basstone

4 hours ago, stewblack said:

Had an issue with my Veyron last night. Every time the compressor kicked in it did so with a loud noise. A sharp 'crack'. Turned off and two things happened. One, the noise stopped, two the volume increased - enormously.

I had it set quite timidly (about 20 to) I thought so was surprised at both issues.

 

I would expect the volume to appear to increase  slightly with the compressor off, as you're getting more dynamics. As to the other issue maybe some saturation / clipping somewhere in the gain staging? maybe try turning the input gain down and see if that has any effect.

This would look great on my jazz basses and it would be interesting to see if it sounded significantly brighter than a rosewood board. Sadly I can't justify the expense ATM. Maybe when my Casady bass sells 🤔

I've used OnSong for a few years now with multiple libraries for different bands. E.g small jazz, soul/funk, worship. I have a mixture of lyric charts with chords and PDF manuscript. All libraries are backed up and shared via dropbox. For worship there are great online resources for such as worship ready and song select to download compatible charts from. There is a good editor that allows accurate positioning of chords and an instant change key and capo feature, which is handy for working with different singers. Export of PDF with or without chords is also handy for sharing with those who  still prefer to use paper! There are loads of other features such as backing tracks and MIDI that I have not ever had a need to use

For jazz I also use iRealPro with the extensive online library imported. Playlists can easily be shared by email or message and also key change is quick and easy. Also a great resource for playing along to and essential for jazz jams or scratch band gigs.

17 hours ago, hooky_lowdown said:

Still available, been on a couple of jazz basses, probably only had 15hrs use.

OK. I'll PM you

Hi there

Just wondered if the tru bass strings are still available and just how used they are 🙂 Thanks

On 10/10/2022 at 14:05, whizzzy said:

Tony purchased some lights from me. Met up and I could have talked for hours, a very interesting chap. Impeccable transaction and a credit to the BC community. 

 

Thanks Tony.

Thank you. It was a pleasure to meet you and chat.

On 23/12/2022 at 12:04, Paul S said:

Seymour Duncan SCPB-3 reads well.  Any experiences?

 

https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-product/quarter-pound-single-coil-p-bass

I upgraded a Japanese Paisley Telecaster with one of these. Great punchy tone that cut through the mix really well

the Beta 58 and  the 945 are both very usable low cast vocal mics. The 945 sounds smoother than the beta 58 IMHO. Both are super cardioid, so fairly easy to position to minimize the chance of feedback. The 945 also has low handling noise which can be handy if the singer likes to keep removing the mic from the stand

5 hours ago, chyc said:

 

I believe the journey is close to an end. Plugged these in and fired them up to find a very nice sound indeed. Personally I can listen to all genres of music quite happily through these, except classical which seems hollow and lifeless for some reason.

 

Tips for the next person:

 

• Black screws. Someone of this parish pointed out they look more professional and now I cannot unsee it when big-bucks cabinets are sold with silver screws. Saying that, the screws to put in the corner protectors were like hens' teeth so I had to settle for either countersunk silver or black button head. You can see flashes of silver in the corners: function beats form every time IMHO
• The grilles are held on with black gaffer tape, because I didn't like the look of the four grille holding plates: form beats function every time IMHO.
• If you get decent wood and varnish it the results are killer. No idea why this isn't more of a thing in the professional world. Varnish is yacht varnish from Wilkos. £12 and I used less than half a tin for both cabinets.

Next stop is the bc112mk3. Still need to buy a few things for that build but to be honest this pair of cabs is more than I'll ever need. I used one with an ABM600 and it rattled my teeth.

I know what you mean about black screws, but get yourself a medium tip black permanent marker and silver screws become black (at least the bits you can see anyway). It sometimes takes a bit of working into the  posi head but overall gives a good effect. It's also handy for touching up black screws that are slightly damaged by the screwdriver, I touch up black screws after repairing  / modifying all types of gear and it greatly enhances the overall appearance! 

I might be tempting fate, but at one band rehearsal a power surge caused my GK MB500 amp to go completely dead but fortunately I could use a spare channel on the keyboard amp for the rest of the evening. Next day I opened up my amp, fearing the worst, found and replaced the blown main power fuse and all was well again and has been fine ever since on many gigs and rehearsals. Nothing is 100% reliable and best practice is to have a fallback solution of either a spare amp or DI into the PA or whatever works for you in a particular situation. Although a failure,  particularly early on in ownership, can knock confidence in a bit of kit, I have repaired dozens of amps that have gone on to subsequently provide reliable service for many years. Unless a design is known to be weak or flawed, I'd personally always give give it another go.

10 hours ago, Sparky Mark said:

Deja vu all over again.

Most of that spray will go over the outside of the LEDs. You really need to take the volume control board out. Ensure that the mains power is off and completely disconnected, remove the top cover, remove the volume control knob ( just pull outwards) and undo the nut holding the pot and its board in place. There is no need to disconnect the cable just don't pull on it. Spray the rectangular pot body nd rotate the volume shaft over its whole range. In my experience this does the trick. If in any doubt take it to a tech to do.

8 hours ago, goingdownslow said:

Is this the board,   does it just come off those two clips,   what is on the other side,  does the knob need to be pulled off first?

 

Yes that’s it. The volume knob pulls off then undo the nut on the pot which holds the board in place. There is no obvious opening to spray the cleaner into but a general spray all around cleaned mine up nicely. 

30 minutes ago, Skin Lewis said:

 

100% sure. It lights up when activated, and it was the first thing I checked anyway. I suspect the volume control - at the 9 o'clock position, just one notch doubled the volume at soundcheck, a couple of sweeps cleared this. I can't trust it, so it's going back.

Could be worth giving it a second chance, perhaps not on a gig! just to try to localise the problem?

Mine had a slightly noisy volume control when it arrived, mainly up near maximum volume. I opened it up (I wanted to see inside anyway),took the volume board out  for better access and gave it a quick spray with servisol and it was perfect from there on. Not what should be needed with a new bit of kit but effective. We don't know how long these amps have been on the shelf and we all know that pots tend to get noisy if not used, regardless of the make / cost etc! and still a bargain at £150!

On 20/12/2022 at 10:47, velvetkevorkian said:

I thought this had been done but I'm getting confused about my Ibanez models, it was a Mezzo.

 

I have had a 5 string on a 4 string Precision neck bass*, and my recollection was that it was playable but with very little margin for error -- the nut spacing in particular was very cosy. As others have noted, 1mm on the outside of the G string makes it very easy to pull the string off the edge of the board. I wonder if you could have less space outside of the B and more outside of the G, as IME when fretting you're pushing the string somewhere between straight into the fretboard and towards the floor, but rarely upwards towards the player.

 

*please excuse the crappy pictures and the ink-stained carpet 🙈

 

 

This bass looks really cool. I love the way the extra tuner has been installed to maintain straight string lines over the nut. Any chance of more details of the extra string anchor and tuning arrangement?

On 21/12/2022 at 00:26, BassBunny said:

Contact Ashdown. The best customer service in the music industry.

I'm sure Dave Green or Lee can help.

Second that. They have always been more than helpful when I have an Ashdown to repair, unlike a few other well known companies! If you need replacement parts they can usually supply them at a reasonable price.

On 09/12/2022 at 18:58, stewblack said:

G4M should be giving me commission 

I should think so! I couldn't resist buying one  as a spare amp at that price.  Fast delivery especially for this time of year.

The Veyron compares very favourably with my GK SM500 class D amp, probably similar power output and more than enough for most situations. The Bugera is bigger and heavier but it does look more the part on top of the cabs whereas the GK does tend to look a bit lost as it's so small! One feature the Bugera has that the GK does not is the compressor and I found it was very usable in small doses. Thanks for the tip Stew

My first commercial amp was a Polytone Minibrute III  15" combo , bought secondhand in the 1990s. It does not look particularly scientifically designed as it's nominally a sealed box as small as the 15" driver would allow with a very modest 50W solid state amp., which would do 100w with the similarly sized 15" extension cab. It was used extensively for jazz gigs with fretted and fretless bass and for pit work. I found it very versatile and ideal for small venues and tight band pits! I preferred the 15" version of the Polytone for the smooth low end, even if lacking the top end and maybe a bit of punch of the 12" versions. I do still have it and used it recently for theatre work.

I also have an Ashdown active 15" sub and a GK 1 x 15" both of which get used with  2 X 10S  if extra bottom end and volume is needed for bigger gigs. I also have a BC112 Mk3 which I'm tending to use more and more as it is great all round on its own for most situations, and the LFSys Silverstone is an improved version of this!  At the end of the day it comes down to what you like to hear that works in your band and gig situation.

1 hour ago, Chienmortbb said:

I have an empty MK3 cabinet that I need to move on. It has served me well for several years, but I now have one of @stevie's LFSys Silverstone. I will put it up for sale in the Amps and Cabs for sale shortly. It has no drivers, but it does have the crossover and the PH170 horn, as well as a punched aluminium grille.  It just needs a Faital Pro 12PR320 12" driver and a Celestion CDX1-1425 compression driver. I will post a link to it as soon as it is up on the for sale area.

Is this one of the first batch of Kits that Stevie had made?

I've replaced quite a few barrel jacks in everything from German Warwicks to electroacoustics.  It is also not easy to determine the quality of make of manufacture of replacement parts these days as they all look the same and most are probably made in the same Chinese factory anyway!

Part of the problem seems to be that the contacts are fairly small and can loose their spring, which in turn causes intermittent connection. Of course because of the way that they are made it is impossible to to repair them by bending the contacts to improve the connection. I try to replace them with a jack plate and regular old school switchcraft style wherever possible. At least you can see what's going on and adjust contact tension to suit. You just have to watch out for shorts to the control cavity if it is screened as they do take up more width.

1 hour ago, police squad said:

wow, I had a stomper set up in the the early 90s. Great gear

GLWTS

Yes it's very well thought out and made. Ideal for a small band lighting rig, controlled from the stage.

5 hours ago, Grahambythesea said:

Great basses, presumably this will be one of those made by Peerless in Korea? The quality of their instruments is superb, my JC is one sold under their own name. 

It does not say where it was made. It is probably late 90s early 00s. It is very well made though 

Blackstar U60  bass combo for sale. Compact and lightweight combo, with single 10" speaker, is a versatile small amp, ideal for practice or small gigs and can be upscaled using additional Blackstar cabs via the cabinet link. 3 voices as well as built in chorus and compression. Adjustable DI output and aux input and optional footswitch (not included).

1 hour ago, ahpook said:

 

It will as it happens - check out post #29 here. The pickup is asymmetrical, but a very easy job to flip it as you said.

 

Sorry to hijack

All interesting, my bass came as you see it now. I can't detect any string tone or volume variations between strings. It is a fairly unique bass with a distinct range of sounds.

17 minutes ago, CJPJ said:

This is lovely. Has the pickup has been flipped upside down? 

No, not by me anyway, that's how it was when I bought it new. Never really thought about it either.

Epiphone Jack Casady bass in metalic gold, this is an early one from early 2000s. It's not seen much use so generally in great condition, just a couple of small dings on the top. Comes with the Epiphone fitted case and the "E" badge for the scratchplate is also there but not fitted. These are great looking and sounding basses with the low impedance pickup and matching transformer to give 3 distinct sounds.  It's probably a long shot but I'd be open to a trade for an Ibanez SRF 700 / 705?