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Should I cut my losses or see it through...

#21
BassmanPaul said:
Personally I'd ditch the rack tuner. If your bess is reasonable you should only need a tuner once a night. My basses are so stable I only need to tweak the tuning once in a while. Yes they are Carvins.
Click to expand...

Ya, my SWR rack tuner seems to have lost it's accuracy over time...
Carvins are solid basses for sure! Mine has seen a few American tours and even a flight to Peru (the neck didn't budge one bit)
The SM900 is now in the hands of a very competent/highly recommended technician so we'll see what his diagnosis is. In the meantime I've rented a GK 700RB which only puts out 380 watts @ 4 ohms. I must say that A.) I'm quite impressed w/this little guy! It sounds pretty good for having such limited tone shaping capabilities...not completely satisfactory but livable. B). There is def something jacked in the SM900 cause the GK head was, to my surprise, louder and it shouldn't even be a contestant to an 800 watt head. I've used the GK head in two full band sessions @ venues that I've also used the SM900 in and with the GK I actually found myself turning down.
 
#22
I was revisiting some of my older posts related to my SM900 and came across something curious I never quite got any clarity on. When replacing the opamps in my SM900, there was on socket on the back right of the bottom circuit board that faces the opposite direction of the rest of the opamps that did not like the TLE2072...When I placed it in there the idle noise of the amp skyrocketed into a hissing, humming mess. I could never figure out y, so I just left the TL082 in that on particular socket. Could that reaction be a symptom connected to the problems I started have with the amp?
 
#23
My $0.02 - I had an SM-500 for many years that worked OK under light usage, but when pushed hard, would go into thermal shutdown. A coupla years ago I traded it in for a Mesa M6 Carbine - very, very loud and clean and no thermal shutdowns under stress. It must be as loud or louder than an SM-900. You can find one used for about $700. I would consider selling your amp and investing a few hundred more for the power, reliability, hassle -free performance and peace of mind.
 
#24
I own a bx1500...

If you like a clean, bright, "sounds like your bass" tone and lots of power, you'll dig this amp. It has lots of features and you can definitely warm it up.

You might also consider the gkmb800. I have the mb500 and its a nicer sounding amp than the bx1500 but doesnt have the same features or power. The mb800 looks terrific.
 
#25
I too have the BX1500 and it iS a great amp. I use it as my #2 amplifier. Main one is the tube pre-amp I designed pushing a DCM1000L. I can "feel" no difference between either of the amps and the older much heavier class AB units they replaced. Either in their 4U SKB cases are a two finger lift.
 
#26
carvinbassplyr said:
Ya, my SWR rack tuner seems to have lost it's accuracy over time...
Carvins are solid basses for sure! Mine has seen a few American tours and even a flight to Peru (the neck didn't budge one bit).
Click to expand...

I have a pair of Korg tuners that get no use. With a Seiko tuner in each guitar case, I own three Carvin sixes, I don't miss them at all. Besides with the Seikos I can let the guitar player tune up as they seem to not often carry one. :)

All my Carvins sport EMG pups and they sound wonderful.
 
#27
I'm waiting to see what the diagnosis is for the SM900. If it's gonna be more than a $100 fix then I'll more than likely scrap it and get a BX1500. My first "big boy" bass rig was the 600 watt Carvin Red Eye 2x10 combo and I loved it! I never had a problem getting a good tone out of it with the graphic eq. I know redlines have a bad rep, but I must have lucked out because I have nothing but fond memories of that little combo, and if the BX series is hand over fist better than the redlines I think I'd be in heaven.
 
#28
My 2 cents from a newbie outsider (new to bass, but have played the guiatr for a while).

Sounds like you want to like your amp.

Find a good amp tech and have him take your amp back to all factory specs and go from there. It's cheaper than buying a new amp comparable to what you have.

Not saying your tech isn't any good but he's had the amp twice and you still have the problem...
 
#29
carvinbassplyr said:
Ya, my SWR rack tuner seems to have lost it's accuracy over time...
Carvins are solid basses for sure! Mine has seen a few American tours and even a flight to Peru (the neck didn't budge one bit)
The SM900 is now in the hands of a very competent/highly recommended technician so we'll see what his diagnosis is. In the meantime I've rented a GK 700RB which only puts out 380 watts @ 4 ohms. I must say that A.) I'm quite impressed w/this little guy! It sounds pretty good for having such limited tone shaping capabilities...not completely satisfactory but livable. B). There is def something jacked in the SM900 cause the GK head was, to my surprise, louder and it shouldn't even be a contestant to an 800 watt head. I've used the GK head in two full band sessions @ venues that I've also used the SM900 in and with the GK I actually found myself turning down.
Click to expand...

Gallien amps have a large power reserve so they usually play louder than the ratings ;) Besides the 4 band tone stack, play with the presence and contour (as well as many peoples favorite the boost). :)
 
#30
B-string said:
Gallien amps have a large power reserve so they usually play louder than the ratings ;) Besides the 4 band tone stack, play with the presence and contour (as well as many peoples favorite the boost). :)
Click to expand...

I didn't care much for the contour knob and never really dug presence knobs period. I do, however, really like the "4 string/5 string" button. When set to "5 string", it fills in the bottom very nicely without making things too boomy.
 
#32
walterw said:
SWR tuner?

anyway, digital tuners don't "lose accuracy over time" any more than digital watches do. it may have an issue with the input jacks or something, but A440 will still be A440.
Click to expand...

Then it may have been calibrated wrong from day one...but there have been cases of digital keyboards goin flat as the components age, or just being out of tune period. All I know is that if I tune up with the rack tuner I won't sound quite in tune with the keyboard. If I tune up with my Korg chromatic hand held tuner it will say I'm like 3 cents flat even though the rack tuner says I'm in tune...
 
#34
Well, so far there's no major issues with the SM900. All voltage/power levels are excellent. It's looking like a bad cap somewhere between the preamp and power section as the distortion only comes through post amplification and is not present in the DI section. Hopefully we/he can find it since there's quite a few of them in there, but at least I'm not looking at replacing amplifiers or any other major (expensive) components.
 
#35
If the repair comes out good, then all is well but this:


walterw said:
lose the pointless furman for a powerstrip mounted in back of the rack, then you have room for a single-spaced preamp and a 2-spaced power amp.
Click to expand...


And this:


BassmanPaul said:
Personally I'd ditch the rack tuner. If your bess is reasonable you should only need a tuner once a night. My basses are so stable I only need to tweak the tuning once in a while. Yes they are Carvins.
Click to expand...


are the 2 best pieces of advise here. Both of those components are pointless IMO. The furman is nothing but a rack-mountable powerstrip, unless having $90 lights is worth it to you and any bass worth a damn will stay in tune all night, a little pocket tuner is all that is needed.

That leaves you room for a pre, a poweramp and then some. Be curious to see how the SM900 comes out though. My 400 bit the dust but I haven't taken the time to dig into it or try to figure anything out yet. It was a great amp with aural enhancer mod done. All I know is there's a cap discharging to ground and/or the input jack somewhere. This is because when I went to take the front panel off, my screwdriver touched the input jack and got a little spark from it. I can repeat this after powering it on and shutting off again. The power light also takes forever to go out when you shut it off....wierd.

Anyway, good luck with it. There a different enhancer mod on the net somewhere where you run a wire from I guess before that control to one of the pre tube pins and bypass the whole thing....supposed to add a lot more gain, may try that one if I can get the other problems figured out.
 
#36
welll...

the tuner has a place, i think. lots of bass players have no pedals at all, so the idea of opening a rack box, plugging in power, cab, and bass, and being ready has merit.

the little cheese tuner before the set is "good enough" to let you get "close enough" to get you by, but a real stage tuner that you can quickly and silently check between songs is just more professional.
 
#37
Anyway, good luck with it. There a different enhancer mod on the net somewhere where you run a wire from I guess before that control to one of the pre tube pins and bypass the whole thing....supposed to add a lot more gain, may try that one if I can get the other problems figured out.
Click to expand...
More gain is not needed for me. All my basses have 18v preamps with internal trim pots so I have plenty of gain/headroom to work with. I've been considering ditching the rack tuner for a dbx rackmount compressor since the limiter on the SM900 isn't very practical (rather useless IMO). My SM900 is a great sounding head after all the mods. I was listening to recordings done using the DI from the amp post mods and had forgotten how great this thing sounded before the distortion issue. If it can be remedied w/out breaking the bank I'll be glad to stay with the SM900!
 
#38
walterw said:
welll...

the tuner has a place, i think. lots of bass players have no pedals at all, so the idea of opening a rack box, plugging in power, cab, and bass, and being ready has merit.

the little cheese tuner before the set is "good enough" to let you get "close enough" to get you by, but a real stage tuner that you can quickly and silently check between songs is just more professional.
Click to expand...

Well, of course you need to be in tune. That said, tuners haven't always existed. There actually was a time when we used our ears. It's an amazing concept.:D Yes, they're handy. Needing to tune between songs?....something's wrong with the bass.
 
#39
carvinbassplyr said:
More gain is not needed for me. All my basses have 18v preamps with internal trim pots so I have plenty of gain/headroom to work with. I've been considering ditching the rack tuner for a dbx rackmount compressor since the limiter on the SM900 isn't very practical (rather useless IMO). My SM900 is a great sounding head after all the mods. I was listening to recordings done using the DI from the amp post mods and had forgotten how great this thing sounded before the distortion issue. If it can be remedied w/out breaking the bank I'll be glad to stay with the SM900!
Click to expand...

Ya, fantastic sounding amps when you get the SWR pre-shape taken out of it. Very worth fixing and hanging on to if you can.
 
#40
will33 said:
Well, of course you need to be in tune. That said, tuners haven't always existed. There actually was a time when we used our ears. It's an amazing concept.:D Yes, they're handy. Needing to tune between songs?....something's wrong with the bass.
Click to expand...

No interaction between you and your audience? Never had tuners bumped by a dancer or two? Never had a wide difference in temp between when you setup with a bass fresh from temp controlled car/truck and the venue with poor heating/AC? These are real world everyday working slobs troubles of course, not a House or touring professionals troubles. I have very good ears, but most people are LOUSY at tuning by ear BTW ;)
 

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