Soledad

My GP7 head is fanned but I only use it at low levels at the mo. Anyone ever switched the fan - I mean add a micro switch on back panel to kill fan at low levels??

Had a 90s from new (Bass Centre of course) - totally brilliant amp section, loved it. Gave it away in a moment of madness. That combo (built-in 15") with a 410 extension would give the new gen 500 watters a surprise I reckon. If you ever got inside a Trace head you'd see a fair bit of where the weight went - the massive output transformer. Wonderfully over-engineered, and very conservative output ratings. Bargains galore out there (though many are well road-worn). Maybe they'rs due for a comeback?

If I'm wrong someone 'shout', but as I recall, amp stability and signal control reduces as load impedance reduces. The amp's damping factor is a function of load impedance and is higher (a good thing) as speaker impedance increases. It obviously takes a lot of controlled power to deal with the peaks in transient signals and the amp is working hard when it has to pull the speaker diaphragms back from the extreme travel of the big transients. (I suspect it's working even harder at the start of a transient, getting the diaphragms moving from rest.) If my rig was powerful enough to always give required volumes, then I'd run 8 ohms in preference to 4 because I think the amp has tighter control of the speakers. Can I hear the difference? Probably not really, until the whole rig is just about maxed out and at that stage speakers are distorting anyway regardless of how well the amp is trying to control them. It reminds me though, we don't get owt for nowt - 250w into 8 becomes 125 into 4, but there has to be a price to pay.

The volume/tone stack on my gen1 V7 don't turn entirely independently - adjusting vol tends to take the tone with it. I don't want to squirt WD40 down the knob stack, and it seems the connection is between the knobs, nothing to do with actual pots. Can't see how to remove knobs (no grub screws visible, probably a push fit but feels v tight). It just seems the clearance between the 2 knobs is too close. The mid pan stack is fine btw. Any ideas please?

It's only fair to say what, and maybe why?

What oil do you use please?, does it depend on the woods applied to? I really like the shape of the f-hole, the way it's a part of the body form, dead good. And from the pic early on, you use the gents saw to cut the fret slots? And some of the woods you use - I bet you know Bob at Timberline Love these build threads, Top work.

A Lakland is around 3 times the price. If you're not pro you don't need either. So I don't need any. Save me buying a new amp !

Me too, so far. Got a gen1 V7 a few days ago. I grew up on passives anyway and modern amps have plenty of tone shaping (too much if you're heavy handed). I expect to spend some more time later with the mid sweep (a smart feature I think) but the bass sounds really good passive, and it's faster to get from one sound to another. Re weight it feels about the same as my Precisions (but see below). Here's the bottom line (IMHO) - a Sire of your choice is all you need. Get one, stop there and work on playing, technique and sound. Changing string gauge or just one cab will make a bigger difference than the next shiny bass. If you want a Lakland recognise that it's a want, not a need... WEIGHT: my V7 - 4 (gen1) is 9.6lb That's roughly what I reckon

Well spotted - didn't see that.

I don't think it's very good physics - as I recall, the idea is get the flux gap down as low as poss, hence flux density as high as poss, plus better heat dissipation from voice coil. Then pack the coil as close as poss (max voicecoil density). So tapping the coil is not a great idea from performance p.o.v. surely. I remember the U.S. built JBLs featuring flat ribbon wire in order to max the coil packing into the flux gap - neat indeed. And a good mate who had a Fender Twin with the optional JBLs fitted - his Strat through that... cut you in half it would ')

Got it, I'd forgotten about that. Seems neat but I suspect efficiency would drop a bit when one coil (or half total whichever) is bypassed, half the copper in the flux gap doing nowt. Thanks for sorting that for me anyway - i'd been browsing 15" cabs and it came up.

I know there's a very long thread here re impedance and it may be mentioned somewhere but - I notice Hartke (maybe others) feature switcheable impedance on their single-driver cabs - how? An example is the HD112, single 12", switchable 4/8 ohm. The only way I can think is to build a 4 ohm driver and put a dummy load in series, to turn half the power into heat inside the box. Excellent. Any knowledge please? I

The burst & t'shell board suit all the bling SO well - the neck binding, block markers, more knobs than our cooker.... coooer. If you need white get some trainers. Off to check this over tomorrow:

I'd say yes, pretty much. Most of the woods and processes I have come across seem to emanate from the U.S. (not all, most) and they tend to talk about 'heat-treated' or 'thermally modified' - the latter if you are a lumber merchant as it helps justify the high prices Jabba - i will do some pics of the poplar I have - colour is quite a shock if you are familiar with unprocessed poplar (or tulipwood). Pleased I asked this - some very fine examples of applications here. Could be some really nice alternatives to bubinga to be had. I don't like bubinga - it stinks when you work it (like zebrano) - it's the wood's way of telling you it was happier where it was, in the forest. And it appears several species are protected now anyway. Very nice indeed - the ash takes on a very attractive honey tone - love both of those. The ash neck on the Marco is very distinctive, not the application I was expecting!

Warwick Reds - I checked G4M and Amazon, why don't they make scale length clear on packaging or in listing (unless I missed it). I've used D'addario for years but mayb try these, and investigate the Fenders mentioned. And I resiously dislike silk wraps - they look naff and don't seem to serve a useful purpose. The colours clash with my headstock and that hurts

Hi, any buiders using or investigating the relatively new thermally modified hardwoods at all? I'm no luthier but build furniture and through that have come across TM (or heat treated) ash, maple and poplar - TM maple being used now by Veritas on their premium chisels for example. I've just collected a load of TM poplar (tulipwood) for a couple of things (some cabinet doors and a table top). I'm interested because the TM maple and ash could be interesting body woods (though might be over-bright) and colours are quite something. here's a pic of the Veritas chisel just for info- I doubt the poplar would be useful for instruments, but it comes out close to euro walnut and is consistent through a 2" board. Interesting stuff anyway. (I'll get some pics of the poplar once it's sized / planed).