roman_sub

Something that Poison Ivy from Batman series would play... ;-D

Same company that makes the Distressor.

If gain / eq made no difference to the noise level, I guess this would help to isolate the problem to somewhere in the latter stages of the circuit at least - would otherwise expect these controls to affect the noise level (/frequency content). I would also suspect dry solder joint somewhere... If you're in London, try Guitar Aid in Putney, they know their stuff and have very reasonable charges.

Hi guys Unfortunately my newly purchased 2nd hand studio rack EQ has arrived with a problem - that, to cut a long story short - I can't have repaired by anyone else other than the manufacturer. It's a hand-tested and hand-calibrated dual sealed potentiometer - and I can't get hold of this part any other way. They said they can only do it themselves as it also requires further calibration of the unit. I received authorisation to have it fixed at the factory in USA.... but this will obviously require me to get the unit to them in the first place. Does anyone have any experience with sending "warranty" units out of the UK (/EU), into a territory such as the US; and then having them shipped back? Can anyone help me understand if I'd be liable to customs duty at any point, as the unit is technically being exported / imported? (hopefully not as it's very expensive brand new...). Also, any recommendations on which courier - would royal mail / USPS be a bad choice here? Finally, should I be truthful on unit value declaration - or does it not matter, if it's being sent under warranty / non-working? Also thinking for insurance purposes... many thanks in advance for any experiences or advice. Roman

To address one of the OP questions, there should not be any volume loss between XLR and TRS formats - i.e. both balanced cable runs, and it's just different connections. I doubt you're using phantom power microphones, however definitely avoid putting 48 volts down a TRS cable! There would be signal loss (6db) if you used a regular (mono) TS jack instead of XLR / TRS formats, and a higher noise floor.

agreed the binding does add an even classier look :-)

It is getting colder these days...

I wouldn't go with anything more permanent than chalk or thin strips of masking tape. Unless you properly measure out the distances these will not be TOO exact, but I suppose can be a kind of comfort at the start :-)

Personally I'd advise against going for the cheapest one possible as it may well end up breaking apart sooner, or just won't sound as good. Buy cheap, buy twice as someone wiser than me said.... Passive DI with a nice transformer will help your bass sound (/record) better IME. Up to a point, quality of DI does make a difference... Radial does make excellent stuff incidentally.

+1 watford valves. I normally just get JJ's as these seem to be a reasonable cost / quality compromise.

Is the issue for stage volume, or for FOH tone? Are you being mic'd up on stage, and does your rig end up providing a lot of the bass sound actually going to the audience? Many things that could help potentially, e.g. use of compression to better control dynamics, 'heftier' sounding power amp section (solidstate/tube), speakers voiced differently (I think Barefaced are quite neutral?).... list goes on! Always possible to spend more money ;-)

Check youtube for advice. I'd start with playing against a sustained low notes, and getting basic intervals in tune - e.g. play low E and then find and play all other E's on the fretboard. Get used to hearing the 'beats' (uneven oscillations/interactions of close pitches, but not quite in tune) and adjust fingers until these slow down / go away.... Eventually you will need to 'visualise' the notes - hear them clearly in your head - before you play them. Will do wonders for your ears! Tip for later - I actually had to set up the intonation specifically for fretless playing (not just relying on visual cues of the lines) - so you may want to through the fret positions with an accurate tuner to check if you are consistently sharp or flat at any places over the neck. But really it's a huge journey... enjoy the ride!

If you were to part it out, probably £140 in pickups (2nd hand) so then you're left with a Chinese telecaster needing 2 single coils and a humbucker.... so I'd say it'd be difficult to make any significant money on this one. Seems a bit crazy to have boutique pickups on that guitar... but whatever makes people happy!

I was going to say excellent price, but shame the damage doesn't seem to be advertised clearly..

[quote name='alyctes' timestamp='1509138401' post='3397020'] I'd be wary of the neck-pocket cracks, personally. Maybe no big deal, but I'd leave that to someone who actually knows. [/quote] As my better half reminds me, plural of anecdote is not data, but for what it's worth I have seen a number of Ibanez's with finish cracks around that area and no obvious detriment. I guess it may be to do with finishes / thin neck joints used? My '91 RG is holding up tune and tone perfectly despite similar visuals..... though this is clearly case specific and I have no way of knowing anything about the bass in question without seeing it in person

relic'ed PJ looking quite subtle and realistic so far - great job!

great job, the pink also won me over! now all you gotta do is play / gig it heavily for some natural relic'ing :-)

I think it’s worth separating the 1073 into the preamp and Eq sections for this purpose... a lot of the phatness and depth comes from the preamp and its transformers. The eq curves are superbly chosen and very musical... but if you’re mainly after a coloured DI without the eq, you may consider something like a BAE dmp unit (esp with Bootsy mod) - but not cheap. Reducing it into a pedal format is somewhat self defeating as an exercise - as ultimately you want the quality capacitors and large transformers... cheapest would be a GAP pre73, though not a pedal, and no Eq. As much as I love API gear I can see the tranzformer being dropped soonish - imo the cost and subtlety of such designs are too niche... That said if price is no object, I’d go with the BAE for live stuff and leave Eq in the hands of the sound guy

I would personally recommend to stay away from multiband compressors at the start - they can really screw up the sound and IMO they are difficult to get right. One of the most useful approaches to get started would be use something like a Match EQ (not sure what the reaper equivalent may be called); import a finished studio track you like the sound of, as reference, and then run Match EQ to analyse key tonal differences between your mix and the final master. Often you'll see a gentle "smile" EQ, with either end boosted and some dip in the mids. You might find that a Linear Phase eq sounds more transparent (though we're getting into ever-smaller impacts).... I would avoid overly coloured compressors - something like FabFilter Pro C is a really great compression plugin that can even be clean enough for classical mastering (in my view!) Lastly you probably want some form of limiter to just take care of those loudest peaks, often snare drums.... but don't go much above -0.5db. To be honest, most of mastering is about subtle touches - so stock plugins are probably adequate for most tasks. Also consider using distortion / saturation - you may be surprised at the added [i]clarity[/i] that could provide!

Depends - perhaps on how much overdrive is used. A lot of the "classic" rock guitar sound comes from the fact that guitar amp speakers tend to be highly coloured in the their frequency response - e.g. rolling off most frequencies above 5k, and have a very coloured mid-range - often with that characteristic bite (say 3k). If bass amp speakers (/cab) are voiced to be neutral, the whole thing might sound a bit off. I would also guess that resonance frequency of bass cabs will be lower than guitar cabs, so subs may appear to be boosted, and familiar guitar cab girth (say around 80-100hz) may not be quite there... whether that's a good thing will also... depend. My experience is that the bass cab may well end sounding simultaneously fizzy, deep and undefined.... if we are talking a rock sound. As others pointed out, it may actually sound nice for acoustic / cleaner jazz tones.

I would echo your experiences - I often favour my Precision Deluxe for tracking (predecessor to the Elite; same electronics AFAIK but without the flattening neck profile and MM-style truss rod). Covers a lot of ground between the P and J, and that's in passive mode only. I have a sneaky feeling that the 3 band preamp is voiced a little bit like a Musicman preamp 3 band... at any case, it can also do a passable Stingray imitation via the treble / bass boosts if you pan more towards the bridge pickup. Glad recording went well!