4 Strings

Of all the ancient legends Jools has had on recently (Andy Williams, Smokey Robinson) who should hang up their microphones, Gladys was, as you say, sensational. 'Times Like These' is a great song but it was done even better by another legend on Jools' show a few months back, forgotten his name now, bit name though! I love Jools' show, we play 'spot the best musician' for each show.

Glad to see Norman Watt-Roy get so much support through this thread, he is absolutely fabulous. If you want to check him out go onto the Wilko Johnson website and go and catch him in Wilko's band for the price of a couple of pints in your local small venue. Watching Norman is an experience every bass player should be subjected to. He doesn't stop playing the whole night through, and I mean playing, not accompanying. He is an extension of his Jazz bass, every pluck of harmonics, every nuance and chord is expressed through his body. You have to go and see him to understand, if you haven't already. Not the best the country has produced in all history, perhaps (I'm sure players can do certain things better) but so entertaining, so musical, such a player. Surprised there's so few supporters of Mark King, one of the most influential the UK has produced. Overall, legend status, John Entwhislte.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='639066' date='Oct 28 2009, 01:50 PM']Don't think of it this way, read the rest of the thread. And check what sensitivity, and power ratings mean. And how the watt rating of speakers means absolutely nothing to the sound.[/quote] I understand about sensitivity etc, that's not what I was saying. Have you ever tried running powerful speakers with a tiny amp? Works just like I said. For volume, multi-speakers, lower impeance (with valves) higher sensitivity etc all contributes.

I have the same problem, the Trace 4x10 is a lump. However I love it and won't change it for anything. So, buy a small 2x10 for practice or whatever and just use the 4x10 for gigs etc. You can't replace cabinet volume, smaller, shallower cabs will not sound the same and you will not be satisfied. Using the 2x10 will be fine as you know you can plug the 4x10 in whenever you feel the need. If you really want to splash out, buy a 2x10 combo (Hartke etc) part paid for by flogging the Peavey and use it all the time, with the 4x10 as an extension when needed.

[quote name='jmsjabb' post='637311' date='Oct 26 2009, 08:36 PM']I have an Ashdown ABM C100 300 EVO bass amp which has a small fan in the back to cool the heat sink on the power supply. This is on all the time and I only use the amp at up to 1/4 power, and I don't ever overdrive it. I am finding the fan noisy and want to try and hide it. If I bought another of the same fan and wired it in series, would this mean both would run at half speed, half noise but the same air movement? Ant other suggestions?[/quote] No. The fan is designed to shift a certain amount of air at a certain speed. Halving the speed is likley to knock the air movement down by much more than half as the fan approaches its stall point. You'll reduce the noise though! The propellor type fans are the least efficient and most noisy. Scroll or centrifugal fans are much better for noise and air movement but are more expensive. Unless the bearings are noisy, replacihng with another propellor fan will solve little. If you're feeling really clever you could wire a thermostat in line with the fan so it only comes on when needed (ie never when practicing at home!) or even put it on a manual switch. The issue will be finding out the temperature it should kick in at (or remebering to switch the fan on for gigs!)

[quote name='Boneless' post='539128' date='Jul 13 2009, 08:53 AM']But aren't drivers supposed to sound better if feeded an amount of power closer to their RMS rating? In other words, if you have a 4x10" with 150W RMS drivers (600W total), wouldn't they respond better with 200W instead of 50W? Or does it depend on the driver? I find that my Ashdown 4x10" needs to be kind of cranked to start sounding "alive". Same thing for the Ampeg 8x10", there was a gig where I had a Peavey head + Ampeg 8x10" as a backline, and I had to keep the volume really down for several reasons (but REALLY low, most probably under 50W), and my tone was extremely dull. And trying to compensate with EQ was useless, since the cab seemed not to budge from that lifeless tone.[/quote] Just a quickie about matching speakers and amp power. Consider them like the chassis and engine of a car. A 10W amp going into 500W speakers would be like running a 10bhp go-kart engine in a 500bhp Le Mans racer. It will hardly move it. The other way round, a 500W amp into a 10W speaker will, like a 500bhp Le Mans racer engine in a go-kart, blow the thing to pieces at anything above tick-over. 10W into a 10-20W speaker gives enough headroom for safety without too heavy a burden and it will go like a go-kart. 500W into 500-1000W of speakers will fly like a Le Mans racer.

[quote name='ianwild16' post='638692' date='Oct 28 2009, 02:05 AM']Ended up takin the strings back...... Loads if ' I've never heard of that happening before!' and 'you must be playing a Fender copy'..... They finally offered me the Elite strings I originally wanted for the price I paid for them last time - £18. A lot of fannying about when I could just buy them off the interweb for less.[/quote] Always buy from your shop whenever you can. Music shops are closing more than opening, and those that open are the big chains. Even in those you can save a couple of pence but end up with little or no personal service. The shops are always useful, especially if you want advice, try something out, or just touch and feel. The lad's snare broke an anchor the other day, local shop found a spare part, fitted it, retuned the top skin and gave it all a clean up. Charge? Nothing. Cost? a drink, which was a pleasure. If we bought all our stuff from the web it would be a month long chase around trying to get the spare part. When we bought the snare he did a good deal for us but still I could have saved a couple of quid on the net. In the end that would have been the wrong decision. I'm happy to pay a little extra from my shop than buy from the web, I think its worth it. Greg