JohnFitzgerald

Funny, now I'm remembering an interview with Tony from back in the day.

He had just stopped using, I think, an Aria SB1000.

Reckoned it had too many knobs which would just get knocked and change his sound.
Hence the simplified setup mentioned above.

Had the good taste to use a wall of Trace as well IIRC.

The very first time I saw them (1983, I think) was at The Locarno in Glasgow.
This was before Turbosound PA made it big. It was all wave horns, Philishave mids and W bins.
Stacks of it all lashed together with ropes.

The following week, in the same venue, I saw Level 42 for the first time.~

Two great bass players in the same week.

Tony and Mark Brzezicki were and indeed still are one of those signature rythm sections.

Great player. Solid and inventive at the same time is a rare talent. Some of the young dudes with their Ricks around their ankles would do well to listen to how Tony plays if they really must use a plec.

Well, it's what we've been sold as the concept of how to comapre, hasn't it ?



It's almost like the things you get now with cars nowadays.

"Yeah, I bought the 170bhp version."

OK, where does it make 170bhp, at what RPM ?

"Haven't a clue, I just know it's the 170bhp version."

Right, but I've been in the car with you and you change up at 2000rpm, you're probably using about 100 of those 170bhp.

"Ah, ok. But mine's the 170bhp version."


Right....

Well, today some of the horrible blue finish relinquished its grip on the body.
Not all of it, but progress was made. It's fair to say it put up a bit of a fight, but that wasn't unexpected.

So, here's how far I got. Best news is that there is no damage to the body at all, so the only repair necessary will be to the damaged control cavity. I have a plan for this seeing as it's now getting the veneered top.

Anyway, the obligatory pics. Not a bad lump of wood, but terrible alignment - as expected.

A sound enough basis from which to proceed, I think.

Some of you may have worked out by my tone at the top of this thread that I'm happy with the combination of the Trace AH150 and the Peavey 410.
That's still true, so this wasn't really about what to buy or anything like that.
I also accept that I then went on to compare all sort of things which weren't even remotely comparable. There you go, I ramble a bit at times :-)

It was more about teasing out responses by those of you with more technical knlwedge than I with regard to why the 'big old iron' as it's called above seems to produce the goods whereas the lighter stuff might not always do so.

On a similar note, we were speaking to our local shop where we buy all our kit with respect to power amps. The current power amps are a brace of Crown XLS602 amps which are absolutely spot on, but stick them in a rack with a crossover and that's one heavy box. We're also looking to add a new amp for monitors.
They have the current Peavey class D power amps in which are ultra light weight and are a good price so we had thought of going to three of those. Foldback, mid top and sub. Our man told us they would be fine but he reckoned we would be best sticking with the ctown for the PA subs.
I think that's quite telling and not at all irrelevant to this topic too.

As I think I said previously, it's a 410tx I'm using right now and it's completely blown me away in what it does.
Yeah, it's a bit heavy, but we carry a 2.4KW Logic pa and marshall stacks about with us. A bass cab makes little difference.

If I'm being honest, another 410tx ?
That would be sweet.

Yeah, I know.
What a stupid statement.

A watt is a watt is a watt.

W(h)at I'm actually getting at here is the modern breed of, usually, class D super lightweight amps compared to the more traditionally constructed tackle.

Here's my own very simplistic observations. Fans of the boutique kit should probably look away now, there's nothing for you here.

My old AH250 MKIV Trace never ever ran than more than say 3 on post gain but was ridiculously loud into a single 8 ohm cab.
My old Peavey TNT was 130 watts. I think I got that up to 4 once before the drummer (!!) pleaded for mercy and asked me to turn it down a bit.
The current AH150 into an 8 ohm cab is plenty loud enough for me at maybe 2.5 - 3 on post gain.

Experience of newer kit is restricted to.

Ashdown Superfly.
500W. Seriously ? This thing is 500W ? Nah,you're kidding right ?
I had it plugged into a brace of 4 ohm cabs in a rehearsal room and couldn't hear it behind yesterday's chip paper.

Phil Jones Flightcase. 150W.
Set up the preamp to be as hot as possible and still be clean then increased the post until it was at a repsectable level. I had pretty much maxed it out. Maybe 85-90 % flat out. Is that it ? Never compete with any sort of band ?

I know that's maybe not the intention of the Phil Jones, but it just felt very underwhleming to me.

Same with pretty much all of the Ashdown stuff I've tried and owned to. Couple of MAG C115 300 combos, just no ultimate reserve of power. ABM 300 115 Combo, wound away up to get a repsectable volume. MAG 300 stack . 4x10 and 1x15. Same as above. I'm having to wind on lots of gain before this thing will actually be loud.

Our rehearsal room has a brand new ABM 600 into a 6 x10 and yet again. Plenty of bottom, no good mid or top and really, does it need to be up so far before it produces a decent level of output ?


What gives ?

Is one watt the same as another watt ?
I know there's more to it than that, but what are your findings ?

Andy, closer inspection of the pieces I have to hand reveal nothing significant by way of voids or what you might call significant fissures, so I guess that's a bonus. I still see a benefit in using grain sealer / filler to acheive a relatively sound substrate upon which the tock coats can be applied.

Going to head off out in a bit and get hold of some bits and pieces to get this body stripped down and see what lies beneath.

Thanks for taking an interest in this project.

JF

Andy

Glad you approve

It's certainly my hope that the grain does come out once I have it finished.
Speaking of which.

What is your finish of choice for these type of jobs ?

Cheers

JF

None of your neodymium here.

I think they might have used depleted uranium instead.

What ?!?!
I heard that, pardon ?

Let me say from the outside, that a bit of PEavey equipment has never ever let me down. There's been lots of it too.
Peavey Century Head, SP3 PA cabs, HP400 cabs (like Hisys 4 only a bit older), Pair of CS800s, CS1200, UL115 Sub, 1012 Impulse top mids, my last TNT130 and my current 410tx (thanks Jose).

Not a bit of it has ever done anything other than perform as required when required.

You do get the impression that although there are shed loads of us who really really respect it, few of us truly actually love it. I'm sure you know what I mean here. Many of us bought Peavey stuff because it's what we could afford, not because it's what we actually truly wanted.

It's funny how exactly such circumstances led me to the 410tx mentioned above. Not quite what I actually wanted, but the right price and being Peavey, it'll never break - obviously. (Goes without saying.)

Waht a truly ace little cabinet. I say little, but anyone who's ever lifted one knows I don't mean with regard to the weight of the thing, but a fairly diminutive 4x10 but with such a lovely sound. Plenty of bottom end grunt and more top than you could ever need, thankfully with a trim pot to keep your upper noodlings out of guitarist territory. Really, just a great sounding cab, as the rest of the band stated the instant I played the Trace head through it. It reproduced all it's input faithfully. All I need or want in a cab.
Such a great cab that if I should find myself being offered another or a 115bx in the future, I might just go for it if I'm sufficently flush.

Anyway, as also seems to be the norm, mine came to me sans Peavey badge. It's truly astonishing that Peavey make bomb proof kit, but when it comes to these cabs there seems to be something about them that makes the badge fall off.

Prior to the gig last week where it was due to do it's stuff underneath my Trace AH150 (we're in a settled and loving relationship, thanks for asking) I felt the urge to add a badge to the Peavey.
Clearly I still suffer from the aforementioned badge snobbery if my badge making choice is anything to go by. I promise, it's not permanent and will be removed toute de suite.

It's justabitta fun.

I've got wood.

And a dismantled bass ready for the paint to be stripped.
Let battle commence.

The truly observant amongst you will already have noticed that this is actually four pieces.
On the basis that I won't be fooling anyone that this is anything other than a nice bit of veneer glued to a relatively mundane bass I'm cool with that.
I think the figuring will work well and the general pattern and colours are pleasing to my eye at least.

Let's see how it pans out.

Oh yes, without a doubt.

That's a goer.

I went to Moffat once to pick up a bike he'd bought.
It had a dead Alternator, so the battery was continually discharging.

Consequently, he had to ride it home as fast as it would go whilst there was still juice in the battery.

It was a Kawasaki Z1000.

Hoo boy, that was quick.

I'll come too if that's ok.

I don't always have to work like this.

This was a tiny pub, so I had what I had and that was it.

Generally, the amp rack will be sat on top of the flightcase which the PA mid top cabs live in.
The mixer usually sits on top of this.

We thought getting really really nice PA gear would be cool, and it is.
But the flightcase that the mids live in weighs 93kg loaded.

Better pic to follow when we next play a venue with some space.

I read above your bit about rehearsals and small gigs.

You're joking right ?

If it's anything like my recently sold TNT130, you could hire it out to a demolition company for knocking houses down.
These things seriously rock and have lots of spare grunt to live with a couple of guitarists - no worries. I think I turned mine up to 3 once.

Lovely warm tone too and the price here is absolutely spot on. I got exaclty £80 for mine.

Free bump

This is a great great amp for this sort of money. Outclasses anything you can buy in the shops for the same money 100:1

I echo most of what the seasoned wedding band performers like myself have said here.
Especially regarding how you treat the gig - you're employed like the caterers and bar to provide A SERVICE.

Regarding newer songs, yeah, we do them too, but there's a simple test it has to pass.
We never ever hear something and just go with it unproven.
It has to prove itself in terms of longevity with airplay on TV and radio.
Once it's proven that, it's good to go.

I give you as examples a couple of recent recruits, Jessie J, price tag - Adele, Rolling in the deep.
All current but already in the public consciousness, so good to go.

Remember, a wedding band's repertoire will be filled with 'classics', a song has to be a classic of sorts to get in for me.

And yes, I've played Mr Brightside, sex on fire and do you want by Franz Ferdinand as part of wedding sets.
They help the younger team get on the dance floor and the 40 something will follow them on, just the way the younger audience will follow the 40 somethings onto the flloor when you're playing young hearts.

The only thing I would counter is that much as you're there to provide a service and some say they're not 'your' audience, I say it's your job to make them your audience. That's the sign of a good function band. Nobody went to the function expecting to be raving about how good the band were and saying how they made the day, but everybody came home having done just that.

One last thing, promise.
You need to be a good player, that's for sure, but your vocals are way way more important than that. EVH solos not necessary and you'll be the only one in the room who's heard of Victor Wootten, but if you have good singers and a tight band, you're already part of the way there.

Enjoy.

Not strictly a gear pron post, but maybe there are some people out there who like this sort of stuff just like me.

Here's my little corner of the stage.

Last night, was very tight, hence the strange positioning of the bass cab, but there's a PA to make sure all the loveliness gets out there so it was onyl for personal monitoring.

Anyway, my domain with a short description of what's going on here. Crappy mobile phone pic on poor light.



My Trace AH150 + 4x10 cab.
On top, amp rack with a pair of Crown XLS602 power amps. 1.2K each.
Behringer Crossover.
Sennheiser wireless receiver.

Off to the side there, Mackie, CFX 12.

It's not very handy haivng the same setup whether you're doing a town hall or a tiny pub, but you use what you've got I guess.

Out of shot are.

My Squier V string Jazz active.
2 x Marshall 100 watt half stacks with angled 4x12 cabs.
Les Paul Goldtop / Les Paul Traditional / ESP Les Paul / Vester Tele (my favourite.)
Roland TD12. This use a total of 4 channels on the mixer. 2 stereo pairs. Beats mics.

Logic System PA.

There you go.

Maybe a slightly strange post for the gear pron section, but maybe there's others out there who like this sort of nonsense too.

That's several generations newer than ye olde TNT though, isn't it ?

[quote name='arthurhenry' timestamp='1319224015' post='1411623']
Interesting that while the Yanks say "Aloo-min-um" and we say "Aluminium", they say "Nee-oh-die-nee-um" whilst we say "Nee-odd-mee-um".
[/quote]

Really ?

Nee-oh dimmyum here

Here is Scotland admittedly.
We proably invented it...

I have to say, my approach to this is just to keep the internal metronome running all the time.

Maybe I take it too far and I know this will sound ridiculous, but from the minute I wake up to the minute I fall asleep, I have a weird sort of internal metronome that pretty much never stops. If I'm sitting still and not using my hands for some other purpose (leave it ! ) I'm probably going to be tapping out a rythm. Drumming away. In my head, I'm sub dividing each beat into four semiquavers the whole time. There's always a rythm in there.
Frustrated drummer ? Maybe. Before playing any other instrument, I played some drums at an early age and have certainly never forgotten it.

Being the bass player, I see my role in the rythm as being just as important as the drummer's and want to influence it just as much as he does. So, I keep the meter going in my head the whole time.


This sound ridiculous, I know, but's that's my approach.
I didn't set out to do this, but it's what I've always done.

Clearly, this approach won't work for everyone, but it does for me.

I just got rid of an old TNT 130.

It must have been like lb/ft compared to N/M.

Only 130 of those watts, but each one was a full sized time served full fat watt. Could hold its own anywhere.

Having said that, it was very much an old school sound from the days before we had the good sounding amps we now have.
I know that there are old and good amps, but once you take out the SVT and the B15, a lot of the old stuff that we could all afford when the TNT was current was pretty naff sounding. HH Bass Machine / Carlsbro Stingray anyone ?

The TNT had a fairly pronounced lower mid clank and no real crisp top end to speak of. Not a bad sound as such, but not a great sound either.
Workmanlike and dependable, as ever with Peavey though.

Maybe I just discovered the Trace sound and never moved on.

Have you ever tried a Carlsbro Cobra 90 Keyboard Combo ?

90 watts, 15" speaker. Tweeter.

Sound glorious.

Really works with acoustic guitar too.

Keyboard amps are mini PAs and I love them.

Having said that, I'm loving my new to me Peavey 410tx.
Weighs a fair old bit, but the sound.

Oh lord, the sound.

Andy

Top bloke.

I now need to work out how to snag the right veneer.