basexperience

A fascinating topic... If your band are your friends, and you write original music, it'll benefit. If it's a covers band and you're all a bit more workmanlike about it, it'll benefit. I suspect the spectrum in between is a myriad of compromises. Any thoughts on that one?

You guys literally rock. Yeah, it'll need a new speaker, and no mistake! I'll do a build diary, shall I? I think I'll get it in a couple of weeks when I gig with the guys again, then I can scope out the costs to them in full and they can decide if they go ahead or not. If they think it's too much to do it up, I'll offer them a reasonable wedge to buy it off them and do it up myself: the chance to own a V combo...

"Seller notes: “A few bits missing but still plays and sounds very good.”"

I've held on to a Warwick CCL I bought many, many years ago - the 250W 15" version - because it's so damn portable. It'll slide into the back seat of the car, it sounds great, it's the perfect height to sit on at tiny venues, it's got wheels and a handle and it'll take an extension cab (down to 4 ohms). If only you could still get them... sounds great. I'd recommend anything similar for the portability - I once walked a mile with the amp behind me, carrying gig bag and guitar, because I couldn't find anywhere to part in London!

Not only that, but you could use stereo effects or use the separate effects loops to give some colour to the driven side (i.e. light chorus if required) without disturbing the fundamentals (very Muse-esque)

I've got a MAJOR project on my hands. I spent winter 2007 out in Andorra playing in the Aspen bar in Soldeu during the warmest ski season I think I've ever seen - luckily the band rocked (and still does, check out Breeze in the Oxford area) so the bar was completely rammed every night. I was also lucky enough (although I didn't realise it at the time) to do the season through the band's Trace V4 combo - a very VERY rare beast, which even back then was showing the signs of an extremely hard gigging schedule. During the 3 months I had to fix the speaker cone with gaffa and superglue where it separated at the edge! Well, it's a long way down the line from there, and the old trace finally stopped working for them (I haven't seen it in a long time) about 18 months ago: they've shelved it for the moment but I've volunteered to do the beast up. As far as I can tell (I don't have it yet), it needs:[list] [*]Total revalve [*]Total recovering [*]All controls replaced [*]Replacement castors (this thing is HEAVY ). [/list] Has anyone else undertaken the rebuild of a Trace V series amp? I've found good resources for parts - the manuals for the V4 are thankfully easy to find and helpfully include every circuit diagram and actual part numbers for the individual elements. I've got a lead on 4 Ruby KT88s for the power tubes (I'm not sure what the original preamp tubes are, we'll see!) for £150 from GAK (I think, their pricing on that is very odd on the site and confusing). I've also found a site in the US which will supply all the right pots for the controls. The trace Elliot tolex is harder to find, though - it's not lumpy marshall black tolex, it's more like a sort of smooth-ish pattern. I'm looking forward to giving the beast a new lease of life - it sounds amazing, I had it paired with a 2 x 10 trace cab I owned at the time.

Hi there - did you find any tolex? I've had a rare project drop in my lap, the 15" V4 combo I had the good fortune to play through during a season in Andorra is still owned by the band, but it's completely gigged out and needs total dismantle and overhaul, and recovering. I'm interested in finding out if the original tolex can be sourced: it's got quite a smooth pattern, and I haven't found a close match yet.

Welcome dude, I'm in south bucks down Taplow way!

Ah, it's you! And I haven't forgotten about the screws, I had some spares - I'll call in and get them soon!

Have you??? Gigged it last night - "let me entertain you" worked really well: the only enhancement now is to alter the patches so that the synths are output on the stereo line and the bass and modelled bass tones are fed out of the extra mono output. Then I can feed the piano, etc out to the PA!

I play a GR55 from a modified Tobias 6-string. Tracking on the low E is fine, and the low B is usable. Expressiveness is excellent. The GR55 contains the capacity to create patches with 2 synth tones, a modelled bass tone (zero latency) and your bass pickups. It's supremely configurable. Gary willis uses one! It also contains 2 effects units so creating sounds is a pretty mind blowing experience. It's possible to have different sounds on different strings - as an example, I'm doing "let me entertain you" as a cover this evening, and the top 3 strings are doing the piano intro, the A and B strings are muted, and the low E is pitch shifted using a modelled P bass up to an F so I can just strike the open string and play the intro part. Then the Ctl foot switch flips to the regular bass pickup ( all this is configured in the patch) for the rest of the song. Outstanding! Don't be put off: try a GR55 with a well set-up GK3B and see what you think. I run the GR55 into a Bass pos XT for other effects. I run the amp flat, only dialling in anything the venue needs at sound check.

I had a brief burst of Warwick-lust here recently - but ultimately I realised I needed more studio equipment, so I still got GAS but exercised the demon by upgrading a couple of basses instead.

If you can afford an extra bag, why not try removing the neck off a bass and putting it back together at the venue? I'm assuming you're flying.

I was considering buying another Warwick 2002 ltd ed jazzman (swirly bubinga top) - identical bass, diff grain! Bit mental, I know, they'd be literal twins.

Did you decide to keep her? I have a Toby Pro-6 which I've recently given a makeover - everything but pickups, including a GK-3B fitting - the story is over on [url="http://basexperience.blogspot.co.uk/"]http://basexperience.blogspot.co.uk/[/url] - and after the work it's a hell of a bass. The spacing is narrow on the Pro-6, too, I tend to use it for fingerstyle only, but it's great for that.

Apparently the string spacing on the Toby was pretty rare for them - and I was keen to get it in Brass, and in black. As an update - this OBP-3 is by far the most startling part of the upgrade. The clarity compared to the old 10-year old onboard preamp is just stunning - it's now silent, and possessed of enough headroom to set the Warwicks to shame (a core requirement of the work)! The push/pull 400-800Hz mid is an eye opener, interesting! Add an excellent fret dress, and it's now an excellent bass. I can recommend Julian Mullen to anyone in the Reading area - he took plenty of pics (at my request) of the surgery so I'll post some when I have them. Btw, an hour and a half tinkering with sensitivity, bridge dimension and nuance settings on the GR55 have yielded a stunningly expressive, fast-tracking midi capability too. Having the system properly mounted is simply a revelation, and now I don't have that bracket hanging on there the bass is back to the visual treat it was before I crowbarred the GK3B on there.