SimonK

So I play a fair amount in churches that, certainly going back to the early 90s, have used projectors for songs/words rather than hymn books. This started off as acetate OHPs albeit some places made up and projected slides (which for whatever reason always had a dark blue background and white text!). But then from about twenty years ago (I make it around 2000ish) projectors have been pretty standard, with large screen TVs beginning to make an appearance over the last couple years. One main challenge is that there is almost always a good amount of daylight coming into the room so positioning of screens is really important no matter how powerful the projector. Also never ever put it behind the band - above the band or to the side of the band is fine, but having to avoid the projection while playing (and getting occasionally blinded) is a real pain. Short-throw projectors can work well, but they do seem to be less powerful. When the room is dark having a dark background for anything projected is a very good idea so as to avoid unwanted light pollution/inteference with any lighting rig. In a bright room during daytime the opposite works best.

Maybe ☝️ is the important thing. Mixing different speakers is a bit random but if it sounds good go for it. BUT trying to get more of a sound you already like by adding additional speakers is actually quite hard if you are not just adding more of the same. Thus said there is a caveman side of me that does think more is more.... 😈 🤘

I've used a bus configuration on a desk before, taking a pre-signal from all the channels with anticipated lower frequencies (bass, kick, keys and male vocals) and routing them all into a new channel where I have rolled off the highs and mids, and essentially used it just to control lower frequencies. I did this in acoustically challenging rooms when I did not want to touch the overall system EQ due to needing to control resonant frequencies etc. Also means that you can have more or less bass frequencies on a per song basis if you want. It's fun to do but I wouldn't say necessarily a game changer.

I think I got scared off by people saying you shouldn's mix speaker sizes, and given I prefer the sound of 2 or 4x10s over 1x15, kind of went down that route for the last ten years or so. But then when I hooked a 15 up again a few months back I realised that actually regardless of what people say online, the combination of speaker sizes do sound really good. As such I am returning to the 20th century view of a stack with one big 15/18 and some 10s regardless of cancellation or whatever else scaremongers might say...

If you are referring to my picture the top two cabs are the Trace Elliot compact 1153 and 2103X (I just took the badges off as I don't like them sideways)! And yes the 2103x had two 5 inch and two 10 inch drivers. Stingray is a translucent blue/green colour - possible my favourite colour for instruments!

I've got back into 15s and 18s this last year following about ten years of only playing 10s. Indeed I'm beginning to like the combination of 10s and 15s/18s in some of the following cabs. Yes I get that there can be cancellation when you do that however move slightly and it's not a problem! The combination just seems to give an interesting dimension to the sound for me. Current rig of favour: Two other fun options:

OP may want to check out some of the information on the thread below. Personally my preference is the SMX amps, but I think this is more for nostalgic reasons in that they were "the" amp at the time I was 18 and unable to afford one! I had a Mark V AH250 for a while but it was too heavy to be practical and I also didn't like how the little green buttons used to stick.

RE battery boxes, I've replaced them on both my stingrays (3EQ, 1998 & 2001) with the following which fits perfectly: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322826391603 RE the jack socket, I think you can get pretty close with standard parts: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265241820441

https://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/products/music-man-jack-for-sting-ray-3eq-old-2eq-and-gtrs-with-on-off-switches-mc244x?srsltid=AfmBOor93KWUEFtGm9gusGAklyBeKPmfOcrrj2MPPuPG4Fnt5OnU14dz

Yes this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Barrina-Blacklight-Aluminium-Fluorescent-Halloween/dp/B0CPHSLQTQ/ and poked the lead out through the old speakon input hole. It actually looks a lot cooler than in the pictures but doesn't quite photo so well. You get a neat glow through the tweeter as well. My daughter nabbed the other bar for her bedroom.

Behold - the finished cab drawers (and the other two cabs are very grateful for the speaker donation):

....and that's the project done (decided I could live with the wonky drawers)! Probably make a nice home for random pedals and leads - I'm actually tempted to take it with me to gigs as a way of storing things coz it looks so cool!

...and as it was a rainy afternoon got the drawers done. Not my best piece of woodwork - I may end up re-doing the drawers as while they do work there are a lot of rough edges. Also ended up riveting the bottom and back sections to the sides as screws were not working in the HDF. Also not happy with the lime green paint so have bought some fluorescent tape instead. Now just waiting for the tape and of course the black light to turn up...

..and lots more progress this morning thanks to the black spray paint drying really quickly. Also managed to get the first coat of a fluorescent lime green paint on ready for the black light which I have just ordered, and fitted the runners...

Happy Easter everyone. Had our pro drummer return for a visit at the service this morning. Neither of us could make the practice on Friday so we rocked up and just played - much easier to do when the drummer knows what he's doing! Finished with "Happy Day" which is quite a rocking song.

After cutting out most of the bracing fitted some support for the two drawers to attach and sanded everything down. Now ready to spray!

In which case, as a bass player who occasionally has to play drums, am I now evidence of the missing evolutionary transition species 🙂 ?

I feel we missed out not having a donkey this morning.. mind you I had to cover drums again so maybe that was the next best thing!

Below from the ELF manual. So yes it is using a built-in compressor circuit to reduce the peaks and increase average volume, at least until you've turned the gain up to full where it appears it also has a built in overdrive/distortion. So it seems as well as being an amp and a DI box, it is also a compressor and a distortion pedal all in a tiny box!

I always have both freted and fretless with me on my bi-weekly church gig. I use a Genzler Magellan Pre as it has two pre-shaped EQ curves which makes it nice and easy to dial in, one for the freted and the other for the fretless. A touch of Keeley compression and I'm very happy with my mwah. Thus said if I was only to gig the fretless I would go for a fishman platinum pro EQ as it does everything (EQ, DI, tuner & compression) in one box. The other bass player at church uses one of these and his tone is great (albeit on a five string with frets). Mind you as a Trace Elliot fan I've always been tempted with the Transit B pedal that also does everything, but never actually tried one for myself...

Yes I think that's my experience as well - I had a 4ohm 4x10 for a while but ditched it in favour of having a bunch of 8ohm cabs that I can mix and match at will. For me having a selection of speaker combinations all at 8 ohms is far more useful and convenient.

But that's no reason for a 4 ohm cab - you may as well just have a bunch of 8 ohm cabs and only take one! So what does "work" mean - more headroom?

Was just thinking about this - so what is ever the benefit of having a 4 ohm cab?

Oh that would explain why the chap came back all pissed on a thread and the rest of us reading it couldn't work out what had happened (and yes it was the barefaced cab thread). It's a wild west out there...

Great - thanks - this one little sentence has now completely derailed my plans. OF COURSE this is Trace Elliot so OF COURSE I need to now build in a black light and fluorescent lime green paint - the big question is how to do it... Any ideas would be welcome, but my current thought is to buy two kitchen drawers, mount the two grills onto boards, and then use the grill/board combination as the front of each drawer. I think if I put a spacer between the grill and the board, paint the board lime green, and then mount a black light on the middle support, I will be able to get a green glow through the grills while allowing each drawer to open/close freely without getting tangled...