Chienmortbb

Damn you. I was only going to change the machine heads on my new bass but now I must look at a new bridge too.

Now on a serious note, I hate the zingy sound of new rounds and love the smoothness of flats. I don't like extra tension from some flats and found Fender flats in particular to go dead on the E string very quickly. Sadly even with D'Addario making Fender Strings, the flats are still not good. I hate string noise and have a set of Rotosound Nexus about to go on my Aerodyne. I don't know whether the coating will help with the finger noise. I suppose I should try the EB Chromes and some TI Flats at some point but that is close on £100 and almost two cups of Costa Coffee ( OK yes with a panini)

You naughty boy trying to revive the Tonewood wars. Just to help I will add some accelerant. The species of wood is not important.

I have noticed that a lot of boutique guitar makers are now using them too. In my experience the biggest improvementwith the feel of a bass is with the machine heads. When I put Gotohs on my Aerodyne it made a great bass even better. When I put Wilkinsons on my Samick Greg Bennett it was better but not as big an improvement as replacing the stock Fender Machine Heads on the Aerodyne. However the big issue with all machine heads is that the E or B strings were more difficult to get in tune than the higher strings

It can't be money saving as the costs always seem to equal or exceed the cost of a commercial offering. However that feeling it gives you is worth every penny.

The range at Crimson includes oil based fiinishings that are superior to Tru Oil. They also have a number of other options and are made in the UK. Of course that does not help if you are based in Canada.

Beware it Is addictive!

I should probably let @stevieanswer this but I well remember the long and detailed discussions about the benefits of various port configurations. to precis, flat sided ports work less well than round ones and a single large port works better than multiple round ports. Round ports also allow for fine tuning.

To be fair the cabs will work well at reletively low volume. When I have been over at Stevie's we often try cabs with recorded music at reletively low power levels and for several years I used my Basschat 12 Mk2/Mk3 cabs for practice in the lounge (adjoining the party wall in a semi). @Phil Starrhas gigged rge 110T and can give you more advice there>

To be fair witn Fane as with other brands, you get what you pay for. Fane do make some great speakers and sone poor ones but then so do Eminence, Faital Pro, Beyma etc and the biggest problem with changing a speaker as, without the right knowledge, you can turn a silk purse into a sow's ear,

I think I agree with Max, adding the HPF early in the chain increases headroom at each stage.

I have certainly noticed that on the E String the ratio on most machine heads is far from ideal, especially when the end of the taper wraps around the post. Add the two together and it is very hard to tune.

I have been looking at some new machine heads and would normally use Gotoh, however I noticed the Ratio Machine Heads and like the idea of them. Has anyone used them?

The worst bit about waiting for parts is that it allows you time to think and change your mind. One of the ideas from the start was to make the amp serviceable. This is from the module level and as far as posible at component level too, While the amps are made with many surface mount devices, I have had good support from Connex with regards to the technical performance of another module. Reeplies are usually within 48 houre by email and the command of English is excellent. Despite this the supply issues at the moment mean that I have ordered two modules to add to the one I already have. So if one goes wrong, I can slot in another in 5 minutes. One of the options in the design is whether to use powered amps or separate amplifiers and power supplies. The benefit of using powered amplifiers, where the amplifier and powersupply are integrated is that whether an amp or power suppliy fails, only one channel will be affected and there is a considerable space saving.

Great Charlie, as you would expect the action is too high and the passive tone control has hardly any effect. However, the rolled edge on the fingerboard is superb and the active pre is pretty good. I will post a review in a few days.

That is probably true. As I dabble with all things electronic, the module way is the obvious one but as the saying goes “If the only tool in the box is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”.

Just had a delivery from Thomann, new bass plus all the XLR and SpeakOn connectors. Decision time. Do I do a rough up of the back panel using the existing back panel so I can start on the wiring or wait for the delivery from Quick Panel?

I looked into converting the PA at Poole Town Football Club to run on 12V during an emergency. The solution I found to be best was a a leisure/Deep cycle battery powering a 12v DC to 36v DC boost converter powering a class D amp that runs on a single supply rail. Like many of these things, the boost converter and amplifier module comes from China. Amplifiers based on iCs such as TDA7498(E) and TI's TPAxxxx range work well at this voltage. Remember that there will be loss through the converter (perhaps 20%) and te amplifier will be 90% or so efficient. Also even leisure/deep cycle batteries can never be used until fully discharged.

Yes that would make it easier to get panels made at HiFi2000/Modushop and I might try them for the front panel.

Yes I bought my case about 6 months ago from Modushop. The panel shown above has been orderd from Quickpanel. I have not yet had an ETA but don't expect a really fast turnaround as they re-anodise the panel after machining. Of course the power amp modules are still in China so there is no rush. The cost for that panel including shipping is just over £36. To use anyone else that I have found would have cost over £60. Hifi2000/Modushop now offer a similar service and may be faster however the advantage of Quickpanel and a few others is that they have the software.

The case was originally intended for a new bass amp but that is on hold. The good thing about it is that the sides are chunky aluminium extrusions. As you can see from the picture this maes a nice 230 X 80 mm heatsink. Ideally the fins would be vertical but you can't have everything. AS the font and back panel are also aluminium (3mm thick) this is a fair amount of passive heatsinking for class D amps. I have a nice 80mm fan that I can install if needed. The weight is 1.9Kg, not lightweight but solid. Incidently I have not designed the front panel yet. The rear panel was designed in Quickpanel (www.quickpanel.sk) and has been ordered. I know from experience that DIY panel look homemade so I bit the bullet.

I chose powered amps as it means that the failure of one amp/power supply will not affect the other amp. The main use would be of a single channel feeding both the subs and the top PA speakers. There would also be line outputs for the second channel. This would be the line outputs for a second channel of subs and tops, just by adding another two channel amp. While thinking about the project it became clear that with simple switching the amp could be used as a standard two channel amp or a single channel (bridged amp) outputting well over 1000 watts. Here is a mock up of the rear panel:

It is a steep learning curve for me. One thing I should mention is it is not a low cost option. I would have bought a ready rolled unit if I could.

As I mentioned I wanted to use parts I had as much as possible and I already had the enclosure, https://modushop.biz/site/index.php?route=product/product&path=25_290&product_id=429 I also have the 3e Audio DSP module based on Analog Devices ADAU1701 chip. This is a basic DSP with 2 analogue inputs and four analogue outputs making it ideal for use as an active stereo crossover. http://www.3e-audio.com/dsp/adau1701-2in4out/

I started a thread in the Amps and Cabs forum discussing the shortage of amps. I wanted a new power amp for my PA as I sold my heavy amps and it was as I was looking that I found there was a shortage of amps. Here is the other thread: So I decided I had enough modules and other parts around to build one myself. I had a number of power amp modules plus an enclosure and a DSP module that I wanted to use. I wanted a reasonably high power amp that was versatile, powerful and reasonably easy to repair. However I soon realised that the mish mash of modules I had would not fit the "easy to repair" requirement. I soon narrowed it down to two modules, both powered. These were the ICEPower 125ASX2 and a Connex IRS500SMPS. The Icepower unit can reach close to 500 watts into 4 ohms and the Connex can exceed 500 watts into 4 ohms. I decided on the Connex as the basis of my two channel power amp. I have had each of these units for some time and although sonically and in terms of power, there really is little to chose between them, the ICEPower unit seems to be affected by the worldwide shortage of components whereas the Connex was qouted as 10 days to shipment. In addition the Connex unit was more economical. A;though 125ASX2 is available from China for approc £120, most of theses are counterfiet and again would fall foul of the "easy to repair" clause. The Connex modules came out at about £120 per unit including shipping and Ihave had good support from Connex. I bought 2 and will then have three once the other two arrive (they were shipped 12th November).