Woody1957

My R400 is set with gain now at 1, bass and treble at 12, contour off and volume never above 11 at the very most using 2 x bf compacts and that's plenty for every big gig l do. The red protect light never comes on.

Unfortunately it needs sorting mate☹️

I have a 71 Jazz bass and lm looking to replace both pick ups. The main reason being the E string is very boomy. I've tried everything to curbe it...lowering the pups on that side, used a Keeley compressor, tried a smaller gauge E string, eq'ed the amp using various settings but nothing seems to work. 

I'm looking for pups with quite an aggressive tone and an upfront sound in the mix....so any ideas please? Cheers, Steve 

26 minutes ago, agedhorse said:

Correct, it’s the most common configuration, and a player would have a reasonable expectation that the head can be operated on top of a cabinet.

Back in the day I had an old Elgen bass amp that was extremely temperamental and always had to sit on a very thick piece of foam on top of the cab.

I have a R400 and it goes on top of my 2 super compacts without any problems at all.

I would have stared at your pics for hours as a young lad mate....theyre the epitome of proper gear porn!

Lovely rig...if only l was 40 years younger😢

Just magnificent! Jon is the man!

10 hours ago, dodgnofski said:

Wow😳😳❤️❤️👍👍

Exactly what he said🤩

7 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Just superb bit of kit. So many rock bassists used these too. 

One of my bass heroes Gary Thain of Uriah Heep used an Acoustic rig.

GLWTS

Dave

Don't forget the bass legend that is Jimmy Lea of Slade!

Never played through one but seem to have great reviews...whats not to like? Glwts

On 30/05/2023 at 20:39, wateroftyne said:

Unless your bass is incredibly hot, crank the input and lower the output. Around 1pm works for me for a standard passive  P.

I tried the the 1 o'clock input setting...bass slightly rolled off from centre and treble at 1 o'clock, contour off and no clip light even at very high volume settings and it sounded great...l just love the r400 amp its simply fantastic!

1 hour ago, RikiB said:

Love the look of this thing,sad it’s only 400 watts though. If it was 800 I would’ve taken it.

Not heard of Hand box 

I can personally testify to bags of power and tone for any gig. I use it with 2 x super compacts and will blow the first 3 rows away if required. A 4 ohm cab stated earlier would have same desired effect, no problem. Best amp l have ever used and after 50 years of playing lve used a lot.

On 11/06/2023 at 22:41, essexbasscat said:

Pm'd re v type pre amp

Has this now been sold?

Aren't heat sinks apparently made of aluminium though? Good ability to move heat...thermal conductivity etc but only half that of copper. That would be a lot heavier and much more expensive.....

1 hour ago, three said:

Monster.  When I walk into a venue and see one of these, I feel a kind of (usually well-placed) confidence re: player and tone.

Yeah l think the same....you realise this guy properly knows what he's doing.

Heart says YES.......back says NO..

Great amps for sure, used them all through the 80's. For any young uns out there who don't mind a bit of a lift then these amps are among the best. Glwts bud👍

2 hours ago, wateroftyne said:

I've dug out the chat I had with Leszek about the light years ago, not long after I got my first R-400:

 

Lamp isn't clip, it is an incredibly complicated analogical optical limiter, which perfectly keeps balance in the power amplifier. You are free to play as loud as you want. It's not possible to overload!

 

Thats great mate, thanks for digging that out from the archives! It begs the question though....why put the light on the front panel in the first place if only to confuse us bass playing mortals😄 

The MM bass controls are always flat. But l will definitely use the gain control at 1 ish. The sound isn't distorted so it will probably be fine.

And get back to you all. Thank you all for your imput👍👍

12 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Assuming the Drive and Bright buttons aren't in use i have to admit i wouldn't expect to see a clip light on at that kind of Gain setting.

At those low Gain settings your valves wont be doing much i reckon. ie they wont be overdriven which reduces valve life but even at that they should last up to 10 yrs i've been told by the Mesa design guy.

What are your settings on the MM bass. ? Could be you have everything ramped full on your bass and maybe that could cause a clip.

If it sounds fine and not distorting then i'd go with what @wateroftyne says. He has a lot of HB experience.

Dave 

9 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

pre-amp valves "should" last quite a few yrs. Unless you do have a faulty one which i'm sure would have surfaced before now. 

Have heard that the MM basses can be a very hot signal.

What are your settings on bass and amp ?

Dave 

These are the settings l used last weekend Dave...

3 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Honestly, don’t worry about it unless you can hear a problem. ‘Cos if you can’t hear a problem, there ain’t one 🙂

😁👍 thanks.

11 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

 

If you can't hear any problems, don't worry about it. The light is designed to come on during normal operation. It's an 'I'm here!' light, rather than a warning light.

Cheers mate...it always sounds great tbh. I noticed it coming on a a lot during an outside gig this weekend. I was thinking of calling Watford valves to see if they had lower gain pre valves than the electro harmonix that are fitted.

Now then Handbox brothers, l think l need some advice...my R400 has started clipping. The clip warning light comes on intermitently when l'm using my Barefaced sc's by themselves and together. Ive tried gain up, main volume down and gain down main up but it still comes on on a regular basis...any ideas please? Could it be the pre amp vales are failing? Or am l just pushing it too hard? My main gigging bass is a musicman stingray. Its a 2019 model and is used on a regular basis. Any suggestions would be helpful...thanks in advance.

1 hour ago, KingBollock said:

You are right, though, it did amplify. It made dullness slightly louder.

A brilliant review of a very poor bass amp!

Just to confirm that these amps are the best l have ever used after playing through most amps over my 50 year career. They sound absolutely sublime and they are loud if required. Cant believe this beauty is still here. Glwts bud.

On 13/05/2023 at 22:26, Hellzero said:

Could you also please stop putting an unnecessary "o" in the name! Thanks.

I think he put the extra O in so as to abbreviate 'Oh what a pile of shite' 😂

On 13/05/2023 at 20:55, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

Carlsboro... Probably the worst amps in the world

I had a Carlsbro Stingray head....hated it so much l purposely left it at a gig in Newcastle.