Sparky Mark

Have you looked through this thread yet? There's a lot of brochures showing the badges used over time.

On a different tangent but definitely linked; think of one of your favourite classic bass lines that sounds great, iconic even, in the recording mix. Then Google to see if there's a recording of that bass line in isolation. For me, they are rarely a tone that I would use at home whilst practicing, they often have much more essential mid content.

Beautiful amp, congratulations. My only comment is that unless you believe the valves will be unseated from their sockets during rough transit or handling, I'd remove those retainer springs, that could potentially scratch the glass. I replaced the spring retainers on my amp with the Ampeg Birtcher style retainers that just hold the valve base. My amp never moves though, so not really needed.

I've got one of these and it's effectively the TE Series 6 GP12 pre amp with an adjustable mid pre shape control. It cops the TE heft really well. FS-EQ12-DI – Ashdown Engineering https://share.google/lx57PeJ9I6rntwTU6

I think it wise not to buy any vintage TE gear unless it's exactly what you really want. Don't compromise, you can almost predict that once you buy anything different, what you really wanted will be advertised for sale somewhere. New TE equipment is pretty expensive IMO, and although very good, sounds quite different to the vintage gear. I did see a guy playing rock/pop through an elf head with two of the single 10 cabs in a small pub and it sounded really good, but I'm not sure how that rig would perform in larger venues?

To be fair that's pretty clean for a 40 year old fan; it must've been cleaned of dust/crud a few times. I'd be more concerned about the amount of fluff inside the amp, which is why I prefer the sealed heat sink cooled heads. They're pretty much pristine when opened up.

Another thing to consider is how the amp is cooled. The AH250 pictured is going to be fan cooled, which you may be able to heat spinning when practicing at low level in your living room. There are 200 watt Series 6 and 250 watt SMX series heads that have rear heat sinks so are completely silent.

This is the model of 410 combo I tried and loved. Series 6 GP12.

It was using a Trace Elliot GP12 410 combo in a rehearsal studio that convinced me how great they sounded. The 410 combos, although heavy, aren't as deep (front to back) as the separate 410 cabs, so are bit easier to transport in a car. I think Trace Elliot gear was initially designed for professional use, and assumed a team of roadies and trucks would normally be on hand. They gradually introduced smaller format amps, cabs and combos as they needed to increase sales.

The problem with the TE410 cabs for me is their weight (100lb ish) and bulk. So I spent some time finding the compact 15" cab that is same width and depth as both series 6 AH200 and SMX250 heads. Not as powerful as the 410 but loud enough for most of my needs nowadays. If you can find the 210 compact cabs, they're worth a look too.

And the heads with UV black lights at the front looked even more spectacular on dark stages. Genius and practical.

Agreed you can only discover the true settings for your gigging tone at a decent volume. The below settings give serious overdrive fuzz with my TB v2 at very low volumes, but I know it wouldn't sound the same at gig volume.

They're only set that way for low volume home practice, like an old fashioned "Loudness" control. I only use the mid pre shape shape 1 button live with my Bergantino HD210 cabs; sounds brilliant.