Beer of the Bass

I'm re-jigging my pedal board, which is going to consist of just my home built valve overdrive (which can be found in the build diaries section), my Univox Super Fuzz clone and a tuner pedal. My power supply for the fuzz and tuner is one of the discontinued Johnny Shredfreak ones, with a daisy chain cable. At the moment my tuner is a Harley Benton TU100 cheapie from Thomann which works very well by itself. However, I thought people might like a heads-up that this tuner does not behave well when the power supply daisy chained with other pedals, either using a daisy chain cable or the power-through socket. It seems like the tuner is dumping a load of noise on the power supply ground, causing a layer of really nasty noise when the fuzz is switched on. If I run them both off the same battery using the tuner's power-through socket (ruling out the PSU), I still get the noise, but if I run one or both of them off a battery without the daisy chain, the noise stops, suggesting that the power supply link between the two is causing the problem. I'm not about to fork out on an isolated power supply just to make my £20 tuner work, so I just thought I'd make it known; don't buy this tuner if you want to daisy chain your power supply! Are there any cheap-ish tuners known to work OK with daisy-chained supplies?

In my smaller builds like preamps, I like using those small pre-made tagboards like Burman used (ampmaker sell them), but some larger caps don't fit the spacing too well. Personally I found eyelets to be a bit of a pain in the bum on the one amp I built using them, and another one I've repaired. They're easy enough to assemble and work with, but if you need to re-work them, getting under the board to remove excess solder from the underside of the holes is a hassle. I'd love to do a big bass amp like this myself some day, but the cost of iron is putting me off!

[quote name='bobbass4k' timestamp='1366562682' post='2054085'] And to be perfectly frank, that isn't helped by mixed signals from the mod team. I have seen many mods contribute jokes and other comments that contribute to or propagate the discussion in threads that are ultimately locked by a mod (sometimes the same mod), occasionally with a citation of the "try and avoid religion, politics, and anything sexist please" "rule". I appreciate that the mods are also users and want to participate in threads but it can sometimes appear that they are operating on a double standard, or that the judgement of a thread becoming unacceptable is made on a whim rather than by an established set of rules. [/quote] This is very true. Although it's their site and their call, a little consistency on this would be appreciated. As an example, there was that thread a couple of days ago, essentially mocking a trans woman. This is a form of sexism and not something I'm comfortable seeing on here (which I believe you pointed out on the thread, Bob), but I noticed a member of the mod team blithely joining in the "banter". I know mods/admins are only human and all that, but I think the role does come with an increased responsibility to think carefully before posting.

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1366542472' post='2053682'] The matter of complaints, grief, shyte flying about (not that I have encountered it) is likely as not simply related to the number of members now registered. Where in the early days there weren't so many of us, you'd statistically have had few instances for grief but as numbers have grown, it would seem obvious that the quantity of incidents will increase. With more people communicating with 'more people' you've got a greater potential for friction and a greater variety of reasons to get fractious. No idea how you resolve it mind! [/quote] I think you're on to something there. In the several years I've been on here, there are at least a couple of members who I've had disagreements with in OT, yet after reading their posts on other topics, I come to realise that they're OK people who I'm actually glad we have around on the forum. I still hold a different set of views from them, but that's not such a problem. As the number of members increases, it gets harder to reach that level of understanding of where individual members are coming from, so the spats increase.

I've got some old Germanium diodes that look a lot like the top photo, and I've used a couple of them in a Superfuzz clone. They work well as clipping diodes in pedals, as they seem to clip in a softer way than silicone diodes, though you end up with lower output due to the lower forward voltage. Also, I wonder if the ones with the 91 might be OA91?

[quote name='Dave Vader' timestamp='1366277590' post='2050340'] Yeah, but they won't let me have an in phase middle pickup for my strats, so i had to go expensive custom bulldogs (which are lovely btw) can't be doing with that pansy out of phase middle pickup mush. ironically i sold some lovely old hohner standards that were in phase and sounded great because I thought they were cheap crap. I was young, and stupid. [/quote] I am confused. Most modern strat pickups have a reverse wired, reverse magnetic polarity middle pickup so it cancels hum when used with the neck or bridge, but the output should still be in phase if they're installed correctly. An RWRP middle pickup shouldn't sound any different other than cancelling hum in the 2 and 4 positions. If your middle pickup is truly out of phase with the other two, could you not just reverse the two wires from the middle pickup?

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1366216175' post='2049750'] Nope, when I touch my plastic plectrum against my strat pickup, it does make a noise through the amp. It's definitely not invisible to it. [/quote] Almost all magnetic pickups are at least slightly microphonic, depending on how well potted they are. Unless it's extremely loosely wound and unpotted (to the point where you could talk into it), it's not going to get very much at all from a thin sheet of vibrating plastic which is not even touching it. Try putting a classical guitar high E string on your strat and see how much output you get! I just popped up in this thread to share an instance which I found interesting, so i'm not really interested in going back and forth on this...

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1366215194' post='2049733'] But he had the pickup below the skin of the banjo, so it would obviously pick up a different sound. Also not to mention scale length and strings. I don't know much about banjos but I wouldn't think they use guitar strings. [/quote] The skin is not magnetic or conductive, so would be "invisible" to a magnetic pickup, and the pickup was mounted to the relatively rigid dowel rod. Other than having loop ends instead of ball ends, typical banjo strings are made in the same way, from the same materials as electric guitar strings and tenor banjo scale length is usually around 23" for a long scale, again not very different from guitar. Short of mocking up something in a workshop, it's about as good an example as I've experienced of mechanical differences in an instrument affecting the sound obtained from a magnetic pickup.

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1366211633' post='2049676'] Well yes, but that's why the difference between an acoustic instrument and an electric instrument is so different, and I only ever referred to electric instruments here when talking about tonewoods. Acoustic instruments are a completely different ball game. [/quote] Yeah, that was a bit of an extreme example, but I found it interesting. If you are listening to an instrument solely using a magnetic pickup under the strings, it is not an acoustic instrument in that application - it's just a mechanical structure which can affect the string movement the pickup sees, depending on how much energy it absorbs and disperses from the strings at various frequencies. If attaching strings to a wildly different structure can produce a wildly different sound through a magnetic pickup, then surely smaller differences in that structure (like changes in material) could make some difference, it's just a question of how significant we judge that difference to be. Since music is an art form, subjective judgements are where all the good stuff happens! FWIW, on the two basses I've built, I chose the woods on the basis of appearance and availabilty. Of course, none of this really adds anything new to the discussion - it's all there in the first couple of pages, but hey, what else are bass forums for? I suppose thinking about the nature of our instruments is useful to some extent though...

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1366209690' post='2049636'] 2 different acoustics with the same electro-magnetic pickup will sound more of less the same, but it's a completely different ball game. [/quote] Just to throw a (friendly) spanner in the works, I was at a gig last night where the headliner was playing an old open-backed banjo amplified using a Strat pickup attached to the dowel rod, just under the skin. It sounded like a banjo and not in the slightest like my bandmate's Strat. Both instruments have a similar scale length, nickel roundwound and plain strings and necks built similarly from similar materials. To me this suggests that the vibration of the string as "heard" by a magnetic pickup is strongly affected by the mechanical properties of whatever the bridge and neck are attached to. So, while two different lumps of hardwood will probably have a smaller difference in sound than comparing a tensioned skin to a lump of hardwood in the above example, I'm not sure I could say that there can be no difference. Ultimately, it's up to the player and listener to decide how significant these properties are to them, making it one of these subjective discussions which can run and run...

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1366140647' post='2048936'] Ooh! Make me one! [/quote] Not sure I'd want to offer that, being busy with various other things including sorting out my marriage next month. You could get a kit from www.pedalparts.co.uk though, I reckon the Superfuzz goodness is worth the effort!

The pickups in cheaper instruments can be pretty good now, since they're often copying the original designs more closely than they used to. I have a £99 Axl guitar which came with "EMG designed" alnico single coils. Out of curiosity I put in a pair of Seymour Duncans, which have the same DC resistance (I'd guess the same gauge and number of windings) though the Duncans have weaker Alnico II magnets, flatwork rather than a moulded bobbin, and are scatterwound. The difference between them is really quite subtle, with the Duncans being a bit mellower and less peaky in the upper mids but still quite open sounding. Comparing recordings made before and after, nothing about the cheaper pickups sounds obviously worse, they just have a slightly different character.

On the width thing - I had a Carlsbro 100 watt PA which was 50cm wide - the same as a Super 12. Plenty loud for my needs too - I never had to turn it up to the point where it started to sound dirty at a gig, although my band may be less loud than some as our guitarists both use 1x12" valve combos.

It's finished and working. It does absolutely nail the Soft Machine fuzz bass thing! It's got that real sandpapery edge that the Muff lacks. I find I prefer the mid-notched setting on bass - it's centred high enough at 1K that there are still some mids going on below that. The normal setting is very midrangey and focussed, though with a little less low end than the notched setting. It'll be fun trying it with the band. We've got a gig tonight, but I should probably try it at a rehearsal first...

I just had a look at the eBay listing, and it looks like you've got a valve rectifier in there, so that's one less thing to change. A push-pull EL84 amp could be good for 15-18 watts depending on the amp design and the output transformer, but I think domestic audio stuff like this didn't run them as hard as instrument amps tend to. With speaker impedances, the usual rule of thumb is that you'll get the most output and least stress to the output transformer using the same impedance speaker as it was designed for, but if you're going to risk a mismatch, a lower impedance speaker is less likely to cause damage than one with higher impedance.

Personally, I'd be tempted to rebuild the chassis into something resembling a classic guitar amp. With an EF86, 12AX7 and a pair of EL84s, you could probably base it on the 60's Vox AC15 normal channel. I've got an old Fidelity reel to reel I'm planning something similar with, though mine is a smaller single ended amp so it'll end up resembling an AC4. If you don't fancy a full rebuild, you should at least replace the electrolytic capacitors to keep it reliable and safe. Also, what kind of rectifier does it have? If you're lucky, it'll have a valve rectifier, but some of these old tape decks use Selenium rectifiers which have a limited life and give out bad smelling fumes when they go - I'd change that if you have one.

I think there's a theme developing here. I don't know all of the names mentioned here, but the ones I do are captivating performers with or without a looper.

I don't think it's restricted to bassists. I can only think of one or two musicians of any sort (Thomas Truax is one) who do anything inspiring using a looper - most of the time they're a bit of a gimmick and the novelty wears off quickly for me.

I always used to stay higher up the neck when I had an OC2 - not so much because of the tracking but because that was the sound I was after and my small combo at the time couldn't handle going lower. I loved it on fretless or EUB, but could never bond with it on a fretted bass for some reason.

Since a couple of guitar amps have snuck in, I thought I'd stick up a couple of pictures of my home built job. It's based on a Fender Princeton Reverb - it does about 15 watts with a pair of 6v6s, and is in a birch ply cabinet which I tried to make as light as possible. My lead dress isn't up to the standards of the really good stuff like Hiwatt yet, but it works just fine.

Surprisingly, it may have been Hofner, as they were offering active circuitry in basses from the mid-late 60s. [url="http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/factfiles/active/electronics.html"]http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/factfiles/active/electronics.html[/url] The guys who founded Alembic were also early adopters of active circuitry, but I guess they don't come under "mass produced".

I've seen pictures of an adapted child trailer on Talkbass, so I guess it could work, but I'd want to use a cheap robust bass. I never cycle on the road with a couple of drinks in me, just the same as driving.

For me the big problem is lugging them up tenement stairs. My 2x12" is lighter, goes through doors more easily and has the right proportions for the boot of a Fiesta! If I lived on the ground floor and played places that had parking, I'd be happy with a good 4x10".