VTypeV4

My SMX having a little service sometime last year. It's CB power stage can clearly be seen and is still working great - plenty of horsepower. 😀

Oh man! I am really quite tempted although I really don't need any more black and green boxes saying 'Trace Elliot' on them, ha! I expect they'd be the ultimate 'rough and ready' gigging machine a few years back - small enough to go in the boot of the car and pokey enough to knock a hole in a wall! As clean as an EBS? As much character as an Ampeg? As much control as a Trace? Probably not, but as a 'proper' rock 'n' roll all transistor bass amp, it should probably seen as Peavey at it's best, I'd say.

I always liked the Commando 10, too - a slightly later model with a few more features, a 10" Celestion and the same 65w power stage in the big Boxer. I'm not looking at the one currently on eBay. 🤣 Glad you have an ELF although I've still not tried one, yet..

When I was at college many moons ago, there weren't any of these big power, widow-loaded marvels of the time but there were many a humble TKO. They took a kicking day in day out and never once in all the time I was there did I ever know of a single failure and they were far from new when I started! I always admired the Databass combo - so much power packed into that compact box although I expect they still weighed a ton? Peavey seemed to use lead-lined wood for their enclosures back then not to mention the BW driver had it's own concentrated gravity field too.. There's one on FB now for £120 - seems pretty reasonable to me.

My home setup: Bass > Trace Elliot V4 (with an NE-1 and LMB-3 in the FX loop) > Direct out > Yamaha 02R > MOTU interface > Pro Tools At the Studio: Bass > Trace Elliot SMX > Direct out > Yamaha DM2000 > MOTU interface(s) > Logic Pro X Fol clients I use various combinations of their gear (if it sounds good) and the SVT / V-Type / SMX and Bassman rigs that live at the studio > Yamaha DM2000 > MOTU interface(s) > Logic Pro X For my own recordings (including the band) I tend to find my basses work really well into either the V-Type or SMX preamplifiers. I dial the sound I hear in my head using their features so the DI sound generally needs very little of anything more (or less) once recorded - it's great to have it at least 90% of the way there already plus it makes it easier and quicker when mixing. As such, very rarely do I use multiple lines. It's different for clients at the studio - using both DI and mic setups is sometimes ideal plus I'm not against dropping the bass straight into the desk and modelling it from there using plugins either (some clients prefer it that way) but for me, I have the hardware already so I like to make use of it. 😀

I'm yet to try my SVT-CL through the little Goliaths but I'll bet it'd be super. ❤️

I had a Trace 4x10" (1048H - which was good enough) at the same time as the Peavey but it was quite a difference in performance when I compared the two. I sold the Trace cabinet to a friend not long after. 😀 It'll never happen as I have no intention of buying another but it'd be interesting to compare the 410TVX to my SWR cabs, I wonder if it's a similar tonal characteristic I heard and particularly liked in both? A slightly attenuated upper mid but with plenty of low, low mid range and bright 'ping' on top..? I've seen the Peavey cabs on various sites including here and eBay for £100 or less which is an absolute bargain - providing you can lift it, of course! 😅

I was thinking about a other popular thread on here at the moment (combinations of gear made in heaven) which got me on a bit of a nostalgia trip about gear I've had over the years.. Number 1 goes all the way back to 1998 / 99 and my early years of playing. Wanting a small and portable combo I could carry (unlike the heavy valve amp and WEM cabs I was using), my step dad and I went amp shopping. We tried a few home / practice amps in the local shops but all were a little underwhelming and we were about to give up but he suggested we go up to Academy of Sound store despite most of their stock being new. The words 'Trace' and 'Elliot' meant nothing to me at the time but a little green furry covered amp with 'Boxer 30' written on the black and green panel was sat there amongst much bigger examples. He said we should try it although it was likely to be alot more expensive as it was a Trace. It blew everything else we tried that day clean out of the water - it was louder, cleaner and had a proper, full sound. I paid £100 for it brand new - even to this day, I consider it good value and was very pleased with how it sounded. 25 years later, I don't have the little Boxer (I traded it for a Squier Tele, I think) but I do have any number of green furry boxes with the words 'Trace Elliot' on them and, despite them being much bigger that little Boxer helped pave the way. Number 2: A Peavey 410TVX which I bought used about 20 years ago. I was saving for a new one at the time as they were about £350 / £400 and I was a student. Luckily a very clean looking used one appeared in the local shop and he wanted much less (I think I paid less than £250) for it. It weighed as much as the world but it performed far beyond what I had expected. It played loud and clean with lots of articulation - all the dynamics and nuances shone through with every note. One of the best sounding cabs I've owned, a proper unsung hero in my opinion. I sold it to downsize to an Ashdown 2x10 which was OK but not a patch on the Peavey cab. And Number 3: An Ashton BV300H valve amp with matching cabs. The head was a 300w all-valve head which sounded fantastic and came with EHX valves, chunky transformers and decent upholstery - it was basic with very few 'clever' features but was well up to the job and I did a good few gigs and recording sessions with it. The cabs appeared to be much the same and were again better built than their price tag suggested. Both came with TF series Celestion drivers which seemed to perform well above their apparently moderate specs suggested. I still have the 1x15" cab although the Celestion was replaced with a JBL K140 for an 'older skool' sound. Anyways, thanks for induging this rather long opener!

Trace Elliot V-Type (particularly the all valve variety) and SWR cabs (Goliath Jr MK3) - killer combination. 😃

For the last month or so, I've pretty much played this thing exclusively. No gigs but it's seen a few studio sessions plus lots of playing at home - 6 months since purchase and it's just getting better (my opinion, of course) as everything seems to have stabilized and settled in nicely. For the money, this range of basses are incredible.

Incredibly, it's been nearly 12 months since I went to sunny Southport to grab this lovely lot! I thought I'd share how it's held up.. 😃 In a word, it's been faultless and all the comments in the review regarding it's tone, character and general physical characteristics still very much ring true. The SVT and associated cabs have found many friends at the studio with around 75% of clients choosing to play through it - irrespective of genre. When recording, (for the most part, at least) I've moved away from the usual DI / Mic blend and now work a slightly convoluted system of taking 3 DI signals using a Trace SMX as an active line splitter / amplifier. One of these DI lines comes from the SVT and is one of the best sounding built-in direct outputs I've ever used. From memory, it's tapped very late in the signal path, either just before after the inverter / driver stage so all of the pre-amp character is present at the XLR socket with no wierd artifacts, noise or additional distortion. I haven't taken it out and gigged it - in fact, it's never even left the live room since I put it there so can't really comment on the Ampeg's gig-worthy-ness but being honest, I don't really need to, do I (!) 🤣 In terms of reliability, again it's track record remains 100% with no faults, inconsistent performance or drop outs. Under my use, the stack doesn't tend to get driven particularly hard but it does work a lot of hours. Mark at the studio also makes use of the SVT and loves it just as much as I do - he reports lots of his clients also gravitate towards it. I'm not sure if it's a current trend or the 'Ampeg is a standard' thing but as I said before, by a reasonable margin, the Ampeg rates very highly at the studio with the SMX Trace coming in a close second - I always let players try them all to make sure we're sonically on the same page. The borrowed Trace V6 usually comes in 3rd, a little behind the SMX but the old Bassman 135 doesn't even get a look in anymore - I really can't recall the last time I recorded with it. Personal waffling and thoughts aside, the SVT and it's cabs have certainly been a great investment at the studio. Whilst it seems unlikely the presence of a single Ampeg rig has won me any clients on that fact alone, it certainly hasn't done the reputation of the place any harm - long live the SVT. ❤️

Sounds and looks like you've been thoroughly at it, Mike! 😃 Glad you've still got the little A&H - I love all their digital ranges and even the old iLive is still a useful tool. Thinking about it, I don't think there's any A&H I've ever used that I didn't like from MixWizard and QU through to ML and dLive..

Various snaps across the UK from 'The Crossing' tour featuring legends Spear of Destiny and Big Country. I was only in for Spear but next time we do this, I'll be on duty for both bands. Some very cool places up and down the country despite the seemingly endless weeks! Lots of the usual Midas Pro 1/2, A&H SQ / dLive and Soundcraft Vi consoles this time. Special mention of course to that killer Heritage 3000 - I rather suspect that'll be the last one I'll use 'in the wild' - it was great fun. On the Yamaha front, no 02Rs although I used a few Yamaha M7s, a CL1 and even used my own DM1000 on one of the shows..

It was such a lucky find and 12 months on, I can't see it going anywhere other than to rehearsal or some gigs later in the year. A truly fanatastic bass with superb build and a distinctive sound - suits me perfectly. 😃

I've had mine for at least 20 years and it's still a great tool that gets plenty of use. The compressor does a great job from subtle to crushed - personally, I use it with a low-ish ratio and a low threshold so it's doing something most of the time. It plays very nicely in conjunction with the Yamaha NE-1 and the Trace V4. I like the enhancer too - with a bit of upper-mid attenuation, it adds a lovely degree of 'ping' and really gets the HF components in the SWR cabs singing..

This looks like a killer tool.. 😀

02R in service at home. 😃 Recorded via the DM1K from the gig pictured above, I've used an 02R to mix a track this week. It's been a little while since the 02R was used in this capacity but it's definitely firing on all cylinders with the mix sounding killer. It's 2023 and there's still plenty of life in and so much potential to be had out of these old things. 🥰

I love mine - personally, I think the 400SMX is the pick of the bunch with so much tone shaping and control allied with enough power to knock a hole in a wall. 😀 My setup still drives a pair of Trace cabs which are fine plus the weight is a non-issue as they pretty much just live at the studio these days.

Finally the DM1000 does a full gig with it's full compliment of features! Used on a location at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery (Hanley Museum), we mixed and recorded Captain Stingrays Groove Machine (Afro / Cari / Dub / World madness) with the little DM at the centre of operations. The band used 20 channels over two layers, the second bank via a Behringer ADA8200 and of course, recorded via one of my trusty MOTU 828(x) units. I love the Spitfire aircraft in the background, too.

This has recently come into my posession, a lovely old MK4 GP11 preamp - judging by the numbers inside, it was made in May 1985. It needs some rehabilitation and a gallon of contact cleaner before being put to use but it's super cool! The build quality is fantastic. 😃

A slightly dusty 02R on live sound and recording duty a few weeks back. Still working hard, still as reliable as a piece of rock and still a great tool. 🥰 Even the Soundcraft saw a bit of action last week as part of a tuition demo at the studio. This is currently for sale but no takers as yet so I suspect it'll stay for the odd demonstration or nostalgia trip. 😆 The DM1000 has been back for a few weeks with all faults now remidied although I've not yet had opportunity to put it through it's paces. I've got a location / live sound / recording show at the end of next month so chances are, I'll use it for that. I expect for this type of work, the little DM will ultimately replace one of the 02R consoles as it's simply so much more physically manageable with a similar / improved feature set and a familiar operating platform. 😃 And finally various snaps ofplaces throughout the UK on tour back in Nov / Dec 22. The biggest and best show being at Manchester Academy which is the top two pics. Not the easiest to mix in but it felt great once it was all cooking. 😃

I wouldn't worry about age with these things, my Streamer is 22 years old and whilst it's had plenty of use over the years, it's still very much fighting-fit. The NT models are usually the higher end of the Warwick lines so seems to me, you'll be getting a superior spec instrument that would also better value for money in terms of purchase and resale value. The newer BO will no doubt be a lovely instrument (personally, I've never played a badly built Warwick) plus it will come with a guarantee / backup but given the choice of these two, I'd take the older instrument everytime. 😆 Just as a final thought, you could do with playing both back-to-back but I appreciate, this isn't always possible.

I did it for a giggle many moons ago with a Trace 600SMX although I never gigged it.. Low side was a Trace 1153 and a Martin Audio EM201 (1x18" direct radiating) sub then on the high side, a Trace 1048H and 2103H. Utterly ridiculous, frankly but very entertaining and definitely thunderous. I really wish I had some pics of that lot 😆 Personally, I've never felt the need to biamp with a bass rig as I've always had enough fidelity for my own tastes. Even the 600SMX despite it's built in x-over was only ever used full range in the real world - it powered an 1153 and a 1048H normally. I always thought it was a shame that the x-over in the Trace only operated over such a limited range (250Hz to 1kHz) and as such didn't allow the low-pass side to work as a true 'sub only'. At the upper end, crossing over at 1kHz would be very marginal for a 1.4" compression driver and as such, limited it's potential. I do, however appreciate that the origins of that crossover (early AH500 models) came from an era where heavy, bulky and occasionally esoteric designs of horn loaded cabs were still the norm - just look at those old Trace adverts from the '80s. 😬