DGBass

My LMIII is quiet from start up and even at full gig performance never seems to get very noisy fan wise. It's difficult to tell though when I'm running it into a 4 ohm load at high power and things be shakin' all around. If your fan rev's up to full speed at power on, I would suggest getting it checked out just incase there is something amiss. It may be a symptom of impending doom!

My "lo" wattage gig rig. 1978 Peavey Bass Combo MKIII Series amp. I mostly use Ashdown ABM 300's and 500's for gigging so this is comparatively low wattage. Saying that it grinds up there with amps allegedly way more powerful than 130 watts RMS 🤔

from the mouths of babes...my daughter recently commented on my "stack" of ABM's in the front room(an ABM 500 EVO II, ABM500 EVOIII and an ABM 300 EVO II) as pale blue perfection. I showed her the new ABM750 EVO V on the Ashdown website and she shrieked aloud " thats just like a MAG200!"( she knows her Ashdown's) She wasn't impressed at all with the black finish. When I asked her what her preference was, a pale blue ABM750 was the preferred option...or...mystic red metallic to match my Fender Jazz🤔 I wonder if Ashdown would do that for me? 😁

I've gotten back into ABM's of late and my current favourite versions are the EVOII models. These are generally well built in my experience whether UK built or PRC built models. There are some nice quality features like metal DI sockets which disappeared on later evoIII and beyond models. They are also fairly inexpensive if you can find a decent one. I picked up a non working( faulty TD0531 transformer issue) ABM500 EVOII big chassis model for £45 recently. The good folks at Ashdown supplied a replacement transformer (one of their new Euro build XTE1 types) to get it working and it has been gigged successfully since and sounds huge and works perfectly. There doesn't seem to be much love for the big chassis models, probably because of their weight but they do sit nice on a bigger cab like a 4x10 or similar. The big chassis models also seem quieter to me than comparable normal chassis ABM's. All in, a near mint and now fully operational EVOII 500 for a whisker over £100 seems ludicrous for the performance an ABM provides. 🙂

As far as schematics go, the old MkII and MKIV GP7/11 versions don't seem to be available anywhere I can find. The Power amp chassis though is pretty much the same as in the more readily downloadable (online) MKV AH250/350/500 schematic so that at least will make any maintenance on the power section possible. I rebuilt a MKV AH250 during lockdown and the amp section does hang "upside down' normally and there are three cables from it to worry about. The main power amp signal cable and power feed for the GP11 front panel pre-amp which is usually a square plastic multi plug that can only fit one-way and the two 110V blacklight connecting plugs. I messed about with trying to fit mine all in a 3U or 4U flight case but it was easier fixing up the original 3U wooden sleeve despite it being damaged. The power sections are heavy beasts and the 4U case I intended to use wasn't structurally heavy duty enough to cope with having the power amp chassis bolted in upside-down like it is as standard. I tried and it rattled in the case a lot. 3U cases seem much harder to source these days except if you are willing to pay a bit more for one or to have your AH250 GP11 professionally installed in a custom made rack case. They are killer amps and nothing much goes wrong with them apart from worn graphic sliders especially if they are the earlier white plastic ones. The blacklight doesn't usually give much problem either as long as the 110v tube starter is replaced periodically and of course the blacklight tube does wear out eventually after 30 or so odd years of service 🙂 I suppose cosmetics don't matter too much as long as you are happy with the performance aspect. It's always good though to see one of these on stage with that blacklight glowing away and illuminating the green goodness of the pre-amp. You know you've arrived when you feel one of these AH units behind you on stage.

I'm surprised there hasn't been more reviews here for the benefit of lefties. It almost seems mandatory to review one of the icons of universal bass history here to ensure no lefties are oblivious to the wonders of said instrument. Yes I'm talking about the Fender USA Standard Precision bass Left Handed. If you haven't played one, you've missed out. If you've found a great example then you'll be aware there is nothing really that can touch it for versatility in either live situations or a recording session. As was once said on this very forum, you just pick it up, plug it in and play. it's that simple and with careful adjustment it will fit into any mix. My review is based on my 1998 Fender USA Standard Left Handed that I've owned from new and played in bands from rap metal, to punk, new romantic, indie, 70's rock covers, 80's NWOHM and so much more. Here goes. The review example was top drawer leftie material back in its day. A three colour sunburst model, with rock maple neck and a sublime piece of dark rosewood for a finger board. It's 34 inch scale with 20 frets. The body is Alder and is two piece with a beautiful figured grain on the front and the back. The pick guard is stock three layer white. Hardware consists of heavy duty open gear chrome Fender stamped tuners, medium jumbo nickel frets, USA standard P-Bass pickup measuring 10.5K, CTS pots and Switchcraft jack. All high quality components as you would expect from Fender's flagship standard P-Bass. The original bridge on these models was string through only but on this review example, a 2010 Fender Deluxe P-Bass bridge was fitted to allow top loading. The deluxe 2010 bridge fits exactly and has the same small block footprint as the original string through only unit. The neck on these late nineties models also incorporate Fender's carbon fibre struts in the neck construction to maintain neck stability and tuning. In practice this means the tuning on these instruments is rock solid and the neck needs minimal adjustment over long periods of time assuming you maintain your string gauge. In use, these basses are fairly heavy as they are much thicker than modern American standards. The heavy weight of the massive open gear tuners also means there is a slight neck dive on some basses. Saying that, if you get the angle right, these basses are quite comfortable to wear for several hours at a time. The body has the usual Fender contours and the neck profile is medium chunky which I like very much. The strap buttons were as standard equipment fitted with Schaller locking units. These are very good but over long periods the strap buttons can work loose as the fixings are fairly light 3/4 inch screws. After ten years of use, I replaced these with one and a half inch screws fitted very carefully to not split the body/wood. They haven't moved since and a small tip is to lubricate the strap locks on your strap with a blob of petroleum jelly to limit the strap locks binding on the locking nuts and causing rotation to loosen the screws over time. The general build quality on these late nineties P-basses is exemplary. It's a big solid thick piece of timber and that translates into a very resonant tone that is rich in deep low mids and surprisingly bright highs. The nut is natural bone and on this example was cut very well to give a low and very playable action. Intonation once setup is solid as a rock. String alignment and spacing is also wonderful on these models as the Fender Hi-Mass bridge has quite extensive adjustments so you don't end up with strings either hanging off the fretboard or all bunched up like with some lesser versions of P-Basses. The pickup is very quiet in operation and there is no hum or interference of any sort. The standard pick guard is foil lined on its rear to help with this. These basses just sound better over time and modern string choices mean you can get all sorts of tones from them. My recommendation is to use good quality flat wound strings to get the best from them. Rounds sound killer for rock music and punk but will quickly eat the nickel frets away. My strings of choice are EB Slinky cobalt flats. They give a great long life and balance between lows and highs in my experience. Long term, these basses can also suffer from lacquer crazing on the back of the neck, usually near the heel but its minimal and doesn't affect playability. The review bass was gigged heavily for ten to twelve years from new and then much less in the next ten years. It had its first visit to a luthier just recently( 2021) for a fret level and polish and the fret ends were rolled to make it even smoother too play. That was its first service in over twenty years and the frets still have plenty life left in them. These late nineties and early noughties P-Basses have real quality and are professional instruments that will last a lifetime. They also age very well and on the review example, the maple neck has yellowed nicely over time and the three colour sunburst gets more vibrant as time goes by. To sum up, you can't really go wrong with a good quality lefty USA Standard P-Bass and its always going to work for just about any style of music. A wise sage once told me that if you want to ace an audition or get the gig, then a good P-bass will see you through. I can vouch for that! This review bass also came with a G&G Vintage Fender badged case as standard however some units shipped with a Fender badged SKB case. What did it cost new? Well doesn't sound a huge amount now but in 1998 this bass cost £700 with a G&G vintage case included. You'd be lucky to get a MEX P-Bass for that now and the thing about investing in a professional quality Fender P-Bass is that it will last and you will get your money's worth out of it if you maintain it it in good condition. If I was starting out again, my first choice would be an American Standard lefty P-Bass There are many imitations, but there is no substitute for the real thing. IMHO!

I could live with ears like that. Nothing a can of matt black acrylic paint wouldn't remedy. The TE site suggests a 1.5U rack mounting kit but looks standard 2U from your picture 🤔

I suspect the meaning is that the cab will be ok if your amp has the clean headroom to provide a 500 watt 'clean peak'. What usually destroys speakers is the square wave distortion generated by an amp output when it is overdriven to oblivion. Back in the day, old Peavey 130 watt RMS MKIII 260C combos could generate almost 350 watts peak because of the inbuilt headroom in the amps design. Thats why Hartley put Black Widows (350 watts RMS) in his 130 watt amps to prevent them blowing up if players opted not to use the DDT compression switch. Modern amps including class D work very differently and most class d amp manufacturers rarely quote a peak 'clean' power output. I wouldn't use a BF one ten with anything more than a 250W class d amp (8 ohms). Or a 150 watt class AB amp and thats from experience. They are good cabs and sound great but the power ratings always seemed odd to me. I had two BF one tens, one was rated 200W RMS @ 8ohms and the other a few serial numbers down the road was rated 250W RMS. Both had the same custom high excursion driver so why the power rating label changed mid production was a mystery to me. Both cabs together (at 4 ohms) were fine with a class D 500W amp but with a 500W class AB amp, they really couldn't cope with peaks despite a very clean signal chain.

The low frequency notes on a bass ( I'm talking four string versions tuned at concert pitch ) do generate the biggest movement on Ashdown VU meters whether its a MAG or an ABM. ABM's in particular have a fairly 'hefty' swing to low frequency response and low frequencies do need a lot more power to be heard effectively. At a recent gig, I set my ABM 500 EvoIII to peak on the VU just at around 0db using the E-string. Thats around 45Hz. The result was a stonking thump all night long. Very impressive and the VU isn't just a fad gadget. it does actually perform a useable function. My ABM will grind a bit more if I put the VU into the red but I prefer around the 0db setting. I'm using an external compressor limiter as well on my board so it translates to a very controlled and consistent tone at extremely high power levels thanks to the VU 😁

Could you please show us all the rack mounting kit accesories as that is of high interest to me in particular. I need to know if it will fit in my current rack system ( and maybe replace my '92 2U AH200 GP12!) 😁

Probably the worst amp I've owned and had to use was a Torque T100B 1x15 100 watt combo. Can't recall how it came into my possession but it was extricated ASAP as soon as I realised how rubbish it was. The speaker thump(bang) on power up was horrendous. Same when powering off. It wasn't hugely bad once it was switched on but just a very undesirable amplifier. Close second was an HH Bassamp 100. Heavy as hell, painfully loud in all the wrong ways, andI just couldn't get a useable tone from it.

I've been following this thread for sometime and the new TE-1200 looks fairly exciting. If I had grand to spare I'd pop for one easily as I never really thought the ELF was a legit gigging amp that would last years of high pressure gigging in a non FOH scenario. Lots of reviews mentioned ELF's were ideal for frying eggs on after a few hours use at high power. Whether thats true is another story. A 1200 watt class D amp should be good for about 600 watts at 8 ohms and that appeals to me so a TE 1200 may just be what I'm looking for as an all round, do-any-gig amp. Something in the back of my mind though keeps reminding me that I would be buying a Peavey class d amp badged as a Trace Elliot for a premium price tag. I keep thinking of the early class d TE's that Peavey created and from experience they weren't that wonderful.( 715 combo's come to mind). Is the TE brand enough to warrant spending a grand on a Class-D amp built by Peavey and is anyone seriously considering spending £2.5K for a TE -1200 and a road ready 4x10? 🤔

It took me a few years to realise that what I already had was all I needed. A good Jazz and a good P-Bass pretty much covered 'all bases'. '98 USA Standard( N serial number owned from new) & 2012 American Standard Jazz owned from new. Both loaded with EB slinky cobalt flats. The Jazz has Ironstone vintage 70's Jazz pickups and the P-Bass is stock apart from the original replacement Fender 2010 P-Bass deluxe string through/top load bridge. Haven't gassed for any other basses for years now. That's a good thing 🙂

I had the same experience with my RM210T ( it was an early mark 1 version allegedly rated at 350watts RMS @ 8ohms). Used with an old school Mag200 mosfet amp, the cab severely struggled to cope with the MAG even though it was running at 8 ohms. The cab was vibrating like crazy and the piezo popped - twice. Oddly enough my RM210T sounded quite fantastic at low to medium volumes that you might use in a studio situation but it just didn't cut it with the wick turned up at a gig😐

I just passed on a fairly mint AH250 GP12 SMX. 1993 vintage and sounded really quite something. Saying that my allegiance lies with the Series 6 AH200 GP12 as the defacto convection cooled 90's Trace Elliot armament. Sounds completely killer, no noisy cooling fans and kicks some serious butt for a 200 watt rated unit. The AH250 SMX has the same Hitachi mosfet output array as the AH200 but a slightly beefier heat sink and uprated transformer. There's not a great deal output wise of a difference or loudness between either amplifier. The major difference I noted was the dual band compressor and a bit more hiss from the tube pre-amp stage on the SMX. The tube stage is the one thing the SMX head has in its favour.

It's not been a great time for active gigging in the past year but I've still managed to experience a varied amount of interesting gear that has either passed through my hands or has stayed with me in the 'fold'. I haven't changed any basses this year and stayed with my '98 P-bass and my 2012 Jazz( I did install Ironstone jazz pickups in the 2012 Jazz this year to great effect). Gear wise, there were a few interesting old school developments. First was a very old Ashdown EB150-15 combo I bought for £75 early in the year. It really sounded fantastic and did a fair turn at rehearsals. It was fully original, lightweight, punchy and had that classic Ashdown EB tone. Next up and something I had searched out for a while was an Ashdown MAG400 head. I bought this for £50 and it needed a full rebuild. It's a MAG with ABM power and restored to its original glory, is a complete beast. It's like a classic MAG on steroids. It's a keeper and has been used to great effect with a classic MAG210T slim I have. Last but not least this year, I bought an old MK1 Trace Elliot Boxer 65 for £40 that was stored in an attic for the last 15 years. It needed a good service but cleaned up well and really does sound quite fantastic for a a 26 year old 1x12 combo and is now my go to home jam box. I also flirted with a modern Ashdown Studio 12 combo which had a pretty fab pre-amp and sounded great but I couldn't seem to find the rated 100 watts in it anywhere and sold it on. No new effects or gadgets have come my way but worth a mention is my continued use of Ernie Ball slinky flat wound cobalts which I now have on all my basses. So what was your new gear highlights and lowlights for this 2021 lockdown year? PS: I know it shouldn't be mentioned here on these hallowed bass halls, but guitar wise, I also came across a rather wonderful old school guitar combo that blew me away. Yes it was a Trace Elliot!

There are a few subtle differences in the MAG and Electric Blue combos made over the years. The earlier combos had the low mids swept around 220HZ whereas later units had low mids swept around 340HZ. Ashdown also varied the input gain level on the various incarnations of MAG pre-amp boards so some MAG's ( and EB's) appear punchier sounding that others because they have slightly higher input gain. The MAG combos with the ported cab also sound better in my experience. The sealed versions were slightly less thumpy at higher volume but still sound toneful. I've owned EB's from 130/150/180/220 and MAG's from 200/250/300/600 and my favourite EB was the 150 combo 1x15 and favourite MAG was the 250 combo 1x15. Both had a very punchy and smooth delivery and sounded great in a band. Folks tend to hang on to the good examples when they come around.

The TE pre-shape on its own is fairly classic Trace sounding through all manner of non TE cabs. However the TE cabs do make a difference. Size does matter as the TE brochures of the early 90's will tell you. 2103's, 1518T's, 1818T's and to a lesser degree 1048H's will deliver big TE bass tones because of their size and the very good speakers in them. If its authenticity you are after then I would say yes, if you get the amp you need the cab to go with It 🙂

I've used various ABM's for five or six years now and recently had a bit of a clear out as my old Trace Elliot stuff has been creeping back into action. My favourite ABM was an old mosfet ABM 500 EVO. My last remaining ABM is a big box ABM 500 EVOIII bought as a spares/repair project and its now fully rebuilt/restored with an EVO IV pre-amp shoe-horned into it. It was originally a 2010 model and now sounds like brand new and is immensely powerful. Currently used with either a 1980 Musicman RH115 or a 1990 TE 1518T both with Faital Pro 15-PR400's. I can't recall ever using anything else that can move so much air.

These are really good amps in my humble opinion and will deliver a fair bit of slam with a decent cab. I own a rack mount head version (from 1992) and its my current favourite. Gigged it recently after a lockdown rebuild and it's fairly scary anywhere past 4 or 5 on the master volume control. It just keeps delivering oodles of power hour after hour and the GP12 pre-amp is sublime. The same AH200 head spec is used in the likes of the 1210 combos. Most of the examples I've come across were dated between 1990-1993 and all needed a bit of servicing to get them working at peak efficiency. 30 year old amps still need TLC even when they are built to the super high quality specs these were built to. The date sticker on the inside chassis usually tells all and the TE QC guys usually scrawl their names and build dates in various places because I assume they were proud to do so. A good condition one should be very quiet in operation almost to the point of barely a hiss from your cab at low volume. If there is any hum at all, the power board caps probably need replaced as will the big cap for the pre-amp board power supply. Other maintenance points for these are a large 220R ohm step down resistor for the pre-amp board PSU as it heats up a lot in normal operation and can cause signal drop outs if worn. The bridge rectifier diodes on the mosfet power board are also prone to heat wear and can get noisy/fail if worn after 30 years of use. The heatsink thermal compound can also dry out after 30 years and if you ever need to service the amp its worth renewing the compound. They get warm in normal gigging operation and you don't want to overcook them if the heatsink is dry. I serviced a broken 1991 AH200 GP12 just recently( from a 1210 combo) for a local rehearsal studio and for the grand total of £15 parts it now sounds and works like new. The attached pic shows the date sticker( bottom of the pic) and on this one it's also penned on the power amp board. £150-200 for an excellent condition one is a good deal. If it hums or crackles in any way probably £70-110 in my opinion as it will likely need a good service.

Found this in my archives, its my home built pedal board from circa 1982. I built this from plywood and installed a power brick under the top panel to supply the Boss units and the Amdek distortion unit. The MXR comp limiter was mains powered and fed from an IEC on the back panel. The in/out jacks were XLR connectors. I ran it into a pair of 100w Marshall bass heads, and two 4x12's at the time.

As Phil says, Peavey BW drivers of certain vintage suffered certain issues with glue drying out. One thing I have found consistently with these drivers is over time( 20 or 30 years), the foam dust filter in the magnet assembly dries out and parts of it crumble and fall into the air gap of the magnet assembly. Sometimes they fall into the area behind the dome and rattle about behind it. This usually causes buzzing and distortion. 1504DT and 1508 DT models were prone to this. It's an easy fix, take the driver out of the cab and unbolt the magnet assembly from the basket. Then vacuum any gunk out of the magnet assembly air gap and from the basket assembly. I've found on occasion bits of coil formers broken off in the gap. If it's really bad this can score the voice coil and render the basket unusable. In most cases, cleaning the air gap in the magnet will get your BW working again and be distortion free. Another thing to check when you have the basket detached is that there is no melted foam on the copper voice coil winding. You can usually see this as black gunk on the coil former. This can also be fixed by very careful scraping of any lumps or parts on the coil former. But its delicate work and I'd only recommend this if you have some experience with Peavey BW drivers.

Agree whole heartedly. The thing with most lightweight cabs in my limited experience of them is that the designers go for smaller as well as lighter and 8 ohm spec. Small lightweight 4 ohm cabs won't handle a modern amp output as well as two 8 ohm cabs would unless the 4 ohm design was substantially bigger. The lightweight cabs I've owned weren't bad sounding but they were also smaller to keep the weight down. As examples the RM Ashdown sealed cabs I owned sounded great, and their white line drivers were very toneful, especially the RM210T. Kick some serious power through them and it almost seemed like the drivers were going to pop right out of the cabs at well within their power rating. The BF cabs I owned also didn't sound bad, just being so small even a a pair of them couldn't produce the low end I like. They seemed to be voiced for a more modern low mid sound which I didn't like at the end of the day. Physically bigger cabs will weigh more obviously no matter if their made of particle board or quality birch ply. Saying that, I do think a cab made of 3/4 inch whatever is more solid than a cab made of 8mm ply. If someone made an 800 watt 4 ohm 2x15 out of 8mm ply, I suspect it would need some serious internal bracing to keep it in check. And that would make it less lightweight. Thats why I mentioned the 20 year old MAG210T in comparison with RM compact sealed cabs as an example. The ported MAG with modern drivers( and 4 ohm capability) is heavier but not by that much. For me, and because its ported it outperforms a smaller lightweight sealed RM210T in low end performance which is my thing. And crucially, one bigger older and heavier MAG 4 ohm 2x10 that doesn't weigh a great deal more has replaced my two lightweight thin wall compact sealed cabs that weighed more together. And all at a fraction of the cost of buying lighter modern stuff. I predict as cab offerings evolve, more manufacturers will offer single slightly larger 4 ohm cab solutions that may be a little heavier and physically larger but ultimately will suit players who no longer want to hump multiple 8 ohm cabs around, even if they are lightweight😁 I think larger cabs are here to stay and folks could do worse than re-inventing existing cabs meantime with newer modern drivers to get a good single cab solution.

I've now gone full 4 ohm cab mode since selling on all my 8 ohm cabs. It's just my experience but running the remaining amps I have access to at 4 ohms does seem to make a difference as to how they perform. Maybe its having the full headroom of the amp available that makes that difference but they feel more responsive in use at a gig. I recently got a hold of a very early MAG210T compact slim( not the deep version) cab as a smaller more portable option to use instead of my bigger Musicman. It's an old UK made one, front ported and pre-dates Ashdown's usual year/date serial numbers so its at least 20 years old. It was originally a 150 watt 8 ohm cab but as I got the cab for buttons due to a faulty speaker, I replaced both drivers with Jensen BP150's and its now a MAG210T-300 4 ohm cab. I gigged it last week and it sounded immense with a TE AH200-GP12 on top which is no slouch in the watts department. It's not that heavy either and very portable. I don't want to stir controversy or fall out with the Rootmaster owners club folks (or the BF fans) but a 20 year old front ported MAG210T compact slim cab with a modern 300 watt 4 ohm setup completely smoked the lightweight RM210T cab I recently sold on by a large margin in low end performance(as a single cab option). It also sounded better to me than the pair of BF 1x10's I used to own. Yes its not as light (18kg as opposed to 14kg for the RM) but there is definitely life in older bigger cabs if you don't want to(or can't afford to) shell out on the expensive boutique options. It's also worth choosing your drivers carefully if you do feel like updating. I'd say don't get rid of your 210T, just upgrade it to a 4 ohm cab, bounce the 410 into the classified ads to fund the new speakers 😁 and save yourself a packet. Of course you need to like the sound of your 210T before considering such a change...

TC Electronic BC cabs use a permanently wired Eminence ASD1001 horn tweeter and a high pass filter printed circuit board screwed onto the inside of the cab. Curiously the 4x10 BC cabs were mostly 500w 4 ohm cabs. The RS410 cabs were 600w 8 ohm cabs + tweeter. K410 cabs were also usually 600w 8 ohm + tweeter. If you want to use these cabs without the tweeter, it would be prudent to remove the high pass filter wiring from the speaker circuit. You can then be sure it won't interfere with the cab impedance in any way if your stacking another cab with it.