BOD2

DPDT is a standard. Think of it as two independent rows of three contacts (each row is actually a SPDT throw switch). The middle contact of each row is a "common". In one position the common is connected to the contact above it, in the other position it's connected to the contact below it. Both rows switchover at the same time.

Stick with mono. If you use stereo at a gig then you will compromise the sound for at least two thrids of your audience (i.e the everyone that is not standing right in the middle of your speakers !). Don't bother with panning instruments (unless you're compensating for the volume of the backline) and keep everything mono to give everyone in the venue the same sound as best you can. I'd agree 100% with Huge Hands on this.

Hmmm - that question doesn't quite make sense, lol ! "Stereo" isn't really the issue here. In scenario 1 you have two amps (one for subs and one for tops). I presume you're talking about running each top from a different channel on one amp and each sub from a different channel on the other amp ? In scenario 2 you only have one amp - running a pair of tops from one channel and a pair of subs from the other. The obvious cost advantage in 2 is one less power amp. Where is the crossover for each scenario ?

[quote name='bigjohn' post='204905' date='May 23 2008, 12:36 PM']Was thinking the same - Fender would not doubt want the cheapest pots cts will do for em! I'm putting a villex mid range booster in as well now - so one of the pots has to be a switch - I've got a push pull one. Only thing is the villex wiring diagram is for a toggle switch. Hmmm. [/quote] Provided the switch on the push-pull pot is the correct type it shouldn't be a problem. Push-pull pots usually have "DPDT" switches on them (with 6 contacts) as these are the most versatile. The switch wiring is completely independent of the pot itself so just think of it as two separate things - a pot and a switch - and you should be ok. Or just post all the info here and someone will be able to help.

CTS make the pots for Fender. Fender are a bulk buyer so they can specify exactly what they want and also the price point they want them at. They may even specify "exclusivity" so that CTS cannot sell identical pots to anyone else. That will explain the differences. Which are better ? Difficult to say. The Fender ones might be built to a lower price point to keep Fender costs down. Then when Fender sell them on they charge a premium because it says "Fender" on them (am I being too cynical ?). I'd be inclined to say that if CTS sell pots with their own brand name on them, then they'll be the best pots they can make for the money. Therefore I'd go with CTS rather then Fender. And if one of the pots doesn't feel right - replace it.

[quote name='jakesbass' post='203835' date='May 21 2008, 07:04 PM']Or the sadistic version where you glue it to someone elses forearm [/quote] I can imagine SRV's band members might have been a bit reluctant to shake hands with him BEFORE a gig....

Good wife you've got there - make sure you keep her ! And good on Billy Sheehan for taking the time to sign it and reply.

[quote name='cheddatom' post='202960' date='May 20 2008, 04:02 PM']I love the sound of my rig on a big hollow wooden stage - drums too![/quote] I like it too. Best on-stage sound I ever had was from one such floor. Of course everyone else on stage thought the bass was too loud....

Well there are a couple of things to bear in mind (don't know how much this helps when you don't have any choice where you setup your gear, though). First, if you have a single cab and you stand close right in front of it then most of the sound will miss your ears completely. So if you turn up so that you can hear it on stage, it can get too loud further out front. So doing some kind of soundcheck to check the sound the audience hears may help here. Also, angling the cabinet up, or raising it nearer ear level might also help. Second, your cabinet will "couple" with the floors and wall if placed very close to any corner. That can be where the wall meets the floor and/or in the actual corner of the room (two corners there - wall/floor and wall/wall). This makes the cabinet louder than it would otherwise be if it was freestanding away from the corners. Again - check how loud things are from the audience position and, probably, avoid setting up right back in a corner. Third - beware hollow resonating stage floors. If you setup on a stage you can sometimes get resonating booming in certain notes. If this is excessive, try moving to a different spot on the stage or try insulating the cab from the floor if possible. Some people use Auralex foam pads under the cab to completely insulate it from the floor. The best advice always, is to move out front and listen to what the audience hears, then try to compensate accordingly.

No problem ! But if the gaffa tape unsticks and you drop it - don't blame me

[quote name='lowhand_mike' post='202735' date='May 20 2008, 11:45 AM'].... whoa betide me if i try and buy stuff[/quote] I love that phrase (I think it's actually "woe betide me"). My parents used it all the time. I think I was probably in my thirties before I even had a inkling as to what it actually meant

You could always temporarily gaffa tape your strap at a "new position" on the bass to test and see how it balances before drilling any holes.

Is it one of these fully enclosed plastic jack sockets that are soldered directly onto a PCB ? I had to replace a couple of these on my HA3500. They're not the best quality jacks unfortunately but, because of the PCB mounting, it can be tricky to get replacements (have to ask Hartke for them). It might be possible to repace the jack with an "open type" Switchcraft jack and just solder wires from the jack socket and onto the PCB ? It's a bit fiddly but the end result would be a much sturdier jack socket. I did something similar to this on an small Fender Champ because the cheap plastic Fender jack sockets were brittle and would fall apart through use.

That makes sense. But you still need to figure out WHY the power supply inputs on the pedals have been damaged. I would still be looking at the power supply itself. Is it a regulated or unregulated one (it usually says on the label) ? Does it have a voltage selector for setting different voltages or is it a fixed voltage ? And what about the power jacks that plug into the pedals. Are they fixed or do they come off ?

Schecter Diamond Series are pretty narrow (I have an Elite-5) Might have a job finding a new one as Sound Control were sole UK distributors, but there may be a few around.

Google "How to" and "Solder" and you'll find a few guides. Soldering onto pots is actually quite difficult as the mass of metal conducts all the heat away from the iron and you end up with bad joints. To solder onto a pot you need a reasonable power of soldering iron - probably about 30W - and you need to let the tip of the iron sit on the pot shell for quite a while to heat it up sufficiently. If you leave the iron on the pot shell for a while then offer up some solder to the shell it's ready when the solder starts to melt on the shell. [Note - it is possible to easily modify guitar wiring to use a "star ground" system that does not involve soldering onto the pot shells at all - more here [url="http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/bass.php"]Guitarnuts.com[/url] Some Tips Where possible, "tin" the wires to be soldered first. That means you melt some solder onto the wire itself before you try to make a join. This is especially important when soldering braided wires. You need at least three hands so if you can find some way of clamping things while you're working it will help. Some crocodile clips or these [url="http://www.transtools.co.uk/store/prod_4907/electrical/soldering/helping-hands-with-large-magnifier.html"]Helping Hands[/url] come in useful. If possible, bend the wires in such a way that they stay in position themselves, or keep a small screwdriver handy to hold the wires in place when you remove the soldering iron (otherwise everything falls apart when you move the iron away). Try to be quick when you come to make the join - if you apply too much heat to a plastic coated wire the plastic melts so speed here will help. If you use the above 3 tips this will help in this. Oh...and if you drop the iron do NOT pick it up by the tip with your fingers (speaks from experience !) Other than that it's practice. "When I were a lad" we had to practice making little wireframe cubes out of straigtened out paperclips.

Did you have both pedals plugged into the same 9V power supply ? If so I'd be tempted to have a look at the power supply.

Thanks - very interesting. That's the worst corrosion I've ever seen on a bridge, or is that green stuff soemthing else ? Maybe it belonged to a punk rocker in the seventies ? I'm not familiar with rics or their copies. Is that a standard J-bass type pickup at the middle position ?

For future reference, if you ever need to work out how much current (amps) will be drawn by a collection of equipment like above, here's what you need to do - 1. Look at the "rating label" on the back of each piece of equipment. It will should show the INPUT power in WATTS. If there are two "WATTS" figures, pick the larger one. 2. Add all these input power ratings together to get the total WATTS 3. Divide this total by 230 4. The resulting figure is the AMPS that will be drawn by the equipment when it's all running at full power. If this result is more than 13 AMPS then you may have a problem as the fuse in your extension socket should blow at this level. Note that this is just a safe approximation. In most cases the equipment will not be running at full power therefore it will use less AMPS than this - which is a good thing. It's always best to err of the side of caution, however, and the above is a reasonable rule of thumb.

Yes, I reckon that would be okay. It might take a while, but as long as you're careful and patient it should work. Be careful not to put too much pressure on the sides of the neck pocket to avoid any risk of cracking the finish there. Also, you won't be able to sand right up to the back of the neck pocket. Some gentle action with a sharp wood chisel (by hand - not by hammer) should remove any "ridge" that's left there. Don't be too worried about getting a perfect flat finish to the neck pocket. When you see the kind of stuff that's put into the pocket as neck shims (business cards, sandpaper etc.) it's clear that it doesn't seem to matter.

[quote name='charic' post='199500' date='May 15 2008, 12:44 PM']You cant get into the pickups theyre a sealed unit and have no brand name on them. Researching samicks seems impossible. Yes they have a braided shield. Ah I see, however i still have to work out where to earth too. Would this by why i was getting no actually bass sound either out of interest?[/quote] OK - it sounds like the braided shield is being used as the earth for the pickups. With passive pickups it's common practice just to solder the earth wire (braided shield in this case) to the metal casing of the volume control for the pickup so that would explain the use of the braiding. The pot shells are all wired together and they become the common earthing point for everything. Simple but can get a bit messy. In this case, however, the pot shells aren't earthed. So you need to connect the braided shield on both pickups to the same point as the barrel from the jack plug. Also make sure the braiding can't touch any of the contacts on the pots when you put it all back together or it might short everything out and prevent anything from working. Insulating tape will prevent this. Yes, this would probably explain the lack of bass sound too !

[quote name='charic' post='199485' date='May 15 2008, 12:33 PM']Ok then new problem.. only one wire from each pickup![/quote] I think we've found the problem ! You need two wires for a pickup to work. Does the pickup wire have a braided shield ? If so that may be working as the earth. What kind of pickups are they ? If you remove the pickup cover can you see two small solder blobs where the fine winding wire of the pickup coil comes out ? If so the hookup wires are usually soldered on to these points (be careful not to break the fine colil wire at this point).

Ok.... There should be two wires from each pickup - a "hot" and an "earth". The Aguilar diagram shows the "hot" wire connections that go to the centre contacts on each voume pot but leaves out the "earth" connections. The other wire from each pickup should be earthed. They should earth to the same point as the barrel of the jack plug socket (shown on the diagram where the black wire from the preamp goes). In practice I found it difficult to attach so many wires to a single solder tag on the jack plug so I soldered a ring ( a small metal washer really) to a piece of wire. I attached that wire to the earth of the jack socket then wrapped all the earths around the washer and soldered them together. Then wrapped the lot in insulating tape to prevent any shorts.

Always a bit tricky to debug these things. Apologies if these questions sound condescending at all..... 1. Check all the earths. The Aguilar diagram doesn't show the earth wires on the pickups themselves. These wires should go to a common earth somewhere. Note also the bass and treble controls are NOT earthed in the normal fashion (i.e. by connecting the pot shell to earth). 2. I installed an OBP-3 and found that that wiring colours on the unit were slightly different to those described in the circuit diagram. Recheck the circuit diagram to check that the coding is correct (I think I had a pink/black wire instead of a red/black wire or something like that). 3. Check the battery is ok - it probably is but never forget that check first.

[quote name='geilerbass' post='199391' date='May 15 2008, 11:00 AM']It seems the general advice is: don't push your amp too far and listen out for distortion.[/quote] That's it exactly. You won't go far wrong with that advice.