JPJ

Without wishing to get into the whole 'heft' class A/B/C/D/E/F etc debate, I do feel like we have a much smaller range of options these days, or is that just the effect of my rose tinted glasses?

You could always buy this from me, its the proverbial Swiss army knife for acoustic bass and has the really useful notch filter for those problematic feedback frequencies. Only selling as an old hand injury makes double bass or EUB playing too painful.

New amp day here at JPJ towers thanks to our very own ryancowell25. Having used nothing but SWR for the last 15 odd years (save for a brief flirtation with an Aguilar AG500) I decided to try something different as I’m being drawn more towards that lightly overdriven valve sound. I’ve posted before how despite wanting to, I could never get on with the Ashdown ABM range so this was a bit of a leap of faith. So far I’ve only been able to play this through a little TC 2x8 cab at low volume but it sounds mighty and sort of reminds me of someone but I can’t quite put my finger on who? 🤔😉😎 Thanks to Hermes, the amp has obviously had a knock in transit damaging the Subs control knob and thank the gods Ryan opted to ship in the Gator gig bag or who knows how much worse things could have been. Quick order fired off to Ashdown for a set of 5 replacement knobs so she should be looking at her sexiest best for her first public outing next weekend.

I’ve just shielded a recent build with that slug tape and can confirm that the glue is indeed conductive enough (resistance test with multimeter) to not need to solder each join. Mind I did solder leads to each pickup cavity and feed those back to the control cavity shield before connecting that and the bridge earth to the ground on the output jack. Result is the quietest passive bass I’ve ever owned.

I had a Fender Jazz V DLX a few years back and the active pre on that used to distort a little when the battery was getting low.

Has anyone any experience with the Ashdown Pedal of Doom. Looking for some honest advice as I’m tempted to try one but don’t want to spend the asking price if its pants 😎

Me too! And I can’t understand why someone like OneControl hasn’t cloned something like the Redhead preamp, or why Fender haven’t used the patents they own to do something similar.

I wouldn’t always rush to blame the FOH engineer. A lot of venues these days have in-house PA systems and at least one of our local venue’s has a PA with way too many subs mainly to satisfy the venues other use as a nightclub. Given that these venue systems are presented to the visiting FOH engineer as ‘tuned’ systems, the first time the engineer here’s the system with a crowd in the room will be show time.

I may be a fan of rack mount pre’s too

Our PA is stored in my garage. Yes everything is either flightcased or lives under fitted covers and its been this way for the last ten years without problems. That said, my bass amps all live in the house as they are older and more likely to be temperamental.

Like the OP I mix the band whilst playing. For me, its all about finding space in the sonic landscape for each instrument. I used to play with a guitarist who was so loud and so bassy that sound men & women were always asking me to turn down. During one soundcheck I actually turned right down and mimed along only to be asked to turn down again - oh how we laughed. My own recipe is start with the drums, add bass and segregate the bass from the bass drum by eq, then add guitar(s) repeating the trick, before layering the vocals over the top. Cutting through is a matter of eq of the bass, a good sound where you can hear and distinguish each instrument is a matter of good eq of the whole band.

I’d be applying some heat to loosen them even going so far as to burn the wood around the screw, then drill out the burnt wood and plug the hole. I’ve done this successfully on a couple of occasions when all other methods failed.

My first bass was a Jedson tele in sunburst. Covered it with black sticky backed plastic from Woolworths and er shielded the scratch plate with tin foil for both aesthetic and electronic effect 😊 instant Phil Lynott with the emphasis on the “not” 😂

Welcome to the SWR fan club. in my experience, most SWR preamps need only subtle tweaks to achieve a great sound, and yes they do sound pants at the extremes. Re basses sounding thin, check your cranking the input gain as SWR gear can be sensitive to proper gain chaining

I think I may have one I took out of an old Gear4Music acoustic bass I was going to repair but never did. Let me look in my parts bin in the morning. If it’s there your welcome to it for the cost of postage.

Do we have any Cellists amongst our little community? Looking for advice as a complete newbie. I’ve always hankered after the soulful sound of the cello, and always promised myself I would take up cello when I retired. Recent events have taught me that retirement isn’t a certainty so I’m tentatively considering bringing my entry into the world of cello forward. Any and all advice gratefully received.

Rule of thumb, top of the work bench needs to be at wrist height with your arm hanging loosely by your side

Thanks all for the advice and I guess it has reinforced what I always suspected; that the move to LogicPro is next on the cards for me. I’m really a fan of the Apple eco system. I moved to Apple when I set up my own business back in 2012 as I was tired of the overhead of running the Microsoft alternative. In the last ten years I’ve only owned two MacBook Pro’s (the first one is still going strong after a hard disk change), and I think I’d have probably doubled that had I stayed with PC’s. I have to use a Surface Pro for my current consultancy job, and whilst it’s a lovely piece of kit, it’s still no match for Apple.