Stub Mandrel

This may (I hope) be helpful. Each line represents a particular speaker efficiency in dB/W. 90 to 103 is a pretty representative range for PA/bass cabs. 'HiFi' speakers can be well below 90dB/W. Left to right is increasing amplifier power in watts and vertical is SPL at 10 metres for a speaker in free air (if it was against a wall the sound would be louder, as it would if sound is confined in a room, but the relative differences in SPL still stand). To properly understand this, 10bB in SPL is a doubling in loudness and is what you get by increasing amp power by ten times (e.g. from 30W to 300W), or increasing speaker efficiency by 10dB/W (e.g. from 93dB/W to 103dB/W). So a 60W amp through a 103dB/W speaker is as loud as a 1000W amp through a 90 dB/W speaker. These are realistic figures for amps and speakers (horns are very efficient, if those huge concrete horns were on the chart they'd be giving 110dB/W or higher... that's why the old record players could make a listenable volume just from the movement of the needle, a fraction of a watt of power). In the real world things are complicated by what we play through the speakers. The perceived loudness in 'phons' at our lovely bass frequencies requires lots more SPL than those just a bit higher. Very roughly, us bass players need about 10-15dB SPL more than guitar players to seem as loud, which is why our amps have to be several times more powerful AND use more efficient speakers:

I recall reading a book, already old in the 1980s, that claimed a blind test comparing a recording to an orchestra (behind a thin curtain) in a concert hall with an audience found around 10 watts was equivalent to the full orchestra, but IIRC that used huge horns. Another book I found recently has some interesting stuff. A lot has changed. Labyrinthine bass reflex arrangements instead of simple ports, for example. But this is a very relevant page: I would be interested to know how 'acoustic watts' compare to a dB/m reference, but also that he points out that it may take between 2W and 500W of electrical power to generate 1W of acoustic power. Even in 1966 it was well known that speaker efficiency is at least as important as amplifier power.

By October I've spent two years gigging with no effects except for ONE gig. I realised I was overdoing them to no great benefit. My playing has improved to compensate, I find I am much more aware how pickup balance (if using a two pup bass) contributes and how much more finger position, attack, muting, digging in for more overdrive etc. can change my sound. I'm ready to go back to effects, but I want to use them in a subtler way. I also want to get some brighter, funkier tones dialed in for certain songs and also work on better overdrive/distortion sounds that don't either obliterate everything else or just disappear. I've booked a two-hour session at a good rehearsal studio just for me. I'll be taking my new active Sire as well as a P and a Jazz (all with new or nearly new strings), my usual rig and all my pedals. I hope to come away with my no-effects sound dialled, and a better idea of which effects work and when - and which ones add nothing useful. I've already made some massive improvements by re-ordering the effects, especially putting the HPF after compression and octaver.

Jazz bass as received (s/h): And now: Jaguar SS: 40th Anniv:

I just wish it was easy to turn the logo through 90 degrees...

I also have a Joyo MA10B in my partner's lounge (and a Hohner B2). Alternative heads for the C2 cab are an Elf (just loud enough to gig with a quiet drummer) and a wee Hotone mode redundant by the Joyo BadASS.

This, this and this.

I used a pair of 2x12s (one a closed back guitar cab, the other with a pair of full range Mackie PA speakers) as my rig in the 1990s. I was way ahead of the curve 🙂 Now I use a GR Bass AT212 slim, with an Orange Terror. Of course, it works for rock, but I do struggle to set the volume as anything beyond 10 o'clock on the master is too loud.

I wimped out and decided I'd go if the drummer baled out. Fortunately, he did, so I did. But 18 months and only 3 gigs, two free as a rewards for the place that gave us free practice space (which was OK) and one paying gig (that may SO found and I pushed hard mainly to see if they had the cojones to actually do it). Practicing the same songs until they are getting worse every time, ostensibly because we are waiting for the KB player to get the tricky bits right. The BL disappearing to Turkey for three months at a time...

LOL, it let me 'like' that!

Pure vintage '60 12.4k Pure Vintage '63 12k Custom Shop '62 10.5k Squier 40th Anniv. 10.8k They are all AlNiCo 5 So, oh dear, on basic specs the Squier should sound more like the Custom Shop - less punch but more 'detail'. The Seymour Duncan are 14k with AlNiCo V (5), which is why they sound even more powerful but darker.

The Squier Anniversary PUPs and the Pure Vintage '60 and '63 PUPs all sound very similar; they have alnico pole pieces and winding specs. The Squier ones are not USA made and don't have p[aper bobbins and cloth covered wire but the bits that make the sound are very close.

Unfortunately, I have run out of TLRTs (reactions) after trying to catch up after a weekend away.

Good luck! I could bring some 'Fun Generation' Thomann active speakers to represent the very bottom of the price spectrum. If only to put into perspective what you get with a better rig. We use them as a vocals only rig for small venues. (1) Is it worth doing and (2) people would have to promise not to laugh.

My 'regular' club finally did that for the upstairs ballroom - big window with a Venetian blind behind the stage! Now looks and sounds much better.

They very much have a vintage p sound., quarter pounders will be much more in your face.

Thomson, Snell and Passmore. I can see them supporting Greenslade.

My Orange gives me this too. But for 'classic rock' I'm looking for something more elusive.

When I get a breathing space I'm going to book a few solo hours at a rehearsal studio.

I do! Perhaps because my 'signature' sound is fairly dark and basically almost flat eq with slight bass and treble lift, I find it hard to get that rich, clanky but deep funk sound. Yesterday I tried out a wah pedal (rapidly realised that once I'd done NIB there isn't much left...) Amp was z small Vox combo and I got 'that' sound, once I had figured out that I could get the active bass flat by setting all the controls to the middle detent. Didn't think to look at the amp settings. Accidentally bought the bass but can't get the same sound though Joyo BadASS and PJB C2. A bit closer thyough my brother's Elf and Ampeg PF 1x15. How do YOU brew different sounds and what do you struggle with. Have you ever found a reliable guide to getting various sounds/tones?

By request, added Sire P10. @scrumpymike - everything he owns unless he sells it between now and then @Rich- Shuker 5-string, something else (will toss a coin on the day), Genz Benz Shuttle 9.2, Barefaced Super 12T cab. @Kateplaysbass - Ashdown CTM-100 and LB212, Pawn Shop Mustang, medium scale ACG Finn, and maybe also ACG Recurve and Bass Collection 5 string fretless, since I'm thinking about offloading both of those @Woodinblack - Bongo, because its lovely and uncommon, Acrylic bass, for shits and giggles, Chapman stick, Lava Me guitar @Richard R - Brawley 5 string, as usual, HB 5 String thing with Roland hex pickup and V-bass COSM synth. @BreadBin- something interesting @chyc - Double bass, Ashbory Bass, GSS 06B400MKD combo, BC 112mk3 cabinet, and on the request any of Warwick Streamer fretless, Sandberg Custom 5 with Delano XTender, Sandberg TT Marcus Miller rip-off, BC 110T cabinet, , Acoustic Image Coda @TRBboy - Frost Custom Basses PJ5 (my first build from scratch), Sandberg California TT5 Passive, possibly my customised Yamaha BBN5, Markbass Stu Amp 1000w, GR Bass GR 410+ (1200w, 4 ohm), a fairly unexciting pedal board 😅, & converted Trace 1x15" cab, if it's in a satisfactory state by then @Stub Mandrel - Joyo BadASS & PJB C2, American Vintage II 1960 Precision & Squier 40th Anniversary Precision for side by side comparison. Teisco/Kay Tulip for sh*ts and giggles. Sire P10. @obbm - '71 Jazz, '73 Precision, Sadowsky HPJ, Genzler Magellan 350, BF One10 x2, Pedals plus TBA plus raffle donation. @Chienmortbb - Fender Aerodyne Jazz Bass, Sire Marcus Miller M2, Bugera Veyron. LFSys Monza Cabinet, Zoom B2Four.

I have three fivers, but I've never played a 6, 7 or 8. Or fan frets. Popped my Sire cherry yesterday, impressed. Only criticism z the tuners seem a bit cheap for a bass well north of 1k new.

Whoops... I'm out. After telling three of my nearest and dearest that I'm going to a music shop but I definitely won't buy a bass. But how could I pass on this. Marcus Miller P10. Second hand but as new. £499. Completely different from all my other basses.

Two in a couple of weeks.