SteveXFR

My second Stingray shaped instrument has just arrived, a Sterling Ra34. I didn't go looking for one to match my Ray35 but it looks great (I think it does) and it's in great condition

It's an extremely well played and well produced album but I personally found it disappointing

I was so excited for Californication when it was released. The only other RHCP albums I had were Mothers Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magik so I expected more of the same. I was so disappointed when I got home from Woolworths and listened to it. I think it was about two years before I gave it a second listen and I was just as disappointed. It only ever got played after that when there was a young lady in my car who might not enjoy Slayer.

RHCP haven't made anything good since Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Everything since then has been a bit bland

My Terror goes from clean straight to wet fart and then on to various degrees of shart. I have to run it clean and use a preamp pedal for gain.

Which Orange amp do you use? If I crank the gain on my Terror bass it sounds wooly and unpleasant but I'm thinking there's something wrong with it.

Not only that, some rehearsal rooms do block booking discounts.

Is it not possible to book the same time and day every week or every fortnight?

I play quite a lot in drop C#. It's a really common tuning in metal. I use a set of 45-110 strings and they seem fine to me.all the way down to C standard.

A nice bit of Tool this afternoon and my favourite album, Aenema

I'm looking around Frome/Warminster area. Zoom is OK but I'd rather actually get out

I want to get out and play with other musicians and learn a bit more about jamming and improvisation so I want to find local jam sessions but I don't have a clue where to look. Any tips on how to find them?

So it's ok until you use black paint then it'll never be quite as good again?

I did mean in parallel. I just remembered, the Terror 500 head has a 2ohm / 4ohm switc on the back. Try switching it to 2ohm and I'm guessing that'll stop it overheating

Have you got your cabs connected in series? That would put the total impedance too low and cause the head to over heat and cut out. If that's the problem, the same will happen with almost any head. My Terror 500 with a 4x10 and 1x15 is deafeningly loud and until a recent power supply short circuit, it would play at extreme volumes for as long as I could keep playing.

It has now got a more powerful thermostatic fan and a load of extra heat sinks but the vent is right next to the fan so it could just recirculate its own hot air.

I've been looking at all valve amps and noticed that the Orange AD200B head is only 200W. The last gig I went to before the world ended was PigsX7 and I remember their bassist had one of them and it was fooking loud. They're also very expensive but maybe 200W is all I need. That gig was at a pretty big venue and the band were so loud that up front I could only hear the guitarist who was right in front of me

Each failure occurred in a different building so that rules out the mains supply. I'll check the speaker wiring, it's 30 years old so could be dodgy.

I find I'm pushing the Trace pretty hard to get to a suitable volume with a loud drummer and that's 280w.

@Happy Jack I've been thinking about changing both my amps for one all valve head. Is there an all valve unit over 300 watts I can get for under £500 used?

Yep, I put a meter across it and it was seven point something ohms.

Pair of Trace Elliot cabs, 4x10 and 1x15. 8ohm each and each one connected to an 8ohm output in the Trace head or connected in series to the Orange.

I have a fairly simple pedal board between my bass and the front end of the amp. Stingray bass > Cali76 compressor > Two Note Le Bass preamp Both times with the Trace head I didn't have the preamp, just the compressor. The compressor is set so volume is the same on or off, the preamp is set with a slight boost but not a lot. Each failure has been in a different building so its not a dodgy socket. The Trace was running at about 80%on output volume and the Orange at about 40%

I'm a bit new to all this so I don't know how reliable amps should be but so far this year I've had three amp failures. Trace Elliot GP12SMX went up in smoke quite spectacularly with a failed power amp. Fair enough I thought, vintage electronics can be fragile so I had a new MOSFET power board fitted and thought that would be the end of it. Two hours playing and the new board failed, faulty board apparently so got that repaired under warranty. Last week my Orange Terror just stopped working, apparently its a catastrophic short circuit in the power supply and obviously the parts it needs are in China so that could be six weeks. Is it just me or are amplifiers less reliable than a badly maintained Alfa Romeo?

So you did actually use the B string? Not for its intended purpose but that wouldn't be punk anyway.