BOD2

Form what I've heard these aren't bad as cheap mics go ...

[url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_xm1800s_set.htm"]Behringer XM1800s Set[/url]

Yes - that's 3 dymanic mics and a carry case for £26 !

They can suffer a bit from handling noise but if you use them only on a mic stand then that's not a problem.

I have a couple of these mics -

[url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_xm8500.htm"]Behringer XM8500[/url]

which work well enough, although I maybe wouldn't use them for a lead vocal - but at those prices you can afford to try them out, replace them when you can afford to, and keep them for emergency use.

If you prefer condenser mics, then these aren't bad for the price -

[url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_tbone_em700_stereoset.htm"]T-Bone EM700 Pair[/url]

A good package of 2 mics including shockmounts. Bear in mind you'll need phantom power from the desk to power these up.

Mediterranean-looking woman asks between numbers "Can you play anything by a Spanish band ?"

Our singer, after scratching our heads trying to think of a popular Spanish band....


"This next one is by Van Morrison who I believe was of Spanish extraction.... or at least his dentist came from Barcelona"

[quote name='Beedster' post='1251706' date='May 31 2011, 04:15 PM']A decent set of machines is a surprisingly effective upgrade.[/quote]

Well one thing about good machine heads is that they feel nice when you're using them and since that's all part of the bass that you touch then it can make the whole thing feel "nicer" somehow in your hands.

It's a bit like how they put "soft feel" plastics in cars on the switches and other bits that you actually touch, but leave harder plastics in places you don't touch. It enhances the experience when all the bits you touch feel good and work smoothly.

[quote name='mentalextra' post='1251658' date='May 31 2011, 03:46 PM']Yeah, I had already seen this. Very interesting. Its difficult to see the difference in the machine heads though.[/quote]

Good machine heads hold the string firmly and don't loosen (much) while the bass is being played. They also feel smoother to turn and have less backlash in the gears. There's also some cosmetic differences between good and cheap ones (better chrome, or different design).

If the cheaper ones you already have hold the string well and don't have any issues then changing them will not affect the sound.

A lot of people ask this question.

Is it cost effective ? Probably not. You'd need to add up the cost of "good" hardware to see how much it would all cost. It won't make the bass much more desirable afterwards to a potential buyer - it's still a "cheap" bass but with fancy hardware so it's not a good idea if you plan on selling it.

Is it worthwhile ? Maybe. If the bass plays well to begin with but is just let down by it's sound then changing the hardware might fix the sound while retaining the playability. But if it doesn't play well to begin with then it will still play badly afterwards. You need a good playing neck to make this worth considering.

Upgrading a bass is a good learning experience and can be good fun too (just look around here to see that everyone is doing it). But it's also quiet addictive and you can end up replacing EVERYTHING which doesn't usually end up being cost effective.

But it's your money and time so only you can answer if it's a good idea for you to do. Just don't expect to end up with a valuable, sellable bass at the end of the process.

There are some minor issues that you (or your friend) would need to resolve.

After removing the pedal from it's casing you might find that the controls are directly mounted onto the PCB. You'd have to remove these and then re-attach them with flying leads so that they could be connected to the front of the rack unit. Likewise the input/outputs and also the on/off switch.

It might be necessary to replace the controls and switch with other components more suitable for mounting onto a rack panel (certainly the on/off switch on a Boss pedal might not work too well on a rack).

It would make sense to include a power supply for the pedal and also mount this is the rack. Here you'd need to be careful that you don't create interference - the metal body of a pedal will often act as a shield for the internal components so without that shield you might pick up noise. Likewise the flying leads from PCB to controls/jacks could potentially cause problems. Any such problems should be simple to resolve using standard electrical screening techniques.

But in principle it's what people like Pete Cornish do to custom create pedal boards so putting it into a rack unit rather than a board is no different.

For standard types of straps you can get very wide ones with neoprene padding such as "Comfort Strapp" or "Brooklyn Gear" -

[url="http://www.comfortstrapp.com/products.htm"]http://www.comfortstrapp.com/products.htm[/url]

[url="http://www.brooklyngear.com/perfstrap.php"]http://www.brooklyngear.com/perfstrap.php[/url]

There's also a kind of harness available from Dare Straps

[url="http://www.darestrap.com/guitar.html"]http://www.darestrap.com/guitar.html[/url]

Yes - no problems at all.


"Bass effects" sometimes have a different ferquency response so that they work more effectively on the lower frequency content of a bass guitar but there are no issues or problems with damaging anything by running bass into guitar FX or vice versa.

Have you looked on [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/index.html"]Thomann[/url] ?

Put "Rack Case 2U" into the quick search and see what comes up.

I'd agree with 2x18

It looks like the blue wires are the ground (earth) wires in this setup.

One blue wire goes from the pickup to a ring connector, where it joins to another blue wire and then goes to the control pot shell. That all looks to be working fine.

One of the pickup mounting screws is threaded through this ring connector, holding it in place and pushing it down against the metal of the bridge plate. That should ground the bridge plate and therefore the strings.

However, all that's holding the ring connector against the bridge plate is the push of the rubber "spring" on the pickup mount. That might not be enough to fully ground the bridge, or the bridge/connector may have become tarnished (oxidised) which is preventing a good contact.

I would try unscrewing that one pickup screw and then cleaning up the connector and back of the bridge plate where the screw hold is with emery paper (don't use wire wool as it shreds and sticks to the magnet of the pickup). Once it's all cleaned up, smear a small amount of vaseline over the area to prevent it tarnishing again.

If you are still having problems I suggest you join this forum

[url="http://www.tdpri.com/"]TDPRI Forum[/url]

and ask the very knowlegdeable Tele people there about what to do next.

There should be a "power rating" on a plate somewhere on the powered speaker or amplifier that states the INPUT power of the amplifier. It usually says something along the lines of ...

AC 220-240V 50Hz 300W

In this case the maximum power the amplifier would draw in use would be 300 Watts.

To calculate the fuse rating divide this INPUT power (not the OUTPUT power to the speakers) by 240 and choose the fuse rating that is closest to and above this value. Generally, UK mains fuses are available as 1A, 3A, 5A, 10A and 13A.

For this 300W example, a 3A fuse should be suitable, but a 5A fuse might also be used.




However, as stated previously, the fuse in the IEC lead is there to protect the lead itself - not the equipment connected to the lead. The fuse fitted should not exceed the power rating of the cable used in the lead and the IEC connector itself.

The IEC connector (the part that plugs into the amp) should have a maximum current rating embossed on the connector. This will often be 10 Amps or 6 Amps. (10A or 6A, or it may be written as 6/250 which means 6 Amps at 250 Volts etc.). If the IEC connector is molded onto the cable then this will be the power rating for the cable as a whole.


Given that a 5 Amps is equivalent to a power rating of around 1200 Watts (5A x 240V = 1200W) then I would usually fit a 3 Amp or 5 Amp fuse to an IEC lead, unless it was to be used for a very high power amplifier in which case I would ensure that the cable was rated at 10 Amps and fit a 10 Amp or 13 Amp fuse.

If a lower value of fuse (3 Amps or 5 Amps) blows whenever the amplifier is first switched on, then this might indicate that the amplifier has a higher initial surge of power when it first starts up. This may be normal, or it may be a fault condition. In this case I would consult the user manual or manufacturer for advice.

Can the power supply put out enough current for all of those pedals ?

Add up the "mA" ratings on each of the pedals then compare that with the "mA" rating on the power supply. If the power supply figure is significantly higher then that should be ok.

Are all of your patch leads ok ? You could try swapping a few patch leads around to see if that makes any difference - if one had bad shielding than that might contribute to extra noise.

Sustain starts with the bass itself. You should check for good sustain with the bass unplugged - if it sustains well when unplugged it will sustain better with a little compression added, but if it has no sustain when unplugged then no amount of signal processing will make much difference.

When unplugged, listen for string rattles - anything that stops the string vibrating freely will lessen the sustain. A higher action is better (and correct neck relief) for sustain as this reduces string rattle on adjacent frets.

A high mass bridge might help, but only if the action and neck relief are ok - if a string still rattles on frets then a high mass bridge won't make much difference.

Newer strings (as opposed to old cruddy ones) will also help.

So get the bass unplugged, listen, and investigate any rattles before doing anything else.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='1200846' date='Apr 15 2011, 03:36 PM']Don't ask the US military for help. They've been trying to secure a rack since 2003.

*snort*[/quote]


Very good !

Sticky velcro tape is usually pretty good for this type of thing, and it's secure as all the weight pressing down will ensure the tape can't go anywhere.

If you're handy and can be bothered, you could make a sort of wooden "tray" that sits on top of the cabinet with stoppers front and back to prevent it moving at all. You could then cut holes in the tray surface where the feet from the rack would sit and that way nothing could move. If I was doing this I'd put some foam on the underside of the tray to dampen vibrations from the cab.

[quote name='Monckyman' post='1199508' date='Apr 14 2011, 03:18 PM']Could it be as simple as the 2008 being 200watts @8ohms?[/quote]

That does make sense. The other numbers on the label are the serial and model numbers and the like.

With it not being the original driver you've no way of telling where it actually came from so there's no easy way to trace it back to a particular manufacturer's OEM range of speakers.

From what I can gather it looks like it may be a "custom" speaker made for someone else, which means it's going to be tricky to identify.

From the Eminence website ....

[url="http://www.eminence.com/support/faq/"]http://www.eminence.com/support/faq/[/url]

On a Jazz bass, since all of the controls and the jack are mounted on a metal plate, the metal plate itself acts as a ground connection between the jack and the pots.

This method does rely on good contact between the pots/jack and the metal plate and it's usually advisable to add the actual ground wires just to be sure.

Some people will then point out that this creates extra earth connections, and that it actually creates a "loop" of earth wires between all the controls - a "ground loop". However... it's not this type of ground loop that causes problems in sound equipment and poor earthing, due to the wires actually missing, is more likely to cause problems than these so-called "loops".

All that the rating on the Ampeg tells you is the power that it will output into the attached impedance -

i.e. if you attach an 8 ohm cab(s) then the Ampeg can produce up to 250 Watts of power, and if you attach a 4 ohm cab(s) then it can produce up to 450 Watts of power.

When you select a cab you can safely go above those power ratings (e.g. 300W or even 400W at 8ohms) but it's best not to go below them.

There's no impedance selector switch on the Ampeg so there's nothing to worry about there.

Note that if you choose an 8 ohm cab now, then you could add a second 8 ohm cab in the future and connect both safely. You can NOT connect two 4 ohm cabs though as this would result in the total load being less then the specification.

So go ahead and get any 8 ohm cab at 250 Watts RMS or higher.

I'm not familiar with the bridge that's already on that bass.

If the body of the bass is completely flat under the bridge then you could use just about any aftermarket bridge. You'll probably have to drill new holes to fit the bridge but it will all be covered by the bridge plate so there are no issues there.

When it comes to positioning the new bridge, just use the old one as a guide - you want the bridge saddles of the new one to be roughly at the same place as the old one. You don't need to be millimetre accurate along the length of the string as the saddle adjustment will allow for that.

So have a look at the following links and see what styles take your fancy

[url="http://www.axesrus.com/axeBassh.htm"]http://www.axesrus.com/axeBassh.htm[/url]

[url="http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/category/Hardware___Parts/Bridges___Tailpieces/Bass,b.html"]http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/category/Hardware...ces/Bass,b.html[/url]

[url="http://www.allparts.uk.com/online-shop/guitar-bass-parts/bridges/bass-bridges/bass-bridges-4-string-singles-c-277_1_2_3_4.html"]http://www.allparts.uk.com/online-shop/gui...77_1_2_3_4.html[/url]

Have you got an iPhone ?

[url="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/metronome-tempo/id304731501?mt=8"]http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/metronome-t...d304731501?mt=8[/url]

[quote name='mojobass' post='1150402' date='Mar 5 2011, 11:20 AM']rather than drill the body could i use one of those copper grounding strips coming from under the bridge like the 60's jazzes used to have, the solder the ground wire to that inside the pup cavity?[/quote]


Yes that would be fine too.

Whichever method you use make sure that you get a good contact under the bridge. It's a good idea to lightly rub down the underside of the bridge with an abrasive to clean it up there. A touch of Vaseline on the underside of the bridge will also help prevent any future corrosion which might mess up the contact.

Our keyboard player was quite the opposite. He was entirely self-taught and very effective in the context of the band but didn't know the first thing about music terminology.

But what was most annoying to myself and the guitarist was when we'd be trying to change the key of a song to fit the vocals range. He would just press the "transpose" button on his keyboard and start playing away while we'd be trying to mentally transpose the chords in our heads.

So we'd shout "what key is this in ?" and he'd respond with"+2" or "-1" or something similar !

[quote name='icastle' post='1145705' date='Mar 1 2011, 01:37 PM']As you have to drill the hole at a pretty shallow angle I'd drill a little hole stright down under the bridge where you want the wire to exit, and then reposition the drill to aim for the cavity.

If you try and drill a hole at an angle without the 'starting hole', the drill will just shoot off over the wooden surface.[/quote]

+1

You might need a slightly longer than usual drill bit.

Also, protect the body of the bass with something (cardboard then a blanket or something) as your are drilling in case the rotation drill chuck touches against the body as you are drilling.

It's not a difficult thing to do if you have a suitable drill bit and take a little care to protect everything before you start.

Have a look here first -

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=194"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=194[/url]

That covers the most common issues.