Beer of the Bass

It should be possible to take a standard TRS/stereo jack plug and wire up a resistor inside the plug housing to simulate the expression pedal at maximum. You would need to know the value of pot used in the expression pedal and which terminals go to which pins of the pot. Anyone with some soldering ability could make this up in a couple of minutes.

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1451253158' post='2939151'] Offtopic: That's Ruaridh. I love his playing. Check out his other band Triptych and Flo [/quote] Yeah, I always like hearing Ruaridh and he's a bit of a stalwart of the Edinburgh scene at the moment. Is he on here, by the way?

[quote name='2x18' timestamp='1451248108' post='2939108'] Strangely enough eBay owns Gumtree! [/quote] Yes, and you'd think there would be more staff at the one which charges a fee for every listing rather than the one which works largely for free, yet Gumtree seem to respond to reports within minutes while eBay rarely do. It's odd!

The band I was in a couple of years ago were getting a few paying bar gigs despite being an originals band, and I know other local bands who've had a similar thing going on. One in particular turned into a residency which ran for quite a while. I guess it helped that our style was quite accessible and we had a great female singer so we didn't give off too much of a "lads with guitars" vibe. Those gigs started drying up a little while before I left the band, though I don't know if that's because the scene was changing or if the band started to lose it's buzz/spark/mojo or whatever you want to call it.

Hooray, it's been removed already! Curious how Gumtree manages this much more easily then eBay...

These keep popping up on Gumtree, a supposedly different seller in a different area of Scotland with a different set of pictures each time, but always in a rural or remote area, always from a new account, always some variation of this amp model using pictures borrowed from old Reverb or eBay listings (usually of US 120V models) and always listed for far less than the usual selling price. It looks like an obvious scam to fool distance buyers into sending payment for an amp that the seller clearly does not own. I've been reporting them whenever I see them, but I thought someone might appreciate the heads-up if you think you've spotted a bargain Deluxe Reverb. [url="https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-bass-amplifiers/fender-deluxe-reverb-blonde-cream-amp-limited-edition/1147753369"]https://www.gumtree....tion/1147753369[/url]

I used boiled linseed oil once, I found it overly thick, slow to dry and I didn't like the smell, though perhaps brands vary. Musicians forums are great at producing interminable multi-page debates on this sort of thing! I'd say that if you already have the Dunlop lemon oil to hand I'd just use that rather than buying anything else, it's made for the job and won't do any harm. AFAIK it's just a light mineral oil with some lemon scent.

I think there's very little info about applying finish to rosewood fretboards because it is very rarely done. Usually rosewood fingerboards just get a wipe with a light oil (not a drying oil finish like Danish oil or True Oil) which darkens it slightly and makes it look a bit nicer. There are a few dedicated products for the job, though I use woodwind bore oil since I had bottle knocking about. Ideally it should be sanded to a smooth and level surface before the frets go in, with perhaps just a quick rub down with extra fine steel wool once the frets are done. If it were my bass, I'd be inclined to fill the little check/crack in your second picture with CA glue, scraped level with the edge of a razor blade and spot-sanded if necessary, before oiling. It might take a couple of applications for a deeper dent. This has turned out to be barely visible on rosewood when I've tried it before. Any divots which appear to be just dents can be raised by putting a small scrap of damp cloth over them and swiftly touching a soldering iron to it to produce steam in the area.

If a company is really on the ball they might be interested to find out that users of their amps often prefer other cabs, so that they can figure out why and come up with something to meet those needs.

I think machinehead's attitude, where technical understanding is complementary to experience gained through listening seems like a good way round for a player to approach things. There have been a few times when I've enjoyed playing through certain pieces of gear and then looked up all the information I can find about them to try and figure out what it is they're doing that I like. They have sometimes been items that I might not have chosen if comparing specs on a "more is better" basis, which there is a temptation to do when you first start checking spec sheets.

Was he trying to say he won't [i]ship[/i] outside the UK? Either that or he loads up on Immodium every time he approaches the border, but I'm not sure how that would be relevant to the eBay listing...

I guess the point is that in the face of specs as flexible as that, there is probably something to be said for the "Sod it, just let me hear the thing and decide if it works for me" approach.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1450867750' post='2936509'] No love for Sue Ryder then? [/quote] The Harley Benton Deko was this year's Sue Ryder.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1450907313' post='2936997'] Given a 1w input to these, and measured at 1 m, and averaging the frequencies, I'd expect these two to be of equal 'loudness', with those figures. Is that not the case..? If not, why not..? [/quote] I'm not sure there is any bass-capable single 10" speaker that can achieve that sort of sensitivity across most of its frequency range (or at least not a compact reflex cab, I don't know if some sort of horn-loaded design could do it). I'm going to guess that EAs figures must be derived from the sensitivity at the tip of the biggest peak on the chart somewhere in the KHz range rather than a broadband sensitivity. But they just call the figure "sensitivity". It's a good small cab and does well for a 1x10", but almost any conventional 2x12" on the market will be substantially more efficient. I bring this up just to urge caution when comparing one manufacturers published specs to another, as not all have the same practices.

As a good example of how manufacturers specs can be confusing, perusing the manufacturer's websites you could be led to believe that a 1x10" EA Wizzy 10 cab is of equal sensitivity to a 2x12" TKS S212, as both claim sensitivity of 102dB. I think any of us could guess which one of those will be louder with a low powered amp, and not by a small margin either.

I reckon that the music press insistence that all bands should either be working class or pretend to be has more or less been dropped in the past five years or so. There have certainly been a proliferation of artists in the charts who come from backgrounds rather better off than I would even regard as middle class, and no-one really attempts to pretend otherwise now. I'm thinking of Florence Welch, James Blunt, Coldplay, Lily Allen, the wretched Mumfords and quite a few more. There have been hand-wringing Guardian articles on the phenomenon, of course. I do worry a little that it has probably got harder for anyone without some resources behind them to really get started in the music industry now.

[quote name='krispn' timestamp='1450799106' post='2935982'] Next gig tell the sound guy you wanna mic the cab and you have everything you need to do so. You'll know exactly where you want the mic to go and have the gear ready to do it etc. The sound guy doesn't have to worry about picking or placing a mic (even though he should as its his job) and you come across as competent and professional and most importantly prepared. [/quote] Yes, if I get into gigging with a valve amp again I might try this approach and see if it meets with less resistance. I've tried the post-amp DI approach before with a BSS AR116 with the 4KHz roll-off switched in and it required a lot of EQ to sound much like the speaker did.

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1450785879' post='2935814'] f*** the sound guy, he's there to do a job. If you want your cab mic'd then tell him to do it. [/quote] I haven't found that attitude to work in practice, unless you're calling the shots and hiring the sound guy yourselves. Any time you set up that adversarial relationship with the house sound guy, it's never a good gig!

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1450741772' post='2935498'] You'd be hard pressed to find a bunch with more impeccable working class credentials as The Sex Pistols. John Lydon started life in a one room tenement in North London, moving later to a council flat in Finsbury Park. His Dad was a journeyman crane driver with John sometimes joining him as he moved about the country. Steve Jones was an illiterate petty thief who slept in the same room as his Mum and step Dad in Shepherds Bush. His parents greatest contribution was teaching him how to steal from a young age. Paul Cook was council estate working class, the poshest of the lot was Glen Matlock who seemed to have a very ordinary upbringing in Crystal Palace. Sham 69 on the other hand hail from leafy Hersham in Surrey. There name comes from graffiti that read Walton and Hersham '69 when the footy team won the Athenian league. The Cockney Rejects who are undoubtedly hard-core thugs from the East End parodied Sham '69's tomfoolery with the Greatest Cockney Rip-Off. [/quote] I'm not talking so much about whether the artists were working class but more who their following was. The particular old punk I heard rambling on about these things was suggesting that it was really the next wave of bands after the Pistols who caught on in a big way with the kids on the estates across England- the guys who had almost more of a football style fandom, and some of those bands could indeed be viewed as a bit naff and populist. He may have been full of it, it just seemed like a perspective I hadn't seen so much of.

[quote name='drTStingray' timestamp='1450653810' post='2934688'] Working class heroes - well maybe in the eyes of the NME and music journos. Where did this luducrous idea there wasn't a gobbing fest come from? They all did it!! Bad chest my arse!! In reality many of the working class of the time were down night clubs dancing their hot pants and flares off to disco and soul - Johnny Bristol, T Connection, Chic and the like - or seeing the ELO who were absolutely huge at the time. It's not as if this was Merseybeat or something - you'd have more chance of seeing the 2 tone post skinheads than punks on the street (unless you were around the Westwood/McClaren manor). They were even banned from playing in places by most councils! [/quote] I was born in 1981 so obviously wasn't around at the time, but I've picked up the impression from a few old punks that the Pistols and their ilk were part of a fairly cliquey, arty, high fashion scene that only small circles were close to. The same people reckoned that when bands with a larger working class following (like Sham '69) emerged, they were almost regarded as a bit déclassé, even embarrassing, by the "scene" punks. Does that sound somewhere close to what was going on?

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1450732861' post='2935399'] I don't get it either. I have no idea how TKS managed to turn what is a very average-to-mediocre driver into a much-recommended bass cab. It's in a half-inch poplar cabinet too, which doesn't help. They appear to have done something right though. [/quote] I'm going to guess that the particular frequency response of that driver (the typical Eminence rising mids thing) produces something that just sounds like people expect a bass cab to sound, and it's a convenient, smart looking and tidily built package to boot. It's not going to have the output of more state-of-the-art driver designs, but it's probably loud and bassy enough for most, with a familiar character to it.

I love this one too. The intro is surprisingly simplistic for a bunch of jazzers, but those nice growly fifths are a wonderfully purposeful way to open an album. Dave Holland's tone and feel on this are a bit of a benchmark for me. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTGiT6-Oahc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTGiT6-Oahc[/url]

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1450731298' post='2935383'] Hi Martin, I'll have a pair of S112's coming to me soon, so we can compare them if you like. [/quote] Yeah, that could be entertaining. I'm not sure when I'll get started on them; probably not until the new year, but I have a new wee musical project they would be useful for.

Wasn't mrtcat on here doing speaker builds for people? I don't know if he's still doing that, but since the plans are public domain for these, any builder of custom cabs should be able to put one together.

How deep is the gap between the fingerboard and straight-edge at the deepest point? It might turn out to be within the normal range. Is there any buzzing around the middle of the fingerboard when the bridge is adjusted to your preferred height?