thinman

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='159198' date='Mar 17 2008, 08:40 PM']I would have said the same but discovered a while back that aircraft engineers wouldn't agree with you [/quote] Very true - a lot of aviation, military and telecoms equipment was wire-wrapped. Solder's quite brittle and suffers stress fractures. But then you need square post terminals and special tools to wrap properly. Soldering's probably the best option in a bass.

[quote name='OldGit' post='159457' date='Mar 18 2008, 10:45 AM']I ue one of these for cables and to elevate my cab. It's perfect for all the stuff I like to take to gigs, The odd shaped things fit in it; It fits the space in the car and cupboard, has wheels and a pull-along handle and is tough enough to stand on (or to pile 5 aluminium cases on and roll along) but light enough to lift when full ... However I need a new one as the lid is breaking up beyond gaffa repairs... No one seems to stock them in the UK anymore and the manufacture doesn't reply to emails (grrrrrrr) so .. 1 - does your local pound shop or B&Q stock this precise box - the "Plas Team 2046" (but not in white) 2 Do you have a recommendation for a cable box that may do everything that this does?[/quote] I use similar stackable plastic crates - Homebase do them but not exactly like yours. Have you tried your local "Pound World" type shop? I've seem them in ours from time to time.

[quote name='TheBrokenDoor' post='158795' date='Mar 17 2008, 09:42 AM']More like pull it to bits with a soldering iron at the ready!!!! I'm one of those guys!! Dan[/quote] Check all the obvious stuff first - I had a long standing problem with an amp crackling and cutting out. Turned out to be the mains fuse in the 13A plug had disintegrated but was still passing current somehow. The intermittent nature could be some joint or even component cooling and making enough contact again after disturbance. Check any PCB joints of large-ish components as the solder can suffer stress fractures due to vibration. Apart from amps things likes boiler control boards can suffer like this where vibration makes inadequately secured components vibrate and eventually cause a hairline fracture in the solder. [b]However, unless you're pretty confident about working on equipment such as this I'd suggest taking it to a pro as there are hazards with charge still knocking about in large capacitors.[/b]

Not too mad on carpet covering so went for a paint finish. Was going to use Blue Arran's Tuff Cab but they were out of stock when I ordered the rest of the hardware and drivers. Other suppliers of similar stuff wanted about £13 for 2.5kgs plus about the same again to deliver. I decided that there must be other similar acrylic-based paints available. I've used blackboard paint on stuff before but it marks so easily - but then it's supposed to! The nearest fit seemed to be smooth finish masonry paint. So, I tried Wickes' own brand which they do in black in 250ml pots for £1.49 each. Tried it out on some scraps to check the adhesion - it seems fine. Rub-down after first coat then 4 more with a 4" gloss roller. Gives a slightly textured low silk finish which seems very durable. Whole cab given 5 coats with two pots - total £2.98. And, it's got a fungicide in it which might be useful in some places I know... Someone will probably post a reply telling me I've got a highly toxic cab now. Well it's a good job I didn't use some of my old dad's stash of creosote... Will post some more piccies soon.

Barry Adamson on Magazine's "Back To Nature" in particular but loads of others. Bruce Thomas - too many to mention. Andy Rourke - The Smith's "This Charming Man". Paul Gray - The Damned - just rattlin' Ricky great. Loved "Wait for the blackout" (70's? When was The Black Album out?) Les Pattinson - Echo & The Bunnymen Whoever played bass on The Associate's "Party Fears II". The Fairlight and DX7 were the scourge of the '80s. Why did/do producers all think they have to use the "in sound" of the moment. Too may Fairlight "orchestral stabs", "vocal oohs" and the jangly DX7 piano things. Ughh.

Started a build of a BFM Omni10 two weekends ago... Decided to build the wider (crossfire width) version for its slightly extended bass response but with just the 4 piezos. Also decided to use the Deltalite II Neo drivers. First job was to cut up the ply. I'm supposed to be carrying on with building the house extension and had to order some more plasterboard etc so it seemed rude to not order an 8' x 4' of birch ply whilst I was at it. Saved on delivery too. I could only get a 9 ply which is probably a bit OTT for this but it was a nice bit of wood. The whole thing starts off in Ikea form: [attachment=6363:Cab1.jpg] And then on to getting all gluey using the polyurethane as it goes together: [attachment=6364:Cab2.jpg] I've done a reasonable amount of woodwork in the past so this all went fairly well including cutting the baffle horn angles etc. Plenty of time for cock-ups later. Main cab mostly done and ready for rounding off with a router and sanding: [attachment=6365:Cab3.jpg] I suppose this took about 3 afternoons to get to that point. Still had the back and the baffle board to cut. You might notice that that there's no tweeter holes cut. That's because CPC, who are about the only place to get those specified at a reasonable price, is clean out of them again. So, I'm going to continue without them - it shouldn't be too much hassle to fit them after completion.

[quote name='thinman' post='151320' date='Mar 4 2008, 08:43 PM']Fixed at last - what a carry on......I can put it up for sale now.[/quote] One final whinge...Having gone a picked the amp up from ESE Music in Maidstone, where it was repaired, I was asked to pay the £15 P&P on the transormer. Given the repair was done under warranty I thought it a bit strange to be covering costs such as that. Anyway, maybe stupidly, I paid up as it's a bloody pain dring back and forth there.

[quote name='Sugden' post='150584' date='Mar 3 2008, 07:11 PM']I think I was very lucky when I ordered mine, I ordered them when they were out of stock and got them in the post 2 days later. My markbass cab has always had a great bass response its a pretty big cab for a 2x10. A single omni 10.5 doesnt cut it against the markbass but as a pair they knock it out the way. A single omni 10 beats it as well, when I compared them awhile ago. But its important to notice that the cabs are alot clearer and have a very level response which does make you think they have less bass response intialy. But they are very lite and I dont have to take both to a small gig. I think they sound great I'm very pleased. Cheers Steve Its abit weird having a fully custom setup apart from tuner, and power conditioner. Makes me feel like I should get my skill level up. But hell I just enjoy playing.[/quote] They look ace and it sounds like you're pleased with the sound. Just a point about the build: The plans suggest filling the cavities each side of the horn plates with pillow stuffing but I see you lined all the surfaces with the egg crate foam (which I was going to do anyway). Is yours OK without? I must admit I thought that by the time I'd lined all the surfaces there'd not be a lot of space to stuff. Shall I not bother?

[quote name='johnnylager' post='151361' date='Mar 4 2008, 09:41 PM']They'll PAT test it, put a nice sticker on it and enable you to say "just serviced" in the eBay ad, thereby filling the buyer with confidence that he's not buying anything like that backbreaking, stupid-handled, flappy speakered Peavey combo (£50 - buyer collects, no postage, no returns) I had "just serviced" by a twat in Brighton, that now needs a hefty kick when turned on to get it working. Never let me down once it starts working though, I should thank him for that. I might put a free ticket to the next gig through his door. With a brick wrapped round it.[/quote] Isn't PAT testing where you nick a kettle lead from work with a sticker on it?

[quote name='finnbass' post='151331' date='Mar 4 2008, 08:53 PM']If you were lucky.... [/quote] And what would they do to the amp?

Having spent the last few weeks looking at amp adverts a fair number use the phrase "just serviced". What does that mean really? I have a bit of electronics knowledge and I've always thought that in general there's not a lot to be done apart from hoover if the thing's working. OK, some have the odd internal adjustment that may need altering due to age and there may be signs of things getting too hot but there's no moving parts, no antifreeze and no oil to change. If I put a solid state amp in for a "service" what would I expect for my money - a shot of contact cleaner in the pots and a wipe with a dish cloth?

[quote name='thinman' post='149622' date='Mar 1 2008, 09:05 PM']After much moaning from me on Friday and suggesting that if they have no transformers by this coming Wednesday then they should either give me a new head or buy the amp back off me Martin at Ashdown agreed that 6 weeks so far is perhaps a long wait. He then suggested that they might cannibalise a new head (???) to get a transformer for me. And yes, perhaps I should point them at this thread as I imagine a fair few people have read it by now.....[/quote] Fixed at last - what a carry on......I can put it up for sale now.

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='150634' date='Mar 3 2008, 08:29 PM']It seemed somehow wrong to put this in Off Topic but if it is deemed in the wrong place by all means move it! My band is considering getting a powered bin for the PA and the singer has suggested the DB Technologies Bass Bin (450 watts), has anyone any experience of this or other similar powered Bins for a comparable £450?[/quote] Umming and ahhing about his myself. I've a pair of DB technologies Opera 405 active tops but could do with some subs - preferably active. The SUB15s are quite pricey and I expect you'd want a pair at least. The soundonsound.com PA forum is quite informative and there seems to be a following of Studiospares "own brand" Fortissimo. They do a 15" active sub for £230 but the actual power output is a moot point - could be 300W RMS, could be 600 - it's not clear. However, those that have used them claim them to be excellent especially considering the price which is suspiciously low. However, they're made by a company called Sound King who badge the for Carlsbro as the Gammas and who sell them at twice the price! See [url="http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=393069&page=2&view=collapsed&sb=7&o=&fpart=1"]http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/showflat...;o=&fpart=1[/url] These might not be anything like what you want but maybe worth a look. Mike

[quote name='Sugden' post='137729' date='Feb 10 2008, 06:05 PM']Im going to have them finsihed by my gig on the 19th so I'll get to pass judgement then. But after the 19th if all goes to plan and they sound good of course then that cab will winging its way back to your self. I'll give you a message when I know. Im putting the radius on the corners tuesday morning hopefully. Final wood work tomorrow, finishing and carpeting tuesday. Wednesday speaker's in. Thats the plan at any rate.[/quote] Good luck with it. Be interested to know what you find the bass response like. I've started an Omni 10 - not crossfire but built the extra 3" wide as per one to benefit from a bit of extra bass. But, I can't get any bloomin' 1016 piezos. CPC are out of stock again. It's all these people building BFM cabs and buying 24 at a time for the melded arrays!. I assume you've got yours?

[quote name='umph' post='149908' date='Mar 2 2008, 05:39 PM']i saw someone using one of these the other day there so cool[/quote] Seeing that orange Simms Watts reminded me of my old one - I had the 200W version with 6 input channels. It had four KT88 valves in it - like milk bottles they were. You had to turn it on the day before you wanted to use it. Used to use it as our PA amp when I were a lad but I kept it for 20 years in the garage and only sold last year when the garage was knocked down. I sold it on eBay and it ended up going to St. Paul Minnesota. The bloke was really keen to buy it - he paid £180 for the amp and another £180 to have it sent there! It weighed 45kg! I think he used to cannibalise them and build custom guitar amps using only recovered parts. Wish I'd kept it now...

[quote name='Machines' post='148226' date='Feb 28 2008, 08:33 AM']Perhaps drop them another email with a link to this thread ?[/quote] After much moaning from me on Friday and suggesting that if they have no transformers by this coming Wednesday then they should either give me a new head or buy the amp back off me Martin at Ashdown agreed that 6 weeks so far is perhaps a long wait. He then suggested that they might cannibalise a new head (???) to get a transformer for me. And yes, perhaps I should point them at this thread as I imagine a fair few people have read it by now.....

Well, what would you consumer affairs experts do here or am I asking too much? Ashdown still have no spare MAG transformers. I've been without the amp for 6 weeks now waiting on repair. I don't think that's reasonable. Each time I ask when to expect the transformers it's "two weeks". Needless to say I'm not too impressed with Ashdown. I've suggested they source an off-the-shelf transformer if they can't provide their own (I'm sure some equivalent exists) and have now asked they simply exchange the head if they can't repair mine. No response to either. Exasperated bloke.

[quote name='gilmour' post='147404' date='Feb 26 2008, 08:04 PM']The Warwick stuff is decent, and IMHO much much beter than the Asdown kit. The Peavey stuff is fine, but as mentioned above tone of the heads isn't great, but I won;t have a bad word said about the cabs, in terms of value there is no better and there are always bargains to be had on second hand Peavey Cabs, I've had (and gigged regularly) a Peavey BW115 for 13 years now, and I bought it second hand I'll probably be selling it soon, but don't know if I can bear to part with it! EDIT: There's a peavey 4x10 here... [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=12211"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=12211[/url] Or a BFM O10 here [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=12211"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=12211[/url] Paul is giving this away at this price, and you won;t get a better sounding or lighter cab for that money, not to mention how much louder it is than other 2x10's (much louder)[/quote] I've got a 13 month old Ashdown MAG 300 C115 and its been in for repair for the last 5 weeks! Blown transformer and Ashdown have no spares in the country so mine has lived up to the reports of poor reliability. I didn't mind the sound and it is (was?) loud enough. But, having borrowed both a Warwick 150 combo (1 x15 + tweeter) and a Trace Elliot 300w GP7 combo (1 x15) I think you did the right thing avoiding the MAG. The Warwick took a little bit of getting used to but I really like it now. It's a good few years old and has never gone wrong. I really liked the Trace too. Gilmour's built a BFM Omni15 and was really impressed. I've just started an Omni 10 build myself and reckon that will be about £220 on parts (but with the more expensive driver options) so I agree with Gilmour that the Omni 10 for sale here at £250 when I last looked is a real giveaway - with the given drivers it must have cost about £180 to build. They're very portable (630mm high, 400mm deep and about 500mm wide depending upon the variant) and by all accounts very efficient, i.e. loud without requiring too much power.

[quote name='thinman' post='141307' date='Feb 15 2008, 07:32 PM']Still no transformer! Not too happy really. I'm having to beg and borrow amps to practice and play with. Has anyone had one of these go more than once as if it takes this long to get repaired I may as well not bother owning one? It might be better put to use as a bookcase if I take the innards out. I hope the replacements being shipped now have had any inherent design problem fixed. I borrowed an old 300W Trace GP7 combo last week and liked it better anyway. And it survived being dropped out of the owner's car![/quote] Well I know there's build diaries on this forum, well this is turning into a repair diary! Sorry if I'm boring people but I think potential Ashdown buyers ought to be aware. The amp's been in repair for a month now and still Ashdown have no spare transformers. Although Guy at Ashdown has been helpful it's no more than tea and sympathy and I'm without an amp. They still don't know when spares will be available. I did ask if an off-the-shelf part can be used - I guess it's something like a double 35v output 500VA transformer - but he wasn't very forthcoming about that!

[quote name='gilmour' post='141086' date='Feb 15 2008, 02:52 PM']Mmm, tasty, I bet that'll be a HUGE sound, I was reading about that set up somewhere the other day, but I can;t find the thread (might have been at Finnbass)[/quote] Gilmour, Really interesting and well done. I've got Omni 10 and Omni 15TB plans and I was set on the Omni10, or a pair of 10.5s but I'm no longer sure given your verdict. If you don't mind me asking what was the final cost given you built the "full spec" version? I priced up the Omni10 at about £200 using 4 piezos and Deltalite 2510 drivers. I note in the Omni15 plans that the compression driver tweeter is optional for a bass cab so that would reduce the driver cost and the crossover is simplified too if it was omitted. There's also the option of adding piezo tweeters which probably keep things simpler and cheaper for a bass cab. Decisions, decisions, decisions...

[quote name='thinman' post='128813' date='Jan 27 2008, 06:11 PM']Nick, Only playing my local in Sevenoaks.. I'm now hoping to borrow a friend of a friend's Trace combo but it's a little indefinite at present. A reasonable backline hire firm would be useful as plan B though. Mike[/quote] Still no transformer! Not too happy really. I'm having to beg and borrow amps to practice and play with. Has anyone had one of these go more than once as if it takes this long to get repaired I may as well not bother owning one? It might be better put to use as a bookcase if I take the innards out. I hope the replacements being shipped now have had any inherent design problem fixed. I borrowed an old 300W Trace GP7 combo last week and liked it better anyway. And it survived being dropped out of the owner's car!

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='139008' date='Feb 12 2008, 06:42 PM']All things considered the Basslite S2010 is probably the best all-round choice if you're using two or more of them, with response similar to the Beta 10, displacement the same as the 2510 and the lowest weight of the three. The main problem with them in the UK is finding them.[/quote] Plenty of food for thought there. Thanks all. I notice that the Basslite S2010 recommended by Bill is now stocked by www.bluearran.co.uk so I could consider them but I notice also that their power handling is 150W RMS compared with 250W for the others being discussed. I'll probably be driving them with a Hartke 3500 (350W into 4 ohms) so I suppose I'd have to be careful if using just one Omni 10.5 loaded with an 8 ohm S2010. I doubt the weight difference to a 10.5 is of great concern to me. As my question and the answer appears to be totally subjective, and without hearing a Beta 10 loaded cabinet vs the Deltalites side-by-side, I wonder if my best option is to build one 10.5 with a Deltalite and another with a Beta 10? I imagine they'd work fine together when required and if I really don't like one over the other it's only a case of replacing one driver. Or do I go with Bill's recommendation (to which I attach a lot of weight), put aside the power handling worry and use Basslites? Or build a third 10.5 with one of those in? Oh blimey. Or do I go mad with indecision and spend the money in the pub?

Having got the plans I'm thinking of starting the building of a BFM Omni 10 or a pair of 10.5s (not sure yet - wavering towards the latter). What's the general opinion on the drivers? I'm erring on using the Deltalite 2510s but will they be noticably better than/different to the cheaper Beta 10s? OK - the total cost should only go up by £40 or so but £40 is £40 (or 16 pints at the local) but would the cheaper units be false economy in the long run?

[quote name='Muppet' post='132183' date='Feb 1 2008, 08:23 PM']Yes if your intonation is incorrect. If you CAN tune 12th fret harmonic to 12 fretted then all that means is that your intonation is correct. If there IS a difference then the only way to fix it is by adjusting string length, not by tuning to a note. Once you've got those two reading the same (regardless of what NOTE you are using to tune to) then you can use the 12th fret harmonic to tune to your electronic tuner safe in the knowledge that the open string, the 12th fretted AND the harmonic are all in tune.[/quote] Thanks chaps - I think I had the idea - the different ways of explaining and approach initially rang a few bells in my mind.