Chienmortbb

@Woodinblack, Are your Evox still under warranty? I have never had any RCF products so do not know how well there are supported in the UK, hopefully better than the orange Italian brand.

As someone that has plywood cabs, thin walled plastic cabs and thick walled, multi-ribbed cabinets. The plywood ones are your own LFSys FRFR cabs. The thin walked cabs are Whatfedale Titan 12s, and the the thick walked ribbed cabs are Ramsa WS-A200s. Those that are of a certain age might remember the ad where an elephant stood on four cabinets. Those Ramsa speakers are over 30 years old I believe and still sound great. Similar size to the LFSys Cabinets but weighing almost 50% heavier.

Vigortronix have a few ranges and some of them have output filters very close to the circuit Rod Elliot describes. I will try the 5 watt circuits and then add the filters later. I spoke to Vigortronix and they advised using the newer 6 series. However I have the 1 series ones her now and I will try them first. The Myra ones do not need and external components but are considerably taller. I can accommodate the Myrra ones so perhaps I will order a couple of those too. I have 5 or 6 PCBs so it’s not a problem trying it. It is costing more than I had hoped but I am now determined to find the best way to do it.

The buzz is audible through the amp. It is not that much but I can hear it. Since I last posted I have received the new PSUs but not fitted and tested them. Interesting that Rod Elliot has covered this, I will read it and get back later.

To be fair, my loud, at 73 is not stupid loud and the trouser flap is caused by the velocity of air leaving the port on an LFSys Monaco. The port is at knee height and standing in front of it you really can’t feel it, of course, with a long slot port like on a Barefaced, you would not get that concentrated draught of air.

When listening to comparisons on YouTube etc, I use a decent set of headphones. It shows up most things, even via Bluetooth (my cans are Bluetooth or Wired). However I do agree that phones or laptop speakers are no use for comparisons.

The one thing you cannot reproduce through IEMs or amp less through the PA, is the trouser flap. Stand in front of a well designed front ported bass cab at volume, feel the noize.

Although I am not a rookie as far as electronics goes, however I have made one rookie error. When I tested the unit I had a slight buzz. Very hard to hear, but there nonetheless. It was slightly higher on the Myrra ones than the Vigotronix. The Myrra ones are 2.5 watt, while the Vigortronix are 3 watt. Looked at the specs of the two units, the TC Helicon Mic Mechanic 3 needs 300mA at 9V, which is fine. The power modules I have are 9V 3 watts so 333mA current supply. In my head, that was enough for the Zoom B2 Four too. However, I was wrong, it needs 500mA. Luckily, both Myra and Vigortronix make a pin compatible 5 watt version. That gives me 550mA and it more than enough. I am annoyed that I could have ordered them with the other bits yesterday but hey.

True isolation means no connection at the power supply. The problem, is that on the typical 10 way supply such as Donner etc the power supply duplicates the signal grounding and often causes ground loops that imposes hum or buzz. Many people will never experience it but my two pedals do interact. Using totally isolated supplies will reduce ground or earth loops.

I am planning to build the box around the PSU. I will be making it about 1cm higher at the back.

There are subs in those Bose systems and there may be enough for most gigs. Just make sure you have some type of HPF as otherwise they can become a bit muddy.

I am building this in conjunction with me new pedal board, I did not have this in mind when I designed the PCBs. The PCB is too wide to fit between the ribs of the pedal board and not wide enough to screw directly to the ribs, so I have to add extra wood to allow the PCB to be mounted below the pedal board. I think I will also need a bit more height from add feet. This would allow me to add a case and make it safe (remember 230VAC mains on that PCB). This is one of a number of changes I would make if I redesigned the PCB. As it stands, it does not fit any commercially available die-cast enclosure. I could put the modules 2x2 and that would fit may a Hammond/Gorva/Eddystone style box. This would mean more height required on my pedal board and as I am still in the proof of concept stage, I will work with what I have. I have ordered more parts for the project so will hopefully make more progress early next week. I still plan a real life test before then, either today or tomorrow.

I think you will need an amp/cab. You could go the full FRFR PA cab route, though a decent one will cost. A new RCF/QSC worth its slat being north of £1K. They do occasionally come up "pre-loved" but usually in pairs and most sellers will not split. The advantage of these is the ability to use them as floor monitors when PA is supplied. You could bite the bullet and buy a sub yourself. Depending on your band's PA top cabinets, the choice of the sub's crossover/filtering is crucial. Look for one(s) that has an HPF on the output to the tops and if your tops have an HPF, experiment as to which combination gives the best sound. Or you could get a conventional rig, size is your choice, and we could give more advice knowing the line-up and type of music played. This might be you best/least expensive option.

Horses for courses, over the past three years I have seen in excess of 200 gigs in clubs and pubs and perhaps 2 in theatres. Yes, both theatre gigs were silent stage and only one club gig (Abba Tribute, where one of the members covered half the cost). The sound of one of the theatres gigs was excellent (story of Guitar Heroes), the other was so much boom and mud where we were seated that it was rubbish (Jane Macdonald, I know, but her indoors likes her, and she does suffer my choices all year). The poor gig had a rookie mistake by the sound tech in that he had the subs at either side of the wide stage. Power alley central!

If you convert 9 to 12v, you reduce the available current pro rata. So you would need over 650mA from the 9V supply.

The big test will be my Zoom B2 pedal and TC Helicon Mic Mechanic 2. Both are digital pedals and they can cause more problems than analogue pedals as the clock noise is often left on the power rails. I have had to use the MM2 with batteries for a while to cut down the number of power supplies. My cheapo 10 way made them sing but not in a good way.

I have mentioned in a number of threads about pedal power supplies why many of them are not fit for purpose. The buzzword is isolated, but in many cases especially for the sub £100 products the isolation is only via the voltage and current protection circuits. True isolation in terms of the power supply means that neither the 0 V or ground connection or the positive voltage, normally 9 V is connected to any other pedals 0 V or 9 V line. If either is connected to another pedals supply there is a good chance of Hugh or buzz caused by earth currents or injected Clock signals. My first idea was to utilise a multi secondary main transformer feeding traditional LDOs. Low Drop Out regulators are integrated circuits that incorporate serious regulator circuits (usually) to obtain a steady and relatively nice free voltage. Well likely looking through the site of an electronic supplier I noticed some compact switch mode supplies that were PCB mounted looking at the data sheets showed that, as with most switch mode supplies, after the initial regulation and smoothing, there was transformer isolation of the mains and secondary sides of the circuit. It was clear that a number of these small circuit blocks could be mounted on a PCB to give a good pedal power supply. After several years of thinking I sat down and designed a PCB to give me four totally isolated 9V supplies. The beauty of these circuit blocks is that the pins are on a standard layout and the original ones from the French company MYRRA and others, including UK’s Vigotronix were interchangeable. In addition, they can be bought in many voltages. Both types can be seen on the complete module above. The MYRRA one are dark red and the Vigortronix are orange. The Vigortronix range are slightly more powerful, giving 3W while the MYRRA ones are 2.5 watt. However, MYRRA do a 5watt one on the same footprint. I have just tested them for the first time and all four are working 1% of the stated 9V off load. I will try them with a load later.

Well produced, beautifully played, and arranged. You can get so much from it, but it's not a great song IMO.

Me too.

It is really strong now, there are 75m wood screws (8) although I know that the adhesive should be enough on its own. I have a surprise or two tomorrow as the project progresses.

I bought one of the 3D printed kits from Ebay. It just needs some 25mm x 25mm stripwood and eight woodscrews. I carefully cut the stripwood, 4 pieces, to the length I wanted. All good and I used some dark mahogany wood stain I had in the garage. There was a little bit of a wobble so I unscrewed the screws slightly and pressed on two corners to try to straighten it out. CRACK! B*gger. After calming down, I used the remainder of the wood to replace the broken brackets. I also added some feet to give an angle and some small blocks to add strength. Adding the new side pieces adds 50mm to the width, and it is now bigger than the padded bag I keep my pedal board in! Here it is with the wood colour on again:

I think this thread covers why, but full backline and full IEM/Modelling are both good and bad. The tow best live gigs I have heard were a pub gig with a band called Chicago 9 Blues band (based around Southampton I think) and Black Country Communion. One was in a PUB, the other in the Hammersmith Odeon. The blues band were clearly very experienced and using some EV 12s plus an old fashion PA amp. All instruments and the blues harp went through the backline. The vocals were as clear as a bell, each instrument has clear and in its own sonic place. Simply a good band with a great sound. BCC had real amps on stage, Three Orange AD200 stacks for Glenn Hughes, Two 100 watt Marshall stacks for Bonamassa clearly the keys and drums were through the PA. I was up in the gods, but the sound was superb. There were no props, no special lights. The whole setup was smack in the middle of the stage. It was a really stripped down gig. Clearly this gig was hybrid, although I have to accept that they may have fooled me, but they had wedges on stage and I could not see IEMs on either Hughes or Bonamassa. I saw Glenn Hughes a few years earlier at the Engine Room in Southampton. They were using a full PA with small amps on stage. The sound was awful, every beat of the kick obliterated the rest of the sound. Clearly a good sound and experience for both audience, and band can be had either by having a silent stage or full backline, and evangelists on both sides are both right and wrong.

What is the budget? The other question is, do you have any brand loyalty. If the thread goes on long enough you will end up with recommendations for every major bass cab known to man. As @taozero said above, The LFSys range could suit but similarly the Barefaced range get a lot of love too. However those long stretched arms will need to dig deep into your pockets for those. It is barely a secret the @stevis has been working on a new range and I know they are close. These will be lighter and lower power handling but two should do it.

No they are all “ Mersey Beat” artists.

Saturday we play our first of the year. The Rhythm Guitarists last gig as he has real health problems. We are not looking forward to it as both his timing and stamina are shot. Add the lead guitarist’s tendinitis into the mix and you can see why I’d rather be at your gig than ours. can you play bass with the fingers of both hands crossed? Thought not.