LukeFRC

No idea - enjoyed the video though! (even if she was running the wrong way to get to templehoff in most the shots!)

you lost all your stuff in the fire, and have a busy life anyway - I'ld half expect it, don't worry about it.

[quote name='Phil Starr' timestamp='1404024595' post='2488528'] Thanks for the article, should have remembered that really because there was a long thread on this a while ago. It probably wasn't the best example to choose I think the rest of what I said is about right though. One of the advantages of this DSP approach is that you are far less likely to blow your speakers through over excursion in return for very little signal distortion/loss of sound. [/quote]Phil - as one of our resident experts in all things speakers... what's your opinion on DSP like the active power management in the TC amps? EDIT: reason asking is I demoed the RH750 yesterday and can't get my head around if I liked it or not.

[quote name='SlapbassSteve' timestamp='1403989581' post='2488397'] This is why I binned off my Markbass stack and have been DI-ing ever since. A good set of PA speakers will have a much wider range than most bass amps and to my ear they sound much more neutral... a little bit of EQ/gain on the desk and it's all good! [/quote] woah PA speakers... will be in part be due to the amps and part due to the speaker design... so there are two things going on there. I would agree with you - I'm half tempted to get rid of my rig and just run the preamp into a powered speaker of some kind. [quote name='molan' timestamp='1403998368' post='2488489'] I'm sure there is an element of output quotes differering widely from manufacturer to manufacture. TC Electronic are probably the most often quoted with their 450w heads only being about 235w but there's plenty of other examples too. I know of one builder who consistently quoted their top of the range heads at 900w whilst the power module was identical to someone else who rated it at just 500. I also heard an 800w power amp recently that was deafening at about 9 o'clock with a bass plays quietly through it. [/quote] did you read the doc from TC I linked to? it's quite interesting what they've done - also the fact that the RH450 and 750 have the same continuous power rating - but the 750 can have bigger burst peaks. and was the example of a 800w power amp a good one or a bad one? what was it? (if you can say)

[quote name='Phil Starr' timestamp='1403984294' post='2488352'] This is right, you can just tell a 1dB rise and really you need 3dB to be able to say that an amp is appreciably louder. That takes twice the power. So going from 75W to 150w doesn't seem like much but going from 200-400W is exactly the same 3dB step. The real reason is (I suspect) that amplifier watts are so much cheaper nowadays, especially allowing for inflation. I've been toying with buying one of the TC amps and the RH750 is only about £100 more than the 450, 30p per watt! We'd have bought 750W amps years ago but they weren't affordable, and we couldn't have lifted them. Modern speakers, by and large are less efficient, trading low bass and excursion for efficiency. They will handle more power though. [/quote] I went and tried a RH750 today. Interesting amp. I was about to make a comment about how it's not a 750w amp but then found this article which might answer my first question in the OP to a certain degree... http://service.tcgroup.tc/media/tc-electronic-power-rating-and-active-power-management.pdf

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1403958800' post='2488074'] They're probably -20dB. Those numbers are utterly silly where electric bass speakers are concerned. They simply don't go that low, by about an octave. [/quote] At which point I don't know why they bother giving those figures. It's so so different to the PA world where everything is spelled out.

Just back from town and took some time for a quick try out the RH750 head. Obviously didn't have anything Warwick shaped in stock so Picked up the BB414 on account it was the most similar to my BB1200. Playing the amp, fiddling about with settings and at some point look down and realise that this isn't one of my basses - it was so nice to play and felt so good I didn't have the whole fiddling around with pup settings or balance or tone control to coax a nice sound like I have with other basses. Very nice - obviously I could tell the difference between it and my 70's BB1200 but the BB414 was pretty great! I've played a fair few fenders in the same shop and none of them felt and played and sounded* as good as the bb! I can't imagine how great a BB2024x would be! * I was demoing an amp at the time so I prob had a fair bit of amp tone in my perception too! [quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1403972716' post='2488246'] there is an amazing example for sale on Basschat at the moment for a silly price ( silly cheap, that is) [/quote] what he says!

It all depends at what point they are measuring the frequency point from! -3dB, -6dB or -10dB - without that information the frequency response info isn't really that useful. The SPL figures mean that the 1x15 is marginally louder than the 2x10.... not as much as would make a difference. So between the two I doubt there's much to choose by - which is easiest to move around? I would google around for Bill Fitzmaurice's advice on mixing speaker sizes.... and make your choice from that.

[quote name='Al Krow' timestamp='1403945041' post='2487876'] Just checked the GG website, seems all three of these "on sale" babies have now been snapped up! [/quote] maybe not quite a big "deal" but one of the heads if for sale on here at the mo

Why on earth are bass amps so powerful? No I know why we need more power, and the physics.... just why is the standard starting place now seem to be around 500w when back a few years ago it was 300w... or 200w or 150w amps.... Now back in the old days, maybe valve watts were "louder" but 80's trace stuff was more likely to be under 500w.... were bands just quieter? And... surely we've more efficient speakers now? so more power for more efficient speakers... why has the amount of power needed/used crept up?

[quote name='Ashdown Engineering' timestamp='1403801495' post='2486625'] Gotta laugh sometimes(or cry maybe in this case) Loads of threads regarding amps and tone etc, favourite live sounds etc and GAS for 'insert boutique brand of the month here' but a couple of people say they were impressed by the live sound of an Ashdown rig and suddenly the amp is actually irrelevent and its all the PA... Off to bang head into wall. [/quote] welcome to basschat! Anything new is good, the newer the better - unless it's old enough to be one of the things that was better in the old days. A new version of the old thing will have been improved in some was so isn't as good as the original - unless its expensive enough, then it will be better than the original. A thing made in America or UK will be better than a thing made in the far east , except Japan who confuse us. German made things also confuse us as being too foreign and maybe so well made its not cool. We like new things made by people in their shed/small workshop even if they take ages, and look like they are made in shed. We don't like when they get the same thing and make it in a shed big enough to be a factory - then it's bad. Unless it says fender on it and any old crap will do.

[quote name='Acebassmusic' timestamp='1403771524' post='2486043'] Alembic F1-X & SF-2 Tech21 Sans Amp Demeter BBE BMax Rocktron Blue Thunder Phil Jones Mike Pope Aguilar Glockenklang Fender TBP [/quote] Warwick, line 6 ....

[quote name='Fionn' timestamp='1403719004' post='2485632'] You sound like you need this thing in your life! [/quote] if I had the money handy I would be talking to you about if you want to pick it up for me!

Ashdown being british (like Barefaced) means that the lovers tend to show lots of love around here, and the haters do the british thing of really really hating one of our home grown companies. Instead of secretly being quite pleased that us in the UK can have one of the top amp makers here in Essex we knock them down cause we don't like the sound the build quality or so on. I wouldn't mind so much but I don't really see it happening with other US or EU based brands. In my mind Ashdown make a product - like the other great Essex amp builders Trace Elliot - that has a distinct sound, and you might love it or hate it. I've played old Trace rigs and been blown away, I've played other trace rigs and sounded awful like I walked straight out of the 80's... Some Ashdown stuff is brilliant, some sounds muddy and indistinct.... but that said I've never tried a Ashdown head with a non ashdown cab - and I've a suspicion that they're better at designing amps than they are cabs... Mind you if you gave me a choice between a Ashdown or Markbass rig I would probably go for Ashdown if I was playing a festival, and mark bass if I had to fit it into the back of my saxo...

if you look down this forum theres a thread i started about a ESP 800 series for £300 inverness way.... I realise that it's maybe too niche to have it's own thread and should be in here.... though not exactly at the crap end of the range of japanese interments!

[quote name='Fionn' timestamp='1403716952' post='2485612'] I'll be driving through Invergordon this weekend, if anyone wants a bite at this and needs a trusty eye. [/quote] why you tell me this... It's a 800 series ESP btw - like the custom shop version of the 400 series

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/esp-4-string-bass/1070562744#photo-content this. If I were closer I would be buying it. I don't have the money but I would jump on this!

headphones - when I was looking for my last set I kept finding internet reviews where the packaging was a fairly large part of the deal - I think headphones must be considered really important by some people in the same way sneaker-freaks will have lots of different nikes, all kept pristine in the box - crossed with Hi-Fi guys spending £3k on a set of cables. They are supposed to be good phones but if I were spending £1000 on some phones I would get some custom moulded ones...

I don't often venture into effects-forum world - and then had to google about to work out what you were talking about... do short cables with screw in terminals on the jack sound any different than short cables with soldered jacks? if so how? and if you are going to make your own cables why not just buy a soldering iron? ...and if you have a need for a signal buffer/line driver ... then different cables aint going to make any difference and seeing as the bass in your profile pic is an active one, what's the line driver for? yours confused Luke

[quote name='razze06' timestamp='1403621358' post='2484614'] The Peavey T40 is always my first recommendation for many questions , but there are other very versatile and unusual basses to try out. [b]Yamaha BB series are pretty useful,[/b] and I've got a thing for high-end Ibanez, like the SR1200 VNF. [/quote] actually this (it seems great minds think alike ) I've seen secondhand BB414 go for £200 or so - a bargain at twice the price

Until the last line I would have said a Fender or Squier type PJ bass... unique and stand out.. is more down to personal preference. There's not that much a peavey T40 can't do tonally... and that would stand out...