Mottlefeeder

2 hours ago, Ralf1e said:

I have had some limited success with super epoxy quick setting. It sets very hard and can be rubbed down and buffed out with finishing compounds.

Thanks for that, but at the moment I'm going with superglue. Did your epoxy set transparently or with a bloom?

David

On 14/08/2022 at 09:58, KingBollock said:

Whenever I think of bad bass solos, I always come back to this…

 

I think it’s the confidence in the singer’s call of “Bass Solo!” that truly elevates this piece. The call of Bass Solo! became a bit of a thing in the community I was a part of back then, around 1999/2000.

 

The Bass Solo! starts around 38 seconds in:

 

Sorry, I tried several ways to post the link without posting the actual video, but could’nt work out how to do it. Hopefully the mention of lady bits doesn’t offend (though it’s not vulgar or slang, so hopefully it’s ok).

The bass solo reminded me of something, and I finally worked out what it was. If the bassist was attempting to play 'Auld Lang Syne' in the middle of a song about moving on, it might be more clever than we give them credit for?

David

I have no experience of Soundbox gear, but I have built a couple of battery powered bass combos using up-market car amplifiers running off small 12v lead acid batteries. the build threads are linked below.

David

Found it.

David 

Gigging on Saturday, may be coming back by bus.

David

I checked the bass this morning and found part of my PVA had peeled away from the original finish. I pulled at the loose end and the whole lot came off, so I am almost back where I started, except that I now know more.

The original tint appears to have gone into the wood, so by next job is to find out whether superglue will change or move the colour, or whether I can just start building up layers of clear.

David

Sorry if I seem to be tiptoeing round nail varnish - it is solvent based, and I'm worried about what it might do to the original finish.

David

The body wood has a nice grain and is heading towards mahogany colour, but the original finish has a tint to give the final walnut colour finish.

The original finish is around 1mm thick, so I don't think I can just use an oil as a finish. That pointed me towards 'seal, tint and layer up to fill the crater', and thinking that a water-resistant PVA would do the trick.

I'm now looking at superglue. I'll start by checking whether it bleaches out the existing tint, and if not then I'll layer it up to fill the crater. I'm trying to minimise the amount of sanding due to the risk of creating more damage to the surrounding area.

David

The vocalist/guitarists in my band are quite happy with the pa speakers at the back, because our performance volume is about right as their monitor volume. However, sound disperses according to the square of the distance, so OK for them is too loud for the back line. Even wearing earplugs, enough mush gets through to make it difficult to hear the bass notes you are playing.

Our compromise is one front -of-stage speaker and one back-of-stage speaker, and I make sure I am as far from the back one as I can get.

David

On 12/08/2022 at 21:43, Maude said:

I'm happy to be proved wrong, but I'm not at all convinced PVA will be suitable for this use. I can't imagine it will flat and polish to a shine in the same way that acrylic polyurethane, nail varnish, superglue, etc does. 

Also if kept in a humid environment PVA will reabsorb moisture and turn milky and soft, although the level of moisture needed for this to happen would probably result in far more serious issues than the glue. 

I agree, and I'm now looking at completing the 'crater-filling' with something both hard and waterproof, like Gluboost if it does not react with the existing foundation of PVA. If it does, then I take out all the existing PVA and start again with a sealing layer of Gluboost followed by a tinted layer of Gluboost, then fill as necessary with clear Gluboost.

David

7 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

I found this https://sawview.com/what-is-pva-glue/ which says it takes 24 hours to dry perfectly.

Thanks for that, but as @Baloney Balderdash commented, it is water based, so it will never be totally water resistant. I'm now looking at options for crater filling with PVA, finishing with a waterproof layer on top.

David

Viagra is diamond shaped...

Slightly off topic:

You will pay over the odds for a speaker rated in-line jack socket and/or an in-line speakon socket just because they are not commonly available.

If you are comfortable doing so, it would be cheaper to use readily available panel-mount  jack sockets and speakon sockets and fit them into a small plastic box.

David

17 minutes ago, verb said:

Rather than starting a new topic, I thought I'd ask in this one.

I'm using tuff cab for the outside of my 1x12, but what paint should I use for the baffle and inside the ports? 

I use blackboard paint - it is readily available from diy stores, water based so it is compatible with TuffCab, and it dries matt black.

David

1 hour ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

 

It might be due to the paint you used being water based, meaning that it will dissolve in water, and at least you ought to have checked up on the glue you used weren't before you went to great length applying several layers.

 

Not that I personally couldn't have done the exact same mistake, in fact chances are I would, as I constantly find myself doing haphazard hack handyman jobs, because I often start on stuff rather impulsively  wanting to have something fixed as quick as possible and therefor end up using less than ideal tools and materials, whatever is available at that point in time, and fail to check properly up on things first to make sure I do it properly, and have in fact ended up ruining a couple of instruments that way.

 

Just saying. 

 

 

PVA is water based, so a water soluble colour tint should be compatible with it.

Also, the glue is listed as being washable, which I assumed meant waterproof. That may have been my mistake.

David

Put some glue on a piece of plywood yesterday evening. It seemes hard this morning so I started sanding it. It didn't smear or crumb  so I thought I had a winner. Got as far as 1000 grade paper - still looking good. Then I wet the abrasive paper, and the dried glue became tacky.

I'll leave it for another 24 hrs to rule out 'glue still not set', and if it goes tacky again, then I need to be looking for a different top layer.

David

@Eric.C.Lapton - I think we differ on 'Mojo'. To me it means natural wear and minor dents on a loved and cared-for instrument, not ugly scars like this. YMMV.

@BlueMoon - yes, it's a Hohner cricket bat in walnut satin stain. The colouring I used was transparent, so the grain still shows through, so the only outstanding issue is filling the hole, flatting and polishing. I accept that it will still be visible, but hopefully will look a lot better than it currently does.

@Maude- I've just put on the next coat, so I can't answer that question. I've also put some glue on a bit of plywood to check how hard it sets, and whether I can sand it. I'll report back tomorrow.

Thank you all for your input

David

I parked the car on a slope, opened the boot and failed to catch the bass as it slid out. It landed on the thinnest bit of padding in the gig bag.

The finish chipped down to bare wood, with one crater on the edge of the top/side, and the other on the edge of the top/side/base, The left hand crater is about 15mm long at the bottom. The craters have sloping edges, making the finish look deeper than it is (about 1mm).

I made some enquiries and one luthier declined the job, and one quoted £175. Going to Allparts for Gluboost would cost £50-£70 for a range of colour additives and some glue, so I thought I'd look for some alternatives locally. 

Hobbycraft have a transparent PVA glue and some water based transparent colours so I thought I'd have a go, mixing the colours on a transparent film so that I could see them against the wood.

I painted the damaged are with PVA to seal it, and left it to dry. Then I mixed some mid brown with some red and got a surprisingly good match. I mixed that with some glue and painted it on. This is how it looked when it dried.

This is the crater with about 6 coats of PVA over the tinted coat. I'm getting there, but it is a slow process, partly limited by the risk of the glue dripping if I put it on too thickly.

And finally, my question - If I changed horses in mid stream, would Gluboost complete the job faster, or would it also drip off the edge?

David

Not quite on topic, but may help - I play a 5-string ABG and I find that an HPF gives me better control of feedback than the built-in notch filter.

David

Any news on date options yet?

David

5 minutes ago, MoonBassAlpha said:

Studiospares are decent for connectors and made-up cables too. 

I bought own-brand 5-pole XLR plugs from Studiospares and they did not fit Neutrik 5-pole sockets. Just sayin'

David

I've been using my own version of this for many years - a rucksac strap adjustment buckle at the end of my bass strap. Its a lot cheaper.

I put it on so I could shorten the strap when sitting down.

David

It is also possible that for a small generator connected to a 13A distribution board for you to plug into,  it may have no terminal to connect it to earth. Similarly, if your gig is under a gazebo in a tarmac carpark, or on a concrete slab, you will not be able to hammer an earth spike into the ground.

Provided that the generator is local, and not feeding any other areas, it is a floating mains system, and will require two simultaneous faults to become dangerous - the first to earth it, and the second to give you a live part to touch, allowing current to flow through you to earth.

'Simple' circuits like that will not work with some plugtop RCDs since they will not switch on unless they detect a connection between neutral and earth, which is the norm in most houses.

As others have said, a generator feeding multiple areas should be earthed, and/or may have been earthed at any of those areas, and therefore only needs one fault to allow current to flow through you to earth. That is where the RCD is helpful.

David

Adding a C4 to the line up would be good.

If I can help with the organising (from Warrington), or set up and tear down on the day, then yes I'm volunteering.

David

1 hour ago, Pea Turgh said:

I have a Basschat DIY micro cab I can bring along!

31 minutes ago, JohnDaBass said:

Would my house jam micro combo qualify? It has a Faital rs140 6ins and has separate input.

I'm not part of the organising committee, but I'd like to hear both of those.

David