obbm

Albatross - Fleetwood Mac Highway to Hell - AC/DC

RIP Chuck. Such a huge musical influence. Your music will live on for ever.

My Spector CTB Fretless (30 3/8-inch scale) came in a very nice Gator Pro-Go Gig Bag. Just checked and the internal length is a fraction over 41-inches.

[quote name='ikay' timestamp='1488790014' post='3251668'] Hi Dave, on the Fishman website, under powerchip features it says 'Fishman-designed piezo volume control'. I'm pretty sure the Fishman vol is for piezo only. The circuit allows both signals to be mixed but the mag vol is before the circuit and functions independently to the piezo vol. [/quote] Thanks Ian. That is what I would have expected. By my reckoning the Powerschip is therefore faulty. I must confess that Fishman's information is somewhat lacking.

Having just got back from the Bass Show where I heard an interesting talk by Overwater's Chris May and had a long chat with John East, I decided to do some more digging around in the control cavity and searching on the net. By snipping ou the neat cable ties I've been able to establish that the Piezo is connected to a Fishman Powerchip board which is mounted on the back of the Piezo volume pot. According to info I found on the Fishman site this board supposedly includes a buffer and provides the facility to connect a magnetic pick-up and mix the two signals. The Aguilar magnetic pick-up is connected to its own volume pot and then into the Fishman Powerchip. Unfortunately there is no information about how this set-up is supposed to function. Is the Piezo volume a master volume which allows you to mix in some magnetic or should both controls work independently and the thing faulty? I've just contacted Fishman support and wait in anticipation for their answer.

[quote name='Thunderbird' timestamp='1488732187' post='3251365'] Sounds like some one has stitched you up with a faulty bass hope it gets sorted [/quote] I don't look at it as being stitched-up. It was a brand new bass back in December, although it was made a while before then, and is serial number #9. I've no idea how many they've sold of these but it could be that this hasn't been an issue before.

[quote name='walbassist' timestamp='1488702328' post='3251075'] Doesn't it need a buffer? Something like [url="http://www.east-uk.com/index.php/all-products/mpm-01.html"]this[/url]? [/quote] Funny you bring that up Gareth, I was talking to John about exactly this item at the show today.

That was my initial thought. There is no mixing stage as such, it's the same as a 2 x vol Jazz where the pick-ups are across the pots and the sliders of the pots are joined and feed the pre-amp. It's very weird. Piezo vol at zero, soapbar at max, turn down the Soapbar vol and the sound goes down and off but the waveform goes up.

With that Bulgin mains connector and a pair of KT66 bottles I would say it was an early one. You could email Marshall and ask them to check from the serial number.

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' timestamp='1488645977' post='3250764'] Back of the net! [/quote] Sadly not. Explored a bit further with oscilloscope. Soapbar and volume control seem to work fine however I can hear that the control is only working over the last few degrees. Interesting as I wind the Soapbar volume control down the waveform increases in amplitude but the bass output drops off. It must be some kind of interaction between the Soapbar, the Fishman Piezo and the OBP3 pre-amp. How do you start to unravel this one?

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' timestamp='1488636270' post='3250654'] Sounds like the pot itself might be faulty. [/quote] Doh. I don't know why I didn't think of that. I've just had the cavity cover off and got in their with my meter and yes it's a faulty pot. Time to activate the warranty.

[quote name='obbm' timestamp='1488478086' post='3249331'] I have 2 free tickets for Sunday if anyone wants them. I bought my ticket for Sunday a few weeks ago but just for fun entered a competition and have just won two tickets. First come first served. [/quote] Both tickets now gone to new owners.

I contacted Spector and they just said turn down the Fishman, so not a lot of help. I think I'll take it up with Spector and Bass Direct at the show on Sunday.

A couple of months ago I bought a Spector CTB Fretless. It has a Fishman Piezo bridge and an Aguilar DCB soapbar through an Aguilar OBP-3 pre-amp. I have found a huge volume difference between the Fishman and the Aguilar even with the Fishman pre-amp turned down to minimum. Compared to the Fishman the Aguilar output is very very low because I have to crank the gain on the amp to get a usable volume and then back off the Fishman by more than 50%. Also the volume control on the Aguilar is acting almost as an On/Off switch because I only have to turn the pot down a few degrees and the sound has gone. Definitely something not right. Any thoughts on this?

[quote name='bubbak_os' timestamp='1488556581' post='3250030'] I would love a free ticket if anyone still has a spare [/quote] PM me your email and I'll send one across.

If anyone else wants tickets for Sunday, I have two going begging. It would be a shame to shred them.

I have 2 free tickets for Sunday if anyone wants them. I bought my ticket for Sunday a few weeks ago but just for fun entered a competition and have just won two tickets. First come first served.

I have a Fischer ButtKicker Mini LFE ( [url="https://www.thomann.de/gb/fischer_amps_buttkicker_mini_lfe.htm?ref=search_rslt_fischer_111973_0"]https://www.thomann.de/gb/fischer_amps_buttkicker_mini_lfe.htm?ref=search_rslt_fischer_111973_0 ) [/url]attached to my stool and it is certainly not limited to a single frequency. It's driven through a sub-woofer filter which cuts off anything above about 270Hz. I used it on a recent gig fed with my bass and a kick drum mic and it was excellent. Because I could feel the bass I didn't need my amp too loud and was able to do the gig wit my hearing aids in. Next stage is to build a small Pleasure Board device on which I can stand or use any stool and see how it goes.

I have a former band mate who now lives up near you who is involved in Open Mic/Jam nights at Marehay and Hallfieldgate. Any use to you?

Very nice Si. Takes me back about 10 years when I had a DJ4 that I bought on Ebay from Nick OldHorseMurphy - that was before I knew he was a BC member. I really liked smaller body and the superb neck.

I shall be there on the Sunday. if anyone needs any cables then I can bring them with me and save you the postage.

Does your SD pick-up have the phantom coil underneath? If so you will have to rethink any coil-switching because it's part of the pre-amp circuitry.

Back in the early days, 2005 & 2006 I think, we had two national Bass Bashes at a hotel just off the M1 near Northampton.

Well I just tried to buy a ticket in the name of my company, Rock-Wire Limited, but because I do not have a VAT number I was unable to do so. Not all companies are registered for VAT. Also the ticket web site is a dreadful design, asking for the same information to be entered 3 times and putting a time limit on data entry. Not a good way to encourage people to buy tickets. {/rant]