thinman

[quote name='ras52' post='1074324' date='Jan 1 2011, 01:08 PM']What do you think? Do you have any recommendations for a trusted tech guy who could look at it? I'm based in Bromley (SE London/Kent). Cheers! Richard[/quote] I use Julian Clarke at The Guitar Centre in Sevenoaks so it's not too far from you. He replaced the nut on my Jazz recently as I was having trouble with the A hopping out. He builds guitars and is very knowledgeable and helpful. Just don't expect to park too near if going by car!

This is a raw subject for me - I wish we could have some deps but there's a couple of touchy individuals in the band I'm in. The drummer goes away a lot and isn't too helpful in allowing anyone else to sit in - not even for practices! He's away for about 50% of the first 4 months of the year but won't tell me exactly when! If it was me I'd have no problem of someone standing in if I was unavailable - I don't see why everyone else should stop because I'm not there. I'm considering joining a second band because I'm a bit fed up with the enforced lay-offs!

Julian Clarke at Sevenoaks Guitar Centre. It's not really in the centre of Sevenoaks and he doesn't have many guitars in it but he is a good luthier IMO - builds guitars from scratch etc.

Rhythm Stick. Still. That bit down around F at the end does my tendons in!

[quote name='chris_b' post='1071558' date='Dec 29 2010, 11:07 AM']Hi, +1 with JTUK for keeping your amp, but you'll need a neo cab for the reduced weight. There are quite a few to choose from, Bergantino, Epifani, Markbass, Genz Benz etc. They all have their own "sound" so you should listen to them if you can and they’re quite expensive, unless you can buy used. The only non neo cab I'd recommend is one of the Aguilar GS112 or DB112 cabs. They sound great The lightest, loud and full toned neo cab out there, in my opinion, is the Barefaced Compact at 26lbs. Send a PM to alexclabber and discuss pairing your amp with this cab. This is a great 1 cab solution and it's a sensitive cab so it'll make your 200 watts sound bigger and better than most other cabs.[/quote] I'll echo the above sentiment. My primary head is over 20 years old and that doesn't concern me - it was pretty well built. I did replace most of the electrolytic capacitors in it as a precaution as they're one of the few components that age appreciably. A 200W amp driving efficient cabs is probably adequate for most situations although there's many here that will disagree with that! On the cab front having single driver cabs that you can use in the necessary multiples will give you the lightest options. I use two BFM Omni 10.5s - each has a Neo 10" driver and they light and manageable.

[quote name='fatback' post='1064554' date='Dec 20 2010, 01:03 PM']Thanks all, I'm happy enough with the action. The thing that got me thinking was that the saddles seemed very high and the pups were also as high as they could go. I'll pad the pups, as Jennifer suggests, and take it from there. [/quote] I was asking my local luthier about this and he prefers springs to foam (the screws go though the middle). His view is that foam is a cheap option and loses it's "umph" after a while leading to the pickups rattling a bit.

[quote name='icastle' post='1064030' date='Dec 19 2010, 09:32 PM']You callin' me a dry joint? [/quote] You just need to moisten your Rizzlas.

A look around at the solder-side with a magnifying glass might show up the offender. Dry joints sometimes look more dull or "wrinkly". You may also see cracks in a joint that way (not saying that's your problem - they tend to lead to crackles and intermittent problems).

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='1063874' date='Dec 19 2010, 07:12 PM']Well... my inability to find a replacement H&K BB combo lead me on my quest to try and replicate the sound that [u][b]I[/b][/u] wanted[/quote] Well, you can always buy one of the heads back off me! I've still got one of yours and it's doing a stirling service after a little bit of work. Actually, I'm not sure I would sell it! My Ashdown MAG head sounds yeuch by comparison.

[quote name='TimR' post='1062730' date='Dec 18 2010, 06:24 PM']There are things we know about human biology and psyche. We know that people see colours differently, people appreciate different paintings and women can discriminate more colours than men, some people are colour blind. We know people like different foods and have different tastes, some can stand very hot chillies others only like beef and Yorkshire pudding. We also know that people hear differently, some people have different levels of deafness, we all like different tunes, some people have perfect pitch and others are tone deaf. Women listen to the words/singer, men listen to the music. So why the obsession with 'my tone'? You are the only one who hears it that way. You can't describe it in words to a sound-man. No measuring equipment in the world can measure it to reproduce it. The environment plays a huge part in its reproduction so it doesn't matter how much you spend on your gear when you walk into that dodgy pub with the low beams it just won't work. Buy something that sounds good and concentrate on the notes. Or am I alone here.[/quote] I get where you're coming from to some extent but obviously bass can and should have its variations in tone and style. What I do have a strong opinion on is that some bassists obsess over their solo tone which may not always sound great in a band context, i.e. the solo tone should only be a start point - it will probably need altering to fit the mix.

None usually but have an EHX bass synth for a few electronica numbers. Used to use a compressor but wasn't sure how much that was doing given I've a valve preamp that I push fairly hard which is probably doing a bit of compression for me. I find many effects a bit wearing if overdone. Just my taste.

[quote name='TimR' post='1062593' date='Dec 18 2010, 04:01 PM']In reality you get someone who is only interested in turning the system up to 1.1 gigawatts to show it off.[/quote] Sometimes that's just the bass player!

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='1062464' date='Dec 18 2010, 01:55 PM']I use a rig that is easily manageable for manouvering into smaller pub gigs, that has enough umph to use without PA support and obviously can be dialled back to give me just enough on-stage monitoring if using PA support. However... With regard to the matter of letting the PA replicate your sound - that kind of makes a nonsense of any bassist's argument about the quality of the timbre of the combination of technique/bass/amp/cab; essentially you are eliminating the cab aspect of 'your' sound! I love the sound of my Aggies and though I've been tempted to go down the route of super-lightweight cab, I've not found one that I like the sound of. If I was just monitoring then this aspect of my sound would be redundant and I'd then have to rely on the quality of the PA system to replicate the sound that I want... I've rarely liked the sound of my bass through a PA as much as I do through my cabs! Hmmmm new can of worms. [/quote] [quote]With regard to the matter of letting the PA replicate your sound - that kind of makes a nonsense of any bassist's argument about the quality of the timbre of the combination of technique/bass/amp/cab; essentially you are eliminating the cab aspect of 'your' sound![/quote] By that argument if you were to play Wembley arena you'd need an enormous backline?. Isn't that why PAs are fed with either or both a DI and cab mic to capture the tone? I'm in no way saying everyone should play with a 60w practice combo I'm trying to understand the practical application of having very large rigs of multiple of 4 x 10"s etc

[quote name='icastle' post='1062414' date='Dec 18 2010, 12:59 PM']- it's about having enough low end volume to allow the bass to be heard![/quote] Yes - but some of that power can be in the PA. I'm not saying people shouldn't have a powerful amp because they can always turn it down - my point is that once your bass backline starts to drown out the drum kit and the venue dictates that the band needs to be louder, you're into drum micing territory and probably feeding a bit of bass into the PA too. Having plenty of headroom in an amp is fine but I still don't get the need to match that with a lot of big cabs (and by that I'm taliking about multiple 4 x10"etc ) and above. I'm NOT saying no-one shoukd have such a rig - each to their own and all that - I just don't really get the point!

This and other threads have reminded me how amazed I am at the size and power of rigs people have or are considering. I imagine some sound mighty impressive by themselves but do they work well in a band context? In my band we've spent more on the PA with the aim of balancing the sound and keeping the backline volumes within reasonable levels. Drums, bass and a bit of guitar all go throw the PA - it saves a lot of rows and issues about one person drowing out everyone else. Given that the kick drum is often the first to get drowned out these rigs used at volume must necessitate more PA support to balance things? Maybe I'm just suffering from rig envy but I have trouble seeing the need to cart smething the size of my wife's wardrobe around with me!

When, if you were once famous, you can no longer maintain the haircut you had when you were. Or have a haircut.

I'll echo an earlier sentiment - get the geetards to turn down and get a PA. With all those 15" cabs you may as well substitute the carriage space for a PA. It IS usually possible to educate a gueetard to turn down. Mic up their cab, turn them up loud and get them to go out front. When they're happy it's loud secretly turn them down again.

[quote name='tauzero' post='1057424' date='Dec 13 2010, 03:32 PM']It might be worth looking at the DSO Nano - just google for it. They go on ebay (new) for around the £50 mark, and I've been quite tempted (but for the lack of a spare £50). I do have a couple of small bench scopes, but zero bench space...[/quote] You selling?

[quote name='Subthumper' post='1047866' date='Dec 4 2010, 11:39 PM']Hi, does it have to be a USB? If its only for what you've listed then why not look for a bench one second hand. I recently picked up an old British made one (vintage it has valves) for twenty quid off of gumtree. Also the other consideration worth looking at in the scopes spec's is maximum input voltage. I looked into USB scopes when my old one died but found that many had only a low max voltage which would be a setback if you ever want to use it on any valve equipment (though many a time I would love to stick 500+volts into a computer). Just my thoughts. Cheers Just[/quote] Useful contributions all - thanks. No, it doesn't have to be USB - I'm sure I could find room in the garage for a bench unit. I'll have a look on ebay etc to see what's about. Good point about the max input voltage - I do have some valve gear.

[quote name='flyfisher' post='1047234' date='Dec 4 2010, 12:04 PM']I'd be interested to know why the OP wants to look at audio waveforms though. Apart from determining the peak amplitude of a signal, there's not a lot of useful information to be gained by watching a real-time audio signal on a 'scope. If it's just amplitude info that's requred, then low-bandwidth sampling combined with an averaging algorithm would probably do the trick.[/quote] Basic fault finding really - e.g. see if a power rail has ripple on it, check a signal fo clipping, funny harmonics. Agreed, it matters not if the signal is delayed but I think it necessary to be able to see the signal accurately represented.

[quote name='BanditSid' post='1046851' date='Dec 3 2010, 09:35 PM']I've never used one, but it claims a bandwidth up to 3kHz, which is ok for bass but a bit too low for guitar use. The sampling rate is quoted as 4kHz, which means the highest frequency it can display accurately is 2kHz, even more limited. Once you've bought it you would need some kind of probe, proper ones cost more than the device does, so that puts the cost up again I use a Hitachi 100MHz scope, so I'm spoilt a bit, but I'm not sure it is as big a bargain as it seems.[/quote] I noticed the max frequency range and sample rate too. I can't imagine that at that sample rate the shape of higher frequeny waveforms is very well represented. Think I might have to stretch to a Picoscope of similar.

Does anyone have any experience of these cheap USB oscilloscopes? Are they OK for basic audio frequency diagnosis? [url="http://www.virtualvillage.co.uk/2-channel-5v-pc-usb-digital-storage-oscilloscope-new-001482-009.html"]Example item[/url]

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='1035183' date='Nov 24 2010, 03:28 PM']Science does have a tendency to win out over dogma, though sometimes it takes a while. Ask Galileo. [i]'In 1979 Pope John Paul II asked that the 1633 conviction be annulled. However, since teaching the Copernican theory had been banned in 1616, it was technically possible that a new trial could find Galileo guilty; thus it was suggested that the 1616 prohibition be reversed, and this happened in 1992. The pope concluded that while 17th-century theologians based their decision on the knowledge available to them at the time, they had wronged Galileo by [b]not recognizing the difference between a question relating to scientific investigation and one falling into the realm of doctrine of the faith[/b].'[/i][/quote] So is it OK to use condoms or not?

Could be a dodgy component changing the gain as it warms up. Are there any valves in there? My amp definitely gets gradually louder for about an hour after being switched on - I think as the valve in the preamp warms up. Another option - assuming a rotary control knob, has it slipped on its shaft?

[quote name='gary mac' post='1034187' date='Nov 23 2010, 06:26 PM']Like the others have said, he's a top chap and very helpful. I've got 64's in my jazz, my daughter has 84's in her jazz. They do sound very different. I find it very hard to describe sounds what I would say though is that the 64's sound more defined, the 84's deeper maybe more muddy. See what I mean, rubbish at describing sound. They both sound good though. Right I'm off having cleared up this discussion for you[/quote] I've 84s in my Jazz and I think I know what you're saying when you say "muddy" - they're quite fat sounding and maybe have less bite than standard pickups.