AxelF

I know there's a couple of similar posts right now, but I didn't want to hijack anyone's thread - I'm looking for advice on upgrading our PA speakers please (I think!). I play in a 5 piece rock/indie pub covers band and managed a year or two ago to convince everyone to ditch amps and run a silent stage with IEMs and everything through the PA. Everyone's fully on board and loves it, but it's left to me to try and engineer the gigs, which as we're playing in pubs inevitably means very short sound checks (more like line checks) and I never get chance to properly eq stuff, especially the bass. I hired a rehearsal room at the weekend and set the gear up to give myself a few hours of trying different preamps and tweaking the eq to get a good bass sound, which ended up being an exercise in frustration. Rather than running out and buying new a new bass or more preamps I think I'll probably have more joy upgrading our PA speakers? We run an XR18 mixer into Carlsbro Gamma 15/600 subs and use the HP filtered out from the subs into Mackie SRM450 tops. Having trawled through all the threads I can find on here over the last couple of years I'm only running one sub with any volume to try and avoid comb filtering (probably not too much of an issue in the smallish pubs we're in, but hey) but am just unable to get a punchy, decent sounding bass tone regardless of what I'm doing with the eq and which pre I'm using. I think the Carlsbros have a crossover of either 125 or 150Hz and I'm high passing the bass at 70Hz, so I imagine most of the FoH bass response is going to be left to the tops? I think I could probably experiment with the relative volumes I'm setting the subs and tops at too if I ever get chance. Are the speakers the issue here do you think, and if I'm looking to upgrade them (they belong to the singer), are there any options which would realistically carry the full band without having to use a sub too? I'd really like it to be as compact a solution as possible if I'm going to have to start lugging/storing them too! If tops only isn't going to cut it regardless of the boxes used though then so be it. I see the RCF ART 7 series and the QSC K12.2s get a lot of mentions, with quite a few people using them as a backline option instead of a 'traditional' bass cab setup - does this mean they could potentially be used as a pair as FOH speakers and provide enough bottom end for the bass and kick without a sub? We run the bass and both guitars DI into the desk and mic the kick and snare/hats plus two overhead mics for the drums. Thankfully he plays very sensibly and usually uses rods so we can manage the volume via the PA regardless of the venue. Would something more specifically bass-focussed be a better option and would they carry the guitars/vocals well enough? I see Barefaced used to do a FRFR powered speaker though they seem to be discontinued now - anyone know why? Would they be a better option than those I've mentioned, or are there any other makes/models I should be considering? Thanks in advance for the help - this sub forum has been a goldmine in terms of getting my understanding to this point, and apologies if this feels like flogging a dead horse - most of the topics I've seen regarding these speakers are in the context of a backline 'rig replacement' though rather than something people are looking to put the whole band through.

There's a few good posts on the other site about drop pedals including this one If you're only going 3 or 4 semitones or so I think you'd struggle to notice in a mix with any of them, more than about 5 or 6 semitones you might be pushing it a bit but some sound better than others. Personally I've used The Drop before with zero issues.

Just back from Queen at the O2, really surprised myself at how emotional I felt - they played a few snatches of Freddie's vocal which really caught me off guard. I've always been very sniffy of them carrying on without Freddie and John but I have to say I was completely wrong - Adam Lambert was excellent vocally and very respectful of the legacy generally. Neil Fairclough was fantastic, both bass and vocally. Overall a really top night. Damn I hate it when my sanctimonious self is wrong...!

What's with the speakers suspended from the ceiling? Monitor speakers with no boundary effects?

I've not tried the Ricochet, but the C4 made all of my filters and my OC-2 redundant. As you say, a C4 and a switch (DMC micro is what I use) and I strongly suspect you'll be sorted.

First thing I did when joining a new pub band was persuade them to go ampless and in ears. It's the classic problem with a lot of bands - someone (usually a guitarist...) decides he can't hear himself well enough so turns his amp up - then someone else can't hear themselves over the new volume and turns themselves up, and on and on until it's deafening. Bottom line is you are doing yourself physical harm every time you play at that volume. There will be inevitable pushback and reluctance and the only way might be to do what I did which was shell out for the mixer and monitor amps, and tell them to just buy/bring some headphones. Took a lot of arguing and several rehearsals of persevering with it, but they're all very happy with the setup now - can all mix their individual mixes on the fly, and the pubs and punters are happy because you provide a consistently good sound at reasonable volumes. There's lots of ways to do it but I went with the Behringer xr18 and Behringer P2 monitor amps - the singer and both guitarists have now bought themselves wireless monitor packs and would never go back to loud stages now. No screaming feedback from the vocal monitor and no screaming ears for 48 hours after a gig (or forever which is what the inevitable outcome will be if you continue like this!) It's far easier to say than to do, but if they refuse I'd walk away - it's not worth risking your hearing for the rest of your life!

It's the Nux one, I tried the guitarists Xvibe too which had the same issue. I've tried with a headphone extension cable and moving it a couple of inches away from the control cavity is enough to stop it, so mounting it on the strap should do the trick

Awesome, thanks - will drop them a mail.

Does anybody know anyone who makes custom cables by any chance? I've edged onto what is probably a slippery slope of wireless with a set of those 2.4G WiFi bug transmitter/receiver things, they're fantastic with one of my basses, but with the other I get a high pitched whine - bizzarely they're both Warwicks with active preamps. I'd already copper shielded the control cavity of the one that is silent, so shielded the other today - it's brought the volume down but it's still not silent. Having a look online it seems like most people's solution to this is to move the transmitter onto the strap and connect it to the bass with a short extender cable, sadly I can't find any the right length/configuration so am looking for someone to make one if possible please. I'm after right-angle male and straight barrel female connectors - ideally good quality - and about 18" in length. Thanks in advance!

So sorry mate.

Wow they make some stunning necks, thanks for the tip!

Interesting, hadn't considered graphite but will definitely check them out, thanks. My brain can't work out how they fit 21 frets with no overhang but it obviously works!

Apologies if this isn't the right forum for this, but does anyone know any companies in the UK who make a 21 fret jazz neck? I've been drawn more and more to the tone of jazz basses in some clips I've heard recently and also really fancy the idea of something I've had a hand in creating, but have zero carpentry skills - assembling something from parts is definitely my limit (and will quite likely exceed it...!) A couple of songs I regularly play live need a high E though so really need a 21 fret neck. With no experience of these things I've specced out a neck on the Warmoth site which although beautiful is running into the $400+ range and that's before shipping and VAT which is a lot more than I'm hoping to spend. I don't seem to be able to find any UK-based builders who offer what I'm after - 21 frets, flat radius. Does anyone know any who offer greater customisation by any chance please? Thanks in advance...

Big fan of his music but damn that's a tough watch... Happy birthday Flea though, he sure can play.

Oh no, glad you've (hopefully!) worked out what it was though - the not knowing why is what really drives me mental! Is it too late to give it another go, I think I read you've moved it on already? Have almost got my board rebuilt with the NUX - had to order a new tuner as I ran out of room for the Boss, and picked up a hub for my SA pedals too, but have to say I'm absolutely loving it so far.

That's so frustrating, sorry it's happening! I can't really offer any practical advice I'm afraid but I would say hang on in there - you'll love it if you can get it working... It'd be worth giving Jon 'Jkos' on Talkbass a PM - he'll almost certainly be able to tell you what you need to do, and he has also written an android editor that he'll send you a link to - if nothing else that will allow you to switch between the pre-installed IRs.

What worked for me was: 1) Plug the pedal in to the PC via USB without it being powered up 2) Open the firmware updater on the pc 3) Connect power to the pedal while holding down both footswitches This meant the pc could see the pedal and I updated it to the latest version on the NUX website (3.7 I think). The editor worked perfectly for me after that. I agree that the instructions/software setup side of the pedal is appalling, but the sounds more than make up for it! I hope you get it working ok, shout if that doesn't work.

I've just picked up a NUX MLD preamp too - not had chance yet to really play with it so will post my thoughts later, but @SumOne drop Jon 'Jkos' a PM on Talkbass - he's made an android app for using the editor when not connected to a pc. You need a USB micro cable to whatever USB your phone takes, usually C. It's not been updated for the 3.7 firmware yet so looks a little bit odd at the moment, but works great for switching between different IRs. I'm not sure I'll need to at a gig, I'm hoping to find my favourite and use it as a 'set and forget' type thing, but using your phone you could easily swich between every song.

Active or passive would you say? Seems to me that it has a lot more low end than I usually associate with a jazz especially when the preamp is set flat. Possibly has other effects/tone shaping before the NUX do you think?

Was listening to a video for the NUX preamp today and was blown away by the tone. I had one in my basket ready to pull the trigger and then the boring rational inside voice realised that the pedal is off at the start and it's the tone of the bass that I'm loving. Sadly there's nothing in the description to say what the bass/signal chain is - to my very inexpert ears it sounds unlikely that that's just a dry bass signal and that there's probably some low end eq boost and maybe some compression on it too? In the futile attempt to describe sounds with words, to my ears it sounds deep and fat, yet articulate and punchy - exactly what I'm after! If I had to guess I'd say maybe jazz pickups, active, bass boosted with compression? Probably waaaay off though - what does anyone think, is this a fairly standard tone/easy to replicate? Thanks in advance..

I've clearly imagined it but I'm sure there used to be a sticky about not being that **** who posts about being that guy 'who doesn't need effects' in the effects forum... 🙄

Source Audio C4 and Aftershock. The range of options, even just using other user-generated patches and never having to touch the editor if that's not your thing, is just staggering.

I can't see what version of the pc software you're using, but you'll need to update to the 0.8.32 beta version to edit the Ultrawave if you haven't already done so?