clean as an EBS? As much character as an Ampeg? As much control as a Trace? Probably not, but as a 'proper' rock 'n' roll all transistor bass amp, it should probably seen as Peavey at it's best, I'd say.

I always liked the Commando 10, too - a slightly later model with a few more features, a 10" Celestion and the same 65w power stage in the big Boxer. I'm not looking at the one currently on eBay. 🤣 Glad you have an ELF although I've still not tried one, yet..

When I was at college many moons ago, there weren't any of these big power, widow-loaded marvels of the time but there were many a humble TKO. They took a kicking day in day out and never once in all the time I was there did I ever know of a single failure and they were far from new when I started! I always admired the Databass combo - so much power packed into that compact box although I expect they still weighed a ton? Peavey seemed to use lead-lined wood for their enclosures back then not to mention the BW driver had it's own concentrated gravity field too.. There's one on FB now for £120 - seems pretty reasonable to me.

My home setup: Bass > Trace Elliot V4 (with an NE-1 and LMB-3 in the FX loop) > Direct out > Yamaha 02R > MOTU interface > Pro Tools At the Studio: Bass > Trace Elliot SMX > Direct out > Yamaha DM2000 > MOTU interface(s) > Logic Pro X Fol clients I use various combinations of their gear (if it sounds good) and the SVT / V-Type / SMX and Bassman rigs that live at the studio > Yamaha DM2000 > MOTU interface(s) > Logic Pro X For my own recordings (including the band) I tend to find my basses work really well into either the V-Type or SMX preamplifiers. I dial the sound I hear in my head using their features so the DI sound generally needs very little of anything more (or less) once recorded - it's great to have it at least 90% of the way there already plus it makes it easier and quicker when mixing. As such, very rarely do I use multiple lines. It's different for clients at the studio - using both DI and mic setups is sometimes ideal plus I'm not against dropping the bass straight into the desk and modelling it from there using plugins either (some clients prefer it that way) but for me, I have the hardware already so I like to make use of it. 😀

I'm yet to try my SVT-CL through the little Goliaths but I'll bet it'd be super. ❤️

I had a Trace 4x10" (1048H - which was good enough) at the same time as the Peavey but it was quite a difference in performance when I compared the two. I sold the Trace cabinet to a friend not long after. 😀 It'll never happen as I have no intention of buying another but it'd be interesting to compare the 410TVX to my SWR cabs, I wonder if it's a similar tonal characteristic I heard and particularly liked in both? A slightly attenuated upper mid but with plenty of low, low mid range and bright 'ping' on top..? I've seen the Peavey cabs on various sites including here and eBay for £100 or less which is an absolute bargain - providing you can lift it, of course! 😅

I was thinking about a other popular thread on here at the moment (combinations of gear made in heaven) which got me on a bit of a nostalgia trip about gear I've had over the years.. Number 1 goes all the way back to 1998 / 99 and my early years of playing. Wanting a small and portable combo I could carry (unlike the heavy valve amp and WEM cabs I was using), my step dad and I went amp shopping. We tried a few home / practice amps in the local shops but all were a little underwhelming and we were about to give up but he suggested we go up to Academy of Sound store despite most of their stock being new. The words 'Trace' and 'Elliot' meant nothing to me at the time but a little green furry covered amp with 'Boxer 30' written on the black and green panel was sat there amongst much bigger examples. He said we should try it although it was likely to be alot more expensive as it was a Trace. It blew everything else we tried that day clean out of the water - it was louder, cleaner and had a proper, full sound. I paid £100 for it brand new - even to this day, I consider it good value and was very pleased with how it sounded. 25 years later, I don't have the little Boxer (I traded it for a Squier Tele, I think) but I do have any number of green furry boxes with the words 'Trace Elliot' on them and, despite them being much bigger that little Boxer helped pave the way. Number 2: A Peavey 410TVX which I bought used about 20 years ago. I was saving for a new one at the time as they were about £350 / £400 and I was a student. Luckily a very clean looking used one appeared in the local shop and he wanted much less (I think I paid less than £250) for it. It weighed as much as the world but it performed far beyond what I had expected. It played loud and clean with lots of articulation - all the dynamics and nuances shone through with every note. One of the best sounding cabs I've owned, a proper unsung hero in my opinion. I sold it to downsize to an Ashdown 2x10 which was OK but not a patch on the Peavey cab. And Number 3: An Ashton BV300H valve amp with matching cabs. The head was a 300w all-valve head which sounded fantastic and came with EHX valves, chunky transformers and decent upholstery - it was basic with very few 'clever' features but was well up to the job and I did a good few gigs and recording sessions with it. The cabs appeared to be much the same and were again better built than their price tag suggested. Both came with TF series Celestion drivers which seemed to perform well above their apparently moderate specs suggested. I still have the 1x15" cab although the Celestion was replaced with a JBL K140 for an 'older skool' sound. Anyways, thanks for induging this rather long opener!

Trace Elliot V-Type (particularly the all valve variety) and SWR cabs (Goliath Jr MK3) - killer combination. 😃

For the last month or so, I've pretty much played this thing exclusively. No gigs but it's seen a few studio sessions plus lots of playing at home - 6 months since purchase and it's just getting better (my opinion, of course) as everything seems to have stabilized and settled in nicely. For the money, this range of basses are incredible.

Incredibly, it's been nearly 12 months since I went to sunny Southport to grab this lovely lot! I thought I'd share how it's held up.. 😃 In a word, it's been faultless and all the comments in the review regarding it's tone, character and general physical characteristics still very much ring true. The SVT and associated cabs have found many friends at the studio with around 75% of clients choosing to play through it - irrespective of genre. When recording, (for the most part, at least) I've moved away from the usual DI / Mic blend and now work a slightly convoluted system of taking 3 DI signals using a Trace SMX as an active line splitter / amplifier. One of these DI lines comes from the SVT and is one of the best sounding built-in direct outputs I've ever used. From memory, it's tapped very late in the signal path, either just before after the inverter / driver stage so all of the pre-amp character is present at the XLR socket with no wierd artifacts, noise or additional distortion. I haven't taken it out and gigged it - in fact, it's never even left the live room since I put it there so can't really comment on the Ampeg's gig-worthy-ness but being honest, I don't really need to, do I (!) 🤣 In terms of reliability, again it's track record remains 100% with no faults, inconsistent performance or drop outs. Under my use, the stack doesn't tend to get driven particularly hard but it does work a lot of hours. Mark at the studio also makes use of the SVT and loves it just as much as I do - he reports lots of his clients also gravitate towards it. I'm not sure if it's a current trend or the 'Ampeg is a standard' thing but as I said before, by a reasonable margin, the Ampeg rates very highly at the studio with the SMX Trace coming in a close second - I always let players try them all to make sure we're sonically on the same page. The borrowed Trace V6 usually comes in 3rd, a little behind the SMX but the old Bassman 135 doesn't even get a look in anymore - I really can't recall the last time I recorded with it. Personal waffling and thoughts aside, the SVT and it's cabs have certainly been a great investment at the studio. Whilst it seems unlikely the presence of a single Ampeg rig has won me any clients on that fact alone, it certainly hasn't done the reputation of the place any harm - long live the SVT. ❤️