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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 got a new overdrive pedal in the works, so I'm clearing out some of my older DIY builds to fund the parts. These are pedals I built for my own personal use, so they have been gigged and have proved to be reliable, even if they are not built to boutique standards of neatness. Both pedals are true-bypass, with red LED indicators, in unpainted diecast aluminium cases. On the right is a bass overdrive built from a kit with PCB, the Hjart Muller Bass Drive from Moodysounds. Here is a link to the ready-built version; [url="http://moodysounds.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_36&products_id=12"]http://moodysounds.c...&products_id=12[/url] This is a really nice sounding, moderate gain overdrive which gets into JJ Burnel and John Wetton-esque territories, not a full-on fuzz. It's an opamp based overdrive with diode clipping, similar to an Ibanez Tubescreamer but voiced for bass. Note that this was built to go on a pedalboard, so it does not have a battery clip - it needs a power supply. £30 posted in UK. On the left is a pedal based on the Anderton Tube Sound Fuzz and Way Huge Red Llama designs which is probably more at home with guitar than bass. It is especially good with single coil, Fender-ish guitars This is an overdrive based on a FET inverter chip, which provides a very transparent drive at lower settings with a raw grittiness about it. At higher gain settings it gets quite fuzzy. This one is built on perfboard and can be used with a battery or power supply. £25 posted in UK. [attachment=113100:101_0205.JPG][attachment=113101:101_0207.JPG]
  2. Beer of the Bass
    I've just had a listen, without checking which amp was which until the end. My clear favourite is the Marshall JCM800, closely followed by the Hiwatt. The rest are too dirty in the lows on the "clean" clips, or too thin in the case of the Orange. The treble on the Orange sounds quite good with the passive bass on the dirty clips though. I also enjoyed the sound of the JMP, a very recognisable late 60s/early 70s sound with that sort of throaty roar, but it's not what I would choose for my own band. With the arbitrary control settings used, it's impossible to say which would be my favourite if I could actually try all six though.
  3. Beer of the Bass
    I'm almost certain this is the one I sold a while back. Certainly the Chromes flatwounds, Hipshot and the tort guard thrown in would match with my old one. The buyer was new to bass, so I guess he didn't really take to it. It was a really nice bass, and I regretted selling it quite a bit - If I had the cash lying around I'd give him a call!
  4. Beer of the Bass
    Cheers for the input on the Lakland/GHS flats, redstriper and WOT. From the sound of it, there probably aren't many strings I'd like better then the EBs or Chromes I've got at the moment. Which is actually a good thing, as it means I can stop thinking about strings for a while.
  5. Beer of the Bass
    The finish on mine has a slight Artex vibe about it, but is evenly applied and seems very tough. Mind you, my cab was a prototype rather than a production model so I'm not sure if it's indicative of what you get with a new one. What looked like scuff marks after doing a few gigs turned out to be bits of paint which had scraped off door frames etc, not damage to the cab finish. It does have a different look to tolex, but to my mind stage gear is built to be seen from a few feet away, so it doesn't bother me.
  6. Beer of the Bass
    Does the dull sounding no-name cab have a tweeter in it? I've played through a few tweetered cabs where the crossover frequency is set too low for the tweeter to work properly, leaving a hole in the upper mids that EQ can't fix. If your cab is one of these you might want to try ditching the tweeter and crossover and running the full-range signal to the 12". It might or might not help, but it would cost nothing to try. I'm enjoying the tunes on Soundcloud, by the way!
  7. Beer of the Bass
    [quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1340995439' post='1712728'] [url="http://www.lakland.com/direct/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=LD&Product_Code=JOSF4&Category_Code=4STRS"]Here you are.[/url] Don't worry that you're buying from the US - they arrive in about a week, and you don't have to pay any duty. [/quote] How do the Laklands compare to others flats like Chromes, EBs etc? I'm using and enjoying Ernie Balls at the moment, I've also tried Picato which were too dark and thumpy for me, TI Jazz flats which were nice but a little too soft feeling for my playing style, and D'addario Chromes which seem very close to the EBs.
  8. Beer of the Bass
    You're not on any medications, are you? My other half was briefly prescribed Carbamazepine for epilepsy, and there's an occasional side-effect where it messes up pitch perception.
  9. Beer of the Bass
    And Roger Ruskin-Spears' amplified Trouser Press!
  10. Beer of the Bass
    [quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1340971092' post='1712217'] For the synth-rock band I played in the 80s it was the starting point for most of our substitute guitar sounds. [/quote] Oddly, I have a friend who did the same with a DX7 into one of those little Boss half rack multi-FX. To this day he's still proud that he got sacked from one band for sounding too much like a guitarist.
  11. Beer of the Bass
    If you've got a crossover and tweeter, It'll complicate matters as crossovers are designed to work with a specific impedance. If you connect woofers wired at 2 ohms to a crossover designed to see 8 ohms, the results may be all over the place, so you may have to sacrifice your tweeter and run the 10"s full range if you want switchable impedance.
  12. Beer of the Bass
    [quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1340870715' post='1710647'] Just a thought - anyone know if a non-compliant amp would pass a PAT test these days? [/quote] ROHS compliance wouldn't affect PAT testing, since the PAT is mostly about safety stuff; earth continuity, polarity, insulation and a visual check for damage. ROHS regulations are about environmental protection during manufacture and disposal, not safety in use. Plenty of older, pre ROHS equipment still passes PAT tests.
  13. Beer of the Bass
    [quote name='heminder' timestamp='1340748125' post='1709219'] I've only had one lead go funny. Interestingly it broke because the little plastic between the tip and the sleeve vanished somehow. [/quote] It wasn't a Warwick Rockcable, was it? This is exactly what happened to mine...
  14. Beer of the Bass
    Axesrus had one, but the shape is a bit different to the ABM. [url="http://www.axesrus.com/AXEBASE.htm"]http://www.axesrus.com/AXEBASE.htm[/url]
  15. Beer of the Bass
    Result! I'm usually one for leaving dings as they are, but it's a different story when they're on the back of the neck and you can feel them everytime you play.
  16. Beer of the Bass
    Sounds like an interesting one! I bet I'd have recognised a few faces there. I've played events with a similar crowd a few times, and it's always a hassle in terms of organisation but a fun audience once you're actually playing.
  17. Beer of the Bass
    The way I've seen it done is with a soldering iron, so hot enough for the water to steam but very localised. Sort of like this: [url="http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier/Technique/Finish/SteamOut/steamout1.html"]http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier/Technique/Finish/SteamOut/steamout1.html[/url]
  18. Beer of the Bass
    If the wood is dented in rather than scraped out, it might be possible to raise the dents using heat and moisture. I've watched my brother (a guitar builder) raise similar dents using a bit of wet cloth over them, heating quickly with a hot soldering iron, to the point where they were barely visible. A bit nerve-racking though!
  19. Beer of the Bass
    The only time I've noticed not having enough sustain is on a dead spot. Unfortunately flatwounds seem to bring them out in basses where I don't notice them with roundwounds.
  20. Beer of the Bass
    As another Edinburgh bassist, I can only say "Wasnae me!".
  21. Beer of the Bass
    I could see the appeal of an onboard pre-amp for players who need a specific EQ voicing to get their sound (as opposed to the usual tweaks for room acoustics etc), as it would enable them to apply that EQ right at the start of the signal chain even when running a DI straight from the bass. Although I imagine this could be a sound guys worst nightmare if not used with some restraint. There is also the risk of plugging an inherently mid scooped preamp into an amp which already has a similar voicing built in and ending up with that rumbly yet clacky mush we hear all too often!
  22. Beer of the Bass
    I have a Klotz cable I bought in 1995 which has done many hundreds of gigs and rehearsals and is still fine, though a bit grubby looking. Come to think of it, I've only had one cable fail so far, a Warwick RockCable where the plastic insulator between the tip and ring cracked and broke, causing it to short out. I have lost a silly number of cables though!
  23. Beer of the Bass
    A slightly off-topic query for the old-timers; A couple of posts have made the distinction between "covers bands" and "originals bands" and their ability to make a living playing live. I'd agree this is the case at present, but it strikes me that most bands from the 60s and earlier cut their teeth playing mostly covers and only increased the proportion of originals in their set once they had already developed a following, so that distinction didn't always exist. So I'm wondering when that "covers band" versus "originals band" division kicked in in the lower reaches of the live music circuit.
  24. Beer of the Bass
    [quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1340204712' post='1701007'] So, bands that broke through off the back of the internet? Arctic Monkeys? and - er ... [/quote] My missus-to-be (who was at college with them) points out that the Arctic Monkeys broke through mostly off the back of playing loads of tiny venues, both locally and up and down the country in the time honoured fashion, in addition to the internet following.
  25. Beer of the Bass
    I'd like to see someone attempting to argue that Carol Kay or Joe Osborn aren't real bass players. These are people who helped define the conventions of the electric bass! Most of us have pinched at least one of their lines at some point, conciously or otherwise.
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