JohnDaBass

Hi Geoff, Which brand and where did you get them from?

+1 for Fender Kingman Great Jazz neck good acoustic sound and fantastic amplified sound. A/B The Fender T Bucket with the Kingman and Kingman won on neck and great low E sound unamplified.T Bucket just didn't have that low end smooth depth in the low register.

Hi Mickey, I have achieved a great range of sounds from my Barefaced SC with a Mesa Subway D800. Simples! Set the EQ for the room /stage then adjust the character control for each type of tone you need for each song. Good luck with your search for the amp that's right for you. We're all different! No one size fits all!

Amps Mesa D 800 Fender Rumble 500 Ampeg Micro VR 200w Cabs Barefaced Super Compact 1x12 Fender Rumble v2 1x12 DIY Basschat v1 1x12 Beyma with tube ports DIY Basschat v1 1x12 Beyma with slot port Combos Roland Cube Bass 100 (currently up for sale on here) Currently GAS free!

[font=Arial][size="3"][color="#000000"]Cable loom arrived safely. Excellent quality absolutely fantastic! Even the packaging is very professional. Your doing a fantastic job. Keep it up!! Look out John East!!!! Thanks for everything[/color][/size][/font] [font=Arial][size="3"][color="#000000"] [/color][/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=3][color="#000000"]Fitted the loom and the Split P pup and I am absolutely amazed at the tone range. You were right about the log tone pot & the cap they produce a velvety smooth bass tone. I was really surprised how much wider the Split P sound is compared to my other P basses. Thank you for your help, support and advice.[/color][/size][/font]

Fender Rumble 500 head settings gain 7 o clock (minimum) for Fender Active PJ and 12 o clock for Passive Fender Jazz Bass 3 o clock Low Mid 12 o clock - flat High Mid 12 o clock - flat Treble 12 o clock - flat Master 9 o clock

The fault mode was that the speaker was not dead (Voice coil open circuit) just very distorted with loud random 'clicking' noise from open A downwards, 55hz down to 41Hz. The fault mode was first observed in the Mk1 cabinet but was evident in both Mk1 & Mk 2 cabinets, as I swopped the speaker to try to eliminate cabinet characteristics. The fault mode was evident using different basses and the online Tone generator using flat EQ settings. The second SM212 I had DID NOT display the fault mode when used under the same conditions so I was able to A/B the two speakers. It is interesting to note that Blue Aran's test regime was unable to reproduce the fault mode, indeed it would be helpful to understand what exactly their Test capabilities actually are? They claim to 'Test' every speaker before dispatch but if the test capability limits are insufficient to trap defects then the customer will be left to try to obtain recourse from an organisation who appear to unhelpful. I have to say that I am disappointed with the response from Blue Aran. While the Beymer does not generate a substantial margin for Blue Aran compared to more expensive speakers I do feel that they should have a more balanced approach to customer service whatever the price of the product purchased. If it is defective then they should honour their warranty policies. I have asked for the speaker to be returned to me and I will feedback any further news in the coming days.

Here are the latest comms with Blue Aran. John DaBass wrote: Dear Mr Kos, May I propose, as a remedy, that you acquire a re-cone kit (BEYMARESM212-08) and your technicians re-cone the driver and carefully removing the defective voice coil and cone assembly for analysis? Clearly until this data is available no one knows the root cause of the fault mode. Indeed as Beymer is ISO 9000 accredited it is vital that they have access to the defect analysis to meet the ‘Continuous Improvement’ pillar of their Quality Management System. I am sure that you would agree with me that Blue Aran also need to review their Test capability tolerance limits to improve your ability to trap defects and protect your customers from receiving defective products. Within your supply contract with Beymer there would be a ‘Warranty provision’ clause which would set out the terms of the warranty provided by Beymer. This provision, which could be a monetary value or a FOC quantity of drivers, would be used by your organisation to cover any costs faced by Blue Aran in dealing with warranty claims. At the end of the financial year, with agreement of your Auditors, any unused warranty provision built up throughout the year would be released to the bottom line. May I therefore propose that the cost of the re-cone and the re-cone kit be split 50/50? I get back a fully functioning SM212, Beymer get all the data they need to review their manufacturing processes, Blue Aran get to improve the capability of their Test systems and it is cost neutral to Blue Aran. Regards John Andy Kos replied today: [font="Arial"][size="2"]Thank you for your email.[/size][/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]As previously explained, from the information we have, there does not appear to be any warranty defect. The driver is fully functioning.[/size][/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]The problems you are experiencing are due to the driver being used incorrectly.[/size][/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]Reconing the driver will not fix the problem, a new reconed driver will exhibit the same problems if put into a cabinet tuned at 51 Hz and significant frequencies below 50hz are applied to it.[/size][/font] So I think the next step is to give up on Blue Aran, ask for the speaker to be returned. I will now look at modifying the cabinets to tune at 40 Hz. Any views anyone? Are you out there SKIDDER??

Here is the response from Blue Aran From: Blue Aran Hello Mr Evans, Our technical department has tested the speaker and has not been able to locate any issue with the speaker. Looking at the original fault report, you have stated that you are using the speaker in a cabinet tuned to 51Hz and playing low E on a bass guitar on it. This would put the cabinet into an unloaded state which may result in the cone over excurting and the voice coil former hitting the back plate of the driver. This would account for the load cracking noise when this note is played. This would not be covered by warranty as it would count as using the speaker outside of the design parameters. The only way to confirm if the voice coil former had hit the back plate would be to remove the cone which is a destructive test. Regards Michael Tootill I replied Dear Michael, Thank you for your email. 1. I note with interest that your Technical department, having tested the speaker, was unable to find the fault mode as the device passed the test regime. It therefore follows that when the speaker was initially dispatched to me the fault mode must have been present since your Technical department tested, and passed, the speaker prior to shipment. Clearly this suggests that there was some manufacturing defect present which was not manifest and caught during the Blue Aran test at Goods inward receiving and again at the test when the unit was dispatched to me. I therefore propose that the speaker unit be returned to Beymer for their Quality Control department to analyse the root cause of the manufacturing fault mode. I am sure you would agree with me that if defects are not able to be detected with the current Blue Aran Test system the Test system should be reviewed and improved to trap defects from leaving Blue Aran. Similarly the supply chain Test strategy should be capable of blocking defects from entering each successive step in the chain. 2. When the parameters of the SM212 and the cabinet design details are modelled in WiniSD the tuned frequency of 51Hz the results do not concur with your earlier assertion that the speaker would be operating outside its specified Xmax range (27mm peak to peak). At 41Hz ( low E) only 25% of the fundamental frequency is presented to the speaker. 3. As a remedy may I propose that you return the speaker unit to Beymer under the Trading Terms and Conditions between Blue Aran and Beymer, for them to analyse the fault mode and provide advice on improving your Test strategy to trap such defects leaking through in the future. This would protect Blue Aran from accepting defective speakers from vendors and improve your customer confidence level in your products. In the meantime I propose that you replace the SM212 and reimburse the shipping costs I have incurred to date. Regards John Evans Yesterday I recieved this email stating that the Beymer SMS 212 is NOT suitable for bass guitar!! Thank you for your email regarding the Beyma SM212, please accept my apologies for the slightly delayed response this is due to us being particularly busy this time of year and there has simply been insufficient time to deal with the level of enquiries we have recently received. With regard to your points. All products leaving the Beyma factory are subject to strict QC controls, and they work to ISO9001 specification. It is extremely rare for any defective product to leave the Beyma factory, I believe in 8 years of selling Beyma, we have only ever once encountered a product which had a very minor manufacturing defect which was quickly identified and remedied. The issues to which you are referring are not due to a manufacturing defect. I believe that some of this has been mentioned previously, but I will try to explain it more clearly. Firstly, this product has never been advertised as, nor have we recommended it for us in applications for Bass Guitars. This is primarily a PA/Studio speaker designed to be used as part of a 2 or 3 way speaker system. Your box is tuned to approx 50 Hz, but you are trying to reproduce sounds lower than this in frequency. It would be normal to have a high pass filter just below tuning frequency, (say 45-48Hz) to reduce any sound below these frequencies. If you want to get lower frequencies, your box needs to be tuned to say 40-44Hz. The purpose of a reflex enclosure is to extend the bass response lower than you would get in a sealed enclosure, but you generally do not want to try to reproduce frequencies below the tuning frequency, UNLESS they are very carefully controlled and managed, with a suitable compressor/limiter in place to manage the levels. Below tuning frequency of the box, you get a problem known as unloading, in brief, it means you can drive the speaker too hard with much less power than you think. Copied from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_reflex ...at frequencies below 'tuning', the port unloads the cone and allows it to move much as if the speaker were not in an enclosure at all. This means the speaker can be driven past safe mechanical limits at frequencies below the tuning frequency with much less power than in an equivalently sized sealed enclosure. For this reason, high-powered systems using a bass reflex design are often protected by a filter that removes signals below a certain frequency With regard to WinISD, it is important to be aware that this is modelling/simulation software intended as a design tool to help with cabinet design. To finalise any design you need to take real world measurements, and have a good understanding of all the relevant physics. You cant force the speaker and cabinet to behave the way you want it to just because WinISD says so. The results from WinISD may not necessarily be 100% accurate, especially when it comes to using a speaker in an unloaded state which it is not designed to do. Ive had a very quick look at this on WinISD, and I can see the cone excursion increases massively below 50 Hz, and at 42Hz you are well into the realms of an uncontrolled cone. The Xmax of this drive unit is 8.25mm, that is the maximum linear excursion in one direction (forwards or backward) before the cone begins to behave in a non-linear fashion. Xdamage is 27mm peak to peak, that it a maximum of 13.5mm in one direction before the voice coil could become damaged due to over excursion. Given that at 42 Hz you are effectively using the driver as if it's not in a cabinet, allowing uncontrolled excursion, and you do not appear to have anything in place such as a high pass filter or limiter to prevent excess power at these frequencies, it would be very easy to reach 13.5mm – particularly with the dynamics of a live musical instrument where peak power can easily be four times the average power, and peak excursion increasing accordingly. Your description of the 'cracking' sound is in keeping with the voice coil former hitting the back plate of the driver, and it is likely now that some damage has occurred to the voice coil former. The only way we can confirm whether damage has occurred would be to cut the cone and voice coil out for inspection. Since this is still a working unit, this is a bad idea, as it would turn it into a non-working unit. To summarise, this is not really the correct speaker for your application, and the combination of incorrectly tuned cabinet for this driver means that excessive excursion can and will occur on low bass notes. The only way to remedy your problem is to ensure you have a correctly tuned cabinet, with a suitably selected driver for your application, and appropriate limiters and high pass filters in place to correctly control the speaker So no help then!