Beer of the Bass

[quote name='owen' timestamp='1474147139' post='3135963'] You mean people do anything else????!!??!!! [/quote] I've wound a few pickups at home with shonky arrangements of variable speed drills clamped to bits of scrap wood with varying levels of success - a couple of them were quite good, several more weren't. So I didn't like to assume whether you meant DIY or not. But I think the going rate for a proper rewind is from about £45 per humbucker, and you could get some nice used ones for that.

There are situations where the wrong cabinet can drastically reduce the power handling of even a high-excursion driver like Barefaced use. Without being familiar with the size and port tuning of both cabs I don't know if that would be the case here, but it's something to bear in mind.

Would you be taking them to a professional rewinder? That might cost as much as a used set of Seymour Duncans, Gibsons etc. The better quality end of far eastern made pickups could be worth a look too.

[quote name='BassDeLune' timestamp='1474099943' post='3135562'] What mod did that require? And how long do you think the spirocore's will sound good for before they'll need changing? [/quote] Spirocores are probably the longest lasting strings available. I replaced my 8-year old set this year, but there are quite a few bassists who would have kept them on...

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1474019069' post='3134936'] That's lovely! It''s typical 70s 'burst fade... the red disappears through exposure to sunlight, leaving it pretty much 2-tone, while the back remains standard 3-tone. [/quote] Ah, that'll be it. I guess I've not seen enough from this era for that to be familiar to me.

Is that finish original? I'm not that up on old Fenders, but the dark part of the burst looks differently shaped from the typical Fender sunburst. Or did they vary like that?

After having a good play around with one of the cabs with double bass last night, I think I'll shelve the tweeter idea for the moment. I found that if I tilt the cab back by propping something under the front edge and take down the high mid control on my amp (a GK MB200) while boosting the highs a little, things get much clearer and more pleasant sounding. IIRC the high mid control is centred at about 1KHz, so I guess the Beta's high sensitivity around there is unflattering with the double bass without some EQ. I do really enjoy the sound of these cabs with electric bass though, so there's always going to be some tweaking when using one rig for both.

I've got fussy neighbours who never leave the flat, so I usually practice with a rubber mute on the bridge, soundholes covered and the spike resting on an old piece of flightcase foam with plywood on top (kind of like a makeshift Gramma pad). They can still hear it, but it's at least not loud enough to complain about. It does kind of take a lot of the pleasure out of practicing, when I so rarely hear the full acoustic tone of the bass.

The big decals make me wonder if it was a trade show sample or similar.

[quote name='Chaos Daveo' timestamp='1473627043' post='3131845'] Hairy cabs are the way forward,more natural organic sound and something to soak the odd bear spillage up.. [/quote] We've already had German Shepherd hairs and cat vomit, so I guess bear spillages are the next logical step!

The black, single element model which resembles a K&K Bass Max is pretty good. Having picked one up as a bit of a stopgap, I'm still using it.

It seems like some circuits respond to swapping different brands of 12AX7 much more than others. In a very clean running Carlsbro (which I was using for bass) or a blackface Fender-ish guitar combo I couldn't hear any difference when swapping preamp valves between EH, JJ, Brimar and a couple of old Mullards, or if I could it was so subtle as to be insignificant to me. But in a guitar amp based on a Marshall circuit with a bit of preamp overdrive going on I could hear more of a difference when swapping valves, so I feel like any comments about a valve having a specific sound are only useful with regard to the gear they're used in. I don't know whether the DHA pedals would tend to show up those differences or not, though somebody on here must have tried.

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1473365071' post='3129563'] That's true. So when you're ready to have a bash, let me know and I'll send you the capacitor and inductor. [/quote] Cheers for the offer, Stevie. I think what I'll do first is to take a cab to a rehearsal this week and mess around a little more with EQ and raising and/or tilting it. If I still can't get enough of what I want to hear that way, I'll have a go at the tweeter idea. So far I've only used these cabs for double bass a couple of times, so I'm still getting used to them.

I had Honeys for a while, and those were quite nice under the bow - certainly more forgiving than my Spirocores.

I liked the look of the EB basses from a year or two ago, though this year's model is a bit generic looking. They don't have much to do with the classic Jack Bruce/Andy Fraser/Felix Pappalardi sort of Gibson bass sound though.

I like the veneer pinstripe under the fingerboard. I've seen it on fancy banjo necks, but not on a bass.

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1473349278' post='3129408'] While Bill is perfectly correct about the need to custom design crossovers, have you had a look at what bass speaker manufacturers are actually fitting? The last commercial speaker I measured was an Eden and it looked like the crossover had been designed by the tea boy. There will eventually be a two-way 12" design with a proper crossover in the Cabinet Diary thread, as I'm starting on one at the weekend. Don't hold your breath though. I'd give it a go, BoB. Try a 3.3uF film capacitor and a .35mH inductor in a second order circuit and stick an L-pad on the end. Switch the polarity of the HF unit to taste. It's not going to be optimal, but it will probably work. The P.Audio HF units are unbeatable for the money. [/quote] That does sound fairly acheivable, if I do get around to it. I realise it's unlikely to be particularly flat around the crossover region, but I'm not out by much if I don't like it.

When I was a teenager I left my carpet-covered Peavey amp at the house of the drummer I played with, who was a bit older than me. Unknown to me, the room he stored the gear in was also where he smoked his naughty cigs to avoid smoking in front of his kids, and the Peavey was at exactly the right height to use as a rolling surface. I recall spending a frantic half-hour picking the bits off on the way home when I took it back to my parents' house, who would not have approved. So I'm not terribly fond of carpet covered cabs...

After reading through the other recent thread about adding tweeters to existing cabs, I have been weighing up the possibility of adding a tweeter to one of my cabs. (I thought I would start a new thread rather than continuing that one, as it would be a bit of a derailment from Kevin's original question about modifying his own cab) I'm using a pair of home-built ported 1x12" cabs using the Eminence Beta 12. Because they're DIY cabs, I have no concerns about re-sale value and no worries about cutting a hole in the baffle of one. For electric bass, I don't want or need a tweeter for the sound I like, but when I use one of the cabs with double bass I feel like I could do with a touch more air in the highs. So I would need something which didn't affect the sound of the 12" when the tweeter is switched off. I guess that would suggest that simply high-passing the tweeter rather than using a full 2-way crossover might be the way to go. I know there's a lot of talk about how complex crossover design can be, but if I was to do a bit of reading, pick out a tweeter that extended down to around 2KHz (like some of the P-Audio offerings), calculate the inductor and capacitor values using an online calculator and wire it up with some form of switchable or variable attenuation, how badly could I go wrong? I would probably try it externally before cutting a hole in my baffle. Worth looking into, or a fool's errand?

I think plugging into a guitar amp is a major part of getting that more electric sound from a magnetic pickup, but you could always try some sort of amp modelling pedal if you're running straight into the PA. I've seen at least a couple of people get a great sound with the Fishman Neo-D run into a guitar amp - there are no adjustable poles but it's balanced for bronze acoustic strings, not too expensive and can be installed temporarily.

[quote name='Zummerbass' timestamp='1473181343' post='3127764'] Also tiny 2x12 for £333. I see there are Handbox amp owners on here,anyone with the cabs? [/quote] The 2x12" does look like good value for money. Given that the drivers are 250 watt ceramic Eminence units, they're likely to be comparable to the TKS S212. They do a pair of 1x12" cabs for the equivalent of £500 too.

They have two speaker sockets, but only an 8-ohm tap on the output transformer. So running a second 8-ohm speaker for a 4-ohm load would present a different load than the amp is designed around, and this is reflected at the primary side of the transformer. It seems that they're usually fairly tolerant of this and rarely break, but the sound will be different in a way that you may or may not like and it's likely that the amp will deliver less power than into an 8-ohm load, so the volume increase might be marginal. Some people find that running an extension cab works for them, but it might be wise to try before buying if possible. You could also try running an 8-ohm 2x12" without using the internal speaker.

It's probably easier for guitarists - just use a Floyd Rose with the locking nut, then you can twiddle the tuners to wherever you like.

[quote name='spongebob' timestamp='1473001919' post='3125912'] Here's another - Michael Henderson on bass, Ricky 4001 with flats - [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPrIN4QSirs"]https://www.youtube....h?v=JPrIN4QSirs[/url] [/quote] Is that definitely a Ric? I had him down as a Fender Jazz guy, but then I haven't listened to much outside his work with Miles Davis.

[quote name='Subthumper' timestamp='1472844853' post='3124792'] Very nice work, looks great. Getting the front panel done properly is worth every penny. Yeah I too find that I'm planning the next project before ive finished the first one. I'm thinking of some kind of Model T come bassman on steroids, got a nice set of partridge 200watt transformers to use. [/quote] I'd love to see a build diary thread on that one if you're up for doing one.