Beer of the Bass

You've done a neat job of that. What sort of ply did you use?

Those are reasonable points. I think in my case of wanting to connect two 4-ohm cabs in series, the simplest and least mishap prone solution would be a single speakon on each cab and a specially made series Y-cable with labelled ends. Switching jacks seem to be one of the most common failure points on line-level equipment, so I'd be a little wary of using them with a speaker signal. This is a bit of a digression from the design diary, but I guess Speakon vs Jack is a relevant consideration for anyone building their own.

[quote name='mickcope' timestamp='1418926247' post='2634975'] I have just started (newbie) playing Double bass in a Bluegrass Band - using an Old 3/4 Bass - the fiddle player suggested that at lot of bluegrass players use 1/2 as they are now bowing and so don't need the size. Never having tried a half size - is there much difference in them in terms of the volume of output from the instrument? cheers Mick [/quote] Dare I suggest that your fiddle player has got his sizes mixed up? Larger 7/8 or 4/4 size basses tend to be seen in orchestral settings, 3/4 size basses are as standard in Bluegrass as anywhere else.

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1418952563' post='2635247'] Most likely! And to make a point I might wear my red shoes to and play my newly refinished red Jazz, with my red hat and red sunglasses... what? too much? Well, I'll drive to the venue in my red car too Will you be there? Does Jen have a new bassist yet? [/quote] Isn't it SeaBass Kid, NUF and Delighted Peoples on the bill? I'll be there with NUF.

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1418986374' post='2635452'] Cool, there is the potential for at least 21 more years bass service in me. I might even be competent by then [/quote] Yeah, that's the other thing. I'm in my 30s myself, but I've jammed with quite a few older musicians. A lot of those guys can really play but tend to be less flash and more economical about it than younger players who've attained that level of ability. I'm kind of looking forward to that...

Most of that "rock n'roll history" was made by people who were young and dumb with little respect for their elders. Even a band like the Beatles started out with simple pop songs and got more sophisticated later. Early on, I'm sure none of them would have cut it as working musicians playing the popular music of the 1940s or earlier. If musicians are still starting out with that attitude I'd say the genre is in good health. If not, it will become fossilised, an exercise in pastiche and imitation. Some would say that is happening already...

I'm sure there were people back in the 60s asking where the younger generations' Cole Porter or Irving Berlin were too...

[quote name='Phil Starr' timestamp='1418922236' post='2634932'] It's simple to wire with switched jack sockets, just wire the sockets in series so they short when the plug is pulled out. [/quote] That's true. I'd been a bit stumped trying to figure out a way to do it with speakons, but using jacks wouldn't be a big deal. Are switched jacks trustworthy with speaker level signals? I've never checked whether they have a current rating.

For me the mp3 vs CD difference seems to be very dependent on the source material. I can easily miss it on a dense rock mix, but I really notice it on things like piano trios or folkier things with some space in them. I'm not great at describing it, but the thing I hear seems to live in the higher frequencies and is especially noticeable on the decay of notes.

Ooh, very red! Will you be be playing through them at the Sea Bass Kid gig on the 10th?

[quote name='Phil Starr' timestamp='1418915857' post='2634811'] B & C drivers are as good as pretty much anything out there, so why not just try them in the smaller cab. I'm just having lunch so all I've done is look at the T/S parameters but I think they'd behave better in the 35l cab than the SM212's. Qts and Vas are lower than the SM212 which helps. Xmax for the SM212 is better and the frequency response is flatter but the response peak in the B&C is probably much better for a bass. The only problem I can see is that a single one would be 4 ohms and you'd need to wire one of the cabs so you could get a series connection to use them as a pair, they are Neo too so there's a weight saving, nice drivers. [/quote] Yes, the 4 ohm impedance is the only thing putting me off doing that, as the B&Cs are good sounding drivers and it's possible that with a flatter driver I'd miss the upper mid peak that they have. If I can come up with an elegant way to achieve the series connection with two separate boxes that may not be a bad idea.

I've been pondering my gear needs and having a look over this thread. Currently I have a 2x12" cab loaded with a pair of 4-ohm B&C 12HPL64 drivers, wired in series for 8 ohms. This has good sensitivity and gets plenty loud enough for my needs even with moderately powered amps. The lows aren't massive on paper (it's 3dB down at around 75Hz), but in practice they're more than sufficient and I often roll off the bass EQ on the amp. It's a very light cab for its size and capabilities, but I think that most of what I do could be covered with a 1x12", occasionally adding a second one where needed. Portability is very important to me, as I live upstairs in a city centre flat. With that in mind, I've been looking at a few different options for one or two smaller cabs and comparing the specs against my current 2x12". In terms of tone, I don't need or want highs in the tweeter region but I like to hear plenty of upper mid, and I'm not bothered with trying to produce the lowest fundamentals. With that as background, would it be a crazy idea to think about reducing the volume of the cab using the SM212? Playing around with WinISD, reducing the volume to around 35-40 litres gives a midbass bump of just over 1dB (depending on tuning). Having played cabs with larger bumps, I feel that could be workable. Using the same volume but plugging the ports for a sealed design gives the expected smooth roll-off, but the maximum SPL of a pair of them is still very close to my existing 2x12" which has always been enough for me. It wouldn't be too hard to build one and try it both ways. Obviously these would be a compromise compared to the 50 litre design presented here, but it seems this could be an acceptable trade-off for my particular needs.

I think it's a period where the recording equipment and techniques had been well established and refined, but just before certain sounds and production tricks which date badly became fashionable. I'm thinking of overuse of digital reverb on everything, DX7 preset synth sounds, electro-acoustic guitars recorded direct from the piezo, electric guitar and bass overly processed with 80s rack units.

Don't you just love it when sellers post pictures of a valve amp switched on with no speaker cab in sight? That really sets the mind at ease!

I think I may have mentioned this last time Eberhard Weber and ECM came up, but I really like some of the Maja Weber album cover art that was on those albums. I wonder if you can get prints anywhere?

If you're looking for a bit of tape colouration within a mostly digital setup, I've known people who track to digital then bounce tracks to tape almost as an effect. The advantage is that you can get away with a two or four track tape machine (so you can afford a better machine for the price) and still have the flexibility of tracking digitally.

I liked it! I was aware of Barre Phillips as having made an album with Dave Holland, the others I'm not familiar with. It's fair to say that four double basses must be a challenge to work with, as they don't have the range of timbres that a more standard lineup would offer, but I enjoyed this track.

I've tried taking it as low as possible and just don't get on with it. My problem is not fret buzz, but my right hand plucking technique usually involves my finger coming to rest on the adjacent string (like a classical guitar rest stroke) and if the action is too low, I cause the lower string to clack against the frets. Both my basses have narrow string spacing, so that may have something to do with it.

If you're looking for older and weirder gear, some of the old Acoustic heads had a built in fuzz, though they don't pop up that often in the UK. If you can find an old Peavey Century, those do distortion and are very cheap.

[quote name='Chienmortbb' timestamp='1418422921' post='2630234'] Yes I got the Boyoho MY1-251PA. Cost is £109.66 for the amp, £3.94 for the cable set and £12.62 postage form the Netherlands. So £126.22 although this can change as the £/€ exchange rate changes. [url="http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Class-dmodule"]http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Class-dmodule[/url] or you can contact them by email to order. They also do a 150/300 module at about £90 and couple of dual channel ones that can be bridged for higher outputs. [/quote] That looks like a good deal, and it's nice and compact. I have the Connex SMPS800RE and the 600 watt IRS2092 power module. While having a conservatively rated power supply could be a good thing, my modules work out a fair bit larger than this integrated module so they're not going to make for as compact an amp. If I hadn't already bought the Connex modules I'd have been considering that one, especially as they're available in Europe and have decent documentation.

[quote name='Chienmortbb' timestamp='1418378067' post='2629642'] Connex Electronic are a small Chinese company that has built a very good reputation for quality and price in HiF circles. They have a few likely cndidates in their range but when I tried to order another item from them before, my order was refusd and my money refunded as I was blamed for a flame war against them started by another Brit. Connex products are distributed in Europe but none of the distributors stock the integrated modules. [/quote] I have a couple of Connex modules for a project that I've been meaning to get on with (not having a gigging band has made it less of a priority). I haven't wired them up yet, but they look well put together. Their response to emails can be slow (apparently this is normal when dealing directly with Chinese companies) and their documentation isn't as good as some manufacturers - for example I still don't know the input sensitivity of the power amp and I'm going to have to work it out for myself by measuring the gain. Their prices are very good though!

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1418380865' post='2629667'] Thanks. BTW: Major D'oh moment. The nut height can't cause buzzing when a note is fretted. See username for explanation. [/quote] If the neck is straight or slightly back-bowed, you can get buzzes from behind the fretted note if the nut is cut low. Though that usually happens higher up the neck rather than at the first few frets, so is probably not what's going on with this bass.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1418038462' post='2626128'] My guess is the soundman was a bass player. Who has that kind of gear lying around for backline? [/quote] It could well be that. In which case, it might have less to do with the backline and more to do with him being perceptive about the sound each band were going for.

There's a smallish festival I've been going to for a number of years; audience of maybe three thousand, fairly large main stage. The music tends to include folk-based things, some world music outfits and a fair bit of reggae but very little rock. Because it's a remote site down a long access road, most bassists use the rented gear on stage. They hire in a decent system and sound guys each year but the quality of the bass sound has been variable to say the least. Many years it's been the sort of indistinct mush complained about in this thread. One year the bass sounded better than usual, not overwhelming in the lows, plenty of mids and nice definition. As it happens, the supplied backline that year was an SVT and 8x10" with a mic in front of it. I have no idea whether that was the root of the better bass sound or just a indicator that they had a different and more sympathetic sound team than in other years! I'm prepared to accept that mic-ing cabs isn't always the solution, but I wonder if it tends to correlate with better sound simply because it's a sign that the sound guy is paying some attention to the band.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1417870071' post='2624703'] I was always taught that if you have nothing nice to say then say nothing at all, of course I took no notice and that's why I am disliked by anyone on here with a Ricky bass [/quote] Hmm, I wasn't going to mention the Ric! I like 'em myself and wouldn't say no to one, but they are a prime example of a premium priced luxury brand where prices are set according to demand and perceived prestige rather than by cost.