Passinwind

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1490903285' post='3268991'] If you really need to deal with all that stuff in the US then I will happily concede that shipping outside of the country for you is simply too much hassle and stop trying to buy musical instruments from you. Having said that though I've successfully bought basses from private sellers in the US through eBay...[/quote] Thankfully lots of us just get lucky and everything goes fine, of course. If a first time eBay seller did all of that due diligence with no problems all on their own I salute them. Once you've done it a few times it becomes much easier though, and for me the extra hour or two it takes (or far less if you're good at it) isn't really that big of a deal. But in any case, I'm wrestling with a CITES permitting deal right now, and while it's a huge PITA for me, if I were the buyer I would just fly over here and pick up the bass if I wanted it as badly as he does. Seriously ! And my case is relatively simple and clear cut, since it falls under the pre-convention exemption guidelines. But I still need a re-export permit and the buyer will need an import one. And the consequences for failing to get the permits can be permanent and irrevocable confiscation of the instrument. Ugly, no?

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1490892694' post='3268902'] However, can you explain for us here in the UK exactly what the problems were for someone in the US were with sending a bass abroad before CITES messed everything up, because from the opposite side (sending from the UK to the US) then only issue was the increased postage. [/quote] For starters: Did you need a Shipper's Export Declaration? What Harmonized Code number did you use for the customs declaration, and which customs form did you need? Did you confirm that you had sufficient third party insurance for a vintage instrument, since US couriers are notorious for not actually providing that in the event of a claim? If there was a dispute who paid for return shipping and customs brokerage fees, if any? For experienced sellers all this stuff is a known quantity, and part of the landscape of doing business, but many first time sellers tend to just say no thanks. My wife and I both worked as FedEx couriers, and frankly, so many people get international shipping wrong over here, and as usual, even one bad experience balloons into an Interweb meme at the drop of a hat these days.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1490880924' post='3268750'] I also know from the basses I've sold to people in other countries that here in the UK at least, sending a bass abroad is no more difficult than sending it to the next town in the same country, it just cost a bit more. [/quote] Unfortunately, if the instrument has rosewood of any type in it that is emphatically no longer the case for those of us in the US. It never really was the case though, actually.

[quote name='Kev' timestamp='1490828576' post='3268439'] Whenever I have contacted anyone about a bass on Talkbass, I have always got pretty rudely dismissed as a non-US resident and as such impossible to deal with..... Not quite as global friendly a place as here [/quote] As usual, I think just depends on your perspective. After 14 years on TB I just posted my first bass for sale ad. The only taker lives in The Netherlands. I had to explain how CITES permitting works, and that it would take a minimum of 2-3 months before I would be able to ship to any international address. On top of that shipping will be at least threefold what it would be domestically, and all insurance fees will be on the buyer. If I'm a crybaby for not relishing all of that, so be it... In this case the prospective buyer is perfectly willing to jump through all the hoops. As long as he pays now (which he actually suggested), all good!

My very first bass was fretless and no fretted bass has ever made it much past a year in what passes for my world. And I can't recall ever playing even a single gig on a fretted bass, ever. It's just another thing like so many others where I greatly enjoy hearing other people play something (gear, various and sundry musical styles, cover tunes "like the record", etc.), but it just doesn't really work at all for me. In any case, my choice has little to do with how a fretless sounds. I simply detest the feel of speed bumps for bass! They're fine for guitars though, and I just play my guitar if I want that feel. And with all that said, I did just get in a five string fretted bass to use as test equipment in my electronics shop. I did a gear trade and ended up with something hilariously more uptown than what I was actually looking for, so maybe this one will take. It's been just over thirty years since I sold my my last one, a 70s Fender Jazz that was most definitely not one of the "good ones" from that era.

[quote name='Dazed' timestamp='1490740325' post='3267648'] You looked on Talkbass? Might be an owners club thread. Kings seem to be quite highly regarded over there if I remember. [/quote] I've played a few, they were exceptionally nice IMO. David King is a very cool guy too, I had him make me some custom wood knobs several years ago and he really went out of his way to make sure I got exactly what I wanted. AFAIK he's still building in Portland.

[quote name='Bridgehouse' timestamp='1487506037' post='3240242'] I'm hearing great tone, but heavy, expensive and not many of them... I should be considering something else I reckon. I do have a very strong draw to a 60s Jazz to round out the collection... a TB would be about the same sort of money...!!! [/quote] FWIW, I've owned a fretless TB2000 for 40 years now. I've had it for sale on TB for a while with a few tire kickers inquiring but no serious bites as of yet. It sounds great but the weight and even more so the neck dive leave me inspired to play it for an hour or two a month, at most. [b]Nancy Johnson: [/b]quite a few Beans have been retrofitted with new bodies, as the original ones reputedly have a fairly strong tendency to split if one takes theirs apart repeatedly.

[quote name='Jack' timestamp='1489788458' post='3259963'] That Baby Sumo looks amazing, hadn't seen that before. You know your stuff Charlie, is it any good? [/quote] Can't really say yet, things are one level too deep into hearsay still.

http://www.guitarsoundsystems.com/gss-baby-sumo-ampxlite-bass-guitar-power-amp-c2x21844846

I have this on loan from Marco Bass Guitars for testing onboard preamp designs, but I think I may end up keeping it. Don't have too many details yet, just know it was a prototype for Marco's SC line, built ca. 2014, and is not representative of the final SC model. I'll ask Marco to fill in a few details the next time I talk to him.

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1489339370' post='3256157'] I don't think it's as simple as an inductor/resistor as there's an impedance peak at the resonant frequency of the speaker. Just had a look and there's an article on Wikipedia - looks like it's a complex LCR mix. [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_characteristics_of_dynamic_loudspeakers"]https://en.wikipedia...ic_loudspeakers[/url] [/quote] Yep, there are mechanical impedance equations that have to be factored in along with the electrical ones, and one has to measure those things themselves before Spice modeling will work all that well. Spice is very useful for looking at things like power distribution in crossovers though, IME.

[quote name='Chienmortbb' timestamp='1488998493' post='3253634'] Once I heard a good two way at Stevie's I came to the same conclusion. [/quote] For things like electric upright it's just mandatory in my world these days. But I really like the option forks you guys are developing, well done. BTW, how's your amp build coming along?

[quote name='Chienmortbb' timestamp='1488967960' post='3253270'] I think this is the real point. The 3012LF would have been the speaker of it were 40/50% cheaper over here it would be a good basis for a 1x 12 plus midrange design. It would not work as well as the Beyma in a single 12 configuration like the BC Mk1. [/quote] Absolutely, it's all about tradeoffs as always. At this point I have less than zero interest in any bass cab that only uses a single driver though, personally. Many people do prefer that format, of course.

[quote name='Chienmortbb' timestamp='1488929050' post='3253087'] We normally assume an exchange rate of £1=$1 especially when it applies to US made products imported to the UK so £650 actually equates to just short of $800. Do those cabs with 15s have mid range and HF drivers too Charlie? [/quote] Oops, meant the 3012LF. The one I'm thinking of has a single 3" mid driver for the 12" loaded one. We can get finally get dozens of Beyma drivers quite easily over here these days, but not the one you guys are using. It probably wouldn't be too hard to special order through the primary US dealer though, but I doubt it'd be any cheaper than the 3012LF.

[quote name='Chienmortbb' timestamp='1488904253' post='3252805'] As Im said earlier it wa my plan to build two cabinets but Stevie convinced me that one would be enough. The Beyma SM 212 has a massive excursions of 8.3mm as I remember, only beaten by the Eminence Kappalite 3012LF. However on the Kappalite, the "LF" is the clue, it really is just a woofer and would probably need a more sophisticated crossover and/or a mid range driver and maybe a tweeter as used by Greenboy in his FEARfull and FEARless models. See [url="https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/q89/p480x480/10906135_1021323607896101_2539545370011067118_n.jpg?oh=8b07b3a72c11ec2bf6773bf25a063e1a&oe=59707441"]HERE[/url] [size=4]Then the cabinet would be bigger, heavier and a lot more expensive. [/size] [/quote] There are some pretty nice sounding commercial cabs using the 3012LF (edited from 3015LF) that weigh around 25 pounds and are not too large, but yeah, not all that inexpensive at $650 in the US before shipping.

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1488658690' post='3250913'] Can anyone point me to a circuit for a dual channel high impedance preamp with a gain control on at least one channel? I am looking for something to blend a double bass bridge and fingerboard piezoelectric pickups, without spending K&K Sound amounts. [/quote] You could use a pair of the Tillman or Kreuzer FET front ends into one of Rod Elliot's ESP mixer modules and build a pretty nice sounding widget fairly inexpensively. There are also a few possibilities on Francis Deck's site, including this one: http://personalpages.tds.net/~fdeck/bass/bbbb.jpg

[quote name='Saved' timestamp='1488572700' post='3250244'] Hey Charlie!! Nice to see you here man [/quote] Likewise Dimitris.

Just a heads-up: my open source onboard preamp project is now live and the circuit boards are available directly from the fabricator via a share arrangement on their website. I haven't really looked into parts sourcing outside of the US, but most of the parts I've spec'ed are very common over here. This is strictly a non-commercial truly open source project BTW. https://www.talkbass.com/threads/the-passinwind-open-source-preamp.1259692/#post-19535550

[quote name='Phil Starr' timestamp='1488298405' post='3247657'] Haha I said you'd end up being Gottastopbuilding gear I'm really pleased about what you say about the 3/4 ply with batten design, it won't be perfect but I found it was pretty good too. I'll stick with the woodworking questions here, my posts tend to be too long. All speaker design is compromise and I'm really pleased what you've said about my '18mm with battens' (actually reinforced butt joints) design. I chose these for two reasons, mainly using screws to draw the battens/panel joints together means you don't need any real extra clamping making it an easy build. I wanted everyone to feel this was something they could do at home with no real woodworking experience or special tools. Secondly the battens double the glue area and double the strength of the cabs. I was aware however that 18mm panels are pretty rigid at these sizes and the battens do stiffen and damp the panels as well. A compromise which means you can get away with no extra bracing. That's not to say you couldn't improve things with bracing but you should get a good result without that level of complexity. Lot's of other joints are available to you, dovetail, finger joints, dowels, biscuit joints and plain butt joints as Stevie used. Dovetail and finger joints double the glue area but won't be as strong as a reinforced joint and need to be clamped whilst the glue dries, crucially you need to have specialist tools to do the job. Biscuits and dowels are marginal for me putting a dowel into the sawn end of a 18mm panel isn't a strong thing to do and if you have to fit corners that means rounding off the panel weakening the joint even more. They may hold the joints square whist the glue sets but I still feel you'd need to clamp everything. Plain butt joints are just too weak for me, though Stevie's bracing will considerably stiffen and strengthen the cab I still think there is a good chance that the corner joints may break given any force applied at an angle, like dropping the cab for example. That is especially true of a cab made of 12mm ply. Finally the reinforced butt joint is more forgiving of any mistakes in measurement or cutting, you are more likely to end up with an airtight cab. [/quote] No mention of pocket joints, which are my favorite for 3/4" plywood, and only take a minimal tooling investment. I sometimes use battens too, and one or two spine braces on larger panels. Woodworking is pretty much my least favorite aspect of DIY building though.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1488194604' post='3246592'] I must get round to re-visiting that project; I bought modules from Connex about four years ago, then my electric bass gigs dried up for a while, I lost all sense of urgency about it and put them in the back of a cupboard. Connex were quite frustrating to deal with, and I think that blunted my enthusiasm a little too. They had very good documentation for the SMPS I bought, but didn't have it on their website for the amp module I went for. I presumed the manual would be sent after purchase, but after multiple emails it never was, and they still don't appear to have written one. So I have a power amp module with almost no information about it - I know what it needs in terms of power supply but I don't know what the input sensitivity is or whether it has a limiter on board. The SMPS and amp module would fit in a 1U height case, though that will probably need a fan. At some point I'll get round to hooking it up with a dummy load and signal generator to measure the gain and calculate the input sensitivity, and then put it in a case, probably with a simple soft-clip circuit on the input, perhaps an op-amp HPF. My intention was to build a simple valve preamp in a separate box, which is the bit of the project I'm rather more confident about. [/quote] That sort of project often has a way of ending up taking years, or at least it has for me. The first ICE based build I did was made a lot easier by an old designer's guide that I found online, but I still had to do a fair amount of homework myself. Best of luck with yours!

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1488065986' post='3245628'] It's not a stupid idea, and it's something I've looked into myself (I have a Connex amp module and SMPS that I picked up a couple of years ago waiting to be put to use). But to be really effective for bass amp use you would need to sort out cooling fans and some sort of limiter, and ideally an HPF on the input too. And the price works out at a point where you could pick up a fairly nice rack power amp secondhand. [/quote] I built one using an ICEpower 700ASC module. I used a sufficiently large heatsink to negate the need for a fan (which I will not tolerate) and the onboard limiter works just fine for my purposes. Most of my preamps do have an adjustable HPF, but the ones that don't still work OK for me. But the build ended up being 2RU high by 1/2 rack width, and is not small or light weigh enough to be commercially attractive, I think. By my calculations I would have to build and sell 100 of them just to start to make it worthwhile anyway, and there are potentially profound liability issues, so no thanks!

[quote name='radiophonic' timestamp='1486385827' post='3231269'] I have an ongoing battle to boost the sound of my Jazz bass to something like the same as my Stingray without sacrificing its Jazz-ness. Even if I match them for volume at the desk, the Jazz sounds subjectively quieter (not a surprise given the respective EQ curves). A lot of articles talk about the Supercharged Jazz tone obtained by using an on-board active pre-amp/pickups, but could I obtain something similar using a pedal. No modding of the bass required (good), easier to sell on if I change my mind (also good). The downside it would seem to me is that you can't recover lost information i.e. If a pickup hasn't detected a sound in the first place it can't be amplified. So my question is; Is there any inherent advantage (leaving aside practicalities) of an onboard pre-amp over a pedal? I'm thinking about something like the MXR or similar - just active tone shaping, no overdrive etc. [/quote] First off, active pickups and onboard preamps are not necessarily the same thing. Secondly, there a few onboard preamps that fit a Jazz bass without requiring any routing -- you just drop in a whole new control plate and you're done. And lastly, you could do worse than to use one of the Radial Tonebone pedals to accomplish what you need to do with just one pedal. An even simpler solution is to just turn down the Stingray.

[quote name='giamma' timestamp='1485417284' post='3223740'] @Passiwind: thank you for share your experienced, I'm sure they are great cabs with the electric bass but I'm looking for a new cab for the doublebass, used in classic trio/quartet band [/quote] Understood, hence my recommendation to talk to Jorg, since I've only heard half a dozen or so of his models. My personal favorites for acoustic upright for jazz that I've actually played would be AudioKinesis, Euphonic Audio, Acoustic Image, and Accugroove. If I were in the market I would also be listening to Greenboy FEARLESS (sic), Barefaced (the ones that have a tweeter), Mike Arnopol Soundworks, and AER.

[quote name='CameronJ' timestamp='1485380794' post='3223612'] i guess you mean a panel that sits on the existing one? Wouldn't that affect the knob/ switch clearance? [/quote] In many cases you can just use hole cutouts that are slightly bigger than the knobs, or at least the fixing nuts, if there are any. Lots of audio gear is done that way, but as always, it just depends on the specific case how feasible it is. There are outfits that make stick-on plastic overlays that are quite thin too.