Beer of the Bass

I'm surprised there aren't more small form-factor, less than 200 watt valve amps with modern appointments like DIs etc, rather than large wood-cased heads intended to sit on massive cabs. It seems like they'd fill a niche for a lot of bassists.

My Ampeg PF50T is proving really useful for the kind of gigs I do, and importantly when the sound guy appears with their XLR cable it has good DI outputs that do get some ampy character across. Stage volume is enough for me with one or two reasonably efficient 12"s, and in a padded bag it's easy to move around. When I had a much larger and heavier old Carlsbro 100 watter with no DI outs, I ended up using my Gallien Krueger MB200 for a lot of gigs out of convenience, but the GK hasn't been out on a gig since I got the Ampeg.

I play German bow, purely because there was one with the bass I borrowed as a teenager and I've stuck with it. It seems classical players in the UK most often play French bow, but a jazz player doing the old "last note of a ballad" arco or practicing with the bow for intonation might go either way.

It's common on aliexpress and similar sites to use photos of the original guitars in the listings but ship copies that only loosely resemble them. But I'd be surprised if this site even went to the lengths of shipping anything.

In amps where the signal path is that way, setting the gain somewhere below clipping and using the master volume for stage volume adjustment would get you a consistent and predictable level from the DI out, while maxing the master and using the gain for volume control would vary it as you adjusted stage volume.

I always feel like I'm lucky for actually enjoying the Spirocore sound. Finding the right gut or gutlike strings and then keeping them stable and long-lasting seems like a minefield! Though I'd still be curious to give it a go if I had space for a second bass some time...

I've been thinking about dabbling with some more diatonic harmonica since I've been getting into Chromatic in the last few months. Though the one diatonic I have I find quite uncomfortable and not that easy to play compared to my chromatics. It's a Hohner Blues Harp I've had around since the 90s, so maybe I need to try something with a different style comb like a Special 20 or Seydel Session to see if those feel friendlier.

Ooh, some interesting chromatics there! And are you playing them with that mic and amp setup? It always seems like not many chromatic players take that approach - I seem to see folk with modern less coloured dynamic mics into the PA.

Ah, I hadn't noticed this thread had popped back up. I can't help much on diatonic, sorry. But in the last few months I've been at home more than usual, and I've been putting some time into learning chromatic harmonica. After trying a couple of different harmonicas and moving them on again, I've found I really like the older model 16 hole Hohners and have ended up with two of those (one modernised with one of Brendan Power's 3D printed combs) and a 12 hole Hohner 270 in G. I've been figuring out some of the less demanding jazz heads as well as some Scottish, Irish and English folky tunes. I'm really enjoying having a melodic instrument that's not a plucked string, and it's bringing a new angle some tunes I've played for years on other instruments. I've been learning a little about tinkering with them too, but then I do that with everything!

I'm guessing the market hasn't been big enough to sustain the reissue B15n models as a continuous run, particularly when competing with the vintage market and their own modern Portaflex models. The PF50T is nice, but it's very much a modern amp referencing the originals - it's like a guitarist showing up with a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe rather than a tweed or blackface model. For my purposes I'll take the added midrange EQ and useful DI outs over any missing vintage vibe, but I'd probably want a proper B15n if I was equipping a high end studio or similar.

Guitar 4x12 cabs tend to be rather smaller in internal volume (per driver) than you'd choose if designing a bass cab from scratch. People have either just lived with that, giving a cab that's very efficient in the mids but lean in the lower bass, or you could make plywood blanking panels for two of the driver openings and treat them as 2x12 cabs.

I think with valve amps for guitar it's almost analogous to acoustic piano. Many working musicians will find digital emulations more practical in a lot of their working environments, but I feel that to really use them well it helps to have spent some time with the thing they're emulating. And there are some settings where they will probably never go away as long as they can still be built and maintained.

It's limited and not the most reliable, but if you're using a tape echo for its interesting character, they have a lot of that. They're certainly crude next to something like a Space Echo, but I've owned a Roland RE201, a solid state WEM Copicat and the Melos, and the Melos does have its own charm for shorter echo times with dirty sounding repeats.

Yeah, the band I was so heavily reliant on tape echo in isn't even around any more! Though I ended up being pretty happy with the Catalinbread Belle Epoch, with the only downside being having to crouch down to tweak knobs instead of leaning over to a box on top of my amp. I recorded twice with that band, first time with the Melos, second time with the Catalinbread, and if anything I like the way my echo sounds came out on the second one slightly more.

I would say for those styles (and particularly with OD) you don't want a horn, or at least you want one that can be turned off. And while I can understand wanting a wide, square format cab for a large head like that, there's no particular reason to stick with the 4x10 format. You might find 2x12“ or 15" options with the right form factor which would also do the job.

It makes some sense. I'm sure we've all played standard PJ basses where the J pickup had less output than the P, so putting the P in the bridge and the J in the neck might even things up.

I find the rubber practice mute combined with some foam f-hole plugs I made does a reasonable job of taking things down to neighbour friendly levels, where either on it's own doesn't quite get there.

If you can't find the specs for the Behringer drivers, it wouldn't be to hard to work out the volume and port tuning of the 4x10", and then design the new 2x10" box around half of that volume and the same port tuning.

Behringer drivers are likely to be proprietary with no specs published - one of the ways they keep costs down is by keeping as much of the manufacturing as possible in-house.

There are mixed opinions on the different valves available, and their performance varies between amps (some amps are more prone to microphonics than others, some have circuit designs that cause reliability issues with certain valves etc). Not all valves from the same factory are tested and screened to the same extent either. Some say the Shuguang valves are fine if you buy them from a seller who tests them. But I do feel that the stock valves with the PF50T are not great. I had my power valves replaced within a couple of weeks under warranty, and not long afterwards switched to a NOS Philips ECC82 in V3 which reduced the microphonic sounds considerably.

Does it come through the speakers or is it heard acoustically from the amp? On my PF50T the phase inverter valve was microphonic, and replacing it helped considerably. You can test for microphonic valves by gently tapping them on the glass with something non conductive and listening for a ring through the speakers. On the PF50T you can do this with a wooden cocktail stick through the cage without removing anything.

I'd be concerned that any event which would previously have caused the bridge to fall over or shift is now going to be putting unusual stresses on the end of your fingerboard. I can't imagine it'll do much for the acoustic tone and projection either, though I'm guessing you have this bass geared more towards loud amplified use.

I'm a little puzzled by Ampeg EQ being considered useless compared to Orange etc. Fair enough if you're not fond of the voicing of their amps, but I'd consider the SVT, V4B or PF50T to have among the more versatile EQs on valve amps, since they can boost or cut mids at selectable frequencies and few others can.

Aww, I liked the green!

I came pretty close to putting a bit of slap on one song of the album my band recorded recently, but chickened out and used a growly fingerstyle near the bridge instead. Though I'm flatwounds + small valve amp and no tweeters, so it would have been more of a 70s Chuck Rainey slap sound!