flyfisher

[quote name='Marvin' timestamp='1412689666' post='2571047'] The Aston Martin video is somewhat dated, it was filmed 20 years ago. Aston moved all production from Newport Pagnell to their new facility at Gaydon some time ago. Newport Pagnell is a service and restoration centre now. [/quote] Yes, after Ford bought it and dragged its production methods into the 20th century!

Never mind, we can still produce world-beating cars like Aston Martin. After all, we're a G8 country, one of the richest in the world, so we're not held back by primitive production facilities. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RxihhTuTms Nothing like those Chinese car factories eh? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R46x6k2wieU

[quote name='spacey' timestamp='1412678969' post='2570921'] Main issues are, stretched wire ! Poor quality solder and made by people who could not give two monkeys as long as it looks good. Wire is hung up stretched and 50m of wire becomes 60 m of wire, solder is poor quality and never checked for consistency. If a factory can clip of just 2% by stretching things out where it is not seen, that is profit. So far all brands that have manufacturing shipped far East sooner or later end up with QC issues, not aware of anyone bucking the tend. [/quote] Stretched wire? Hmm. Wire is [u]made[/u] by stretching it. If you want to save on wire, which can certainly be legitimate, then just buy a thinner gauge of wire.

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1412621281' post='2570523'] I remember when "Made in Japan" meant "junk" but the reality was that most of the stuff that came out of Japan in the 70s was pretty much alright and that it was a ploy by British manufacturers to try to maintain their sales (of what was pretty shoddy items TBH) by slandering the opposition. [/quote] Exactly. Look what happened to the British motor industry - we were the ones producing the crap while the Japanese were busy producing some of the best vehicles and bikes in the world. I've got a Fender USA jazz and a MIJ P and I can't honestly say that one is twice as good as the other, even though the price was (and I bought the P new and the J secondhand). We are accustomed to expensive things being 'better' things because of decades of marketing and it's why there are 'premium' brands that can command premium prices. Yes, premium products are probably a bit 'better', but probably not in proportion to the inflated price.

Not a bad idea. When I ordered them earlier today, I asked about the specification and they said they are usually stated in the parts manual, but when the chap tracked down the part number he said there was no actual spec given, just the part number, which he said was unusual. So I'm still no wiser about the actual spec, even though I'm buying the 'proper' replacements. Oh well, at least they worked out a bit less than the price I was given last week. £143 including the chancellor's cut and delivery.

The basic storyline of 'tortured geniuses' producing great work together before all falling out with each other is so common that it might almost be a requirement for big successful bands.

[quote name='ras52' timestamp='1412613804' post='2570399'] Absolute nonsense. It was not an accident... Paul had stumbled upon the identity of JFK's real assassin and the plot to fake the moon landings. He was given a new identity by the CIA, for whom he worked faking vaccine research and coordinating the delivery of several tons of explosive to the World Trade Centre towers. [/quote] Seems perfectly reasonable to me and would explain quite a lot. I loved the Abbey Road animation though.

Not to be continued for much longer. The weekend band meeting decided on replacing the blown drivers with genuine Yamaha replacements and I'll be ordering them later today. The final rationale was along the lines of Phil and Dad's posts above - repair them as new or scrap them and buy something else, but they are good quality units and we don't like scrapping stuff. We're in for a minimum £100 for new drivers that would give unknown results so the extra £50 for genuine Yamaha units seemed worthwhile for the peace of mind. Anyway, the decision is now made. Thanks for all the suggestions - very helpful to talk these things through.

[quote name='Dusty' timestamp='1412546078' post='2569907'] Due to space restrictions, I'm considering renting some space at one of those storage companies nearby for my guitars and rigs. The amps and cabs are not a problem, but how best to prepare guitars for storage ? They will all be in hard cases or flightcases, but shoud they be de tuned to ease neck tension ? Should I put Silica Gel packs in the case ? Etc. Anyone one had good/bad experiences with these sort of companies? Would appreciate some advice [/quote] I don't think there is any need to de-tune them for storage. My understanding is that the truss rod is designed to remove any bending stress on the neck so de-tuning could actually [u]increase [/u]any bending stress and make things worse . . . unless the truss rod is slackened off as well I guess. I'd suggest some careful thought about insurance and independent proof of the items and their value that you're putting into storage though. Someone on here lost a lot of gear in a storage unit fire and had insurance problems when it came to a claim. I can't find the thread but it wasn't too long ago.

[quote name='lojo' timestamp='1410075096' post='2545780'] Re the question, I'd guess an acrylic spray gently applied whilst the speakers where being driven might do no harm (structurally not sure about tone) but I'd not promise it. Surely a back cloth behind the grill is the way to go. [/quote] Agreed. I can't see that thinly sprayed black paint would cause any functional harm to the speaker but the additional mass of the paint would likely have an effect on the tone. Whether it would be good or bad or even noticeable is almost impossible to say, so it will depend largely on how brave you feel with a spraycan! I wouldn't risk it myself - especially when a black cloth behind the grill is an easily reversible thing to try first.

I'm not sure about the OP's premise. Seems to me there are plenty of dissenting posts whenever someone posts an example of 'technical' bass playing, usually along the lines of acknowledging the virtuosity but despairing over the musicality. And bass show reviews also seem to major on complaints about every stand being a dire slap-fest. Anyway, what is 'technical' bass playing? Is it a simultaneous rendition of three parts on an 8-stringer or is it Norman Watt-Roy pumping out his stonking 'Hit Me' line? I can't do either, so it's all 'technical' to me. I'd say Steve-bbb nailed it - [i]"its all a matter of taste and there is no accounting for it"[/i]

I was reading through this topic and limbering up to mention Jean Genie before I read the last two posts! And that wasn't even a live performance of course. [quote name='SteveK' timestamp='1412466424' post='2569187'] Nothing wrong with mistakes! In fact, I long for the "good ol' days" when you could hear a guitarist [i]not quite[/i] making the phrase, or a vocalist [i]not quite[/i] hitting the note, the odd dodgy drum fill... that's what made music exciting - the feeling that you were getting a performance... something unique! Played with The Eagles earlier this year - I was looking forward to seeing and hearing the legends. They came on stage and sounded awesome, guitars, voices, the whole thing sounded perfect... in fact, a little too perfect! Later in the evening I was told by "someone in the know" virtually all the show was "playback"!.. very sad! [/quote] I entirely agree with the 'performance' thing but that story about the Eagles is very, very disapointing. What is the point of that?

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1412364509' post='2568356'] Sounds like you're in luck, flyfisher. Have a look at the 8-inch drivers on the Blue Aran site. This one: [url="http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=PAUE8200N&browsemode=manufacturer"]http://www.bluearan....de=manufacturer[/url] is very nice if you want to go for the lightweight option. Good price too, and it takes a lot of hammer. I could lend you one to try if we can sort the logistics out. [/quote] Thanks for finding that. It should certainly be more rugged than the blown ones, which is good! My immediate concern is the 3KHz spec as the manual I've seen says that the crossover operates at 4kHz, but I'm not entirely sure if this is particularly relevant without knowing what the roll off of the crossover might be. Anyway, the amp has low/mid/high controls so that's probably enough to compensate . . . we're not talking precise hi-fi here! Might be worth a try for £59, although a genuine replacement is a bit less than £20 extra, so is it worth the risk? I sense a band meeting coming on! Many thanks for the suggestion though - plenty of food for thought.

[quote name='lurksalot' timestamp='1412360590' post='2568303'] The stagepas comes complete I thought doesnt the amp/mixer fold into the cab box or something like ? The spec you quoted was 150W into[b] 6ohm[/b]s , could that be relevant with regard the speaker resistance? [/quote] The Stagepas mixer/amp fits into the rear of one of the speakers but can also be removed for ease of use. It makes for a very easy to carry vocal PA. Seems that this original mixer broke before I joined the band and they replaced it with a Yamaha EMX-212S mixer/amp, which is a slightly larger unit about the same size as one of the cabs, making three units to carry (though not a big deal as they are all fairly compact). The 6 ohm spec I quoted was from the EMX manual about the amp output power, which is a bit odd to specify at 6 ohms, so might be a bit of a red herring as far as the cabs are concerned. I see your point about the DC measurement of 5.4 ohms being very close to 6 ohms, but I don't think resistance and impedance would be so close, hence my guess at the actual speaker cab being 8 ohms. But it's all a bit of guesswork at this stage.

Yes, strange isn't it - perhap Yamaha doesn't sell the speaker cabs separately? Anyway, I've got one of the speakers out and there is no ohm marking anywhere that I can see. The only markings are: [b]Yamaha[/b] [b]410403[/b] [b]CHINA[/b] [b]7H801J[/b] Perhaps there is a clue there for anyone who understand those numbers? I've measured the DC resistance as 5.4 ohms so I'm thinking it's an 8 ohm impedance?

I've not had any experience of re-coning and have always though it a bit of a specialised job only worthwhile for particularly valuable speakers. TBH I'm not entirely sure about the 4 ohms. I've also been told this afternoon that the PA isn't really a Stagepas300. Apparently, it WAS a Stagepas 300 but the mixer/amp unit failed so they replaced it (before my time) with a Yamaha EMX-212S mixer amp and used that with the Stagepas 300 cabs. I've found the Yamaha specs for the mixer/amps but not the speaker cabs themselves. The Stagepas amp/mixer docs state 150+150W (max) into 6 ohms (at 10% THD) or 100+100W (max) at 1% THD. The EMX mixer/amp states 220W into 4 ohms or 130W into 8 ohms. So I'm now unsure of the speaker specs, but if they were originally intended for use with the Stagepas amp then the EMX amp might have been a bit too much for them . . . . though odd that they lasted so long before deciding to both die. Seems we could buy a pair of new passive PA cabs for about the same price as repairing the Yams, though I'm not sure about how they would compare. Something like this? [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_box_pa110_fullrangebox.htm"]http://www.thomann.d...ullrangebox.htm[/url] Perhaps just sell the EMX mixer/amp and buy a small non-powered mixer to use with our Mackie SRM actives? Decisions, decisions.

That's a good bit of perspective - £15/year makes it sound a lot more reasonable. I agree about cheaper speaker units though and it was already a concern that I could mess about finding something that physically fits but without knowing if it would give good results. You're right that the Yamahas are decent bits of kit, so this might be a false economy. I'm pretty sure it must have been an overheating problem as the units have always been stored in someone's house rather than a damp shed, plus they were very clean when I dismantled them. Our acoustic guitarist has taken to playing through this PA using a DI box this year, so I'm wondering if that might have caused the problem. It's the only recent difference in the way the PA has been used over many years, which has otherwise been used only for mics. Thanks for the thoughts - I reckon you're right about biting the bullet.

So replacement speakers from Yamaha are £77.38 each - and I need two of them This seems pretty expensive for an 8-inch, 200W, 4 ohm speaker. Any suggestions for a good place to buy an equivalent speakers? Are the mounting holes standardised between different manufacturers>

We have a Yamaha stagepas vocal PA that we use for small gigs or as monitors when using our larger PA. It has recently started to sound distorted through both speakers so I assumed it was a mixer/amp problem. Finally got around to investigating it properly this evening and it's actually both speakers that are knackered and the mixer/amp works fine into different speakers. I've removed the speakers and when I move the cone gently by hand I can hear a rubbing noise which I'm guessing is the voice coil rubbing against the magnet. I've only had one speaker blow, a long time ago, and the voice coil was completely blown, but this one is still working but very distorted, presumably because of the rubbing. I'm curious about how this could have happened, especially to both speakers. Presumably they've been over driven and the voice coils have overheated and become physically distorted, causing them to rub. Is this sort of thing a common failure mode? Or could it be something else? The PA is at least 10 years old and has not always been treated well, but it has survived for so long that I wonder why the speakers have suddenly given up together.

For some serious wind, Machine Mart have a pretty extensive range of fans. This one will blow away the cobwebs: https://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/cl-cam6000-drum-fan

[quote name='police squad' timestamp='1411895666' post='2563535'] But should he have told me? [/quote] Told you what? That they were advertising for a replacement after you 'threw your toys out the pram' at a gig and then told them you didn't want any more gigs. Think about it from their perspective, especially as they gig for a living. What would be the point of telling you anyway? Are you now regretting your action and actually wanting to go back? In which case, it's up to you to chase them, not for them to chase you. If you don't regret it, then you've made your move and they've made theirs.

It could indeed . . . [attachment=172588:JRHartley.jpg]

Was that just a throwaway remark or an invitation?

Indeed - and that's the thing really. We can't judge the validity of other people's lives based on our own life choices. The best we can do is not to live a life full of regrets.

At least we play a readily affordable instrument, and one that we can sensibly aspire to own the exact same instrument and gear as any of our musical heroes. Indeed, I find it quite humbling to know that in my Fender P & J basses I own two instruments that have been used by some of the greatest players to have ever lived and immortalised in countless recordings and hit records. Humbling because it gives me no help in excusing my mediocre ability. Perhaps I should have taken up violin so that I could blame my performances on the fact that I can't afford a Stradivarius