DTB

The thing is my music space is quite small. As I’ve posted on here before I am disabled and I repurposed and extended the shed where I used to store my motorcycles before I was. It is insulated for heat and sound, and extensively treated for acoustics. However it measures about 3m x 2.8m. I have found any small variations in the inside can have a drastic effect on the sound. I removed some artwork that was at ear height and was in line with the tweaters and it has fixed all the harsh problems. I was picking up reflections. The Genelecs are back to sounding great again. I go with a slightly wider spacing than purists would argue is perfect as I have always preferred a wider stereo image since I had my first proper hifi as a young teenager. Some argue that that is at the expense of the soundstage image but it’s how I like it. So long as the harshness is gone. I went with the 8010 Genelecs as they are perfectly suited to small rooms and keep the SPL and tinnitus down. My 916i Mordaunt Shorts sound better, but they lift the roof off and once I’m thumping away on the bass to a BT any nuance is lost anyway.

Had to give up due to degenerative spinal condition. Kept going as long as I could but I can only walk a few paces now, just enough to get from my house to the studio on a bad day, rest of time for anything other than being around the house I’m in a wheelchair. The last years of gigging were spoilt by the pain and lugging a 4x10 into the van, although I did ask for help with it towards the end. I didn’t really try going for lighter gear, I don’t even know if the Mark Bass Style light weight cabs were a thing back in 2012??? But I was and still am a tone junkie and a stubborn idiot so I would probably have carried on lugging the Trace 4x10 at 30kg.

My 2yo son absolutely loves watching her play bass. She is a star already, with a lot to look forward to.

Mind you, I reckon it could sound quite rugged.

I prefer a more rounded tone.

Think I’ve fixed it. Had some art work in studio that my wife did. Think the tweeters were reflecting off those.

I have found today that it isn’t necessarily the bass speakers causing the problem. Due to my pain levels being particularly high I haven’t been playing, but just chilling in the studio listening to some tunes using my Genelec 8010s and it wasn’t particularly loud but one particular track with a female vocalist really set my tinnitus off and I think the problems lies in the tweeters of the Genelecs. They are set up mostly in line with the manual. I repositioned them today as they were angled in as per instructions so they now aren’t and they seemed a little less harsh but also lacked a bit of detail. Can anyone give me any ideas on how to get rid of a harsh tweeter sound or recommend a warm sounding small monitor or hifi bookshelf speaker. The 8010s are tiny and bloody expensive. I had a nice set of absolute zero speakers years ago but they kind of died and the Genelecs replaced them. The tweeters on those were hidden behind a wad of black fabric. Maybe there lies the key? I know the white Yamaha (NS10?) monitors always seem to have tissue paper over the tweeters.

This exact thing happened with one of my dad’s bands in the 90s. Dad never got involved in the admin/money side of stuff he left that to those whose job it was. There were rumours that all 4 of the musicians were getting ripped off by the band leader and they were assured that everything was equal. A few months later the BL had a heart attack and handed over duties to my dad and sure enough they were all getting short changed. The BL told dad to stick the extra in his pocket and keep quiet as it was for doing the extra duties but dad told the rest of the band and split the money equally. Not sure what happened when the BL recovered and came back, but I never liked him, he was a horrible snidey little man.

https://www.instructables.com/Dirt-Cheap-Acoustic-Guitar-Pickup/

A few (more than a few) years ago I wanted a pickup in my Clapton Martin acoustic guitar, but didn’t want to have to drill a hole through the top under the saddle for the transducer wire, although years later I did and it was actually pre drilled slightly to mark the spot. Anyway the first pickup I had fitted was a simple passive transducer that the luthier cut to size and glued to the inside of the soundboard under the bridge. I’m fairly certain it was the innards of one of the bottle top pickups. It worked okay but needed a fair bit of eq ing to sound good. I also had a Fishman rare earth with the additional mic as my final solution, but as soon as I added enough mic into the mix to hear, it would be very prone to feedback. So I think a contact mic would be similarly feedback prone. The under saddle pickup was prone to piezo ‘quack’ which is why I went to the fishman. I think either a bottle cap pickup, or magnetic soundhole type would be your best bet. The latter had a tiny volume control.

Congrats on your ‘discovery’ I too love Roland stuff and have one of their stage pianos in my lounge. The stock sounds are great but accessing some of the library of sounds really had a similar effect on me that it’s had with you. Although to be fair I normally just stick to the stock sounds as I’m too lazy to press the extra buttons. piano is my safe place when my ears are tired of playing bass to my backing tracks. Have fun with the sounds, there are some nice 88 key controllers too should you want to consider that.

Wow! Nice bass. I’m very impressed with the Marcus Miller stuff and the V8 is on my ever growing want list. Enjoy, I’m not at all jealous!!!!

Thanks for that detailed answer @Phil Starr, I will certainly enjoy my summer sound. one last thing, would I be correct in thinking that all things being equal a 2x10 will produce half the SPL of a 4x10? Or have I got that wrong as well lol.

Why is it that music especially guitar through a nice valve amp and cab always sounds better louder rather than quiet? Bass too, but to a lesser extent, meaning I get the same feeling from bass, that lovely in the zone kinda groovy with the beat feeling, at a lower volume. ???

Summer set up is always easier on the ears. I’ve moved the cabs/monitors back. Thanks for the input everyone.

So the only way to reduce the spl is to increase the distance between speaker and ear. Is that correct?

I’ve taken down the dividing partition in my studio today, effectively doubling its size. I put it up in winter to reduce heating cost. If everything else remains the same, will this reduce the spl from the speakers as the sound has more space in which to dissipate. I can’t decide, because the extra space is behind the speakers/cabs, but it certainly sounds more spatial, better in actual fact, but isn’t due to reverberations because the space is well treated with acoustic dampening material. So the only thing I can think is that the spl is lower so the sound is ‘nicer’.???!!! Anyway, someone with a bigger brain and more knowledge of this complicated subject than me, please help, but don’t use long words coz you’ll just confuddle me further. Thanks.

Well I spent the afternoon in and out of the studio depending on my pain levels and had a play around with picking techniques and if someone had said it’s all in the fingers then I would have said they were just being awkward, but I get it now, it really is all in the fingers, not the gear. I often changed picks as a guitarist for a different tone and is the same with the fingers, well I don’t change my fingers but you know what I mean. All those years spent playing one tone when I was playing bass and now I have a whole new perspective. Wish I’d known when I was younger. Isn’t that a song title??

I’ve pretty much got it sorted now. I’ve got the bassman into a couple of small speakers and a Kowalski DG tube preamp into the mixer and Genelecs. Either can give a nice growl. Also got a Digbeth pedal on order which may sound even better. I was watching a Julia what her name video earlier on flatwound strings and that is the last 10% of the sound I think, but flats are a lot higher tension and I don’t want them on either of my 6ers so may well get a Sire 5 string and put flats on that. I love all this messing around chasing tone almost asmuch as playing, so long as I make some progress towards the tone I’m aiming at. I would be very happy to turn up at a rehearsal or gig with the tone I have now, having always gone for a very clean tight tone before, the growl is something I never liked until now. Julia Hofer. Edit.

Yeah, I said it was too much.

Damn!! RIP

Been looking at various preamp pedals and just ordered the Laney Digbeth. It had nothing to do with how it sounded and everything to do with the fact that I found out today that Nathan East became a Laney endorsee recently, because I’m stupid. So will post up how it sounds shortly.

great bass line. I’m thinking flats on a jazz or p neck pickup and slight bit of drive and compression maybe? absolutely love the tone.

I know you taking the fosters out of me but I found it very funny.

Why is it I got a killer tone with the Yamaha TRB (more growl than a pack of hungry wolves) and the I plug in the Ibanez and it sounds crap, even on passive mode. Really frustrating, really really very frustrating.