Mottlefeeder

Your range of strings is always going to be limited if you need double ball ends. If you buy/make an adaptor block to clamp standard strings at the neck end, you can then use standard strings that you already know that you like. David

Hi guys, I'll bring my two Bill Fitzmaurice Jack 10s, a couple of basic reflex 10s (almost Eminence-cab-design vanilla) all loaded with Eminence neo Basslite S2010s, my BEAD bass uke, my BEAD headless kit/homebrew, and a couple of fives. I'll also bring my combined HPF and LPF for anyone who was following the recent thumpinator/Fdeck thread. David

Oops, forgot to mention, having the mixer on the amp means that you need to get the headphone signal from it to you . I use a figure-of-8 twin microphone cable with the bass signal going down one side and the headphone signal coming back on the other. David

Assuming that your bass is active, and does not need a hi-Z input impedance on the amp, you could use a small mixer between the bass and the amp to give you a headphone-out facility (Bass to mixer 'line input', mixer 'main mix' output to amp input, mixer 'monitor output' to headphones). A Behringer Xenyx 502 at £30 would do it. If you use a passive bass, you could take the mixer feed from the line-out or effects-out of the amp (if it has one) or you could look for a mixer that has a Hi-Z instrument input, and connect it as above. A single-instrument-channel mixer like an Alesis multimix 4 at £85, or a soundcraft Notepad 5 at £85, would do it, or a Mackie 402 for £99 would give you two instrument channels - I use one of these as a 'me / them' monitor using a feed from the bass amp and a feed from the PA. David

A couple of years ago I couldn't find one, so I made one. As you say, a simple circuit will do the job. If you are into the DIY side of music/electronics, I can post the circuit, layout, etc. David

I rarely use the G on my 5, so when I bought a 4-string back-up bass I tuned it BEAD. I find it much easier to swap between basses when the strings I use most are where I expect them to be. David

The 'Overlord of Music' bridge and the pictured string locking set are commonly supplied with kit headless basses, and I have one. The problem with the string locking nut set is that the two visible allen screws clamp the string behind the zero fret, but the string is locked by bending it through 90 degrees and then clamping it, and thicker strings break when you do that. To use flat-wound strings, I ended up sawing off the existing clamp (at the bottom of the image) and fitting a separate clamping block so the strings pass straight through. If the remains of the original string locking nut set is angled in the right direction, the new block will not ride up when the strings are tensioned. David

One quick thing you might do is to check whether it is shutting down due to overheating - does it have a fan and is the fan running? If it has a fan which stays off permanently, that could be your problem. David

Walter Harley (of cafe Walter) put a short article on his website detailing a variable low pass fiter he used about 2000. Unfortunately I cannot find any references to it now, but I still have a paper copy. It works from 200Hz to 20KHz,with a 12dB/octave slope, but his stage gain was 1.16, which was considerably less than the 1.6 you would use for a Butterworth response, so the corner or knee of the graph is much smoother. I've built a couple and they sound good. I've emailed him to see if there is still an electronic version of the original article available, but if anyone can trawl through historical web pages, they might ba able to find it; Heading - Rackmount Bass preamp Subheading - Walter Harley September 2000

The 'series 3' of the FDeck HF Pre design has a 12dB/Octave fixed frequency (35Hz) HPF, followed by a variable frequency 12dB/Octave (35-140Hz) HPF so you will have 24dB/octave anywhere below 35Hz. https://sites.google.com/site/hpftechllc/home/hpf-pre Although a circuit diagram is not available for the series 3, adding a fixed frequency HPF to a variable frequency HPF would not be difficult for an average electronic DIY enthusiast. David

If you leave the eq flat, but turn down the volume on the bass, the disappearance of the problem would indicate a preamp overload - might be worth checking that out if you haven't already. David

The OP asks about protecting speakers "etc" so I do not think that excludes variable frequency high pass filters, which I agree only cut at 12dB/octave, but are much more versatile than a fixed frequency device cutting at 36dB/octave. In my case, my reflex cabs were designed using WinISD, and the ports are tuned in the low 50s, although I play a 5-string. According to WinISD, the speakers could be damaged by a strong 30Hz signal, but adding a 12dB/octave filter tuned to 40Hz removes that risk, so I use an FDeck clone for speaker protection, and where necessary, I increase the turnover frequency to get rid of boominess. In my experience, using a pair of Jack 10s, or a pair of reflex 10s, you can take out most of the bottom octave before the sound starts to get 'bass-lite'. David

I'm not sure that I agree with that - if your sound is boomy due to a hollow stage, and HPF can tame the boom, similarly if you want more punch and less mud, an HPF plus bass boost can fix that for you. In both cases you can hear the difference. David

Not quite on topic, but... If your cabs have handles on them, then a quick release strap to attach the bass to the cab is pretty fooolproof, and takes up virtually no pack space. Markbass do/did one, but any strap will do. David

Firstly, both the fearful and Simplex designs are optimised for particular speakers, so they will not work as well with your drive units. Secondly, as you reduce the box size, you tend to get more boom in the sound - the response develops a peak in the 100-200 Hz range. A little of this may be to your advantage, but too much will sound bad. Given the information on the drive unit that you have from Fane, you could download a copy od 'WinISD', follow the instructions about adding that information, and let it design your own speaker box, while you adjust volume and porting see what effect it would have. David

[quote name='CameronJ' timestamp='1507587007' post='3386645'] Wow. A 6 string double bass must take some fine bowing technique. [/quote] Agreed- I had a 5-string EUB for a while and with the relatively high action,you could not bow it above 'fret' 7 without also bowing one of the adjacent strings. That was probably because it had been manufacturered with the same fingerboard radius and bridge radius as the 4-string. A purpose designed 5-string would probably not have that problem. David

I just downloaded the handbook - 37MB! Mixer outputs typically deliver +4dB or 1 Volt, and the specification page (1.3) gives the headphone output as 500mV into 100 Ohms (or 380mV if two heaphones are used). That suggests that your Aux 3-4 become headphone L & R, in which case you can access both aux channels using only one headphone socket. On that basis, a passive DI per channel should be fine, assuming that your active monitor can make up for the lower signal level. Also worth checking out - since this is line level/low impedance territory, you may not need to convert to a balanced signal just to get across the stage without hum or buzz. David

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1499259568' post='3330341'] Maybe, but not necessarily, if it's switching. Our RC 'plane motor controllers supply the Rx and servos using this technology, so it's very common, very miniature and very inexpensive these days to do things that way, and the output voltage is then independent of the load. A more passive system wouldn't be able to assure that. [/quote] I'm working on the basis that if it takes 1Amp at 15 volts (15 watts), and is a switching regulator, it will deliver 90% of 15 watts to the output. So if the output voltage is lower, the output currrent available should be higher - but it isn't. Another clue is in the ventilation slots of the casing - a switched mode power supply would not need those. David

I haven't used one, but I checked out the website information - the input is 15 volts at up to 1 Amp, and the outputs are almost all 9 V up to a total load of 1 Amp. When it is lightly loaded I would expect it to work well, but if you take it up to the current limit, the electronics inside will have to dissipate (15-9)V * 1Amp, which is 6 Watts. To do that you would need to leave space around it for air circulation, so its footprint would be considerably bigger. David

Thank you both - very useful information. David

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1498855653' post='3327640'] ... you need to have the strings slackened off before you adjust the truss rod in any event. [/quote] When I tighten the truss rod, I tend to straighten the neck with hand pressure to make the operation easier. Loosening the truss-rod reduces the pressure anyway, so I did not think it was a problem. I only remove one string at a time, because I'm working on the basis that a truss-rod force with no counter-acting string tension is as bad as string tension with no counter-acting truss-rod force. You have much more experience, and you do it differently, so what is the rational behind your advice? David

Looking at your truss rod cover, is it shallow enough to allow it to be removed while the strings are on? It looks quite thick in the picture. David

I take one bass to play, one amp, two speaker cabs, and cables to suit that equipment. Locked out of sight in the car, I keep a back-up bass, spare amp, and spare cables. I work on the basis that I should be able to deal with any failure anywhere from instrument to speaker. On two occasions in the last month I have had to fall back on my back-up U-bass (space-saver spare?) because the stage volume was giving me feedback problems with my jumbo acoustic bass. David

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1498638922' post='3325989'] In my experience you get less feedback on an acoustic guitar when you go with the magnetic pickup as opposed to the peizo pickup. I'm not 100% sure on the science behind that but it's my experience. [/quote] I have acoustic basses with peizo pick-ups and solid-bodied basses with magnetic pick-ups, but none have both, so I have no comparable experience to yours. Possibly the magnetic pick-up majors on string vibration, while the peizo pick-up majors on body vibration if it is under the bridge and transmits string vibration to the body? David