Mottlefeeder

The legal requirement is that the equipment is maintained in a safe state, so far as is reasonably practicable. If you are paid for the gig, you are at work, and it is your responsibility. If you are not 'at work', the organizer is, and it will be his/her responsibility. The easiest way to discharge that responsibility is to ensure that all mains powered equipment has been checked by a competent person, and looking for 'PAT tested' labels on everything is one option. However, there is no legal requirement to put a sticker on each item, and that option can be abused. Asking for a certificate itemizing the tested items is a more professional approach. Carrying that itemized list on your phone, so you can show it/email it to an organizer, is your easiest option. Basic equipment to carry out portable appliance testing (pass/fail of equipment and mains leads) start at £150 [https://www.tester.co.uk/testsafe-minipat-appliance-tester], so it will pay for itself in 2-3 years, or sooner if you start charging for checking other local bands' gear. David

£456,000 in the summer to £500,000 between Christmas and new year - that's why we have January off! I'm not sure we've ever shared the stage, so that's something to rectify in 2019. David

Assuming it is a class D amplifier and a switch-mode power supply, there is not much you can do without a circuit diagram, test gear and the skills to use them. You could take the lid off and check for connectors not seated correctly on printed circuit boards, but I would only recommend that after letting the unit sit unused for several days. The power supply capacitors may be charged to 200-300 Volts and that will take time to leak away. Ashdown charged £80 for a replacement Amp+Power supply board after I blew mine up connecting to a faulty generator, so it may be that is the going rate for swapping out the faulty unit.

Loose Change Buskers, based in South Manchester, are a group of about 30 musicians and collectors (bucketeers) whose sole aim is to raise money for Cancer Research UK. From small beginnings about eight years ago, we reached £100,000 after a few years but in the last 2-3 years, we have averaged about £100,000 per year. For busking, we field a team of 10-16 people per day, changing the front line every couple of hours to keep it fresh. For functions, we have a 5-6 piece band drawn from the same pool of musicians. For me, it started out as a retirement hobby - 'a gig every so often would be nice' - fast forward four years and I'm playing 2-3 times a week: 9 gigs in one week is probably our record. If anyone is interested in starting their own busking band to raise money for Cancer Research UK, please let me know and I will see whether the charity can put together an information pack like the one that got us started. David http://www.loosechangebuskers.org.uk/

No idea where to get one from, but the 'fast food delivery' backpacks used by cyclists look to be about that size. David

If you don't want to go for leather, you could try spraying the underside of your existing strap with the rubbery gunk designed to stop carpets moving around. Alternatively: (a) reduce the neck weight by fitting lighter tuners, (b) make the body heavier by hanging an old phone case full of washers from the bridge-end strap button, or (c) make the upper horn longer to shift the balance point (I gained 50mm by using a 100mm bolt instead of the strap-button mounting screw OR there is a thread on here about adding a carbon fibre 'horn' to a steinberger/hohner type body) I ended up selling my problem bass, so I hope you find a solution that works for you. David

My starting point would be to check the drive units, and how they are wired. If each speaker is 8 ohms, they you have several options, but if they are all 32 ohms, then your options are more limited. Personally, since I don't have a dedicated roadie, I'd be thinking in terms of 2-speaker boxes, and take 1-4 depending on the volume that you want. David

I've just been on the Pascal website and checked out the module specified - it claims 1000w RMS into 8 ohms or 4 ohms ( the latter limited by the power supply capability) at 1% distortion. http://www.pascal-audio.com/product/s-pro2/ On paper that looks good, but if testers cannot get that power out of it that suggests that the gain structure may be wrong. David

Less likely to be the value of the pot, and more likely to be the gains of the circuit blocks before and after the pot. Also, the law of the pot may also be defined by its place in the circuit, e.g. within a feedback loop in designs where there in no separate input gain control. David

I agree with the comments about load and distortion, but most users will never use continous high power, so the larger an amp, the less relevant RMS power becomes. If the ratio of bass peaks to bass average signal is about eight to one [citation needed here], then specifying RMS power will cover you if you want to play a continuous synth or organ bass note, but for any other meaningful bass line you will be paying a lot of money for a high-powered, RMS, 24/7 rated system whose capabilities you will never use. Surely what we need is a measurement that covers both continuous power and higher powers for a defined proportion of the time. For example, 300W RMS 24/7 and 500W RMS for 10 seconds in every minute and 250 W RMS for the remaining 50 seconds. If we specify the right proportions of intermittent and continuous power right then we should be able to ensure that bass amplifiers have enough reserves in their power supplies to provide the heft we crave while not being priced out of our reach. David

It's missing the electrics, but sold as 'missing mechanicals' so it is not clear whether you are getting the bass as pictured, or just two bits of wood. David

It's an area in which I'm weak, so I was interested to watch it. Unfortunately, especially on your second example, I really struggled to hear the undelying bar structure as you played. Can I suggest that after you have demonstrated the note sequence, you play with a metronome or backing track to make it more obvious? David

You can convert a linear pot to a lower value log pot by ptting a resistor between the wiper and one end of the track. A fixed resistor value somewhere between 1/4 and 1/6 of the value of the track will get you fairly close. That suggests that a 100K twin pot could give you a 100K linear and a 20K log pot. Not sure if that helps. David

+1 for Steve Robinson David

Dirty contacts may be the cause of your switch-on click, or alternatively, a faulty output relay could cause that, and the distortion that you are hearing. I've only used Ashdown to repair one of their amps (fried by a faulty generator), so I cannot comment on amp techs in general, but there have been threads on that topic. David

if you don't know its history, it's possible that whatever ambient crap the fan pulled through it has tarnished the Fx socket contacts, and also some of the other switches, so yes you probably need an amp tech, but it may be no worse than cleaning the various contacts in the signal path. This is the type of jack socket fitted to the FX circuit of a Hartke HA4000 This is the state that the contacts were in This is what they looked like after cleaning David

Having seen the block diagram, I suggest starting with a mic cable from the DI out to your mixer. That will check out the whole preamp (post EQ) or just the input stage (pre-EQ) while bypassing the Fx sockets (which might be the problem). David

I may be wrong, but I think headphones are normally fed from the main amp via an attenuator, so: a) using your bass to BD121 to Fx-return would bypass most of the preamp, and b) using bass to BD121 to amp input, and Fx-send to mixer to headphones would bypass the amp Make sure to make all the connections with the power off and the volume controls off to avoid noisy surprises. Siully question, but can't see the answer in your original post - have you tried bass to GK to BF cab without the Behringer, in case it is the faulty item? David

Having got as far as narrowing down the fault to the amp, I'd check the preamp outputs and tuner outputs for distortion. This will tell you whether the fault is in the Amp or the preamp. The former is likely to be much more expensive, but the latter may be as simple as dirty contacts on the FX send and return sockets. David

I use a strap to secure my bass to the side of the speaker cab, or to secure the gigbag to the side of the speaker cab, so I can just slide the bass into it when we stop for a break. It works if you have one tall cab or two stacked cabs. Markbass do/did a purpose made strap for this. David

Thanks Phil. David

I've seen triangular ports in some designs, but never seen any guidance about how to calculate them. Are they calculated as square ports and built in two halves, or is there some correction factor needed to compensate for the extra resistance of the additional wall, and the effect of the cab walls close by? David

I'm not familiar with that amp, but have you considered a 2U rack tray as an alternative. If the amp is open-topped you couldd use the tray upside down. https://www.studiospares.com/ProductDetail.aspx?p=401350 David

Yes, Kala do 5-string models in their solid body range. The scale length is 23.5 inches as against 22 inches for a typical u-bass. Aquila do a 5-string set, but the low B is from their Red series, so it looks a bit odd on a BEAD 4-string, but it works for me. David