stevie

I thought I got a 99p bargain last week. The actual item is probably worth £20 but the seller made a mistake in his listing and I was the only bidder. The seller claims he sent it off but it has not arrived here - the first time anything has got lost in the post for as long as I can remember. To cut a long story short, he has refunded, but I think he was unhappy with the 99p and didn't want to sell at that price. Unsurprisingly, he says he sent it off by post without getting an itemized receipt or proof of delivery. He has over 1,000 transactions to his name - so he should know the ropes. I'm not bothered about the item but this is a bit of a psychological whodunnit. Do you think my seller genuine or a crook? Opinions please.

[quote name='ironside1966' post='553917' date='Jul 28 2009, 01:38 PM']Sometimes when a HF driver blows it can be fixed quite easily. if the driver is blown at the start of the coil take a few windings off and re solder. Not always possible but worth a try. I don’t thing peavey replacements are all that expensive.[/quote] That's a useful tip - I'd never have thought of doing that.

I wouldn't if I were you. The best way of getting some more high frequencies from the bass driver would be to connect it directly to the input, making sure the crossover is out of circuit. Doing this will make a difference only if the crossover is actually cutting the high frequency end of the bass driver, which may or may not be the case. It might also make the sound a bit 'middy'.

[quote name='stevie' post='553198' date='Jul 27 2009, 09:00 PM']Norstrand Musicman pickup coming for mine courtesy of eBay - cost me more than the bass .[/quote] Just a shame they chose the name before Google happened along.

[quote name='Kev' post='552037' date='Jul 26 2009, 08:16 PM']fitting a nice vintage fender pickup in my icon next week [/quote] Norstrand Musicman pickup coming for mine courtesy of eBay - cost me more than the bass .

[quote name='Geek99' post='551359' date='Jul 25 2009, 07:55 PM']I have the EST96 (active Ray copy) - its really quite good and the only thing I'd change is the pickup, which is a bit weak. Not sure what model to change it to though. My Jazz is actually louder.[/quote] I have the passive one with maple neck and Wilkinson pickup. It is more powerful than a SD Quarter Pounder.

Anyone tried the Vintage Stingray copy? I bought one locally via eBay because it was cheap and because I love the Musicman tone, and it sounds stonking to me. I'm not in a position to compare it with anything else, but I'm impressed. The finish is nothing to write home about. I can get a piece of paper in between the neck and body joint at one side. The varnish on the neck is thin and the frets are not as flush to the side of the neck as they could be. I took the top off the cover plate to tighten up the loose jack socket and discovered piles of wood shavings that hadn't been brushed out and also noticed that the earthing wire was hanging in mid air because it hadn't been soldered on. On the other hand - it's light, and it has that punchy, growly Musicman sound that I can't get out of my Yamaha BB. I find that I'm playing it more than my Yammy now, which is very strange because I've spent lots of time and effort getting my Yammy to sound just so. Comments, anyone?

[quote name='M4L666' post='549461' date='Jul 23 2009, 10:19 PM']is this good/bad? am i using this efficiently? when talking to my guitarist, should i say i have a "475W rig"?[/quote] No, you have a 700W rig.

[quote name='ray_6ao7' post='548782' date='Jul 23 2009, 12:08 PM']Steve thanks for all the help...spoke to celestion this morning and they're giving me 8 for £350.00 and i get added to the celestion artist roster [/quote] Wahoooooooo!!!! Result! See what a bit of persistence can do? Well done Ray! Sometimes Basschat makes you feel all warm inside.

[quote name='Spartacus' post='547947' date='Jul 22 2009, 06:25 PM']Its specs look pretty dire though (2 mm Xmax???) but wouldnt surprise me if that was the speaker theyve used as the cheapest option.[/quote] Good point. With eight speakers in there, every euro they save gets multiplied by eight, which gets multiplied by 4 (or so) to arrive at the retail price. In other words, every extra tenner Warwick spends on the speakers for this cabinet puts £320 onto the rrp of the speaker. There is therefore a great incentive to go for the cheapest. I'm sure Warwick would supply a replacement but Ray clearly wants to put some decent drivers in there. I have to say that putting good drivers in your speaker cabinet makes more difference than just about any equipment upgrade you can make, although in this case the expense is multiplied by eight.

[quote name='BurritoBass' post='547875' date='Jul 22 2009, 05:30 PM']Anyone think I'm too cynical here?[/quote] You can never be too cynical when buying off eBay. The week's delay has possibly allowed the seller to move his money out of Paypal. Same thing just happened to me but I managed to get a Paypal complaint in just on the seven days. I'm seriously considering jacking eBay in. Ten percent commision on sales is a ripoff.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='547809' date='Jul 22 2009, 04:37 PM']As far as what I'd use it would be the Eminence Basslite S2010, which is one of the least expensive neo tens but has low frequency output capability equal to anything in the Celestion line. It only has a 150 watt thermal rating, but with eight of them that's of no consequence.[/quote] The Basslite is cheap for a reason: it's a pressed steel chassis built down to a price. It doesn't compare with the Celestion NTR10 for quality or for low frequency output. Nor would anyone expect it to given the price difference.

[quote name='ray_6ao7' post='547711' date='Jul 22 2009, 03:30 PM']hmm no luck here's the response: [i]Hi Ray, we have no Celestion NTR10-2520E…according to my files you should have a WCA 811 ND cab and in it we use T5404[/i][/quote] Bum! The Germans are known for their efficiency but not for their flexibility. T5404 must be an OEM product code. I think it might be worth getting back to them and explaining that you want to upgrade all the speakers in your WCA cab to the NTR10 at your own expense, but you would like them to facilitate an OEM price for you, as the NTR10 is a very expensive driver. My guess is that they are importing directly from Celestion UK - so it should not be difficult for them to place an order with Celestion to be delivered directly to you from Ipswich. Do they have an artist relations guy at Warwick? He would be the guy to talk to, I think. You are not exactly asking them to move a mountain, logistically speaking. Alternatively, ask them to contact Celestion to explain that one of their endorsees wishes to upgrade the speakers in their Warwick cabinet and would they please offer him their best prices. Then order them from Celestion yourself.

[quote name='ray_6ao7' post='547640' date='Jul 22 2009, 02:53 PM']Thanks for the info! Just emailed Warwick now so see what they say [/quote] Fingers crossed! If Warwick won't play ball, you could probably persuade Celestion (with a bit of namedropping) to sort you out a blistering deal. PR rules nowadays.

Celestion's best 10-inch is the NTR10-2520E, which is certainly one of the world's best of its type. They retail for about £100 each. If I were in your shoes, I'd see if Warwick would get Celestion to send you eight for you to fit yourself. I think it's the least they could do for one of their endorsees. The speakers will probably cost Warwick about £35 each at OEM prices, which you should offer to pay because you will be able to recover a large chunk of this by selling the old drivers on eBay. You would then have a 2,000 watt cabinet that will piss all over anything you can buy in a shop. Seriously.

M6 is best, but won't fit the holes in every speaker. M5 will normally fit. I believe Screwfix is cheaper than most for t-nuts and bolts. It might not be too expensive to order some of both sizes - your delivery charge will probably cost you more than the nuts and bolts.

Thanks for that. It was excellent.

[quote name='Uncle Balsamic' post='542243' date='Jul 16 2009, 01:57 PM']Yeah I think they liked the Aguilar the best as it sounded about as good as the Berg, but was cheaper. I think they gave a Zoot cab the value award when it was only slighlty cheaper than the Aguilar they seemed to love.[/quote] There's no way that was a serious review. They didn't even look inside the cabs. It was like Top Gear reviewing a car by giving it a quick spin around the block.

Boneless, you will struggle to do what you are attempting with the knowledge you have. I'd suggest that you keep it simple. Build a 2x 12" cab first and forget about using a midrange unit for the time being. Align the drivers vertically. Go for a cabinet size between 80 and 100 litres. Build it from 15mm or 18mm birch ply. Brace well, particularly the back and between the drivers. The Beyma you have selected is pretty good (although it's not Italian, but never mind) but you would be better off with a neodymium speaker for a number of reasons. (In a few years time, nobody will want anything else). Beyma have a few really nice ones. Check them out. The 12MW/Nd and 112Nd/W both look good. Maximize port area to reduce port noise. Minimum 2 x 4" ports or 4 x 3" ports, but more if possible. Or a slot port like this: [url="http://www.speakerplans.com/index.php?id=gsub"]http://www.speakerplans.com/index.php?id=gsub[/url] Stage two would be to use the bottom driver to compensate for the baffle step. Finding out what this means will be part of your learning curve. Then, if you want to, build a compact top cab with a good midrange driver and bi-amp it using an inexpensive Behringer electronic crossover. I can assure you, this will be much cheaper in the long run than trying to design a passive crossover when you have never done it before. However, I expect you will probably be happy with the midrange sound of a good 12" speaker and may not even want to do this. Good luck. By the way, your speaker will be 4 ohms.

[quote name='cheddatom' post='540188' date='Jul 14 2009, 11:45 AM']What i've learned: 1. If you turn up your amp, it sounds better.[/quote] Except when playing through a Peavey combo, when turning it off sounds better.

[quote name='Deep Thought' post='532664' date='Jul 4 2009, 10:06 PM']I have a pair of ABM Minis with Celestion Neo 12's in them-same size cabinet. I'm delighted with them-I bought them from Nick Carey, who told me they were customised by somebody who does such things, whose name I forget. Drop him a PM and I'm sure he'll fill you in.[/quote] I didn't realize the cab was quite so small when I bought it, but my plan now is to fit a 12" driver into it. I would imagine it's really nice with the Celestion neo 12 in there. Great size and weight, too.

[quote name='bumnote' post='532651' date='Jul 4 2009, 09:40 PM']I understand that a company might fit the cheapest speaker it can get away with, but why not port it properly, surely that costs nothing[/quote] You'd certainly think so, wouldn't you? Actually, the porting wasn't a million miles out. I measured one bass guitar cab (quite an old one) that was tuned to 70Hz. In the Mini 15, Ashdown used a standard, moulded port from one of the usual trade suppliers: I've seen it before. It really needed to be one or two inches longer but I imagine they thought it was close enough and nobody would notice any difference. Which is the same reason why they couldn't be arsed putting 50 pence worth of BAF wadding in the cab. I'm afraid this is the kind of thing that goes on all the time.

[quote name='hubrad' post='531535' date='Jul 3 2009, 11:40 AM']We follow that same policy at the shop unless you really want to get it on Monday, but we do tell people! [/quote] Is that because stuff is more likely to get nicked or damaged if it spends a Saturday at a depot?

[quote name='alexclaber' post='531227' date='Jul 2 2009, 11:12 PM']You're not wrong about that driver! That's exactly the sort that gives 15"s their undeserved reputation for boominess.[/quote] Yes, funny that, Alex. The more I find out about equipment for bass players the more I realize that much of it is gloss not substance. I think perhaps a more critical specialist press could help stop manufacturers getting away with the things they do. I notice in Tom Bowlus' online review of 15s, including the small Ashdown, he didn't mention the fact that the Mini 15 has a 6dB peak just over 100Hz - which is a serious design fault. If he noticed, he certainly didn't mention it. Makes you wonder. Given how much bassists spend on their gear, the cost of a decent driver for their speaker cab is relatively insignificant and would probably make a bigger difference than any other investment they could make.