BassBunny

Have you tried ringing John? I've found him to be quite tardy answering emails, but get him into conversation on the phone and I'm sure he'll sort you out.

Could you take a picture of the control cavity to help identify the pre-amp. Sandberg have used Noll and Delano pre-amps in the past but fairly sure the latest ones are made by Glockenklang to Sandbergs specifications and you may get more joy from them. Could it be the jack socket? All the makes of pre-amp listed are very reliable as a rule.

Another vote for Ampband. Been using them for years. £10m cover for up to 10 piece band for £69. Cheaper if a smaller band.

Ah but we are talking Jazz Bass here so the coil split is already effectively done, it's just the OMG part that the switch would do. I guess it could be done on each pick-up. 🙂

I suspected @KiOgon would have the answer.

As G&L's L 1000/2000/2500 are actual passive basses. When you switch it to the so called "active" setting and it puts a line driver in the circuit to boost the output. So there are no active tone controls as in a normal cut/boost active bass, so you would assume it is do-able. If you look at the diagram, (I've attached an L2000 so ignore the pickup selector as it has the additional pickup), and I can't see how it does as you describe. I think it is the Coil Switching that is the OMG mode. Switching from Parallel to Series. I could be completely wrong so let's see if the combined brainpower of BassChat can figure it out. l2k_wiring_diagram.pdf

+2 for @KiOgon

A friend of mine has been to the National Drum Show and says it is a great day out. Another event that has outgrown it's original venue which i believe was the George H Carnell Sport Centre in Urmston. I was tempted to go to the first one as Robin Guy was there and he was absolutely awesome at one of the Bass Day UK shows at RNCM where he was backing TM Stevens. A real character.

Correct @AndyTravismy bad. Must be an age thing and Steve is indeed a lovely guy. Not seen him for a while, used to go and see his band at The Nursery Inn regularly when they used to play every month. The last one at Band On The Wall was memorable for Jah Wobble plugging in to his rig and blowing it up in a matter of seconds.

The original Bass Day UK, held in Manchester and organised by Stevie Williams, was always well attended. So much so that it started off in Night and Day, outgrew the venue and ended up at the RNCM. Always a fantastic day and a shame it disappeared. I would imagine a Manchester event would be welcomed to fill the void left by Bass Day UK.

I've heard some good things about some of the older Kustom bass gear. The KXB500 was supposed to be awesome and I was chasing one for a while but seems not many came this way. Probably not the flavour of the month and unlikely to be but here we go with my initial thoughts on the Kustom DE1200HD. Firstly it might be worth mentioning why I went for it as I have stated a number of times on this very forum my lack of enthusiasm for Class D amps. My MarkBass SA450 does not seem to be delivering the goods like it has over the last 10+ years. I seem to have to wind it up a lot more to get the desired output so having seen another post on here I thought, lets give the Kustom a go. If I don't like it, it can go back within 30 days. Out of the box it feels quite solid and there is certainly more weight to it than a lot of the Class D offerings that are around. I'm hoping that is a nicely designed power supply. Build quality is excellent, everything fits well and it has a quality feel about. I'm not sure why they chose to have 2 inputs as they are not independently controlled. A simple slide switch is used to select your input and each has a 10dB pad switch. The tone controls puzzled me at first as they do not have centre detents so initially I didn't know if they were boost only or cut and boost. A quick email to Kustom and a very speedy reply confirming they are cut/boost with the flat position being at 12 o'clock. I find it a bit strange that they chose not to have a centre detent on Bass/Mid/Treble but have on Room EQ controls. A minor thing I know and whilst I'm nitpicking, why a Speakon/Jack combo output AND a Jack? I would certainly prefer 2 Speakons as I don't have to daisy chain my cabs. Right so firing it up through my 2 Zoot 1x12s and boy is it LOUD. With the gain on 12 and master on 12, I hardly had my bass volume turned up at all. With everything flat it had a nice deep thick bass sound with just a little bit of crunch. The definition was there and I felt just like i did when I first plugged into an Eden WT550, it was just there. Certainly a different sound to the Eden but a great natural tone nevertheless. The 2 room Eq controls do exactly as described. Low Contour Room EQ - this active control is the final shaping for low frequencies. Increasing this control cuts a notch in the low frequencies to help smooth out room “boominess”. Decreasing this control rolls off the extreme low frequencies. The High Contour Room EQ - this active control is the final shaping for high frequencies. Increasing this control cuts a notch in the high frequencies to help smooth out typical speaker peaks or room “harshness”. This can be a useful way to control the horn level. I used it on a gig last Friday and it was an interesting setting. We played in a brewery on a raised stage so probably the worst acoustics imaginable. Huge steel containers, a "bouncy" stage, concrete walls, however it sounded great. My problem with all the Class D amps I have tried in the past is that they sound bloody loud on their own but get lost in the band mix. Not the Kustom. It sounded exactly the same when we started playing as it did when I was setting up and with tons of power in reserve. I've another couple of gigs to try it on before i have to make a decision, but so far I can't see me returning it. For just over £200 with a 3 year warranty, it is a bargain.

So here are my initial thoughts on the Kustom. Firstly it might be worth mentioning why I went for it as I previously stated by lack of enthusiasm for Class D amps. My MarkBass SA450 does not seem to be delivering the goods like it has over the last 10+ years. I seem to have to wind it up a lot more to get the desired output so I thought lets give the Kustom a go as if I don't like it, it can go back within 30 days. Out of the box it feels quite solid and there is certainly more weight to it than a lot of the Class D offerings that are around. I'm hoping that is a nicely designed power supply. Build quality is excellent, everything fits well and it has a quality feel about. I'm not sure why they chose to have 2 inputs as they are not independently controlled. A simple slide switch is used to select your input and each has a 10dB pad switch. The tone controls puzzled me at first as they do not have centre detents so initially I didn't know if they were boost only or cut and boost. A quick email to Kustom and a very speedy reply confirming they are cut/boost with the flat position being at 12 o'clock. I find it a bit strange that they chose not to have a centre detent on Bass/Mid/Treble but have on Room EQ controls. A minor thing I know and whilst I'm nitpicking, why a Speakon/Jack combo output AND a Jack? I would certainly prefer 2 Speakons as I don't have to daisy chain my cabs. Right so firing it up through my 2 Zoot 1x12s and boy is it LOUD. With the gain on 12 and master on 12, I hardly had my bass volume turned up at all. With everything flat it had a nice deep thick bass sound with just a little bit of crunch. The definition was there and I felt just like i did when I first plugged into an Eden WT550, it was just there. Certainly a different sound to the Eden but a great natural tone nevertheless. The 2 room Eq controls do exactly as described. Low Contour Room EQ - this active control is the final shaping for low frequencies. Increasing this control cuts a notch in the low frequencies to help smooth out room “boominess”. Decreasing this control rolls off the extreme low frequencies. The High Contour Room EQ - this active control is the final shaping for high frequencies. Increasing this control cuts a notch in the high frequencies to help smooth out typical speaker peaks or room “harshness”. This can be a useful way to control the horn level. I used it on a gig last Friday and it was an interesting setting. We played in a brewery on a raised stage so probably the worst acoustics imaginable. Huge steel containers, a "bouncy" stage, concrete walls, however it sounded great. My problem with all the Class D amps I have tried in the past is that they sound bloody loud on their own but get lost in the band mix. Not the Kustom. It sounded exactly the same when we started playing as it did when I was setting up and with tons of power in reserve. I've another couple of gigs to try it on before i have to make a decision, but so far I can't see me returning it. For just over £200 with a 3 year warranty, it is a bargain.

Right then, spotted a "B" stock one of these on Thomann for €246 when looking to order something else, (honest guv), so sprung for it. I've done 1 gig with it and was pretty impressed and I HATE Class D amps as a rule. I'll do a "quick and dirty" review tomorrow and follow up with a proper one when it's had a few more gigs under its belt.

Firstly, do you know it's the speaker or it could be the x-over. To test the speaker a very quick and dirty method is to use a 9v battery across the speaker terminals. don't completely connect it, connect 1 leg of the battery to 1 terminal and quickly touch the other terminal in an On/Off motion. If the speaker moves and a dull thud is heard, the speaker is doing something. Regarding impedance and crossovers. What the x-over does is channel certain frequencies to the different speakers. So in a hypothetical case, if you had a x-over that was designed to send anything under 1KHz to the bass speaker, 1-2 KHz to the mid and above 2Khz and above to the horn, only 1 of the speakers is in circuit at any time so if they are 8 Ohm drivers, it's an 8 Ohm Cab. It's a very basic explanation.

Change Flatwounds? Heresy. 😉