JPJ

I’ve just acquired the Ashdown ABM400 Neo 1x15 combo from FunkyDoug on here. The combo is fitted with a crossover and an Eminence U-ATP80-3 tweeter with a simple on-off switch for the tweeter. I’d like to have a little more control over the tweeter as it is fairly prominent when on so my question is “is it as simple as fitting the Eminence L-Pad between the crossover and the tweeter or should I leave this well alone?”

So in a bit of a panic purchase, I’ve bought a Line 6 G30 which arrived today from PMT (“Play Music Today” never knew/realised that was what PMT stood for). First impressions are this will not last as long as my old G50, which incidentally whilst registering the new unit I found out I purchased back in May 2010 and that means its done literally hundreds of gigs. Both the transmitter and receiver of the G30 are housed in plastic unlike the old G50’s metal enclosures. As a result, both are lighter and quite a bit smaller too. No external antennas to get in the way either although this has never proven to be an issue for me on the G50. Plugged in, no noticeable difference to my old G50, and I did ‘switch off’ the RF2 mode as a couple of muso’s I work with still use the older models (there’s a big warning label about this immediately you open the box, but strangely to find the instructions on how to disable RF2 you have to go to the Line 6 website). So I have a rehearsal on Friday night followed by a gig on Saturday night to put her through her paces and see how she stands up against the legacy unit. Fingers crossed I didn’t just blow £179 for nothing.

So my new kit arrived today and I am now armed with smaller soldering iron tips, solder sucker, desoldering wick, and a better magnifier. I’m not going to start on this until the weekend but I’ll keep you posted. Fingers crossed I don’t foobar this one up too.

Been thinking, depending on what scale length you settle on, you could do something similar to the traveller guitars and basses with the drone strings to lessen the headstock mass?

Ooh now there's an idea - I think I may have some in my parts box too 👍

Well my venerable old Line 6 Relay G50 gave up the ghost last night - no signal, just a flashing red audio light on the receiver. I've done a quick search this morning on the old t'interweb and cannot find anything about that but it looks like the receiver thinks the transmitter is clipping putting the receiver into a protection mode. I'm not surprised given the age of this unit (easily 10 years maybe 12) and I've been looking at alternatives but they seem in really short or non-existent supply at the moment so my gig this coming Saturday may be my first using a cable in the whole of that time period.

Whilst I am generally a fan of the sunburst + tort combination, recently I have found myself hankering towards basses with black scratch plates. So after a long wait, a new black plate arrived this week for my Fender Tony Franklin P bass and I’ve fitted it this morning. I think it looks great 😎 Oh and its interesting to see how much the nitro finish has aged in just over 11 years.

Thanks for comments @Stub Mandrel & @nilorius but I am really wanting a 2x12 single cab solution. I toyed with building two of the Basschat 1X12 designs, but settled on this design. Build thread to follow 😎

Just a brief update to keep the thread from sinking onto page 9 or lower. So this week, thanks to our own RichardH I have taken delivery of two pristine Faital Pro loudspeakers. But as fate would have it, I am in a really busy period with the day job with lots of travel (I am typing this from Riyadh Saudi Arabia) meaning I probably will not get to start the cabinet build until October.

This image may actually confirm why this is a bad idea John (local/joke)

^ this

That Hamer is a Purdy little thing aint it

Something I have been accused of on occasion 😂

A ten string bass (BEADG + BEADG) would also make a good donor as it will have the neck width.

With banjo tuners, you wouldn’t have to modify the body shape. You would just have four tuning posts behind the bridge/stop bar.

You could of course get creative and take a different approach to the tuner position for one set of drone strings and in doing so reduce the number of tuners on the headstock. Doing something like this BC Rich but using banjo tuners a la Gibson Firebirds?

I thought I did, but its missing in action somewhere. I did a bit of damage to the PCB trying other non-approved solder removal techniques and I’ve probably fried a few components too. But it was a great learning experience and I’m looking forward to attempt no2 (armed with a solder sucker, desoldering tape, smaller tips for my soldering iron, and a better magnifier). I will not be beaten 😂

Hmmm I think the real challenge here is going to be getting all you want for sub 9lbs without neck dive. Considering the outlay, my approach would be to buy a donor and reshape the body to what you want it to be. That’s the sort of shed challenge I relish, and at the end of the day your outlay will be significantly less than the full custom option. If the trib really takes off, then you can spend your earnings on either a full custom or original version. Just a thought, but have you checked all the cases in your music room to make sure you haven’t already accidentally purchased one in a late night drunken eBay session?

Well as might be expected for a first attempt - I have a non-functioning pedal. I know I messed up one capacitor connection as the solder merged between the two pins and I have a few other areas where my plumbing soldering techniques were a little, shall we say, heavy handed. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process and I’ve bought the kit again to have another go, well I have the enclosure now 😉

And so it begins. As usual, having started I’m now being dragged off to do family stuff, but hope to be able to get more done later today.

So I'm finally home and able to take a look at the kit. Whilst it looks quite daunting to a novice like me, everything is nicely packaged and identified and the instructions (you download these from the website) are comprehensive. I think I'll probably leave it until the weekend to get the soldering iron out as I'm a bit knackered after ten days on the road.

So the kit arrived at home today so that’s about three weeks from order. No claims for import duty or VAT 😎 Typically the kit arrives when I’m halfway around the world away and crazy busy in the day job so probably won’t get to open this for another week or so 😤

To my ears listen through mk1 AirPods the 925 sounds a little compressed and a little bit brighter?

^ this is the proverbial rabbit warren I hope I’m about to metaphorically disappear down 😂