Passinwind

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1465660194' post='3070048'] Nice review. I'd love to know how they put this together. How competent are you at turning it over, unscrewing the bottom plate and snapping the guts? [/quote] You can find gut shots in the Talkbass Portaflex Wiki: https://www.talkbass.com/wiki/portaflex-models/

I did some beta testing for this guy: http://www.tecpadz.com/ I've only tried the basic version, but I've used Sorbothane in my old day job and would definitely recommend that version. In fact, I was one of the people who originally recommended it to the TecPadz guy.

[quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1464696234' post='3061485'] I am considering getting an expression pedal, probably the Boss EV-5, to go with my Boss GX-700. I love the GX-700 but it hates basses, and it feels kind of wrong buying more stuff that I can only use with guitar and not bass. [/quote] I've owned a GX-700 for many years and have done a few mods to make it more bass friendly. The most important one was padding the input stage down to prevent premature overload. Using a blender pedal or a full blown clean/dirty rig with the GX-700 on the dirty side might be worth playing with. I often run a separate tube preamp in the EFX loop with good results. Just bypassing the front end entirely and running a dedicated bass preamp into the EFX return can work pretty well too. In any case, if you want a good pedal controlled Wah I don't think the GX is really the right tool for that job.

[quote name='Funky Dunky' timestamp='1465600955' post='3069653'] But what else is good? [/quote] The DIY EBMM 2-band clone preamp as seen on Talkbass is absolutely great IMHO: [url="https://www.talkbass.com/threads/stingray-aftermarket-2-band-pre.614382/"]https://www.talkbass...and-pre.614382/[/url] [url="https://www.talkbass.com/threads/pcbs-for-diy-clone-2-band-preamps.737117/"]https://www.talkbass...preamps.737117/[/url] It's extremely similar to the Stinger by the looks of the schematics, but has lower gain if wired to the stock config. I'd assume the Stinger manufacturer could make one that way for you easily enough. Personally, I use something that splits the difference in my substantially modded versions. I don't sell mine BTW, just did my own version for the fun of it.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1465471431' post='3068503'] I made a couple of clips with the Red Fighter this morning. [/quote] Are those from the DI again? In any case, nice job, as usual.

[quote name='alexclaber' timestamp='1465465084' post='3068416'] As Zappa said, talking about music is like dancing about architecture. And therein lies the problem... I consider 'heft' to be related to the uncompressed and unsagging reproduction of low frequencies. Basically the sort of thing good subwoofers do really well and that poor PA systems and weedy bass amps and cabs struggle with. It's also something that serious solidstate power and high excursion neo drivers are better at than valve amps and old school drivers (unless you use a BIG rig). However, there are definitely bassists who consider 'heft' to be related to the compression and distortion added by valve amps and certain cabs, which thickens a bass sound. This mid-bass to lower-midrange thickness is also sometimes described as punch, though I'd tend to call the transient character thump, with punch being higher up in the midrange. When you've had as many email and phone discussions about bass tone as me you get quite good at reading between the lines of what bassists mean when they're talking about sound. But if that isn't your job then it makes it quite hard to discuss the minutiae of tone without an awful lot of misunderstanding going on! [/quote] Yep, as a very longtime amp modder for other people I have had to learn to speak Jive a million different ways. "Heft" is a word that never came up until very recently, but regardless of my grumpy old man tendency to want to brush it off as meaningless, if someone wants to pay for it, I wouldn't mind taking their money.

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1456779577' post='2992264'] Watching TV and the adverts come on - they're using "Changes" by David Bowie for the Toyota RAV4 advert. How do others feel about classic pieces of music that become know (mostly by the younger generation) as "[i]isn't that the song from the **** adverts?[/i]" [/quote] Despise all TV ads, so it doesn't matter all that much to me what form of perversion they take.

[quote name='luckydog' timestamp='1465389349' post='3067745'] It's sad, Buddy sure had some personal problems. That approach is just plain wrong, but maybe the band knew he had problems and put up with it ? Otherwise, fair chance half the band wouldn't have bothered with the second set, or Buddy would have regularly needed surgery to remove a drumstick from his a*se between sets [/quote] The bass seat in his band was notoriously short-lived, sometimes even lasting less than an entire set. It'd be interesting to hear someone like Tony Levin's candid take.

[quote name='alexclaber' timestamp='1465301122' post='3066893'] I'd avoid 1U, it's so much harder (i.e. more expensive or worse performance) to package an amp in such a shallow casing. 2U gives much more internal space (not just twice as much!) [/quote] Yep. For me the QSC PLX1804 was the sweet spot for power and form factor when I was doing separates in racks..

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1465194282' post='3065902'] No - I don't need this much power. The R-400 is more than enough for me. :-) Leszek sent me the Red Fighter just to try out, and offer to others to try. [/quote] Cool, I like the feature set on that one a lot more, especially the EQ scheme.That front end with just one power section would be very appealing, I think.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1464876627' post='3063417'] Fab! As it happens, the postman has just been here too. And left me one of these... What a beast... I'll use it on Saturday night. [/quote] So you didn't end up going with the R400 after all? Or is this not "your" amp? I like the look without the somewhat clunky case a lot better in any event.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1464793789' post='3062629'] What a lovely looking amp... [/quote] Thanks. It ended up looking quite a bit different from my original design intent, but I'm still pretty happy with how it came out.

I've been doing so quite happily for the last decade or so. Usually in jazz trios or quartets, country-rock with two guitars and drums, singer-songwriter bands with one guitar and cajon, etc., and playing in many many open mic house bands. My favorite cab for this is the AudioKinesis Thunderchild 112, but before that I had a fEARful 12/6, Euphonic Audio CxL-112, and an AccuGroove Tri-112L. The AK and fEARful cabs are both much stouter than my old EV TL606 115 cabs ever came close to being. They also need an honest 500 watts for best effect in my playing situations. Bear in mind that I'm a fretless-only player, and most of my gigs tend to be on electric upright. I find the functional limit to be venues accommodating around 200 people or so, but with PA support I have played plenty of much bigger shows. I never play loud rock or get into situations where I have to "compete" though, just way too old for that stuff. Here's my current rig, DIY head good for ~650 watts at 4 ohms, which the AK cab is: So that's 33 lbs for the cab and 8.8 pounds for the amp. I rarely need to carry stuff all that far for load-ins, but with a small cart even doing that is a breeze.

These days I mostly just use amps that I built myself. There's an overview on those builds here: [url="http://www.passinwind.com"]http://www.passinwind.com[/url]. I still have a scary noise toy rack that I use with my fretless Bean occasionally though: So that's a Boss GX-700 modeler with a heavily modded Hafler T-2 tube preamp in its EFX loop, then a DIY Fender tone stack-based preamp for post-EFX EQ. All of this goes either in one of my amps' parallel EFX loop, or to a whole separate rig for dirty sounds and delay ambience. And here's an example of slide bass on the Bean, with a looped rhythm track of the Bean and live drums: [url="https://soundcloud.com/passinwind/terminationdust"]https://soundcloud.c...terminationdust[/url] That's a fEARful 12/6 cab in the slide bass recording BTW. I have an AudioKinesis Thunderchild 112 instead these days that I use for most of my typically low key gigs.

[quote name='Funky Dunky' timestamp='1464686392' post='3061350'] Heft B or Heft C? [/quote] The last shot they used a C sharp.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1464523291' post='3060042'] Re the various opinions on heft, just interested to see how people prefer to get it. [/quote] I had my vaccinations against heft many years ago.Thankfully, they have never failed me to date.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1464043293' post='3056128'] IIRC the very first class D amp I ever came across was a Peavey power amp some time in the early 90s. This can't be the first one they've made specifically for bass? [/quote] Nope, they did their first one about thirty years ago.

[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1464024195' post='3055851'] Yes i know, but my point is that when someone says amp A is louder than amp B, the standard response seems to be the knob position has no relevance. Without testing both amp how do these people know this? Why is it dismissed without any back up data? How do they know amp A is different to amp B? I'm just wondering as i started to read this thread and saw this quoted a few times. [/quote] It's the most reasonable default position to take, IMHO. I've measured many many amps over the years and have found knob position correlation to be pretty darned close to nil. Many other similarly experienced techs or engineers agree, so I suspect that's good enough to work into the "collective intelligence", as it were.

[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1464021335' post='3055824'] Ive often seen claims that abs amps master is not an indication of how much its putting out compared to another amp, but surely every single amp is not different? Its almost like a standard reply that stem people give. I understand what its meant to be saying but its almost just given without actually knowing the two amps are different. [/quote] There's no real way of knowing or comparing without rigorous measurement, since what you get out depends so greatly on both what you put in and how you set all the other controls.

[quote name='sshorepunk' timestamp='1464012016' post='3055732'] Still waiting for more opinions on this I've been gigging a streamliner, whilst I like it, I do miss the top end zing I've had from previous amps, it is a great sound, nice n warm [/quote] Heard one again last weekend at the Seattle Talkbass GTG. Much more versatile than the Streamliner, with plenty of air and zing. I've long since stopped buying amps based on others' impressions though.

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1462961657' post='3047257'] The cobalt flats seem a bit lower tension than I'd expect for the gauge, which is not bad. [/quote] Which gauge are you using? I've had the lightest set on one of my fretless basses for around 8 months now. They are just a little stiffer feeling than the T-I Jazz Flats I had on that bass for 12 years (two sets in that time). They suit me a good bit better than the T-Is, which I also really still do like a lot.

[quote name='goingdownslow' timestamp='1462355465' post='3042271'] I only go on the AMPS section on TB. I learnt how to bias my Ampeg SVT 3 Pro and have since passed on the info to others. Always found there to be some technically knowledgeable posters. [/quote] That's my main hang. Some of the techs and engineers there are really top shelf people, even more so if you get the chance to meet up with them face to face. I've met well over 200 Talkbass members in what passes for real life, and would only hesitate to have one or two out of those come to my house with expectations of an enjoyable dinner. It's a pretty large forum and there are plenty of people who rub me the wrong way though, of course. It may also bear comment that TB does not allow threads about other forums, and all the other four bass oriented forums I frequent do. Could be just a little jealousy at work there in a few cases, I think.

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1461831004' post='3037915'] Don't take this as gospel, but as far as I can gather, virtually everyone uses the B&O modules except TC Electronics and Markbass, who have their own. Barefaced are using the highly respected Hypex module in their active speaker, which is quite an interesting move.[/quote] Some other non-ICEpower implementations: Peavey Carvin Hevos Trickfish Jule Amps Tec Amp (earlier versions) Ibanez And then of course there are many different ICE modules, and not all the usual suspects use the most common ASX2 series ones.

[quote name='Dan Dare' timestamp='1461421161' post='3034501'] Not strictly accurate to talk of car stuff not being able to be used because it's only designed to run on 12v. With the exception of hardwired valve amps (which can have internal supply rails running at 500v dc - that's why you don't poke around inside them), solid state circuitry runs at very small voltages. The mains current is stepped right down. PCBs wouldn't tolerate mains voltages. [/quote] Plenty of tube amps use PCBs without incident, and many switch mode supplies rectify the line supply directly to DC before doing anything else.

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1461358785' post='3034104'] I'm not sure the component/spec of top quality PA gear is the same ball park as bass amps. [/quote] The design goals are often clearly different, for sure.Thus my comment about discussing specific implementations, not class of operation...