Beer of the Bass

Getting the full power out of your amp by running the minimum impedance doesn't mean a lot when the excursion limit of the cab is less than the rated power of the amp. This will usually be the case with a high powered amp (like most modern solid state heads) running into a 2x10". So it's quite possible that a 12 ohm cab could get louder than another 8 ohm cab with the same amp if the excursion limited power is higher. Some of the responses here seem almost angry, which I find odd. If a product doesn't tick your boxes, choose something else. You don't have to rail against it's very existence. For others not bothered by the 12 ohm impedance, a lightweight cabinet aimed at a particular old-school colouration, with the .5 alignment for improved dispersion could make for a useful option. I'm not likely to change my cabs any time soon, but I'd be intrigued to hear what these sound like.

[quote name='itsmedunc' timestamp='1399625216' post='2445905'] With a bridge? Or is it photoshopped? [/quote] He must mean that it's missing a saddle (it's only got five), not a bridge.

The bridge on eBay is probably unfitted. When fitting a bridge, wood is removed from the feet to match the arch of the bass top and from the crown of the bridge to set the relative heights of the strings to suit the fingerboard profile, so an unfitted bridge will always start off on the tall side. This is done to suit each individual bass. Fitting a bridge is a task involving some skill and most players will go to a luthier rather than attempting to DIY. It may also be possible to have adjusters fitted to your existing bridge rather than replacing it.

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1399570476' post='2445503'] Oh c'mon. He's put a 8 and a 4 Ohm driver in series and is going to mutter some technobabble about different impedance curves and frequency curves. No special drivers about it. [/quote] Why would he do that? If the drivers were 8 and 4 ohms, it would make a lot more commercial sense to use two of either for a 4 or 8 ohm cab and not have to explain the unusual impedance. Barefaced have worked with an unspecified manufacturer to produce their own 12" drivers, so there's no reason to suspect they haven't commissioned their own proprietary 10" for these cabs. Unless they are flat-out lying, which they have no history of doing and I would have no reason to suspect that they would...

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1399560638' post='2445342'] [color=#333333][size=3][size=4]Hmmmmm.[/size][/size][/color] [color=#333333][size=3][size=4]So it's more sensitive (= louder? who needed it to be louder?), and it has better treble, better mids, and better bottom. All at once. [/size][/size][/color] [color=#333333][size=3][size=4]I thought cabs were always a trade-off? To make one thing better, something else had to be less good ...[/size][/size][/color] [/quote] I suspect "smoother, more flattering treble" means "less treble".

12 ohms is unusual! I suppose they must have commissioned a driver to make the 4 ohm 6x10", and the 2x10" might have been less economical to produce if it needed its own model of driver. I wouldn't be too worried about running one from the 16 ohm output of a valve amp, as it's only a 25% mismatch from the nominal value and as the blurb points out, impedance varies with frequency anyway. I'd be interested to hear what these sound like. With more neutral sounding cabs I tend to cut the low bass and boost the upper mids (around 2KHz) to get towards the sound I like, so I wonder if the colouration of these might be the kind of sound I aim towards.

It does look like the outer box from a Leslie 16, and I can see parts of the rotor mechanism in the photos (the part where it says "oil here"). Is the rotating drum still in there? It's hard to tell from the photos. It's been heavily modified, as an original would have had a single 10" speaker firing into the cutout in the rotating drum and no amplifier. The amplifier in yours uses the front panel from an old Selmer Treble n' Bass head but none of the circuitry from it.

There doesn't seem to be a schematic out there for the TS5, only the block diagram that Ibanez put in the manual. It looks like has one 12AX7 in the preamp with a single knob tone control in between the two triodes and a single-ended 6v6 power stage. Depending on how the tone control is implemented, that probably puts it closest to a tweed Princeton circuit.

I love some of these. I'm almost tempted to give the process a try! I'd have to persuade my wife to run me up a matching shirt in the same fabric though...

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1399205785' post='2442026'] I'm a drummer. I get asked sod all. [/quote] What about "Any chance of a lift to the gig?" Drummers get asked that one a lot.

The manufacturers claims about interference rejection at high frequencies have got me wondering. If you look at the schematic of any linear power supply, after the fuse, transformer and rectifier come a series of R/C low-pass filters using large value electrolytic capacitors. These filters are intended to remove 50Hz and 100Hz ripple from the DC which powers the audio circuitry, so at higher frequencies they will behave much like a dead short to ground. So how does interference picked up by the mains cable find it's way into the DC supply? The Russ Andrews cable above is tested for interference in the MHz range, and I'm struggling to see how this could be an issue given the filtering used in power supplies. Or have they just commissioned some graphs to look sciencey? [url="http://www.russandrews.com/downloads/SKtest.pdf"]http://www.russandrews.com/downloads/SKtest.pdf[/url]

I think the differences are all in the features they include in the preamp and EQ stages. Double bass specific amps like Acoustic Image will tend to have very high impedance inputs (1-10MOhms) to work well with piezo pickups and EQ which is relatively neutral when the knobs are centred. They also tend to include things like highpass or notch filters which can help with feedback prevention. There are plenty of amps which do a fine job with both instruments, and the features above can always be added with an outboard preamp (Fishman, Headway etc.) if needed.

I managed to keep a straight face right up until it said "Please, look at the state of the photo."

This is just the sort of thing I was praising the 1974 Precision in the other thread for not being!

This might be because I've spent more time playing bass, but in the one band I play guitar in I find that dropping into rhythm mode is my default state. If the song needs something outside of that, I really have to push myself to do that as it doesn't feel very natural to me. It's the first band I've played guitar in, which makes it an interesting experience.

[quote name='walbassist' timestamp='1399032696' post='2440213'] Do these strings have silks? Is the low B tapered? [/quote] They have black silks and the low B is un-tapered. I wasn't particularly enamoured of the B string, but my bass is quite touchy about them and it may be quite different on another bass.

I bought a set a while ago to try. They sound more like mellower rounds than like flats IMO, though the lower strings perhaps have a touch more flatwound character. They come close to a flatwound feel, but the D string in particular is a touch more grippy. I took them off my fretted bass, as they didn't quite satisfy me, but they turned out to be exactly what I wanted on my fretless. The tension feels very similar to a roundwound of the same gauge, though that's only my perception as Status don't supply measurements.

I don't mind it. The finish has at least been carefully and skillfully done - rather that than some of the awful hack jobs that pop up on eBay with startling regularity.

[quote name='Lord Sausage' timestamp='1398897072' post='2438924'] Gotta agree with icastle. All the BC members were right on, but the point had been made and it wasn't gonna go anywhere great! [/quote] True, but that might have been done with a firm nudge from a mod (i.e: a post requesting that the thread is not taken further in this direction) rather than an immediate lock. I've seen this moderation approach work well on other threads; where it doesn't, the lock is still an option but wouldn't look so heavy handed if a warning has been given first.

That's an odd contraption! Does the Leslie rotor work?

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1398877264' post='2438594'] doesn't the SVT preamp have about 7 valves in it? how they fit all them and a power amp in there? Caitlinbread SFT is quite a good little (solid state) version of the SVT [/quote] I'd guess they're not using valves, as surely the word "valve" or "tube" would be all over their marketing copy and they'd have the inevitable LEDs behind them to make 'em glow brighter...

As Lozz says above, really. You have used the thing for a time. That has a value, surely? I'd say that the delivery charges are a small price to pay.

The last time I had a set of Picato flatwounds they were un-silked at both ends. I had a four string set so I can't comment on the B, but usually manufacturers will mention it when their strings are tapered.

I have a bass-cut capacitor on my bridge pickup on a push-pull pot, otherwise the bass is wired like a Jazz. I can't remember what value I used, but I think I copied the Rick value. I like the effect, but I tend to use it in conjunction with the two volume controls, with the neck on full and the high end of the bridge pickup dialled in to taste.

Purely on aesthetics, an old B15n with the light-up perspex panel on the front. Come to think of it, that could sound rather good too...