Oxblood

Crikey, so our Ped did turn up after all! Sorry to have missed you, Chris.

Nice to meet everyone, see some new faces and try out some seriously tasty gear. Nick's Ibanez 'Doug Wimbush' was my fave of the day, but there was an awful lot of quality bassery going on in that railway arch!

Big thanks to OBBM for sorting it all. Really disappointed we never got to hear the V8, CK Next time, eh? Maybe by then I'll be able to bring the full VA350 rig and the two of us can have a mammoth ACME-vs-BFM Trace-Off!

neep, I trust that your purchase was OK and that the fraudulent listing was using the original seller's photo. Have you let the original seller know, so he/she can complain to Ebay as well? Not that it'll do any bleedin' good.

On the vast majority of mono instrument amps, the two speaker outputs are wired in parallel, so connecting one cab to each output socket is exactly the same as connecting two cabs in a chain (doing that would be wiring them in parallel as well, y'see).

With 3 cabs, it's just as easy. Assuming that at least two of your 3 cabs have the necessary extra chaining sockets on them, you can just chain all 3 together and with 8 Ohm cabs you'll end up with an impedance of 2.67 Ohms. (BTW, in case you were wondering, the last cab in the chain doesn't need two sockets.)

Or, seeing as your amp has two outputs, you may find it more convenient to run one cab off socket A and the other two cabs, chained together, off socket B. ...Or the other way around! Because everything remains in parallel no matter what you do, it makes no difference.

One final thought: if your amp is very powerful, when chaining cabs you'll need to make sure that the cable that goes from the amp to the first cab in the chain is good and thick, because it will have to carry the most current. The cable from the first cab to the second can be a bit lighter, and so on. To simplify matters, though, just make sure that ALL of your cables are as beefy as hell!

P.S.: I've been assuming that you have a solid state amp, but your avatar shows a Fender bassman. So are we talking a valve amp here? If so, I would strongly advise against connecting a 2.67 Ohm load to a 2 Ohm tap - it will wear out your power valves and could cause permanent damage to the output transformer. Connecting 2.67 Ohms to a 4 Ohm tap would be less problematic, but still not ideal.

Well, Dave, that knocks Sat-Nav into a cocked hat.

See you in Aldershot...er, sorry, I mean Farnha....no, wait a minute I've got it upside down...

Why am I in a field?

HOLD IT!

Before you get heavy with the tools here, are you sure that the jack socket needs replacing at all? Can you clarify what you mean by a "buzzing output jack" ? A buzz can be caused in several ways.

I'd check whether the jack socket is the source of the problem before you risk doing any damage by trying to remove it.

[quote name='micahbell' post='45293' date='Aug 14 2007, 04:02 PM']...it must be the bass isn't properly grounded. How do I do that?[/quote]
Easy - You run a wire from the metalwork of the trapeze tailpiece to the ground tag of the jack socket.

There may well be a little hole right at the bottom end of the bass, next to where the strap nut screws in. This is for the ground wire to pass through. If there isn't a hole, drill one specially.

Pass a good length of multi-strand wire through the hole (rather more length than you really need).

Cut the wire so that about an inch of it is sticking out of the hole, and strip off a good half inch or so of the sleeving.

Then solder this wire to the underside of the tailpiece, where it can't be seen. If it won't solder on properly, just splay out the strands of wire and screw the tailpiece to the body of the bass, trapping the bare wire between the two.

Solder the other end of the wire to the jack socket ground tag. Job done!

Can't give you any useful opinion on it, Douggy, but I agree, it's a lovely looking creature. Take a look, folks:
[url="http://www.ampeg.com/products/diamondbluebass/b15r/index.html"]Page from Ampeg Website[/url]

Just seen this little practice combo on eBay:

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AMPLIFIER-CLASSIC-30B-BASS-GUITAR-AMPLIFIER-30-WATT_W0QQitemZ320148149502QQihZ011QQcategoryZ58719QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]Liberty 30 Watt Bass Combo[/url]

Having never seen one before, I have no idea whether it's a pile of total cack or a nice little piece of kit. The sales blurb is illiterate gibberish, which doesn't help. I do like its retro tweed looks, though!

The dealer is based in Manchester. Has anyone up there ever tried one of these out?

FURTHER INFO: They're on sale in the USA under the budget "Jay Turser" brand. Here's the [url="http://www.jayturserclassic.com/amplifiers.htm#classic-30b"]relevant page from their website[/url]

You don't see these very often:
[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ampeg-AEB1-Bass_W0QQitemZ220140431662QQihZ012QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]Ampeg AEB1[/url]

Sadly, it has a bad case of buckle-rash, and if I were listing something at that price point, I'd take the trouble to do some decent pictures.
Nevertheless, I bet it'll sell.

I'll definitely be there, but not with the Valve Tester [i](sorry Ped)[/i]. I want to bring a bass with me this time, and as I'm coming by train from Waterloo, that limits what I can carry, so I'll be packing the Dean Stylist Archtop.

See you there!
Ken

Doing it up may well be a lot of fun (or it may not!), and I guess that in some sense this bass has a certain sentimental value for you, but you may find that getting it fixed up will cost you more than the price of a brand new Hofner copy, and if it was never very good to start with, then to be honest, will it be worth the effort?

Thomann, for example, do one called the Harley Benton Beatbass that's an absolute steal.

Re. the elecric shocks: this is most likely because the metalwork of the bass isn't properly earthed (grounded), and perhaps you have your bass amp plugged into a different mains socket from the gear that the mic is attached to. Or it could be the other way around: it could be that the mic is plugged into equipment that isn't properly earthed, so if you're holding the bass when you touch the mic, you become the path of least resistance to earth.

[quote name='nottswarwick' post='44398' date='Aug 12 2007, 12:15 PM']I was thinking that maybe a different cab would be the first route to try.[/quote]
Good move. Make it a [b]Bill Fitzmaurice Omni 10[/b]



and you'll rediscover all your lost clarity, still have a seriously lightweight rig ...and frighten yourself half to death with how loud it is. :wacko:

[url="http://www.billfitzmaurice.com"]www.billfitzmaurice.com[/url]

If you don't want to build it yourself, I can put you in touch with a man wot can.

[quote name='beerdragon' post='44904' date='Aug 13 2007, 04:55 PM']When i saw your heading i thought my wife had found me [/quote]
I have!

Evening, Rufus. Good to have another decrepit old git on the strength. Hell, we'd make a scary group photo.

Just seen this and thought I'd spread the word, as you don't see them that often.

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Marshall-VBA-400-valve-bass-amplifier-VBC-4x12-cab_W0QQitemZ180148120716"]VBA 400 eBay listing[/url]

I've just seen this beastie on eBay, and thought I'd spread the word in case anyone's interested. I never realised that MATAMP ever made Solid State PA amps. If it's built with anything like the same care as their valve stuff, it'll be a seriously nice piece of kit!

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MATAMP-Q1000-POWER-AMP-nt-Peavey-JBL-PA-Sony-Denon_W0QQitemZ200140505324"]eBay listing[/url]

Tea chest + Broom handle + String.

Job done.

That HF driver will be an ELKHORN, then?

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

YUM YUM!

[quote name='phatmonkey' post='44164' date='Aug 11 2007, 12:13 PM']Thanks for that. Hopefully more people will do the same![/quote]
Hi Ben,
Thanks for the tidying-up job!
Didn't take me too long once I'd got a handle on the unfamiliar syntax of the Wiki. Obviously, it's more labour-intensive than simply posting to a forum, but after a few false starts, I got the hang of the basics.

I have now added this review to the Basschat Wiki.

[b][color="#FF0000"]STOP PRESS:[/color][/b]
This bass is no longer listed on the Dean website. Looks like they may have stopped making it.
Never mind, eh? Keep a look out for those "Discontinued stock" bargain deals!

Oh my Gawd, I've bin Wikkied!

[quote name='phatmonkey' post='43978' date='Aug 10 2007, 08:18 PM'][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GIBSON-EPIPHONE-BASS-TOP-ROCK-PREVIOUS-owner-LOOK_W0QQitemZ190138476227QQihZ009QQcategoryZ2328QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GIBSON-EPIPHONE-BASS...1QQcmdZViewItem[/url]

Fixed![/quote]
Thank you, Ben. That was swift!

Check out my review of the "Stylist" archtop:
[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=1308"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=1308[/url]

This review has now been added to the Basschat Wiki:
[url="http://wiki.basschat.co.uk/vault:bass:dean:stylist_archtop"]http://wiki.basschat.co.uk/vault:bass:dean:stylist_archtop[/url]

[quote name='jwbassman' post='43908' date='Aug 10 2007, 06:27 PM']that's one expensive door stop [/quote]
LOL!
It's HiWatt, though: worth every penny.

I'm sorry, folks. I've tried fixing it several times, but the BassChat system keeps garbling the link. Instead of "ViewItem" at the end, it comes up as "ViItem". Very strange. Never mind.

It's a Gibson Epiphone Bass, and the seller thinks it's worth a fortune because it was (supposedly) once owned by a member of the Stereophonics. His ad blurb has to be seen to be believed. Try putting "Gibson Epiphone Bass" into eBay's search bar. You'll find it.

Believe it or not, he's had 11 bids already. I don't believe it. Smells of scam to me.