Obrienp

Looking for guidance, preferably from someone who has done this mod to their SRMD200 or similar active only bass. I searched and didn’t quite find this particular topic. What I want to do: replace the stock P Bass pickup with something better (I don’t care about the J pickup), fit a DPDT switch to switch the active electronics on/off and simultaneously route the P pickup to a passive circuit consisting of a stacked vol/tone control. Yes, I know I could just replace the preamp with a better 4 control unit with a push/pull active/passive switch but I don’t want to spend that amount of cash on a cheap bass. Anyway my thoughts on doing this are as follows. Please let me know if this is not the way to do it. It will help understand this if you look at the attached SRMD200 wiring diagram I found on TalkBass (it seems to be accurate). Obviously I’m going to have to drill two new holes: one for the stacked pot and one for the switch. There seems to be enough space in the control cavity to accommodate this. Now for the wiring. First to change the P pickup, I’m not going to try soldering onto the blend control circuit board: it looks too fragile and I might cook it if I keep the iron on it for too long. I intend to cut the original pickup wires, shrink wrap the new pickup ground wire to the original ground wire and take a separate ground wire from this joint straight to the chassis of the stacked vol/tone pot. The live wire from the pickup will go to one of the middle terminals of an on/on DPDT switch. The other terminals on that side will route the live output to either the preamp blend pot (using the original cable), or to the new stacked vol/tone pot. Currently the negative wire from the battery is routed directly to the spare terminal of the stereo output jack. This creates an on/off switch for the power to the preamp. When a jack plug is inserted into the socket it closes the circuit, when it is removed the circuit is broken. I intend to cut this wire and route it from the battery to the other middle terminal of the DPDT. I will then run the other half of the original wire will to the appropriate terminal on the DPDT, such that when the live output from the pickup is routed to the preamp, the power circuit will be complete and the preamp active. When it is switched the other way, the circuit will be left open and the pickup live output will be routed to the vol/tone pot. The Vol/tone stacked pot will be wired in the conventional way with a .047 capacitor. The live and ground wires will be taken to the output jack socket where they will be in parallel with the live and ground from the preamp. I think this will work but I just wonder whether there is any issue with the pickup ground wire being split so that it is connected to both the active preamp circuit and the passive circuit simultaneously. My feeling is that the live wire will only be routed to one of the circuits, so there shouldn’t be an issue. However, is it likely to cause any background noise? I would have drawn a circuit diagram for this but I don’t have an editor that will do it, or the knowledge of the correct symbols. Your thoughts and experience would be welcome. Thanks in advance. P.S. Is this likely to kill the resale value of the bass?

Wow! Cheap beer or what? Even in the backwater I live in (Norfolk, UK), a pint in a pub that puts on live music is going to cost you from £3.50 to £6, depending on how hip and up itself the establishment is. Door charges in pubs are quite rare (tends to be special nights) but clubs and other venues will have them. Sometimes it includes a drink and can vary enormously depending on the previously mentioned parameters. Also the drinks can be very expensive.

The band I have depped for recently does covers, so I just had to learn their set list and do a couple of rehearsals with them. It has gone pretty well on the gigs I have done with them. i also depped on guitar and bass in a ceilidh band a few years back. They gave me a bunch of sheet music, which wasn’t much use as I can barely read traditional notation. Fortunately, one of them had the patience to go through it with me, identifying the chords and I took it from there, plus several rehearsals. Fortunately, the fiddle player played most of the lead parts. It would be much more difficult with a band doing their own material. As for being known: I go along to our local blues society jams regularly and met the band leader (drummer) at those. The society has an available for depping list that I had put my name down on. He approached me to dep. I also used to go to lots of local folk club sing arounds, which is how I got the ceilidh band slot. Depping is fun IMO. It stretches you a bit and you get to play with a wider group of musicians. It does require a lot of effort but the return is that you improve as a musician.

I am in two bands and dep with another. Normally it works pretty well to get the gigs rolling in but occasionally they behave like buses: none for ages and then you get 3 on the same weekend. 🥴

“Don’t get off a bus while it’s still moving” is a good tip. You can also try “ don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched”.

Thanks. I will pass that on to him.

The guitarist, in one of the bands I play in, also plays bass in another band. He bought one of the Squier VMs last year and has been very unhappy with the pickup set, which he describes as completely gutless. Admittedly, he is comparing it with his other bass, one of the more expensive Yamaha BBs. He said he has been unable to find a replacement set that will fit. Which gets me round to my question: is the Squier VM pickup set not the standard Mustang size?

So, I got through the dep gig previously posted about. I ended up being the one wearing the mask, while Covid afflicted drummer coughed away behind me. It was a private function for a bloke’s 70 in a large pub. As can be seen from the photo, it was pretty cramped for the 6 of us. We had a lot of feedback issues tracked down to one of the drummer’s overhead mics, the sax player’s mic attachment and I suspect the guitarist’s miced cab. We cured the first two after an anxious half hour but the latter announced itself between each song. The gig itself went really well. Lots of dancing and general appreciation from around 100 party goers. I only came unstuck once, which was not being able to remember the groove for Stand By Me, which is embarrassing when you are doing the intro. My mind went a complete blank. By the end of the third set, about a quarter past midnight, I was really enjoying myself and wanted to keep going. Gear was a Maruszczyk Elwood 4a (medium scale) through an MB LMIII and Barefaced Two10, with a DI the PA. Got home about 2am. Crossing my fingers that I didn’t catch Covid from the drummer and I will be able to have my operation on Tuesday!

This is turning into a bit of a nightmare. The singer has decided he can do the gig on strong pain killers (could be interesting). However, the drummer has tested positive for Covid! Apparently he feels fine and only tested because his son’s girlfriend has tested positive and they were all together over Christmas. The organiser has said do the gig anyway: there will be people in the audience with it knowingly, or unknowingly. I guess it’s too late for him to get a replacement act. Personally, I feel that is a bit irresponsible but the band have said they are going to play with, or without a bassist. I am due to have a heart “procedure” on Tuesday, which I don’t want to compromise but I spent 4 hours in a rehearsal room with the drummer on Friday, so if I am going to get Covid from him, I will have probably caught it then. All the same, I’m going to stand the opposite side of the stage from him tonight! All this for a deep gig!

Ah, OK. One of these days I might read a manual 😏.

I use a WL-20 with a MB III. I have not noticed any issues but I have never tried to turn the gain up to clipping level. As a matter of interest, what is the benefit of having the gain so high? Doesn’t it distort?

Forthcoming New Year’s Eve dep gig is now looking shaky, as the singer has done his back in big time. Spent most of today chasing my contacts for possible dep vocalists. Actually got two potential takers from a post on Norfolk & Suffolk Musicians Wanted Facebook group. Not bad seeing I had only posted a couple of hours previously. Unfortunately, my top candidate (who can play all the instruments in the band too) has the cold and cough that is doing the rounds. Over to the BL now 🤞. Rehearsal booked for this evening could be interesting with two deps!

I think the BF 10s are great cabs. Light, compact, tough and sound fantastic. I find the Two10 is better than the sum of its parts. By which I mean that it sounds better than two One10s, which I had previously. There is a bit of cleverness going on in the Two10 in the Line Array cross-over, which makes it sound bigger than two separate 10s. It’s a vintage coloured sound though, which isn’t for everybody. They have also just introduced a 3 x 10 but it is quite a big cab. Another British cab line that has been getting some love recently is LFSys. There are some reviews on BC. Their 12s come out a bit cheaper than BFs but we are in FRFR territory, which might not be what you are looking for. I guess you would need to EQ on the amp to make them less flat.

I have one that I also use with a BF Two10. The combination sounds great and plenty loud enough. I used it for the Dereham Blues Festival ,including two pub-garden gigs and it was plenty loud enough, with a nice punchy sound. It does look a bit comical perched on top of the Two10: you can hardly see it. There is a fan but it seems to be even less intrusive than the one on the 200 watt version that I had before. It comes on quickly and the unit does get pretty hot but I have used it for several 3 hour gigs without any thermal cutout issues. On both 200 and 280 watt models, the fan noise is nothing like as loud as on the TE Elf.

There is a Barefaced Dubster in the Basschat Marketplace (no personal interest), which would be immense with the 500 watt head. However, that might not fit your definition of portable, in which case a Barefaced Two10 would be a good candidate IMO. Mine is surprisingly low end rich. I can’t comment on the BF 12s, because I have never had the pleasure but I should think a Super Twin would give you the goods even more than the Two10. You might have to play with the amp EQ more though, as the 12s are less coloured than the 10s. @asingardenof got there before me on the Dubster. Great minds think alike!

Alex has now put up a new video on YouTube with sound demo and some more explanation: .

Maruszczyk Elwood with a chambered body? At the risk of teaching you to suck eggs, if you go onto the Public Peace website you can spec up it up exactly to your requirements. Warning though, it can be a bit like being let loose with the extras list on a BMW; it can become expensive. I am sure you could order to your spec through Bass Direct as well. I have a 32” Elwood I bought second hand and it is the best jazz I have ever played. Maybe not light enough for you at about 3.8 Kg but I am sure with the chambered body it would be quite a bit lighter. A friend raves about his full scale Elwood, so it’s not just me.

Thanks for mentioning that. I had never heard of LFSys before. A bit of research and I found quite a few posts on BC from a few months ago. That does open up the options a bit. The only thing that slightly bothers me from the reviews, is the lack of out and out bottom end. I have never had that problem with a BF cab. However, the ability to hear yourself, even when right on top of the LFSys cab, is a huge plus point.

Bandwidth (not my idea!) did a little 45 minute support slot for the After Hours Band at Blakeney Harbour Room yesterday evening. I didn’t get off to a good start having had to do a massive detour on the way to the gig because of an accident blocking the road. I had set out with a low charge in the car (it wasn’t far) and the detour used up all my contingency, so I was worried I wouldn’t make it home afterwards. We set up on the floor in front of the stage, so as not to interfere with the main band’s set up. As ever I was pushed into a square foot right on top of my amp and I share my monitor with the drummer, so we both end up not being able to hear it 😏. We use minimum stage volume (drummer uses an electronic kit) and we all DI but we always have a struggle setting up the PA. The lead guitarist has a digital mixer, which should be great but I think the technology has defeated him and we seem to go round the same issues every time. We took about 1 1/2 hours to set up, whereas the main act was done in the time it took them to assemble the gear on stage and very impressive it was. My little Peavey Max 150 combo (running at 8 o’clock on Main) was dwarfed by their bassist’s stack of two Aguilar SL 4x10s in beautiful ivory tolex, with I think a 750 watt Tone Hammer sitting on that - sounded massive. I felt uncomfortable throughout the gig, like me and the drummer were chasing the beat, rather than setting it. Not helped by not being able to hear the guitars and keys but the punters seemed to enjoy it. We got plenty of compliments afterwards. We then managed to break down and clear our gear in less than 20 minutes, only to find After Hours didn’t start for another 25 minutes. I stayed to listen to them for an hour afterwards and they were amazing. Really tight, with excellent dual guitar work (a touch of the Wishbone Ash in parts) and fantastic bass. Worth catching if they come your way. On the good side, I made it home through the raging storm (branches flying across the road, etc), with about 5% charge left on arrival.