GP7SM BPA300- Anyone Know This Head?

[Count Bassie]

I have an oportunity to pick this one up, and the price is pretty good ($250 US). I have a GP11 MK IV I'm passing along to a friend who did me a favor, so I now need another backup.Anyone familiar with this vintage?

Thanks.

[Ghost_Bass]

I have a GP7 SM from the early 90's in a 2x10 combo. I've posted this in another topic:
[quote name='Ghost_Bass' post='826673' date='May 3 2010, 06:11 PM']I have this two babies:

- GP12-X 300W above and down on the right
- GP7 SM below and down on the left

They are from my two combos, the GP12 came on a 1x15" and the GP7 on a 2x10. Currentle i use the GP12 mounted on the 2x10" cab and use the 1x15 without the amp as an extension speaker. I love the sound of this two guys I've made a true A-B with them connected to two equal cabs and the GP7 has a more natural and bright as the GP12 as more punch and a better shaped sound. The valve drive feature on the GP12 is cool but i can't get a saturated sound from it, only a slight boost on the mid/high freqs! I'm changing the valve soon for a EHX (any sugestions are more than welcome) to see if i get any changes.

As posted AH is "amp head" the # next refers to it's output power at 4ohms and GP is "graphic preamp". The older models are a treat to your ears but the Gibson era stuff and, aparently, the Peavey era (haven´t tried one yet) are very poor...
The ashdown gear (built by ex-TE staff) is very close to the old days trace sound and at very apealing prices

Trace has a bad habit of renaming the new models with the old ones names... makes it hard to track their history. It's true that Trace underates it's power, my 300W@4ohm with full stack can lift the roof of a medium-sized concert room
I will only sell my rig in the future when my back start to complain with it's excessive weight!!! They're buildt to last centuries but there is a reason why i nickname my rig as "bunker"!...

Cheers[/quote]

If it is the same head (appart from the obvious diference combo mount/rack mount) ask away and i will try to ansewer as far as my knowlege goes.

Cheers

Edited May 4, 2010 by Ghost_Bass

[Count Bassie]

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' post='827695' date='May 4 2010, 12:45 PM']I have a GP7 SM from the early 90's in a 2x10 combo. I've posted this in another topic:


If it is the same head (appart from the obvious diference combo mount/rack mount) ask away and i will try to ansewer as far as my knowlege goes.

Cheers[/quote]

Greetings Ghost_Bass! Thanks for the reply...
The GP7 does appear to be the same head, only in this unit there's a "BPA", which means I have no idea what. I'm not sure what to ask really, except about the BPA suffix. "Bass Pre-Amp", maybe? I bet that's it. Duh...

So you seem happy with yours! Good to see; I have a 250SMX that I took from it's sleeve upon buying it used. The tube inside was rolling around loose and a captive nut that had held a retaining bolt for the exterior housing had become unseated. So I cut the sleeve away from the chassis with a skilsaw and a flush-cut saw (I'm a carpenter for a living), and ended up re-seating the tube and putting a Peavey strap-handle where the retaining bolts use to go. The amp now sits in a home-made rack-box. Thing's my favorite amp! My point in relating this is that the Trace heads seem indestructable!

Anyway, you know what- in starting to respond here I got that "BPA" business figured out, I think, and from what I know about the Trace stuff (I've had a GP7SM, a 200), I do think that's all I'm going to need to know! Can't think of any other questions, as I am sure I'm going to get along with it just fine. I've found my amp, once again or finally, and am going to be able to leave off the whole "search for tone" business for a while. Good!

If I think of anything else though I'll be back. Thanks much man!

Oh- do you have a close-up of the back panel? If it's handy, it's not actually an issue to me... thanks again!

[Ghost_Bass]

If you look close you'll see on the right of the trace logo written GP7 Bass Pre Amp 300, so i think your BPA is exactly that. The amp is very simple and as i stated has a very natural sound with all the eq's and gadgets turned off (i rarely colour my signal). It has 2 shape modes but i only like one of them. I use the GP12 for gigs and have the GP7 at home for practising linked to a DIY cab because i think the GP7 lacks some "balls" to cut trough the mix. I've tried them both live and i could hear more from the GP12 at lower volume.
But don't be alarmed by my talking! Try the amp because it's realy good.
Oh! Almost forgot! The back panel is very simple, it only has the power section (plug and switch) and, in the middle, has 3 jack sockets verticaly aligned: one for tuner out and the other two for speaker connection. If you want send me your e-mail and i can send you more pictures of it.

Cheers