thodrik

Saw one for sale for £1500 recently but I think that is a bit steep. However they are pretty rare. However I think there is more demand for stuff like the all valve 400+ amps. I am a big Mesa fan but there are far too many knobs on it for me. However I think that they were the flagship bass amps for Mesa at the time. If you can handle all of the features then it would be a great buy.

I’m sure that there is a bunch of the Trace V-type DNA in the CTM line in terms of the EQ controls.

A tube amp and a half! 6 x KT88 output tubes. It is a monster.

It works great with my Trace Elliot V6. I also recommend trying it as a boost by turning the compression all the way down and turning the gain all the way up. Instant clean boost.

Another happy Watford Valves customer here. My brother uses HotRox and says they are equally as good. I generally find that JJ 12x7 tubes are good, reliable and cost effective. I use them in my Mesa Big Block and Walkabout.

I have used the D'addario Balanced Tension set 120-90-67-50 for D standard/drop C and for C sharp standard/drop B for the best part of a decade. Great strings, not that expensive and easier to get than having to constantly buy singles. Probably work better in D standard and drop C. Before D'addario released the balanced tension range about a decade ago, I was constantly trying strings trying to find ones I liked in D standard/drop C. I tried all manner of different 'heavy' gauges with varying degrees of success. I tried the DR DDT 115-55 set for D standard/drop C but found the higher strung strings to have way too much tension and the low strings to be too loose. I also tried a Newtone custom set but despite the rave reviews by others on the forum I wasn't particularly impressed for the price. Ones I did quite like were the GHS Heavy Boomers (115-50) which I preferred to DR and Newtone. The D'addario though were my go-to for price and ease of availability. Otherwise at this point I would buy singles of 120, 90, 70, 50 of my preferred brand and make. In the last couple of years I have been using a set of Elixir nicklewound singles: 130 (tapered), 95, 70, 50 for purely drop C. If I still needed to do D standard as well I would I use a 120 or 125. Expensive to buy but they last about a year or more, whereas the D'addarios last about 6-8 weeks of regular use.

Personally I like the red and green together. Reminds me of the old 'Green = play' and 'Red = Stop/Record' buttons on my childhood tape player. If proceeding on that basis though I would probably get the back pickup coloured green as well to work alongside the red coloured front pickups.

I do a lot of downtuned doom and stoner stuff. I generally use a couple of different overdrives stacked together on very low settings to get my drive 'tone'. That runs into a V2 Sansamp Bass Driver. I can pretty much run that into the PA or whatever amp I bring, which is usually a Mesa Walkabout 1x15 combo or an EBS Fafner into a Trace Elliot 1x15. I try to keep my pedal board setup reasonably simple so that (a) it is easy enough to carry around and (b) any problems or malfunctioning bits can be identified and address quickly at a gig. I am still considering going down the Helix route, but damn, I do love the mechanics and tactile nature of working with amps, cabs and pedals and plugging stuff in. Essentially I treat signal chains as audible Lego. My alternative doom rig actually just plugging my bass straight into a Mesa Block 750 or Trace Elliot V6, pushing the gain on the preamp and running that into a Mesa Powerhouse 6x10. As you can imagine, this setup certainly does doom, it also does back problems and permanent hearing loss.

As an owner of a Mesa 6x10 I can categorically state that in 2023, these kind of cabinets are completely unnecessary in this era of high powered compact cabinets and modern monitor systems and high powered venue PAs. I have also found that a heavy 6x10 is more awkward to move than an 8x10 because with it being shorter it is more difficult to tilt and slide into the back of a car/van. I generally use a single 1x15 for gigging. So why do I still own the 6x10? Quite simply the sound. Also, the idea of selling and shipping it is impractical. So it will never get sold, particularly as I got it for next to nothing. If I was looking at a new cabinet for an SVT, I would probably be looking at a Bergantino 4x10, Barefaced 4x10 or Ampeg SVT2x12 which is designed to sound like a mini 8x10 owing to the non-ported design. If you need an 8x10 and weight is a consideration? Definitely the Barefaced or (if you have £2,500 spare) EBS Neoline 8x10.

Exactly, it is still a lump, but honestly not much heavier than my hybrid amps like Mesa Big Block and EBS Fafner once they are in a rack case. In comparison, something like an SVT II is just ridiculously heavy. Sadly, I kinda want one of them too!

I sold all of my Trace Elliot cabs, combo and SMX amp a while ago just because of the unnecessary weight. I kept the V6 though because for a valve amp it is actually fairly lightweight compared to an SVT. Every couple of months though I find myself trawling through the brochures on this thread going 'mmm, fancy that, if it turns up on eBay or BC Market Place then I will get it...'

I now (as of this minute) have a 1979 (well it might be 1978 or up to 1981, I never checked) Fender Precision for sale at a bargain price of £14,000. Seriously, it is a very clean bass for the age, and someone might be willing to pay a premium for that. Not me but I can kinda see the rationale for the pricing.

Thanks. I will bear that in mind!

I have considering whether to get the neo 4x10 or 2x12 ever since I bought a Fafner in 2009. Still not bought either!

Congratulations!

I was in an instrumental band who tuned to drop E flat, so essentially the 'drop D' equivalent of being tuned to F standard. Technically I was tuned up and tuned down. I actually have one of my five strings tuned to drop C, with the low B string being tuned up to a C and the EADG strings tuned up to GCF and B flat. My other five string is tuned B, F#, B, E, A but I often tune the low B up to C sharp for old school Black Sabbath type stuff which is in C sharp. I used to play downtuned four strings from years and kept the five strings for my E standard stuff. I just decided to try uptuning the five strings when I was bored during the pandemic and was listening to lots of Karnivool where Jon Stockman tunes a six string to an usual drop B tuning rather than B standard. The benefit is that I now have at least one four string bass in E standard tuning for the first time in about 5-6 years. After years of playing all manner of non-standard tunings it is actually proving to be quite liberating. If I was in a covers or function band I would be using standard tuned five strings or fours, but I am not so I don't.

Guitarist in my band saw the new demo for the Agro and messaged me to say 'you need this'. As much as I loved V1 still think it needed a blend control and/or a simple 'bass' control or 'grunt' control like on the Darkglass B3K, as I always thought that v1 Agro removed a bit of sub lows from the clean signal when turned on, so I have to EQ that back in. However, the quality of the drive is such that it is now on the list.

I used to use a tube preamps (EHX English Muff'n, later the EBS Valvedrive) as a means to add warmth to certain amps. They generally worked well but I actually found them to be a bit annoying and superfluous when gigging. It was another bit of kit, more fragile than a normal pedal, generally requiring a different power supply (12v AC) from the rest of my pedals. The tonal benefits were often so subtle that the audience wouldn't be able to tell the difference between those pedals and a comparatively bomb-proof Sansamp Bass Driver. Absolutely loved the valve preamp pedals when recording though and I still own them. I think I generally prefer a really nice amp which does my basic clean(ish) tone and I will just use a standard non-valve pedal to add dirt. In one form or another my Mesa Walkabout and EBS Fafner haven't failed me in nearly 14 years. If I was ditching them I would probably go either Helix or 'amp in a box' Origin Effects Bass Rig and FRFR speaker or go the complete opposite and just buy a Matamp GT200/Ampeg SVT/Orange AD200 and 4x10!

The old ones were cool, but were very oversized and the shoulders made it difficult to connect using right angled jack sockets. I like them. Might buy another Agro after I stupidly sold the other one.

Hello. I use the BDDI V2 with the mid control and it is leagues ahead of the original. Still not 'transparent' but great for my purposes. If you want a really flexible pre-amp it might be worth getting something like the Helix stomp which would enable you to pick and choose any number of amp tones. It might be a bit over the top for occasional dep work and at £500 it is a pretty substantial cost, but the flexibility is there to cover loads of different amps, pedals and effects and signal chains. It can also be used for guitar which is why I am seriously considering one next. Alternatives off the top of my head: - Aguilar Tone Hammer - Ampeg SCR-DI (an Ampeg preamp plus overdrive) - MXR M80 Bass DI (like a Sansamp BDDI but make a little bit less coloured) - Origin Effects Bass Rig (at £400 though a big investment - essentially a super modern attempt at the Sansamp 'amp in a box') - Two Notes ReVolt (another amp in a box) -Walrus Badwater Bass preamp (not tried it myself but looks cool) - EBS Microbass or Valvedrive (preamps but not as coloured as a full on amp sim). - there is also the Darkglass pedals, but I don't think that they are very transparent (I own four DG pedals and like them) apart from maybe the Harmonic booster which is just a clean preamp Generally it worth taking the time to try out different options. Not always possible but you can find Youtube demos fairly easily for most pedals so it is worth having a look online.

I really like the SVT 3 Pros. There is someone selling another on the marketplace here for a decent price. My nephew has one and it is great. He was looking at a bunch of options including second hand Ashdown ABMs, Warwick Tubepaths, Orange 4 four stroke. The Ampeg won out in the end just because 'it is an Ampeg and Ampegs are cool'. Funnily enough I have also ended up with a Mesa Big Block 750! Took me years to find one though. Frankly, I don't think that I will ever be selling that. In terms of the Warwick, I have only tried the 5.1 which I thought was really nice however I only played one show with it (it belonged to someone else). For a decent price I would say it was worth a try.

Thanks! I’m also a Les Paul player as well, so will put that on the list!

Or you run the treble at literally zero to get some mids into the signal and then turn up the mids and presence to add treble. A thoroughly strange tone stack on the Rectifier line, especially on the higher gain settings. I still kinda love mine though it is only the Single Rectifier. Would still prefer my brother’s JCM 800 though…

Focusrite Scarlett is great. I have had one for ages. If space is an issue, then the iRig HD 2 is brilliant for plug in and play stuff. It also comes with a version of Amplitube, which has very basic recording ability. I have the Scarlett 18i8 and the iRig HD 2. I think that the Scarlett series is far more flexible but the iRig is so damn handy for headphone use. For recording, Studio One Artist is fairly intuitive IMO. I far prefer that to trying to put anything together on Pro Tools. There is Reaper too but I found the learning curve and customisability a bit off-putting though the customisability is actually helpful for those who figure it all out. For just jamming on a PC, I have a basic version of Bias Amps and Amplitube which I chop and change from. The tones on Bias are varied but some of the bass ones (notably the Orange and Ampeg SVT) models are pretty decent. For £40 I have found it to be decent value. I haven't splashed the cash on the Ampeg stuff on Amplitube as I find that my Sansamp plugged into the interface is good enough!

Then I would go either bigger cab or cabs. Its strange that a lot of times that the only time you need a big cab is when you are playing in a small venue with no bass going through the PA.