BOD2

OK - I'm off to Orlando for two weeks this Saturday with the family. I'm hoping I might be able to escape from Disneyworld for at least a day (although even that's not guaranteed ) I've had my eye on the new [url="http://tascam.com/products/dp-02.html"]Tascam DP02[/url] for a while now but at £349 I'm not that keen. However, US prices seem to be around US$349 (strange how the exchange rate works for electrical goods ?) So...if I was to see one in Orlando at that sort of price I might consider it. Is there anything I need to watch out when buying something like that in the US and bringing it home ? Has anyone bought anything like this ? I know there's an issue with mains power but the DP02 seems to have a universal transformer (110- 240 V) and is just supplied with a suitable power cord for the region (and anyway I could easily get a 12V adaptor for it if necessary).

[quote name='Chopthebass' post='164755' date='Mar 27 2008, 08:19 PM']I have to disagree. If you've done a nice routing job, you can achieve a really neat sheilding job with the conductive paint. Check out Overwaters.[/quote] You're right. It can be done well. But often the DIY "kits" you get don't contain much paint and it's the first time you'll ever have done it so it's not as easy as it should be. Also you have to get a reasonably even coat of the paint to ensure proper shielding - it'll get easier with practice but you don't get the chance to practice on a one-off job.

The self-adhesive copper shielding tape is fairly easy to work with. Shielding paint can be messy to work with. One thing to watch out for with any shielding is to make sure that the contacts on the pots (volume/tone controls ) don't touch the screening material when everything is put back together. Remember that the shielding is connected to earth so if the pot contacts touch this they will be connected to earth and everything will be shorted out. If necessary stick some insulating tape over the shielding where the pot contacts are to prevent any problems. Note - it's NOT a problem if the pot shells (casings) touch the shielding as these are earthed anyway.

To completely bypass the volume control (and tone control) you'd need to remove ALL connections from the jack socket, then solder the "hot" directly from the pickup to the "tip" connector on the jack socket and the "cold" (or earth) from the pickup directlt to the "sleeve" of the jack socket. If you leave any other wires connected to the jack socket it's possible the controls would still be connected in parallel and would still have an effect on the sound.

[quote name='Silverdog' post='161465' date='Mar 21 2008, 03:29 PM']thanks for the thoughts guys, I was hoping for a bit more DIY suggestions but hey ho.[/quote] Filling the hole is relatively easy. It's restoring the finish that's the difficult part. You could fill it with a wooden plug, or even just polyfilla but you'd then have to sand it all down to blend it in. After that you still have the problem of restoring the finish. No easy answer for that I'm afraid.

Shielding isn't going to cure the problem. You can't shield the pickups and it's the pickups that will be the biggest source of the noise. Try moving to a different area of the "stage" to see if you can minimise the effect. It might be possible to use a very narrow band filter to filter out the most annoying frequencies. If the filter is narrow enough this would minimise the effect on your sound, but there will still be an effect on your sound. Some of the Feedback Suppressors have manually adjustable filters that can be set to a particular frequency and can cut that frequency quite tightly. I have to say that I have NEVER tried this with induction loop whine so I have no idea how effective this would be. You might find [url="http://behringer.com/DSP1124P/index.cfm?lang=ENG"]one of these[/url] fairly cheaply as I think they've been discontinued.

Presumably they'll be under the scratchplate so it's not a cosmetic issue ? You only need to fill them if you have to screw new screws very close to them. In this case you could just use slivers of matchstick or cocktail stick. There isn't a lot of pressure on a scratchplate screw so that will hold these screws adequately.

It's safer NOT to use them. Although it's possible that some pedals might accept a higher voltage there's no way of knowing if this is the case and if you damaged one then the manufacturer would be well within their rights to say that it states 9 Volts only.

I've had a bit of that in the past. I've always pit it down to expectations. If you expect a gig to be good then you can only be disappointed of it isn't fantastic. Whereas when you expect the gig to be crap then it doesn't have to be that good and you'll be pleasantly surprised. What has perpelxed me more is how the members of your band can perceive gigs totally differently to you. Gigs that I've thought have been great have been rated as "average" by others in the band and vice versa. Wierd.

Unless it has some kind of "limiter" built-in to prevent overload. A loose connection might be triggering the limiter somehow and the limiter might have a "reset time" of 10 seconds ? (just guessing, I'm afraid).

It pretty much sounds like a loose connection somewhere. Check any the external cables first before you open anything up - could it be a loose connection in the mains plug, or a loose speaker wire connection ? Are there any external fuses anywhere ? If so check that these aren't loose.

It's not potentially damaging as long as you don't go crazy with the levels. On the other hand, solid state amps are not reknowned for muscial sounding distrortion when driven hard - it could well sound awful if/when it starts to disort. A better plan would be to get a distortion FX pedal of some sort and use that at the front of the amp. The distortion created by that is likely to sound much more musical. Behringer FX pedals are really cheap if you just want to experiment.

If you mount it in a metal box, then you can connect all of the earths from all 4 jack sockets to the metal casing and then ignore the earth contacts on the jacks - they will all be connected together. If you use metal jack sockets then the action of screwing them to the metal box will do this. I think this diagram should do the job. [attachment=6451:Looper.jpg] Looper switch earthed using metal box.

[quote name='subaudio' post='157447' date='Mar 14 2008, 02:40 PM']Cheers guys I was wondering if a mixer would be ok with only using one of the left and right outputs, what is the correct signal type to send to an fx return (showing my ignorance further now is it line or mic or something else? I deffinatley like the idea of a mixer as it means Im not left with something I dont really have a use for when I get the repair done Would one of those Behringer SABDI copies do the job output wise? Again, really apreciate all your help on this [/quote] Some of these mixers have a "mono" switch that puts the same signal to both left and right outputs, so no problem there. Failing that you'd probably be able to pan the signal over to the one side anyway. You need generally a "line level" signal for the "Return" input. A DI box might work, although it would be safer to get one that has some kind of "boost" in it as a straight DI box will usually create a mic level signal which might be too low for your needs. Also a DI box usually outputs on an XLR and not a mono jack so you'd need to have a suitable cable for this.

Electronically there's no reason why not - a contact is a contact. They're quite bulky, those terminal strips, though so you might be tight for space. If you pick the smallest one you can find you might just about manage it. I'd recommend you revert to soldering once you've finalised your pickup choice, though.

Some of these amps have plastic barrelled jack sockets that can break under ceratin circumstances (my original Hartke 3500 had the same problem as did an old Fender Champ I have). What about a small mixer to put a signal into the Return ? [url="http://www.studiospares.com/Product.aspx?code=380760"]This type of thing[/url]. Phonic do a similar range and Behringer used to make the UB range that was cheaper. At least it might be a useful item to have around once you get the amp fixed ?

[quote name='Steve_K' post='157092' date='Mar 13 2008, 11:41 PM']Well that's my hand firmly slapped [/quote] Sorry ! Didn't mean it to sound like that. I always feel that if we ever suggest something here that could lead to damage if applied wrongly then we need to mention that fact so that anyone reading the thread later is aware of this. Certainly don't want to discourage input and discussion from anyone, though.

Robert Cray "Foul Play"

Well I know it doesn't have much "cred" but I always though the bass line in "Too Shy" by Kajagoogoo (such a wonderful band name) was very interesting. Was it Nick Beggs who played that ? Firstly, it's a pure pre-teen pop song so there was no expectation (or even need) for a interesting bass line. Secondly, it really brought the song to life and was instantly recognisable - there's not many songs that a layperson can recognise from the bass part alone. Thirdly, it's a real "eighties" line with all the features of the time - bright sound, bit of slapping here and there.

Oh....I thought you meant Rabbie Burns (sorry Scottish joke there).

You can run but you can't hide..... (he says while tapping out a 5/4 beat on the table top)

Where's the pictures Phaedrus, mate ! I'm so disappointed I would say go for the de-fret option on the RBX. You've got nothing to lose really on that one. If it all goes horribly wrong you could always replace the neck back to a fretted job. Also, it sounds as if you like a "project" and this would be quite a good one. "Veneer" is a just a term for a thin strip of wood. It's not the same as the stuff for kitchens as that is not solid wood. I'm sure you'd be able to get veneers locally somewhere (a cabinet maker - an undertaker even ? ) or on the net otherwise. On the defretting side, one tip I've heard is that you can sometime use heat applied to the fret (with a soldering iron) to help loosen them. I think this mainly applies iof the frets have been glued in - it loosens the glue - but the heat would cause movement of the fret through expansion anyway and that might also loosen it in its slot. Good luck !

[quote name='cheddatom' post='154706' date='Mar 10 2008, 04:46 PM']I suppose I spend 8 hours at work every day doing something I don't enjoy, so if I could do something I love for 10 hours a day and make a living..........[/quote] I think you've nailed it there. That's what a professional musician does (and probably makes less of a living out of than most of the rest of us do with our "day jobs").

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='154669' date='Mar 10 2008, 04:14 PM']I'm gonna go home and practice that lesson tonight. Super stardom beckons.[/quote] Well, by practicing semi-quavers at 400 bpm you will actually distort the space-time continuum and time will appear to stand still to you and all your relatives (wasn't that what Einstein said ?)

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='154617' date='Mar 10 2008, 03:22 PM']I think The Sun (where I get all my insightful views) is pretty reliable.[/quote] "Gotcha"