ossyrocks

Well, I've pulled it to check. D140F with the orange frame. Reconed, but with paper dust cap. I've fired it up tonight, and it's got a proper old school vibe going on with a P bass with flats. My wife is not convinced however. Rob

I blame Martin (@The fasting showman) for this. He sent me a message yesterday about an old Fender Bassman cab which was for sale on Facebook about an hours drive from me. I didn't know I wanted one of these cabs, and to be honest, I'm still not sure! But it was so cheap that it didn't make any sense not to go and buy it. So here it is. I am still in shock as to how big, heavy and awkward it is, the pics on Facebook didn't give a clue to scale, and I certainly needed help getting it in the back of my car from the house. Now it's home, I'm trying to figure out how to convince my wife that it's a good idea to keep it, when I don't have anywhere really to actually keep it! The speaker is a reconed JBL D140F apparently, but I'll check that out in due course. Anyway, feel free to roast my stupidity at today's purchase. Though it does look quite nice with my Bassman 50 on it I must say. Rob

I do like the Rumbles. I did a gig last weekend at Lancaster Music Festival, where the band before us had offered use of their PA, lights backline and engineer, because set up times were tight, and there was no time to break theirs down and set ours up. Yes please we said. I did try to find out what I'd be playing through, but I didn't find out in advance. Then on the day their bass player walked in with a Rumble 100. Hmm, I thought, this might not cut it. Sound check allayed all my fears, and the amp was just great all night. In fact a perfect foil to my P bass with flats. Rob

Done! Thanks for the heads up Martin!

Ok, you can have first dibs. I'll sort it out first and make sure it's tip top. It is surprisingly light for a 2x12. I think they use the same drivers as the NEO range. It's a one hand lift....carefully.

The cab is working fine, and the guy I got it off used a jack to speakon, so he didn't use that jack socket on the cab. But I'll check it over anyway. I won't be keeping the cab I don't think, whilst I can secrete RB heads here and there without arousing much suspicion, cabs are harder to hide, and with the addition of this one, there are now three cabs in the conservatory. The cab came with the head, so I didn't have a choice whether or not to take it.

This latest 400RB came with a cab too, a 4ohm 212MBE. It's well used, but working well via the speakon. It's missing part of the 1/4" input jack socket, ie the bit that screws in from the outside of the panel. It has clearly become loose and then lost. I've been through my spares and don't have anything. Long shot - Does anyone have a spare, or can point me to the right part? The socket inside is PCB mounted to the board and appears to be fine. EDIT: Just found something on ebay which was worth a punt for £3.95. We'll see! Rob

Ok, I've not posted in this thread for a while, but today I picked up my first 400RB MK4. It's in good nick, working fine, and sounds very nice. It doesn't sound exactly the same as the earlier MK1 and MK2, but it has it's own thing going on and I do like it. The settings on the amps in the pic are the ones which most make the amps sound like each other. Notice the lower setting on the Boost pot, as the MK4 seems to have lot more boost on tap, and also slightly more Treble and High Mid is required to make it sound like a MK2. The Mk4 also has a more pronounced bottom end, like it's extended in the lower frequency range vs the MK1 and MK2. I do perhaps regret selling my MK3 to @Minininjarob, because if I hadn't I would now have the full set!

Ooof. The cost of service is unsurprising to me, albeit still quite painful. We have to look at these things as an ongoing cost of use/ownership, rather than a value for money investment. My '73 Bassman 50 cost more to rebuild than it did for me to buy in the first place (and I paid too much!), and I will never recoup the money I have in it. But, I will also never find another like it. Rob

Is there anywhere on the internet which provides a documented informative timeline/history/details of the Ampeg SVT, V4B or B15? I'm interested in these amps, but an understanding of them eludes me just as much as the Musicman Stingray! Rob

I've become a big fan of Sean Hurley over the last year or so. I like his approach, his technique, and his tone. I've even got a big old piece of foam under the strings of my P bass at the moment, which was remarked on by the drummer at rehearsal last night. He didn't seem to think I had any issue before using it, but to me it makes getting "that tone" quite a bit easier. Rob

I think you're right. The cost of new basses these days has pulled the vintage market with it. Look at this brand new Fender custom shop Precision for sale at Peach for £4600, and it becomes harder to say that a nice condition, all original sunburst/tort/rosewood '70-'73 P bass is worth less. https://www.peachguitars.com/fender-custom-shop-2023-collection-64-precision-bass-relic-bleached-3-colour-sun.htm

Ah, I didn't know he did commission sales at 15%, that's useful to know thanks. Rob