Beer of the Bass

He was great outside of the funky thing too, just a supremely musical guy all around, and I really like his sound and approach on this. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6Wsdkll5-s"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6Wsdkll5-s[/url]

I appreciate that this could be a tall order for what is a fairly generic looking pickup, but I have this unidentified pickup in a parts bass and I'm wondering if anyone can guess at where it might have come from. It was a parts-drawer special from another Basschatter a few years ago, and he couldn't remember what it was either. It has fibre flatwork, grey and white plastic coated lead wires and unbevelled alnico magnets. The coils are wrapped with black cloth tape and there are no written markings anywhere on it. It looks to be a few years old and the tops of the poles are slightly polished from finger contact. It measures 10.1K when wired into the bass (so probably a touch higher when disconnected). It sounds very much like a typical vintage style P-bass pickup. Any ideas?

At the very least the bridge, body wood, truss rod access (bare hole with no lining) and headstock logo scream "Fake!". I've used the Report button, not that that ever does anything...

It's interesting seeing the comments about fit and finish, as my MB200 was one of the earlier batches of US-labelled ones and the front panel is slightly wonky. It wasn't enough for me to want to send it back, but the casting is slightly out of square at one corner. For the price, size and sound of the thing I'm not too bothered about it, but I thought it should at least be acknowledged. People do tend to comment on the background hiss with these amps too. I think a lot of that is down to the EQ voicing and the lack of a master volume control. The amp is closest to flat with the treble control at 10 o'clock, so at 12 o'clock it is already substantially boosting the highs. If you take almost any amp, run the master volume on full (equivalent to how the MB200 is laid out) and boost the treble you will hear some hiss. And it's quieter than my Acoustic Image Clarus was, anyway! I would much rather have a master volume control than that daft contour switch though. I try and avoid uncritically raving about pieces of kit, but despite those couple of flaws this thing is useful, good value and I like the sound of it. The perceived volume seems about in line with what I'd expect of a 200 watt solid state amp and it behaves gracefully when pushed close to its limit.

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1443612721' post='2876184'] I agree that their is slightly less tension but not so much that it affects the playability of the bass. If anything I'd say it improves playability. [/quote] I think it might just be down to my playing style - years of trying to project on double bass make it hard for me to lighten up my touch enough on bass guitar. If I try tapes again it may have to be some of the 0.065" gauge LaBellas or Rotos. I like the tapes in general though, they seem to have a bit of flatwound character and still have enough brightness without sounding at all metallic.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1443611105' post='2876148'] So Jazz, Blues, Pop, Funk, Big Band and Latin not a wide enough selection, then? [/quote] It might or might not be up your street, and I don't know what the scene is like in your area, but folkies of various sorts love a double bass. Perhaps there could be some gigs to be had there?

Do you find them floppy? I had a set of 0.50" gauge D'Addario tapewounds for a while and liked the sound but found that the tension was just a bit too low for my playing style, and the Status tapes are an even smaller gauge.

[quote name='gelfin' timestamp='1443523440' post='2875451'] Hunt around for one of these s/h [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Novation-Bass-Station-Synth-/291576196920?hash=item43e34baf38"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item43e34baf38[/url] I use one in the same way you mentioned. All sounds built in. [/quote] These are great wee things, but if Gaf wanted piano or strings a monophonic analogue synth is not going to deliver those. Although the Novation Xiosynth from a few years later might fit the bill (still no piano sounds, but it's at least polyphonic).

I've wound a few guitar pickups and one bass pickup, though nothing of the Wal multi-coil sort. I got my magnets from Cermag [url="http://www.cermag.co.uk/"]http://www.cermag.co.uk/[/url] and my wire from Brocott's [url="http://www.brocott.co.uk/"]http://www.brocott.co.uk/[/url] . I've used vulcanised fibreboard which came in small quantities from eBay sellers, but you could improvise with other materials too. I used tufnol sheet on one, because I had a scrap piece lying around. I didn't count windings; since I've only done single coils (rather than matched coils for humbuckers) I've just wound until the bobbin looks full and then checked the resistance. For bridge/neck pairs I just would the bridge a bit fuller than the neck. My winding setup was fairly haphazard, I just strapped a small hobby drill to a piece of wood and wired it up to a little speed controller PCB which came from eBay. I had a bit of dowel with sections of cork on it to guide the wire and set the horizontal travel, and tensioning was done by hand.

[quote name='Passinwind' timestamp='1443040804' post='2871822'] That happens mostly with poorly designed tube socket mounting schemes or not so robust circuit boards, IHMO. Thermal expansion/contraction of tube socket pins can cause solder joint fractures in some cases as well. Many many pieces of gear work flawlessly for decades with board mounted sockets though. [/quote] I was thinking more of jack and power sockets, but those are valid points regarding valve sockets.

[quote name='Chienmortbb' timestamp='1443034697' post='2871743'] Good points although why would sockets being soldered to the PCB make them more unreliable? [/quote] It seems to be quite common that the PCB around board mounted sockets flexes slightly in use and after a few years the tracks fracture and crack. I'm not even any sort of professional repair guy, but I can think of at least three bits of kit I've repaired where this was the fault, so I presume it's a regular point of failure.

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1442960847' post='2871036'] Just quoting the Darkglass latest advert for the Microtubes B3K ... Unibody chassis made in Helsinki. carved out of a single aluminium block. [/quote] This is one of those bits that appears to be done as a selling point rather than for functional reasons. They're machining cases out of solid aluminium billet which do exactly the same job as an inexpensive cast aluminium Hammond case and don't look very different, but cost a lot more.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1442928157' post='2870611'] Seems to me he's just doing Stand Up (I know he's sitting down!) and having fun. I've thought most of what he says at one time or another in the last 20 years. It's just an aggressive satire. I would have thought everyone would know his routines are based on well known stereo types. [/quote] Yeah, possibly. I actually agree with a lot of what he says, and there are times when adopting that kind of attitude can be the most effective way of getting your point across. I'm just not quite picking up on any warmth underneath the bluster though - maybe it's just not my type of humour.

That's a huge box for what's inside! I would probably buy one as a stationary rehearsal room amp if I had a need for that though.

[quote name='mrtcat' timestamp='1442916886' post='2870430'] I'm amazed anyone uses his studio at all. One wrong comment and he'll lambast you on youtube. [/quote] I do wonder - is he trying to build up the Youtube videos and T-shirt sales in order to compensate for a not exactly stuffed studio schedule? Of course, now I've said that he'll probably bitch about it in a video!

I think a lot of the price of the small boutique manufacturers is in the increased overheads and lesser purchasing power that goes with making things in small numbers, plus some less efficient manufacturing techniques. I don't think many of the people making this gear are getting rich, put it that way. Looking at the Jule Monique, it looks to be hand wired on tag-board. This should make no difference to the sound or performance (though that topic is a favourite of multi-page arguments on guitar forums) but is more labour intensive to assemble. It uses a custom wound output transformer which will also increase the cost. The bit I'm puzzled at with the Jule is why they use a valve rectifier. In class-AB power amps, a valve rectifier can cause "sag" due to the way it responds to increased current draw during peaks, which many players like. On a class-A preamp circuit, the current draw does not vary with signal level in the same way and in any case will not be high enough to cause the "sag" effect. So that aspect of it does seem rather like an extra shiny bottle to use as a marketing USP. I'm sure it sounds good though, even if it might sound indistinguishable with 7 pence worth of 4007 diodes instead of the valve rectifier...

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1442851894' post='2870002'] I'm sorry guys but I have just two words to say to you. Elvis Presley [/quote] Hmm, possibly. I think his management wasn't good for him for most of his career. I suspect that missing out on the 1980s has helped him to retain a little dignity in that respect.

Not as yet. They look sort of interesting, but so far I've not quite been curious enough to order one.

Is yours at concert pitch? A friend has had a couple and none of them have been quite in tune with the outside world. They're fun instruments though - it's hard not to trot out my (rather feeble) attempt at an Ivor Cutler impersonation when sitting at one...

I miss the one Fender that I've owned, a Highway One Jazz. It was just a nice plain, simple bass that played well and sounded like a Jazz, but somehow the whole package was satisfying.

Is the headstock bound or has someone gone to town with acrylic paints? I wouldn't be surprised at the latter.

[quote name='Simon.' timestamp='1442573179' post='2867879'] I also recall being scared witless as a naive 14-year old in Bostons. What happened in the end? [/quote] It was run by this guy: [url="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/feb/15/drugsandalcohol.ukcrime"]http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/feb/15/drugsandalcohol.ukcrime[/url]

[quote name='skidder652003' timestamp='1442522439' post='2867608'] lol that won't cut the mootard against a marshall stack! [/quote] I reckon it could be excellent alongside a Fender Princeton and a drummer who's not a full-on rocker though.

[quote name='kodiakblair' timestamp='1442437296' post='2867036'] Big_Stu Was Live Music no up past the Kings at the start of the Meadows ? One I'm thinking of was opposite the Cameo an next to Bentleys Bar. Marshalls or something rings a bell. [/quote] Live Music (before the last move) was next door to Bennets bar, two doors up from the Kings. It's the Purple Pig cafe at the moment. Mev Taylors was on Brougham Street towards the Meadows for a couple of years - are you thinking of that?

The thing I like about the Paul McCartney conspiracy theory is that it dates from pre-internet times. It's somehow reassuring to know that people have always come up with this stuff, though the internet makes the process a bit more efficient.