Matt P

they're usually just called velcro cable ties (sometimes hook and loop ties as velcro is a trademark)., I make my own using double sided velcro tape which i fix on with a jeans rivet, I can take some pics when i get home if you want. Matt

The ghs precision flats are pretty good, I've been very happy with mine, a an reference I have chromes on one 34" scale bass and ernie ball group flats on another and like them all

i'm very much in the buying the right scale for the bass camp, I usually fit flatwounds to my basses so that's what i've bought, GHS Precisions on my 4 string and La Bela on the 5 string. I do want to try rounds on the 5 string so i had Newtone make me a set, Stainless 5 string set was under 40 quid. Matt

I had an Ashdown 4x8 that had been converted to the neo speakers (Ashdown ones) that was about 20kg and was only just about loud enough with a tame drummer, swapped to the Barefaced Midgets and i can drown out almost any drummer with only one cab (and it's 9kg or so) Matt

3 amp heads and 2 cabs here, Orange terror Bass mk1, Markbass F1 and a Trace Elliot gp11 AH250, cabs are a pair of Barefaced gen 2 midgets. at the moment we don;t have any gigs but the Orange is the one that comes to practices (with a single cab) every so often the trace comes out when i'm feeling strong, any of the heads with both cabs would work for a gig. when the Stoneham 100w head is available that will most likely replace the Orange, i'll also sell the Markbass and get one of the 200w tiny heads as a backup, the trace isn't going anywhere at the moment. Matt

there is a Yamaha France site, i would start by emailing the contact/support email and ask there first, if they can't help direct they should be able to point you to a company that can. https://fr.yamaha.com/fr/products/musical_instruments/guitars_basses/ having said that due to the age of the bass i'd be surprised if they can supply a direct replacement part, they might be able to sell you a new set of saddles with the pickups built in though, failing that you might need to buy a different aftermarket set of saddles and swap them out. I couldn't find a clear photo of the bridge online, if you could post one here then maybe someone might recognise it and be able to offer some more information. Matt

which bass is this? depending on the design then someone should be able to suggest a replacement. if you can post a picture or two that would help a great deal. Matt

for just getting general grubbiness off i use fragrance free baby wipes, if there's some stickyness i usually just reach for the Isopropyl Alcohol. Matt

very true! I'd forgotten that the 8" cab will be quite front heavy, my other thought was to make a simple folding stand with a v-shaped cutout to hold the amp, 3 bits of wood and a couple of hinges would probably do it, I might just have to experiment when the box is built. Matt

hmm I quite like that! it would need to be slightly modified to work with the closed back design of this cab though, i'm thining a circular socket drilled at 45 degrees in the middle at the upper back and a rod/foot that slots into that, thereby keeping the back flush. there would need to be a block inside to support it but that would be easy enough to calculate and account for. Matt Edit - something like this

the lighter the better for me so i'd go for 12mm ply. I don't mind adding in some internal struts or braces to make it work better. Matt EDIT - I've just re-read @Bill Fitzmaurice post above about braced 12mm behaving like 24mm, does this scale? could simply braced 9mm ply be used for an ultra lightweight cab?

I've looked at the 6" cab, in the house i use headphones for practicing, my amp/cab setup is either a markbass F1 or an orange terror bass, running through either 1 or 2 Barefaced midgets (Gen 2) so not exactly big. All my kit is stashed away out of sight in my little study as it is (which has floor to ceiling shelving on every available wall) and any cupboards are already full of my other kit (recording stuff, Guitar amps, Mic's and about half of the shared PA for my band) the 8" cab would work well for acoustic practices at the guitarists house using the F1 (or maybe one of the tiny 200W heads like an elf) and for monitoring or small venues with my EUB or my U-Bass. looking at the dimensions the 8" cab isn't that much bigger than the 6 so if i can find somewhere to squeeze it in then i'll have a go at building it. Matt

I've already done some calculations, to get a 45 degree cutout with a 16cm ish base (which i think will be enough) adding about 3cm to the overall height(or indeed depth) would work, that was done before the drawings were available so the actual dimension would still need to be calculated. Easy enough to make some calculations to find the centre of gravity and make sure it's stable. i think one of these might be my first DIY cab project, with the low cost i won't have much to lose if i end up with a pile of firewood and a driver. the only slight issue is that except as a EUB wedge monitor I don't really have any need for this, and space is at a premium in our little house. Matt

i can see this making a fantastic personal monitor for EUB , any chance of it having some kind of kickback option? I'm thinking it would be a great cab for small gigs and then a personal monitor for use when running into a PA. something along the lines of the crazy 8/88 just a 45 degree cutout on one edge would be enough. Matt

Got to be Denon for tuners (loving my Tu-1800dab) For machine heads I'm usually happy with whatever the manufacturer has chosen, when I was picking them for custom builds I went for usa hipshot ultralite. Matt

polytune's for me, one of the original ones on my main board and a mini 2 (i think) on my micro church board, i had a loan of a TU-2 many years ago (before i got the polytune) and i just didn't get on with it. i've got a budget ebay special micro tuner somewhere as well but it seemed to give a click through my amp when i switched it so it's in my box of unused pedals now. for me the main reason i use a pedal rather than a clip on (of which i own 3 or 4) is that the pedal mutes while tuning, excellent for swapping between instruments or a quick tuning check between songs without having to touch the volume control. Matt

the Octopre doesn't have any headphone outputs so only the ones on the scarlett are available. I have some time off in a few weeks so i plan to test out various options and configs before getting the dremel and the soldering iron out. thank you for all the help, i'll report back once i've got it finished. Matt

cutting into the case surround is my last resort for this, I'm a mechanical engineer by day so I am well aware of changing the structural integrity of the case. the case will always have it's end covers on before being moved and i'm pretty careful with my kit in general so i'm fairly happy that it will hold up fine, i might add some additional support to the inside of the case to compensate (possibly a strip of aluminium glued and rivetted in place, it will depend what i can scrounge from the scrap bin at work) I have some Van Damme Installation cable for this (can't remember the diameter off the top of my head but it's thin enough that i'll have to add some additional thickness with heatshrink to get the strain relief on the plugs to hold it. my plan was to probably make 2 small cuts into the surround and pair up the cables before they go through, then put a couple of stick on tie points inside the case to guide and hold the cables. all edges will be rounded over then protected with edging as well. Before i do anything i plan to test the theory with a cable round the outside to make sure it works how i expect, we were using a 5 way headphone preamp before and the mismatch of levels on the different channels due to wildly differing headphones means that separate volume controls are a must, and from previous sessions the mixes that we wanted were pretty different too so having separate mixes would be beneficial. Matt

has anyone got any thoughts on this before i order £40 worth of connectors to make up the connection cables? Matt

I think i know the answer to this but before i start buying the parts to make the cables and attack the rack case with a drill and a dremel I thought i'd check first. I've just re-jigged my recording setup and am hoping that the monitoring setup can be configured the way i think it can. My interface is a gen2 Focusrite scarlett 18i20 and i've just bought a Behringer HA4400 headphone amp (and an octopre and a trakmaster platinum), am I right in thinking that i can run stereo/balanced jack to jack cables from outputs 3-6 of the scarlett into the 4 aux inputs of the HA4400 and then setup mixcontrol to give me 4 individual headphone mixes? they don't need to be stereo outputs, mono will be just fine. we are a 3 piece band so only really need 3 connections but with the 2 dedicated headphone outputs on the Interface this will give us effectively 6 separate mixes? setting up this way will involve running 4 cables from the front of the headphone amp to the back of the interface but i'm prepared to make the required cuts to the case (everything is mounted in a SKB rack case as this is set up to be portable for "as live" recording wherever we can find the space.) i have access to suitable edging to protect the cables as well as sleeving to make it all neat and tidy. If someone can help with the optimum way to connect this that would be excellent. for the Trakmaster platinum which of the 2 outputs should i use to plug into the scarlett? one is +4dBu, the other -10dBv, i'm assuming that a balanced jack lead into one of the inputs is suitable? the manual seems to say that the +4dBu is for balanced inputs into professional equipment. apologies for all the questions, this is a more complex setup than we probably need and the old setup of a gen1 18i8 and the octopre with a simpler 4 channel headphone pre was probably still overkill but owing to certain circumstances this is what i have now so i want to get the best out of it. Thank you in advance Matt

@Phil Starr the two 10s is switchable from 4 to 12 ohms, so a pair can either be 2 or 6 ohms. Matt

you could try pulling the button up as far as it will go then try and slip a thin shim between the button and the lock and see if you can get it under the pin, something like a very thin plectrum might work or a section of plastic packaging? I had an issue many years ago where the pin unscrewed slightly from the button, you could try turning the button clockwise and see if it screws back together enough to pull the pin up into place. (i found that once screwed together tightly I didn't have any other issues. Matt