OK. I am gigging now a lot and constant relied on my homebuild "tube" bass amp. Now I want one 'simple' SS backup amp that I can abuse so my dear can rest a bit. Now I am offered two amps in a good price range (cheap ): - Peavey Mark IV from 1982 - Earth Sound Research Original 2000 (Peavey Standard Clone) Any comments on wich one I should go with?
Excuse me for sidetracking the thread a bit (and I have no recommendation, sorry)... Bernard, I'm a big fan of homebrew gear (everything in my rig is either scratch-built, kit-built, or modified except for my bass (so far -- onboard preamp coming) and my cabinet (so far -- crossover upgrade coming)). Do you have any photos of your amp online? I'd love to take a peek! Thanks, 'rick
Bernard, Very nice; thank you. I take it this is kit-built as opposed to scratch? I like the interior shot you did, when you stop to think about it you wind up with, "How did he DO that?" I won't clutter things up with a reposted image, but you can take a glance at my rack here Thanks again for sharing. We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread. 'rick P.S. We already have a homebrew pedals thread, but someone ought to start a homebrew rig thread.
The amp is whole homemade. I got the faceplate from an old Dutch amp maker at a second hand store. I made it to his specs and added some nice "stuff" to it.... So basically it is all homemade.
Thinking about that one for a long time.... I like it the way it is now. I know by adding more 6550's, the sound may change. Still, it is no work at all. Second, those 6550's are WAAAYYYYY expensive.... replacing two is a pain, replacing four is even more insane.....
to get back on topic those mark 4's are almost impossible to break, short, or have just about anything to go wrong with them. Ive heard of story of a guy having is under water for 2 weeks, he dired it out for about a week. pluged and and it worked. than again this is just a story. but peavey stuff is known for being indistructable.
OK, thanks all. I will borrow the mark 4 tomorrow and hear the Standard the day after tomorrow..... We'll see!
OK, I own the Mark IV to tomorrow afternoon and I like the sound.... It needs a bit tweaking (a lot of hiss from the unit even when the channel not in use and very fast very bassy sounding but as I said it needs a bit tweaking to obtain some cool tones from it). Now all to find a channel switcher or schematic of it....
Ok, this amp (Mark IV) is wonderfull...... don't add up to my tube amp but wow...... The active channel is great clean. And the seperate effect loop is a good touch so I can change with one button from a heavy reverb driven, effect laden sound to a beautifull active, clean sound...... This is too wow
An A.M.P. BH-420 or the later version of this head, the Gibson GB-440 are GREAT backup heads and can be had for pretty cheap on Ebay, etc (usually $250 - $350 U.S.). I tell ya, I bought one for a backup and I've been using it as my main head for the past couple weeks. VERY, VERY warm for a SS head. The tone is UNREAL!
If you're interested in building a tube amp, go here and follow the links and hang on the forums for a month or two ( ): http://www.firebottle.com/ampage/
