Gottastopbuyinggear

I think QLC+ is supposed to support this in the Activity Monitor - 2D View, though I haven't been able to get this working on my Mac - it may work okay on Windows, and I think I've seen it in demos/tutorials on YouTube. It's free so if you're using Windows it might be worth downloading it and giving it a try.

I have two of the RoqSolid and one Hot Covers. They're both fine but for the base level the Hot Covers one has a bit more padding. Also offers the opportunity for either a bit of amusement or a bit of a disaster as they tend to keep their shape when empty, so when you leave it in the corner inevitably someone will try to sit on it. On the other hand it's quite useful turned upside down with your coats, soft gig bags etc. stuffed in it at gigs.

[quote name='Northy' timestamp='1499354224' post='3330970'] Hahaha I actually mentioned that on the Talk Bass room I think, facebook at least. My guitarist friend suggested that might be a solution. [/quote] You two have beaten me to it, but that's the way I'd play it - G A G#. Maybe the faintest hint of a hammer on to the G# sometimes.

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' timestamp='1498252375' post='3323490'] On BBC 2 now. [/quote] I'm watching. I saw them in Oxford in the very early nineties because my mate's band were supporting. I'm afraid I still don't get them.

[quote name='weeleigh' timestamp='1497353971' post='3317453'] Do the ADJ's give a good white light output? I'm looking for something that will light the band up from the front or the side, as well as giving a good colour lighting display. I was thinking of the Stairville's from Thomann, but I'm not convinced they would give a good white light output. [/quote] The TriPARs are okay. Perhaps not quite a true white, but I'd guess that if you were to run some as white with others running colours at the same time then nobody would be able to tell the difference due to the contrast between the two - the same thing as black on your computer's screen isn't really black at all, but next to other stuff the brain will perceive it as black. If you're looking for a true white then something with a "native" white capability would probably be better.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1497529029' post='3318883'] I'm now picturing your next gig ... [media]http://youtu.be/vWT0Fi01DPA[/media] [/quote] That gives me something to aim for!

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1497448408' post='3318250'] Only just stumbled across this thread, and deeply puzzled at the enthusiasm for foot controllers, midi, and DMX. All these things will eat up your time like you wouldn't believe, cause endless frustration when they don't operate as planned, add to the complexity of your set-up and break-down, and distract you at critical moments when you're trying to play. [/quote] Ah, I've got an answer for all those:[list] [*]Enthusiasm for foot controllers, midi, and DMX - I'm a bit of a geek at heart, so this is my idea of a little bit of fun. [*]All these things will eat up your time like you wouldn't believe - I'm a bit of a geek at heart, so this is my idea of a little bit of fun ;-) [*]cause endless frustration when they don't operate as planned - True, and I had considered this. I'm pretty sure the TriPARs can be set to default to one of the built in autorun programs if the DMX signal disappears, but even if not then it won't take long to switch four lights to one of the autorun programmes. [*]add to the complexity of your set-up and break-down - it's only one more box for the controller, and the DMX and power cables will be cable tied or gaffer taped together and daisy chained. I'm powering the controller from the same USB battery pack that I power my pedalboard from, so little additional stuff to do. [*]and distract you at critical moments when you're trying to play - You've not seen me play! Root, root, root, fifth, root... Seriously, though, the thing is designed so that one stomp will set it running through a predefined sequence unless I do something to change it. And I figure if guitarists can do all that tap tempo nonsense for their effects then I should be able to do the same for the lights! [/list] Also, did I mention that I'm a bit of a geek at heart, so this is my idea of a little bit of fun?

How frequently are you playing? I find that if I'm playing a two hour gig or rehearsal every week or so then I have no problem, but if it's less than that then I do (like martthebass) get blistering on my plucking fingers and maybe a little soreness on the fretting fingers. On the other hand, if you have very tough skin then perhaps you're playing a lot and it's just a symptom of building up that much hard skin - when I used to play 6 string guitar a lot more I had a similar cycle of building up hard skin which would sometimes start peeling off. In that case I'd actually suggest trying to soften the fingertips a bit by taking some of the hard skin of with a pumice stone or something?

So far I've bought two of the ADJ Mega TriPAR Profile Plus units, and one of these: [url="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lixada-Interface-Computer-Lighting-Controller/dp/B00ZQNIAP8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497011016&sr=8-1&keywords=usb+dmx."]https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lixada-Interface-Computer-Lighting-Controller/dp/B00ZQNIAP8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497010946&sr=8-1&keywords=usb+dmx[/url]. I've also downloaded QLC+ and had a play around with it. The USB DMX interface works out of the box on my MacBook and on the Raspberry Pi QLC+ image. It also works on Windows 10 but needs a bit of fiddling about with installation of unsigned drivers, so not necessarily something for people who aren't particularly tech savvy. QLC+ is pretty straightforward to use, and there's quite a lot of material on the web. I've had no problem with using a MIDI interface to drive QLC, both to trigger the built in autorun programs in the lights, and to trigger scenes and chases set up in QLC. I've already moved on from planning to use the autorun programs, and have built some basic chases in QLC, mainly because you can use tap tempo, triggered via MIDI, to govern the speed of the scene changes in the chases. So for example you could start a song, tap on the first beat of the first bar, tap again on first beat of the third bar, and you'll have the scenes lights change every other bar. You can then speed up or slow down the changes as the song progresses. I tried this out at a practice on Tuesday as a "proof of concept" and it worked pretty well. I had a four button midi footswitch, with the buttons being blackout, full on white, start chase (or toggle between a change or fade chase) and tap tempo. The band were pretty keen so I'm going to order another pair of the TriPARs, and try one each side of the band pointing vaguely inwards and upwards, and two in front of the drum kit pointing up and out - sort of like this / \ / \ across the width of the stage (or rather the corner of the pub we're crammed into) as you face the band. If you get my drift... I'm going to build either a second four button footswitch, or just a single 8 button version, and then I can add the ability to select between a few different chases, both fades and changes, to stop it getting boring. Unfortunately we're on a bit of a hiatus at the moment while one of the guitarists is on holiday for a couple of weeks followed by the singer for five (!) weeks. We have a few gigs lined up from the end of July, though, so I'll get a chance to try the set up out in a gig situation then. Happy to share more details on the footswitch if anyone's interested - it's based on a Teensy 3.2 board for which there's a MIDI over USB library, so for anyone who's done any basic coding of any sort it would be pretty easy.

An update - I've carefully researched all the options, arrived at an appropriate criteria for selecting a product, and carried out the selection process. When I took my blindfold off I found I'd stuck the pin in ADJ TriPAR (Mega TriPAR Profile Plus, to be precise). More seriously, the reasons I've gone for these are: - Readily available (next day delivery using my Amazon Prime, so I have something to play with this weekend), and still in production (The QTX 6 in 1 I was also looking at seems to be discontinued) in case we want to add more in the near future. - No fan, so less stuff to fail - Beam angle of 40 degrees, which is a bit wider than the other similar units I looked at, and might make a difference in the confined spaces we seem to end up playing in. - Compact, light. - Ability to daisy chain IEC cables as well as DMX (some units only have a power in socket) - Known brand, reasonable reviews. - Ability to select various autorun settings, and control things such as speed and sound sensitivity, via DMX. I've ordered a pair to have a look at. Based on that I'll decide whether to get a couple (or more) more of the same, or take a look at a different unit - the LEDJ 7Q5's being next favourite, and only a few quid each more expensive. The plan, which is a very grand term for something that may or may not happen, is to see whether the autorun programs will be sufficient in the short term without having to go too far with programming scenes and chases in a DMX controller. I am, however, planning to try QLC+ on a Raspberry Pi with a simple home built MIDI foot controller to enable me to change between some of the autorun programs as well as do full on and blackout. That's where the point about changing speed and sound sensitivity via DMX comes in, as I can't imagine wanting to fiddle around clicking menu buttons on the units themselves when I'm trying to set them up, but I can imagine tweaking a DMX parameter from a MIDI controller. If sound activated doesn't give a reasonable result then I'm hoping that being able to flick between a few different autorun programs with different speeds would be okay, and I'm confident that QLC+ will let me do that. I've ordered a cheap USB DMX interface from Amazon, the reviews for which indicate it'll work with QLC+, and I'll give it a go from my laptop before splurging the €15 for the Raspberry Pi build. I'll post an update once I've made some progress in case anyone's interested.

[quote name='citymariner' timestamp='1495486320' post='3304189'] I'd get 8 LED PARs - ADJ TriPAR or a QTX 6in1 or the like, 2 x t bar stands that go up to 3m in height. [/quote] [quote name='moonbass' timestamp='1495501775' post='3304283'] You could also look at the ADJ Airstream DMX interface [/quote] Whoa there guys - I don't think I'm going to fit that stuff into my two or three hundred quid budget! But it has given me a lot to think about. At the moment I think I'm going to propose giving 4 relatively cheap units a go, probably starting with just the built in autorun capabilities while I investigate DMX control a bit. The few COB units I looked at all seem to be pretty powerful, so taking into account the comment from moonbass I think they might be over the top for a small pub band set up, not to mention being relatively pricey. The ADJ TriPAR and QTX 6 in 1 look like pretty good options at around the £60 a piece mark, I think the QTX being favourite at the moment based on being a bit more powerful. I'm not sure what the LEDJ 7Q5 would give over those units other than a metal housing, though I'll need to make sure they're placed out of our singer's "jump zone". On the control side, I'm not keen on running stuff from a laptop, but I took a very quick look at QLC+ and see that you can run that on a Raspberry Pi, so that's really kicked my inner geek into life - especially if I could control it from the Arduino based MIDI foot switch box I built... On the other hand, the Chauvet Obey 40, for example, can be had for about £80 and that would give me the the midi control capabilities I think I want.

Thanks for all the responses. [quote name='whizzzy' timestamp='1495353513' post='3303089'] The other factor about buying low cost items is that often if you want to buy more units at a later date they have either been discontinued or the design has been changed. This can be very frustrating. [/quote] I'm still getting my head around DMX, but if my understanding is correct then the first three or four channels on a fixture will correspond to RGB or RGBW, so in general mixing different units shouldn't be too much of an issue? I'm not too bothered about mixing different manufacturers if the basic compatibility is ensured by the DMX specification (you should see the PA and monitoring solution we use!) but on the other hand a career in IT has led me to realise that one manufacturer's interpretation of a spec is often different to another. [quote name='Woodinblack' timestamp='1495406995' post='3303559'] I bought 2 of the stairville lights mentioned above [url="https://www.thomann.de/gb/stairville_led_flood_panel_150_40.htm"]https://www.thomann....anel_150_40.htm[/url] one long dmx cable and mains extension cable, set them to sound to light and put them on the ground either side of the stage when we are playing. All fits in one box, and does the job fine. [/quote] Setting aside any issues with the quality of white you might get from those devices, do they put out sufficient light to give a reasonable colour wash? I know I'm probably not comparing apples with apples, but the maximum power consumption of those is stated as 18W, half that of the ADJ Dotz that Handwired mentioned, and less than a third of the 7Q5's which whizzzy and redbandit mentioned, so I'm wondering how bright they are. On the other hand, the only time I've played on a stage with a few PAR cans dotted around I found it a complete pain when I had one pointed almost directly at me and I spent half the night squinting...

I modelled the Faital driver in that box after modelling the 4 ohm version but it came out looking pretty bad. It could be my lack of knowledge, though, so I'd be interested to see the results if someone with a little more expertise tried modelling it - it's possible I made a mess of entering the parameters into WinISD.

I spent half an hour last night looking at some YouTube videos, which were specifically about the Chauvet Obey 40, but covered all the basics of scenes, chases, etc., so now I've got a bit of a better idea. That controller, and many others I'm sure, has midi input which would let me do pretty much everything I thought I'd want to do with a foot controller - triggering specific scenes, blackout, and chases. The only thing that might be useful which couldn't be done via midi is tap tempo. I was also looking on Thomann at lighting stuff, and they seem to have a couple of own brand ranges - Stairville and Fun Genration. A couple of examples, which are literally the cheapest on the list that could be floor standing: https://www.thomann.de/gb/stairville_led_flood_panel_150_40.htm https://www.thomann.de/gb/fun_generation_led_pot_12x1w_rgbw.htm Anyone have any experience with these brands? I know that to a certain extent you get what you pay for, and I'm usually an advocate of getting the best you can afford (buy cheap, buy twice, and all that) but these are ridiculously cheap compared to most stuff, and for a simple set up in a small pub they might be good enough. Not to mention the lower cost of replacement when our hugely enthusiastic singer jumps on them - I still need to change the pot in my boost pedal after the last gig... Could these be the Harley Benton's of lighting? Or are they the Kay's from my mum's seventies mail order catalog...

Some food for thought there. I've had a quick look at foot controllers on Thomann, now, so I'm already thinking that some basic programming capability might actually be a good thing. Would I be too optimistic to assume that you can mix and max DMX capable kit from different manufacturers without encountering compatibility issues?

I've been tasked to look into the feasibility of a small lighting set up for a pub band, just to avoid the "you can have the lights on or off" sort of scenario, and add a little bit of visual interest. I know almost zero about the topic, there doesn't seem to have been much discussion on here in the last couple of years, and I know that technology moves on quickly anyway. Being a six piece (2 guitars, keys, bass, drums, singer) space is usually at a premium so I'm not sure that T bars either side of us are going to be possible, but I don't know what the alternatives would be. Is it possible to mount something on speaker stands? Not looking for anything that needs to be programmed - just some multicolour lights that can change automatically or based on sound. Maybe a foot switch to kill everything, or light everything up full might be useful, if such a capability exists? Ideally something that can be expanded in the future if it proves useful/successful. Definitely only interested in LEDs - we've enough problems with cable trip hazards without adding stuff that can burn us or the audience into the mix... If anyone has any experience of this type of thing, or can point me to any good information resources, then that would be great. Budget? Not sure really - I don't like buying cheap nonsense that won't last, but I can't see us justifying more than a two or three hundred quid initial outlay.

Friday night Fortunate Sons played the Wicked Lady in Bridgend. Bit of a mixed bag - started out badly after we'd set up and done a quick sound check, when the pub asked us to move about 6 feet right so the drums weren't by the window - concerns about the sound carrying apparently. Then something happened on the singer's channel on the mixer during the first song so nobody could hear him, and after the first song we were asked to turn down. So we were a bit subdued through the fist set. However, to be fair the lower volume probably helped the sound overall (we only put vocals and keys through the PA and play to the volume of the drummer, but he can get pretty loud), and the second set started well with a few people up dancing straight away. We managed to keep the momentum going for the whole set, dropping a couple of slower songs on-the-fly to keep a good number of people dancing, and by the end we were all really enjoying it and felt we'd really turned it around after a dodgy start. Best part, however, was the encore - we had quite a few calls to "go on, play one more", and quickly picked Roadhouse Blues from our limited list of possibles. Almost simultaneously a guy came out of the audience, fairly inebriated by his own admission, and asks "Can you play Roadhouse Blues?". "Er, yes" was the slightly puzzled answer. "Can you play it in E?" "Erm, yeah?" I kept my eye on the punter as we launched into it - he went and delved into his coat pocket, pulled out a couple of harmonicas, picked the right one and came back at us with a questioning look on his face. It would have been rude to say no, and as it turned out he was absolutely spot on - knew how to play, and didn't out stay his welcome. Good result!

Thanks all. Went for the 3mm option in the end. Did a test first in what I think was a bit of Beech, and it seemed plenty strong enough. I bought a brad point bit which helped with accurate drilling no end.

I looked at three Jazzes in a shop today, two MIM classics and a MIA. The positions were (basses hanging on the wall) one lot at 10 o'clock, one lot at 2 o'clock and one lot at six...

I have a new neck to drill for a parts build. I've read before that 1/8" is the correct size bit for the neck screws that come with the Fender neck plates, which is roughly 3mm. I think I've also seen 3/32" stated, which is just under 2.5mm. I've measured the screws with vernier callipers - 3mm diameter shank and 4.2mm diameter including the thread. If this was just a bit of softwood then I'd probably use a 2.5mm drill - which I happen to have. I understand that Maple is quite a lot harder, though. Should I wait until I can get hold of a 3mm bit? I'm not a seasoned woodworker as you might have guessed...

Are there a pair of resistors attached to the pots, with the tip of the jack socket connected to the middle of those resistors? If not then I can see how a dodgy (earthed) pot might kill the sound. It could be that you've got a very fine strand of wire in there somewhere which is shorting out. And apologies for stating the obvious, but be careful with those headphones on and everything turned up full, just in case it starts working again as quickly as it stopped!

Have you got a multimeter or continuity tester of some sort? If so then I'd suggest using that to check if the hot output has somehow become grounded. The only other thing I can suggest is getting some crocodile clip leads to bypass the jack socket and connect directly to the jack plug on your lead, and working through the hot wires to see if you can find a point where you get some signal, though that's possibly not going to work if you have got it grounded somewhere. It's a tricky one!

Is there any sound if you plug in and play with the bell plate off the body? Reason I ask is I've seen a jack tip connection grounding on shielding or conductive paint before.

[quote name='Phil Starr' timestamp='1491296123' post='3271825'] !4 kg is good, my originals came out at around that without the horn and crossover, though my bracing internally was a bit agricultural (rushed for the last bass bash) and I used Baltic birch rather than poplar. [/quote] My Mk 1s in 18mm Poplar, with all panel to panel joins reinforced with 20mm square battens, are also about 14Kg, hence why I thought the Mk 2 in 15mm would possibly be lighter. I think I recall seeing an estimate earlier in this thread of up to 16Kg, but I may have made that up. [quote name='Phil Starr' timestamp='1491296123' post='3271825'] Yes I'm looking at doing a 40litre version, possibly even smaller as I might do some prototyping with a bit of spare ply. Basically I find I always end up dialling in a hump at 100Hz and rolling off below 40 anyway, the response you'd get in an over small cab. That's fine with my Harke amp with a graphic but is proving harder with my Mark Bass amp. I'm wondering why I'm carrying extra wood to not quite get the sound I want. [/quote] Not the sound you want - now he tells us! I'm still relatively inexperienced with all this (from a user point of view) so I'm quite keen to do a bit of experimentation to see how a different speaker would sound in the real world. I need to revisit the modelling to check but I did look at putting a Beta 12 in the Mk1 cab (partly to free up a Beyma for a Mk 2 build, and partly just for curiosity) which I think predicted a similar bump of 2 or 3dB around 110 Hz or so. Of course the Beta 12 does have a pretty big hump in the high mids, so overall I guess the sound would be substantially different.

Well done for getting it finished and to the bash - that's real dedication for you! At some point it'd be really interesting to know how close this is to the original weight estimate. I have a hunch, based on my 18mm poplar Mk I cabs, that it might have turned out a bit lighter than you thought it would. Note that I deliberately avoided a straight "How much does it weigh?" question - that'd only invite someone to come along and ask if it's any good for metal