Beer of the Bass

The monotrons look very cool, but I keep wondering when they're going to extend the line with a proper keyboard monosynth. If they were to make something relatively small and simple and affordable with a couple of octaves of keys (sort of like the 90s Novation Bass station, but MS10 flavoured), I reckon they'd fly off the shelves.

[quote name='Clarky' timestamp='1354188440' post='1883207'] Best reply ever from customer relations at Rotosound: [font=Calibri][size=3][font=Calibri][size=3]"I know nothing about these strings ….. Sorry" [/size][/font][/size][/font] [font=Calibri][size=3][font=Calibri][size=3] [/size][/font][/size][/font] [/quote] Are they actually made by Rotosound? The video says Rotosound in the title, but Danny calls them Elites. Maybe the Rotosound bit is in error...

I'm also curious to hear any news about these. I've gone back to my old Spiro Mittels after experimenting with other strings, as nothing else really makes the sound I want for pizzicato, but mine are pretty old and I'll need a new set at some point. I'm hoping these might be a nice alternative along similar lines. It'd be great if they cost less than Spirocores too, but I don't know if that's likely.

In my first band (in about 1996) I had the first edition Zoom 506. I used it on just a couple of songs and bypassed it the rest of the time. One day I forgot to bring my power adaptor to a rehearsal and went without the Zoom. When we were done, the drummer said to me "Hey, your bass sounded great today, so much better than usual. Did you change something?". I don't think I used it again after that. I hope multi FX have got better since then!

I've also found 45 gauge Chromes are slightly harder work on the left hand than equivalent gauge rounds. I think it's the increased stiffness/reduced compliance rather than just the difference in tension that does it. I got used to it without too much trouble, but I have a double bass influenced left hand techique (things like supporting the pinky with the ring finger where possible) which helps. If you want some lower tension strings with a similar sort of vibe, the D'Addario tapewounds could be worth a shot. They sound a little different from Chromes, but they still do the "slightly livelier flat" thing very well and they feel similar to 40-100 guage rounds in tension.

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1353942199' post='1879988'] Whilst I agree with the "they sound like prats, you did the right thing" comment there are a lot of misconceptions in this thread as well. Small guitar amps pushed hard do *not* always sound as good as large guitar amps. Some of my favourite guitar sounds are for large, high power amps, but with the volume turned down to a sensible level. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is nothing inherently wrong with using a 100W marshall for a pub gig, so long as you use it at an appropriate volume. Volume is the problem, not power. Your guitarist could be using a 30W amp and it still be too loud for the occasion. [/quote] I'd broadly agree with this, but the players who prefer a big amp barely ticking over are usually the ones who like to keep the power stage clean, either for a big clean sound, reproducing modellers/effects, or in amps that are based around high gain preamps. They're not usually the same ones who insist that they have to run the volume on 7 to get their sound. Myself, I don't play any louder through a Twin or similar than I do with my little Princeton, but I can appreciate the difference in sound between the two, even with very similarly voiced preamps. I enjoy the smaller amp with a bit of compression and hair to the tone, and it's enough to sit in the mix with my drummer on stage in the venues we play, but some may prefer something that breaks up less.

Personally, I'd walk from a band that worked like that. Full stacks for guitar are a throwback to the days of festival gigs with vocal only PA - in any modern day situation it's just a big willy substitute IMO! I use a 15 watt 1x10" ( a Princeton Reverb copy) for gigging small venues on guitar. This works for me, but I'm not looking for chunky lows or truly clean cleans, and any decent size club will mic it anyway. I can see going up to something like a Fender Twin or a head and 2x12" cab for cleaner or chunkier sounds, but I don't see the need for more than that. Most of the guitarists on my local circuit using bigger amps are either running them on 1 and using pedals for the overdrive or using power brakes and the like, neither of which is particularly satisfying.

Fantastic! Paypal sent. That'll tidy up my tailpiece no end. I've got wobbly bits of velcro at the minute...

A couple of times with heavier gauge strings, I've found the B string sounds indefinitely pitched when first fitted, as the string is too stiff to conform to the break angle over the bridge. Pressing the string down just in front of the bridge a couple of times to put a bend in it at the sadde will help with this. It'd also be worth looking at your pickup heights, as if they're too close, the magnets can affect the string vibration on the lower strings.

Excellent. Let us know if you want paying beforehand, though I guess if your schedule is uncertain you may not. You're definitely owed a pint by a substantial chunk of basschat!

Right now, BC is almost un-navigable from my PC, though it was fine this morning. The sub forum menus are scrambled all over the place, making all the sub-fora very difficult to find. I suspect you're aware of this, but I thought there would be no harm in flagging it.

Hopefully all the people not bidding will serve as a hint to the seller.

Hi Clarky, these look great. Could you put me down for two please, one jack and one XLR size?

I remember seeing an old BBC performance of it, followed by an interview with Edwyn Collins where he reminisced about how they couldn't get the synth to work live and used a Mutron on the bass instead. It sounded not spot-on, but close enough, and you could get there with a modern equivalent like the Qtron - any envelope filter with a reverse sweep, really.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1352947835' post='1869755'] Too much work. Just go to the Peavey site, get the T/S specs, find a similar driver. Similar, but not the same, as the 2.8mm xmax of the 1502 is marginal at best. The CA 154 is not compatable, and xmax is no better. As for replacing the basket, the 1505 is a much better choice, specs are compatable, but I don't know if the 1505 basket will work with the 1502 magnet. It's worth checking it out. [/quote] Fair comment. Checking the different available drivers in WinISD was what I did in a similar situation to the OP (i.e Peavey cab needing new driver), but taking the shorter route is probably a more elegant approach. To those of us without a background in cab design, it's not always obvious which specs are most important to match when replacing a driver.

Although it'd be unwise to substitute in other drivers blindly, the Peavey cabinets are a fairly standard size and tuning, so chances are good that you can find another speaker that works in that box. If you measure the box and port dimensions, you can model the performance of different drivers using a piece of free software called WinISD, until you find something that performs similarly or better than the original driver.

One example who springs to mind would be Charlie Haden. I have difficulty watching his left hand, but I love his sound and his lines, and his body of work speaks for itself.

I've seen some positive reports on the Bugera 1960 for bass, although it's intended as a guitar amp. There are also a load of 1970s British valve amps which might do the job - many of them will be cleaner than the Marshall, but could be modified by a tech.

The Connex modules look very well priced compared to the other suppliers. I'll be interested to see how you get on with them.

This is something I've also been looking into, but the funds to buy my parts are dependant on stuff shifting in the classifieds, so I may not go ahead with it at the moment. I have built and repaired a few bits of valve kit in the past, and I'm regularly gigging with a guitar amp I made, so building something for bass seems like a logical step for me. There are a few different suppliers of Class D amp modules and SMPS, like the Coldamp stuff used in this build thread; [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/20284-compact-power-amp"]http://basschat.co.u...mpact-power-amp[/url]. I was also looking at modules from Hypex. As Mr Foxen alludes to, the voltage swing at the output of a valve preamp is likely to be bigger than the input sensitivity of the amp module and there can also be large, damaging transients at switch-on so you would need to look at reducing the output and limiting transients to avoid damage to the module. This could be as simple as a resistive divider and a couple of diodes (to clamp the transients) on the preamp output, but would take some fiddling to optimise. Also many of the popular valve preamps like the Alembic F2B want to see an impedance of 1M ohm or so, but most amp modules have an input impedance of 10K to 100K ohms, so you would want either a cathode follower on the output of your preamp or some sort of buffer in between. If you're new to building valve amps, it might be wise to build and test your preamp first using an established design and layout, before laying out the cash for the amp modules. In terms of expense, it's unlikely to be a lot cheaper than just buying an amp, but you could end up with something rather classy if it's executed well.

[quote name='Stealth' timestamp='1352632526' post='1865282'] Great cabs but the finish is a bit pants for £750 [/quote] Whether that opinion still applies may depend on how long ago you had one. From a discussion with Alex C, I got the impression that they've put a lot into improving their tooling and finishing since the earlier days when the company was one bloke in a small workshop.

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1352604243' post='1865139'] Oh go on. I'll not tell anyone. Oh and by the way it wasn't my band honest. I wouldn't dream of carting an 8x10 around. [/quote] I don't think the bassist is a BCer, but in any case, he and the guitarist were quite friendly when we were chatting with them. It was more the frontman who was arsey towards us, which was unfortunate as he was running the show!