Mr. Foxen

Whilst the Orange works, it needs an overhaul, so new valves are in order. I've fiddled with preamp valves a bunch, so will probably go Electro Harmonix or JJ, but know nothing about the power valves, sound wise. Its got beefy 70s transformers, so should be happy with most stuff. What I'm after is midrange growlness, I run seperate amps from my pickups, so loads of bottom is sorted, this is the amp my distortion and drive will be going through into an 8x10. What valves have you lot tried for snarling horrible bass tones. Tempted by these just for the colour, and not being expensive: What are 6CA7s like?

Isn't the answer to the first one xlim? [quote]Xlim is expressed by Eminence as the lowest of four potential failure condition measurements: spider crashing on top plate;vVoice coil bottoming on back plate;vVoice coil coming out of gap above core; or the physical limitation of cone. A transducer exceeding the Xlim is certain to fail from one of these conditions. High pass filters, limiters, and enclosure modeling software programs are valuable tools in protecting your woofers from mechanical failure.[/quote] The second bit, if you have the cabs, try it and see, get a long cable and wander about, to se if there are bad cancellations. The people madly criticising mixing cabs and drivers and such are either people in pro audio that are very fussy on the minutiae of good sound, or people who have read their statements and taken it to mean the world will implode of you go against them, because they are experts. In most cases, you won't cause many real problems mixing cabs. Some stuff is going to upset totally modelled stuff, but is fine in practice, for example, if you do the highly reccomended pair of 2x10s stacked on their sides, the bottom one is radiating in half space cause of the floor, but the top one isn't, so they are mismatched.

[quote name='WalMan' post='649285' date='Nov 8 2009, 11:51 PM']Out and out distortion probably not, but a little bit of grit for rocky stuff is what I am chasing with the option for a bit of extra boost on occasion. Aiming at the gritty sound Dave Meros gets with Spocks Beard and the rocky bass sound on the new Neal Morse triple live CD that has been getting a blasting in the car in recent days. Sort of have it with the BOD and the SVT Grit patch that Ped wrote and posted on the Line6 sharing section, but am looking to cut down the gear I am lugging and picked up a Blackstar HT Dual this afternoon (the DHA Dual EQ I borrowed from Johnnylager last week worked really well as well, but this afternoon was a mix of equal helpings of retail therapy, a good price and a pretty good version of what I am after when I tried it out). We shall see how it pans out.[/quote] Get some other valves (and some smaller fingers) and get swapping, the EHX is an improvement on the stock, but the Mullard I have was a notch above that.

If anyone wants one of those buckers, I'e got one going, model 1 went in mine. Does the trick.

Would guess at a blown fuse, one near the output jacks, have a look inside, mine did that when I shorted it.

Bass strings are spensive, no point grubbing them up for miming.

[quote name='Rumple' post='648681' date='Nov 8 2009, 12:05 PM']Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. Weirdly I think it's seeing the words 'not suitable for bass' on the back that got me wanting to try it out [/quote] You might get distortion, heaven forbid. Anyway, where are the gutshots?

If the noise supressor and the compression are on all the time, stick them on top of your amp out of the way, that will help.

EHX Holy grail reviews great. I've got a Marshall reflector, works great too, and really cheap.

[quote name='mildmanofrock' post='648426' date='Nov 7 2009, 11:17 PM']Would bi-amping make full PA gigs more difficult - especially with limited soundchecking time? Plus sweet-talking the soundman into micing up or taking DIs out of two heads and balancing the two sounds out front?[/quote] DI the bottom, and mic the effected cab is probably simplest solution.

What's missing with what you have?

[quote name='sweeneyjimbob' post='648423' date='Nov 7 2009, 11:00 PM']wow you confussed me then mr foxon dont quite get what you mean will pics help?[/quote] Yeah, went fairly stream of conciousness. I have a whole pile of similar pickups, one set are Dimarzios (or so I was told) they have a pair of black ceramic magnets and the poles go between them, and are hight adjustable. Some were from my Westone Thunder (thing were called 'Hard Puncher' pickups) but are the same contruction. The other set I removed from my BC Rich because they were microphonic at volume, the windings would vibrate and squeal. I was wondering if this could be cured by dipping in melted wax, as they sound great.

Te ones with cermaic magnets either side of allen head screws? I like the sound but mine were unpotted so were microphonic. Got 3 or 4 sets laying about (some are from Westone Thunder, are they own branded, but the same, or just similar build?). Could I pot them in a wax pot for ladies legs?

What bass is it? Scope for stratp pin shifting. My mockingbird has no dive, surprisingly, and clearly has a few strap positions tried.

[quote name='ashevans09' post='648161' date='Nov 7 2009, 03:58 PM']Broken link?[/quote] Lose one of the [url="http://s"]http://s[/url].

The scale length isn't the limiting factor nearly as much as the amplification. You just want a ridiculously long scale bass so you can have a really low tuning? Think making an upright style bass is overcomplicating things really. The was a thread on this fairly recently.

You forgot times when one stack is not enough on its own:

I also have a bust one I was given to fix, but the transformer is melted. If there is a good transformer, I'm after it, if not, the fan is spare.

I wouldn't get caught up thinking small hands mean you need a skinny neck. Just need the right technique:

Totally read the link I posted early in the thread for discussion on reproducing the lower fundamentals of F#0. Also, compare the Low A clips (a tone below low B on a 5 string) clips in my sig with the F0 clip, see which is beefier sounding, there's a lot of work to be done to get that, going lower takes even more.

The most important thing to do is buy a used Badass II bridge from a well known forum regular with multiple pages of feedback. That way you can ensure reasonably prompt delivery and a sensible price.

Depending on how the bass is set up, some have individual volumes for each pup (like a Jazz bass) and some have a single volume and blend. Some just have volume, tone and switch. Rewiring it to whatever config you like is fairly easily doable.

[quote name='umph' post='645139' date='Nov 4 2009, 12:31 PM']also the ones with the good tracking like micropogs etc have a high pass filter on them to stop you blowing your cabs.[/quote] And not blowing cabs is for pansies.