ShergoldSnickers

As advertised in the Bass Tutors section:

[url="http://scottsbasslessons.com/video-tutorials/132-2/"]White gloves[/url]

He also uses black gloves on another vid on the site.

Do I get anything for this plug Scott?

Gentle undulatory bump...

Just a note to say this was £630 new, and the equivalent combo is now around the £700 mark.

There is no substitute for good gear well set up, and recorded using quality mics sensitively and intelligently placed. A lost art in some studios, but others really understand this in depth. It starts with the band sound you have as you play together. Get that right, and the recording part is vastly simplified, and then adding 'definition' should be a minor tweak on the eq.

I was in 'Carnage in Poland' in the early 80s, an immediate precursor to the [url="http://www.redguitars.co.uk/"]Red Guitars[/url]. The drummer, [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_O'Brien_(writer)"]Sean O'Brien[/url], is now an internationally renowned poet.

I remember doing one gig at the Bishop Grosseteste college near Lincoln. Sean was reading some poetry to an audience of Agriculture students before the band came on, and there was a monumental and obvious comprehension gap. One pissed off drummer.

OK, time for the band. After the second number, it was obvious we weren't going down well as a band either, and suddenly the disco came on. We turned up as much as we could and carried on, to a by now jeering audience. One drummer now in apoplectic mood. Not good with Sean. Parts of drum kit started sailing past my ear at the audience. As aerodynamically unstable as a floor tom might be, it will still arc nicely through the air if chucked with considerable force. Fantastic sound on landing as well. The audience instantly legged it, sensing this might be similar to an enraged bull moment, leaving us to pack up and get out before reinforcements arrived with pitchforks and burning torches.

A bit of a strange night all told.

Edited for typos.

Does she need an amp for gigging? Willing to loan a combo until she gets up and running on her own steam if so...

My own 18th birthday party in 1975. Badge. Played on an Avon EB3 copy, feeding a 30W Linear Concord valve amp, and a 2 by 12 cab.

Having helped build one in the 90s - I personally soldered 450 jack plugs onto patch leads - a task that shouldn't be required to that degree nowadays - I'll point out some of the less obvious things we came across. Less obvious to us at the time that is

[list=1]
[*]Heat. After soundproofing by building a floating floor, ceiling and walls, all fully insulated, we needed an AC unit with ducting to the playing area and control room. You'll also need ventilation to provide a steady supply of breathable air! It's amazing how quickly the heat builds up when gear gets turned on. If you can, put the AC unit in a different room to both the control room and playing areas, and carefully duct the cool air in. We put the AC unit in the control room, and on very hot days the noise was very distracting. Not good.
[*]Control room glass. We used two sheets, one at 25mm thick, and one at 12mm thick with a decent air gap. The weight was enormous and required substantial supports. Domestic double or triple glazed units may be an alternative.
[*]Be prepared to think about monitoring using high quality hi-fi gear. I've found lots of so-called monitors built for studio use to be awful on audition - this still holds true for me, but some of the more modern designs are getting better. We deliberately didn't go for gear that would go painfully loud, as monitoring under these conditions is not conducive to accuracy or comfort! Yes, we got the odd band constantly asking for higher levels, but when we played back songs mixed at high levels and then played back later on ordinary gear, they got the point.
[*]Spend time getting your studio running like clockwork before opening to the public. Know it inside out to the point where you could run it blindfold.
[*]Don't ever use Beyer DT100s headphones as monitoring for recording musicians. Nasty sound. Horribly coloured with little extension at either end, and they rapidly get fatiguing for musicians who need to do lots of overdubs or takes. I got a headache using them. Yes they are robust, but so is a house brick. Go for a modern closed design that enables the musicians to hear everything clearly. This is very important. If you are happy with what you are hearing, you play better.
[*]Mics - These will form part of your studio sound. The quality of the sound up front is vital - lose this by using mics not up to the job and you'll never get it back. The old garbage in garbage out thing. Industry standard mics are a 'safe' way to go, but be prepared to do the research and go against the grain. My immediate response to an industry standard is to challenge it. Industry standards are sometimes there due to lazyness, fear or overblown reputation.
[/list]
Edited for clarity.

The sailors hornpipe bit from Tubular Bells. Very, very slooooowwwwwwly to start with.

Hard hats on please.....

BUMP!

[quote name='Al Heeley' post='909178' date='Jul 29 2010, 01:05 PM']What does this illustrate? That the original drivers had got bassier over time or that the new driver you installed had a different frequency response?
Is it breaking in/wearing out or is it inconsistencies within production units?

Were there any orange drop spragues involved at any point? We seem to have nerded off-topic but in an entertaining, convivial and light hearted way.[/quote]
All great points of course, and as I said - my experience was utterly unscientific The change in the newly installed driver from bass light to 'correct' inside 24 hours, suggests a mechanical phenomena. [b]IF[/b] I can trust my ears.

Trying desperately to swerve back to the topic (and failing miserably), the only capacitance involvement was the single capacitor crossover used in the speakers, which we bypassed when testing the treble driver to destruction. The bass-mid was designed to deliberately roll off mechanically and blend with the treble driver characteristics. As the designer designed and made both units to suit, the end result was a neat way of avoiding more complex crossover designs to match drivers that couldn't be mechanically tweaked if bought off the shelf. Interesting approach.

I'll start a separate topic if I find anything else to say.

[quote name='ShergoldSnickers' post='908920' date='Jul 29 2010, 09:29 AM']"... everything full on for half an hour. Eventually the aluminium dome shattered!"


Mix loud then?[/quote]
Not usually no...

This was a request from the driver designer - to push the treble unit to breaking point. He wanted to show us how robust they were. After trying normal music through the driver, we realised we would have to devise a drum machine from hell loop that pushed every hi-hat and cymbal sound we could muster, and as loud as the drum machine, pre-amp and power amp could push out. That test was a lot of fun - not often that you are asked to deliberately try and break something.

We had to stay in the control room and test the driver in the main recording area. Painfully loud.

A Wilson Rapier medium scale bass. BP used them for drilling for a time as the neck dive was so pronounced. The body wood was one stage removed from Balsa. The two pickups looked a bit flimsy as well. Bizarrely though, it didn't sound too bad, just a bit anaemic in sustain, and a bit of a wooly bottom E. I eventually knocked the frets out using a shoe and a screwdriver. I put the right gauge white plastic card in the fret slots, sanded it down and got a useable fretless.

I'll dig the photos out later.

Declaration: This is not scientific - merely experience on my part

I've gone through several pairs of hi-fi loudpeakers, the latest of which I still have after nearly 20 years, a pair of Epos ES14s, originally bought as monitoring for a recording studio. I bought these after a protracted audition at a colleagues house, but when I got my new pair home, was surprised at how bass light they sounded.

They had been bought direct from the designer, a chap called Robin Marshall, and because they were for studio use, he supplied spare drivers as we were just slightly concerned about high SPLs damaging them. We needn't have worried, the bass drivers would need putting across the mains to break them, and we could only get a treble driver to fail by wiring it direct to the amplifier output - no crossover, rolling the bass end off from the desk and pushing a real bastard of a hi-hat and cymbal loop at it, everything full on for half an hour. Eventually the aluminium dome shattered!

A few years later.... the glue on one of the drivers went, around where the coil former meets the cone. I Put the spare bass/mid driver in and instantly got the bass light sound on this cabinet only. It went after a day or so. It could be psychoacoustics, but the difference was marked, and on balance I'd plump for the driver rather than perception, but can't absolutely prove either one over the other.

[quote name='Marvin' post='906397' date='Jul 26 2010, 10:17 PM']The one I've got, I'm too skint to buy another or replace it.[/quote]
The words 'boat' and 'same' spring to mind...

[quote name='Al Heeley' post='908272' date='Jul 28 2010, 03:17 PM']Tant caps have high tolerance (accurate value) and are (mostly) polar so cannot always be used to replace standard non-polar types. They can blow quite easily of you get them too hot whilst soldering or if you have the polarity the wrong way round.
Cheap ceramic caps can be +/- 10% of the printed value, which tbh makes little diff on a bass guitar tone pot.

[url="http://www.engineersedge.com/instrumentation/tantalum_capacitors.htm"]http://www.engineersedge.com/instrumentati..._capacitors.htm[/url]
Fascinating stuff indeed.[/quote]
Excellent - thanks.

I took a Naim pre-amp (an old third-hand 80s one guys, I'm not made of money ) in for repair and they replaced some of the capacitors with Tantalum ones. What are the benefits of using Tantalum? I've done the obligatory look-up and see how they get them to work by sintering powder of different grades, just curious as to their properties compared with other capacitor types.

Please fasten your lap belts we shall be experiencing some turbulence.


BUMP


You can unfasten your belts now. Christ this uniform's a bit tight...

[quote name='Rasta' post='899989' date='Jul 20 2010, 01:35 PM']I had a really good gig at the weekend playing improvised reggae. We played classic repetitive riddims ,which as a reggae bassist i knew,and let horn players and vocals do there own thing-we even had someone on melodica too. We eneded up as an 9 piece with a packed dancefloor by the end of the night and been asked back to play again at what is a bit of an up market cool venue. Crazy as we also got paid the same as my reggae covers band that performs at the same venue... for lots of less effort, no practice, great fun, lots of spontaneity and being reggae the best bits was where you could drop out listen to the others and drink your beer and come back in again. Improvisation is a winning formula loosely based on some ideas and i am a total convert [/quote]
Completely sold on that one Rasta. You absolutely MUST get a video or recording of your next one. Really, you just HAVE to.

Been playing in an improv band for over 2 years now, initially concentrating on recording, and within the last year on gigs as well.

Good points:

1. Nothing to learn in terms of set lists or numbers
2. No 'rehearsals' as such - yay!
3. Different every time - helps keep the interest. Errr... mostly.
4. The other guys know what they are doing and can make it easier for me!
5. The freedom

Bad points:

1. Everything to learn in terms of listening to others, and when to keep it simple to allow others to fly, and when to drive it forward.
2. Still get nervous before a gig.
3. Over reliance on stock phrases, riffs and runs.
4. Limited musical theory knowledge. Not the impediment I thought it might be though.

To anyone contemplating forming an improv band, it's probably not as scary as you think, but it's best to go with musicians you are totally comfortable with. I'm really lucky in that regard, and there isn't an ego between us. That really helps on so many levels.

Anyone else got any experiences, advice or horrendous/amazing stories?

[quote name='Marvin' post='899557' date='Jul 19 2010, 10:56 PM']

Sniggers some more.[/quote]
Someone call?

Oh, SNIGGERS.... I thought for a moment you were suggesting I'd had bits lopped off and turned inside...... errrr....I'll stop there shall I?

(Or worse - suggesting that I'm a mod )

[quote name='Clarky' post='897834' date='Jul 18 2010, 10:13 AM']I have BareFaced Vintage and recommend it highly. But if you wanted some less-than-15 in the mix, how about the BareFaced Big One? A 15 and a 6.5 in one lightweight package. [url="http://barefacedbass.com/product-range/big-one.htm"]http://barefacedbass.com/product-range/big-one.htm[/url][/quote]
I can lift the Big One with one hand. Not sure if I could carry it any distance like this but with two hands it's an easy lift. It does come with wheels that engage on tilting the cab backwards. Simple and it works. The mid range driver goes high enough for me to be completely happy with running a complex FX unit capable of squirting out some high (and very low) frequencies. Immense and articulate sound. Damp the strings and the sound stops - no overhang or tailoff boom. Alex seems to have taken cab design back to the fundamentals, building them back up from the ground, and beautifully challenging a lot of widely held assumptions on the way. A talented team at Barefaced.

Price reduction bump.... Now priced at £350, including courier within UK.

If the cab is well designed and the speaker(s) efficient, then an arbitrary figure of 300W may be more than ample. Or even 200W. Or 150W. It depends what load the amp is driving as well, and how well the power supply copes with sudden demands for pushing current on sudden transients. A weak power supply won't be able to give any dynamic 'slam' before crapping out, despite the output stages being able to deliver more if it were available. Turn on the taps and the reservoir is rapidly emptied.

Then there is the question of what sort of tone are you after? A bass heavy, fundamental-rich tone that envelopes an audience, or an aggressive mid and low treble rich tone that pierces the live mix that way? They have very different demands on an amp and speaker combination. Additionally, we then have the small matter of how manufacturers arrive at the quoted output figures...

There are so many variables in all this that giving one figure will immediately draw exceptions. As a very general rule of thumb, setting a 300W figure may actually have some use, so long as you realise it will only be broadly statistically true rather than universally applicable.

I have an Eden Nemesis NC115 combo rated at 250w into 4 ohms, driving an 8 ohm 15" driver plus treble unit. It copes with anything but larger pubs and clubs on its own, but starts to struggle if the rest of the band start playing at levels that are getting uncomfortable*, but for someone playing softer genres, this combo would cope with a much wider range of venues unassisted. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=93810&hl=eden+nemesis+NC115"]The combo is for sale by the way![/url]

In order to cover the any eventuality thing, I've just acquired a second-hand Barefaced Big One and Eden Traveler 550 rig. I'm also running a Boss GT-10B FX unit, and when the octave divider is on, I need an amp that can cleanly deliver the low frequencies generated. The combo could cope really well with generating the low frequencies, but not at the levels we occasionally get to - the amp starts to run out of steam, hence the bigger boiler that is the new amp, and a cab capable of handling the output from the Boss FX.

Funny subject this bass amplification...


* Uncomfortable for some of the slightly older amongst us

Issue a warning to seismologists. And don't export any to Iceland, we don't want any more volcanoes upsetting.

If you want some cracking headphones that can also double up for serious music listening, try the Grado range.

from about £85 to £1,600.

I got a pair of the SR125s a few years ago, and they are rather too good at highlighting the faults in my technique and playing. They also act as as part of the quality check on band recording mix-down, being fantastic at rendering detail and having lots of bass extension without boom. Even the [s]cheapest[/s] least expensive are head and shoulders above anything else at the price. It's just the price....

What you connect them to is a separate issue, and I wouldn't have a clue where to start on that .