King Tut

I played a big hall with mine on sat using two cabs plus pa support. Sounded great. Volume aside, these are lovely sounding amps - quite warm and, dare I say, a little 'hefty' for class D!!

I use one of those paint markers. A cheap and easy option but you do have to redo the dots every now and then!

I put a Stageline HT30 in mine as did @lemmywinks. I had to use a dremel to slightly reshape the hole but it wasn't too difficult. Imho it made a massive difference for the better. I'd also run it for a while with the tweeter bypassed, but i like quite a bit of high mid in my sound and it wasn't cutting it without the tweeter. I found that with the stage line tweeter, the highs and high mids sound much smoother, less harsh - a very noticeable difference and I'm surprised, given the amount of people who have done the mod, Markbass don't up their game and install something better from scratch.

I've been using Legacy strings lately which are apparently rebadged, rotosounds at under £12 a set. No complaints at all there. Having seen Lozz's post though I've searched Warwick Red Label, which I've used in the past and seen that they're available at Gear For Music at under £8 a pack. Think I'll get some of them.

Yes probably depending on the band and room. I'm plenty happy with mine which I gig through a BF Big Baby 2.

Yes, I am using compression in the patches. I could obviously duplicate the patches but set a higher threshold on the compressor for use with the higher output basses, but was hoping to save myself the ballache of doing this if someone had a way to globally turn the input gain down. I'm going bass to B3n to amp, not using the fx loop . . . .

Just tried a passive Yamaha PJ vs one of my Sandbergs and the Sandberg definitely has a considerably higher output in both active and passive mode than the Yammy.

Interesting you say that @Al Krow cos I thought the output on my Sandbergs were similar to my passive basses, when I switch them to passive there's no drop in volume. I think I need to experiment!

I use a Zoom B3n most of the time for gigs. I'm lucky enough to have a few basses, and I chop n change from gig to gig. I've noticed that when I use some basses (and a couple of Sandbergs spring to mind), my sound seems much more heavily compressed than when using a passive Jazz Bass or similar. I'm guessing this is because the Sandbergs have a higher output level than the passive basses and consequently more of the signal is above the compressor threshold. Does this ring true or do the Sandbergs just have a naturally more compressed sound - thoughts? So - if I'm barking up the right tree here, rather than having to reprogram a new raft of patches for when I'm using my active basses, is there any way I can vary the master input on B3n to tame the signal a bit. I've obviously looked through the manual but can't see any obvious way to do this. Other options are to stick with basses with a similar output, or to turn the volume of the active basses down when I'm gigging them. Anyone got any other bright ideas?

I've had two mahogany basses. An old Ibanez Lawsuit PJ and a Yamaha BB400s which I still own. Both of these, on the P pickup, have had the creamiest deepest thickest lows I've ever experienced. Not sure if this is coincidence or whether mahogany has that quality as a tonewood. Thoughts?

It's about changing the way we feel. Like yearning for the pleasure our first love bought us, trying to recreate our first trip or searching for the perfect bet. My primary addiction is booze, which I'm in recovery from, but it also manifests itself in food, music gear and other areas. I have five Fender jazzes ffs which is about a quarter of the collection. I could get by with three basses easily. The shiny new toy will make us happy, make us play better, yadee yadee ya . . . Until we get it. Then we get bored and start again. I'm trying to fill the hole in my soul through 12 step stuff and things like yoga and meditation but I still managed to fit yet another pair of PA speakers into the house a couple of weeks ago. Work in progress lol.

Gigged it again last weekend. This time I set the gain so it was flicking orange as I hit the bass hard and controlled volume via master volume control. This was in a medium sized hotel reception room with about 100 people and PA support. No noticeable compression or limiting this time. Played through a Big Baby 2. I took a pic of the settings but had to turn it down from what's pictured. Bags of volume!

Great price. I've got a similar 76 that I payed £1100 for a few years ago and i reckon i got a bargain as it's so nice to play and sounds lush!!

Me!

STING

Well I guess only the design team could answer that. I'd like to think the peeps at Trace/Peavey have done their homework, particularly as they're trying to put the Trace name back in the 'Limelight' (see what I did there!) I guess only time will tell in terms of failure rate. Fingers crossed!

Correct! But imho ELF watts are bigger than some other class D watts!

And it also depends on how efficient your cabs are as well . . . .

I think it depends how you're using it. I feel quite confident. I have pa backup so it wasn't flat out. Although it got warm, it wasn't ouchy too hot to touch at the end of the gig. If you're using it for massive volume and expecting it to fill the venue without a pa . . . . Well that kind of expectation is unrealistic.

Turn the high mids up on your amp

Last week I had a Trace Elliott Elf delivered. The plan is to use it as a nice portable spare in case my GK MB500 dies at a gig. I thought I'd give it a run for it's money at our gig last night, which was at a medium sized pub with decent PA support - The Red Lion at Brackley. I ran it through a Barefaced Big baby 2 (Gen 3) using an AVRI 64 reissue Jazz and a Zoom B3n. The cab was stuck on a chair to bring it closer to head height. To be fair, because I'm stuck towards the back most of the time, I don't need to be silly loud, but it's a five piece band and we're not quiet. Being radioe'd up I also go walkabout and I was never short of volume. First impressions are obviously just how small the thing is, but it really has a nice quality feel to it . . . nice and dense and 'together' feeling! As I feared I'd be short on volume I pushed master up to nearly full and controlled volume with the gain control, but needn't have worried as there was volume in spades, so I pulled the master down a bit and upped the gain. I could hear a bit of (not sure) either compression (from the pre) or limiting (from the power amp) but it sounded OK and never put me off. The EQ has a really musical character that reminded me a bit of my Hartke LH500 in as much as it was pretty easy to get something that sounded decent. It wasn't a scooped tone to my ears and I rolled the mid off a little, but it was really warm - tbh I loved it, much less 'crispy' than the GK. The gig was quite eventful with one of our guitarists forgetting to bring his pedal board, four boys in blue (actually hi vis yellow) ejecting someone and a lady hueying all over the area next to the playing area, but my little elf didn't bat a slanty eyelid. It had got quite warm by the end of the gig but nothing i thought was excessive. Overall I'm really chuffed with it and I think it'll be getting a bit more use than planned. I'll be interested to experiment a bit more with the gain and master volume to see which end is getting limited / compressed but first impressions are very positive! Happy King Tut!