JapanAxe

State of play tonight. Most of the 'back end' connections are made, and after much cursing and struggling with inaccessible M3 fixings, the bias board is fitted. I'm not 100% happy that it's secure though and I may yet look at mounting it to the end of the chassis.

More progress:

On lead guitar last night with a pub covers band. The venue was a ginormous chain pub with a huge (but not separate) ‘function room’ area at the back. Sadly they had at some point walled off the stage to create a store room and somewhere to mount the biggest TV screen I have ever seen. I really wasn’t feeling it at first as I’d played with the band the previous night and could have done with a night in. Our sound check quickly cleared a table in front of one of the PA speakers, which didn’t bode well! But as soon as we started playing our first set there were people on the dance floor, and it just got busier as the night went on. By the end there were several people dancing on the tables, which fortunately seemed to have been constructed from scaffolding materials! The landlady was so happy with the band that she paid us an extra 20%.

Main board finished(-ish). The keen-eyed will notice a change in dropping resistor in the middle of the board. I had mistakenly written 1k instead of 10k on my layout! Also what I thought I were 22nF caps in my stash were actually 2.2nF, so I've had to order some more 22nF - hence the unpopulated gap next to the honking great 100uF/500V cap.

Progress on the main board over the last 24 hours:

I drilled the main board the other day and have just swaged the eyelets. There are also 3 turrets, which will support the rectifier diodes and provide connection points for the incoming AC. The red stickers cover the mounting holes where the standoffs will go, so that some eejit doesn't stick eyelets in them...

I’ve been using my Boss WL-20 setup for the last year with few issues. I haven’t noticed any loss of low end - I think that may be an ‘Internet wisdom’ hangover from early systems. Used live I’ve only had problems on two occasions: (1) Electronic drum kit and bodies between transmitter and receiver in a pub with very little ‘stage’ space. Used a cable instead. (2) Theatre gig. Fine during soundcheck, in fact I walked halfway up the banked seats in the auditorium to check out the FOH sound. But once the audience were in I kept losing the blue ‘RF found’ LED on the receiver. The signal itself didn’t drop out but I wasn’t going to risk it so in a break between songs I swapped to a 6m cable to preserve stage-strutting privileges as far as possible. I put it down to too many WiFi hotspots in the audience.

Second full rehearsal with my friend’s glam startup. Nice big room at Pirate in Reading, which we need because he brings an electronic kit. We have some backing tracks and a click, so we did the whole rehearsal on in-ears - guitarist used a Pod Go, I plugged my bass straight into a Hi-Z input on my XR18. We didn’t need any of the kit in the room but it’s proved impossible to hire a village hall in a suitable location! I’d say it went really well, and for once everyone got there in good time and remembered to bring everything they needed! I recorded most of it to Reaper on my laptop with a view to editing out the chat and uploading rough mix on mp3 to Google Drive so that each person can listen critically to their own playing and singing.

For my band(s), see my post above from 26 June. I also play theatres with a tribute band and their regular sound guy uses full-on analog splits.

I’m quite often alternating between lead and backing vocals on the same gig. If I’m singing lead I go in close on the mic; for BVs I back off to around 15cm (6in).

I’ve had a lot of use from a set of Pedaltrain Pedal Boosters: https://pedaltrain.com/products/pedaltrain-booster They are great for raising pedals in the second row so that the foot switches can be operated clear of the pedals in front. They do require some drilling though, as they are not very stable if secured only by Velcro.

Assembled the bias board and wired the PT to the mains via the fuse and switch.

You will probably hear the most improvement by getting a better amp. You will get the most from your money by buying used - there are some absolute bargains to be had on Basschat Marketplace!

I've spent a pleasant couple of hours fitting most of the remaining hardware. During this process I discovered that (1) my M5 bolts were too short for mounting the transformers safely, and (2) I've run out of 3mm nylon locking nuts. I've placed orders for these, but in the meantime this is starting to look like it wants to be an amp:

Cut the face plate holes and fitted the rear panel hardware.

Nice setup! Those slotted rack ears look to be a useful upgrade.

I met Dave Swift at the same Bass Bash and asked him about this. He said if he used a flat-wound B string it sounded ‘like a football hitting a sheep’! No-one has mentioned Dingwalls yet, so… Dingwalls. Most will be aware that they (and other fan-frets) overcome the common problem of indistinct B strings by using a different scale length for each string. I had a Super P (with 35in B) that did the 5-string Precision thing brilliantly. I only traded it because I discovered I liked the tightness of a 37in B.

Blank looks:

First Bass: Jedson short scale Tele bass :0 ’Go To’ Bass: Dingwall NG2 5 ‘My’ bass: Fender Precision 1973

I think that's all the chassis holes drilled/punched/cut now:

Sorry! I tried to find the most recent full list but clearly failed…

Count me in: 1. Rich - Trace Elliot TE-1200 amp, Barefaced Super 12T cab, earplugs , Shuker custom 5, Tanglewood TRB-CE acoustic bass gtr. 2. Woody - Rickenbacker 4004-L5, maybe Sei Flamboyant, Same old basschat 12" with some amp, other stuff TBC 3. Pinball (tbc) - some interesting basses 4. Stubsy - Joyo BadASS, GRBASS AT212 slim - only 50W but that should give 120dB at one metre 😇. (or I bring my TE 1110 combo). Some fun pedals. Perhaps the AVII 1960 precision, the Sire P10 and maybe the Fender Performer and something unexpected... 5. Sean - Mesa 400+, Laney Nexus Tube 400 [oh jeez], MJW Taranis 200 (Filthbox Matamp clone with extra channel and EQ), GK MBF500, GK Fusion 550, 2 x LFSys Monaco, 2 x Japanese Market Spector Euros with LHZ-03 preamps, Valenti #005 Super P, Yamaha BB1300, my small but well-appointed pedal-board (Origin Cali 76, Origin DCX, Aguilar Chorusaurus, etc) plus a mini walk-in bass surgery if interested. Plus whatever I might be selling at the time. 6. Rosie - likely I'll bring my upright, set up for bluegrass/folk/jazz if anyone's not played upright before and fancies a go 7. Phil - BassChat cabs, maybe some sort of shootout? 8. MikeD - Laney Digbeth, Zilla 212, Dingwall Combusion, Revelation PJ, pedals, try to finish home made bass🤞🤞🤞🤞 9. neepheid - G&L CLF L-1000, Yamaha BB1200, Sire D5, Sire Z7, Greco LGB-700, Reverend Triad, Epiphone Les Paul (not so) Standard, Epiphone Thunderbird '64, Squier Jaguar H (with Ibanez CAP double humbucker from ATK200/800 etc), Gear4Music rat bass (with Lace Aluma-P), £150 giggable bass challenge, 1 or 2 amps depending upon space... Edited Monday at 15:17 by Rich 10. Jabba_the_gut - Note sure what stuff yet........ 11. Japanaxe Precision(s) & Dingwall(s) DIY 100W Bassman head if finished by then(!) as people seemed to like my B15 clone At least 1 other amp (see sig)

Short answer: Yes Longer answer: If you’re using it to run more than one pedal, the total current draw should be no more than 500mA - just add up what each pedal needs. It would still be possible to encounter problems if one a pedal causes noise in another one. (Cue huge rabbit hole.)

Managed to find time to mark up the main board, and mark and centre-punch a lot of the chassis - transformers, output valves, front and rear panels. I've re-positioned some of the rear panel stuff so as to sit between the valve socket positions. I'm leaving the rest until I can test fit some of the components.