tauzero

58 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Of course it would, but not sure why that is relevant to the battery voltage? You aren't trying to establish the voltage the preamp needs, I assumed people are trying to put a lot of effort into measuring a battery

 

No, it's just another inaccuracy in the reading. It does mean that if you have two identical preamps, one with a diode protection and the other without, then the one without will continue working while the battery drops a further 0.6V after the one with the diode has died.

24 minutes ago, Count Bassy said:

 

Indeed, deionised water can be used as an insulator; But,  if you were to touch something tht was "Live", would you rather do it with a dry bit of skin, or a wet bit of skin?

 

I'd rather do it with someone else's skin.

On 18/06/2025 at 08:07, brickers said:

Would this apply to the headstock too - I’d like to match the body colour and I’ve GOT to get rid of that terrible shape…

Sire have actually come up with the solution to that themselves.

Most of the basses I take to gigs are irreplaceable. I just try not to treat them like Fenders.

8 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

Still, you could always take a chance (someone had to start the ABBA puns).

But think of the money, money, money.

Damn, beaten to it. SOS - I need an ABBA pun quickly.

7 hours ago, Dood said:

A standard multimeter set to read volts applied to the Ring and Sleeve of the output jack on a bass with active electronics won't give an exact reading, because placing the multimeter in the circuit in this way is in series with the preamplifer and battery, which would be correct if trying to take a current reading. A standard multimeter should be placed directly across the + and - terminals of the batteries for the most accurate reading. I.E, in Parallel with.

As I said on page 1, a DVM has a very high impedance and so you'll finish up with a potential divider between the preamp and the DVM. The lower the drain current of the preamp, the higher its effective resistance so the lower the DVM will read for the same battery voltage.

24 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Only on a circuit with no reverse voltage protection or anything.

If it has reverse voltage protection, that would just be a diode, so drops 0.6V as it would be forward biased. And that 0.6V would be lost to the preamp anyway IYSWIM.

I've had a hankering for one of these (in natural) for a while, but had decided to give up as I've probably got nearly enough basses now. However, I had a little search on FB Marketplace today and saw one that the owner just wanted to swap for a 4-string. Well, it so happens that I had a 4-string in the spare room wardrobe which had been there since 2011 - got it as a backup and then stuck with 5-strings so it was redundant. A little discussion with the seller and I threw in a bit of cash, a (adequate but not great) strap, and a (decent) lead, and headed 90 miles up to Stockport to collect it. Got a slight shock when he texted me and said he'd decided to keep it as I was in Stockport by then, but it turned out he was texting someone else who wanted it and was still doing the swap with me. So home it came with me.

Very effective 3-band preamp. The neck is a little deeper than my preferred depth but narrow enough to compensate for that - I think it's a little deeper than the SBMM SUB Ray5 that's sitting patiently awaiting a preamp, certainly deeper than my Antoniotsai, but it feels OK. I think the pickup needs raising a bit. Setup is generally good. The strings seem a little odd, they certainly look like a matched set but they're approximately 40-60-85-100-120 (I think the 60 is actually more like 58). I think it will be getting a set of Elites, 40-125. There's a few very minor dings but nothing of any note.

And this is the bass I swapped for it:

An Aston, which I've never encountered apart from this one. Passive, VVTT, neck-through. The seller was happy with it, I was happy with the OLP and with the knowledge that the Aston was going to get used rather than sitting in a wardrobe for ever.

9 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

Sorry, it’s a long thread, but the basis is that they have other bands they are members of. It depends what you describe as permanent… as it stands they get their fair share of any gig proceeds, so they wouldn’t earn more. 

I know that they're in other bands, presumably as permanent members, whereas with your band, they're temps. Just asking them to be members on a more permanent basis might be a motivator, whether they accept or not.

6 hours ago, BigRedX said:

The best thing you can do is to not concentrate on it. I can tune mine out a lot of the time. Unfortunately reading this thread has made it obvious again!

Same here - in fact, just reading the subject heading brought it to the forefront of my consciousness. I think I've had it over 30 years - it was when I started wearing earplugs to ride bikes [1] that I suddenly noticed there was a background noise that didn't go away, like the line frequency whistle of a CRT TV which we were all able to ignore.

[1] It wasn't the loudness of the bikes, it was the wind noise from the helmet that was (and is) the issue

3 hours ago, Mickeyboro said:

People like to play music and often dont know how to say no.  
 

I am using them to keep my show on the road, so seemingly have to accept there will be a lower level of commitment/effort. 
 

Thats how I’m feeling. 

Assuming that they're as close an approximation to responsible adults as musicians can get, it's really up to them to provide their own motivation. Although they're going to be more motivated to work on permanent bands than temp ones - have you considered asking them to join on a permanent basis?

5 hours ago, Count Bassy said:

Something I read somwhere, a long time ago:

 

Electricity and water don't mix, especially when connected by people!

Water isn't that great a conductor of electricity. Large bags of water with lots of electrolytes in are much better at conducting electricity, and that's what humans are. So we provide a preferential conductivity path for electricity (which is why dropping an electrical appliance into the bath will do unpleasant things to any occupant).

On 25/06/2025 at 12:33, neepheid said:

I have no frame of reference for how big the boot of a Mazda MX-5 is, so I can't answer the question.

I did ask google "Can you fit a dead body into the boot of a Mazda MX-5" but got no answer. Looks like you can fit about the same amount into the boot as I did onto a Triumph Bonneville a few years ago to go riding round Ireland with Mrs Zero.

17 hours ago, Togomi said:

I've already got a TRS jack, but it's not possible to measure the voltage.

0V.

 

Imposible in these basses.

Which bass?

Something a bit different last night, with two rather different featured bands - Aquavit (fronted by a Danish lady) doing jazz

and a brass ensemble, the Drayton Brassets, doing various songs like I'm a believer, Take on me, 9-5, and a couple of Bruno Mars songs.

I had a few accompaniment slots too - including for one guitarist who started coming to these open mics a few weeks ago playing acoustic, and has now shifted to electric (and very good he is too). And nobody shouted "Judas!" either.

1 hour ago, Togomi said:

But are you talking about Batt-O-Meter by Keith McMillen or any multimeter?

If you use any multimeter, it will read the voltage between ring and sleeve. That will depend on the impedance of the multimeter and of the preamp (the preamp impedance is actually the inverse of the current draw). A digital multimeter will have a very high impedance. If a preamp has a current draw of 1mA then it will have an effective impedance of 9kΩ and with a digital multimeter with an impedance of perhaps 1GΩ the potential divider between the two will result in the multimeter reading pretty much the same as the battery voltage - however, this is under no-load conditions. To read it under loaded conditions, you'd need to plug a mono jack plug into the output socket to switch the bass on, and then measure the battery voltage with the battery attached to the bass.

4 hours ago, MOSCOWBASS said:

The Batt o meter only reads 9 volt batteries in your bass. If you have 18 volt series batteries you have to take them out the bass to test them.

That's OK, I saw that. My most recent acquisition is the only one of my basses which is 18V, so it'll be fine for 97% of them (and the 9V powered Variaxes as well).

You can get a reading from a multimeter between ring and sleeve which will be proportionate to the battery voltage but not equal to it.

I replace batteries when they're somewhat under 9V, if I spot they're below 8V I'll replace them otherwise I'll replace them when they die.

KMI Batt-O-Meter incoming, I'll report on it when it's here.

Sit down. Eases the problem with weight and you're closer to the floor so better chance of reading the setlist and seeing which patch you're on.

Almost tempting for £1.75. If it was a 5 I'd have it. £15 tops though.

TBF, it's Ebay's definition of "used", and Ebay's boilerplate description text.

The USB device I got from AliExpress was generating lots of extraneous noise so I returned it (instant refund). I'm trying a Behringer UM2 instead which seems more promising.

2 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

Now can somebody tell me what that picking style is called. When I learned it (a long time ago) it was called clawhammer with the pinch being the 'claw'. Now i see internet guides callingthe picking that I call 'frailing' being described as clawhammer.

I don't play banjo but a former bandmate who mainly played melodeon also played banjo, and she called strumming by striking the backs of her fingers on the strings "frailing".

Something of a contrast between the two open mics I did this week - Wednesday was all male, minimum age 65, one really good performer but the rest (including me, I'm not a great singer and only an average guitarist) mediocre. OTOH, last night there were (I think) five male singers and six female ones, and I think only me and the host were over 65. Three featured bands - a quartet (female singer, DB, drums, keys) did jazz covers of various rock songs (eg Eye of the tiger, Sunshine of your love, Seven nation army), a sextet (2 gits, bass drums, female singer, female keys) playing straight rock, and a conventional quartet, female-fronted, also playing straight rock. I was recruited to play bass for someone who is an even more recent arrival than me, so I learnt All the small things on the hoof. Also accompanied the youngsters again. The guy who played drums for various artists has just returned from playing Download with his band Jayler, who are playing Glasto shortly - very capable multi-instrumentalist called James Bartholomew who generally plays guitar and sings but can also turn his hand to bass and the aforementioned drums.

1 hour ago, bertbass said:

Sorry, but if you're in one band then that's it, you don't play in other bands.  Help out in an emergency as long as no one else minds.  Not enough gigs to keep you happy, get more gigs.  Wrong type of music, leave and join another band.  I think you get where I'm coming from.

As long as you don't think that your rule should be imposed on anyone from bands other than your own, fine.

I'm in two bands - the originals band isn't going a lot as yet, the covers band just has 8 gigs for the rest of the year at the moment, plus I'm the house bassist for a couple of open mic nights and occasionally am asked to learn a song for it. I'm the only one in more than one band, though our singer also does musicals (he's the monster in "Young Frankenstein" in July) which takes some time up, and also does dogsitting which takes occasional weekends.

@Mickeyboro, how easy have you made it for the other band members to practice? With my covers band, I've created a Dropbox folder containing MP3s of all the songs in the set, with a sub-folder for new ones that we're rehearsing. For the originals band, the singer/keys/writer shares his fully produced tracks with the drummer and me (the released tracks are solo but for live gigs there's also drums and bass). That means that it's very easy to practice - better than hunting on Youtube to find a song and then practicing to the wrong version of it.

I do no exercise because I'm lazy. I do do a bit of practice.

The day after a gig, I used to feel as if somebody had been giving me a going over with a baseball bat. I changed to lightweight gear, including the PA - no single item weighs more than 10kg except for my monstrously heavy 11.5kg 2x12 cab. Plus the other band members give me more of a hand lugging gear than in previous bands. As a result, I feel fine the next day.

On 18/06/2025 at 14:31, binky_bass said:

eBay are really quite underhanded with their latest round of marketing...

 

The format used to be that a seller pays a fee to list an item and the buyer didn't pay a fee. Now the fee is transferred to the buyer under the guise of a 'buyers protection fee' and is charged at a higher rate than the old sellers fee. So now they market to all as 'free to sell' and mention nothing of the increase in cost to buyers. Legal sure, but very morally questionable. But hey, that's business for you! 

OTOH, I've just bought a bass from a bricks and mortar auction house. Seller's premium about 25%, buyer's premium about 25%. So if I bid £800 for a bass, there's £200 buyer's premium added so I pay £1k, and £200 seller's premium taken off the £800, leaving £600 for the seller. That's a rather bigger gap than the gap between £600 and £618.75 or £800 and £822.75.