SimonK

...and that was a bit of a disaster! I don't think I fully appreciated how different a 5 string Warwick feels to play compared to the four string Stingrays that I have been playing for the last twenty years. I really struggled for the whole gig adapting to both the five strings, but also the entirely different feel of the thing. I'm hoping that if I persevere things will get easier as I do think very different instruments can inspire in very different ways, but adapting does seem to be a bit of a challenge. Most notable was quite how big and chunky the stingrays felt to wear after playing the Warwick, albeit the Stingray necks are much slimmer! Mind you the Trace sounded as equally awesome with both - didn't change any settings as signal level, EQ etc. was all fine or at least nothing I couldn't tweak using the controls on the basses alone. Every day's a school day even after 35 years of playing!

Yes I visited PMT in Portsmouth for years and it just got more and more disappointing until it died a rather predictable death. Even a visit to Andertons is not quite as exciting as it used to be mainly because if I want to buy something I normally source it second hand, and while the boutique section is fun to have a gander at I don't think I would ever spontaneously buy something that expensive (famous last words!). I think the trick to bricks and mortar shops is to diversify. I like "Guitar and Beans" in Leiden, and as others have mentioned this is not the only coffee/music shop combination. My business plan would be to open a second hand musical instruments plus coffee (not second-hand!) shop, probably aiming to get 80% of the revenue off the coffee by making it a place for muso's to hang out, although it would probably need to be in a University town to be succesful. Having it big enough to run live nights and maybe have a small bar would probably be needed too. Sadly there is simply too much available on line for a traditional retailer to survive selling new gear anymore.

£75 each is reasonable if they work, or even as a source of replacement speakers for repairs...

This looks a bit Trace like. Cool cab finish!

...so after a bit of detective work I think the Tolex covered GP12 would have been from about 1995, and the carpet covered from 1998 onwards. I don't think I previously realised there was this much variation in the SMX series, but it looks to me that while the preamp stayed the same the power section started off fairly similar to the older Series 6 amps and then they seem to have moved to a newer power amp design. The faceplates are identical. RE the cabs, I suspect the non-ported one is an older series 6 as both the SMX catalogues I have (tolexed and carpeted) show ports on all the cabs.

I'm not convinced its a "totally different" animal - possibly only a couple years older with both being the very last UK manufactured?

You are absolutly correct, the similar one I saw is still on reverb for about £100 or more than I think it worth:

Surely the obvious comment would be to get a PJ bass if you wanted to cover both?

I saw this but passed - generally (in the UK) you can find a GP12SMX for less than £300, and a smaller cab like that for under £100, but looking at various forums it can be double these prices in the US or mainland Europe.

As a scientist I feel obliged to like metric more except for pints of beer and miles/hour. Thus said I was talking to a French chap about this last week who pointed out that given a litre of beer is quite a lot bigger that a pint (by almost three quarters), the Brits were missing a trick with our drinking habits!

Love this... I don't exactly hate changing my strings but can seldom be arsed (or want to spend the money) to - I think two of mine have eight year old strings on at the moment, although I did put d'addario NYXL's for this reason last time I did change them...

I have to admit my "dream" rig was actually the GP12 plus 1048 and 1518 cabs, and a Corvette 5, but the above is close enough due to bargains coming my way and also tastes at least altering a bit with time. The crazy thing is that my rig only cost £1300 in todays prices with the vast majority being the bass, whereas in the 90s it probably would have been north of £2500 in 90s prices, so well over £5k now! Apart from the weight benefit, I struggle to think of a £5k new rig that would be much better than this combination.

Yes I know I posted this picture on the Warwick thread a few weeks back, but I was just running through a few things this afternoon ready for taking the new (to me) Warwick Streamer 5 and TE stack out for their first gig together next week, and the combination just sounds like everything I have ever wanted. It's taken me almost 30 years to finally get the set-up I lusted over as a teenager and it's exactly as I hoped! Has anyone else done the Warwick + TE combination?

...so what happened today???

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/226787499542?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D777008%26algo%3DPERSONAL.TOPIC%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20250324084321%26meid%3D3429e40cdf604f38892cf4a9547f74fd%26pid%3D101949%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26itm%3D226787499542%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D4375194%26algv%3DRecentlyViewedItemsV2WithMLRPboosterAndUpdatedFeatures_BP%26brand%3DTrace%2BElliot&_trksid=p4375194.c101949.m162918&_trkparms=parentrq%3A2d7826ab1970ab13560ef8abffff85d8|pageci%3A38f944d7-3f32-11f0-b3eb-c6d89e18e4eb|iid%3A1|vlpname%3Avlp_homepage