Mottlefeeder

I may be a lone voice here, but I feel there is a risk in starting with your own material. An audience that does not recognise the first song you play may vote with their feet, so I would suggest starting with covers, and move onto your own material when you have got the audience on your side, and finish with a cover that they know and love. Having said that, my only gig is a church worship band, so this is my gut feeling, not my experience talking - YMMV

One thing I would suggest is to go for a rubber tyred wheel. The plain nylon castors are fine indoors, but will shake your gear severely if you use them on a pavement.

[quote name='chris_b' post='246680' date='Jul 24 2008, 10:30 AM']I'm confused!! After watching 2 different bands on 2 different gigs rushing around trying to sort out the same problem I thought I knew what to do when playing with an electricity supply from a generator!! I spoke to a BBC electrician at the weekend and he said you don't need an earth on a generator supply because it is a closed system and all the equipment is local to the generator..... BUT, the electricity regs say you should have an earth every time! What do you do? I guess the safest option is to go for the earth and use RCD plugs.[/quote] There may be some confusion here about what we mean by the electricity regs. The IEE wiring regs were originally rules for IEE members, and had no legal standing. They are now a British standard. The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 - [url="http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1989/Uksi_19890635_en_3.htm#mdiv8"]http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1989/Uksi_1989..._en_3.htm#mdiv8[/url] is the law (for all people covered by the Health and Safety at Work Act), and says "Earthing or other suitable precautions 8. Precautions shall be taken, either by earthing or by other suitable means, to prevent danger arising when any conductor (other than a circuit conductor) which may reasonably foreseeably become charged as a result of either the use of a system, or a fault in a system, becomes so charged; and, for the purposes of ensuring compliance with this regulation, a conductor shall be regarded as earthed when it is connected to the general mass of earth by conductors of sufficient strength and current-carrying capability to discharge electrical energy to earth." That does not say you need an earth every time, and allows the use of an isolated system as a means of preventing danger through 'conductors becoming charged'. However, when the system stops being isolated (the first fault) your precautions should pick that up.

This is the HSE guidance on using generators - [url="http://www.hse.gov.uk/foi/internalops/fod/oc/400-499/482_2.pdf"]http://www.hse.gov.uk/foi/internalops/fod/...0-499/482_2.pdf[/url]

Small generators are designed to be used with equipment that is local to them. The output is not earthed so that even if you have a fault, and the casing of your equipment becomes connected to either of the mains conductors, you will not get a shock because the current has nowhere to flow. If you have a second fault on the system, then you create the conditions where one piece of gear may be 230 volts different to the next, and a shock current could flow from one to the other through you. The protection philosophy is based on you being able to see the first fault, and chosing to do something about it, hence the need for the generator to be supplying gear that is local to it. If the generator is feeding strings of lights etc, you will probably not be able to see the first fault - the cable pinched by the scaffolding clamp for example, and you will not know that you only need one more fault to make it dangerous. In those circumstances, it is better to earth the generator output, so that the first fault will show itself by causing a trip. A couple of other points - As has already been pointed out, plugtop RCDs expect to see a connection between earth and neutral on a domestic supply, and on a generator with an un-earth-referenced output, they will not allow the breaker to be set. The RCDs in distribution boards work differently, and would be a better option (they do not trip on loss of power). One poster commented about daisy-chaining distribution boards together. This is not a good idea. Every distribution board that you connect through will add the cable to plug connection, the cable to socket connection, and the spring connection of the socket to plug-pin, into the earth circuit, increasing the risk of a faulty earth. Plugging faulty equipment into an unearthed distribution board could make everything on that distribution board dangerous, since there is no earth connection to blow the fuse for you. The best way to work is to use longer mains cable to your equipment, and fewer cable extenders.

I had two lunch-time gigs this week, on Friday and Saturday. We were playing at a street BBQ, and in both cases we played from 11:00ish to 14:00, getting on for a 3 hr set. The musicians came together each morning, with no previous rehearsals, and a set list of about 40 songs, in no particular order. The lead singer chose each 'next song' on the fly, including some that were not on the list, and some that were not in the key of the chord charts we had been given. On the Friday, I could not hear the monitor, which meant that I could hear myself better - on a fretless, that's no bad thing. On Saturday, we had two guitarists, vocals and keyboard coming through the one monitor, and I was struggling to hear what I played. A 200W bass rig in the open is not that loud. The low point for me was a song where I just watched the keyboard player, and played the lowest notes he played. The most interesting point was where I tried to keep my bass line flowing, and not too repetetive, when we hung on a D chord for about 5 minutes. It would have been easier if I knew the material, but their 40 songs are a small fraction of the 700-odd that churches have to chose from, and I don't play them often enough to remember them. The atmosphere is great, and the people are great to work with, but I am always knackered by the end of it.

[quote name='budget bassist' post='228260' date='Jun 27 2008, 07:52 PM']When i play my G string open on my musicman for some reason a natural harmonic comes through, it's fairly apparent when i'm playing it silent or tuning up, it's not so apparent when it's amplified but it's still there. It's not a huge problem because as you can imagine, i don't play the G open very often, if at all, but it's still a bit irritating. Any ideas what's causing it and/or how to remedy it? Thanks[/quote] From your description, it may be a natural resonance in the Bass. I have one on my Yamaha, and I fixed it by moving to a different brand of string, and setting up the bass to suit. You can remove some resonances by adding weight to the bit that is resonating. If you clamp a G clamp onto the headstock, the resonance should move or go. If that is successful, then investigate a fatfinger, which I believe does the same job.

[quote name='jimbartlett' post='217506' date='Jun 12 2008, 11:41 AM']Thanks for the replies guys, all that is really helpful. I am quite keen on building one myself so I will probably go down that route. I really like the volume pot idea, simple but effective! [/quote] Using a sensitivity pot is fairly easy when you have an active bass, since it has a higher current drive capability. With a passive bass, you may find that another pot in the circuit makes a noticable difference to your tone. Also, building on Cheddatom's comments, your switches will need to be two pole to switch both your signal and an LED, and you will need to add in a power supply or a battery to power the LEDs. A format that might be worth considering is to use one switch to select the bass, and a second switch to provide a mute/tune facility. This would be easier than having one on/off switch per bass, and no easy way of connecting one or the other to a tuner.

[quote name='gilmour' post='216927' date='Jun 11 2008, 02:52 PM']Hi Mottlefeeder, I certainly didn't mean to say anything bad about your cab, and I'm sorry if it came accross that way, from what I've read the O12 is giving you exactly the sound you want. I may have misunderstood that thread a little. I remember reading your thread about EQ, and in fact have commented on EQ on various other threads, in that I'm still unsure Bass players often to leave our EQ flat? As you say above cab sounds good with EQ and as Bill says that's why they give us all the knobs. TBH I probably get carried away with my EQ to the point where I have some Bowel emptying bass. I haven't heard an O12 and am only going by what I've read so probably unfair of me to comment. However I know that either will be a big improvement on a commercial 1 x 15 or 2 x10 etc, especially if you are after a more modern tone. [/quote] I am not offended, and neither is my cab. The O12 sounded really good with a Warwick and flatwound strings, but it was only when I started to analyse why others were less than impressed that I realised its mid-range hump worked with flatwounds, but was too toppy for roundwounds. I have since sold the Warwick and now have a Yamaha fretless with roundwounds, so my needs have changed. I agree that bass players use EQ, but their initial stance is usually 'Can I hear it with the EQ flat first?' That was the point at which most players at the bass bash seemed to drift away from the O12. The O12 certainly goes deeper than my previous cabs, and does not boom while doing so, but it lacks body around 80-120 Hz, and this is where the previously mentioned modification comes in. It also has mids and a top end that need to be reduced, which begs the question, should a bass player have to buy a graphic eq to get a good sound from his/her rig? My personal view of EQ is that it is like a car accelerator pedal. If you have it at maximum all the time, then something is wrong, and with the O12, you may use most of your EQ correcting the speaker response, leaving you short on knob travel or preamp headroom to get the sound you want. That's the area I was discussing in other threads on BFM's forum.

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='215580' date='Jun 9 2008, 06:04 PM']My set-up runs thus; Pre-amps >>> 8 track mixer >>> Sennheiser HD215. The HD215s are a pair of mid-priced, closed-back, circumaural headphones. They are DJ-oriented , and keep a lot of the noise in and out (if that makes sense!) Bass (the frequency range - not the instrument!) is not difficult to reproduce in headphones, it just lacks the physical effect that we're all used to experiencing from loudspeakers; There's no Floor shaking or booming room. As a result, it's often perceived that the system lacks bass. When one listens beyond these traits we usually associate with "good" low frequency reproduction, it is found that headphones (especially the better ones) are refreshingly free of many of the problems that no loudspeaker system can escape in terms of; Time smear, frequency response, bandwidth, room interaction and sensitivity, to name but a few. Plus, you can get up and play at 3am and not upset anyone! On the downside, they can be SO revealing, they'll betray all your bad playing habits and any weaknesses elsewhere in the set-up! Also, if you use headphones for a long time, it can be disconcerting when you switch back to cabinets! Finally, watch the volume! Headphone volumes have a tendency to creep up as you practice, so you have to make a concious effort to keep the levels down!![/quote] I am not sure that I agree with everything you have said here. The down side of using headphones can be that the equipment you connect them to may have been designed to maximise battery life, and not to maximise the ability to drive good headphones. For example, I can hear a difference in the quality of bass between my personal CD player, and the same unit connected via a headphone amplifier. However, if you are using a mains powered mixer to feed the headphones, this may not apply.

[quote name='gilmour' post='216450' date='Jun 10 2008, 09:46 PM']...From what I've read the O15 has better low end than the O12 so if you have space I'd go for the O15, sizewise there is only a tiny difference. Dave Perry talks about the differences in this thread I think [url="http://billfitzmaurice.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5322&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15"]http://billfitzmaurice.com/phpBB2/viewtopi...sc&start=15[/url][/quote] Most bass players (me included) tend to go for a cab that sounds good with the EQ flat, and then make fine adjustments as needed. Most PA people work on the basis that their cabs are non-linear, and need EQ to work effectively. To quote Bill (from memory) 'Thats what they give you all those knobs for'. The Omni 12 tapers off quite gently at the bottom end, and this does mean that it has less in the 80-120Hz area than an Omni 15, and so can sound bass-weak as a result. It needs EQ to boost the low end and cut the high mids, and in theory will then sound like an Omni 15, but not quite as loud. [url="http://billfitzmaurice.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5630&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15"]http://billfitzmaurice.com/phpBB2/viewtopi...sc&start=15[/url] There is also a proposed modification to the Omni 12 which gives it better bass guitar response, but reduces the response below that. [url="http://billfitzmaurice.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5562"]http://billfitzmaurice.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5562[/url] My suggestion to Bill that EQ is worth a mention on the web page summary of the Omni 12 has not been acted upon. Dave Perry and a few others are planning an Omni 10/12/15 comparison session in a 200 seat hall, in mid July. We will be looking at their performance un-EQd and EQd. The results will be posted in [url="http://www.finnbass.com/showthread.php?t=2424"]http://www.finnbass.com/showthread.php?t=2424[/url]. My current thinking is that with appropriate EQ, I have a cab that sounds pretty good. However, if a direct comparison shows it still has major shortcomings, I will cut my losses and canibalise it to build an Omni 15.

I had a Bubinga 4-string corvette, which was heavy, and decided to move to a swamp-ash 5-string corvette. The Corvette body is the same size on the 4-string and the 5-string, which means that if you go for a lighter body, and a wider neck, the result is inevitable - neck dive. So, do what I didn't do - put a strap on and play it standing up before you buy.

Something else that is cheap to check out is whether the problem is caused by your amps being on the same circuit as the dimmers. Take/borrow a long extension lead and take a power feed from the other end of the hall. If that cures the problem then you need to find which circuit the lights are on, and try and find a socket back-stage that is on a different circuit.

The technology used in the pre-amp looks interesting. There is a mains input socket with no voltage selector, and it is good for 110-260 volts-ish, which suggests they are using a switchmode power supply for valve heaters, valve HT and the usual for the op-amps. That must be quite complicated. The use of separate led bargraphs for input level, post eq and post compression seems to be a bit of overkill. Most people use one and a switch. - Still it should keep the audience enthralled.

[quote name='bubinga5' post='211933' date='Jun 3 2008, 04:57 PM']Burpster im putting in that Tascam code and its not coming up? ...[/quote] Try this one - [url="http://www.nevadamusic.co.uk/Effects_Pedals/Bass_Effects/sc1440/p5944.aspx"]http://www.nevadamusic.co.uk/Effects_Pedal...1440/p5944.aspx[/url]

I use Sennheiser HD 485s. In that range, the ones below it do not sound so good on bass, and the ones above are too insensitive for your standard ipod/CD player to drive without struggling. I have also made a headphone amplifier, which provides the headphone with a lower impedance source, and gives much tighter bass. If that interests you, check out Headwise.com, and the CMoy amplifier. [url="http://headwize.com/projects/showfile.php?file=cmoy2_prj.htm"]http://headwize.com/projects/showfile.php?file=cmoy2_prj.htm[/url]

I got mine nearly a year ago, and it was end of range then. My recollection is that the combined guitar and bass unit is not as bass-friendly. From memory, for example, the rhythm trainer on the PX4B allows you to string drum patterns together, e.g verse*16 bars, fill*2 bars, chorus*8 bars etc, but in the PX4D, you get a limited selection of drum patterns, and the option to switch on pre-programmed bass lines if you are a guitarist. Whether that and any other differences is/are an issue for you depends on how much you think you might use them. I have not checked whether Korg have obsolete manuals on their site, but I have the manual for the PX4B. If you need a copy to compare the B and the D models, PM me your e-mail address and I will send you the pdf file.

[quote name='MacDaddy' post='210256' date='May 31 2008, 09:27 PM']So the small print doesn't refer to what he is actually selling? [/quote] No it doesn't - he says he is selling a 6 string guitar, and he describes the condition of a guitar, not a book.

[quote name='rmorris' post='210049' date='May 31 2008, 11:34 AM']... I guess you had the polarity correct - but any half decent designed piece of kit should be protected against that...[/quote] That was my thought. If the 12 volt power supply was wired the opposite to the 9 volt supply, that might draw enough current to fry a track.

I don't see what the OP is getting at. The item for sale is described, and the small print refers to the image, to avoid confusion with the original packaging, which presumably no longer exists.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='209956' date='May 31 2008, 01:52 AM']Those velcro on aerobics weights round the strap on the bridge end of the strap. Heavier butbetter balanced.[/quote] I've used a similar trick - put something heavy (washers or lead strip if you can find some) int a padded phone case, and thread that onto the strap at the bridge end. It works well, but tends to get in the way when you put the bass on a stand.

A few points that spring to mind as I read this thread. 1) Hopefully the mains input unit has a two pole switch, but only one fuse. If it has two fuses, then a blown neutral fuse will give the appearance that the unit is dead, while parts of it inside are still live. This is not good practice. 2) In one of your pictures, you show a single insulated mains wire bent over the aluminium heatshik of the power supply. It would be better to route that wire somewhere else, or add some more insulation or sleeving to it. Since the other ends of those wires have screw terminations, you could find some space by soldering the wires at the filter end, and using heatshrink sleeving to insulate the joints. I hope this does not come across as being picky, but if you build something for someone, you need to take some responsibility for the safety of the amp tech, hopefully several years down the road.

It may be a gap in my education, but I have never seen the point of noodling around to a drum machine, without having a defined chord structure to play around. Most of the suggestions so far only give you a drum machine. For the same kind of money as a multi-effects unit, you could get a copy of Band in a Box, and install it on your PC. It will enable you to put together a chord sequence, define the style of backing track, mute the bass part and then pick the speed at which you want to jam. Since it generates a bass part within the backing track, if you run dry, you can look at what 'they' did for that style of music. It will also unpack downloaded midi files, so you can select and mute the bass line. It can also take a MP3 or CD track, and work out the chord sequence for you - that's quite impressive. Food for thought?