thinman

Would a stand be cheaper than another cab? A third cab seems like an expensive way of gaining a bit of height or angle.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1336520613' post='1647083'] Just an observation; most of the rock and roll world has never heard of Bill Fitzmaurice, and is doing fine. [/quote] Miaow! Not sure what point you're trying to make here.

Just to complicate matters the cab rating won't guarantee that you'll know which will fart out first - the wattage is thermal rating, i.e. how much power before you melt the coil. It's other factors that determine when you get farting such as the cabinet design and the maximum excursion (i.e. how much range of movement back and forth it has) of the driver. It's quite possible that the higher-rated cab could break up sound-wise first depending on the driver and cab and this often happens at power levels way short of the driver maximum power rating. I remember seeing some testing and figures on Bill Fitzmaurice's site stating that it's not unusual for a cab with a 400W (thermal) rating could easily start farting at about 120W of input. So, go by your ears!

I thought I'd have a go at answering the original question... As previously pointed out if a speaker was producing a simple sine wave then the cone would move back and forth smoothly at the wave's frequency. If it is having to produce a complex wave, say the result of two sine waves of different frequencies, the form might look like the lower frequency but with ripples on it of the higher frequency. The cone will therefore follow the shape of that wave - in general moving back and forth at the lower frequency but rather than smoothly it will be making much smaller back and forth movements at the higher frequency. As I understand it that is what makes speakers imperfect (but not impracticably so) because the above behaviour introduces Doppler distortion. (The effect of a fire engine's horn apparently changing pitch as it passes you). Imagine the cone is the fire engine and its horn the higher frequency - the fact the higher frequency is being produced by something that is itself moving.

I suspect the preamp valve in my H&K is going - after switch-on there's a period when the amp behaves like someone is turning the gain up and down - the volume increases and decreases smoothly before eventually stabilizing. Has anyone experienced this - could it be something like the valve heaters failing? I read about valves going microphonic or noisy but not this. I've ordered a replacement anyway.

I'm a bit confused - I assume your amp has an input gain and a master volume? If so then doesn't turning down the input gain reduce the overdrive/break-up? Turning up the master won't usually drive the preamp harder and alter the sound - it should just increase the volume. Are you sure your not over-driving the power stage?

I've got the S1 switch on my Jazz which is supposed to make it sound like a P when on. It's certainly different but identical to a P - not really in my view. Any opinions on that?

Most expensive? Mine - if you'd care to give me £50k to take it of my hands...

Have you looked for any 1 x 10" cabs with a view to using 2? I built a pair of BFM Omni 10.5s - at least when it all comes apart into easily handled bits you don't need to compromise on performance. Still knackered my back on Saturday night though with the PA cabs : - (

Very low chance I known but before I approach Hughes and Kettner (as some manufacturers can be a bit sniffy about providing service manuals) does anyone have a service manual for a Hughes and Kettner Bassbase 250 head? I bought this uncased from a fellow BC'er some years ago and although it looks a dog's dinner in a home-made case I love this amp and want to be able to repair it should it go pop. Given it's largely built from discrete components it should be readily repairable.

Having just seen a bit of 80's video with someone playing a Steinberger XT-type bass (you know, the carbon-fibre cricket bat shaped thing)I was astonished to find they're still made. Does anyone use them or are they so indelibly linked with 80's? What do any players find good and bad about them?

Do you have access to an oscilloscope? If so you could look at the output from your mains PSUs to confirm that they're absolutely smooth when under load. I wonder if there could also be an earth loop being introduced by the PSU. Can you try a cable between your effects and amp that has the shielding disconnected at one end?

[quote name='roonjuice' post='1219207' date='May 3 2011, 09:26 PM']Hi guys, I am starting to frustrate over this bloomin' old girl. She plays like butter, but i cannot get the bridge pup to output!! I had the pup rewired by wizard, so it should be good to go (ace chaps for the record!) If i solo just the bridge it just buzzes, until i open it right up, and then it goes dead. i've looked at the wiring, which is a bit of a butcher job, but cannot see anything wrong. Any ideas or anyone know a decent tech in leeds? Here is a picture of the harness. [url="http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z478/Roonjuice/harness2.jpg"]http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z478/R...ce/harness2.jpg[/url] [url="http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z478/Roonjuice/harness.jpg"]http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z478/R...ice/harness.jpg[/url] Cheers guys.[/quote] I'd hazard a guess that the bridge pup pot has had it. With a bit of bare wire try shorting the centre pin of it to each of the outer pins in turn and see if you get a signal.

Bonkers! Do they have a driver's cab for moving them around?

[quote name='Charla' post='1210042' date='Apr 24 2011, 02:30 PM']On a similar line, I have an Eden WT405 with only one speakon output and jack output. Is there any difference between using the two outputs for each cab or daisy chain the cabs? I know it may sound like a stupid question, but hey, I am stupid! Cheers Charla[/quote] It's fairly likely that there's no difference - the different connectors are provided for convenience and most likely wired together (but there's always the faint possibility that they've wired them such that when you plug in to one it disconnects the other - do-able with 1/4" jacks - not sure about Speakons). So, [u]probably[/u] electrically equivalent to daisy-chaining cabs. Hopefully the manual will tell you. Not sure if there's any benefit using one method over the other. Personally I'd standardise with speakons and daisy-chain as I think they're a better speaker connector.

It's one of the ironies of mass production that it's often cheaper to sell the finished product rather than ship it in bits!

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1202679' date='Apr 17 2011, 03:43 PM']Often incorrectly heard by others that dont realise that the people using the gear are more than familiar with it and are making a very valid comment as they have used it in many situations so know than actually that gear XXXXXXXX is really good and never needed to go past 2 where other lesser gear may be struggling [/quote] Indeed - but I'd still guarantee that it won't go 5 x louder though. Bit of a Spinal Tap argument to my mind that a bad amp has to have its volume knob turned round more than a good one!

I'm always amused by the comment "My XXXXXXX is brilliant - I never have to use it past 2 on the volume!" which has the implicit and rash assumption that it could go 5 times louder. Very, very unlikely.

[quote name='Monckyman' post='1200727' date='Apr 15 2011, 02:23 PM']Thanks for that Bill, I`m starting to realize that guitar amps useage can be a lot different than power amp useage. Then again, with statements like " Do not drive the amplifier into clipping, Clipping sounds something like a stylus mistracking. and generally occurs on loud passages when the system is played at loud volume levels. If clipping occurs regularly, turn down the volume level or install a larger amplifier that can deliver the required power without distortion. " From documents like that and you can see why it`s easy to confuse the issue. MM[/quote] Alex alluded to this but think of it this way: Say you had a synth set to produce a square wave then to reproduce that sound the amplifier has to deliver that same waveform to the speaker or it wouldn't be a faithful reproduction. OK, that's not the same as clipping the amp but it's producing a waveform with a flat (ish) top - from the speaker's point of view it matters not whether that's coming from a clipped power stage or not.

To the OP: Say you have the amp volume, input gain etc set at something more than 0. With no signal from your bass the amp's power output is 0. Hit the string and the output from the amp will be something proportional to the level of the signal from your bass and the volume control (including anything else that affects the gain such as input gain, eq etc). Say then that you have a 250W amp and the input signal and the various gain settings cause the output to need to be more than 250w for the signal from your bass then the amplifier output itself will start to distort. If you had a 500w amp and everything else being equal the output signal would not be distorted. So, from the speaker's point of view the signal received from the amp is no different from the two amps until the lower power amp is over-driven. For speakers with a low power handling it could be possible for the sound to be distorted by the speakers themselve even if the amp is not being overdriven - it depends on whose limits you reach first - the amp of the speakers. And just to re-iterate - amplifer power ratings represent what they can deliver (generally in a short burst). For bass usage the actual output is almost never continuous but variable with the music, i.e. twanging a string hard results in a burst of power from the amp through the speakers that drops down to almost nothing between notes. I hope that's not patronising - I get the impression that it's a mystery to some what goes on electrically between an amp and speakers.

I had a MAG300 115 combo. Yes it was a bit old school/"muffled". That's not surprising as the cab had no tweeters and it's a bit more top-end that will give clarity, I've used the head from that combo into my BFMs which do have tweeters and the sound is totally different - an amp won't usually colour the sound that much. One option might be to get a sleeve from Ashdown to house the head in and use it with different cabs. As mentioned above the heads in Ashdown combos are usually standard (though do watch out as the heads in the 2 x 10 combos are made wider than those in the 1 x 15s). If you want a bit of twang and clarity you will need tweeters and maybe not use 15s!

Just like to add that I feel the majority here are trustworthy and reliable. I've had some shocking experiences with eBay - faulty items, fakes etc but I've sold a bass and cab and bought a head, a mixer, an S1 switch + plate and a bass synth here and been very happy with them all.

You have to hand it to Squier - they seem to be getting their marketing spot-on. I know many don't consider them to be serious instruments (and I admit to have irrational thoughts in my mind) but they've produced so many models lately that I like the look of. I've a CV 60's P in blue and now I want one of the active Jaguars in red.

The chap here looks like he's wearing full gloves. God knows how he does it! [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH_Vw9parZQ"]Sia on "Later"[/url]

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='1187088' date='Apr 3 2011, 08:58 PM']Honestly mate, I've not stopped playing with this since I got it back and if it can make a loud enough noise with my band (enough for me to monitor on-stage), I'm thinking of selling my Thunderfunk and pair of Aggies! [/quote] Given the amount of high-end gear you've used the H&K must aquit itself well! I use mine with almost flat eq and it sounds, well, fat but clear! The valve pre-amp gives a nice bit of valvey warmth and compression when pushed. The Ashdown MAG300 head I've got sounds horribly sterile by comparison. The other good thing about that amp as well is that it's very serviceable - just good off-the-shelf chunky components and a nice chunky PCB. There are no fans to break or go noisey - just a big heatsink. I've changed quite a few bits - not because anything went wrong - but things like smoothing caps degrade with age and I'd guess the amp to be 15-20 years old. The only slightly specialised part is probably the mains transformer with the extra windings for the valve HT but I'd definitely get a replacement wound if it went pop. My only sight criticism is that it does induce hum into nearby stuff - not having a toroidal transformer doesn't help and maybe the case I made could do with better shielding. If anyone's after a head and you know of one of these I'd snap it up!