Mottlefeeder

Somewhere that repairs tents and awnings would probably have a selection of longer zips. David

I'd also urge caution in using the pocket-rocket. When I plugged mine into a bass with a faulty earth connection it went into full volume feedback - I now have mild tinnitus. I now use a Tascam GT-R1 with my music on a memory card - expensive, but does tuner / play along / speed change & key change / record rehearsals / loop playback between your markers, and so on. David

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1375086859' post='2156410'] ... Bit of a downer at the end in that my mobile went missing and the venue hasn't had it handed in, probably have to get another one. Was only a cheapo pay as you go so didn't owe me anything, just inconvenience of getting a new number etc unless the company can arrange for me to keep the existing one somehow. [/quote] Talk to your phone provider - they should be able to brick your old phone and port your old number over to a new SIM card. David

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1375037766' post='2156042'] Just play all your lines normally. There is no difference in the top 4 strings. Then start to expand onto the B string, ie play E on the B instead of open E. Don't switch back and forth. A 5er will feel different but it won't if you stick at it. [/quote] If the OP is playing 4-string basses in the lower positions, then surely he has to make a decision to move to a different area of the fretboard, otherwise he will make no progress in adopting the new string. That suggests to me that playing the lines normally is not the way to go? In my case, I play across the fretboard, and I do not play open strings, which makes it very easy for me to change the key to suit a singer, but that obviously does not suit all styles or all songs ('All right now' springs to mind!). As you suggest, I did not swap back and forth between 4- and 5-string basses, and it took me abourt three months to be fully up to speed on a 5. David

Group all your songs into keys, and tackle all the ones in the same key first, then another key and so on. I found that an easy and fairly fast way to get used to the new string. Work out the scale for each key, using four frets plus one either side, across all five strings, and try and play each song without moving away from that 'home' scale position. For example, for a song in E major, start your scale on the B string at fret 5, and do not play below fret 4 on any string. At the top end, decide where the B-string tone changes into something you don't like, and work out alternative places to play those notes. David

[quote name='tosh63' timestamp='1374931128' post='2154891'] How about this for Fender Precision and Jazz basses? [attachment=139882:Bass horn strap extension.JPG] [/quote] It looks a bit flimsy, and it is trying to lever the screw out of the wood (like a claw hammer pulls out a nail), so it probably works fine, but it is not the way I would have done it! David

The PJB is 100W, and the Ashdown is 10W, and the two batteries are 2x6x12Ah = 60Wh and 12x7.2 = 84Wh, so you would expect considerably longer life out of the lower-powered rig. Also, one is used to let people close-by hear the OP, and the PJB would be expected to be run considerably louder for a bigger audience. David

The Maplin one does not appear to specify the battery size, but a similar looking one on Amazon gives it as 17 Ah, so your 10 W rig should last half a day on that! One note of caution from the user comments. The battery charger is very unsophisticated, so if you leave it permanently on charge you will fry the battery. David

I have to agree with StingrayPete1977. If you want it light for carrying, and you want it to fit into a smallish car boot, a separate head and cab is a better option. It will probably weigh slightly more than the equivalent combo, but you can lift each part separately, and you can fit them into the car boot in ways that a combo doesn't. You also have more options when you buy, and if you buy a pair of cabs, you have further options of one for rehearsals and two for the gig, etc. Finally, if any part of your kit fails, you only have to borrow / hire a replacement for the broken bit. You have had comment about BF (Barefaced) cabs, but there is also BFM (Bill Fitzmaurice) cabs. <http://billfitzmaurice.net/ > They are lightweight, and loud, and come up for sale from time to time. I'm about 30 miles down the road from you, so if you want to check out a pair of BFM Jack 10s, let me know. David

Either of your combos could be used with an invertor, but your 10 watt amp is going to struggle unless you turn the bass control way down and just amplify the low mids. People talk about using 60-100 watts for a 'coffee-house' gig, and out-doors will be worse, so your Hartke A100 would be a better option, but it is heavy. I have a Hartke Kickback 10 (120w) , and have just checked it with my invertor and caravan battery. With no input cable, there is no buzz. With a good quality input cable and a solid body bass with hum-bucking pick-ups, there is a buzz which disappears as soon as you touch the bridge or the strings. With a good quality input cable and an acoustic bass, which has a piezo pick-up, there is no buzz. I have also used the invertor with a Hartke 300 watt amp, and if I remember correctly, the invertor drew about 5 Amps average from the battery. This ties in with the PJB handbook which suggests an average current draw of 4.5 Amps. So, a 20 Ah battery would give you 3-4 hours of use. Maplins, Halfords and Screwfix all do similar invertors, and are happy to give refunds for gear that is not suitable. On that basis, I suggest you buy an invertor, try it, running your rig from a car power socket, and see if you can live with whatever buzz leaks through your amp. If not, take it back and have a rethink. Assuming that you do decide to go with the battery / invertor / existing combo, the next problem you have is that the kickback shape does not fit easily on a trolley. I tend to transport it on its side, with the battery in a box strapped on top of it. This means that you have to unpack and connect it all together when you reach your destination - not a problem if it is one-off, but a pain if you are are trundling the rig around various busking spots in a town centre. If, as suggested, you go for the biggest leisure battery available, it too will be heavy, and it will have exposed terminals, so you will need to buy / knock together a ventilated box to put it in - preferably one that will sit under your combo amp on a trolley. Your cheapest option is to reuse the gear you already have, but your best option is a rectangular battery box under a rectangular combo amp. Prices Decent flatpack trolley - Maplin / Aldi / etc, occasional special offer - £20 Invertor - Malpin / Screwfix / Halfords - £35 Caravan leisure battery 75Ah - Amazon - £60 Golf trolley battery 20AH internet - £35 David

[quote name='Jonnyboy Rotten' timestamp='1373913554' post='2143094'] Hi Guys, Recently me and some friends took our guitars up to a field one evening and they were playing acoustic guitar and electric guitar via my mate's very cool Yamaha TH10 battery powered amp with guitar mode. It does have a bass mode but only one input so I could plug my bass in but one of us had to be left out for a bit. I think the Yamaha unit is about £250 and has far too many electric guitar focused features which I would never use and I am looking for an affordable alternative that I can play my bass through. It doesn't need to be massively loud but should hold its own against an acoustic guitar and electric playing through the Yamaha (10 watts). There seems to be loads of electric guitar or general purpose battery powered amps but hardly any bass ones. I have seen three battery powered bass amps and wondered if anyone had any experience of them. The Roland Micro Cube RX is the highest price and to be honest too high at £200 although it does seem like the best one. The other options are: The Vox AC1 RhythmVOX Bass which is £50 but only 1watt so probably underpowered for playing outdoors with other people(?) The Roland Mobile Cube at £130 which is a general purpose one but says it can do bass guitar. What do people think?! The other option is I get a 240v outlet battery pack for £70-£100 and use it with my Ashdown Tourbus 10. [url="http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_180794_langId_-1_categoryId_255206#tab1"]http://www.halfords....yId_255206#tab1[/url] If I wanted to work out approx how long it would last, should I assume the Ashdown uses about 10watts and then say the power pack has about 20Ah battery? Is there an easy calculation to do? Would I be likely to get a buzzing or whistling in the speaker because of the poor quality power? Any help would be appreciated! [/quote] The Phil Jones briefcase is rated at 100 Watts, and the recommended battery is a 12V 7Ah (84 watts for 1 hour or 1 watt for 84 hours). The instruction book suggests that this will last about an hour, depending on your playing style. I've used a 150 W invertor with a Hartke 300 watt head, with no problems other than a slight buzz when you let go of the strings. I tried mains filters, separate earths, etc, but could not get rid of the buzz, so I assume it is caused in part by the hi-z input of the amp. Turning the treble down, and keeping one hand on the strings gave a workable solution. As mentioned in other threads, a car battery is designed to be used almost fully charged all the time, and will deteriorate rapidly if discharged and recharged repeatedly. You will need to get a battery designed for lawn-mowers/golf carts etc, if you want it to work for more than a few gigs. Also mentioned in another thread is that car srereo booster amplifiers can be bridged, and contain their own invertor power supply. A 400w peak stereo amp usually translates into about 80-100 w RMS into 8 ohms, so if you have a separate head and cab, you should be able to pick up a suitable 12v amplifier on ebay or equivalent. David

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1373883535' post='2142503'] Just for my lefty 'let's save the high street' bit, buy from the shop that lets you try, as opposed to trying it out (maybe adding an accidental dig) and going home to buy on line for slightly cheaper. But that's another thing! [/quote] We are pretty close in our view-points - if I need to try something, then I will not buy it from a place that has no demonstration facilities. In the case of the Warwick, the one I tried was not the finish I wanted, so I ordered the one I wanted through that company. Having said that, in my quest for an acoustic bass, I recently found that Gear4music had several basses on the wall that were obviously straight out of the box, and were unplayable, but Guitarguitar, who would not let me play a bass until they had tuned it, had one with faulty electronics, so I had to order one from their on-line team. None of them are perfect, some try harder than others, and none of them are on any high streets near me. David

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1373874829' post='2142381'] Very frustrating. You certainly did your best! If you bought a £50 bass then you might expect something like that but Warwick, of all people, I would have thought could have been trusted to have got something as basic as that solved before going to the market. I wonder with things like this and outrageously heavy bodies when someone will come along with the nous and time and sue for not being fit for purpose. Especially if it aggravates or causes an injury. [/quote] I think the issue is more about playing style, and whether neck-dive bothers you. Those of us who play with something like a classical guitar player's hand position are likely to be bothererd by neck dive, but those who hang their thumb over the top of the neck whould probably be less botherd by it. Warwick thumb basses are often cited as being neck heavy, but there are plenty of good players out there who use them. David

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1373833680' post='2142128'] 35mm, really? That's a long way and I'm surprised Warwick would make such an unbalanced bass. The leverage that would cause on the screw fixing would be quite high, if I'm understanding this correctly. Do you have a pic? Isn't the answer to check the neck dive before buying a bass? That way offending basses will be left unsold and, just like 'C' rated fridges, become a thing of the past. [/quote] My modification was a threaded bush, and a 6mm hole extending into the horn, and the threaded shaft was screwed in as far as it would go, so that the load of the extension was spread over a greater area of wood. With regard to 'try before buy', yes I do, but I was changing from a bubinga-bodied 4-string to a 5-string, and decided to go for the lighter swamp-ash body. I tried that 5-string in the shop, and liked the sound, and the way it felt, but I only played it sitting down. My mistake was not trying it with a strap. What I did discover later was that the 4-string body is the same size as the 5-string, so with the wider 5-string neck and a body that is lighter, the end result was an unbalanced bass. I tried hipshot ultralights, bags of washers, extending the horn, and lead-lining the walls of control cavity, but never got to the point where I was happy with it. I eventually sold it on. One lives and learns. David

[quote name='DarkHeart' timestamp='1373532977' post='2138615'] What would people need to extend the top button, i could possibly get some steel spacers made where i work, maybe half inch long possibly longer? if anyone has an idea ill see what i can do. [/quote] Most of the stuff you need is fairly readily available - Screwfix sell packs of 6mm threaded bushes with a wood-screw thread on the outer surface. You can drill into the horn with a 10 mm drill, extend the hole with a 6mm drill, then screw in one of those bushes. you can then screw in a 6mm threaded shaft (also from Screwfix) and use washers and nuts to place the strap where you need it to be. If you want to keep that set-up, but tidy it up, you can buy heatshrink sleeving at Maplin to cover the exposed 6mm threaded shaft. For a Warwick 5-string Corvette with a Swamp Ash body and Ovankol neck, I needed an extension of about 1.5 inches (about 35mm), If you need to put it back to normal, you can take the threaded insert out, and glue a length of 10mm dowel into the hole. The felt washer around the strap button is about 10mm diameter, so the repair is neat. David

I've run a 300w Hartke amp off a 150w Maplins invertor, and the only problem was a slight buzz when you take your fingers off the strings - that was with an 80 AmpHr caravan leisure battery. Another option that might be worth considering is a high-powered car-audio amplifier. They appear s/h on ebay frequently, and will give a respectable 100W into 8ohms bridged, or more into 4 ohms bridged in some cases, but you would need a Behringer BD121or sansamp xyz or equivalent to drive it. The main advantage is that they don't hum or buzz, and you can sell it on again when your needs change. The PJB specifies a 7AHh battery with a life of about 60 minutes, and that size of battery is going to cost you about £15-£20, so you could have your amp and power source sorted for about £60 for a 45 minute set - longer sets would require a bigger battery. David

One option that is cheap and reversible is to fill and old phone case wih washers/nuts and hang it on the body-end of the strap. It will make the bass heavier, which may not help your shoulders, but it will be cheaper than Hipshot ultralights. Staying with the cheap and cheerful options, if you fit both ends of the strap to the horn, the bass should not be neck heavy. Once you have confirmed this, you could fit a short strap on the back of the bass, running between the horn button and the body button, and experiment with moving the shoulder strap ends along it to give you a better balance. I seem to recall that there is a commercial gadget that does this, but it is not cheap. Hope this helps David

I now have a couple of Jack 10s if anyone in Manchester/Liverpool/Warrington/Runcorn wants to hear them. David

Mike bought my Hartke amp - good communication, prompt payment - no concerns about selling more stuff to him. David