JapanAxe

The new rotary switch has arrived but in the meantime I have ordered some more capacitors, mylar ones with long flexible legs. I chose alternating values from the E12 series which turned out to be those not in the E6 series. Consequently there are a few values I don’t have in my stash, and some that I do are PCB types that would be awkward to fit to the switch. My next bass gig is a week tomorrow and I have a fair amount of material to be working on for 3 (yes three) bands, so I’ll likely do that gig with the current traditional tone pot.

FTFY

Well the 2M2 resistors didn't do anything so I've ordered a make-before-break rotary. It's another 12-way but I may not use all 12 positions, I can always set the stop lower if I want.

Ryan Adams

I tried this out this morning. The two smallest capacitors (150pF and 390pF) made no discernible difference to my ear, and the largest (82nF) was maybe too dark to be useful. The other values all gave good usable sounds, and I didn’t think any were too ‘peaky’ at their resonant frequency, so no resistors required. For the next iteration I’ll probably try more closely spaced values from 47nF down to 1nF. Also there is quite a loud click through the amp when changing settings. I think my rotary switch is break-before-make so it might be worth trying a make-before-break if I can find one. Alternatively I could try some high value resistors (2M2?) between the poles of the switch.

I've just set up a 'breadboard' to test values in the DIY tone selector. Here's the plan: The current tone pot is modded for no-load at full up. I'll keep volume and tone on the bass maxed and interpose this gubbins between bass and amp. I'll listen to how each setting sounds, and if any are too 'peaky' I can add a resistor in series with the cap to tame the resonant peak. It's gone midnight now so not a good time to be testing bass, I'll get some sleep first.

Postponed to 26 November.

Windsor Fringe Festival has been postponed, and that includes this gig. New date TBA.

What’s the perf board for?

And it all sounds great!

Today I removed the Tone Fusion control. I had thought of leaving the bass like that so that I could try various cap/resistor combinations on an external tone control ‘bread board’ but then I had a better idea. I got a 250k log pot and 47nF pot out of my parts stash but I modified the pot for ‘no load’ when turned up full. I had to widen the hole to 3/8in as the Tone Fusion pot is a little 16mm Alpha with a narrow bushing. While I was in there I noticed the string earth connection was hanging on by a single strand so I fixed that. The tone control now works in the traditional way, with the benefit of unadulterated bright tone when fully clockwise. I still plan to try out the bread board thing though.

Not exactly tonight, in fact a fortnight Saturday (17th September), but it's a ticketed event so it's only fair you all get fair warning! I'm back at the Old Court in Windsor (aka Windsor Arts Centre) with Rebel Heroes Bowie Tribute, hopefully back on guitar now that our bass player's wrist is on the mend. Expect 2 hours of classic Bowie, from sing-along anthems to fan-pleasing deep cuts. Tickets available here. Some pics of recent shows to whet your appetite: Backstage with Woody Woodmansey:

Thanks, that's brilliant, I'll go ahead and order it then

I'm looking to buy a particular kind of guitar stand but it's not available in the UK (or EC for that matter). There are several available from Chinese sellers on eBay but none are in eBay's Global Shipping Programme. The stand costs £54 and I'm concerned I'll get hit for import duties - would that be likely to happen?

Have you had the tech spec and parking details etc yet? Those are the things that tend to worry me, rather than playing the material.

I can sight read quite well on bass but not so well on guitar - for guitar I can work out what the dots mean, but not in real time as it were. It’s something that needs regular practice to maintain at a working level.

Got to grips with this today: (1) Fettled the input jack so that it shunts to earth when no jack is inserted. (2) Replaced the master volume pot. The sudden loud buzz at full volume is gone - let's hope it stays that way! (3) Replaced the tone stack with an enhanced version of a James tone stack (see pic below). The enhancement takes the form of a pot replacing the fixed resistor between the treble and bass pot wipers. At its centre setting it is equal to the Ampeg value, and adjusting the pot either way shifts the frequency centres of the controls. I may never use this, but the alternative would be a blanking plug! The amp seems to be working great now. I will have a living room session with it through my Super Twin tomorrow. For now, time to print some panel labels...

That Ampeg/BF combination is a winner. You’ll struggle to match that sound with anything more compact.

I would be wary of fitting a 12AU7 in place of a 12AX7 as the former ñ draw a lot more current, which can fry your anode resistor.

I prioritise the quality gigs and fill some of the remaining slots with, er, not-so-quality gigs. At a recent pub gig in one of the less desirable areas of Bristol, a rat appeared stage left and ran the length of the bar before disappearing into a cupboard. Will I play there again? Of course I will!

Well done! It would be terrible if a band’s efforts to fix up their banner resulted in accidental damage to the venue’s wallpaper, fixtures or fittings. Of course no band I’ve been in has ever done this. Much.

I tend not to tolerate anything that I can rectify with hand tools or a soldering iron.

A big vote of thanks from me Tom. I have done a shedload of bass and guitar transcriptions myself, but your site is a lifesaver when I have a dep gig at short notice and need dots on the hurry-up!

I’m usually recording covers of intros or solos as a way to demonstrate my playing ability. My DAW of choice is Reaper. I usually start with some form of drum track filched from the Internet. If it’s a MIDI track then I will often edit it to introduce some dynamics! I create a tempo map and align the drum track with it. I create the guitar and bass sounds outside the box using mainly analog kit - I rarely use amp sim or fx plug-ins. Then I record the parts. For reverb I either record a separate wet track from one of my three outboard spring reverbs, or create a send and return. Any tricky keys parts are obtained from MIDI files, otherwise I play them myself. I have no mastering software, I just do a mix that I think sounds ok and render it to a 192kbps mp3 for uploading to SoundCloud. I don’t recommend you follow this procedure btw, it just works for me!