GreeneKing

I'll offer the BG250 free on collection locally as spares or repairs. The tip is next. I tried my spare head and my 2nd Accugroove with a Palmer pre that has an aux in. It all works perfectly. tcElectronic watts are a lot smaller that EBS watts though......

Much appreciated Gary.

Thank you Stu. For what is and most likely will ever be, a home practice amp it makes more sense to replace it in my opinion. With the totally inert nature of the beast I suspect that a firmware update won't work but I will try. I've got a Palmer pre-amp with an auxiliary input and I'll try that into my spare head and one Accugroove cab as that might be a way of getting an Aux in that I use with my Tascam a lot. Peter

Hello Ive had my BG250 for quite a few years, from new. It’s only been used for for home practice and it’s been ultra reliable. This morning I turned it on and no sound. Plenty of lights illuminated and no buttons on the panel are working. No smoke, smell or snap crackle and pop. The gain light is permanently on as is the Tubedrive light, a couple of tuner lights, the low tune light and the power light. When I power the amp down it takes a full 9 seconds for the lights to go out. Much longer than normal. Does anyone have similar experience or ideas? I’m looking at an Orange Crush 50 on Saturday. If anyone has any suggestions I’ll have a look at the BG250 tomorrow. Peter

My 'shed' is sound proofed and headphones are I find a pain. I'll ask at Promonade for any amp techs they recommend and I'll put a post on here too. The nature of the problem points to a board issue but I'll ask around. I'll have a look myself too. I checked all the obvious stuff.

Promenade Music have a 2nd hand Orange Crush 50 that I'll have a look at on Saturday. I can see what else they have. I've got a rig but I'd like for a practice combo to have some versatility and tone.

I’m in my tiny bass practice ‘shed’ in my extension. My TC Electronic BG 250 that is pure overkill has just died. I don’t use it’s features like the tuner, Toneprint or Tubedrive. It’s quite an old 15” driver model that I bought new some years ago. The lights all come on but there’s no output. The button switches don’t work and when I turn it off the lights take an age to fade. I suspect a component failure and it’s given good service. I don’t even think I’ll get it repaired. It’s been ultra reliable up to today. I don’t want to use my EBS HD350 and one Accugroove Tri-112L as that's even more overkill and I don’t have an mp3 input that is vital for my practice. So I’m looking for a well made practice amp that has a aux in for my Tascam. I don’t really need bells and whistles. Any suggestions? I can probably rustle up £200 or so. Peter

An interesting thread. I have a HD350 and my Fafner. Experience with the HD350 had me looking for a 2nd Accugroove Tri-112L to work it harder. I find that the Fafner and one cab is now loud enough with the drive and volume controls set to only about 9 or 10 o'clock. I'm using my EBS Micro 3 with EQ bypassed to boost a passive bass signal. I keep everything flat most of the time except treble that I cut just a little. I also use an adjustable HPF into the Micro 3. For tone adjustment I'm using the bass passive tone and pickup blend. I'm loving EBS amps......

The amp was faultless tonight. I love it. Just using one of my Accugroove Tri112L 8 ohm cabs and it copes with ease. Okay it's a heavy old lump but weight or size isn't an issue for me. I've mainly used 500 watt class D amps before but the Fafner seems to have more headroom.

An update; I took the top off and the amp is very clean. The guy I bought it from told me that it had recently been serviced but shipping always carried potential for damage. I checked all connections that I could get to and used Servisol on the pots (from the front with knobs and nuts removed) and the valve base. I've had it on for over 4 hours now with the blue LED lamp fitted and all is good. The blown incandescent lamp that I removed was a red 'painted' 48v. I've sourced a UK made red 48v LED at RS Components and it arrived today. £7.25 with free delivery. However with the blue one working so well I may just leave it in. Practice tonight but fingers crossed.

I've bought some blue LED bulbs on eBay, less than £4 for 5 all the way from China. They are 36v so may prove unsuitable. I'll update..

I would like to thank Mike publicly for going beyond what would normally be expected to resolve an issue that was none of his making. Mike made me a tortoiseshell scratch plate for my Lakland Skyline P/J. The plate was superb but while gently easing a couple of radii with a file I noticed that the tort was delaminating slightly. Mike checked the offcuts and he wasn't happy with the material. He went into battle with the supplier and has since discovered that the material has been a problem for several other luthiers and users of tort. Mike sourced an alternative and got it made and out to me before Xmas free of charge. It also happens to look completely stunning, even better than the first in a retro 50's way. Thank you Mike.

My Fafner I is proving to be an awesome amp into just one of my two 8ohm Accugroove Tri112’s. On Tuesday the amp started to cut out and the gain control was inconsistent. After about 15 minutes it sorted itself out. I have been storing it in an unheated conservatory and I wondered if the problem may lie in that? I had a spare valve so fitted that in any case. A bit of a fiddle from the front panel due to large fingers and switch wires an inch too short.... It’s now behaving but the orange glow has gone. Does anyone have a link to a replacement lamp/bulb to save me taking it apart again, twice? Peter

Just to add that I've edited my original post to correct my error above. Peter

it's a slightly subjective change in tone, better quality components and the obvious new ability to blend rather than simply switch pickups, giving a greater tonal palette. The pickups are the major influence on tone and they remain. Also the switchcraft jack feels far more secure. I hope that helps.

Yes, from memory, it is boost only. The centre detent confused me. I had this realisation an hour ago when I was going through all I’d said on my Salace. I think all resonant peaks on all models are boost only so to remove don’t go to centre but fully anti clockwise. Cheers Luke!

While I wouldn't consider myself an expert I've owned and played a fair few of Alan's filter based EQ instruments. Unlike cut and boost EQs where you can twiddle with a vague grasp of what's going on and get the tone you want, with the filter based pre-amps you really need to know what you want and how to achieve that. There's more than one way to do it and Alan's filter based pre -amps have evolved wonderfully over the years so my ideas may not fit all. Saying that, it's not 'rocket science'. All that is needed is a little time spent understanding roughly how they work and then, vitally a structured approach to getting the tone you want. I still have my stunning filter equipped headless Salace 5. Basically, if you have a 2 pickup bass with a Low Pass filter on each pup you need to blend to one pickup and then the other and set up the LPFs independently. Take any 'global' HPF or sweepable mids out of the equation first too by using the upper knob set to it's mid pos'n. Make sure the LPF top knob isn't pulled up (can be a mid boost control, usually low mid on neck pup and high mid on bridge) and that the upper, resonant peak knob is fully anti clockwise (it's boost only even if there is a centre detent). Now for the basic tone. Turn the selected pup LPF fully anti clockwise. Then while playing gradually rotate the LPF, introducing greater higher frequencies until you get the base tone you want from the neck pup. Blend fully to the other pup and repeat. You can now use the blend control to move between pups to blend the two tones to suit. Depending on your setup, the resonant peak boost on each LPF can be used to trim that turn down part of the LPF cut off curve up a varying degree. A pull on the top knob may well be a mid boost as described above. You may also have a HPF fitted that is global, works the opposite way and may have a bright pull on top. The top knob is likely not a resonant peak but a simple cut and boost from its centre detente. Later models may have a John East sweepable mids that in my experience is tuned higher than the usual sweepable mids giving greater 'sparkle' options. My lovely Finn 5 Uber spec, now sadly sold, also had a global passive tone control that was an active/passive pull switch also. If all this seems overly complicated I apologise. It just needs to be done one step at a time and then once you have the 'meat' sorted for each pickup you can blend and add the 'gravy' via the HPF/sweepable mids, resonant peak controls and mid boosts and even a good old passive tone control. But if you just dive in and twiddle it can be a recipe for disaster imo.

Another Loom from John successfully fitted and bass changed from V/T/Switch to VVT. Great loom, arrived sooner than expected and a real bargain. Bourns pots, 250k and I think a 047 cap. Works very well and short scale is a good scale.

2019? 2009 methinks Stu

I've got the username wrong but I think it's close. Chris is from the NE. We met in Haltwhistle. He's still about on BC. Edited to add Chris2112. Re the woods, as usual Alan is the expert. Not only that he's a good communicator, a gent and a credit to his profession.

That's a long time ago. Hiscox methinks. Strings - possibly Sunbeams. A gorgeous bass. I had fun choosing the woods and getting to know Alan.

She has aged beautifully. Chris112 had it 2nd!

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