Matt P

I'm being dragged into IEM's as our church has made the decision we all go to IEM's, we have a small contribution of £30 each towards our own set and i don't have the cash to go for custom moulded ones (especially as they will only get used once or maybe twice a month as my pub band won't be going to IEM's any time in the next few years), the KZ ones look pretty good but is there a good reliable supplier of the KZ IEM's in the UK? I try to avoid Amazon for various reasons and would rather buy from an alternative if there is one in the UK. i was thinking of the ZS10 Pro (if there is a worthwhile improvement over the regular ZS10's) Matt

hmm, having had a little google I'm getting stumped too, the nearest i can find are these but they don't mention if they are metric or imperial. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Guitar-humbucker-pickup-screws-chrome-black-or-gold-Bulk-buy-and-save-4-10-or-50/371977562337?hash=item569b9728e1:g:5z8AAOSw9~5ZO4fu or with springs https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4x-Guitar-humbucker-pickup-screws-and-springs-in-chrome-black-or-gold/392845073359?hash=item5b77641bcf:g:Ph8AAOSw09Ve7Zph But- i'm going to assume that you want M3 x35mm probably (assuming you measured the total length rather than the thread length) the screws on one of my basses here (korean maybe Aria) are M3x40 and M3x35 (longer for the D and G) so these should fit - (they are allen head but should work fine and are cheap enough that you can replace them all and have spares left over) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M3-BLACK-GRADE-10-9-STEEL-6mm-35mm-HEX-BUTTON-HEAD-MACHINE-SCREWS/152772320750?var=453718346071&hash=item2391f09dee:g:M3EAAOSwu4BVwe96 they are bare steel though so they might rust, a light smear of wd40 would help slow the rusting, or you could go for stainless steel instead, make sure the thread goes all the way to the head though. Matt

what bass is it? and where was it made? if it is USA then the threads will most likely be imperial, for most of the rest of the world they are likely to be Metric. either way there are plenty of sellers that will supply you with a suitable set for a very low price. a thread gauge is the easiest way to check the exact spec but a good ruler can work just as well of your eyesight is good enough. there are some reliable UK ebay sellers that i have used in the past, CH guitars, black dog music and northwest guitars all come to mind as ones i have used myself with no issues. Matt

When i'm at work i usually have 6music on my headphones all day. during lockdown it was still 6music but on my portable DAB radio or through my HiFi. I'm on annual shutdown at the moment (4 weeks every summer, Bliss!) and my new HiFi amp arrived last week so i'm playing as much as i can, also trying to introduce my 3year old son to as wide a range of music as possible so that's a great excuse to play lots of my vinyl collection. Matt

i think this might only be for the G10? the other models have removable batteries rather than a built in rechargeable one and are a separate belt pack with a cable. I had a G30 for quite a while and never had an issue (albeit with passive basses as that's all i have) now got a G50 and no issues at all (mind you i've not used it much since lockdown!) Matt

I had the red version of this as my first 5 string, I loved mine, in the end I sold it to a friend who is still using it, great sound and very comfortable to play, I had mine string with DR Marcus Miller strings and it was a very nice sound. Worked well with picato flats as well. Matt

Newtone would definitely be my first port of call for balanced tension strings, i have been using their Heritage balanced tension acoustic guitar strings for about 10 years now, they're excellent, great tone, equal tension and long life. I have no doubts that they could make you up a balanced bass set to the same standard. If they made flatwounds then i think they would be the only brand i would use. Matt

i would suggest measuring the spacing of the fixing screws, the standard for 80mm fans is 71.5mm square so as long as the screws fit then an 80mm fan will be fine. i would be wary of any cutting or filing of the metal chassis to make a bigger fan fit, you would need to be 100% sure that all the metal filings are removed to prevent shorting anything out (especially as this is a valve amp so the voltages inside are very high) this fan from RS is the closest i can find that suits the voltage/current/airflow requirements, nowhere near as cheap as the ones you mention but as this is a good quality valve amp i would suggest that skimping on the fan could have consequences down the line with overheating which might lead to a big repair bill https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/axial-fans/7897873/ this one should also be suitable but is a little more expensive with with higher airflow but more noise (33dB) https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/axial-fans/0126206/ Matt (as an aside i spend some of my working life specifying axial fans for industrial equipment)

I was on their website the other day and it mentioned that they were only just getting back to normal running, might be worth another phone call, lve been using their acoustic strings for about 10 years now and I won't use anything else. Matt

as you talk of a 16 ohm option i am guessing that the amp you have got is more guitar-biased than bass, this won't be a problem as it will still sound great but 16 ohm bass cabs don't really exist, it would be worth checking exactly what ohms the amp will accept as running a valve amp with an incorrect load can result in expensive damage! If you can get a manual this can help, i had a small valve amp a while back (orange tiny terror) and the labels on the outputs were actually a little confusing if you didn't think carefully before plugging in. i would concur with this, you might want to look at 1x15's as well, unfortunately i don't know of any 2x12's that are in your price range (Thomman list one but it is 4 ohms) with a valve amp one of the things i would be watching out for is the sensitivity of the cab, as you are likely to be confined to just one cab due to the ohms issue you want as efficient a cab as possible (lots of speaker cone area helps as well and a 4x10 has nearly double the cone area of a 1x15) unfortunately not all manufacturers give sensitivity numbers for their cabs. Matt

I take my whole pedal board when i am playing but the only things i use are the wireless (Line6 G50) the Tuner (polytune) and whaen i had one a compressor (MXR Supercomp) i have on occasion used some chorus, for some kids songs i used a bassballs, and when the situation arises a bit of overdrive but i'd say that 99% of the time it's just a clean signal. i have considered an eq pedal but this would only be for the times i was also playing EUB (there is an A/B pedal on my board so it would be the same rig) Matt

eBay would be my first port of call, especially as it is M3.5 which isn't in general use much (exxcept for electrical sockets), but a quick look hasn't thrown up much, can you take out one of the other screws and post a picture? there are a couple of different socket head screws that it could be, if you can measure an existing one (diameter, thread pitch etc) then finding a new one might be easier, if all else fails i could have a scrounge round the workshop then i get to work on monday and see what i can find. Matt

started reading this thread to see what lovely new amp had been bought (it looks excellent by the way) and is has become a hifi thread! For all of those who always wanted a Cyrus amp, that was me as well (grew up near the factory and knew someone that worked there) well i finally bought one 5 years ago from someone on here and on Thursday it blew a fuse and is now in the hands of a repair expert, it might end up back at the factory if they cannot sort it. they are wonderful but i know that the Arcam i had before is still going strong even though it's about 10 years older. (i did consider a NAD at one time but missed out on it and the Arcam came up at a cheap price) Matt

I'd expect that the basses coming out of a factory with gold-coloured b-string ends is due to the factory buying in bulk 4-string sets and then adding a single string for the low B, all of the single strings have gold ball ends and i have found the same buying strings from the small independent guitar shop in town, he doesn't keep 5 string sets of the xl's but does have a stock of .125's to make them up.# A qiock check of the chromes on my Lett's 5er shows a purple low B, this was definable a 5 string set as it was ordered in specially for me (the owner used to work with some of the guys at the D'addario warehouse back when he worked at CSL and the warehouse is half way between the shop and his home so he collected the strings on his way home and i got them next day.) Matt

There was a tmb600 as well

I'm not sure if this will be helpful but about 10 years ago I bought a bugera 1x15 cab to add to a peavey 4x10 for our church amp, it had the metal cone speaker and after testing it at the sellers house I took it to the church and promptly killed the driver, I swapped it out for a random eminence driver I bought second hand (I was young and foolish.) from what I remember the cab was chipboard and pretty sturdy, they are fairly basic cabs though, It is still in use and sounds OK but the driver was definitely the weak link. Matt

The rooms we use are still closed and expect to stay like that for a little while yet, they started a crowdfunder last week to help keep them afloat and they hit their 5k target in under 48 hours! now they've set a stretch goal and any extra money is going on improving the spaces and the kit, we're on very good terms with them and i think they are one of the best rooms in our area and run by very enthusiastic guys. Our normal room is pretty small (the smallest one there) so we don't expect to be back for a while, in the mean time we've put some money into the kitty and will sit tight. one of the rewards was to nickname a room, some of these have been taken (at 500 quid a room) so i'm looking forward to seeing what names they are given! we went for buying a step, we get to decorate it anyu way we like so that will be a fun discussion with the other band members. Matt

well i has some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket and they were under a tenner on amazon so picked up a couple of the clamps. i was hoping that the clamp would be able to be rotated so i could fit them to the shelves but they seem to be welded in place so i had to come up with an adapter (one of the clamps from some ikea lamps with some inner tube as padding). they clamp on really well, no problem at all and they fit both my concert and my u-bass with no issues, I tried them on a regular stand and they worked fine there too so highly recommended! Link - Amazon uk Matt

I'm looking forward to seeing this come together, i've been following your status necked build and i can't wait to see what you do with the shorter scale neck. Matt

My son made me a card and got me a mixed case of local beers, I suspect that my wife might have helped though as he is only 3 😁

subscribed, i have a 30" bass with a p-pickup and it sounds excellent, i can take some measurements for the position if you want. I'm not happy with that last sentence as i know you have lots of experience of bass building so let me re-word this, i have been doing some measuring and calculating for a design that i want to build and in the process i have found an excel file that had some measurements for pickup positions, i did some measuring of my own instruments and some scaling of the classic instruments into a 30" scale and found that the pickup on my little short scale Aria was nearly 20mm closer to the bridge than the numbers would suggest, it sounds really good this way. the numbers suggest the centreline of a p-pickup should be 641mm from the nut but this Aria is at 673mm, it has a great tone and cuts through really well. Matt

excellent, it's amazing what differences there are between different valves, glad to be of help. Matt

You don't need to use a screwdriver to remove these covers, they are a 2 part design, if you push down on the top and then rotate a bit they will slide off, very much like a bayonet fitting light bulb. Matt Edit to add that the covers will most likely be earthed so should be safe to touch, the advice of leaving the amp unpowered overnight before starting is good advice for working on any mains powered equipment.

A courier just delivered a shiny new hercules stand, I'm a very happy customer, especially as I had no serial number or idea of how old the stand was, there was no discussion or convincing on my part they just sent out a new stand. Matt

I have experimented with a seymour duncan phat cat neck pickup combined with a jb bridge humbucker in an epi les paul of a similar vintage and the combo was ace, they're currently waiting for me to build a guitar for my best friend, a pair of phat cats will be fantastic. Matt