martindupras

I've just bought Grreth's Overwater J5 fretless, which is awesome. For a number of reasons, I'd like to put some flatwounds on it, but I have to confess to my ignorance about flatwounds. (I've been playing stainless steel roundwounds for years.) What I'm looking for: - strings suitable for a 35" scale (strung at the bridge, not through-body) - gauge as close as possible to what I'm used to (45-65-85-105-135) I'm open to suggestions of brands and sets which anyone has experience of. I'm open to half-wound, ground-wound, pressure-wound, etc. I don't like tape-wounds, though. Incidentally, my hands hardly sweat so durability is not so much an issue. Cheers, - martin

I've bought Grreth's Overwater J5. The transaction was superb. Gareth was really good at communication, really accommodating, fast and extremely pleasant. I enthusiastically recommend him. - martin

Thanks guys. My small attachable music stand is that same as the one in the link. It's way too small for a folder. The mic attachment doesn't sound too great. There must be a solution. I'll keep digging. - martin

Has anyone ever come across a combination sheet-music and microphone stand, or a microphone boom attachment that would work with a music stand, or any other space-saving, stage-friendly solution? I've done a bit of homework. I found an attachable music-stand that can be added to a music stand, but it's much smaller than a normal music stand and a folder is too big to fit. I've found that there are some clip-on mic booms but online descriptions do not indicate how big a pole they will attach to (my music stand, at least, has a wider pole than most microphone stands.) There has to be an existing solution, surely? Any thoughts appreciated. Your random thought might spark an idea for a solution! - martin

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='1288734' date='Jul 1 2011, 10:40 AM']They look a bit too like an 80's Hi-Fi to me.[/quote] That's just because the two photos that have been posted here are of cabs with no grilles. Lots of people have made theirs look different. Scroll down and you can different builds: [url="http://greenboy.us/fEARful/"]http://greenboy.us/fEARful/[/url] - martin

From what I understand from the fEARful forum, the "headcase" is just a way to separate the 15/16 into a sub and a midrange-and-highs boxes. The rationale, I believe, is just to enable some more modularity to the fEARful family. As far as I know, very few people have built the headcase. This is just my opinion here, but I think the headcase only makes sense if you already have a 12sub or 15sub. Let's say you have a 12/6 and a 15sub already, then the headcase allows you to use it with the 15sub, or the 12/6 and the 15sub together. Also you have to keep in mind that you still need half of the crossover for the headcase (unlike a bright box, which only needs a high-pass filter.) - martin

I am in the process of building a pair of fEARful 12/6 cabs (with tweeters.) What I'm doing for the cabinet is getting the wood precision-cut and delivered to me by Avon plywood (on the excellent recommendation of another UK fEARful user.) It's early days, I've just sent them my cut list today and await the quote for it tomorrow. I'm expecting the wood to come to about £100 for two cabs (I'm guessing it would cost you about £60 for the wood for a 15/6). The construction is very straightforward and doesn't need specialised tools (you just need a healthy supply of clamps.) On that basis, I would think that if you know someone handy they wight be able to put it together for you or that any cabinet maker could make you one. Feel free to message me if there are questions you think I might be able to answer. the fEARful forum is also very useful and very friendly. - martin

In case anyone is interested: the 200mAh 9V (PP3) batteries 3-packs at Maplin are back at their previous price of £9.99. If you use rechargeable, this is really good value. - martin

+1 for the quality of Strymon pedals. I have the El Capistan. The sound quality is second to none. The build and the design are spectacular. Really easy to use yet at the same time lots of really useful features. I was dubious if they were worth the money, but when I received mine it took all of 90 seconds to be convinced. I'm considering getting their Leslie emulator pedal. If it's even half as good as the El Capistan, it'll be worth it. - martin

Pm'ed. - martin

... And the duty invoice came in the post today. Damn. Having said that, it's much less than I thought. - martin

[quote name='Alec' post='1263645' date='Jun 10 2011, 09:51 AM']Sadly, I'd have to say not to be too confident - think mine arrived 3 weeks later, just as I was getting really confident that I'd "escaped". I'd give it until the end of June (seriously!) before you feel you've got out of jail free.[/quote] Damn. I know you're right. - martin

I just wanted to give an update on my RH450 purchase from the USA. I have not yet received a duty/import invoice. I have great doubts that one will come by now. My total cost for the brand new RH450 and the RC4 footswitch, including all shipping, was £516. Both arrived within two days from purchase. Incidentally, I found that an old padded laptop case works brilliantly to store the head and the footswitch. My first impressions of the RH450. (I doubt that many people care by now, there have been gazillions of reports and reviews.) The build, the design of the head and of the footswitch, are great. The head is heavier than I expected, the footswitch smaller. The interface is relatively easy to use. It could be easier. Once you change the settings on a preset, there's no way to be visually reminded which it was you were editing, so several times I meant to alter preset 2 and ended up overwriting preset 3. Which is frustrating but only because I have the short term memory of an iguana. The mp3 input is only audible in the headphones. It makes perfect sense, but today I wished I could get it out of the cabs, it would have been handy. It's not a big deal though. Sound: I have not yet found a sound that I really like on this amp. That is not unusual for me. The out-of-the-box sound is not to my liking at all. Tweaking the EQ with the default settings doesn't help much. I looked up the frequency bands, and changed them to something that makes more sense to me, which helped a little. I need to do some more experimentation and try it at my next band rehearsal. It looks like the presets retain the centre frequency of the EQ bands, so I'm very much hoping that that will help me achieve sounds that I like. It's a bit of a shame to not be able to change the Q of the filter bands because I'm positively convinced that this would allow me to get exactly the sounds that I want. (It's a shame nothing seems to have come from the TC tweak software they gave to reviewers at one time, I'd be well up for trying it.) I don't like the compressor. Once again, I'm a fusspot, and very few compressors are to my satisfaction. For reference, I'm happy with my Demeter Compulator. Once again, not a big deal, I can just turn it off, but it would have been nice to have a usable compressor built in. The tuner is very good. It's very fast, and it seems to sample the sound continuously like the better tuners, so points for that. All in all, I'm fairly happy. I didn't buy the amp to replace my main amps (GK Fusion 550, Traynor YBA-200) but rather as a much smaller, lighter addition to my arsenal. For the record, the basses I used are a MusicMan Bongo 5HH+piezo and an American Jazz V Deluxe. The cabs I used were Acme Low-B1 and Tech Soundsystems ND612S. - martin

[quote name='Monckyman' post='1262064' date='Jun 8 2011, 10:55 PM']Lo Martin, yes that looks about right, simply both systems in place and each with their own input NL4 Can`t see any real problem with putting the wrong amp in the wrong hole either. If you patch your bi-amp into the passive circuit, you`ll simply get the bottom half of the amp (low end)through the Xover in the cab. If you patch the full range into the bi-amp circuit you`ll just get the driver with no tweeter. Both will sound the same, no top end! label them properly ,maybe colour code the inputs AND the relevant cable with coloured pvc tape. Always check before you turn the amp up, just to be wise. Hope that makes sense. MM[/quote] Thanks. It makes perfect sense and it re-assures me. As it stands, my 4-core speakon lead is white and I have labelled already the bi-amp socket with a big white socket. Unless someone with too much initiative decides to "help me" by plugging my gear, I think I'll be safe. Thanks a lot! - martin

Hi guys, Thanks for the advice. I think the simplest is Monckyman's suggestion of the two speakons connectors, one for bi-amp, the other for passive. [url="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/6/screenshot20110608at215.png/"]http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/6/scr...10608at215.png/[/url] That's right, isn't it? (Sorry if it looks like a napkin doodle.) - martin