warwickhunt

Am I missing something (I know I am btw) but a click track is barely acceptable IMHO for a live show but to then play to a click AND have the bass on some form of recording... just be done with it and do karaoke... or stick Spotify on and play the album through the PA! Before you ask 'YES' I'm old. LOL

I chose not to ask... because I never get those kind of offers.

Are these 2 statements directly connected... what are the leads used for? I NEVER get those kind of gigs/offers!

I'm in the band that is NOT playing 'Shadowplay'!

I wondered about that but I just checked back through the thread and there really is a fair bit of very constructive info and advice been given over including the bone of contention that if you are driving a 600w amp to the point of it and/or a 1400w cab distorting then you are too loud... leading to a bit of niggle over hearing protection, which tbh having read from a neutral stance is all pretty valid. Defo seems to be all typical BC to me.

Beedster might be referring to the fact that the OP came on asking about speaker cable types and stating that a 1400w cab was distorting and that they were going to double up on said cab, whilst variously either getting a smaller amp to drive both cabs or adding a further 500w amp to drive the 2nd cab... whilst PA support was not an option. Doesn't sound like someone with 20 years experience to me. That's just my take on it mind!

Even if I dare not tackle the caps etc I may have a look at aligning the wiring and taking strain off before resolder and shrinkwrap.

If you have a lot of experience you can often have a very good guess what the gauge is if they are a regular set and not custom 'stepped' gauges but to know for sure you'd need a gauge.

Interesting that you have circled/highlighted several (not all) connections that are original from manufacture. I did take it to another electrical engineer after the 2nd transformer replacement (I couldn't understand how 2 had failed and no fault found); he had it several weeks before declaring it was fit and made zero comment on any soldering etc. 4 days later that transformer burned out. I think many of the informed comments made, highlight the difference between the business approach and the professional/informed user insight... if only some of the business heads actually had an interest in what they were doing. I'm maybe doing them a disservice as they have to make money and time is money, so going over something with a fine toothed comb is expensive. At the end of the day I could end up paying someone double the value of the amp to just give it an MOT/heath check.

Bearing in mind the insightful comments from @Chienmortbb @atsampson @agedhorse @BassmanPaul (and others along the way) I might get the amp checked over while it has a fully functioning transformer. I suppose my dilemma is that the tech doing this work has charged me not a lot of money to do the original transformer replacement and then zero charge for the 2 subsequent replacements, as he felt obliged to warranty the work; now finding someone I can trust to take this to the logical next step of possibly looking at the capacitors etc is not going to be easy.

Genuinely sorry but you lost me at 'How are the...'. If you can use the image I posted to highlight the areas I need to address I'll have a look. I'm not trying to be obtuse, I'm a bassist who's knowledge of soldering et al is making guitar/speaker leads and soldering the odd speaker in/out of a cab.

Ah OK I get where you are coming from. I'm competent with a soldering iron, so if it is a case of making connections more secure I can do that! I can cable tie, shrink wrap etc anything that looks like it may put strain on a joint.

Hence my comment... 'watts are dirt cheap (and mean little)'! I own and have owned a fair few amps over the last 44 bass playing/gigging years and I came to the conclusion some years back that quoted wattage figures were there for the gullible. I know a few companies who I'd likely not need to check their figures and I'd trust them to be representative of what levels an amp might go to before running out of steam but I likewise know those manufacturers that I'd not wasted energy researching how they come to their numbers; the same goes for cabs as well. As soon as a company moves into the high numbers for any attribute of an amp/cab I just start switching off and thinking blah blah blah... and I knock off 25-75% of what they say. Case in point being an Alto FRFR 10" powered cab quoting 2000w... don't be silly. I knew it was closer to a max of 200-300w.

@walshy defo has contact for man n a van.

Back to square 1 for me! I've no idea why, considering desk settings were saved, but last 2 gigs I've set up, plugged in and been assaulted by this god awful IEM bass tone! PA guy assures me there is now no compression or effects on my Aux send (wired to P2 > IEM) but I have this buzzy/compressed bass tone which is a million miles removed from the FOH sound but apparently that is the compromise for using cheap IEM... this has led to heat exchanges as the IEM may be cheap but when I play ANY other sound source through them there is no compression/distortion. I've plugged the drummers studio headphones into my P2 at the gig and it sounds exactly the same, so imho nothing to do with my choice of earphones. Thinking it through, I've never actually listened to any of the other Aux sends that the drummer and guitarist use so I'll be checking that. It has been suggested that I use my A&H 4 channel mixer to get a DI bass tone + a feed from the PA and I mix from that for my IEM, which is an option. However we are doing a theatre gig this weekend so it'll be interesting to give the engineer my feed and see what I get back as a mix!

Same guitarist in my 2 bands has been a fan of the modelling stuff for nigh on 20 years; firstly into FRFR (before it was called FRFR), presently IEM no backline. He has and uses combinations of AxeFX, Helix, Tone-x and I'm certain at least 3 more which all give a cracking FOH sound and the cheapest of these is a few hundred quid, not thousands, which when you compare to the price of a good amp/cab/combo is comparable by the time you've bought a set of IEM etc. I've been cajoled, goaded and theoretically bullied into foregoing my trad amp/cab for a preamp with amp sim or cab IR + IEM and I must say that it likely sounds great out front but as far as me monitoring how I sound through IEM you can stick it where the sun doesn't shine! This is likely something to do with the desk set up and/or the PA owner/operator (said guitarist) but either way I am 1 or 2 gigs away from telling him/them to just deal with my backline as that's what I'll be using in future.

Your average gigging muso (not pro touring band) has never had it so good. 50-60's they had very little in the way of loud amplification or efficient cabs; a couple of 10-20w guitar rigs (that included bass) and 'maybe' 50 - 100w WEM PA. 60-70's saw the relatively cheap transistor amplification taking over and 50w guitar and 100 - 200w bass rigs were available. 80-90's... we are into 500w bass amps being readily available and a 1000w power amp driving your passive tops was normal. 00's to the present day - watts are dirt cheap (and mean little), you can buy a 500-1000w bass amp for a couple of hundred quid; PA's are active 2000w per side and weigh little in comparison to the past! A lot of generalisation obviously but through time, amplification has increased in power and efficiency, whilst getting cheaper. We would (almost) all have bought into the ethos of needing the biggest and best and what of our drummer friends... they hit harder, so the band play louder; a vicious circle?

Can you expand?

Gawd I hope so. Thankfully the additional work hasn't cost me!

Update... It seems to be operating absolutely great. Fingers crossed for long term operation.

I think Bill would agree that anyone playing with a loud drummer should take care of their hearing but you are likely missing the point that everyone else on the thread thinks. This being that your 'present' amp + cab should be so loud that you almost need double ear protection. Adding another amp to drive another cab is not what most folk are suggesting is the answer to your problem. 1100 watts into a pair of Big Twins is at a point (or way beyond) where PA should be carrying the bass. Personally from what you've said about clipping/distortion, you've got an issue that needs addressing before you add more amps/cabs!

I bought one (as well as 3 other preamps) in my pursuit of IEM tone as you are... to find it was the fault of the desk, not my gear choices. Oddly I've gone back to the Sansamp which I had all along. I've had no issues with software, though I did read up how to avoid the issue if it did happen. Only thing I find is that I can't 'quite' get the smidgen of drive that I require; it tends to go from no drive to too much, despite balancing level and drive. However, I might not be using it to its best ability or missing some important interaction. Don't get me wrong it is very good and defo gives you a more realistic amped tone but I'm finding the sansamp or Paradrive does what I want easier!