Russ

Great review. I own a TE-1200 and echo pretty much everything you've said about it. My only personal criticisms are that it has no way to monitor input gain (a clip light in the LED ring around the gain knob would be good for a putative version 2 of the head) and yes, that the included gig bag doesn't have a shoulder strap. It's quite hefty for a Class D head and having a shoulder strap would make transporting it much easier.

So, on Friday I received my new Maruszczyk Frog 6A twins - Skye and Scarlett. Skye is the blue-stained fretted bass, Scarlett is the red-stained fretless. Yes, I name my basses! Specs: Swamp ash bodies Quilted ash tops with colour stain in the grain Roasted maple necks with ebony fingerboards - edge lines on the fretless, Luminlay blocks on the fretted, Luminlay side dots on both, 17.5mm spacing at the bridge Delano Xtender pickups (with series/single coil/parallel switches) Noll 4-band EQ, 18V Hipshot Ultralite tuners Monorail bridges Ramps I’m still exploring the range of sounds available, but, holy crap, these things are nice. Light (8lbs), lovely necks, and a very smooth, slick feel thanks to a perfect setup. They weren’t all that pricey either. Maruszczyk also make it all a bit special - every bass comes with a certificate of ownership, a nice manual, a T-shirt, a big thick leather strap and a fancy gig bag! Adrian’s English isn’t great, but he’s very accommodating of any unusual requests. For instance, to fit the colour theme, I requested coloured knobs - we managed to do them on the volume and blend pots, but Noll’s concentric EQ pots are an unusual size, and we weren’t able to get knobs that fit, alas. Doesn’t bother me really, I think they still look cool. Merry Christmas to me.

I had a Fusion S 1200 for a while. Fantastic sounding thing, but really confusing controls. Every knob has two functions that you have to press the knob in to access.

I like the Sadowsky one. But you're right about the A-C one. It's "blobby", like a low-resolution version of a Fender headstock!

Yup. It's kinda a silly and slightly shallow thing to get hung up on, but the headstock is a dealbreaker for me too.

It goes 'boxy', a little bit hairy, and compressed in a less-than-pleasant way (pretty much standard for solid-state amps), but not noisy. I play active basses, and have to get the gain up to around 2-3-o'clock for it to get to that point. I usually have it around 11-12-o'clock, and there's almost endless gobs of power from the power section, so you'll pretty much never be in a situation where you'll have to dial up the input gain to be heard. The built-in compressor does lower the volume somewhat, but, as Merton said, playing with the input gain and compressor controls yields some interesting results, anything from a hyper-compressed, Tony Levin-style tone to singing sustain (my preferred setting).

I’ve got a TE-1200, and yes, this is a thing. Just dial in your gain until it sounds bad. However, this is something that has been brought up with the Trace team at Peavey, and will probably be addressed in the next iteration of the head. They’ve actually been very good in soliciting feedback on their products, and seem to very much be open to suggestions. Some smaller, lighter cabs would be nice too - updated versions of the 1153/1210H cabs would be ideal - something that would fit in the back of the average hatchback rather than the back of a big American SUV!

I don’t think I’m ever going to be in a covers band. I’m not really wired that way. On the odd occasion that a band I’ve been in has thrown a cover into our set, I’ve never found them very satisfying to play. I’ve learnt entire albums full of songs, but I have no desire to play anyone else’s music on stage. However, I’ve enjoyed plenty of covers bands over the years, although I have very particular tastes with it - they either have to reproduce the original closely (pretty much as if they were a tribute band) or they have to do it sufficiently differently that it becomes its own thing. Can’t stand the half-arsed cover.

Got all the old demo tapes and CDs, press kits, and a bunch of flyers. Also got most of the magazines we got reviewed in, the programme from when we played Bloodstock 2003, and a bunch of backstage passes. I was thinking of making a display case with stuff from each band, but never quite got around to it.

The Nexus heads were cool. I do feel they tried to shoehorn too many features into them though. Never been much of a fan of their cabs, alas.

Looks great, as long as they don't have any reliability issues. I used to be a bit of an Ampeg zealot, loved them. Then my SVT-7 died at a gig, during the first song. So, much as I think Ampeg stuff is great, I'm a little wary. I want to wait and hear some reports on how they perform. The 1200W head looks like it's coming in at US$1000, so probably £1000 when all is said and done. The gig bag is extra though - I wish they'd just include them. The 2x12" cab is $1100.

The two mid controls are the Bongo's big secret. That raspy tone is all in the high mids - dial the treble flat (or just slightly boosted), then dial the high mids all the way up, and you get that lovely clank. The low mids contains all the heft, although you need to take it easy with it - it can get quite boomy and tubby if you dial it all the way up.

It could be done as a 5.33 ohm cab (3x16 ohm speakers in parallel). Most amps will handle that. Markbass and Ashdown have both done 3x10" cabs and done pretty well with them. I'd buy one.

I was 13. That meant a bit of an eclectic selection - Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Iron Maiden, a compilation tape of Commodore 64 game music, and whatever "Now" tapes were around back then...

Marshall to re-enter the bass market with a 1000W Class D head, with a valve preamp, the DBS EQ section, and full classic black and gold livery.

As recorded, it's... OK. There's this live version featuring Myles Kennedy from Alter Bridge that takes it to a completely different level though, with some beautiful S&G-style harmonies. Check it out.

k.d. lang's version - sublime and practically peerless. Jeff Buckley's version - incredible. Alexandra Burke's version - execrable, horrendous travesty.

I'm using a Barefaced Big Twin II, which, in general, requires quite a lot of juice to work properly. My main amp head is one of the new Trace Elliot TE-1200s, which throws out 1200W. We're also getting into that murky discussion about "class D watts" not being equivalent to class A/class AB watts. Technically, a watt is a watt - one joule per hour. But the best explanation I've heard is that a Class D power amp is super-clean and flat in response, with no additional harmonic colouration, so it sounds quieter. A more traditional valve or MOSFET power amp adds additional colouration and harmonics to the sound, so it ends up sounding "bigger" per watt of power.

Colin Edwin has no interest in touring with PT again. Him and Steven Wilson seem to have drifted apart, and he never got a call when Wilson “reconvened” PT, with Wilson handling bass duties on the new album himself. Surprised Wilson didn’t call on Nick Beggs though, who played bass for most of his solo stuff. Wilson’s live set always contains multiple PT songs, so Beggs knows the stuff. I guess he was busy?

Nope. 1/4” TRS jack. I think it’s actually more like 350W into 8ohms - 500 into 4, and 700 into 2. As I was saying above, the tone is great. It’s just a bit… quiet.

There's a switch on the front to switch between no effects, chorus and octave, and you can run both effects together if you get the better footswitch from Blackstar. But the chorus depth and octave blend controls are on the back. I guess they're expecting people to "set and forget" them. I actually looked into the volume issue a bit more. It only delivers 700W into 2 ohms - at 4 ohms, it's only pumping out 500W. Which is good if you're running two 4 ohm cabs, but not so good for everyone else.

I actually posted a review in the reviews section yesterday. This is what it said. Been playing with a U700 head a bit, into my Barefaced Big Twin II. I like the tone. There’s a lot of stuff in there, and the power amp emulations are excellent. Good, powerful EQ, and the two pre-shapes give you instant good tone. The compressor is decent for a one-knob job. However, the little toggle switches are flimsy, hiding the effects settings round the back is a bit silly (some people might not even notice they’re there!) and, well, despite 700 watts of power, it never feels like it actually gets very loud. Also, NO MUTE SWITCH! Great first go at bass from Blackstar - it’s really got potential. But a Mk2 version needs to address some of these issues. Proper pushbuttons for the EQ, preamp, effects, etc please. Include the full-featured footswitch. And, if they’re keeping the effects, put the settings on the front. And add a futtockin’ MUTE SWITCH!

Been playing with a U700 head a bit, into my Barefaced Big Twin II. I like the tone. There’s a lot of stuff in there, and the power amp emulations are excellent. Good, powerful EQ, and the two pre-shapes give you instant good tone. The compressor is decent for a one-knob job. But I agree with Bill - the little toggle switches are flimsy, hiding the effects settings round the back is a bit silly (some people might not even notice they’re there!) and, well, despite 700 watts of power, it never feels like it actually gets very loud. Also, NO MUTE SWITCH! Great first go at bass from Blackstar - it’s really got potential. But a Mk2 version needs to address some of these issues. Proper pushbuttons for the EQ, preamp, effects, etc please. And, if they’re keeping the effects, put the settings on the front. And add a futtockin’ MUTE SWITCH!

"Hand Built" used to mean using a hand saw, hammer and chisel. Even luthiers who don't use CNC machines still use various other machines and tools for the various steps of building an instrument, including preparing/planing wood, cutting the wood (bandsaw), sanding, drilling, routing, etc. A CNC machine is just one more machine. And many of those who do use CNCs only use them to cut out bodies. They still prefer to do neck shaping, etc by hand using planes, rasps, etc.

They already have done.