G-bitch

They don't know about basses, but they know about customer service in general. It's the only shop in Brum where I don't come out lamenting the fact that it's staffed by arseholes.

I quite agree - your amp is nothing more than a glorified stage monitor. Unless of course it's mic'd. Oh, or you're doing a good old vocal-only-pa spit'n'sawdust gig.

Well I reckon once you've ripped out all of that crap then it's (modestly) about £1k over-priced - that's enough to get a tech look over your amp for 'servicing/biasing/whatever' for about 15 years! Sorry but well made valve amps are pretty friggin' bullet proof - my V4 had been out of action for well over a decade when I picked it up spares or repairs, once it got some TLC from a tech replacing caps and various other components as well as fitting new OT, new valves and biasing etc. (the bill was about £75 labour - I supplied parts) it was good as gold. It's been driven to absolute maximum output for several hours at a time and it's good as gold. Many others have similar stories of never touching their amp for 10 years or more.

Prices are out! [url="http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/74785"]http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/74785[/url] That's a lot of cash for a Laney...... let's hope it is very good. Still, nothing quite as piss-taking as Markbass [url="http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/74450"]http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/74450[/url] Art thou on crack?!

Truly bizarre. A real shame that.

Safe as! I do think that market saturation has something to do with their almost omnipresence - I was amazed at how quickly 'this new company with the trace elliot guys' got their products dominating bass departments in the big shops. They knew who to talk to I suppose! That or it just goes to demonstrate the gap that TE left in the UK bass amp market that could only be filled by a british company. They'd have been screwed without the MAG range though; the ABM made in GB simply wouldn't have survived the last ten years of deflation of all goods electrical and otherwise. We all want something for nothing, so it has to be from China.

Valves doesn't necessarily equal good sound - I mean, have you ever heard a decent sounding Laney preamp? Their SS power sections aren't anything to shout about either. Maybe all their knowledge is in valves though as they make some nice sounding guitar amps.

[quote name='lowhand_mike' post='74591' date='Oct 15 2007, 02:16 PM']can't be that bad cos everytime (well nearly) i see a band on TV they are using ashdowns. good job i like marmite[/quote] Reeeally bad argument to use - especially when the current musical outings on TV are largely dull 'indie' style stuff where a woolly bass tone is essential

Definitely a Marmite brand. One person will love the 'warm vintage sound' whereas the next punter hates the 'woolly, lacking clarity, no punch' I'm in the latter here - woolly is the defacto sound and you have to work very hard to get a punchy low end without it muddying the mids. This is with very 'sterile' cabs (SWR) too; I really wanted to love it but the RPM-1 went back for a refund.

I've not tried it at 18v, kept meaning to but never got around to it. Anyone, by far the best overdrive pedal I've used and is very good value for money when compared to how much you'd have to spend on other 'boutique' pedals to get the same quality of sound. Now, my Ampeg V4 driven really hard so the power valves provide the overdrive - that's the absolute tits, but in absence of this stupid loud rig then a BD works well

It has to be something that they don't have a clue about and can't easily look up on the internet to get a guide price. A sound engineer friend of mine got £2-3k's worth of studio monitoring for £200 although they needed another few hundred quid to replace a tweeter.

Thanks for that - very interesting, and prompted me to think about getting a GK head as a polar opposite of my Ampeg V4!

I don't think I'd let mine go for less than £375 odd - that's pretty much what it cost after getting a spares and repairs head, spare parts/new valves and a tech bill. I'd say, depending on condition, anything up to about £450 is reasonable - more than that and it would have to be an early model (a bit more desirable due to 70's Ampeg history) and in superb condition for me to consider it. Don't make the mistake of putting vintage on a pedestall unless there is a real difference in sound - in this instance remember that you can pick up a far more powerfull all valve ampeg head (SVT II or CL) for between £700 and £800. The closer the price gets to that amount, the less VFM you're getting in my opinion.

What's the news bud?! Hope the silence doesn't mean you dropped it off the top of the Gateshead multi-storey in frustration

I'm hoping my incase gigbag comes close - but it cost double that of a hiscox! (easier to carry on my bike though...)

[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='68248' date='Oct 1 2007, 05:00 PM']I used to have a Hiscox for my Spector - lovely case but at £65 it's £18 more than the Gator SC I was just about to order from here [url="http://www.soundslive.co.uk/product~name~Gator-GC-Bass~ID~1192.asp"]http://www.soundslive.co.uk/product~name~G...ass~ID~1192.asp[/url][/quote] Trust me - the difference is light and day. Gator has all the import costs from the US (or wherever they're made!) in that price and it's a pretty basic case (yes, I used to have one). Hiscox are far, far more sturdy.

Basschat.co.uk - helping you spend money since you first discovered internet forums....

I'd love an incase bag.

F**k me, the overdrive sound from that Ampeg is simply astonishing. Speakers didn't even flinch either - need to try a nice high power SS amp out with it now, like a GK or something.

OK, mine got the full work-out last night. Stupid, like really stupid volumes from a monster drummer and marshall 150w valvestate head and 4x12 in an office with no soft furnishing measuring about 9'x18'. The only limit to my volume was the amp (Ampeg V4) but the levels were so stupid I wouldn't like to use this criticism. Compared to the old Marshall 412, the Berg was extremely punchy with a good deal more clarity. It's a very 'even' (I did not say flat!!) sounding cab across the frequency range until the highs - if you like having the hi-fi touch of a tweeter then you might feel that this is lacking.

Doesn't sound like a very good price to me - it seems that 'Trace Elliot' + 'Valve' is making sellers think they can charge a fortune. It's a nice little amp but not for that money IMO (maybe if it was the quatra/hexa valve version with more power), stick with the GK!