Beer of the Bass

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1349473573' post='1826979'] That would be good, sure. If you can find out and send me a PM I'd appreciate it. Thanks! [/quote] Will do. I've messaged my old bandmate, as I can't find Jimmy's business card.

An old bandmate of mine had a load of gear repaired by Jimmy Gillan (he works from home near the cathedral), and he seems to welcome transistor as well as valve stuff. I've not dealt with him myself, so I can't offer an actual endorsement, but my bandmate was quite happy. I don't think he has an internet presence, but I'm sure I can dig out his number if you want to give him a shot.

Hmm, it does sound like he dropped the ball in this case. Have you tried the send and return jacks to confirm whether the distortion is coming from the power amp? Your description (distortion/noise blended with the signal at constant level, more audible during quieter playing) sounds a classic description of crossover distortion in the power amp. If I had a transistor amp making this noise, I'd start by checking the power transistors and their bias voltages.

I have one of the tele style guitars, but haven't tried the basses. The finish is either interesting or startlingly ugly depending on your viewpoint, but the instrument is very good for the money. The "EMG designed" alnico pickups sound a lot better than the ceramic bar magnet jobs in most similarly priced instruments and the neck seems well made in a chunky sort of way. My only real complaint about mine is that the nut was crappy soft plastic which the strings dug into - I replaced this with a bone one right away. The rest of the hardware all seems solid and functional enough, which is about as much as you can ask for £99. I like mine enough that I gig with it.

[quote name='woodyratm' timestamp='1349354633' post='1825169'] I don't understand us music types. We blow tons of cash against stuff to make the noise, but when it comes to protection we seem to ignore it. The custom ones are great - I got because my hearing is already mong'd. At 23 thats pretty rubbish. Get ones which are comfy to wear and allow you to hear everything. My ACS ones were 140 odd and it's the best purchase I've made. Practice sounds better since I'm not being deafened. I wouldn't substitute decent ones just cause other ones are cheap. I've used ER15s, Alpine, foam blah blah and always felt they removed the wrong frequencies or were just not comfy (ER15s made my ear itch). [/quote] Yeah, I see your point (and I don't take it as a dig, worry not!). I don't feel like I'm skimping on the level of protection with ER20s or Alpine, as they still offer a decent level of attenuation and my ears don't ring after a gig or rehearsal. But it's true that hearing yourself clearly is a big deal.

[quote name='Darkstrike' timestamp='1349352115' post='1825100'] I have one on the way(the GK), should be here any day now, for just.... ....this purpose. Though I'll probably turn the tweeter off. I figure I'll be keeping the volume low enough that the noise, if there is any, should be no issue. [/quote] The hiss is not loud enough to bother me on mine, but it is there. It's quieter than my old AI Clarus was. I think the more annoying noise mentioned in some of the Talkbass threads might have been a lead dress/QC issue on the earlier batches. The MB200 sounds good, is tiny and is plenty loud enough for my needs with my cabs, so I still feel like it was a good buy.

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1349340957' post='1824826'] The [url="http://www.noizezz.com/eng/product/gehoorbeschermers-universeel.html"]Noizezz[/url] ones use the same noise filter as the expensive molded ones, but feature a generic sleeve rather than a molded one. I've tried the Alpine and Ety ones and found they muffled/coloured the sound to much, as I also do the sound for some of the bands I play with its essential I get a realistic balance and protect my hearing. Now the rest of the band uses these and we can all hear each other. Best of all we can all have a normal level conversation with each other during practice without taking the earplugs out or shouting at each other! [url="http://www.noizezz.com/eng/product/gehoorbeschermers-universeel.html"]http://www.noizezz.com[/url] [/quote] That's useful to know, and I may have to check these out. I've used both Alpine Music Safe and ER20s at gigs, and I really notice that they cut a disproportionate amount of high end. A couple of times I've found that if I set my amp where it sounds right to me (especially playing guitar) wearing either type, the treble takes everyone else's head off! It looks like the PR20s posted by Brensabre are addressing the same problem. Maybe I can put off forking out for the custom fitted ones a little longer...

I've not tried the Ashdown so I can't really offer any comparison, but on my MB200, the infamous hiss is only really noticable in a silent room, not in any sort of group playing situation. I think the hiss is mostly due to having a single volume control early in the circuit - it's like taking an amp with preamp gain and master volume controls and then running it with the master volume on 10 and controlling volume with the gain knob. Also, setting the treble control to 12 o'clock is actually quite a hefty treble boost due to the voicing of the preamp, which makes any noise more prominent. Really unless you're going to use it primarily for home practice through a cab with a tweeter, I wouldn't be worried by reports of noise.

EDIT; I have deleted my earlier comment is it looks like Rick has had some personal circumstances to deal with and is now getting things sorted re. the melodica I bought from him. I'll update my comments when the deal is completed. UPDATE; I bought an item from him, he was delayed in posting it due to family circumstances, I got it eventually. This is fair enough, but I do think he could have dropped me a message to let me know what was going on. As it was, there was a period where his account showed he had been logging in, but not responding to messages. So, he's not a scammer or anything like that, but I will say that communication could have been better.

Kay basses are pretty scarce in the UK and have all those old Americana associations, which will probably increase the market value. The bass I borrowed when I started out was a Kay - I grew up Dunoon where there used to be a big US naval base and I guess some imported items came over with them. From what I recall of the bass, the standard models are not better than the old European plywood basses which are more plentiful and sell for less, but still a respectable plywood bass. The skinny neck may not suit everyone either.

The DHA box is a different kettle of fish altogether- since it's powered by 12V DC, the valves appear to be running in starved mode, which can work well for distortion devices but it's not a proper high-voltage valve preamp. It does look like Alex Bass has some parts fabricated to order, which will be pricey in small runs. I'd bet that by the time the custom transformer, PCB manufacture, enclosure and front panel fabrication are paid for, he doesn't have any higher profit margin than DHA does.

[quote name='voxpop' timestamp='1349006421' post='1820534'] Are you going to offer to make it for fellow basschatters ? [/quote] I'd be wary of making things for sale, given that it's mains powered and I'm an amateur working from my kitchen table with no bits of paper for safety certification, sorry! Pretty much any custom amp builder could probably run you up something similar though.

I might manage some sound samples in the week.

As of this morning, it's done and sounds excellent! I've tried it on both bass and guitar. On bass it goes from just slightly hairy to a much more aggressive overdriven amp sound. With the tone control up it's very much in the early Entwhistle mode. On guitar it gets well into crunchy rock territory but stops short of metal, which is not my thing anyway. It has plenty of mids, which is great for thickening up my tele-style guitar. Compared to my previous overdrive pedals (a Tube Sound Overdrive/Red Llama clone and a Tubescreamer), there is much less ugly intermodulation when playing chords and a complete absence of fizz even with the tone control up. I could quite happily leave this on most of the time. The wiring is a little more rats-nesty then I would have liked, but I'm not getting any hum so I guess all is well. I think if I build something like this again, I'll spend more time planning the layout and give myself a bit more space to work in. Also, in a premature senior moment, I have wired up the bypass switch without grounding the input to the valve, which is causing some oscillation in bypass mode when the gain control is right up. This should be easily corrected by rewiring the switch though. If anyone is wondering about the lettering, the small ones are white letraset transfers with some clear acrylic paint to seal them and my name is in adhesive vinyl letters from an eBay supplier, the kind you would use on a van. Compared to the schematic above, I have changed the resistor in the heater supply to a 22 ohm 3 watt to get the filament voltage correct, otherwise it is as per the schematic. Here are a couple of pictures;

My brother has a thoroughly beaten up Electric Mistress of about the same vintage which I repaired for him by replacing a dead internal transformer. IIRC there are some fairly standard small transformers with the same mounting holes and similar size to the ones EH used, which would be a drop-in replacement if you can find one with the right secondary voltage. Although you would still have to do something with the non-standard mains connector. I realise this approach is probably anathema to collectors, but personally it's what I would do to anything I plan to gig with.

I keep mine in a small unheated box room off the living room, with a digital hydrometer next to it to keep an eye on the humidity. I also put a couple of takeaway containers full of water on top of the radiator in the living room to stop the air getting too dry . The worst damage I've had so far was a couple of sections of seam on the back popping during the ridiculous winter we had a couple of years ago, and that's a cheap repair. I've heard some horror stories of Dampit type humidifiers dripping water inside the bass and causing damage, so I avoid them.

I've found that this sort of hum (the sort that stops when you touch the strings) diminishes greatly or disappears completely when the control and pickup cavities are shielded with copper foil. Presumably this is because the pickups and wiring are being shielded from my big antenna of a body.

I got a bit busy through August, but I've dug this out in the last few days and finished wiring it. I checked the voltages today, and I need to tweak the power supply a little as the heater voltage is running too high at +/- 7.4v when it should be +/- 6.3v . All other voltages are about as expected, so hopefully I'll have it sorted at the weekend.

D'Addario tapewounds are quite bright for tapes, and would certainly have the right feel. I'm not sure how they compare to Trubass, but they're a touch brighter than Chromes. Alternatively TI Jazz flats are pretty articulate in a midrangey way and have that soft, flexible feel to them. I really enjoyed TIs on the last fretless I owned.

A GK MB200 with a Euphonic Audio Wizzy 10 cab does the job for me in many of the pubs I play (usually without DI), and the head and cab together fit in a padded cajon bag which I can catch buses with. The Wizzy 10 probably doesn't get as loud as some of the high-end 1x12" cabs, but it has enough oomph to work well with my band in the smaller rooms. Whether or not you would have the same experience really depends on how Rock your band is, how loud the guitarists are etc. Although given the current prices of the EA stuff, you could probably find a good 1x12" at a similar price that'd give you a touch more volume.

I love the fuzz bass on the Monks "Black Monk Time". I've no idea whether it's a fuzz pedal or a blown speaker, or perhaps both. This song is a minute and a half of almost completely inane 60s pop, but the intensity of the performance, plus the fuzz bass and banjo make it fantastic! [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_8wuZm08vo&feature=relmfu"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_8wuZm08vo&feature=relmfu[/url]

He might struggle a bit with the tweeter in a bass 4x10. Amp distortion really needs the high-end rolloff of a typical guitar speaker not to sound terrible, unless he's running an already cab-simulated sound into it.

I removed the logo on an OLP neck, and it left a shadow in the finish but not in the wood. The finish had yellowed slightly with light exposure over time, leaving a pale outline where the logo had been. I had to take the headstock face down to bare wood to eliminate all traces of it.

I put a set of these on my five string yesterday (mine are the ETB92-5 set). They're interesting strings - notably brighter and crisper in the attack than a typical flatwound, but without the metallic zing of rounds. I was concerned they might feel floppy, but they don't feel unusual at all. You often see tapewounds described as being dark, thumpy and "upright-like", but these are punchy, clear and articulate. They certainly have enough highs for rock-ish pick playing and even a bit of slap, and they do the palm muted tic-tac thing very well. Played fingerstyle, they're somewhere between flats and rounds - quite old-school sounding but they'll still get growly when played harder. If I'm going to criticise anything about them, it would be that the B-string is thuddier than the rest of the set, especially further up the neck. It's far from unusable, but the transition from the B to the E string is quite noticable. Despite this, if you use the B-string sparingly as I do, or you're playing four string, they're well worth checking out. It's hard to say at this point how they'll sound when they've been played in more, but other reviews suggest that the sound doesn't change dramatically from new. EDIT; Several gigs and a couple of rehearsals in, they're still sounding much like they did a fortnight ago. However, the thuddy B string was driving me nuts, so I've replaced it with a DR Black Beauty .120 gauge, keeping the tapewounds on the other four. It's a shame the B doesn't have a bit more life to it, as the top four strings are great.