DTB

Yep. What he said ^

After I bought my first proper guitar, an Ibanez RT650 back 1989 ish it had a scratchy volume after a couple of weeks and I went back to the guitar shop (anyone remember actually being able to go to 1 of a choice of 5 or 6 guitar shops in a decent size town?) and they said they’d put a new volume In but try WD40 first. I did and it worked perfectly. Used it since until one day all I had was 3in1 so I used that instead and it worked just as well. Anything that cleans off the oxidation and coats the contacts to stop the oxidation will work, which is actually what that Deoxit says it does. Probably better than WD40 or 3in1 and incidentally on the safety data sheet the main ingredient is listed as a trade secret.

In fact, it is, apart from the propellant, a very high proportion heavy naphtha, which is a posh word for paraffin.

The original wd40 from the 1980s before they did all that specialist stuff just ordinary WD40 has never had silicone in it.

Wd40 has never ever had silicone in it.

I keep away from other peoples’ but mine is ok. It might change in a little in just over ten years when he reaches teenagehood but I may well be gone by then with my health what it is, all the more reason to get him started early on the music.

I downloaded a £9.99 app with A-weighting analysis and there was quite a strong peak around and just under the 1k frequency. I have moved the monitors and the peak is gone, and the response is now much flatter across the spectrum the peak has definitely gone. The sound is now much softer.

Switch cleaner is okay, WD40 I found is better, but betterer still is 3in1 oil in a spray can with a straw (like WD40). Just a little, wind the pot back and forth a few times to get rid of the corrosion and coat the contacts and should be good for 6 months. My 2 year old son opens my guitar cases in my music room and winds the volume and tone controls a few times once or twice a week for me to prevent this very thing as I don’t play them much anymore. He gives the strings a strum with a pick too then closes them up and puts the pick back in its pot. All with great care. Maybe you need one of them to maintain the basses you don’t play?

Thanks for your concern. i have turned the highs down on the mixer for the channel from my MacBook to take the edge off the monitors. Also the small bass cabs I use each have a tweeter. The cabs were positioned on the mixer bridge so I have angled them down slightly so they are not aiming at my ears. I play at very low levels, probably only 70 db so I doubt i am doing any damage that isn’t already there. However, if you recommend an app i will give it a try and let you know the results.

Wow!

Did a bit of playing again this morning and my ears are ringing again. If I had the bass any quieter I would not have been able to hear it. I’m sure it’s the monitors even though they are not sounding harsh now. https://www.genelec.com/8010a#section-technical-specifications

Hey @Balcro, those monitor audio speakers look very interesting. Might give those a try. Thanks.

You’re welcome 😁

Glad to hear that. Take it easy. No shame in sitting down to play a gig. Seen plenty of famous bassists on facetube sitting or perching on a stool whilst the rest of the band is standing. eg Jack Bruce at Cream gigs RAH. Hope you have many more gigs.

The thing is my music space is quite small. As I’ve posted on here before I am disabled and I repurposed and extended the shed where I used to store my motorcycles before I was. It is insulated for heat and sound, and extensively treated for acoustics. However it measures about 3m x 2.8m. I have found any small variations in the inside can have a drastic effect on the sound. I removed some artwork that was at ear height and was in line with the tweaters and it has fixed all the harsh problems. I was picking up reflections. The Genelecs are back to sounding great again. I go with a slightly wider spacing than purists would argue is perfect as I have always preferred a wider stereo image since I had my first proper hifi as a young teenager. Some argue that that is at the expense of the soundstage image but it’s how I like it. So long as the harshness is gone. I went with the 8010 Genelecs as they are perfectly suited to small rooms and keep the SPL and tinnitus down. My 916i Mordaunt Shorts sound better, but they lift the roof off and once I’m thumping away on the bass to a BT any nuance is lost anyway.

Had to give up due to degenerative spinal condition. Kept going as long as I could but I can only walk a few paces now, just enough to get from my house to the studio on a bad day, rest of time for anything other than being around the house I’m in a wheelchair. The last years of gigging were spoilt by the pain and lugging a 4x10 into the van, although I did ask for help with it towards the end. I didn’t really try going for lighter gear, I don’t even know if the Mark Bass Style light weight cabs were a thing back in 2012??? But I was and still am a tone junkie and a stubborn idiot so I would probably have carried on lugging the Trace 4x10 at 30kg.

My 2yo son absolutely loves watching her play bass. She is a star already, with a lot to look forward to.

Mind you, I reckon it could sound quite rugged.

I prefer a more rounded tone.

Think I’ve fixed it. Had some art work in studio that my wife did. Think the tweeters were reflecting off those.

I have found today that it isn’t necessarily the bass speakers causing the problem. Due to my pain levels being particularly high I haven’t been playing, but just chilling in the studio listening to some tunes using my Genelec 8010s and it wasn’t particularly loud but one particular track with a female vocalist really set my tinnitus off and I think the problems lies in the tweeters of the Genelecs. They are set up mostly in line with the manual. I repositioned them today as they were angled in as per instructions so they now aren’t and they seemed a little less harsh but also lacked a bit of detail. Can anyone give me any ideas on how to get rid of a harsh tweeter sound or recommend a warm sounding small monitor or hifi bookshelf speaker. The 8010s are tiny and bloody expensive. I had a nice set of absolute zero speakers years ago but they kind of died and the Genelecs replaced them. The tweeters on those were hidden behind a wad of black fabric. Maybe there lies the key? I know the white Yamaha (NS10?) monitors always seem to have tissue paper over the tweeters.

This exact thing happened with one of my dad’s bands in the 90s. Dad never got involved in the admin/money side of stuff he left that to those whose job it was. There were rumours that all 4 of the musicians were getting ripped off by the band leader and they were assured that everything was equal. A few months later the BL had a heart attack and handed over duties to my dad and sure enough they were all getting short changed. The BL told dad to stick the extra in his pocket and keep quiet as it was for doing the extra duties but dad told the rest of the band and split the money equally. Not sure what happened when the BL recovered and came back, but I never liked him, he was a horrible snidey little man.

https://www.instructables.com/Dirt-Cheap-Acoustic-Guitar-Pickup/

A few (more than a few) years ago I wanted a pickup in my Clapton Martin acoustic guitar, but didn’t want to have to drill a hole through the top under the saddle for the transducer wire, although years later I did and it was actually pre drilled slightly to mark the spot. Anyway the first pickup I had fitted was a simple passive transducer that the luthier cut to size and glued to the inside of the soundboard under the bridge. I’m fairly certain it was the innards of one of the bottle top pickups. It worked okay but needed a fair bit of eq ing to sound good. I also had a Fishman rare earth with the additional mic as my final solution, but as soon as I added enough mic into the mix to hear, it would be very prone to feedback. So I think a contact mic would be similarly feedback prone. The under saddle pickup was prone to piezo ‘quack’ which is why I went to the fishman. I think either a bottle cap pickup, or magnetic soundhole type would be your best bet. The latter had a tiny volume control.

Congrats on your ‘discovery’ I too love Roland stuff and have one of their stage pianos in my lounge. The stock sounds are great but accessing some of the library of sounds really had a similar effect on me that it’s had with you. Although to be fair I normally just stick to the stock sounds as I’m too lazy to press the extra buttons. piano is my safe place when my ears are tired of playing bass to my backing tracks. Have fun with the sounds, there are some nice 88 key controllers too should you want to consider that.