HowieBass

Hi Bradwell and welcome to Basschat - we all love looking at basses so feel free to post some photos of your work!

Having two 8 ohm cabs with matching drivers gives you more flexibility for those times you don't need full power from the head and can get away with using just one, probably also easier to carry and load into a car boot etc with two smaller cabs.

I think defretting an ebonol board would be the same procedure; the Squier factory fretless has lines, I think some kind of celluloid.

I prefer the top one www.the60sexplosion.co.uk as it's exactly what the name of your band is. At least you're not called Therapist...

The short answer is no it won't sound [i]much[/i] quieter using an 8 ohm rather than a 4 ohm cab if they both have the same driver arrangement (the number, make and size of drivers), but it will be somewhat quieter. You need to increase sound level by 10dB to achieve a doubling of perceived volume (or reduce it by 10dB to halve the volume). Doubling the power adds 3dB, doubling the drivers adds 3dB and as you infer doubling the cab impedance lowers the power delivered by roughly half (-3dB).

Go fretless with flats if you want it to sound and feel different whilst still playing roughly similar lines. You'll get a more acoustic sound if you play up by the neck or even over the fingerboard. Add a touch of reverb and detune chorus to taste.

The problem is, what does one describe as a small twist (as an angle)? From looking at the photo it's probably about a 3 degree twist or so; I hope eBay agree it's more than 'small'. I'd say any twist in a neck is bad when it isn't designed to have one and to be avoided.

The Squier Deluxe Jazz Active is a great bass, the 3 band active EQ is very handy to have and it doesn't sacrifice the traditional single coil sound. The instrument also has a 'slap switch' that adds fair amount of low end heft. I'd be surprised if you couldn't get a sound out of it that you liked. The Squier Vintage Modified Jazz also gets a lot of praise too (as do the much less expensive J&D and Harley Benton clones). I've got the Deluxe in the 4 string version and I'm very happy with it - I customised mine a little in adding a scratchplate. One thing I'm not sure about is whether you're talking about playing fretless or not - Jaco used roundwounds with an epoxied fingerboard and add his playing style to it for an understanding of the sounds he created. If you do want to try fretless then the Squier Vintage Modified Fretless Jazz has an ebonol (phenolic) board that'll hold up well to wear from rounds. The Deluxe Jazz also has an ebonol board, this is said to sound somewhat like ebony in how note attack is preserved.

Long rambling discussion starts here http://basschat.co.uk/topic/242579-double-cabs-are-louder-or-are-they/

[quote name='Marvin' timestamp='1409050072' post='2535738'] Very much agree with you on that one. That aside, I didn't much like the Vietnam or 2004 US Cabs. I preferred the Chinese one to those. [/quote] Those were the couple I heard breaking up - I didn't much like their sound either.

Tell him your insurance cover doesn't extend to it being used by other people and you can't risk it being damaged by those who care less about it than yourself.

It's really odd that whenever I see the word tinnitus and/or think about it, I become aware of mine (in my right ear only) - much of the time, fortunately, I'm not plagued by it though I do seem to react badly to very loud music in that ear now (Debbie Harry's just the same, that's why she has Clem Burke behind a perspex wall and winces every time he goes into an extended drum break LOL). I think I've had mine for over 20 years, a consequence of nerve damage after multiple ear infections (and both eardrums became perforated, then later repaired). I hope your hearing gets no worse; but you're probably making a wise move - you haven't ever thought about playing upright bass in something like a jazz ensemble? I still have thoughts about trying a cello

I sometimes discover stuff via suggestions YouTube makes (I'll go to play an old favourite then get very distracted by what else is on offer). There's also TasteKid http://www.tastekid.com/ which suggests material based on what you tell it you like.

The Microbrute has the following: [list] [*]Full Function step sequencer : [list] [*]8 memories [*]up to 64 steps per memory [*]tap tempo [*]rate control [*]step divisions (via software) [*]trigger modes (via software) [/list] [/list] Further specs here: http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/products/microbrute/specs.html

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1408961630' post='2534870'] They were saying on the GP at the w/e F1 cars now have vibration sensors and if they pass a certain level they have to retire the car/change the tyres. Something to do with the suspension components and in order to get them light/strong there is a trade off and they can just shake to bits due to tyre degradation [/quote] Yeah now you mention it, after one of the Mercedes (was it?) flat-spotted his tyre and with the ensuing vibration he asked his pit crew about it and they said it was just about at the limit; I know suspensions have failed after hitting kerbs hard... watching all the bits flying off front wings after contact and the shards left on track afterwards... it's strong and light but not quite as resilient as they'd like. I understand as well that Status ended up having to put truss rods inside their necks; earlier versions didn't have them and they weren't quite as stable as they'd hoped.

The neck plate is completely blank as well. Should it have anything like Fender or the 'F' on it or not?

[quote name='mazdah' timestamp='1408954866' post='2534776'] None of those three will be better than PF-350. The sound will be different, sure, but do you want something different (and why) or better? If you want staight-up power amp pug into effects return of your amp. But you'll need something to control the volume [/quote] I presume the PF350 had a fault/died which is why the OP has a credit note - maybe his confidence in the Ampeg isn't that great any more and he's looking for a more reliable alternative?

Not sure what your budget is or if this is the kind of thing you'd be interested in but it can do quite a lot Arturia Microbrute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cagbBg0TmgM Costs about £240. Lots of reviews of it around.

Yes I'm in complete agreement about the virtues of carbon fibre - it's great stuff! As an aside, what do you reckon Status use the "walnut centre tone block" for in the S2?

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1408907985' post='2534534'] The whole wood changing thing is nice in theory.... but the second bass the OP uses as an example is a status.... not much wood there [/quote] Yeah I spotted that, which is why I thought it [i]might[/i] be a possible source of change for his SDS and maybe other conventionally built basses. I don't know enough about carbon fibre to say how it behaves under constant stress.

You might need to think about improving the shielding on your basses but conventional single coils will always suffer a little with induced noise. Make sure you've got well shielded guitar cables as well.

If you go with a B3 there are a few users on here contributing to a patch library (on Google Docs) http://basschat.co.uk/topic/231507-zoom-b3-share-your-patches/

Assuming it hasn't been finished with a nitro finish you'd imagine that all curing and outgassing has already happened by the time you get it. However, I suppose there's one possible area where change might occur - the neck. If it's tuned to pitch and held continuously under tension where previously the wood wouldn't have had that stress on it, can the cellular structure of the timber change and would that affect how it responds to vibration? I don't know the answer; it may make some, little, or no difference with a bass neck but it is a long piece of wood and it's known that you don't leave traditional long bows strung because they lose their strength. According to the University of Cambridge: "time-dependent deformation such as creep and viscoelasticity occur in wood. Creep of wood makes it important that longbows or violins are not left tightly strung. Creep occurs due to movement of the non-crystalline (amorphous) sections of the cellulose microfibrils." http://www.doitpoms.ac.uk/tlplib/wood/printall.php

Put a tartan bum flap over it http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tiger-London-Tartan-Flap-Print/dp/B0079HHCQW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=8-2&keywords=tartan+bumflap

Really pleased that the new pickups have worked out for you