Bass Awkward

This really is a damn hard thing to do well in jazz - the chordal complexities and longer sequences mean that you can easily trip over yourself, and the huge use of space and dynamic range means that you can find yourself found out pretty fast if you just try the usual 'walk in four with suspensions, chromatic leading notes, sevenths to thirds to blahdeblah' stuff. At the same time, it is one of the best ways to ensure that you are thinking musically, and interacting with the other members of the group, rather than merely going through cliches and making the changes without thinking about the sounds. And it's a good way of finding out if your sax player can do that overtone thing nicely, too. Plus, the power/folk trio analogy leads on to a good way to practice with a guitarist -- stop them from comping chords! Make 'em get a couple of notes in here and there and do the same yourself. Play with one another's 'solos' and follow the old Weather Report mantra of 'never solo, but always improvise'. nb. Improvisation is not equal to Jerry Coker techniques of playing the same old licks in different situations - though, like the standard walking techniques, it's a good way of saving yourself if you mess up. Don't fall into the old nonsense of dropping out for other people's solos, or doing some mindless comp figure while they noodle off on their favourite scale or phrase. P.S. I'm no hot sh*t either, so don't take my word for it! P.P.S. (and slightly off topic) Too right, Guyl, by the way, spotting the accordion, a present (featuring my favourite [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLj6eA0EdPU&feature=related"]Brasilian ewoks[/url], one of whom apparently punched out Miles Davis, when he wasn't tickling pigs onstage). And another nice version, but with [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcsSPzr7ays"]a guitar[/url] Bringing us back on topic; you could end up accompanying [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6fPdHuccA4"]this guy[/url] and a pandeiro player!

Well done, man. I was planning on bidding on this one - the same bass had been up on Gumtree a couple of weeks prior - and that advert showed the Tobias style headstock far more clearly than the auction. And +1 to the plan of giving Chris May a bell - he is a truly personable fellow, a gentleman and clearly a scholar too, given how much he knows about what he is selling (from the strings to the basses and back). The only problem you may run into is the requirement for a set of wheels to replace your donkey's hind legs.

Had I a money tree, or no interest in protecting my speakers, I'd agree completely, Bloodaxe - and I think I can see what you're getting at: I can use this rig without re-wiring it. But I like re-wiring. And I [i][b]hate[/i][/b] things dying onstage. Perhaps a better title for the thread would be [size=4][b]Why don't speaker cabs have intrinsic circuits to protect speakers from blowing out?[/b] [/size] So... I play punk gigs too, where the gain will be up if I use the Orange. I don't want to make things as loud as they possibly can be, I just want to avoid the irritation and cost of blowing a speaker and a gig at once. And I shan't carry another speaker for the same reason that I won't just take my SWR, Selmer or Hartke along: constraints of space and the effort of lifting them. [quote]Riddle me this... If the lightbulb is such a panacea, why doesn't everybody use it? I've only heard of it in relation to Ampeg... no-one else[/quote] And as regards Ampeg's system - well, I have heard of fused hifi speakers, and I can certainly think of a few gimmicks, or unique selling points that apply to other manufacturer's products. Pretty much nobody but Hartke uses aluminium cones, nobody but MarkBass use VPFs post eq. - few folk but Warwick use a tiny power tube with output load prior to a solid state power amp, and so on. It doesn't make them bad features. [quote]Speaker cables use higher gauge wire to handle increased current, not to reduce resistance.[/quote] It's pretty easy to work out that you only have 6A or so in a 250w 4 ohm cab, at most. Voltage is, what, up to 92v? From what (minuscule amount) I know of such things, 2mm cable can be rated to carry 1000v at 6A without overheating, but because of the application, the sound coming out is affected by tiny changes in resistance. Hence the big thick cable, as it's cheaper to use more conducting core than purify it excessively. What I really want is some sort of advice on the electronics involved - why a fuse (which would only limit the current to a level toward the limits of the voice coils) would affect the tone - especially if, as can relatively easily be managed, it were in parallel, controlling a switch to cut the speaker signal. If I have a fuse in parallel, I need a few more resistors, but I'd like to wire something to protect my speaker and I'd like to know if there are any really decent reasons that it ought not to happen.

Cheers for checking up on that Amnesia. An L-Pad was somewhere on my list of projects. Maybe I'll move it forward, though I'm not overly confident in my ability to successfully implement it. I'd also say; is it not the case that speaker cables are thick for the purpose of reducing resistance (not EMI, which is negligible on this level of signal), and aren't fuses pretty negligible in terms of resistance? Ampeg seem to use some sort of fusing system on the horns in their cabs, with lightbulbs. I guess it's because they're non-ohmic resistors, and they give an obvious feedback when you're pushing too hard - the trouble would be in finding the right lightbulbs, and whether there is a particular issue preventing their use in fusing bass frequencies. Again, I'd like to restate that I'm really happy to be told I'm wrong - especially when I can be told [i]why[/i]. I'd far rather learn of my ignorance than implement a crap solution on an otherwise serviceable - though not ideal - setup.

[quote]As to why you might not want a fuse in line with the speaker, just think about why you might want some nice heavy duty cables to drive your speaker/s...? [/quote] D'oh. Good point - and a fuse in parallel with the speaker signal to control a switch over the speaker signal.... means running the speaker in-line to a switch and a couple more resistors. That's not much better, I suppose - or is it? Eyes and ears seem more and more attractive as you suggest. So, to ask another stupid question: why would a circuit breaker be problematic?

Cheers for all the replies - it's always nice to learn, thanks. ...Even if it is a bit disappointing that I can't kit the thing out with 40p worth of resistors and cheap switches! The induction issue for power resistors is interesting - I guess this sort of thing comes up in amp design, etc. I'll have a think about it when I feel a bit more like doing some maths. Anyhoo, why shouldn't I use a fuse/circuit breaker (or why wouldn't it be of benefit)? Surely a 5A (50v) AC fuse would limit any power in the cab to 200w RMS, and save most risks of blowing the speaker? Or should I use a fuse related to peak voltage? And surely power amps [s]take[/s] [b]afford[/b] ample time to power off (a couple of minutes (at least))[b] before they[/b] cook when faced with an infinite resistance? Thanks again for sating my curiosity and tolerating my ignorance.

So.. I've been gigging a lot of informal jazz and latin stuff recently, and the 700w Hartke and 4.5xl are simply too big to cart about for these little, regular gigs. I've gradually bought progressively smaller amps, and have latterly found my SWR black beauty to be just a little too big and unwieldy. So, after some fairly in-depth reviewing of the class-D amps about town, I settled on an Orange Bass Terror (500w at 4 or 8 ohms), largely because it makes a sort of sound - and features a fun sort of eq. and gain - that none of my other amps do. But the only speaker enclosure I can find that's light enough to justify it is an Eden ex110, rated 250w at 4ohms. I have settled on this as I don't like the other lightweight alternatives, and even were I to jump for another speaker, I'd like to know about the electronics aspect of rewiring this. I know that there's absolutely nothing I can do to really improve the power handling, unless I want to rewind and heat-sink the voice coils. And I know that it doesn't necessarily break the thing to run it in these conditions, so long as I don't run it too hard. But I've blown speakers on stage before. And I don't like it when equipment fails. So I'd like to rewire the cab up to 8 ohms (so I can use it with my old p2p valve amp) possibly with a switch for 8/4 ohm resistance. And I'd like to fuse it at about 200w, so that I'm not going to blow the speaker onstage, with a little sled, so I can replace the fuse. All pretty straightforward, I think - I'll add a 5 amp (50v) fuse on a little sled. And I'll add four (for reliability) 250w 1ohm resistors in series with the speaker load. These will be shorted by the switch, if I bother to add it. Questions - 1> Do I really have to use these expensive power resistor thingies? 2> I use an AC fuse, I assume? Is a circuit breaker a reasonable alternative (more costly, I know)? 3> Could anyone post links to appropriate parts (Maplin, RS electronics, etc.)? 4> Will the fuse (or circuit breaker) really offer effective protection? 5> Will switching 4 to 8 ohms alter the sound in any way? 6> Should I wire the resistors in after the speaker, so that any inherent capacitance in the resistor load will not affect the tone of the speaker output? Or is that bunk theorising? 7> Are there any notable sources of power resistors in electronic junk, if they are necessary here? Thanks in advance!