bremen

[quote name='David Nimrod' post='140196' date='Feb 14 2008, 12:03 PM']I've got a Bass Pod XT Live, the floor one, and although I've spent a fair amount of time with it, I just can't get to grips with it. Now, me and manuals don't get on too well, fair enough, but I just can't see how all this is necessary somehow... I realise that the possibilities must be pretty much limitless, but I'm happy with my tone - what more is there to achieve? I guess what I'm saying is that 'I give up' - I'm just not that geeky (i.e. clever) and I don't think it's gonna work for me. Or am I missing something obvious?[/quote] If you're happy with your tone you don't need the Pod! I like the tone I get out of mine. Took a lot of tweaking mind.

[quote name='stewblack' post='137837' date='Feb 10 2008, 10:02 PM']I use it back stage, I use it wandering naked around the house if the fancy takes me. It's wonderful.Never fallen out[/quote] Fnarr! Fnarr!

[quote name='alexclaber' post='138833' date='Feb 12 2008, 01:30 PM']Finally bitten the bullet and ordered the parts for this cab. Basically it's an Eminence 3015LF woofer in a ~110 litre ported box tuned to 46Hz with a sealed sub-enclosure containing an Eighteen Sound 6ND410 midrange. Am still hunting down some suitable plywood - looking for high quality 9mm baltic birch with equal thickness plies throughout. Will be doing all manner of strange bracing to get sufficient stiffness from such thin ply. External dimensions will be ~ 32" high x 20" wide x 16.5" deep - a neat fit in the boot of my car along with my 4U shallow rack. Estimated weight <50lbs. Alex[/quote] I braced my cabinets with 'shelves' of 9mm ply full of 2" holes; one of these 'shelves' connects the back of the magnet (via blu-tak) to the rear of the cabinet. I nicked that idea from Tannoy. What else will you do? 9mm is pretty bold, but for sure a well-braced 9mm cabinet will be better than an 18mm poorly braced one. Hope it goes well! by the way, top tip for ports: Screwfix sell 100mm diameter poly pipe in 200mm (iirc) lengths, designed for tumble dryer outlets. It's a good interference fit in a hole drilled with a Screwfix 2" holesaw.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='138864' date='Feb 12 2008, 02:09 PM']I've done a diagram to show the when to shim and when to adjust the truss-rod. You should check the relief of the neck first, but in my experience when I've run out of bridge adjustment the it's been the neck/body angle that needs adjusting not the relief of the neck (except once when both needed adjusting!). The tilt the neck back to lower the action the shim needs to got at the body end of the pocket. Hopefully the diagram makes all this clear.[/quote] pictures worth 1000+ words. Gold star!

[quote name='BigRedX' post='138824' date='Feb 12 2008, 01:13 PM']You need to shim the neck. Take the neck off and cut a piece of thin plastic (I used the plastic from the blister pack from a set a of TI strings - it doesn't need to be very thick) the width of the neck pocket and about one third to half the depth (the smaller the shim depth the greater the angle). Fit this at the body end of the neck pocket and re-attach the neck. It may take a couple of tries to get the right combination of length and thickness and you'll be surprised just how much difference such a small amount of "padding" makes. The truss rod should be used to set the relief of the neck only.[/quote] Is my advice wrong then? I'm not suggesting that adjusting the truss rod is necessarily the solution, but surely if it's too loose then the relief should be adjusted first, then when that's right get onto shimming if necessary.

[quote name='markdavid' post='138815' date='Feb 12 2008, 01:01 PM']Hi , was wondering if anyone would be able to help , I have aquired a new p bass , have lowered the bridge saddles as low as they will go but action is still quite high. Do I need to tighten or loosen truss rod to correct this ?[/quote] It sounds like you have to tighten it, to counterbalance the strings. Be careful though, it could just be that the neck is perfectly straight but is too low in the pocket. I've seen this a few times. If this is the case you'll need to shim the neck (or mutilate the bridge saddles). There should be a sticky somewhere here on setup and truss rod adjustment. Basically if you fret (simultaneously) at the 1st and 21st frets, is the gap between the string and the 10th fret excessive? If it's less than the thickness of a business card don't try and tighten the truss any further.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='138779' date='Feb 12 2008, 12:16 PM']Guys, I'm crap at electrics and such, but pretty good at numbers. I thought the amount of air a speaker could move was driven essentially by the area of the speaker, using the classic PI x r-squared formula. Since PI is a constant, the relative air-moving capability of different speakers should be: 10" = 5.0x5.0 = 25 12" = 6.0x6.0 = 36 15" = 7.5x7.5 = 56 18" = 9.0x9.0 = 81 Crudely, therefore, a 210 will move nearly as much air as a 115. I was perfectly happy with this analysis, it all made sense to me, and it seemed to chime with my own experience. Then I read this on the Ampeg site with reference to the SVT-410HLF: [i]The SVT-410HLF actually moves 10% more air than two 18-inch speakers, and 25% more than three 15-inch speakers![/i] What am I missing here? [/quote] The area of a typical 10" driver is 350cm2, 15" = 856cm2. Therefore four tens =1400cm2 and three 15s = 2568cm2, nearly twice the area of the 4x10. I seem to be missing something too... Reminds me of how suspicious I was of Ampeg's claimed frequency response stats. edit: of course, yes, it does depend also on Vmax but it's a bit sneaky of Ampeg to compare their 10" with a good Vmax with that of a Brand X 18" that just happens to have a tiddly Vmax

I love these stories, hearing that not all megastars are vain and affected. I guess if I was a 'celeb' I'd be happy to meet people who didn't know who I was. I read somewhere about a chance meeting - been trying to find the original article but it's long gone so here's what I remember: Matey lives on a houseboat and is cruising on River X...night is falling and he needs to moor. There are big houses with lawns down to the river. A scruffy bloke greets him, they exchange pleasantries and Matey says: -I know this is a bit cheeky but could I moor here for the night? -Sure, no problem, come and get a cup of tea. Anyway, they become friends (I'm starting to feel like Simon Bates here) and Matey often passes by on the river. One time they go down the pub and Matey notices that there's a bit of a buzz, everyone seems to know Scruffy though few talk to him. Scruffy seems unaware of this. Eventually after his fifth pint Matey goes to the bog and the bloke pissing beside him says: - So how long you known Jimmy Page then?

[quote name='bass_ferret' post='138506' date='Feb 11 2008, 10:07 PM']Just cos I told him what it meant does not mean it makes sense.[/quote] understood, I wasn't assuming you were supporting the bullsh*tt*rs! [quote]I reckon it's only a matter of time before some company sticks magnets around the outside of the lead at each end and claims that the magnets "align the electrons in the signal path, reducing loss of energy through random scatter thus increasing the top end, reducing muddiness in the middle range and allowing the bass frequencies more headroom"[/quote] I'd be surprised if someone hadn't already done that.

[quote name='bass_ferret' post='138456' date='Feb 11 2008, 08:31 PM']It usually means connect in the direction of the arrow, e.g. bass ---> amp ---> send ---> return ---> cab etc. Sometimes in hifi world it is indicated by the writing on the cable.[/quote] Stop me if this is heading in the direction of audiophile shouting and posturing, but directional cable is a nonsense which can be explained by marketing departments but not by the laws of physics. Whether it's bass>>>amp or amp>>>cab, the current is AC which means it goes both ways down the cable. Fortunately we don't seem to have as much bullshit aimed at us as audiophiles do - some of the stuff they will buy is jaw-dropping. CD demagnetiser, anyone? [url="http://sound.westhost.com/cables.htm"]http://sound.westhost.com/cables.htm[/url]

[quote name='BassBod' post='138403' date='Feb 11 2008, 07:00 PM']Its got mysterious plastic boxes near each plug and its labelled "guitar/amp" at either end because its supposed to sound better if used in the right direction. Or they think we're stupid and will forget where to put the other end. It does sound slightly "fuller" and "brighter" at home, with nothing else but amp hiss to listen to...but in any real world environment I couldn't tell the difference.....and its going to get stepped on and covered in beer just like every other cable. Anyone want it? BB[/quote] Nah, got enough snake oil and antigravity devices ;-)

[quote name='BOD2' post='137188' date='Feb 9 2008, 05:54 PM']You can't run two amp channels into one cab [i][b]unless[/i][/b] there are two or more speakers in the cab that have been wired up independently of each other (so you're effictively connecting to separate speakers that happen to be in the same enclosure). Don't be misled into thinking there's a direct relationship between amp power and loudness - it's really not as simple as that. An efficient speaker with a high Sound Pressure Level (SPL) will be louder than one with a lower SPL even if you put more power into the less efficient one. As a general guide, you need approximately 10 times (yes TEN) the amplifier power to get twice the volume. So, for example, changing from a 250 W amp to a 350 W amp is not going to make a huge difference.[/quote] All that is true; it is also true that an amp designed to give full power into 4 ohms will nearly always give much more than half its rated power into 8 ohms.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='138053' date='Feb 11 2008, 11:18 AM']I can accept this in principle but my question is this: can a cable effect tone in a manner that impacts significantly on the perceived tonal results in the context of the other environmental variables in play? Or, in English, is the effect significant enough to be heard against the other things that effect it such as the shape of a room, the amp's/bass's eq, flat surfaces, carpets/tileds floors etc. My perspective is that it probably doesn't so, whilst it is worth noting, it ain't worth lying awake over. I am open to challenge.[/quote] A cable can certainly and measurably affect the top end, more so with passive instruments that have high impedance pickups (but even active giutars with pots on the outputs will be affected if the pots are set at less than full on). It's down to the capacitance of the cable, which should be as low as possible. The resistance is irrelevant, so beware of claims like 'oxygen free copper for maximum conductivity' which are just hype. Van Damme cables are good, not all manufacturers publish capacitance. I have swallowed the Little Book Of Calm.

Daflewis just sent me a Virtualizer. It was beautifully packaged, in perfect condition, and arrived the day after we agreed the sale. Chapeaux!

[quote name='alexclaber' post='135834' date='Feb 7 2008, 04:06 PM']The 3015LF has so much Xmax that overexcursion below the tuning frequency is unlikely and the extra sensitivity and power handling in the critical 50-100Hz area should be useful. If you're bored you might like to try shorter ports and see if your experience match the theory and the reports I've heard.[/quote] It's all sealed up now, but I will experiment next time. [quote]Cool. Have you tried any other midrange speakers? I worked up a few theoretical designs with the 8MR but got driven mad by the peaky response - then again it saves having to build a sub cab and is far cheaper than the 6ND410. How do you find your cab stacks up against the usual 4x10" fare? Alex[/quote] The only cab I've been able to compare directly is a Trace 4x10; mine is much brighter and deeper and about a quarter the weight! Though I do appreciate that the Trace's virtue is that it although it doesn't sound particularly nice it does cut through a terrible stage sound.

Thomann are great, and the 3 year guarantee/30 day money-back-if-you-don't-like-the-colour is very reassuring. Not always the cheapest though, do check www.studiospares.com for electronics. +1 for the EC, yes! I do love travelling round Europe and seeing shut-down border posts.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='135787' date='Feb 7 2008, 02:40 PM']The cab I'm building will have ~110 litres net internal volume which combined with a 46Hz tuning frequency gives a good balance of extension and sensitivity. The Omni 15TB uses much larger internal volume and a 50Hz tuning frequency to get more loudness, not lowness, and I don't need that extra loudness. Alex[/quote] I use a Kappalite 15LF in 110 litres and it's good. I tuned it down to 36Hz though, as I use a 5 string. I also have the same driver in a 130 litre box, not much difference, if any. For mid/high I use an Alpha 8MR and bi-amp, crossed over at about 600Hz. The system is *almost* loud, deep and small, though my drummer complains that it doesn't qualify as 'small'.

[quote name='neptunehealer' post='135542' date='Feb 7 2008, 10:11 AM']Well i play in a rock/pop/soul/funk cover band and we have a few weddings booked and i need a new bass really. I am after a passive 4 string bass which isn't too heavy on the shoulders. I will spend upto £600 if i find the right one for me, thing is i know buying online is good but i do know that trying them out first is imperitive.[/quote] Why not start a new thread entitled 'Bass Wanted' - there are always basses for sale here (seems to be a bit of a sellers' market, quite often you see prices reduced when no-one bites for a few weeks) and it's a small enough community that you have less chance of getting ripped off than if you go to EvilBay.

[quote name='neepheid' post='135527' date='Feb 7 2008, 09:51 AM']I believe in praise where praise is due, so hats off to Stringbusters. I ordered a set of Super Slinky 5 at 4.30pm yesterday, standard delivery and they're here this morning. That's pretty damn good. They're too quick even for their own website, which is showing my order as "Awaiting Processing" Nice one, I'll be back.[/quote] nice prices too, and a great range

Always a good idea to ask for the serial number then Google it and see where else it appears. You can also cross-reference serial number and alleged year of manufacture; here for Fenders: [url="http://www.fender.com/support/usa_instruments.php"]http://www.fender.com/support/usa_instruments.php[/url]

[quote name='gilmour' post='135163' date='Feb 6 2008, 05:09 PM']If you are gigging that often you deserve a new bass![/quote] What he said!

[quote name='neptunehealer' post='135155' date='Feb 6 2008, 05:00 PM']Yes i don't mean to critise the Vintage brand as a whole as i know some people have them on here who like them, but i did purchase my Vintage approximately 10 years ago now for £120, so maybe the quality was worse then. Oh and it sounds even worse not plugged in, it rattles at the headstock when i play it unplugged also strings break reasonably often which make me question the quality of the bridge saddles.[/quote] It sounds well f***ed. I haven't broken a string for years, and I hit them pretty hard.

Whereabouts in England are you?

[quote name='neptunehealer' post='134891' date='Feb 6 2008, 11:13 AM']Basically i hate my tone which is not unsuprising really considering i play a cheap nasty bass which is really heavy and a bitch to play. I currently have 600 watt peavey sessionbass head and a laney speaker. I have twiddled and played around with my head and still can't find the tone i am after. To describe the tone would be a muddy bland bass sound. I am wondering if i keep my rig the same and purchase a Fender Jazz bass will this alone give me the tone i am after or will i need to seek a new head/speaker aswell?[/quote] Can't do anything about its weight, and I am definitely a fan of light basses, but it being a bitch to play might just be down to the action. As for getting rid of the muddy bland sound, maybe you need a new set of Rotosound roundwounds? What's in the speaker? If it's a 15 you might like to add a 10 for a bit more bite

[quote name='andy67' post='134459' date='Feb 5 2008, 03:56 PM']That could be a goer bremmen - how much?[/quote] Do you want to try it and pay me what you think it's worth? I'll send it to you for the price of shipping.