ped

When someone asks me to ‘play something’

I explained that a friend had bid but it was removed etc. Wonder if he’ll message back!

He replied:

G&L SB-1 😎 Leo Fender got it right eventually!

I’ve messaged him for a laugh to see what he says.

The Europa is my fave shape

Just noticed there's a gain clip LED too which I didn't notice which is good.

Interestingly in the manual it says KT88 whereas it says 6550 on the amp!

Only one way to tell - tune it to pitch, play it a bit then re check. Reckon it’ll be back to normal in no time. Unless the core or covering is damaged, which I doubt, it’s very elastic and stretches a long way (you can sometimes see it at the tuner end over the windings)

Another update folks Jason is on holiday so he will sort next week hope that’s ok, I’ll notify the winners tomorrow anyway so you know who you are

I’ve gone back to the cobalts, actually - I did end up finding the LaBellas a little too dampened for my tastes and what I’m playing on currently. I’m sure I’ll try the. Again when I want a more Motown sound. They felt great, anyway.

Ah ok that answers that, thanks.

£350 in brand new condition which I thought was alright and no messing about with postage. Where’s your review, I’d be interested to read it

Yeah I guess so. Yes I always lived the sound of KT88s. Tons of headroom and properly trouser flapping. I’ll be able to compare this to a Trace Hexa Valve which will be interesting but it definitely feels right so far.

I wonder why Blackstar (British) chose to use the American valve names (6550 instead of KT88 for example)

I don't need them any more, I'm married

I'm heading to the studio next month and although 90% of the time I go straight to desk, we sometimes have an 'acoustic' jam through amplifiers which is good fun. I haven't actually had an amp for a while now (except the TC BH800 I have at home to power my floorboard/studio setup) so I decided it would be good to pick up a light-ish and decent powered combo. I know I like 10" speakers and I wanted a compressor built in, plus something that would match a super clean Smith bass with rounds and a P bass with flats, which is quite a tonal range. I looked at a few options, and thought about using an external pre or my Roland VB99 to take care of the front end but really fancied something 'plug and play'. I tried the Fender Rumble series which I was impressed with but I saw this come up at a decent price which happened to be en route to my in-laws. It's a 2x10 500w job which is a fairly easy one hand lift - I've got a dodgy back but even I can manage it fairly easily but would probably want help over long distances. I have only trialled it at home for a little while (I don't really like playing amps at home, stuff rattles, I don't like annoying people and people can hear me!) but my first impressions: - The compressor seems to be EXCELLENT! I was worried about this as I'm quite picky with them but it's very pleasing; you can't hear any 'squashy' effect at all, just an overall limiting and evenness. - Lots of tonal options. You can choose between three 'voicings' (Classic, Modern, Flat) and three 'responses' (Linear, 6L6, 6550). That gives plenty of options (9?). So far I like the modern voicing with linear response but I can tell that the 6550 setting sounds very close to my old Trace V4 combo which had those valves in - which I wasn't expecting. Very punchy and clackerty. Nice. To be honest it took me right back! - It also has OD, Distortion, Fuzz, Chorus and Octaver. I'm unlikely to use those but they might be fun to mess with. The chorus sounded good, the octave might take some time to balance as I think it pushes the pre into overdrive at the moment - Need to spend some proper volume time setting the input gain correctly; no indication light to show when it's breaking up and I can't crank it at home to learn how it reacts yet! - Loud... you can see I had the master on 9 O'clock and although that's no indication I turned it up half way and touched a string and now my balls are in my bottom So I'm very pleased with it so far - as I say I haven't really been up to date with amplifiers since leaving my last band, and the rigs I'm most familiar with are a Mesa 400+ and 1516BE cabinet, a Trace V4 1x15" combo and an SWR stack (see why I have a bad back!) and this gives me even better initial feels than those did, which is a good sign. Plus I can move it. A few pics:

Yes going through the bridge is the way to go. Shouldn’t think the strings will be affected at all 👍🏻

After several basses I’ve come to the realisation that I’m not really a good five string player (or four string for that matter). However I’ve really had fun on the journey and will probably buy another one day because I keep thinking it’s useful to have one. My two faves were: Bacchus TwentyFour. Smith BT5. Can’t find a pic at the moment!

Why didn't you get the Fender combo?

Said pdf could go ‘missing’ if you bring me back something nice 👍🏻

I’m going to download this thread in a pdf in case I need it in court

Sorry not possible! Only took me 15 days to find that out!!

OK folks, thanks everyone for entering - I've picked the winners and I'm just speaking to Jason at Rotosound now about the final details, so you can expect to hear from me soon if you're a winner!! Cheers ped