Ancient Mariner

That ^ I've only ever known 2 planet waves cables, and they both died in less than a year. I use a mix of cables, mostly cheaper, and they tend to last me a long time. I've been playing 32 years, and I can pretty much remember every cable I've owned in that time including the earliest one made from TV arial coax. I think I've probably had 10.

Out of interest, is that an old Boys Brigade belt for the strap? Looks great - must see if I can get WinISD working again (usually just displays a flat line, except very occasionally).

I have one of those very cheap Johnny Brooke jazz bass copies, and with work and time it's becoming more worthwhile to play. However the sound is a bit dull and it's fairly thuddy instead of being crisp and harmonically rich. Anyone have an opinion of Wilkinson jazz bass pickups - like or dislike? What about some of those heavier modern style bass bridges one sees, or is it only worth going badass/Gotoh on a J type? In the guitar world turds can sometimes take a surprising amount of shine if carefully upgraded, but I don't know if the same is true of basses.

Sounds like a nice design - pics and dimensions when done, please.

[quote name='Deep Thought' post='814087' date='Apr 21 2010, 06:55 PM']It can happen, and not just with basses-you buy it, play it, and love it, and genuinely believe it's the greatest thing you've ever owned. Then you have it for a while, and the honeymoon period comes to an end, and you start noticing things you don't like which you didn't notice before, in your first flush of enthusiasm. Then something else comes along, the next Big Thing, and the first one has to go. Or perhaps you're searching for some particular sound or feel, and you're experimenting with different basses. Often you go through a few before you find what you're after. So it's not entirely ridiculous to be singing a bass's praises one week and selling it the next.[/quote] 'Tis true - I still have a couple of guitars like that, which really ARE great instruments, but don't suit my tastes these days. I'd say the best thing is to always describe it as it is without the salesman's superlatives.

There's no fret wear (fingers crossed behind my back - above the 12th fret).

Likewise, great to meet people and hear them (are you SURE bass isn't an Olympic sport?). Most of the basses I saw were gorgeous, but so far above any kind of budget I might have for a while that they didn't induce GAS at all! Now the amps on the other hand...... Thanks, Mark, for opening up on a Sunday for us.

[quote name='Oscar South' post='809397' date='Apr 17 2010, 01:26 PM']A good musician makes a good player of any instrument, likewise a bad one a bad player on any.[/quote] This. But you can get away with being not very good on bass more easily than guitar, plus guitar will naturally tend to attract the extrovert (with all the attendant self confidence & pride). I've played with bass players where I've wondered whether they were in the same key as the rest of us - actually that's been true for keyboard players too, who generally DO tend to be the most musically accurate in a band. Not that I'd consider myself great either, but I know enough to hold a band together musically when I'm on guitar playing simple songs. It sounds like a security thing. He probably knows he mucked up, but doesn't feel secure enough to admit it. And the deeper he argues against you, the harder it is to go back and apologise. FWIW I had a friend come over last night who plays bass and keyboards (well). She's buying her first decent guitar amp, and wanted to run through the stuff I had to see what she liked and what she didn't to help selection. She said she plays guitar like a bass player.

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='808594' date='Apr 16 2010, 04:34 PM']Because drummers spend their time hitting things in a frenzy of adrenalin-fuelled - er - frenzy, we incorrectly assume they're bluff, hearty fellows with no more depth than a puddle. A careful reappraisal of all the drummers with whom I've worked leads me to conclude that they were (nearly all), dark, tortured, passive-aggressive brooders, much given to nursing grudges and silent woe. Unless they were manic, bi-polar flakes running after unrealisable musical ambitions like a crazed dog chasing cars. It's to do with sitting at the back. Makes 'em insecure. The answer? A big, wet, sloppy kiss at the end of each rehearsal.[/quote] Until you got to the kiss bit I was thinking bout my drummer mate, Steve. Dark, tortured and passive aggressive coupled to the kind of build that is comfy moving wood all day in a lumber yard makes life interesting. Couple that with a short time to boredom (when you're trying to teach the singers something) and an inclination to throw sticks makes for an interesting life (if you can duck quickly). We're still good mates. I'm wondering if he might want to do something this summer. Don't think there'll be much kissing - tongues or otherwise - though.

I don't often listen to music while surfing, but right now it's 'Highway Star' Deep Purple. Now that's a song with a lot of fun going on, even if the bass part is (mostly) tedious.

I'm going to try - probably arrive around 3ish if I'm coming.

[quote name='obbm' post='806665' date='Apr 14 2010, 10:52 PM']That might be a tad difficult seeing as the Bass Terror has a solid state power stage.[/quote] Thanks - I'd thought it was a valve amp.

I'm not so sure valves are critical for great bass tone, but in the guitar world there's just nothing like them. I own just one SS amp these days - a Tech 21 Trademark 60 - and it's not a patch on a nice 18 watter. Except when it's being carried......

If you really want a 'quick fix' for a little more bottom end then I'd simply double up the cathode caps on the output valves, unless they're already large (1000uf+).

The top unmarked speaker with the olive-metallic basket looks like a celestion G12H. Might not be enormously valuable but a great, great guitar speaker. If the inked 4 digit code is FF26 then it was made on the 26th June 1973. T2089 is a G12H see:http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Celestion-g12h-speaker-cone-plus-HH-acoustics-cone-_W0QQitemZ170452151767QQcmdZ The second unmarked speaker is another fane (same basket) but I can't tell you whether it's the same in all respects.

Hotrox are probably cheaper than WV. You could also try Edicron. [url="http://www.edicron.com/"]http://www.edicron.com/[/url]

Slap an EQ pedal in front (or in the loop if it has one?). You could try changing the pre and power valves - talk to a decent valve supplier about what they have that will darken the tone. You could try Watford valves if you're wealthy, Hotrox or someone like Eurotubes in the US. There's always components that can be changed in the amp to alter the tone, but it rather defeats the objective of buying an Orange if you want to do that. Much better to just sell it and buy something with a tone you like better.

First bass was an Avon EB0 copy with flats when I was 19ish. Didn't have a bass amp (didn't realise they were different back then) so played it through my AC30. It just made a 'woof woof' sort of noise. I guess I've re-started, so currently the first bass(es) are an Encore P-type and a Johnny Brice J-type, both collected on the same day. First amp was a Carlsbro Colt 45 (donated by a friend a few weeks ago) and it's died already. An HK3500 should turn up tomorrow.

Saucer of milk to table 5^ If I can't hear it then it doesn't bother me.

I'm a little vague on it myself, but I believe that the lower frequencies of a bass stress the transformer more than the higher frequencies of a guitar. Producing bass frequencies requires much more power than higher frequencies. This become apparent when you play a guitar amp with a valve rectifier cranked hard: notes on the A and especially E string below the 8th fret tend to sag - dip in volume after the initial pluck and then gradually recover - because the rectifier and caps can't sustain the current required to power the note. Many guitar amps were built with expensive parts like OTs close to the edge of spec or even slightly undersized. Sometimes this was for tonal reasons (a smaller OT will saturate sooner, providing compression and distortion) but most often for financial reasons, just to keep costs down, and know most users would never run it flat out. Using this amp in anger with a bass could be just too much for the OT - the label may be there because they had a string of failures in just this situation.

[quote name='Stylon Pilson' post='803906' date='Apr 12 2010, 04:54 PM']Heh, I'm not trying to suggest that the placebo effect is necessarily stronger than a treatment that has been scientifically proven to give benefits. It's more the case that if you have a patient who needs a triple heart bypass, and the two options are (1) a homeopathic remedy, or (2) nothing whatsoever, then the patient in the first group will have a [i]marginally[/i] higher chance of survival. But the same would be true if you gave them a normal sugar pill (which, technically, is what a homeopathic remedy actually is) and told them that it was a homeopathic pill. In this case, if you have two cables that are indistinguishable in a double-blind study, and hence functionally identical, you can gain a marginal benefit by playing the psychological game. As long as the subject doesn't know that this is what's happening, of course. S.P.[/quote] Completely off OT but following this one. I share an office, and opposite me sits a chap developing a test system to demonstrate the effectiveness of homeopathic medicine. While I do have some questions about his work, he does appear to be generating data that suggests there IS some kind of effect, and just as importantly, how that effect can be eliminated. I believe he's presented to the Royal society quite recently and is talking at Cafe Scientifique in Oxford this Thursday. Stephen is a Biochemist by original training. My instinct is to assume it's all smoke and mirrors, but there has been interesting data coming out. BTW the important part is not the dilution (which everyone knows and mocks) but the 'succussion' shaking/mixing technique, which no-one ever seems to have heard of. Interesting, no? BTW the main difference between the Cream and OBBM cables is likely the colour. And, as pointed out, the placebo effect. And if you use just 1 pedal with a decent buffer then you'll not easily notice the difference between even a high capacitance 'tone-sucking' normal cable and a very low capacitance cable.

It's very difficult to keep the weight of a valve amp reasonable over about 30 watts, if you want a strong bottom end. The only way to do it is with BIG BIG iron and huge caps, and it all gets very heavy, very quickly. Below that it's not so bad, but obviously that's not enough for clean tone at gig volumes. There is a valve amp design around that has some kind of clever switching power supply system instead of transformers, but I don't think it's hit the market yet (apparently been in prototypes for several years now).

I quite like the idea of doing one that superficially looks like 'ender: 'Pecker' or similar. If I want a guitar with Fender on the headstock I'd prefer to buy one they made.

It does go like that from time to time. People are just plain awkward, and trying to actually get 3 or more to work together at a semi-organised and emotionally charged hobby can feel like juggling eels.