LITTLEWING

Looking at making my old style 100watt 1 X 15" Ampeg BA-115 combo a smidge louder when required. It copes reasonably well at smallish venues but slightly larger gigs it runs out of breath when nearly max'd out. Would a volume hike at the front end (say an Ampeg Classic Analogue pedal) push the amp/speaker towards eventual doom or would things be fine long term? I have a Hartke 350 head and two cabs but the combo is just so handy!

Ronson lighter fluid. Cleans brilliantly and evaporates quickly so won't soak in, then fine wire wool. Lightly do the frets too with wire wool including the fret ends and the edge of the fretboard. Lemon oil when all clean.

It's surprising how string volume differs when they're in different aspects to the pole pieces. Bend a note and listen to the change as it moves around over the pickup. It's possible that your neck is out of line and the strings are misaligned with the pups. Lay the guitar down and look at the relationship of the strings with each side of the fretboard. A simple slight loosen of the neck screws and a sharp pull will sort things out. Might just get the A string picking up better.

I take the bass down to about a quarter then turn the volume up until it's level with the band, get a comfy sound that's not too harsh or glassy then bring the bass up until it fits in the mix. Last of all play a number with the whole band and adjust the final volume to suit the mix and the ambience of the room we're in.

Zeppelin, Lenny Kravitz, Meatloaf, Neil Young, Joe Bonnamassa, Gregory Porter, Michael Buble. Rather see the dentist.

The only worrying part is the heavy transformer which would normally sit nicely due to good old gravity will now possibly be wanting to fall sideways as things get warmed up and go pliable. Just a thought.

Sadly true. I grew up through Steely Dan. Must be some gig going on up there.

I picked up a neglected old style Westfied for £20, upgraded the pups, bridge and electrics and it's one of my main giggers. Not too fussed if it gets injured, adds to the mojo.

Just a quick tip with Entwistles P bass pups - they're VERY deep and you'll possibly find they ground the bottom of the cavity and won't adjust enough height-wise. I had some and (sorry Mr Entwistle) actually wasn't blown away by the way they didn't sound like a Precision should. I put in a set of Wilkinsons and thought I had a Fender in my hands. Just sayin'......

Our of curiosity and boredom, I cut a slice of foam off a new sponge (don't tell the Mrs) and fashioned a perfect section to fit nicely under the strings by the bridge on my four string Precision as a soft mute. Oh my goodness, I was in Tamla Motown heaven for hours on end. It just opens up a whole new world and adds a new feather to the cap. For the first few seconds it sounds kinda 'whoah' like a set of dead strings but suddenly 'that vibe' kicks in and you're off. Give it a bash, you can thank me later.

Brilliant show completely spoiled as usual by the incredibly hapless mixing by the BBC. Could have been fantastic.

I got two basses on the wall on hangers for those quick 'working things out' moments and two sitting in hard cases ready for gigs. I couldn't relax on a journey if my basses were in gig bags, however much they're padded. I can always see something falling over and cracking the neck off.

You say 'as usual', I had this phenomenon a while back and after messing with different pickups and heights etc went the route of adjusting my amp settings. I found for me using volume as your first step with everything else at twelve o'clock EXCEPT the lower bass dials (take these right down), get the top end nice to the ear then gradually adjust low to mid until it sounds pleasing, THEN bring the bass up until too much then back it off a notch or two. Try it in a full band scenario and record it on your phone or whatever. It's an eye (ear?) opener.

Cheers G, long day. Don't know how I put caps for pots!!

Possibly the existing caps are 500k which are usually quite harsh and 'middly'. The best P bass tone I've found is with both pots at 250k and a .47 cap. CTS are very good, stick an orange drop in and you should get every P bass sound up and down the tone pot. If you really want to experiment, fit a 0.1 cap in if you want to grab that swampy reggae rumble any time.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1500994245' post='3341583'] I don't want to say it's all in the fingers but to be honest it's all it the fingers! I get a generic decent sound as best I can then alter my playing style to suit the song, up near the neck, side of the thumb, slap, fingers over the pickup, fingers near the bridge, plectrum, palm muting etc etc etc I just knock a bit of treble off when using a pick other than that I'm good to go. Some people say a Stingray is a one trick pony, I'd say those people have a limited technique [/quote] 100% me too.

Ernie Ball 45 - 65 - 80 - 100 on my OLP Stingray. Keeps that D and G fat and gives nice flexibility on the A and E. I find I can play lighter too and that's actually added fingering accuracy. Putting some on my Precision once the 45 - 105's go dull.

I've always said that people who have to read music to play have no musical soul. A bass guy, keyboard or guitard who've learnt 300 or more toons in their lifetime and can rattle them off with the odd little inaudible mistake, then play an improv solo from somewhere inside their heart - THAT'S a musician. I've seen guys on cruise ships backing mini stars that have to read to play and actually sound great and spot on, but I often wonder if they could really hold their own in a jam situation.

Thanks for your help so far chaps, I'll check out that low pass calculator thingy. The main reason I'm looking at modding this cheapy combo is that my recently acquired OLPMM2 was rather 'hi-if' crispy and these speakers accentuated that frequency a bit, but having said that, I've changed the tone pot from a 500k to a 250k to darken things a bit and also replaced the .68 cap with a .1.0 and what a very usable pot is is now!! Fully open has the usual twang but 2/3rds onwards rolled off starts to mellow out and sounds oh so sweet. So, I might just ignore the combo sound and enjoy the new sounding bass. Never bloody happy, me. Lol!!!

Thing is, even with the top two of the 5 EQ's rolled right off, the evidently wide range pair of 8" in there still produce a hi-fi type edge showing up that unavoidable finger/string squeak. It's only an old cheap and nasty 'chuck in the car' Stagg CA100B/210 40 watt (I don't know what 210 means either as it has two eights) with Eminence speakers with no tweeter cones to produce crispy, but I fitted two bass ports in the rear and the low end for quiet praccy is unbelievable. I just wanted to try and get that top end 'dulled' a smidge.

Anybody give me a clue to which value choke I need to simply shave the crispness off my speaker in a cheap praccy 40 watt bass combo? I've contacted a couple of component suppliers but get the same answer 'can't help you, don't know what value you need' etc etc.. ALL I WANT (shhh, sorry) all I want is to simply dull the output a little just like a crossover does to a hi-fi speaker to shave the treble off a bit. Nothing technical, I'm not going to the moon or making a laser guided missile, I'm just looking to take the treble crispness out of the sound.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1496434590' post='3311489'] Well I`ve not got one, but have read much about them (and nothing bad to date), and heard one last week and the tone was incredible, a Fender Rumble. You already use Fender amps, why not check out the Rumble, I was really impressed with the sound. [/quote] Just don't get the old black version with the ridiculous red flashing light thing. I used one with two guitars and a drummer once in a small pub and the thing ran out of puff wound up and sounded like a lorry in a tunnel. Horrid product. I just hope the new silver front version is the one you heard.

[quote name='markorbit' timestamp='1496787630' post='3313909'] I always try and match the radius of the fingerboard. I do this mainly by how it feels so that the same string attack gives the same results on each string. This does mean that the radius slightly lifts with the thicker strings which require a little more room to vibrate. [/quote] This. Totally.

Gotta put Elixirs up there. They might appear initially pricey, but as they stay sweet for bloody ages, you could buy 4 sets of uncoated at a total of around £80 a year and watch them go dull where Elixirs at around £40 stay consistently full of tone. I took some off my Squier VM as spares when they finally lost their sparkle and two years later put them on a project P bass and they STILL ring sweet even now.

[quote name='BassBunny' timestamp='1496616583' post='3312792'] That's exactly what happened when I changed the 0.47 for a 0.1. Haven't a clue regarding a 1.0uf . [/quote] Ah, I actually meant a 0.1. I'm not very scientific, my ears always tell me what's nice and not. Thanks for the reply.