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FTR: the tip on my Vinterra stays put.

This used to be my bass, I can happily vouch for it, it’s a light weight, beautifully built and super easy to play instrument. I got in new from Japan a few years ago. The action can go crazy low on these, definitely lower than I needed and I like low action a lot. The tone is bright and snappy, but you can get a really nice jazz front pickup tone from it, especially with the preamp engaged. It’s basically a modern J style short scale. The body shape is a downsized P, this was the shape before they came out with the Baby Z series. If anyone decides to buy it, I strongly recommend the Atelier Z short scale rounds, I tried a bunch of different strings on this bass and I liked their own strings so much that I ordered loads of them, I still have a few spare unopened packs so message me if you’d like them. Also feel free to ask if you have any questions about it. (No affiliation to Fender Fever, I had a good experience dealing with him, but I just want to see it go to a good home!)

I'm not sure it does. First of all many of the arguably most successful and musical cabs are non-flat response designs. There is room for highly coloured designs to become part of a bassists sound, for people to bring experience and creative flair to musical instrument design. The frequency range of a bass is limited and can be covered by single speakers and a successful single speaker design is relatively easy to design and build. Mid priced commercial bass designs are often compromised by cost cutting so putting a higher spec driver in a cab with a bit more bracing can lead to a cheaper cab or one which genuinely might work 'better'. Though you won't get an awful lot of agreement about what better sounds like. Also fewer bass cabs are sold than PA speakers so building at scale is less likely and teh market will be less competitive. It's also more common to use passive cabs for bass and it is amps that are more challenging and expensive to build than speaker cabs. Few of us now would go out and buy a passive PA system and building an active cab is difficult and expensive as a one off. For PA speakers the issue is that you can't cover the full audio spectrum with single driver cabs so you need multiple drivers and a decent crossover. It's simple enough to use open source free software to design a basic 2-way crossover using theory alone but getting the design of the crossover right is an iterative process of having a target response for both divers building the cossover and accurately measuring the actual response then making corrections. You will also have to consider the phase response as well as the frequency response. The response through the crossover frequencies is way less important in reproducing bass than reproducing the human voice for example and it is going to be a rare amateur that can match the professionals. You can build great cabs and put the absolute best drivers in them but without the ability to design a great crossover your design probably won't match the best commercial designs. The paradigm for PA cabs shifted with the introduction of cheap, lighweight class D amps of almost unlimited power and is shifting again with the advent of DSP. It is still possible to build a bass cab for less money thatn a commercial cab or to spend that money on something better than you could afford to buy. It's still possible to build a valve amp yourself but you won't make a huge saving if any. It's just not economic to build your own active PA amp for anything other than the joy of it.

Well done for passing! Maybe it's time to learn something for pleasure? It doesn't need to be difficult, just something you enjoy. You can always learn your grade 3 pieces at the same time. It's important to keep it fun.

I tried to play my old and very, very "roadworn" cello a few years ago... Had to tune it in fourths; I've been ruined by bass guitars, ruined I tell you...

I don't know how convenient, but Surrey Amps has done excellent work for us for many years. Well qualified IMO. https://surreyamps.co.uk/

Thanks Phil, very impressed to see what you've been up to on the DIY side and Stevie on the commercial side - and gratifying to read so many positive user reports, suggesting your ideas about what made good-sounding cabinets are shared by many others. I must admit since I built my 2 little 1x10" cabinets with Celestion's (sadly-discontinued) neo drivers in, my desire to fiddle around with more speakers gets countered by the knowledge I have no space for more and have yet to find a scenario where these aren't enough. But I still have some ideas! Anyway back on-topic I'll look out for the RCF but ideally would like a few more XLR channels for the now very occasional times I get asked to do sound for others. Ease of use aside, I'd just like to know if I'll hear any real difference going for A&H over the Behringer.

Dann is still going strong although he has had a few health issues which he is battling through. I keep in touch with him via FB, he’s a top guy and always willing to share. I’m not sure he plays much fretless any more. He’ endorses Dingwall basses and plays mainly 6 string these days.

Just had an eerie “Deja vu” feeling - like I’ve been there before

I was thinking a post strapped to the building end of the top staircase railing. Braced arm swings over to pick up the monster at top of stairs. Swing out to space and lower to bottom of stairs.

after Kramker closed and Staurt started up SSD making a Spector bass again, he wasn't yet allowed to call it the NS2 name because Kramer still owned the names and logos for several more years. So Stuart called the traditional PJ bass the NS4. Around very late 98 or early 99, he got all of his name rights and trademarks back.

I took the vintera II to rehearsal last night and played it on a couple of songs and it was a lot of fun and contrasted well with the JMJ mustang I'd been playing earlier. I took it as it came out of the box so will I need to make some adjustments. There's way too much relief in the neck, but as the adjuster is buried at the body end It's too much of a faff for now and I'll take care of that after changing the strings for LaBella flats when I'll do a full setup. I like how the wiggle stick stays in the position you leave it at rather than letting gravity flop it down when you let go (like it does on my Squier CV VI) however the plastic trem tip doesn't seem to want to stay on the wiggle stick. The tip end of the stick is threaded, but there doesn't seem to be a corresponding thread inside the tip for it to bite into, so I haven't been able to get it to stay attached. Any ideas?

Surely @neepheid would approve ?

So Fresh, So Clean - OutKast

I am awaiting a full report!