Obrienp

I am afraid you are right. The more you play the tougher they get. An extended gap between gigs and they go soft. Practice sessions don’t seem to count. I keep trying to turn the volume up and play gentler but as the rest of the band get louder (and quicker) I find myself hitting the strings really hard. It will have been 3 weeks off by the time I do my next gig, today week and the blood blister from the last one has peeled off leaving new skin. Guess I’ll be starting the toughening cycle all over again. I find a glass of ice between sets seems to calm the blisters down a bit but that is not always available. I watched a YouTube clip of Leo Lyon’s doing an extended solo and it looked as though he was periodically licking his finger tips. I am guessing it was to reduce friction. I might give it a try.

I think copper tape shielding and grounding wire is the way to go but then I am obsessed with shielding every bass I get my hands on, so maybe not completely objective on this subject!

Yes. I am really pleased with my rig too. I’m surprised that there aren’t more posts about the Orange stuff but I guess the orange tolex is a bit marmite. I think the flats probably do have quite a lot to do with the treble deficit but the OBCs are pretty vintage voiced. The bassist in the band that was on immediately after us, at the same venue at the Dereham Blues Festival on Saturday, had Aguilar gear. I think the cabs were 12s too but much larger than the OBCs. They seemed to be quite a struggle to lug around, especially in the heat. They made an impressive sized stack but I couldn’t be doing with the size and weight (and no doubt cost).

I only just came across this thread. I have the same set up with a V2 version of the Terror. I use it in clean mode all the time with the gain not much above 1/4 and volume about 1/3, and I am being constantly told to turn down by our sound guy and drummer. This rig really does chuck it out and plenty of bass. I have noticed some resonance from the OBC112 cabs but not from the amp. My Barefaced One10 has even more resonance at certain frequencies/notes. I guess it is part of the trade off between weight and density of the cabinet materials. A price worth paying for lightweight and portability IMO. You can always play with the EQ a bit to tame the resonant frequency. I do sometimes get some rattle from the amp but it goes when I tighten up the screws that hold the top cover on. How do you feel about your rig now you have had it a few months? Pathetic I know but when I see pictures of my band in action, I always think the OBCs look too small. The guitarists’ combos are bigger than my cabs! Not a valid reason for getting an 8 x 10 I know, even if I could: a) afford it; b) lift it into the car; c) fit it into the car.

I am not really bothered how the presets are delivered. It’s the concept of having them for both pickup selection and tone. I would be equally happy with a strat style switch to get the 5 pickup selections on the Acinonyx and I guess the tone presets could be on a rotary, variotone style switch. Time will tell if the buttons last the course. They seem pretty robust to me. I would expect you to get something better out of a custom built bass, compared to a mass produced Far Eastern product. I think the Acinonyx delivers a lot in terms of playability, build quality, quality of components and versatility for the money. I can’t think of another short scale bass at the same price point I would prefer but that is obviously IMHO. The only thing I wanted to change about it was the volume knob and that is unusual for this price point.

Thanks for the heads up on Armie’s. I’ll remember to steer clear, if we get picked for next year’s DBF. I wouldn’t be playing Norfolk pubs, if I was looking to make money TBH. It’s more for enjoyment. When you tot up all the hours spent loading and unloading gear, travelling to venues and playing the gig, you earn much less than the minimum wage. That’s before you consider the hours of practice and the cost of gear. I think you definitely got a result with the Strat! Good deal!

I like the Co ck, not sure about the others. We had the Bull on Friday evening (that was a step in for an act that couldn’t make it), which is a good outside gig. The Red Lion and the Cherry Tree on Saturday. Both of those were sweltering but an enthusiastic group of punters in them.

Wow! Luxury stage! We dream of having that kind of space. Very impressive for a beer festival!

I did 3 gigs at the Dereham Blues Festival this weekend too. Only a half hour drive for me. We nearly melted getting the gear in and out of the venues on Saturday but you can’t blame the organisers for the weather. We had a blast and I would happily do it again but then, I don’t have to travel far and it is great publicity for local bands (kind of makes up for the money situation). We picked up a few bookings as a result.

I would agree with that. It doesn’t really have a bright setting in the same way as say, a Jazz bass. Even the bridge pickup solo is pretty bassy. Nothing like as bright as a Jazz bridge pickup and it has much more grunt. That’s not to say the highs aren’t there, it’s just that the bass and mids don’t fall away to the same extent. There is no drop in volume between neck and bass pickup. I am still getting used to them but the switches on the Acinonyx are no gimmick. It’s great to have those preset tones at the push of a button.

Good luck with your experimentation. These issues can be extremely vexing to sort out! The bridge jazz pickup cavity certainly needs shielding, if your TMB35 is like mine, which had no graphite paint in that area but did under the precision pickup (bizarre).

I didn’t notice that when I had my TMB35 but I did shield it thoroughly with copper tape and replaced the electronics with Alpha pots, etc. I have had similar clicking with another bass, when I tried latex finger cots to protect blisters I had developed on my first two picking fingers. It didn’t happen when I played it with a pick. It also didn’t happen when I used the finger Cots on my Nordstrand Acinonyx, which has metal covers on the pickups. I can only guess at what was causing it: did the latex temporarily interfere with the magnetism when in contact with the strings? Could that be happening with your pick? Is it made of an unusual material? Sounds a bit tenuous to me but maybe worth trying a different pick material?

Yeah. I think that might be my issue. Light touch in practice and rehearsals and a month’s gap since the last gig. I normally have longish finger nails as well because I play finger picking style acoustic but I had to cut them before the last gig. I’m practising with a pick this week to give the blister a chance to recover and hope I will be able to tough it out during the gig. If not, my pick technique might be a bit better, so I will have it as a fallback.

First gig for my Nordstrand Acinonyx on Saturday evening. Not an auspicious start as my monitor, that had worked fine at rehearsal two days before, was DOA. I must have had a premonition, as I had taken a spare active pa speaker, which can be used on its side in monitor mode but we didn’t have the right cable to daisy chain it to the mini monitor used by the main vocalist. We had to do the whole gig with just the PA speaker between him and me. Fantastic monitor tone but not the same short range dispersal as a wedge. I couldn’t hear my backing vocals all night, so I was probably flat as a pancake. The Acinonyx was great. Lots of useful preset tones to call up at the press of a button. Those buttons aren’t just a gimmick. However, the tension of all the hassle setting up must have made me hit the strings extra hard and I had developed a large blood blister on my forefinger by the end of our two hour set. Just in time for two gigs coming up this Saturday at the Dereham Blues Festival. No monitor and I might have to play with a pick: it never rains but it pours!

Apologies if this has been asked before, I couldn’t find the thread. I need to tap the hive mind for this. Background: I have a Vox Starstream H1, which is the passive single MM style humbucker model. The original pickup was very good but because of the 30” scale length (I suspect) the strings didn’t line up well with the pole pieces, particularly on the bass side. Consequently I decided to fit a bar magnet style replacement that could cope with the slightly narrower string spacing over the pickup. I found a Kent Armstrong that was about half the price of an equivalent Bartolini. The OEM electronics in the Vox worked pretty well. A simple push-pull volume for parallel/serial switching and a single passive tone. However, the tone had very little effect in parallel mode and the pots were tiny. I decided to replace them with full size CTS pots and an orange drop cap. There were no markings on the original pots and cap, and no guidance with the pickup, so I assumed I needed 500k pots and a 22 cap to go with the humbucker. These are mounted through body in the Vox. After a little difficulty with the new CTS circuit board style push/pull pot, I got it all wired up and working. The set up works pretty well and I am getting more even string response than with the OEM pickup but I still have the issue with the tone not doing a lot in parallel mode. Thinking about this, it dawned on me that parallel mode is like having two single coils in one body: a bit like a Jazz bass with the pickups very close together. Conventionally single coils are wired up with 250k pots and 47 cap. This could explain why the 500k pots and 22 cap are making parallel mode very bright, and providing little tone control effect on my bass. Now I have never owned a Stingray style bass before but I understand the classic MM sound comes from the coils in parallel. Is this what they are meant to sound like? My question to the hive is: what should the standard potentiometer and capacitor values be for a passive Stingray pickup? How do they cope with the different values required for parallel and serial wiring? I have previously wired up a bass using a humbucker and single coil into a single volume and tone control, with a telecaster style selector switch. To cope with the different values required for the two pickups, I used a work around I found online (StewMac I think): I wired a resistor in parallel to the hot wire of the single coil pickup that makes the pots look like 250 K to the pickup, even though they are actually 500K. It works well, in that the single coil has calmed down in tone and volume, and the tone control does have an effect. Is this what MM/Sterling do for their passive basses, or is the parallel into 500k pots the classic Stingray tone?

Just watching the coverage of Glastonbury on the Beeb and they had a clip of Caribou. I think the bassist was playing a Talman 5 string shorty (TMB-35), unless there is something posher that looks very similar and comes in that mint green colour. If it was a Talman, that is quite an endorsement for a bass that costs a bit over £200.

Anybody eventually get one of these? Are they any good? Particularly, is the tuner good (probably the component I will use most gigging).

+1 for the DiMarzios and I put mine in my Squier SS Jag when I had it. They are good and the 4 wire thing allows you to play around with wiring options that give you a few more tones.

I now have serious bass envy! I am trying to be zen and tell myself I have this space covered by my Vox Starstream H1 but it is not working too well. Enjoy!

So, I have had my Acononyx for a bit over a week now and have been able to give it a reasonable try out, although not with either of the bands I play in. It really has got a good range of useful tones available from those buttons. That bridge pickup is really usable on its own too. At the moment I think I am going to keep the round wounds on it. I feel it would be too dark with tapes or flats and I like that bit of growl they are giving. All in all, I am very pleased with it so far.

Yes, the volume drop thing with a P/J set up wired in parallel seems unavoidable. I have no idea of the physics behind it. Every P/J I have had (5) suffered from that whatever pickups I put in them. The only way that I am aware of to avoid that is to wire them in series, in which case you get a few DB volume boost and a sound a bit like a Music Man pickup (I guess it turns them into a big humbucker). I like it but I wouldn’t use it all the time, so I tend to put a push/pull on the volume to switch between parallel and series mode. I have done this in combination with a blend, instead of a second volume: pretty complicated to wire up and as you don’t solder, you would need to get somebody else to do it for you. Somebody is bound to come up with another solution: watch this space. I guess active pickups might not suffer from the volume drop? You can deal with the Jazz pickup hum by shielding the cavities with copper tape. Link the cavities with ground wires and make sure it all goes to ground via the earth terminal on the jack socket. Also make sure the copper tape makes contact with the metal control mounting plate (if it is not metal, put shielding tape on the inside surface). It is not as complicated as I made it sound.

Thanks for this tip. I have done exactly the same with mine. If only the tuner was a bit quicker and a few cents more accurate.

NBD. Well finally, here it is, still with the protective plastic. It’s in Lake Placid Blue that turns out to be a bit lighter than I was expecting but still looks good IMO. It got the thumbs up from the other half, so it must be good. After a very quick plug in, I am pleased to report that it seems pretty quiet for dual single coils. Lots of useful tones, although I can’t imagine wanting to use the deep treble cut that often but I’ve only tried it through my practice rig: Warwick Gnome and a Barefaced One10, so it might be more useful at gig volumes. I was surprised to find it pretty much in tune: did it come all the way from the USA without going out of tune? The only QA issue I have spotted is that the jack socket retaining nut was loose.

How about tone wise? Is the Cat better with flats? Difficult to answer I guess because tone is subjective. UPS are meant to be delivering some time today🤞 But I have to be out for a fair chunk, unfortunately. Sod’s law!