Lfalex v1.1

I got sacked from a band who were very interested in the "pulling power of being in a band" thing (I wasn't) Second gig, after mucho practice, I was quite comfortable with the material, cranked the Trace, and went at it. By all accounts, I played out of my shoes. Lots of people said "Where'd you get him from?" Then I got the boot!(and promptly joined a much better band!) I think I inadvertently bruised a few insecure egos that night. Which is odd, because normally everyone ignores me!

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='892441' date='Jul 12 2010, 12:40 AM']I don't use compression personally but it gets used in the studio mainly because it's used on anything, I don't use it as an effect, my GK is more than punchy enough and I like the dynamics without it.[/quote] More or less what I'd have said. The only environments in which you have complete control over your signal are during practise or rehearsal, and what comes out of your bcakline or rig on stage or in the studio. Once it's hit a desk, it's subject to the whims of the soundman/engineer, who may apply compression to both individual instruments and the mix as a whole. Not forgetting the way in which radio stations use crushing compression ratios. So.. No, I don't use it as a creative tool. Yes, I do use a smidge to prevent speaker damage at high levels using the built-in unit on my Trace. After that, it's out of my hands to a greater or lesser degree.

I've mixed sets before (by necessity) and have found the main difference tto be in tone, with a bit of volume drop. Some of my basses are morre sensitive to this than others. I assume your Alleva Coppolo to belong to this category. I never mix & match strings on revealing basses (Vigier, Status & Warwick Infinity in particular)

A professional repair, methinks. I don't think I'd tackle that myself. Not insurmountable, though. A bit of glue, a couple of days in some clamps and a quick tidy up and it'll be right as rain again. WTF happened? Did it get dropped? Strap fall off of a strap button?

[conspiracy theory] Can't you see it? It's the techs and sales staff! They're all in cahoots! Set the cheap basses up well, so they sell through and the shop continues to thrive and their jobs are safe. Set the superb, expensive basses up poorly so they just keep getting hung back up on the wall. Eventually, discounts get applied to shift the expensive ones. The staff get first dibs because they're always there. Add in staff discount, and BINGO! Low-cost super-basses in abundance! I reckon they take it in turns to buy them, too. Fantastic basses stay in the personal collections, anything less than utterly perfect goes on the 'bay with enough reserve to guarantee a profit. Profits get put back into the scheme to garner more instruments and better returns. [/conspiracy theory]

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='888133' date='Jul 7 2010, 09:53 AM']The nitro finish on these makes a huge difference to the sound. I compared the one I had to an American Standard and the US bass sounded almost choked by it's poly gloss finish. Perhaps the 'holes' in the finish let more sound out or something? [/quote] You're not as far out as you think, there! I actually DO think that there's a difference between thick/thin/no/nitro/poly and even satin/gloss finishes with regard to tone. My satin finished Zoot is a superb example in this respect. My unfinished/natural Zebrano Warwick also. I also think that the fact that my MIA Jazz has a decent, 2 piece ash body with a (thinner) trans finish contributes to it being as good as it is. I've played Highway 1 Jazzes that I thought were very good for the price, and attributed [i]part[/i] of that to the nitro finish.

I played my [i]extremely common[/i] Fender Jazz last night. I'll have to check the serial number to let you know what year it is! My lesser-spotted Vigier was lurking in its case, sleeping! On a more serious note, people will [i]try[/i] to charge what they [i]think[/i] the market will bear. They may be right, they may be wrong. It's only the eventual purchaser who will make the real value judgment as they're the one prepared to part with the agreed amount of hard cash for the item. If someone wants to pay £3.5k for a Vigier, it's up to them. Do bear in mind that the last run of Series3 basses had a list price of £2.5k. If it's an absolutely mint Series1, it [i]could[/i] fetch that much. Too much for me, though! It depends what you want, too. Do you want a collector's item or a cracking bass (or one that's both) What is a pity is that far too many potentially excellent instruments end up hanging on the walls of various "Hard Rock Cafes" where they'll never see any action again.

Welcome to BassChat! Unfortunately, UK-produced basses aren't necessarily cheap. Fortunately, there ARE some excellent Luthiers and Manufacturers out there. Shuker Iceni/Zoot ACG RIM GB Status Wal Enfield Fret-King Gus Sei Overwater and so on. Light? British? Status Streamline all the way, provided you can live with lots of carbon graphite and headlessness! If you do approach a Luthier, expalin that you'll be wanting a lighter weight bass. Might limit your timber choices a little - Maple bodies might be out, for example.

[quote name='Mikey R' post='802815' date='Apr 11 2010, 05:51 PM']Hi gents, do you know what the maximum peak to peak voltage of a passive pickup normally is? I thought it was in the range of tens of millivolts but Im guessing this is wrong. Just having a quick think about this, it may be that the op amps have a higher gain bandwidth product when driven by a higher voltage, so this would mean better high frequency response? EDIT: A quick google shows the active EMG pickups put out around 0.7v to 1.4v RMS, so that would be 1v to 2v peak, if we were talking about steady sine waves. Which we're not. Hmm, not getting any closer to finding this out.[/quote] I tried plugging a bass into the "line level" input on a regular stereo hifi amp once. Nothing of any great volume came out. In desparation, I plugged it into a Moving Magnet phono stage.. With the exception of excess equalization from the RIAA curve applied to the signal, it worked fine. This was using a Passive 80's Westone with "P" pick-ups. IIRC, MM phono cartridges make around 30mV peak to peak, so I'd guess it'd be in that region (millivolts, as you suggested) assuming that there's no active jiggery-pokery going on! It's difficult to isolate whether or not 18v(+) pre-amps are better, as they frequently surface on superb basses, so of course they sound good. Only the switching of 2 9v batteries (as suggested in an earlier post (nice idea, BTW)) from series to parallel into a pre-amp designed to take either will yield a definitive answer, and even that assumes optimum operation on both types of power source. It's not all about absolute output level either. I have actives with 18v power which are not as hot as my Yamaha Attitude (passive, and evilly hot). It is all about transient headroom without clipping the wave form. The overall output is just as dependent on the pick-ups in use. That said, My Zoot has a single SD MM-style Humbucker with an East E-Pro @ 18v. Switch it (the pick-up) into Series, and see your amp's input stage [i]melt[/i] Perhaps that's why it's buffered (etc) on the Sterling and 'Ray 5 switcing!!

[quote name='Dave_MuadDib' post='885746' date='Jul 4 2010, 07:54 PM']It's the only book in the series that i haven't read - I've even read the Dune Encyclopedia! As much as I really did like the new dune novels, i'm not entirely sure that i can forgive the authors for crowbarring their robot characters into the series finale as marty and daniel - who were very clearly described as face dancers in chapterhouse! - and then quite literally dropping a deus ex machina final ending on us :-/ How are you finding Paul so far? I will have to give it a read at some point...[/quote] It's okay, pretty much in keeping with the other Herbert/ Anderson novels. There's another one out, too- it's set between "Paul" and "Dune Messiah". I think I liked the Prequels (Houses Atreides/Harkonnen/Corrino) best of the new stuff. The Butlerian Jihad ones were alright, too. [quote name='DaveMuadDib' post='885887' date='Jul 4 2010, 10:14 PM']I once read here (I think) that tubes start to degrade almost immediately, but I don't know if this was after production or after they're installed. Children of Dune is a great novel, a fantastic end to the trilogy. Admittedly, God Emperor of Dune is a little bit long-winded, and this is where most people get lost and give up. But stick with it, it gets good towards the end, and it all makes sense with Heretics of Dune after that (my favourite book in the entire series, if not EVER) and Chapter House Dune is excellent too. Apparently they ARE making a new movie, but I'm not holding my breath for it to be any good. I love the Lynch movie so much, even if it is a bit :wacko:[/quote] I like "God Emperor of Dune". Heavy going, but the whole Leto II / Idaho ghola piece is good. I like the Lynch movie, even if it does take a few liberties. It's stylistically, visually and musically excellent (thanks to Toto and Brian Eno, IIRC)

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='885326' date='Jul 4 2010, 11:21 AM']All graphite necks should be manufactured with truss rods unless the manufacturing is perfect and the necks come with a life time guarantee against warping. Graphite necks warp - I know because I've owned 3 early 80s Cutlass basses and a 95 Modulus Quantum all with necks like bananas.[/quote] I was surprised to discover that Statii have truss-rods, especially as my Vigier does not (it's an s3- so a 10/90 neck) I assume that rod-less necks are either relief-less or have the relief machined/sanded in before the fretboard goes on. I've never seen or heard of a wonky Vigier neck be it s1, s2, s3 or s4. Perhaps Patrice Vigier knows something we don't!

This topic also has some bearing on these issues; [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=93403"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=93403[/url]

No matter where I've played, I never get a look-in in the monitor mix. I generally size my rig according to the size of the stage, and keep the on-stage volume as low as possible without the drummer dominating everything (sometimes he'll play a bit softer to keep it all in check). I've got a really long lead and often hop off the stage while the whole band play to have a listen to what FOH is doing, and remember to allow for the fact that there'll be an audience along later. At least that way the band have some reassurance that we sound okay out front, whatever the stage sound is like. As a rule of thumb, the lower the overall on-stage volume, the better. Not very Rock 'n' Roll. Sorry.

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='884884' date='Jul 3 2010, 04:13 PM']Being the terminology-snob I am, I saw the thread title and thought, "I don't play eighth notes... I play [i]quavers[/i]!" Anyway, I use index or middle equally. Depends on what's been leading up to it. Or, more often than not, raking down to it.[/quote] This. With one condition. The first note of every tune gets played with my index finger. And I prefer Wotsits or Skips myself.

No worries! (I'm currently reading "Paul of Dune", having read all the others so far!)

One bit at a time- No need to allow it to cool before moving. Just treat it as you would any amp. Without looking at specs and stuff, I would suggest that the standby is just a "Mute" as you suggest. My old Trace SMX is the same. Generally, amps with [u]power[/u] valves (rather than preamp ones like yours) have an [b]on/standby/off[/b] switch instead. Check your manual- you may find it may mute the DI out also. Valve life varies. My first 12ax7 in my Trace lasted a year. The second has lasted since - well over a decade. My first went microphonic- picked up all the vibrations in the air, and howled along in unison. If the OTB has a blendable solid-state/ valve preamp, just turn it to 100% solid-state until you can replace them. 12ax7s aren't expensive. Less than £15 each. When replacing them, treat them like automotive halogen bulbs- don't handle them directly- do it through a cloth or gloves. This stops grease deposits from your skin causing them to blow (I don't fully understand all the technicalities of this one. Maybe I'll wiki it!) Class D amps are lightweight, switched power supply amp stages. Common applications? Lightweight bass amps!! Car stereo head units also. Class D as opposed to class A (Tubes, by definition, though transistor devices can run in Class A) Class A/B, Class B, Class C (used in megaphones, apparently) All to do with current/voltage consumption and the linearity of the resulting stage (blah blah- wiki it!!!) Rebiasing: Power valves require a different biasing voltage to be applied to them depending upon their use in any given application, including in what class the amp is operating. Job for an amp tech or suitably experienced users, really. Not a concern for you, as pre-amp valves don't need re-biasing. Phew! Hope that helped! Edit for handling advice; Dont get any sand in it. Keep it away from sandworms, as rhythmic vibration attracts them. Nice username, BTW!

Some nice looking basses knocking around on here... I don't actually find my Streamline to sound that clinical. Perhaps it's the fact that I quite like worn-in (but not dead) strings. I don't slap mine either. I find that the series/parallel switching gives me access to more sounds, too (one quite extreme!) If I had to have an S2, I think I'd try and get Rob to do something with a nice piece of Zebrano, with the grain running outwards, parallel to the axes of the horns. That'd look wicked, but I don't think that the funds would be around for a long time. Further to that, I probably wouldn't buy another Status. Not because I don't like them, but because I've alreday got one, and like a good bit of variety in my basses (materials/pre-amps/designs)

Well done Davidak! Good quality research and translation. And motivated by a desire to help other bassists. Excellent stuff!

[quote name='henry norton' post='883259' date='Jul 1 2010, 06:25 PM']Naaah, Cliff Burton[/quote] Roll it back a few years and eveyone's happy; Newstead-Flotsam & Jetsam Burton-Metallica Trujillo-Suicidal Tendencies

I hate the notched stacks. Also, IIRC, the capacitor values on the tone controls are 0.22mf and 0.47mf for bridge and neck respectively. Think I got that the right way around....

[quote name='BigRedX' post='881887' date='Jun 30 2010, 01:23 PM']Different strings for different basses. You've got to find the right strings to suit the bass and the way you play it.[/quote] Another +1 here; DR Fatbeams on the Vigier & Squier DR Sunbeams on the Jazz Elixirs on the Warwick Infinity Rotosounds (bleugh) on the Warwick Streamer LX6. I'll switch back to Warwick Yellow Labels next time around Status Hotwires on the Streamline I can't remember what's on the Yamaha Attitude at the moment. Likely to end up with Sunbeams or another DR type on it.

I often wonder what the Wal electrics package (pick-ups/eq) would sound like in a different body with a different neck. Imagine something like a Jazz with all the right bits in. Still cheaper than the original, but how close would it get?

Just a Streamline for me.. Don't [i]really[/i] need another, what with the Vigier and all, but if I had to have another, then it would be an S2 (headless) with a few little electronics mods...

[quote name='BassBus' post='878823' date='Jun 27 2010, 01:48 PM']That was an all graphite Status S2. Don't judge the sound of Status basses by his slap sound. It was pretty horific. Those basses produce a much better sound than came out last night.[/quote] He used a Red/Graphite headless S2 on ...Later with Jools Holland a while back, and it sounded okay then (to me)

Basslab L-Bow. Probably in a different colour, but not black.