Mr. Foxen

[quote name='bassman344' timestamp='1356272484' post='1908600'] US made fenders are one of the most common brands the emperor wears. Nice basses but too big a step up on price just to have the letters usa on the instrument. Does that mean the rest are ribbish. I think not. [/quote] Mexico has the greater history of quality luthiery for sure, so as far as working from country of origin goes, that is your best bet.

Some asked similar recently. If you like the sound of the amp section, have it out into its own enclosure, and get a modern light cab (such as a Barefaced)

Fender got sol as a going concern, not just the name and logo/styling rights. Plus it was bought back by the board of directors from the original company.

[quote name='shizznit' timestamp='1356187766' post='1907760'] Ports are designed to increase the air pressure at the front or back of the cab depending where they are placed. Rear ported gives you more low end and front ported gives you a flatter result. Some may argue that front ported cabs give a bit more volume, but I can only notice the difference when I am stood a few feet away from the cab. Any further than that and it doesn't make a huge amount of difference to me. [/quote] This isn't how it works. Port placement makes no odds unless you push them against a wall or the back of the cone shows through. There are a resonant device, and reinforce the low end loading the driver, and the low end is not directional. Plugging ports lowers the tuning of the cab, you don't have to plug them all to mimic the response of a sealed cab, just drop the tuning to below audible. The Barefaced vintage has this option for that purpose.

I bet BFM has measured worn out speakers and has data to show a noticeable change in response. Shame that Acme guy wants the old speakers back as otherwise Alexclaber would have his work out woofers to play with.

Down to playing it and sweating on the screws in those areas. Some people, and some medications makes for corrosive sweat.

Its a badge and nothing else. Get an amp you like the sound of, stick the badge on it if that is the part you like.

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1355937558' post='1904817'] I'll be moving round the room to test Alex's theory on dispersion. [/quote] Be aware of room effects though. The shinier the walls the higher the room is going to effect.

"They" haven't managed to assassinate him yet then.

Separating the head section is fairly practical. Cab is a budget thing, but a Barefaced Compact will do a lot for you.

Caps will discharge slowly through a multimeter testing them, but a couple of crocodile clips and a resistor is what I use. I heatshrunk the resistor so totally can't tell you what value I used. Basically you connect the positive end to earth via a resistor so the charge leaves it slowly, rather than sparking. I've discharges very big 1000uf 450v caps into my arm once, its educational rather than life threatening, unless you have a weak heart or something, pretty uncomfortable.

Can you tell if the valve socket is bolted to the chassis or just to the circuit board? Might be a resoldering to the board if its that.

Stuff doesn't sound the same louder due to Fletcher-Munson curves.

Any brand that is a bought classic name attached to things with nothing to do with the reason that name had respect.

What a valve does depends entirely on the circuit you put it in. 'Tone profiles' of valves can only apply to specific circuits since the same valve in a different circuit will do different things.

I've come across a lot of dud preamp valves.

[quote name='ashevans09' timestamp='1355604736' post='1900579'] Sorry to be so technically inept but what are prevalves? [/quote] Preamp valves, small ones that work the knobs and such. They are also cheap and don't need matching, plug and play, so if one of those is dying and making for a weak sound, its an easy fix.

Fairly elaborate explanation that could equally be explained by not being Tokais.

[quote name='cloudburst' timestamp='1355516861' post='1899622'] Once, in the interval between songs, one of our singers unplugged my bassamp to plug in an electric heater. CB [/quote] Shoulda got a valve amp, covers both.

[quote name='umph' timestamp='1355513273' post='1899561'] wasn't he being a massive dick about lending it to? [/quote] Yeah, but that definitely wasn't technical, that was just being a prick. [quote name='Chest Rockwell' timestamp='1355513535' post='1899565'] heh! reminds me of my mates story of the drummer packing the car to leave the country, only realised when they neared heathrow that hadn't actually put the bassists bag back in the car when he took it out to put in his stuff. bassist called dad who went round to his house in newport, found the bag, with belongings and passport, still sat on the pavement and then drove to meet them in reading to give him his bag!! [/quote] A mate managed to leave his bag leaning against the back of his car, and back over it without noticing on his way to get a flight to India.

does the drummer forgetting to put his kit in the van count as a technical difficulty? Was definitely the worst.

Easy way is get some pre valves first and try them. I have a valve tester, so I'd run all the power ones through that, bad ones should show up there. If those are fine, bangs tend to be cracked solder and dirty sockets, and hum tends to be bad caps. Old valves is weak sound and weird distortion (which cab also be caps), sometimes valves arc internally, but you can see that sometimes and it comes up on testing as intermittent failures (like you ding them in the tester and see if the light blinks).

[quote name='ashevans09' timestamp='1355433178' post='1898460'] I was getting some crackling and noise a few months ago, and wanted to try and sort it before going on tour. Took it to a tech (recommended by Mansons so assume he's reasonably decent), who managed to get rid of the problem to an extent but recommended a full revalve sometime reasonably soon. It's been getting progressively noisier so I figured it was time? Very happy to be wrong on this! [/quote] Anyone suggesting a full revalve without having tested all the valves is a bit dodge. And if all the valves are not working, it will sound very wrong not just a bit. Because of the way the power section in a Mesa is made, there is a certain extent to which replacing all the power amp valves at once might be necessary, but really, the technically correct advice there is to get a properly made amp rather than chuck tons of money at a bad one that will only fix the issue short term. Might only be one noisy pre valve making the issue. Might even be filter caps, they might be getting about that age now.

[quote name='alexclaber' timestamp='1355407139' post='1897985'] The list of bass cabs where the woofers have any kind of crossover on them is quite a short one (Baer, Audiokinesis, some Barefaced, some Bergantino, anything else?) [/quote] The Peaveys with the 18s and 8" mids I think have a proper crossover. also the Ampeg isolvent, or whichever the one that is three way that Vic Wooten used/endorsed at one point?

Massively depends on what they all do. Probably lose lots of gain, and mess with eq centers if there is valve driven eq.