Bassman68

I had one of these when they first come out. The Multi-stack range. They were introduced as a budget cab for the AH150 head, hence only having a 100 watt handling, Other cabs in the range consisted of a 2 x 10'', 1 x 15'' & a 1 x 18'', all with a 200 watt handling, as well as the little 'Brightbox'. They were introduced late in the series V 'era' circa '88, with the idea for use as either stage monitor or backline stack.

It's probably a very 80's cliche & my back twinges just remembering it all but my favourite rig was a Status 2000 5 string through a Trace GP12 pre into a RA500 power amp feeding 1048 & 1518 cabs. The Racked up amp/flightcase weighed 6 stone & the cabs not-a-lot less but boy did I smile when I played it all. Very happy with my MarkBass gear these days.

Streamer std's were @£600+ when they were launched in the late '90's. Apart from the chunky Necks & the quiet output, they were proper,German built, bolt on necked Warwicks. My 2 x p/up, active Streamer std that I bought off of here a few years back is a great little 'workhorse' which I'm glad I snapped up for £250 & made a worthy addition to my 3 other 'wicks. Your find seems overpriced, especially with the wear & tear but if you can negotiate a better price? [sharedmedia=core:attachments:150353]

The cabs are series 6 by the looks of the grilles, Mk V's had the black pressed steel 'Fire guard' grill. The 1518 has a Fane 15" which pre-dates the change over to PD's & before the Celestion Kevlar impreg. jobs, so I'd put that cab at @1989? All in all, a nice tidy 'Classic' Trace stack. Hope you've got a sack barrow to cart in all around? ;-)

I bought one back in early '88 & that was passive. Just 2 x EMG select humbuckers & V,V,T controls. Still sounded great.

The bass intro reminds me of the intro to 'Edge of heaven' by Wham with that Bass,vocal & low piano "Dow, doh" etc?

Think the main differences were the HA3500 had twin valve & transistor pre-amp gains & a switchable 10 band graphic eq, whereas the other head was a solid state transistor head with rotary tone controls?

Can anyone point me in the right direction for a black pearloid scratchplate for my Stingray 5. I've looked on the Ernieball/Musicman web pages but they don't list them.. Someone must make copies? Thanks in advance Steve

As has already been said, I think the amp has very little to do with it. It's all about a Stingray & dead roundwounds in my opinion. If you're on a budget,You could probably get close with a Sterling Sub & some 'played-in' nickel roundwounds & a touch of compression, through an amp set fairly 'flat' with perhaps a bit of low-mid but keep the treble on the guitar fairly flat with the bass control boosted? The rest is all down to fingers & technique..

Brings back memories of Henry Thomas on 'Rockschool', Probably plenty of clips on Youtube?

Would have thought the best thing to do would be to ask over on the Warwick forum?

Sorry for the dull answer but I think the original Fortress had a P/J configuration & the Fortress one had twin J's stacked in a humbucker config. Both originally being active with 2 band, treble & bass controls but I think the Rockbasses were passive? There was also a German built Fortress Flashback that had a pearloid scratchplate & 'Lipstick' tube covered p/ups....

Same as post above, I take a 4 & a 5 string to gigs with my rock band, (Both Stingrays, so sound similar) but certain songs in our set require an open bottom D which just sounds & plays so much better on a 4 string, even after playing mostly 5 strings for 24 years... I would much prefer to use just 1 bass a night & for my Function band I do so, Never having broken a string or suffered guitar failure mid gig.. That's it, completely jinxed myself now!

They say about "Playing every gig like it was your last..." I reckon if I copied him, that would be?.....

After 1976Fenderheads demo, I got myself a EH Deluxe Big muff bass pi. I've been using my Boss GT6B for most of my Muse sounds in my rock covers band but felt the fuzz sounds were lacking on occasion. I've covered a fair few Muse songs over the years & can't fathom why I didn't get some 'Muff' sooner! With a Boss OC2 in front & the addition of a EH Bassballs for more 'filtered' tones, I think I've got everything covered (at least for the pub/club circuit).

Your pick-ups look a bit more on a slant John?

A closer look at the Streamer..

[quote name='LeftyJ' timestamp='1386853799' post='2305361'] Interesting SSI to the far left, I've never seen one with dual splitcoils! [/quote] Ex John Entwistle collection, Monster sound!

My bass contribution to the German economy..

Can I come to play? Love my MB gear, gives me a lot of options but I love having the chance to split the heads & cabs for a stereo rig...

My first fretless was a '86 Vox white shadow in black, seeing the body shape in this post I instantly thought 'Vox' although never recall a 5 string version available in the '80s or with a humbucking pick-up. Mine had a standard Dimarzio P-bass pick-up in roughly the 'Stingray' sweetspot with a small coil tap switch. Not a bad little bass overall. This bass looks an interesting option to me, the binding looking very 80s Washburn?...

"You're on after the puppet show & the bingo needs to start at 10 o'clock sharp?"

Pretty sure they used to be made by GHS, as in 'boomers'....