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Beer of the Bass

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Everything posted by Beer of the Bass

  1. Beer of the Bass
    I've just got back from a gig at a beer festival. It was a nice event in many ways though the guy who was running the stage and doing sound (also singing in the last band of the evening) seemed to be doing his utmost to make things difficult for us. When we were booked for the gig, we were told that there would be backline so we wouldn't need to bring ours. I arrived to find a clapped out 80s practice amp, which must have been brought especially for us, as his own band had brought their own 8x10 rig which they weren't sharing. If we hadn't been told backline was supplied, I'd have cheerfully brought my own amp, and even shared it with other bands if necessary, but we had been effectively told not to. The sound guy alternated between uncommunicative, sneery and patronising, treating us as though we were kids playing our first gig. When we played, we only used two vocal mics and a bass DI in the PA, yet we were plagued by constant booming feedback. The sound guy responded to this by muting the bass but not touching the mic channels, which obviously made no difference to the feedback but made us sound even worse, with only 30 watts of knackered Laney for the low end. Mysteriously, when his own band played, they had not a trace of feedback from the mics despite being a lot louder than us. I have a strong suspicion that he was trashing our sound intentionally, out of general arsiness. I'm not going to describe the bloke or his band, as his dress sense and demeanour had "local character" written all over them, so chances are some of the Scottish BCers may have encountered him. I'm kind of taken aback, as this is the first time I've encountered quite this degree of big-fish-in-a-small-pond adversarial pettiness on a gig. Still, on the upside, we got fed, watered and paid and the organiser expressed an interest in booking us next year, but didn't sound impressed with the other band...
  2. Beer of the Bass
    A 5'0" friend of mine gets on OK with an Ibanez GSR180. The neck is shallow, they weigh next to nothing and they're not too expensive. A 34" scale can be fine, though she'll end up shifting around more in the lower positions.
  3. Beer of the Bass
    In a lot of machine wound coils, the windings on each layer sit neatly side by side, with no variation or overlap. In a scatterwound coil, they're deliberately wound in a more random pattern, typically by guiding the wire by hand, though some of the more sophisticated winding machines can do it. How much difference this makes to the tone is up for debate, but it does make a difference to some measurable properties of the coil, so I can picture there being[i] some [/i]difference.
  4. Beer of the Bass
    Another gem; [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/A-wide-necked-Jackson-electric-for-guys-with-seriously-big-hands-/190748846290?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2c698468d2"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/A-wide-necked-Jackson-electric-for-guys-with-seriously-big-hands-/190748846290?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2c698468d2[/url] I almost feel a bit guilty about laughing at these, but it can be hard not to.
  5. Beer of the Bass
    Lace Ultra slim acoustic guitar pickup, good for resonator guitars or any application where a low-profile pickup is needed. Full details can be found here: [url="http://www.lacemusic.com/USA_Acoustic.php"]http://www.lacemusic...SA_Acoustic.php[/url] I bought this several years ago, but didn't use it as I preferred a different pickup. When I got it out of my drawer recently, I found it was not working properly but was still under warranty, so I sent it off to Lace for repair. I have just got it back from Lace, and it is working perfectly now, but I have a different pickup on my guitar so it is surplus to requirements. It has a short cable fitted with an endpin jack, which is sleeved in rubber so it can be used internally or externally, and it's packaged in the original box. New, these would cost around £85-90 from US dealers (before postage, import duty and VAT) or around £170 from UK dealers. I'd like £65 for mine, including UK postage. NOW GONE!
  6. Beer of the Bass
    One more bump. Any interest at [b]£XXX[/b], or shall I hang on to it?
  7. Beer of the Bass
    If you do buy one, make sure you put a set of Fender strings on, just to confuse everybody.
  8. Beer of the Bass
    I spotted this video linked from another bass forum, about Danny Thompson having helped develop a signature set of strings. There doesn't seem to be any more info out there, but I guess they could be worth keeping an eye out for. AFAIK he's used Spirocores for many years, and as a Spirocore player myself I might be interested in them if they have that sort of vibe about them. It's a shame he's just talking about them and not playing them in the video though! [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbsZvnlR8Cg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbsZvnlR8Cg[/url]
  9. Beer of the Bass
    If you were going to use a dedicated bass for the job, I wonder if you'd get better latency from pitch to MIDI devices like the Sonuus by setting your bass up as a piccolo bass?
  10. Beer of the Bass
    Would you be using coated strings, by any chance? The poles on typical Fender type pickups aren't usually connected to anything (you may want to check this with a multimeter), but if your fingers are grounded by being in contact with the strings you don't get much noise when you touch them. With coated strings, your hands aren't earthed so the noise when you touch the polepieces becomes more noticeable. As long as your polepieces aren't shorted to the windings, which would indicate a faulty pickup, the solution will either be to insulate the polepieces or ground them as suggested above. I've just been through much the same thing after changing to tapewounds, which is why I mention strings.
  11. Beer of the Bass
    I love the old Meters stuff. I feel like they've influenced my guitar playing more than my bass playing, though George Porter is great too, economical and effective. There's almost nothing in his playing that doesn't need to be there, which I guess is what you mean by "dry".
  12. Beer of the Bass
    Up for sale is my Carlsbro CS100 PA, from around 1970. This is a great loud and clean 100 watter, it's in good health and working nicely. This has been my main bass amp for the past couple of years, and I have done a fair bit of work on it. It's had new filter capacitors, a number of out-of-spec resistors replaced, new ceramic sockets and EH 6CA7 valves in the power amp. Channel one has had the tone controls changed to a Fender type tone stack for an alternative sound, while channels two to four have the original, less mid-scooped James type stack. The preamp valves are Brimar ECC83s which appear to be original - the date codes on them check out to June 1970. Around the back, there are selectors for different international voltages and 3.75 / 7.5 / 15 ohms impedance. The mains connector has been changed to a modern IEC connector. This amp tends towards being clean sounding, with a relatively low-gain preamp and high voltages for lots of headroom. With my band I've never had to turn it up far enough for the power valves to distort, though the preamp can be overdriven if you use a clean boost in front of the amp. It's very usable as a gigging bass amp, or would be good as a loud, clean guitar amp for pedal freaks. I have been very happy with it myself, but it's not the best fit for my situation of city centre dwelling, tiny cars, non-driving drummers and soundmen who refuse to mic a cab! It's quite weighty at 18kg/40lbs approx, but the chassis is only 49cm wide (narrower than most valve heads), so it sits on top of typical 2x12" or 1x15" cabs without overhanging. I'm looking for[b] [s]£XXX[/s][/b], no trades please. That's cheaper than most vintage valve gear, and louder than an Ashdown LB30, making it a good way to get into the whole valve amp thing. A local sale would be ideal, but I can pack and get it couriered in the UK for about £25. If you're in or near Edinburgh, you're welcome to come and check it out in person, otherwise it can be heard on Jen and the Gent's bancamp page below, where it was used on all of the electric bass tracks. NOW SOLD! It'll be missed, but I have a valvey project in the works...
  13. Beer of the Bass
    The goo looks like glue from a gun. It's used to stop the heavier components from flexing around and stressing their solder joints. Re. valve suppliers, Hot Rox have been fine when I've bought from them, though I've had no problems with Watford Valves either, and they were helpful on the phone.
  14. Beer of the Bass
    [quote name='Merton' timestamp='1351512989' post='1851916'] If you have a very sensitive cab the MB200 can keep up with a Mode 4 no problem, mine has done on several occasions (Barefaced Vintage and S12...) [/quote] My cab should have similar sensitivity to the S12, but at 8 ohms instead of 4, it'll be a little less loud with the same amp. Mind you, this guitarist was stupidly, painfully loud, and I'd never expect a 140 watt bass amp through a 2x12" to compete with a guitar amp of twice the power through twice the cone area. With the more reasonable guitarists in my band, it does a fine job.
  15. Beer of the Bass
    I finally got round to gigging the MB200 with my 2x12" last night, so I thought I'd mention how I got on. My cab has B&C 12HPL64 drivers and is 8 ohms, so the MB200 would have been capable of around 140 watts. It was a three band night, and we all used my rig. For my band and one of the others, it did a great job - the available volume compares very favourably to the 100 watt valve amp I usually use with this cab, and the tone didn't compare badly either, though with a more modern character to it. This was with mic'd kick and snare, and guitarists using Fender Blues Juniors, to give you an idea of what sort of volume we were working at. One of the bands found they couldn't get enough volume onstage, but the guitarist was using a 350 watt Marshall Mode 4 with too much low end into a 4x12", and most of the punters left the room until their set was finished. So, I'd say it's a viable gigging head for me, but might not be if you have overkill guitarists.
  16. Beer of the Bass
    I had a Kappa 15 in a cab for a while. Although it doesn't go very high, the massive peak just below 2Khz can make it sound quite bright, in an old fashioned clanky rock sort of way.
  17. Beer of the Bass
    Many eBay sellers sending strings from the US will mark the customs form as less than the actual value to get them under the threshold for import duty. It's not exactly legal, but seems to be a common practice. IIRC this seller may have done this when I dealt with them, but I can't remember for sure.
  18. Beer of the Bass
    They've also got step drill bits cheap at the minute, which are handy if you're building effects pedals or similar.
  19. Beer of the Bass
    [quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1351201115' post='1848751'] Might not be what you're looking for but D'Addario Black Nylon Flats are similar tension to TIs (although less compliant) and substantially cheaper. [/quote] This is true. They're a touch livelier than many flats, but still essentially flattish sounding. I was not particularly taken with the B string on mine, however.
  20. Beer of the Bass
    [quote name='bremen' timestamp='1350462921' post='1839075'] Should I have doubled their stated Xmax figure, or are they really this crap? Or is WinISD very pessimistic? [/quote] Bill's post above suggests that Eminence Xmax figures are one way peak figures. WinISD uses the same format, so it would be entered as-is. Lots of cabinets have surprisingly low handling in the low fundamental range, but are still usable for many of us because the fundamental of our lowest notes is a small proportion of the total signal. Many drivers also have usable output beyond the quoted Xmax.
  21. Beer of the Bass
    [quote name='LawrenceH' timestamp='1350221923' post='1835896'] Yup. As I've delved further I've found all xmax's aren't created equal and behaviour beyond xmax differs between different drivers in an audible way, so I reckon take the numbers as a rough guide and use your ears. Your cab with the B&Cs sounded reaaally nice I thought! If for some mad reason you want rid of it, let me know [/quote] Oh no, that cab is definitely staying! It's my big ol' valve amp I might be reconsidering, so I had a fiddle around with WinISD just to remind myself of the capabilities of the cab. Trying the cab with your F1 made me wonder whether I really need to be lugging big lumps of iron around for the sound I go for, as there are clearly good sounds to be had from lighter amps.
  22. Beer of the Bass
    Thanks Bill. Are Eminence and others who quote a single positive number using peak-to-peak then? Edit; I did a quick bit of reading - it looks like WinISD uses one way peak figures (and I guess that's the convention?), so +/-4mm would be entered as 4mm. If I'm mistaken about that, feel free to say so.
  23. Beer of the Bass
    I've got a query for the technically inclined, to do with interpreting Xmax figures and using WinISD. I've got a cabinet using B&C drivers, and I figure that the excursion limited handling at lower frequencies is always a useful bit of information to have at hand. B&C present their figures in the format "+/-4.0mm" in their datasheets, which I'd always thought meant 4mm. I happened to notice that one online vendor quotes the Xmax of the same driver as "8mm". Have I got this wrong or is this particular vendor fudging their figures?
  24. Beer of the Bass
    Whoo, I'm really enjoying the Prescott stuff! There's a real sense of playfulness in there. If you gig north of the border some time, I shall have to come and hear you.
  25. Beer of the Bass
    [quote name='Evil Undead' timestamp='1349723696' post='1829718'] As I mentioned, I used to gig no problem with a 1x12 Ashdown combo which was only 180W and that seemed to do the job ok (was just really heavy). [/quote] If the Ashdown combo was loud enough, the 1x12" options suggested here (Barefaced Midget, Markbass 1x12" etc) will almost certainly get louder than the Ashdown did, if not necessarily as loud as your 2x12" could go.
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