Twincam

The reason the cab farted out earlier was because there was now just a hole in it which acts very different from a tuned port. If you put your hand over the hole the air will move quickly in and out. On a tuned port that doesn't happen. While if there was a properly tuned port it would sound much better and there would be more bass/power handling. With the same drivers so likely you could make a proper porting and use the current drivers. But as you know from the modelling software better drivers and porting will be better. The cheapest option is to try self porting first making sure the port velocity is ok.

Not thinking much of the ruby (shuguang) valves that come stock in the pf20t. Although I think they sound alright. Had a 12ax7 with an issue. And now I think a power output valve issue, got some slight crackling and other slight noises. Gave both tubes a tap one is absolutely silent the other microphonic, swapped them in opposite sockets issue follows the valve. Gives me a good excuse to get some nicer valves. And hope that solves things. Oh and its a shame the Kenny's deal ended. Wonder if it's anything to do with Yamaha now owning ampeg??? I kinda wish I bought the 50t when the offer was still on. However since this is purely a practice amp the 20t is more than enough to annoy the neighbours even through a little cab. And it sounds great! (when the valves are working lol). They still have them at kennys on offer, although £299 is still expensive for something only 20w, but it's a mighty fine 20w.

I really like the unique cab design and find it interesting they tried something different. Always wanted one myself, even though I'm not a TE fan.

Replaced the v1 12ax7 in my pf20t, with a Tung sol 12ax7 reissue, after a few hours, seems to be an improvement in clarity and smoother breakup than the Chinese ruby it replaced. My eq is now flat, before I had to slightly cut the bass and boast mids and treble. Gain is about the same, disappointingly! I think I might buy a golden lion or sovtek 12ax7lps for v1 as they have a bit more gain apparently and move the tung sol to v2. Now I don't know if tube break in is real but I'm pretty sure after about 4 hours plus the tung sol improved a lot from first use. At first it seemed a bit wooly, it's now opened up.

How did it go? What I do is heat the Stanley knife blade and slowly work through the bridge. And keep heating. Then I tidy it with sandpaper. Taking only a very tiny amount of material away from the bridge. Pop the two pieces back in and issue sorted.

My 20t despite having slightly different eq points has the eq set similar. Generally the bass slightly cut, mids and treble slightly boasted.

I will add to the above good advice that a shim should be as thin as possible you don't need to make the neck angle huge, just enough to get the action you need. Experiment with folded paper you be surprised how thin a shim often needs to be. Then if you wish you can make the shim out of a different material to the size required.

I'm not sure about those calculations but the faital pro 8fe200 looks a big improvement over what's in there now.

I've worked on a number of basses and other instruments with the same or similar setup. And they can be a right pain to get even volume. If the above advice doesn't work about making sure the bridge piece bottom is flat and the piezo slot is clean and flat. Then cut the bridge in half carefully! I use a Stanley knife heated. And cut NOT where a string lays but inbetween a and d obviously. This spreads the tension more evenly. Has worked every time on a difficult bass.

Did you model it sealed with the faital pro drivers you mentioned?

Certainly you could replace the drivers with something that works better in that cab. You would have to calculate cab volume etc then model different driver specs. Yes you could self port too, but you would need to do a bit more work. After doing some very diy experiments porting things myself just for fun rather than out of need. I found it's a very steep learning curve.

Enjoy the pf50t I have the pf20t it's fantastic, so I imagine the 50 is even more awesome.

These need the eq to be turned up a bit more than usual then gain cranked up to get growl. The pf20t doesn't have as much gain as the pf50t. But you can certainly get growl and overdrive just all the settings need to be fairly high.

Better picture. That doesn't look right to me will buy a new valve and hope it solves it.

My pf20t has a slight mechanical sounding buzz on low trailing notes. I tried the amp with another bass and another little speaker I had and the sound is still there. Tapped on the valves no microphonics. However I noticed one 12ax7 looks much brighter than the other (pic attached) in fact it's even brighter on one of it's sides to the other. I swapped the valves around and the brighter and dimmer valve is not because of the socket position it's following the valve. The noise is still there maybe not as much but could just be me thinking that. I also noticed an improvement in gain and tone when swapping the valves. They are the same ruby valves but one is a hg and the other a hg+. The hg+ is supposed to be in v1 but the amp sounds better and stronger for it in the other position. I'm hoping it's just a valve going funny. Was going to try some different valves anyhow. But if not the amp will have to go back.

Excellent! So will there be a thread on this. I would be very interested to see how this turns out. I was reading about phase inverters last weekend. My lass seen what I was reading rolled her eyes and called me sad 😂 haha!

May I ask what's the project?

The Bugera amps are fairly well made from what I've seen personally and read. Often based on other manufactures designs. Sometimes they have stated there power ratings not in standard rms. The combo in question probably is 250 or so watts. It's probably a decent enough combo. However it lacks an extension speaker out which is often handy if you need to get more volume.

Fender p bass (and alikes). Must be the most reliable bass to use, tone wise and in general reliability. And surely the most used in the music industry over the years. And used in every genre. Look how long it's been around and since the move to the split pu design it's not really changed. While im not a fan of the overly chunky neck ones, I literally can't say anything bad about them.

Always thought these were cool. But the pu cover kinda looks slightly out of place. And I too think yours is the best colour.

At around about the time I had the TE combo I had a aguilar ag500 and a ashdown abm 500. The TE was the loudest and it's still the loudest solid state amp watt for watt I've heard.

They should in theory help with more even output. In my experience non staggered poles vs staggered, I'm not sure I've noticed a difference between them once the pu is adjusted. Especially as with most setups the strings don't really follow the neck radius unless all strings are set the same height. If you play directly over a staggered pole pu, with fingers. They can brush against each other which may or may not be an issue to you.

I looked up a 7215smc as i used to own one. Came across an old advert for a used one, in the ad they state it's a reasonably light weight combo. Approx 34kg 🤣

The b15 and svt tones are old fashioned but there timeless and imo more useable. You can pretty much still buy those amps new which says something. The te sound has a niche but it's not timeless. To me TE always sounds like a TE no matter what I did with the eq. Even though i didn't like the tone, i like amps that have a certain manufactures baked in character. And it's good people like different things. They were certainly well built. And I hate to sound cliched but they seem better built than a lot of modern stuff. Especially the combos.

I have almost the same experience with older TE gear. Including liking a knackered old commando I briefly had. Bass amps have moved on so much since TE were in there prime so to say. That isn't to say the older amps don't have there place. TE amps are loud, the ones still going seem to be reliable, and there often found reasonably priced. And while I don't like there tone many people do. But compared to most modern amps the classic TE tone sounds a bit dated to me, or is that the tone is out of fashion maybe.