icastle

[quote name='Bassmurf' post='1039862' date='Nov 28 2010, 12:55 PM']Elites are their own brand so I'm not suprised they would want to only sell those![/quote] Ahhh - that'd explain it... this is the "we know best" attitude that saw Tandy sink without trace along with it's "Realistic" brand...

[quote name='Spoombung' post='1039783' date='Nov 28 2010, 11:48 AM']I was thinking of ordering a cab from them but now I'm not so sure.[/quote] Well there [b]are[/b] a lot of other online retailers who offer a "price match"...

[quote name='BigRedX' post='1039773' date='Nov 28 2010, 11:43 AM']Probably because if you turned up unannounced all you'd find would be an empty room...[/quote] LOL yeah. The other thing I find a little disconcerting is that they seem to only sell "Elites" strings - whilst they may be good strings, I kinda like the brands I'm already using and would like to at least have the choice of something other than something they've decided I have to use... ... such a weird setup and the more I think about it the more I will never use them again...

[quote name='setekh' post='1039648' date='Nov 28 2010, 09:52 AM']Holy cow. People bid on this thing up to £275 but it didn't sell - reserve was higher than that! Wow. Jus wow. So now[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fretless-Bass-/270671157018?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3f0542171a&ssPageName=RSS:B:SHOP:GB:101"] it's back[/url]. And the reserve is lower, too.[/quote] Bl**dy Hell! I wonder what he's actually trying to get for it? He should have taken the £275 and felt lucky. Although he may consider this the best thing since flatwound bass strings, the harsh reality is that this thing is really only worth the SH value of whatever hardware can be stripped off and reused elsewhere.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='1039723' date='Nov 28 2010, 11:09 AM']The original Bass Centre in Wapping the other versions that have followed have pretty much nothing in common other than the name. Not having the website directly linked to actual stock levels is a pretty half-arsed way of doing things, but then it might show potential buyers how few of the items shown are actually available in stock for immediate delivery. The cynical person would also say that the reason they don't have an actual shop any more is that in makes it harder for you to turn up in person and demand your money back when things go wrong.[/quote] I got the impression that they *do* have a shop still but you have to phone ahead and make an appointment. As a customer I'm just not prepared to do that.

Oh forgot to mention - they have a guitar tech onsite in a [b]proper[/b] workshop up on the top floor near the acoustic section, and that is [b]all[/b] he does - not a spotty little shop oik with a set of allen keys and a chisel perched on a packing crate in the corner of the stockroom The deal is that they setup anything you've bought FOC and continue to tweak it to your requirements until you are totally happy. As I said earlier on in the thread, I've not been there for a few years now as they are quite a distance away from where I live now so things may have changed - but to my mind they were one of the best shops around!

[quote name='Emmaemme' post='1039077' date='Nov 27 2010, 06:05 PM']There might be a few, there might not be. Does anyone know of a shop called Machinehead?[/quote] Yep - bought all my gear from there until I moved up to Leicestershire. Always got a good deal from them.

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' post='1039434' date='Nov 27 2010, 11:56 PM']Hi folks I'm repairing a Laney BC30 combo. It reproduces the input signal fine, but there is a constant volume static-like sound coming out of it all the time, punctuated fairly frequently by louder pops. My first thought was a dry joint somewhere so I went all over the usual suspects (output transistors, big caps, bridge rectifier) with an iron to reflow them - nothing doing. I removed the preamp input and bypassed the send-return with a patch lead - still the same. I'm now thinking it could be an odd failure mode with a cap across the supply rails, or a protection diode across the rails going "soft". There isn't an undue amount of mains hum either. Any comments? Cheers Jules[/quote] PSU electrolytics breaking down perhaps?

[quote name='webby' post='1038911' date='Nov 27 2010, 04:08 PM']Indeed.[/quote] Is he like that across the entire range or is it just the key chosen to play the song in causing difficulties?

[quote name='webby' post='1038896' date='Nov 27 2010, 03:55 PM']Here's a rehearsal clip:[/quote] Flat with a capital F I'm afraid

[quote name='mrtcat' post='1038852' date='Nov 27 2010, 03:02 PM']Ordered some Seymour Duncan pups from Bass Centre a few months back. I was after two different sets and ordered one set from BC and the other from Blue Arran. The Blue Arran ones arrived next day and the BC ones arrived two weeks later with no explanation. Says enough IMO to keep me from buying from them again when 99% of online stores give excellent service.[/quote] This is what I can't understand with crap online service - all they have to do is display pretty pictures of stuff they want to sell, print off the order and ship the goods out. Everything is automated! There's no chatting to customers, no sales cycle to follow, no smiling at people who are talking total b*ll*cks or making them cups of coffee. How can online sites fail, it's money for nothing?

[quote name='lemmywinks' post='1038853' date='Nov 27 2010, 03:03 PM']The box was really well packed and these cabs are built like tanks, they have a tough textured paint finish (it actually scuffed my work pants when I unwrapped it!) so I wouldn't expect any exterior damage, they really are that well built one thing I did wonder about was if the package was jolted or had a tumble during transit which could cause driver damage i'll have a proper look inside and detach the crossover during the week to test everything, hopefully it's just something worked loose. I did try to detach the speaker terminals but the appeared to be stuck fast. Would it be safe to attach a test speake onto them with the existing one still wired in?[/quote] I wouldn't if I were you - you will end up changing the impedance by doing that and, unless you know the impedance of the cab and the driver you are going to use as a "tester") upset your amp. Even getting just one lead off the speaker would suffice if you can manage it...

[quote name='Musky' post='1038695' date='Nov 27 2010, 11:59 AM']Quite strange that I was thinking of Morgan and that programme even before Simon mentioned them. Like you point out, the guys at Morgan just didn't think of themselves as the sort of company that Harvey-Jones wanted to turn them into. It's pretty much the same at Rickenbacker. I'm no fan of Jon Hall or some of his policies, but it seems to me that keeping Rickenbacker entirely in house rather than opting for off shore production is a result of his families history in the design. He's personally bound up in the brand, and like Morgan doesn't seem to see Rickenbacker as a bulk producer. And he actually seems to believe that Rickenbacker are purveyors of consistently high quality, top flight instruments! [/quote] Any business that stays internalised (local manufacture and support) and doesn't feel the need to expand is seen as "odd" becasue it doesn't match the standard that most businesses tend to use to measure their success. Nothing wrong with that in itself, but it does tend to make for a situation where products have a high price within the market they are, supposedly, competing in and products do seem to become rather stale. Having never owned a Ric I couldn't really comment on their quality with any authority, but the design just doesn't appeal to me.

[quote name='Fat Rich' post='1038600' date='Nov 27 2010, 09:55 AM']I ordered a DVD which it turned out was out of stock and unavailable although it's still on their website last time I looked. Took several months to get a refund, they were very apologetic and helpful on the phone and eventually sorted it out but ultimately a bit of a rubbish experience.[/quote] I'm getting "we have the more expensive on in stock..." routine at the moment. Good job I'm not a more cynical individual or I could surmise that "someone" is attempting to play silly b*ggers here... I'll give them another week and then decide what to do to them - I mean what to do [i]with [/i]them of course...

[quote name='blamelouis' post='1038594' date='Nov 27 2010, 09:41 AM']Oh dear sounds familiar . [/quote] Hmmm I had to mail them twice over a three day period just to get a response as to what was going on. I don't care who they've had as "renowned customers" in the past, my £100 is worth exactly the same as Mark King's £100 and I certainly wont use them again.

[quote name='blamelouis' post='1038571' date='Nov 27 2010, 09:06 AM']They had a crap reputation on here in the last couple of years. Anybody ordered anything recently ? Seen a few things that caught my eye.[/quote] Yes. Ordered on Nov 5th, still not had it as they're "out of stock". Item still showing as "In stock" on their website. Not impressed at all.

[quote name='Bucket Head' post='1038273' date='Nov 26 2010, 08:55 PM']Alrrrite, i recently put together a les paul style guitar and was wanting to put a gibson transfer on it and laquer over the top on the head stock. i have painted it black alredy and its alredy to do this but i cant find anywhere that sells gibson transfers. so im wondering if anyone knows where u can buy these? also is the laquering easy to do? and does it just go right over the top of the transfer and how thick do u do it? thanks in advance[/quote] You do realise that you would be creating a forgery of a manufacturers product by doing this? I would imagine that Gibson would not be too keen on letting logo transfers out onto the market and third party suppliers who attempt to replicate the logo would find themselves in court pretty quickly. Gibson are not a company that thinks twice before issuing legal proceedings it seems... If you want to put a logo on your headstock then I'd suggest that choosing a different design would be a very good idea. Why not use your surname or something like that - if I made something that I was proud of then I'd want my name on it, not someone elses!

[quote name='lemmywinks' post='1038420' date='Nov 26 2010, 11:27 PM']I recently bought an EA CXL 110e and it upon testing it there seems to have been some damage in transit. The cab is extremely quiet with no low end and some distortion even at the lowest volume, i contacted EA (they were very prompt, replied within an hour) and they had this to say: [i]"The most probable cause is a damaged driver. We have recone kits in stock that must be professionally installed. The retail price is $98.16 but we offer a 20% discount and you pay for shipping. There is an alternate Neo driver that you can install that will reduce the weight of the cabinet by about 10 lbs. The retail price of the Wizzy10 Neo driver is $231.08 and the 20% discount is available. This driver uses a Whizzer cone and there is no tweeter."[/i] So it looks like i'll be paying $80 + shipping for the official fix, plus any repair fee. So...... 1 - What is a recone kit? 2 - What drivers are in these cabs? Also can they be bought elsewhere? 3 - Are there any other options? I was going to test it with a spare 10" driver i have to see if it definitely is the speaker at fault but i couldn't get the clips off, am i safe just to clip contacts onto the existing ones to attach the test driver (with the original one still wired in)? Cheers![/quote] A recone kit consists of a replacement cone plus the coil which sits between the visible part of the speaker that we all recognise and goes into the magnet assembly. Has to be fitted exactly square or else the coil will rub on the magnet assembly and is therefore outside the scope of DIY fitting really. Not sure of the answer to 2) - never heard of them! The other option would be to just fit a replacement driver of suitable size, impedance and power rating but this will probably cause a degradation in performance. Does this unit not have any sort of warranty with it? If it was damaged in transit then the courier company and\or vendor should be putting this right, not you!

[quote name='Johnston' post='1037876' date='Nov 26 2010, 03:27 PM']Is the New morgan still wooden framed??? i thought they went All Aluminium with the Aero 8 I do laugh at those who think the wooden frame is the chassis and think all the suspension and brakes are bolted to a lump of Ash [/quote] Idiots It's MDF isn't it?

[quote name='Oakbear' post='1037313' date='Nov 26 2010, 04:42 AM']Those Artecs look purdy![/quote] They're actually nicer looking than the furniture in my house

[quote name='Oakbear' post='1037282' date='Nov 26 2010, 01:33 AM']I'm looking to start a self build and am looking a t ready made pickups. Most i've seen come in sealed epoxy/plastic casing. However, I much prefer the wood look. How much would it effect the function of the pickup if it is placed inside a thin wooden casing?[/quote] Won't hurt it at all. You can actually get ready made wooden pickups - spotted these a while back: [url="http://www.artecsound.com/pickups/index.html"]http://www.artecsound.com/pickups/index.html[/url] Not sure about pricing or availability though.

I see bass guitars as just "tools" - you simply select the right tool to do a particular job. Like most BCers I've ended up with a range of different instruments and some are more suited to particular styles than others. I have a fretless JB and a WAV4 upright - different sounds, different feel to them and selected to match particular music types. I have a 6 string - that gives me the option of adding a little more detail but doesn't really suit me for fast and accurate playing. I have a 5 string - that gives me speed and a higher degree of accuracy than I get playing the 6 string. I have a 4 string - that's an old 80's SB900 and gives me a more 'authentic punch' for playin 80's stuff. I have an acoustic 4 string - that gives me the option of a quick practice without the aggro of setting up amps and gives me easier access into the folk/roots scene. I don't see it as "losing my roots" - it's more a case of providing the best possible enhancement to a wide range of musical styles - at the end of the day, whatever instrument we decide to use, it's just a plank of wood with some metal strings stretched across it...

[quote name='Bucket Head' post='1037174' date='Nov 25 2010, 11:58 PM']alllriteee, i just bought a second hand ampeg 4pro and bought it to practise today and cranked it all the way up and the eq seems to be fing up. basically it seems to cut the volume in half but when u move the end slider to the left (the one that turns up the power of the eq/ volume) it fixes it but then 10 secs later it will do the same. so i put a elastic band around it and put it to the other side of the eq to hold it to left and it has solved the problem for now. was just wondering if anyone else has had this problem and if anyone has any idea what thats gonna cost to fix? again im very thankful to u guys for the advice, im always asking and never giving cheers[/quote] Well, it's one of three things: 1) Crud in the fader - get a can of switch cleaner, squirt a dose into the slot where the fader runs and slide the fader back and forth for a few mins. 2) Dry joint - the fader will be soldered to a circuit board and one of the joints has failed - easy to fix provided you have a soldering iron and appropriate skills. 3) Failed fader - the fader has worn out and needs replacing - awkward to DIY fix, but again, doable provided you have a soldering iron and appropriate skills. Number 1) needs to be your first thing to do. Numbers 2) and 3) will need tech help if you don't have (or are unsure) the appropriate soldering skills. Cost wise - I'd guess a half hours labour for number 2) and an hour for number 3) plus the cost of a slider.

[quote name='StevieD_FenderP2009' post='1036239' date='Nov 25 2010, 12:44 PM']Ok, I was wrong, it's not how I thought it was at all haha Well, I give up trying to understand impedance. Cheers for your diagrams though Jon! They do look very helpful. Right, so back to the question at hand, AM I GOING TO KILL MYSELF/MYAMP/MY CABS? haha Cheers Stevie[/quote] Nope - your neighbours might kill you, but this setup wont The 2x15" is an 8Ω cab (2x 16Ω wired in parallel) The 4x12" is a 16Ω cab (2x 16Ω wired in series + 2x 16Ω wired in series = 2x 32Ω and then those 2x 32Ω outputs wired in parallel to give 16Ω) Your amp will handle anything [b]above[/b] a 4Ω load - using these two cabs together will give you a 12Ω (ish) load - so well inside the spec of the amp.

[quote name='obbm' post='1036020' date='Nov 25 2010, 10:37 AM']Don't see how you can say that when it has 4 x 15-ohm speakers. The 4x12 cab is probably 15-ohm.[/quote] Sorry, my mistake. From the description given it's a 260W 16Ω cabinet model 1935A