SimonK

The picture of the 1153T that you found online is probably a mark 5 or 6 cab, so at least ten years older than yours (or more). If they have carpeting they are from the late 1990s (my favourites), and as mentioned the riveted on logo started being a thing when manufacturing moved abroad. I haven't seen the carpeting AND the riveted logo before which makes me suspicious that this was one of the very last UK made cabs that was probably sold with the new logo between the beginning of the Gibson ('98) then Peavey ('05) eras.

Good job - life is always better with a bigger Trace Elliot stack! Re the badge on the 15, lots of people who like this orientation took them off because they didn't like the badge on sideways (I do, and then hook them back on). I suspect if you look closely at the grill on what would be the top right in the picture above you may see some signs of it being removed. If the logo on the 2x10 is riveted on this will be a very late example of these cabs, possibly left over stock from when they went to Peavey. Although I haven't got this specific head I'm pretty certain there wasn't a black light. Instead everything green will fluoresce under black light. I bought some very cheap black light strips from ebay when I did my cab project and they make the amps look awesome:

oops duplicated post...

That's irritating - I was in York this time last week - but as you say a £50 flight case with an amp to fix!

For context I bought an identical 2x10 cab for £40 last year, and the 1x15 for £50. Granted I haven't got that head, but given it probably will need some TLC I would offer £200 max for that - if you got it for £150 it would be a bargain.

Those are way overpriced - I wouldn't pay anymore than £50 to £100 for a TE cab and about £150 max for a head. The GP12SMX are generally the most expensive and although people try to sell them for £250 and up, I've seen them go (in the last few months) for £120.

I've got both of these albeit switched a GP7 head into the 4x10 combo and it is stupid heavy - as in I'm increasingly needing a second person to lift it into the car. The AH250 head plus 4x10 us a bit more manageable. Also, I've happily run my electric drum kit into most of these and they sounds absolutely fine, are plenty loud, and nothing has ever blown. At the moment my son has the drumkit plugged into (another) GP7 head and the Peavy era 2x10/1x15 TE stack in a box and it sounds great.

Would it make me sound like a cork sniffer if I said that this was from after they sold out to Peavey... thus said I do have a couple cabs from this era, but very much prefer the older amps.

I'd go head & cab over a combo every time. Speakers now are seldom too heavy, leaving spare hands/bags for selecting different heads depending on needs - the class D heads are so light you could even fit a couple in a backpack and then choose on the night! If money isn't a problem pairing a Barefaced cab with a Aguillar Tone Hammer head would cover everything and be very portable and light.

Experience is everything with amps. I'm sometimes awed and persuaded by the technical comments on here, however music is ultimately a practical art and amps often just need to be plugged in and turned up to see if it works. In a way wattage ratings etc. are neither here nor there if the amp does (or doesn't) do the job. At the moment I'm rocking a mini-stack with a 1x15 (TE1153), and the classic TE2103x (which has 2x10s and 2x5 in the same enclosure), driven by my old GP7SMX with the gain set at 3/4 and the volume between 1/4 and 1/2 most of the time. There's loads of wisdom on here that talks about comb filtering, power rating etc., but regardless it just works for me!

But these are guitar amps that people want to distort/overdrive as that is where the goodness sits. As a bass player I generally want a lot more headroom with my bass amp, especially because if I do use some drive I want need some clean in there as well to keep the low end - so I would say it is all very different with bass amps.

Yes it does seem to be a rooky error, although hopefully won't fry the preamp if there is no signal (or power spike when it turns on!). I've found another picture of the back panel and they definitely do seem to be speaker out jacks. Question is of course whether anyone in the music shop (or before) may have done something stupid...

Well done - I considered for about 30 seconds driving up to Sheffield but it would have been an eight hour round trip for me. Let us know if it works!

I have to say those knobs are special... can't you find some old chewing gum or maybe a scrap of paper to improve the look 🙂 !

It is - but what a combination!!

Oh my... that's a beauty and a good price... is it Sheffield where they are based?

They are good heads - I've got one - BUT how clean they look on the outside says nothing about how well they work. I'm still struggling with getting rid of the hum on the GP12 head above I grabbed a few weeks back, and increasingly as these get older the more likely that they will have faults. The question I now ask myself is whether the amp is cheap enough for me not to be too concerned if it doesn't work and I (or my far more capable buddy) can't fix it. These are increasingly a gamble, and I think the price needs to reflect the fact you may potentially end up with a very pretty, but not too useful amp.

Having a gig in the diary and knowing what date you are working towards has always been the most important thing for the bands I have been in. You get crazy efficient when there is hardly any time left!

Ha - did that this evening, although better than breaking my whirlwind cables that are getting so expensive you can almost buy a bass for the same price!

I suspect if being an "artist" is a spectrum, there is just something about bass players that make us a little more down to earth than other artists. Certainly whenever I've been in festivals/gigs etc., being someone who goes on stage and plays something does put you with a different group to other people doing stuff at the gig. While I might not consider myself an "artist" in the same way as the mentally unstable singer/song writer who doesn't get sarcasm, I do find myself in the same general group...

I think there is a distinction between the bass player being able to hear themselves, and the bass sitting well in the mix. When I play I like to hear a lot of bass so that I can hear what I am playing, and thus am often disappointed when I wander out to FOH to hear that the overall mix doesn't have as much of me in it as I like to hear. But that just reflects that the FOH mix is trying to achieve a different thing compared to my monitor/where I'm standing mix. Looking at some of the above there seems to be some people answering "how to get the bass sitting well in the overall mix" question and others the "how do I cut through enough to hear myself" question.

I tend to forget that my Bass itself has pretty good EQ options that can be adjusted on the fly. If not cutting through I would just fiddle with the onboard EQ while playing with the band to find something that works. Once you know what that is just dial it back should you ever be playing bass on your own!

I've got a Warwick which needs the intonation adjusting but am scared of German reverse screw threads if you fancy having a look?

Do they? I've never seen it mentioned explictly although maybe I don't use decent amps?

While I seldom need an excuse for a new bass, I think this one might just be a case of practicing some more to get better technique!