Beer of the Bass

It's probably best to start by asking a couple more questions about what your application is. Will you be running through a bass amp or straight into the PA? Is there a lot of arco in the set or mostly pizz? What sort of ensemble will you be playing in - any drums or other loud instruments? For mostly pizz work with a backline amp, some kind bridge wing pickup is the most obvious choice. There are lots out there - check the classifieds first. If you're using the GK gear listed in your signature, a lot of them will sound fine plugged straight in without a preamp. But almost all bridge wing pickups sound less natural or even a bit harsh with the bow. They also often need the wing slot on the bridge to be enlarged slightly to fit them, though they're easy enough to fit and remove once that has been done. The cheapest workable bridge wing pickup would probably be one of these: [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/J-tone-Big-double-Bass-Pick-up-/201498506263?hash=item2eea3f3417:m:mMv8R28HOczqgXmXPBsADZw"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/J-tone-Big-double-Bass-Pick-up-/201498506263?hash=item2eea3f3417:m:mMv8R28HOczqgXmXPBsADZw[/url] Piezo pickups that fit under the bridge foot are usually a bit more tolerable for arco use, like the Realist or Shadow SH965. If it's not a high-volume setting and you want a more natural arco sound, other options might work better. I like my AKG C411pp contact mic, especially when running direct to PA, though it needs a mic preamp to run into a bass amp. Or there are a few dedicated bass mics, though they can get quite expensive.

I've never understood why the convention of not labelling controls on instruments still holds out when there are that many of them! I wouldn't fancy having to memorise the layout of all those knobs.

[quote name='DIYjapan' timestamp='1495885157' post='3307331'] Thanks for the tip. I was thinking of staining the finished cab brown then sanding it back a bit for a worn look followed by try-oil or Danish oil. How did you apply the briwax? Any tips there? [/quote] It was a couple of years ago, but as far as I can remember I used a water-based stain, then let that dry for a couple of days, then a couple of coats of Danish Oil applied with a cloth, then Briwax applied with a Scotchbrite abrasive pad before buffing with a cloth.

It would be a good idea to have somebody check the bias if you've changed the 6v6 power valves. It's a quick job for any amp tech and they should be able to check there's nothing else amiss, if you're worried about that.

Regarding the Bag End/Wall of Sound look, I got a similar sort of finish on a little 1x10" cab I built using birch plywood, stained brown then finished with Danish Oil and Briwax. If you did that and mounted the speaker with four metal L-clamps it should look about right.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1495742210' post='3306322'] Anyone play in a bar or pub where you had to set up in front of the entrance to the bathrooms? I have. 😞 Blue [/quote] Perfect for that old Creedence song "There's a Bathroom on the Right"!

I would have no problem being naked in the right setting where it would not be unexpected, like an event arranged by naturists or for some daft arty thing where nudity was part of the performance. At an ordinary gig where the audience might not be into the idea, not so much.

There can't be many necks in the world with a fake Squier decal! I hope the quality is good - my £30 Chinese guitar neck has fretwire that seems softer than the good stuff.

Looking at the one on my MB200, GK serial number stickers are not the most substantial things. I could imagine someone removing one if it had already started peeling. I guess you may never know, but that scenario doesn't seem impossible.

After getting distracted with a few other things for several weeks, I've had a go at winding an inductor for the midrange circuit using these instructions. [url="http://www.frontiernet.net/~jff/SonOfSVPCL/DIYSVTBassPreampInductor.html"]http://www.frontiernet.net/~jff/SonOfSVPCL/DIYSVTBassPreampInductor.html[/url] I couldn't find exactly the same core in the UK, but I found some with a very similar AL value which (according to my back-of-an-envelope calculations) need just a handful more turns of wire. My winding method was crude - I cut notches in both ends of an ice lolly stick and wrapped wire around that to use as a shuttle to pass through the centre of the core by hand. I used 0.4mm enamelled wire, which should be about the same as 26AWG. The resulting inductor looks like this. I still need to attach leads to the taps and I may dunk it in some varnish to stop the wire from moving around. The winding is less tight and more scattered than the original Ampeg part, but I borrowed an inductance meter today and the values seem close enough. The target values are 800mH with taps at 100mH and 300mH. Mine measures 99, 290 and 767mH, which is within a 5% tolerance. It doesn't seem like an application where the values are especially critical, so I'm sure that will be fine.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1495565874' post='3304933'] Thee Jazz Hands [/quote] This is wandering of topic a bit, but does anyone have any idea where the use of "Thee" instead of "The" in band names comes from? I have always puzzled over this. It's a spelling that Genesis P.Orridge was fond of, but I don't know if it came from them.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1495570735' post='3305012'] I did a gig last year with no monitoring at all for the first 7 or 8 songs, when I say no monitoring I'm taking no bass amp, no guitar amp and no wedges (which were going to be our sole monitoring), nothing for vocals at all! Oh dear that was tricky [/quote] Aargh, sounds horrible! I played a festival gig a few years ago where the supplied bass amp crapped out three songs before the end of the set with nothing in the monitors, so I feel your pain. Apparently it sounded fine out front, but I don't think I've ever looked at the fretboard quite so intensely. Glad I wasn't on double bass.

There are a few places in my town that are bars putting on live music, rather than dedicated music venues. They'll put on a mixture of covers or originals of a fairly mainstream nature. If they have their own PA, it'll usually be a little mixer and a couple of powered tops that live in a store room between gigs, or sometimes a knackered old mixer amp and passive speakers, rarely any monitors. I don't do many of those gigs, but when I do, the bass won't be through the PA.

If you have one red-plating power valve, swapping the position of the two power valves could help you identify the problem. If the same one red-plates in either socket, you probably need new power valves. If either valve red-plates in the same socket, it's more likely to be another issue with the amp. But don't run it like that for longer than you need to.

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1495442822' post='3303669'] Your guitar playing in NUF is very tasty [/quote] I guess the solution to widdly guitarists is to find a moonlighting bassist for the job!

The band I play guitar in has only one guitar, yet the ad I answered was specifically looking for a rhythm guitarist. Apparently this is because they'd already audtioned five or six insatiable widdlers. Several years later I still haven't tried to squeeze in anything resembling a solo (though I do play some melodic parts), and they seem to like it that way.

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1495391532' post='3303424'] Crusties is the new term. [/quote] I reckon there are three basic varieties of modern-day hippy, which overlap in a Venn diagram fashion. Many people of a hippyish leaning have some elements of each, in varying extents. -There are your crusty/raver sorts; these are the tail-end of the old free festival scene that later fed into the rave scene, chiefly into imbibing whatever they can get hold of in outdoor settings of dubious legality. They're often weekend warriors, rather than it being a full-time lifestyle. -Then there are your activist/eco-warrior crowd; often found inhabiting protest camps or living in off-grid settings. -Finally, there are your new-age/spiritual people; usually more clean-living than the other sorts, into assorted alternative spiritual woo and pseudo-scientific ideas about diet, and they've often come from better off backgrounds - their kids probably go to the local Steiner school. That's probably a reprehensible bit of stereotyping, but there you go! The party I didn't play at last night would mostly have been frequented by the first group.

[quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1495352470' post='3303083'] 1x10? outdoors? hope theyre all going to sit down and be nice and quiet [/quote] For guitar, with unmic'ed drums. It's not going to cover a huge area, but it should balance OK with the drums.

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1495299487' post='3302847'] Slap has been badly abused, but done with taste it's like any other technique and can be pretty cool. One of my favourite slapped basslines is "Forget me nots", played by Freddie Washington, like this: the actual slap starts at around 30 seconds. It also shows just how nice a Precision can sound slapped. You hear a lot of scooped tones, lots of Jazz bass with both pickups on... I like my mids, and this is beautiful. [/quote] P-bass slap is cool - much more up my street than a jazz with both pickups or a Stingray with all the knobs maxed! The 12-string is a lot of fun too. I miss my old 8-string, but mine was converted from a cheap 4-string and the neck only held up for about 3 years before the truss rod could cope no more...

Turns out we're not going ahead, for vague and waffly reasons. It was going to be in an hour or two!

Weather permitting, I'm supposed to be playing guitar with my band at a private outdoor party organised by hippies. There will be some sort of sound system and generator, though it's a complete unknown quantity. It's in a location you can't get a vehicle right up to, so I'd imagine it will be a little portable setup, and there's unlikely to be a proper stage. Sounds pretty dodgy, right? I'm a bit wary of running my usual valve combo on this kind of supply, since the grounding might not be done properly and the voltage and AC frequency might vary. The only solid-state setup I have is my small bass rig of a GK MB200 and 1x10 cab. It seems like the switch-mode supply of the GK is less likely to be stressed by power supply variations, and it might feel less risky, it's a bit lighter to carry too, but it's kind of squeaky clean for guitar. Which way would you go in these circumstances (other than not doing the gig)? Any other tips for coping in this situation are also welcome.

If it was loaned and never returned, how certain is the ownership of it? Could Jamerson's estate have some claim to it? You would hope this was sorted out before auctioning it.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1495276559' post='3302632'] Just listened to the OP's link. Sounds like a bag of spanners being thrown down a fire escape. I get that there is a lot going on but, for me, one of the most important apsects of bass in terms of groove is timbre/tone. If the timbre doesn't work, the notes can be absolutely correct and it still won't groove (think some of the early electric bass playing with big bands). This guys clanking and fret buzz is so distracting, it detracts from his ideas. Is it bass playing? Of course it is. Is it good bass playing? Subjective. [/quote] I read the thread before I'd watched the video, and it kind of has less going on than I'd expected. His dexterity is impressive, he has some interesting enough rhythmic ideas, but harmonically it seems rather pedestrian - he's more or less bashing away at pentatonics over a pedal tone, and it doesn't do much dynamically either. Now, I can't do what he does (before anyone asks), but I'd expect any advanced soloist on almost any instrument to do something more interesting than that. Though I've only watched this video - perhaps he pulls that out elsewhere...

You might want to edit your post to remove the name of the guy who made your pickguards and TRC's - it would be a shame if he got any hassle from RIC over it, and I think they have some sort of trade dress registration on the TRC shape.

[quote name='TrevorR' timestamp='1495141841' post='3301663'] If any decent cab choice/configuration produces an 80% result which creates an environment which is acceptable to both you as a player and the audience as listener any effort to optimise beyond that point may start to take more effort/convenience than the solution creates. [/quote] Interesting post. It's true that even with the best optimised rig the sound will be different as you move around the space in many rooms, and most of the time we're sufficiently used to that not to be bothered by it. The only times I've noticed dispersion from backline amps becoming a problem are either if I can't hear with enough clarity to properly follow what the musicians are doing (particularly when the amp serves as a monitor), or when the on-axis upper midrange peakiness is so pronounced as to be uncomfortable in one spot while it sounds fine everywhere else. So for me "good enough" is when neither of those happens, but then I gig in some fairly haphazard situations so perhaps my standards aren't all that high!