Anyone intimately familiar with the Pre Gibson Trace Elliot AH600SMX?

[Lust4sound]

Long time fellas.. Have a few questions regarding using an external crossover with this amp..

The amps got two discreet 300 watt rms amplifiers.. It's also got a built in XO.. Two big problems with this..
A) When in biamp mode, the low channel gets fixed from 250hz and below.
B) the high channel gets a variable signal, but it starts @250HZ and above
C) The high channel drops to 150 watts rms

The crossover network is tailored for use with the Trace Elliot cabs which I'm not fond of..

The amp has an effects loop that operates in stereo or mono.. This being said could I use a two way crossover there? Send 1 channel of the effects loop out to low pass, 1 channel out to high pass??

The reason I want to use a crossover? I play a 5 string in a very loud metal band.. I have played through a handful of cabinets, the best sounding has been a single 18 or 2 15s on the bottom, with a 2x10 or 4x10 up top... Problem is, if I run full range to both, the 10s always end up farting out with the B string.. When I biamp, I lose too much of the thump I'm getting from the 10s..

So, should I incorporate a passive HP filter for the 4x10 cab? Or is it possible to run an electronic XO through my effects loops?

One other thing.. I seem to be having trouble with the preamp side of things... Does the trace elliot head have an adjustable bias for the bass input/preamp side of things??

On the preamp side, there are 3 colored indicators for input gain.. A yellow light means add more input gain, a green light means optimall while the red means too hot.. Trace recommends mostly green, occasional flicker of red.. The reason I get into this?? The Warwick bass has a 3 band MEC preamp with Bartolini Jazz pups.. These are the 59Js I believe.. The ones that have the deeper darker tone.. Anyway, I cant seem to get the bias right.. With the bass Pre bias turned down, the pre knob on the Trace needs to be cranked all the way up for it to get in the green.. When I turn the bias in the bass up, I get a flubbery sound.... GAAA!! Too many variables...

Anyone in South Florida a wizz with amps? Anyone in South FL a wizz with setting up basses? I def need one or both...

Please help!!!!

[jungleheat]

Bias? You keep using this word... I do not think it means what you think it does.

Mono out from the effects loop of the amp to an active XO and back into each side of the amp should work fine. BUT you need to be careful with the level for the high side. There's a reason you only get 150w out of the Trace for the highs in biamp mode.

As far as your preamp issue, max the volume on the bass. Zero/center all the EQ controls on the bass. Crank the preamp input gain on the amp all the way (with the master turned way down or off). Gradually lower it while playing at "normal" volume (whatever that means to you) until the red light is only flashing. If that means it's still all the way up, that's fine. Then you can use the amp EQ to get the basic sound you want, and use the bass preamp to make minor tweaks (ie while playing). You should probably experiment with this before you get to the biamping part.

[Jim C]

FWIW I had a British TE amp that required the amp volume knob to be max'd to get a flicker of red with a Jbass with Dimarzio's.
This volume knob (pre-amp not master) allows adjustment to the pre-amp to maximize the S/N ratio as different basses have different output volumes.
Surprising to me as the Dimarzio's are reasonably hot for a passive bass.

[Beethoven]

On my AH300 Gp12 SMX, gain is full up ( on 10) and yellow light flicking sometime, but red - never. Eq on my Sr305 IPT is flat and eq on Trace too. I found somewhere - Gain setup on Trace : Full up volume and eq on bass (treble, mid, bass), setup gain on Trace properly (red flick somethime). Back bass eq on zero and play. If you change eq (on bass or Trace), re-setup gain again.

It's ok but I play with flat eq on bass and Trace and I seen sometimes green but never red light? What a problem? Is Sr305 IPT have low output or it's the Trace bussines?

Thank's and sorry for my english...

[Beethoven]

And one important thing, switch on input is on PASSIVE, it's only way to seen yellow light... Sad.

[Downunderwonder]

It takes a fair effort to get mine into the red, ie pounding the bejesus out of it.

External crossover plan should work well enough. I don't know that the loop on my one can quite blend to a 100% wet signal back into the amp but close enough. You probably want an instrument level crossover.