Beer of the Bass

I think the stock strings are going to be generic OEM strings, probably Chinese made, otherwise they'd use the branded strings as a selling point.

It does the same job as the Able Bassmaker pedal that was advertised in the back of guitar magazines in the 90s. Sounds similar too! The Able pedal didn't exactly set the world alight or lose us our place in bands, so I guess this won't either.

I think he means that Alex C. was posting build threads on basschat about his DIY cabs some time before he thought of gearing up to sell them to people. With a quick search of the forum, you can look right back to when it was just a guy building himself a cab, through being a part-time hobby business, right through to employing people and moving production to CNC. Looking back at those old threads, I was amused to find that the reservations about strap handles and painted finishes pre-date a single cab being sold! [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/46773-the-birth-of-barefaced/page__view__findpost__p__232933"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/46773-the-birth-of-barefaced/page__view__findpost__p__232933[/url]

Well, I was going to avoid watching it but that rant provokes a sort of perverse curiosity...

Is the "£99 junk store bass" sound you're identifying due to the ceramic pickup in the MIM? I know some people like them, but they are one thing the the MIM has in common with your typical cheap copy. There are some great sounding ceramic pickups on the market, but they're probably not the ones designed by bunging steel poles and a ceramic magnet onto an existing design to save on the cost of alnico...

[quote name='Noisyjon' timestamp='1412877337' post='2572946'] It's not the 3 piece body that irks me it's the fact that these were something like £2,200 new and I'm, struggling to see how a J pickup being added whacks on another £800 odd quid! [/quote] True, the pricing is optimistic to say the least! I was more replying to Pete's "below par" comment, as other than the odd choice of body woods (which is intentional) I can't see anything that makes it look like a poorly made bass. And hey, it's still got fewer pieces than something like an Alembic!

I wouldn't say that the ash/alder three piece body is indicative of poor quality, it's just a rather eccentric design decision. If I was ordering one, I wouldn't go for that, but then it's not my bass.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1412858090' post='2572711'] To recognise such differences takes a lot more than it does to recognise the Hook/Berlin difference referred to above. If you only look for 'speed' you will not recognise the value of 'depth'. Malmsteen may be faster but, say, B.B. King is deeper. [/quote] That's massively subjective too, though. I'm sure that Malmsteen does feel deeply about his music, and his fans will too. I don't really get his music myself, but I'm not sure that makes it inherently more shallow or less profound than something that I do get. I can think of a fair few performances by renowned artists which can literally give me goosebumps or bring me close to tears if I listen to them at the right time, which my wife dismisses as w*nking or noodling, so it seems to me that we will all see these qualities in different places.

Hmm, I like the idea of a field coil speaker with it's own switch-mode power supply. It reminds me of the people who were experimenting with 3D printing 12" LPs!

Or sell them both and get the head version of the Marshall plus a lightweight cab?

[quote name='philparker' timestamp='1412764974' post='2571709'] Probably has sections of the film filmed in high speed and then slowed down to normal speed to synchronize with the sound? [/quote] I don't think that's it, as his fingers are still moving in time with the notes. I suspect that it's as The Rev suggested, filmed with a low number of frames per second, so the string movement we see is a result of the difference between the frames per second of the video and the cycles per second of the string.

[quote name='funky8884' timestamp='1412765665' post='2571726'] Weight is a consideration so can go modular , it seems GK, TKS , and Barefaced have lightweight ferrite's available so we may see some great sounding , lightweight more affordable cabs appearing soon . [/quote] It looks like the DIY design being put together in the 1x12" diary thread leans in that direction too. The Beyma driver they used looks very capable for the money and appears to compare well to many of the popular Neo drivers.

Passive DI's can be muddy sounding with a passive bass, on both the DI send and the linked amp due to the lower input impedance. Even a high quality box like the Radial has an input impedance of 140k which will have an audible effect. Some people don't mind that, but I don't like what it does to the sound. If you want it to work well with both active and passive basses, I'd choose the active DI.

Is the unmentionable bass the RB-414CS? I may be way off the mark here, but if the trademarks of a certain litigious manufacturer only cover the body shape, headstock and truss rod cover then it may be different enough to be in the clear. There is a trade dress registration on the toaster pickup cover, but it looks like it may be US-specific. I'm still not going to link to it, just in case!

I agree that there is often a knee-jerk reaction against a certain type of technically focussed musician, it's just that I'm not sure I'd identify the same guitar/bass division that you do. The recent Dirty Loops thread is an example - there are lots of comments along those lines but not a guitar in sight. Although it's possible that the established roles of electric guitar and bass might be a factor. A bassist cutting loose with fearsome technique can be sort of refreshing, while a guitarist doing the same is almost cliché.

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1412511295' post='2569433'] Why is it that highly technical bassists largely seem to be loved on Basschat, but highly technical guitarists seem to be denigrated? [/quote] Can you give some examples of threads? It strikes me that highly technical bassists get their share of derision too.

Unfortunately I sold on the 1028k when I fitted the Copperhead. The amp is based on the AA1164 circuit, with the exception of a larger Deluxe Reverb type output transformer and 40uF at the first stage filter cap.

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1412449757' post='2569066'] Current speaker is 98.8 dB sensitivity. Change speaker to lower sensitivity model e.g. Celestion tube 10, 94 dB might be way forward? [/quote] That's a possibility, but the problem is that we've had a handful of gigs in hired halls with cobbled together vocal-only PA and lively audiences - while those only make up a small percentage of our gigs, it's nice to have the extra loudness on tap for when that does happen. I used to have an alnico Eminence 1028K in there, which was good at low volume miked gigs but broke up too early in the unmiked, larger room situations. But thinking about it, a speaker swap only involves a small number of screws and 15 minutes at the most. So maybe it wouldn't be crazy to install a less efficient speaker, use that most of the time but keep the Copperhead in a box on a shelf in case that type of gig comes up.

[quote name='BurritoBass' timestamp='1412438499' post='2568969'] I'm with Kirky in that I don't think a new amp is the answer. My guitarist in my main band uses an attenuator and something like this [url="http://www.gak.co.uk/en/thd-hot-plate/7081"]http://www.gak.co.uk...-hot-plate/7081[/url] would be a good investment. I play guitar in a band with a 15w tube amp and I have to say that I don't have the same problem and we're a pretty quiet band. This could be down to what pickups we use etc (I'm low output pickups on an archtop kind of player) or just the room etc. [/quote] Do I remember that you're using a Blues Junior though? I wonder if the master volume makes the difference, as the single volume control on the Princeton is rather like having the master volume stuck on 10 and adjusting the pre-volume. Attenuators are another route I'm looking at, though things like the THD are somewhat out of my budget. DIY isn't out of the question though. If I do build or obtain another amp it would be more in the interest of variety than to replace this one. Among my stash of bits I already have valves and transformers salvaged from an old reel-to-reel which would do a singled ended EL84 amp nicely, plus an original Jensen C8R pulled from a dead organ. Those are almost crying out to be some sort of guitar combo, whether I need one or not!

[quote name='Kirky' timestamp='1412437635' post='2568967'] My PP18 ampmaker build is also very loud (but fantastic). He does a kit that reduces the voltage in his amps - see [url="http://www.ampmaker.com/infocentre/thread-47.html"]http://www.ampmaker..../thread-47.html[/url] It might be a suitable mod for your amp. [/quote] It's a shame the ampmaker VVR kit is only for cathode biased amps (mine is fixed bias), otherwise it looks promising. I think there is a VVR kit for fixed bias amps available from Hall amplification in the US though.

Threads about whether a 15 watt amp is loud enough to gig have been a staple of guitar forums since the advent of the internet, but I find myself experiencing the opposite problem I use a home-built copy of a Fender Princeton Reverb with a 10" Eminence Copperhead. At most gigs, I'll turn the volume to around 2 (9 o'clock) during the soundcheck, invariably to be told by the sound guy that I need to turn it down, often "way down". Most venues we play mic the amp, but I've had the same thing happen in small venues with no mic. We're not that quiet a band, but I guess the presence of trumpet and violin may affect the stage volume we can use. I like to keep the amp fairly clean but it sounds best from about 4-6 on the volume control and I can only really get away with that at outdoor festivals or private parties with large rooms full of dancing people and minimal PA, and these are types of gig we do only occasionally. With the volume at 1 or 2, the amp sounds OK, but everything just seems more lively with it up a little. The volume control in these amps comes earlier in the signal path than the reverb driver, so the reverb sounds better with the amp up a little too. So I'm looking at options to make things work a little better at that low volume. It seems ridiculous that a Princeton is too much amp for the band, but that's the impression I get. I don't want to fit a less efficient speaker as from time to time I do need to carry a louder room and I don't want to lose that capability. I could fit a master volume (post phase-inverter), which is generally considered unnecessary on this type of amp but might be worth trying. I could use some sort of attenuator between the amp and speaker, perhaps even something as simple as a 100-watt 8-ohm L-pad. Alternatively I could look at building or buying a smaller amp (a single ended job of 5 watts or so) but I like the reverb and tremolo on my amp and it would be a shame not to use it.

Try and keep one Bassman, even if you do most gigs with something lightweight. I sold my old valve Carlsbro, and I keep wishing I'd kept it around.

The 1977 is noticeably brighter and more open sounding than the others. I'm not sure if I'd immediately assign that to it being ash and maple though, as it could just as easily be a differently wound pickup or higher value pots (have Fender always used 250k?).

Is there some pitch correction going on on the voice, or am I imagining that?

The worst scenario for me is playing slow tempo bowed parts with long, legato notes in harmony with the violin player in my group. If one of us comes in with our intonation slightly out, sometimes the other of us has already compensated by the time the first one has. It's like the audible equivalent of that thing where two people are walking towards each other on the pavement and try to avoid each other by stepping to the same side! Good monitoring helps a lot.