Beer of the Bass

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1361924157' post='1993298'] Everything I've read about these suggests they could just be the 'perfect' amp for me! A god friend has a Monique pre & I'm really excited to get a chance to try it out [/quote] They do look rather nice, don't they? If you get the chance to try your friends one out, I'd be interested to hear how the voicing compares to your B15. The Jule is way out of my budget, but as I'm currently working on a DIY preamp based on the B15, I'm curious about their design approach. It looks like they may have a true Baxandall EQ rather than the James EQ of the B15.

From my memories of reading Bassist, the name Fran Pettifer is ringing a bell. I know they missed his name out of the article, but did they print it as a correction in the next issue? I could be imagining it, but if someone has a stack of the issues they could check.

IIRC there was a Behringer copy of the Boss Slow Gear. If you can live with Behringer build quality (plastic enclosures), that might be an option.

The EHX microsynth does this, among all the other stuff. It's what the attack delay slider does. It's probably overkill if you just need a pedal for that though!

Is a lower than nominal impedance at 3kHz likely to cause much of a problem in a bass guitar application? I get that too-low impedance will cause a higher current draw which could stress the output devices or trigger overcurrent protection in an amp, but surely the bulk of the output will always be in the low hundreds of Hz with a bass guitar signal, making the impedance higher up less critical? (Note; I'm not claiming any particular authority in questioning this - just speculation from an interested amateur and correction or clarification is quite welcome!)

It doesn't really say much about the relative quality of the guitars, since they were mostly trying to feel details like the size of the frets, neck profile, and even sniffing to see if it smelled like a nitro finish. I wonder how they would have done in a listening test?

My band host a monthly night in a local venue, which is booked and promoted by our drummer, no "promoters" involved. We bring our own backline for this and will happily let the other bands use it, but we go into it knowing what sort of bands we are booking and we've always been in communication with them before the gig. This is the sort of situation where gear sharing works well. I'll usually have a quick chat with whoever is using my kit to check they're aware of how to use it, and because we know who the other bands are we've usually weeded out the egotists and arseholes already. I take a picture of my EQ settings with my phone and put a bit of tape across the top of the amps saying "No Drinks Please!". I've honestly not had a problem at these gigs - it's the other sort where promoters with zero communication skills fling four disparate bands into a room where I've been less happy. For the latter sort of gig, the promoters should really be hiring in backline or using venues that provide house amps.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1360601418' post='1973122'] Have stopped reading the thread but the coachloads visiting Paul's house evidences the fact that they are overrated. No-one is worthy of that nonsense. [/quote] I agree with this. Appreciating their music, its influence and cultural significance is not overrating them. Venerating their former dwellings and possesions as though they were some kind of holy relic probably is. Although I did once play in a band with an accordionist who insisted we take a detour of several miles on the way to a gig so that he could visit the statue of Sir Jimmy Shand in Auchtermuchty! We humoured him, but really?

I wired mine like this with a push-pull pot, but you could also substitute a DPDT mini toggle for the switch: [url="http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=jass_bass_sp"]http://www.seymourdu...ic=jass_bass_sp[/url] In series mode there is just one volume control for both pickups, plus the master tone. In parallel it's a normal Jazz with independent volumes.

It's really noticeable when pickups are out of phase - usually two pickups in parallel and in phase will thin out and scoop the mids a little, but out of phase is a whole lot quieter with almost no low end. The simplest way to tell is to reverse the two wires from one pickup; one way round will be much louder and better sounding and this is when they are in phase. Pairs of Jazz pickups usually have opposite magnetic polarity and one coil reverse wired so that they will cancel hum but still have the output in phase. This works in both series and parallel. Regarding using series wiring on with Jazz pickups, I had a switch on mine to put the pickups in series and I found I never used it. Some people say the sound resembles a Precision, but to me it was just a bit thicker and sort of indistinct sounding, but still with the character of a Jazz bass in the highs.

[quote name='Big_Stu' timestamp='1360512005' post='1971475'] Interesting - to me anyway - a few weeks ago there was a badly refinned 60's bass highlighted on the Ebay thread that eventually went for not much. The general consensus was that it was a one-off hand made job that looked unstable, piece of cr*p, whatever. At around the same time I saw a major name player in a 60's promo pic holding a bass that appeared to be identical to it. Someone on Ebay either got a bargain, .......... or a "one-off hand made job that looked unstable, piece of cr*p" [/quote] That's an interesting one. If it's the bass I'm thinking of, I was one of the people who thought it looked home-made. We all get things wrong from time to time!

[quote name='Big_Stu' timestamp='1360507923' post='1971367'] The Guardian's music "expert" (their word not mine) was quoted in The Independant as saying that history proves that Kraftwerk were more influential in music than The Beatles. Even I snorted in derision. [/quote] While that might be a bit of a stretch, it's true that there has been a lot of sequenced electronic music in the charts for a long time now, and Kraftwerk were one of the first acts to do that in a pop context. I'd say the man from the Guardian was intentionally taking a devils advocate/provoking debate sort of position, which I guess is his job as a music journalist.

Before I had a photobucket account, I would often delete the pictures from my older sale threads, as basschat only allows a limited space for images. When I reached the upload limit, I couldn't post more without deleting some. I have also removed prices from old sale threads, but only where I felt that I had priced the items low, because I didn't want to disadvantage other sellers in future by skewing the market downwards. It might be annoying to some, but our posts are ours to edit so it's the sellers call whether or not they do this.

I was looking at V15s a couple of years ago when I was in search of an amp (as I saw one going cheap), but ended up building myself something instead. I always wondered if they might sound more Vox-ish if the negative feedback was reduced or removed, which would be a very simple mod that could even be made adjustable.

[quote name='Fionn' timestamp='1360283366' post='1968215'] Don't get me wrong. As a composer and player, I think the man was truly brilliant, but lets face it ... he had a penchant for the smelly stuff. Aye, a prolific purveyor of the stilton-esque, was Joseph. The times and technology cant be blamed for this. Herbie, for example, was sounding infinately classier in those days. [/quote] Not sure about that - although I like a lot of HH's 70s output, I can't suppress my cringe the moment he turned to the vocoder! Curiously, I don't find Jan Hammer's Minimoog with the Mahavisnu Orchestra cheesy, but perhaps that's because he went for a fairly simple lead sound and focussed on playing that one sound expressively. I wonder if our reaction to sounds like these are age related? I was born in 1981, so grew up hearing the pop of the time. For years I had a strong aversion to any sound I considered to be overly 80s and it's only in the last couple of years that I've been able to go back and check out the music of that era without an involuntary shudder.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1360261257' post='1967718'] 'Go ask Alice, I think she'll know.' [/quote] Alice Coltrane? I suppose she might!

I love this era of Coltrane, and I will put my headphones on and have a listen later on. Unfortunately, I feel disinclined to discuss it due to the massive p*ssing contest which appears to be going on. Can we start this thread again please? This kind of pointless argument puts me off sharing and discussing music. This cannot be a good thing.

The OP could always go for a full-on 70's style mod, namely cream Dimarzios, mini toggle switches and a brass nut. Given that loads of players did this kind of thing to them back in the day, that would feel strangely authentic!

I'm not really convinced by that as a "double bass" sound. Yes, it has a touch of acoustic sounding woodiness to the attack, but it doesn't get close to the complexity and growl of a good double bass IMO. It somehow ends up being whinier yet plunkier (at the same time!) than I would look for on double bass. It's still an interesting instrument that the right musician could do something good with though.

I have the tuner and the quality seems OK. It seems to be closely copied from the Boss TU-2. It doesn't affect the sound noticeably and it tunes well, even on the B-string. The casing seems to be about on a par with the Boss for solidity and a lot better than the plastic Behringer pedals. Of course, none of this helps you figure out what the others in the range sound like, but I'd be confident enough to gig with them if I liked the sound.

Putting the graphs in the manual seems either brave or foolhardy, as it looks like the 400 watt output only occurs at close to 10% THD. Many power amp manufacturers quote their output at 1% or even 0.5% THD, and had Ashdown done this the rating would be rather lower. And then the specs page on the website calls it "640 watts RMS". Having said that, I don't struggle for volume with an amp rated at 140 watts, so the Ashdown could still be a perfectly viable gigging amp.

I guess tastes vary, because other than the scribbly finish I would cheerfully play one of those. The natural maple one on the website looks great IMO.

It's possible that the 35 year old valves in mine were a bit tired, as I've experienced other 2x EL34 valve amps getting a fair bit louder.

I had one for a while. They've got a transistor preamp, fairly neutral EQ (i.e no mid-scoop) and valve power stage, plus the front panel lights up very stylishly. They're pleasant enough sounding, though they're actually rated at 40 watts, with a low-gain preamp, so mine wasn't particularly aggressive sounding or very loud. One of these could be a nice thing to have around, though I wouldn't want one as my sole gigging amp. They look relatively hassly to service as they're PCB built and quite a cramped layout, but not impossible to work on.