Ed_S

As tube preamps go, my experience is relatively limited; the TB Raxx is as far as I've gone into 'vintage' and after that it's all been solid state stuff like Sansamp RBI / BBE Bmax / Rocktron Blue Thunder. I've never tried the DHA, though I'd certainly like to, along with a Fender TBP-1 and a Demeter VTBP-201 ...ok, daydream over. In truth, though, as nice as they might sound in a studio, I wouldn't expect them to be massively better for live work than what I already have, just for having tubes rather than emulating them. I take it that you've tried things like the Sansamp RBI / RPM before and found them to be in some way wanting?

A 200w valve head for under £315 sounds like a fairly tall order to me. The cheapest I can think of that's still available new and fits the power criteria is a Traynor YBA200, but even that costs twice what you want to spend and I have no idea what kind of tone it's capable of. Get trawling that second-hand market! Good hunting Oh, and as an afterthought, maybe something like a Peavey TB Raxx preamp driving a Peavey Classic 120 power amp in a 4U sleeve? I put the 60W version of that together for about £250 ($400ish?) from eBay, so I reckon the 120W shouldn't be more than another £50. Edit to add a photo without which, I'm told, nothing exists! [attachment=103031:TBRaxxClassic60.jpg]

[quote name='markstuk' timestamp='1332174992' post='1584304'] Seems a little sensitive as the UK's nominal 230V is legally allowed to swing from 216 to 253 V and I would hope any device supplied in the UK would not expire through 10V overload over a nominal 230 or 240 V... [/quote] Yeah, I thought I'd be fine with the 230V version from Thomann, but in the event, blew up a £300 preamp ..still they were very nice about it and gave me a refund on the grounds that they thought it was strange, too. We had the same thing at work with a new substation for our re-build that had been tapped a bit high at about 265V and killed all the power supplies for one particular model of Netgear switch whilst leaving everything else. Suppose it just depends what tolerances things are made to.

Just one specific caveat that I know of first-hand, that being Tech21. I don't know about their amps, but the RBI, RPM and I believe PSA rack preamps come in 230v and 240v variants, and if you plug the 230v version in across here it'll work for about 5 mins (just long enough to get everything to ironing-temperature) then go POP! and that's it.. game over.

[quote name='andyman' timestamp='1332020526' post='1582314'] smoke started coming out of the port holes at the back of the amp,behind the speaker ... got it home and stripped the speaker out ... there was no burnt wires,but the speaker did have a dodgy smell from behind the cone and has no life in it at all now. [/quote] I had an Ashdown blueline in an ABM115 compact go exactly the same way. The smell was very close to the glorious TCP-ish aroma that accompanies the death of IT gear Anyway, the amp certainly wasn't at fault so I just stuck a better speaker in the cab and got on with it.

The Markbass Standard 104HF is a very well respected and lightweight 410 that I'm sure you could easily score 2nd hand in very good nick for £600.

[quote name='fatboyslimfast' timestamp='1331741557' post='1578118'] You can use arguments - when I was looking for an Ashdown, I typed "Ashdown EB* -cover*" (without the quotes). This meant list anything that says Ashdown and anything starting with EB in the same sentence, but remove any entry that mentions any word starting with cover. Gets rid of the chaff. Obv, it can be a pain if someone lists an "Ashdown EBxxx with dust cover"... [/quote] I tend to just use '-fits' to get rid of the Roqsolid covers, because most of their listings say "Padded Cover Fits [whatever]". If somebody was selling an amp with a cover, they probably wouldn't say "...which fits!" in the listing

[quote name='TRBboy' timestamp='1331659336' post='1576775'] Glad you're pleased with the Glock! They do take a minute to get used to (sound-wise), but they work really well, and it's great having the passive bypass and tone control. Very good value compared to some other circuits I would say! I find that the controls are pretty sensitive, and only a slight adjustment can make quite a difference, so it's worth spending some time tweaking to find the tone you're after. [/quote] Aye, cheers mate, was a good shout! My favourite part of the original preamp was the active 'lift' you got by leaving everything in neutral and switching to active, and whilst the Glock doesn't do that as crudely by default, a couple of millimetres round the treble control and you're there. [quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1331659554' post='1576779'] I was about to offer you my glock 2 band i'm passing on. and then came up with a suggestion of a series/parallel switch for your hole. [/quote] Ah.. shame.. always nice to save a couple of quid on new, but do feel free to point in the general direction of this thread if it'll help you get a sale [quote name='Mog' timestamp='1331659577' post='1576782'] Didnt see this originally but would have made the same suggestion. I cant understand why Glockenklang aren't sweeping everything else aside. Their gear is simply amazballs (as the kids would say). [/quote] Yeah, it's a great preamp at a very realistic price, and as an added bonus I get to say the name 'Glockenklang' which, let's face it, is brilliant!

I fancied having a go at sax, so bought a cheap alto from Gear4Music's budget range. Sadly I found that it arrived with a lot of the springs unhooked, loose keywork and a broken bell-key-guard. Needless to say it went back for a full refund. I'd have been in the market for trying Thomann's budget stuff next in the hope that German efficiency would preclude such disappointment, but in the end I never did because my gf decided to upgrade to a Yanagisawa, so for the price of a day in London to go and try/fetch the new one I scored her old Yamaha and an Otto Link mouthpiece on permanent loan. But yeah, read into my experience what you may* with regards the potential pitfalls of cheap blowdowns, and if you decide to go there, perhaps spring another £25 or so for a half decent mouthpiece to give yourself the best chance. Oh, and synthetic reeds.. I'm enjoying those a lot more than the real ones [size=2]*no actual[i] advice [/i]intended as I freely admit that I know scratch about these things - I'm just enjoying a new way of annoying the neighbours![/size]

Just a quick report back which may be of benefit to anybody else who is less than inspired by the stock preamp in their 2010 USA Deluxe Precision. I went with TRBboy's recommendation above, stripped the original preamp out yesterday and fitted a Glockenklang 2-band model, so having played it for a reasonable time today, thought I'd briefly share my thoughts. My biggest worry was that the thing wouldn't physically fit, but it went cleanly into the route with no modification necessary. The only thing I would say is that the pot shafts, washers and nuts are smaller on the Glock than on the Fender, so if you're keeping the original pickguard like I did, be prepared to either find some larger diameter washers with the correct size hole, or to cheat and put the Fender washers back on first to get the diameter down before putting the Glock stuff in over the top. I went with the latter and it feels perfectly solid. The soldering job I guess you either fancy or you don't, but if you do then rest assured it's not massively awkward. I finished the job off with a set of black dome-top Schaller knobs for a more understated look than the original flat-top chromes. The only hang-over from the original config is the toggle switch hole which I contemplated putting a dummy switch into, but eventually went with a bit of PVC tape until I can find an appropriate stopper. And the important bit... for the first time since I bought it, my Deluxe P actually sounds like it's worth the money I paid for it, rather than feeling and playing right but only sounding 'good'. It's an incredibly transparent preamp that's gone in there, but it's so clearly a better quality sound than the stock unit provided, and as such has brought out a much more refined tone from the stock pickups than was ever possible before. Well worth the bit of extra cash to properly finish off an otherwise very nice instrument.

Alternatively, if you find that your settings on the BDDI are causing problems with tuning speed or accuracy from the amp's tuner-out, then put your tuner on the parallel-out of the BDDI itself, because that's as good as putting the tuner first, but it's not actually in the signal chain to your amp.

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1331146397' post='1568524'] I'd kinda hoped that it'd be like an Promethean P110 but without the 'bells and whistles' and reduced power output. The only other one that matched my criteria was the AER, but at £1000+ it's gonna have to wait for quite a while... [/quote] Never used a Promethean, but I'd expect it to be better than the Line6 if only because it has a native tone; it is what it is rather than trying to be five things it isn't!

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1331140078' post='1568375'] I was quite upset actually. I'd half set my mind on getting one of those little Studio 110's for acoustic gigs and studio sessions but the HD750 episode soured it. [/quote] You didn't miss much! I used a Studio 110 for small acoustic gigs for a while when they first came out and actually managed to persuade myself that it sounded alright just because it was reasonably built, fairly loud and had some useful features packed into a smallish space. I soon came to the realisation that I was merrily fooling myself and it actually sounded mediocre at best. It wasn't a bad practice amp for home use but lacked any clarity of tone for live work when cranked, and I certainly wouldn't have recorded with it. It's currently sat in the corner of my lass' living room for her to plonk through when the mood takes her!

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1331121770' post='1567908'] This might be the case... I hear he's more of a Behringer guy [/quote] Heh, I suppose you're right... Line 6 works on magic, but only Behringer requires true faith

Are you sure that wasn't the disapproval of the LORD at your playing[i] a Line 6[/i] in his house?

[quote name='Gwilym' timestamp='1330678737' post='1561298'] buy what sounds good, don't think a set ratio of monetary value needs to be / should be the yardstick [/quote] Totally. If your cab is well built, a suitable size and weight for you to move and giving you the sound you want to hear, that's all you should need to worry about. It also kinda depends what you call an amp; my new main setup is a rack that cost a fair bit to put together and I'm [i]more than happy [/i]to 'slum it' with a Super Twelve worth maybe only 40% of that figure.

Something like the Yamaha [url="http://www.gak.co.uk/en/yamaha-stagepas-300/7920"]STAGEPAS 300[/url] would probably be a good system for that sort of application.

[quote name='Gunsfreddy2003' timestamp='1330523852' post='1558803'] Ha ha - I did exactly that too and on Elixir's Strings Direct were cheaper than Stringbusters who I normally use. [/quote] I[s]'m cheap [/s] have inexpensive tastes! Nice basic Rotosound and D'addario plain steels were a good couple of quid cheaper t'other way round

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1330512712' post='1558509'] I don't know why but I went to Stringbusters (my usual), not Strings Direct. So I bought some strings with no discount in the end. [/quote] When I priced up my order for the same thing from Strings Direct with the 10% discount and then Stringbusters (my usual, too) with no discount, Stringbusters still came out substantially cheaper.

[quote name='Jack Cahalane' timestamp='1330394161' post='1556867'] once the drummer counts you in it's like an out of body experience for a few seconds where you're just watching yourself play. [/quote] heh, yeah, that's quite a good way of describing it! Just watch out for the bit where you land 'back in the room' and realise that yes, you are doing it and yes, it is going ok... that's usually when you balls it up On that subject, don't mentally kick yourself for any mistakes - chances are it's going to happen so just recover it as quickly as you can, smile and go on. The temptation is to either start thinking over the mistake (especially if you've fluffed a tricky bit that happens again later in the song) or just start over-thinking in general, both of which will pretty much guarantee another mistake!

In a metal band, literally anything goes. Our singer is Hindu, and turned up at one gig having just been doing some dance or other in the temple. She couldn't be arsed to get changed so went on stage in the full bright orange traditional Indian dance garb with the face paint and henna and strings of bells on her wrists and ankles. Everybody just seemed to mentally go "yeah... different but alright.." and the show went down just great.

[quote name='bigjohn' timestamp='1330355787' post='1556082'] The function of that box is allow you to connect speakers or arrays of speakers into amps with different impedances without causing damage isn't it? [/quote] Yeah, appears to be just a matching transformer, so will turn 8 to 4 or vice versa for whatever reason you like. I was more replying to the OP than commenting on your setup, though. Sorry for the confusion - I should have quoted!

Maybe something like [url="http://www.glockenklang.de/en/products/bass_systems/impedance-transformer.htm"]this[/url] would do what you want? Don't know what effect it'd have in practical terms or how much it'd cost to try, but I saw it when I was reading up on onboard pre-amps the other day, so thought I'd mention it.

Our ex-ex-drummer told us that he was leaving the band because he was moving out of the city to live with his lass, which was fair enough so we wished him all the best and waved him off. And then got an email a couple of weeks later... "I had a dream last night, and think it might just work... if you guys pay for my petrol I could drive back and still come to rehearsals. I probably couldn't do gigs, though. Let me know what you think!" Needless to say we messaged back to say we had dreams of our own, and they included the ability to do more than rehearse.