tauzero

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1342250796' post='1732252'] I don't know to me an "active pickup" implies that there is something in the string sensing part that is active and not simply that the pre-amp circuitry is in the same housing as the magnets and coils of a conventional pickup - hence my question a couple of posts back. A very short as opposed to a short cable run between the coil(s) and the pre-amp does not make a pickup active in my book. ATM the only true active pickup system I know of is the Lightwave one. [/quote] I don't see that the Lightwave pickup is any more or less active than a magnetic pickup (whether it has a built-in preamp or not). The Lightwave pickup shines a light on the string and picks up the vibrations through reflection. Magnetic pickups create a magnetic field and pick up the vibrations through current induction. The only "active" pickup is an Ebow. An "active" bass is one with a preamp on board, a "passive" bass is one without. By logical extension, an "active" pickup has an internal preamp, a "passive" pickup doesn't. Seems logical to me.

[quote name='lettsguitars' timestamp='1341762909' post='1723714'] There is no such thing as an active pickup. There are pickups which are designed to be used with an active preamp, and have less wire on the coil so as not to be too hot. There are pickups which are active but they just have the preamp built in to the pickup. [/quote] Surely a pickup with a built-in preamp [b]is[/b] an active pickup? They require a power supply to produce a signal. I think the idea is that they reduce extraneous noise because there isn't even the short cable run from pickup to preamp which is at a high impedance level, it being high input impedance blocks in the amplification chain which are most prone to noise pickup.

[quote name='Doctor J' timestamp='1341760611' post='1723658'] However, if you connect in serial - ie the second cab plugged into the first cab which is plugged into the head - then you double the resistance, meaning two 8 ohm cabs will combine to make a 16 ohm load. [/quote] I do hope no-one is misled by this completely inaccurate statement into daisy-chaining two 4 ohm cabs thinking they'll get 8 ohms... Where cabs have two connectors, they will be connected in parallel. So two 8 ohm cabs will combine to make a 4 ohm load.

Yes please, I'm looking for a sound which is actually something like a plucked stringed instrument rather than a gargling robot.

Have you got the wiring diagram for the Sonar? It shows you what to solder on the blend pot - the wire marked 'hot' is the inner, the outer sleeves go to the two solder pads that are joined together. All the grounds need to join up somehow or other. I soldered bridge and blend grounds to the output socket sleeve, then connected volume ground and preamp ground to the blend ground. I think, anyway. To find out which jack socket terminal is which, you need a stereo (unmoulded) plug or stereo lead and a multimeter. Tip is signal, ring is battery negative, sleeve is ground.

Could be done with a bit of active circuitry - just put a unity-gain buffer in between each pickup and its tone/volume stack.

Will it do a decent sounding octave up?

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1342010576' post='1727943'] This was posted somewhere recently and yes, I was able to tell the difference. *boasty* [/quote] Checking back, I see the results are up - and I did get them in the right order. If any of them had been played in isolation, I wouldn't have had a clue which they were, and I wasn't that certain about having them right.

[quote name='muttley' timestamp='1341744048' post='1723373'] Fretless basses full stop, if the current output of the major manufacturers is anything to go by. [/quote] Possibly because the glut of fretlesses bought during the Paul Young/Pino Palladino years will keep the secondhand market fully stocked for decades to come.

Can anyone really tell the difference? [url="http://dubsaint.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/p-j-or-ray-whats-the-difference-anyway-part-2-take-the-sound-test"]http://dubsaint.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/p-j-or-ray-whats-the-difference-anyway-part-2-take-the-sound-test[/url] That should kick it all back off...

Early Bowie with Trevor Bolder on bass (Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust) Early Alice Cooper with Dennis Dunaway on bass (Killer, Love it to death, School's Out, Billion Dollar Babies) Slade - around the "Cum on feel the noiz" era Early Bad Company (Bad Company, Straight Shooter)

[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1341968943' post='1727306'] Good to know there is a PMT store with good customer srervice Been to the Birmingham one for a look around, some great stuff! But didn't speak to any staff, anyone know what they're like? [/quote] I've been in quite a few times, bought reasonable amounts of stuff from them. Helpful staff - I've known Garry from when Musical Exchanges was in Broad Street before the fire (when I was still at school) and he's always been helpful.

Congratulations. Looking forward to seeing you at your first gig...

No, it's not the order they're in. I think there may be two things here which are potentially getting conflated. As Sarah says, numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 will be the numbers of the note in a scale. C major, for example, has C = 1, D = 2, E = 3, F = 4, G = 5, A 6, B = 7 The major chord is made up of notes 1, 3, and 5 - hence C, E and G. Things are a little different with chords. They are expressed as I, II, III etc, but now C maj = I, D min = II (I'm sure I've seen a convention to write minors as lowercase, hence ii), E min = III, F maj = IV, G maj = V, A min = VI, Baugdim5 with fried rice = VII. The reason that some chords are major and some are minor is that all three notes of 1, 3, and 5 must be in the C major scale. It's 3 that tells you whether it's major or minor, and if it's three semitones up from the 1 note it's a minor, if it's 4 semitones up it's a major. Hence A minor - from A the notes go A=1, B=2, C=3 (following the C major scale), D=4, E=5 and so the chord is A C E which is Am. Doing that type of notation (I, II, III etc) is handy as it means that if yer typical 12-bar goes I IV I V IV I V, it doesn't matter what key it's in, If it's in A, it goes A D A E D A E, if it's in C, it goes C F C G F C G, if it's in Eb, it's jazz and you can forget about it.

Must be honest, I'm surprised that of the 40,000 bassists on here, 39,999 aren't aware of tuners that are neither pedals, rackmounts, nor clip-ons.

Thank god, they're hideous.

[quote name='Jazzneck' timestamp='1341834737' post='1724715'] Just called Mrs. Jazzneck "my little Uxor" and she punched me and told me to do my own lunch. What went wrong? [/quote] Try "uxor mea parva pulchra est".

Sadly, one of my covers bands does "Move like Jagger". Finally, a track I hate more than "Dance the night away".

For an added bonus, it hasn't been reliced.

One covers band - left hand side as I'm another one with a left-handed guitarist and Mrs Zero is the singer, so I'd really get it in the neck if we smacked her round the back of the head. Other covers band - right hand side because the guitarist fancied going on the left. Other other covers band - left hand side, for no apparent reason. Ceilidh band - left hand side, also for no apparent reason. Jams, open mics, etc - right hand side if I can so I can see the guitarist's fingers.

I'm not sure that the description was entirely accurate, being described as "used": "The item may have some signs of cosmetic wear, but is fully operational and functions as intended." Hmmm.

What amazes me is that cables carrying digital signals (HDMI, USB, etc) will actually get reviews saying that they improved the sound in some way that is contrary to the laws of physics and information theory. Either your 1s and 0s get from one end to the other undamaged or they don't. If they're all there then the signal is as it started out and if they're not all there then randomly losing the odd bit or 1024 won't have a coherent effect on the frequency characteristics of the analogue signal that has been encoded.

[quote name='risingson' timestamp='1340663611' post='1707936'] As for me I'm going through a total transformation in life and my music is starting to take a back seat to other things so I don't feel like I have anything to post that is of any major relevance right now. [/quote] It's always the same when you damn caterpillars start turning into butterflies...

The quilted maple is nice, the scratchplate is rubbish, the gold hardware really doesn't go well with it, the knobs look cheap and nasty.