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I've got a love of old Trace heads as well - mine are mostly 150 and 250 watt jobs, from different series and with different preamp sections. I really like the 150 watt ones with the GP11 preamp, which are also not really that heavy, and gutsy enough for most situations I find myself in. I've got a 250SMX (with fan) that I use for the occasional bigger room, but it's probably more vanity than necessity... the non-fan ones do get hotter to the touch, but like PaulWarning mentioned, not so hot as to worry about. For now at least the prices on the old TE stuff are so good, that your collection could get big quickly... The only weakness I've really found on these are the switches for pre-shape and graphic, which are quite easily replaced, or just make sure you have a two-button footswitch (non-latching type) with the stereo 1/4 jack around to take care of it.

I bought a Levy's strap from Nick. It was like new, just as he said, and arrived super quick as well... I made the deal on Wednesday morning and had said item in my hand on Friday morning. Wouldn't hesitate to recommend :-)

I sold my Peavey 115BX to Guy. Very easy, very friendly, knows his stuff, and as mentioned above - an all round Basschat good egg! Would not hesitate to recommend Guy to anyone thinking of buying or selling with him.

You could try one of the DHA pedals, although obviously they are not being made new anymore - RIP Dave. I have a one of the basic models, an DHA VT1 MkIII (I think) which I have used as an always-on effect to warm up my sound with a solid state amp. While it is quite capable of generating overdrive if required, it was also designed to be used for just putting some tube warmth in the signal and is very controllable. It isn't tiny, would take up about the same amount of pedal board space as two 'standard' Boss pedals at a guess, but I really like it...

Once during a rehearsal, and once having just set up for a gig... one a series 6 TE and the other a Mk V TE - both heads rather than combos. The rehearsal failure was a mystery. Mid song it just cut out? I used to carry a Crate Powerblock - anyone remember them? - in case of emergency and used that to finish the practice, but the supposedly broken amp was fine when I got it home, and has been ever since. The gig failure was human error... my amp and cab were as usual on top of the keyboard amp which is a huge Peavey on casters, and someone (still don't know who) pushed the lot back against a wall, and the speaker lead hit first, damaging the socket in my cab, effectively killing the rig. I got round it by going through a BD121, used as a pre-amp, into the spare channel of the Peavey - sounded a bit sh*t but got me through the gig. I should have used the pre-amp stage of the bass head, but at the time I had no idea what was wrong and 5 minutes to sort something out for the gig, so took the quickest safe option. I guess that between us all in the band we can work around certain problems, but there are so many things that could go wrong - and no realistic way to account for them all.

No ;-)

+1 If we all agreed not only would it be a boring forum, but what would that say about music in general, and about bass as an instrument specifically? I hope we continue to hold and share contrary views for a long time to come...

I've always preferred playing for the song, and don't have nearly the skill, knowledge or talent (or frankly the desire) to take a solo with confidence so this resonates nicely with my approach. I do appreciate the flamboyance and sheer ability of some other bass players, and I'm genuinely happy that there are people out there pushing the envelope for the instrument, but it just isn't me - and this is a wonderfully eloquent way of stating that there is space for both styles of playing, sometimes all within the same person. We play covers, so I learn my bass parts and put in 100% to make sure the bass helps the band sound good... and that's enough for me.

Just heard about this - I was also trying to access his website, being a user of several bits of his kit. Sad news - I liked his stuff and he helped me out when I needed some repairs doing. R.I.P.

He's selling that too... a '77 apparently... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1977-White-Chevrolet-Corvette-350cu-V8-32-952-Miles-and-Simply-stunning/192620481606

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/The-worlds-worst-short-scale-electric-bass-guitar-Lynne/142902977609 I like this - honest, and not taking the p*ss with the starting price... note that I don't like it enough to buy it...

Not convinced by that relic job... how did the tuners, neck plate and knobs get so beaten up, yet the back (where most basses do get scratched) is practically pristeen... and beyond that who is really prepared to part with a monkey for an abused Squire?

Very 'interesting'... the shape is OK-ish, and at least a bit different, plus I like the sound of a 6 lb bass... what's with the anaglypta round the sides though?

It's good for the soul... but not the skin on your fingers!

Thanks for the tips! The fret saw I've borrowed can do curves quite nicely, but I am definitely going to take the more cautious route of using it to get the rough outline rather than try to get the precise shape at the cutting stage. I expect that there will be a fair amount of spent time sanding...

I've been reading your previous threads on this project to get some pointers on what you learned, which is very helpful - I have to say I really like where you've ended up with this version 4. So with new enthusiasm for doing my own bass I located said template in an older thread and printed it off - much better than the freehand sketch currently on the headstock, waiting for me to pluck up the courage to start cutting... typically, I can't re-locate the thread, but I think that thanks are due to Kodiakblair for uploading. I'll attach the pdf again here, in case anyone else would benefit. I've managed to borrow an electric fretsaw which seems like the idea tool for doing the re-shape - I'll post the results when I get it done. bassheads.pdf

That looks (and sounds) superb! I'm very tentatively modding one of these myself, and this is a real inspiration - especially the headstock re-shape and neck tint, because aesthetically that is the weakest part of the original guitar to my eyes. Nice job 😊