synaesthesia

[quote name='chris_b' post='413897' date='Feb 19 2009, 08:54 AM']This is another example of science vs ears. In the real world, has the use of 4x12's, 8x10's and 4x10's over the last 50 years really been a problem? The fact that these cabs have been successfully and continuously used by all types of music from Status Quo and Metallica to Victor Wooten and Stanley Clark says it all.
The bottom line is know the science if you want but you [i]can[/i] believe your ears, and the ears of others.[/quote]


Science vs ears? Not true at all. I have a spare bass cab kit made up of accumulated audio junk in the garage and built it to make this: 1X 15 PD driver in an old box, and a top box that is similar to the bright box by TE, but it houses 4 Galaxy neodymium 5" drivers in a line array. I cross it at 700 hz. The system uses top hats and a short plumbing tube. Anyone in east mids is quite welcome to PM me if you want to pop over for a demo of comb filtering.

If you place the 4X5" horizontally, as you walk around, you will find the mid range dropping in & out. In vertical top hatted mode, the dispersion is clear is a bell all around and the continuity is seamless between 1X15 and the 4X5".

The market preference for horizontal *X10s is a consequence of marketing and the legacy of Leo Fender putting drivers in that fashion in the fifties.
That many musicians do not hear the combing is largely due to the fact that many of the *X10s have fair to severe mid range drop offs, and are mainly pushing watts out between 80 - 800Khz. The single horn tweeter, if employed typical of this design does not contribute to comb filtering.

That top performers continue to use this is no excuse for the weekend warrior /less than stellar pro to follow suit. IEMs, good stage monitoring, no dependence on backline for public address, and excellent touring PA support MASKS the problem of comb filtering in typical bass cabs.

However, top pro or not, if your backline of *X10s or *X12s in gtr or bass, contributes to or is the main form of public address, you will have this problem. And if you have seen Stanley up close on EB in a small club ( I have to say I have on many occasions) you will HEAR his mid range drop out if you walk around; in many a spot all you get is low end mush and clickity clack of his tweeters from his SWRs (which he is currently using)

[url="http://www.classd.ltd.uk/product.php?productid=18420&cat=580&page=1"]http://www.classd.ltd.uk/product.php?produ...=580&page=1[/url]

try these if money's tight.

[quote name='Rich' post='402049' date='Feb 6 2009, 02:46 PM']Try a model shop? Back when I used to glue bits of plastic together as a hobby, you used to be able to get various plastic sections in lengths -- I'm pretty sure round white rods were among the available bits.[/quote]

+1. primarily the same sort of stuff. If you have time on your hands, you can get the hollow metal rods from these places, and stuff them with plastic rod material or wood and make markers with metal rings.

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='403169' date='Feb 8 2009, 03:40 AM']end on end gives better on axis response...[/quote]

You mean 'off' axis dispersion. On axis response sounds fine however you stack it and that is what fools most people into believing that that is how a stack of speakers will project acoustically.

[quote name='Pookus' post='399360' date='Feb 3 2009, 08:09 PM']If money was no object - what would be the finest valve amp around? (And possibly the cab to go with it) Could be vintage or new.[/quote]


It depends on your tone goals, whether you want to drive the valves hard or not, in either the pre or power amp sections.

The cleanest tube preamp I've used, is the Demeter VTBP 201. The fattest 'tubiest' bass pre would be a Read purity.

I would chase a vintage Mcintosh power amp, or at least a new one:
[url="http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/products/mcintosh-mc2102-vacuum-tube-power-amplifier.asp"]http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/products/mcint...r-amplifier.asp[/url]

[quote name='metaltime' post='399421' date='Feb 3 2009, 09:17 PM']On the Alembic forum a lot of people rate Glokenklang i would love to try that stuff out. It looks immense.[/quote]

Glockenklang products are solid state. On the Alembic forum, you tend to get people with money who would rate anything as long as it is expensive. Other than DFUNG there's hardly anyone there who has anything acoustically or technically sensible to say about amplification.

Sorry I 've made a mistake and edited the above post.... you can get Gators from CLD not CPC.

[url="http://www.cld-dist.co.uk/"]http://www.cld-dist.co.uk/[/url]

Music King for Stagg:
[url="http://www.themusicking.co.uk/4u-abs-rack-case-with-integrated-trolley"]http://www.themusicking.co.uk/4u-abs-rack-...egrated-trolley[/url]

[quote name='Shaggy' post='395785' date='Jan 30 2009, 09:59 PM']Just put together my "lightweight" rig;

Trace-Elliot V-type all-valve pre-amp - £150 (thanks synthaesthsia!)
QSC RMX-850 power amp - £90 on ebay (obliged to The Funk for words of wisdom)
3u rack case - hopefully £30-ish

boutique tone and 600W power for £270 [/quote]

Glad you are happy with the Trace V.
Overall weight is relative when you have a roller rack a la the Gator ones. Roller Gator's can be had for little more than cost at CLD and if you are not brand conscious you can find cheapo Stagg roller racks from Music King. Their designs are stupidly miscalculated, their 4U racks lose 1U due to the roller mechanism, but then it becomes a perfect 3U roller rack. I still have one which I use and can't say that other than design stupidity that there is anything wrong with how it functions. Except for a 2U rack, all my racks are rollers now and my back is not complaining.

[quote name='4000' post='391378' date='Jan 26 2009, 01:11 AM']Not quite true.....the CS has a vermilion fingerboard and headstock wings whereas the V63 has walnut wings and an "african rosewood" bubinga board. Contrary to what many others say, I think the V63s and the CSs do sound slightly different, although I'm incredibly anal about the differences in sound between individual Rics. I've owned 2 CSs and 1 V63, and have played several other V63s, and the CSs sound a bit harder to my ears (our guitarist, also very anal about tone, agrees). A mate of mine played my CS and V63 back to back and couldn't tell the difference but his ears aren't as good as mine, with all due respect; they sounded quite different to me as he was playing them.

BTW, John Hall has stated that the full 1000 units production run was never finished.[/quote]

You can pick any two strats from the same year with same construction and they would sound anally different. I used the Ricks in various recordings with flats and roundwounds and decided to sell the CS LH at a time when prices were high, as sonically it was not that different- I would say interchangeable, and physically, it felt the same. I am of course, not as anal.

The CS I had I inspected very closely and the fingerboards the same as my v63. Vermillion wood is the common name for Padauk, and you find them in Africa and parts of polynesia. It's a bit redder and denser than Bubinga, but cannot say that the CS I had, had a reddish padauk f'board. That said, Ric LH production is to a large extent a pain in the production process for them, and if there are any shortcuts, the LH ones had them. Only in 2007/8 do you really actually see a properly accurate LH instrument in the 4003 LH, prior to this all LH Rics with triangular fingerboard inlays were RH production pieces used in an upside down configuration. They only started LH headstocks around '91 or so and I am not surprised if there are /were LH shortcuts. My 360/12v64 has a RH fingerboard.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='391231' date='Jan 25 2009, 08:59 PM']If this were a lefty, I would have it, end of.
Do you happen to know if Ric made any lefties?[/quote]

4 out of a thousand, according to some sources; though I really think there are 12 lefties out of a 1000. I had one from new, and sold it in 2003 and sold it to a Yes collector in the US. I know someone else who has another one in Texas. I saw a third one elsewhere.
Other than the colour, and signature pickguard, frankly it was no different to my 4001v63 sonically or physically.

[quote name='solo4652' post='390314' date='Jan 24 2009, 12:19 PM']Responding to my own posting...

Found it now:

[url="http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/products/2494-planet_waves_dare_strap"]http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/products/24...aves_dare_strap[/url]

Anybody have any experience of these?[/quote]


I got one to check it out, didn't work for me and didn't work as well as I thought it would. PM me to send me a large size SAE if you want it. You can give some money to charity or light a couple of candles in a temple of your choice.

If it is back issues, the 'slider' design works better, and if you can ever find the bass brace, which were marketed for a short time, they were the best but they needed a third strap pin.

[quote name='Leowasright' post='389868' date='Jan 23 2009, 06:07 PM']... basswood bodied (actually lime wood).[/quote]

Different common names for Tilia species.

[quote]The reality is, even precision made pickups made to the exact same spec, can have massively different outputs and sounds.[/quote]

[quote name='alexclaber' post='388551' date='Jan 22 2009, 02:23 PM']I really do not believe this at all. If you make a pickup to close enough tolerances then all examples will sound so similar as it be indistinguishable.[/quote]

It depends on the nature of the pickup design whether there will be a resultant variance. Assuming electrical and magnetic equivalence - if the winding method, tension, overlap of the coil is mechanically consistent then you might have small tolerances to be predictable about it. Some designs, e.g. Rickenbacker scatterwound pickups, have an inherent design that builds in some chance and variance despite most of the parameters of the winding, and the winding process itself being mechanically controlled. Hand winding pickups, or hand feeding a spool to the bobbin results in enough variance to make some pickups special and some duds.

If you want to bone up on pickups, search for Erno Zwaan's " animal magnetism", it's fairly difficult to get now but you can find it.
Zwaan later got a grant from Philips and developed the Q tuner range of pickups.

This book is very under-rated and is one of the better books I have seen for someone wanting to get into jazz:
[url="http://www.jazzwise.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=9140"]http://www.jazzwise.com/catalog/product_in...roducts_id=9140[/url]

It is a better starting point than books by J Goldsby, Rufus Reid, Chuck Sher etc and helps you make better sense of those books, once you get past the basics of playing to changes, using substitutions, etc.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='385850' date='Jan 20 2009, 11:39 AM']I used to buy Bass Player religiously when it first came out but, if you spend anytime reading these magazines, the interviews and reviews quickly all blend into one. So I stopped reading them. The only real downside is that you don't get to hear about new players until they become more mainstream but the is marginal becasue, as you get older, the influence of the new 'young lions' on your playing decreases because the music you play normally comes from a different place.

Gearwise, I tend to buy by reputation not as a consequence of advertising or reviews and I get that 'word of mouth' from talking to people and listening to what other players have to say. The workshop forums tend to be polarised between the very basic 'major scale in thirds' type colums and the unplayable 'Michael Manring open tunings, double tapping on a fretless' column. So I became an autodidcat. Advertising is the main loss - you don't get to see what's out there - but I can't afford to buy it so does it matter?

I think I would rather read a Jazzwise/Jazztimes/Downbeat type magazine as its the music that matters not the bass (oooer! Controversy!!)![/quote]

Downbeat's a lot less penetrating these days too. The articles are shorter than before and because of the internet, nothing's really news in print anymore.

FWIW, BGM is typical of many UK magazines money correlation ethos. The ethos is the same. In hifi mags, if you have a 200 quid amp, you must use a 200 quid pair of speakers. God forbid you drive any Martin Logans with a 200 quid amp. The logic is the same in BGM. I have a copy in my loo...bought one to have a gander, the one with the US precision and Jazz on the cover. The article on leads is a right laugh. If you have a Fodera then you must use a £150 quid lead. If you have a Stagg spend no more than a fiver on a lead. I'd step out and say that the article is completely misleading. I also find it really funny that J Gwizdala who constantly brags about quitting Berklee to play teaching anything in print or in a school.

The ads are the same as guitarist mag, or SOS, useful for 'street' retail prices. Email has largely eradicated the letters to the editor sections that always get the same letters like "can we have a section for beginners please? I don't understand what you are on about".

The thing about US rags is that they get the global trendsetters contributing, it is not that the UK does not have them, it is that they go stateside and put their two cents there.

Allan Gordon closed up a while ago. You'd get various grades from Adam Hall, but actually if you google the people who fit speakers & subs into cars/vans/trucks/buses, you'd find that they source their fur from cheaper and more colourful range of rats.

[quote name='barryenright2320' post='385318' date='Jan 19 2009, 08:06 PM']Savage, never seen these guys before but as others have said, there almost too bright. Woudlnt mind me a pickguard though..[/quote]

A simple mod will fix the brightness. A resistor in line with the Battery + will sort it out, and you can experiment with values from 10 Ohm to maybe 100 ohms. You'll find a value that suits your eyes. If you are so inclined you can fit a variable resistor as a dimmer.

[quote name='steviedee' post='382224' date='Jan 16 2009, 12:08 PM']Hi Folks I've just bought a K&K Dual-channel Pro Preamp I'm intending to use it with my wing pickup and a fingerboard clicky for rockabilly/country slap but wondered if I could plug a mic in instead of the clicky for a different sound?[/quote]

The dual pro, takes line sources only so you'd need to preamplify the mic to line level. If you got this from K & K new, exchange it for the Trinity preamp, which will take a line and a mic source. They are a nice couple who run K&K, I was a dealer for their products in the 90s. The dual Pro takes high impedance piezo sources only, at 1 Meg.

[quote name='steviedee' post='382224' date='Jan 16 2009, 12:08 PM']So the upshot being are there any cheap clipon mics around I could mess around with .... we are talking BUDGET here [/quote]

There are several, and it really depends on what you want the mic to do: pick up click or bass. A tie pin mic will work to pick up click and presence. If if you have small mic and want to pick up low end, run it inside the instrument if you know how to do that.

[quote name='mathewsanchez' post='382702' date='Jan 16 2009, 06:03 PM']Need to test if a B string will fit on my bass. Anyone got one lying around?[/quote]

PM me to send me an SAE. I have a couple of new unused SIT Power steel long B strings, the sort that would fit a G & L string through. I no longer have a 5 string bass so you can have it.

There are two income streams in music retail:

1. selling music merchandise for a profit
2. servicing the 'continuing' musos

The first income stream, dwarfs the other.
Also, a large share of the first income stream is made up of high profit, quick turnover items.

There will always be invariably more teenagers looking for start up kit to try their hand at the craft, wanting cheap and cheerful kit and they are an annually renewable 'resource'; than there are people who have not given up, but have perservered with playing music beyond their teens, professional or otherwise.

Good luck.

[quote name='Al Heeley' post='380795' date='Jan 14 2009, 10:43 PM']... you cannot be certain of the depth of the truss rod channel rout.[/quote]

+1. Be careful.
Sheldon Dingwall once told me that if you shave the neck down anyway, you would change the resonant frequency and it is likely that the neck will sound darker that what it is now.
Stanley Clarke's Alembic had its neck shaved down a bit and its width reduced as well (not by Alembic) , when Alembic serviced the bass they were surprised ...

[quote name='WHUFC BASS' post='380761' date='Jan 14 2009, 10:22 PM'][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VINTAGE-ELECTRIC-BASS-GUITAR-IBANEZ-CHERRY-SUNBURST-W-W_W0QQitemZ220344825375QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item220344825375&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1298|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VINTAGE-ELECTRIC-BAS...%3A1|240%3A1318[/url]

I reckon this'll go for a few bob if it isn't pulled first.[/quote]

This is the thru neck version, and the icing on the cake is the dot binding in the thru neck Ibanez copies ....can't tell if this one has the dot binding with my poor eyesight.

[quote name='Spoombung' post='380771' date='Jan 14 2009, 10:29 PM']Try the Danelectro. About £200
[/quote]

+1 on the Dano. When he outgrows it or gets bored or takes over your P, you'll still have a pretty cool bass.

Bicycle or car tyre rubber (the inflatable part) cut to size with a box knife or pair of scissors works well.

[quote name='neepheid' post='377187' date='Jan 11 2009, 09:43 PM']Remember that the EB-3 might sound a little different due to the longer scale.[/quote]

The original Gibson EB-3's were short scale - 30 1/2", and the EB-3L was 34" scale. IIRC there were much more EB3s than there were EB3Ls made.