JPJ

Thanks for all the helpful comments - I guess I need to try 200 valve watts in a live situation and judge for myself

[quote name='VTypeV4' timestamp='1394673930' post='2394002'] If 200w ain't enough... I'd be worried! [/quote] My main gig has two 100w 4x12 loving guitarists cluttering up the sonic soundscape. I like a big fat juicy clean tone and my concern with 200w is that I might be pushing the amp to the point of breakup hence the desire for 300/400w under the hood. My current rig is 1500w, although that's transistor watts and I know they are quieter than valve watts ;-)

[quote name='obbm' timestamp='1394648786' post='2393728'] Looks very nice and I'm sure it sounds wonderful however why build a modern day amp to the width of a Marshall 4x12 cab when most folk are using cabs that are much narrower. Even a 19-inch flight case can be too wide for some. Having an amp hanging over the cab just looks ill conceived and untidy. [/quote] Dave, this is very much a prototype, built on a chassis Martin had spare in the workshop and using a similarly spare head case. The finished article will be sized smaller to suit 'modern' cab sizes and I know he's still chewing over the aesthetics.

At the moment, this is very much a prototype assembled in a couple of days on a spare chassis Martin had in the workshop, so no pictures of the internals yet :-) Size wise, we discussed a smaller width, to suit standard cabs, so more 19" style than the current case and Martin is looking into this as he said there is a lot of spare real estate inside the current case. As for speaker cabs, these are in the pipeline but too early to say anything now ;-) I'm hoping Martin will join in on here so he can get your feedback first hand. Interestingly, it was me pushing him toward 400w, as I'm not sure id be happy with only 200w behind me.

[quote name='andrewrx7' timestamp='1394640986' post='2393619'] As ever, interesting reading, and thanks to Bill for sharing his knowledge. Does he ever sleep?? [/quote] Some say he's a ninja and that he has no need for sleep.......

Hello boys and girls, Like an excited small child at Christmas, I have to share this with you I've just spent the afternoon in the company of Mr Martin Ballinger of Stoneham Amps [url="http://www.stonehamamps.co.uk"]http://www.stonehamamps.co.uk[/url] and his prototype 200w hand wired british made valve bass amp. Whilst I must stress this is very much a prototype build, he is definitely on the right tracks as far as I am concerned. The amp looks like the old Marshall Superbass, and offers a three-band passive tone stack, gain & master volumes. The other two controls in the pictures are currently labelled feedback and presence but these are for development only and I understand will not feature in the finished product. The tone stack is very musical, none of your semi-parametric +/-15dB nonsense, just a good old fashioned musical tone stack that does what it says on the tin. The thing I particularly liked was the mid control, and how it affected the sound without introducing any brittleness to the tone, even when fully open. The bass and treble worked in exactly the same way, and I'd recon it would be nigh on impossible to get a bad tone out of this amp. Yes, your not going to be able to get the super scooped mid sound you get with a 12 band graphic eq, but that's not what this amp is about. Now its been along time since I owned a full valve amp, but on plugging in I was immediately reminded of the 'spring' that a full valve amp offers over a transistor or hybrid amp. We tested the amp using my SWR 6x10 and the roundness of tone was something to behold. I loved the way the full 'width' of every note is heard and how 'digging in' affected only the output level, not the tone. The amp was barely idling in my home office but it handled everything my clumsy playing could throw at it (including some five string low B 'bombs') without breaking up. Unfortunately, I couldn't really drive the amp hard at home so cannot comment on when/if distortion occurs or how musical the distortion is, but based on the clean sound, I'm sure this will also be a joy to hear. Martin plans to upgrade to either a 300w or 400w output stage (I requested 400w for maximum guitarard killing capability) and to finalise the layout to suit a more bass amp 'standard' (i.e 19" width). The finished product will include niceties such as a mute switch, tuner out, DI with ground lift & possibly pre/post switching, and an effects loop will be offered as an option. Martin would welcome any feedback from you guys as to what features you might want/expect from an all british, hand wired, valve amp, so please comment away! Oh, and if the final models come in close to the price point he indicated, then please form an orderly queue behind me Final thing, if your going along to the North East Guitar Show this coming Sunday, then Martin will be there with the prototype for you to try out for yourself.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1394571051' post='2392944'] The depth per se doesn't make much of a difference, but the volume of the enclosure determines how the speaker will perform. Too small and the low end will be choked off while the midbass will be boomy. [/quote] Interesting to read that Bill because my perception is that deeper cabs seem to project better - but that's probably just that the deeper cabs are nearer to optimum volume?

Sounds like a capacitor on its last legs?

As it would appear that my knackered back as further knackered itself (nothing at all to do with humping my man-sized bass rig honest ), I might be forced to consider moving to some of this new fangled lightweight gear sooner rather than later. Having had a mooch around online and on here, one amp that interests me is the GK Fusion 800, reason being I liked the sound of the old GK Fusion (550?) and 800w would give me the comfort of knowing that I should be able to get my preferred clean sound at higher stage volumes. I know the 800w version is relatively new, but have any of our esteemed membership been up close and personal with one of these babies yet? If so, what's the verdict?

Being a huge fan of the SWR sound, I was wondering what, if anything, is going on at SWR these days? Last I heard they'd been bought out by Fender and a quick look at their website gives no clue with most of their signature products (SM Series, Redhead etc) no longer listed.

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1392301769' post='2366999'] Something that is never quite right for any application..... [/quote] Hmmm I have to disagree with that, based on using the "one-knob" compressor on both my PJB Bass Buddy and Briefcase. In my main gigging rig I'm spoiled as the SM1500 has a full feature (threshold, ratio, attack, release) four knob solution built-in, but before that, I used one side of an Alesis 3630 to good effect in my signal chain. I've also used the little Aphex pedal compressor too, which is great for trapping peaks, but won't do that big squish if that's what your after.

The Schroeder I had was the best cab I've owned at filling a room with really good bass sound, and yes, I regret selling it

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1392800088' post='2372786'] But you don't need big drivers to do this & remember, driver diameter has no bearing on how much bass a cab produces, that is down to the tuning of the cab. [/quote] Amen brother, and a well known to any of us who have ever used any of the Phil Jones Bass stuff with the 4" speakers.

The current crop of drivers we have available are far superior to anything we had in the 70's and 80's, unfortunately main stream manufacturers still choose to put these drivers in aesthetically rather than acoustically designed boxes. But some are catching on, hence the popularity of relatively new brands such as Barefaced or TKS who are placing these drivers in suitable boxes.

T-nuts are the answer, easy to install and allows the handle to be firmly through-bolted without needing to mess around inside the cab with a spanner. Same things most manufacturers use to secure their speakers in cabs. My SWR Goliath Snr has tilt back wheels and a centre located rear handle. Word of caution, always pull this behind you, never push in front. I learned this the hard way after doing the equivalent of a Fosbury Flop over said cab when the wheels caught an uneven paving slab

I bought one of those damaged gear 4 music ones (damaged round back plastic) off eBay as a donor for a project I'm working on and honestly, when you look inside, I wouldn't recommend one. Yes they are only £99 but I can't imagine them lasting very long and the quality of the body is, well I guess what you would expect for £99. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/6819B490-38A8-4894-9F71-8807F5105D05_zpskerlt9dz.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/16189442-6B2D-4401-B8BF-0A88AC1D5357_zpsuiesvp9o.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/8064419C-BFB4-4E5C-9333-CB5035D8FA05_zpslxnl6s0y.jpg[/IMG]

no experience with the bass stuff, but bought the daughter one of the low end HB electric violins at Christmas. Needed to set it up like any new instrument (rosin on the pegs, adjust the micro tuners to mid range etc.) and we changed the bridge because we had a better one lying around off one of her old acoustic violins but other than that, it was playable straight out of the box. Really authentic sounding amplified too and well worth what we paid. My only concern with five string acoustic basses is that unless the body is humongous, the B string suffers from a serious lack of acoustic volume. I've tried a few, and even the high end ones can't overcome the basic laws of physics :-)

Didn't he at one time use a certain brand of american bass that isn't mentioned on here which he swapped a precision for with Glen Hughes of Deep Purple or did I dream that (I have strange dreams)

Phil Jones Bass (PJB) Bass Buddy, its the Rolls Royce of headphone practice amps, and also a really good little recording preamp too :-)

Whichever one you decide to use, think about placement on the stage. The boundary reinforcement (i think that's the correct term) from placing your amp close to a wall or in a corner can make a small rig 'sound' massive compared to the same rig sat in the middle of the stage.

I'd start by checking the pickup heights. If they are too low then it will lead to a loss of output. I'm not surprised that your having to drive the preamp harder with passive pickups, but I wouldn't have expected you'd have to drive the master as well just to compensate. Another thought, have the pickups been wired in correctly - if they are out of phase then it could lower the output. Final thought, I don't know that amp but check that there isn't a pad engaged on the preamp input.

Wow, that's a first, an Ashdown I actually like the sound of. I will be checking these out when they hit the shops.

I have two SWR Goliath 4x10's and a Goliath Snr 6x10. I bought the senior because the 2x4x10 is overkill in most venues and, imho, the SM1500 needs to be hooked up to a 4 ohm cab to sound its best. Sure the Snr is a beast to lift (I can manage to lift it into the car on my own, but only just) but the sound it produces is worth the pain! It is different from the 2 4x10's, tighter, more focused with a bigger bottom end (not that the 2 4x10's lack bottom!). The Snr and one of my Goliaths still have the original PAS drivers, the other Goliath (a series II) I upgraded to Eminence Deltalites a couple of years ago when I blew two of the drivers (the series II cabs were only rated at 500w). Other than that, I've had no problem with the PAS drivers. I haven't tried a Megoliath yet, but I can't imagine it would give me sufficiently more than the Goliath Snr to make the additional transport problems worth while. In fact, the Snr is performing so well, I will probably sell off the two Goliaths soon and buy either a Redhead combo or a smaller single 4 ohm cab such as TKS or Barefaced for those small pub gigs.