Beer of the Bass

I have a bass I built using an OLP 5 string neck, which is my main gigging instrument with one of my bands. While it's not obviously broken, the truss rod is unable to bring the neck straight enough, even when trying washers on the nut to give me more adjustment range. I have around 0.7mm of relief at the moment, which is playable but I'd like a bit less. The neck still has some relief with the strings off and truss rod slackened, and the rod doesn't change the relief even with the strings off. If it was a Fender sized neck, I'd just try a new neck, but there are almost no MM sized 5-string necks on the market (barring Status, but I can't afford those!). I have no back-up for this bass and very little budget to sort anything out. I'm loath to buy a different bass as I spent quite a while making the body for this one and it does sound good. As far as I can see, my options are as follows; -Live with it as is. It not unplayable, but it could be a lot better -Experiment with heat and clamping to straighten it out -If the rod is still ineffective, I could attempt surgery as per this thread; [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/160580-olp-mm3-broken-truss-rod-update/page__hl__olp"]http://basschat.co.u...e/page__hl__olp[/url] -Alternatively, I could think about building a new neck. I've done it once before, and I'm sure the tools I don't have I could borrow. What would anyone else do in this situation?

[quote name='Phil Starr' timestamp='1389617661' post='2336098'] It's more likely we will come up with a 1x8 design for this purpose, but it won't handle quite that much! [/quote] Would that be using the Faital 8" drivers that a couple of the US builders are using? I think my interest was piqued when I saw that the displacement should allow them to get as loud as many 10"s. Given that a 1x10" does me for a lot of my playing, and I use buses a lot, this could be very much of interest to me.

I've mentioned this here before, but I love Hugh Hopper's fuzz use on the Soft Machine stuff. I'm fairly sure he used a Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz, which was the same circuit as the Univox Superfuzz and Shin Ei FY6. I always wondered if this album might have been an influence on the Ben Folds five, with its fuzz bass and energetic piano. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zvlOu4kT2Y"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zvlOu4kT2Y[/url]

I play guitar in a band which has had two basschatters on bass. When I joined, it was LawrenceH, and when he moved down south he was replaced by McNach. That's not a huge sample of the forum, but both are nice dudes and good bassists. I'm pretty sure basschatters have a higher throughput of basses and gear than other bassists though, as most of the non forum using bassists I know are one-bass guys.

The 1x12" seems like a good place to start which would cover a lot of different needs. Other things that might be interesting; -Something genuinely tiny for small rooms, practicing or as a personal monitor would be very cool, like a high quality 1x8". I could certainly use something like that for double bass in my acoustic project. -As others have suggested, a cab to get that heavily coloured, guitar driver sound that people like about the older 8x10" cabs would be interesting to a lot of players, and not catered for by many existing designs. Sort of like a smaller cab in a similar vein to the Barefaced 69er.

Some of the switch cleaning products leave a lubricant behind, which you don't want. I've successfully used plain Isopropyl alcohol on Spirocores and bass guitar strings, but I'd avoid using it on any sort of synthetic string. I had thought it would be fine on nylon, but it turned a set of black nylon (bass guitar) tapewounds charcoal coloured and killed them dead. If you do want to try Isopropyl, it's available in Maplins.

I have never been able to figure out how Dima has enough breath left to play trumpet after bouncing around like that!

Interesting handover shot there - was I trying to stab you with it? And that Fender Rumble combo is probably not the finest backline the bass has seen. It didn't exactly sound bad, but it was rather buried by the other things onstage. I had fun playing the bass though. I would have played it for more than one song, but the end of our set crept up on me..

I'm surprised that some of my home built bits of valve gear have never been an issue with pernickety venues, but then I'm not doing functions. While I'm perfectly happy that they're earthed and fused correctly and built to good standards regarding insulation, cable strain relief etc., there is nothing official to say that. I wonder if PAT testing them might be a good idea?

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1389210471' post='2331479'] Sounds cool, make it adjustable though if you can! Other alternative pedals with a built in high end roll off I know of are the Tonehammer (with AGS engaged), Diamond Compressor (controlled by a jumper inside the pedal), and the Markbass Super Booster (using the VLE control). I always ended up using a VT Bass set as flat as possible with low gain when running fuzz through a PA. [/quote] Adjusting the frequency would be a challenge with this filter topology, as it would involve changing four resistances simultaneously. A 4 pole, 3 way rotary switch would work though. I think I'll try the circuit on a breadboard to find the values I like best and then build it with no controls in the smallest box I can stuff it in.

I only use two pedals with my band (not counting a tuner), and one of them is a Univox Superfuzz clone which sounds great through my own amp but has evil high end fizz through a PA or any cab with a tweeter. With limited soundcheck time, sound guys will either just leave the unbearable fizz in the FOH sound, or cut so much treble that my clean signal has no definition. One solution to this would be to insist on a mic for my cab, but at most of the gigs I do that isn't a sensible option. A full amp simulator like a Sansamp might work, but I had the Behringer BDI121 for a while and really didn't get on with the core tone of it at all. In a minor brainwave I decided that all I really need is a box with a steep lowpass filter set at somewhere around 3-4KHz in order to cut the highs to something close to the response I'd get from a tweeterless cab but not mess with anything below that. Being DIY inclined, I looked at designs for guitar cab simulators. Most of these have the high end response I'm looking for, but also simulate the bass roll-off and mid scoop of a typical guitar cab, which I don't want. So what I'm going to try is basing my circuit on the Runoffgroove Condor circuit ([url="http://www.runoffgroove.com/condor.html"]http://www.runoffgroove.com/condor.html[/url]), but taking out the bridged-T and highpass filters to leave just the input buffer and lowpass filter. If I put this in a box with a parallel link on the input, I should be able to send a full-range signal to the backline and a lowpassed signal to the PA via a DI box. I'll post back when I've tried this out...

I would be wary of replacing a piezo tweeter with a dynamic one without also installing a new crossover, as piezo tweeters have very high impedance and the existing crossover is unlikely to be suitable. There would be no harm in disconnecting the tweeter and crossover board entirely and running the amp output straight to the 12" though, and it's easily reversible if you don't like the results. Or for the absolute lowest tech, least invasive approach you could cut a bit of dense foam to sit in between the tweeter and grille to cut the high end somewhat!

[quote name='dudi8' timestamp='1389099808' post='2329839'] did anyone ever encountered a hybrid bass, not new, with a fingerboard thats not ebony? [/quote] I have a solid wood flat-backed German bass somewhat older than this one, which had a painted pale wood fingerboard when I bought it. I don't know if it might have been original or a cheap repair job at some point in the basses history. The sound improved by a long way when I had a new ebony fingerboard fitted.

They do look identical, but I suspect the best place to get a definite answer would be the forum at [url="http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/index.php"]http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/index.php[/url]

[attachment=151685:Jose Baton.jpg] Here's a blurry shot of McNach rocking the baton on Friday. I think there are some more photos on various peoples phones which we'll get up here as soon as possible.

The bass has been succesfully gigged with Sea Bass Kid and Jen and the Gents, and is now with McNach. I hope McNach has better photos than I do! I used it for the last song of our set, and our singer Jen was particularly excited about the Quo connection. We got a wee bit in the collecting tins too, those are also with McNach so I'm not sure how much we've raised yet. So, who's next?

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1388755219' post='2325624'] That's two of us in the market for one but i don't see them catching on somehow. [/quote] Although chances are if they existed, I couldn't afford one! I'd be more likely to adapt a cheap old short-scale bass, which in some ways would be a more authentic approach than buying one.

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1388762702' post='2325761'] Wow, thanks 6v6. I'd better check it out then, as I only got a bias reading on 1 out of 3 tubes! Would the amp even work if only one or two of the tubes were actually giving any output then? Maybe this explains why it seemed so underpowered...? [/quote] Yes, the amp will work and not sound unusual so long as there are at least one pair of valves working. Hence the guitarists' practice of taking two out of your 100 watt Marshall or Fender twin to make it less loud. 6V6s troubleshooting procedure is sound advice, so I'd try that first.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1388705356' post='2325238'] but seriously i'd love a Mark Sandman (Morphine) 2-String Bass (based on his converted 4-String Premier Bass). I would actually buy one of these. [/quote] I was going to say that! It would be genuinely different to anything on the market.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1388741327' post='2325385'] I think you'll struggle. The MB200 is really very good for what it is, but you won't have a lot of headroom at the best of times. Against a loud drummer, the extra cost to upgrade to an MB500 will soon seem like a good investment. [/quote] I think it compares OK to other 200 watt SS amps, but whether that's enough depends on the cab and the rest of the band. I used mine as the house amp for a monthly night my band hosted, and heard it cope with louder bands than mine, but I have a fairly efficient cab. It wasn't enough in a band where the guitarist was using a 350 watt Marshall mode 4 through a 4x12" turned far too loud, but most of the audience had left the room by that point due to guitarist induced ear-pain.

Shame they didn't use the magic eye on the CTM15. As a gimmick, it would be a lot cooler than the Ashdown VU metre IMO!

Mine has been fine in terms of reliability and the output seems to be up to scratch. I'd definitely put it up against other SS amps of a similar rating that I've used. I have no problems using it at decent volume for my band, with an efficient 8 ohm 2x12" cabinet (a 4 ohm would give you a little more), or a 1x10" for smaller rooms. It has a very "voiced" EQ which you will either like or not.

I'd expect some sort of SS stuff to drive the meter, but there just aren't enough preamp valves in there for a push-pull amp with a tone stack if it's going to have enough gain. Having said that, well designed SS stages aren't necessarily a deal-breaker. It could be single ended (i.e. no phase inverter needed), but then the 15 watt rating would be rather fanciful. I wonder if the unused valve space on the board is there because it shares a board with one of the Hayden guitar amps and they just populate them differently for the two models? Certainly the tick boxes at the top of the picture would suggest this, since I think they have one built in the same size chassis.

And for anyone who might be around Edinburgh tomorrow night, the gig is at the Counting House on West Nicholson Street. Jen and the Gents are on at 8pm and Sea Bass Kid at midnight, so why not come for the whole evening and see us both?

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1388617966' post='2324193'] Closest I've been able to compare is a Mexican J to a US Standard J to a Custom Shop. They were all quite different tonally but, to be honest, I've played 3-4 Custom Shop J's back to back and every one sounded different to the next one as well. Could be that there's more variation in tone between J's than P's. [/quote] A Mexican Fender could be a bit of a red herring in this type of comparison, as they use ceramic pickups which are very different in design to the traditional alnico jobs. The CV or VM Squiers should be closer to old style US Fenders in this respect. Aside from the flats vs. rounds thing, I'd agree with the OP in that this type of instruments are quite simple beasts by design and consequently the cheaper ones can often do a respectable job.