Leaderboard

My second play-along a I muck about with a new channel. Not sure where it's going yet but I'm having fun upping the production values inbetween homeschooling!

I don't have any issue with headphones; I use 'em all the time. Yes, I've tinnitus, too, permanently, but I just keep the 'phones at a reasonable level. They're no different, as far as the ears are concerned, than listening without. I don't 'get' the 'tone' issue, either; if this is just for practising, it's just bass, isn't it (with maybe a backing track, or metronome...). When I'm practising, I'm not looking for 'tone'; it's so room/circumstance dependant as to not be relevant. Maybe that's just me (I'm a drummer...). I'd recommend 'closed' headphones, at a low level.

I keep on with my small pedalboard. I'm thinking about adding a MXR footswitch because to change Presets. The JHS is first in the chain. The good thing is that it has an XLR out that I can use to get just a clean sound. Then the HX stomp. The Ashdown OriginAL is in the effects loop. From the Ashdown I can get a dry signal (not affected by the preamp, but affected by the blocks of the HX) that goes to an amp (99% of the time, a backline amp). The last two blocks of the HX are the Ashdown Preamp (FX Loop) and a cab simulation (so far, the 2x15 Brute). The whole signal goes to FOH via a jack-XLR adapter. Really happy so far (and the sound guy too, in the few gigs I had at least). I am still experimenting with the cab simulations because I'm not 100% convinced.

So, this little beauty was dangled in front of me recently and I couldn’t resist 😃

I thought I'd show you guys the wiring schematic I came up with for the pickup and the BB noise killer preamp. This was one of the last jobs I had to do on the bass before finishing it.

The customer, as they say, is king. So a bit more progress. Hatch cut. Again most builders have their own ways, but I cut a paper template from the recess already cut: I cut the blank out on the bandsaw a mm or so oversize and then use the real high-tech stuff: I start with the straight run at the top and just follow the overlapped edge round with the sanding block a cm at a time. Until: ..it fits (private thought...PHEW!) With a quick sealing coat, I'm pleased that the grain is broadly in the same direction . Once it is all fully finished, it will the the same shade too. So, two more jobs to do, hopefully this afternoon: final sanding of the body cutouts and edges and the profile tweaks of the neck...and then it's the start of the finishing processes. With this part of the build process being a bit like watching paint tru-oil dry, I won't do a blow by blow - I'll do a summary of the method and show you the results when it's done Watch this space

Hellzero, that is absolutely correct! as the carbon fibre laminations in the centre of the neck are providing the majority of the stiffness and stability, the long "beam" that runs down the back of the neck can be mostly decorative. the plan is to use a series of pieces laminated together, along with the rosewood triangles cut on the mitre saw to create a marquetry pattern that runs the entire length of the neck from headstock to body. I spent a few hours planning it out in large scale, using the known thicknesses of the various pieces of veneer that i have available to me: what im aiming for is a central band, made from black walnut and a purple dyed constructional veneer, with a 5 band "rope" pattern criss crossing it up the neck something like this: the first stage in this process was laminating up several pieces for a test, and then cutting enough for a couple of repetitions of the pattern: This was the first stack of laminates I tried for the rope: the centre is Obeche, and the laminates are Koto (very similar colour to the obeche) and a black dyed veneer. it quickly became apparent, however, that although this combination was fine for the purposes of a test, these lightweight woods have a grain that is far too coarse for this kind of detailed marquetry. the small triangles that need to be cut simply splintered and disintegrated at the fine edges, so the material choice will have to be re-thought for the final piece. but once id cut the test pieces and glued them up with some CA glue, the effect doesnt look bad: Im pretty confident that with some minor adjustments to the measurements and to the materials, i can make up a beam for the back of the neck with a very similar repeating pattern. i found some 5mm oak panels at a model makers, and some tighter grained maple veneer to amke the "rope" pieces out of, which should hold together much better than the Obeche and Koto. the only issue is the oak is slightly thicker, and so the rosewood triangles will have to be re cut slightly larger, and the walnut/purple stripe will have to have an additional layer of cherry veneer added to either side to make sure the pattern continues to line up: the plan at this stage is to create a block with 6 or 7 repetitions of the pattern about 50-60mm thick, which i can then cut and lay end to end to create a single long beam with 24-28 repetitions around 10-12mm thick. ill then extend this at either end with some more rosewood and the purple/walnut/cherry pattern so that it extends all the way through the body and headstock. by my count, if you divided this neck into every single individual piece this would count as a ~660 piece laminate neck! might not be a world record but id say still pretty good! Meanwhile here are some pictures of teh PCB's for the electronics/pickups, fresh from the manufacturer: The small squares on the left are the Bobbin top/bottom pieces, which are 1mm thick. these are still really stiff and the manufactureer quotes less than 0.1mm tolerance so the holes in the middle should be bang on the 5mm needed for the magnets to fit snugly. another advantage of having these manufactured by the PCB manufacturer is the small "start" and "finish" eyelets for the copper wire are also pre drilled and have solder pads, making the whole business of making the bobbins a fair bit simpler. the third benefit of this approach is that these being pcb board have a full layer of copper top and bottom, meaning that if i finish each coil by wrapping the coil in layers of insulation and copper tape, they will be surrounded top, bottom and sides in copper shielding, to reduce EMI noise. The bobbin mount is at the bottom. when i put the bobbins togetehr, the magnets will sit proud of the top of the squares by 1mm, and then this will be connected together using the 1mm thick bobbin mount. this will mean the magnets will be flush with the top of the whole assembly, and the thickness of the pickup cover is only 1.5mm. this should mean the distance from the strings shouldnt be an issue. The big PCB is the pickup, obviously. the holes on the left hand side are to accomodate the slide switch: the holes on the right are where the LED's will be soldered, and the holes in the middle are where the coil pairs will be connected. at the top left you can also see three additional solder points; which are for the Hot, cold and an LED voltage in from the preamp PCB. the Preamp pcb will have seperate power circuits for the external power and battery power, so that the LED's dont draw battery power if the bass is running on them. Finally in the bottom left is the PCB for the preamp. this one im extremely pleased with. the final measurements were 90 x 34 mm, with both of the potentiometers (filter frequency and resonance) mounted directly to the board, and the toggle switch to change between filter orders will be connected by a wire. the spacing of the pots is 50mm, so i should be able to have the controls on the bass nicely spaced out (bearing in mind that there will be two of these boards: one for each pickup) next time round ill be putting some of the bobbins together and getting ready for winding, and also going through some of the component choices for the preamp

Whenever I come to these threads I think "Come on Andy, stop working on the bass and post something.." Whenever the owner of the bass comes to the thread they're thinking "Come on Andy stop posting and get working on the bass..." As they say, "you can't please everybody.."

It's when you do something like this, and just as you look at yourself and think, if I slipped this could hurt, you slip and find that yes, it does hurt. 😄

Spinal Tap got there first....

This should be here:

I printed a batch 'face-down', but the pins don't come out properly; the plastics too tiny to be useful. I've done another batch, 'face-up', which is much better. It's as easy to print six as one, so I did. Here's a 'teaser' uber-short video; real-time was three hours. I'll prepare them tomorrow; it's late now. They'll be in the post soon ...

Just for The Spondz, here you go you perv. About 21 minutes is where you need the tissue box handy.

It's true you can build the cab without the horn, but that's missing the point of the design, which was to reproduce the midrange frequencies that other cabs neglect - even cabs with a tweeter. You're right that the main driver does extend quite high but unless you're directly on axis, you - and your audience - won't hear those frequencies. This is because the cone drivers used in bass guitar cabs start to beam at around 1kHz. Stand off axis - like in front of your cab - and you won't hear the frequencies between 1kHz and 3kHz that are responsible for a lot of the bass's tone, as well as for pitch definition. To make matters worse, driver beaming means that the further you are from the sound source, the less of the direct sound you hear. You don't have to go very far before most of what you hear is what is bouncing off the walls and ceiling. Because cone drivers in most bass guitar cabs don't have adequate dispersion much above 1kHz, the indirect sound lacks those frequencies. As a result, what your audience hears is the muffled, indistinct boom boom boom we've all heard when we've listened to bass players reliant on their backline to get their sound to an audience. The midrange simply doesn't carry. This shouldn't happen if the bass is fed through a decent PA, because (good) PA's are designed to reproduce the entire frequency range and to disperse it efficiently to an audience. The technical term for all this is power response. Off the soapbox now. I appreciate that the design that was the subject of this thread is a bit too complex for most people to tackle from scratch - which is why I made the kits and ready-built crossovers available. I've been chatting to some of the usual suspects recently about designing a compact, very cheap but capable two-way ten inch cab based on the excellent "build-it-in 20-minutes" box that Phil demonstrated in the video posted on Basschat. The idea would be to keep complexity and cost to a minimum so that virtually anyone who is minded to can produce a bass cab during this awful lockdown. It will be big enough to gig with but also compact enough to use for home practice. Cost ('cos I know you're going to ask) would be well under £100 plus your wood - for a 200W 10 with a compression driver and horn. If you have a spare sheet of plywood or chipboard in your garage, so much the better. What do you think?

This is the Crimson II kit that i ended up with...and already added a 4th 8" rack tom and a 2nd dedicated ride that will be used as a china type. Absolutely loving learning to play drums which is sort of scratching a life-long itch if the truth be know. I have no idea of the drum-learning curve - how long it should take to play off beats (before and after the beat), open hats, simple 4/4 open handed, hi-hats triplets as a fill - I don't know where the hell I am in relation to what's good/bad/indifferent progress but I know I'm having a load of fun and it's taken about a week to get the hang of the above on a 4/4 beat! Lessons have proved to be a good thing in terms of technique, exercises to ensure progression etc. (I have also cabled wrapped the cables nicely - it was day one and I wanted to hit things!)

Lots of criticism of how Gibson/ Peavey have managed the TE takeover and rightly so IMO. TE was a market leader till it was sold and left to wither away. From the ashes of TE came Ashdown who took the design, invested in it and moved it into the 21st Century. Look at their range - loads of proper quality and diversity. Also you're getting what is arguably the best Customer Service of any manufacturer. As a long time lover of TE (and not just the slap tone) I think it's a disgrace how TE has been mismanaged and neglected since control left the UK. I had this very conversation with Paul Stevens at LBGS - he left shortly after to join Blackstar because of the lack of commitment to the brand. It's implied that TE fans are just reminiscing - I'm not - I want a modern day TE with the brand's legendary quality which lives up to the name and reputation of the classic, world beating stuff and TBH the only place I believe this is available in 2021 is ASHDOWN!!! The talk of how good the Elf is disgusts me - it's a pitiful excuse for an amp wearing the TE label - 200w?? Where are the proper models? The 350 and 500w models? If there was any commitment to rebuilding the brand they would have been in the pipeline when the 200w was released - what have we seen since? NOTHING!!! Maybe TE is only going to be remembered by a group of 40+ old men - in the same way as other classics - Levi jeans, Indian and Triumph Motorcycles - if so let it die being what is was....a world beating legend - not some two bob imitator or tatt!!!

I must admit it looked like the opening sequence for an episode of Casualty...

Here's another one. From the 1990s

Love watching these videos. SaimoN the Mudvayne stuff is great - that must have taken quite a while to learn??! Very impressive. Jay2U your videos are next level, do you record in front of a green screen or something? I've just put another cover up on youtube, Is This Love by Bob Marley & The Wailers. Haven't really got the right hand technique together at all playing up near the fretboard like that - something to work on over lockdown! Caroline

Featuring some of my closest friends, and my old man sharing lead vocal duties with the guitarist from his band!

Over the years I've owned a bunch of 5 string basses, not out of necessity but because I wanted to have the option. I have owned Squiers, Peaveys, EBMM, G&L, Lakland... Some were really sweet, like the Lakland 5502, some had the sound I wanted (EBMM SUB5), but I never really gelled with any. My girlfriend bought me a Harley Benton MB-5 SBK (the Stingray style one in satin black finish) for Xmas... and I haven't played anything else since. At first I made lots of mistakes, and my muting left a lot to be desired. But the bass felt great, it's light (8.6 lbs, which for a 5 string is pretty good), and it sounds good too. Because it felt and sounded 'just right', it didn't feel like homework... so I made the point of using this one exclusively so that I get used to the 5th string, and within 2-3 weeks I have improved a lot. I still make a mistake here and there, and occasionally I get the wrong string(s) ringing, still lots to do, but I'll get there. Ok, so that's the bit about getting used to the ergonomics of a 5-string. What about the advantages? I didn't really care that much for having a few additional lower notes available to me, although sometimes it's nice (very nice), but I really like covering so much ground *across* the strings. It's actually easier to play without looking at the fingerboard because I have to move a lot less up and down the neck and when I do it's typically one position (3-4 frets) higher or lower, which is easy to shift without looking. That is nice. It also gives me more note options easily, as the octave (higher or lower, depending) is just there at your fingertips much more frequently than on a 4-string... I seem to be able to break from my usual patterns more easily too. I played one of my 4-string basses yesterday and it was familiar territory and comfortable and all, but I missed that low B string, and the ability to choose say between an F on the low E 1st fret, or on the low B 6th fret: one sounds tighter and the other sounds fatter, so you can pick one or the other depending on what you're playing. I can't believe it took me this long to 'get it'. I knew, of course, that the extended range available 'sideways' across the strings was one of the selling points of a 5 string, but because I never gelled with any 5-string bass I never played them long enough to really absorb it into my playing. Now I feel like I'be been missing out a lot

Coming soon to a pub near you. Or not, as the case may be ... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55794674

I've been introduced here by member reggaebass. I am a reggae specialist and toured with many Jamaican and U.K reggae artists from Black Uhuru to UB40 but also played with a few high profile pop artists from Craig David to Hugh Cornwell. It's all music to me. I am also a Grammy award winning producer. Most of all, I love to share the knowledge. So pick my brains anytime. That's enough about me. See you on the inside

Mk347 Travs bass couch...

You might as well just open a packet of spaghetti and photograph that for all this diagram means to me @Cosmicrain! 😁 Still, I guess only one of us needs to know what you're doing! 😉

Yes, I do use a green screen. Here's how. 😎

I have six almost identical basses. (long story 😀) Only different colors and built 79/80/81/82. There is a tangiable difference between them. It doesn't take much to alter the sound. A twist on the pickup screws or a tad higher on the bridge. Now two are BEAD, and one has flats. The rest have D'Addario XL170.

That's the plan!

Having actually been bothered to look at the pics, I'm confident that no-one will either be surprised (or care!) that I think I know what this was. Before it was a bitsa with a cheapo Chinese neck, crappy tuners & Ebay knockoff sticker, it was an Italian-made Melody 5000. Check out the oddly bulbous lower horn, square truss access & skinny neckplate: https://best-vintage-guitars.de/melody_precision_bass_italy.html Ashytrays aren't standard & f*** knows what's under them - although 'demarzios' weren't standard on either Ibanez or Melody P copies. I suppose the body grain's quite nice though. A decent Melody 5000 would probably be £100-£150. Seen a few with split bodies/necks so likely that's the case here.

Pins are absolutely not an issue, I'll take a pinless badge over no badge any day. Dad you're a superstar, thank you.

Haggis neeps and tatties with a Whisky ju and a wee dram of Cardhu 12 yr old.👍

No! But I hope for their sake it was p1ss, imagine if it had Watneys Red Barrel in it and some went in the drummer's mouth 🤢

That's exactly my situation with my 1000MA's. I owned about 15 (?) BB's in total but I only play my 1000MA's. I sold even the 3000 and the 3000MA (besides two 1600, 1024, several 414.424,614) but every time I am in love with anything else and then play the 1000MA again... it's clear that this is my bass. Sometimes I just don't realize that I found my bass and tone and feel many years ago. Well, it is so much fun buying another bass, but in the end it always comes down to my two- for me - very special basses. I do need a different tone from time to time for more hifi sounds on recordings. But my fingers fuse with the fretboard on this bass like with no other. If I would realize this there would be no reason for any new bass and this for about 20 years backwards now. Thank god I'm not that smart ! 😛 And sorry for my bad English- I'm trying 🤪 I can oder a beer but telling a story forwards / backwards ... I am still struggling ! 😉

They need to bring back the BB's with pick up rings! Nothing else matters 😎

Picking up a 5 string bass has easily been the best bass thing that's happened to me since, well, err...first picking up a 4 string bass 😁

Having played slightly-wrong basslines to famous songs for years, I see this as a chance to come back to them 'fresh'. 😎

Progress slowed down due to curfew .... Anyway, I decided to work with what I have and I am creating a pick cover/ramp in Mahogany, Maple Top and Wenge sides. Don’t ask me why, but it felt a good idea at the time now I do not have enough Wenge left for a Wenge cap. Maple cap glued on, phase 2 is the wenge side. Once dry I will sand to size on my oscillating belt sander thingy.

1972 Musitronics Mu-Tron III is the original with the separate power supply 1979 ARP Mu-Tron came next with a fixed power cable, these don't sound as good imo but can be calibrated to sound more like the original. In the mod 90's there was the Haz Mu-Tron 3+ looked like a vintage Mu-Tron but was a completely different circuit, plus notch filter setting, some internal dip switches and a low battery light indicator. The original inventor (Mike Beigel) slated these and said they stole his designs, and recommended the EHX Q-Tron instead although I think the Haz version does sound ok, but different. Q-Tron coincidentally is a different circuit too. Mike Beigel also had a hand in the EHX Enigma QBalls design. Next came the Guyatone Ultron, different designer and manufacturer but meant to be based on a Mu-Tron, with a whole host of other features including different wave forms. After that Mike Beigel brought out the official Mu-Fx Tru-Tron 3x in 2014 (also called Mu-Tron 3x in Europe), with a preamp option, mix filter mode, and Peak and Preamps going up to 11 on the dial giving it more range than the other Mu-Tron's to date. After that came the Mu-Fx Micro-Tron III. They then got back the rights to use the Mu-Tron brand name in the US to become the Mu-Tron Micro-Tron III. Lastly, the current version is the Micro-Tron IV. The only difference between the three and the four is that they started building their own switchable opto-couplers in the IV, but imo they sound pretty identical to the III using the gold default opto-mod. There is a red opto mod which is meant to sound dirtier like an original Mu-Tron which has drifted out of calibration. Not heard any demos of this though and I think all the later Mu-Tron's sound a bit cleaner than the originals. Other unofficial Mu-Tron variants or similar filters with albeit different circuitry include the 3Leaf Proton, VFE Mini-Mu, Mojo Hand Wonder and Little Wonder, Keeley Neutrino, and Maxon AF-9. I'm sure there are others out there.

On that basis, presumably we will see identical rises in Europe? Ill keep an eye out for them, but as already mentioned, other brands will suffer the exact same increases, yet these increases haven't been seen elsewhere, yet. But we shall see. I'm not sure why you keep talking about old prices, there have been comments in this thread showing live listings that are still on Andertons now, showing an £800 or so difference older stock and the upcoming stock. I don't think anything highlights the difference better than that....

Some people want dedicated hardware. I use a laptop for the backing of one of my bands, but we also have a drummer, and what it supplies is very much secondary to the live instruments. However in my other band, when we get back to rehearsing and gigging, we are most likely going to be without a drummer, so I am looking at a serious drum machine that can both replace a conventional drummer as well as produce unusual percussion sounds. For this I'd much rather use a hardware drum machine rather than having the cart round the laptop and all the associated interfaces etc.

Hi folks OK well I managed to spend most of the afternoon on Sunday giving this pedal a try. Fred slept for a mammoth 3 hours and only woke up when I stopped playing, which probably says something. Right - the bass I tend to use compression with most carefully is my Celinder jazz. I want the Marcus Miller slap sound but with a warm undercurrent without harsh peaks. My other basses tend to have fairly light compression. I set a high threshold, keeping my dynamics intact, and when the threshold is crossed I have around a 3:1 ratio and zero attack and fast release. This sounds, to me, like a more natural 'limiter' which helps my sound lower into the mix, giving it a definitive 'bottom' without it sounding squished or breathy. On my P bass I have a limiter which turns any peaks into nice growly overtones - with flats the sound is quite dynamic and I tend to prefer that with a P bass so that pops on the G stand out more. I also have a higher action on that bass so I want it to sound like I'm working harder with it, rather than the smooth hifi zing of the others, with the Stingray being somewhere in between. So I chose the Jazz bass as the one to test this pedal, and the one best suited to test it's limits because there is just so much juice on tap via the pre. First of all, the compressor on my Roland sounds, to my ears, perfect. There is the slightest amount of noise which you can hear through headphones if you switch the comp off and on - it's barely noticeable and you can in fact reduce that by reducing the gain and upping the level on the 'amp' but I'm talking ridiculous levels of scrutiny here. My first impression is that despite the review at http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/optifet.shtml saying there is ZERO noise, there is. It's a bit less than the Carl Martin, but pressing 'engage' introduces a definite subtle, smooth sounding white noise. After playing with the gain settings and other levels besides I have managed to get it nearly as 'gone' as the Roland, but not quite. It was the same with isolated supply and battery. Of course I am splitting hairs here to a ridiculous degree through a very sensitive and detailed headphone setup - I'm sure at amplified levels it'll be untraceable. I'm sure the guy at Onvilab has a more rigorous and generally better way to test in absolute terms. I dug out my old LMB3 that I used for years and never once noticed any noise from and was amazed at how noisy it is, which shows that I have potentially become a bit obsessed with this and should probably move on. I started by mimicking the settings I already use (even though the ranges are completely different) and found that the sound was a little too squashed and pillowy. The trouble is that the threshold control is very sensitive and with an active bass you end up with it almost maxed unless you want to compress the whole signal. It was kicking in too early so I increased this to 7/8 of it's travel; and those last few mm make a huge difference. Thankfully the knobs have rubber washers under them making them tricky to turn by accident. in fact they give quite a bit of resistance which makes tiny adjustments much easier and will lock them in place. So now to the ratio. It ranges from 2.5 to infinity. 2.5 is quite a high ration already at the minimum so I was disorientated at first but it's intuitive and seems to do most of the work in the first half of the travel where 'soft knee' compression is applied. I found it difficult to get the right level here - sometimes sounding too strangled and then too punchy and unnatural. It's taken a lot of playing to get it to match which I want but after leaving it overnight and coming back today I am pleased to say I have found the right setting for this bass at least. It was the same with the Roland - and I'm sure we've al been there with adjusting anything - you end up going round in circles, your ears get used to the sound and you chase your tail! I always have a zero/fast attack setting because the compression only kicks in at a high threshold anyway, but I did find the range of this control very musical when I tried it with a lower threshold and a super trebly input for some 'effect' type compression (something the Roland doesn't do very well, I must say - not that I ever use it - I'm sure if I spent some time I could do a manageable version). Same with the release - zero again because of the high threshold. Once dialled in I am very pleased with the sound of the pedal. I say sound, because it does have it's own character as well as the compression it applies. This can be adjusted using internal dip switches to apply warmth 1/2/off and a 12khz cut. I have tried all the settings and found with the warmth on setting 1 it gave a very subtle but great sounding feel which at first I didn't notice until I played a looper into the pedal and adjusted the switch with the back off (can we have them on the side or under a sliding door plz?). Setting 2 was a bit too rounded for me and the 12khz cut is apparently useful for filtering out noise from pedals up the chain but I didn't have any use for that and I like my biting treble - I mean to try it with other basses through. Then there's the side chain. You can adjust the way the limiter works with three frequency bands, so for example if I want to compress the bass more I can turn that dial up or vice versa. It has a subtle effect but I will try to set this up to give some extra limiting to the high range for the 'compression as an effect' type thing I mentioned earlier which I had fun playing with. I haven't played with putting any effects in the loop yet. I haven't ever got on with two band compressors very well, partly because I have only tried a few, but this gives an interesting slant on the benefits of having one. I really like that the pedal takes a battery so I can grab it and go (always seems weird when pedal manufacturers make small pedals but then you need a chunky power supply - less problematic if you have a pedalboard I suppose). Will it replace the compressor in the VB99? no - but after a lot of twiddling I'm pretty sure this comes as close as I'll get in a more portable format. Finally the build quality is superb - rock solid, smooth finish and very high quality feel to the knobs especially with their dampened effect. Cheers ped

I gave up reading after reading your first sentence. Power is measured in Watts. Volume (sound) is measured in dB.

New stuff from me. Trippy, rocky. I'm unsure what this actually is. #duuurtybass

Interesting that you assume everyone who loves the old TE sound is a King-obsessed slap monster. Not the case at all, I can assure you.

I only really listen to music for pleasure. If that leads to an idea for a song that in turn leads to me having to push myself technically in order to be able to play this new song, then so be it. One of the many reasons I left the covers band I used to be in, was that dissecting a song in order to learn how to play it sucked all of the enjoyment out of listening to that song. There are now several pieces of music I used to like a lot, that I never want to hear again because of this process.