JapanAxe

Nice score! I’ve had flats (Chromes) on a Mustang and they were fine, no sign of possible breaks where they came through the body. Make sure there is enough length before the taper to accommodate the extra couple of cm required to pass through the body.

Conventional Class AB tranny amp afaik.

Class D?

Cheers! Just spent another hour or so playing with this, and I'm loving the sounds I'm getting. I've only identified two minor negatives: The fan is quite loud in a quiet room. Once I start playing I don't notice it though, and I can't see it being a problem live. If I use a true bypass tuner (Korg Pitchblack, TC Polytune) into the front end there is quite a click when I engage it. I put this down to the rather high input impedance of 2Mohm. I put the tuner in the FX loop set to 100% wet - problem solved. Can't wait to play this with my band!

...of the bass itself.

I set it to give me as much treble as I’m going to need with the bass’s tone control up full, then back it off to about 50% on the bass. From there I can adjust on the bass as needed - it gives the passive control a lot of range!

Nope.

Mrs Axe has gone to her sister's for a couple of days, so out came the toys. I played along with some of the Bowie tracks that I cover in my tribute band. I ended up knocking back the Drive a bit and adding a little more treble. I dare say it will all change again when I'm playing with the band.

I’m hoping so!

Hopefully I will have a band rehearsal soon - 80s cover project - Duran Duran, Simple Minds, Gary Numan, Human League etc.

Efficient 4ohm cab? Yep, BF Super Twin

I'll be using this amp with a BF Super Twin. Early indications are that this will be plenty loud enough!

Yes I do like the flub-free bass response! This has properly scratched my itch for a capable 'big iron' amp. Photos are now gone from the original ad so I'll take some myself when I have a minute or two.

I bought this yesterday from the gentleman known here as @lowregisterhead and I've only tried it briefly before purchase (to confirm it was as epic as the YT videos suggest) and for about half an hour last night (until Mrs Axe complained about the windows rattling). I'm therefore very much in the honeymoon period! Although there are more knobs than I'm used to dealing with, it didn't take long for me to get familiar with their operation: Character switch - too much bass boost for this to be useful to me, so I'm unlikely to be using this function. There is plenty of range on the Gain control. The Comp/Limit feature goes from just limiting peaks, right up to a pronounced sustain. My gigging amps have tended to have valve preamps with passive tone stacks, so the active Filter section is a bit of a departure for me. I quite often need to cut bass when using my BF Super Twin, but (at least in my living room) this control sounds right at about noon. I boosted some Mids at 200Hz for my favoured sweet spot. The Treble control is really effective in bringing out the clank of a Precision. At first I thought it might be adding noise, but I discovered this was coming from the bass (with hands off strings) rather than the amp. The Bright control doesn't do much for me. It is focused on 10kHz, whereas the Super Twin doesn't reproduce much above 4kHz, plus I use flats. It might be different with roundwounds. The facility to make quick comparisons between flat and EQ'd sounds using the Filter switch is handy. The Comp/Limit circuit comes after the Filter section, so with some Comp engaged, boosting the Bass can change the tonal balance without massively changing the volume, and still lets the fundamentals come through when playing up the dusty end. I set it so that it controls the transients on the one song where I (reluctantly) have to slap (Ashes to Ashes), evens out the harder attack when picking with a plectrum, but otherwise leaves my signal alone. I like it. Drive is great for adding in some 'fur', in fact at settings below noon it is not a million miles from how my Ampeg PF-50T (sold to fund this purchase) used to sound when pushed. I see it is switchable, but it does bring in a significant volume boost, so I don't know how useful that would be in a live context. I might investigate foot-switching, but I'll probably just set and forget - I am not a mid-gig amp-knob-twiddler. (If anyone knows what goes on in the RM-4 footswitch, please let me know - I expect there is just an LED and current-limiting resistor on each switch.) As I understand it, this model has the filters from the HD350 (which people seem to prefer) with the extra features of the HD360 (e.g. light-up push-switches). Although it's possible to pick up an HD350 for quite a bit less, I much prefer the look of this version's front panel, and it has a strong 'Rolls Royce' feel about it. The amp really brought out the difference between the basses I played through it, rand somehow seemed to increase the range of their passive tone controls. This may seem like an odd thing to say, but the thing I liked best about the TC Classic 450 I once owned was the ability to dial in some subtle compression and drive for a vintage-y sound, and then leave it. This amp does that too, but in a much classier package. It has also save me having to put together a pedalboard. Roll on the first post-lockdown band rehearsal. You're going to want pics, so here are a couple of photos from Dave's ad:

Happy to start a feedback thread for James, who bought an amp head from me. James paid promptly and made sure our meet-up and hand-over arrangements went smoothly. Chuffed to find we both play bass in Bowie tribute bands!

Bought a lovely EBS amp head from Dave today. We enjoyed a brief chat over coffee while our phone apps did the money stuff - always nice to meet a fellow BC-er!

Bought a Joyo Vintage Overdrive for my son. Of course it would have been rude not to try it (on guitar) - a superb Tube Screamer clone, very open-sounding.

If your daughter enjoys watching Olympic standard gurning there’s always Haim...

Gail Ann Dorsey was a mainstay of David Bowie’s band from the mid 90s onwards. She is a phenomenal bass player, no slouch as guitarist, superb singer, and cuts a striking figure on stage. On YT look for Reality Tour, Glastonbury 2000, BBC 2002. EDIT: Some rock there but not prog or metal.

I’m currently sitting in front of 56 feet of shelving, 90% full of CDs. I’m listening to a CD album - La Croix D’Amour by Dwight Yoakam - on hi-fi separates. I try to sit down and listen to an album like this every couple of days or so. Before lockdown I used to spend my hour-each-way commuter drive listening to albums on my iPod, but now I spend more time playing/practising than I do listening. I still buy CDs fairly regularly, but the more I get, the less time I will have to listen to them in whatever remains of my life (I am nearer the end than the beginning). At some point I need to thin out the less good stuff and concentrate on the great stuff. Trouble is, even a poor album usually contains a track or two that I enjoy. l’ve rambled there, but the short answer is YES.

Well done that man!