clauster

In a single coil you have one coil around one magnet - nice clear tone, but any environmental inerference will generate a hum in the coil. In a humbucker you have two coils wired opposite to each other. You still get the hum in each coil but when they are added together the hums cancel each other out. The Fender S1 switch is basically a series/parallel switch - in series the signal from the first coil goes through the second coil too, in parallell the signals from the two coils are mixed together from the outputs of each coil. Traditionally (especially in guitars) if you have any choice at all it's a push/pull pot offering single coil or parallel. The best known series humbucker s probably the P-bass. Not sure this makes sense, it's been a long and horrible day.

Anyone know a shop that's got the new Korg Pitchblack pedal tuner in stock? I was after a DT10 but now I've seen the Pitchblack I'd rather have one of those.

Only just looked at the Wiki (although I've known it's there for some time). In principal it's a great idea. BUT I think there's a major overlap with the sticky threads in that anything useful tends to be there at the top of each board. In other words, I would use it but the stuff I want is usually in sticky threads.

Thanks guys, now I know. I think I'd better start bringing my speaker physics upto the same standard as my electronics.

Weren't the Trace Elliot BLX range horn loaded?

Wondered where you'd gotten to Steve. Was getting worried you'd soldered yourself to the Boss It's a really great mod isn't it? Doesn't just improve the pedal it completely transforms it. Thanks for the first refusal on one of your spare chips, but I've still got my chip and adaptor waiting for me to get a better soldering iron. Just out of interest did you do a before and after test with the chip and did it make much difference? It sounds really good without it to me. Certainly I'm not getting any obtrusive noise anymore, but if it also gets a bit more tone through then that might be the push i need.

Am I missing something or is the compressor not there anymore?

[quote name='Joshbasscana' post='139015' date='Feb 12 2008, 06:55 PM']I have tried the warwick $$..................(etc)............. The look is a bit...meh? Josh[/quote] As a 'vette fan, that hurts coming from a Bongo owner

[quote]If anyone out there knows anything about these things i woiuld also like to find out about replacing the othe chips on the board with HI-FI replacements if possible,[/quote] You've dscovered a whole new form of GAS: MM (modding madness ) I really like those plugs..... You've got me thinking of getting one of those pedal kit boards (can't remember the name of the co but its somewhere on the board) and fitting it out with those sockets so I can swap components to my hearts content. [quote]for any one thinking of having a go the soldering is not as scary as you might think even on the chips which are close together.[/quote] +1 , find a free evening and a decent soldering iron and enjoy making something work better yourself!

One of the components (I think the first) you need to replace is in the middle of all the stick gunk. As standard, the pedal is truly awful, but once you've done the mods (even without the new chip) it's great. Works nicely after the Bad Monkey too.

You are (or at least could be) playing in the same key (EDC are all in G major) It's called harmony

Monte's components seem pretty good quality. I did wonder whether I should have just got the plans and bought the cap's etc from Radio Spares or Maplin, but I'm more than happy with the results from the parts in the kit. The problem with selecting parts yourself is knowing what to go for which materials, tolerances, voltage handling etc (those you've linked to look like hi-fi power amp caps). Those plugs look good though (although you'll probably need a new casing for the pedal to have enough room for the plugs and components). I used a no name 35w pencil tipped iron. It wasn't really up to the job - I want to have a more powerful iron before I attempt the burr-brown upgrade, and find my chisel tipped Antex for the desoldering. I used the desoldering braid, but only because I've always used it and have developed a hands-free technique, never tried the desoldeing bulbs. Finally the mods are VERY effective. You end up with a completely transformed pedal. Now it works (rather than just makes hiss) I wish it had a variable ratio, but for £60 and evenings soldering it's an excellent comp (even at double the price).

Great choice of pedal Steve! I've been loving mine since I did the monte-allum's mod a few weeks back (works nicely in line with the bad monkey too). Get a decent iron! I used my cheapy work one and it took hours to get all the parts changed (to be honest theres' still parts to do - I've not fitted the Burr-Brown chip or adaptor, so I'm at monte-allum's opto mod stage at the mo). There's 34 joints to be desoldered and resoldered, so you might as well make it as easy as possible.

Great bands of the 00s (form a middleaged perspective) - Sigur Ros, the Black Keys, The Doves, Interpol, Queens of the Stoneage, Audioslave, the Jicks. I could go on. At any point in the last 50 years you've had to filter a lot of crap to find the gems to find the good stuff. To find the Pixies you had to look past the Reynolds Girls, Jive Bunny etc. Baggy you had to get past Rick Astley etc Editted due to alcohol induced ramblings)

Mac mini's are great - just max out the RAM. The great thing with these is they don't have a built in monitor (the imacs and macbooks chuck out loads of RF interference), so you can switch off the monitor when recording. If you want portable get a macbook and again, max out the RAM. The other thing to be aware of with macs is there's now viruses out there that attack macs so get some security software.

[quote]you'll be Googling "G&L Tribute" and "Squier Vintage".[/quote] And "Shuker" and "SX" and "DHA" and "LM II" and etc Welcome matey!

[quote]Don't buy one without trying it first..... the necks vary too much[/quote] And the weight! They have a reputation for being heavy, but my 'vette i the lightest bass I've owned.

Okay, I've seen the Alibi (who were great BTW) When's the next Burning Organ gig?

Matt Osman (bass player in Suede) sat at the desk in front of mine in Mrs Pardey's class at primary school.

[quote]i never notice any noises with my standard one, and loses no low end for me[/quote] I've never tried the standard pedal, but it gets some good reviews in the usual places. As I said above, I can only see a couple of components that have been replaced. It could be that they're just caps that have been changed to centre the high and low controls around frequencies that are more relevant to bass, rather than improve tone and noise. Standard or modded - I'd just like more people to know that this pedal is out there. It's GRRRRRRRREAT!

[quote]Sorry, only just seen your post above Nik's. I have a nasty feeling you made it & I apparently blanked you If so sincere apologies[/quote] No worries! Did make it, but our old friends from Worthing made it too and we had three hours to catch up on all that's happened in the last 14 months, so didn't even get the chance to try and say hello to you. Great gig tho, really good FOH sound. Nice to see some "not so obvious" covers in there too (Mr Brownstone). Had to leave just as the encores started (long dive home). Gonna try and make it down again, this time without the old friends so I have more of a chance to enjoy the music and say hello at some point.

So long as Mrs C's car makes it from Tunbridge Wells to Littlehampton, we'll be there. With some friends from Worthing who we've not seen in ages.

[quote name='Jamesemt' post='124332' date='Jan 21 2008, 07:37 AM']Problem is finding 2x10s @ 4 Ohms... I know Markbass do one for £400. Any others?[/quote] Bill's own omni10s

[quote]The amount of compression is either preset or varies in conjunction with other parameters on the CS-3[/quote] Good point - As far as I can tell from using mine, its the second option - I THINK the sustain knob lowers the threshold and increases the level to compensate (even though there's a separate knob for this) as "sustain" goes up.

The CS-3 as standard is noisy and will butcher your tone. With the opto mod it's a lot better (but not perfect - I'd say it now performs as well as most things upto around the £150 mark) if you want less noise, more bass and more of a compressor sound. The sustain trick with compressors is just that - a trick - you need to compress your signal to quite a low level so that the strong signal when you initially play a note is reduced to the weak signal at the tail end of your sustain. The using the level knob, boost the whole thing to your normal (uncompressed) signal level - hey presto massive sustain. If you want to even get near to doing this and not sounding compressed you'll need to spend a lot on a fully featured comp with all the variables - level, threshold, ratio, attack, release etc etc covered.