Lfalex v1.1

Work commitments (etc.) permitting, I'd be up for one in Cambs.. EDIT- Or Suffolk, for that matter. Norfolk is less accessible. I guess Essex is considered to be "South East", rather than East Anglia.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='939745' date='Aug 30 2010, 02:22 AM']Probably the best material for a bass cab would be carbon fiber honeycomb matrix. It works well enough in F-117s. But it ain't cheap, especially since most of it is gobbled up by the aerospace industry.[/quote] Celestion made a compact (stereo, 2-way) loudspeaker system in the 80's called the SL600(/i) made from a material called Aerolam. Similar principle. Oh, an they weren't cheap! With reference to the resonant quality of cabinets (mentioned earlier by another poster), all cabinets will have various resonant modes, caused by various factors. There are a number of means of reducing this, a good one being to try to move the resonant frequency of the enclosure that corresponds to its mass either outside the audio band entirely or to a point where it won't be too obtrusive. I'd assume the primary objective in a low-cabinet-mass hifi loudspeaker system would be to minimise colouration by reducing the enclosure's ability to store energy. In a bass cab, whilst a laudible objective, I'd consider it secondary to the ability to carry it easily! Worth a go [i]if[/i] you've got access to the means and materials, as the OP plainly has. Some areas I can see being worthy of attention; The front baffle needs to be rigid enough to support the drivers properly Cabinet bracing might be good idea! Carbon Fibre is [u]very[/u] stiff, but it is also brittle. Look at the way in which F1 cars and composite cycle frames splinter and de-laminate when crashed hard. Bass cabs take more than a few knocks during their lives! Flight-casing the cabinet would solve this, but negates the weight advantage you worked so hard to secure. Perhaps rounding-off all the external edges and vertices would help (and look nice!), plus some sort of rubber "bumpers" around the areas most likely to sustain big impacts... Edit for dodgy quoting of BFM and an apology to ShergoldSnickers for not reading his post from 2 hrs previous. Great minds think alike, though!

I use either a Korg Pandora PX4-D (Does bass & guitar) You can turn off all the modelling and FX and the clean tone is perfectly respectable. It's got a built-in tuner, too. Otherwise, I use a cheapo (£80!) 8-track mixer. That sounds SO good, I've started using it as a pre-amp with a power amp and 4x10 for rehearsal and live use. It's super flexible- You could have 4 basses plugged into it at once, all with different gain/EQ/level settings. It's got a blendable FX loop and an aux send that I use to drive a tuner.

[quote name='dave.c' post='937045' date='Aug 26 2010, 12:38 PM']I'd go for pretty much anything on Joe Jacksons 'Look Sharp!' album, bassist Graham Maby, just great![/quote] Oh yes! Or 'I'm the Man', for that matter!, primarily; Fools in love I'm the man Got the time Done on an Ibanez- either a Roadstar or Roadster by all accounts. Dunno whether I'd call it "Pop", but if I didn't, I don't know what I would call it! I'm tempted to chuck in "Babooshka" or "You Can Call me Al", but I'm not sure that they're Pop either. Otherwise, a +1 to "Slip-slidin' Away" and (the inevitable) "Sledgehammer"

[quote name='BigRedX' post='939226' date='Aug 29 2010, 09:58 AM'][url="http://www.ritter-instruments.com/princess-isabella.php"]Yours for €7200[/url][/quote] Actually, that's really rather nice! Quite conservative by Ritter standards, albeit a bit on the expensive side. I'd rather have that than a vintage White Falcon or somesuch...

Does Jens Ritter make guitars, too, then?

[quote name='Musicman20' post='936488' date='Aug 25 2010, 09:59 PM']Spent too much, but nowhere near as much as my friends who are car fanatics.[/quote] Too true. If the value of my stack is less than or equal to the cost of my car, then I bought too expensive a car! Besides which, in the 12 years I've owned my stack, I'm on my sixth car. Collection? Oh dear! Quick maths makes it £9.5k!!! Basses only, at prices paid. But over 18-odd years, that ain't so bad. Doesn't include a broken s/h Ibanez. 2 s/h basses dismantled for spares. Last time I undertake that exercise!

[quote name='chris_b' post='938566' date='Aug 28 2010, 01:32 AM']Why don't people just play lighter?[/quote] Awww, c'mon! Don't tell me that you don't "dig in" a bit more when playing live? I would hardly have said Gary Willis' Technique sucked, and he uses one. His signature Ibanez (the expensive one, at least) comes with one. That uses double-sided tape to attach it, IIRC.

Knock one up out of MDF to begin with and make sure it does what you want/fits okay. Tape it on and you can then make adjustments to it and decide if you even like it on a given bass. If you do, then look into making a better one or having one made. Then invest in materials which may match; The body, Pick-up covers, Fretboard, etc. Just my 2p worth.

All the (older) Trace cabinets were about 3 inches shallower than their combo equivalents. To keep the weight down, I should imagine! My old 1110 was heavy enough as it was [u]without[/u] the extra cabinet weight! In any case, assuming the driver/s remain the same and the ports are retuned, you should get either more bottom end or better efficiency from a larger cab, neither of which are bad. I cut my H122SMX into a head and (shallow) cab. Initially so it'd fit into the poxy boot in my Fiat Punto, but then realised it gives me much more flexibility in terms of cabinet choice. If your extension cab is too much of a pain, put some castors on the side and then you can strap the combo to it and go walkabout.

My Streamline withstood a 900+ mile drive across France stuffed in the boot of my car. In its soft bag. In the height of summer. With no issues at all. In fact, it's not had any stability issues at all. Not that my Vigier's had any issues. It just won't fit in the boot of my car!

After a bit of research, it transpires that "Ernie" Ball's name wasn't even "Ernie" it was Sherwood. No relevance. Just one of those (mildly) educational titbits one uncovers from time to time.

Dammit, wombatboter beat me to it with Tea in the Sahara... Otherwise, So lonely, Message in a bottle (except you can hear he's out of tune on the recording), Man in a suitcase. Some of the solo stuff's okay, too. The shift from A Pentatonic to A Major into the middle 8 of "Soul cages" is quite nifty. Same key. Same tempo. Wholly different feel and nicely executed to boot.

[quote name='Vibrating G String' post='934362' date='Aug 24 2010, 02:04 AM']That's very interesting that it would sound like graphite to someone (ignoring the 32" scale here) as the Kubicki has a lot in common with some graphite necks, as it's many 1/16" layers bonded together making it a composite neck. Using cellulose where the graphite necks use carbon. Funny how the old Moses necks are said to sound like graphite when the overwhelming majority of the neck is resin. If a "graphite composite" neck is the sound of graphite is a phenolic fingerboard the sound of paper?[/quote] ...Thinks... I reckon you might have got something there (and whoever mentioned Moses necks sounding like graphite in spite of being mainly resin) What do Kubicki necks, Carbon/Graphite Composite Necks and Phenolic fretboards all have in common? Large quantities of adhesive/binding/bonding agents or resins. Perhaps it's those we can hear? ([b]insert manufacturer[/b]). [i]The sound of glue[/i]

Whilst I don't pretend to know all the ins and outs of Vigier necks over the years, it is interesting that they've changed their approach several times; S1: "Widening" Neck through with the brass (?) layer beneath the fretboard. S2: Woven Graphite Neck-through. No truss rod. Phenolic fretboard. S3: Graphite/Maple (10/90) Neck through. No Truss rod. Phenolic fretboard. S4: Graphite/Maple (10/90) Bolt-on. No Truss rod. Phenolic fretboard. So, it would seem that the Passion and Arpege have been modified over the years. The build quality has been consistently high, although they did have bonding issues with the S1 fretboards IIRC. IMO Rodless basses have their own sound. They seem to sound "more" like the main neck material. It's only quite subtle, but some people might like it. I personally think that slap sound better on basses with truss rods, as they seem to have a more ringing tone - I prefer my Streamline to my S3 Passion V. I reckon the all-graphite Vigier S2 would be better in this respect.

[quote name='Fat Rich' post='931125' date='Aug 20 2010, 04:56 PM']Interesting reading, thanks for posting![/quote] +1. A good read!

A graveyard. Belonging to whatever church in Hitchin (Herts.) is down by the river by near the town centre. I'd worked nightshift on the Friday, so had been awake from 1900h on that day. When we hit the stage it was about 1630h and I hadn't slept. By the time I got home, I'd been awake about 24hours. And I played fretless. And drove the whole band. Interesting 24 hours. Crowd was big (Hitchin was closed off for the music festival) Still one of the biggest audiences I've played to. I guess around 800-1000 people...

No worries! The aliasing [i]might[/i] be a bit of noise from the LED meters on my mixer. The soundcard seems to pick them up... PC playback could help, though.

A day late, a dollar short, scrappy and recorded into my notebook whilst my wife and I are having a domestic with kids crying and me standing amidst the partly wallpapered dining room being attacked by the kitten... Sorry, I clipped the mic input a bit at one point. Only short WMA (so uncompressed) clips, recorded with no eq unless otherwise stated, and then onlt from the bass. No effects or compression were used. [attachment=57052:SSL_Both..._with_eq.wma] [attachment=57049:SSL_stan...ge_No_eq.wma] [attachment=57051:SSL_My_p..._with_eq.wma] [attachment=57048:SSL_stan...ps_No_eq.wma] [attachment=57050:SSL_stan...ck_No_eq.wma] Hope they help a bit. Alex.

Actually, no. I have budget basses, common basses, expensive basses, exotic basses and weird basses. And when it comes to amps, I've used the same old stuff for the last 12 years, and would only replace it if it broke.

Okay, think I've got it (kind of) sorted. A little bit of noise (from the mixer meter LEDs, I think) but it'll serve its purpose. Will post [i][something[/i] by the end of the day. Hope it'll help! Alex.

[quote name='dub' post='928621' date='Aug 18 2010, 01:37 PM']Well that's even more praise for the streamline. Do you know of and good recordings of one played with finger style? I've come across a few slap recordings so far but that's it.[/quote] If I had even the faintest idea how to get a laptop to record mine, I'd do something fingerstylee for you. Good might not be the most appropriate adjective, though! Gimme a clue and I'll have a try. Might take a while- Wife's in hospital, kids are off and I'm in the middle of decorating!

Maybe EBMM could make three clones; [b]Balls[/b] by Sterling [b]SUB[/b]-par Sterling [b]Officially Licensed[/b] Sterling Bulls**t All three of which were more reasonable than the original. And another query; Just who is this [b]Ray[/b]mond bloke?