VTypeV4

Many thanks to Wayne for a great transaction. My old Trace Elliot 122H has gone to a loving home in the North East. Have confidence and faith in this guy - he's 100%.

There's the Ampeg book, too although it covers all models up until about twenty years back. It's little out of date now but is still an easy and interesting read. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ampeg-Story-Behind-Gregg-Hopkins/dp/0793579511 Thanks, I'm reasonably confident we'll put something together as the fella that owns it is a good mate. 😎 For the record, it's number 191 / 500.

In a change from my usual love for 'all things green and black', I've been using this lovely old thing of late. It's an '87 Skunkworks SVT-HD which I don't yet own it but there's a deal in progress. It's got bags of power plus it's amongst the most 'musical' of things I've ever plugged into, and yes, it's totally worth the weight..

Making use of Mark's Wing at St Joes although thankfully the college now has it's own Wing and two SD16 stage boxes. There's almost as many photos of M32 consoles as there are 02Rs on this thread. 🥰 This particular example has been my trusty steed at Bloodstock Festival for the last 5 years, now - still reliable, still up to the job and still great to mix on. Yes, they're showing their age a little, now but I'm more than happy to mix with them. It's looking likely that a different company will be providing the audio on both Sophie and my stage so next year so A&H and Yamaha are a possibility. Thankfully the new company have retained the staff so we've all kept our places for next year - it's just different gear, seemingly. The mighty Midas HD96 pictured here at the 2025 Notting Hill Carnival. This was one of two examples at the Hornimans Garden site - I used both but not at the same time. The above pic was my mix / recording console used for the 'Panorama' Steel Bands night whilst the other was somewhat under-utilized as FOH console. They're an intuitive machine taking the best of the Wing and the best of the Pro series into one console - I'm more than happy to have one of these.. ❤️ Various stages and consoles pictured throughout the UK on the recent TOH 45th anniversary tour. Allen & Heath and Digico have been common place on this run with a single Soundcraft VI and a solitary Pro2 - not a single Yamaha in sight! 😬

Thanks for the replies so far, folks.. 👍

Very recently, I picked up an exceptionally cheap Ashdown 2x10 cab. It works perfectly and sounds really very nice but I want to use it with all my amps so it needs to be 4 ohms not eight. The V4 will operate happily at eight but the Ampegs, Beavis and the V6 need two or four.. I've looked at various drivers and a while back, remember modelling some Celestion Pulse (not the XL) in the very similarly sized Trace Elliot 2x10 cab with seemingly favourable results. Frustratingly, my Eminence cab modelling software doesn't like this computer. The cab itself is just over 100 litres and tuned to around 50Hz. Tonally, I'm after non-rising-rate mids so a smooth, flat-ish response and the Celestions seem to fit the bill quite well. Has anyone done similar or used different drivers and found great results?

I think my 400SMX sounds better than my 300SMX - only by a hair but there's something about it that just 'breathes' in a slightly more natural way.. Hope you get to the bottom of what it is - very cool. 👍

Looks like it could be a MK1 GP11 although I'm not so sure the case is original.. With the first couple of generations of Trace Elliot gear, I believe all woodwork was painted black before the change to the grey 'pimple' type that lasted until the mid / late '90s ie, the early SM and SMX ranges.. Hope you have fun with it..

You've all seen it before but I thought it looked particularly good with a bit of light on and the Fender / Ampeg back drop..

They're a lovely amp - not big power but usually enough through the right cab(s).. Mine seems to have no problem working at 8 ohms on the 'extension' output although it usually works at 4 ohms on the 'main' output with it's matching 2x15". The line out is after everything so it's level is proportional to the output level but it really sounds great - I have a cheap passive DI box attached with some velcro in the back so I can use it as a balnced line. Not recently but I've done quite a bit of recording using it.

The reissue Ampeg V4B models run a quartet of 6L6GC rather than the lesser spotted 7027.. Ashdown went the other way and did it with a pair of '88s..

Back in the land of the 02R, this Waves Y56K / ADAT card arrived safely from Japan this morning.. Thankfully I encountered no issues during installation and chose to make various Renaissance EQ and Compressor strings as stereo sub-group inserts. Gig and recording ready.. 👍 I've had good service out of these cards as there's one in both DM2000s, too. As I've probably mentioned previously, the sounds of the plugins are a little different - arguably, they have a little more character than the stock Yamaha ones. Both the 02R96 and especially the DM2Ks have more than enough processing to do pretty much every job that comes my way but the extra bells and whistles afforded by the Waves card is very welcome. 🥰

My lovely old '96 helping the TOH boys out at the studio - heavy and bulky but ever reliable and useful.. ❤️ Beautiful flagship Soundcraft Vi Sounding and feeling great at Tolhuistuin venue in Amsterdam.. Smoky soundcheck in Amsterdam - a truly fantastic venue.. The Slaughter House / Kulturfabrik in Berlin.. A slightly questionable setup and vast amounts of dust at the 'Forever Now' festival in Milton Keynes. It took a few songs but I got there in the end.. And the monsterous 'Summer Sessions' for The Skids in Bellahousten Park, Glasgow. Digico SD12 and a D&B rig with a truly outrageous amount of power..

Ah brilliant! 🤣 Thanks Mike - so cool to speak in real world albeit a little brief. Hope your shows played out as well as ours? I'll be honest,we had a great day with all the fun of the seaside including ice cream, seafood and a run out on a speed boat not to mention a lovely gig. ❤️

@mike257 It really does look like we will actually work together! Excellent! 😃 I was at the Scarborough Punk gig a few weeks back with The Skids - there's some pics below. I had a great time plus I thoroughly enjoyed the band and of course, the lovely CL5. ❤️ Glad to see you're out and about, Mike - looks like you've more than enough on to keep you going? It's funny you mention the A&H thing, I've seen more SQ and dLive than literally anything else this tour. I think we're 12 shows in as I write this and other than a few Digico (including an awesome SD8), it's been entirely A&H - not an M or X32 in sight.. It's been a decent run so far - fingers crossed it stays that way. 💯 These two (studio example pictured) are still going strong and continue to be the backbone of a lot of my studio based work. I know they're old but they still deliver just as they always have. 😃 A job for friend and his disco band pictured here at the Civic Hall in Nantwich. I have to conceed that these thigs are probably my favourite of the newer generation as I can't really find any reason to dislike them and love how they're both incredibly powerful but reasonably straight forward to use. I may even have to purchase one.. ❤️

Very interesting..

Maybe there's a delay on the return channels? The Yamaha's very usefully have delay on all I/O. Try starting with around 20ms if it's an option and see how you go from there - there's no true right or wrong here, just use your ears to judge..

Happy to have helped, Phil - hope others find it of use. 👍

I own a few rigs that have multiple cabs from the same.. 2x SWR Goliath Jr III (2x10 + HF). When a friend was moving to lighter cabs about ten years ago, he sold these to me at a great price and I figured two cabs made for a modular rig although being honest, I've nearly always used both together. Trace Elliot 2103H & 1153 (2x10 + HF and 1x15 respectively). These came with a Trace AH400SMX a few years back but currently they're used with my Trace V6. I use both as the V6 requires a maximum load of 4 ohms so both together achieve this. They do have a different sonic characters but seem to work well enough together. Ampeg 410HE and 115E (4x10 + HF and 1x15). Again, the cabs came as part of a rig - an SVT CL sits on top of both as, much like the V6, the SVT doesn't want to see anything greater than four ohms total load. Trace Elliot V-Type 4808 and 115 (super compact 4x8 and 1x15) This mini-rig is powered by a Trace Elliot AH300SMX and is a pokey little power house. The 1x15 is good enough but the 4x8 will knock a hole in a wall - it's true gem of a cab and would happily swap the 1x15 out for another 4x8. I appreciate using two cabs with a different configuration operating over the same frequency range can cause phase correlation and potential dispertion issues but given most gigs are via a house system these days, I think it's probably less of a problem especially if the rig is used as the local monitor. It's fair to say that with any 'stack', most of what is heard close to the rig will be the top cab anyways - particularly if that cab is a little more sensitive, voiced with more midrange or fitted with an addional mid or HF unit.

@HeadlessBassist Agreed - I've almost forgotten how many I've owned! ❤️ And yes, it's a bit of a beast on the weight department but the sound makes up for it. @Geek99 The two silver knobs are pickup volumes and the bottom black ones are the active bass and treble controls.. I've put it through the V4 / SWR setup with the NE-1 and Ampeg Optocomp today and it was glorious - I even A/B'd it against some of the MM tracks and my version of that particular sound was reasonably convincing, My own tastes are tiny bit more low mid and and a bit more 'ping' really high up but that super-smooth attenuated upper mid plays right into my wheel house. 🥰

Because I clearly needed another Jazz Bass.. 😬 This lovely thing arrived from the folks over in Leamington Spa, BassBros this morning - it's an '04 and is is near perfect condition. They'd done a lovely job setting it up although I've done a few minor tweaks to get it just where I want it. It feels great, it sounds great and looks fantastic. ❤️

I thought I'd make a little addition here - after two-and-a-half years of ownership, I finally took it out of my live room and gigged it. 😆 One would think a tiny gig in a less than 80 cap venue that a 300w all valve, full stack monster might be something akin to using a sledge hammer to crack nut. Whilst I have to conceed that this is probably true, it was a glorious experience, none-the-less.. ❤️ I'm currently playing with an electronica duo 'Disastrous Robots' so given the genre and style, I've gone for my usual brand of zingy, bright and compressed with attenuated high mid with mild low low mid boost. Whilst the SVT and Jazz Bass are almost capable of this without help, I was happy to further enhance the experience by employing my ever useful Yamaha NE-1 accompanied by an Ampeg Opto Comp - both can be seen on top of the amplifier. Suffice to say, nothing really had a 'thorough thrashing' given the gig / venue but despite this, with no PA support, I had to make sure the FOH sound was balanced which allowed me a liitle 'wiggle room' with the master volume - I was informed by a few fellow players in the audience that it was spot on. I'm not a hard-hitting over-driven plectrum type player - quite the opposite but even so, the big-rig responded wonderfully to dynamics in playing and subtle changes of hand position seeming to almost instinctively track what I wanted from it. I've been very impressed with the SVT and it's cabs since they arrived but actually taking them into a gig scenario has been an absolute joy as long as you don't count moving them! 👍 Would I be willing to trade by beloved green and black V-Type amplifiers for the SVT? I'm not sure but luckily I'm in a position whereby I don't have to choose anyways - they both have their own character and distinct identity which is something I love about the big-bottled beasts..