chyc

I would like to come to this. I haven't necessarily thought this through entirely, but I'd have to drive close to Oxford, Swindon and Bristol on my way to Taunton, so would anyone like a lift to Taunton, in return for some shared petrol money? I suppose the kicker is that with two bodies in a reasonably small car there'll be limited space for your gear, but I'm sure I can accommodate some stuff at least.

I'm not committed to coming yet: the diary is cloudy that far in the future and I may have missed something, but I thought I'd sound this out in good time to start a conversation. Contact me via direct message if you're interested.

On 30/04/2024 at 13:05, Ashborygirl said:

The Nordy Acinonyx is the most impressive new bass I've played in 40 years.    It's short scale.

With a name like "Ashborygirl", I think it's a given you like short scale basses

On 22/03/2024 at 14:11, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Erm, I think you might be one of a small select group 😎

Mine stay on until they fall off.

Do you not even take the strings off to clean the fingerboard?

2 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

At the end of the day, you do you.  You came here asking for advice, the advice has been dispensed, and I get the feeling you don't like the advice you've been given.  Sorry

Some people gave tips, the majority said don't do that. I accept that. Perhaps yes there is some disappointment that I cannot do what I want to do, but in a way I should be glad that there was not much I could have done to prevent failure doing what I was doing.

3 hours ago, Gasman said:

Interested to understand why the changeover is necessary, especially at this 3 monthly interval. Just for fun?

I'd love to say it's for different clients with different requirements, but yes it's me, for run, recording different sounds and practising different techniques.

I should clarify that when I say I feel the UltraMags can be swapped indefinitely, this would be bounded by the useful  life of the string. In other words, I feel that the Rotos will suffer metal fatigue failure after the strings' sounds are no longer pleasant. The Chromes obviously had a lot of life left in them.

I measured the widths of the D strings. UltraMag is ~1.7mm for the entire length of the string. The Chrome is ~1.7mm at the playing end, and ~0.9mm at the snapped headstock end with the silk removed. I guess this string swapping is not something I can continue doing, particularly if I want to stick with D'Addario.

Thanks for all the responses. Looks like I'm out of luck. Just to reemphasize that I feel my Rotosound strings will be able to do this indefinitely as the string diameter is constant for the entire length of the string. The Chromes, by virtue of them being cheese-wire at the headstock, will not. Obvious answer will be to switch to Rotosound flats so long as they are similar in design to the UltraMags

In answer to how often have I done this, I reckon every three months or so for 2 years, so each string has been placed on the bass 3 or 4 times.

I've got two sets of strings that I like, for different purposes (chromes vs rounds), and so swap back and forth fairly regularly (every 3 months or so). However, and this annoys me somewhat, yesterday the D'Addario Chrome D string snapped upon tuning. Now that my Sauron gaze is looking at the string, I can see that while the meaty end of the string is chunky enough, the headstock with its silk is extremely thin, almost like guitar string thin, so it was a disaster waiting to happen. The other strings I own, Rotosound Ultra Mags, are much chunkier around the headstock and I have no worries about this happening to these.

Surely I'm not the only person who changes strings back and forth. What can I do to stop this happening (please nobody say to buy another bass !)? I'm not a string expert by any stretch, but it is disappointing that the D'Addario Chromes really are so thin up top, so it may be that I just cannot do this with these strings. My eyes watered when I bought these strings as well, so this question may be academic as I wrestle in my head to pony up for the same thing again.

For info if there's something I can correct, when I unwind, the strings maintain their coil around the peg. When it comes to putting them back, I slot the end of the string into the centre of the tuner which seems to lock it in place, then tighten the string with the coil pre-wrapped around the peg, albeit loosely.

Microphone stand came quickly, as described in excellent condition. Thank you very much Chris for the great transaction.

Hmm I hadn't considered you solder in the 9v to the pickups independent of the preamp. I was imagining the EMG kits with all the preassembled trunking. Yes that you're describing would work, but I would note that wouldn't be a drop in replacement.

8 hours ago, itu said:

How is this true?

Presumably in the same way that you can technically plug some speakers directly into line-out as it's all electromagnetic waves. The preamps are designed for different levels of gain and impedence. I've plugged in an ultra-high impedance pickup into a mere high-impedance amplifier. Did it make sound? Yeah, I guess. Did it sound great? No, not so much.

You also need to deal with the fact that active-pickup-preamps, when they have a bypass, still supply come kind of active circuitry to buffer the pickups. My Warwick for example has active MEC pickups, with a preamp bypass switch, yet when the battery is removed the bass doesn't function at all, even when preamp bypass is engaged.

1 hour ago, Stofferson said:

AHH I've used elixirs for years and everything else feels weird to me now. 

Just for the record, Elixirs are what I have currently on my TT4, and yes to my ears it does sound really Hi-Fi and a bit brittle as you say. Appreciate it's more than just tone so if the feel and tension are just right with those then switching strings may not be for you. The Ultramags do feel different.

Do you know what EMG pickups you want? EMG do passive pickups which could work here (warning: I've never tried), but I have in my head that EMGs are famous for their active pickups, which won't work in the Sandberg without swapping out the preamp. I believe the confusion stems from the fact that you can pair an active preamp with passive pickups, as with the Sandberg you own. For active pickups, you need an active preamp, but one specifically designed for such a scenario.

I own a Sandberg TT4 and I get what you're saying, it's a very glassy tone. On one of my other basses I fitted it with UltraMag strings and those really gave it a mid-range punch (once things settled down) that I absolutely love and it sounds like this is what you're after. I have a new set ready to be put on my TT4, but I don't want to waste strings with life left in them still. Shame the timings haven't worked out here because if you'd have asked this question in a year or so I would have been able to give a more definitive answer as to whether it helps. Based on my other bass (also a Sandberg BTW), these strings may well be a cheaper solution to new pickups.

I've heard the two side by side, and to my ears the 10" was better for pizzicato, but I'm not really a good yardstick as I was playing at the time. The lower frequencies in the 12" felt like they were resonating the bass, which is very easily solved with a bit of EQ, but it didn't seem to happen with the 10" Monza.

I think stevie would have been better placed (literally) to hear the cabinet. In any case the difference was subtle so if it were me, I'd actually have to factor size/weight/price into the consideration. Either one would be a very good fit in my opinion.

This talk about BB2s has got me thinking about a decent alternative I tried recently. At the SE Bass Bash I was able to try out the LfSys cabinets using my double bass, the cabs being made by @stevie of this parish. I was impressed with the sound that it generated. If you had to make me choose between the cabinets he sells, then no question the 10" Monza was the best sounding of the bunch for upright bass. My favourite sounding cabinet that I own is a 6.5" GSS. I would recommend that one except you're saying a Doubleshot doesn't give you enough grunt. The Monza seems to have that GSS sound, but it can go much louder, probably as loud as I need it to go. Wished I'd played them side by side now. Maybe next year's bash

I've never tried a BB2, but I would say that if LfSys's 12" cabinets are supposed to go toe to toe with the BB2, then the Monza is more appropriate for double bass. How does the Monza compare with a doubleshot? I don't know sorry as I've never seen a DS, and sadly I probably never will. I was incredibly saddened to hear this year of the passing of Rick Jones at Acoustic Image. I own two Acoustic Images. One is old enough to vote and drink alcohol.

Warning, subjectivity ahead:   This is my best guess as to why I prefer smaller cabs. Flat-response is a really good indicator of a good speaker cabinet, but there are other things to consider. For me the signal coming from my pickup is absolutely not the sound I hear or indeed I want to hear out front. A piezo pick-up contains far too much fundamental frequency for my taste, so for double bass for me at least a flat response sits lower in the priority list. I would guess that the 10" cone naturally limits the ultra-low frequencies that I hate so much compared to the 12" that these electric types seem to prefer these days. Also, at the other end of the frequency spectrum that horrible scratchy noise that electric bassists hate so much I would regard as string detail and I love it! My Rolls-Royce amplification setup has me using a blended signal of microphone and pickup. The pickup does the grunt work, and the microphone gives me the upper frequencies and air that I find lacking with just a pickup.

Coming back from my aside, if people are recommending BB2, I would say that LfSys seem to be similar in mission to Barefaced, and also apparently a fair bit cheaper as well. To be honest, I'm really surprised nobody's mentioned LfSys yet as they seem to be very well regarded on this forum.

1 minute ago, Dad3353 said:

 

How hard would that be to make..? It's basically two identical sides, a front and back spreader and a top seat. Granted, that looks like a quality finish, at surely low production runs, but it's half a sheet of ply and some padding for the seat. Anyone with a band-saw could do that, I think. Is there a woodwork class at a nearby school or college..? T'would be a nice project, making something along those lines. Just a thought. 

I doubt it's too difficult for someone skilled with the right tools. The tongue and groove parts interlock together so nicely I would hesitate to say you could do it with a jigsaw. The routed edges are very professionally done as is the rubber protective trim, but yeah there's nothing magical about it, and it isn't even plywood: it's MDF. If you didn't care for collapsability then absolutely it would make a nice project.

However, I do care about how small it is in the back of the car, and despite getting my hands dirty making BC112 and four BC110 speaker cabinets, if I were to lose my stool I'd probably still buy another one. The design of this along with the quality of the finish really is very nice.

42 minutes ago, JosephMartyn said:

It's a shame these types of universal stands aren't made bigger!

This isn't cheap, but I own one and it's excellent. I use it for an acoustic upright, but it looks like it might accommodate your EUB. Collapses down to nothing, and is a very nice stool for sitting on if that's how you play, and a very nice stool for sitting on when you're not playing if not!

https://www.bassico.eu/classical-accessories-instrument-stands/rc-williams-co.-bass-stand-und-stool/8837-0-0-8837-0.htm?cat=908&produkt=3792&l=EN

20 minutes ago, Jaybird956 said:

But does it matter that nothing is plugged into the speaker out?

It's not always true that you can use an amp without a speaker, but for the Elf you can do this.

I misread your username as @TheGreek and spat out my coffee all over the keyboard

It's the opposite. There is no analogue signal in the example I gave. In fact, this may well not be true, but I could believe that the D could stand for digital, as is in effect utilizing a step function alternating between two values to create pulses which are summed.

30 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

I have hard time imagining how a poweramp could possibly based on that.

Switch-mode power supply "chunks" can be aligned with the frequency responses of digital signals: there is no digital analogue conversion (DAC) and therefore you could consider that to be a digital poweramp as there is no analogue signal involved at all. As far as I know, this means of amplification is only available using class D.

11 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

It says the power supply is 32v 5A. That's 160 watts. I very much doubt that it operates at close to 200% efficiency. 🤥

Maximum input voltage is 48v which would correspond to their claimed "300W" power. Of course it's all marketing, and still 240W < 300W; they're probably playing fast and loose with RMS vs peak power.

For what it's worth, I use a Fosi Audio that's very similar to this. As a hi-fi, it is truly excellent. As a bass amp, it's truly excellent ... as a practice amp. I've never gigged with it, because I have never need to. Built quality is very high, but it's clearly not meant to be thrown into your gig bag. The speakers connections are either bare wire or banana connectors so not designed for frequent plugging unplugging, so that will fail eventually, probably at the worst moment. Also, the components are almost certainly not assembled with excessive vibration in mind, which is the sort of thought you would absolutely want put into a proper gigging amp. The pots feel very nice, but I'm under no illusion that drops which I have inflicted my other pieces of equipment would ruin the Nobsound's, er, knobs.

In short, if I was forced to use it on a quiet gig, it absolutely would do the job sonically and I'd be pleased with the results, but an amp is not just about its sound: I would need to rely on it. Because of that, personally I wouldn't use this as my main amp.

OK, I got my SSL 2+ plugged into my Pi4, running Ubuntu Mantic with Linux Kernel 6.5, compiled for low latency. I was able to get a latency of 5ms using a buffer size of 160 with a period of 3 (I think: don't want to spoil the punchline of why I cannot remember). I had Guitarix running with chorus, a cabinet IR and reverb running with 1 buffer underrun according to qjackctl.

All was going great, the latency was well within my own limitations as a musician and I was able to play along to my hifi in the room. That was until my Pi crashed and I had to reboot. Now granted I've just upgraded my OS so it may have gremlins still, but I absolutely wouldn't want to rely on this setup out on a gig. It also took multiple attempts of plugging and unplugging the interface for the stars to align and the Pi give the interface enough current for it to start-up.

This is an aside, but I thoroughly recommend people try out integrating their Jack setup into Pipewire (an alternative to Jack). I've been frustrated in the past not being able to e.g. listen to Firefox YouTube while Reaper is running, but with Pipewire-Jack integration this is a thing of the past. You can even route Firefox sounds to your DAW and record website music!

Be careful with Focusrite and Linux. They do not sit well together sometimes so check that the interface is "Class Compliant". This is usually to hoover up the iPad market, but if Linux gets thrown a bone in the process then no complaints from me  

I have a Pi4, and sometimes plug in an SSL2+ interface. It isn't great. Here are things that I found:

• It couldn't cope with recording, although I wasn't trying it seriously
• Power draw is a real issue. If your interface takes too much juice from the USB, then it won't start. I cannot use 48v phantom power for example. An interface with separate power source would be much better.
• Messing around with latencies is a bit of a pain. If I took it too low (4ms) then it sounded awful. I cannot remember what I ended up using but it was definitely double digits, which is absolutely fine for recording (not that I could record)

I don't own a Pi5, but as I understand it, it is as fast as a Pi4 unless you put active cooling on it. Bear that in mind when you buy it. If I were doing it seriously I wouldn't think about Pi5 at all: I'd get a second hand Intel laptop. I don't know if this MOD software has been compiled for amd64, but I would be surprised if it hadn't. Pi is really, really good at certain usecases. I have one that I can just leave on as a router, because its power consumption is so low. For a gig, you'll probably be chewing through >100W just through your amp and so the difference of 10W is just going to be line noise. Pis (especially their SD cards) aren't great for reliability either.

Sorry to throw a damp towel over your project. It certainly would be fun and I may try it myself one day, but I would personally never ever rely on it for gigging. I've had multiple Pis die on me, which because I'm using them for fun projects is fine. Admittedly these are the older pis and things may be better now.

34 minutes ago, stevie said:

Then there was the sound of @chyc's double bass, which was absolutely glorious. I'm so glad he went to the (not inconsiderable, I'd say) trouble of bringing it.

I'm glad I brought it @stevie. I can say that all the speakers that I tried sounded absolutely fabulous for double bass. Build quality was as good as anything I've seen from any cabinet manufacturer.

Laurence is the type of guy you convinces you to either practise more, or give up. Such a great player, with amazing stories.

As an aside, I thought I recognized him, and chatting with him afterwards confirmed it, he's here:

Thanks everyone for taking the time to organize the event. My first trip was certainly a great experience.