Beer of the Bass

Checking voltage between the cap positive and ground is fine IMO, since it's a voltage difference that causes current to flow anyway. I'll often discharge the caps by using a simple clip lead to connect the plate of the first preamp valve (pin 1 on an ECC83) to ground. The caps then discharge through the plate resistor (usually in the 100k ohm range), and the lead can be left in place when working. Obviously, it's still important the check that they've discharged, and in some amps they won't discharge using this method unless the standby switch is closed.

Oops, I've missed the voting! Was going to go for Subsonic Simpleton, XGSX and Camden Rob.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1462710616' post='3045044'] Go easy, though, folks, these are my pals, although I've not seen 'em for several decades, now. We're dealing with archaeology, here. My favourite style, for instance, is Norse; just wait until it comes back into fashion. I'll be right up there at the pinnacle of 'in-ness'..! [/quote] The colour version doesn't disappoint! In truth, I wouldn't mind a pair of those as stagewear myself, though the matching full-band set is very much an idea of its time!

Never mind the beards, those are some spectacular trousers. Shame it's a black and white photo!

It's nice to see some reviews, but his old-school/new breed distinction seems a bit arbitrary IMO. I'd consider the Chromes and Ernie Balls to be modern sounding flatwounds, which don't thump like LaBellas even after a couple of years of use. I'm using Sadowsky flatwounds at the moment (which are a LaBella variant), which are more old-school than the reviews I'd read had led me to believe. On my bass, they just instantly sound like it's 1968 or thereabouts. It's a cool sound which I do enjoy, but I'm currently trying to decide whether I need to go a step or two brighter and clearer sounding for one of the projects I have planned...

[quote name='Blartfactor10' timestamp='1462613657' post='3044339'] A guy I know in Gateshed makes these pickups, they sound as good as a KnK, but for about the third of the price. I have one on one of my uprights but you will need a pre amp. (A Boss Graphic EQ would do the trick) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/J-tone-Big-double-Bass-Pick-up-/201498506263?hash=item2eea3f3417:m:mMv8R28HOczqgXmXPBsADZw [/quote] I also have one of these, and like it better than the Revoolution Solo 2 I had. I think the jack mount that comes with it is a bit ugly, but otherwise it's a good option.

[quote name='herbass' timestamp='1462522805' post='3043678'] Maybe we should get together here in Scotland too! [/quote] Hmm, maybe not a bad idea.

Would two ports of different lengths really have two discrete tuning frequencies, or just a single tuning frequency? I'm more or less thinking out loud here, but my cabs have 3 identical ports. With all three open they're at 50hz, and with one blocked the tuning drops closer to 40 Hz. That makes me think that the tuning frequency is a property of the whole cab/port system and not of the individual ports. If that's the case, wouldn't dissimilar ports still give you a single resonance but just make it harder to model?

If you're attached to the idea of winging it without looking into things too deeply, you could just measure the internal volume of your box, then use this calculator to figure out what length ports would give you what tuning. The open holes you have at the moment will behave like a port with the length the thickness of the wood. [url="http://www.linearteam.dk/default.aspx?pageid=ventcalculator"]http://www.linearteam.dk/default.aspx?pageid=ventcalculator[/url] Most bass cabs are tuned anywhere from 40Hz to 55Hz, so if you shoot for somewhere in that range it'll be an improvement on what you've got at the moment even if it's not completely optimal.

Without knowing what the volume of the cab is, it's impossible to say what tuning frequency you've ended up with, but at a guess, two 4" ports 18mm long would come out much higher than any tuning used in a bass cab. I had a quick play around in WinISD, and it comes out as anywhere from 80Hz upwards depending on the box volume. Such a high tuning is likely to give you a large bump in the midbass (the boominess you're hearing), but will also massively decrease the power handling below the tuning frequency, risking blowing your driver. The port tuning could be lowered by putting tubes in the holes, so it might be worth doing some research to figure out what would work with your box and driver.

Those are looking nice; very clean woodworking there. I just used a general purpose contact glue to fit my ports, I think it was UHU. It dries to a rubbery consistency, fills gaps and can be pulled apart if needed, so it seems to do the job OK.

An old bandmate of mine likes to play an electric saz into a Fender Twin with the reverb and tremolo on. If Arabic Surf Music was a thing, I imagine that's how it would sound!

If I think back over the bands I've actively left (as opposed to ones that have come to an end of their own accord), the reasons were as follows; - The first one was due to a strange combination of control freakery and general unfriendliness by one band member who was generally considered the bandleader. We worked hard gigging and getting our sound together over the year or so I was in the band and built up a bit of a reputation, then when we were offered a gig that was a big step up from the ones we'd be doing, he announced that he was going to do the gig with his new solo project under our name. We also recorded an album where some of my parts were mixed right down to make way for overdubs that his current partner added, who had never gigged with the band and disdained to speak to most of us. -The next was due to general stagnation, but also combined with discomfort at the creepiness of one band member towards women young enough to be his daughter. It was a pattern of behaviour I saw repeated several times, and while he didn't quite reach the stage of abusive behaviour it was still no fun to be around. Oddly, my wife picked up on it straight away and still almost bristles in his presence if we bump into him. -The most recent was largely due to us having very different ideas about what sort of gigs we wanted to do and where we wanted to go with the band. It occurs to me that the first two of these are the sort of situation where I should be careful about not naming names!

For me it would be this double bass. It's not had an easy life and I suspect it would be regarded as a bit of a mutt by those into fine instruments, but it has a proper old bass voice and I'm just used to playing it. It's had a new fingerboard and bridge since this photo was taken. I had a couple of different double basses before this, but didn't really bond with them in the same way. My bass guitars are both home built, and while I guess I wouldn't sell those (as I'm not sure they're particularly saleable), if anything happened to them I wouldn't feel too bad about just building another, maybe improving some things this time around.

I spent a couple of hours jamming on a friends bass last year which had the Innovation slap strings on, though I'm not sure which set. The E and A were definitely on the thumpy and indistinct side - I could see it working in bluegrass or rockabilly, but maybe not the best thing for a defined pizz sound. They were easy to get around and would probably slap well if you were into that, but otherwise any of the strings Jay suggested would definitely help get the sound a bit clearer. I quite liked Innovation Honeys though, they're still a synthetic cored string but much less thumpy than the slap strings.

I think the Orange Terror bass also used something different from the B&O modules. I don't know if it was something proprietary or an unbranded OEM module that they bought in.

It's hard to make out from the photos, but is that a crack I can see on the E-string side, just next to the inner edge of the f-hole? If that's un-repaired and open, it would knock quite a bit off the value as it runs along the edge of the bass bar - making that stable is an expensive repair. So it becomes kind of hard to say without having it looked over in person by someone with some experience.

I feel like that's on the low side, unless the bass has any issues that might detract from the value. Does the label say Czechoslovakia? That would put it firmly after 1918, so that estimate of 30s or so is probably pretty close.

It seems like standard practice for online musical equipment retailers to cover the cost of return carriage only where the item has a fault or has been mis-sold. I haven't checked the policy of each and every retailer, but Andertons work this way, as do Thomann. I don't think Barefaced are asking for anything unusual in this.

Regarding the earliest amps being made with germanium transistors, I think the Burns Orbit was though I don't know about the others. The inconsistency of germanium transistors must have been a real issue with those - I've played around with them in fuzz boxes and you have to test the gain and leakage of each individual transistor as they're all different! As a slight aside I was reading about Walter Woods amps yesterday, which would appear to be the first use of class-D and SMPS in musical instrument amps. I find it interesting that those are still revered for their sound today even though the technology was in its infancy at the time.

I've had the 16mm Alpha pots go crackly in a guitar, though I do volume swells in one of my band's tunes, so it gets cranked up and down a lot. The full-sized Alphas have been fine for me in both instruments and my amp.

They were on the Bass Players Market group on facebook. I don't know who the poster was though.

[quote name='Chienmortbb' timestamp='1461571771' post='3035653'] Most switch mode power supplies don't use transformers at all. [/quote] I was under the impression that a typical SMPS does use a transformer for isolation purposes, but that they can be very much smaller due to the high frequency they operate at.

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1461018928' post='3030789'] There's a venue in my city that declares proudly, on it's website, that all the entry money goes to the band. [/quote] Ah, I know which venue you're talking about. It's not my favourite place. It also feels a bit unhealthy that it's almost the only venue of that size for that style in this town, so that I sometimes wonder if they have rather too much influence on what goes and what doesn't go on the local scene.

[quote name='neilp' timestamp='1461416353' post='3034463'] Is it just me, or does that wear look fake? Be careful, there are lots of "old" basses coming out of eastern Europe. The extra 100 years of "age" puts at least £2,000 on the price. If it really is that old, an it's survived in that condition, there's a good chance it's a pretty nice instrument, but as I said, be careful. [/quote] That feels unlikely in this case - these fairly plain Czech/German flatbacks don't really attract a premium beyond what a new European made instrument of similar quality would cost, so it wouldn't seem an obvious thing to fake.