thinman

Just seconding some of what's been said here... The Ashdown VU is rubbish im my experience. I've a MAG300 head I keep as a spare. The meter is so inconsistent on mine. Use your ears - get the input gain up as high as possible by ear. A cab at your feet is not a good way to hear it! The mid and higher frequencies that determine the apparent "loudness" are much more directional than the sub 100Hz stuff and are heading out across the floor! Put it up on something or lean it back and try standing the amp on its end - much better dispersion with the drivers one above the other. Put the cab about 18"-24" from a wall or perferably a corner. Have a read of some of the threads about mixing driver sizes in one rig without crossovers.

I know the problem - got some PA gear mounted in one. Have you tried a big elastic band (or a few joined together) around the case and catches?

I wish I'd had a good experience. My MAG combo blew its mains transfomer after a year from new. It took Ashdown 6 weeks to obtain a new one to send to the dealer who did the repair. The dealer charged me £15 P&P for the transformer even for a warranty repair. When I complained to Ashdown I was told that the P&P was at their dealer's discretion. Some warranty. So, all due respect to Ashdown for promptly sending a circuit diagram and some advice. To mend a product that really shouldn't have failed that early in its life. At your expense. And fortunately you had the means and skill to do the repair yourself rather than pay....

The trouble with getting addicted to buying bass gear is there must be a point where the law of diminishing returns kicks in - a bit like hi-fi. You get everything to a point where it's all pretty good but beyond that does, say, spending an amp that cost twice as much as the current "decent" one you already own mean it's twice as good?

If you're certain about carpet then go ahead but have you considered cabinet paint? I've used the blue aran stuff on a few BFM cabs, put on with a small gloss roller. It's nice and easy to use, dries quickly, looks good and is pretty durable. If you smash it it's easy to patch up.

BTW - the Live Sound forum over on www.soundonsound.com is quite useful.

You don't always need huge amounts of power for the tops when you're just chucking vocals through them - it depends a lot on the cab efficiency but a max SPL of 115dB might not always be enough. If you look at the output of some BFM DR200s which use a single 8" driver + piezos you can see why masses of power or large drivers aren't always necessary. In fact, for mids, smaller drivers are reckoned to be better. Like others here I've always thought guitars would be the last thing to go through the PA as they rarely struggle volume-wise! We started off with vocals only through a pair of db Technologies Opers 405s (250+50W biamped each). They never struggled (I never saw their limiter indicators light). The next thing to need support was the kick drum so we added some subs and a crossover and now mic the bass drum and use a single overhead on the drums. A bit of bass goes through them too and it's really cleaned up the sound, allowing us to make it a lot "richer". Have you tried different ways of using your PA? There's a few things you could try: 1. Take a little bit of the lows out of the vocals - uses less power and sometimes aids intelligibility. 2. Take the guitars out of the PA. 3. Given you've a sub try a bit of kick drum through the PA. Use eq to take the top end off and don't attempt to to boost the lows if you've not much power. Do you have trouble turning your singer's monitor up loud enough due to feedback or just lack of power?

[quote name='photographymatt' post='380584' date='Jan 14 2009, 07:19 PM']thanks danny.though so(about using the chorus pedal, or similar stereo output). Im guessing some amps are better at lower notes than others, same with amps being better at high notes so using two would have a really phat tone?[/quote] Me suspects a bit of posing coming in too. Some people use no backline at all and may well sound just as impressive, if not better, out front. Those stacks, if real, all switched on and turned up are probably a soundman's nightmare.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='372304' date='Jan 6 2009, 06:58 PM']If you're going to be screwing things on and off repeatedly then you'll want to epoxy the nuts in place as well as forcing them into the clamp or bolt and large washer. They are the biggest pain in the neck when they come loose so be safe not sorry! Alex[/quote] +1 to Alex's comment. Don't try to bash then in with a hammer - pull them in with a large G-clamp or similar with something to spread the load or use a bolt with a big washer. Hammering will often end with the spikes bent and not doing their job.

I think Jools is in danger of playing it a bit too safe every year with his Hootenany. It's all got a bit too cabaret for me - seems like too much of an old boys/girls club now. The Tube went like that - started good but seemed to degenerate into the Tina Turner show after a while.

I've got one of those things but gave up on it - too prone to distorting! Are you certain that the hiss is not environmental? Bear in mind that when you're not playing the gain of a compressor is high so any background noise will get amplified. Does the hiss go when you play a note?

I thought I'd just chip in and say that the Neutrik speakons have screw terminals in them and are remarkably easy to make onesself. Good 2.5mm cable is easy to get by the metre and good connectors are cheap enough. Saves a bit on getting them made up. Just connect +1 to +1 and -1 to -1.

I couldn't possibly say. I don't get moaned at but I don't get compliments. Maybe I should turn my amp on. I do wish I could both play and be in in the audience though.

Quite sparse compared with some here: IN: Built a BFM Omni 10 - love it if a little bulky - should have built 2 * 10.5 but hey-ho. H & K Bassbase 250 head. Wizard 84s, Baddass II, S1 switch and tort scratchplate for my MIM Jazz. Ibanez Jet King bass. Built 2 * BFM T39 subs for the band PA. Studiomaster 700D power amp for the above. Behringer crossover for the PA. OUT: Ashdown 1 * 15 cab. Pending: Building 2 * BFM DR200 for the PA.

Very, very impressed. How many guitars have you built before?

[quote name='budget bassist' post='358129' date='Dec 18 2008, 05:40 PM']My epi LP fell over the other day.... I'm feeling quite lucky now after seeing that![/quote] One of our guitarists put his Epi LP in its hardcase a couple of weeks ago in one piece and when he opened it up again two days later it was, magically, in two pieces - the headstock had snapped off! Self destruct mechanism comes free apparently. It's only 6 months old so he's hoping to get a warranty repair. What a pants design those necks are.

Alas it took them 6 weeks to get a new transformer for my MAG300 head when it went pop last year and made me pay £15 for the P&P getting it to the shop where it was repaired (under warranty I might add). Maybe that's the service for the cheaper products.

[quote name='ben_eat_pie' post='344536' date='Dec 3 2008, 06:42 PM']Could anybody inform me as to what the difference is, and why the manufacturers arn't mimicking the DIY market.[/quote] I think Bill Fitzmaurice put it dwn to a number of factors including (and I apologize if I'm misrepresenting here): 1. Commercial builders are driven by marketing needs which often means building muscular-looking cabs with lots of visible drivers (often in too small an enclosure) - i.e. form over function. 2. More complex designs which may offer greater efficiency and better response such as horn-loaded designs are far more complex to manufacture cheaply than a direct radiator design, i.e. a square box with holes in the front for the drivers.

[quote name='Protium' post='348146' date='Dec 7 2008, 09:38 PM']1. And if the frequency responses are extremely close? (quite likely with the majority of bass woofers) 2. Eh? 3. Agreed but your example is not a fair comparison considering the type of cabinets. If you (theoretically) swap the speakers and have an Ashdown single 10" cab and a BFM Omni 15, the 15" will have better low freq response. The only way to fairly judge this is to use the same cabinet for both speakers, in which case the 15" will win 99% of the time.[/quote] 1. There's a point of view (one of many of course) that bass rigs should perhaps be closer in design to PA and maybe even hifi than, say, guitar cabs. Using a 10" driver next to a 15" driver to driven with the same signal can result in the overall result being far from that, e.g. they are likely to have different sensitivities at the same frequencies and different dispersion characteristics. There's more to a driver than frequency response. 2. I mean that the results some people get from using a mixture of cabs with differing driver sizes suits them, i.e. it produces a sound they are happy with which is fine. I'm not trying to tell anyone to not mix cabs - I'm just of the school of thought that if you like the result then that's great but that the apparently commonly accepted notion that the best mix is a 1 X 15" and a 2 X 10" is probably a lot more hit and miss (just sort of looks right maybe?) than following a slightly more scientific approach. Not everyone has been wowed by a a 1 x 15" and 2 x 10" stack or whatever. 3. I'm not talking about using the same cabinet and fitting it with differing driver sizes - a cabinet and driver choice(s) are inextricably linked - I'm referring to using a mixture of cabs in one stack without crossovers - e.g. one cab loaded with 10" drivers and another with 15" drivers. There are [u]some[/u] 10" loaded cabs out there with far better low end than [i]some[/i] 15" loaded cabs. I've got a pair of subs loaded with 10" drivers - their response is far deeper than some 15" loaded cabs because the enclosures are tuned that way. It's not an absolute given that a 15" loaded cab will have a better low end than one loaded with 10s.

[quote name='bassmansky' post='348067' date='Dec 7 2008, 07:44 PM']i would suggest the ashdown mag 2x10 cab to go with your combo.always some about on fleabay.then when you have enough cash buy a mag 300 head + 1x15 mag cab.both cabs are 8ohm so using them together with a head the load would be 4ohm thus getting max power from your amp.two 8ohm cabs =4ohm which is what most amps are today.if you only used one 8ohm cab with a 300w head you would get roughly half the power.your combo with extension cab will also produce max power.you will hopefully get a clearer reply than this one![/quote] The old debate is about to open up on mixing cabs with differing driver sizes (without crossovers)! I'll be brave and attempt to precis the discussion: 1. The science says it's not good to mix driver sizes without using crossovers to split the frequencies they handle. The results of mixing drivers sizes are unpredictable. 2. The results may be satisfactory to but more by luck than judgement. 3. Cabs loaded with, say, 15" drivers, do not necessarily handle lower frequencies better than those with smaller, say 10" drivers. (This is my experience too having had a 15" Ashdown cab and now having a BFM Omni 10). Take from that what you wish!

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='347891' date='Dec 7 2008, 02:40 PM']You kinda missed the point a bit on that one! Ignore me. I should have explained better. Warwick do not use chemicals that kill Dolphins, nor do they use chemicals that cause cancer (as I have claimed in the past). I just f***ing hate them, so I make up lies about them in the tradition of all great school playgrounds. I assumed you wouldn't take me seriously. No one else here does. If I were you I'd get the Jazz, but then I would say that. If you do, I'd go for one with an S1 Switch (ie not the newly issued Fender Jazz). It gives you the versatility of a Jazz, but can also do a reasonable P impression. I'd also look for second hand on here. If you wanna get a Warwick though, again look for second hand on here. Warwicks seem out of fashion at the moment (in these environmentally aware times), so you'll be able to pick up a bargain.[/quote] But Warwicks do make you grow a mullet, right?

[quote name='rmorris' post='337902' date='Nov 26 2008, 11:54 PM']+1 and the shop is in Orpington so not too far to go in person if you want although you'll need to wait to get it posted back to you. good friendly service. nice shop. did me a copy of a scratchplate for an ibanez 'strat' type guitar - about £20 I think for basic '3 layer' scratchplate.[/quote] Cheers - yes that's pretty local - I may try them. Thanks.

I know this probably exists in many a past post but can anyone recommend a supplier of replacement MIM Jazz scratchplates that fit well! I want a brown tort one badly...

As mentioned above, some pots contain a grease that helps give them a damped "quality" feel. Servisol can wash that out and your knobs won't feel quite the same afterwards.

I'm about to try obbm's suggestion of using a lead with pin 0 (screen) disconnected. I can't see why that won't be OK as phantom power puts the +50v supply on both pins 2 and 3 so with ground disconnected that's just floating and there's no potential difference betwen them. Still, if I blow my DI then I'll let you all know with the merest hint of a red face....