JPJ

[quote name='owen' timestamp='1350939375' post='1845435'] Big power stages = big tone. Sad but true. [/quote] Amen brother (from an SM1500 user with a chiropractor on speed dial)

Oh, and while I think on, have a chat with the Overwater boys, I'm pretty sure their extra longscale strings will fit yours perfectly.

Well done, that's quite a project and you've achieved a stunning result. Not a fan of the antigua finish myself but yours is nice an subtle.

I own three fiver's. The first and my primary bass is an Overwater J 5 with 35" scale. Lovely balanced tone/volume across all the strings, sounds like a Fender jazz due to the combination of DiMarzio Ultra Jazz p'ups and John East J-Retro circuit. Second bass on most gigs is a MM Stingray. This time a 34" scale but again well balanced tone/volume across all strings. The humbucker plays a big part in getting a full sound out of the low B as is best demonstrated by the single coil position on the switch where the B string just thins out and almost disappears. MY third fiver is a home built 34" P 5 with the same p'up config as the Fender Stu Hamm basses (bart pickups and East T&B and Mid Stack circuit). On this one, you really need the P pickup engaged to get a good tone out of the B string, and there is a noticeable latency on the development of notes on the B string (same as my now sold Fender Jazz DLX 5). I don't think you can isolate scale length as being the sole contributor to a good B string. I believe its more a combination of factors and is heavily influenced by the pick-ups, circuit and ultimately your amp & cabinet setup. Going back to your original post, if I had that sort of budget available I'd be off to Carlisle to spec an Overwater

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1346797146' post='1793512'] Hmm, I don't know JPJ - I'd hazard a guess at cost and difficulty to machine? Wood is easier to throw in to a CNC and cheaper. Wow, that'd be a pretty ultimate Hartke cabinet! Aluminium cones and aluminium cabinet! but that's one too many 'alooominums' for my liking! heh, ey Larry!! [/quote] Well you machine it with a standard router with a carbide cutter, granted you would need some sort of frame to attach it to, but all the jointing is done with adhesives so no nasty fasteners required. Fill it full of wadding (like any good cabinet) and polish the bejesus out of the rest of the cabinet and you'd have a thing of undoubted shiney lightweight beauty.

The Promethean was on my wish list after trying WoT's out, but I got an unbelievable deal on a used PJB Briefcase that does everything I need in a small combo and has (so far) been uber reliable.

So if rigidity of the cabinet is the goal, why is nobody using ultra lightweight aluminium honeycomb panels? I can vouch for the rigidity of this stuff and you can get it foam filled so no nasty voids to excite.

What we need is a standardised Basschat 'loudness' test. I'm guessing that 80% of Basschat members play the pub/small club circuit (10% play bigger venues, 10% play in their bedroom) so our test chamber could be the 'Dog & Sproat with an audience of 5 - 50 punters (including wives, mothers, girlfriends). Next we need what we're up against, and judging from the NE scene we need 2 x 100w Marshall equipped guitarists who genuinely believe they will damage their amp if they play at anything less than 10 on the volume knob. Then add a loud drummer with poor/no technique (think Animal from the Muppets). Then we need a 'standard song' and without wishing to be to controvertial, if you've played in bands for any length of time you will have played this one, so let's say choose the timeless classic 'Mustang Sally' (north eastern members may substitute 'the Hunter'). Then we need an unbiased way of measuring loudness. We could faff about with spectrum analysers/noise meters etc but it would probably best to use another bass player (unbiased) to stand at various locations in the venue and see if he/she can hear what the bass player is playing and report his/her findings on a scientific scale of say: 1-25 Inaudible in most passages; 26-50 detectable but needed a trained ear; 51-75 sat nicely in the mix; 76-100 completely overpowered all other instruments (just the way it should be) This is just an outline proposal. Please feel free to add your own suggested improvements.......

How hard is it to actually measure the output of an amp? I thought you had to have an acoustic chamber and a hugely accurate reference tone and all that malarkey?

[quote name='Wooks79' timestamp='1346452806' post='1789572'] I think I saw a review of the orange terror that had it putting out a little over the stated watts, I'll see if I can find it again... [/quote] I can believe this, mine was insanely loud even into an 8ohm load.

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1345222389' post='1775246'] Just to give you some options Kev... I have a Warwick Hellborg 1U rackmount preamp that you can borrow. I know it isn't 'exactly' what you want but it might be worth experimenting (I have a power amp to go with it but it isn't one of the uber-light ones). [/quote] Cheers John, sounds like its time for a mini-bash round your place [quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1345224257' post='1775270'] Peavey used to do a 1U light-weight power amp that wasn't class D; added to which I think it is manufacturers of bass amps building down to a budget which is what I personally think is giving the resultant tone that I don't like with those style of switching amps, I'm 'hoping' that a dedicated power amp may not have been built down to a price and as a result might give me what I want! [/quote] I know what you mean. I've been trolling around the interweb trying to find a decent power amp using this lightweight class D malarky that can put about 900w in 8 ohms 1500w in 4 ohms. Can't believe that there isn't a dedicated mono musical instrument power amp available like this. If Orange can do a 1000w Terrorbass that is basically their front end in front of a B&O power amp module, surely somebody somewhere will have thought of using a similar amp module to produce a decent mono power amp?

Howdy folks, Bit of a narrow question but, does anybody on here own an SWR Marcus Miller preamp? I'm current using an SM1500 which is a little bit heavy for my ageing back. I love the sound/power of it though and wouldn't really want to compromise too much on that, so I'm thinking about replacing it with the SWR MM Preamp and a lighter weight power amp. Before I push too far down this road, I'd like some advice from a MM user, hence the question!

1978 First amp I used was a Customsound Trucker combo that the local arts centre used to hire out to bands. It was a pucka valve amp, probably around 45w and a 1x15 (or possibly 1x12) speaker. 1980 First amp I bought was a Ohm GB80 1x15 80w combo, H&H speaker, five band graphic eq but knobs not sliders. 1981 Then I bought a FAL solid state 100w amp head and built a 1x15 cab to use with that and used to stack the FAL on top of the Ohm on top of the home made 1x15 for a mega 180w stack 1988 Then I bought a Carlsboro Stingray Pro Bass 300 head and an old Hiwatt 4x12 (which I only sold recently) 1990 Then I took a hiatus from gigging (got married), kept the Carlsboro and the Hiwatt and bought a Laney G120 120w 1x15 combo for use in the house. 2005 And I'm about to return to the gigging scene, so I sell the Laney and buy an SWR Black Beauty 300w 1x15 combo and very quickly add a workingman's 2x10 to fill out the sound. I become addicted to the SWR sound. 2006 see's the Black Beauty combo replaced with a 750x head, Goliath 4x10 and Son of Bertha 1x15. 2008 see's the Son of Bertha replaced with a second Goliath 4x10 and tonal nirvana is achieved. 2010 see's the 750x replaced with the SM1500 and a Schroeder 21012 added to the mix for smaller gigs where two 4x10's might actually cause structural damage to the venue. In between times, an Orange Terror Bass 500 popped in (and out again) and I've now got gas for a Markbass Randy Jackson head to pair with the Schroeder for something different.

So does this mean that the marketing stating that the full 500 watts into either 4 or 8 ohms is a complete fabrication then? The impedance switch is merely there to ensure the correct filtering load for the class D amp?

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1344295430' post='1762542'] I thought the Terrorbass was a valve amp? [/quote] Nope, 2 valves in the front end, class D solid state power amp

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1344292095' post='1762481'] Kind of wonder if the switch even does anything at all, not like anyone would know. Switch and a dymo labeller is all it takes. [/quote] Good point, didnt really try mine as I set it to 8 ohms to match the Schroeder and left it that way. I think OBBM may have looked at a circuit diagram and he seemed to think it did something

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1344293860' post='1762512'] I don't think that's what the switch was intended for. It's more of a by product of having to have the correct set of output transformer windings 'engaged' to match a given speaker impedance. If it wasn't there then your cab options would be impacted and you'd be on first name terms with your local amp tech. [/quote] But most tranny amps are capable of carrying 4 or 8 ohm loads (some even 2 ohm) without needing a switch, so why does Orange have the switch?

Once had the pleasure of gigging a Carvin Cyclops combo (1x15 + 2x8 + horn I think?), and it well near blew my socks off tone-wise. Their basses ain't to shabby either, and if I was ever to progress to a six string bass, Carvin would be right up there on the wish list after trying one of their sixers in the old Bass Centre many many moons ago.