Flavour of (last) Month

[SamPlaysBass]

Does anybody else enjoy picking up gear that was flavour of the month but is now no longer as popular? 
 

I’ll start. I picked up a TC RS210 yesterday for £225. That’s on the cheaper end of the scale these days, especially considering they were around £600+ 10 or so years ago. And d’you know what? It’s fantastic. 
 

I bought it to add to my ‘small’ rig. It started off with a singular RS112 that Thomann was selling off cheap around 10 years ago. This led to me acquiring a second RS112 a few months later to make a small stack as my old Trace rig wasn’t best equipped to deal with the 4 flights of stairs to get to the main room in Clwb Ifor Bach (big up, Cardiff bassists). After a raft of heads including a Markbass LM3, a GK 700rb and a TecAmp Puma 900, I eventually picked up a tatty RH450 from Marketplace for peanuts. They sounded fantastic together - you could really tell that the RH and RS series were designed to work hand in hand. During the RH450’s tenure with me, I replaced a pot, superglued the buttons back together, changed the knobs to less broken ones and I had a rig that I was very, very pleased with; moreso than the other, more expensive heads. 
 

A good deal on NOS RH750 from PMT a few years ago led me to picking up a brand spanking new one for £350. I sold the RH450 to a mate of mine, which paid for itself and then some. I ran that rig for a few years but always fancied adding an RS210. Lo and behold, one came up yesterday about 20 minutes from my house. Done deal. 
 

I still remember the marketing videos coming out on YouTube when they were launched 13 or so years ago. I remember TC pushing this series quite hard, and the fallout on TalkBass about the 236 watt power section not being very honest about its output (it is, in fact, plenty loud enough for any situation). The design is coming up 15 years old now, and TC stopped making them long ago. In fact, TC has undergone a bit of a personality transplant and isn’t really a contender in the bass amp market any more. These were certainly flavour of the month 10+ years ago, with Mark King and Nathan East appearing all over the marketing material. 

 

Fundamentally, these were and still are fantastic amplifiers and cabinets. They’re not perfect (the coating gets a bit flaky, the knobs are made of pastry, and they’re no longer contenders in the ‘lightweight’ category) but for several hundred pounds less than a mid-tier, 500 watt head today, you can get a fantastic sounding and extremely practical stack that will happily see you through many, many gigs. You just have to wait 10 years or so… 😂

 

Anyone else buying up not-so-cutting edge equipment? 
 

Edited March 31 by SamPlaysBass

[DGBass]

On 31/03/2024 at 15:59, SamPlaysBass said:

Anyone else buying up not-so-cutting edge equipment? 

Yes indeed. It's something I enjoy doing and I also don't mind saying what it cost. Not everyone does like to reveal what their rig cost them. A recent new band project which was in effect a low volume jazz/blues fusion type gig playing sunday afternoons and midweek early evening gigs prompted me to look around for a smaller setup that didn't need to be high powered. I came across this little end of life Laney R210 cabinet and although i'm not a huge fan of 2 x 10 setups, I took a chance and bought the cab direct from Laney at a discount. It's proved its worth already and for the pricepoint it's just insanely good. Brand new, 2 x 10 with a switchable tweeter, rear ported and at 16Kg its only 2Kg heavier than an industry standard BF 210S with cloth front, and approximately a tenth, yes a tenth of the cost at only £99.  I really couldn't have bought the raw materials to build a cab for that price. Ok, so it might not have the same high end performance but 200 watt power handling is more than enough for a small gig and it is absolutely giggable. I've gigged it and it works and sounds astoundingly good for its pricepoint. Amp wise I've used it with several different amps including a bigger Ashdown Labs MK500. It sounded great and performed perfectly. Currently its being used mostly with an old Trace Elliot head, a forty year old AH150 GP11 mk4 in perfect working order. Trace stuff was always the flavour of the month in whatever decade you can remember it being around. The Mk4 GP11 was just £50. So, a great little rig that sounds amazing for £149. The cab was modded from its stock 16 ohms spec to 4 ohms after being used a few times. I've no idea why Laney made these 16 ohm cabs ( 2 x 8 ohm speakers wired in series with a basic piezo tweeter circuit parallelled off the input) in the first place. That makes it even more flexible as a one cab solution with low wattage amps. I may bend and get a small class D head to go with it at some point as that would lighten the load even further.

 

 

 

[JottoSW1]

Epifani used to be the name on everyone's lips a while ago. Still there making top grade equipment 

[JottoSW1]

Love my Trace and Laney selection. Till I have to hump the heads up 64 steps

[SamPlaysBass]

14 hours ago, DGBass said:

at 16Kg its only 2Kg heavier than an industry standard BF 210S with cloth front, and approximately a tenth, yes a tenth of the cost at only £99.

This is exactly the sentiment I was talking about - a perfect example of good performance from a brand that isn't flavour of the month and a huge saving to boot.

 

Wonderful looking rig. I think Laney offer some serious bang for buck, especially when you buy direct from their eBay store. Laney stuff in general is solid, well made and sounds good. I honestly don't understand why we don't see more of them around, but I think the 'flavour' element of Barefaced, Aguilar etc. means that people will pay a premium for those brands. Nothing wrong with that, either. The 16 ohm cab thing is weird, though. Good plan to work around it. 

 

Trace stuff of that vintage is outstanding. That's a great looking GP11 and I reckon that head is probably heavier than the cab! Still, plenty of power to blow the bloody doors off, punches well above its weight. The equivalent Aguilar set up would be well over £1500+ brand new (a Tone Hammer 350 head and an SL210 cab). £150 all in is a bargain. 

[SamPlaysBass]

5 hours ago, JottoSW1 said:

Epifani used to be the name on everyone's lips a while ago. Still there making top grade equipment 

 

Epifani stuff comes up every now and then and for relatively little money. Super high quality and great sounding, even after a few years. Time to cash in on the bargains.

 

5 hours ago, JottoSW1 said:

Love my Trace and Laney selection. Till I have to hump the heads up 64 steps

Haha, I think it's quite funny that new-school cabs are lighter than old school heads and by quite a margin. My Ampeg SVT CL weighs about the same as my Fender Neo 8x10 and that's massive!

[Bleat]

I've never been one for getting flavour of the month gear, preferring to get what is either decent and affordable at the time or what just personally appeals to me regardless. I'm not out to impress other bass players, it's all about what makes me happy! 

Recently I bought 2 Laney 2x10 cabs from their ebay shop. They cost me £200 each and I don't think the Nexus cabs were cheap items when they were the current bass gear. The spec certainly isn't cheap, and is on a par with those new Ampeg VB cabs aside from my Laneys handle more power at 400 watts each, a bit heavier at 17kg, I think better looking, and certainly much cheaper! As I grew up in the Black Country, it's also nice to be supporting the brand also. 

😎

Edited April 2 by Bleat

[DGBass]

5 hours ago, SamPlaysBass said:

That's a great looking GP11 and I reckon that head is probably heavier than the cab!

a measly 10kg and its suitcase handle means its so easy to move around.

Edited April 2 by DGBass

[Minininjarob]

On 02/04/2024 at 23:14, Bleat said:

I've never been one for getting flavour of the month gear, preferring to get what is either decent and affordable at the time or what just personally appeals to me regardless. I'm not out to impress other bass players, it's all about what makes me happy! 

Recently I bought 2 Laney 2x10 cabs from their ebay shop. They cost me £200 each and I don't think the Nexus cabs were cheap items when they were the current bass gear. The spec certainly isn't cheap, and is on a par with those new Ampeg VB cabs aside from my Laneys handle more power at 400 watts each, a bit heavier at 17kg, I think better looking, and certainly much cheaper! As I grew up in the Black Country, it's also nice to be supporting the brand also. 

😎

Very nice!!

I can’t find their eBay shop - you you direct me to it?

[Pea Turgh]

I also had a ganders to no avail 😂

[Bleat]

13 hours ago, Minininjarob said:

Very nice!!

I can’t find their eBay shop - you you direct me to it?

 

Here it is:

 

Laney Amps Merchandise

 

Always worth keeping an eye on to see what comes up.

 

😎

[Pea Turgh]

Still a 2x10 400w cab up for £99.  Bonkers.

[jrixn1]

39 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

Still a 2x10 400w cab up for £99.  Bonkers.

 

Worth noting that the Laney R210 is a 16ohm cab, which is unusual.

[ardi100]

13 hours ago, jrixn1 said:

 

Worth noting that the Laney R210 is a 16ohm cab, which is unusual.

I saw that on an eBay ad and assumed it was either a mistake or a guitar cab. 

 

Do they want you to connect up 4 cabs?

[Downunderwonder]

21 hours ago, Pea Turgh said:

Still a 2x10 400w cab up for £99.  Bonkers.

I see why they made it 16 ohms. It's so someone can plug a 500w amp into it and not blow it up only turning the amp up "halfway" putting "250w" into it.

[SamPlaysBass]

9 hours ago, ardi100 said:

I saw that on an eBay ad and assumed it was either a mistake or a guitar cab. 

 

Do they want you to connect up 4 cabs?

Yes. This is the only logical explanation.

 

A modular 8x10 for under £400 🤯 

 

 

😉 

[JottoSW1]

Still a Nexus N410 available at £450.

Toyed with the idea of getting another but am reigning in cab silliness and saving up for a certain combo and keyboard dabbling.

N410 is a formidable Cab find it bemusing the entire Nexus range seems to have passed by unnoticed. 

@la bam pointed me towards them and have accumulated some Nexus Stuff.

[JottoSW1]

2 x N115s

[la bam]

Great cabs those. 

[dclaassen]

Great topic! My goal is always to have really good gear and not pay a fortune for it. Currently running a Trace GP11SMX400 with the way-to-heavy 4x10 and a really tatty 1x15. The plan is to keep the head and replace the cabs. I'll just scour the usual sites until the thing comes up that is in my very limited price range, fits my needs, is relatively light, and available within driving distance. I'll probably aways keep the 4 x 10 cab unless someone throws a silly amount of money at me for it....it just sounds so nice!

[JottoSW1]

This is a killer combination. 

 

[SamPlaysBass]

6 minutes ago, JottoSW1 said:

This is a killer combination. 

 

Absolutely drooling over this. I've looked at the Epifani's and the Nexus heads at some point over the last 18 months and nearly pulled the trigger. Seriously good rig! 

[Rollin Thunder]

My Tech 21 Deuce deluxe powered speaker, got it as B stock had it 5 years now, might be ready for an upgrade to something new in the improving FRFR range.

[Musicman20]

I still rate the TC amps and cabs. They really had a grip on the market for some time.

 

I can't believe it has been 14-15 years! Really?!

 

I have 2 x RS210, covers, footswitch, RH750 and the bag and I enjoy them still.

 

I actually don't think we have moved on THAT far since the Genz Benz/TC/Markbass amps of 10 or so years ago. 

[Downunderwonder]

I am more a flavour of last century kind of buyer.