Ed_S

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1332575930' post='1590151'] Use the argument that it needs ... a full luthier setup. [/quote] ...and of course because there are 50% more strings than a standard bass, that'll be half as expensive again!

I quite agree - when I got my first S12 it had an odd buzz that was especially apparent with the lower notes, so I stuck a mic in front of it and emailed Alex a short clip of me just playing each string of my 5 in turn. Couple of days later FedEx were back to drop off a new cab and pick up the first. In truth, it was probably nothing that a bit of diagnostic action couldn't have at least tracked down (and I was emailing more for some ideas of where best to start looking than anything else) but I got a straight swap instead, and none of the old "got to take it back and make sure you've not broken it before we send you another" that most much bigger retailers give you, either. That's got to go down as good customer service, especially when you consider that by that point if I was Alex I'd have wanted to smack me for being generally impatient (it's a character flaw I accept I'll never iron out)! Second S12 was/is perfect.

I had one exactly the same as that - was my first Precision. Thought it would be a keeper, but eventually traded it in about 6 months ago (along with its B/W/RW stunt double) against a MIJ 70s Classic P. Both my 2009 MIMs were excellent, though.. in fact the stock pickups had a nice aggressive, edgy growl that's just not there in my MIJ; it's a bit too 'grown up' for its own good! Good choice, anyway

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1332442214' post='1588519'] Of course, the PSU in question could have failed for all sorts of reasons other than and extra 10 volts at the input. [/quote] Well, I emailed Tech21 after the fact (more out of interest than anything else as I'd already got my refund by then) and they confirmed that what I'd experienced wasn't out of the ordinary, and that UK users needed the 240V version. I've had a look and can't find the email from all those years back, but I do recall the tech who replied was called Lloyd.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1332174057' post='1584287'] Phwoar.... [/quote] Mauriat..?

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1332376897' post='1587599'] +1 You really have to go some to make a PSU fail because of a mere 10V variation. Sounds more like a sales & marketing solution to grey imports to me. [/quote] Well, whatever the marketing department did to make that 10V tip the balance sure got the PSU hot enough! This is what's screened onto the back of every Tech21 mains powered unit I've ever seen, btw.. [attachment=103135:sansamp_rbi_power.jpeg]

[quote name='daz' timestamp='1332348814' post='1587101'] So lets get this right. It seems to me the only people who might say bass to rhyme with pass are from Tyne-side or[i] maybe[/i] Sheffield ? [/quote] Nah, just from Tyneside and [I]living in[/I] Sheffield. So it's a Tyneside thing if anything.

There was a geordie lad called Jamie who used to work in the music shops in Sheffield, and he always pronounced it like the fish rather than the guitar. Confused the hell outta me the first time I talked to him Didn't see him for ages, then a few months ago he turned up on the telly on 'freaky eaters' or whtever it's called, because he wouldn't eat anything that wasn't smothered completely in brown sauce! Not that there's a link there or anything... But yeah, in Sheffield it rhymes with 'race'.

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.