jazzyvee

8 minutes ago, Piers_Williamson said:

Thanks Jazzy....and for completeness, is the top rack unit a stereo splitter??

Sort of but only for series basses, gives the choice of individual pickup out or single mono out.

13 hours ago, Piers_Williamson said:

 

 

Nerdy Alembic question for you Jazzy....if you have all that filtering goodness on-board your Alembic, do you need an SF 2 rack as well, or do you leave one set flat?  And what does the top element in your rack do?

 

Thanks...and beautiful basses and tasteful playing from you!

Hahaha, well i am an alembic nerd so here goes. No, i don't need the SF-2 for most things, so generally it is in passthrough with the filter gain off.  The alembic onboard low pass filters have an operating range of 350hz to 3khz. So once you set your frequency on either of the filters, everything above is filtered out at 12db/octave and below is untouched. So for reggae, even with the filter closed down, that bass is so bright the sound can be twangy a can't take control of the lower frequencies i want to emphasise. So that is where the SF-2 comes in, i can pick the punch frequency which for me is around 80 to 110hz depending on the room, then i can raise everything from that frequency and below with the  filter gain and using the reciprocal damping knob i can emphasise the punch frequency. That gives me overall a clean articulate heavy and punchy bass sounds without the mud.

For non reggae it's hardly used but sometimes i have used it in a low volume gig just to increase the low end density

I suppose i could use a regular bass amp. 🤫😉

The top unit is the mains external power supply for my series bass. They connect  via 5 pin neutrix connectors which send 36vdc to power the bass and returns individual pickup outs which  go to your pre amp or the two rear out jacks can go to another stereo or mono bass rig. Btw, series basses also have 2x9v batteries inside for backup or if you prefer to use a standard jack lead.

Last night's gig rig.

Alembic F1-X and SF-2 into a Synq 1K0 power amp and Barefaced Big Twin II

Had a good gig last night at a 70's/80's event last night in Brean. No photos of it yet but I did take a shot of my rig, which actually is better looking than me anyway.

DI & mic'd cab meant some heavy reggae bass was felt last night.

Those cables are for use with passive instruments so no use on alembics which are all active unless modded post build.  A link to alembic's info on it. 

https://alembic.stores.yahoo.net/activecable.html

Any pointers to a luminay supplier in the UK? I havent found any on my searches.

That is exactly why i don't use bridge mode. But i felt the need to ask just to rule that option out.👍

5 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

Read the other post twice more. Square waves are not square.

 

Regarding the OP, many times I have heard of stray material getting in through the port and lodging behind the cone. Everything from a Homer Simpson toy to a lolly wrapper.

 

The other gotcha is a dying battery in your bass preamp or a pedal.

 

You would have to really slam a BB2 for it to break the woofer. Rig up some music through it at low volume and increase. If it gets deafening without the distortion you'll need some very good hearing protection. Putting your ear down to the speakers you should be able to hear if it's coming from the horn or the 12.

Unlikely to have any of those objects in the cab and I did take the speaker out to have a look inside and there was nothing in there that shouldn't be there.

My bass has an external 36vdc power supply so no issue with loss of power to the bass and I have the internal trip pots set at the lower end of the range as I know they are really hot on full power.
I have a couple of mates with a rehearsal studio so I will try your suggestion of loud music there to avoid annoying my neighbours.

7 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

That's the Myth of Underpowering, and it's just that, a myth. If amp clipping, or clipping anywhere in the signal chain, hurt woofers guitar players would be swapping them out at every break. Clipping is only potentially dangerous to tweeters, because the high frequency content is abnormally high. And we don't play sine waves.

Interesting, as the most of the cracking sound appears when the tweeter is on and less so when it's off.

8 hours ago, DaleASmith said:

surely there's a bigger risk of distortion from a smaller amp. Just as in HiFi. 

 

If your cab can handle 800watts and you run a 300 watt amp into it at full tilt, there's a risk of the power amp distorting, producing non sine waves and wrecking your speakers. Maybe that's what your hearing.

 

Your safest bet is to use an amp that is too big for the job, not too small. 

hmm, well my two main amps that I use for most gig are a Synq 1K0,  https://synq-audio.com/digit-1k0  and my Crown XLS1502  both run at 300w into 8 ohms should I try them in bridge mode with this cab, not at full volume but to see if I get a better performance of them with less risk of distorting?  
 

Firstly i must emphasise that this is not a complaint about Barefaced cabs it's me trying to understand how i should expect a speaker to behave under differing conditions. I have only previously owned mesa boogie ph cabs so no real diverse experience of much else.

So just trying to understand if what i am hearing is normal, am i giving the cab too much bottom end at any wattage or anything else.
I do have an issue with what i am hearing through one of my 1x12 cabs and BF been quick in sending me a new speaker, but before i start to test it on my rig i just want to know what is normal and what is not. 

if i have any bass cab rated at 800w or 600w at 8ohms and a bass amp that will deliver below that wattage into an 8 ohm cab:

• what are the circumstances that would make the speaker fart out?
• When is it right for me to expect the speaker to farting out do because i am asking too much. 
• what circumstances is it wrong for the speaker to fart out and what does that sound like. 
• how do i test my tweeter to find out if that is ok.

My intended use of the BBII has always been for smaller gigs using 5 and 4 string basses Eub covering predominantly jazz based music and reggae. All was fine until i paused gigging during lockdown and the cab was not used, then when i started using the cab again last year the issue became evident. 

Again can i stress this is not a barefaced bashing thread as i have three more of their cabs which all work perfectly and i am completely happy with. So i am surprised that this situation. 

.

I plan to call BF on monday also for advice.

Most of my gigs are reggae and sometimes I have used my Dubster II and Big baby II together as recommended by Alex and the bottom end is Righteous, heavy and clean!!!!

Strictly speaking I didn't bi-amp it Just had two cabs that had different frequency responses. I do have a crossover on my pre-amp so i could have done bi-amping by frequency. I tried it once but found it a bit fiddly to find the right crossover frequency to set. 
My new pre-amp has two independent channels so I have the option to send each pickup to a separate cab through my stereo power amp. Hope I get the chance to try it on a gig this year. Probably not any use for reggae though.

1 minute ago, Reggaebass said:

What sort of songs have you got to learn jazzy 

A variety of vibes from Ska, Toots, John Holt, Wailers, Morgan Heritage, Beres Hammond, UB40.

I had pretty much paused my guitar playing to concentrate on bass, so this is a nice push to get my chops back as i do still have some nice guitars that deserve to be played.

Not bass but, i have been asked to cover on guitar for a good friend who's band has just lost both guitarists for an upcoming gig. So dusting off my guitar and learning some 90 minutes worth of vintage reggae classics.👍🏾🤪😁🔊🎶🎵🎸

On 19/02/2022 at 12:48, casapete said:

We had a great gig last night at Liverpool's Empire Theatre. Despite the long journey in pretty grim weather, it proved well worth it - around 1300 people in the audience which amazed us. A really historic venue that has put on a long list of great singers and bands over the years, including of course The Beatles. Always think of this when I'm singing 'Roll over Beethoven' on that same stage, (albeit quite a different version from theirs and Chuck's!!)

Managed time to get a great pizza at the famous Ma Egerton's pub (near the stage door) before the gig too, so didn't have to walk far on a night of dreadful weather.

Made it home around 2am, knackered today though.

wow that's an incredible looking venue.  No doubt the gig was superb too.. 👍🏾

I quite like rack units so i can mix and match as i please. The first picture was my old rack until i started downsizing to lighter gear which is when the QSC got replaced with a crown.

This is my current rack with a new F2-B and vintage alembic In-2 switching unit with bass power supply and two DI outs. Only got those two bits last year so not had a chance to use it live yet.

Overall i think the QSC sounds more hifi to my ears and more punchy, but the overall weight of the rack made it a chore to drag to gigs, hence the Crown replacement.

I do have a Walkabout head which i think is a great head that i use when travelling light with out my cabs.

I am curious about these things, do you actually hear your bass through bone conduction or is it just pumping the dynamics into your feet  as punches and you are not experiencing any sound. For example if you used it without in-ears or any other speakers, do you hear anything from the transmission of sound through your body to the inside your head?

On 07/02/2022 at 09:33, Boodang said:

The bass I drag out for our Status Quo tribute band gigs down the Dog & Duck.

Looks fine with Phil Lesh
https://ritter-instruments.com/artist-series-phil-lesh.php

Have we just seen the perfect double bass for metal? 😂

This is a video we had filmed early last year (2021). It's not recorded with the double bass, I just thought it would look better on the video.. 

Yeah I found a bass that is perfect for me, (maybe slightly different meaning to the OP). What I like is that the pickups have a really even sound throughout the sound spectrum.

Whilst i can use it successfully for all genres I get to play, I am particularly choosy about when I take it to gigs.  Like someone else pointed out perfect is not a static thing. So while this one is the most perfect of my basses, there are others that i choose when I want a different kind of perfect :-).

If the DI in the pedal is uses an isolation transformer, then you won't fry it as the DC won't transmit through the transformer to the pedal. 

Might be worth browsing this article on DI's it refers to stage DI's but the principle is the important thing. I just looked up the pedal pdf on line and it does not mention much about the DI but since it has a psu i guess it's an active DI. Maybe a recording guru will enlighten on the best line of action.

Prepare to DI! (soundonsound.com)

Nope.

On 26/12/2021 at 01:51, Bean9seventy said:

 

1st Alembic bass on view in UK was in Macaris ? Stanley Clarke ?

Demark Street was bigger in terms of "how many shops" there were, 

it was also the most expensive bass on offer @ the time @ £1k ? tho i am sure they went for much less,

 

tryed it, very well made, heavy ,fine tuning "double octave ,< very important for brit funk bassists back then,

just for prospective, very few funk bassists if anyone, had a Fender at that time   

I recall seeing two alembic series basses in the window of a shop in Birmingham  called Woodroffe's, just after the first Clarke Duke oproject tour came to town. I think this was some time in 1981 or early 1982. Both basses were up for sale for £3000 one was the large classic body shape and the other was the short scale series bass.
 

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

My turn 😉

I once turned up to a gig with £20k worth of kit.

The stage was cold (so I'd already got my coat) and I put a pair of warm mittens on. I've been told that the tone is all in the fingers. It was.

The tone was in the mittens unless they were fingerless. 🧥