thinman

It's fine as long as the impedance of the cab is within the range that the amp is happy with. Most amps will drive a cab rated at 8 or 4 ohms. If you connect two 8 ohm cabs together in parallel then that's 4 ohms. Some amps will drive down to 2 ohms (two 4 ohm cabs in parallel) but for many amps that's pushing it a bit. An amp will be rated at a power output when connected to a specific impedance. E.g. an Ashdown MAG 300 is supposedly 300w into a 4 ohm load. The 20w you quote may be based on an 8 or 4 ohm load - hopefully it's written down somewhere. It should be safe to connect it to any 8 ohm cab and may be OK with a 4 ohm load. How loud it will be with a 4 x 10" depends very much on the efficiency of the cab. It might be suprisingly loud!

I've built a Bill Fitzmaurice cab with piezos. The resistors are there to make sure the cab impedance remains above a reasonable value should the piezos oscillate. I secured mine using some small zip ties which keeps them nice and secure. A blob of hot melt glue would probably work well. I wouldn't rely on stiff wiring to keep them secure as they're subject to a lot of vibration.

I was worried about phantom power with my amp too. OBBM, who posts on here, suggested the following that works well and is about as cheap as you can get: On a XLR pins 2 and 3 are both at +48v, i.e. common, relative to pin 1 ground. If you simply disconnect pin 1 there's no circuit for the phantom voltage any more (and it also cures any earth loop issues). The signal out is carried by pins 2 and 3. I made a short tail lead with pin 1 disconnected and it does the trick nicely.

I'm glad I'm not the only that finds it knackering. It's the riff around F down at the first that does me in. Hitting the G# is a swine! But does anyone know the guitar chords????

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='874806' date='Jun 22 2010, 08:34 PM'][url="http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/i/ian_dury_and_the_blockheads/hit_me_with_your_rhythm_stick_tab.htm"]http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/i/ian_...m_stick_tab.htm[/url][/quote] Thanks - our guitarist has tried that one and it doesn't seem right. Looking at some video one of the Blockheads is playing something much further down the kneck.

Thanks chaps - but does anyone know what the guitar chords are over that bit?

Have finally graduated onto playing "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" but the band's a bit stuck on the chorus. Over the "Hit me with your rhythm stick..." line on the bass it's F, G and then....... I think it may be an A but our guitarist thinks it's Ab. Does anyone know what the guitar chords are too? Can't find anything on the net and find it hard to ork out from the record.

I'm looking for a bass synth too. Sorry to be such a noob but "EHX MSB" is the Electroharmonix Bass Micro Synth? Thinking of getting one myself - any more views? Does it track well? Good sounds?

I did this with a MAG300 head from the 1 x 15 combo and made my own sleeve from 18mm ply plus hardware etc. Easy if you have the inclination. The only thing to watch for (which may not apply to the ABM) is that with the MAG heads the amp chassis from the 2 x 10 combo is a lot wider than the head from the 1 x 15 combo.

[quote name='E sharp' post='764469' date='Mar 4 2010, 09:09 PM']proceeded to turn up the gain to such an extent that the amp was clipping madly .[/quote] Just being a pedant here but what's wrong with that? It's the preamp that will be clipping (some would say producing a nice overdriven valve preamp sound) - not the power stage.

If you went for aux-fed subs you would probably just send the kick drum and your bass to the subs. That might give you the option of putting a limiter or compressor in line to both protect your amp a bit and increase the preceptual loudness of the bass end. For small clubs and bars it still seems like a lot of power. You might be able to find some more efficient subs too. I built some Bill Fitzmaurice T39 horn-loaded subs which are a lot more efficient than direct radiators or rflex systems. Big though!

[quote name='Me And My Bass' post='755421' date='Feb 23 2010, 08:19 PM']Sorry if this is in the wrong section guys. My band uses a 4K rig and just now we are running everything through it. I know how much the bass guitar/kick drains the power, Im thinking of taking some of the load off the main rig and applying another system for running my bass (& possibly kick drum etc). Should l be looking at Subs or more bass bins? What would give me the best sound? I want to use our Allen & Heath PA-28 desk with the new set up, im thinking of using a AUX Send to the new subs/bins amp on the bass channels. Anyone any views or pointers on this? Cheers, Jab![/quote] What have you got already in terms of power amps, crossovers and cabs etc?

I fitted a chocolate teapot to my MAG when I had one. Found it quite useful by comparison.

Pickguard: [url="http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/product/Jazz_Bass_US_Standard_-_Brown_Tortoiseshell_JBAS-305"]WD Music[/url] Wizards are good pups.

[quote name='umph' post='744919' date='Feb 14 2010, 04:11 PM']+1 on jack did you use an isolated one, you could've raised the noise floor.[/quote] The replacement jack is identical to the one that came out. As I've said - it works perfectly well with a guitar straight in.

[quote name='Paul_C' post='744328' date='Feb 13 2010, 09:16 PM']take to someone who knows about amps ? after all, you don't know if the shock to the board when the jack was broken did other damage to components that only someone with some knowledge can identify I repair guitars/basses etc. but if it's a circuit board problem I'll always pass it on to a qualified engineer - I know not of the wizardry of circuit boards [/quote] I did a HND in electronics some years ago so I'm reasonably comfortable with PCBs etc. There's no signs of cracks on the board but it does have some surface mount stuff that could have been disturbed. What's so strange about this is that the amp sounds fine with a guitar straight in to the input and the pedal board is fine into other amps. It's the two together that's the problem. Although it's possible I'd expect the amp to sound a bit ropey with guitar only if it's damaged but it doesn't. I keep trying to think what must be different about the signal from the board compared with a guitar - it's set on the board to be the same as guitar output.

One of our guitarists stood on his lead and snapped, internally, the 1/4" jack on the front of his combo. I replaced the jack for him but since then he gets a strange interaction between his Boss GT10 board and the amp - there's a horrible sort of oscillation in the sound. A guitar straight in to the amp sounds fine. The pedal board plugged into the effects return is oscillation free too. We've tried a new set of cables and done a factory reset on the GT10. The GT10 is also fine into a different amp. It seems to be a strange interaction between the amp and GT10. The amp's always been a bit strange in that it seems ultra sensitve - e.g. with a lead not plugged into a guitar, touching the tip causes a really loud pop on the amp. Any ideas anyone?

Coincidentally there's a bit of a discussion about "Maggie May" at [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=75334"]Mistakes[/url]

[quote name='bumnote' post='741939' date='Feb 11 2010, 12:20 PM']Ronnie Wood or Ronnie Lane?[/quote] I'm led to believe it was Ronnie Wood - maybe that's why it's a bit, um, unorthodox?

Ronnie Wood's playing on "Maggie May". Sometimes I think it's naff but mostly brilliant - it sounds to me like he winged it rather than studied it.

I think that's correct. I've got a BFM Omni 10 (2 x 10) and wished I'd made 2 of the 10.5 ( 1 x 10 ). The cabinet volume of the 10.5 is half that of the 10 and the port is half the area. In fact I'm either going to saw my Omni 10 in half or build two BFM Jack 110s. The Omni 10 is a bit of a lump.

[quote name='Beedster' post='728115' date='Jan 28 2010, 09:12 PM']And does it matter?[/quote] No!

Someone's bound to have pointed this out before but isn't "Fretless Precision Bass" a contradiction in terms? Wasn't a Precision called that becaue it had frets, i.e. it had precise tuning, as opposed to all previous bass instruments being fretless? Must get more to do....

We use a Yamaha MG166C which has been pretty good. 10 Mic inputs, first 6 with compressors plus a few other line and stereo inputs. Can be had for about £270 new.