KingBollock

Finally got around to putting together the board for a fairly stock Big Muff. It was supposed to be based on the '73 Ram's Head, but it's a pretty loose interpretation. It's an absolute monster! I don't know why I was so worried about it not being the Bass specific one, this thing has more balls than a marble world championship! The only thing is that it doesn't like an active Bass, need to figure out how to lower the input slightly, and it does only have to be slight. Going to have a play with some mods before I box it up. I have been looking at the Musket, too. Oh, and an added bonus, it worked almost first time... Should, have labelled the input and outputs properly, but that was me being a bit dim rather than a dodgy circuit.

I can't read music. I did try some simple stuff when I took up the penny whistle but I could never get it to stick. I use tab sometimes to get me started and fill in blanks, mainly because I struggle to learn by ear alone. The thing is with tab is that there is nothing to learn, it is just there and very obvious. It is like someone pointing at the fretboard telling you what notes to hit. I think it does require some musicality, though, because the music isn't in the information given, that part you have to work out for yourself. But to be fair to something someone said earlier, I don't call myself a musician.

So someone that reads music, which gives instruction right down to the last detail, is a musician, but someone that reads tab, which requires listening to the music and working out how it works, isn't? What about someone that uses tab to learn other peoples' music, but also writes their own music?

Uncouth savage that I am, I am perfectly fine using tab along with my ears to learn songs, thankyouverymuch.

Sounds fishy to me. I am so so sorry, I couldn't help it!

Is this the wrong place to ask for advice with stupid questions? Is it more of a finished pedal thread than a building one? Would I be better starting a new thread? I hate starting new threads when there are others that I can shoehorn my questions into, but sometimes I inappropriately end up using a crowbar.

This is getting really frustrating. I gather that just about all versions of the Big Muff Pi are basically the same, with just some capacitor and resistor values changed. I have found tons of schematics but I cannot, for the life of me, find one for the Bass Big Muff, I have been looking for weeks. As it is I will have to do a lot of experimenting, but it would be nice to have a bit of a clue as to where to start for the Bass version values. The specific version I would like to copy is this: Can anyone help?

Same thing happened to me when I was 17. I mentioned to the boss's son that I played bass and he said that he had one that he never played and offered it to me for a tenner. When he brought it in and I tried it he was surprised that I really did play and told me I could have it for nothing. It was only a Satellite bass but it played and sounded nice. When I used to fish a lot I would often end up helping out beginners, teaching them how to plumb the depth and unhook fish and stuff, simple things that people don't know to think of before they set out for their first time. I would usually end up giving them plum-bobs and disgorgers and stuff. Things that only cost pennies, but meant that they didn't have to pack up early just because they didn't have the right equipment. I don't think it really matters much what something costs, often it really is the thought behind it.

Just done an order switcher. Turns out you [i]can[/i] get four jack sockets and a DC socket all along a 111mm edge after all. I measured everything with precise digital callipers and plotted it all out on graph paper, there was no way they were all physically going to fit... Then I looked at a jig I had made for holding stuff while I was working on it and realised that I had already done it. So I decided to ignore the numbers and get on with it. Bloomin' tight squeeze in there and I had to make sure I put everything in in the right order, but it's in and done. Glad I don't have to waste a bigger box for it, especially as the only bigger box I have is destined to be filled with Muffage.

[quote name='Sibob' timestamp='1404620314' post='2494181'] Nice one Yeah I still hand-drill my boxes, seems more effective than the power-drill I tried! Si [/quote] Thanks. I have a power drill that I used in a contraption that turns it into a pillar drill. It is handy because it has a speed stop, so I can go nice and slow if needed. But, even though the posts on the stepped drill bits are hexagonal, which I would have thought would make them easier to grasp, the drill doesn't like them and keeps letting go, and I can't work out why.

Well, I've boxed up my first pedal. It's only a footswitch for my amp and I haven't painted it yet, but I was quite nervous about mucking it up, so I am pleased it turned out OK. There's an EQ On'Off, Amp Channel (Tube/Solid State) and an FX Loop On/Off switch. Dead simple, but it was the boxing up that I was worrying about, this has got me past that. Turns out that even my dremel and my cordless drill-driver is enough to get through these boxes, which is handy. The socket on the side is a D-Sub type, which are more secure than using DIN plugs because of being able to screw them in place once I have added the threaded jack posts. It is the same kind of plug that computer VGA monitors use. The amp end of the lead for it has a 7 pin DIN ( which was a massive pain in the bum to fit, reason enough on its own to use D-Subs at the other end). When I have built all the pedals that I am planning on making, I will make a pedal board. This will include a dedicated send and receive box, which will have: In/Out jack sockets. A 25 way D-Sub for receiving DC power from a supply built into the back of my rack, and will connect to phono plugs to distribute the power on the board. It will also contain the voltage regulator and filtering end of each DC output. This way I can send a higher voltage from the rack end and not have to worry about voltage drop in the connecting cable, or any interference it might pick up along the way (though it will be shielded, too). The main reason for doing it this way is so that I won't have AC power running alongside the audio leads in the connecting snake. Also, because I will be using individual transformers for each supply to minimise hum (Though I might use transformers with two secondaries, halving the amount of transformers I need), the unit will be quite large and heavy. Two 9 way sockets for the amp pedal, one to take the lead from the amp and another to go to the pedal. I will then make a snake, which I can leave permanently attached at the rack end, making it a quick job to uncoil it and attach the four plugs to the pedal board. Some of it might seem a bit overboard or pointless, but most of the fun, for me, is in designing and building. If I didn't enjoy that part then I might consider it more hassle than it is worth and not bother. I am not even in a band, so it might never even leave the house.

Gonna require the pedal and put it in a box tomorrow. However, I have been struggling to get my measurements right and it has knocked my confidence a bit. Turns out that even the bigger boxes I have won't take four jack sockets and a DC socket on one edge, especially of I plan on using pancake plugs, which I do. I could do with some advice as to drilling boxes. I have stepped drill bits that go to the size I need and a drill powerful enough. I have covered the box in masking tape to make sure I get all my marks correct. But I am worried I will miss something obvious and cock it up, and these things ain't cheap. So all advice would be welcome, layouts and techniques, that sort of stuff, even if it seems obvious. For this a pedal I am trying to get 6 jack sockets and a DC socket, 1 footswitch and 2 LEDs, in a box 120x95x32mm. I think it is going to have to be the DC socket and the main in and out jacks on a short end with 2 jacks on each long side. This seems to leave plenty of room but all that space feels wasteful.

The utterly bonkers Oaf! NSFW! http://youtu.be/fwkOmXsmNbc Dom Lawson is a proper lovely bloke.

I've never had to solder a 4PDT switch before, bloomin' fiddly, ain't they? Perhaps not the wisest choice to use 2mm thick wire... The stuff that I got from Doctor Tweek is really thin, is it really ok to use that stuff? The only other stuff I've got, that isn't either too thick or really thin, is all blue, which could get confusing. I haven't actually boxed it up yet, I am going to wait until a box I have ordered gets here before I decide what to put it in. Because there are no knobs, it's just an order switcher, it seems a waste to put it in a big box. Because I have no experience wiring pedals I ran into the problem where I didn't know how long to cut the wires, but doing them in situ seems like it'll be even more fiddly and I seem to have developed some kind of palsy (I'm not even kidding, I rather suspect it's all the meds I am on. My hands aren't just shaky, it's more like a constant twitch or tick, rather worrying really). But still, something I did actually worked, which is nice. After this I will be doing a loop pedal and a switch pedal for my amp. Then a Big Muff. The stuff for the Muff is on it's way, I am doing it on vero board. Will be on the look out for lots of mods for it, too.

Nice. Congratulations BassChat! Do you have numbers on how many of them are active? How many unique members visit each day, week or month? How many sign up each day? Enquiring minds want to know!

I wonder if the insecurity of being "only" the Bass player is the reason we tend to take on other tasks, such as being the general handy man and carrying spares of stuff for the whole band (I even used to make sure I carried fuses rated for other band members' amps)? Or are we just inherently sensible? The Bass player is important but there is little glamour in it, but it is a job that needs doing. I suspect we naturally gravitate to jobs in things like IT as opposed to doctors or firemen for the same reason. I am probably talking bollocks.

[quote name='BruceBass3901' timestamp='1404211729' post='2490264'] I ordered the jack plugs in Sunday Morning and they arrived on Tuesday so can't fault delivery time! This is my first purchase from them but my father has used them for a couple of years for odd bits here and there (probably about 50 orders over the last 2 years) and I think they have only 'messed up' once when they sent the wrong size of something and were happy to exchange it [/quote] Good to know, I put my first order in (one of many if it goes right, it's like a bloomin' candy store!) about two minutes before you posted.

[quote name='Sibob' timestamp='1404122786' post='2489400'] I've only made one small order with Bitsbox, seems fine, nothing untoward, nothing exciting. On another note, here's a cheeky 1590a FX Loop pedal I made this weekend for my main board, it's my 'get out of jail free card' to I can switch back to my amp if something on my board goes wrong. Again, just more covering eventualities rather than solving a problem . Its a Red Sparkle enclosure, shame it doesn't really show up in a photo, Orange LED. [/quote] Cool, thanks. I shall know what I need to order once I have been to Maplins to get some cut cable. I accidentally ordered a metal box that size, I thought I was ordering something bigger but I can be remarkably stupid sometimes. My plan had been to put an order switcher in it, but it's not big enough. My plan for another box that I bought (which was the size I was expecting but so much bigger than I need I would feel guilty using it for that, so I will keep it for another project...) was a double loop pedal. I only really need one loop pedal at the moment and it looks like that box would do the job if I did only build it with one loop. But I have been thinking of using it as an A/B box to board/tuner, which would act as a kill switch and allow for silent tuning. Still tossing ideas around in my head. I had a large component order come in yesterday, so I am still going through that, and I have more stuff on its way. I shall wait to see what I have all together before I decide for sure, I think.

I've got the 12" of that song. I have the poster that came with it on my music room wall. I should perhaps mention that it's the W.A.S.P. version... Please don't throw things at me!

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1403978572' post='2488308'] You can leave Neutral feedback if you want to sit on the fence. [/quote] I didn't know that, it is the only time I have ever personally used Ebay.

[quote name='JazzBassfreak' timestamp='1403967494' post='2488176'] But it's a case of, I've just paid him £132. Then immediately all activity of him on eBay dies. Seems very fishy to me. But as long as I get my money or the pedal back I'm not bothered. [/quote] A couple of years ago I bought a bass off Ebay for £265, which is a lot of money for me and it was the first time I had bought a bass online. I used the Buy It Now and paid immediately. A few days later after no news I sent him a message, but he didn't get it for a few days because he said he had gone on holiday and forgotten about the auction. Then he claimed that the courier hadn't turned up a few times. You could say I was getting rather upset about it, but after about three weeks it turned up. I love that bass. It is the beginning of the holiday season, so you never know. The photos of the bass I bought were terrible and didn't show that the action was really high and couldn't be lowered any more with out work. I actually took a big risk on it and the delay was incredibly worrying. But the problem with the action was a design flaw with the bass, not the seller's fault, and I couldn't blame him if what he'd said about the holiday and the courier were true. I didn't know whether to leave positive or negative feedback so ended up not leaving any, he has never said anything about it.

I believe that it helps if they are friendly. The best drummers I ever played with were all incredibly nice people. I think it helps them give a sh*t about the whole song, about the whole band. Obviously you get friendly drummers that are crap, but then I would rather play with a friendly one that wasn't perfect than a perfect one that was a dick.

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1403851307' post='2486997'] I bought one of these [url="http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/cable-strippers/2620151/?origin=PSF_412527|cav"]http://uk.rs-online....=PSF_412527|cav[/url] over 20 years ago and it's fab for removing outer sleeves. On the inner conductive sleeve and insulating sleeves I just use a Stanley knife blade. [/quote] That's a bit more than I was hoping to spend. For thinner wires I have good strippers. This kind: I have a drawer full of these buggers and not one of them has ever worked: I have a couple of sets of these, too, but I find them awkward for stripping: Edit: Just made a monster set of helping hands by combining two sets. I also changed the crocodile clips for larger, stronger ones, they actually hold a 1/4" jack plug properly now. Feeling quite pleased with myself...

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1403850164' post='2486985'] For stripping insulation from cables I just use a small pair of side cutters; not the easiest thing to work with, but it's what I'm used to. [/quote] I find I get a smoother cut using scissors. I don't actually use a scissor action with instrument cable because it is soft enough that, if you get the scissors in the correct position, you can just turn the cable and it slices it. Even with mains cable, I find that a slight chopping action with the scissors is enough and will still leave a nice edge.