itu

The surroundings I live has lots of people who are able to criticize, but they are not giving proper critique. Sometimes it is hard to get any decent words, although my band mates are very encouraging. One tool that has helped me, is a looper or a recording system. You can hear your playing right away. You should be able to differentiate your feel and the direct audible feedback. I tried to learn legato playing, and taping my playing revealed many faults. Playing and hearing could be understanding, not just believing. When you are able to point out any issue with your playing by yourself, you can ask for more specific questions from your teacher, or fellow player, or even a bandmate.

I have tried few, and here are some thoughts about the page turners: - what functions do you really need during playing? - is the size and especially thickness something that fits your bass or effects case? The one I have (PageFlip Dragonfly), has 4 buttons. Compared to the two button version (PageFlip Firefly) the 4 button version is much thicker and more expensive. While playing, two buttons has been enough. Between the songs there is plenty of time to change the song. That can be done by hand. I do admit that I need to dive into the programming of the pedal. Those two extra buttons could be helpful, but so far the possibility has simply been extra, if not even useless functionality.

My unit is an android but the use is similar: all notes with me, setlists are saved for future use, easy to arrange all "papers", the camera of the tablet is good enough for scanning new notes to the system... a dream come true. With telephone/data capability I can send notes to my fellow bandmates, search quickly some chords... Very helpful, and the page turning pedal is a must!

Now as you've said it, I think you are correct.

Status, Jerry Dorsch (a former Modulus Graphite neck builder), Basslab (Is their production neck throughs only?), SKC Bogart, a (used) Steinberger XM, Schack, CarbonTech, and yes, Modulus used to make different necks. There are also some luthiers that build just few necks every now and then.

I would opt for the tweeter. When it is there, you can use the pad to turn it down. If not, you are not able to dial in any more of it. And price is always one part of the equation.

I love this, as it has a filter and a comp. With fretless it is unbeatable: http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/phatbeam.shtml

Here are some results. I used these frequencies while measuring coils (five of them; the dummy coil of the D5E was also quite similar in performance) of the two pickups: 50, 100, 200, 500, 1k, 2k, 3k, 5k, 6k, 7k, 10kHz. Both were splittable humbuckers, namely bartolini C5C and D5E (from a 1991 Modulus Graphite Quantum 5 SPi Custom). The pickups were desoldered from other electronics (pots, switches & the TBT preamp - the one with external capacitors). One interesting detail was that the pickups had a 3 dB difference (neck vs. bridge), but the coils within one pickup produced exactly similar curves from 50 Hz to 3 kHz. The response curves were as expected. Between 50 Hz and 1 kHz the curve stayed within 6 dB, but then the curve changed to a slope. In the 1 - 3 kHz area the drop was 9 dB, and 3 - 6 kHz 6 - 8 dB depending on the coil. This means that the total drop from 50 Hz to 6 kHz is around 20 dB. To get an idea of this amount, it's like the 50 Hz would be 100 % and 6 kHz 10 %. It is not very much, although ears are very sensitive at around 1 kHz. This is the area that gets hurt easily, not the 10 kHz area. [The frequencies around 1 kHz are very important because of the speech recognition (Say what!?). Play hard, use ear plugs.] If you want some ordinary coil-magnet pickup to produce something serious in the frequency area of 3 - 20 kHz, prepare to be able to amplify the signal a lot! 12 - 18 dB of amplification in a bass preamp is not so uncommon, new strings help, too. I heard a rumour, that Mr. Miller changes the strings in studio after 3 hours of playing. True or not, that could explain one part of his sound.

It is far more important to think about the bracing (and damping) than their minuscule volume. Use words "speaker cabinet bracing" or "speaker cabinet damping" and do some search. Let the pictures speak.

I measured a pair of splittable humbuckers in an LCR measuring unit. I think it cost something like £10 000, so the results should be reasonable. The coils should give this kind of results from the theory point of view, too. The exact numbers are elsewhere, but barely nothing was coming out after few kHz. When the unit reached 5 or 6 kHz, nothing was coming out. I do not remember the -3 dB limit, but it came earlier. I try to find the numbers and you will see that 20 kHz is a joke with a coil-magnet-system. Piezo or optical system can go higher, but they need good buffering. If the coil-magnet pickup is done with very low impedance (and very low output), the range can be extended somewhat. This kind of system needs always a good preamp.

"Active output is so much louder..." Yes, yes... "These quality pots" ...with carbon tracks. "This (put here any single component) is the key to the (descriptive word) sound." "It does not have (put here any single component), so..." Any magical ingredient, that makes the part of the setup exceptional. Psychoacoustic events, that are considered as electric or mechanic superiority of the instrument. Wattage = loudness. Well, it is related, but similar like car's horsepower would equal speed. Not that simple. Most sound comparisons are not made in suitable surroundings.

The simplest option is to remove everything between the pickup and the output jack except the cable. If you (really) need any on-board adjustments, then you may consider switches (tone, on/off...), pots (vol, tone) and so on.

Some used unit with a quality MM cartridge. Needle could be elliptic. Then someone to set it up. That would be a serious present, including service.

Reading, yes, but transferring those scores to the fretboard, that takes weeks!

SS has nickel, but in a nearly insoluble format. The amounts are very low, although sweat may make the playing situation much worse. There is EU legislation on this matter, does it cover strings, I have not checked. Fretwire, bridge, screws, there are many places in an instrument that may release nickel. SS and coated strings may help, so does a dry and clean bass. Wet, and especially sweat in strings is bad, not only to the strings themselves. I was working in a company that is closely related to diving. Their tests were tough, and yearly only very, very few customers were complaining about rash or similar skin issues. After special tests we could say that the stainless parts were the issue. But, the problems were actually related to contaminations in the process industry: the same tools were used for other materials. Kind like "this product may contain peanuts" and so on.

I have found these pages helpful, when Reverb isn't: http://www.effectsdatabase.com/ If the unit has ICs or transistors, it is quite common they have date codes.

Dear @Bilbo , You push out these top complicated scores faster than an average bassist like me can read a single one within a day. Still I have to thank you: very well done! Exceptional work!

I see, in that case it might be reasonable to concentrate on the box construction. Maybe most of the other parameters are just a nice extra. A too soft box will eat the performance of the elements, no matter how good the unit looks like from the simulation point of view. Yes, self-made projects are always pleasant if not surprising. Enjoy your journey.

If your box is made of thin plywood, you need to have lots of braces to make it hard and tough enough. You want light, you need to sacrifice something: https://www.grbass.com/aerotech/ They seem to have a dealer in Finland. I put some extra money to my cab, although amps look better with lights and knobs and all that, so I have a 2 x 12" aluminium cab which weighs 18 kg. I think it is already pretty light. A wooden 2 x 10" and under 15 kg, well, you may have pretty poor efficiency or the lowest frequency rises well over 60 Hz. Cheapo cab, cheap sound. There is a nice thread here about a diy lightweight cab with pics. Check that out.

Source Audio Reflex is fine but discontinued. Not a single unit in Reverb or anywhere else. There are few fairly priced adapters, but most work with USB only. I found an older DigiTech unit, MC2. I will let you know about the functionality with the FI later on.

I have tried to find a small footprint exp/vol pedal to handle MIDI events. Success has been, well, no success. There is one very good (do not recall the brand now), but the manufacturer said it was too expensive for them. All suggestions welcome, smaller footprint is better.

I do not care about the others, but I have had a chance to play a similar black Buzz. Gorgeous sound and feel. Congratulations!

Watts are not about loudness, dBs are. My Glockenklang Soul combo was 38.5 kg (measured), which was the only reason I separated the amp (12 kg) and the cab (go figure) from each other. It was far easier to carry one at a time. I actually bought a lighter 2 x 12" cab. Soul amp is only 440 W, but that seems to be enough power to drive any cab in a band context. Those Trace watts would probably be enough, too.