geoham

10 hours ago, stingrayPete1977 said:

Time to go wired in ears, ditch all the heavy boxes! 

Our entire stage setup for a four piece function/pub band is two RCF 735 speakers, mixer and two di boxes, guitar pedal board,  drumkit, three mics and stands, kick drum mic, bag of leads and four sets of in ears. 

I've never been able to hear myself so well and the FOH mix is the best it's ever been, I've actually had random people in the pub say they've seen us lots of times and the sound is the best it's ever been by far and better than all the other band's, ha. 

There’s a couple of us wanting to try this out. Cost is a major blocker - we’re mostly playing pubs for buttons. I don’t mind budget gear, but it seems that you need to shell out for decent in-ears.

The other thing is the guitarist - I reckon we’d need him mic’d up to make this work.

George

19 hours ago, paul_c2 said:

Aaaah I see. I was wondering, without the bass amp, whether you'd need your own monitor mix (thus, 2 or more pre-fade aux outputs on the desk). Or in other words, on the one hand you've eliminated the bass amp, on the other hand you're tied to a monitor a bit more. I guess if you had the monitor too anyway.....(because everyone has also eliminated their amp) then you're kinda back full circle to where you started from?

We already have two good quality monitors that were being used for vocals only. I just put the bass and keys through these - sounded great! The guitarist did grumble a bit that he didn’t want keys and bass in the monitor, just vocals - so may be an idea to use both aux channels next time rather than run both monitors for a single aux.

George

45 minutes ago, paul_c2 said:

Slightly off-topic but out of curiousity....what mixing desk do you use and how many pre-fade aux's does it have?

I can’t remember the exact model, but it’s a 16 channel Soundcraft with two aux channels, both pre-fade (though think one is switchable to post-fade). Just use one to run monitors from.

37 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

Of course you`re at the mercy of the sound-man so a small combo for stage monitoring as a way of making sure you can hear yourself is a great idea.

I forgot to add... I double as sound-man for the band, and the mixer is right by my side the whole time.

2 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

You can now easily source a high-quality Class IV head with a good DI that will weigh not much more than a Radial JDI. Take that to your gigs, preferably with a lightweight 1x10 in the boot of the car, and you're sorted for all eventualities.

 

My current setup isn’t a million miles away from this... got a TC Electronic BH550 head, which is pretty small and class IV, plus a pair of RS112 cabs. I just hooked up one cab with the head, and kept the volume down.

A big issue is that we’ve got a LOT of gear and we’re trying to reduce it as much as possible - a lot of our gigs are in busy city centre pubs, and we need to lug it through groups of punters. So, the less gear the better!

From my perspective, we have really nice FOH speakers, good quality rack amps and monitors, so the keys player and I wanted to test the theory that we could run without amps - and it worked!

1 minute ago, EBS_freak said:

Oh, you play with Joe Bonamassa?

Hehe. It needs to be loud to get a decent tone, so it'll be too loud if we mic it. It'll give too much feedback if we fold it back through the monitors (even though the keys player and I struggle to hear him on the other side of the stage.) I'm sure we've all heard it before!

Got mine!

Both my keyboard player and I tried something similar at our gig on Saturday - ran a DI to the PA and kept our amps muted. I used an amp sim on my Zoom B3n, ran it to the input of my amp and took a DI from there to the mixer. It sounded great on stage, and had a few musicians in the audience confirm all was well out front.

I'm thinking about ditching the amp altogether for the next few gigs, but since I used a DI from my amp, I need to think of how best to replace that part.

• Go straight to a 'line in' on a mixer channel. Probably my preferred option, as it's the most simple - but is it a bad idea?
• Use a cheap Behringer DI box - there's a couple in our PA cable box (inherited from our singer & guitarist's last band!)
• Buy a slightly more robust DI
• Upgrade to a better amp-sim solution with a built in DI. Been considering a Helix LT for long enough, but keep telling myself the Zoom is good enough!

I'd appreciate your thoughts! What are the rest of you doing? 

We're a covers band, playing mostly pubs with the occasional function thrown in, we always use our own PA and don't have to deal with multi-band sets or anything like that. 

Our next problem to tackle is to get the guitarist through the PA somehow - he's insistent on using a Marshall 4x12 up loud and un-mic'd - I'll keep that battle for another day though!

Cheers,

George

17 hours ago, Deedee said:

I had a similar problem (link to thread below). One of my Trace heads was picking up weird pulsing interference. My other heads were fine, but this particular head seemed really susceptible. As far as basses go, my old Status was the worst. Quiet as a mouse with my other amps but with this particular one it was noisy as hell - fine anywhere else but in the house.

I bought a conditioner which helped but I’ve since ditched the powerline adaptors completely.

 

https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/334731-power-conditioner-to-overcome-dirty-powerpower-line-ethernet-interference/

 

Glad I'm not the only one to be having problems!

I just need to practice elsewhere in the house, or unplug the powerline (which is only in our spare room to give a faster than wifi internet connection to the kid's Xbox).

I put one on a Mexican P a few years back. Loved it, far better than the stock pickup. Proper vintage sound.

Just to close this off (I hope!), I gigged with this last night and it was absolutely trouble free. The only time I encounter the problem is when my amp is plugged into the socket next to the powerline adapter. 

Google is full of people reporting audio interference with powerline adapters, so I’m happy to put it down to that.

I would like to understand exactly why the problem occurs, but it’s not too important.

George

41 minutes ago, itu said:

Check if the battery contact is soldered the right way (grounds are connected after the plug is put in).

Is there any DC going to the amp input? Should not.

Clicks and pops may be a hint of faulty grounding. Is the bridge wire and all other grounds connected well (sort of electrically "tight") together? Check with a DMM. Everything (like any string to the output ground) should be less than 1 ohm.

Thanks, a few bits for me to double check. I still can’t fathom how this only presents itself when the powerline is plugged in - but I suppose earthing is a logical place to start.

It’s a pre-wired harness, so my working assumption that everything is wired correctly may be worth revisiting! 

Here’s all I did...

- Removed old harness, keeping only pickups and battery box from existing wiring

- Snipped battery connector from new harness

- Fitted new harness, attaching old battery box red/black cables to those on the new harness.

- Soldered pickup white cables to the centre lugs on the blend-pot, pickup earths to an earthed lug on the pot. 

- Soldered bridge earth and additional earth wires from pickup cavities (presumably connected to shielding) to a common earth point on the back of a pot.

George

Had a bit of strange one today. The wife bought me a Bartolini NTMB pre-amp for my birthday (today!), and I proceeded to fit it in to my Lakland 5501. It was straight forward enough, but when I plugged it in to try it out, there were some fairly loud clicks & pops. These faded when switching to passive mode, and vanished altogether when I took the battery out. I rechecked every bit of soldering, pulled the whole thing out and tried it outside the bass - the problem persisted. Two hours I tried everything I could think of! 

Eventually, I tried unplugging a powerline adapter from the socket adjacent to the one my amp was plugged in to and the problem stopped altogether. I can't quite figure out what's going on. I've always used the bass amp on this socket - none of my passive basses nor the previous preamp in the Lakland had this problem. I get that the powerline has the potential to bleed interference into an audio-signal - however, I can't quite understand why it's only occurring with this pre-amp and when it has a battery in it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

George

The LCDs on my B3n are similar. I think you can adjust the contrast (I could be wrong - not looked at this for ages), but was never able to get them all identical.

I’ve had anti-gas myself now for the past couple of years, and this seems to somehow relate to moving from gigging occasionally to gigging regularly.

I’ve got a Fender MIM Jazz that I bought around 2002, and back then was the most expensive thing I ever owned. I’ve upgraded the pickups and bridge in recent years.. This definitely has the ‘’old slippers’ thing for me! Now I’m a bit more financially stable, I’ve tried several times to buy a new more high end Jazz - but haven’t ever tried one that would justify me dropping four figures on it. 

I did buy a Lakland 5501 a few years ago - I wanted something modern and five-string. It’s a pretty versatile bass and has been getting out a lot recently - a couple of transposed songs in the set benefit from getting lower than E. But I definitely don’t get on as well with it as I do with the Fender.

George

On 23/04/2019 at 11:13, chris_b said:

IMO these basses are great instruments and the preamp is the usual place where upgrades start, but how about upgrading the pickups and turning it into a passive bass?

I did think of this, and I’d like to hear how it sounds. I’m not sure where to start with getting good matching pickups, so I’d be keen to hear any suggestions.

Also, I’m not sure how I’d feel about having at least one dead-knob - it have five, and I reckon two volume, two tone is the most I could do going passive.

George

On 23/04/2019 at 10:55, dave_bass5 said:

I did exactly this upgrade with my 55-01. Actually i got the Bass Gallery to do it but you get the point.

I did ask them not to make any external mods but they drilled a hole on the outside to put the toggle switch in. It actually worked ok though.

To me it made only a small improvement. I think the pup's are the things that needed changing, they sounded quite bland, but i never got around to that.

I’m looking at the one with the push-pull pot, rather than toggle / so hopefully avoid that.

Interesting to hear about the pickups being a more worthwhile upgrade, I’ve also read the opposite. Perhaps I’ll need to do both!

17 hours ago, Soledad said:

This says Hi-Beams for me then (on my Jazz) - IIRC Guy Pratt played on Madonna's 'Like a Prayer' (was it that one)? Loved his bass work there. Cracking player, and importantly doesn't overplay. Great sound in the mix. 

Yip, it was Like a Prayer - he did an awesome job!

Whether he overplays is an interesting one though. I recall reading that he felt he did overplay with Pink Floyd when he was younger, but held back and played more true to the recordings on later tours with Gilmour.

However, to come back on topic - I’m fairly sure Guy doesn’t routinely use Hi-Beams. I think he mentions Bass Centre Elites in his book. There’s a section at the end where he lists all his gear. (My mate has borrowed mine, can’t check!)

8 hours ago, ikay said:

A 55-01 with NTMB preamp sold on BC recently so may be worth having a chat with the seller

 

Thanks, sounds like a plan!

On 18/04/2019 at 07:32, itu said:

If you do not have a separate battery box, consider having some attachment to that 9 V thing. It may rattle. I do not like foam.

https://www.radioshack.com/products/radioshack-9-volt-battery-holder

http://www.3dcontentcentral.com/download-model.aspx?catalogid=171&id=171614

There’s a decent battery box on the Lakland, I’ll reuse that. Which I suppose means a bit of soldering!

I’m toying with the Idea of changing the preamp in my Lakland 55-01, perhaps to something like the Bartolini NTMB (HR 5.2AP/918 harness).

Two questions ..

How does this sound versus the onboard preamp? I find the mid frequency isn’t great, and the treble is pretty hissy.

What’s involved with fitting this? I can easily replace passive electronics, pickups etc. Presumably much the same - but just want to check no pitfalls to look out for!

Thanks, 

George

47 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

You may want to have a look through this -

https://downloads.monoprice.com/files/manuals/612870_Manual_170822.pdf

I’m intrigued by this line in the manual:

nStc: Not used, do not select

I wonder what it does? I’m tempted to buy them to find out!

On 18/03/2019 at 21:34, Prime_BASS said:

 Never really liked digital multis either and I wouldn't use it without my preamp after it either.

You mention you use a BB preamp - I’m sure there is a model of one on the B3n. You could try doing an comparison - I’d be really interested in the results!

if favourable, it could be one less thing for you to carry.

George

24 minutes ago, Phil Starr said:

You may be governed by the Consumer Rights Act 2015 providers of services have to do so with 'reasonable' care.

There is an inconsistency in their answer to you. The tracking is done by scanning the bar codes as we all know. Telling you it has been delivered means it was scanned by the final delivery scanner. It can't have been down the wrong chute and delivered, one of those stories is incorrect, possibly both. Either their technology doesn't work or they are being dishonest or their tracking is compromised. Putting things down the wrong chute with no system in place to recover it doesn't seem reasonable to me, or saying it is delivered when it wasn't.

You could try making a claim through the small claims court, under the act they have to show they took reasonable care, the burden of proof is on them not you. Worth googling to see if you could try that?

I'm certainly no legal expert, but I know from past experience that a threat of legal action can be enough to get things moving. I'd start by asking them for their registered address, so that legal papers can be served.

I suspect that they wouldn't want to risk the expense of this going to court, nor run the risk of having their terms and conditions thrown out - for what is a trivial amount in the grand scheme of things. You can make a claim online yourself in many circumstances. Have a read at this:-

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/taking-legal-action/small-claims/deciding-whether-to-make-a-small-claim/

(My own experience - a set of expensive hair straighteners failed just outside of warranty. The large online retailer refused to take any responsibility, citing the warranty had expired along with their standard T&Cs. I insisted that this was sold as a premium product and I could reasonably expect them to last longer. I eventually asked for a repair, partial refund or discount on a new set, and if they could not provide one of these then I would take the matter to a small claims court. I had a full refund for the product with 30 minutes.)

George

My 2012 Ford Mondeo and 2007 Vectra Estate both did the job with a Thomann rectangular hard case. I doubt my current Qashqai would take it though.