icastle

The all new Albion Band performing in a garden shed and featuring our very own Timo playing... melodeon... Absolutely fab [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWOAp61jIWY&feature=relmfu"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWOAp61jIWY&feature=relmfu[/url]

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1344204673' post='1761341'] That explains slap bass [/quote] Ewww - you just made coffee come out of my nose you git...

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1344202858' post='1761311'] Wouldn't have fancied a Wombles / Conlan Nancarrow collaboration then? [/quote] Conlan Nancarrow? Was he one of Madam Cholet's french relatives..?

[quote name='Lord Sausage' timestamp='1344199277' post='1761202'] Me too but i like sticking my fingers in a lot of pies! fnuurr fnuurr! [/quote] Just make sure you're wearing rubber gloves... Oops - wrong forum...

[quote name='spinynorman' timestamp='1344187055' post='1760878'] Does anyone else have strange, random bass-related dreams? [/quote] None that are repeatable on a public forum using my own name...

Certainly not my cup of tea. I'm more of a 'verses, choruses and a bit of a tune' sort of guy.

My family have never seen me play bass. Only time they've ever seen me play was when I got up with the band at my first wedding to get out of dancing - and they handed me a Strat... I used to be called a 'bassist' but I've ended up playing so many different things over the years that it got confusing for everyone. "This is our bass player except he's playing guitar tonight... except when he's playing a low D whistle, unless he's playing a bodhran..." is a bit of a mouthful. I'm also, what I'd describe as, a pretty mediocre mandolin and fiddle player who can bluff his way through a tune or two. I just get described as a musician these days, something I'm happy to be called as it involves a lot less explanation...

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1344167189' post='1760578'] so the main reason for external speaker outs to get full power etc. is 'marketing'! [/quote] +1 A 'well marketed' combo will have a name like 'GTX300'. The '300' part is 'obviously' showing its power and gives the impression that the combo is loud - a standard industry manipulation of a somewhat meaningless measurement. If I was a manufacturer selling the GTX300, I'd want to sell more than just a combo - I'd sell an extension speaker to allow the amp to run at it's maximum. Am I using dubious marketing? Of course not, I'm adding [i]extra choice to allow our user base of talented, professional bass players to expand their amplification in a cost effective and truly modular format [/i]... On a slightly more practical note, I wonder how reliable my GTX300 amp would be if it was stuck in a box with the whole 300W vibrating around it...

Multitasking? Isn't that just a posh way of saying you've screwed up three things instead of just one..?

I'm going for Epiphone. This is based on years and years of extensive bass experience... and the fact that you can see the logo on the headstock at 02:57...

If it were me in this position then I'd replace the suspect valve first and see if the amp starts working again as it should. If it does, then I'd leave it running for a few hours and, if all is still well, replace all the valves (as they all work at the same time, if one has gone then the others probably won't be far behind). If it doesn't come back to life then it's going to need a more serious inspection.

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1343947922' post='1757863'] I've tried taking the amp out of the combo to see if there was anything obvious wrong (and for me it would have to be REALLY obvious ) but I couldn't get the amp to budge even a tiny amount when I took the screws out of the top. [/quote] That sort of mounting method is usually based on a 'drawer' mechanism and, as Luke quite rightly says, it's usually held in place using the bolts that hold the handle on. You have to completely remove them. I presume you tried pushing the amp from the back as well as the front? I can't find a picture of the side of the combo - are there any screws there that might be holding the 'drawer shut'? If not, that leaves only two possibilities. The first is that it's bolted on the underside - you'd need to unbolt the speaker to get to that bolt. The second is that the front panel is fixed and the amp slides up to it and is held in place using the nuts on the pots (I've only ever come accross this method once and it took me nearly an hour to worjk out how to get into the unit!) Couple of things you could try that doesn't involve a screwdriver and elastoplasts: Plug an active bass into the Return socket on the back of the combo (if it has one) - you'll not get a massive output, but you're effectively bypassing the preamp and narrowing down 'where' the problem might be. If there's a Speaker Out socket on the back of the amp, it'll be connected in parallel to the existing speakers. Now, I've never tried this, but as long as resist the urge to plug the combo in, I can see no reason to stop you from taking advantage of that socket and feeding a different amp into it.

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1343858053' post='1756580'] some bands operate quite happily as dictatorships. [/quote] I was told by our singer recently "One of these days you're gonna get it wrong Guv and we are soooo gonna take the p*ss out of you when you do..." I might have to have him dragged from the rehearsal room and beaten savagely...

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1343857526' post='1756566'] I'm middle aged, I work six days a week, I'm in constant pain from a back injury & I have carer responsibilities for my parents - by the time I've done all that I don't have the energy or the enthusiasm for doing anything other than having a cup of tea & going to bed. I used to blame my depression for my lack of enthusiasm & drive but I'm honestly starting to believe it's just that I'm not into playing very much anymore - maybe you're the same. [/quote] That's not a lack of enthusiasm, that's borderline exhaustion. You need to realise you're just a soft Englishman living in Wales, not a tough Welshman living in England like me.

If you set yourself too big a goal and don't meet it, you'll be back at square one. Set yourself lots of [b]little[/b] goals, the culmination being ready to record these tracks in September. One thing I can tell you for certain, if you do nothing you'll look back at this time one day and kick yourself.

I'm not a hipshot user but I always rub a soft pencil in nut slots when I change strings, the nut is the most obvious 'snag' point in the mechanics of the thing.

Without wanting to sound in any way disparaging, bog standard rhythm guitarists aren't particularly rare - I could go and do that any day of the week. The important bit is finding a rhythm guitarist that 'fits in' and adds something positive to the band dynamics. Putting peoples noses out of joint isn't positive and will result in a lot of aggravation further down the line and the danger is that any work put into the band now will be a waste of time as it will have to be repeated with new members later. If the universal idea is to go out and gig then you're moving further away from that goal instead of closer. If you talk to the rest of the band you'll probably find that they found the situation equally uncomfortable and are all sat around waiting for someone else to say something.

[quote name='SlapbassSteve' timestamp='1343731410' post='1754216'] Reading through the discussions on here about Markbass tone got me wondering- what gives an amp its particular tone? Is it just a select few components(ie diodes, resistors, caps etc, like that 'orange drop' that folks put in Fenders to upgrade them) that create a 'sound', or do they have some kind of EQ built in(the sickening levels of mids in my old Ashdown springs to mind...). Furthermore, by swapping a few cheap parts around, could I, for example, ...make my Markbass sound like an Ampeg? Ampeg tone in a Markbass combo... the possibilities are endless. [/quote] Nope, it's not as simple as that. The majority of components inside amplifiers all come from the same handfull of manufacturers and are essentially all the same. The differences are more to do with the combination of components (the circuit design) than individual components.

Unless you know for certain that you've driven the cab too hard and blown both speakers, chances are that it's going to be a wire disconnected. At the very least I'd take a look inside and see if there's a lonely looking wire floating about...

Details are a little vague, as I'm sure you've already discovered. However, I did perform a little repair on our guitarists Variax DI box a few months ago, and that was wired to send the +ve supply through the ring and the -ve supply shared the sleeve. I very much doubt that the guitar version differs from the bass version.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1343653047' post='1753109'] Soundcheck? Most of the time when we play it's a quick line check (mainly to check there's a signal from the Theremin) and then straight into the first number. [/quote] We have two teachers in the band. Soundcheck generally consists of calling the register to make sure we're all on the stage...

[quote name='Kesh' timestamp='1343604203' post='1752715'] 18 posts on mixing cabs and no one has talked about phase. [/quote] I usually set mine to 'stun'...

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1343586520' post='1752412'] He was the support act last time we played in Liverpool. Not nearly as angry as he appears in his videos, but he did break a string before his last song and wondered why no-one would lend him a guitar to finish the set... [/quote] Aargh - that G string is out of tune... ...and remains out of tune on the final recorded version as well...

[quote name='Lord Sausage' timestamp='1343589805' post='1752479'] Soundcheck?!?!? [/quote] Yep. It's the thing you're supposed to do just prior to blowing all the windows out of the pub...

We have a sound engineer who does ours - any arguments about what is 'right' and what is 'wrong' were sorted out quite a few years ago. As long as it pleases me, then everyone's happy...