Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

itu

Member
  • Posts

    3,231
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by itu

  1. Amps are nice as they have lots of knobs and lights, but cabs don't. Cab is that big, cumbersome box that has a sound of its own. Put some time especially to the cab. Check the space you have in your (or drummer's) car. What is the max output you need - in dB, not watts. The music you play may also affect the choices you have. My uneducated guess would be something like 2x10" or 1x12" for light weight and size. 2x12", 1x15" are the next steps, and 4x10" to 4x12" if space and weight are not an issue, but you need lots of volume. Two similar cabs usually have the best performance in sound and volume. Two eight ohm 1x12" cabs offer you portability (only one needed) and volume (take two cabs along). Check Barefaced and similar units, and if possible, do some side by side trials, and let your ears decide.
  2. If you use very small DC voltage range, you can find phase: Connect the pickup and hit (touch) it with a screwdriver. If the voltage goes to + side, the pickup is in phase. And vice versa.
  3. D'Addario and others give you direction, but you need to do real life trials to find the right strings. Yes, it costs somewhat, but then you have done the work, and have found the best set for your ears and fingers.
  4. But they do! When you order bigger amounts of magnets, you specify material, shape, size, and strength. Any pickup manufacturer could include details of magnets, coils etc. Why not? Should we ask them?
  5. https://www.daddario.com/globalassets/pdfs/accessories/tension_chart_13934.pdf
  6. The field/strength is the word here. An AlNiCo may be weaker than an Nd. The material specifications are dependent on the production process. Therefore the strength cannot be read from the type. Otherwise it would be like the car manufacturer "Ford" equals fast and tractor brand "Lamborghini" equals slow. Measuring requires expensive equipment. As long as people are not able to measure components, these text based descriptions live.
  7. Things have changed considerably. Instruments are no more treated the hard way. Only if the instrument was very old and would contain those very rare species that a Hofner does not contain.
  8. I am making an educated guess: these will be highly sought after when some star "finds" one. Quality, sound, what else you need? (Oh yes, that star.)
  9. itu

    Ibanez Porn

    The next one to fill the collection is a half fretted one: MC-924H AJ10 (Alphonso Johnson, 1981).
  10. Strange logo seems to be on both sides of the bass... it has to represent the great big Luminairos. (The coat, where was it?)
  11. Alembic brown bass. White Moon. Fretless StingRay. 3 string fretless StingRay. 2 string fretless played with a slide. The first 5 string Modulus. 5 string Parker Fly. Koa Pensa-Suhr. Carved Rickenbacker. Double neck Rickenbacker. Pink JayDee. Fretless Klein bass. Six string Ken Smith -> six string Yahaya. Peavey TL. Peavey Rudy Sarzo. Jack Daniels. Star bass. Höfner. Manson. Kubicki Ex-Factor. Zon Hyperbass. Hagström The Swede. Overwater C bass. Yahaya Attitude. Whichever of these would certainly sound different in my hands, but never mind. These have been the basses and players in my youth, and still are. Of course there are others. (I'd like to find someone to Mosrite, Atlansia, Ibanez [well, Gerald Veasley is already there], Burns, Danelectro... and if someone does not know the players of the basses mentioned, I think I can add them later on.)
  12. Some things may (or not) help: - string choice (do several trials*) - pickup height adjustments - bridge adjustments (in connection with the previous point) * Try very different gauges. Thin is not always worse!
  13. 4) Do you really need the blend when you are already in deep with all parametres? I don't see any benefit with dry signal, when the levels, and processing can be tweaked with such finesse. For me ON is 100 % ON, and therefore I have used the blend knob for other parametres. After all, by compressions nature, signal level has usually areas, where compression is not present at all. 6) I have not seen this happening. Sounds strange if everything is set only to different places. Have you really checked every function and value there is?
  14. Again, @Boodang wrote some very good notes. I want to add that as long as you use any passive, hi-Z components in between the pickups and the preamp, the response is sacrificed. Any pot, be it blend, vol, or tone, will degrade the original sound. You want pure sound from the pickup, connect it directly to the preamp. You have two pickups, you should use some non-loading circuitry (Noll Mixpot or similar) between the two, or use two preamps, one for each pickup.
  15. Low drain is the right choice. Your bass should consume something like 1 mA. Not like torches (tens or hundreds of mAs) or similar.
  16. First could be C#/A (could be c#m/A, too) or Amaj7. The second one is a major third doubled. The third one is C#add9 or c#madd9. I and III do not reveal their major or minor character, therefore C# or c#. Now, quickly, someone is needed here to adjust us to the right track!
  17. Magnet type does not dictate the response of a pickup. The type may tell you the highest possible field it can produce around it, but that depends on the production process. Therefore a neodymium can be weaker than a ferrite. There are pickups like EMG TW and TWX: https://www.emgpickups.com/bass.html
  18. pickup - vol - tone stack - output pickups - blend (or vol) - vol - tone stack - output Practically any component can be battery powered (low impedance, "active"). Some system are even PSU operated (like Alembic Series II). Coil-magnet pickups are "passive" (high impedance, hi-Z) components. As @Boodang so well put earlier, the basic idea to modify a "passive" pickup to an "active" one, is to add a buffer to it (EMG and few others). Then the lower output can also be compensated with that buffer. Yes, there are active units like infra red sensors, but they are rare. I have used an acceleration sensor: response starts from DC... amplifier cries... the system has now some HP filtering. NOTE: The output of a pickup can be adjusted by the amount of windings, or the buffer settings. Hi-Z pickup output may be far more powerful than its lo-Z sibling's. The most common way to mix two pickups is to use two vol pots. Pots are of mediocre quality, but very cheap - and therefore so common. The complicated thing is that this way of mixing loads pickups: the sound is affected. Vol pots are tone pots, too. Some preamps are mixers (John East, Noll Mixpot). They can adjust the levels of the pickups without loading the pickups. This way the blend adjustment is independent from each pickup, which certainly is not the case with a simple potentiometer based system. Tone stack may be just a cap and a pot. Cheapo, but functional. If you see an ad of an "active bass", usually only the tone stack is battery powered. Did you notice that a £300 Sadowsky preamp has simple vol and blend pots in front of B&T? A battery powered tone stack may be a tone, a filter (LPF), a two or a three band eq, a tilt eq, a semi-parametric... or nearly anything. There has been lots of solutions, although B&T is probably the most common at the moment. It is cheap, modern opamps have ultra low power consumption, and many of us like its simplicity. One thing that you should find out yourself is the output impedance. It affects (this is something I have found out by testing lots of stuff, and interviewing people) the input of OD/dist/fuzz and some compressor pedals (I have different pedal boards for hi-Z and lo-Z basses). Maybe your pedals are less critical, some of mine aren't. I do not see any reason you couldn't use an external preamp with any bass you have. You can use any effect pedal, and you can use any preamp you want. Trust your ears. Do not rely on opinions, only your ears. Like OC-2 was made for g-word players. Then Pino found it.
  19. But... where are the pictures? (Coat, coat, where's my coat? It is by the door! Merrily merrily merrily: your wives are like a dream.)
  20. True: usually around 4-5" is enough for my basses. If you need to cut to the thick part, you should stop the unwinding by tinning, or gluing the end.
  21. By the way, although I love necks with no front dots, you could ask for something special. Just few ideas: http://www.whocollection.com/john's_basses.htm
  22. I do not have short scale basses, but what is this question of cutting strings? I cut strings every time I attach them to any of my basses (33.8" - 36"). I only use D'Addario or GHS SSRW.
  23. The first one was in line with the graphics.
  24. - nothing (this is one very delicate solution) - double sided tape - velcro / 3M Dual Lock - cable ties - bike chain links (attached to the fx case) - fx case screws through the board from behind
  25. Very reasonable. Be involved in the process, and get the profile of your dreams.
×
×
  • Create New...