Mottlefeeder

Slightly off-topic, but still relevant (I think) - I recently parted from my bass teacher because he attributes my lack of progress to a mental block, which he thinks is is my problem, not his. For the past ~3 years, I have approached bass playing as a series of challenges, and having visited that aspect of melody/rhythm/harmony, and understood it, I have parked it and moved on to the next challenge. My teacher did not pick that up. The current position is that I know quite a lot, but given a chord sequence, and a song style, my first attempt is a stagger-through, rather than a competent bass-line. From my perspective, some people need to be lead by the hand (in my case, guidance on how you incorporate it into your style), and some people need a guru, who gives general direction and they work out the rest themselves. I think it is easy to condem the 'other teaching method', when both are equally relevant.

[quote name='Perry' post='110662' date='Dec 29 2007, 07:57 PM']One of my basses is a Warwick Covette in Bubinga. I really like the look of the same bass in Ash. What's the difference in the sound?[/quote] A bit off-topic, but I have a Bubunga 4-string fretless Corvette, and auditioned the Ash-bodied 5-string version before buying one. It still has plenty of the Warwick sound, but is a lot lighter. However, on a 5-string, that means it is not as well balanced. If you are thinking of a Warwick, check it out with a strap before you buy.

[quote name='TimmyC' post='105486' date='Dec 17 2007, 06:53 PM']Does the Pandora PX4D have a 1/4" jack output? On their site it says "Output: line/headphone dual-purpose output (stereo phone jack)" but doesn't specify the size?[/quote] The casing and front panel markings are the same as the previous versions, so I am pretty sure you will find it has a mono 1/4 instrument jack, a stereo 1/4 inch headphone/output jack, and a CD/MP3 player 3.5mm jack. The PX4B is bass specific, and includes a drum machine which allows you to chain drum patterns together. The earlier Bass and guitar PX4_, had the bass player losing out. For example, the drum kit dropped a lot of drum machine sequencing, and added a 'rule-based bass-part generator'. Having said that, I am using the bass generator on Band-in-a-Box to give me ideas for lines to play, so that function may still be useful to you. The new PX4D model appears to put back in some of what they took out before, however, without a pdf manual, I am not sure how versatile those functions are.

[quote name='stevebasshead' post='103473' date='Dec 12 2007, 06:13 PM']Quite some time back I did the same to my old cheapy. I buggered it up so bad that even the proper allen key had no effect. I thought it was a gonner but I managed to tightly wedge a flat bladed screwdriver into what was left of the two best corners and off it came. I think the reason that worked when the correct sized allen key didn't was because of the taper on the screwdriver blade, I was able to truly wedge it into the corners whereas the allen key had just enough slack to slip out and onto the rounded parts. On mine it was simply a replacement of the allen fitting rather than the entire rod. It was just a small barrel affair that pressed against the end of the neck pulling the rod which was secured at the opposite end of the neck, if you see what I mean. You should be able to get spares from Allparts or Stewmac, but ask your local luthier if he's got any spares. You might just get given one free gratis if you're lucky! Hope this helps, Steve.[/quote] Thanks - there is hope yet.

I have a Yamaha RBX 765, and I though I had a suitable allen key to adjust it. Unfortunately it was too small, and twisted round in the socket, rounding the edges of the hex hole. Firstly, if I get the right allen key, am I likely to be able to use it, since the chewing up of the socket would have been the flat area, not the corners, and secondly, if that fails, how much of the truss rod needs to be replaced, and is that an 'unbolt it' job, or a 'take the fretboard off' job

In 1970(?) as a folky guitarist, and wannabe bass player, I made my first bass as a project at school. The body was blockboard (inch thick pine planks with a veneer each side to keep it together. The neck was teak. It didn't have a truss rod, and it was ever so slightly neck heavy. The fretboard was black formica, as was the pickguard. Pickups and tuners were shop bought, and the bridge was one piece of mild steel, bent to be vertical (bridge) at one end, and sloping (string ball catcher) at the other. Intonation was - measure, drill and screw it on. String height was - it's too high, I need to grind some more off the bridge. With hindsight, I don't think those teachers were particularly musical. Believe it or not, it worked, and I was able to play The Equals - Baby come back - through my dad's Hifi sytem, a Vortexion valve amp and Wharfdale speaker in a corner mounted reflex enclosure. I eventually sold it for the cost of the parts. About 30 years later, I decided to try again, and bought a Yamaha BBN4.

[quote name='G-bitch' post='84912' date='Nov 7 2007, 01:55 PM']I doubt there's any hard and fast rules but I should imagine that the moment you start declaring your income from gigs and have to list your profession or second-job as 'musician' then you are going to have to get professional cover. On the plus side, it goes down as deductable expenses in that case![/quote] I play in a church worship band, and do not (yet) play anywhere for money. When I asked my insurers about covering all my gear while it was being transported, they said - no problem, just list your second occupation as musician, to justify having the gear in the car.

[quote name='Adam.M' post='86529' date='Nov 10 2007, 05:02 PM']I'm looking at the Ashdown MAG 300 head, but i really need something i can use with headphones too from time to time... So i'm looking at that line out, and thinking can i use that for headphones directly OR going into my Hi-Fi and then into headphones that way? I'm guessing i'd still have to have it hooked up to a cab, even if the volume was on zero... not sure about that, i'm still used to all-valve amp's. I've done something like this before but the sheer wattage power of these amp's scare me a bit It's a shame the Marshall MB is such an eye sore, never seen anything so ugly! it has all the features I'd need but I would have to put a paper bag over it to live with it. -Adam.[/quote] The general feeling is that you shouldn't run any amp without a speaker attached, although I am not sure why that would affect a transistor output design. Also, the line out will give you a signal, that would suit your hifi, but doesn't give enough current to drive a set of headphones. Your cheapest options are - 1) buy a S/H practice headphone amp - £20-30 2) buy something like a S/H Zoom 708, which will drive headphones and includes a tuner and a drum machine, and 15 zillion effects that you will never use. - £30-40 3) buy a small S/H mixer, like a Behringer 502 or 802, which will drive headpones, and allow you to mix in your CD player etc. - £20-30

[quote name='Mottlefeeder' post='60351' date='Sep 14 2007, 12:31 PM']There is a growing band of Basschatters who have built Bill Fitzmaurice speaker designs, and are pleased with the results. There is also a band of Basschatters who would not buy something they had not played or played through. This thread is an attempt to bring both groups together. If you have built (or bought someone else's) BFM design, and are happy to talk about it, and allow others to try it out, please use this thread to tell people what you have, and the county or town in which you live. It would also be useful if you gave details about whether you would prefer to meet at a gig, a rehearsal room, or at home, and a rough indication of your availability, e.g. evenings and weekends only, etc. Mentioning whether you use speakons, jacks, 4mm plugs, or any other connector might also be a good idea. If anyone wishes to audition your gear, they should PM you, and between you, you sort out the date and venue. Please do not use this thread to ask technical questions about BFM designs. There is a forum on Bill's website for that - [url="http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/"]http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/[/url] To start the ball rolling, I have an Omni 12, and I live in the Warrington area, and I am around evenings and weekends. The cab is based in a church, which is available some evenings, or I can bring the cab home relatively easily. My amp and speaker are both jack based. There is a review here - [url="http://billfitzmaurice.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3324"]http://billfitzmaurice.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3324[/url] The Omni 12 goes deeper than an Omni 10, but has three speakers and a crossover, which puts the price up a bit, however with a dedicated midrange unit, the clarity of the mids is stunning. It can also be built as a two way design, and mine is switchable to be 2 or 3 way.[/quote] The aim of this tread was to provide a list of cabs that could each be heard at several locations. It obviously isn't working. If you are still thinking about whether to post here, please do so in the next week. If we do not get a better representation, I will ask the Mods to remove the glue.

[quote name='TPJ' post='39440' date='Jul 31 2007, 11:39 AM']I was thinking about that because the recommended neo driver is about £100 at Bluearan. I wonder if you could employ a similar handrail that is on the Ampeg SVT 410 HLF so you could tilt it back and roll the bugger.[/quote] Putting inset wheels (or a diagonal plate and wheels) in the back corners will substantially alter the size/shape of the horn throat of any OMNI 12 or 15. On the tallboys, you could do it with wheels on the front and back of the left-hand enclosure side, so you stand beside it and tilt it towards you. Hope that makes sense wthout a picture.

There is a growing band of Basschatters who have built Bill Fitzmaurice speaker designs, and are pleased with the results. There is also a band of Basschatters who would not buy something they had not played or played through. This thread is an attempt to bring both groups together. If you have built (or bought someone else's) BFM design, and are happy to talk about it, and allow others to try it out, please use this thread to tell people what you have, and the county or town in which you live. It would also be useful if you gave details about whether you would prefer to meet at a gig, a rehearsal room, or at home, and a rough indication of your availability, e.g. evenings and weekends only, etc. Mentioning whether you use speakons, jacks, 4mm plugs, or any other connector might also be a good idea. If anyone wishes to audition your gear, they should PM you, and between you, you sort out the date and venue. Please do not use this thread to ask technical questions about BFM designs. There is a forum on Bill's website for that - http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/ To start the ball rolling, I have an Omni 12, and I live in the Warrington area, and I am around evenings and weekends. The cab is based in a church, which is available some evenings, or I can bring the cab home relatively easily. My amp and speaker are both jack based. There is a review here - http://billfitzmauri...opic.php?t=3324 The Omni 12 goes deeper than an Omni 10, but has three speakers and a crossover, which puts the price up a bit, however with a dedicated midrange unit, the clarity of the mids is stunning. It can also be built as a two way design, and mine is switchable to be 2 or 3 way. 2008 update: The Omni 12 has been sold and is now down in the Hertford area. I am now using a pair of Jack 10s 2020 update: The Jack 10s have been sold and I'm currently BFM-less

[quote name='alexclaber' post='56164' date='Sep 5 2007, 06:52 PM']I would also consider making a digital recording of a bassline and then playing that sample through the rigs as well as playing an actual bass. This will remove playing inconsistencies from the test. Alex[/quote] Rather than make a dedicated Bass recording, which would limit its use to others, why not use publically available recordings of basses, so that others can reproduce the test on their gear. Examples: Ed friedland's Walking Basslines CD Samples from Cakewalk's Broomstick bass - used to be on the web, but could'nt find them today.. Any others basschatters can come up with

[quote name='BassBod' post='55777' date='Sep 5 2007, 10:45 AM']If its a four string I wouldn't expect it to make much difference, but on a five or six it may be noticable? I'd suggest taking off a tuner and weighing it, then compare that to the ultralight. You could multiply the difference (x4 or 5) then hang that weight on the headstock - I know that's adding the weight and not taking it off, but it should give you a feel for the difference? My guess is its not worth the cost, unless you've got a dodgy tuner to replace anyway... BB[/quote] I went that route for a Corvette 5 - take the hipshot weight for 5 or their units, and take off and weigh one of my units. It turned out that the weight saving was pretty close to one Warwick tuner, which is easy to model, but did not cure the neck dive. For £125, I passed on that option. An alternative is to put 12 oz to 16 oz of washers, or lead, into a padded phone case, and hang that on the body end of the strap. It's cheap and it works. My final solution was to extend the horn. Several bass players have played my Corvette, and few have noticed the modification.

[quote name='bass_ferret' post='53642' date='Aug 31 2007, 11:24 PM']I thought everything these days was a bureaucratic box ticking - and we are the mugs paying for the tickers.[/quote] At least if the gear is safe, your ticker will still be going. There are two issues here 1) Is your gear safe, and 2) Have you jumped through the hoops that your client requires. Assuming that you have not dropped your gear, most electrical faults will occur at the plug or equipment end of the mains cable, and 90% of them will be visible, i.e. brown and blue wires showing, smashed plug-tops etc. If the gear has been damaged in transit, it will probably rattle if you turn it a quarter turn in any direction. The chances of gear becoming dangerous, with no visible or audible signs, is fairly remote. If you have electricity flowing through you it will probably hurt. If the peak of the mains frequency passes through your heart muscles at the wrong time, your heart could stop. The Health and Safety Executive statistics from a few years ago showed that of all the electical incidents they investigated, once you had all the threads of a potential accident in place, the odds of it being fatal were about 1:30. If you use damaged gear, you are effectively playing russian roulette with one live bullet in 30, night after night after night... Local authorities now insist that venues have earth-leakage circuit breakers (RCDs) on sockets. This senses the current gong down the brown wire, and compares it with the current coming back on the blue wire. If the current is not coming back, e.g. because it is flowing through you, the circuit trips. However, to be safe, these devices need to trip at a low current, and quickly, but the test button does not test how fast it trips, so relying on an RCD is not a good idea. As mentioned elsewhere, the system is not perfect, but in summary, if you check you gear after every gig, and get it tested once or twice a year, you can satisfy your clients, and live long enough to become a rock legend.