stevie

I had the same bass as you and fitted a Nordstrand MM pickup to it. Over £100 - so it's got to be good, wouldn't you think? Well, no. The Wilkinson that was in there originally sounded a lot better to my ears. I swapped back and forward several times (and tried series/parallel wiring on them both) but ended up selling the Nordstrand. So, try replacement parts by all means but bear in mind that there is a lot of marketing hype surrounding pickups and preamps - just look at the Duncan Antiquity range to see what nonsense goes on. This is why these companies can charge up to £200 for an item with a parts value of less than a fiver. What good aftermarket pickups do give you is consistency, i.e. you pay your money and you can be reasonably confident you've got a good one. Do buy used, because this could otherwise prove to be an expensive exercise. I'd go for the preamp first if it were me: getting the right amount of bass boost on that bass is key to getting it to sound good.

[quote name='Rayman' post='921810' date='Aug 11 2010, 05:34 PM']He's an all round cool cat our Janek.[/quote] Not so sure he's "our" Janek any more. I had a quick read of some of his posts on here (very interesting guy) and it seems he got pissed off with people taking potshots at him. He hasn't posted for quite a while.

Your problem is that your Vintage copy is much better than you think. Don't underestimate it.

Never heard of these guys before (I'm about 10 years behind what's happening), but that was great! The horn section and backing vocals make a huge difference to the first video. And the bass sounds a lot better IMO.

Very interesting post, which goes to show the importance of trying an instrument before you buy it.

Ebay have recently introduced a set of controls that appear down the left hand side of your screen when you do a search. If you look under Refine Search/Preferences/Buying formats there is an Auction command that will remove all the BuyitNow rubbish from dealers and display auction items only. I live near Absolute Audio. Their lists of hundreds of musical instrument items at a time made searching for local items virtually impossible. So the button is a godsend. If you haven't seen it before, give it a go.

For those who are wondering, it fetched £495 in the end.

[quote name='Big_Stu' post='916548' date='Aug 5 2010, 11:22 PM']Don't know if buying online is any different.[/quote] It is.

This: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLmclOZDwlg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLmclOZDwlg[/url] might help you get a better price. (Sorry, no idea how to embed it).

Reslo ribbons were used by vocalists before the SM-57 made them redundant. As a vocal mike they were muffled and fed back badly. British made though - and vintage.

[quote name='Beedster' post='916126' date='Aug 5 2010, 03:58 PM']Problem is, the O/P's situation is a bit clouded by the fact it was a best offer and not BIN, so frankly I have no idea whether that's technically an auction or a sale. Good luck to him either way [/quote] I'd guess (because frankly, I don't know either) that a BIN is similar to making a best offer when you buy a car. You're not bidding against anyone like in an auction. I've reached the conclusion that you should not bid any more on eBay than you can afford to lose. That limits me to about £150.

[quote name='Beedster' post='915978' date='Aug 5 2010, 02:00 PM']Was the sale an auction (sounds like it if the seller thinks someone may pay more if he re-lists it)? if so, distance selling regulations do not apply.[/quote] But look at this: [url="http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/Distance-Selling-Regulations-And-eBay_W0QQugidZ10000000000140381"]http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/Distance-Selling...000000000140381[/url]

Here for reference: [url="http://www.out-law.com/page-430"]http://www.out-law.com/page-430[/url] Make sure you cancel the contract unequivocally and in writing within 7 days. I'd send a letter recorded delivery to be on the safe side. I don't think the seller's return policy is necessary relevant here if he is a trader.

Just bought an amp from Martin, who gave me a great deal, and packed and shipped with impeccable organization. He also threw in a carrying case at no extra charge, which was much appreciated. A great guy to do business with.

[quote name='Phil Starr' post='909800' date='Jul 30 2010, 12:14 AM']The figures show the sort of increase in compliance you would expect after a breaking in period though why Qes would change beats me.[/quote] Because Fs is part of the equation for Qes: Qes = 2pi x Fs x Mms x Re/ (Bl)2. If Fs drops, so does Qes.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='910949' date='Jul 31 2010, 09:00 AM']Given the above, you just need to ask yourself if a minor cosmetic issue bothers you enough to take it back. And that will be your answer![/quote] It would do my head in every time I picked it up :-) Anyway, if I'd paid a grand I wouldn't accept sloppy workmanship, even if it did sound OK.

[quote name='escholl' post='910485' date='Jul 30 2010, 05:56 PM']So, as I understand it, 4 hours (or possibly less?) of use may make a slight difference to the low end response of a dipole enclosure, otherwise the difference is negligible?[/quote] Despite thousands of unsubstantiated claims to the contrary all over the internet, yes. The driver itself changes quite a lot, but its real-life performance in a box doesn't.

[quote name='escholl' post='909780' date='Jul 29 2010, 11:48 PM']Can you give us more information on exactly what you did, and how you measured and obtained these results? What was your break-in procedure?[/quote] I used Liberty Audiosuite, an industry-standard measurement system, to measure the Thiele Small parameters of the driver straight out of the box. I used the added weight method to find VAS. I ran the driver in with a 20Hz signal from a signal generator into the unmounted driver for about 4 hours, I think. I normally leave them running overnight but fs had dropped to below the manufacturer's spec - so I thought that was enough. If I’d known the data was going to be nitpicked, I would have measured several times to eliminate some of the inconsistencies. The only thing that running-in does is to reduce the stiffness of the suspension. So, VAS is raised and fs and Qts drop. If you compare the green and blue curves of the simulation, you will see that these changes are self-cancelling because the curves for both drivers are virtually identical. (There seems to be a few bugs in my modelling software, because the f3 point is obviously the same, and not different as it states, and there is also a contradiction in the nominal efficiency figures and the 1W SPL figures.) Still, it’s the big picture that counts :-). My conclusion would be that running a speaker in makes no difference to its frequency response when mounted in a reflex or sealed enclosure. I would expect the lower fs after running-in to be audible in a dipole, or an open-backed guitar cabinet, however, because VAS is more or less irrelevant to the performance of these boxes. Horns, as mentioned by Lawrence, may be similar, but that’s not my field. Al, the measured frequency response differences of the 'before and after' driver mounted in a cabinet are negligible. I would not expect any audible difference. If there is an audible difference between a driver before and after running in, I have no idea what might be causing it, but I think escholl put his finger on the most likely cause earlier on. Did anyone mention cable burn-in?

I'll provide more details later today when I have time. Just bear in mind that there is a margin of error here - there is no reason for the cone's moving mass to have changed, for example.

You can blow any HF unit in about 10 seconds by driving it with an amp that's clipping. If you want to test a tweeter protection circuit, that's the easy way to do it - the only way to do it, in fact.

Here is some data on an Eminence Kappalite 3012LF, with measurements before and after running in. There are a few minor discrepancies, but this was not designed as a scientific exercise: I was simply checking the parameters against the manufacturer's figures. The parameters on the left are for the new driver; the ones on the right are the same driver, but run in. The interesting information is on the right - a simulation of how they perform in an identical box. I can't say this is conclusive and absolute, but it's certainly repeatable by anyone who wants to do so.