Mottlefeeder

I looked at these kits and decided to go to Guitar Warehouse instead. My build thread is here - http://www.finnbass.com/showthread.php?t=10950 - but you will have to join Finnbass to see it since the DIY section is off-limits to guests. I have had to do a bit of tweaking to get what I wanted, and I have fitted better strings, but the overall quality of neck joint etc, and completness of kit is very good. It includes all required allen keys, jack to jack lead, and even a length of solder. David

When I moved from a four to a five, it took me about three months to aclimatise. I started by relearning all the songs I knew in one key, then moved on to another key, and so on. Also bear in mind that the B string changes in character as you move around - much more so than the other strings. Above fret 9 or 10 the 'short-string effect' becomes noticeable so you cannot assume that you can learn a bass line and then just move it up the fretboard to change key - you need to play it where it sounds good. Finally, as a cheaper option, you could buy a set of 5 strings and try stringing a 4-string to be BEAD - that would give you a good idea as to whether you want to go to a 5, or could manage with the 4 without a G string. David

If your deep bass is going through the main PA,and deep bass is pretty much omni-directional, you should be able to filter out the bottom couple of octaves going through the monitors, so that you can still hear what you are playing, but you do not overload the speakers. David

[quote name='Jus Lukin' timestamp='1462375994' post='3042522'] Most single band Para EQ's will sweep the full audible range, at least up to about 16hkz, anyway. The only difference in one focussed on mids would be a shorter range on the frequency pot. Any single band para will do, the only advantage you would gain with a shorter range would be finer tuning within that range, but aside from that, a parametric EQ which works on mids is a parametric EQ with the frequency knob set somewhere in the middle. Easy. [/quote] The electronics is easier/cheeper if you restrict the range of frequency covered. David

Your typical ABG will keep up with nylon stringed guitars, but as soon as someone starts strumming a steel stringed guitar, you will not be heard. You will need an amp, so have you checked whether the places you plan to play will allow you to use one? Assuming that you can use an amp your options look much better - an ABG that sounds like a cardboard box acoustically can still provide a good sound through an amp. Check out the Youtube clips of the Thomann Harley Benton acoustic basses. David

Looking at the grill design, there is a lot more aluminium than air in front of the speaker cone, so that will affect the tone. From memory, Bill Fitzmurice recommended aming for 40% metal maximum. David

I have been looking into this myself, and found this piezo bridge. No idea what the quality is like, but it is almost cheap enough to buy one just to try out. David http://www.chguitars.co.uk/bridges/bass-bridges/b41-four-string-bass-piezo-bridge.html

[quote name='stevebasshead' timestamp='1452698949' post='2952561'] Hi, I’m no whizz at home recording by any stretch, just a hobbyist but I’m getting by, so far. I’m looking for advice for a replacement USB audio interface. Having seen recent postings in the Beginner’s Guide sticky suggesting that a USB mixer/interface can negate latency issues compared to a USB interface alone I don’t know whether my needs would be better served by a 6 input USB interface or a small mixer that doubles as a USB interface. Apologies for the long post but it’ll probably help if I describe what I have at the moment, how I use it and why I want to replace it. My current interface is an old mk1 Zoom H4 recorder going via USB into a 2012 model i7 8GB laptop running Reaper. The Zoom has two inputs, I tend to run an instrument or a mic into one and a switched mic into the other and the Zoom is set to record in mono. When I have my singer in the vocal booth (ok, converted cupboard) I can speak to him via the switched mic but switch it off during a take. If I put the Zoom into stereo mode I can record two inputs at once but I lose the talkback facility. I take the headphone signal out from the Zoom into a Behringer 4-way headphone amp so the singer and I can have headphones for monitoring and talkback and there’s zero latency that way. That said, every take I record is a few milliseconds out of sync with whatever backing track is in Reaper and I have to nudge it into line which is a minor irritation but one I’d like to get rid of as well as a couple of other improvements. The singer hates singing without reverb but if I add it in Reaper during a take he can only hear it if I switch to monitoring from Reaper and that adds more latency than he can handle. So we’ve used one of the reverb FX’s in the Zoom which means I can avoid latency issues but then the reverb gets recorded. So that’s the setup. The Zoom is the limiting factor both for flexibility (and to an extent sound quality.) What I’m looking to do is to record my bands demos and for speed it’d be better to record us all at once playing as a band but the Zoom’s limited number of inputs prevents this. I would rather record them to individual tracks too so I can mix them after the fact, rather than set up a mix and record that to one stereo track in Reaper. So what I want, ideally, is to be able to[list] [*]record four sources simultaneously (each recording to an individual track in Reaper for later mixing). Typically Vox/Guitar/Bass/Drums (electronic kit via midi, triggering Superior Drummer in Reaper) and sometimes Vox/Guitar/Bass/Keyboard (sometimes midi, sometimes recording sounds direct) [*]add FX for monitoring only (i.e. reverb on vocals) not recording the FX [*]have zero (or inconsequential) latency monitoring [*]have four input sources, but ideally six budget permitting, so that I can use an input for talkback to the glorified cupboard/vocal booth, like I do with the Zoom now [*]record instruments during playback over my monitors instead of using headphones, without latency (but headphone monitoring would suffice if I’m expecting too much here!) [/list] My budget is around £200, I can’t justify much more for what I do. I’m torn between going for an interface (for example the Focusrite Scarlett 6i6) and trying to tweak my setup to minimize latency, or a USB mixer (for example the Allen & Heath ZED 10FX) so I’d get hardware monitoring/no latency and also adding the delay a the mixers inbuilt FX for the singer, just for monitoring. Presumably I can route it so it still records dry. I’m not set on those two bits of kit, just using them as examples of hardware I think will fit the bill. How’s my thinking so far, am I on the right lines? Any better options? Asking too much at this price point? All advice welcome with open ears [/quote] One area you have not commented on is the quality of recording that you want. A cheap mixer with a USB facility tacked on because it has become flavour of the month will not have the sound quality of the Focusrite gear. Whether you can hear the difference, or whether it matters, is down to you. In my case I had to move from a quality sound card which was not supported by Win8. I found that I could not tell the difference between that and a Tascam portable recorder, so that suited me. At that time, another user was selling a Behringer USB mixer because he could hear that it was not as good as some other gear he was used to. David

Hartke and Samson are sister companies, so they probably share design standards and parts lists. Some Sansom amplifiers have a common problem with the output protection relay going intermittent, so I would start by checking whether the signal is present just upstream of that relay. David

[quote name='Mottlefeeder' timestamp='1447082423' post='2904665'] If you are thinking U-bass, have a look at the Countryman Bass Uke - 3-Band EQ Built-in tuner Intonated bridge (bridge slot is straight across the body, but bridge is contoured from E to G) Aguila strings It is well made and sounds good - £150 [url="http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Countryman_U_bass.html"]http://www.bassdirec...man_U_bass.html[/url] or [url="http://www.omegamusic.co.uk/collections/bass-ukuleles"]http://www.omegamusi...s/bass-ukuleles[/url] (currently sold out!) David [/quote] Just remembered I did a review - http://www.finnbass.com/showthread.php?t=10632 David

If you are thinking U-bass, have a look at the Countryman Bass Uke - 3-Band EQ Built-in tuner Intonated bridge (bridge slot is straight across the body, but bridge is contoured from E to G) Aguila strings It is well made and sounds good - £150 [url="http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Countryman_U_bass.html"]http://www.bassdirec...man_U_bass.html[/url] or [url="http://www.omegamusic.co.uk/collections/bass-ukuleles"]http://www.omegamusi...s/bass-ukuleles[/url] (currently sold out!) David

A free alternative to check out is to tie a shoelace between the 'bridge-end' strap button and your trouser belt. If that stops your neck dive and doesn't affect your vocals, you could then make something easier to put on/take off. David

The effects-out and effects-return jack sockets are often used to connect the preamp-out of one piece if kit to the amp-in of a second piece of kit, so if you want to compare the eq of the head against the eq section of the combo for example, that would be the way to go (if you have those jack sockets). It would also allow you to connect one preamp to drive two amps if you had two speakers. If you want to compare two amplifiers, then you need access to the connection between the amp and the speaker in the combo. If you are not comfortable taking the back of,or taking the grill off and the speaker out, or whatever, then you cannot do that comparison. David

[url="http://s285.photobucket.com/user/Mottlefeeder/media/DSCF1422_zps6327e840.jpg.html"][/url] Countryman U-bass clone, 3/4 guitar fretless U-bass conversion, Ibanez EW205 David

I moved to a 5 a couple of years after I started playing, and that 5 was my only bass for about 15 years. From what I remember, it took me about 3 months to change over, starting with playing all our songs in key x then moving on to all our songs in key y and so on. I've recently started playing a 4-string bass uke, and I really miss the B string. David

Some amp manufacturers are reputed to build in an eq'd sound even with the tone controls flat, so by buying an acoustic amp you may get a different sound, but nothing that using the 'user eq' can't put right. You may also get a different front-end, with an input designed for piezo pickups and possibly a balanced mic input as well. David

If you are going to be doing a lot of transposed work, consider a 5-string bass. Having more options about where you play the note hepls you move away from using open strings, but you may not like the sound of a B string higher up the fret board.- it has a different mix of harmonics. David

[quote name='RickyV' timestamp='1433187370' post='2788749'] Hi David. Hope you dont mind me asking, but where did you source the corner protectors for your cab build? They look like just what I need to replace some damaged ones on an Ashdown combo. Cheers. [/quote] Blue Aran in Southampton - [url="http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?browsemode=category&category=Hardware&masthead=Corners_!amp!_Braces&subheadnew=Corners"]http://www.bluearan....headnew=Corners[/url] They do that style in two sizes and mine is the smaller of the two. David

Just out of interest, I went back to my WinISD calculations and tweaked the numbers to suit your cab. Then, since the original speaker is probably fairly close to a stock Eminence item, I substituted an Eminence Beta 10 and an Eminence Alpha 10. The graphs are shown below. Assuming that speaker, port and amp volume take up 0.3 of a cu ft, I'm working with a net volume of 1 cu ft. A port of 37cm by 2cm by 7cm long gives a box tuning of around 70 Hz, which sounds high, but may not be if the amp is voiced for it. Colour coding of lines [url="http://s285.photobucket.com/user/Mottlefeeder/media/Speaker%20key_zpsdxubfoxz.jpg.html"][/url] Response of box and speaker - a hump of 2-3dB can be ignored. Above that figure and you may hear some boominess. [url="http://s285.photobucket.com/user/Mottlefeeder/media/Speaker%20response_zpshbdyts1w.jpg.html"][/url] Maximum power handling - note that your fundamental and lowest harmonics share the power between them, so 40 watts maximum at any one frequency is not a disaster, assuming that the amplifier filters out the frequencies below 50-60 Hz. [url="http://s285.photobucket.com/user/Mottlefeeder/media/Speaker%20power%20handling_zpsxqtstvr5.jpg.html"][/url] Cone excursion - As above, this is the killer unless the amplifier has a high pass filter built in. The straight red line at about 3mm is the limit for 'undistorted' sound. [url="http://s285.photobucket.com/user/Mottlefeeder/media/Cone%20excursion_zpsknqmaygb.jpg.html"][/url] Air velocity in the port - OK assuming no single frequency gets more than about 40 watts [url="http://s285.photobucket.com/user/Mottlefeeder/media/Rear%20port%20air%20velocity_zpssspdxllc.jpg.html"][/url] Of then three speakers, the Basslite is the best controlled, and also the most expensive at about £70. That's my interpretation - others may have different opinions David

I built a small 1 by 10 cab using the Eminence Neo Basslite S2010 with a volume of about 1 cu ft and a port of 12 by 1 by 7 inches (overall size 15 by 12 by 13 inches, built with 9mm ply) - it sound very good, and is in your ballpark volume-wise - [url="http://s285.photobucket.com/user/Mottlefeeder/media/DSCF0972_zps22a94527.jpg.html"][/url] Also, some other designs from Eminence - [url="http://www.eminence.com/pdf/Basslite_S2010_cab.pdf"]http://www.eminence....e_S2010_cab.pdf[/url] Hope this helps David

[quote name='tedmanzie' timestamp='1432734381' post='2784388'] Max at SFX has quoted me £250 to custom make a variable high pass filter pedal (20hz to 1khz) with either 12dB/Oct or 24dB/Oct filter. Quite expensive just for this, but it's custom made, so to be expected I suppose. If anyone here is interested please PM me, I guess (haven't asked yet) he might be able to do it cheaper if there were a few orders. [/quote] This one was £73 (inc p&p) 14 months ago - [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/232358-fdeck-clone-made-in-uk/http://basschat.co.uk/topic/232358-fdeck-clone-made-in-uk/"]http://basschat.co.u...one-made-in-uk/[/url] David

I designed a small 1 by 10 for busking with a 5-string (low B), and the compromise to get it small was a cabinet resonance of 55Hz. I use an HPF set to 55 Hz to make sure I do not overdrive the speakers, but I still get plenty of low end and low end clarity from it. At the Moffat bass bash a heavy metal player was playing an F below bottom E through it, and you could hear the note without the mud that you usually get when speakers struggle to get that low. Another benefit is that you use less power if you filter out the fundamental - my battery rig lasts about 25% longer with the HPF than without. For those of you who are interested in getting an HPF, Fdeck over on talkbass designed one, but only markets it in the USA. There are threads on this forum about getting a friendly talkbass member to buy there and post it to you, or alternatively, someone in the UK is making them to Fdeck's design. David [Edited to remove rogue emoticon]

[quote name='Musashimonkey' timestamp='1431937798' post='2776268'] I'll take a photo and forward the battery pack details I'm using with my PJB double four, later tonight when I get home. Nothing on their website, can't remember how I originally found out about it... It's sold as an external battery pack for 'laptops', ... [/quote] OK, that's a different ball game - that battery pack will have the fuses and over-temperature sensors built in to it - a battery pack borrowed from a laptop probably won't. David

Just seen McNach's reply - in mitigation I would point out that the specification does not mention a battery power supply, and the socket is only listed as an input socket! [quote name='ambient' timestamp='1431898152' post='2776089'] Thanks guys, I wasn't aware that laptop batteries would power an amp. A few options there then [/quote] Laptop batteries contain lithium cells which can explode when abused. They also operate at voltages which are different to car batteries etc. I would be very wary about connecting a laptop battery to anything that was not specifically designed for it. You would also need to work out a safe way of charging it. Decent car amplifiers are designed to connect to 12-14 volts, and contain voltage convertors to provide the higher voltages needed to give you a higher power output - they tend to shut down if the applied voltage is not what they expect to see. A laptop power supply runs at about 19 volts, so it is unlikely that the laptop battery will provide enough voltage to give you enough power from a simple amplifier, or to allow a car amplifier to turn on. A 7AHr lead acid battery will cost you about £15, The same amount of energy in NiMH 'D-cells' will cost you about £80, and in Lithium-whatever will cost you well over £100. Your lightest option is lithium, but your cheapest option is a small lead acid battey, or if you want a longer gig, a larger lead acid battery and a trolley. Another option is to use a mains invertor to run your mains-amp from a 12 volt battery, This minimises the amount of new kit you need to buy, and allows you to use gear whose tone you already know and like. However, some basses and/or amps pick up a buzz from the invertor, so it is definately a try before you buy option. Piezo pickups and class D amplifiers seem to be better, The standby current for the invertor and amp is likely to be 1-2 Amps, which will mean you get less playing time out of that system than you would out of a system specifically designed for battery use, but it is a cheap way forward. Having said all that, some bass players have been very happy with Roland amplifiers running off 6 AA batteries http://www.roland.com/products/micro_cube_bass_rx/ - I was not impressed when I tried one, but it may have had half-dead batteries, or just not been capable of producing the sound I wanted. David