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Valve Amplifiers Only. No Hybrids / Valve pre-amps..


VTypeV4

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6 hours ago, Quilly said:

Quick Question, how often do you change your power valves ? 

 

In the Bassman, Quilly? I put a new set of JJ 6L6s in it not long after I had it which must be about 4 years ago now. It doesn't feel like it's gone weak or soft in that time. When I bought it, it had a pair of what I assume were it's original US (GE or maybe Sylvania) valves alongside a pair of no-name Chinese or Russian tubes. I replaced the Chinese pre-amp valves with tall plate JJ ECC803 and the driver / inverter with a JJ '81 at the same time the 6L6s went in.

 

It doesn't see extreme use or mega hours (these days, at least) so it doesn't have a tough life - it mainly sees studio work currently.  

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I had my CTM100 for sale there as I already had a little bastard and was looking for a compact had. I'm glad I didn't sell in the end but there seemed to be zero interest in valve heads in the general bass community. The amp was going at a VERY reasonable price. None of my bass playing friends have any interest in tubes. 

Is this a niche community ? 

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7 minutes ago, Quilly said:

I had my CTM100 for sale there as I already had a little bastard and was looking for a compact had. I'm glad I didn't sell in the end but there seemed to be zero interest in valve heads in the general bass community. The amp was going at a VERY reasonable price. None of my bass playing friends have any interest in tubes. 

Is this a niche community ? 

I saw that Quilly and I can’t believe that no one bought it, if I didn’t have my V-4B I would have had it, I like my ss amps for convenience but for me the sound of valves is so nice 

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29 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

I saw that Quilly and I can’t believe that no one bought it, if I didn’t have my V-4B I would have had it, I like my ss amps for convenience but for me the sound of valves is so nice 

I think the UK import tax (B*word) uncertainty thing might have put people off as I'm based in Ireland. I just had a look at the Ashdown website and they now selling at £1499..crazy !    

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1 hour ago, Quilly said:

I had my CTM100 for sale there as I already had a little bastard and was looking for a compact had. I'm glad I didn't sell in the end but there seemed to be zero interest in valve heads in the general bass community. The amp was going at a VERY reasonable price. None of my bass playing friends have any interest in tubes. 

Is this a niche community ? 


 

while I love the sound of my little bastard, it does not meet my needs as a gigging musician. It just will not get loud enough unless I put it through an 8x10.  My MB500 into a 2x8 or 2x10 is just more giggable.  For recording and practices, however, it is hard to beat that valvy goodness.

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1 minute ago, Aliwobble said:


 

while I love the sound of my little bastard, it does not meet my needs as a gigging musician. It just will not get loud enough unless I put it through an 8x10.  My MB500 into a 2x8 or 2x10 is just more giggable.  For recording and practices, however, it is hard to beat that valvy goodness.

I actually played 2 gigs with a little bastard and a barefaced two10. One gig was with a brass jazz band out doors ! and it held up 'OK' the other was in a pub, same set up, where the landlady really didnt want us to be too loud. The guitarists were using 7 - 15W amps. Again it held up Ok with a smidgen of overdrive, which was fine. I typically use my Ashdown Spyder 550w hybrid as its a bit more portable and with way more headroom. I think I'll just use the CTM100 for rehearsal    

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  • 3 weeks later...

Got this beauty today. Had a 1966 Ampeg fliptop a while back but it got sold when it wasnt getting much use and a baby came along. Got this from Bass Bros over in Warwick. Part ex’d a bass and some cash for it. Its a bit noisy but that was calmed down massively by putting the correct pre-amp valve combination in - it came with 3 x 12ax7 so swapped the splitter for an ecc82 that worked very well. Still some noise but at some point ill have a replacement set of EL84’s put in

03086B06-CF14-477A-AC22-4C66CD7031DC.jpeg

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On 22/02/2022 at 15:59, Pow_22 said:

Got this beauty today. Had a 1966 Ampeg fliptop a while back but it got sold when it wasnt getting much use and a baby came along. Got this from Bass Bros over in Warwick. Part ex’d a bass and some cash for it. Its a bit noisy but that was calmed down massively by putting the correct pre-amp valve combination in - it came with 3 x 12ax7 so swapped the splitter for an ecc82 that worked very well. Still some noise but at some point ill have a replacement set of EL84’s put in

03086B06-CF14-477A-AC22-4C66CD7031DC.jpeg

Loving that 👍

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A few very lovely Mesa Boogie 400 / 400+’s on this thread, but not the rarer beast it evolved from: the D-180.   Here’s my mid ‘80’s one.

 

I've owned a few valve amps over the years; 1970’s Orange 100W and Fender Bassman 135, Ampeg SVT 2, and Trace Twin Valve.  Settled on this for the last few years (though to be honest with recent bands it hasn’t really had a chance to get out much 🙁) - plenty of power, portable (easy one hand carry), a mere 6 power valves at re-valve time, DI out, and of course fabulous tone.  Unlike the 400 it’s 2 channel; a clean one for bass and a second for guitar with the same cascade saturation circuit as the Mesa mark series guitar amps - which of course is pretty filthy on bass too! 😎

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  • 1 month later...

New bottles ahoy! Beavis has had a pair of JJ KT77 valves in for the last few years and they've been absolutely fine but I fancied a change. This morning, a box from Hotrox in Nottingham safely arrived containing two, slightly bigger bottle JJ 6CA7s.

 

Beavis 6ca7

 

Beavis 6ca7

 

Beavis 6ca7

 

Beavis 6ca7

 

I've only had them running for ten minutes but they sound solid so I'll take the amp to rehearsal next time and see how it goes. Apparently, they're somewhere between an EL34, a 6L6 and a 6550 so hopefully, they'll do that saturated squashy thing very nicely. 😃

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