Waddycall

I’ve emailed EBS and they’ve said both the microbass 3 and Reidmar 752 have stereo channels from aux in to headphones out so there’s a possibility.

2 hours ago, Tech21NYC said:

When I spoke to one of the techs at Crown he said the specs on power amps make sense when using them for the proper application. They measure the wattage with a 1kHz sine wave for comparative purposes. In a pro-audio application they calculate how much power they need in relation to the amount of speakers they need to power. A rule of thumb is that if you are powering speakers with a 500 watt rating you will need a 1000 watt amplifier. This will give you the proper amount of power and headroom to handle peaks. The sound tech that we hire for our band told me with class D amps he likes to have 3 times the power needed. 

 

The problem that players trying to use these amps for a musical instrument application encounter is that they are trying to use a product that was not designed for that application and don't understand how the amps operate. Pro-audio power amps are expecting the output of a mixer. A 32 channel mixer can output over +22 dBu which is why they have a higher input threshold than a typical guitar or bass amp. The gains on those amps are really used to attenuate the input so the mixer's high output doesn't clip the input to the power amp.

 

You don't want any SS amp especially a Class D amp operating on the verge of clipping. Here is more info from Crown regarding amp power.  

Interesting stuff but doesn’t get me any clearer. Surely in a pro Audio PA installation you’d size your speakers to the venue and the amp to the speakers to maintain the headroom as stated? 

My cab has a power handling of 1200w and can apparently handle double that intermittently but there’s no way anyone’s going to power a single 210 with 3600W or even 2400W so as you say it’s a different application.

im asssuming that you can plug what you want into the front of a power amp and as long as it’s not clipping and it gets the output level you want it’s all good. 

I plugged my bass direct into my QSC the other day. Sounded lovely but was only at living room volume when maxed out. Bit of fun though.

Thanks for the suggestions but it’s specifically bass amp heads with this function that I’m interested in. 98% of my playing is through headphones and I’d like to use the amp I use with the band to get the most out of it and to become familiar with the eq etc. I currently use a channel strip into a power amp which sounds fantastic but for jamming along with songs or learning parts through headphones I run it into my zoom R24 recorder and run the output from my iPad into another pair of channels I pan left and right. It works really well but needs a fair bit of setting up. I’m considering going for a micro bass 3 to go into my power amp as mentioned in a seperate thread or changing to a class d head with stereo channels from aux in to headphones out. My 150 watt rumble does this but it’s not got enough oomph for the band. I could use it as a pre amp into my power amp but it has no onboard compression which I’d prefer.

The Crown XLi has switchable input sensitivity down to 0.775v so the microbass should definitely drive that ok

 What’s not helping me is the mix of specs and a lack of understanding of their correlation.

My QSC amp has a rated input sensitivy at full output into 8 ohms of 1.15 Vrms (+3.4 dbu).

the microbass 3 has a nominal output level of 0dbv. 

Consumer line level is -10dbv so it’s clearly higher output than that.

Pro line level is +4dbu. 

A bit of playing around with an online calculator puts 0dbv at 1 Vrms (+2.21 dbu).

im concluding from this that the microbass won’t get my power amp to full output but it should get it fairly close.

does that seem right?

13 minutes ago, Franticsmurf said:

I see what you mean. No, mono out but in both ears. Mono amp. 

Thanks Franticsmurf 👍

1 hour ago, Franticsmurf said:

My Peavey MiniMax 600 has both and a built in tuner.

So if you plug in a phone/mp3 player to it and a pair of headphones you get stereo sound in your headphones?

Anyone know what currently available heads have stereo aux in and headphone out? My old Rumble 150 head does this. The Ashdown RM800 I had didnt as it mixed the two channels to mono which really annoyed me as most of my practice and song learning is done with headphones.

I think EBS claim that the microbass 3 has enough output (0dbv) to go straight into a power amp. It’s something I’m considering as I have a decent QSC power amp and the microbass 3 has all the tone shaping I need.

https://ebssweden.com/content2/effects/ebs-microbass-3-professional-outboard-preamp/

I bought one of the sleeves I put a link to above and it’s probably the cheapest way to buy the materials. You should be able to disassemble it and adjust it to suit. Mine is ply

You can get ready made rack sleeves which might fit or be a good donor for cheap parts -

https://www.prebeat.co.uk/accessories-cases-c2/rack-cases-c19/pulse-rksl-2u-rack-sleeve-p1210/s1294?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=pulse-rksl-2u-rack-sleeve-rksl-2u&utm_campaign=product%2Blisting%2Bads&cid=GBP&glCurrency=GBP&glCountry=GB&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqcmutfP2-gIVTbDtCh0-aQAQEAQYAiABEgL_sfD_BwE

I’ve got a fantastic Ray34 that I’ve modded with Delano hybrid pickups so it’s  a Jazz and a Ray in one bass. I love everything about it but the weight (and the colour matched headstock). Recent neck/arm/wrist problems resulted in me buying a lightweight shortscale which is much more comfortable to play but every time I plug in my JazzRay it sounds so much better. I’m thinking if I can make it lighter it could become my number 1 again.

any suggestions how I can do this? Tuners are an obvious one.  Would chambering the body help? It’s already heavily modified so I’m happy to take a router to it again if it’s worth it.

im wondering if the weight of the neck would be the limiting factor?

i already use a wide strap so I don’t  think there’s much to gain there.

Cheers

Thanks for this Phil - great thread 👍

 I really like the channel strip I use as a pre amp for the semi parametric eq. The bass and treble are shelving and you can select the frequency for these as we’ll as the high and low mids. It also has a nice compressor.

Why are people baffled by the desire to hear the tone of a bass amplified without alteration? Of course other parts of the signal chain are going to colour the sound but why not have the option of adding what you want e.g. amp modelling to an otherwise “flat” amplified signal?  Seems pretty valid to me. My mustang sounds sh#te through a scooped bass amp but lovely through my flat(ish) channel strip which I can tweak as required. 

I can’t begin to comprehend how those can be built and sold for that price and everyone make a profit. Probably best no to know.

And here’s what it takes to get my rumble head to sound like the channel strip with eq bypassed-

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Interesting experiment with my Fender Rumble head (old 150w) and my channel strip. Output from channel strip into effects return on rumble so bypassing eq. Alternating between bass into the rumble and into the channel strip. I left the head flat and adjusted the channel strip to sound as close to the rumble head as possible. Quite an obvious mid scoop there I’d say.f

I’ve been using a mic preamp/channel strip for bass for the last  6 months or so and find it easier to eq than any bass head I’ve had. I believe it acts as a fairly flat starting point which makes it easier. 

Is it on the floor? If so try putting it on a chair or table,or tilting it back with something so you can hear it better.

1 hour ago, Pea Turgh said:

That looks perfect!  Did you put the lollipops on yourself or are they standard on what ever model that is?  Lollipops just work on everything!

Hipshot lollipops (should be a band name)  are standard on this model - it’s a MIM Vintera -

https://www.fender.com/en-GB/electric-basses/mustang-bass/vintera-60s-mustang-bass/0149653300.html

On 29/08/2022 at 12:31, ezbass said:

Don’t forget to post a pic with the black p/g.

Here you go-

And the original frilly Austin powers trim for comparison- 

Can you not use the short scales and string through the bridge rather than body? I found medium scale pro steels to be spot on for through body on mine.

sorry - forget that thought they’d accept both

Thanks, it’s all good now as I had some copper foil/tape to use left over from a project. 30 mins or so and it was sorted. Dead quiet now. I think the fact it was close to my valve pre made it particular bad.

Ive ordered a black pickguard. I was going to force my self to live with the pearloid but after less than 36 hours of ownership I can’t handle it anymore 🤮🤣vj

I was a bit surprised by the complete lack of shielding in my mustang. You’d think they could put a lick of shielding paint on there for the price these go for. It was very noisy near electrical eqpt. I have some copper foil here so did a bit of a shielding job and it’s much better now. Did a bit of research and found that it’s common that mustangs aren’t shielded. Anyone know why?

v