obbm

Nice one Sean. I like the purple strings too. I'd be very interested to put your and mine side by side and see what the differnce is between the Aeros and the Fralins. My DJ5 has Aeros and they are great but the DJ4 has Fralins. Perhaps I should fit some Wizard 80s and see what happens. My DJ4 is my bass of choice and I use it all the time. It is just so playable.

[quote name='Weird War' post='81042' date='Oct 29 2007, 10:33 PM']Looks a stunner and I love the colour - congratulations. [/quote] +1

[quote name='jwbassman' post='80921' date='Oct 29 2007, 06:32 PM']I was considering looking for one with Jazz neck - does it make a massive difference or is it just personal preference?[/quote] It depends to some degree on the size of your hands and the length of your fingers. I used to have 76-ish Jap Precision. Lovely bass but too difficult to play. Now I have a '78 P, factory made with a Jazz neck, and it suits me just fine. It doen't come out too often because of it's age however I regularly use a Lakland Duck Dunn which has a jazz neck and is very easy to play. All you can do is go and try and see it it works for you.

[quote name='originalfunster' post='80717' date='Oct 29 2007, 10:55 AM']HI Ob, So would the ashly pre-amp give any benefit being attached to the Ampeg, or am I better off just sticking with the Ampeg on it own? Cheers Gary[/quote] Never having used either I'm not in a position to comment but my gut feeling is to go with the Ampeg. Perhaps someone more familiar with the equipment could comment.

[quote name='originalfunster' post='80067' date='Oct 27 2007, 11:32 AM']Hi all, I have a trace elliot RA300 twin channel power amp and an Ashly BP41 pre amp, however I have just got hold of a 2nd hand Ampeg svt3 pro (you have to understand I am a bit of a Bass Junkie... Isee something and just have to have it.......) anyway getting back to the point the other thing you need to know is that I have only been playing about 16months and do not know the first thing about anything to do with amps etc.[/quote] Firstly how are you operating the Trace power amp. I believe it's a 2-channel device. - Are you just using just one channel? - Do you have each channel connected to separate speaker cabinet and if so what impedance are they? - Are you running it in bridged mode and if so what cab are you driving and what impedance is it? [quote name='originalfunster' post='80067' date='Oct 27 2007, 11:32 AM']so first off what is the purpose of a pre amp? and could / should I use it with the SVT3 Pro?[/quote] A pre-amplifier provides the inital amplification stages to raise the instrument output (a few millivolts) up to a voltage level suitable for driving a power amplifier - in your case the Trace RA-300. Pre-amps also have tone shaping circuits and sometimes a compressor, a direct output stage for sending a balanced line signal to a mixing desk, etc. The Ampeg is a complete system and includes a pre-amp and a power amp. You could use the Ashly with the Ampeg power-amp stage by connecting it into the effects return jack. You might be able to connect it to the input of the Ampeg as long as you set the levels accordingly. [quote]what I have noticed is that with all the knobs ie: gain, tube gain, master etc set at the half way point on the SVT and doing likewise with the Trace and Ashly pre amp, the trace is approx twice as loud[/quote] Controls are not linear and half way up on one piece of equipment is not necessarily half way up on another so your comparison is not really valid [quote]I know the Trace is 300w and the Ampeg is 450w so is the Ashly providing all that extra power? or am I just being a complete muppett not understanding how amplification actually works???????[/quote] As previously said the Ashly is a pre-amp and only serves to increase the signal level. It has no effect on output power. The only true comparison is to run both amps into the same dummy load, monitor the outpout on an oscilloscope and measure the voltage at the point where the signal starts to clip. That would give you a comparison of output power. Any other differences are down to settings and internal levels in the two amps being different.

Final value fees are not charged on postage/carriage. Lower the price. Raise the postage. Go figure.

Stew, I've used a variety of mains cable as speaker leads. Occasionally I do a small PA rig for after-dinner speeches and for that I use orange lawn-mower power cable. Orange so I know exactly what it is, as it has jack plugs on each end. This is 0.75 sq.mm. cross section. In fact I've used it for higher power speakers as well. In the days when I was designing and building TV and radio studios and OB Trucks we always used mains cable as speaker cable but amps were never much above 50-watts. For reference: 0.75 sq.mm. = 6-amps 1.0 sq.mm. = 10-amps 1.5 sq.mm. = 16-amps 2.5 sq.mm. = 25-amps On thing you need to consider is just how much wear and tear the cable will be subjected to. If it's for a band PA that will be set-up and taken down regularly then the cable itself ideally needs to be very robust and flexible and I would suggest that you use rubber covered flexible. This is designed for floor extensions. Do not use pvc cable as it is very infexible and has a memory, so it will take time to change shape having been coiled up, and will be difficult to lay out flat. You can get this sort of cable at any electrical stockists. I've just been looking at the web site of tlc-direct.co.uk. Interestingly a 100-metre reel of their 2.5 sq.mm rubber covered is about the same price as I pay for a 100-metre reel of Klotz 2.5 sq.mm. but the Klotz is a much better cable as it is finer stranded and therefore has a better frequency response. Remember that mains cable is deigned for a single frequency, 50Hz. In the end you pays your money and you makes your choice. If it's cheap enough then get some and try it. I doubt that it'll do any harm and you might have found an economic solution.

If your Nordys have 5 wires coming from them, then they are configured to work with the SR5 pre-amp. Like I said there is a work-around (as our colonial cousins would say), but you need to mod the pick-up and get a 3-way 4-pole switch for the coils switching.

This is where it gets difficult for you because the coil switching is an integral part of the MM SR5 pre-amp. In series and single coil + phantom mode the point where the coils are connected is at ground and the other ends of the coils go to two separate op-amp stages out of phase with each other. This cancels any external interference. On my Stray5 with a Nordstrand and an East MM style pre-amp I separated out all the coils by adding an extra wire to the bundle that runs from the pick-up to the pre-amp and designed my own switching using an MM SR5 lever switch. It works but there is a level difference between the different settings. MM fix this by using a spare set of switch contacts to change the stage gain. Neat design. I've yet to tackle that one. If you've got 2 pick-ups then you are going to have twice the fun trying to sort it. Good luck.

According to the manual the Ampeg SVT-3 PRO has a solid-state output stage so you can use either a single 4-ohm cab or two 8-ohm cabs to extract the quoted max power of 450-watts You can also use a single 8-ohm cab to achieve a reduced ax output of 275-watts. If it had a valve/tube output stage then you would have to match the cab(s) to the amp.

[quote name='chris_b' post='77245' date='Oct 21 2007, 11:27 AM']I believe they are Klotz?[/quote] I take great care to respect the non-commercial nature of this Forum which is why I try to never get involved in these discussions and never blatently advertise or promote, except where already agreed with the Mods. There are plenty of members who can provide appropriate comment. However on this occasion I wish to clarify that I currently use Klotz for the speaker cables and Vandamme for instrument and mics. In my corporate working life I was involved with building literally hundreds of studios, edit suites and outside broadcast trucks using Vandamme with never a problem. It's comparable with Klotz but comes in several colours which is a benefit to some. If anyone wants Klotz then I can do that as well.

For many years I had a 1986-ish Jap Precision which was extremely well made and which played really well and sounded top notch. Nash now owns it and rates it very highly I believe. Jap P's of that vintage are reasonably priced and well worth looking out for.

[quote name='ped' post='76912' date='Oct 20 2007, 11:20 AM']Haha superb!!! What's the context? Maybe I should just buy the magazine eh? Nowhere in Witney stocks it unfortunately ;0)[/quote] It's about someone who picked up a dead 1984 Trace 1110 combo from Bassworld for free, got it repaired for a small sum and is now gigging with it. The interesting bit is that it was probably a prototype, being serial number 002 and was probably evaluated by Mark King as it has his name inside it. Now you don't need to buy the magazine.

[quote name='ped' post='76908' date='Oct 20 2007, 11:11 AM']What does it say?[/quote] "So when I spotted a vintage Trace combo going for free in the small ads of a UK bass forum, Bassworld (now called Basschat, www.basschat.co.uk) I was onto it like a shot"

[quote name='ped' post='76904' date='Oct 20 2007, 11:08 AM']Brill!! I presume he mentioned Basschat all the time ;0)[/quote] Can't see it there however we do get a mention in " A Trace Of History" on page 86.

There I was thumbing through the latest edition that dropped through the letterbox this morning when I chanced upon an article called Weekend Warriors on page 72 which featured our own "Stingrayfan" and his band "Wag The Dog". Nice one Matt. Well done.

I recognise some bits in there. Nice tidy job.

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='76566' date='Oct 19 2007, 03:29 PM']Funny enough i was just looking for one of those. I think price wise it might be slightly out of my budget though.[/quote] [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Lakland-Skyline-Bob-Glaub-Bass-Guitar-w-Hard-Case_W0QQitemZ110182489004QQihZ001QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Lakland-Skyline-Bob-...1QQcmdZViewItem[/url] This has to the bargain of the month. "Strike while the iron is hot"

I've got a 50PA which was non-working when I bought it earlier this year for £20 and a 200Plus which still needs some work doing on it to reduce the noise - a common fault with the mark 4s. I suspect the real reason is that David Gilmour admitted that he uses some Sound City 50 heads for recording. I still think that it is currently over-priced. Goodness knows what it will end at.

It's a dead 50-watt valve amp and the bids just keep on coming. Madness. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=150170133660&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=005"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...A:IT&ih=005[/url]

[quote name='Old Horse Murphy' post='75761' date='Oct 17 2007, 08:48 PM']Me!! [/quote] So where is he/she in Surrey then?

[quote name='kevbass' post='75720' date='Oct 17 2007, 07:35 PM']Looks alright for £640 to me [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ernie-Ball-MusicMan-STINGRAY-bass-guitar-Music-Man-USA_W0QQitemZ290171541893QQihZ019QQcategoryZ101561QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ernie-Ball-MusicMan-...1QQcmdZViewItem[/url][/quote] Looking at his feedback he seems to deal quite a bit in Stingrays. I spotted one of our own number in the list of buyers.