Beer of the Bass

Like Passinwind says, It could either be that the heater wires to the rectifier socket have been disconnected, or the 5V winding on the power transformer which supplies them has stopped working. If it's the latter, your choices would be to stick with the SS rectifier or have the power transformer replaced or rewound.

[quote name='chrisaxe' timestamp='1472840706' post='3124747'] I have no idea - is this something I can easily check or a job for a tech? [/quote] Does the rectifier valve glow? That would be the simplest way to check.

The 50-watter had the controls at the top largely because the friend I built it for liked the look, though with the vents on the top it's good for avoiding heat build up too. This one is going to have the controls on the front, as I usually have a tape echo box sitting on top of my amp which makes top-mounted controls annoying.

[quote name='6v6' timestamp='1472796494' post='3124263'] Nice, I made an mhuss 6v6 plexi which is similar to your smaller build, sounds very good, be interested to follow this! [/quote] Mark Huss' page is what gave me the idea. It's handy that the 6v6 requires so few changes to the circuit other than choosing the correct transformers and tweaking a few values in the power supply, and I'd really like something that sounds as much like the 50 watter as possible, just with less power.

This one is off with my friend now, but I decided I was unable to resist the temptation to do a smaller version for myself. So far I've picked up the chassis and transformers: It's going to be essentially the same circuit but adapted for 6v6 power valves instead of EL34s, which should give me somewhere around 15-18 watts. The smaller transformers should make it a bit lighter too. It's going to go into a 1x12" combo cabinet, but somewhat smaller than the 50 watt version. It's going to be a slower build than the bigger one because I'm picking up the parts in dribs and drabs as my finances allow. I might not post updates at every step of this one, but I'll put up some pics when it's done...

It may just be that you need a slow blow fuse - do you have a manual for the amp that would confirm this? I spent a while on an amp I built recently trying to figure out why the fuse was blowing at switch-on about 1 time in 10 with no obvious fault, before I realised that slow-blow are usually used in that particular application. It's unlikely that changing the preamp valves would cause the fuse to blow, as most amps use plate resistors of at least 100K in line with them, so even a dead short across a preamp valve wouldn't cause enough current flow to blow the fuse.

[quote name='hiram.k.hackenbacker' timestamp='1472710739' post='3123431'] Tony Levin has been using/marketing these for years. He calls them Funk Fingers. [url="https://youtu.be/aUjXvAPjO5g"]https://youtu.be/aUjXvAPjO5g[/url] [/quote] It's closer to the things they use for hammered dulcimer than to the Funk Fingers. But those have been around even longer! Still, they raised $34,000 on Kickstarter, so I guess somebody must be excited about the idea.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1472675621' post='3123249'] Winging it is good for your playing and I think more people should do it as a learning tool... but I don't play with people who are my friends just because they are my friends. It has to work on another level. [/quote] I like to wing it as an occasional thing, but doing it regularly could be stressful. The drummer is someone I like to play with on a musical as well as a personal level - at this point we've done so many gigs together that we tend to get what the other is going for without having to discuss it too much. It's just that this would really not be my favourite vehicle for working with him.

I have a good friend who's a drummer I've known and played with for years, we met when we were barely out of our teens. We've had various bands together since about 1999/2000 and he was the best man at my wedding. Those bands have included a noisy free-improv project, a willfully daft psych-folk band and assorted folky or singer-songwritery things. In the past eighteen months, we did a few gigs (mostly weddings) with a flung-together jazz quartet with two other old friends on keys and sax and myself playing double bass. It's predominately been a mainstream, crowd-pleasing repertoire as that's what goes down well at weddings. We haven't gone out looking for gigs, they've just sort of come along through the grapevine. I'd always viewed it as a series of one-offs rather than a steady band, if that makes sense. The piano player we did those gigs with has decided that they're is not really his cup of tea and doesn't want to do any more of them, which is fair enough. The drummer, however is really keen to find a new pianist or guitarist and to find some more paying gigs. The thing is, I'm not especially keen on playing weddings and I'm not sure jazz standards gigs are really my forte. But we've played together and known each other for so long that I'd feel quite conflicted about turning down something he wants to do. I think part of my hesitation is the idea of putting myself out there as a jazz musician - while I can usually wing it through the tunes to the satisfaction of the audiences we get, the standard on the jazz scene around here seems pretty high and I'm very aware that I haven't really put the hours in and could easily come across as a bit of a hack. So I'm just a bit uncomfortable about trying to do that in a professional context. While I've played for years, I've only had a couple of short spells of seeing a teacher and studying in a focused way. At some point down the line I'll seek out a good double bass teacher and do some more of that, but for various reasons I don't feel like now is the right time. My other concern ties in nicely with the "playing for nowt" thread, as to be quite honest I just don't enjoy the sort of gig where I feel like I'm there to provide a service to customers. I'm a great deal happier playing some indulgent noise to half a dozen people in some arts space or other, or playing something loud and groovy to dancing hippies, and if it covers the diesel and/or provides beer and food then I feel like all is well with the world. I'm also not set up to do the self-employment thing, so regular properly invoiced gigs would create a complication in my life that I'm not looking for right now. My friend is currently self employed and keen to get any extra bits and pieces he can, so we're not really on the same page about this. So I guess I'll have a conversation with my friend about why I don't want to pursue the jazz quartet idea, though it feels weird to do so. Really I'm just rambling here, getting my thoughts down in writing so it's a bit clearer in my head, but this being a bass forum I guess some of you will have thoughts on this too.

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1472154313' post='3119000'] Thomann supply Warwick tuners (made in Germany so I have my suspicions). The quality is super and they are cheaper than Schallers. They even have a W for Westone on then [/quote] I've got a set of these for a bass that's waiting to be built, and they do feel like decent quality - they have less play in the gear than some of the generic cheapies. They look like they'd drop into the Westone without any modifications too. I'm not certain they're really made in Germany though, despite the stamp. Surely they would cost more?

There are still a handful of teenagers out there interested in playing guitar, bass, drums and things, but it's a bit more of a niche interest than previously. My stepson turns 17 next week and mostly likes music that sounds like some awful cross between 8-bit chip tunes and cheesy dance music, but one of his best friends is playing bass in bands, growing his hair out and buying music from internet cassette labels (which I was surprised even exist). We took the pair of them to a small hippyish festival last year, I lent my cheap acoustic bass to the friend and he had a great time wandering around finding people to jam with.

This is looking really nice, with the bevel and the pretty woods. You've got me gazing over at the plank of walnut I have leaning in the corner of the room, wondering whether it should be made into something SG shaped!

[quote name='Roger2611' timestamp='1472464142' post='3121216'] This joker also wants over a £1000 for a really, honestly super rare 1974 Antoria, bolt on neck ply wood Les Paul Custom pile of poo that apparently is the closest copy of the Steve Jones Les Paul that you can get for under £3000, the only similarity being that it has two stickers applied! Nothing but a greedy chancer at work, as some one else has already suggested "take him round the back of the bike shed and give him a slapping" only I would use the Antoria! [/quote] Wow, the Antoria is quite something. You could lose your pick in that neck pocket even if you used one of those 3mm Jazz Stubby things...

I also really like the aesthetics of these. I'd want to put together a kitschy little lounge jazz trio with the drummer on a sparkly cocktail kit and the keyboard player on some sort of 60s German electric piano like a Hohner or Weltmeister. Matching suits, of course...

Out of those two, the 1x15" MAG is probably the safer option for standard pub gigging. Although the ABM looks like the nicer amp in terms of quality and features, a 1x10" will only get you so far (though there are one or two more recent 1x10" cabs which do stretch that expectation a little). For low-volume settings like jazz or "acoustic" gigs, theatre pits, studio use etc the ABM would probably be a good amp. It could be used to drive a larger cab, but if you want that sort of modularity then a combo might not be the best choice.

[quote name='The Jaywalker' timestamp='1472050092' post='3118021'] As food for thought: how many bassists from back in the gut days actually stayed with gut strings when other options became available? [/quote] Didn't Mingus stick with gut, at least until his very last couple of years when he just did whatever was necessary to keep playing? I guess Charlie Haden did too, though I don't know how different his Golden Spirals were from plain gut and he still had steels on the bottom. But otherwise, not many. I tried a plain gut G and D very briefly. I could have got used to the G, but the D was just to flubby and inharmonic on my bass. If I had the space and cash for two basses I might think about some sort of mixed gut set on the second one, but as it is I can't really see myself moving away from steel.

[quote name='HazBeen' timestamp='1471904232' post='3116933'] Double bass territory [/quote] Double bass has the same low E as a standard 4-string bass guitar.

I think Phil Starr had mentioned that he's used it, but that the spec had changed in the last few years. The current version looks useful for sealed cabs, perhaps less so for ported ones.

I wonder if this was the picture he meant to post? [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Brown-Tolex-case-1960s-/351792642711?hash=item51e879ba97:g:xZkAAOSwTZ1Xlhbo"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Brown-Tolex-case-1960s-/351792642711?hash=item51e879ba97:g:xZkAAOSwTZ1Xlhbo[/url]

It now says "audio on request"! I don't want to pester the guy with no intention of buying, but does anyone feel like sharing?

Before changing the pickups or looking for a new bass, I would suggest trying some flatwound strings, which should get you a deeper, rounder sound without changing anything else. Fender flatwounds are meant to be good value, but something like LaBella are deeper and mellower sounding. And if you're not already doing this, make sure the blend control on the bass is turned towards the neck pickup. You may find that gets you closer to the sound you're looking for.

Am I right in remembering that Mr Dumble didn't charge outrageously for them, and the current high prices are largely down to a mixture of hype and scarcity? From the schematics that are around on the internet, it does look like he had some good ideas which have been influential to other designers. So even if they may not seem head-and-shoulders above everything else today, at the time they did some things which were fairly unique.

We continue to be part of the EU until the Government trigger article 50 and begin the 2 year process of leaving. As that hasn't been done yet, Thomann purchases will continue to be VAT-inclusive and free of import duty for at least the next couple of years.

Are you still playing through the bass amp? I gather that a lot of the fuss around the Klon is how it behaves when pushing a valve amp, so you probably won't get the best out of it in that context. For a similar amount of cash I'd be inclined to pick up some sort of small valve combo used and an inexpensive booster or tubescreamer clone to push it with. If bluesy, low-gain drive is your goal, that would get you closer than putting the KTR in front of a bass combo.