Sparky Mark

Interesting to see you have the VPF at maximum ( bass boost and mid cut) at the same time as boosting high mids and cutting the lows.

If the OP is driving his TB500 close to its limits he could be maxing his 115 cabinet which I believe may only be rated at 200 watts. The 410 is rated at 400 watts so could be okay but 250 watts into the 115 especially when pulling/hitting strings hard is going to cause distress that the amp may well be detecting. Another example of why 410 and 115 isn't the best combination.

The amp cutting out could be the amp working correctly, not a fault. You mention that it cuts out when pulling on the bass strings; the amp could be detecting a dangerous condition for itself or your cabs and is going into protection mode. Simply using a more powerful amp might just give you the headroom to destroy your cabs. If you are using a fair amount of low end boost try reducing that a bit to see if it helps.

The Speakon output sockets on the ABM600 will accept 1/4" jack connector speaker cables. It could be worth just checking the amp to speaker connections using one of those.

Check that both of the speaker cables are wired the same. If one of them swaps the polarity then that cab will be out of phase with the other and cancel most of the bass response. I've experienced this and it sounds exactly as you have described.

Looking again at this case, why on Earth didn't Fender/SKB just place the foam inner components in this case so that the bass body was on the left hand side so it was correctly oriented when a left handed player takes it from the case? My guess is the operator in the factory was so used to the right handed orientation it was totally missed. Depending on how easy the foam inners are to remove from the shell that could be a simple mod.

You'd hope so, but it seems Fender supplied the majority of left handed basses in righty or "almost lefty" cases. I will add that when Fender introduced the American Standards circa 2008 they upped their game, including their cases hopefully.

You can see in the first post that my right handed P bass fits fine (although upside down) in a lefty P case. It seems odd to me that Fender would adapt the internal configuration of the bottom part of a lefty case but attach the top part hinged such that you are carrying your bass upside down and the wrong way around?

To me that is a right handed case because when you carry the case the bass is upside down. When you open the case you should be able to pick the bass up in the correct orientation without having to flip it over and turn it correct side up.

I never met Martin but his character shone through Basschat such that we all knew him. So so sad. RIP Martin.

Cutting at 340Hz removes that nasal sound for me. Boosting a little above and below to taste.

I much prefer the cheaper faded (satin) finish to the (sticky) high gloss finishes on Gibsons. Gloss is beautiful but not as comfortable to play for me.

What Markbass head is all valve? They only ever made the Classic 300 and thats been out of production for donkeys years.

I gigged two AE112 for quite a while before dragging my HT112ER and EX112ER out for a trial before selling those old fashioned heavy ceramic cabs. The result of that exercise was that I sold the AEs as the HT was worth the extra weight. In fact my current faves are two HD210 cabs.

I'm happy to go with the concensus and agree it is a bit harsh. Having worked on mission critical electronics during the transition from PTH to multilayer PCBs, thru hole to SMT and lead to lead-free solders/RoHS, I've seen just about everything that can go wrong do so. Ironically, I wish the blindingly bright blue LED on my compressor pedal would start to degrade; it's like looking into the Sun.

Understood, but I will add that new component selection is most definitely the responsibilty and a critical part of the design process. No component without a fully proven reliability record would make it onto the BOMs of products I am involved with.

Dear Andy, You've made a couple of serious accusations that I feel I have to counter. It's obvious from your emotional reaction that you invest personally extremely heavily in your designs. I understand that and have the greatest respect and admiration for your brilliantly detailed contributions both here and on Talkbass. You express your views very directly at times but they always come from the right place. My critical observation of a feature you have to admit was problematic is definitely not a personal attack on either you or any American citizens. I have spent the majority of my adult life working for US entities both on mainland USA and around the world and the vast majority of my instrument collection are US designed and built (Fender, Gibson, Musicman, Rickenbacker, Tom Clement). I am most definitely a US fan. However, sometimes things just don't work out as planned for many reasons as you have described and the way this issue was apparently dealt with by GB is laudable but doesn't mean it never happened. I'm sure we learn more from the things that go wrong than go right first time; as I have by starting this debate in a thread created to discuss amp gimmicks that did work. Yours sincerely, Mark

Okay, so it was a product design issue of which the actual amplifier design was only one aspect. Unfortunately, early adoption of these LEDs for aesthetics purposes only, resulted in this all too obvious fault in an otherwise perfectly satisfactory product. It's also unfortunate that not everyone lives in North America and able to benefit from the free repair service.