nilebodgers

1 hour ago, Happy Jack said:

Yup, not sure it's actually possible to 'switch off' a mic without creating a very nasty pop from the PA.

 

What's the driver for this? Why do you want to be able to switch it off?

 

The 58 shorts the capsule before the transformer that provides the balanced output so doesn’t pop. I don’t know about cheaper mics.

21 hours ago, Obrienp said:

I was just going to place an order until I found out the shipping cost: £12. About 5 times the cost of the pot.

They have the B2 6mm plain shaft version too.

The shipping is pricy, but it’s a specialist part from a supplier that isn’t set up for small orders, so understandable.

Can’t really go wrong with a switched 58. Provided it suits your voice, of course.

I carried one around in my gig toolbox for years as my talkback mic.

5 hours ago, xgsjx said:

One thing I found helpful when learning church songs, was to have one listen to the original, then go find an acoustic version of the song in the key (or as close a key as possible) that the church singist wants it in & practice to that version.  This way there's a high chance of the bassline being better than the original You're praising God with your bass.

That’s a good idea. We are using the tune of O Come all Ye Faithful with specially written lyrics for the Jubilee event, so I intend to pilfer all the best bits of the bass keyboard part to create a version to work with guitar backing. I like it when the traditional tunes have bass counter-melodies and non-root notes over the chords, much more fun than a lot of modern tunes that can be rather obvious and plodding.

On 10/05/2022 at 21:59, nilebodgers said:

Oh dear, I've volunteered myself to join the random group that plays at the monthly informal "Cafe Church" service at my little rural church. Just a couple of acoustic guitars and now with me too on bass next Sunday.

 

Nearest thing to a gig I've done in a very long time. Hope it doesn't cut into the amount of cakes and tea I usually consume at that service...

I still got good cakeage, but not until the end of the service. Fortunately there was home-made banana cake and muffins left which went very nicely with a mug of tea.

The music turned up late (2 songs Friday night, 2 Saturday night), but still enough time to grab a listen to versions on YouTube. Fortunately the best guitarist/leader is a wizard with a capo and substituting odd chords so we could play off the sheet music with no issues. It’s all about the congregational singing anyway, so a few flubs in the music is irrelevant as long as we are confident and keep going!

Went well, all considered and everyone was happy with the fuller sound of the music. I loved it.

I also got volunteered to play at an open-air public service we are doing for the Jubilee as part of the local celebrations. That will be rehearsed though.

It always sounds thin and clacky when I try playing with a pick. I’d like to be able to do it, but it just doesn’t work for me.

Oh dear, I've volunteered myself to join the random group that plays at the monthly informal "Cafe Church" service at my little rural church. Just a couple of acoustic guitars and now with me too on bass next Sunday.

Nearest thing to a gig I've done in a very long time. Hope it doesn't cut into the amount of cakes and tea I usually consume at that service...

Lol. Reminds me of the John Meyer PRS Silver Sky - i.e. a strat with a PRS headstock. This is a Jazz with a MM headstock.

oops, duplicate.

Lol. Reminds me of the John Meyer PRS Silver Sky - i.e. a strat with a PRS headstock. This is a Jazz with a MM headstock.

11 minutes ago, BassBunny said:

Wembley Loudspeakers should be able to repair it.

Likely to be cheaper than a replacement from HK, if you can even get one, and better than putting a different speaker in.

Careful though, they can use generic cone replacement kits if the original part is hard to get or unavailable. The recone might not be close enough to be an exact replacement, but they should advise if that is the case.

15 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

I must admit that I have only marked the site read once, but how on earth can you hit a sign out button while you are doing it? There isn't a sign out button anywhere near it, it just next to the unread content - unless I am looking in a different place to you!

 

It’s in the slide out menu triggered by the “3 lines” menu icon. 

Just a late addition to my experience with flats so far (Roto rs77). It has been going well, but I noticed that the octave G on the E string had an odd effect where the fundamental note decayed very quickly. It was only this note on the E string, no-where else. I wondered if the string was a bit iffy.

I fiddled about with tension/untwisting etc to see if I could get any clues and finally when I pressed the E string down hard at the bridge to reinforce the witness point the fundamental note started to decay normally. So, user error, not the string and easily fixed.

 
Odd as I’d already set the witness points in the same way as I have always done with rounds and they all seemed fine. The flats simply appear to need a bit more care on installation than rounds to get them right.

On 15/04/2022 at 11:26, casapete said:

Whilst silver tape will do the job, there’s a good chance it will leave residue which can be a bug*er to remove. 

 

Best thing to use is ‘pro console tape’, designed to be easily removed with no mess and also easier to write on.

 

Yes, gaffa leaves too much gunk behind. White electrical insulating tape (LX) is what was universally used when I was behind a desk.

I dunno, I'd always want to see the serial number as part of checking that the bass was genuine. Especially on something as easy to pass off as a Fender bitsa.

1 hour ago, stevie said:

While it's true that the resistor in the crossover isn't going to see much more than 8W, I'm a great believer in overspecifying resistors in power speakers, having seen too many burnt-out crossover boards in the past, where the resistors have overheated and taken everything else with them. The best place to get these in the UK is Blue Aran, where a 4.7 ohm 20W resistor costs 79p.

Yes, a bigger resistor is very cheap. Back when I did some serious design on PA speakers I used the 20w axial ceramics (paralleling when I needed more safety margin) and they survived years of thrashing without a single failure.

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

 

This.

 

 

The problem with ethernet over the mains is that both ends need to be on the same circuit, and your new building is almost definitely going to be on a completely separate one to the rest of the sockets in the house. Plus they are not as good as a dedicated cable and can introduce noise into the mains which may affect audio equipment. Not what you want in a studio/rehearsal room. Besides if you're already running other services to it, one extra cable isn't going to make a significant difference.

Agreed that it’s always better cabled, but I found if the mains circuits are off the same consumer unit there is no problem and I never saw any mains noise pollution issues with the Tp-link units I used either.

2 minutes ago, Richard R said:

If you're running utilities, then run wired ethernet as well. Cat6 from your routed to the studio, then a wifi point there. It will be a million times more reliable.

This. You might find the Ethernet over mains adaptors work well too, they did for me in my old house where I had a workshop at the end of the garden.

15 hours ago, EssentialTension said:

 

What is Peter Kay doing on bass? Is the comedy game a bit slack at the mo?

8 hours ago, shug said:

I had a Sperrin transistor head - my first amp - that was utterly useless.  Think they were made in the NW area. Maybe one o' yous knows about 'em? It had a rocker switch marked 'Click' whose sole function seemed to be to go 'CLICK' when toggled with no discernible effect on the sound.

 

Man, the 70's was not a great time for affordable and effective bass gear...

 

 

 

There must be some bass amp that has a button labelled “thump” that does nothing but make a thump noise when pressed?

That is the Vbe bias transistor that sets the quiescent current in the output trannies. If it is dead and gone open circuit then the output trannies are almost certainly blown too as they are likely to have been turned on hard and pulled as much current as they can until the fuses blew.

On a more philosophical level it depends if you personally feel comfortable owning beautiful and expensive things over functional, but less high-end items.

I think it may be a function of my upbringing, but I can't bring myself to own high-end basses or an expensive car even though I could afford them. It just feels wasteful and unnecessary. I top out on a s/h USA Fender and a s/h Skoda, that suits me.

I've got no problem with other people buying whatever they can afford though, we all have to make our own choices based on our values. No shade thrown on the Fodera players from me.

9 minutes ago, jackreacher193 said:

Did the Fender Player Series effectively replace the MIM Fender?

Yes. They upgraded the pickups though from ceramic to alnico. I think everything else is the same.

Interesting topic this. Until I retired, I worked for a company that did total event production for large corporates, conferences and parties. For several years we did a large Xmas party marquee in one of the central London green spaces which presented lots of challenges.
 

The noise limits were very difficult to meet and the function bands (top of the tree London corporate party bands) had to have as near a silent stage as possible so electronic kit, all iem, no brass etc. The stage and dance floor were located entirely within an large acoustically isolated box (back, sides, roof with an open front - using very heavy sound insulating sheets on a self-climbing ground support truss structure) and the sound reinforcement was designed to focus entirely on the dance floor (with a low level feed into the distributed background system throughout the marquee).

The shows were independently monitored by acoustic consultants so there was no wagging it, the limits had to be observed.

The bands that worked in this environment were totally pro about it and the sound limits just weren’t an issue. I don’t know whether they enjoyed playing, our crew never fed back to me that kind of detail, but I bet they enjoyed the money which was £lots.

That wasn’t the worst noise limit, there was a marquee down on the Embankment (not done by my company) that had to line the entire marquee with lead-lined noise damping sheets and face it with bws walls and a starcloth roof. That was a massive and very expensive job, but the special kit was amortised over several years as I know they did it for at least 10 years.

I really like the sound of my J, but there is a thick grindy rock tone that a P does as standard that I can’t really get with the J. (assuming normal single coil pickups and wiring)

On the other hand, when I try and play Jazz walking bass on my P it sounds just wrong.

26 minutes ago, WinterMute said:

It's just the gig, you play what the song demands that you play, if that's 16s in the pocket, you'd better be IN that pocket.

 

I heard Angus Young say that his brother was a much better guitarist than he was, but didn't want to play lead as that would have interfered with his drinking.

 

Rock n roll Cliff, rock n f*ck*ng roll.

I don’t know about the drinking, but I read something similar about his playing. It also said he never made mistakes, so the rhythm section was rock solid while Angus did his running around.

The same article also said that Malcolm was the boss and if you didn’t play exactly what he wanted in the way he told you to, then you were out, no argument and no second chances.