dmccombe7

Is that part of the experience

I had no idea there were different methods. I'll look into that. Thanks Dave

I'd love a tattoo but i dont like pain so its always put me off. Dave

Have to agree i prefer not seeing a band soundcheck after i'm in. With the Glam band its a full show for us as you can see from my pic. I always give it as much as i physically can. Someone's paid to see me and they deserve a proper show no matter how bad the sound is on stage you just get on with it and do the best with what you have. An audience probably appreciates a band enjoying a gig even if the sound isn't quite 100%. If the band are into it then its gonna be a good night. Dave

I recently bought a Fender Mexican 50's re-issue butterscotch with maple neck as i wanted a P for the punk band. It does what i expected but i preferred my Jazz in the punk band until during a rehearsal last week i used the P 2nd set and it just totally transformed the overall tone of the band. The more i play it the more i enjoy it. There's something nice about that deep warm P tone and then you fire the tone up full and you get an amazing sharp edge but retaining its depth. I was quite surprised how cutting a P bass can sound using fingerstyle. Very aggressive. So the P bass is now growing on me more and more but i have to ask P or J or do i fork out for a Ric and get best of all worlds 😂 Dave

Love my Geddy Jazz. So nice to play. Currently using in a 70's punk band. Who would have figured that when i bought it 😂 Dave

Had to do sound checks in front of people at gigs as we had no other option in some venues. The venue doesn't want the band there till 6:30 - 7pm and they open the doors at 7pm. Band starts at 9pm. The last gig we were there at 5pm and the sound engineer had so many probs with the PA we didn't get a sound check started till 7pm and doors opened at 7pm so people started coming in. We simply did a very quick sound check and ran thru part of a song and altho it wasn't sounding perfect we had to hope the Sound engineer was able to sort any issues out once we started playing. Played in front of Blue Angels on Sat night. No option but do the soundcheck in front of a full clubhouse as its one of their guys that does the PA. I certainly wasn't gonna say anything that night. Turned out to be quite a good gig and would play for them again. Dave

Last gig with Glam band the FOH had to rush thru the soundcheck because of PA problems. We did the first set based on how we normally do a stage set up with everything balanced to drum level on stage. Sounded fine. At the interval she complained the on stage amps were too loud and when i turned down i couldn't hear bass on stage at all. I know the songs well enough to just "go for it" and feedback from audence was it all sounded great. The vids i've seen from audience using phones it was pretty much ok. For me i feel that if i can play a set without hearing the bass and not worry too much about it and its still good out front then i've succeeded on a personal level. Just need to sort out venue sound engineers lack of experience. Dave

Try to take the positive from every situation. Best way to go. 👍 Dave

Something i have realised is that using with the punk band i run passive basses and input switch set to passive. In Glam band i use a Sandberg VM4 in active mode on amp. The active mode drops the gain and the tone changes quite a bit with the aggressive edge disappearing. Makes a huge difference with Jazz or Precision basses in passive mode. Little overdrive cuts thru really nicely. If i use the P bass in active mode it becomes very tame and more mellow sounding. I've only been with the punk band for approx 4-5 weeks and only done a few rehearsals with the amp and 1 full 2.5hr gig. Before that it was always in active mode for my VM4. I'ts possible the valves weren't being driven as hard till i started with punk band. Dave

When i started work as an Instrument Tech in 76 most of the instruments were valves so i started off with old valve amplification and aware of the hazards involved but that all changed within a couple of yrs and by 1980 it was all electronics as we recognise these days. We did have a large stock of spare valves in our stores that i used to "borrow" as i had store keys at weekends LOL I wouldn't tackle a power amp valve either. Like you i'm ok changing a preamp valve. I have 3 off Harma STR ECC83's i bought as spares for my SVT4 and from what i've read they are ok. Problem is i dont actually know where the fault lies in my amp. Dave

That could be a deal breaker for me. Do i now cancel my TT800 or take the chance that the valves will be ok......... This all confirms to me that Mesa put a lot of effort into getting the highest quality parts for use in their amps. That can't be a bad thing. Dave

So its more about high quality valves for use in Mesa amps. You want the best valves for the best amps. Dave

Not very fair of them keeping it from you. Afraid that happens in bands and you just get annoyed for a few days and then let it go. Once while i was setting up for an audition 2 of the girls in the band casually mentioned that the guy just before me would be ideal for the band. I auditioned and as expected didnt get the job. Think i knew that was gonna be the case after their comment. Suffice to say i got an email from them a year later asking if i would be interested in joining. I referred to their earlier comment when i auditioned and had great satisfaction in declining the offer. My thoughts were "i dont want to be part of a band like that" Think you're best out of it. Dave

Good gig last night at a well known biker clubhouse with the 70's punk band. No pics allowed. Was weird playing for an almost totally male audience. Great feedback at the end of the night and some guys had travelled up from Leeds to see the band. They came over after the first set and congratulated us on a well played set. They were heading back home at that point. All good and several rather large bikers even offered to help load the gear at end of the night. Have to say it was a good night and not as much of a worry as i thought it might be. The guy that booked us said we played a 1st class gig. That was good as it was my 1st full gig with the band. Few mistakes but nothing i couldn't cover. Other comments at end "bass player is the best in the band" put a smile on my face along with a very loud cheer and applause when singer announced i was the new guy in the band. Also put a smile on my face. Dave

A lot depends on where you are on the supply feed. I live in a village and i'm one of the first houses after the transformer and at one time all my home light bulbs were going one after the other. I have an electrical background so tested myself and the voltage was 250V Contacted Scottish Power and they put a monitor on the house and found it spiking very regularly to 262V They dropped the tap on the transformer which is located in the field behindme on a pole. Been ok since but the engineer said the voltage at the far end of the street was approx 10V lower than mine so its a bit of a balance act to get it right. The problem happened at a rehearsal in Wanlockhead but the Mesa has a rather large transformer and pretty sure it could cope with voltage changes. Nothing else was affected just my amp. On the gig last night the amp worked fine altho i turned the amp off when not in use plus i decided to drop the Gain a bit and reduce the drive on the tubes. No idea if these things stopped the volume drop but the amp wasn't on any more than approx 1hr 30 mins at a time. Dave

I have seen a few on line reports of it while researching the problem i experienced. Perhaps its just a valve quality or spec issue. The guy i use said ecc83 valves are rated up to circa 400V and from what i've read the Mpulse 600 runs at 390V. For me that's quite close to spec limit and maybe the poor quality valves are failing after a while. ? I have no idea as i'm not an expert in this area by any means so i can only take advice from others with similar amp problems. One of the posts i read was from an electronics engineer who repaired his own amps and he came across this same issue and changed an item on the board to drop the HT voltage to the valve in line with other valve amps. Dave

Looking from the front of the amp what valve is V2 as i cant see any markings on the board. I found your thread from 2017 i think it was and i've let the repair guy read it so he knows what's been happening with some valves. Thanks for getting back to me. Dave

misunderstood the message and deleted my original comment so this post now means absolutely nothing. I dont know how to delete a post

Post some pics if you can as i'm not familiar with the models and will need to google them. Dave

Kinda thought that. Thanks for confirming tho.

Is the bias not just for power tubes. Didn't think it was required for preamp tubes. ? No expert on it. Dave

Both nice looking basses. That Ibanez would look cool in my 70's Glam covers band Dave

I came across the issue on an earlier BC thread about Mesa Mpulse valves Steve. Seems that you need to use either Mesa or JJ 12ax7 valves if they need replacing. Dave

I looked at valves just in case it was a dodgy connection of the valves or they had loosened off in transit. Both were good tight fits but i did note that one was a Mesa and the other a Phillips. Someone else mentioned this to me and i asked GSE guy if he was aware of it but he said 12ax7 valves are rated up to 400V or there abouts and he cant see any reason why any good quality 12ax7 wont work in that slot. I believe it was the V2 position. I'm taking it in on Tues for the guy to check it out. I have spare 12ax7 valves from my Ampeg days before the Mesa that came from Watford Valves. I think they are Harma valves. Was going to change the valves anyway but a lot of places dont have any in stock at moment and might be one of those 3 mth pre-order things again. The current valves have been in since i bought the amp and its been fine up until few days ago. It worked fine yesterday at home at same GAIN setting but lower master volume in the house but the valves would be doing the same work at same Gain setting. Will wait and see what the GSE guy finds. Would be good to hear what happened with @rumblefish and outcome before i take in for repairs.