luckydog

I think it's reasonable to think that 'serviced' implies the equipment is in servicable condition ie fit to use with a reasonable expectation of reliabilty. Whatever it takes to get there...... LD

[QUOTE] Beer of the Bass said: Regarding things like replacing electrolytic capacitors on old amps, I found it interesting reading through John Chambers' website. He's an amp tech with decades of experience and the site is a mine of information for anyone interested in these things. I noticed that he does not routinely replace capacitors in old amps unless they have visibly deteriorated or the amp isn't working correctly. This seems quite different to the prevaling wisdom nowadays, but it's evident that he knows his stuff. [/QUOTE] I agree - however the likes of us are in the minority, and it's almost heresy to suggest ! I don't routinely change caps either. By way of servicing vintage gear, I reform electrolytics at rated voltage using a method similar to factory formation - then test for leakage current and original rated capacitance. For interstage coupling caps on valve gear I simply check for leakage current - undiagnosed faults of this nature are more common that faulty electrolytics IME, and replace where faulty. For cathode decoupling caps generally I reform them and test for value and leakage current if time permits, or sometimes replace the output stage one (if present) routinely if its easy. This preserves authenticity and detects ageing or failing caps without replacing original good parts. I suppose it is proper 'servicing', and actually takes longer than replacing caps wholesale which I really don't like to see done. LD

Sorry to read about your back woes, Jazzneck - hope that gets sorted. Discreet, you realise that an SVT head is really a 2 man lift ?!? [QUOTE] largo said: Your doing more damage to your back by lifting one handed, even lighter cabs & especially slinging a bass over one shoulder to play a gig. [/QUOTE] Yes, lifting one handed is bad, and even modest weights can be damaging if you catch it wrong - that's my understanding and experience. I think there's a tendancy to be casual with modest weights, and the times I've pulled muscles in my back have always been lifting modest weights awkwardly or casually, especially one handed and twisting. I recall at work a health and safety notice about proper lifting techniques, set out in clear steps. It had been graffiti'd, and step 1 changed to read "Get someone else to lift it" The band I'm in shifts a 1967 Hammond organ and Leslie about, and we are so careful with our backs and fingers - so far no injuries, but plenty of misadventures! The back injuries we do get happen in the most stupid ways, like tying shoelaces getting out of bed or other bedroom antics, coughing etc...... ......what a drag it is getting old, as Mick said. LD

[QUOTE] BigRedX said : IME the most important part of the sound of an SVT and 810 is that the sheer size of the cab gets some of the speakers reasonably close to my ears. [/QUOTE] I think the physics of it is that prety much the whole of the front of the cab is involved in radiating, and that's more efficient at very low frequencies plus its more coherent in terms of arrival time - hence the slam and punch. Plus the lowest natural resonance of the cab is way low. It is also true that it's nearer yer ears too......! LD

[QUOTE]Fretmeister said: If a particular sound is only available with heavy kit, then so be it.[/QUOTE] And that, unfortunately, is the case. LD

Welcome, Mark (Sparks) - I'm fairly new here myself - I've found peeps helpful and its just a good place to hang and jaw about things bass. Nope, singing is not natural to me either, so have to think about it and that distracts from playing and both suffer - I totally respect those who do both well. Proper technique for singing: get someone else to do it ! Enjoy ! LD

There are two types of bass players: them that's got the hernia, and them that's gonna get the hernia ......... LD

I've been there and done that as to lightweight! Now I'm through the other side and back to a heavy rig. It just happened, I wasn't ever deeply happy with the lightweight sound I think, except at low levels. If I was honest with myself it was always a compromise, esp for stage sound unless also in the monitors. But I did enjoy being able to get around by public transport ! LD

[QUOTE]Japhet said: I remember the 70s when the sound at the vast majority of gigs was mostly between sh*te and unlistenable. It was generally through the now much coveted valve amps and the not so coveted heavyweight cabs. Times have certainly changed as has the degree of tint on the rose tinted specs. [/QUOTE] Think you're right that front of house sound is typically far better these days, but that is due to technological developments in PA and FOH speakers - not due to sounds of instruments/amps themselves being better IMO. Good example is the sound of a genuine Hammond Organ and Leslie from 60s/70s. No matter how good a lightweight emulation might be (and they are good), once you hear the real thing there is just no going back. The real thing is a league above emulations, and the playability of the instrument itself is an art in itself. However, a Hammond/Leslie combination might weight 27 stone or more. But emulation, weighing in at a fraction of that, is a compromise........ and why compromise ? So it is with my 70s bassman 2x15 rig, emulations are a compromise and the real sound is just bona fide and fabulous IMO. Yes, it's heavy (but no-one mentions it, 'cos the Hammond/Leslie is so b****y heavy, (the perfect distraction !). As a band, we decide not to compromise. Not to try to break the axles on the van, but everything that sounds great seems to be heavy, so that is what we ended up with. One concession is we use a Nord Electro 5 for piano, but you have to hear it through the Leslie to realise it's not much of a compromise. And so it just happened that, apart from the Nord, the entire band uses all valve gear based on designs from the 60s and 70s - again not for the sake of it just because that is what we think sounds best for what we do (which isn't retro). LD

We played on Sat and the company that normally do our sound couldn't make it, so we relied on what the promoter had arranged for an engineer which was all good and fine. Nevertheless, we really missed our guys. Not only in the sound, but in helping us lug gear and setting up. We coped, but the contribution is far more than just the sound - we know that and value it........ When they provide the FOH PA, we muck in, and the whole thing works quickly and with far less strain, especially when there's limited time for setup and breakdown and soundcheck. LD

Great, twincam ! Did the slight redplate also go away with new output valves ? LD

Ped, thanks and yup I guess we all have our Room 101 for memory triggers of alcoholic excesses .......barley wine for me........ The Cellar is timeless, I think its Oxford's oldest venue. These days it has a quality sound system, but otherwise you'd still recognise it for sure...... Tonight the Hammond goes down the stairs. It's much more difficult on the way down, so doing that early on when fresh (and sober) for a change should help ! Three is the magic number, two below one above - any more get in each's way and risks that Laurel and Hardy moment....... LD

OK Oxford and the 'shire peeps, we don't gig very often but are playing this Sat (14th May) at The Cellar in Oxford, we're on at 9.45. Sounds about right......so come along if you're up for it, I'm the one with the seriously road worn Precision and the rig in my avatar - say hi! '67 Hammond/Leslie, '59 strat, and some say decent original music thown into the bargain.......... LD

Twincam, the caps which couple to the grids (not the cathodes !) can go electrically leaky and increase the bias significantly on just one valve...... Those caps are between the anodes of the preceeding stage and the grids of the output valves, and typically have a couple of hundred volts of dc across them. If they become leaky by only a tiny current, that's enough to increase bias and cause redplating, typically in only one valve. As you say, if that cathode circuit has a fault, it affects the bias of both valves, and they would both tend to redplate. In case of mismatched valves, or even if one is stone dead or missing, one will be biased hotter, but not hot enough in principle to redplate, though you did say it was slight.....?! If the redplate persists with new valves and is always in the same socket, suspect the grid coupling caps ! HTH! LD

^ +1 what Mikey says about replacing those small coupling caps on g1 of both output valves to fix redplate on one valve in that circuit. Shouldn't redplate, that's worth sorting and chances are the rest of the hum might go away too. Be sure to be use correct voltage rating of those replacement caps or err on the generous side - HTH ! LD

^ what rmorris says +1 LD

Refusing, as a matter of personal principle, to play tonic dominant straight 2 time for 4 minutes.......it's true ! You have the wrong man.....! LD

PS: And when you think of how much care, attention, money, sweat, time, love etc is put in to the sound of instruments and amps, it just makes sense to be sure of excellent sound from the PA which it is all going through after all........even if it pretty much guarantees the venture is loss making and usually significantly loss making ! Hey, think just of it as art, not work ! LD

Indeed, a decent job is not cheap. Ian Dury said it well : Here's a little piece of advice You're quite welcome it is free Don't do nothing that is cut price You know what that'll make you be LD

[QUOTE]Muppet said: ]Strange question but it's worth asking here as we (our band) don't know if we're being unreasonable. For larger gigs we hire a sound engineer and quality PA. We pay him his invoiced fee. He's not a mate of a mate, doing this for beer money, he's a professional operation and ends up with more than any band member does. Thing is, he expects us to turn up to venues to help him load in and set up before the gig and to wait around afterwards to coil cables and shift speakers at the end. He's got loads of gear (more than I think is necessary but the sound quality is good so I don't complain). He's not a one man business but most of the time for our gigs does it on his own. This setting up/taking down takes ages and he gets arsey if we don't help. Are we being unreasonable in thinking this is not really our job, or should we be all teamy and hang around for ages helping him out? From a band side, we all help each other load and pack so we're not selfish in that respect. thanks Steve [/QUOTE] I salute you, Steve, this is surely the way to fly. We do the same and it works really well, makes a huge difference and removes a burden from the band and we can focus on performing, and it sounds way better than we could do. What we do is help each other with gear - they help us we help them and it all feels right. We have our own seriously heavy and awkward gear, and so do they ! When we use in-house PAs in venues, they still help us loading our gear, and we help with their gear even though its much smaller and simpler. And they do FOH for us, and monitors. Quid pro quo and happy as Harry, as the romans said when setting up for gigs at the Colleseum ! LD

Too few opportunities in this life to go into a music shop and ask "Have you got rubber feet?". Each chance should be taken IMO, and the moment enjoyed LD

This reminds me of Dumb and Dumber, where one of them ends up with his tongue attached to a ski lift....... Anyone heard of the Darwin Awards, given posthumously to those who remove their genes from the genepool in the most outrageous ways ? It's such a bad idea to use yer tongue to check charge on caps as to beggar belief, and would qualify for the Darwin Awards for sure, being highly likely to kill or mame.... Back in the 70s I worked in Sound City's repair shop in the basement on Shaftesbury Ave, and saw a lot of Dominators. They didn't have much reputation at the time, but now have a following and certainly a unique sound - the tone stack is essentially from a Bassman IIRC. Again, if memory serves, there were one or two favourite spots for dry joints and cracks/track breaks near the supports, worth a check ? HTH! LD

My humble experience of blowing bass drivers is that it is mostly amp faults that do it - followed by excessive cone excursion (ie voice coil hitting the end stop), followed by self-destruct of voice coil spontaneously coming unglued from cone. Amp faults - DC offset faults normally, or squeals that only bats can hear... Cone excursion - underpowered amps clipping and producing weird and unnatural subsonics, or badly eq'd amps producing deep subsonics at high levels, or badly matched drivers and cabs handling subsonics with much cone flapping........ Self destructing voice coils - cheap drivers. Ah the halcyon days of Johnson & Jones speaker repairs in Dalston - anyone remember them ? I was a regular customer back in the day......... LD

[QUOTE]PaulWarning said: I once read somewhere that some pro bass players play with fingers in the studio but a pick live, don't know whether it's true but it kinda makes sense[/QUOTE] Think it's the other way round - pick for recording ? Definition, tonal range - can't manipulate what isn't there and all that..... LD

Hhmmm, if it sounds good and works as it should I'm not seeing the prob here.....for all we know you've stumbled on something wonderful and unique in terms of pickup interaction that is custom to you...... Someone's law says if you muck about with something long enough it will break........! HTH! LD