DGBass

I do like custom shiny Les Paul guitars, especially with Marshalls. These days though, its Fender strat style guitars with an effects processor direct into a desk/PA or a vintage Fender amp, either solid state or tube. As long as I can get a Fender style tone that is all that matters.

Past glories...

and more currently a humble Sonic Squier Strat + GT100

I think the Big 24 is one for the well heeled BF fans. The one in the pic is also a customised version ( special grill cloth) so its gunna be even more expensive than the web page sticker price. Still, it is an inordinate amount of money for a bass cab and probably far out of reach of the man in the street bass player doing gigs at the Dog & Duck on a modest equipment budget. However, if you want high performance and have the bucks then why not blow over two thousand pounds on a cab? You'll need a decent amp to go with it, no point in sitting your old Mag 600 on top, so maybe another £2k-£3K for the amp and of course a top of the range bass and your in for ten grand easily. Has anyone ever posted a "who has the most expensive rig" thread?. I'd hazard a guess that there would be some BF kit mentioned. I do agree that prices in general for ALL musical equipment manufactures are increasing ever more and its not a dig i'm making at BF. Their cabs have always been relatively expensive imho and will therefore be more affected by rising costs to their business if they choose to maintain the high tech crafted in Britain ethos they have built their business on.
 

I suppose it depends on what kind af amp head you have, eg metal case or wood case. And where you are in the world. Here in the UK i've found this supplier to have a good selection of small rubber feet for metal / flight cased amps or big chunky ones for cabs and wooden cased amps. Some of the smaller feet can also be had in several different heights. Most of these are also screw mounted as opposed to stick on. 

https://www.penn-elcom.com/flight-case-hardware/feet/rubber-feet

One thing with buying a used 1x12 tube combo is that good ones will still be quite pricey. One industry standard is the Fender Blues Junior, its 1x12 and 15 watts but loud enough for gigging. Most amp techs will also gladly service and repair Fender stuff. I've owned and used Marshall DSL401's, Peavey Classic 30, Laney VC30 and LC30, all great sounding 1x12 all tube combos but all suffered from the same issues as they got used and its mostly heat fatigue. This causes pcb dry joints, metal fatigue in the tube sockets and dried out components. The Peavey Classic 30 for example is a nightmare to service, just check out the online repair videos for them. I gave up on small tube stuff a while ago and decided to adopt the convenience and reliability of solid state combos. Personally, I like Fender tones and found some really nice almost vintage solid state stuff that Fender made in the late 90s that can be had relatively cheaply, sound great and are excellent pedal platforms. When you consider the average 1x12 30 watt tube combo could cost around £175 to re-tube these days on top of the cost of the combo second hand it makes sense to me at least to go solid state and invest in an amp modeller pedal or a good effects setup for all your distortion tones. That will also be much more controllable for home use. The Fender solid state combos I mentioned from around the late 90s and 2000s are eg Fender Princeton 112, Fender Stage 112SE, and the little brother Champion 110. The USA made ones if you can find them are the best but the Mexco made ones and Indonesian made ones are just as good. They are built as good as the USA tube Fenders of the era. I owned a Stage 112SE and it sounded superb but was deafeningly loud. I currently use an early USA built Champion 110( had four of them, 2 MEX and one Indonesian version, all excellent) and like the tone of the smaller 10 inch speaker. It's also 25 watts but is crazy loud and giggable, and works superbly with a Boss GT100. Its also super portable, has a true spring reverb, and is twin channel, clean and crunch. There are tons of small modern tube amps available these days which may also be worth considering. I had an Orange Thunder 30 tube head and it sounded superb, had variabe output selection to use at low volume and didn't suffer from heat fatigue as the tubes were on top of the circuit board and not hanging under it as lots of 1x12 combos have. A head and cab might be well worth considering as well but like any rig, that's more to carry and may cost more initially.

Something else to consider if you are planning to replace with a new driver, and while not as sonically important, is whether whatever driver you choose will actually fit the existing cutout hole in the speaker box. For example, the Faital Pro 15PR-400 won't fit these types of TE combo cabs or the standard similar 1153 cabs. The cast frame basket on the FP is decidely larger than the original pressed steel Trace Eliot branded Celestion speakers. The Faital Pro does however work perfectly as a drop in replacement to the bigger 1518 TE cabs. The FP might fit your cab with a bit of woodwork ( removal ) to increase the cutout size, however the front mounting flange is also very much deeper which means there is precious little space between the speaker and the grille. A large cone excursion might actually contact the steel grille. The SICA/JENSEN driver mentioned also has a slightly larger basket diameter and mounting circle than typical Celestion or Eminence pressed steel baskets. Lavoce interestingly have a wide range of pressed steel basket drivers in traditional and neo magnet configurations and these are much nearer or similar to Celestion dimensions. I was wondering why Ashdown suggested the Pulse 15 and one reason may have been that it will probably drop right in the hole and the mounting screw holes will line up. There may be other Celestions or even Eminence units that might be more suitable sonically and will fit( sorry can't suggest any!). Basically, not all 15 inch drivers are the same size🙄

I had a hankering after the Traveller 151P cab as I like 1x15 cabs but at the time they were out of stock everywhere. I then got the chance of picking up a 102P cab and it turned out to be a fantastic choice. Small, light and incredibly punchy. The tweeters on them are kinda average imho, but I don't use much tweeter anyway so it wasn't an issue. Performed flawlessly all the time I had it doing pub gigs along with an LM3 head. It was the most portable and capable rig I've ever owned and did great old school tones. Still wondering why I sold it on. Might have been the yellowness?

White Ray and White P. The Ray is sadly no longer with me. The P is my go to bass at present. 

A combination of B15 & SVT.  I looked at the settings and the BA combo was set to Preset 2 ( -12db cut @500Hz). The ported 1x15 cab was quite thumpy sounding. The variable horn on the combo seemed to add an edgy top end that I'd associate with an SVT. The studio also has a Class-D PF350 head but I struggled to get a usable sound from that by comparison.

I couldn't find a thread that specifically answered the question I am about to ask.  Also, the reason I ask is that even though I've played through a number of Ampeg rigs and amps over the years, I've never actually owned an Ampeg setup mainly due to the crushing weight and portability problems a classic SVT rig would present for me, and thats the rig I've always wanted to own. One other reason I ask is that during a rehearshal at a local studio just recently, I played through an old Ampeg BA115 HP combo. It is alledgedly a 220 watt combo with a 1x15 speaker and a variable compression horn tweeter with L-Pad attenuator. It has a 5 position preset tone switch and curiously with my Precision with flats plugged straight in I was able to easily get that tone I've heard on so many records and at so many gigs that sits just perfectly in the mix. Its a solid state combo with no tubes but the little preset switch has straight out of the box great sounds. So, do you need and SVT head and an 8x10 to get That Ampeg Sound? and does anyone get that sound without using an SVT rig with anything else?

This one was custom made for me by Chris May at Overwater Basses when they just had a small unit near Haltwhistle over forty years ago, and I've had it from new.  It was gigged regularly up until the late nineties and early 2000's, and also did a gig near the end of 2023 just to get it out and used for nostalgia's sake. Last gig before that was around 2007. It's more or less a case queen these days as I'd hate for a punter to fall over it, which nearly happened on a few occasions. I do jam regularly at home with it, use it for recording,  and its fully setup and gig ready if I feel the urge. I don't have a lot of photos from way back, but here are few taken sometime in the nineties. Suffice to say it has great sentimental value.

As it is now

I've played through a lot of amps over the years but have come to appreciate what I have now as some of the best sounding and most versatile I've owned and used. These three are the most often actually used in my gear stash for different reasons, and my top three selection of currently used amps.

The Ashdown ABM really is a swiss army knife of bass amps and I haven't been without an ABM now for over ten years. It's a tested design and taking the time to really get to know it's EQ will reveal a myriad of useable tones. It's also what I use for the louder gigs and it always delivers.

The Ashdown Labs MK500 is also used during louder gigs and has the volume of the ABM but has a very much more refined Hi Fi quality. Sounds wonderful with my Player P-Bass with the five year old flats on it. Silky smooth clicky tones and it's also Hi Fi quiet noise wise, and even with the master on full it's difficult to tell its switched on at idle. The harmonic emphasis knob is a mysterious and wonderful thing. Not quite sure what it does but it makes everything sound great.

The mid nineties Trace Elliot GP7 SM130 has been my most gigged amp of late as I've switched to mostly to low volume small bar gigs. It's never up more than half way and is more than loud enough. It's been a revelation playing gigs with only 130 or less Trace Elliot watts and the Ashdown's aren't currently getting as much use. The GP7 SM pre-amp is a wonder of simplicity to use and has so many great and classic tones. The EQ balance knob in particular has such a dramatic influence on the useable tones with even a small tweak. 

I had the later green stripe stingray head and will buck the trend and admit I liked it a lot. It was way better than the equivalent HH VS Bassamp of the time in my opinion and louder/more powerful. 150 watts @ 4 ohms and around 100 watts @ 8 ohms. Built tough, solid and very reliable. Loud as thunder as well. The preset tone buttons were admitedly a bit hit or miss but its simplicity was its strong point. I recently bought one for nostalgic purposes and did use it briefly with a band. It sounded great and was very reliable. As with lots of stuff of this era, they were weighty. The Stingray combo I had was immensely heavy which is why I've now sold it on to some vintage amp enthusiasts who were much younger and fitter than I am.  They loved it even though it weighed a ton. The drivers in these big reflex horn stingrays are very efficient Fane units with 3 inch voice coils. Very unusual for the time. The one I just sold was over 40 years old and all original. If a nice condition green stripe head came along I'd be quite tempted but I wouldn't buy the earlier silver face ones. Too old, and will almost certainly need a bit of servicing especially if they look a bit tatty and well used. 

Not quite a weekend rig but it was the one of choice for a gig last night. New band time and doing some Jazz/blues fusion with a sax player, and as it was just a short two hour gig to a quiet weekday crowd, we played low volume so the punters could still talk when the band was playing. Worked well and I am enjoying the low wattage rig and sitting down while playing these days. Laney R210 200 watt/4 ohm cab and an old mid nineties TE GP7 SM130 amp, in limited edition green leatherette of course. Sounded fab.

5 hours ago, SamPlaysBass said:

That's a great looking GP11 and I reckon that head is probably heavier than the cab!

a measly 10kg and its suitcase handle means its so easy to move around.

On 31/03/2024 at 15:59, SamPlaysBass said:

Anyone else buying up not-so-cutting edge equipment? 

Yes indeed. It's something I enjoy doing and I also don't mind saying what it cost. Not everyone does like to reveal what their rig cost them. A recent new band project which was in effect a low volume jazz/blues fusion type gig playing sunday afternoons and midweek early evening gigs prompted me to look around for a smaller setup that didn't need to be high powered. I came across this little end of life Laney R210 cabinet and although i'm not a huge fan of 2 x 10 setups, I took a chance and bought the cab direct from Laney at a discount. It's proved its worth already and for the pricepoint it's just insanely good. Brand new, 2 x 10 with a switchable tweeter, rear ported and at 16Kg its only 2Kg heavier than an industry standard BF 210S with cloth front, and approximately a tenth, yes a tenth of the cost at only £99.  I really couldn't have bought the raw materials to build a cab for that price. Ok, so it might not have the same high end performance but 200 watt power handling is more than enough for a small gig and it is absolutely giggable. I've gigged it and it works and sounds astoundingly good for its pricepoint. Amp wise I've used it with several different amps including a bigger Ashdown Labs MK500. It sounded great and performed perfectly. Currently its being used mostly with an old Trace Elliot head, a forty year old AH150 GP11 mk4 in perfect working order. Trace stuff was always the flavour of the month in whatever decade you can remember it being around. The Mk4 GP11 was just £50. So, a great little rig that sounds amazing for £149. The cab was modded from its stock 16 ohms spec to 4 ohms after being used a few times. I've no idea why Laney made these 16 ohm cabs ( 2 x 8 ohm speakers wired in series with a basic piezo tweeter circuit parallelled off the input) in the first place. That makes it even more flexible as a one cab solution with low wattage amps. I may bend and get a small class D head to go with it at some point as that would lighten the load even further.

On 30/01/2024 at 20:40, aniki said:

I’m looking for something with a more vintage ‘dull thud’ but without the weight of an svt810!
Does this even exist? Or is the shift in tonality simply a consequence of neo magnets?

Sadly, that type of sound is a dying breed these days.  @Phil Starr was on to something when he talked about fashions and trends. The choice of speakers for compact high performance light weight cabs almost dictates the use of 10 or 12 inch drivers and that affects the tonality.  Most 15 inch high performance drivers that can deliver a substantial "thud" or "thump" as I prefer to descibe it will need a certain cabinet volume to work efficiently and at their best performance. The reality is that 1x15 cabs designated as high performance aren't very compact. If that was possible, I'm sure we would have seen a compact lightweight 1x15 thread here on basschat that delivered a useable build plan to conclusion. If there is one I may have missed it?  And that's why there aren't so many of them around in the commerical market. The only one I've found interesting is the Mesa Subway 1x15 and thats because of previous experience with the high quality of Mesa cabs. But it costs nearly £1000.  I've gone the lightweight route and found that modern boutique 2x10's still can't emulate the mid sucking thump a good vintage 1x15 cab can.

I'll admit I'm firmly routed in the past as far as thud and thump are concerend and use a 44 year old Musicman RH115 made of solid pine but loaded with a state of the art Lavoce Neo driver. It weight in at 23kg, is a one handed lift and has that old school thud and thump in spades. The point here is that maybe an old school cab is worth hanging onto just to get that sound and maybe a modern driver upgrade will help lighten the load and be less expensive than shelling out a grand or more for a modern 2x10 cab or a 1x12?  An SVT 810 is around 64kg. I mean, thats weighty. You could easily shell out a grand or more for some of the recommended modern lightwieght compact cabs that are always mentioned in these type of threads. There is a lot of scope available in a cab that weighs less than an svt810. For example, you could pick up a good Trace Elliot 1518 cab for around £50 that weighs 39kg but will have thud and thump by the shedload. Neo drivers don't really make much difference tonally, its all about the weight. I sort of wish when recommendations are made for boutique modern lightweight cabs that folks wound prepend a recommendation with the line "if you have a grand or more to spare, why don't you check out x cab from y manufacturer. It keeps things real.  I love that old school thud and thump, a p-bass with flats and a large booming 1x15 cab. You wont ever be able to emulate that with a 1x12 or a 2x10. Yes, you might be able to move as much air, but the tonality will be different. I've tried for years and never come close. Open to any recommendations though with potential costs attached🙂 

I use an old Shure PGX4 system which was originally sold as a wireless mic setup. I use it for bass and it works superbly. It runs at approx 900Mhz (with a range of approx 50 metres line of sight) which in the UK is designated a carrier frequency for mobile phone providers but low power applications for commercial/medical and some other applications are allowed. It might be prone to mobile interference but I haven't had any issues with that so far.  Mobile Operators using this band, usually called band8 support 2G and 3G which is on the way out in the UK.  More modern wireless systems seem to use frequency bands in the wi-fi spectrum which will I guess be easier and cheaper to design as its fairly standard wi-fi technology. I haven't used a modern 2.4G or 5G wireless mic/guitar device so I couldsn't say if it might be affected by someone's wifi router in the vicinity. I'm sure the boffins will have taken that into account with selected channels to operate on 😐

Could be a number of things, and Ashdown are probably the best people to contact as theses amps are eminently repairable. From personal experience, blowing the mains input fuse usually points the finger in the direction of the ouput board, maybe a shorted output device ( there are six bi-polar output transistors on the output boards. A failed/shorted one can overload a rail and blow the fuse ). I've never seen the pre-amp section ever fail in one of these amps and blow a fuse. For the most part I haven't seen a transformer go bad either in an EVO III amp. These versions are tuned to run at 575 watts so there is a lot of juice going through them. The bi-polar devices only usually fail prematurely if they aren't getting cooled properly over time or the heatsinks being clogged with accumulated dust/grime over the years can affect cooling. There is also a thermal cut out so even if it was poor cooling the amp would cut out long before something actually failed and work again after it had cooled down. Basically not a DIY easy fix if the mains is blowing. Ashdown should be able to sort your issue out easily. I always keep a fully working spare output board but touch wood, I've never needed it so far🙂

Rap Metal band in the noughties - walk on track was played over the PA by the sixth member of the band at the front of the stage using mini disc samples of Destiny's Child tune 'Bootylicious'.  Instead of Kelly, Michelle, Beyonce can you handle this,  our vocalist would point out to and insert the name's of the band's wives/girlfriends or frequently other people he was trying to wind up. Caused a stir on several occasions but became a standard part of our show and for the most part everyone loved it and expected it😉 

11 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

Loving the look of the Rootmaster EVO III range.

I'm sure there will be some discussion soon on the RM owners club thread but I do agree with the new look. I never cared much for the previous versions of rootmaster with the curved metal case and chrome or silver ( or red or black ) fascia. This new EVO3 looks like a premium product in a standard no frills rectangular black case and now has cab sim features not found on even an ABM.  Whats more Ashdown don't seem to have hiked the prices either which is good news for any potential buyers. I'm sure I read somewhere that these would also be rack mountable but there's no mention on the NAMM page. That would also be a very usable feature to have for me. I recall filling in an Ashdown questionaire a year or maybe even two years ago asking what wish list of products I would like to see in the future from Ashdown. One wish was a standard black box design class-D ABM style pre-amp head with an ice blue front. I'm not sure that will happen anytime soon but these new EVO3 RM's are as near as I'll get to that wish and thats not a bad thing at all. Top marks to Ashdown for aesthetics and product features on these new evolutionary models. Even the little OriginAL Evo looks the biz. I can see a lot of folks emptying out their previous RM's to update and good discounts on new old stock of EVO2's. 

12 hours ago, JPJ said:

I do like the new blue on the EVO V

+1 to that. I think the ice blue finish on any ABM speaks volumes and is instantly recognisable as Ashdown's flagship product. The original black EVO V looks cool, the ice blue version even cooler in my opinion🙂

First rehearsal the other night of 2024. It's a brand new project and is shaping up to be a jazz/blues fusion sort of thing with hopefully a sax player joining for next rehearsal. There is also a marked departure from my other rock/blues band volume wise. The new drummer has a jazz background and plays very quietly so there isn't any need for my ABM or my 700RB. I took along my smallest amp, an old Gallien Krueger with an honest 125 watts @ 8ohms that hadn't previously left the house and was my home/studio amp. To my surprise it was more than capable in the new band situation and it wasn't being worked hard at all. Also tried a wireless system a very kind bass brother donated to me at Christmas. It's old school but worked flawlessly. Not having a lead snagged around my foot was another pleasant first for me in 2024.

Not all cab manufacturers use a red to red and black to black wiring design. I would tend to leave the wiring as it is as in this case where its black on the red terminal and red on the other. From the pic it looks like the 10 inch drivers also have a little cone fatigue from over excursion which would suggest its a well used cab and has been operating at or near its limit. That might be why the horn stopped working in the first place. If the horn works fine when swopped over I'd be inclined to screw it back together and job done.

Gear4Music ( no affiliation) have replacement parts some Eden cabs if you felt it might be worth trying a diy repair? At the moment they have replacement horns for under £20 but they are I tihnk for D series 2x10 cabs eg 210XLT & 210XST. Depends what model cab you have as if its not a D series you may need another type of replacement horn. Actually, they also have e-series replacement horns. Might be worth a look.

Best purchase of the year was my used but well cared for Fender Player P-Bass The purchase was in the bag by 1pm on New Years Day 2023 so it also qualifies as the first and quickest blag of 2023.

Closely followed by a shiny red box purchased from @Chimike and which is just as fantastic as the P-Bass.

Nothing really bad purchased at all this year. I did buy a used Boss SYB-3 out of curiosity but that was moved on quite quickly so may qualify as worst purchase purely as it was only in my possesion for a short time. But it wasn't really so bad, just not for me.