itu

For those who don't know, Bourns makes these blend pots: 250k MN, and 500k MN.

On 12/02/2024 at 14:47, hankhill said:

2.       Seems that any passive luminous material has a limited life of maybe 10-12 years.

No. Active material, tritium, has a lifetime of 12.5 years.

Modern inactive materials are functional for a longer time, like decades, although they may degrade slightly over time. I have seen products that have been up to 60 years old that work just fine. Older zinc sulphite materials are still functional, but they have never been very good compared to these newer Sr aluminate mixtures. You buy any better watch, and the hands are printed with (Super-) Luminova.

Watch industry uses mostly inactive materials, because they last so long. There are few companies like Traser that likes to use tritium tubes, but that's a gimmick. You can buy gun sights with tritium tubes (Trijicon, Meprolight...), but again, who really needs them?

You need a longer glow, you just mix more powder to the lacquer.

Maier's pages are a chore, but if you are active enough (joke!), and understand some German, you may find some interesting data there. Some of it is visible and hidden at the same time.

https://www.leuchtfarben.de/

I measured a bartolini set years ago, and I think - if I remember correctly - that anything beyond 4 kHz was more or less meaningless. Piezos are a another story.

By the way, how wide is the frequency response of this "wide range" pickup?

2 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

They choose CuNiFe, NOT b/c it had any mystical sonic properties, but rather b/c it sounded closest to AlNiCo AND could be machined into a screw...

 

...All 3 alloys being equal in strength, shape and orientation to the coil would give the same sonic results.

Exactly. I worked with magnets for several years. Material does not create anything else than just a field. The shape can affect the field, but not the material itself.

Material can dictate the maximum field possible. Some basic ferrite magnets are weak at their best, while Sm-Co, and Nd magnets can be very powerful. BUT if any very dense material is poorly magnetized, even a potentially powerful material can be very weak.

Some people tend to think that any set of letters equal the power of the material, the magnet. This definitely is NOT the case.

Without a decent unit, measuring magnets is hard. Without some knowledge on measuring magnets, getting decent results is complicated. Without finding a feasible place to measure magnets, well, you get my point. Even surroundings play an important part of the equation.

Maybe one reason in believing to materials is the complexity. Measuring equipment is expensive and rare. The field changes drastically, when minuscule changes are done. The interaction between a pickup, string, and the finger/pick that moves the string seems to be magical. (Which is actually true, when I look at any master player.) But everything is about plain physics mixed with some materials.

Try GHS contact core super steels. Blue package.

A piccolo set?

Use a X-over and you can tweak any effect far beyond usable levels without losing the low end.

I suppose there's no need to use a bass at all, is there? The set looks like your band could really be called Fun lovin' criminals.

Wasn't the Kajagoogoo bassist, Nick Beggs, involved in the project?

I had a Status MM neck made by Rob to BEAD tuning, and it works flawlessly with EADG strings. I even use light sets (40-95).

@ped, you just can't part from your dear! I cannot look at this ad anymore.

7 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

The answer to what are you buying is much the same as that expressed elsewhere, nothing mainstream.  I'd be looking at used Hamer, Mike Lull, Kubicki...

Now that sounds like a plan. There are a lot of interesting local brands, like Alembic, Surine, Pensa-Suhr, Pedulla, Zon, Carl Thompson, Modulus Graphite, F-bass (although Canadian), Sukop, Linc Luthier... 4k$ sure is a lot of money.

This was an easy one! People were drinking, but not drunk. Two sets, nothing special, and they danced a lot. Only bad thing was the ceiling: very low. Therefore loudness levels rised sometimes, but we managed to draw it back to reasonable. Not too good a place, but good feel. It's time for a good night's sleep.

13 hours ago, Geek99 said:

Their postage is very expensive 

I am amazed of their claimed performance, which seems to be poor. I think they do not use lots of powder. I have made tests where several layers of powder can glow up to three days. Naturally the glow at the end is low, but visible.

The glowing material can be Zn (zinc) based (poor performance), so now most of the inactive materials are Sr (strontium) based, like Superluminova. If the layer is thick enough, and density good, luminous material can glow few days. Luminova comes from Japan.

Tritium (second isotope of hydrogen) is a radioactive gas which has a half life of 12.5 years. The gas is usually sealed to a glass tube. The inside of the tube is covered with material that glows because of the decaying tritium. There are few other active materials (like Radium et al.) but far more expensive and very uncommon for civil users.

Active materials will have poor performance after the half life, but modern inactive materials may perform well even after decades.

Could that be a VDR to prevent a current spike at the start?

I think Randy Hope-Taylor should have been mentioned here, too.

I have a 36" fretless 4. Playing is very easy. That extra inch or two is much more about how the bass fits your body horizontally (reach to half position etc.).

Stringing requires super long scale / long scale plus. The scale length and the string gauge may require some trials to find a suitable set. When the right gauge is found, you certainly feel and hear it. As an example, .120 B sounded far better than a .130 or .135 in my 35" 5-string.

Kramer Ferrington has a 34" scale, i.e. the string set fits short and long scales.

Could this be Sonic Hammer, the predecessor of Flea / Funk unlimited. Nothing less than those later units. I like the look of this one.

The centre detents can be most probably fixed by opening the pots and doing certain mechanical actions. Not rocket science, nor music theory. If I did it, I probably wouldn't solder the pots if not necessary. The excessive heat is something pots do not like.

The previous comment is drifting away from the original topic, so sorry for that.

I do not know such a unit, but...

- Iron Ether Divaricator

- KMA Tyler Deluxe

I have tried both, and they are nice units. My preference is not to blend full band at all, and the X-over frequency is 400 Hz. Then you can mix lots of the effect (even too much) without losing the low end.

1 hour ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Are you suggesting that OP simply should paint their cab and be done with it, or what are you on about here?

 

Also that doesn't mean that everything sounds the same, or equally good, that personal preferences and taste isn't a thing, or that everyone (or anyone for that matter) listen purely with their eyes!

I just continued the story that @agedhorse had done years ago. Very good test, some didn't like the results...

It was eye opening to understand how much we hear with our eyes. It is the same how we rate different players (endorsees) that how a system (instrument, amp, cab, fx...) sounds. It is anything but easy to rate equipment strictly from our own preferences.

Yes, I have done and I have been in blind tests. They were really eye opening (sorry!). After several tests I was ready to trust my own ears. Not an easy task at all: the pressure is hard, because we all want to belong to group/s. Which set is suitable for you if your group prefers certain equipment?

I can say if I do, or not like some thing. It may differ from some other opinions. Does not matter. At my age and experience I am able to find what I like, and I am very sceptical to what I see and hear from any paid channels. How about you? When I look at your modified Ibanez, I think you have found something that is not mainstream, isn't it?

You need a new one, it will be Bourns 250k MN. That has tracks for blend, i.e. starting from the centre.