mrtcat

I take all the usuall crap but have recently added superglue. I sliced my left hand index finger tip open just minutes before a gig a few months back right where it presses on the string. Landlord gave me some superglue and I glued it together. Worked a treat and although it was sore it lasted the whole gig without opening up. Apparently superglue was originally designed as a field dressing in the war. Works well for us muso's these days!

Butt cheeks well and truly bent on one of the cabs. Gigging meant less time to build than I'd hoped for but still some progress. Will hopefully get second cab up to speed tonight. [attachment=70497:IMG_1232.JPG] Bending the ply was relatively straightforward but an extra pair of hands was definitely needed. End result is very pleasing though and you can feel just how strong it's gonna be. Staring to get excited now as there's a distant light at the end of this tunnel!

Ok so a little more progress. Been slow the last couple of weeks as work is busy and have been helping friends out with a kitchen fitting on weekends. Should have more free time this next few weeks and really want to get these finished. Firstly i countersank most of the screws on the side wall of the horn. I then filled them with car body filler and sanded them back. This was messy but I think it'll be well worth it when they're done. They're going to be fairly unusual looking so may get people looking more closely at gigs so want to at least try to make them look presentable. Then I added the throat supports. These take a little trimming to get really tidy and level but should be well worth the effort when I get to adding the main box sides. [attachment=70259:021.JPG] [attachment=70260:022.JPG] Have now added the half round black 4inch tubing at the back. Found a 2m length in a skip so lobbed it into the volvo and it fitted perfectly. Makes a real mess when you cut it on the table saw though. Little black flecks of plastic EVERYWHERE! It's a super static to so sticks to everything. Not to worry looks good now tho. [attachment=70263:023.JPG] Hoping to get my butt cheeks bent this weekend.......................and do some ply bending too!

[quote name='Marvin' post='1093033' date='Jan 17 2011, 08:10 PM']It's looking a very neat and pro build[/quote] Low resolution pics are definitely the way forward

[quote name='gjones' post='1100227' date='Jan 23 2011, 10:20 PM']Life's too short for faffing about.[/quote] +1 There are some smashing guitar players out there. In fact there's a surplus of them and IME many of them are really decent people who will work hard with the rest of the band to get things moving. I don't tollerate people not pulling their weight in my band regardless of their instrument - least of all guitarists as there's plenty out there that would kill for a chance to play with a band. I don't care whethter they put the band together or are just auditioning. If you don't learn your stuff when everyone else does, you're letting everyone else down and wasting their time. I play cos I want to progress and will happily speak up if someone is being a plonker and holding the rest of the band up. Ditch him he sounds like a plonker. You'll find plenty of volunteers keen to audition and some of them will no doubt be more talented and more commited.

Bit of progress this weekend but not as much as I'd have liked. Got to bend some ply tho which is nice. Hoping it creeps and settles tho as initially it put strain on the front supports where the tweeters will go and they were bowing out a bit. I'll keep it strapped tight for a while tho and hopefully this will help. Also the supports will be in next and they should help nicely. [attachment=69081:build_009.JPG] [attachment=69082:build_011.JPG] Sorry for not doing more pics, I get really carried away and forget to take photos whilst I'm building. Unless you've built these before you can't even start to comprehend how many clamps I needed to get this far

Do it all the time as I'm really tight. Doesn't work for elixirs or any other coated strings and as mentioned can make silk wrapped ends look really tatty but defo works. Not tried the meths option but sounds good too!

Forest Gump at 6.04

Thanks chaps, Really enjoyed your thread Big Mick and would love to see a finished picture. Am really staring to appreciate the expansion of the adhesive as it really makes things airtight and also holds incredibly strong. A good sharp stanley knife removes the excess once dry to leave a nice clean join. Going to give the build some quality time this weekend although gigging tonight fri and sat. Will post progress over the weekend.

In the process of building two DR280's for our band's PA system. Should be ready for gigs from start of Feb 2011. Check out our website to see where we're playing if you want to hear them. www.crudemeasure.co.uk Probs wise to PM me before travelling tho as we only use them if venue doesn't provide PA (99% of our venues don't provide to be fair). Failing that PM me if you want to pop round sometime and try them with a bass. I'm in Bicester, Oxfordshire (J9/10 M40) and happy to help out fellow bassists.

I'm going to go for a melded tweeter array. This basically means I'll be putting 22 piezo tweeters into each cab. My decision was largely influenced by the fact that a friend runs an electrical and plumbing trade store and they had 100 pulse tweeters buried in their store following an order cock up a few years back. He was glad to see the back of them as they were just gathering dust and let me have them for £20. I'm not convinced they'll be as good as CPC's own but for £20 i'll take the risk and if they turn out poo I'll fork out for the CPC ones at a later date. I'm also gonna build my own high pass and low pass filters. Started by building the tweeter jig from Bill's jig plans. ##Bill's jig plans are a must and at only $1.95 a bargain## Then cut as described and started glueing. [attachment=68471:024.JPG] It's important to get a good seal so i spot glued them with model aircraft cement then went totally bonkers with hot melt. [attachment=68472:031.JPG] [attachment=68473:030.JPG] I used the off cuts from trimming them to make supports that have really stiffened the array up. The final array is OK but bot amazing. Next time I will make sure my gluing jig is more perfect and have now seen many builders on the forum doing some gluing before making the 45degree cuts. This should improve things next time. Not to worry tho they are airtight and rigid and although not perfect it'll be hard to see unless you're right up close. I now realise that my big mistake was not leaving the edges on the end tweeters in each array. I'll rectify this later. [attachment=68474:026.JPG] Then it's time to wire them. The plans make this simple. Each array consists of two banks. Each bank is wired in parallel and the two banks are wired in series. [attachment=68475:032.JPG] [attachment=68476:035.JPG] All 44 tweeters on the jig - don't panic they're not all wired as one this is the two lots just sat next to each other! That's it so far. I'm hoping to be done in the next few weeks so will keep posting up my progress. Hope someone finds it useful but if not I'll not be surprised!

Next stage: More cutting out, used the router for the baffle and throat horn support slots. Driver spacers attached too. As per instructions I have now pre fitted speakers so I know they'll fit right when I come to put them in at the end of the build. I'm using tee nuts and M5 bolts to secure the speakers which is more than really necessary but I just feel more confident that way. [attachment=68464:005.JPG] [attachment=68467:006.JPG] Time to cut out my butt cheeks! I used my router with a self made jig, it worked really well and cost nothing. [attachment=68465:008.JPG] [attachment=68466:007.JPG] The plans show exactly how to mark up curves etc using a 26inch arc (length of thin batton with screw in 1 end and a pencil exactly 26inches away from the screw) and it worked well. This allows you to mark where the access panels need cutting out and where the inner horn curve will be. Now it starts to get interesting. You start to assemble the bits together and start measuring. What I love about the plans is that Bill accepts there will be some variation in cutting accuracy and explains how to trim / sand parts until you have the exact right width / angle between top and base. [attachment=68468:009.JPG] [attachment=68469:011.JPG] You may notice I jumped the gun a bit here and fitted the urethane semi circle bits that fill the cavity inside the speaker cone a bit. This became a slight issue later and re-itterated to me that following the plans to the letter was important. [attachment=68470:014.JPG] That's about as far as I am with the woodwork to date but spent some time over the weekend with the tweeters. See next installment!

The band is starting to get busy and we decided that it's time to invest in some decent PA cabs to replace the god awful Peavey 2x15's we've been using. Problem is we're all way to tight to splash out on big brands so I'm building my own. I love the idea of having something a bit more special too. I've got plenty of woodworking experience as a cabinet maker. Speaker experience comes from having built a sub woofer boxes for my friends when I was a bit younger then progressing to bass cabs, and full range /monitors in recent years. This is my first ever BFM build and I thought I'd jump straight in at the deep end and go for a pair of Bill's DR280's. As these are a bit of an experimental test of my abilities and a chance to make a few mistakes I'm going to use some 12mm ply sheets given to me by a customer. If I surprise myself I will defo be hunting down some really nice baltic birch and building another pair for more long term use. If these are solid and I'm happy with them I may sell them off unloaded on here to fund the top notch materials. [attachment=68460:013.JPG] Ok so tools wise I'll use a reasonable range of kit including circular saws, jigsaw, table saw, router, 1,000,000 clamps etc Bills plans are great and very descriptive. I am rapidly learning that these are not to be used as a basis to "ad lib" a bit. Everything is done the way it is for a reason. If you're going to build your own BFM stuff follow Bill's advice to the letter and take your time. There's great support from the forum but as long as you read carefully and stick to the plans you'll be fine. They cost $15 a set and that's a bloody bargain if you ask me - Thanks Bill!!! Probably the most important thing to do is get the right adhesive. Wood glue will not work on Bill's designs. Bill recommends PL polyurethane construction adhesive which is very strong and has brilliant gap filling properties which is vital as you need everything airtight and this allows for small imperfections in your cutting. I struggled to find this in the UK tho so I did some testing of other PU stuff and found this to be the best: [url="http://www.thegluepeople.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6_10&products_id=33&zenid=00e669a4213085ba954ec380ad93803c"]http://www.thegluepeople.co.uk/index.php?m...54ec380ad93803c[/url] It's magic stuff as it expands loads and then sets rock solid and at only £4.26 a tube it's very well priced. Thus far I'm half way through the first tube. Be warned tho, if it gets on your fingers it takes weeks to come off. Right on with the build! First up is the horn baffles [attachment=68461:017.JPG] [attachment=68462:018.JPG] [attachment=68463:020.JPG] I'm doing two cabs at once to make life just a bit harder. Parts are not desperately easy to clamp but again the plans tell you how. You'll see I screwed them too but now see this is overkill. Next time I won't. I'll leave the screws in tho as they won't be seen at the end.

[quote name='stonecoldbass' post='1083898' date='Jan 10 2011, 08:26 AM']I think we're all missing the point here, which is that she looks suspiciously like Verdine White, just look at those trousers!! [/quote] Haha that made me laugh out loud! I think we sometimes miss the point by trying to over analyse. Yeah she showboats and possibly there's better singers but that's her act. Like it or leave it. Many of the most successful solo artists ever have relied on a mix of their showboating [b]and[/b] their talent. That's what makes them a front man / woman rather than just a musician in a band. Might not make the best show if she was just to stand at the back where bass players usually stand. It clearly appeals to some and not to others. I enjoyed it and can see her obvious talent as both a player and performer but probably wouldn't want to buy her albums or watch a full 2hr show. Thanks to the OP for posting tho as I wouldn't have seen her otherwise.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='1083784' date='Jan 9 2011, 11:47 PM']That is a bit balatant, but stuff like this means quality has to speak for itself, rather than letting a brand label speak for it. Which is a win for the discerning consumer, issue being most consumers aren't discerning.[/quote] +1 IMO there's a few too many big names who's products vary hugely in quality of finish and components from one instrument to the next but command a very high price. I have no objection to paying the right price for quality but if small independents can produce instruments of seemingly equal, if not higher, quality for less and still turn a profit then there's something quite wrong. I think that this type of activity is the kick in the arse some of the big brands need. However I'm sure most will opt to spend their time and money chasing the counterfeiters rather than raising the bar a bit. I have a p-bass that is put together from odds and ends (squire body, unknown neck, fender neck plate, fake fender headstock transfer)) with some sd p'ups which has been dressed up to look like a vintage 70's original and following a thorough setup from a respected luthier it plays and sounds infinitely better than my brother in laws USA vintage 62 and only cost £200 all in. Why therefore do we pay so much for the real deal?? Of course it's because we trust the brand but should we really trust them when they rip us off?

Wow that's pretty!

It'll come with practice and you'll be glad you put the time in. I love ghost notes and used well can really liven up a bass line.

A sensible question as few people will tell you how to clean your axe when buying! Depends how you want it cleaned. Fast fret is really a string lube and I cant really comment on it's cleaning ability but I don't like it as it leaves the strings feeling greasy IMO. I've heard people say it can harm fret boards but I can't see how they'd get away with selling it if it really did. Many players never clean their strings and prefer a slightly duller worn in tone. Personally I like a quite bright sound so prefer newer strings. New strings however are expensive and in order to get as much life as possible from a set I regularly take them off and boil them in a pan of water for 15 mins. This cleans them and revives the bright sound. The brightness however doesn't last quite as long as a new set but is worth while for me. Some people will no doubt turn their nose up at this tho. Boiling them doesn't really work if they have silk wound ends as it starts to fray afterwards. It's also a no no if you have strings such as Elixirs which have a coating on them. While i've got the strings off I usually just give the rest of the bass a wipe and buff with a very soft duster. I wouldnt like to use a chemical cleaner or anything although I know plenty of guys who use furniture polish without too much problem. Depends on the finish on your bass. My advice is just a duster though. Hope that helps!

Bloody hell that's cracking value for money!

Many thanks to all for taking the time to help. I'm going to go with the 3.9 ohm as the BFM forum also has other people recommending the same thing and you all clearly know what your talking about as Ive heard nothing to contradict whatsoever. Again thanks to all for the help.

For me timing is crucial but extra noises are often welcome. I know I sound bad solo'd and regularly record myself and listen back. I try to use it to improve timing and expression etc but as long as it's not out of control some fret buzzing and "finger sliding along string" noise is all good. There's a thread on here about isolated bass lines. Check out something like Flea's bass line on Give It Away. The timing is great as you'd expect but solo'd you notice how much clonking and buzzing he generates and IMO it really adds to his sound. *EDIT* Just listened to Give It Away again and it's not as clonky as I recall but I have heard several of Flea's isolated tracks which sound very loose solo'd but great in the mix.

I'm really happy with mine. It's a "one bass does all" kind of instrument. It's nicely made, sounds great and looks good. I haven't noticed it as particularly heavy and love the neck. The action is better than any other Jazz I've had and it can growl like a dog if needed. I'd happily recommend one.

Many thanks Pentode will do!

Are you using ACS custom fit ER20s? They cancel noise very well as you'll know if you have them. I use custom HF17s and find they almost cancel too much and I sometimes feel a little detatched from the music. I believe you can have the filter removed and a monitor driver installed which will exclude the majority of external noise, including your guitarist so the monitor level can be kept down. It's not a cheap option as you're probably looking at a couple of hundred quid to have the drivers done but it would definitely allow you to have an in ear monitor at a reasonable level. *EDIT - T15 drivers will work with custom ER20s for £129 see link below* [url="http://www.acscustom.com/uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=38&Itemid=48"]http://www.acscustom.com/uk/index.php?opti...8&Itemid=48[/url] If you don't have custom fit ones then they'll do you a mold of your ear and make you some for about £250. It may sound a lot but if you're guitarist really is that loud then you'll be doing yourself a huge favour by having proper plugs made. [url="http://www.acscustom.com/uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=37&Itemid=47"]http://www.acscustom.com/uk/index.php?opti...7&Itemid=47[/url]