Beer of the Bass

As far as I can gather TKS are using Eminence speakers and the 505cm[sup]3[/sup] displacement spec suggests that the H115 probably uses the Kappalite 3015, the same driver as your Compact. If the size and porting are different, the H115 and Compact may have differences in the lows, but the mids and highs should be very similar.

I didn't find them too hard to play and I think the smoothness helps with that. But then I'm used to 13-56 roundwounds on the archtop acoustic I'm playing now, so I may have a skewed view of such things! They wouldn't be my first choice for a lot of bending - little semitone bluesy bends worked OK but for anything wider than that I'd look at something different. They can be kind of dark sounding but they have a snap to the attack which can make up for that. It strikes me that the sound works best for styles played clean or only slightly dirty, so jazz, 50's or earlier blues, old reggae styles (Ernest Ranglin-esque) or surf music all sound great.

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1416069440' post='2606588'] Ah yes, the" Hot Girls in the Audience" Photo thread? The kudos seemed to be in having many photogenic girls draped around the Bassist, to which other posters would variously rate for "hotness". Can't think why it did not catch on here.... [/quote] It's odd, the Talkbass moderators are really jumpy about language and the slightest mention of politics will get you banned, but I've seen casual sexism like the above thread, along with transphobic and homophobic "humour" left untouched. There was even a guy with a rape joke in his signature for a long time. Not to be sycophantic, but I think the mods over here strike a better balance...

I used to use these on an archtop I had. With a neck humbucker and a clean amp it's a pretty classic jazz guitar sound.

I picked up most of the parts from [url="http://www.bitsbox.co.uk"]http://www.bitsbox.co.uk[/url], a couple of bits from [url="http://www.technobotsonline.com"]http://www.technobotsonline.com[/url] and the last few parts I couldn't find elsewhere from eBay sellers. Some of the large industrial suppliers like Farnell can be slightly cheaper but they have minimum orders, more expensive shipping and are not really geared towards supplying small orders to DIYers. I found that the cost saving from self-sourcing compared to buying the kit is not huge, but the filter I wanted doesn't come with the Shruthi kit. Otherwise, it's probably worth paying the small amount extra for the kit for the sake of simplicity. The design of the Shruthi is quite elegant as most of the clever stuff is done by the microcontroller which I bought pre-programmed with the PCB, allowing the hardware to be fairly simple. For the case I'm going to make the sides and base from 6mm thick walnut which I got from a hobby supplier. The front panel is going to be in black perspex, cut and etched with a laser cutter which belongs to a local hackerspace. My plan is to get the boards assembled and tested, then move on to the case.

I've got hold of my boards and all the necessary parts, and this morning I assembled the filter board. I'm going to have a break and do the digital/control board another day, but it seems to be going together easily enough. With the silk-screened PCBs, no off-board wiring and good instructions, it seems a surprisingly straightforward build even though the filter has a high parts count.

[quote name='Jecklin' timestamp='1415963182' post='2605575'] Hold tight, I'll see if I can dig up some snaps [/quote] Cheers for that. That's very neat looking, and probably a little less cumbersome than a C-extension.

[quote name='Jecklin' timestamp='1415960984' post='2605545'] I had a low d extension fitted by Laurence Dixon many years ago. It got a lot of use. [/quote] I'm curious about the D-extension - do you have any photos? Does it have a capo for the E? I tune my E string down to D for a couple of tunes as it sounds great played arco, and I could imagine getting some use out of one of these.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1415960772' post='2605541'] I am hearing Gong music for the first time right now. I am really impressed with Mike Howlett. [/quote] Good, isn't he? Not flashy, but absolutely on it. I saw them a couple of years ago when they released the 2032 album and not only is his playing as good as ever, he had one of the nicest live bass sounds I've heard.

They sound like they could be Ernie Balls. The silks on those are a very similar colour to the ones on Chromes, but with brass ball ends. You can just about make out the colour in my avatar picture. LaBellas are not widely stocked in the UK, so if the previous owner walked into a music shop and asked for whatever flats they had, Ernie Balls are a more likely candidate.

Don't Musicman use a different style of truss rod to Fender too? I think MM have a straight rod made from two parallel pieces while Fender have a single curved rod. I wouldn't like to say that one is superior to the other, but there could be a difference in rigidity between the two.

I had a look at the photos I took when I cleared out some spare strings a while back, and here's a Dominant for comparison. I'd say yours are a very close match. They're not Superflexibles, as those have the same larger aluminium ball ends as Spirocores and the windings are a lighter blue.

Yeah, it's weird. I really wanted to like it and it's a neat looking design, but I can't get mine to work satisfactorily even after experimenting with the position. Looking at the reviews online I seem to be alone in this, so I probably should have kept the receipt! It's even worse on bass, but I use a cheap Harley Benton pedal tuner there.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1415299649' post='2599026'] I'm using a Planet Waves Micro-Headstock tuner. Picks up vibrations through the headstock. You don't have to have the bass turned up and it doesn't matter how loud the environment is. Very accurate. [/quote] I have one of these on my guitar and I heartily dislike it. It seems really touchy and is slow and unreliable at tracking the notes. Half of the time I've used it I end up giving up and tuning by ear, even on stage. By comparison, my older Snark tuner is much easier, quicker and more accurate. I wonder if I got a duff one? I suppose it could be the battery, but it was like this straight out of the packet.

Set one are very likely to be Spirocore Mittels, and that would fit with the high tension feel. If they have greyish ball ends with roman numerals on them it's a definite. Set two look a lot like Thomastik Dominants. If they are, they'll be fairly stiff feeling when they're off the bass. Dominants feel fairly similar to play to the Spirocore Mittels (marginally softer feeling but not by much), but they have stranded nylon cores rather than steel. They're loud with a big fundamental but still some growl when played pizz and they bow a little more easily than the Spiros. They are known for breaking more easily than other strings, and I stopped using them for this reason. It's a shame, as I liked them otherwise.

It's odd that they only make them in one gauge/tension. Given that Thomastik's more popular double bass strings come in several tension and scale length options I'm surprised they haven't considered it. I liked the set of TI Jazz flats I had on a Westone fretless, though I found them a little too soft feeling for the way I play on fretted bass.

Which J-tone was it? The Bass Max -esque one or the one with the red and green sides? I've been quite surprised that almost any piezo which fits into the bridge wing can sound OK when used with a high-impedance preamp. I've tried a couple of different very cheap piezos used this way (including a £9.99 Belcat) and both were entirely usable.

I use a Standback with my guitar combo, but I've never tried it with a larger bass cab. As mentioned, I could imagine some deeper cabs might have the centre of gravity too far forward to be stable when tilted at that angle and might need supporting from underneath rather than behind. Also, while it's solid once assembled correctly with the cab, it doesn't take well to being shoved around as often happens while setting up on the kind of stages I play. There have been times that sound guys have moved my amp a few inches, not checked that the Standback is in the proper position and left it unstable and wobbly.

There's some interesting reading here. Alongside the low end response, I'm curious about the sort of colouration Phil refers to earlier which the SM212 and 10-300 apparently lacked. I'm another player who enjoys speakers with that peak around 2-4K and will often try to EQ it in if it's not there. If this does become another design diary thread it might be useful to suggest driver choices to bring that colouration alongside the flatter options. Would I be right in thinking that the Celestion has the most of this among those three?

Is it related to the introduction of fees? (I realise this discussion has probably been had already). The meat and potatoes stuff can often sell quite easily through free local adverts, so perhaps sellers are trying there first while the guys selling more specialised or higher end instruments see the benefits of advertising here rather more.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1414929850' post='2594708'] Ah that is some form of in joke with that band, they have a bag of stupid glasses for certain songs, Lol. I have my own glasses and therefore I am exempt! [/quote] Hey, I had a band who did the same thing! I remember putting on a heavy and badly fitting pair of specs at a gig and then nearly messing up the song as they were sliding down to the end of my nose and both me and the drummer were cracking up laughing at it. I couldn't stop playing to push them back up...

Nice bass! How are you getting on with the wider spacing compared to the Musicman? My only 5-string has the narrower MM style spacing and when I've tried Fenders they feel a bit weird at first.

[quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1414858969' post='2594046'] At 99p a bargain for the strings and the tuners alone (if real double bass strings). [/quote] The strings are pink too, so I'm guessing it's a set of these; [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SLAP-HAPPY-WEEDWACKER-Nylon-Upright-Double-BASS-STRINGS-/111267838991"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SLAP-HAPPY-WEEDWACKER-Nylon-Upright-Double-BASS-STRINGS-/111267838991[/url]

[quote name='Ancient Mariner' timestamp='1414763661' post='2593076'] I'm a little late to the party, but a speaker swap would be the obvious thing, depending on finances something like a Jensen P10R or P10Q. I used to use a couple of home built amps around 10-20W depending on valves fitted, and found that a Jensen P10R really dropped the volume compared the the Celestion G10-35L I'd previously used, which was not a particularly efficient speaker. The Jensen alnico should also be in keeping with the overall character and tone of the amp. [/quote] I haven't tried one, but I'd be a little concerned about the dip in the mids around 400Hz that the P10R has on the spec sheet. I tend to run the bass and treble controls on the amp fairly low to mitigate the mid scoopiness of the amp as it is, so while the Jensen is a classic of its sort I wonder if it might not be the right thing for me. I think I'll look at trying a master volume first, as it's a DIY amp anyway and it could be as cheap and simple as an extra pot and coupling cap. If I don't like that, it'll be time to look at an attenuator or alternative speaker. I played at a private party last night in a fairly large bare concrete ex-car park with vocal PA only and a dancing audience and the amp was running squeaky clean turned up to 10 o'clock! I'm not looking for a dirty sound really, just that slight squashiness and sparkle you get with a blackface style amp turned up around halfway.

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1414787133' post='2593412'] Been thinking of giving them a try however im slightly worried they will be too dull sounding. [/quote] I had a set of D'Addario tapes on for a while and I'd say they're brighter than many flatwounds. Apologies for the shameless plug, but the three tracks here were recorded with them. [url="http://jenthegents.bandcamp.com/album/right-now-ep"]http://jenthegents.b...um/right-now-ep[/url] Graham Maby with Joe Jackson managed to be pretty bright sounding with tapes too, though in a fairly earthy, clanky sounding way.