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Obrienp

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Everything posted by Obrienp

  1. Obrienp
    Village Hall benefit gig: not my village but playing for free. Completely knackered and felt I was a couple of BPM slow on everything but I think the lead guitarist had been drinking RedBull all day: he was hyper, so maybe he was pushing the pace more than usual. First time I had gigged with new (to me) Warwick Gnome iPro/Barefaced Two10 rig. I also decided on a whim to use my Vox Starstream instead of the usual P/J. I also use a Boss wireless system. Half way through the third number I started cutting out. It wasn’t clipping: Gain and EQ at 12 o’clock, Master hardly on. I did a quick round of pushing all the jack plugs in, checking I hadn’t accidentally engaged the tuner pedal, etc: still cutting in and out. Finally I turned the wireless sender in the bass’ jack socket. Normal service resumed. I can only assume that it hadn’t quite seated enough for the little battery saver switch to engage fully. It was a relief, as I had feared the iPro (I had bought off fleaBay) had an intermittent fault. All was good for the rest of the evening, so it seems to be OK 🤞. The gig was well received, so all is well that ends well.
  2. Obrienp
    Thanks for that confirmation. Well, you live and learn. So the volume control(s) on separate power amps (e.g. for P.A.) is in reality an input gain control.
  3. Obrienp
    Excuse my ignorance of how these things work but are you saying the Master is not controlling the output of the power amp? I had just assumed that the Gain sets the input signal level into the preamp and the Master the output volume of the power amp but I guess the implication of what you said is that the Master attenuates the output of the preamp into the power amp. Therefore, the power amp just gives its full output at all times? The only thing that affects the perceived volume is the input gain and the Master choking the output level from the preamp? Have I understood correctly?
  4. Obrienp
    I use the poor man’s Sansamp (Valeton Dapper) in front of mine but I very rarely use the EQ section on it. I find the EQ on the Gnome pretty useful TBH. It would be nice if the mids were split low/high but I get the impression that the EQ controls are interactive in some way, so they don’t seem such a blunt instrument. The Gnome certainly makes gigging easier. The standard one easily fits in a gig bag pocket. The iPro is a bit bigger but still relatively compact and light. A reflection after a few days of ownership, is that the increased dimensions of the iPro would allow for a Speakon socket, rather than the jack it comes with. Something I think Warwick should take into account if they do an update.
  5. Obrienp
    I used the iPro at a band rehearsal yesterday. We were in the hall that we will be gigging at on Saturday (a fund raiser for the hall) not a huge venue but bigger than your average pub. Two guitars and electronic drums through individual amps and DI’d into the PA (500 watts RMS active speakers each side). Bass through the iPro and Barefaced Two10S (@4 ohm) only, sitting on an Auralex isolator to offset the suspended stage. I had the Gain and all EQ at 12 o’clock with the master volume at about 8 o’clock and it was borderline too loud! Bearing in mind the control is off at 7 o’clock, it meant that it was running at minimum volume and still loud! It has got to be like thunder wound up! Tone on stage was very bass heavy but with the benefit of my wireless system I was able to walk around the hall to check the balance: a few feet from the stage, right to the back of the hall, it was much better, with the mids and highs coming through loud and clear. I guess that is the BF projection for you. I was thinking that the iPro wouldn’t be working hard enough at this volume level, after all it is barely on with the Master at 8 o’clock but it didn’t seem to be adversely effecting the tone, or at least, I liked the tone it was making at this level. With 100 or so people in the hall on Saturday night, we are probably going to have to turn everything up a bit, as bodies seem to absorb the sound. I am interested to hear what the iPro is like with Master a bit higher. I have also yet to try it with the Blues band I play in, which is a much louder outfit but I get the impression that the iPro is as loud as my Terror Bass (500 watt).
  6. Obrienp
    You never know, somebody else may know of a cheap bridge solution available in the UK. It seems there are quite a lot of aftermarket replacement parts for Broncos in the USA but most of them aren’t cheap. Personally, I couldn’t put up with the compromised intonation adjustment of the OEM bridge but I agree it is not worth throwing a lot of money at it. You will never recover it if you decide to sell. There is a thread somewhere on BassChat about modding Broncos. I went into more detail about my mods on that but more importantly, there are alternative solutions on there. It might be worth searching it out.
  7. Obrienp
    If you get a split Precision set, you can compensate the narrower string spacing by having the two parts overlapping. I did this on a Bronco but I had to do a bit of routing and I also had to make the original routing a little shallower in some places by adding some wooden strips. I also had to have a new pick-guard made up. A ‘51 P pickup is going to be too wide unless you set it at an angle. Of course, if you can find pickups with bar magnets, string spacing is less of a problem. There are some replacement pickups made for Broncos but they are expensive. Lots of people just fit bar magnet Stratocaster rails (humbuckers). Good luck with finding a cheap bridge with the same string spacing. I got one on eBay but it came all the way from China and had some design flaws that took a bit of metal work to sort out and it didn’t fit the original screw holes exactly. It might be easier and cheaper to to fit a more standard Fender type bridge with wider string spacing (and it might make it easier to fit a 34” scale pickup) but you won’t be able to use the original screw holes. If you are prepared to spend serious money there are various options with the narrower string spacing.
  8. Obrienp
    Yep, that’s what I found. I just use those rubber washer/doughnut things you stretch over the button once the strap is in place. A bit of a struggle to get on and off the large buttons on the Starstream but effective (and cheap).
  9. Obrienp
    Sounding genuinely acoustic with amplification is so tricky! Even with an SM57 in front of the instrument the quality of the sound is changed. Mics also suffer from feedback issues and are difficult to use if you like to move around a bit, so it is much easier to use an onboard pickup (not saying they don’t feedback as well). Piezos tend to sound harsh and brittle, magnetic pickups don’t really sound acoustic, combined pickup/mic combinations sound harsh (to my ears) and I have tried quite a few. The best result I have had for acoustic bass (guitar, don’t know about uprights) was with K&K transducers but I also use a Zoom A2 preamp that has “correction”. The upright bass voice really does correct the sound to be more acoustic, plus it has automatic feedback correction (a real problem with bass) but of course, that is reducing the tonal spectrum. There are others on the market from Fishman, etc, for more money. I used to play acoustic and slide guitar in various “acoustic” bands. I tried just about every pickup on the market and various acoustic amps/PA combinations. I eventually settled on Taylor’s ES2 system through an AER acoustic amp (DI’d to the PA) for regular acoustic and a Highlander pickup in my National, also through the AER, with radically different EQ profiles for each. Perhaps an AER bass amp is the ultimate solution for acoustic basses but they are eye wateringly expensive. Bose column PAs also seem pretty effective for amplified acoustic instruments but again really expensive.
  10. Obrienp
    A little update on this: I spotted an unused iPro Gnome going for reasonable money on fleaBay and took the plunge. It arrived today. I haven’t had much time to experiment with it but my initial impression of it, connected to a BF One10, is that it may be voiced slightly differently from the 200 watt version. It reminded me of the TE Elf voicing in YouTube videos (through decent speakers). A very pleasing punchy but slightly less transparent tone. However, that was with Gain and EQ all set at 12 o’clock and Master around 8/9 o’clock: hardly ticking over. I haven’t wound it up yet, or tried it through the Two10. The fan seems even less intrusive than the 200 watt version’s. To be expected I guess but the iPro is a bigger unit than the 200 watt version. They looked the same size to me in the group shots I had seen online but the iPro is a few centimetres wider and deeper, and just a bit taller. It is also a bit heavier. Otherwise it looks the same, save for the addition of the USB port on the back. The extra couple of centimetres make it look less comically small on top of a speaker cabinet.
  11. Obrienp
    Excellent. Enjoy! Do tell us if you work out a way to add Loxx.
  12. Obrienp
    Interesting. I haven’t noticed any neck dive on my passive H1 but I do use a wide grippy strap.
  13. Obrienp
    Many thanks for the offer but the SW is a long and difficult trek from my neck of the woods, so I won’t be attending. WRT the BAM200; I am happy with the sound from my Gnome (200 watt) into my Barefaced cabs, I am just wondering whether it is worth upgrading to the 300 watt iPro version for more gigging headroom. I think the BAM 200 would be a lateral move for me. BTW your little combo looks ace. If I had the guts, I would be tempted to do something similar with my BF One10 and the Gnome but I think such a modification would massacre the resale value of the cab. I guess I could remove the Eminence speaker from the One10 and make my own enclosure like you did but part of the BF tone is in the internal construction of the cab and I don’t think I have the woodworking skills to replicate it. I have used the Gnome/One10 combo for the back line at a local acoustic blues jam and it sounds wonderful with various different acoustic bass pickup systems, even a stick upright.
  14. Obrienp
    I was just watching a couple of comparison videos on YouTube: Anderson’s and an Aussie guy whose name I forget. The Anderson’s video compared the Ashdown Ant, TE Elf and Warwick Gnome; the Aussie one was just the Elf vs Gnome. I have to say in both videos, listened to through decent speakers, I preferred the sound of the Elf with EQ at parity. I guess it has the Trace sound but the Warwick came across as completely transparent. The difference narrowed with some EQ twiddling. I didn’t care much for the Ant, which surprised me as I have always rated the Ashdown sound (if not the weight of their gear, Ant excepted). Of course, quite a lot depends on the speaker matching. Conclusion for me: if the Elf was the same price as the Gnome, didn’t have the noisy fan, and I wasn’t paring it with a vintage voiced cabinet, Trace might have got my money. Paired with my BF One10, or Two10, I think it would be a bit too coloured. An issue I ran into at a gig last weekend, when I combined my Orange Terror with the Two10 and a P/J with flats. Somehow I don’t get the same overly coloured effect with the Terror and two OBC112s (careful crafting by Orange perhaps). I am thinking that the Gnome might be a better pairing with the Two10 but has it got enough headroom for a medium sized gig? Would the Gnome iPro be a better gigging amp with the extra grunt and therefore headroom? Still cheaper than the Elf (at Thomann anyway). I am assuming that the standard and iPro versions sound the same, all things being equal. Anybody got the iPro and like to comment? Even better, has anyone done an A/B of the standard Gnome and the iPro version?
  15. Obrienp
    I am very glad to hear you are happy with it. I thought my passive version was good and well made but the active one is obviously that, plus, plus. 👍
  16. Obrienp
    I should have used mine at the gig I played on Saturday. I had a very vintage signal chain: P/J with flats, Orange Terror Bass head, BF Two10. Without the benefit of a proper sound check and despite the Auralex isolator, I was just a background rumble. The Gnome would have been plenty loud enough, even without PA support and a lot more neutral. It makes a good pedal platform as well, like you say. I can get enough colouration from my Valeton Dapper for my needs. It’s just, even on the Two10, it looks comically small, whereas the Terror looks more in proportion 🤔.
  17. Obrienp
    A little update on this because a lot of my gear has changed but not the Gnome. My main amp is now an Orange Terror Bass 500 Mk2. I sold one of my BF One10s but kind of regretted it recently; needing the extra grunt of a second speaker but not always having enough space at gigs for my two OBC112s, I bought a used Two10S off a fellow BassChatter. Arthritis also forced me to go short scale with my basses. During all this change of gear, the Gnome has been a constant. Subjective I know but I think it is a great sounding little amp. Definitely more “modern” than the Terror but good in its own right. It is surprisingly loud through the One10 @8ohms, even louder through the Two10S @4ohms. These two combinations are loud enough for rehearsals with both bands I play in (Dad Rock and Blues). In fact, with gain at 12 o’clock and EQ flat, I rarely have the volume above 9 o’clock with the former. All this in a head that costs around £130 for the basic model I have. It gets used much more than my main gigging amp, doing home practice and rehearsals. I use it nearly everyday and so far, not a hint of trouble. The fan comes on pretty quickly but it’s not loud and despite the hours of operation, hasn’t started to rattle. All the pots are still good, the knobs still in place, nothing has come loose. I always though it was built like a tank and it does seem to be living up to expectations. It fits neatly into a gig bag pocket, or in my case goes into the bag with all my leads, etc that I take to gigs, so it’s there just in case. Drawbacks: the only one so far is the jack out instead of speakon connector. This means I have to carry a jack to speakon cable with me to gigs. Not a big issue IMO. Some people would want an Aux in socket and the headphone out is full sized, rather than miniature but personally I see that as a plus. Apparently the USB socket is bidirectional on the “i” version and the Pro has another 100 watts as well, which I guess gives it more headroom. I’ve never run mine at the ragged edge, so I don’t know how it performs at full chat. Maybe the extra headroom is worth the cash. I don’t know how this compares to an Elf, or a BAM 200 but it seems like good value to me. Definitely worth considering if you are in the market for a miniature head.
  18. Obrienp
    Not wanting to trivialise what happened but that might cause most people up here to kick-off! Seriously though, that puts my gigging problems into perspective! We’ve had the odd drunk but they are mostly peaceful.
  19. Obrienp
    Played a village hall gig, which was basically a favour for a friend of one of the guitarists. Usual squashed into a corner stuff made worse by said guitarist/vocalist having messed his back up and having to sit throughout the gig, reducing available space even further. Band had nearly split up a month or so ago when the drummer walked. We had a new guy who had done a couple of rehearsals with us. Fortunately he is our local equivalent of Charlie Watts and slotted straight in with metronomic precision. Plus side also is that he brought an electronic kit, thus requiring less of the meagre space available. Problems with the digital mixer meant we had virtually no sound check. I used my recently acquired Barefaced Two10S with my Orange Terror 500 for a small footprint and my custom P/J with LaBella flats. Yep, vintage, on vintage, on vintage, without the sound check to adjust EQ: note to self, if you want to be more than a rumble, use at least one modern voiced bit of kit. Fortunately it went well despite the other guitarist doing Here Comes the Sun with his capo a semitone out, forcing on the fly transposition: somehow a semitone is harder than a full step Guitarist no 2 just stopped playing for the whole number 😏.
  20. Obrienp
    I’ve had my SM58 pick up my cab off-axis and cause a rumble through the PA. The low cut filter helps (if you have one on your channel strips). On the odd occasion we have had the luxury of a sound man, so I get him to turn my mic up when it is needed (I’m only allowed to do a bit of backing vocals) and mute the rest of the time. The main singer’s SM58 Beta seems more resistant to off-axis interference but they are quite a bit more expensive. I used to use an AKG D5 and that was even worse for off axis interference. The right mic and careful placement can help but it is difficult to avoid this kind of stuff if, like us, you get to play in cramped conditions like most pubs and village halls.
  21. Obrienp
    I hope you are pleased with it. Given everything it has got on it in terms of hardware, that sounds like a very good price. Enjoy!
  22. Obrienp
    You are welcome. I can’t really say how Ray-esque it sounds, as I have only played a real Ray once briefly in a shop. However, the pickup is a full size Ray style brute, so it must be close, although the amount of wood in the body is pretty small, which must affect the tone a bit. That said, I have had some positive comments about the tone when I have used it a blues jam. I take it along to tease the purists who believe a Precision is the only bass for blues. Several people have said that the Starstream really cuts through and is the only bass that is not an indistinct rumble in that particular function room (it’s a very boomy room). I am assuming that means it’s got that Ray mid-presence. I wouldn’t take my word for it though. I would try before you buy if you can. The ergonomics, which come from the diminished size and the curves in the ABS outer structure, work for me but I guess they might not for everybody. The belly cut and the angle of the forearm rest are perfect for me but I am only 5’ 9”. I like unusual as well. I have a Nordstrand Acinonyx (now main gigging bass) and had an Ibby EHB1000 SS, which I only sold to fund the Acinonyx. I also have a Hofner Violin bass. Not everything has to be a Precision, or Jazz clone to be right.
  23. Obrienp
    Both the Music Man SS and the Sterling SS models are overpriced compared to their full scale siblings in any market IMO. They may be a smaller production run but the differential is just too wide to be justified by that alone.
  24. Obrienp
    The passive Starstream just has standard part bin hardware. The machine heads are Gotoh like. They look the ones used on the Gretsch G2220 and the ones on mine function fine. The nut is bone. Bridge as I said is fairly standard Fender 5 hole pattern. Chunkier than the one on the Gretsch and easily replaced with a Fender high mass (which is what I did), although not really necessary. No clues as to manufacturer of the pickup but it looks pretty standard Ray style. The electronics have a push/pull volume to switch between parallel and series mode but no coil tap. Passive tone control. Pots are usual Chinese issue and 250k to my surprise. The neck has a Jazz width nut and and is pretty shallow. It’s really fast and easy on arthritic hands (I like it a lot). The back is finished in a very light layer of satin and the board looks like Rosewood but I have my doubts at the price point. Ergonomics are brilliant. It’s really comfortable standing or sitting and it balances fine on a strap. It really is light too. The fit and finish on mine is good but I can’t speak for them all. Vox originally had them priced pretty high and then brought them down in price. A bargain IMO but you have to like different.
  25. Obrienp
    I used to think that a mirrored scratchplate could only look cool if Phil Lynott was holding the bass but that really works with the blue.
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