Dave

Cheers for all the suggestions. I did think about increasing the input as a possibility, but must admit I haven't tried that yet. The guy I saw playing through the Marshall head did have some pedals (and possibly a SansAmp) in his chain, but definitely no distortion/overdrive effects. And he was using a P Deluxe, whereas I was just using my passive P. Was going to try the Stingray to see if it helped, but I do have some overdrive pedals I can try to increase pre-volume without adding distortion. I was a little surprised the amp didn't have a GAIN control knob, and only a master volume after the EQ settings. By the way Cheddatom, what's the JCM800 plug-in you're talking about? I would assume it's some kind of effect you use, but what equipment is it running on to get the sound. Just curious. It's my first dive into the world of valve-dom, so not really sure what to expect. I did all the internet research I could, but must admit I'm surprised at how loud it is. I've not tried it in a band setting yet, and I understand (though possibly incorrrectly) that 100W tube power does not equate to the same perceived volume as 100W solid state, but this thing sounds pretty impressive. Most would probably say I'm nuts buying this beast when I've got a super-light 500W LMII amp, but I guess I'm still in search of "the sound in my head", and weight isn't a big consideration... yet.

Has anyone ever played through/owned one of these. I saw a band using a Marshall amp and decided I wanted to give one a try to see if I could reproduce the bassist's slightly distorted/overdriven Marshall tube tone (it sounded AWESOME). Must admit I wasn't totally sure this was the head he was using (couldn't get close enough to find out) but I was convinced I could read JCM on the amp, so unless he was using a guitar amp, I don't think it could have been anything else. Long story short, I picked one up on ebay, but can't for the life of me get it to distort. I wonder if this is because it's the BASS version. There's very little info on this amp on t'internet, but the majority of things I read about older valve amps is you can't really turn the volume past 4 without getting distortion, and yet when I hooked this beast up to my MarkBass traveller 151 I could crank it up to 10 and it still sounded clean (AND LOUD). While this would normally be a good thing, I was actually after the distorted tone, so it isn't really what I'm looking for. Any suggestions? And before you ask I did have a super-brief chat with the bass player using said amp, and he said he didn't use any effects and the tone was all about the Marshall.

Having recently opened for a TERRIBLE covers band (whereas we played originals) I would definitely go with the bad originals band every time. Having sat through an hour and a half set of many songs I (used to think I) quite liked being murdered by sloppy interpretations definitely hit home why I rarely (if ever) go to see cover/tribute acts. We also opened for a Thin Lizzy tribute band recently who actually did a pretty decent job, but even that performance felt flat to me, so I've decided I'm definitely only into original music in a live setting, and have found out there is nothing worse than hearing some of your favourite songs being slaughtered by a covers band. Cringe-worthy!

[quote name='metaltime' post='38840' date='Jul 30 2007, 11:07 AM']add a matching black headstock then thats what i am after.[/quote] You mean like this one? The Sterling and HH Ray are no longer in my possession, but the Black H was the first "high end" bass I ever bought, and she's definitely a keeper. I also have a 2 band Black Ray with Rosewood fretboard, which is strung with stainless slinkys, whenever I'm after a slightly different sound. Love my Rays.