tauzero

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1343836938' post='1756086'] Glad to hear it's worked out in your favour, but something like that seemed inevitable really. If bandmates don't get on together then it'll never work out. [/quote] TBH, as long as the assorted musicians assembled into a band have a reasonable level of competence, the most important thing is that they get along together. Which doesn't necessarily mean a democracy, some bands operate quite happily as dictatorships, but get along they must.

[quote name='risingson' timestamp='1343686716' post='1753828'] If I didn't play in a rock band or perhaps mostly played on ballad-type tunes then I'd be happy as a fretless player as well. [/quote] I use fretless exclusively with one of the cover bands - Kasabian, Biffy Clyro, Foo Fighters... If it was good enough for Boz Burrell, it's good enough for me.

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1343525047' post='1751768'] Have you been in situations where you need to come up with an extra 40min of material on the spot or something? What do you do? [/quote] Play "Comfortably Numb". "Freebird" is an acceptable alternative. I know this is a bit of a radical suggestion, but have you thought of writing a few more songs?

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1343819708' post='1755625'] However, the rest of the band want one for backing vocals too and well as rhythm. [/quote]

Playing a gig for the guitarist's mate's wedding and the venue want £10M PLI. We can get it paid for by the groom but would like to minimise the cost, partly because he'd also contribute to the PAT testing if the insurance wasn't eye-wateringly expensive. I had a look at the above insurers, and they all seem to be £1M, £2M or £5M. Does anyone know any other insurers who might provide £10M insurance for less than £280 (the quote the groom has got)?

I think you may need to look for another alternative - EAD Foundation 212, Tech Soundsystems ND212 or ND410 perhaps.

[quote name='PauBass' timestamp='1342865400' post='1741971'] Well I do play in a very loud rock band and I need the power/volume for this gig. The cab I'm thinking of replacing is a Bergantino NV412, just because I want to make the rig a bit more portable for smaller venues. [/quote] The Berg outputs a sound level of 103dB at 1W at an ear located 1m from the speaker (if Berg's figures are to be believed). What you need to do is find the SPL for the other two speakers. Things start getting rather convoluted due to the logarithmic nature of sound levels, but, taking a simplistic approach, if they're both around the 103dB 1W/1m level, the volume will be around the same. A 3dB difference in sound level means a doubling in power, so if they were both around the 100dB level, you would need to turn the amp up a bit. How much is another of those piece of string questions, volume/output level controls are nominally logarithmic so on a scale of 1 to 10 you might turn it from 5 to 6, or you might have one of the more biassed controls that have most of the power increase over the first half of their travel which would mean you had to go from (say) 4 to 8. There may well be someone a bit more knowledgeable than me along in a bit to correct any mistakes I've made.

My first thought was the same as Bremen's, that it was like the Olimpic logo, and after thinking that the Stingray actually looked like a dragon with its jaws agape, I began to wonder if they are in fact a sophisticated Rorschach test. Well, I can't do the looking at clouds game at the moment because there's just the one and it goes from horizon to horizon.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' timestamp='1342821492' post='1741665'] Won't electric strings on a cheap acoustic pull the bridge away from the body? [/quote] Au contraire, mon ami. Unless the cheap acoustic should have nylon strings on it (normally you can tell because the headstock is slotted rather than having the tuners sticking up vertically), electric strings (typically starting with an 8, 9 or 10 top E string and having a plain G) will be lighter than acoustic strings (starting with a 10, 11 or 12 E string and with a wound G).

When you consider that he values an Akito motorcycle jacket at £300, valuing a stick with a set of four-in-line tuners arranged as 2+2, half a pickup, and a jack socket at nearly £300 is consistent with his world view. It's as if he's seen an Ergo upright bass, thought "I can do that", and failed miserably.

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1342515016' post='1736268'] And just for the record, a guy who states several times that he's internet illiterate does so on his own website? [/quote] I think that one glance at said website is sufficient to prove that point.

[quote name='bassist_lewis' timestamp='1342384271' post='1734181'] [size=3]"The talented artist or musician, the intellectual, the person of deep philosophical or spiritual thought of whatever age, must somehow be freed of the grind of daily life to pursue activities of a higher order. I am not going to even begin to suggest how this could be done, only why. It may be completely politically incorrect to suggest it, but these people must somehow simply be allowed to follow their hearts. If we do not find a way to make this so, then the loss to the world of the fruits of unusual mind is the price we all pay.[/size]" Its called the Dole queue [/quote] The guillotine would actually suit the stated requirements in the first sentence better.

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1342822008' post='1741676'] My powerblock died a death quite quickly, and Foxen is now using it for spares. The only way I got it to sound half-decent as a bass amp was to use a pre-amp and go in through the effects return: the gain brings on distortion so quickly that it's essentiallly useless if you need a clean sound through the main input. [/quote] There's a "speaker emulation" bit that does that. You can bypass it by connecting the effects out to the CD in (you need to experiment to find which phono socket to use):

[quote name='PauBass' timestamp='1342818991' post='1741620'] Not sure if changing my 412 cab rated at 750 watt is going to be a good idea, with the new rig I'll be losing one speaker as I'll have a 115 and a 210 cab...will I lose volume? [/quote] Hmmm, how long is the piece of string that you use to tie up your apples and oranges? Speakers differ in efficiency as well as in impedance and power handling. Total speaker cone area will be smaller but if the speakers move further (higher Xmax) then the volume of air moved might be the same or more. How often do you actually run it flat out?

Make sure you have a limit on your credit card...

[quote name='Adrenochrome' timestamp='1342478517' post='1736030'] No, it's a right little beast - it's been an emergency bass amp, guitar amp and monitor amp so far [/quote] Mine's been a monitor amp too - when they were being sold off at £50 it seemed too much of a bargain to pass up, it's so small that it can be tucked away in a corner of the car for emergency use.

[quote name='PauBass' timestamp='1342811347' post='1741466'] So the sum of both cabs wattage then? That's the same as my current 412 cab, will they feel as loud by being two cabs? [/quote] No, not the sum of the two cabs wattage. The two cabs will have a total impedance of 4 ohms, the DB750 will output 750W into 4 ohms, 375W into each cab. However, unless you make a habit of running the amp flat out constantly, the fact that it can nominally output 25W more than the rated power into one of the cabs should be irrelevant.

[quote name='BigAlonBass' timestamp='1342736930' post='1740384'] Here's a (probably) silly question:- I have a Peavey Max 700 Amp with 2 speaker outputs. I have 2 x 8 ohm cabs and 1 x 4 ohm cab. If I 'daisy chain' the two 8 ohm cabs to one output, and the 4 ohm cab to the other output, is it delivering 4 ohms through each output? [/quote] The two outputs are probably connected in parallel, so you'll actually finish up with a load of 2 ohms.

[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1342212775' post='1731977'] Here you go, some badly played bass through the 2 different pitch shifter 'pedals' [url="http://soundcloud.com/warm_leatherette/pitchshift"]http://soundcloud.co...ette/pitchshift[/url] from 0:18 - 2:00 is the monopitch pedal, this is the monophonic shift. from 2:005 onwards is the PitchShift [/quote] Ta, that's just what I needed to hear. My Korg AX3000B and an elderly Zoom RFX2000 both sound similar to the second one - it seems to be faintly out of tune and no matter what you do with fine tuning, it never seems to be properly in tune. The first one sounds like just what I want.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1342250796' post='1732252'] I don't know to me an "active pickup" implies that there is something in the string sensing part that is active and not simply that the pre-amp circuitry is in the same housing as the magnets and coils of a conventional pickup - hence my question a couple of posts back. A very short as opposed to a short cable run between the coil(s) and the pre-amp does not make a pickup active in my book. ATM the only true active pickup system I know of is the Lightwave one. [/quote] I don't see that the Lightwave pickup is any more or less active than a magnetic pickup (whether it has a built-in preamp or not). The Lightwave pickup shines a light on the string and picks up the vibrations through reflection. Magnetic pickups create a magnetic field and pick up the vibrations through current induction. The only "active" pickup is an Ebow. An "active" bass is one with a preamp on board, a "passive" bass is one without. By logical extension, an "active" pickup has an internal preamp, a "passive" pickup doesn't. Seems logical to me.

[quote name='lettsguitars' timestamp='1341762909' post='1723714'] There is no such thing as an active pickup. There are pickups which are designed to be used with an active preamp, and have less wire on the coil so as not to be too hot. There are pickups which are active but they just have the preamp built in to the pickup. [/quote] Surely a pickup with a built-in preamp [b]is[/b] an active pickup? They require a power supply to produce a signal. I think the idea is that they reduce extraneous noise because there isn't even the short cable run from pickup to preamp which is at a high impedance level, it being high input impedance blocks in the amplification chain which are most prone to noise pickup.

[quote name='Doctor J' timestamp='1341760611' post='1723658'] However, if you connect in serial - ie the second cab plugged into the first cab which is plugged into the head - then you double the resistance, meaning two 8 ohm cabs will combine to make a 16 ohm load. [/quote] I do hope no-one is misled by this completely inaccurate statement into daisy-chaining two 4 ohm cabs thinking they'll get 8 ohms... Where cabs have two connectors, they will be connected in parallel. So two 8 ohm cabs will combine to make a 4 ohm load.

Yes please, I'm looking for a sound which is actually something like a plucked stringed instrument rather than a gargling robot.

Have you got the wiring diagram for the Sonar? It shows you what to solder on the blend pot - the wire marked 'hot' is the inner, the outer sleeves go to the two solder pads that are joined together. All the grounds need to join up somehow or other. I soldered bridge and blend grounds to the output socket sleeve, then connected volume ground and preamp ground to the blend ground. I think, anyway. To find out which jack socket terminal is which, you need a stereo (unmoulded) plug or stereo lead and a multimeter. Tip is signal, ring is battery negative, sleeve is ground.