The Doom Room: ILF Edition

[skullservant]

Ah yeah, good point. Don't have to dig around for it at all. That is nice

[fever606]

yea ~275 for the unit but that is a good bargain compared to the level of stuff they put into it. A very nice magnetic elliptical cartridge, nice pivot arm, and a nice platter. Going to replace my crappy Sony one. Eventually I would like a nice set of speakers, a good 6dj8 phono pre coupled with a 2 band EQ (james/bax) and then a 100W tube stereo

you, sir, are a man of taste and character.

and yeah, $275 is a good price for what looks like a really respectable tt. considering that a project or rp-1 is gonna run you around $400 and this looks to be of the same calibre...

The only thing that would worry me would be that belt breaking and it costing $20 or something to replace

twenty bucks is cheap for a tt belt...

[Ancient Astronaught]

Yeah, it arrived an hour ago!

It's light, resonant, and is in solid condition. Sonically, the bridge single-coil is tight, balanced and loves dirt. The neck humbucker is a little dull and flat in comparison. It's not a bad pickup by any stretch, but it's not what I expected. I was anticipating a bright, airy type of sound. But this is dark and dull. I might mess around with the height a little before considering swapping it out. The fretboard is in good condition, despite one nasty ding. The finish is quite clammy and not smooth like my Ibanez Artist. I'll be taking it to my tech to restring it with 12's and drop it down to C, perfect the intonation and fret spacing, and see what he can do about smoothing out the fretboard. The back of the neck is satin, and the shape is comfortable, however. As far as the radius, it's fine. It's ideal for chords, just as people have been saying, but even for bending and leads I think I can become accustomed to it. There is some fretting out with big bends, though on the higher frets. That'll have to be sorted out.

Sweet!!!!

As far as the WRHB it took alot of adjusting to get mine dialed in, but it is a very dark pickup and thats what i like about it. To help you dial in the WRHB lower it as far as it can go, it should stick up above the pickguard maybe 1/8 of an inch (or 3-4mm) then screw in the low string pick up screw about 2-3 full turns it should be noticeably below the p/u cover, the A string screw should be just below the cover, the D string should actually be a bit above the cover as well as the G string screw (I found the D string screw needing to be the highest out of the group but just slightly higher then the G), the B string screw should be just about even with the cover, and the high E string screw should be just below the cover (about the same as the A string). That really helped balance out the over powering lows while allowing the high strings to cut through and be audible, but it is still very dark. The bridge p/u just needs to be raised till the output is about the same as the neck p/u. It's weird that yours has a satin finish neck, mine is clear coated all the way around but i like it alot, very slick not sticky at all. I love the radius, its great for chords but it also feels the best for leads and solo's out of the numerous fenders I have. Can;t wait to hear your thoughts once you get it back from the tech, .12's should be no problem but you'll probably need to upgrade the saddles to get perfect intonation but that shouldn't run you more then like 10-15$.

[Pizza]

A friend of mine is trying to get rid of his peavey musician 400 head and matching cab for $300. should i bite? hows the headroom and low end? i'll be playing guitar through it.

How loud is this beast? Think it will go well with a Big Spider?

[skullservant]

What kind of cab? Either way both for $300 isn't so bad so long as they are in decent shape. The 400 head is loud

[Pizza]

[new05002]

The only hifi thing I ever built was a headphone amp for Line and Phono inputs



Some parts in there are what I need for my own setup. that was a 6dj8 RIAA phono preamp plus a 6sn7 (or was it 6sl7) driven baxandall for both sides of the stereo into a ECC99 1-2W Class A headphone power amp, transformer coupled to operate around 32 ohms.

[Achtane]

A friend of mine is trying to get rid of his peavey musician 400 head and matching cab for $300. should i bite? hows the headroom and low end? i'll be playing guitar through it.

How loud is this beast? Think it will go well with a Big Spider?

Noooiiiiice.
Yeah, I got my Peavey 215 and Bass 400 for $300. My head's the same as yours except it has two distortion controls instead of the effects.
CRAZY loud, really just obnoxiously loud and with super strong lows past ~2 o'clock. It puts out more low end than my Peavey VB-2 tube amp did. Maybe the cab just fits it better, I dunno
It also distorts decently instead of doing that horrible PFFFT PFFT thing newer SS amps that I've played do. You can hit it with a Blowing Up and it'll just sound good.
I like playing guitar through it too; easy enough to dial out the mud and add some treblies.
And heck yeah it goes well with the Big Spider.

[skullservant]

Those cabs are BEASTLY. Jump on it!

[Ancient Astronaught]

Noooiiiiice.
Yeah, I got my Peavey 215 and Bass 400 for $300. My head's the same as yours except it has two distortion controls instead of the effects.
CRAZY loud, really just obnoxiously loud and with super strong lows past ~2 o'clock. It puts out more low end than my Peavey VB-2 tube amp did. Maybe the cab just fits it better, I dunno
It also distorts decently instead of doing that horrible PFFFT PFFT thing newer SS amps that I've played do. You can hit it with a Blowing Up and it'll just sound good.
I like playing guitar through it too; easy enough to dial out the mud and add some treblies.
And heck yeah it goes well with the Big Spider.

I'm totally convinced now that the VB-2 is actually a guitar amp that they didn't see a market for so they badged it as a bass amp. It has so far surpassed every other production head I've tried on guitar. The selectable mids mainly focused around guitar mid frequencies, EL34 power tubes, and built in FX loop also make me think that. If you use pedals and play heavy music this is THE head IMO, the value and tone can't be matched without going boutique or custom. It's no Annunaki but either way I'm in love with this head, thanks again!!!!!

[Achtane]

Noooiiiiice.
Yeah, I got my Peavey 215 and Bass 400 for $300. My head's the same as yours except it has two distortion controls instead of the effects.
CRAZY loud, really just obnoxiously loud and with super strong lows past ~2 o'clock. It puts out more low end than my Peavey VB-2 tube amp did. Maybe the cab just fits it better, I dunno
It also distorts decently instead of doing that horrible PFFFT PFFT thing newer SS amps that I've played do. You can hit it with a Blowing Up and it'll just sound good.
I like playing guitar through it too; easy enough to dial out the mud and add some treblies.
And heck yeah it goes well with the Big Spider.

I'm totally convinced now that the VB-2 is actually a guitar amp that they didn't see a market for so they badged it as a bass amp. It has so far surpassed every other production head I've tried on guitar. The selectable mids mainly focued around guitar mid frequencies, EL34 power tubes, and built in FX loop also make me think that. Either way I'm in love with this head, thanks again!!!!!

Right on man, I'm glad you like it so much!
This is valuable information too...considering how little info there is on the VB-2 period, you're probably the only one using it on guitar.
I really liked it, I just like the 400 more for my style. But as a newer tube amp, made in the USA, with all of that versatility, it's surprising to me that you never hear about them. I might have to get another some day.

[CaptainBoxman]

Err, has anyone been on HCFX yet?

[new05002]

its looks dumb.

[Ancient Astronaught]

Right on man, I'm glad you like it so much!
This is valuable information too...considering how little info there is on the VB-2 period, you're probably the only one using it on guitar.
I really liked it, I just like the 400 more for my style. But as a newer tube amp, made in the USA, with all of that versatility, it's surprising to me that you never hear about them. I might have to get another some day.

That wouldn't surprise me, I was the only one using an AD200B for guitar as far as i know as well.I'm pretty sure you don't about them because peavey doesn't get alot of press except in the metal world, and the metal guys like amp dirt not pedal dirt. I've posted a couple vids on youtube now using the head, including my BILF video, hopefully it will start getting out that these are wicked heads.

[new05002]

you should rock 6ca7s in that amp, see how u like it