Beer of the Bass

What on earth is going on with that? 15 strings crammed in to 10 single string bridges, with a wooden bridge in front of that and a bottom string that doesn't appear to be over the fingerboard. Does it even play, I wonder?

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1401879434' post='2467716'] not heard that one before, what does dime the mids mean [/quote] Turn them to 10. Which is odd terminology come to think of it, as a dime is 1/10 of a dollar, not 100% of one!

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1394271800' post='2389698'] There are now integrated circuits that use tiny amounts of power. Passive circuits like these use a portion of the current from the input signal as the power source. [/quote] Is that really what he's doing, or are they just various combinations of more established passive circuitry (audio transformers, clipping diodes, inductors, RC circuits etc)? From the description of the pedals I'd have assumed the latter, but I haven't heard what the maker says about them.

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1401616240' post='2465185'] exactly! :thumbsup: I am sure that some sound guys also think I carry more stuff than necessary at times, when we play gigs with a couple of other bands and I show up, move aside the 1X15" combo provided and stack my two cabs, when I'm going to be DI'd anyway. But when I can carry both cabs, amp head and bass at once, I don't mind doing that and being able to hear myself on stage well and play happily. [/quote] Some of those 1x15" combos that show up in the kind of venue we play in are truly wretched things, so I reckon you're wise to do that. I'll often share bass rigs for the sake of quick changeovers and convenience, and they can be a mixed bag, but when I'm playing guitar I'll almost always bring my own. On the subject of backup, I've never had problems with my bass at gigs, but carrying my little GK MB200 head in my gig bag has saved at least two gigs so far when amps have been playing up.

I've noticed that, but never been sure how much of it is down to me and not the bass. I do think mine is a bit duller sounding in very high humidity, particularly with the bow.

How's the B-string on yours? I tried some Status half-wounds on my five string and found the B string overly thumpy, but some of that could be down to my bass. I moved them over to my four string fretless, where I think I like them better.

I know we're not supposed to discuss him, but didn't a certain eBay seller do this with a mismatched set of tuners and tout it as a feature? Perhaps the idea wasn't so out-there after all!

It would be interesting to see how some of the honestly marketed copies (Superlux, Behringer etc.) measure up against the real ones. I wonder if they're better than the fakes, or the same thing with a different label?

From the couple of basses I've had with more than the optimum amount of relief, I have the impression that basses with too much relief tend towards thumpiness on the lower strings and any dead spots tend to be worse. Perhaps that's something to do with the stiffness of the neck, I don't know.

I think the implication was that what the names have in common is being entirely unremarkable in Germany. I noticed that C*ntz guitars have now altered their branding a little for the export market. They're now "A guitars", with the luthier's name in subscript.

Is she creating listings with generic copy and pasted info to take advantage of a free listings deal, then editing them to fill in the details later when she has time?

How does it sound with the tone control up full? The capacitor has very, very little effect when the tone control is at maximum, so if it still sounds bad, the problem is elsewhere.

The code 503 would be a 0.05uF capacitor, so only a couple of percent different from the recommended 0.047uF.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1400872575' post='2457836'] Maven Peal offer a 'variable sag circuit' with their amps so it would seem it can be done. Dunno if it's continuously variable or a fixed rotary click-set of different resistor ratings. And would it work with a single-ended amp? Best ask yer tech! [/quote] Yes, I've seen a few seasoned amp techs argue that rectifier sag does not occur to any significant extent on a single-ended amp, as the current demand does not vary with output in the same way it does on a class AB push-pull.

[quote name='Bloodaxe' timestamp='1400171122' post='2451443'] I like that... sort of Brand X meets National Health. [/quote] Yes, it's odd that the reviews so far haven't mentioned things like National Health when guessing at the influences. I feel like I can hear much more of that sort of thing (National Health, perhaps the riffier Hugh-Hopper era Soft Machine or touches of Henry Cow) in the music than I can the more conventional US jazz/fusion influences that the reviewers like to mention. I'm enjoying the album - it has a really pleasing purposeful/minimalist quality about it, no superfluous noodling at all. Which I suppose is almost a post-punk aesthetic...

I do get the impression that nylon tapewounds have had a bit of a resurgence in the last couple of years with the D'Addario and LaBella sets, so I presume this is Rotosound responding to those. It'd be interesting to hear a little more about what they've changed.

If you do try replacement speakers, I bet the Eminence 1028k alnico would be great in one of these amps. I had one in my Princeton Reverb clone and it had a lot of that Fendery chime and sparkle but in a 15 watt amp it broke up a little too much for me at volume.

I think most of the K&K preamps are 1Mohm input impedance (my old K&K Power Pack is). This works fine with K&K's own pickups, but some pickups like to see a higher impedance than that, so work better with something like the Plat Pro which has 10Mohm input impedance.

I think this might be a good application for the SFX Thumpinator. It's a steep high-pass filter set at a low frequency, intended to stop those percussive low frequency transients from stressing your speakers without changing the sound too much.

Those aren't plain gut, but I think there were some strings around fairly early on with gut cores and a nylon/tynex winding on the D and G. I don't know what the brands of these were (as I wasn't around at the time) but Golden Spirals are the ones I've heard of.

Are the more expensive moulded ones a big step up in sound from the cheaper ER20s and their equivalents? I've tried several different cheaper earplugs (ER20s, Alpine Music Safe, 3M ClearEars) and on all of them I lose too much high end, making that it hard to judge what sort of sound I'm making. This is a particular problem on guitar, as I like a bright, glassy sound and with the plugs in it's hard to tell if I'm actually causing pain to the audience. I also get a weird distorted sounding boominess in the mid-bass frequencies above a certain volume. If the moulded plugs solve some of these issues I might have to think about them.

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1400162035' post='2451336'] Well if it works, fair enough. I suspect that judicious use of the bass control could have the same result, but DB and hollow wooden stages complicate matters. [/quote] I've often wondered if a tiny version of the Gramma pad for the spike to sit on would help with that.

Putting the cab on a chair really seems to help with avoiding low end feedback on double bass, especially with hollow wooden stages. I guess that's a special case though.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1400143443' post='2451075'] How am I ever going to see any boobs? Apart from searching for 'boobs' on Google, I mean? How?? [/quote] Ask the current Mrs Discreet very nicely?