itu

I have used clear nail lacquer on Vigier, Modulus, and Status necks. Lacquer dries quickly and sticks very well. Cheap, easy to find. Of course any colour is good, and it's always nice to start the conversation in the shop about which brand is the best for you with the salesperson...

Some background The element was the other of two from a Glockenklang Soul combo. Because of an incident in a gig, the other speaker was hit, and became perforated. This happened after the last set. Later I bought new elements from the company. Their customer service was very good. The box is slightly larger than the half of the Soul cabinet. A larger volume relates to lower frequency, or better efficiency. My speakers are the Soul, an alusonic, and now this small box. I will probably use it with my electric double bass, a 5-string Clevinger. The building took around a month. Costs were reasonable, although a new cab would be easily in the same ballpark, well under £200. Remember that I had the element already. There was no reason to do this myself except for the fun. Now I do know what I should do differently, how much faster this could be done... the work has taught me quite a lot. For those thinking about similar work I can support the idea. A box is after all a straightforward work compared to a bass neck or body. A cabinet will be the ugly duckling, down on the floor, that has to withstand some kicking and hitting. Components are cheap, tools simple. If something goes wrong, a wood panel is easy to replace. Sound is another story. Bass cabinet has to be tight and sturdy. The sound can be tailored with careful calculations, that affect the shape and measurements. How well the cabinet works with my amp, no one knows. I will not say mine is excellent, but seems to be one functional and fun trial: I really do respect the people of Glockenklang that designed and produced my excellent sounding Soul. Mine sure isn't that good, but decent is now enough for me. And there's one less speaker floating free.

The big thing in doing the box was to get the wood sides cut to measure. They weren't exact, but close enough. I don't have a big saw, table etc. so this obstacle was bypassed by the shop personnel and their heavy equipment.

Yes, I know. Here we go:

Starting point I happened to have a 10" Volt in my garage. It was floating in free air, so I decided to put it to a box. I think this helps with the bass response... First steps I went to a shop that cuts wood. They cut the 15 mm plywood to pieces and I started tinkering. The wood parts are 300 x 400, 300 x 450, and 400 x 450 mm. A sharp eye may see, that this will not be a neat box, but I will come back to this later on. I needed a Speakon, some wire, glue, and quite a lot of screws. There is a good way to build a cabinet with strips of wood in the corners to seal the seams but I decided to use lots of glue & iron... not so wise from the weight point of view. Help needed The element looks good, but how about the specs? Mr. Nichamin from Volt was very helpful and sent the data sheet. T/S and everything else. A good friend of mine loaned me four long clamps. Building process The work was somewhat slow. Main reason: the soft glue was sticky for hours. So I did one phase at a time in the evenings. There are two threaded rods through the cab to make it even stronger. Overkill, maybe. So are the metal corners inside the box. There are quite a few bolts and nyloc nuts, there. Every attachment is asymmetric more or less. This was intentional although the panels will not resonate that much, but just decided to make things different. As said earlier, all parts do not fit exactly, and the smallest wood panels needed some work: the backside was simply cut shorter to fit. Front is slightly slanted. This way the element is not protruding from the cabinet and offers some extra protection. A piece of metal mesh is in front of the element. I opened the hole for the element with a router. It is one practical tool. All functional corners were rounded or chamfered. The filling is foam and polyester. The reflex ports are now 50 mm in diameter and 30 mm long according to Volt's recommendation for this volume (around 40 - 50 dm3). As everybody can see, the case is not finished, yet. The extra glue has to be removed. It needs some paint or wood oil. And lots of filing. Conclusions The weight is decent. My amp is at the rehearsal place in the other side of the town, so first test will happen within few days (no files will be added). The next cab will/could be made from thin plywood and lots of braces. Much harder to build, but the result is also substantially lighter.

Highest quality is relative here. As long as the track is carbon, it creates noise. Lifetime is also limited. Top end is cermet or conductive plastic. Wire pots are overkill because of their size and high power handling.

The glue heats up really slowly through the fretboard! An inch / 5 minutes is so slow. With a very thin heater it might be faster but it would be one more tool, or what do you think @Andyjr1515?

Yes, I am a killjoy: 450 is a carbon track pot. CTS produces series 282 and 284 with conductive plastic tracks. Talk about quality and low noise. The firm feel comes from the substance between the shaft and the body. Put some alcohol or thinner to the shaft and it becomes loose. To get it back to firm you need to deconstruct the pot and put some thick grease or similar there.

Yes, it is true. There are several constructions which include an extra pot that may be excluded or included with the lo-Z circuitry. I did not want to include every possible signal chain option, as there are many, like Alembic (filters; external power source for opamps), Wal (semi-parametric eqs), Vigier (semi-parametric + treble/tone) etc.

An easy start is the signal chain of the bass: pickups - blend - vol - tone - output Any part of this chain can be "active" (low impedance is maybe a bit better term, but never mind), or "passive". It is very common, that an "active" bass has battery powered tone stack and that's it. This means, that blend and vol are simple (and usually low quality carbon track) pots. They always load the pickups in a way or another, most common issues are related to the treble or signal strength. In a "passive" bass the tone pot affects the sound, too, whether at 0 or 10 (yes, there are exceptions...). When an "active" tone stack is bypassed (the bass is in "passive" mode) the sound is changed slightly. Compared to a "passive" bass, there is no tone pot to load the pickups and the sound is different. These tiny details depend on the pot values and types. There are only few electronics with a mixer in them. That type of system is much more controlled (and more expensive), and does not load the pickups (= change the original sound). Price comparison: - a J bass has three carbon track pots, a cap, an output jack, and some wire: £5 (for the manufacturer) - a John East preamp is around £150 - 220, but the performance is stellar

Both options mentioned are functional ones. It is also possible to get a preamp with active mixing, like John East and Audere. I put a Noll Mixpot to Modulus Graphite Quantum. The bass has bartolini NTMB tone module (B & T) and the Mixpot was a good addition to the system. I had tried Vol + Vol, and Vol + Blend, but was not satisfied with the results. Mixpot is nice but it requires some accurate soldering in tiny places. Take your time with it.

Classical guitars have arm rests. Maybe some searching might reveal tape and suction cut designs.

How about the calibration signal terminal under the display, @Bobo_08 ?

Wow, that is a tool. Well, nearly any signal source is fine like a CD player or a tuner. Maybe even that saw signal from your scope. Very accurate component values are hardly needed. You want better accuracy, metal film resistors are fine.

It's not the temp, if you can live there. You want to keep them dry, put your strings to a plastic bag and seal it. Some silica gel dries the extra moisture. By the way, how many sets and what is your changing interval? Depending on the amount of playing I change strings 1 - 4 times / year / bass.

Thank you, very interesting. I found this short story about the idea: https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Further_Adventures_in_Fretboard_Design

I use a Pageflip Dragonfly and my bandmate has a Pageflip Firefly. PROS The Firefly is thinner (fits the bass bag). 2 x AA (easy to find, cheap). Very low energy consumption. I have forgotten to turn it off and it still works. Just few pushes and the unit is up and running again (sleep mode kicks in after 30 minutes of idle). The extra buttons of the Dragonfly do not interfere during playing. Lightweight, and super light if you take the extra weight from the unit. CONS Tactile feedback is not so impressive: the switch feel is a bit spongey. The unit does not stay too well in place if the floor is dirty (the feet do not hold and the low weight, original or modified). Conclusion I need it as much as I need my tab full of notes. I have a MobileSheets Pro and today it includes 5550 songs (true number is maybe around 3000, there are duplicate names in the list). To turn the page I just hit the unit with my toe and I can go forward or backwards with ease. A true HF. Try it, you'll love it. https://www.thomann.de/gb/misc_controllers.html?price-first=0&filter=true&feature-52675=true

Very good the bass was found, hopefully in condition prima. These delays are common here. It is not so extraordinary, that the package is ordered from the other side of the world and it takes 3 - 4 days to get here. But then the local post office starts the delivery which can take up to two weeks. I happen to live in a place where I am able to see the main office (including letters and packages). If customs is involved, +1 - 2 weeks, easily.

Very good, rather, this is excellent. My modest work is minute compared to your library, but I recognise many points. Two weeks ago I received a bass part of the Sleigh Ride (Ella F. version) written by our pianist. When I got the note, I had some issues reading it in the first place. I did some minor changes and now it looks like a bass transcription. There is a difference between the pianist and the bassist. About slapping, one bass teacher had an idea in the 80's of writing it down with bow markings. Sadly he had no time to refine his work and now we see S, P, hammer-ons etc. The letters are simple, but legible. It is good to see that notation can evolve. Transcription has one major issue: it is only a faint picture of the actual song. No sounds, effects, settings, feel, playing behind... This is the reason why I love to hear a recording first. Our band has tried to play some songs note by note without the original performance. Results have been quite... interesting might be a good word. I love transcriptions. Although it is often feasible to learn songs by heart, papers (in a tablet) help so much. Thank you @Bilbo for helping us mortals with these complicated songs transcribed by you.

There are very good cases available which can withstand even the airline personnel. My Modulus Graphite case was sturdy enough few years ago, when the crew demolished the case in Zürich. I was happy that the Quantum itself came back in good condition. Famous touring bands have the money to take their valued instruments to cabin. If there are several basses, the issue is a bit different. Maybe one bigger case for many instruments might work. That kind of thing is surely hard to steal, too.

My friend bought an old HMV player and he made lots of gigs in few local bars before this quarantine. The players seem to be so simple that it is easy to maintain them. His records sound surprisingly good and many of the recordings are really hard to find.

Old Growth Fuzz (by Spruce Effects) has controls named Ring (Vol), Bark (Fuzz) and Girth (Tone). I had to use a white paint marker to write those letters (V, F, T) to respective pot hats. I would not change the unit because it sounds so good, but without a little help from the paint marker, I would certainly do funny things on stage every now and then. The RMA Crustacean is far more complicated (7 pots, 4 switches, and the footswitch) - I have written some text under the unit to describe the settings. There could be some "standardized" markings in pedals, but it may be complicated. Potentiometers have letters that differ, as everybody knows: A = Audio or Linear depending on the manufacturer. My modest suggestion is pots with letters. There are also good graphics in many big desks, they could be the key to legible units.

The pedal looks very good, I would love to see an FX loop in it which would separate the clean from those two other channels. I would use a X-over between them. The clean channel looks just like I would love to have one: a simple and one very effective filter. (Offtopic: If BF will make an amp, it probably has Gain - 3/4/5 knob EQ - Vol. But hopefully not. I would love to see something like an old Quad type of EQ with tilt and another knob that selects the tilt freq, like Gain - Tilt - Freq - Vol. It certainly would be an old design but fresh compared to those basic ones I described earlier. Offtopic ends, back to the CVs and cover letters and so on.)

@GisserD: an update would be in order, please.