Beer of the Bass

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.

The "better" sustain thing could be a double edged sword IMO, as the quicker decay that usually goes along with with shorter sustain could also be perceived as punchy and characterful. If you can hear a difference and you like it that's great, but for some it will be moving away from the qualities they enjoyed about a Fender style bass in the first place. Though I have known a couple of players with aggressive right-hand technique who actually move the saddles around on a BBOT bridge, and for those players switching to something like a Badass or Hipshot would be a wise choice.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1414770167' post='2593175'] Yes, I didn't mean that it was not hard wood (as opposed to a softer wood) but either way it's softer than a BBOT or a Badass. Is there a more rigid and more high mass bridge for double bass? A sort of 'double badass'. [/quote] There were cast aluminium adjustable bridges from Selmer and Framus, but they appear to have been a fairly short lived fad so I've no idea what they sounded like. My bass still bears the scars from one - they sat on three metal cups which leave big round marks on the top!

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1414763943' post='2593081'] Perhaps there's a reason double basses have soft wooden bridges ... so that the movement, the energy, of the string is more easily transferred to the body and so to the large sound box. My guess is that a more rigid bridge on a double bass would lead to the string ringing longer but the volume would be reduced because there would be less transfer of energy to the body/sound box. YMMV. [/quote] Double bass bridges are quarter sawn maple and not particularly soft as woods go but the mass appears to be critical, as evidenced by the clip-on mutes orchestral players use for some passages - a fairly small amount of weight attached to the bridge can change the sound noticeably. I suspect maple was the best compromise available for balancing rigidity against weight while being hard enough and reasonably stable. However, a double bass bridge is coupling the strings to a thin and somewhat flexible soundboard on the front of a resonant chamber so may not be particularly analogous to a bass guitar bridge which anchors the strings to a solid slab of wood.

Nylon tapes tend to be low tension and big gauges, so they could be worth a try.

[quote name='Kevin Dean' timestamp='1414665364' post='2591932'] I read that & I really don't have a clue what that means ? [/quote] You're not alone; see LawrenceH's post on the last page! I think Barefaced haven't described it sufficiently clearly for anyone to know what's going on with the porting, even people who know their stuff regarding cab design.

I'm not sure doing that would get you anything useful. The 4 ohm 2x12" would receive much more power than the 16 ohm 2x10" and is probably more efficient than the 2x10" too, so you might not hear the 2x10" much at all even if your amp can handle it.

What you're describing sounds like the Aphex Exciter or BBE Sonic Maximizer. There are pedal versions of each; I haven't tried them but both are designed to generate extra upper harmonics to liven up your signal.

Though there's good stuff all round, Leonard Smalls' piece was the one that did it for me. Hmm, maybe I should have a go at this composition challenge lark next month, depending on what the picture is!

Had you been playing through it when it started smoking or was it literally straight after switching the amp on? If the latter, it sounds like your amp may be putting out a DC voltage and I'd second the suggestion to get that checked out.

There are not many valve bass combos around nowadays. I think this is because open backed cabinets are are the easiest to design a valve combo around but they don't work so well for bass. As far as modern low powered valve heads go Ashdown have a few, otherwise it's a case of looking for an older amp.

[quote name='Telebass' timestamp='1414288005' post='2587953'] Precisely. Even the nagnets aging takes decades. You'd need a time machine to chevk on the sound difference, and then it wouldn't be great. [/quote] It's not hard to degauss alnico magnets through other means than waiting a few decades though, so the difference is actually well understood and easily recreated. There are quite a few pickup makers out there who have measured the strength of the magnets from vintage pickups and charged the magnets in their new pickups to the same level. Personally I think that ageing is a bit of a red herring when it comes to electric guitars and basses. So many of our benchmark recordings of what are now considered vintage instruments were made when the instruments were no more than 10 or 15 years old.