Chienmortbb

OK so no real progress today although after a discussion with "she who must be obeyed", I have decided to use Tuffcab rather than a vinyl covering. She who must be obeyed has done some upholstery and says that the shape is far from for a good finish with vinyl. Paint it like your other cabs she said. So as I already have to Tuffcab, it will be done soon. I am suffering from a chest infection at the moment and have to stay clear of anything dusty, fumey and infectious. Luckily Tuffcab is water based so I can do that, probably tomorrow morning.

Yes his bass amp is a well thought out project, it would be nice to see some PCBs for it although the Class A/B amp would not be my chouce.

Looking forward to it. Seems the price has gone up since you bought it.

will you do any reshaping to the body and what about electrinics/hardware?

I joined my latest band in Feb and we were rehearsing for a late march gig, then had 2-3 gigs per months through the year. I had to shield as did one of the guitarists so we are all wary of infection. We have a large hall for rehersasal but feel its too early for that yet. One gig still on the books for 22nd August but I can't see either us, or the venue wanting that to go ahead. I can see an upsurge in what I call professional Karaoke singers being the norm for some while in the clubs we were booked at. Much easier to accomodate than five big blokes with guitars and drums. Of coures the gigs will be fewer and the pay will be lower but boy do I miss playing live.

I think you may be surprised at how much punishment those M^6 coach bolts will take

OK i have changed the DI circuit (on paper) in line with the need to protect against Phantom Power. The circuit is a cross between the original circuit outlined in Elliot Sound Products Project 14 Amplifier Bridging Adaptor and Project 152 Bass Amplifier. Incidently, I bougt the PCB from Rod Elliiot and hope that if anyone uses these ideas they also buy PCBs to keep his great resource going. Please click on the links below to go to the relevant pages on Rod's website. I have also added the ground lift switch. I have put links to all Rods projects that I have looked at plus a link to the Fender style preamp that could be used in a similar project to this. Click to go to Project14 on Elliot Sound Products Click here to see the DI out circuit on the P152 Bass Amplifier. Link to Project27 including the alternative preamp (PCB available)

QMax cutter? About £14 including vat and delivery. .

Knobs. Originals, below have gone a little bronze, tarnished. The cheapo rubberised ones I used for the testing? They grey Davis style? Combination of grey and black Davis style? Or all black Davis style?

Felt a bit better this afternoon so got on with the cabinet. I used a sone white spirit to wipe the baffle clean before painting and most of the existing paint came off. So mask it off and spray away. it is still drying and needs at least one more coat but it looks better. After that I will coat the cabinet with a thin coat of PVA. The idea is to also coat the covering and let that go slightly tacky then smooth the vinyl with a warm iron on told of a towel. It may work it may be a disaster. Comments and advice welcome. Of course I will be trying it on an off it first.

Sorry for the delay but owing to the ongoing helath issues not much has been done. The cabinet has been filled ( there were a few gouges where I tried to get thev carpet off) that will be sanded later today. Then I will look at covering the cabinet. I have been thinking more about the weight. Smaller cabs are intrinsically lighter and as seen form the Basschat 1x12 builds, poplat or spruce ply is much lighter but with the After Eighty, the gains were assumed to be minimal. It uses chipboard, (roughly the same density as Birch Pl)y. I could have gone to 15mm Poplar but the gains were assumed to be minimal compared to the increase in cost. A comment by Phil Starr has made me think though and it seems I could have shaved anywhere between 1 and 2 Kg off the weight by going 15mm Poplar or spruce. Still at the moment I am keeping this cab as the whole, the unit is not overly heavy and the costs are mounting consdering that was a side project with existing parts.

I had one of these in my Aerodyne PJ but with the original 250K Aerodyne pot values. Change the pots to 500K as recommended by DiMarzio and it was a relevation.

To be fair there is not much in making a good cable. You can choose the best cable, connectors and be the best solderer on earth. The problem with mass produced cables. Even the best brand names, such as Fender, make crap cables as they are made of cheap components in the far east. As a rule of thumb, if you cannot undo the connectors to inspect the solderin,g and you do not recognise the make of the connectors, leave them alone. My biggest reason to ignore a cable would normally be masses of heatshink. It is usually hiding something.

Are the lables special?

How did you put the labels on? I have tried that in the past and found it hard to get them correctly positioned and you only get one chance.

Sorry for tghe long delays but another bout of non-Covid infections have held things up. As you could see from the last picture above, it turned my world upside down. I have drilled the fixing holes for the D Type XLR or Speakon. I realise that I need a male XLR for DI out. The cutout for a Neutrik or equivalent D size connector is 23.9mm and I assumed a 25mm hole would be fine, it is, but only just . The 24mm cutters are harder to find and more expensive byt I am happy with the result with the 25mm. The Phantom Power protection parts have arrived together with the new soldering iron element. Now I have the Qmax cutter, ever piece of sheet metal should be nervous. I realised after I cut bthe hole that I used the cutter the wrong way around. Although it cuts a very clean hole, there is a slightly raised edge to the hole on this side although the inside hole is as smooth anything. I am considering whether to convert the speaker jack to a speakon or leave it as is and wire the switched output to a speakon on the back, next to the XLR. I am never convinced by switching jacks but they do make life easy. Incidently I will spray the panel to obscure all disturbed or obsolete information. To be fair to Ashdown I will also take off all branding. I am realising that although I was keen to avoid feature creep, it has crept in all the same. Next cosmetic question, which knobs. Photos of the avaible choices to follow.

Stag prgrammer, that takes me back.