basstone

Thank you Mike for all your work on this and making the only decision possible. Looking forward to resuming on the other side of this, meantime everyone stay safe. Good opportunity to polish up the bass chops and learn some new parts.

I think postponement is the best option, looking at what has happened in Italy and Spain. You can have this virus and be spreading it to others for 5 days before you even get any symptoms. It would be difficult to keep all the basses and gear clean throughout the day not to mention sharing the food. Happy to help cover costs if applicable.

Yes it was faulty power valves. One eventually shorted completely and totally destroyed the protection fuse and its holder in the cathode circuit of the valve. There is a lot of stored energy in the HT power supply so thankfully the fuse did it's job and no other components were damaged. A new set of power valves, a new fuse holder and fuse and all up and running with the bias nice and steady on both valves. It's a nice touch on the CTM to use the VU meter to set the bias which can be done separately for each valve.

Yes, I had exactly the same problem. I even tried negative numbers and 0. nothing worked, so I phoned instead and spoke to a very helpful Dave Green. I think that the 4 digit CTM serial numbers relate to manufacturing sequence- first 2 digits, year of manufacture - third and fourth digit.

Indeed, funnily enough I also have a 1960's Reslo ribbon mic that was used with my Father's Ferrograph series 6 tape recorder 🙂

Having checked out the SVT with the cab, I thought it would be interesting to try out this. It is a General Electric PA amplifier, made in 1935. 4 KT66 cathode biased output valves and rated very conservatively at 30W. It was my first amp when I started playing well over 40 years ago! My father had just bought a TV and cycle shop business and we found this old (even then) amp languishing in the loft. It needed a good service, jack connectors adding for input and output and a matching transformer for the 100v line output. It weighs nearly as much as the SVT and back in the day was paired with a massive 1 x 12" cab with a slate baffle from an old billiard table with 1 1/4" chipboard for the rest of the cab and a pine frame around the front, painted gloss purple! The cab is long gone but I still have the amp and it still works. The valves are all original except for the driver. I've changed a couple of leaky caps and added some new smoothing caps to help the originals. It's not as loud as the SVT but has a smooth slightly compressed sound. A peek inside for the tech minded. Very neat and easy to work on.

I just had to see how my cab sounded with the SVT classic amp that I just repaired for a client, and what better way to demo the amp. It almost looks made for the amp to sit on when on its side. I needed to add the 1 x 15" polytone cab to get the 4ohm load for the amp. Imagine 2 Basschat cabs stacked with the SVT (top cab with horn rotated 90 degrees and bottom with low pass filter and no horn?). It would make a great looking and great sounding rig! Needless to say it did sound great, a nice rounded full tone but with plenty of definition. Shame about the weight (of the SVT that is :-)) but great valve tone is never going to be lightweight.

There is not much out there that is. It will be interesting to see if modding the tone stack on the Ashdown to the later spec makes much difference.

I have used Ashdown gear for many years as well as repairing them in my amp tech business. Ashdown have always provided excellent support both with information, schematics and spare parts. The amps are well made and easy to work on not to mention sounding great to me!

which wire you connect to + or - will in practice only really matter if you connect more than one cab up to the amp. If you do connect 2 cabs together and mysteriously loose loads of bottom end then you will know the speakers are out of phase. Although most “vintage” amps and cabs used TS 1/4” jacks for speaker connections, I’m not a great fan as it is possible with metal bodied jack socket designs to short out the amp output whilst inserting / removing the jack with the amp switched on..

Cover has arrived from Roqsolid. Only took a week from placing the order 🙂. Now when's my next gig.... Here's the link again for anyone interested in ordering one. https://amplifiercoversonline.com/tinyurls/6 Remember to use the discount code "basschat" to get free delivery.

My G K cabs have an aluminium grille which has folded flanges on all sides. These make it rigid and space the grill off the baffle without the need for a frame. The grille is also fixed from the sides of the cab giving a really clean look. It would be more expensive to get made for sure, but just a thought?

Just popped the template with 150mm round cutout for the handle in the post to Roqsolid 🙂

I've now heard back from Roqsolid regarding a cover. For one of their Ampguard felt lined covers with your choice of binding the price is £41.36. This price includes postage if you use the discount voucher" basschat" on checkout - this is only valid for purchase of this cover only. follow this link to see the quote https://amplifiercoversonline.com/tinyurls/6 They just want me to send them a handle cut out template before making one. My thought would be a 150mm diameter circular hole in the top corresponding to the handle dish diameter. What do you think?

All good advice above. I found in my build that using 3 clamps per join was advisable to ensure no bowing of the join either at the ends or middle. Pencil line will help to check this. I found that it was possible to effectively glue and clamp opposite sides to reduce the number of gluing stages. I did however fit the other panels dry to ensure that everything stays square and that they will fit properly during subsequent gluing stages. Generally just take your time and make sure that you’re happy with each stage before gluing then once clamped leave it ideally 24 hrs before moving on to the next stage.

I'll let you know the price when I get a response from Roqsolid.

From what I can see on the Hot Covers web site, the pricing is likely to be similar to Roqsolid. The appearance is very different due to the use of a more padded foam backed material and putting the seams on the inside rather than Roqsolid's use of felt backing and external taped seams. The extra padding does make the Hot Covers appear more bulky but I would think they would offer great protection. At the end of the day it is a matter of personal taste. I already have many Roqsolid covers so I will be going down that route.

Suggestion from @stevie to paint the grille screws to match the grille. Not sure there's that much difference?

I'd be interested to hear others experience of alternative suppliers. I have used Roqsolid frequently over the years and found their products and service to be excellent. They did once get a cover slightly wrong but sent me a correct replacement very quickly. Some of my covers are now well over 10 years old and still as good as new. the felt backed material with bound stitched seams offers a good level of protection against knocks, abrasion and also keeps the rain off between car and venue.

@funkle The Roqsolid ones I have in mind have a water resistant polypropylene outer cover with a felt lining. Edges are bound with a colour of your choice. It's their standard Ampguard range. I've sent of an enquiry to them to get an idea of pricing. These are the ones I've bought before for all my amps and speakers. They have proved to be very durable and not only help keep the gear protected, they also help avoid damage to my car during transit.

Possibly, but the next stage for me is to design and build a balanced input stage and icepower module driver to build into the cab. If that goes well I could well build another to use for keyboards and monitoring. So it will be several weeks at best before I decide.

I will probably get a custom cover made by Roqsolid. I have used them many times before and their covers are really well made and they know just how big to make them to be a good fit. I expect it will cost in the region of £50 as a one off including postage. Is anyone else interested in getting a cover as it may be possible to negotiate a discount for greater quantities? Here is the cover I had made for my GK cab to show what they're like. You can choose your binding colour BTW.

Just completed some initial comparison testing using my GK MB500 300w amp with the GK 210MBE cab (2 x 10" neo drivers plus switchable treble horn) for comparison. That is my main rig used with a 10 piece party band which I know is loud enough to sit well in the live on stage mix. I used a passive Fender fretless jazz bass with nylon covered stings, active musicman with flats and active warwick 5 string with round wounds to try a wide range of bass sounds that I regularly use. The BC cab is slightly smaller and lighter that the 210. Both cabs have similar volume but what was noticeable was the better clarity and control of the BC cab and smoother mid range and top, especially at low and medium volumes.The top end also seemed more extended. The bass was also less boomy. A 5 string bottom B was no problem at all. At really high volumes the differences seemed less noticeable and ultimately the 210 could handle a bit more power, perhaps not surprising as it is rated at 400W. The BC cab is well matched in terms of power with the GK amp, rated at 300W into 8ohms. and is certainly loud enough for virtually everything I do. Very pleased indeed as I've been happy with the performance of the GK cab and the BC cab sounds better to me. Now looking forward to using it with a band 🙂 .