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HERE

Thanks mate, here's a better one from a similar angle

I have dug out the scan of my article about Basschat's collective interview. I could obviously have written dozens of pages, but I had a strict word count to adhere to. Herbie Flowers interview BGM 139 Feb 2017.pdf

Officially finished 👍🏻

As a cable maker I often get requests for 4mm speaker cable to connect heads to cabinets, usually 0.5-1m in length. I always advise that this is both expensive and unnecessary. Here is my explanation. The reason thinner cable is OK for shorter lengths is the lower resistance/impedance. The current carrying capacity becomes the most important here as over 0.5-1m it is irrelevant for most cable CSAs. I always argues that 4mm is way overspec'd for bass heads to bass cab connection. The cable current carrying capacity is far higher than even the speakOn connectors and the output of bass amplifiers. 1mm = 10A 1.5mm = 16A 2.5mm = 25A 4.0mm = 32A 10A at 4 ohms = 400 watts 16A at 4 ohms = 1024 watts 25A at 4 ohms = 2500 watts 32A at 4 ohms =4096 watts If your load is 8 ohms the power limit is twice those figures and remember that these are continuous ratings at 25C. If you look at Sommer Meridian Mobile speaker cable, the resistance is 7.5 ohms per kilometre or 1000 meters. So the resistance is less than 8/1000s of an ohm. So of 2500 watts you would dissipate just under 5 watts in the cable of 1 metre. Of course none of us are using 2500 watt amps... 4mm cable was is useful for those massive line array PA systems but not useful for bass amps IMHO. So why do I recommend 2.5mm and why not mains flex of the same size and rating? Well I have it in stock. However the real reason is that the Sommer Meridian Mobile cable 2.5mm is very flexible, unlike either mains cable or many competitors speaker cables. Sommer use 140 strands of copper while some well known competitors use 50 in their 2.5mm cable. So they bend more easily and are a delight to use.

Acoustic gig this weekend. I hope they comp those BBQ ribs like last time. Daryl

It's here. Very quick look and noodle at lunchtime suggests that it's very well put together with no obvious issues. It sounds great so once again I may just leave it as stock per my JJB-300. The neck is great and definitely different to their Jazz bass as I had thought that they might have done just one neck for both (like the Squier Silver Series basses). Mine is just under 8lbs (3.6kgs) so super usable.

Frets have come up lovely…. Next up, an overnight soak in Monty’s ageing wax….

I smoked a fair bit of puff back in the day, although I never partook before playing -- it was a nice way to wind down after a lengthy Saturday afternoon rehearsal though. Quick story with a bit of current relevance: back in the day we used to rehearse at Angie's in Wokingham, we'd spend all of Saturday afternoon there and then pack up & leave in time for the evening's band to load in. One afternoon we'd finished playing and were just having a chat when a chap walked in through the door -- he was in shadow so I couldn't see him. He apologised for interrupting, saying he was with the evening band but realised he was a bit early and could come back later if we wanted. We said it was fine and that we were done. "Great, thanks" he said, "oh, my name's Herbie by the way..." as he walked out of the shadows, and my mind went oh my god that's HERBIE F***ING FLOWERS and I nearly fell over myself to go and shake his hand. He was a lovely guy and chatted with us for a bit, and then there was a lull in the conversation. He sighed and said, "well I don't know about you, but I'm going to skin up..." He rolled two tiny spliffs of this ridiculous grass, smoked one himself and sent the other round the band, my god it was wonderful stuff. Herbie by name...

I made a few changes because of the next gigs that I have. I removed the Wireless and the Midi controller, since I won't need them. The comp is back again and it will stay. I added a tuner because I like to have a mute switch.

I have a surplus hard case for a bass, it'll take a MusicMan SR5 and so should be fine for most 34" scale basses. It came with my Thumb NT5, but is too big for the small body, and I've just scored a very cheap Warwick flight case for it. In good nick, all the catches work but there's no keys. Collection only please, I'm near Heathrow, London.

Thanks mate, there were some less flattering close-ups I must say! (Note to self, SMILE!)

The video points out that at the tuned frequency cone movement is at a minimum, while port output is at its maximum. However, one cannot assume that 41 Hz gives the best result. That you determine with modeling software. With most bass cabs the best result is around 50-55 Hz. He also gave the manufacturer too much credit on the port sizing. They're much too small. His methodology is off as well. To find the exact tuned frequency you use a sine wave generator, slowly sweeping the frequency until the cone movement is at its minimum.

Nice!!! 😍 I hesitated between this finish and the natural. I think this is the better looking one but I really wanted the maple fingerboard... Mine (5-string: Z7-5) arrived about 30 min ago... I haven't plugged it in yet because I have quite a bit of work to do still and I know what would happen But I'm very impressed. I had experienced Sire's rolled edges before, but I had forgotten just how nice that is. As I suspected from looking at the pickup and the polepieces, the string spacing at the bridge is 17.5mm, just like a Stingray5, which is perfect. The Z3-5 looks like it'll be a 16mm one but I haven't seen conformation yet. The neck is soooooo nice. And it weighs exactly 9.0 lbs, which for a 5-string is pretty good. I'll take a couple of photographs later... now I need to focus and finish work!

That diameter is far too small, so you'd end up with port air mass velocity that's too high, resulting in port noise. For two tens in an average size cab with 50Hz tuning the minimum required port diameter is 12 cm, or a pair of 8.5 cm.

I've just realised that I haven't posted my setup in this thread, so here it is: I've gone wireless since this photo was taken. The computer which is our drummer and second synth player also takes care of Preset and Snapshot changes on the Helix which leaves me free to concentrate on playing and throwing some shapes on stage, also in some places on a few of the songs the Snapshot changes come every two bars which is too complicated for me to get consistently right when done "manually". The footswitch on the left controls the playback - centre for start/pause and right for close current song and load the next one in the set list. I (and the rest of the band) no longer bother with backline, although I have a powered FRFR cab that I occasionally use for rehearsals, as with the Bass VI I'm playing both "bass" and "guitar" parts and any rig provided is very unlikely to be able the handle both types of sounds. Therefore I go straight into the PA via the EMO DI box. These days we only play venues with a big enough PA to get the programmed drums up to proper drummer volume and they always have monitoring good enough for me to be able to hear what I need.

This is ace. Full run through of his di rig for bass guitars, DB, and synth, all with playing examples. Few anecdotes about when things have gone wrong too. PAGE 2 has a new rig video from him.

One thing I didn't like much is teh pickguard shape... but the routing is reasonably clean Passive tone control doesn't go as dark as I'd like, I might change the capacitor... however, while playing around adding a bit of the neck pickup while rolling off the passive tone and the treble control I found some really tasty sounds, fat and rich... This is a lot of bass, and not just 'for the money'.

Landed a second BBII cab today.

The Darkglass corner

Be wary of claims of "quiet fans" many cut the noise by running the fans slower. There are two types of fan noise, one is turbulence, the blades disturbing the air and the other is vibration. In my empiric experience, vibration is the worse of the two. A better fan will vibrate less but it is the mechanical coupling with the chassis that causes most of the noise. I have used the Akasa mounts and they do reduce this mechanical vibration. Of course a better fan will also help.

I think there is a overly romanticised view of drugs when it comes to rock 'n' roll. Over the years I have worked with a handful of drug users and they are generally a pain in the **** - not as creative as they think they are and pretty unreliable. In the 90s, we had a guitarist who was permanently smoking weed ("only weed") and he'd have to give me his money to cover rehearsals at the start of the month or he'd spend it on weed. We'd then get to middle to later in the month and he'd be calling me up asking for a loan. Every month it was the same, we'd debate it for an hour with me reminding him of what happens every time, only for history to repeat - he'd then get angry with me when I asked for it back "it was just a fiver, not a tenner", only to eventually remember that I wasn't a liar and it was as I had written it down. Unsurprisingly, I don't miss that! These days I work with a few musicians who have issues around alcohol and I have to say it is the same. Some really talented players junking 1/2 a day of recording because they listen to the play back. I find it staggering when good musicians practice all the time and then when they go out, they blow it for themselves. I hasten to add most musicians I work with these days are focussed and creative. Have a pint, smoke a spliff (if you have to) but just keep your act together!

Since my heart attack last year I've had to take beta blockers, and they've had a very noticeable effect on my playing: They directly affected my internal sense of time to the point that I thought that the rest of the band were playing everything twice as fast as normal. When I reduced my dose, it felt like the band had slowed back down again to a more normal tempo, though obviously they'd been playing at the same speed all along. From a performance point of view, I certainly don't get any nerves before a gig, but then I don't get any excitement or enjoyment either, just a feeling of cold detachment. I suppose that technically they have improved my playing as I make fewer mistakes, but they've sucked all the fun out of it too. I'm currently in negotiations with my cardiologist to see if I can reduce my dose further without my heart blowing up.

As best I can tell the cab internal volume is about 60 liters, so a 75 mm ID tube 35 mm long would give roughly 50Hz tuning. But the port velocity is off the charts. You need two, 120 mm long.

I might be wrong, however I’m pretty sure that the one you have got there is the DJ-Retro preamp made specifically for Lakland Darryl Jones signature basses that have a longer, slightly slimmer body than normal Jazz basses - where’d you buy it? (Photo below from website 👇 The DJ-Retro is the only one that has two diff colour knobs on the concentric pots). I’ll swap it for a J-Tone preamp that will fit the Sadowsky if you’re stuck 😁

Yep, 100% agree. I got one of these made and it’s excellent. http://www.zadow-electronics.de/pickup_e.htm Stick it into a good preamp and sounds ace.

I’m honestly delighted with it. Not only is it supremely comfortable to wear for long sessions, it has all the grunt I could ask for. It sits perfectly in the mix, especially important when we have a keys and synth player. The string to string evenness (is that a word?) is very easy to work with as notes all over the neck have a ‘weight’ to them. The bridge pickup gives a little extra clarity and opens up the top end. I have found it very easy to hear myself in a range of situations.

So Rough Trade are opening a new branch on Denmark St, not sure exactly where but I'll be in the area tomorrow to nose around. Hopefully it'll get some of the young folk interested in guitars and that. Assuming there are any guitar shops left! https://www.nme.com/news/music/rough-trade-first-tin-pan-alley-music-shop-london-denmark-street-store-3792587

Drugs certainly make it easier to listen to the songs I've written.

Who was the best bass player ever? Did they take drugs frequently? There you got your answer!

Just read this. What a bass legend he was with the self-deprecating character. I heard his magical playing on Rock On well before I ever knew who played it decades later. But that line just inspired me to play. What better tribute can I pay. RIP Herbie.

Because it's fun to see how my taste has developed over the years. Furthermore, there are some basses I'd like to own again someday (if anyone has seen my former trans white Lakland Skyline 55-60 hit me up) and keeping track of serial numbers helps.

I've been using the alpha version, beta was extremely buggy last time I tried it. Is it any better now? https://loudspeakerdatabase.com/ is, as you'd hope, a wonderful resource. It exports thiele/small parameters to win ISD (or several other apps)

Going to Bassbros is a dangerous thing…

Vanderkley 210MNT + 210LNT (2.7 ohm total) + Glockenklang Heart Rock II = 1000 watts of Glockenesque Klanginess.

Drugs don't give you ideas, otherwise every junkie would be a sleepy, staggering Bach. They just tend to relax the parts of your brain which shut down ideas. The ideas are already in you, or they are not in you, but drugs don't add anything. Learn to relax and let your creative voice speak up a bit. You don't need drugs to do that, just a bit of control of your own mind.

My Darkglass MicroTubes 200 just arrived today. What a great little amp. Had to get a group shot. edit … forgot the Aguilar , took another pic.

Hope you all are doing well. So, I’ve played full scale basses since i started playing bass almost thirty years ago- only now, with the purchase of a JMJ last year, i‘ve become a vocal fan of what short-scales bring to the table. Also, I’m not the biggest fella, so with a short scale i actually feel in proportion with my instrument for once! My shorties are a ‘78 Musicmaster and a JMJ- that’s a ‘66 Precision sat in the middle. The JMJ was modified with a Serek B90 for a time, but i’ve since switched it back to stock while i consider if i want to part with it. All i really need/ want is the Precision and the Musicmaster. The JMJ feels excessive, but i thought it’d be nice to show off in the mean time! The eagle-eyed amongst you might notice the B90 isn’t in the original Mustang pickup position- this is because i shifted it back a little toward the bridge to place it in a 30” scale proportioned P bass position. This made it a bit less tubby, more lean sounding. It was also super responsive to picking position- changing position had a much more noticeable affect on the tone than i ever experienced in the original Mustang position. I might be talking myself into restoring the mod, haha.

I loved that man. Herbie's son Nick attended my secondary school for a while and Herbie started my bass playing passion by lending me a Fender bassman combo and bass guitar for a few months until I could afford my own. Meeting him 40 years later at the 2016 SE Basshchat get together was very emotional for me; as is the news of his passing.

Scratchplate fettled... just got to find some nuts n washers and cerated locking washers for the back of the pots... the Blend is 18mm shaft and needs spacing back... and wire up... 'All Done for a £Ton' EDIT: Now sporting Entwistle PBX JBX