Merton

Rob Green himself suggests active basses shouldn't be played with their volume on full. (Somewhere on the Status site, can't remember where...) My old Trace head used to have a massive amount of headroom, I had the gain up at 9 with my Retroactive J (18V circuit) plugged into the passive input!! My Groove fretless (9v) seems actually to have a hotter output than that. Like has already been said, the 18v supply is there for headroom for the bass's preamp. Anyhoo, my new Nemesis head has to have the -12dB pad on and even then i have the gain on about 4 for the retroactive to stop clipping. Different horses for different courses, innit. Just experimentation..

[quote name='neilb' post='112276' date='Jan 2 2008, 01:36 PM']they were also vinyl covered pre Gibson.[/quote] Yes, but I didn't want to confuse things too much [quote name='geordie' post='112329' date='Jan 2 2008, 02:57 PM']T0664/21/301[/quote] 301 sounds like March 2001 IIRC??? If so, that's a Gibson era build.

[quote name='geordie' post='111975' date='Jan 1 2008, 08:48 PM']Hi all, happy new year!! I have had my Trace Elliot 1215 300W Combo for about 4 years now, got it 2nd hand in Maldon (near where the old Trace factor used to be). I was just wondering any Trace experts know how to tell if its pre Gibson? And where i can take it for a Trace service? Thanks[/quote] What's its serial number? That will give you the manufactured date and then we can tell you Gibson era amps lost the red and green knobs for black ones and went to vinyl covering from carpet but that is not an easy way to tell as there was a big overlap.

I looked at some Warwick cabs when i first got my Trace 12-band head a few years back. Personally I thought they sounded a crap pairing, I think you may miss a bit of the Trace bite but that may have been the 2x10 and 1x15 cab I was using...

[quote name='MacDaddy' post='107061' date='Dec 20 2007, 01:22 PM']a few years ago, there was one in one of the Denmark Street shops, with a notice saying it was the one Rik Savage used to own. It was going for a couple of grand. I thought 'if it's not good enough for Rick Savage, then it's not good enough for me!'.[/quote] Yeah, f**k that, I'll find another one! Probably a lie anyway, I think he still has his (at least he claimed he "had all his old Hamers" in that BGM interview last year). I WILL own one of these, one day

[quote name='NancyJohnson' post='106846' date='Dec 20 2007, 07:41 AM']I used to have a white Hamer Scarab bass (the guy from Def Leppard used to use one). It had a fantastic piano like tone, the thinnest neck I have ever played, but in hindsight, jeepers, what was I thinking? Some guy took it off my hands in a PX deal on a '79 Precision I'm still using seven or eight years ago. If anyone is interested in seeing this beauty, I can scan a photo in over the next day or two. P[/quote] Mememememememe. I soooooooooooo want one of those, I will find one eventually

[b]The Merton Warm Love Awards[/b] (in no particular order) Ashdown Trace Elliot in their pre-Gibson incarnation (not had to deal with them since) Status Eden Rotosound (big thumbs up) Yamaha UK Dean UK (Bill Lewington)

I agree with OTPJ!! A choice between the Retroactive and the Groove 5 I think. No. The Retroactive wins. [attachment=4208:DSC00247.JPG]

[quote name='silverfoxnik' post='104831' date='Dec 16 2007, 01:38 AM']Cheers Merton! I'm looking forward to meeting your Groove 5 at some point.. There were 2 for sale recently on Ebay and I was soooo tempted to bid for one of them. But with Xmas coming up I thought I'd better be sensible and hang onto the money... The RBV isn't that big to be honest, it just looks that way!! Hope all's well with you by the way?[/quote] Not bad thanks Nik, all geared up for this thing they call "Christmas".. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh. [quote name='silverfoxnik' post='106661' date='Dec 19 2007, 07:28 PM']Cheers Luke! That was good day.. Will do if I ever decide to sell it.. I must admit that I have considered what to do with the Lakland because the RBV is being used almost exclusively now and the Lakland is too good to have sitting around doing nothing.. I might trade it if the GAS strikes me for anything else? Nik[/quote] Hmmm..... Nope. Almost tempted. [i]Almost[/i]

[quote name='gilmour' post='106273' date='Dec 18 2007, 11:51 PM']I can't get Eden stuff as they have no distributor in this country, Andertons have some 1x15's in but I don't see the point in replacing one 1x15 with another (although could be tempted if I could find a 2x10 to go with it)[/quote] I spoke to Eden about this the other day and they said get onto the Bass Gallery - looks like they've just had a shipment in of a fair few bits and bobs. Haven't calle dthem myself yet (thinking a trip up there over Xmas is the way forward!) but give them a go.

[quote name='cetera' post='105260' date='Dec 17 2007, 11:28 AM']+[b]33[/b] = [b]354[/b][/quote] 33? Cool! I'm +5 so that's [b][size=6]359[/size][/b]

[quote name='silverfoxnik' post='103953' date='Dec 13 2007, 04:44 PM']In an ideal world, I'd add a G&L to my collection plus, I've always wanted a Status Groove 5 for some reason too... But that would be just plain greedy, wouldn't it? [/quote] You're still not gonna get mine!! But next time I see ya I will definitely let you have a play on it to help your GAS move in the right direction Anyhoo, I LOVE the Wal, RBV and Lakland. I think the RBV would be bigger than me though, it looks huuuuuuuuuuuuggge!

[quote name='Sparky' post='104253' date='Dec 14 2007, 12:14 PM']YES Merton! Controversial! I'd like to hear other people's opinions re. mixing cabs. Is it common to do this? Pros, cons? Both current 2x10's are rated at same power & impedance. Merton, you haven't annoyed me,.. although you may have angered the little red GAS Devil sat on my left shoulder! I'm sure we can strike a deal in another area!...guess if i sold my soul i could complete Both rigs! [/quote] I used to run and Asdhown MAG 4x10 with the Trace 1x15 cab, it was immense. Never had a problem. As for the little farty Man U fan on your left shoulder, bah! Give in to the pressure and buy 2 more cabs and a Trace head, it's fun buying things!

At the risk of annoying you, why not keep the set up you have, as you have a nice mix of "bright" and "round"? I'd personally go with the Trace cabs coz I find Hartke cabs a bit harsh.

[quote]He added: "If I have anything to do with it there'll be a famous UK guitar brand after all."[/quote] Like Status or Sei or Shuker? Nah, good for you man, and tho I don't think I'll ever want more than 5 strings I can understand why you do. Enjoy the bass and the local spotlight

[quote name='stevebasshead' post='103946' date='Dec 13 2007, 04:36 PM']That's more to do with the taper on the volume pot, they're not always linear all the way from min to max. Most of the output volume from a Trace is available in appoximately the first half a turn, thereafter it makes less and less difference. I'm not familiar with the Eden but at least some of the volume difference you hear at what look to be the same positions could be explained by that.[/quote] Thought that may well be the reason!

Main amp thesedays is a 250W Trace V-Type combo, but since I normally only run it at 8ohms it's probably only developing about 100-125W, volume on about 4. When I plug an extension cab in it's the most monstrous beautiful sound ever, but I rarely need to do that. I have done gigs with my 100W Trace Elliot Commando combo but that really struggled to keep up, it's good for acoustic gigs tho. [size=1](edited for correcting crappy smelling pistakes and additional bits )[/size]

No idea. But I know I turn off the horn completely in my 2103H coz it's horrible, so I know why you're looking for one without it

[quote name='RIM Basses' post='102939' date='Dec 11 2007, 09:54 PM']When I had my mesa 400+ at full power, I was told that to get the same [color="#2E8B57"]power[/color] out of a solid state rig you would need around 1600w So basicly tube amps are four times louder?[/quote] Careful with the use of "power" instead of "volume" or even "perceived volume" That's where a lot of people's confusion comes in I think. My old Trace head and current Nemesis head are both 300W (well, the Nemesis is 320W) but to get the same perceived volume, the Trace would be set on ~2-3 and the Nemesis on 5. I half wonder whether that's to do with input headroom (Trace had gain on about 9 with no clipping, Nemesis on 4 with a bit of soft clipping for the compressor), but that's another query for another thread...

[quote name='ashevans09' post='102883' date='Dec 11 2007, 08:33 PM']I've seen a couple of posts here recently talking about how "loud" valve amps are. I was kind of under the impression if you had, say, a solid state amp and a valve amp both rated at 300 watts or whatever that they would both put out more or less the same volume as they had the same wattage? Am I completely wrong here? Thanks for any help and (hopefully ) the lack of flaming [/quote] Power output and volume are not linked exlcusively. Power output could be heat generated in the power amp, or generated in the speaker cables etc etc.... As Kiwi says, there's lots of other things which influence perceived volume level too, and several other peeps are better placed to explain them more clearly than me