BassBunny

4 replies and no mention of Sire. Best bang for your buck currently.

Scratch everything I said. I've just had a close look at the pre-amp and that isn't the blend that comes with the kit. If you look at the picture on the gfm website, all the controls are wired to plugs that locate on the pins on the circuit board. I assume the pickups are wired to the small PCB that the blend control is fixed to and then plugged into the pcb. I've tried to find a wiring diagram on line, but nothing. Is this a new pre-amp?

Yep, that's ball the gubbins. Is it installed in the bass and have you done the "finger" test?

Can we backtrack a bit. What pre-amp are you using? Is it installed in the bass? Have you tested it without any pickups/blend/ volume control? It looks like an orangey/red wire that is the input to the pre-amp, touching that with bass plugged in should give you a low buzz.

I've recently used DPD local fora number of deliveries, not all instruments, and they were spot on. Agree with @GreeneKing regarding insurance, in most cases it's more than courier charges. I've started using Secursus to insure courier deliveries. Quite a bit cheaper than couriers insurance but I haven't had to claim, so not sure how good they are if you do need to claim.

There are some wire straps missing off the blend pot. Google "blend pot wiring", I'm on a mobile at the moment and can't find the image I downloaded to add.

Absolutely.

If the manual suggests Speakon, get Speakon. Far more robust, reliable and built to carry more current than jack's. Jack's are a derivative of the kit used on manual telephone exchanges.

Might have to eat humble pie here and you might be lucky Apparently there are 2 versions of the pre-amp. Earlier ones had a circuit board for some of the pots but looks like the Vol and Blend are stand alone. Might be worth having a look.

Hope you are successful, however from picking up the chatter on various social media sites, I wouldn't get your hopes up. Even trying to buy a complete pre-amp proved an impossible task. It could be the situation we are in that is causing supply issues. If you are prepared to buy a complete pre-amp, a post in the Wanted section might get you one as a few have been swapped out for East pre-amps. Failing that a tech that is happy to deal at component level on pcb's might be able to identify the values and size needed. Good luck getting it sorted.

Corrected. It's 2x8 Ohm cabs. 🙂

I think you'll find all the pots on the Sire pre-amp are mounted on the circuit board. That type of pot won't do, they are PCB mount pots and you will need an exact replacement.

Intermittent faults are the worst in the world to diagnose and what you have said about it running for 2 hours using Speakon, it might not be cut and dried. Try the effects loop trick first and then test again with the Speakon. The effects sockets are renowned for oxidising causing all sort of weird faults. The costs from Real are £35 to diagnose the problem, which you get back if you go ahead. £69 fixed labour, £18 courier fee to send it back + parts + VAT. I am pretty sure they don't repair to component level. I was quoted £150 for a main amp board for an SA450 which would have made it an uneconomical repair, so I didn't bother.

I guess you may have answered your own question in that the possible answer is a faulty speakon socket on the amp or a faulty cable, which I' m not sure that's likely. The other thing to try is shoving a jack plug in and out of the effects loop jack sockets. A squirt of switch cleaner on the jack plug could help. Sending to Real Electronics will likely cost to £200+. I can give you the full charges if you want them. A decent amp tech should be able to change the speakon, if that does turn out to be the problem. If you can leave it on using the jack output for the equivalent of a gig should confirm one way or another.

Awesome job. I got involved with someone trying to set up something very similar. Proper Soul/ Funk/Disco band. He was going to include a "Salsa" spot to with dance teachers to do a bit of tuition for them that got targeted. Did a load of rehearsals but it seemed to just fizzle out. Really glad someone has managed to make it work as I always thought there was a market for it. Good luck going forward.

Looks like Thomann have sorted themselves out. Prices now include VAT and Courier prices. https://www.thomann.de/blog/en/an-update-for-our-valued-uk-customers/

There's been quite a lot of chat recently about Courier prices and particularly insurance costs. I recently sent a couple of packages that I wanted insuring and baulked at the couriers prices. Had a hunt around and came up with a dedicated courier insurer, Secursus. The cost for £250 insurance was only £4ish. If there is a problem with items going missing, not that I have had one, they take over and sort it out with the courier. You book the courier first and enter the reference when sorting the insurance. https://www.secursus.com/en-gb/?gclid=CjwKCAjwn6GGBhADEiwAruUcKiUhTq2SehKWvrQQnTvIS2tWn0C7JsuuQxGBayo0YL7mjAoq5JFyyhoCTNMQAvD_BwE

MB don't market spares. They send you to Real electronics who will diagnose the fault and then swap the offending PCB. They don't seem to work at component level and their charges are pretty hefty.

Pretty sure it should be a neo driver, mine certainly was. Sounds like it could have been swapped. Don't MB normally use Faital, Sica or B&C speakers? Well one of the Italian companies.

Dremel for me as well.

Disappointed with Andertons or Mesa Boogie?

Calling @KiOgon who has done this or similar a number of times and sure he can help.

You do realise that mentioning it to Mark Gooday would result in a, " yeah, we can do that".......at a price. 🙂

Something like this you mean? https://ashdownmusic.com/collections/b-stock/products/abm-apm-1000-evo-ii-power-amp-b-stock