Chienmortbb

On 11/02/2024 at 08:21, Geek99 said:

I’d look at any instrument that was better quality than the standard of my playing and keep the change.

 

So, one $150 squier affinity later … 

On that basis an HB P Bass kit for me as my mechanical and electrical skills far outweigh my musical talent.

Not sure about the headstock, but that body a Matsumoku or a homemade clone of an Aria or Westone, late 70s or early 80s. On second look, the stripes and hardware is also not consistent with Matsumoku.

1 hour ago, tubbybloke68 said:

Strange because as much as I really do not like fender basses, i have to agree with you that their bass strings are actually very very good in my experience too.😊

They are now made by D'Addarrio. Sadly the flats are just as bad as ever IMHO.

On 08/02/2024 at 21:49, mcnach said:

That A&H mixer looks really cool! It's a bit more expensive but it has a touch screen already

The A&H CQ series look really good if not a little more expensive than others. I am going for the Stagebox version, the CQ20. However, it does seem that the CQ18, the touch screen version is very popular for those transitioning from a mixer with traditional controls, it's currently sold out until April.

On 10/02/2024 at 00:14, chriswareham said:

I've got one of these, pulled from a skip at the local recycling centre a few years ago. It just needed the plug rewiring and has worked ever since. If you crank them up, they sound bloody great. Surprisingly heavy for such a small combo though, as I think the cabinet is very dense and thick plywood.

MDF, can suck in black holes at a million miles as it’s so dense. 

There is no right answer to this. One of my bands useds a Behringer Powered Mixer stayed at 500 Watts. However that is across two channels and also Peak watts. I suspect it is about 100 into 8  ohms, 150-200 into 4  ohms per channel. One channel is used mono for FOH and the other for monitors. The front of house speakers are Ramsa WS-A200s and they have a sensitivity of 98dB . We have played pubs clubs and small theatres and never been short of volume but then we currently only put vocals  the PA  Remember the watts do not tell you how loud a system is. The sensitivity of the speakers determine that. 

On 05/02/2024 at 16:27, joel406 said:

Their 212 and 410 cabs are truly the best in the business

A bold statement.

HiFi or FRFR means faithful reproduction of the sound you put in. Most "old school" amp/cab system have, as @Phil Starr said, have little top end and often a boost at around 120Hz. That used to be the sound of bass. With more and more modelling systems/multi-effects units, more and more people are either going into a HiFi/FRFR system or directly into the front of house PA system. HiFi is usually reckoned to be 20Hz to 20KHz, but in BASS systems I would argue that 40Hz to 15KHz is more than adequate for bass (in fact probably 15KHz is probably higher than you need).

Most modern amplifiers are close to HiFi, we measured several at the SW Bass Bash two years ago and these included class D offerings from Bugera, Ashdown and others (I will try to dig out the results). Be aware however that the "Gig Bag" amps, like the Elf and the Gnome, tend to be coloured when set with all EQ at 12 o'clock. The Elf has a baked in Smiley Face EQ and the Gnome has a rising response.  The Aguila TH series are also probably not flat as shipped.

Many people use PA cabs for this too. RCF and QSC get a lot of love for this, and it is a fairly lightweight option, but not a cheap one. A decent cabinet will cost at least as much as a good amp/cab combination, and probably much more.

13 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Not really, just some herring loss. 

Whoever accepted the gig on behalf of the band was done up like a kipper!

1 hour ago, dave_bass5 said:

Yeah, obviously made at a much smaller budget than the ones they copy. 

Behringer get a bad press as a copier, but many of their spruces are designed in house and do not copy anyone. The power amplifier section of many of their older speakers were based on the same NXP chips as the earlier Mackie Thumps. Most of the low to mid-speakers use the Analog Devices DSP chips that are of a higher quality than the rest of the speakers/circuitry but are really there to make up for the deficiencies in the low-cost drivers.

Although I am not a fan of the Behringer Stage Box Digital Mixers, for a few reasons, but they have almost created the market and Soundcraft, RCF and Allen and Heath probably benefit from that.

On 06/02/2024 at 09:56, Jonesy said:

 

Different value caps and pots have an impact on your tone for sure. If you went with one of his tone bypass looms then you'll hear a bigger impact again. Seeing as the signal from your pups passes through the guts of your guitar, I'd say looms can have a noticeable impact on how your guitar sounds.

 

Whether that difference is audible to anyone but the guitar owner is another thing. As with all of this modding malarky - 'upgrade' is a subjective term. You'll definitely hear a difference and the more noticeable upgrade is probably having a more responsive sweep from your volume and tone pots.

I do agree, although it is the values of the components that matter. There is no magic in Orange Drop capacitors or any particular make of pots. The law or taper does matter, though.

2 hours ago, thebrig said:

Thanks, that's sounds like great advice.

My lot laugh at how many cables I bring. They were not laughing last week when the lead guitarist's only cable and a month ago, when the Rhythm Guitarist's mic cable was safely in his garage when we were 40 miles away at a gig.

That is the daddy!

50 minutes ago, asingardenof said:

Their buyers don't buy into the whole "tone wood" thing, it seems.

Wise people1

8 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

I'm the one lugging the PA, and storing it for that matter. I've got a 10kg limit on any single item, so bass rig is a GR Bass AT800 combo, FOH is a pair of Alto TS408s, and monitors are a pair of Alto TS308s. Just vocals and sometimes one guitar going through them.

I have just retired my passive PA tops and set an 11Kg limit per item. My bass cab is 11Kg and I am looking  for tops under 11Kg tops. 
 

On 17/01/2024 at 15:48, tauzero said:

I am making progress in my own steady way. Today wasn't the ideal day to be outside cutting 22cm lengths of pipe for the ports.

 

As the cutout for the speaker was a bit big and so the fixing holes were precariously close to the edge, I glued in some short lengths of reinforcement and then drilled for T-nuts. Remembering what had happened with the BC 112, I checked that all the T-nuts threaded up, then put them in place and tightened with the speaker in place so that if any finished up slightly skewiff they'd still go in.

 

Still to do - put in wadding (on its way), glue in ports, put top on, round corners off, filling and sanding, and covering - I have a good-sized piece of leatherette left over from the BC micro cab which I'll use for that. Plus cut grille to size, put connector panel in, wire up speaker and put that in.

 

Reinforcements and T-nuts placed ready for initial tightening:

 

 

Box with bottom attached:

 

 

Inside view:

 

Good work.

2 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

How would they come together? Socket A powers a few things, which will almost all contain some form of power supply converting the AC to DC. Socket B on a different phase powers various other devices to which the same applies. Are there any devices which will connect socket A to socket B?

They should not come together, and mains sockets on different phases should not be closer than can be touched simultaneously by a single person.

1 hour ago, Jonesy said:

 

Different value caps and pots have an impact on your tone for sure. If you went with one of his tone bypass looms then you'll hear a bigger impact again. Seeing as the signal from your pups passes through the guts of your guitar, I'd say looms can have a noticeable impact on how your guitar sounds.

 

Whether that difference is audible to anyone but the guitar owner is another thing. As with all of this modding malarky - 'upgrade' is a subjective term. You'll definitely hear a difference and the more noticeable upgrade is probably having a more responsive sweep from your volume and tone pots.

My point was that the actual wiring has little effect as a sound upgrade. The workmanship on @KiOgon's looms is superb and in many cases a worthwhile upgrade, but there would be little difference in the sound to a bass without a loom but with an identical circuit. In fact, you need to be careful when laying out a loom that the innate tidiness does not cause unintended problems. @KiOgon is experienced enough to know this and if you want an easy, trouble free installation, one of his looms is a no-brainer. The other advanatge of @KiOgans looms is that it looks nice inside your bass, but only you can decide how much that is worth to you.

8 hours ago, chris_b said:

You'll get such a great sound out of the Barts and you won't notice the missing J.

I only use my J pickup once in a blue moon to check it is still working (it is). I often wonder how much the loading of the J pickups affects the sound of the P even when the volume is at zero?  I must do some circuit analysis, or I could noodle on my bass....

On 03/02/2024 at 14:51, Jonesy said:

I'd look at changing your electrics first and would whole heartedly recommended a ki0gon loom, as would a load of other people on this forum. The looms are solder less, so there's no hard work to do.

Much as I admire @KiOgon s work, I don't think he would argue that his looms are a tone upgrade. In saying that, if upgrading the pups you might want to upgrade the other electronic items as well and in that case, @KiOgon should be your port of call if soldering is not your thing.

On 04/02/2024 at 19:07, Suburban Man said:

Well I wouldn't recommend it. 🙂 

No, the voltage between phases over here is over 400V.

57 minutes ago, Rosie C said:

but perfect for two mid-50's women playing folk music.

All human life really is here!

58 minutes ago, Rosie C said:

The boost it gets from plugging an old Orange bass combo amp (1x12", 35W) into the sub output is remarkable and didn't cost anything. 

It ain't wrong if it sounds right.

2 hours ago, jrixn1 said:

Remember to budget for cables.  A significant percentage (gonna guess 20%) of your budget is going to be on cables...

I can quote for that (with apologies to Hall and Oates).

There is a lot of good advice here but also some conflicting thoughts. 
 

• Are all the band onboard
• Are you worried about size or weight of the equipment, 
• Do you  need multiple monitor feeds?
• How many input channels do/might you need?

The other thing to be considered is that more gear means more set up time, especially if you initially keep the backline. 

For a pub band, if you want in

So my two pennyworth, go for as big a mixer as you can. I have just sold a Soundcraft Ui16 that would do most things, mixer wise. That went for just over £300 and would do everything you need and more but Behringer RCF and others can be picked up for £300 or less. Secondhand. If you decide to put the drums through as well as all the instruments, go for one with at least 12 mic/line inputs on XLRs. An analogue desk may well suit you better but would be bigger and heavier for the same no of inputs/output due to physical channel strips. 
 

Now that would only leave £450 for speakers. There are some bargains out there but again look for a good brand second hand. You may have to wait a while for good ones that are within your budget but you can make offers on some. Having researched active speakers, there are some to avoid. Many of the Behringer ones have poor reliability, as do some of the Mackie Thump  series. Only look at the higher end Altos. The main thing though is to listen to them first. Don’t rule out passive speakers. I recently auditioned a few active ones but they were not as good as my 25+ year old Ramsa tops. 
 

Choose some uncompressed audio  tracks that you know well but not recent over compressed stuff. It is best to use CD from some years ago as modern  is compressed to hell. Vocals are important, especially around the crossover point. The last time I checked, Spotify uses lossy  compression but but Apple Music uses a lossless compression method. 

12 hours ago, DGBass said:

the mid sucking thump

Suck the mids out, and you suck the life out of the mix. Seriously though, modern 12s can be equal or better than the old 15s as the real issue is how much air they can shift. I got good feedback about my sound last week from some "old timers" about my sound from a 10 with a compression driver/horn. Don't judge a cab by its driver diameter.