thodrik

Thread revival. It seems that Warwick have now added Sadowsky instruments to their annual Limited Edition series. https://www.bassgearmag.com/sadowsky-press-release-sadowsky-metroline-masterbuilt-limited-edition-2021/ The basses look really nice, don't get me wrong. However, the price tag of $6,999 for the 4 string 'Masterbuilt' and $7,100 for the 5 string 'Masterbuilt' means that a 'Masterbuilt' Sadowsky by Warwick is about $1,000 more expensive than the current NYC Sadowsky instruments available for sale on the Sadowsky site which were actually built by Roger Sadowsky and his original team. Yes, the Masterbuilt instruments are released in limited numbers and feature some exotic woods, but you could probably provide Sadowsky NYC with a similar spec with a custom order for pretty much the same price, with the added benefit that the bass would actually be made by Roger Sadowsky and that it would be made to your own individual specs. I'm guessing that the Masterbuilt line is designed to cover the demand for high spec custom ordered Sadowskys now that the Sadowsky team in NYC is a lot smaller. I don't doubt the Warwick Masterbuilt quality at all, it is just tough to get my head around the notion that a instrument made under a licence can be considerably more expensive that 'the real thing', so to speak.

I don’t disagree. However, sometimes making a brief note on what was actually discussed on the phone is a good habit and can help prevent/solve disagreements later on if people have different recollections over what was said on the phone. It obviously depends though. I’m not going to make a note about a two minute call asking about whether they had some flat wound Labella strings of a particular gauge. I probably would if I had a custom bass order for an expensive bass and I was told it should be completed and delivered ‘in 4-6 months’.

In my opinion this is a very good policy to have. It enables any misunderstandings in terms of what was agreed to be ironed out at an early stage. In my work I am constantly making file notes of phone calls. It is annoying and time consuming but worth doing as it might be that one of those file notes can save the day in the event of a future disagreement.

Honestly, at this point I have would have much higher levels of confidence in a Spector made Sadowsky than the Warwick made Sadowskys we are seeing at the moment.

I do the same. I use it as a Tech 21 Bass Driver substitute. I actually had a Bass Driver but actually preferred the B3K as I thought it cut through the mix a bit more.

Getting no reply to an email is always annoying and off putting. To be fair I haven't emailed them since last July or so, but the lack of reply has never been an issue before and that has been over the course of about ten years. I might be lucky in that respect as there certainly seems to be good, bad and indifferent experiences from the looks of this thread. If I had a serious email inquiry that was ignored it would certainly put me off spending loads of money in a shop. Likewise with rude customer service in a shop which is why I pretty much stopped going to Sound Control in Glasgow after about 2005.

I generally get good service there. They also have no problems sending gear up to the Scottish Highlands and don't charge extortionate rates for doing so. They always reply to my emails within 24 hours. The replies are usually brief, business-like and to the point. I appreciate that but I could see how people used to 'how are you doing buddy? Many thanks for taking the time to provide us with your ever so special inquiry' ultra friendly tone of correspondence would find the tone of the correspondence a bit unfriendly. I will certainly continue to use them. Though, obviously given my location I am unlikely to actually visit the shop in person.

This cab would not look out of place in one of those old vintage Trace Elliot brochures, where the product description would be along the lines of 'best used in pairs for a full range stereo gig. Richard Savage used 8 of these on the most recent Def Leppard tour. Slap players may benefit from using the optional 12x6 Mega Bright Box in order to bring out some extra highs.'

Looks great! What is the 'harmonic emphasis' control? Is it like a progressive bass boost/treble boost/mid cut?

That would surely lead to a special line of 'Purr-gantino' cabinets featuring the NXV porting together with the classic 1990s Trace Elliot rat fur covering to give the cats something to claw at before going to sleep.

The ports could be good spots to store a packed lunch or a stash of biscuits to enjoy while the drummer is setting up, so there could be 'real world' practical benefits.

Exactly. Most gigs I play are multi-band gigs with 2-3 bands. There just isn’t time in the allotted sound check for every bassist in every band to go out front to check what their individual bass signal sounds like FOH and in all corners of the venue. You just have to know your gear, set up quickly and efficiently and let the sound engineer get on with their job.

I used to have a Trace Elliot 2x10 and 1x15 stack (Peavey era). Generally it sounded fine, though the sound quality wavered from venue to venue. I can't say it was definitely because of the mismatched cabs, but I felt that I got a more consistent sound quality when using the 1x15 by itself and in practice I didn't need a full stack when gigging in a three piece rock band. So I sold the 2x10. I have since bought a big Mesa 6x10. The Mesa cab is rated at 900 watts, which is the same combined total 'wattage' of my old Trace stack, but the difference in sound quality is staggering. Though the difference in sound quality might be more to do with the quality of the cab and speakers than the size of the speakers themselves. The big Mesa cab was kind of a bucket list purchase as my dream set up from 2008 onwards was one of those and a Big Block 750. I finally got hold of that set up in 2019, but for practical purposes my main gigging set up will continue to be my old Mesa Walkabout 1x15 combo. If I have PA support (which I usually do) I generally don't need more than that.

Changing speakers won't make much of difference to the weight. The real weight is in the wood. Also, assuming the cabinet currently features four 16 ohm 10 inch speakers wired in parallel (to give an 8 ohm cabinet), I would guess that you might have trouble finding four 16 ohm neo speakers that would also deliver similar frequency responses to the speakers you are removing. Most drivers on the market for the public to buy are 8 ohm speakers. Even if you can some speakers that will do the job it will probably cost you upwards of £300 or more. For me, that is too much outlay relative to the benefits. I would just sell the cabinet and use the money from the sale and the money that you would have spent on buying new speakers on a a lightweight 4x10, or two lightweight 2x10s.

I haven't really noticed it in the UK. Trace Elliot amps and cabs are so prevalent on the used market (though less so now than 10-12 years ago IMO) that there is never really much demand that would result in higher used prices. The lower powered amps and combos from 80s can generally be snapped up for £150-250. The 90s combos and amps go for a bit more, not because they are better amps, but they are newer and generally in better condition. Peavey era stuff used to be very expensive used but you can now get one of the 12 band amps for £350 or so which is impressive considering they were more than £1,000 new. The VA valve amps, Twin Valve etc generally go for a bit more, as they are less common. I am tempted of looking for a Series 6 or AH350SMX myself, even one of the Peavey era amps. This thread has done terrible things to my desire to once again own a graphic preamp Trace! The only Trace amp that would get a premium price on the used market would be the semi-mythical V8 but they are very rare.

I certainly agree with this statement. My first 'proper' amp was a Trace Elliot combo that just completely failed. It was under warranty so I got it sent away for repair. Trace Elliot actually sent me a brand new unit along with an official 'Notice of Fault' for the old unit which was provided a a one word explanation for the fault, 'DEATH'. This was in about 1999. The replacement unit worked for years without issue until I sold it in 2016. I also had issues with the Peavey era cabinets, as I bought a 2x10 which arrived with a speaker which hadn't been properly fitted into the basket and a 1x15 which arrived with the screws for the rubber feet already coming loose. Both were easy fixes for me but it did rankle me that I was paying a premium for cabinets which didn't look like they had gone through the proper quality control before being boxed and shipped. These cabinets were made in the UK, so perhaps quality control improved when production shipped to the US.

Awesome, a 4x20. If that was a real cabinet then I am sure the 'recommended systems' would include two 4x20 cabs being used for the lows and then two 8x10 cabs for the highs in a bi-amp system that would be an 'ideal full range system for a working professional'.

I think that you are correct in that the lack of continuity prevented Trace from fully developing like other companies. I don't put all of the blame on Peavey for this though. I think that the real issue was when Gibson essentially shut things down in the early 2000s. That meant that Peavey were not really trying to turn around a business/company as a going concern, but rather having to relaunch a dead brand. That put Peavey in a tricky position in terms of whether they should (a) launch a new modern product that is totally different to the old amps at the risk of alienating TE traditionalists; or (b) try and do a 'new and improved' version of the old classic design. They tried (b) circa 2005 and are now trying (a) with the Elf. Trace Elliot only exists now because Peavey decided to launch the Elf under Trace Elliot branding rather than Peavey. I don't think that there is really a separate Trace Elliot design team that is really separate from the Peavey design team (as was the case in the 2005 relaunch where Paul Stevens was essentially the head Trace Elliot design guy). It doesn't bother me though because the Elf is a cool product and it is better than nothing. If they launch other products under the TE branding I will certainly consider them.

When this thread opened I was definitely of the 'why not do a class D SMX?' opinion, however when you look at the old Peavey 'Tour' amps and the current Peavey Headliner amp, you can totally see elements of the old TE layout in those amps. The current Headliner amp features, a seven band graphic EQ, a 'contour' pre-shape, onboard compression and '1000' watt class D power section. So, given that, it would make no sense to market a TE head that would pretty much have the same features as something Peavey are already making. Peavey tried the 'old school' approach with previous line. The amps didn't catch on. While the amps were good, they were not really significantly different/more powerful/reliable/reliable/flexible than the old Trace Elliot amps they were replacing and which were easily available on the used market for dirt cheap prices. The original TE amps are very much classics, but they are very of 'of their time' type designs. One look at the monstrosity (in a nice way) of the TE 'recommended systems' on the 1980s Trace Elliot brochures on the other thread makes this clear. The days of 'needing' to a take a really heavy 200 watt 4x10, a really heavy 200 watt 1x15 and pairing them with a heavy as hell 300 watt amp for a weekend club gig are well and truly gone. Peavey now own the brand, so I guess they can do what they want with it. It has to be said that the launch of the Elf has been very successful. It isn't the Trace Elliot of old, however the 'Trace Elliot of old' is no longer commercially viable, which as a long-time Trace Elliot fan is something I don't really want to admit. However, even I have sold or given away all of my old TE gear apart from the V6 at this point.

I never knew that Trace did a 2x18 cabinet. Fantastic. Impractical but fantastic.

I have tried a Jabba Custom and thought that in terms of playability, fit and finish it was as good as any other boutique jazz bass. I have a couple of Vigiers and Sadowskys and I put the Jabba I tried in that class. Exceptional. I would definitely like to try one of the Patriot models.

Thanks for this! Those recommended setups are something else. Though nothing for me looks more impractical than a 4x10 combo. I think used to have the V1 version of the Peavey era brochure, before production shipped to the USA. It’s either in the attic or lost. I would love to see the V-type brochure as I have never seen them.

Apologies, I was not really looking at the the issue of efficiency. More that in the future I thought that it might be possible for manufacturers to create a pedalboard amp with a more powerful class d power section, rather than maximising the efficiency levels of the existing power section. Though at the moment this would require a larger footprint for the unit which would probably defeat the purpose of the product in the first place. As you say above though, I think that it would work better as a head.

Some amazing basses in these lists! This is all of my electric basses since I started in 1998, the two I now longer have were (a) my first bass and (b) a touring back up bass I never used. I would love a Warwick Thumb 6 or Spector Forte 6 but I think that the basses below will be 'it' for the foreseeable: Westfield P Bass copy - 1998 (gifted to nephew 2016) - basic, solid, starter bass. 1979ish S9 Fender Precision - 1999 - solid workhorse bass from 1999-2009. Awesome neck profile. Lacquer on the neck is now coming off. Still gigged now and then. 1974 Gibson EB3 - 2000 - bought while in a Jack Bruce/Andy Fraser phase. Crap intonation until I bought a Babicz replacement bridge last year which finally solved the issues! Vigier Excess - 2004 - Insanely 'hot' the pickups and electronics which can be hard to tame. I actually appreciate the bass more now than I did when I first got it. Squier Affinity Jazz - 2008 - (sold 2016) - Cheap back up bass. It was perfectly fine when I demoed it in the shop. I never actually played it after that but it travelled to nearly all my gigs! Sadowsky Metro MV4 - 2009 - my 'new' workhorse bass since 2009. Sits perfectly between my 'vintage' Precision and the 'modern' Excess above. Vigier Arpege Five string - 2011 - Very modern tone. Is bolt on rather than neck thru. Top notch build quality. More 'polite' and 'polished' tone than the Excess but the EQ can change that. Sadowsky NYC 5 string - 2016 - My 'go to' home practice bass. Not gigged it yet as I don't fancy bringing it to a stoner rock gig with bodies and beer flying everywhere!

Yeah, I think that quite a lot of amps work on this basis. I had an SMX Trace head and it was very much a ‘gain high and master low’ amp. I think that the master volume knob was even coloured red as a ‘danger’ warning!