Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

nilebodgers

⭐Supporting Member⭐
  • Posts

    668
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by nilebodgers

  1. Using "Let's Encrypt" to get free auto-renewing SSL certificates is very easy these days, so there is no excuse for a HTTP-only site.
  2. Interesting - £42 is very cheap for an active DI with a quality transformer. High quality passive-only boxes are more than that.
  3. After a long lay off from playing Bass and never owning a Fender P-Bass I just had to find myself one. Being both a bit stingy and not liking owning brand new things (leave the pain of the first scratch to someone else) I went looking for something s/h in the £300-£375 bracket and found a very nice 2012 MIM in Candy-Apple Red with a rosewood neck. I prefer rosewood and really like that colour, so was keen. I managed to get a good deal at a decent price so here it is: It was essentially unplayed and had never been set up (massive relief and high action) so there was a bit of work to do. I adjusted the relief, action and intonation and then played it for a couple of weeks to see how I liked it and work out what really needed doing. Turns out I really like P-basses :-) Hmmm... slightly rough fret ends, a couple of high frets up the dusty end (not enough to buzz at my preferred action, but high none the less) and first fret action a touch high on the D and G. Nothing that was a big deal. So - In to the shed, on to the workbench and get out the toolshop... This is the everything laid-out-nicely-at-the-end shot :-) Glosses over the tedium of fret end filing, levelling, crowning and polishing. I'm pleased with the result, play-ability is excellent now and the edge of the fretboard and fret ends feel lovely. The MIM Fenders seem to get a lot of flak, but I don't really see why at the price point. Mine played fine before I did any work and the fret ends could have been done quickly with something cheap like a fine emery board nail file. I'm quite critical and like to get the best out of an instrument, so I put a lot more effort in, but I'd always expect any mass-produced instrument to need some work. (my USA Tele did too) If I was being hyper-critical I'd upgrade the tuners, they work fine but are a touch agricultural-feeling. Got to keep something to do when mod fever strikes!
  4. This is true, to get maximum fidelity you need an active DI as that will present a high impedance input. Passive DIs always introduce some loading due to the transformer - typically a 12:1 ratio is used so a 1.5k loading mic preamp looks like a ~200k load to the instrument (the mic preamp easily makes up the loss of level in the transformer). The snag with inexpensive active DIs like the Orchid one is that they don't have true galvanic isolation so can be prone to hum loops (no transformer so the earth lift switch only has partial effect in these). Truly isolated active DIs (e.g. BSS AR133, KT DN100 or the Radial DIs) are pretty expensive as they have both active circuitry and a transformer to give a true earth lift (and are rugged pro-level products). The Behringer DI is a cheap lookalike of the AR133 and is often perfectly ok for amateur/semi-pro applications. It falls down for pro use as the cheap transformer isn't properly shielded so can pick up a load of hum/buzz.
  5. When clicking on a post I am finding the two announcements at the top of the page ("Welcome to your NEW Basschat!" etc.) are displaying in full then immediately collapsing to truncated (presumably as the javascript loads & runs). It's really annoying! It's on both PC and iPad, so not a platform thing. It's odd as the announcement appears to load in full and then be truncated in-situ after the page has loaded.
  6. If you don't have subs then don't bother going through the desk, you aren't going to gain anything as your amp will still have to carry all the bottom end. (the only exception would be if you are making a recording and then you'd go in to the desk either via a DI box or your amp DI out so you could be in the recording mix, but your channel wouldn't be routed to the desk out)
  7. [quote name='chrisanthony1211' timestamp='1510310526' post='3405458'] Ah, so using a standard unbalanced XLR cable, but using the pad on the desk to reduce the input signal? And what advantage does the DI box give you over using the DI from the Amp? [/quote] A proper DI box will have galvanic isolation and a ground lift switch so you can break any hum loops and it will be pre-eq and any signal processing so it is as faithful to the true bass tone as possible. (that may or may not be the thing that is required though - sometimes the post-processing signal is needed instead - depends if fx are being used)
  8. [quote name='roman_sub' timestamp='1510231752' post='3404806'] ... 2) check nut is not cut too high. ... [/quote] I'd suspect that, it's certainly a common problem on guitars.
  9. Well, it's probably either 250k or 500k - you'd struggle to spend more than £5 on parts to fix it if you can solder. About 10-15mins work.
  10. [quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1510051028' post='3403464'] ... If you can use a soldering iron you can save yourself some wodge. It's really not that hard. .... [/quote] Plus several to that. The only trick is to remember that most of the dedicated instrument cables have a semi-conducting sleeve (usually black) around the inner conductor insulation (this cuts down on cable handling noise when it is flexed). That black sleeve needs to be cut back at the ends or the cable will attenuate the signal as it will have a signal-to-ground resistance of a few kohms if it touches the inner conductor. I have seen someone make that mistake!
  11. Neutrik jacks and VDC (XKE) or Klotz (AC104) cable are as good as it gets and as much as needs to be paid - ever.
  12. Look on YouTube for "Cambridge bass lessons", there is a chap in Cambridge that has a channel.
  13. Dave is great, I have followed his videos since 2013. He is quite opinionated and does take the pi55 constantly though, so he is an acquired taste. He doesn't show everything in every video, so there are often jumps in the sequence of work - after you watch quite a few you'll see it all.
  14. Interesting, although one person's "right" will be another person's "wrong" - there is no universal correct answer to "which sounds better". The green pickup appears to have less fundamental bass level and also less higher harmonics. The purple pickup has relatively more bass and more high end. I couldn't say which sounds better (to me) by looking at the spectra though - I'd guess the purple one based on the apparently wider range?
  15. That is a beautiful bass. Exactly what I should have bought in 1983 instead of the instrument I did buy. Very tempted!
  16. [quote name='Marvin' timestamp='1508873429' post='3395076'] .... I've been trying to fix up the basses at my son's school. They're Encore E4 p basses mainly. The lowest I can get the action on them is 3.5mm. Any lower and even the lightest of playing they buzz, rattle and choke. I don't rate them at all, there are so many issues with them. I find the 3.5mm almost unplayable. [/quote] They probably need some degree of fret levelling, but having that done commercially will cost more than a brand new Encore given they are under £100 new!
  17. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 1 post to view.
  18. [quote name='MoJo' timestamp='1508850596' post='3394844'] I use a 5p piece. They vary in thickness slightly but I've found one that is as near as makes no difference, 2mm thick [/quote] A standard 2p coin is 2.03mm when new - pretty much ideal for a quick action check. (a hair over 5/64)
  19. Wow - some of those actions are incredibly high! I've just finished resuscitating my old Yam BB1100s and it plays great with 12thou neck relief (0.3mm) at the 7th fret and 80thou at the 17th fret (2.03mm). That is with a 250mm fingerboard radius, all level frets and circa 23thou 1st fret action. I don't have a light touch, so I wouldn't want to go lower as I hate fret buzz (I don't mind a bit of string slap on the last fret when digging in though).
  20. MMs don't have the truss rod adjustment at the headstock either...
  21. [quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1508246220' post='3390796'] If the pot is large - it acts as a heat sink... so removing blobs of solder can be a lot more problematic than you imagine. Additionally, the longer you keep the heat on pot, the more likely you are to damage the pot. Tricksy! The worst was when I was trying to unsolder some ancient solder from a JD pickup. That's like the world's biggest heatsink known to man. At least the likelihood of damage there was greatly reduced in that case. [/quote] A higher wattage iron makes it easier - I have a 50W Weller TCP and that can heat a localised area on a pot very quickly indeed. A solder-sucker and/or de-soldering braid can get the old stuff off cleanly. I've managed to steer clear of lead-free solder up to now, last time I did anything professional in electronics was 2002 and we were still using lead (at least for small-scale production). I've got a big supply of standard 60/40 tin/lead for my personal use which will probably see me out :-)
  22. [quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1505131440' post='3369644'] Welcome to the forum... Some great old school gear you have there - get it all working properly and you'll be in heaven with the tone. If you need any help with the work on the neck, check out the builds section or contact Terry Chapman in Stevenage for a repair - his details are in the luthier thread in the repair section. [/quote] Thanks. I know Terry - he set up a couple of guitars for me before I had the skill+tools to do it myself. He's a good bloke. (I fiddle about with 6-string a bit too)
  23. Hi Folks, Just about to start firing up my old bass after a very long lay off (15+ years) from playing in various dodgy amateur bands. A career change meant I was working on the production side with pro musicians on a regular basis and being exposed to their playing meant I couldn't bear to pick up my own instruments as I was so rubbish. And then life got busy... I am getting twitchy to start playing again so I just dug my poor old Yam BB1100s out of storage - oh dear, neck like a hockey stick and badly corroded frets. Needs a bit of work before I can play it. I've got pretty handy at instrument teching though, so not a problem. Here it is - [attachment=253352:yam_bb1100s.jpg] My ampage is pretty old / random too - a Trace GP12SMX 4x10 combo that I have never played through (long story - it's in a flightcase, great condition, sounds fantastic but is too heavy to lift), a Peavey 410TX (heavy, very battered and sad looking collecting spiders in the shed) and an old TC RH450 (a blown-up warranty write-off that was fixed later) that I got for free recently. I'll fix my bass up and see if I can make the Peavey+TC work as an amp solution until I see if the playing is going to stick. Might need a modern smaller lighter cab if I'm playing seriously as my back isn't what it was. Lightweight amps+cabs weren't a thing when I was playing before, so I'm keen to see what can be done now. I used to like my Yam bass though, I bought it s/h after A-B-ing one against a USA Jazz and USA Precision (at the old Wapping London Bass Centre) and it played and sounded better than either IMO. Of course, it's worthless now - a USA Fender would have appreciated in value in the 18 years I've had it. Looking forward to getting going again - especially with all the youTube stuff around these days which makes learning & working things out massively easier.
×
×
  • Create New...