LukeFRC

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1387732365' post='2314991'] A few weeks back we sold a cab to a customer by making him face away whilst we plugged in a variety of different cabs whilst he kept playing. He walked away with a Bag End 1x10". Not at all what he was looking for when he came in We sometimes give people a selection of basses to play and refuse to tell them how much they cost. Did that recently with a batch of Fender J's and the customer bought a Mexican with upgraded pickups ahead of a stock USA model. It simply sounded better and played just as well. Blind testing is definitely a good idea when it's practical [/quote] blind testing is brilliant- I went through a phase where I decided I "had" to have a jazz bass - so rather than go on here or a shop and buy the "best" I could find I went and played loads and loads. Realised that there is an slight and indirect correlation between price and quality - but you can find some gems. The most fun to play was an old japanese cimar that cost me £40 (I bought that one), the all round best, the Valenti that Richardd is trying to sell at the moment (why did I sell it I don't know) the most dull and dead sounding was a sadowsky. (though not all sadowskys I tried were dull and dead) With Fender stuff themselves I loved the american vintage reissue series, and highway one - but couldn't find a nice USA one in-between that. And with nice chinese squiers seeming to be a better buy than mexican fender. The moral of it was blind testing is good - so often we are blinded by the price tag or looks. It also made me realise that a fair few bass designs are fairly generic and the difference between a top of the top range and bottom isn't that massive. And that some basses will be engineered in a way that they can do things that no other bass can. If that thing is what you want then it's worth buying- whether it's a £10k Ritter (for Molan), a £100 set of pickups or something lovely and made of Wenge (the 1985 Thumb bass I got last week). We do ourselves no favours when we look at the price rather than the engineering.... anyway.... I would say though for cabs... how do you do blind testing in the shop? it's different to a live occasion... I'ld love to give it a try though!

[quote name='Balcro' timestamp='1387723746' post='2314892'] Hi Luke, Nice to see someone else who also finds WinIsd results occasionally surprising. I presume that the SICA units were in there from new. I tried a different tack and re-ran WinIsd using the "super boom-box" option under the Choose Alignment option. That produced more conventional results as far as the response curve was concerned. WinIsd left to its own devices came up with a 41 litre box tuned to 54 Hz. If you tweak that up to 65 litres and a tuning of 68Hz the graph looks smoother with very slight rise near 85Hz (a square vent 6cm x 24cm). Probably average for a bass guitar cab - just around the frequency of Low E or F. Check out Maximum Power & Cone excursion! These things sure ain't hi-fi! Balcro [/quote] Ok, so copied what you did with box volume and tuning and got the same response with the peak at 85Hz I then Increased the box volume to 100l which is what I estimate mine is (measuring the inside minus handles and struts) and then added my port dimensions.... it's a rectangle with a semi circle on each end, so converting the area of the circle into a rectangle we end up with a square port 30.5x9.5 with a depth of the wood at 1.5 cm. Which gives me a tuning freq of 80.76Hz, the graph then gives me a not very flat at all peak of 6db at 88Hz going down to -3 at 67Hz - so that's what I can hear!!!! I had a look at max power and cone excursion - but I don't really know what I should be expecting to see to compare it... wiggly lines but don't know what they are supposed to look like -max power: steep steep curve up off the graph at about 75Hz, dip down at about 100hz and then up again

like these too? (first person to mention screw colour gets to be scrooge this christmas btw)

Have you looked on the Matamp website? they had a pdf up of demo stuff in the sale not so long ago. and also they aren't far from you. Also when you get it and realise you need a more vintage looking cab to match them, I'm sure I can help you out getting rid of those Ead cabs of yours

so you can buy another streamer?

[quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1387662631' post='2314430'] Most versatile​ circuit? Schack. [/quote] does he have space to fit a pingray pickup setup in there too?

[quote name='Balcro' timestamp='1387666025' post='2314453'] The SICA speaker is on their website. A Neo magnet version rated at 250w. Fundamental resonance "Fs" is quoted as 54Hz. The horn is probably also by SICA as the letters N and TW appear under the heading "Studio Monitor tweeter". Tecamp also refer to an NTW1 horn. I had a play with the main unit in WinIsd and it has an exaggerated upward twist in the lower end frequency response. Tuning is probably in the 60's (Hz). I've no idea about that small quantity of foam. Balcro. [/quote] exaggerated as in it shoots up before it drops down on the graph? hits zero at about 60 and -3 at about 40? if that's the case maybe I wasn't being so stupid with winISD as I thought I was

is that the photo that you've now taken down?

aubergine's aren't green. But sorry everyone - we ate ours

getting hooked and spending all your free time hunched over with a soldering iron...

agh but could your daughter be convinced with amazing aubergine based recipes? It's green with white tips, I guess it's supposed to look like it's been snowed on or something.

Inspired by some of the threads recently and my wanting to understand a bit more about speaker cabs armed with a screw driver I attacked my cab tecamp m210 today! Initially I planned to look at WinISD and plug the numbers in there but after opening it and starting I realised that the whole thing was a bit beyond my ability at the moment... But I found out.... My cab weighs about 18kg give or take... I knew this already - what I didn't realise is that about 14% or 2.5kg of that weight is made up from the front grill - which seems mental to me! it's more metal than holes if that makes sense. The box is quite well braced with spars going back to front around the edge panels and two more in the middle. Taking off the handles and the bracing I would say it has a volume of around 100l The drivers are Sica Z006900 and the horn has no stamping or anything on it. The vent is a rectangle with semi circle ends cut in the front baffle, area about 289cm[sup]2[/sup] and 15mm deep. I have no idea what tuning this gives the cab as I don't have a working amp at present I can feed into the cab. the cab doesn't have very much damping material- there is some egg crate foam damping material, but only on the back wall, not on the sides. What effect would that amount have? I've seen other cabs ranging from speakers loaded in a ball of fluff right up to empty with no damping material. so while it may be of no interest to you if you've read this far... but it was quite interesting looking inside. I'm intreated what adding more damping material would have to it, and may try and work out a way of making a lighter grill..

just a thought, looking at the price of Wals.... could you go have a try of ACG's Uber spec line and see how they compare... if they do then you could possibly get one [i]and [/i]an overwater... of course it wouldn't "be" a Wal

Interesting thread this. ....

[quote name='alexclaber' timestamp='1387382313' post='2311344'] This is a really great document - I want a big paper copy to stick on our factory wall! [url="http://www.klippel.de/fileadmin/klippel/Files/Know_How/Literature/Papers/KLIPPEL_Cone_Vibration_Poster.pdf"]http://www.klippel.d...tion_Poster.pdf[/url] [/quote] I'll put my hands up and say I understood barely half of that! EDIT: the poster, not your post...

[quote name='dincz' timestamp='1387482998' post='2312626'] Or you accidentally bought a power amp? [/quote]Did the words CROWN XLS1000 on the box not give it away?

I'm not sure modern is the right word to use. The examples you meant ion are bands that sound horribly 80's to my ears - but I was born before they all came out. DSoTM I like listening too (un remastered) and have never found the production to me lacking- just different goals with how it sounds? Is in utero less "modern" than nevermind? In my mind the 'tricks' used in production all have their own eras, and sound different - I'm not sure one is better than the other though.

[quote name='LawrenceH' timestamp='1387377852' post='2311276'] BF was born in part out of online forum discussions about DIYing a better speaker... think that history makes it more prone to certain types of criticism/hyperbole on here. Especially when that scene was all about addressing shortcomings in mainstream commercial designs, meaning they were vocally critical of said designs! I've been (somewhat harshly) critical of Alex on here in the past, as I think he sometimes comes unstuck when he tries to speak 'marketing-ese'. But he seems to offer a very tailored, honest service in terms of one-to-one advice, and his belief in his product is backed up by very sound engineering/design practice. I've built a fair few speakers starting as a child in the 90s, and run a ton of live sound systems, a field where design advances tended to be implemented far earlier than in basscabland, more expensive components were commonplace, and good operator technical understanding is a prerequisite. I don't own a BF cab, but feel I know enough about speakers to say I wouldn't bother buying any commercial cab [i]except[/i] Barefaced. Does it make me a fanboi if I can back it up with explanation? Oh & I can always change the screws for black ones... Main criticism I'd level at BF cabs btw, is that they are probably overkill in many situations! Most common amps people are using won't push them to the limits, and the popularity of the 212s suggests people underestimate how loud a single-driver cab would go, clean, driven by the right amp (or I guess they don't have the right amp). [/quote] this is the most sensible post i've read about barefaced for about 3 months.

[quote name='jimbobothy' timestamp='1387391779' post='2311509'] You do know you can get 'Calvin's Institutes' online for free! I think if I went for this option I'd need the Aubergine as well, if you have eaten/are thinking about eating half of it that's fine with me, at least you could give me your opinion on if it's got a woolly, sharp or fat tone, oops, I mean taste ! [/quote] well I do know how to cut it in a way that the cut matches the volume of the vegetable to tune it perfectly. Eq with salt to taste. My two volumes published in 1935 were free too, one day I may even read them!

[quote name='Fat Rich' timestamp='1387390741' post='2311479'] Yup, can't get on with mine either. I can twiddle the controls on my amps to make it sound nice but then all my other basses sound rubbish, it just doesn't seem to fit in. I'm 100% certain mine's gotta go, but if you're not sure I'd say keep yours if you can. [/quote] ? so you've got one - and you can set your amp to make it sound nice.... but because your other basses need a different amp setting you're going to sell the stingray? did I understand that correctly? and Aende..... yes you are. Let me put it this way if you started the post with "I played a ..... and now want to sell my ray" I'ld say go for it. - but.... PJ's are just odd in most cases (Yamaha BB series has grown on me, worth a look) and PM puts the M pup in the "wrong" place. I don't think you know quite what you're after... so don't jump before you know...

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1387392585' post='2311523'] Surely if you need an external pre-amp you bought the wrong amp in the first place? [/quote] good point.