Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

by the way, I recently had my SVT head retubed using KT88's in the power section .Man! what a difference.So smooth and powerfull . It makes me tear up just thinking about it .

Jeff, what brand KT88s did you use?

I use a couple of early 90's B-15T cabs with the SS heads pulled out of them most of the time now. They're not as solid sounding as the 8 x 10's (what are?) but they sound fairly good, sound kind of like a giant B-15 with my old SVT heads, and they're 4 ohm cabs so they match perfectly impedance-wise. I have old Svetlanas in both of mine and they sound good. (I sold the Skunkworks head a few weeks ago).

I use an ampeg b2r head and I use my own custom built 2x10 cabs with eminence speakers ... and between the amp and the bass is the line6 bass pod ...

I like Eminence, that's what's in the B-15T's. Good sounding and long lasting especially for the price.

In recent years I have had or have three pairs of different Eminence 15" drivers: Delta, Deltalite and Delta Pro speakers. The non neo Deltas were/are great; the Deltalite had a diminished high end and one blew at a gig, the first time in 36 years of playing that I ever had a speaker die on me. I chalk it up to the neo magnet heating up and losing efficiency causing me to keep turning my amp up to be heard at the same volume until it was just too much for the voicecoil. No more NEO for me!!!

I have to say that is the first time that I have heard of failure in Neo's. I couldnt speak for the Eminence variety but I know that the Italian B&C Neo's http://www.bcspeakers.com are world renowned for power handling, clarity and reliability. They are used in high end PA systems a lot and a friend of mine who has a PA hire company thinks they are the best. He has vast knowledge and experience of 45 years in the game. I trust his opinion. Markbass cabs have B&C drivers.

John . They are J&J Tubes .my amp tech uses these exclusively . They cost a little more, But there is a significant difference in the tone with them.

I use JJ 12DW7's in mine and haven't had a noisy one yet. The new (Russian) Tung-sol's reissue 6550's are supposed to be good also

Back to the topic...I just picked up a Markbass LM II to try out as the farther GC in town just got a shipment in. I made sure to get one sealed in the box and not a floor/demo model. Sounds great so far, I do my first gig with it Sunday. I have to say that when I first plugged it in and turned it on...nothing happened!!! I checked the fuse and it was good. What's going on here, brand new out of the box and it is DEAD!!! Not good. I tried it in a different AC outlet just for kicks...NADA! Okay, let's try a different power cord...YES! Here we go. Anybody ever get a new amp with a bad IEC power cord? Tomorrow I will talk to my salesdrone at GC about a replacement cord and I will not drive 60 miles round trip for it.

How many cords do you want, Jeff? We have hundreds at work accumulated over the years with computer and equipment purchases.

Jeff H - try 5963 tubes in the place of the 12AU7 driver tubes - more current and larger plates. I put in NOS RCAs and it tightened things up a bit more.

I love my JJ 88s!

Keep us posted on the Markbass Jeffrey, I'm sure you could give one a good workout. If you want to add a little different(tube-like) flavor to the Markbass try a Sansamp in front, I really like a 60/40 blend of Markbass/Sansamp RBI. You can get close to a SVT sound with this, if you take the drive and presence up around 12:00 on the RBI you can get that brittle ,snappy tone like Geddy on Cygnus X-1. Or back the presence off and get the Exit Stage Left tone, with a rick of course.

Thanks for the tips MArk.

John, if you have a couple at least 8', preferably longer, would be really cool!