Al Heeley

ducks as some purists maintain that even at tone on 10 the cap and the pot have their own inherent capacitance, inductance and resistance that can influence the circuit, pickup impedence and hence colour the tone, that removing all from the circuit improves clarity, etc. Whilst this may technically be true it is the stuff of snakeoil as I do not believe in a controlled blind test even a trained sensitive musician will be able to tell the difference. Since I have spent the last few years playing bass for a punk band standing too close tot eh drummers cymbals I'm lucky to hear the doorbell ring.

Matamp, 1/2 a mile down the road from me?

S'ok guys I got what I needed (the chords) from some tab-free piano score I found lining the cage of my friends hamster sanctuary.

spotted that, thanks but erm, cough, prefer to find bass tab or guitar chords if at all possible due to my lack of formal music training.

its a small group of friends in an amateur dramatics group that lay on the panto each year, they write it themselves, tell us what songs they want and we go off and learn them. We've never been provided with music.

We're layng on the music for the towns panto again this year, struggling to sort out the key song; The King's New Clothes, original by Frank Loesser, from the Danny Kaye/Hans Christian Andersen film. Can't find any music or tab anywhere. Listening to the recording it is so sparse and a lot os narrated over, with the music being back in the mix that I can't pick out a lot of the notes, chords or key changes. Can anyone offer advice or assistance? This song is a bit of a dogs dinner for us and the show is only 2 weeks away!

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='1082695' date='Jan 8 2011, 10:49 PM']Changing the value of the capacitr, however, would have a more predictable effect.[/quote]...in the amount of treble cut off as the tone knob is turned down, the [i]ramp[/i] of the tone pot. On 10, a change of cap value will have no significant audible difference. [ducks]

[quote name='Vibrating G String' post='1064207' date='Dec 20 2010, 12:42 AM']An Alembic can have thousands of sounds, doesn't it seem a bit far fetched to say they all are uniquely Alembic and identifiable as such?[/quote]I don't see it like that, I see it more as a range of tonal qualities or characteristics it might have rather than a number of discrete 'different' sounds. These may be unique or shared with other brands of bass. There are also the influences of technique, setup, string type, etc. that influence this, causing one person to sound quite different to another on the asame instrument.

[quote name='jimmyb625' post='1064085' date='Dec 19 2010, 10:14 PM']I'd also take delay over reverb any day of the week. Although reverb sounds great in isolation, it can muddy things too much in a live setting.[/quote] +1 for this - theres enough reverb in most rooms you gig in to start to muddy up a guitar sound, why add more? Most guitar amps have reverb in anyway - not something I ever use playing live, a little bit on vocals sometimes help smooth out proceedings, but that's all. Disclaimer: entirely depends on the type of music you play and the sound you are after, but a good rule of thumb is don't let your guitarist use any reverb live and dont let him have any more than 3 pedals at a time.

Not really - as long as you get both ends the same polarity, tip is normally live or +, shaft is ground or -ve. Speaker cable should be twin core, not normally braided/shielded. Neutrik Speakon plugs are better contact and more secure than standard 1/4" jacks, but by no means essential. You don't want your extn cab to be reverse phase from your 2x10 combo, but there's the sound of a can of worms being opened......

I get tone fatigue during a gig - am I alone? What starts off as a really good tone becomes too boxy or mid-rich or boomy or something else after 4 or 5 songs so I try to change it around every song or two to keep it fresher. Tweaking the tone controls on the bass, switching in a graphic eq pedal or the tone controls on the amp - bright switch, etc. helps keep my ears from becoming accustomed to the tonal response and keeping me engaged. Is that weird? It's like your sense of smell becoming saturated quite quickly with certain odours and ignoring them, the brain starts to seek changes that differentiate from the background. I encourage our band's guitarists to switch round guitars and amp channels for the same reason.

Looking thru the recent catalogue from Absolute Music, they have a number of different EBMM basses listed: Stingray 133 series (£999) Sterling Ray34 (£595) Classic stingray(£1629) I see there is also a standard stingray and a classic one, a standard sterling and a classic one. What's the main difference between these models that would cause the wide price difference, and where do the 133 series fit into this? Do they no longer do my stingray model, with piezo bridge pickup blend and matching headstock?

+1 for delay, chorus, overdrive - 3 essential pedals for any guitarist

I got me a couple of thicker gauge cables before the gig last night and since the venue was tight for space I just played into the 4 x 10 cab, and I am fairly convinced the sound was improved and more powerful. It may have been influenced byt eh acoustics or the atmosphere but for the sake of a few quid I like to think there has been some improvement. Certainly the Peavey heads do not have their volume knob 'front-loaded' but the Stingray/tour450/hartke XL combo sounded damn good last night

THat is always a possibility - it was pretty thick gauge cable (not shielded guitar cable) from Maplin I bought and put neutrik jacks on the end. I have no idea if its adequate or not to be honest - is there a spec in terms of resistance i can measure for?

Mr Foxen may have hit on something, I will test this out at gig volume when we're setting up for the pub gig tomorrow night. However, it still won't stop me complaining about volume level when I'm only using the 4x10 cab and the amps firing in 300W at 8 ohms.

Set pre gain and post gain on about 75% (3-o-clock), bass vol on max, plugged into hi gain input then play some slap on the E string. See if the limiter lights up!

I fitted a 3 way toggle switch to my p-bass which switched in 3 different caps to the tone pot. This works in a similar way to the 'varitone' arrangement. the result - slightly more treble cut on a bass that sounded pretty dark anyway as well as a light difference in ramp to the tone pot. Conclusion: insignificant change in tonal quality but it was worth 1/2 an hour with a soldering iron to try it out. I never use it.

some people smear the nitromors all over then put it into a stout polythene bag for a day - all the fumes and gunk concentrate and it helps get the stubborn bits off, I am told.

You only have 3 choices - chemical stripper, abrasives or heat gun. All of these will affect the lacquer underneath so you have to be prepared to refinish or sand back to bare wood and lacquer or oil finish again. Its virtually impossible to remove half a coating.

[quote name='icastle' post='1059632' date='Dec 15 2010, 03:20 PM']Try shoving the 'Contour' control to the centre position and make sure you haven't got the EQ bypass button pressed in?[/quote] I normally set contour at about 1 or 2 o'clock for a bit of mid scoop - the hartke cabs are quite punchy in the mid range. I never bypass the eq. Maybe I should be a bit less precious about getting the red limiter light flashing.

I thought they had gonbe bust and closed down - however, good enough brand for someone else to buy the rights and carry on the innuendo's

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Yep - I'd go for 3 or 4 light wipes with Tru-oil to seal it in.

I'm using the high gain input (the upper one) and with my MM 'ray bass which is active. Not used the bright button as the bass is very bright anyway. Do you have the bass cut in or out? that's supposed to roll off frequencies lower than 80Hz, esp for 5 or 6 string basses if your cab can't take the rumble. If you're boosting signal with a sans amp don't you start to get clipping or distortion into the hi-gain input? I can alsways try boosting output with one of my Mosfet boost pedals