JPJ

Our gig yesterday was a large'ish social club concert room with a proper stage. Our PA comprises two EV ZLX15 'tops' and two old Peavey 400w powered 15" bass bins. Nine and a half gigs out of ten I will place the bins under the tops simply because of space limitations. As I mix from the side of the stage (Behringer XR18) I also commit what some consider to be a cardinal sin in live sound and run a dBX Driverack. 

For yesterdays gig, I placed the bins on the floor in front of the stage on the centreline of the room (approximately) and side by side. The tops were on stands either side of us on stage. I had time to run the setup utility for the Driverack (pink noise anybody?) and save this new config for future use. 

What I noticed from this setup was: 1) bloody hell the bins were loud, and I was able to get some of that chest pumping kick drum from them (albeit) only over the first ten metres or so. 2) the overall mix was much better, with the vocals coming through loud and clear. 3) the Driverack was making much more use of the bins, with the level indicators on both the tops and the bins both regularly hitting four bars (with the normal subs under tops, the subs are lucky to see one bar). 4) Our nominal 1900w PA coped admirably with the room, yes we were not the loudest, but we were loud enough and I received several compliments on the sound. 

I must confess that I previously thought the gain from running this configuration would be marginal but actually it was significant. There is only one other regular gig where I could use this setup, but I definitely will be using it whenever I can. 

Early evening gig at the local Billy Bootleggers bar. In-house PA and engineer (who knew what he was doing). This is normally a strange gig as it’s mainly passing trade, with the bar located in an up and coming suburb of Newcastle with several alternative venues all within a stones throw. Yesterday we had several groups of live music followers in from beginning to end which made us feel right at home. We played really well even if I say so myself, one of those tight loose kind of gigs and we all enjoyed ourselves. Just about to load the van for gig #2 of the weekend with my other band. 

5 hours ago, Owen said:

Could you link me up to the ebay advert for the seller? I am wondering if he has many different cases. Ta. 

Hi Owen,

This is the ad I bought from. I’ve just checked and he doesn’t have any other items listed at the minute 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225781255459?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=l125RuyxTwi&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=NlJhiuEZQNG&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Two gigs for me this coming weekend and with two different bands.

Saturday 23rd September sees me at Billy Bootleggers in the Ouseburn Delta (Byker) just a short walk east of Newcastle city centre with Ten Bob Blind, a female fronted americana band where I get to slip slide away on fretless P bass and NS EUB. Kick off 17:00hrs, with music from the likes of Buddy & Julie Miller, Shawn Colvin, Lucinda Williams, Thea Gilmore, Steve Earl, Tom Petty and more. If you are coming along why not get yourselves along early and enjoy Bad Bob Bates solo set from 14:00.

Sunday 24th September sees me at the legendary Hartlepool Steelies club with Southern Incorporated, our southern rock band. Kick off for this one is 17:30. Lots of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blackberry Smoke, Whiskey Myers, and more…..😎

I’ve been concerned at placing my NS NXT in the back of the van in its flimsy gig bag, and no more so than when I arrived at a recent gig to find it lying almost at the other end of the van from where I’d put it. 
I priced up a custom flightcase from a few flightcase manufacturers but as I also transport my EUB in my car, I wasn’t really keen on the standard aluminium riveted ball cornered standard cases so started looking for an alternative. I came across the Peli Storm case range which includes one the right length (the iM3410) but was slightly put off by the eye watering price 😮 But a quick check on eBay showed a guy in Wales selling four of these cases brand new. Anyway, after some very friendly communications a deal was done for one at just over a quarter of the price of one online, and it arrived today. I’ve spent the last hour cutting the foam inserts to size and ended up with this. The case seems like it’ll be strong enough to handle life on the road, and I’ll feel a lot happier putting this in the back of the van. 

Firstly, I should state I have an old motorcycling injury which affects my left thumb. My DB journey started with the Stagg, which is surprising good for the money, but a pain to play comfortably as I could never find the sweet spot of balance with that wire frame. I moved on to a KK Baby Bass which was obviously quite a step up in quality but despite the faux body, was no easier to balance and was a lot heavier on my left thumb as a result, causing hand problems after a very short period of playing standing up (I could balance it nicely sitting down, but the gig I bought it for was not a sitty down type of gig). I've now moved on to the NS NXT which is comfortable for me to play both on the stand, and and on the end pin with body rest. I can use my left arm weight to protect my thumb as I am no longer supporting the EUB whilst playing. 

Reading through this thread, it seems to me that the answer in your case may well be some sort of robust stand for the Stagg. 

Another vote for the EBS Stanley Clarke preamp pedal. I double between NS NXT EUB and fretless Fender Tony Franklin P bass, and this handles both with ease. 

Just been browsing the old t’internet and found to my surprise that Accugroove offer powered versions of all of their cabs. 

I have a Micro Thumpinator last in my chain before my amp. Signal path is bass (or EUB) into EBS Stanley Clarke pre, Plethora X3 & Sansamp in the loop of the EBS, then EBS out to Micro Thumpinator, then on to my amp. I take the DI from the EBS to the PA, and when I’m mixing in both of my bands, I use the PEQ high pass to dial out the ultra low end in the PA. When I’m not mixing, the house engineer gets a full fat bass signal to do with as he likes.

I solved (reduced) this issue in my two bands by first, gating the mics, and then second educating the backing singers that they need to eat their mics to be heard. High pass certainly helps too, and we’ve never played anywhere large enough where I have needed to mic the cymbals, so some judicious eq cuts in the high end of the vocal mics also helps to dial down the cymbal sizzle.

The USP I can see is that its Allen & Heath. I've had my XR18 almost since launch in the UK and whilst the hardware has never let me down, there have been a couple of occasions where Behringer have failed to keep the app up to date with iOS updates. And before anyone says 'Mixing Station', I have it but I much prefer the UI and workflow/ease of use of the Behringer native app. 

The one that always amazes me is the little TC Electronics BG250 208 - a 2 x 8” combo that just loves my NS NXT EUB. I’ve used mine for personal monitoring and for back line on ‘acoustic’ gigs and I am constantly amazed by how open and natural it makes the NS sound. They often pop up on here used for not a lot of money and are well worth the outlay. I have upgraded the speakers in mine to get the full 250W in a one hand lift small box. 

On 22/07/2023 at 17:55, Chienmortbb said:

When I modified the Ashdown After Eight, there was no room to put the port on the baffle or the back. So it is side ported. Thinking outside the box there. In fact, the port could go outside the box, but it would look as fugly as a Bose "sub on a stick" (joke).

I find myself strangely attracted to the idea of external ports, in a sort of bass cab “Lloyds of London” building type way - very steam punk but not very practical for life on the road.
serious thought though, would top exiting ports help with hearing your bass when you’re crammed into the back corner of the “stage” at your local Dog & Duck?

On 29/07/2023 at 21:19, warwickhunt said:

Used to be my cab (I bought it new), it is a superb cab which simply gobbled up any amount of power you threw at it.  I'm actually surprised it is as heavy as that (not that it is heavy for a 6x10), I seem to recall lifting it from the car 1 handed!  

You did! 

17 hours ago, Chimike said:

Hi JPJ,

The colour of the Formica that was used on the fronts of the early 360/361 units was called "Baby Blue ", if that's any help.

Two, very similar, shades of paint were used on the blue logo stripes, I do have the paint names written down somewhere, I'll see if I can find them.

 Mike.

Thanks for this Mike, and if you have got those paint names that would be fantastic 

My general rule of thumb with nitro is 4 to 6 weeks, longer obviously better. Funnily enough, I’ve had a black nitro pass the fingernail test at three weeks, whereas a surf green took 8 weeks and was still softer than I would have liked when flatting and buffing. Mind once the nitro has stopped flashing off (i.e. doesn’t stink) I hang bodies and necks in the airing cupboard (much to Mrs JPJ’s disgust) as the heat helps with the curing. 

So I have this crazy idea and I need to know the RAL code for the blue used by Acoustic Control Corporation on its bass amps and cabs. I’ve been a huge fan of the look of Acoustic amps and cabs since being a teenager and as they are no longer around, I’d like to pay a little homage to them with my Basschat 2x12 build. Any Basschatter’s out there able to help?

18 minutes ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

If I was to have a speaker for upright use only I'd load it with an eight inch. The upright low frequency limit is much higher than electric bass, so there's no need for the lower response or low frequency output capability of larger than an eight. An eight will go high enough to make a midrange and/or tweeter unnecessary, and will have 1.5 times the midrange dispersion angle of a twelve. For higher output requirements I'd use a stacked pair.

 

On the low frequency limit, the two instruments do have the same fundamental frequencies, but the main content lies in the harmonics, not the fundamentals. When an open E is played on electric most of the content is at 82Hz and higher, when played on an upright most of the content is at 123Hz and higher.

^ and this is the technical answer to why my NS EUB ‘sounds’ best through my TC BG250 208 combo. 

On 01/08/2023 at 22:18, BassmanPaul said:

Just remember this "Sunn'  is not the Sunn of days of yore. There's no connection to the original company.

Same as when Guitar Centre resurrected the Acoustic name. 

Did you ever get a weight on this? Despite being mid-way through building the ‘Basschat 2x12’ I keep coming back to this, and it’s been a while since I last lent you some of my money 🤣

Of course the digital thing is like drugs, just because you can doesn’t mean you should and like all live sound mixing, less is more, subtraction before addition etc. As I mix on the fly from stage side whilst playing I added a X-Touch to my setup as physical faders are far easier to tweak mid-song than touch screens imho. 

The photo shows my setup for a recent five-piece country/americana gig, with everything mic’d up or Di’d and running three IEM’s and two floor monitors for the luddites. I used to do the subs on Aux trick, but added a DriveRack which free’d up the aux and, for anyone mixing from stage side, gives a much better FOH sound imho. Now if only the X-Air Edit app could sync with the X-touch for fader bank selection……

2 hours ago, Maude said:

I don't know what I'm enjoying most, the neck removal dilemma or the Superdream chat. 

BassChat doing what it does best 😁. 

Came on here to read about sheared neck screws and ended up reminiscing over my old CB400N Superdream 😍 perfect example of the Basschat off-topic diversion 😂 and before anyone asks, yes that handlebar fairing was useless 😂

I was an early adopter of the XR18 and I’m still in love with mine despite all the recent issues with the Behringer app and iOS16 (the second time Behringer have failed to keep up with iOS updates during my ownership). If you use the desk with multiple bands or tend to play the same circuit then scenes and snapshots are great ways to save starting points for each gig. 

35 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

Ah cool. Thanks, I’ll have a look at those tonight. Not heard of them before (but then never heard of any of these until I started looking). 
Got a gig tonight and I’m trying out a set of Sennheiser IE 100 Pro. These are only one driver and cheap, but if they fit ok and stay in I may send them back and get the IE400 pro instead (if they sound ok I might keep them).
My thinking here is the IE100 is a shallower profile and slighter than my MEE’s, and might fit my ears better. I need something I can get into hook in rather than sit proud of my ear.  They are arriving today so I’ll take them straight to the gig, along with my MEE’s of course. 

My only wish is that ACS will bring out a multi-driver version of their Pro-Fit IEM so that I can use my existing custom moulds for IEM duties. At £99 for the current single driver version I am still tempted to try them even though I have read on here that they really are not that good. My ZS10's are great but despite trying multiple foam and neoprene tips, isolation is still an issue for me.  

1 hour ago, Grassie said:

Really not much at all. 2 pieces 50x50mm max should do it. 😊

Drop me your address on a pm and I'll post some over to you 👍