BottomEndian

[quote name='BigRedX' post='570021' date='Aug 15 2009, 04:04 PM']I don't think the fact that the cabs have different drivers is important when comparing them. A speaker cab either does the job you need or it doesn't. We need to stop looking at the numbers in the specs and use our ears instead.

The more speakers I try I find that the actual size and number of drivers in a cab is becoming less and less relevant.

What matters is:
1. Do you like the tone?
2. Is it loud enough?
3. Is the weight manageable?
4. Do they fit in your chosen mode of transport?
5. Can you afford it?

That's what's important.[/quote]
+10000.

The Vintage fits 1-4 nicely for me. As for number 5... well, that's what credit cards are for, right?

[quote name='JTUK' post='570003' date='Aug 15 2009, 03:44 PM']a) 2x15 Fenders with EV's ??...[snip] You need a transit for this... but a bollocking cab which will last eons..[/quote]
It came in the boot of an estate, with the back seats up and a rack-mounted GK head alongside it. But indeed, it will last eons. It already has.

[quote name='JTUK' post='570003' date='Aug 15 2009, 03:44 PM']b... Vintage... [snip] Apparently it is very shallow and light...and looking at the front of the cab..the panels look very thin.
This would help weight but may not add up to a substantial box... and for that size..what are you gaining.. ? you still need and estate or truck. Really hope the cab is plywood and not an MDF..
Visually looks nice in the pic..[/quote]
Indeed, the ply's very thin, but the cab is braced incredibly well. The walls don't flex [b]at all[/b] when you press them. I'd be quite happy to sit on the Vintage. In fact, my son does. It's as substantial as it needs to be.

As for an estate or truck... I have a Nissan Micra. Admittedly, I have the back seat down, but it fits comfortably, along with my power amp, pedalboard and as many basses as I own. With my old Peavey cabs, I had to use my wife's mega-ultra-size battlecruiser of a car.

[quote name='bythesea' post='570004' date='Aug 15 2009, 03:44 PM']Very true about the strings - discusses those as well. The DVD was from [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Michael-Manring-Bass-Guitar-DVD/dp/B000CPH9UW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1250347247&sr=8-3"]Amazon[/url] - it says 2005 but it's a DVD version of an older release, not too long after he got the hyperbass I think. Shows how to use two ebows, and how to play three Zons at once [/quote]
Ordered! Cheers for the link.

[quote name='bythesea' post='569990' date='Aug 15 2009, 03:32 PM']I have a DVD of Michael Manring where he uses one and explains how it works and how he uses it.[/quote]
Bear in mind that Michael Manring uses silly string gauges like 20-52 or something (piccolo strings tuned to standard bass pitch), so it's much easier for him to get them vibrating than it is for us mere mortals.

(As a side note, where'd you get the MM DVD from? Sounds interesting...)

[quote name='Mr.T' post='569977' date='Aug 15 2009, 03:14 PM']... Just read the spec on the EV drivers in that Fender cab.

21 lbs. a pop!
No wonder it is a heavy beast.... [/quote]
Lawks. So, what with the Kappalite 3015 speakers being 7.9 lb each, Alex could probably get five of those in a Barefaced cab before he reached the weight of the Fender cab. 5 x 15, eh? Hmmm...

Barefaced Behemoth, anyone?

The trans-white finish is particularly stunning. Any close-up shots, warwickhunt?

The only problem is the string spacing. The grooves on the bottom of the Ebow are spaced such that -- on guitar -- they sit on the strings either side of the one you're playing. Easy.

On bass, where the strings are further apart, you have to improvise a solution that works for you, in terms of finding a position where the string you're playing sits in the sweet spot between the grooves. Not impossible. Not even [i]that[/i] hard, but probably twice as hard as using Ebow on guitar. YMMV.

[quote name='Gwilym' post='569774' date='Aug 15 2009, 10:25 AM']MTD 535
1mm, 1.5mm, 1.5mm, 1.5mm at the 3, 12, 17, 21 frets respectively. Low to Low-. Elite Players nickels. 125 set i think[/quote]

That's astonishing. Have you had your plucking fingers surgically replaced with feathers?

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='569086' date='Aug 14 2009, 02:47 PM']Serious relic'ing alright, but no fag burn! [/quote]
Fag burn:

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='569618' date='Aug 14 2009, 11:16 PM']'71 Fender Fretless Precision, Ebony, La Bella FL flats .043, .060, .082, .104:
2mm, 4mm, 4mm
Medium[/quote]
Glad to see the half-rounds have come off. You didn't get a chance to measure it with them on, did you? They were completely unplayably low to me.

I knew my feeler gauges would come in handy one day...

Ibanez BTB775PB:
D'Addario Chromes (flats) ECB81-5SL .045/.065/.080/.100/.132
35" scale, tuned BEADG
3rd: 1.6mm
12th: 2.6mm
17th: 2.8mm
(all measured on the B string -- can't get the feeler gauges to the E accurately!)
I call that Low. In fact, I want to raise it a touch.

Music Man SUB 4:
D'Addario Nickel Rounds EXL160-5 (with the A string unused) .050/.070/.105/.135
34" scale, tuned CGDA (in fifths)
3rd: 1.7mm
12th: 3.2mm
17th: 3.3mm
Low (It's the absolute lowest it can go for me, because I play this bass HARD with a pick. Any lower and it buzzes like a wasp in a copper pipe.)

Squier VM Jazz fretless:
Thomastik Jazz Flats JF344 .043/.056/.070/.100
34" scale, tuned EADG
3rd: 1.9mm
12th: 3.4mm
17th: 3.5mm
Medium
(but could be much lower at the 3rd if I filed the nut down a bit)

Right. A lot of it's a bit OT, but here are the things I learned (or at least had reinforced) from last night and from reading this thread today:
[list=1]
[*]There's no subsitute for standing in a room with this gear, even if the entire room rattles when you play the low string through the Fender or the Vintage. For me, bass is as much felt as it is heard. The Fender and the Vintage both have a visceral quality that doesn't come through [i]at all[/i] on the video. Whump, thud and thwack. Again, thanks to Howard for the terminology.
[*]One man's meat is another man's poison. This can be further broken down:
[list]
[*]The neck profile on a Zon Sonus is not for me, although I love the sound.
[*]The neck on that Sadowsky is lovely, lovely, lovely, and it's light as a feather, but the sound's just not for me at all.
[*]Those Aguilars and Bergs are nothing like how I want to sound.
[*]I love that Fender cab, but the weight would be a complete deal-breaker. And back-breaker.
[/list]
[*]The Vintage sounds top-notch even when you're standing in "gig position", about 18 inches in front of it.
[*]The Vintage is [b]the[/b] cab for fretless. Seriously. On that topic, WoT, did we get a clip of the fretless into the Vintage?
[*]I need to stop being shy about playing in front of people in a non-band situation. I just fall back on noodling around pentatonics and minor seventh arpeggios...
[*]I can't pick up an unlined fretless Precision for the first time ever and expect to play anything more than the first bar of "Continuum".
[*]Real men -- I mean, real [i]Geordie[/i] men -- don't need more than four strings. My Ibanez was greeted with looks of confusion and bafflement. Could have just been the astonishing weight of it though...
[*]My idea of a low action was way off the mark. I mean, I knew I liked it pretty high, but several of these guys' instruments were so low they were unplayable to a heavy-handed mofo like me.
[/list]
The list might continue later if I have any further thoughts/recollections.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='569120' date='Aug 14 2009, 03:10 PM']And regarding frequency response, on-axis it's pretty damn flat up to 4kHz. There's a bit of a bump from the lower midrange downwards where the speakers couple and then there'll be some wiggles due to the baffle size as you go lower. But all in all its pretty good and even across the whole 50-4000Hz passband.[/quote]
Hmmm. Interesting. So is the bump that I've heard somewhere around 1-2kHz part of the speaker coupling bump? If so, it's a good, good thing.

Alex, have you ever made a frequency response plot (even just a modelled one) for the Vintage? I'd be really interested to see it, and I'm sure there would be a few other interested parties.

Oh, and... port plugs. Progress?

[quote name='alexclaber' post='568820' date='Aug 14 2009, 11:27 AM']...The Vintage has more upper midrange bite...[/quote]
And lordy, it was niiiiice on WoT's fretless P. Added so much growl, bark, bite, woodiness (hat-tip to The Bass Doc for the terminology ) and all that.

[quote name='Mr.T' post='568795' date='Aug 14 2009, 11:14 AM']Oddly (or not?).....

I thought the Fender had the most 'full' sound.[/quote]
The Fender's got bucketloads of top end. Absolute masses of it. And that's from two 15s, remember. It's not a sound that suits me -- I love the roll-off from the Vintage. It's useful for taming the stupidly aggressive fuzzes I use.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='568777' date='Aug 14 2009, 11:01 AM']I love my Bergs, and the modularity they provide, but the outcome of a real-world test could be.... interesting![/quote]
I don't have much time to chip in now, but I'll just point this out for our dear readers: the Vintage weighs about the same as [b]one[/b] of those Bergs, or [b]one[/b] of the Aguilars.

And (IMHO!) it absolutely wipes the floor with them.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='568720' date='Aug 14 2009, 10:07 AM']Never mind that - what about that shootout?![/quote]
Patience, grasshopper. There's video to edit and all sorts!

It was a very, [i]very[/i] interesting evening...

[quote name='Aussiephoenix' post='567690' date='Aug 13 2009, 09:42 AM']I've got a question for you all that's been nagging at me...

I'm powering all of this using a boss transformer that's connected to the Boss Tuner, and from there, I have DaisyChain-age (2) that feed all the other pedals.

a mate has brought it to my attention that the DC out of the Tuner shouldnt feed more than 200mA, and at the moment its feeding a lot more than that as you can see below.

what are your thoughts on this?[/quote]
Lawks. I'd have thought that lot would be drawing much more than 200mA, what with the Headrush in there. Stuff like digital delays and loopers tends to pull a lot of current. If there's genuinely a 200mA limit on the supply, that means you'll eventually either fry the power supply (or the tuner that's acting as a power-thru connection) or it'll have to drop the voltage supply to compensate. That means everything is getting less than 9V, so things might get noisy or unclear, and (speaking from experience with my Unibass) the switching on the Akai might get unreliable if it's not getting fed the full 9V.

IMO, get something like a 1-Spot, which can supply about 1700mA, and daisychain from that, not through the tuner. That's what I do, and it all works nicely.

[quote name='Rich' post='567583' date='Aug 13 2009, 07:53 AM']That guitarist is neither psycho nor billy enough. He needs a huge Gretsch or something, and some silly hair. Perhaps his mum won't let him have a daft haircut?[/quote]
Later picture, I think:

Halfway there, but Mum's still in control. "Now Peter, if you're going to have that silly Grinch guitar or whatever it's called, you [b][i]must[/i][/b] wear your glasses. No, no arguments."

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='567308' date='Aug 12 2009, 09:11 PM']Is it just my imagination.... or were they on the go 20-odd years ago when I lived there? Surely not.. but sounds very familiar.[/quote]
Well, their Myspace says they formed in 1998, but there may have been precursors that shared members. Certainly a couple of them (and definitely their old drummer) have enough years on them to have been going 20-odd years.

[quote name='chris_b' post='566887' date='Aug 12 2009, 03:58 PM']Has anyone used an upright bass in a punk band?[/quote]
There's a band called [url="http://www.myspace.com/52pickuphateyou"]52 Pick-Up[/url] in Newcastle who do just that. Well, they're apparently "psychobilly", but the ethos and image seems to be fairly punk:

[quote name='umcoo' post='563586' date='Aug 8 2009, 05:26 PM']I could make a joke about a nice, clean muff, but I won't.[/quote]
Well, I like your muff's huge shiny nubbin.

Seriously, it's lovely, and it must be worth a pretty penny.

[quote name='umcoo' post='563477' date='Aug 8 2009, 02:04 PM'][/quote]
Oh, f*** me. That's beautiful. The essence of simplicity and brutish function.

Anybody know who's responsible for the awesome bassness on Diana Ross's "I'm Still Waiting"? Wikipedia says "assorted LA musicians", so fat lot of good that is...