DiMarco

I was having a fun discussion with my bass teacher last year about high end stuff like Berg, Glockenklang etc. and he mentioned it as gear for rich old dentists & lawyers. We had quite some laughs back then but I kinda felt pressured since I had a Fodera bass in my hands at that particular moment. I AM NOT LIKE THAT AM I? lol. I am a 50+ IT guy though so I guess in the danger zone. Jokes aside, the Forte HP was on my list when I was looking for another amp last year. Out of all the modern lightweight amps this one and the Mesa WD-800 came out top. Later on I chose to get a used market, made in USA SVT-4 PRO instead after playing through one. These older non class D amps just seem to sound more lively somehow. Guess I am a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to amps. I still find the Forte HP an intriguing amp though.

Gear smut! lol

Comp is always on and set for more aggressive attack on every note I play rather than leveling out dynamics. Le Bass is always on and I use its fusion mode for valve overdrive tone. Pitchfork is either used as a polyphonic octaver or chorus. Giygas does mild/more mellow fuzz, Plasma Coil makes your rig sound like its broken I LOVE IT!

I love the SVT4-pro, too. It is kinda my go to amp lately.

I ordered two of those 2x8" cabs rightaway. In rehearsals they kept up fine with our loud drummer, a JCM900 + 4x12 and Dual Rectifier with 6x12 stacks. In fact I still had some headroom left. I am using the cabs with a TC RH750 amp, the Elf doesn't have enough watts available and compresses way too much when it has to be loud. Elfs are nice for home use though. I chose to get two cabs after trying my luck with a Barefaced One10. My amp works better with a 4ohm load and any stories you hear about a single One10 OR a Trace Elliot 2x8 keeping up with a rock drummer are big and utter bullsh*t. They simply won't in any room that's larger than 10 square meters. One piece of advice to everyone struggling to get enough volume from their small cabinet: Use acoustic coupling! This means cab on the floor for an extra few db in the bottom end. Back against a wall for another few db of free bottom end. On the floor in a corner for max bass output. This means you can dial back the bottom end on your amplifier, which in turn means your speaker won't have to work half as hard and can utilize the watts it is getting in more useful frequencies. TRY IT you will be amazed. NEVER place your speaker on a stand unless you're a guitarist.

The Peavey made Trace Elliot 2x8" cabs are some of the nicest I have ever owned. The Faitalpro speakers in there are simply amazing. I also own the Elf head and the Transit-B pre. The Transit-B is all you will ever need to get that Trace Elliot tone you know from the SMX range, minus the tube section in the pre but with an added overdrive channel. Peavey try to make great products when they throw the Trace Elliot label on and imho so far are doing a pretty damn good job! Eagerly awaiting the specs of this new TE-1200 amp.

When I tried to test how loud it goes in the local pub during soundcheck, the bar personel ran out ears covered and screaming. That little stack is just insane. And the Hexa sounds MASSIVE without any compression or whatever. Bass -> instrument lead -> Amp is all you need. The amp has this warm but tight sound I can't seem to find anywhere else. I sold my Mesa Prodigy because of this amp it got outclassed bigtime.

/me nods. The Hexa kills it. Totally.

Any insecure player makes a bad bassist. Put your gut in it and have no fear. Ever.

I switch between my basses on a weekly basis to keep things interesting (we play simple and boring punkrock music). Last week at rehearsals I brought my Sadowsky P. This week it's the Stingray NT's turn. So when doing my weekly practicing-the-day-before-rehearsals routine I set up my rig and plugged in the blue monster. Switched to 4th position (H+S) and started playing through my dirtboxes. Holy smokes! This thing sounds so damn powerful! Well I am hitting it pretty hard haha. Does anyone else cut highs on their onboard pre with Stingrays all the time? These basses sound too damn trebbly in 'neutral' mode.

Those headstocks take getting used to I guess.

Dealt with John twice ordering through the website. Never any problem and that nice personal touch.

Well the RH750 goes very loud with the Barefaced cab but the SVT4-pro just sounds better then the TC does. I mainly use that TC amp with my two Trace Elliot 2x8" cabs - my tiny footprint lots of noise ministack when the stage is tiny.

My Elf is on the shelf. 200w wasn't cutting it in my band. Funny enough the old TE AH250 Mk.V is capable of going n times as loud. To cover my small & portable amp needs I bought a TC RH750 instead. Swiss army knife bass head that one. The Warwick Gnome looks nice but I bet it can't compete with the JCM900 and Dual Rectifier stacks my guitarists are wielding. Whenever I can I bring out the SVT4-PRO and Barefaced Big Twin II gen3 to be able to keep up.

This particular one was handmade and custom wound, one coil more overwound then the other. Delano make pretty spicy ones though... See DELANO DJC 4 HE/M2

What this is still going on? NOT OILED: OILED: Same bass, same camera (samsung phone) before and after. Dunlop 65 lemon oil on fretboard and headstock. Keep oiling your fretboards people, it helps. Just not when the board is Maple. Maple should be left alone.

The switches are for the bridge pickup exclusively; series/parallel and 2x coil on/off. In series it is fatter, darker and louder. In parallel nice and middy. Either coil single turns it into a regular seventies or sixties jazz bass tone (with more bark, lacquered bubinga fretboard baby!).

I like the fact thst it is so compact while having those feats.

For me the Two Notes Le Bass nails the OD tone. It has a real valve handling the drive and both blendable channels each have their own EQ. I can mold it any way I want and it is very responsive. Tech21 YYZ is also a pretty nice one. I use both for slight dirt. Big dirt is handled by the Plasma Coil and creamy fuzz by the Giygas. I do not use my Darkglass Alpha-Omicron. Anyway, back on topic.

Opinion: The secret behind any good crunch tone is the instrument and the players touch. I also think passive instruments with their more open response lend themselves better for that particular sound. Chris Squire wouldn't have obtained his tone without a Ric and playing with a pick by any means. So an online demo of any amp, pre or pedal that does overdrive will never show you what it will do with your instrument and touch imho. The only thing you can really do is try it yourself. I have probably been disappointed in many (boutique) overdrives by not using the proper bass with them. Now that I own a full pallette 10 completely different sounding basses and about the same number of dirtboxes I think I know better. But then again, I'm no expert of course. I know one thing: a Pbass works better with dirt then most my other basses, except for the custom jazz I had purposely built to sound like a Ric on steroids. Good, soulful dirt tone that hits you in the gut is very rare.

I don't know. I used to be a fan but unsubscribed. Rick kinda repeats the same stuff over and over plus his "what makes this song great" doesn't appear to actually display what makes those songs great.

So is the "tube" path on these actually a tube or is it another wack emulation like the tubetone on my TC amp?

Edit: PINK FLUFFY UNICORNS DANCING ON RAINBOWS

You worry too much. Making music should be about having fun and entertaining. Don't overthink it.