JapanAxe
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Everything posted by JapanAxe
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All our devices connect to the XR18 via an external router. If our devices don't have a good connection to the WWW immediately before we use them on the router's local network, Mixing Station seems to throw a wobbly about the licence - at least sometimes.
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I’ve had my XR18 about 18 months now. About the same time I got a lap steel with palm levers and had to learn an open tuning. They both had a steep learning curve but I started using the XR18 on rehearsals within a month, whereas I’ve just done my first lap steel gig. Even so, I keep finding things with the XR18 that I’m either doing wrong or could be doing better. I mainly use Mixing Station as it allows you to group together the controls you actually need on a couple of screens, plus I can set up other band members so that only mess up their own monitor mix! I occasionally use X-Air at home for deep dives to check what I’m doing. The biggest problem I have found with Mixing Station is locations where there is little or no Internet. MS then decides that one or more users doesn’t have an iOS Pro licence and we have to go somewhere with Internet to refresh the licence. It’s a right palaver doing that 4 times in a row before playing a note!
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Now for sale in BC Marketplace!
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This is a single-channel take on the venerable Ampeg B15, sitting somewhere between the Heritage model and the Ceriatone 'Aunt Peg', but without the fixed bias option. The build blog is here and I suggest any prospective purchaser should read it carefully to get an idea of: How much care went into this build, along with the quality of the components. The problems I encountered and the fact that they have all been ironed out! The specifications. This was far from being my first amp-build rodeo, and I feel that I did a quality job on it. The amp has seen a lot of use over the last 4 years as a luxury practice amp in my home studio / practice room. I built it to use, not to sell, but I now find myself with (a) too many amps, (b) not enough space, and (c) a hankering after various other shiny things. I'm looking for £950 collected or by way of mutually convenient meet-up - it's not something that I would want to entrust to a courier. I'm based in Swindon, Wiltshire, but do travel around for gigs and to see family. The price reflects the cost of the components plus a tiny fraction of the many hours that I enjoyed putting it together. I will provide documentation (circuit diagram and layout) that should assist any tech that needs to work on it in the future. Some of the folks who attended last year's Big Fat South West Bass Bash got the chance to hear this through my BF Super Twin - @Stub Mandrel, @Chienmortbb, @MichaelDean iirc. If it hasn't gone by then I intend to take it to this year's Bash, this time with a FOR SALE sign on it. The Barefaced One 10 is shown for scale (I was right out of bananas) but is NOT included in the sale!- 4 replies
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I would hate to be put in that position but yes, good call. There have been a couple of bands where my decision not to accept an offer to join has been based partly on their excessive volume.
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Faithless at Lakefest last night. I was playing on the VIP stage after Reverend and the Makers’ main stage set - heard them but didn’t see them as the VIP stage was immediately behind one of the big screens flanking the main stage, so when you looked left from our stage you saw the huge crowd! After we’d packed down I went out front with Mrs Axe and our son and DIL and caught most of the Faithless set. If I say I’d never seen or heard anything like it, it’s because I have close to zero experience of EDM. I was pleased to see a ‘real’ bass (some kind of J-type 5-string) and guitar (Jazzmaster) alongside drum kit, percussion, and keyboards (no doubt with sequencers). I have played Insomnia in a party band but didn’t recognise the songs except for God Is A DJ and a cover of a Dido song. Some of the songs were accompanied by videos featuring a guy who wasn’t on the stage, and who I later found out was late member Maxi Jazz. I have to say the performance was as tight as a very tight thing. Not my thing but I was glad of the experience.
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More work last night and tonight: - Re-installed the bias board more securely (bolts have nyloc nuts); - Added the feeds from the PI to the 6L6 control grids, as well as the negative bias supplies (all of them brown/blue wires); - Connected the AC (orange) and ground (black) to the bias board; - Installed the NFB connection and corresponding ground reference (green/black wires).
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State of play tonight. Most of the 'back end' connections are made, and after much cursing and struggling with inaccessible M3 fixings, the bias board is fitted. I'm not 100% happy that it's secure though and I may yet look at mounting it to the end of the chassis.
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More progress:
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On lead guitar last night with a pub covers band. The venue was a ginormous chain pub with a huge (but not separate) ‘function room’ area at the back. Sadly they had at some point walled off the stage to create a store room and somewhere to mount the biggest TV screen I have ever seen. I really wasn’t feeling it at first as I’d played with the band the previous night and could have done with a night in. Our sound check quickly cleared a table in front of one of the PA speakers, which didn’t bode well! But as soon as we started playing our first set there were people on the dance floor, and it just got busier as the night went on. By the end there were several people dancing on the tables, which fortunately seemed to have been constructed from scaffolding materials! The landlady was so happy with the band that she paid us an extra 20%.
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Main board finished(-ish). The keen-eyed will notice a change in dropping resistor in the middle of the board. I had mistakenly written 1k instead of 10k on my layout! Also what I thought I were 22nF caps in my stash were actually 2.2nF, so I've had to order some more 22nF - hence the unpopulated gap next to the honking great 100uF/500V cap.
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Progress on the main board over the last 24 hours:
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I drilled the main board the other day and have just swaged the eyelets. There are also 3 turrets, which will support the rectifier diodes and provide connection points for the incoming AC. The red stickers cover the mounting holes where the standoffs will go, so that some eejit doesn't stick eyelets in them...
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I’ve been using my Boss WL-20 setup for the last year with few issues. I haven’t noticed any loss of low end - I think that may be an ‘Internet wisdom’ hangover from early systems. Used live I’ve only had problems on two occasions: (1) Electronic drum kit and bodies between transmitter and receiver in a pub with very little ‘stage’ space. Used a cable instead. (2) Theatre gig. Fine during soundcheck, in fact I walked halfway up the banked seats in the auditorium to check out the FOH sound. But once the audience were in I kept losing the blue ‘RF found’ LED on the receiver. The signal itself didn’t drop out but I wasn’t going to risk it so in a break between songs I swapped to a 6m cable to preserve stage-strutting privileges as far as possible. I put it down to too many WiFi hotspots in the audience.
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How was Your rehearsal last morning or night ?
JapanAxe replied to nilorius's topic in General Discussion
Second full rehearsal with my friend’s glam startup. Nice big room at Pirate in Reading, which we need because he brings an electronic kit. We have some backing tracks and a click, so we did the whole rehearsal on in-ears - guitarist used a Pod Go, I plugged my bass straight into a Hi-Z input on my XR18. We didn’t need any of the kit in the room but it’s proved impossible to hire a village hall in a suitable location! I’d say it went really well, and for once everyone got there in good time and remembered to bring everything they needed! I recorded most of it to Reaper on my laptop with a view to editing out the chat and uploading rough mix on mp3 to Google Drive so that each person can listen critically to their own playing and singing. -
For my band(s), see my post above from 26 June. I also play theatres with a tribute band and their regular sound guy uses full-on analog splits.
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I’m quite often alternating between lead and backing vocals on the same gig. If I’m singing lead I go in close on the mic; for BVs I back off to around 15cm (6in).
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I’ve had a lot of use from a set of Pedaltrain Pedal Boosters: https://pedaltrain.com/products/pedaltrain-booster They are great for raising pedals in the second row so that the foot switches can be operated clear of the pedals in front. They do require some drilling though, as they are not very stable if secured only by Velcro.
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Assembled the bias board and wired the PT to the mains via the fuse and switch.
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You will probably hear the most improvement by getting a better amp. You will get the most from your money by buying used - there are some absolute bargains to be had on Basschat Marketplace!
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I've spent a pleasant couple of hours fitting most of the remaining hardware. During this process I discovered that (1) my M5 bolts were too short for mounting the transformers safely, and (2) I've run out of 3mm nylon locking nuts. I've placed orders for these, but in the meantime this is starting to look like it wants to be an amp:
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Cut the face plate holes and fitted the rear panel hardware.
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I met Dave Swift at the same Bass Bash and asked him about this. He said if he used a flat-wound B string it sounded ‘like a football hitting a sheep’! No-one has mentioned Dingwalls yet, so… Dingwalls. Most will be aware that they (and other fan-frets) overcome the common problem of indistinct B strings by using a different scale length for each string. I had a Super P (with 35in B) that did the 5-string Precision thing brilliantly. I only traded it because I discovered I liked the tightness of a 37in B.
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