Count Bassie

[quote name='basshead56' post='828838' date='May 5 2010, 02:24 PM']Have dealt with British Audio Service before- they are great!!! Fastest shipping and service from the U.S. I´ve ever experienced. That was when I was fixing up an old Trace combo I had. worked out cheaper too! [/quote] Thanks for the rec, basshead. I'll return here when I get something done for it, hopefully with accolades for BAS.

[quote name='dood' post='828770' date='May 5 2010, 01:28 PM']Hmmm - being a tube, I suspect it has some sort of starter right? Like a normal 'tube' light. I'm not sure if it has a specific type - but I reckon a new bulb and starter - and also to give the contacts a good clean too![/quote] Like a ballast, I guess. I've writtenBritish Audio here in the states, so I guess I'll be dealing with it shortly. Thanks dood.

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' post='828594' date='May 5 2010, 11:16 AM']Don't have experience with the UV bulb models but it seems that you need to change the bulb. Do you connected the amp to a plug with ground wiring? Sometimes the noise problems have a cause as simple as that! Also i would advise you to get your amp serviced on a trusty place. 10 years is a long time of dust and moist building up [/quote] Yer right, and I know a guy. Does look to need a check-up. Thanks, Ghost!

Hey all, I have this old GP-11 MK IV head here, and it's been sitting dormant in the guy's house I bought it from for about 10 years or so. I plugged it in and turned on the UV switch, and voila- noise! I took off the UV housing and unplugged it from it's harness, took some Windex to it and generally cleaned it up... the little "Trace Elliot / AH250" display window needed a cleaning and to be glued back into it's spot on the housing, the bulb was filthy, etc. After all that I re-installed the unit and turned it back on. Noise... then it stopped. I sat there a while, in the dark, listening... quiet for a few minutes, then it started in again, slowly: Low-to-mid-level boiling, rustling sounds, with an occasional light-duty 'pop'. I turned the amp off, and am now thinking... the amp itself seems to function fine, albeit I think there's a bit of dirt in the input jack, easy enough to address with a slip of paper beetween the contacts. But the UV- I wonder if a little cleaning of the contacts at the plug-ends and a new bulb would fix that? The bulb doesn't quite light up at the very ends, so the ends of the amplifier's face aren't very illuminated. Me am no electrician. It's probably simpler than all my typing requires. But am I on the right track? Thanks for looking in.

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' post='827695' date='May 4 2010, 12:45 PM']I have a GP7 SM from the early 90's in a 2x10 combo. I've posted this in another topic: If it is the same head (appart from the obvious diference combo mount/rack mount) ask away and i will try to ansewer as far as my knowlege goes. Cheers[/quote] Greetings Ghost_Bass! Thanks for the reply... The GP7 does appear to be the same head, only in this unit there's a "BPA", which means I have no idea what. I'm not sure what to ask really, except about the BPA suffix. "Bass Pre-Amp", maybe? I bet that's it. Duh... So you seem happy with yours! Good to see; I have a 250SMX that I took from it's sleeve upon buying it used. The tube inside was rolling around loose and a captive nut that had held a retaining bolt for the exterior housing had become unseated. So I cut the sleeve away from the chassis with a skilsaw and a flush-cut saw (I'm a carpenter for a living), and ended up re-seating the tube and putting a Peavey strap-handle where the retaining bolts use to go. The amp now sits in a home-made rack-box. Thing's my favorite amp! My point in relating this is that the Trace heads seem indestructable! Anyway, you know what- in starting to respond here I got that "BPA" business figured out, I think, and from what I know about the Trace stuff (I've had a GP7SM, a 200), I do think that's all I'm going to need to know! Can't think of any other questions, as I am sure I'm going to get along with it just fine. I've found my amp, once again or finally, and am going to be able to leave off the whole "search for tone" business for a while. Good! If I think of anything else though I'll be back. Thanks much man! Oh- do you have a close-up of the back panel? If it's handy, it's not actually an issue to me... thanks again!

[quote name='JTUK' post='827489' date='May 4 2010, 09:34 AM']If you talk to the Americans, then they are less keen on some of the more modern SWR amps. Basically, all they needed to do..IMV..was rectify or reduce the sub element the SM400 put out. This was a huge power soak and that sub freq wasn't usable anyway. I know the SM900 did that (great amp ) so assume the SM500 did as well. I think the Redhead amp is good as a standalone, but where they went after that, I am not sure.[/quote] This is pretty true over here. Yep, the 400s and then the 500 were major improvements that made the amp killer-diller.

I have an oportunity to pick this one up, and the price is pretty good ($250 US). I have a GP11 MK IV I'm passing along to a friend who did me a favor, so I now need another backup.Anyone familiar with this vintage? Thanks.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='827370' date='May 4 2010, 08:04 AM']About 10 years back, I REALLY wanted a full SWR rig. I still havent played through one but the tone I heard from various live bassists was excellent.[/quote] Me too! I saw a band in Miami, the guy had a Bassic 350 and a G-II cab, pushing an old Fender through it. His technique made it look as if he'd been playing for about 6 weeks... but he nailed it- and the sound about separated my head from my shoulders. Loud and beautiful! I was pretty stunned. So why don't I have an SWR rig? After getting put off by my difficulty with the SM400 I ran into the TE head I have- cheap and by chance- and it sounds tight, warm and punchy though my cabs (Bag End S15-Ds). I find the Trace graphic eq intuitive to push around, which does my head good. What I have now has fallen easily into place. I still would like to have an SWR head and that G-II cab. But there's always going to be something else to lust after...

Geat you got it to work. I wish I still had mine, but I couldn't quite 'get it' somehow for what I was doing- I was too worried about blowing out my Bag Ends! Too bad, maybe I'll get another try at it, but I'll probably pick up a different model if I do get back to SWR. Doing TE now, and it suits me for the present gig. But I always did like what you could get out of an SWR.

Just a note about the SM400; I had one and found the underpowering problem was largely because of the very low roll-off of bass freq's on the Bass knob high-pass thingy (31 Hz). I learned to turn that Bass knob almost all the way down, pull down the first eq gain slider down at the same point and boost the low-mids pretty hard. That helped a lot, but the inherent problem sort of would still exist. I think the SM400s was the upgrade that put that issue to bed, with a more thoughtful treatment of eq down in the lows. I don't think the rating is low, I do think the filtering was poorly executed on the SM400 though, and was the reason for the apparent low power. I'll bet the 550X would be plenty loud. I saw a band in Miami FL when I lived there, and the bassist played a Bass350 through a Goliath-II cab. Old Precision bass. Loud as a nun with a bullhorn at a large sporting event, and what a sound... Bryan Beller has a website, and on one page of it goes into what he used for his eq settings on that amp. It might be helpful, or at least enlightening to have a look. I don't have a link on hand, but google "Bryan Beller, SM400"...

[quote name='Soliloquy' post='788177' date='Mar 27 2010, 04:16 PM']Can it be rack mounted ? It comes in a plastic case, but I'd like to rack mount it, if I buy it. Thanks ![/quote] Well it's in an enclosure, and whatever is involved in relocating it probably isn't all that. I took a 250SMX out of a sleeve (had to, long story) and put a Peavey Strap-handle on it. Later I moved it into an old plywood rack box my grandfather had made for me years earlier. The amp had its own steel chassis, so it wasn't as if I had a mess of loose wires and parts falling out all over the place. The blacklight and ballast that's probably in there, that I don't know about. I'd buy the thing, deal with it later... surely there's a solution to this likely simple problem.

[quote name='Ancient Mariner' post='826575' date='May 3 2010, 11:13 AM']When you connect 2 or more cabs in parallel, the max wattage of the whole system is always the wattage of the lowest power handling cab X the number of cabs. Thus 150W X 2 = 300W. In the 'bad old days' of valve amps you needed to at least match the max output of the amp with the cabs, and if you intended to dime it then preferably allow 1.5X in power handling. Valve amps wattage is normally their clean rating, and so will often produce a bit more when pushed hard. Solid state amps appear to have all sorts of clever trickery built in (sometimes) and may be safe even when your speakers theoretically shouldn't cope - just don't bank on it![/quote] ^^ Here's some of that 'dark arts' part: Rules are made to be broken, so there's a certain level of treachery in the whole deal. It does all boil down to paying attention to [i]knowing what you're plug in to where[/i], and using common sense.

[quote name='Shockwave' post='826522' date='May 3 2010, 09:59 AM']I dont get it... How is it sharp? Maybe your referring to my old tastes in pointy basses. [/quote] No, by 'sharp' I mean well-dressed, neat, etc. Tidy-looking bass rig. I'm American, sorry... and yes Iwould have made fun of you if I had known about the pointy basses!

[quote name='Shockwave' post='826493' date='May 3 2010, 09:31 AM'] This is my "B" Rig... Trace Elliot GP12 SMX Pre-amp. Crown XS-700 1900 Watts mono bridged. Barefaced Vintage 2x15 W/Tweeter.[/quote] This is a pretty sharp-looking rig. Going to an assassination this afternoon?

MK IV head (80's, right?), got for a steal from a guy on craigslist who was leaving the country. It'll be a good mate for the 250SMX I regularly gig with. I love the sound of these amps! And the UV light is so... 80s! This is one of the fun parts of these heads- it's a high-end piece of gear which sounds beautiful in a live mix, and comes with this interesting 'extra'- without the compromise of a less-than-stellar unit underneath. Quality and thoughtfulness, together in the same little box... what a revolutionary idea! GP11 MK IV: So I've got the top half, I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a 1518 cab to go with 'er, which should then qualify for the 'back-breaking' requisite. I've come to love the sound I'm getting out of these amps, I'm quiet now about this aspect of my sound, etc. Not looking any further. Mang, this took a long time...

That was about as good an answer as I've ever read on the subject (I know of a forum where this same topic becomes a great inflammation 3 times out of 5). I especialy like the bit about the 'chocolate fireguard'. You Brits are so funny...

'Scuse me, but I've just searched my way in here from 'out there' (across the virtual pond) and have a question about the GP-11 MK IV, if I may throw in here: I have an [b]AH250SMX[/b] (Kaman era) which I run throught a pair of Bag End S15-D cabs, and it's the best amp I've ever had. I really am having a lot of fun with it! Just yesterday I picked up another, older TE head, an [b]AH250 GP-11[/b] (it was a bargain) to have as either a backup or leave in a rehearsal space. It's considerably larger, heavier, and simpler in layout and features than the lighter, racier SMX- and has the reknown front-mounted Ultra-Violet lamp . I believe it's a MK IV, as there's no 'Balance" slider... I did an A/B with the two heads earlier today, and noticed the SMX seems to feel tighter, has a brighter ('clearer') sound all-around, and gets apparently louder with much less turn of the Output Gain knob. I made an effort to set the graphic eq on each amp the same, and I bypassed the on-board compressor and tube blend on the SMX to try and use a similar feature-set for both amps. The GP-11 seemed a little 'loose and wooly' in the lows compared to the the SMX, which stayed tight and clear all the way down. I'm working with the GP-11s EQ for that, and have an Ashdown 2-band compressor pedal I'm also trying with it. Seems to make a difference, they are still different but have gotten much closer to similar now with a little work. The GP-11's character is generally a touch darker than the SMX's. It'll do alright as a backup to my main rig. The blacklight is noisy and blinks a bit, so of course I'm going to have to fix that! That purple glow is just a near-mystical experience, I tell you. Fun stuff- very 80's! One thing I like about the GP-11 is that all the peripheral functions, i.e. Send/Return, Slave Send/Ret, DI... are on the face of the amp. GK's newer models also go this route, which seems just plain sensible. I wish the SMX was also laid out this way (more like the GP-7SM)! Not a gripe though. My point though is to see about getting a little insight on this GP-11 (ser # C4445) from some of you guys in-the-know here. I'm interested in what makes all these models different, and what advantages some models may have over others. Not to be a nut-case, but is there any kind of history of this line that gives practical differences between models, tracing the progression to the present? A timeline or similar presentation to look over in some archive? I've also written British Audio Service, though this is a better run-down of my experience so far! Anyhow, now that I've helped you pass a little time here, thanks for reading! Edit... I've been playing the GP-11 some more, and that's a great amp. Another keeper.

So richrips, how do those Jacks sound anyway? I'm looking to do a BFM build, either an Omni 15TB or a Jack or two. I have the Omni plans but haven't built it yet...

[quote name='CPF' post='230692' date='Jul 1 2008, 11:10 AM']I've been playing with the idea of replacing the pickup in my stingray for a while. I get a really weak G string sound, and tbh sounds a lttle.. i dunno dead...[/quote] I understand there are a couple editions of the pre that go with the EBMM p'ups. One has a black Epoxy jacket, and the other (earlier... funny that earlier is almost alway the 'better' one) has a dark green Epoxy jacket. The green is said by my MM in-the-know friends to be noticeably more responsive to a broader freq range. If you have the black Epoxy, that might be the issue and not the p'up. Just a random, maybe-useful thought.

I have run into this site as part consequence of my search to discover the construction of (what makes it so) a "Horn-Loaded" cab, and if this is a desirable design to use with a 300-watt tube bass head for reggae. But this also looks like a nice place to have a discussion about bass stuff, so I'm looking in. And I have some friends from England now living in Miami FL (I'm in RI, New England), so maybe I won't get entirely lost when I'm addressed! So thanks for the opportunity to hang.