Spartacus

[quote name='bassman2790' post='543752' date='Jul 18 2009, 07:22 AM']My question is, "How large is the gap in terms of sound and component quality between the ABM and MAG range?" Are the drivers in both cabinets the same? (I'm looking at a 4x10).[/quote] The drivers are the same manufacturer but different models in ABM and MAG. The ABM ones have higher power handling due to uprated speakers and better tweeters. There isnt a lot of difference apart from that except cosmetics.

[quote name='Al Heeley' post='543771' date='Jul 18 2009, 08:35 AM']I don't understand. Why would 500k pots give 3db more gain than 250's? At max gain the pots are zero resistance, ie: full volume. Now zero resistance on a 250k pot ought to be same as zero resistance on a 500k pot, or am I missinig something?[/quote] If pickups sound muddy increasing the pot value will load the pickups less and avoid loss of top end. I shouldnt have used the word 'gain' because that implies its active, more accurate to say 250k pots are -3dB down in output due to increased loading effects. Think about how a pot works. When its turned all the way down youre shunting the pickup output to ground. When its on full youre connecting the pickup hot directly to the output BUT that hot still has the full value of the pots resistance between the pickup output and ground. So the lower the resistance the more signal will bleed to earth.

[quote name='far0n' post='543570' date='Jul 17 2009, 08:36 PM']I did see it, but I'm moving house and frankly I'm being sensible. That was exactly what reminded me about them. [/quote] Almost picked one of the combos once. I mean literally [b]ALMOST[/b] picked it up. Very heavy

You missed a [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/delta-bass-300-2x8-combo_W0QQitemZ170354074778QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL?hash=item27a9e4e49a&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A13%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50"]2x8 Delta Bass Combo[/url] and [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Excellent-Delta-300-extension-cabinet-for-bass-amps_W0QQitemZ260436834215QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL?hash=item3ca33eb7a7&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A13%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50"]matching extension cab[/url] on eBay recently. That would have made a great rig for around £200.

I was in AoS Nottingham once when a guy late teens/early 20s came in wanting to try a BC Rich guitar. Lether jacket with big zips, those big studded leather wristbands you metalheads like , bullet belt, all the metalwork. If the guy had stood under a big magnet, he'd have beaten and kicked himself to death involuntarly. Had all his mates with him, looked like theyd been covered in superglue and kicked around a scrapyard. The guy dealing with him was only about 16, Saturday job or something, and stood his ground to Mr. Metal and his mates when he asked him to take off all the studs and crap in case he scratched the guitar. Mr. Metal got very stroppy and refused as it was a slur on his identity or something like that. \m/ A few of the usual bits of 'Saturday furniture', me included, backed up the sales lad and Mr. Metal stormed off in a huff. Saw him later practically sobbing on a nearby doorstep and all his mates saying they were going to go back and do the windows. Im not making a point at all (except that a lot of sales people have to deal with arseholes), it just made me laugh to remember it

Its Cilla Black with a bass.

Sounds like a 9V power supply might, just might, be a good idea?

Always carry a spare, and if you have to buy make sure its a battery with a 'Good Until' date on the packet like Enegizers or Duracells.

[quote name='HudsonFrancisco' post='543117' date='Jul 17 2009, 12:20 PM']+1 to all except Bark Psychosis - dont know them. Anyway, forgot to link my band: www.myspace.com/tacomanarrowsbridgedisaster/[/quote] Error 404 - file not found. Links broken mate.

[quote name='soundbass' post='543105' date='Jul 17 2009, 12:11 PM']What difference is the in the sound of a Hartke 3500 to the sound of an Ashdown ABM 500?[/quote] Hartke is generally clearer and IMO more versatile and has a good compressor and better EQ. Ashdown does good overdrive sounds and has sub octaver. The Hartke valve preamp doesnt give valve od or distortion like the Ashdown, its more to add warmth and sparkle. YMMV. [quote]Which would suite my Ashdown Mag 210T and 115 the best?[/quote] Either. [quote]Would eith amp be a great improvement over my Mag 300 Head ?[/quote] IMO yes.

Mogwai, Slint, Mars Volta, MBV, 65daysofstatic, Bark Psychosis, Sigur Ros, Disco Inferno, Godspeed You Black Emperor?

The preamp is always on, the switch just takes it out of circuit. When you go passive the preamp stays turned on so you dont get big thumps or squeltching noises when you go back to active. It still 'soaks up the juice' but a little less than when its not active. Like Grissle says always unplug when not using it and always carry a spare battery. Youll know when its dying if you hear distortion or fizzy sounding when using the preamp but theres no warning really.

[quote name='Shaker' post='542869' date='Jul 17 2009, 08:13 AM']Having thought about this further in light of the advice above, I think the question I am really asking is how do I wire up the 2 2x10 cabs so the amp 'sees' them as a single 4x10 cab at 8ohms. Any ideas?[/quote] Each cab is 8 ohms and has 2 speakers. Each cab holds wither two 16 ohm speakers wired in parallel or two 4 ohm speakers wired in series (i know its actually 2 16ohm speakers in parallel in MAG cabs). Its [b]impossible[/b] to wire up four 16 ohm speakers to get 8 ohms, you simply cant do it. Even if they were 4 ohm speakers you still couldnt do it. The only way to wire up four speakers to make 8 ohms is to use 8 ohm in series/paralell or 32 ohm speakers (if you can get them) in parallel. Even if you did do it somehow (which you cant) youd be getting less output power out of them than you are now. You could try changing all the 210 speakers to 8 ohms and rewiring the cabs for series linkage between their jacks. That cant be reversed so youd have to be VERY careful when connecting them up. One will be a permanent 'thru' cab with in/out sockets and one will be an 'end' load with an 'in' socket only. That alone would put me off as it would make it much harder to use either with the 115 (i think it would be impossible). But when you use both 210s and the 115, the 115 would still get half the power and it could sound a weird combination. Really think youd be better off rethinking your entire rig becsue rewiring them isnt going to work. The only way you could possibly do it would be to find some dual-voicecoil drivers with switchable impedance like the Ciare drivers used in some Tech or TecAmp cabs (and im not even sure that would work for what you want) or [b]get an amp head that goes down to 2 ohms [/b]impedance like EBS, Eden, Nemesis, Peavey. Then ifyou connect three 8 ohm cabs the amp will 'see' 2.66ohms. edit: You could also try a stereo amp with two 4 ohm channels like the 1000W Ashdown Little Giant. Or run a line out from your head to another combo or power amp/cab.

[quote name='Veils' post='542707' date='Jul 16 2009, 10:37 PM']Cheers for the advice here. I am aware that turning down the input or gain stage on the amp can tone this down, but it kills the tone. What I really need to know is, since I admittedly don't have a brilliant understanding of the technicalities of signal is how do I most effectively tame the output without killing the tone.[/quote] Easy. Get the preamp gain adjusted downwards so it doesnt overdrive everything it touches. You can still have a hot output without overdriving everything. THAT is killing your tone.

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='542568' date='Jul 16 2009, 08:15 PM']The thing is, not everyone is like you. I will help any customer out and give them good advice, but when you have someone who just wants to kill half an hour trying out an all-black bass, slapping the hell out of and scratching it to f##k, you have to draw the line.[/quote] Pete, if any stores get dissed online by someone whos been a tw*t instore then its more than likely that person will come across like an arse anyway. Seems theres only one store that gets regularly dissed and thats only when one member of staff isny there. Mentioning no names. Dont take it personally. i 'cut my teeth' at the Derby and Nottingham AoS and they were all top sales AND cutsomer service people. Respect.

Theres a big difefrence between the attitude from AoS staff (whove all been great in my experience) and some well known 'specialist' shops who have a habit of checking out your shoes before offering you a deal. And before you ask im never surly and always respectful when trying out gear, can almost play the stuff and usually can figure out how it works without a 'helper' (I can usually help them lol) but am sick of some stores making me feel like their doing me a favour.

I only use zinc choride as they have that genuine vintage sound you cant get from alkalines

+1 to everything ENdorka said. The thing here is that the preamp is putting out a lot of voltage and that volatge will tend to clip a lot of gain stages even if they are 'padded down'. If the OP doesnt want to get his output adjusted (which would be best IMO) then the next best thing would be to use an external passive volume pedal. The pots in those are usually much better quality than onboard volume pots, theyre not active so wont clip if too high a bass signal is fed into them, and wont attenuate the top end as much when turned down from the bass. NJEs selling one [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=54533&hl="]here for £15[/url]

[quote name='mrcrow' post='542387' date='Jul 16 2009, 04:32 PM']why not stick to the original 250k pots? best of luck with a sensibly wired up two pup machine[/quote] 500k pots give 3dB greater gain than 250k and sound a bit brighter and are also more controllable for more subtle blending.

[quote name='mrcrow' post='542391' date='Jul 16 2009, 04:37 PM']your set up looks ok whites are hot reds are earths and the soldered and taped leads make the pup series...so there is a phantom coil in there to humbuck?? not really familiar with these but they sound like stacked pups when used separately you shouldnt get any hum at all...and since you have used both whites they are in phase hope i am right[/quote] The standard MM type has two coils side by side and 4 wires. Some types have phantomn coils for silent operation of single coil modes but this one doesnt. There are two ways of wiring it. Parallel (pickups wired electricaly parallel, hots together, grounds together, and magnetically out of phase) or series (pickups wired with ones hot to the others ground and magnetically out of phase for cancellation) If white was hot and red was earth, and the yellow/black were taped then it would be series wired but electically out of phase giving low output. The OPs already tried that and it wasnt right. The hum is most likely because it looks like the earthing between the pot shells and the lugs isnt continuous. Sorry but youre confusing the issue here and stand a chance of confusing the OP as well

[quote name='Sazgo' post='542032' date='Jul 16 2009, 10:46 AM']I was looking to buy one for sometime but was stuck between this and paying slightly more for a MM sub. The problem is that ATK model is 200 GBP more than the ATK300 and the only difference is the 5 piece neck which as far as i understood makes no tonal difference, it also looks alot cheaper imo as there is no scratchplate. In the end though i searched endlessly for a 750 or 400 series (the one with the extra jazz pu) as it made the bass even more versatile but i just couldnt find them in UK and the US websites that did international shipping wanted credit card receipts/id etc. on top of shipping that costs almost as much as the bass itself so i for now i gave up. If you've got the patience i would recommend trying to get a 750 imported over that one. I think they cost 700$ which is about the same as a atk300 here.[/quote] Thanks fir the considered reply. The cosmetics are going to be a matter of personal choice and i prefer the cleaner look of the 700. ALso i dont need the extra jazz pickup for my needs. Ive compared the 300 and 700 and i think theres more definition in the midrange on the 700 which could be down to the neck constrcution. Have found a 700 new in the UK for less than what looks like the 'usual' cost for a 300, but wanted some opinions before committing fully.

[quote name='chris_b' post='541996' date='Jul 16 2009, 10:11 AM']This might be true, but surely it's a bit of a lottery if you are relying on the floor for your tone or volume! You really should be looking for a bigger rig![/quote] Not purely relying on it but it helps with small combos which might not have deep lows. You basicaly get a free 6dB low end boost from the floor. Its hit and miss but it helps. Pointless suggesting a bigger rig because if the OP is using a small combo then im assuming theres a reson for that.