DGBass

Yes I would agree with this. RB heads and even as far back as Backline amps appear to use these same voicings. I have one of the very old orange and grey air cooled Backline 250's and a more modern Backline 600 which is as near to an RB400/700 as you can get. With all controls at noon on these amps I wouldn't say it was an optimally flat voicing but it is a very pleasing sound to my ears. I think GK have a consistent default voicing across their amp models and over a period of time thats when folks start on about a GK Sound. I can't think of any pre-amp from any manufacturer i've played through that i'd ever considered being a flat voicing with all knobs at noon. Pre-amp controls are there to be twiddled with to create your sound in my book. That being said, I do like all knobs at noon on my GK's and all the main fun is usually to be had using the contour knob and that wonderful GK boost knob/feature. If I were to change any settings from noon, I would boost the bass to 2 o'clock, cut the lo-mid to 11 o'clock and leave Hi-mid at noon and treble cut at 11 o'clock. Contour @ 2 o'clock and boost at 9 or 10 o'clock. 🙂 Those may be optimal voicings for me but I don't think I could say they were optimally flat for a GK if there is such a thing.

Just the same one cab i've been using for the last nine years (a circa 1980 Musicman RH115-75) which has had the driver swapped from 4 to 8 ohms depending on which amp I choose to use with it. I couldn't say that testing was scientific in any way. It was more down to percieved change in loudness and feel from being very familiar with the setup and playing regular venues where I know how it should sound. It may even be down to how much my trousers were flapping 😉 at 4 ohms (a lot) and 8 ohms (not so much) respectively with the same amp volume. I tend to leave a particular amp i'm using always at the same settings whether rehearshal or gig to a sweet spot where everyone in the band is happy with levels and its loud enough for a gig. I think thats when I first noticed the 4 ohm cab seemed to squeeze that little bit more from a given amplifier at a given volume. BFM mentioned that turning up the master a bit would also likely level the difference between a 4 and 8 ohm cab. That does seem to work in practice and might be the difference between the master at 10 o'clock or 2 o'clock for me. I suspect the op was originally wondering if there was a way to get as much benefit from his amps rating without the need for an extra cab or perhaps his master was already way up (and maybe dimed ?). An extra 3db from a 4 ohm speaker might just be enough. It's a valid question when so many people buy large powerful amps with ratings mostly always quoted at 4 ohms but the amp ends up always being used with an 8 ohm cab and maybe turned up much more to achieve an end result. It's like considering buying an 800 watt amp to go with your 400 watt 8 ohm cab these days and realising after a few gigs you still need a second cab to get the full benefit of any available headroom. All great for new amp and cab sales at the end of the day. One other benefit i've had with a 4 ohm cab is when using smaller amps like for example a TE AH200 GP12, or a TE AH250 GP11 i've used in the past. All worked really well for smaller venues and I could make good use of the extra 3db at 4 ohms without the need to bring a much larger amp. The 8 ohm speaker is currently back in my cab as I have a newer bigger amp (600 watts) that would probably over stress a 4 ohm 15PR-400 after a few shows. If the new amp works out and my old MM cab doesn't shake apart, I may be using the 8 ohm version in future or until I can afford a much higher capacity 4 ohm driver and for the op's benefit that won't be cheap. It was all much simpler when I used Marshall Superbass amps, impedance matching gave me a selector on the back panel and I always got 100 watts whether it was 4, 8 or 16 ohms and it always seemed loud enough.

Thanks both, all makes sense and if you are interested in the speaker i've used over the past few years to make 4 ohm and 8 ohm comparisons, its a Faital Pro 15PR400 in the same cab with the same set of amps of varying power ratings. There are a few differences in specifications on the speaker vendor website between the 4 and 8 ohm versions but at the time I chose this driver it seemed a good fit and in practice it sounds good and has worked extremely well for me. I do hear and feel a difference using the 4 ohm version. It may actually be small in technical terms but it is noticeable and keeps me in one cab single speaker 4 ohm territory. My amps all work well at 4 ohms and I'm happy that a 4 ohm setup gives me an edge over an 8 ohm setup.

Thanks for that, if I can add one more scenario: If I add an identical 8 ohm cab to the original 8 ohm cab, maintain the same given volume knob setting as in the first comparision and same sound source settings, what measure of loudness increase could I expect compared to the single 8 ohm cab and the single 4 ohm cab? And... will the amplifier in theory be supplying the same voltage and current to the paired 8 ohm cabs in parallel as it would have been with the single 4 ohm driver at the same amplifier volume setting? Hope that makes sense.

Perhaps I could pose an example to the more knowledgeable forum users which does still bear a relation to the op's original question about essentailly squeezing more out of his setup by having a 4 ohm load. If I have an amplifier that the manufacturer says will deliver 500w into a 4 ohm load by design, and have two identical speaker cabs each loaded with single 15 inch drivers of a suitable power rating from the same manufacturer, same driver model, with same power rating and manufacturers sensitivity rating, and one is a 4 ohm version and one is an 8 ohm version. For a given identical output setting on the amplifier when used with either speaker cabinet using an identical sound source, should there be any expected difference in loudness between the 4 ohm setup or the 8 ohm setup?

I was really just saying that there was a noticeable real world difference with my setups when running into a 4 ohm cab and I thought that may be of interest to the OP if they ever decide to get another cab or maybe even a single higher powered 4 ohm cab. I've been lucky enough to try about a dozen different amps mostly class AB types into the same cab at 4 or 8 ohms at some point over the years and they all felt much more responsive with the 4 ohm cab option. I would agree all sorts of variables will come into play depending on how an amplifier is used whether its a 4 ohm or 8 ohm load. I haven't blown a driver or an amp fuse or smoked anything so far( in the last ten years at least) using single speaker 4 ohm cabs or 8 ohm cabs and I'm using the amps within the manufacturers ( claimed ) limits/ specs. So I'm assuming the setups i've used can handle any vairiables or additional stresses running at 4 ohms may introduce comfortably.

I've been down this road experimenting on a one cab solution with a 4 ohm and 8 ohm version of the same driver, in the same cab, with the same (class AB) amp and the same bass plugged in. It did in my experience make a noticeable difference running at 4 ohms and the amplifier sounded more dynamic and more responsive at high volume. Whether the full power of the amp was ever achieved at any point I'll never know. I was able to back off the master yet still achieve the same percieved loudness with the 4 ohm as I did with the 8 ohm speaker and amp working a bit harder. At 8 ohms it was plenty loud, at 4 ohms it sounded like there was just more headroom to help get a cleaner and deeper tone, especially down on an open e-string. I did the same thing with a class D amp I have to compare and in that situation there was negligble difference. At 4 ohms and up loud, the class-d amp sounded compressed and actually seemed happier working with an 8 ohm cab. Both amps were rated around 500 watts @ 4 ohms by their manufacturers, both also quite capable of gig volume easily with a single 8 ohm cab. As has also been mentioned, finding good high power 4 ohm drivers is a very expensive option. So, basically there is no simple or cheap way to utilise a potential gain running a single 4 ohm cab with your amp. A second cab is probably the cheapest option tbh.

I think your pickup is a late 70s active EMG as I see the red battery wire on the CAC bar. These typically had the black epoxy resin backing. I have an early 80s one gathering dust in my parts bucket, it has the tan coloured epoxy backing. I know it was early 80s as I bought it in 1981 and it lived in a 1981 Ibanez Blazer 800 BS bass for twenty years until I sold the Ibanez with its original pickup. My EMG was always punchy, crisp and very clean. Always intended to refit it to a P-bass but my current USA Standard stock pickup does the job. I have most of the pickup parts except the original CTS pots. They were quite an unusual size at 25K if I recall.

Seeing Red is always a good warm up tune for finger playing or with a medium flexible plectrum if plectrums are your thing.

I've had a couple of instruments, guitars and basses with laurel and pao ferro fingerboards. I must admit I like the Laurel boards very much, the grain and colour is mostly very consistent and a darker shade than pao ferro. Saying that I had a Jazz with a really striking striped pao ferro grain which was quite fetching. My ears arent good enough to detect any tonal difference between them, perhaps pao ferro is a little brighter? The look of a board would swing whether I purchased an instrument or not. Thats the old chestnut of how it looks being almost as important as how it sounds. Pao Ferro board on a Player Laurel board on a Squire CV - this was a really nice example and as dark as my USA Fenders. The board below is from a stratocaster. Can you tell by looking at it whether its rosewood, pao ferro or laurel?

I played a gig years ago (1999) where i'd badly hurt my right ankle to the point of not being able to stand. We had a gig booked to support swedish metal band Psycore ( who went on to become Swedens Finest ) at a well known Glagow rock / indie venue. Rather than cancel and/or miss the chance to meet them and get our copies of I'm not one of Us signed, my band mates collected me, lifted me into a car and drove me to the gig. Just before positioning me on stage they filled me up with pain killers, anti inflamatory's and fixed a splint to my right leg. I played an hour set rooted to the spot while swaying dangerously to the left on occasion and don't remember a great deal about it at all. I did meet Hansi Baumgartner in the backstage dressing rooms as ours and Psycore's were next door to each other. He let me use his rig which consisted of two Marshall DBS heads through a DBS 4x12 and a DBS 2x15. This the only photo I have of the gig that night and I don't look deleriously in pain or about to fall over, but I was.

Just back from a gig at a fairly local working men's club where the band were scheduled to play mid way through the evening between two other bands. Some short notice personnel issues meant we had to call in a dep drummer who I'd played with once before and knew was a solid player. That wasn't so bad. The vocalist was also a dep and none of us had jammed with him before or even met him. Totally unrehearsed and a set list exchanged by email was basically the only prep we did. The gig went well and all backline and PA was provided. I just showed with my Jazz, a strap, a clip on tuner and a lead. The provided backline was a Genz Benz Contour 500 2x10 with the matching Contour 1x15 extension cab. It was fairly loud but a bit dry sounding and I could hear it struggling ( the class-d cough I call it ) a little with the range of 60s, 70s and 80s rock and blues covers we played which need a lot of big heavy low end of the type my ABM can do with ease. The PA was fairly substantial and covered the out front bass well. Someone came up to us at the end of the show and said they enjoyed the bands set and asked how long we'd all been together. Our dep singer piped up that he'd only just met us 15 mins before the show in the car park. Which was correct. Sandwiches and pork pies were supplied in abundance on the night for all courtesy of the working mens club. All in, a very enjoyable old school club gig considering half the usual band were deps, barely knew the set list and we all played with no previous rehearsal.

Might be worth sticking a meter across the pins at both ends on the the tank to make sure you get a reading from the springs/coils. Just in case the tank is actually broken and that is why the wires were disconnected in the first place. Those small IDC plugs ( usually made by Molex or AMP) are used commonly in tanks and can normally only be fitted one way around as they have a locking tab on the fitting. That being the case its usually possible to work out which wire goes where and solder them on. On one side green is the tip( signal) and black is the ground. On the other end red is the tip( signal ) and black is the ground. The tip wires on tanks I've repaired or restored are usually at the top tag, screens on the bottom tag. Its only two wires, if you solder them on backwards, the reverb will hum like mad when is use. Easy enough to reverse them and retest. The other thing you could do is just replace the tank, most new ones are as good as the old ones for general use and Orange type 3-springs ones are available online at around £40-60 depending on what model. you need. Look on the can chassis for a reverb identifier code( see photo) and that will tell you what model you need to match the way the amp reverb circuit is configured. I'm sure if you contacted Orange they would be able to help you, I hear they are really good with post sales tech support. IDC connectors showing tip wires from the locking side of the connecter. ( this example is from a fender amp ) Tank identifier 8EB2C1B in this example will tell you the type of tank you need and what the spring impeadance is to match your amp.

I used a Fender Bandmaster VM cab for a while a few years back with a 72 Fender Bassman 50 and a Musicman HD150(on half power setting). The cab had Celestion 70/80 speakers when I bought it used and I replaced them with Vintage 30s. The cab looked great and actually paired well with the Bassman 50 and the Musicman. The cab wasn't braced anywhere internally and I always had the feeling around 50-75 watts was about as much as it could handle from a bass guitar before it began to resonate. The baffle on the VM cab is pretty lightweight as well so does vibrate a bit as the power increases. It actually sounded great at low to medium volume but was never really brilliant at loud volumes unless you like very overdriven Fender Bassman 50 tones and not much low end. I lined the VM with 3/4 inch Dacron foam which did help damp vibrations a bit. I did a show with it but it got lost in the mix with a loud drummer and one guitarist. The Musicman HD150 was better because it stayed clean right up to near max on half power setting and had a more flexible pre-amp. The amp did make a difference but at the end of the day The BM VM cab was great for low volume rehearshal and studio sound but not brilliant at a loud rock gig with bass. The reason I chose Vintage 30s for the BM VM was that I'd had very good results using them in an old Marshall Chequerboard 4x12 ( 240W @ 16ohms ) with the Marshall Superbass I used to use a long time ago. Very efficient and loud in the 4x12, and still efficient and reasonably loud in the Bandmaster VM. Looked great on stage with the Fender badge swapped with an MM one as well. Sounded a lot better with the HD150 as well.

A custom shop Ashdown ABM was my first thought for best music purchase of 2022 but there was something else I bought that just pipped it to the post for sheer value and because of how stunned I was at the variety of tones available and how good it sounds. It's also superbly built and £70 seemed to good to be true but I can't fault it in anyway so far.

One of these. The tree was more kind of sitting on top of it rather than the item being under it. Early 80's MK2 GP11 1110 100watt 4x10 combo. Thank you Santa🎄My back hates you! Oh and a Boss TR2.

I would agree that knowing how your guitarist colleague was tuning makes for an easier time. Saying that, I was in a band where our guitarist would tune down to a specific detuned chord for some songs, then need to tune back up a bit to play other songs and then have a standard guitar at concert pitch for other tunes. This was achievable in a rehearshal room or studio with three or four differently tuned guitars but not at a gig. As I only ever used one bass at a time, tuning up and down like this to match the guitar played havoc with my bass tuning and playability. String gauge was also a major factor in maintaining playability and staying in a de-tuned state. At the end of the day I decided to tune to standard concert pitch and play up and down the neck a bit more to make the required key changes. It made for some interesting bass sounds and playing to match what was happening on guitar and kept my gig setup standard and my bass in perfect tune. Judicious use of a bass distortion pedal and tweaked EQ kept the bass sounding like a bass even though a lot of the time I was playing up near or above the 7th fret most of the time in that band.

I have a set of Ironstone Jazz pickups in my American Standard and they are plenty beefy in use with stainless flats. They are an Alnico design based on a 70s jazz tone and have way more output than the standard Fender CS60s my bass came with as new. You can get them in singles as well as pairs and for me they seemed very reasonably priced. I would even go as far as to say they transformed my Jazz in both tone and output. Definetly worth a look imho.

Most i've paid for a new bass ever was £1299. If I was in the market for something new, proabably around £1500 would be the limit for new one, maybe half that for a used item. Any new or used bass would be getting gigged for sure so having something wonderfully unique and minted that i'd be terrified to do pub gigs with would be no use.

With a lot of the now 'vintage' TE stuff, if you are in the market for repairing them or restoring a broken item, one solution is to seek out a similar or same unit and cannibalise it for spares. One good one from maybe two bad ones if you like. Electronic component parts are still source-able as a lot of the components like resistors, diodes and capacitors are still made by some vendors. Things like speakers, complete PCB's and consumables like sitel knobs, push button caps, bulbs and sliders are harder to find if at all for some TE's now. Mosfet power transistors for AH amps (TO3 type) are no longer made from this year and going up in price as stock runs out. It will get harder to keep the power sections on old amps running. Cabs are a bit easier as there will be a speaker somewhere that will fit or fit reasonably well to replace an older unit. TE used Fane a lot around the time of the bright boxes and Fane still do a 5 inch high performance driver that might be an option to get your bright box working at around £45. https://www.fane-international.com/view-product/STUDIO-5FRK A common issue I’ve seen on older TE cabs on speakers is the two little flexible braided wires that go from the tags to the speaker coil former get corroded or go high resistance with time. Old Celestion 10’s are particularly prone to this after about 30 years of use. Thats fixable usually with a bit of careful soldering. If someones poked a finger through the cone thats a different story!

I managed to get in some studio rehearsal time today and took along the ABM Mini stack I posted a pic of recently. I was very impressed with the sound from the Mini 4x8 and the Mini 1x15, and as a full rig its very giggable. Both cabs and the head also fit easily into the boot of my small hatchback which is nice. Can't help think that Ashdown have missed a trick with updated Neo versions of these Mini cabs. The 4x8 is quite weighty but managable due to its compact size. The MIni 15 is light even with a standard Sica Blue line driver. The old EVO 500 just growls like old EVO 500's do when pushed and its not an unpleasant sound at all. I'd almost forgotten how good the smell of hot ABM smells after a giving one a good thrashing. I also have to agree with BC user @Sibob who suggested the cabs sounded better used as a pair in a rig. Used seperately I found them a bit thin sounding but probably usable for a small gig that didn't need lots of oomph. In the ABM not so mini department, I also dragged along a recent new purchase thats not been gigged yet, in fact barely even switched on. It's an ABM 600RC custom shop and possibly one of the last made by Ashdown. The option to buy one dissapeared from their custom shop web page the day after I ordered one 🤔 It was purchased with the proceeds of selling on all my old TE kit, a nice synergy I thought at the time. It sounds like umm...an ABM. Seems cleaner and fatter than the old school ABMs i've been used too. Plenty oomph as well and this one has the silient fan thing happening until it warms up which could be very useful for studio work. The 8x10 was borrowed from the studio and was easily capable of making the studio wall and celing rattle. For gigging i'll be using a 1x15 cab as thats more my thing. Not worked out what to do with the two extra sliders yet but i'm working on it.

If you wanted to get the full benefit of a Tube 800, the New York 122 2x12 4 ohm cab would be a good match. It's a step up in size, weight and price but still relatively light weight. The only downside is Markbass have now discontinued the New York 122 but you might find some stock still available somewhere. Using a Tube 800 with a single 8 ohm Traveller 102p would I think work fine, the amp will run at around 400 watts at 8 ohms if you turned it up full which not many people do these days. Although the traveller 102p will be rocking at that power level, it should cope. I've used a traveller 102p 8 ohm with a 500 watt Markbass head and to be honest, its plenty loud for most pub/club gigs, especially if you park it near a solid wall. A tube 800 and a traveller 102p 8ohm would be plenty powerful and reasonably safe to use power level wise.

If its still under warranty might be worth speaking to Orange, I hear they are quite approachable. There's a simple test you could do to see if the issue is from the pre-amp section which has a valve in it or the class-d power amp. Plug a bass directly into the return jack, if it still sounds bad or cuts out, then the class-d power section sounds suspect and could be a warranty issue. If it cleans up and sounds ok, the front end of the amp could have an issue. Could be something as simple as a failed valve in the pre-amp as well but difficult to say. It's also worth checking the obvious if you haven't already done so. Try one speaker at a time on the 8 ohm setting with your speaker leads assuming both your cabs are 8ohms each that is and each speaker lead in turn to rule out any cable gremlins.

I've pretty much got the collecting basses psychology whipped into shape. Last time I had a lapse and bought one was seven years ago and it more or less gathered dust until I sold it recently. A pair of Fenders do more than everything I need and have done for a long time. I do have one other bass i've owned for nearly forty years but I pretend that its more ornamental than for everyday use so its listed in my head as furniture & fittings. The part I haven't yet got fully under control is buying bass amps of all shapes and sizes. I'm almost there and have leaned more and more towards using ABM's for several years now. I recently emptied out a whole pile of amps I'd accumulated over the years leaving me just two amps, a main and backup. Everything was going well until the proceeds of the selling spree burned a hole in my pocket and I ordered a custom shop UK Ashdown. As soon as it arrived, I did sell my main gig Ashdown ABM so back down to two. Oh, and then a GK arrived in the post so back up to three. Oh dear, I think there is a Trace Elliot on the way as well. Back up to four. And thats how it goes. It's my thing though and I enjoy trying all sorts of used amps and mostly selling them on when i've had my fix of whatever they have to offer, or if I need cash for something more pressing. Gigging also helps me rationalize what is actually needed and what is a nice to have. I have the ultimate basses for me, i just need to settle on the ultimate bass amp for me and I think i'm close to that.