dan670844

I have a LB212 a really great cab, It sounds fantastic, light and beautifully made (in uk) it has great lows and good mids / highs even though its got no tweater. It is also very sensitive so its loud, great dispersion. It also is very clean, it handles rated power nicely. The VS series, I was told are identical except the vs is chinese made (still fantastic build quality) and has custom made ceramic drivers rather than the uk made neos, bit heavier but still a great cab, 112 are also great cabs. There are quite a quite a few lb112 still around, you can pick them up at the same price as a vs equivalent which is a steal, considering the price of the drivers in them. In hindsight I would have gone for two VS/ LB112, as it gives me more options for rehearsals etc. But I am happy with the LB212 its seriously all you ever need for most gigs, it has a great on stage dispersion, and sounds fantastic from any angle, happy bunny here. I am using my Di'ed LB30 and 212 for most stuff I am doing, ( we are all miced / di ed even the drummer, I cant be arsed with stupid on stage vol) . But I have got some big shows lined up in the summer, so have got a CTM300 and CL610 on order, cant wait. LB30 CTM300 are seriously ground breaking amps (these are the work of Dave Green, the ex Matamp designer) the VS LB and CL cabs are also fantastic, they need to be to keep up with these amps. I also like the MIbass def, the best lightweight amp around at the moment, esp if you use it with an optical valve squasher like a EHX Blackfinger, blows all other lighweight stuff into the weeds.

I used a QSC RMX 2450 power amp for a long time, many gigs a great amp, sound quality and clarity was great and it had a lot of reserve current so playing dynamics were great, It was class H, personally I didnt give a monkeys, it was selected on power and sound quality, it was no lighweight amp though, but I guess for the power rating at the bandwidth it could deliver it was quite light!

Thats a good price!! Buy

As others have said the Mibass 550 is a fantastic amp very versatile, easy to use and fantastic build quality, after two attempts Ashdown have hit the nail through the wood! It has some amazing tones. The Little Bastard is also an amazing amp, this thing drips tone, the eq for an all valve unit is very versatile, it has a very incredibly detailed warm tone, or it can do rauk scuzz, you name it it can do it! And its very much louder than you think. I have both, I dont endorse Ashdown by the way if someone makes good gear they get my vote.

Just sold everything else after all my years of playing, Ampeg, Trace Elliot, Ashdown solid state and now this is it perfection im in love, any tone is there from super clean detailed hifi, to dirty scrunge all by twiddling three knobs and three switches................. the harmonics and the dynamics tone tone tone! and loud enough for all my rehearsal needs and small gigs with the super sensitive LB212, output transformer di for same tone to the desk. Its even easy and cheap to service, with its soft start cathode bias power amp, even a numpty like me can service it. Big brother on its way CTM300 and CL610 for big gigs.

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1332834743' post='1593603'] Depends how they are wired up? If they have some sort of internal crossover feeding only the lower frequencies to the fifteen then yes, I would agree. [/quote] Nope the amp has the crossover my SMX is a Bi amp design

[quote name='dan670844' timestamp='1332529732' post='1589749'] Iif its any help im playing In the zz top cover band Tres hombres at the moment, for a few shows, haha! ( helping a mate out, the beard is itchy though!) Im primarily a funk reggae bass player so this is all new to me! I usually play pretty clean.I used my trace smx head in the first rehearsal it sounded sh*t, to clean, too focussed, there was something missing in the sound, didnt fill out the huge space inbeetween the drums and that single geetar! Next rehearsal i brought along my ashdown little bastard 30 watt through their lb212 cab turned it up full! cranked the mids and there it was, that little amp plugged that big hole. Cant be the power of the amp, the smx is 1200 watts, i think its all that harmonic distortion filling in all the gaps, from the lowest lows to rhythm guitar territory. it was pretty stunning ( rehearsal volume though) Im using a traynor yba300 for this gig through a basssysteme 6x10 cab, its an awesome amp, only 800 quid from thommann.de. I tried the yba 200 (500 quid and yes it is loud enough!) as well also a great amp. Bombproof and insanely light at 19kg and 23kg respectively. trace cabs are great they are quite sensitive over 100db if you check the spec, as are the Ashdown ABMs and Mags, just turn the tweater off else it sounds nasty and crank that gain, i think if you paired your 1518 with a tweater off 1028 , and one of these traynors you will be sorted. if your rich check out the Ashdown CTM and the small block, they are in a different league. [/quote] UPDATE! Just ordered a Ashdown CTM 300, wow what an amp, worth every penny, most amazingly well made and best sounding amp I have ever heard and I mean that!!

Well those cabs do! Maybe twenty years out of date but it works.... Driver size has nothing to do with how low a speaker can go, that argument is out of date! Those manufacturers that I mentioned make full range split stacks i.e two cabs in various configarations, depending on the application. They also make standalone single cabs and multiples. Horses for courses. I agree the whole amp thing is changing however. I rarely these days actually use an amp live, its mostly for show, and or my personal enjoyment!

[quote name='bassman2790' timestamp='1332667659' post='1591251'] I'm sure that, if someone came to one of our gigs, they wouldn't have an issue hearing the bass but I've read many posts on this forum where someone states that they never need to have their amp above 2 or 3 on the output (or at nine 'o' clock). The guitarist in our band plays a Les Paul through a Blackstar Studio HT20 head into a Blackstar 2x12 cabinet. His tone is not bottom heavy and leaves a lot of room, sonically for the bass. If I left my EQ completely flat, 2 or 3 on the output control, it would be plenty for me to be heard but, in my opinion, the sound would be too thin (and quite harsh sounding), removing some of the 800Hz and boosting the 60-150Hz frequencies thickens out the sound but with a perceptible drop in presence. Turning up the output to 5 or 6 brings me back, volume-wise to where I was before EQ'ing but now the clip light on the output starts to flicker. I want to know how these other posters can achieve a thick full sound with a 30watt Little Bastard and a 2x12 cabinet that I cannot achieve with a 500watt Trace Elliot amp and two Trace 15" cabs [/quote] To be fair my LB is used mostly for rehearsal, studio and home. But I find that it always cuts through, first time I tried it, it blew me away, the tone is something else. I bought it on a wim, cause I heard someone say it sounded like a B15, well it sounds different to an Ampeg, its has a fairly unique, but amazing tone. It is a classic amp, if it was made in the 60s people would be drooling over it. The depth of the sound is pretty amazing like 3 dimensional, tube heads will know what I mean, and it has a lot of punch and clarity, thats one personality then it can get all raw, lots of harmonics and very mild distortion, that sits in a rock mix perfectly. With the lb212 cab, in rehearsals it will keep up with Fake Billys 50 watt Marshall with a 2x12 but thats in a fairly small rehearsal room. I think why it can keep up is basically it has a lot of harmonic distortion, but not how you think, not crunchy distortion, but the harmonics of the note are reinforced, so if you play E I guess it plays a lot of harmonics an octave lower and higher. Go try one, buy one, it has made me completly rethink my amp setup. It needs the right cab though. As I mentioned the Traynor YBA 200 and YBA300 are nice amps as well and they are light modern designs you dont need a tech to look after them you can change tubes and bias yourself. My advice would be as others have said would be to get hold of a Sansamp pedal and set it to SVT mode with a bit of gain so it grinds, go straight into the power amp on the trace. Then you will have a very versatile system, the trace preamp is good for all other styles, except the rock thing! Your amp has plenty of power. I would also ditch the 1518 and get a 1048H, as another has said there could be some weird sh*t going on with those two , im no expert, just a sad ole bass player. But those cabs although both 15s are tuned differently. I anyone is interested Trace and Ashdown and Laney cabs for that matter are tuned to work together as a pair to give a full range stack The normal combinations are 2x10 and big 15 cab, 4x10 and 15 compact, or big 15, 2x10 and 18, 4x10 and 18. Stick to these and you wont go wrong. Trace cabs are now more full range than of old, with Ashdown and Laney they follow the more classical design. So to get that perfect tight deep and sound with ABM cabs for example you need two cabs as the 2 and 410 are tuned higher. I.e a 10 and a 15 together the 10 for punch and clarity and the 15 for the low end extension. The classical style like the ABM is better I think as the drivers are usuallly more sensitive.

Nah it will be fine, the speaker connected thing is only applicable for valve (tube) amps, not mosfet amps like the trace. The headphone out on the trace old trace heads, comes from the preamp via a little discrete amplifier, and it will come out both lugs on your headphones.

Arrgh you wanna move furniture! theres only one cab that can do that with conviction. That is a Trace 1818 a 18 inch high efficancy driver in a big box, as this is usually the Job of the FOH. This cab will go down to 26hz if you want, but it doesnt sound like mud, its got pretty good definition. Just sling it under your combo. I would also download the trace brochure, from the website its a very useful document as it has all the specs and suggested cab stacks. If you want any more info, email Charlie Wood at Trace, he knows everything as hes been there since the year dot . [email protected]. Speak to Trace, you will supprised how helpful they are, they are trying hard to build it up again after Gibson knackered it. they make good stuff.

[quote name='bigjohn' timestamp='1332600690' post='1590534'] How good or appropriate the TE rig is or should be doesn't really make any difference in the end if the OP can't EQ how he wants and end up being heard. Which I why I said he should EQ differently and / or ask the band to EQ differently. Otherwise there's no option other than changing gear. [/quote] True, but we are talking about not just the trace rig here, but two other rigs as well with the same result. Yes you are right about the Q.I was making the point that cabs arent the issue, they are quality units with good drivers. . Yes you can change all the EQ of the band but you will destroy the sound of the band, listen to Billy Gibbons Guitar tone, he turns the treble off and cuts the mids, Granted his Marshall has a linked tone stack, so the treble roll off is not so severe as would be from and James or Bandaxall tone stack but he is bass heavy all the same. Nothing wrong with it, That geezer out of biffy clyro is also beefy and low, its a credible tone, A roaring tube amp will cut through very easily, and of course a properly Q solid state amp for this guitar style will also do the same, but not as well!

[quote name='bertbass' timestamp='1332596927' post='1590474'] Hi all, I must confess to being a tad provocative here but a quick read of this, http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-levelchange.htm, and this, http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/voltageloudness.html, ignore the maths, will show that all things being equal, you would need a 1000w amp to be twice as loud as 100w, a 10db increase in volume. Doubling of the power of an amp would only give an increase of 3db which is 1.23 times the loudness, not a lot really and probably hardly noticeable. I have played with the same band for 25 years and the backline and drums have remained constant, apart for the bass gear, in all that time I have had a good real world chance to try different things. I wish I could be happy with my sound and although I always am, the dreaded GAS keeps raising its ugly head. The guitarist uses an AC30. An amp that defies all logic as far as volume is concerned. It's a 3 piece and I do the sound checks and guitar and drums do as they're told as far as sound and volume goes. We play anywhere but mainly pubs and clubs and we all know what the volume restrictions are like in these venues and the volumes are rarely loud enough to need PA support. When the band started I was using a valve Hiwatt 100w. No problem in the bass dept. and I loved the sound, but could it be better? Hiwatt sold, how I regret that and Peavey 700w Firebass takes it place. Suddenly the bass can't keep up with an AC30. What? The Peavey broke so I got a Carvin R1000 head. Nice amp but still couldn't keep up with an AC30. Strangely, the R1000 broke as well so got a Carvin B1500. This puts out 1900w at 2 ohms so is just about twice as loud as 100w head and it's a fantastic amp and I've still got it and at last a ss amp that's loud enough to keep up with an AC30. You guessed it. GAS again. I've now got a Mywatt 200 and it's brilliant with volume to spare. The AC30 has never been used flat out and while the position of the volume knob means not a lot, it is quite often set at one. My experience if just that, using valve and ss amps live. Valve amps generally have passive eq so you take away tone away to get the sound. SS amps have active eq so you add tone to get your sound. A sweeping generalization but you know what I mean. Turn up the bass on a ss amp and you drain the power supply so not a lot of volume. Again a sweeping generalization, but is you like a sound rich in mids then a ss amp is probably fine but if like me you like a lot of bass in your sound and little middle, ss amps are not man enough and only valves will do unless you have a 2000w amp of course. Once used an HH 130w bass head with a country band and the two 30w equipped guitarists drowned be out. I bought a Behringer 450 watt head as a spare. I only used it once to try it out and no one could hear a note and it was flat out. I know it's Behringer but that was ridiculous. [/quote] Depends what you mean by Bass, Tube amps push a lot of loud out at 100hz solid state jobs go much lower than that, people percieve them as loud because of this and the fact that the tubes are dynamically compressing the signal and combine this with all the in tune harmonics they produce, this gives that perception of loudness. Our ears are very sensitive to mid range signals thats why that AC30 seems so loud. Tube amps push a lot of output At the low end of this mid range, hence why they sound loud for so few watts. They are great for loud guitar rock because of this, but i would say they have limited application in other genres. Although a lot of Svt have been used for reggae as the solid tone in that comes from around 100hz and attentuated highs. Of course this could be sh*te, im sitting in the garden with a beer waiting for my sausage to burn on the gas flamethrower.....

[quote name='walbassist' timestamp='1332512325' post='1589420'] The MiBass combos sound a great idea, especially since most folk seem to like the heads. From the description, the TE500 just sounds like the latest incarnation of what has variously been called the MK500 (red face), AD600 (gold) and the JJ500 (black) in the past. I wonder what colour this one'll be? [/quote] Yarse Basically a GP12SM, with modern electronics, but they are the Bollacks for certain types of music so why change it.... Mark was a Trace Guy anyways. I didnt really realise until recently what a profound affect the original Trace company had on the development of bass technology, the cabs in particular the 1518 compact for example, the 1048H with its full range and cast frame speakers. The multi cab, tuned stack etc and proper eq at the right frequencies for bass. I find the Smx etc went a bit far, as you only really need to adjust your q for good tones. , with improper adjustment the SMX can make some really bad ones! But there were also a whole range of multi speaker cabs (only one survived this was the 1015) that they produced for a while, which has given others some good inspiration. I think there are better amps around today but all their development got us to where we are now. I think Ashdown are really starting to shine, they have had some mistakes, but they have learned by them. They are producing some really nice amps, ranges to cover all bases, their units have some degree of specialisation, so they are not trying to stuff the bells and whistles onto one unit, to make an over complicated compromise. But they shine the brightest with their valve amps, they really are something special....

[quote name='bigjohn' timestamp='1332553472' post='1590112'] This thread is dead funny. OP, you have a choice. Either EQ differently with your current rig, which is what I'd do. Or get a new rig. As you've said you want a new rig, get one. If you want lows, you need to start off with cabs that do lows. If you want to do lows at high volumes, you need efficient cabs and or [i]lots of power[/i], power to produce these lows. I don't think I've seen one suggestion that's anywhere near. TC and Schroeders are no good at all for this. I'd suggest you look for a powerful power amp, and an efficient and full range cab or two. Use your Trace as a pre-amp until you find a poweramp / cab combo that does it for you. Then get a preamp you like and ditch the Trace. To be honest though, having been through this myself... eventually, what I think you'll end up with is an expensive, very nice amp, which you'll love. It won't be millions of miles away from your TE though. You could just EQ the TE right [i][u][b]AND[/b][/u][/i] get the others in the band to EQ right, which essentially, would be free. Considering the venues you're playing, that's probably better advice. We'd all spend a lot less money on amps if we learned how to ask guitarists to turn their bass down rather than looking to turn our own volume up. [/quote] A Trace 1518 cab can do lows very well indeed and all their cabs are very sensitive! The original poster was also using 2 410s in the past and had the same problem! Traces have a lot of power and a very high transient response, they always have, so they can dump a lot of current to produce thick lows, as they are have a multi transistor bipolar output stage and oversized transformers. I would agree that the guitarist needs to eq, but it is not always the case. You can have thick deep guitar, but to cut through as a bass player you need a grindy bass tone, with a lot of mid content. I give ZZtop and Motorhead as one of numerous examples. A lot of bass players in this situation use tube amps, or even tube guitar amps, lemmy, dusty hill. This kind of thing is much easier on a tube amp, just crank the mids, crank the amp, there you go, with all those harmonics and the dynamic compression it cuts through guitars like a knife, and it sounds great in the mix. I think the op in the mean time should try this on his eq push the 100hz up, Push up the mids a bit i.e around 400hz in a curve either side. The so called frown face with a 100hz bump. This is what a SVT does with a 8x10. 100hz bump and roaring mids. Come to think of it why not try a sansamp on svt setting into the poweramp in on the trace. Not as good as real tube, but good enough! Then you will have a versatile setup to cover most situations.

Those new Fender Bassman 300s, the blackface ones are pricely esp if you go the two cab route. Also Ashdown Small Block 427 and the two cab route is also high price, once you get either of the heads (£2.5k) the cabs are another £700-800 a piece and the flight cases 'cause you wont leave home without them. You are prob looking at 4 or 5k. havnt tried the Bassman but its supposed to be amazing, The 427 I have tried through a 8x10 and it was divine. Best sounding amp I have ever heard, can do any sound you can imagine with three knobs and three switches....... Genius! And cause its valve it has that certain something!

[quote name='bassman2790' timestamp='1332494507' post='1588990'] I play in a rock covers band and currently run a Trace 1215 with a 1518 extension cab. On paper, this rig should be more than ample for my requirements but, as with previous rigs, I find it lacking and have to have the output control on about 5 or 6 (about as loud as it'll go) to provide enough body for the four piece outfit I'm with. Previously, I ran a Peavey Max 450 into two 4ohm 410TVX's and before that, a 1500w Laney B1 into two Marshall MBC410's and found the same issue. I feel it may be down to the sensitivity and performance of the cabs rather than the amp as I get into a similar situation driving the Trace cabs with my Promethean head. I need someone to recommend a cab or cabs that will be up to the job. Preferably something I could buy second hand as I don't have thousands to spend. Not too worried about weight, just fed up of spending out on gear only to end up in the same situation. [/quote] Iif its any help im playing In the zz top cover band Tres hombres at the moment, for a few shows, haha! ( helping a mate out, the beard is itchy though!) Im primarily a funk reggae bass player so this is all new to me! I usually play pretty clean.I used my trace smx head in the first rehearsal it sounded sh*t, to clean, too focussed, there was something missing in the sound, didnt fill out the huge space inbeetween the drums and that single geetar! Next rehearsal i brought along my ashdown little bastard 30 watt through their lb212 cab turned it up full! cranked the mids and there it was, that little amp plugged that big hole. Cant be the power of the amp, the smx is 1200 watts, i think its all that harmonic distortion filling in all the gaps, from the lowest lows to rhythm guitar territory. it was pretty stunning ( rehearsal volume though) Im using a traynor yba300 for this gig through a basssysteme 6x10 cab, its an awesome amp, only 800 quid from thommann.de. I tried the yba 200 (500 quid and yes it is loud enough!) as well also a great amp. Bombproof and insanely light at 19kg and 23kg respectively. trace cabs are great they are quite sensitive over 100db if you check the spec, as are the Ashdown ABMs and Mags, just turn the tweater off else it sounds nasty and crank that gain, i think if you paired your 1518 with a tweater off 1028 , and one of these traynors you will be sorted. if your rich check out the Ashdown CTM and the small block, they are in a different league.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1332161969' post='1584025'] You hear the difference with valve power sections once you get really loud, if not pushed, a properly designed one shouldn't sound much different to a SS power section, but once its pushed, there it is. Although feels different might be a better term, its more about how it responds to playing. [/quote] Totally agree, 100%, its magic, thats why I like the LB so much, the DI on the output transformer is inspired, great design good old Matamp hahaha!!!

I got a little Bastard and a LB212 cab, its plenty loud enough for me, 30 watts only but very wide bandwidth on the output transformer, itll do as low as 20hz at 30 watts, from its quality sowter job, you'd be supprised how loud it is with a high spl cab ( the lb212 uk is 106db) the best thing is that it has the di on the output transformer so you get the power valve tone, to the desk, let the PA do the work I say, as im not keen on going deaf just yet. The LB however, is plenty loud enough for pub gigs, with the right cab, as long as your drummer is a good one and the guitarist is not power mad. The little B has a wonderful and amazing tone and once the amp is wound over halfway the tone stack works fantastic. If you have a passive jazz or precision, the sensitivity it adds to the strings needs to be experienced. And if you have it dimed and want it clean just put you bass through the active input, active basses turn it down!. I really think this style of amp has a great future as more and more venues are getting quality PA stuff, due to noise abatement regulations, this will give you that valve tone, that you can carry and its plenty loud enough for personal monitoring and you have the tap on the output tranny for that great tone transmission Another option for the less brave would be the Traynor YBA 200 or YBA300 and a high spl cab, I have had the pleasure of using the YBA300, its a great amp, traynor stuff is pretty bombproof, parametric mid control, great. 12 bottles, but 6l6 are relatively cheap, it would be cheaper to revalve than the 200 which has 4 KT88s £800 quid from Thomann and only weighs 23kgs! Pair it with a nice high spl cab and you will be there. If you want to have a real world all valve rig, i.e small and light enough to cart around, you have got to look for high sensitivity cabs i.e over 100db per watt per metre that are lighweight, there are plenty around i.e good 2x12s,4x10, 215s, 610s 15s and more esoteric offerings from , Basssyteme, Barefaced etc Yes you can go for hybrids but they will never have that tone, sensitivity and the dynamic compression that a valve output stage will give you. I say go for it!

Sorry I fogot to say I think as someone else has said the inputs on your amp are bridged I.e the signal coming into channel A is also feeding channel B. Mine is a later model in which they did away with this.

I have one it runs my TE SMX head, on mine the DIPS are the following, low cut filters two per channel at 30 hz and 50 the others Dips are for making channel one the master ie to bridge. I dont use them as I am using the SMX crossover ,channel A runs the low end and B the high, all filters are off on mine as I dont need that kind of rudimentry filter on such a complicated preamp. Note if you bridge, be very careful about powering on/off they are good cheap amps, with a soft start ,but the inrush current when you turn them on will quickly kill your speakers (the soft start isnt very good) mute your preamp and turn the volume on the qsc Off before switching on off, personally bridging I wouldnt bother with. The amp will deliver if I remember 800 watts or so at 4 ohms i.e RMS enough for gigging ! per channel. You Can run only one channel on these amps. I dont use it at all any more I used to run 4 x 1048H on mine ( mainly for show) haha. I have the manual somewhere if you would like it.

Do you really want an all valve head? Have you ever picked one up. I used to have an SVT valve and then a Trace V6 loved the sound, but the weight I did not like. You are looking at 40-60kg, yes you can do a double compact or a 2x15 barefaced with them. To cut down the overall mass! But I soon tired of the weight of the things, not to mention the maintence issues. But if you have never had a big valve head before, YOU MUST GET ONE. You need to experience 'that tone' and the power.... Its the usual suspects SVT, Hiwatt, Matamp, Orange, Ashdown, all uniquely flavoured, different, you have to find which one you like no one can tell you. To me once I had heard that sound the fidelity and the richness of tone very difficult to emulate with anything else. I am not running any high power valve gear at the moment, but I have a few small valve amps around for rehearsals and recording! GO FOR IT ENJOY IT. Dan PS Someone has said on here that the Genz Benz streamliner is a good compromise, as it has a valve front end preamp which runs at high voltage so you get all the valve goodness warmness and hamonics, combined with a specially modified class D output section that has high reserves of current to give that valve thump you only get from a valve power amp.

[quote name='redstriper' post='1364864' date='Sep 7 2011, 02:39 AM']Well I fitted the new harness easily enough and I like it! The bass sounds smoother and clearer now and the character of the tone has changed in a good way, the controls also feel so much nicer than the standard set. But it still sounds a bit thin compared to my old bass and I might go for two 0.047 tone caps to remove even more treble. I emailed Flyjuice for some advice on your recommendation Jazzneck. Dan - I'd like to try one of the Jap reissues and the RW Jazz, also the US Standard AV and CS models, but they are all beyond my budget at the moment. This MIM one is far from shabby, especially with the new harness.[/quote] Man chuck the 84's in they are not at all rude if you have a nice cap they have a nice attentuated top just what yah want I think double the caps will be too much, but your bag