Merton

Adds top end zing, apparently like a fresh set of strings! Trace had it on their last Gibson-era heads

Specs...: ACG TKO Classic 30.5” Scale Limba body, Ash top, Rocklite binding, stained white 3-piece ash neck, Rocklite board with white blocks, neck and headstock stained white Passive: volume, tone, pickup select (bridge/parallel/series/neck) Single coil in bridge, reverse P type split in the neck. Both overwound. Black hardware, drop D tuner on the E

@skelf has had to put up with a lot from me over the years, all my commissions have had that slightly irritating “Martin” quirk, not to mention my excellent ability to turn on a sixpence and change my mind. That’s meant a lot of back and forth over specs - I think there are at least two Finns I’ve shelved for something else (the Skelf, for example, was originally going to be a Finn). Whilst my basses may have quirks, until now none have been a “first” in the ACG book (except possibly the reverse headstock on the Skelf?) Last year, however, I think I broke Alan when I flipped what was going to be a black Finn into a completely different shape and a colour not yet seen on an ACG. He’s nearly finished it, and oh my word has he excelled himself (as always). The crayon colouring in particular is in the realms of “quite good”. Here are a few in progress shots for your delectation; I think you’ll all agree it’s going to be quite the special bass 😎

Anyone use these? They look quite handy as a space-saving way of propping up instruments but concerned they may not be so good with offset bodies like a Jazz or more extreme shapes. Any thoughts? https://www.andertons.co.uk/guitar-dept/electric-guitar-accessories/electric-guitar-hangers-stands/planet-waves-guitar-rest

Yes. It highlights quite how stinky poo I am!

I had a Trace Elliot 2x10 and 1x15 stack for a while in the early/mid 2000s. I actually never really got on with it at the time and didn’t understand why until I stumbled across Bassworld and learned the science behind it all. Haven’t mixed drivers since. Find a cab you like and double it if you see more

I’m impressed with it. It doesn’t have the same mid and top end of the Barefaceds but it has a lovely rounded tone and works really well with the ABM. It’s not as sensitive as the Barefaceds either so likes being driven.

This is my patented “annoy the neighbours” set up. Would love to gig it all together.... one day maybe 😢

Oh I like it too, but have it almost completely maxed out! Need to try some different valves in that tbh...

Yes the valve drive can be quite tough to tame. Lower the input gain control to around 9 o’clock and it opens up more possibilities. But yes, I rarely push the valve drive gain past 10 o’clock!

It’s a Series 6 715 combo yes. Circa 1989-1990 I believe

Personally I prefer it with the plate, because you have the traditional J-plate too. If they’d been rear mounted I’d possibly have said without

Well that's quite tasty isn't it! Nice one

I’m intrigued to know what illegal fun you can have with a Boss-sized pedal 🤯🤣

I remember Gallien Krueger making a fuss about their original MB Fusion head, saying the preamp valves operated from a ~300V supply rail and that anything less was wussy and weedy. Not sure that’s actually true but I, like you, don’t know the ins and outs of preamp valve requirements and design!

Correct - can operate from 12V but 15-18V are preferred

Yup apparently NWR wanted the valve to drive harder than the, er, original OriginAL pedal. I don’t really associate him with heavy overdriven tones so that surprised me but there we go! My favourite setting is low input and drive gain levels with the drive level balanced so I’m getting a nice tip into overdrive if I dig in my it stays crisp and clean with a lighter touch. It is very responsive to this I’ve found. (That said the tone I got in the video of Nowhere is quite lovey too and may well become the core tone for my punk band if we ever get back to gigging)

AFAIK the valve is only there for overdrive, I can’t remember seeing any diodes but I wasn’t really looking tbh! @Al Krow the “thru” can effectively be used like that, albeit unbalanced via a jack. I use it to feed my tuner so that is now out of my signal chain. The actual balanced DI is essentially always affected by the 5-band EQ and so on. EDIT - didn’t read @JapanAxe’s question properly. AIUI the valve is the source of the overdrive and the Valve Drive control os there to push more single through it to get it to clip in that lovely way we like.

Not strictly true... Gibson killed Trace in the early 2000s. Peavey rescued them and originally released a range of 7- and 12-band amps etc around 2005, which they kept going til around 2012ish. IIRC back then they were slated for NOT trying something new and cutting edge*. Yes there was a brief period then where the brand didn’t seem to have anything new to offer but we now have the Elf etc. I’d say Peavey have actually handled the brand quite well in recent years with the reboot. Sure, the range is limited and we would all love to see some bigger powered heads and an SMX style preamp but maybe that’s all in development, or maybe Peavey have just aimed this range at those looking to downsize and/or use in-ears. Trouble with a brand like this is that there’s so much affection for the older classic stuff that Peavey are almost damned if they do and damned if they don’t. *not that I’m calling the “range” cutting edge btw... there’s still some work to do To get to that haha. But I see this set of gear as aimed purely at those looking to downsize and/or use in-ears. Which let’s face it, is becoming the norm more and more...

That’s my other demo video which I did way back in Lockdown #1 😂 Check out the video linked above in this thread for a more balls-out overdriven valve tone. It can go further than that too PS - other features include an aux in, headphone out and a “thru” output which is not affected by any of the pedals settings at all. And the DI is a transformer-based one so rather lovely.