Chienmortbb

Acoustic bass guitars are evil. You can't hear them when played " acoustically " and can only hear them amplified. So thats an electric Bass then? A Howling' Wolf in sheep clothing!

[quote name='markstuk' timestamp='1490095567' post='3262084'] You should be able to hear the background hiss increase/decrease as you adjust the tweeter... [/quote]Not with a good amp you won't.

The cabinet is slowly coming together. The two main struts are attached to the back and the sides are about to be glued too: As we go into Wednesday, the two sides have been glued and I will post a picture tomorrow. All other struts will be created from off-cuts of plywood similar in size to the bracing pieces used on the prototype cabinet from which the drawings were created. I have created a drawing to allow an accurate cut-out for the PH-170 P-Audio horn, despite its complex shape, Sadly when I try to put it on here the dimensions are altered. I will keep working on that or PM me for a copy of the template drawing in PDF form.

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1490025283' post='3261536'] Totally agree with this. If you are going to spend your valuable time building a cab like this, don't dry to save pennies on the wood. You can make this cab from just 1/2 sheet - so it's not that much more to get the good stuff. Cheap plywood will just not do the job properly. If you're going to use normal ply, get Finnish or Russian birch plywood. If you're going to use poplar ply, get the Italian stuff. Unless you're a wood expert, avoid anything from China. [/quote]I totally agree and for strength and total durability Finnish Birch would be the first choice. Unfortunately it is also the heaviest being 1.75-2.0 times heavier than Poplar but about 30% stronger on average. Or to put it another way a 15mm Polar cab is stronger that a 12mm Birch one. I weighed a complete kit of the poplar boards and the weight came out at about 7Kg, a 15mm birch cab would weigh between 12-15Kg. add the drivers and crossover (approx 6Kg for mine) plus a further 0.5Kg for the connectors and handle. My 65 year old back says Poplar. As I have said before, it is inevitable that there will be knots in the ply, and some of these will fall out when an edge is cut. It is one of the drawbacks of the material but is not a big deal unless you go down to 12mm or even 9mm ply.

Well I now have the two complex struts cut out/ More about that later. You will see from the pictures that they are not geometrically perfect. My original idea was to use round holes of the same area as the rectangles that were drawn. I them decided I should build it to the drawing too see if that was a good way to go. Stevie designed the struts based on individual softwood battens that were screwed and glued to the side of the cabinet. It seems sensible to replicate that in a single panel of ply, with corresponding cut-outs. After spending some hours trying to get the struts to look like the drawing, I believe that road holes or individual pieces of wood are better. On strut L, I did use my jigsaw to round off the ends. Unfortunately I did not have the correct blade for tight turns so it is not perfect but it does save a lot of time. The tear out you can see was my fault. In order to cut some of the longer runs faster I used a coarse blade on scroll mode. It was mistake. I cut Stevie's strut (great name for a song) K at the same time but that was a little more geometrical. We have had a discussion as to whether the rear of strut L should be a figure of 8 rather than a single long hole. We agreed it would and foolishly, I forgot to mark it on the drawing. I will make Stevie's a figure of 8 then we can compare the strength. [size=4]I have some work to do now but will attach [/size][size=4]the[/size][size=4] struts to the back later. [/size]

I am not sure of the model but the Mackie Thump 16s we have been using for open mic recently were not good (post RCF?). These were replaced with a pair of Alto that were great for vocals. However at another open mic night we used a Blue Acoustic M2 system (think Bose broomsticks with proper speakers on top) Without doubt the best portable system I have ever played through. [url="http://blue-acoustic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/M2-System-Data-2017.pdf"]http://blue-acoustic...m-Data-2017.pdf[/url]

I began the build this week and so far I am pleased. The poplar supplied was 7 PLY not 9 as they show on their website. It seems the Timber Merchants and importers are at the mercy of the producers as to what is supplied. I had heard that the producers and exporters of Poplar ply could be erratic and that may be why it is hard to find. Anyway the outer faces are lovely and it almost seems a shame to cover them with Tuff Cab, Vinyl or Carpet. However it has to be done. The cuts were good and all the panels except the struts were within 1mm of the specified size. The struts were cut too long, but reviewing my own cutting drawing, I can see how that could happen. Lesson 1: separately detail the size of each panel. Once I got the panels home, I started a dry fit of the cabinet. I held the panels square and flush using some corner clamps from Toolstation. [url="http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p85872?table=no"]http://www.toolstati...p85872?table=no[/url]. I drew a line 7mm from the edge and used No 8 by 1.5" screens to hold them in position. Once the cabinet is glued and the glue has dried, I will replace all the screen with dowels. During the design phase, we had a number of discussion about how to construct the cabinets. Phil Starr is in favour of battening each corner along the whole length to give a greater gluing area and to avoid the need for buying lots of clamps. There is no reason why you cannot do that for this build although you would have to make your own decisions as to how to design the struts. It does make construction much easier although the end result will be a heavier cabinet. Incidentally I weighed the screws to see how much extra weight they add. They weigh 2 grams each so if you decided to uses screw and leave them in place, the extra weight is negligible. Where screws are a problem is when you try to round over the edges. You can see the clamps in the picture here. The baffle is just pushed in. The picture below shows the line 7mm in from the edge with the three screw heads on that line. Not quite in focus is my countersink bit. I counter sunk all the holes to avoid the edges splitting. I would avoid relying on the modern self-countersinking screen here as the extra pressure need by them could create the split we are trying to avoid. On the longer sides I used 4 screws. It is important to keep the screws away from the extreme edge of the board as there are two edges there and the material is weak until glued. Clearly I should have vacuumed the top before taking the picture but the sawdust adds realism. It is important when you do a dry fit to be sure that the panels go back in the same way when adhesive is applied. The picture below shows how I am doing that. I was writing upside down when I did this but my handwriting really is that bad The next step is to remove the excess wood from the struts. In order to get two cabinets from one sheet of play, we only had two lots of two struts cut, knowing that the other two could be made form plywood offcuts. To Be Continued.

[quote name='verb' timestamp='1489787145' post='3259950'] The chap on the Peavey stand at LBGS told me that Peavey/Trace had developed their own power amp unit. [/quote]If that is true it is good news. The ICEPower [color=#000000][font=Flama][size=3]50ASX2 [/size][/font][/color][size=4] that was alluded to earlier (and is used in a whole host of 200W amps) is actually only 100W into 8R* and 170W into 4R*. Unless Peavey are playing fast and loose with figures (and I have seen lot of evidence to suggest they do not) it must me a different power unit. They quote a distortion figure of 1% at rated output and a fairly decent noise floor. In comparison to say a GK MB200, which uses the ICEPower module, this is a more powerful beast. I have a few concerns, firstly as always, we must remember that 30% more power is about 1dB of one Just Noticeable Difference. In other words in a band situation it is almost irrelevant. Secondly as it is so small it may well not like being driven continuously at its rated output.[/size] R is the preferred symbol for Ohms. Just like I is the preferred symbol for Current (amps). That being said, the reality is that all the really needed controls are there and to my mind the off board preamp could well be the gem. That looks to have everything on many of us would need and the fact you can use it with your existing amp or with a separate power amp means its success is not tied to the Elf's. With regards to the jack speaker out, I hate jack outputs because most connector are NOT rated for any sort off power. Many plugs and sockets are rated at 0.5A as they were designed for line level signals. So hopefully Peavey have used reputable jacks rated at 5-7A and that means you have to make sure your plugs are also power rated. Neutral, Switchcraft, Amphenol and Rean make high current plugs so be careful.

[quote name='The Shrek' timestamp='1489696507' post='3259092'] Hey guys, I can't stress enough about sourcing good plywood. I went to my local timber yard and just asked for a sheet of 3/4 plywood. It looked great and even had a really nice grain in the top layer. Later when I inspected along the cuts, I noticed a lot of empty little voids between the plys of timber. Even with good sharp blades in my cutting tools the ply splintered and and some quite large chips came out. [/quote]We have chosen poplar for our builds and they prototype cab was made from Spruce. The little voids you see are knots and they fall out once they have been sawn. All you can do is fill them with sawdust and PVA glue. If you use wood filler, TuffCab will not stick to it. There is no such thing as knot free ply, at least not at a realistic price, although a B/BB grade will give a pretty good outer veneer.

[quote name='scrumpymike' timestamp='1489233564' post='3255338'] [size=5][b][i]BASH BULLETIN![/i][/b][/size] [b][u]T-shirts[/u][/b] As promised, more info on the 'official' commemorative T-shirts (see pics posted a few days ago): Price is [b]£12[/b] and sizes are as follows: [b] S[/b] = 38" [b]M[/b] = 42" [b]L[/b] = 44" [b]XL [/b]= 48" [b]XXL [/b]= 52" [b]XXXL[/b] = 56" NOTE: These are the actual physical measurements of the shirts I've already bought a few samples to identify me and the bash team and check out the quality. If you want one (or more) please pm me so I can put an order together - I'll need your payment by this coming Friday March 17th to ensure that you get yours on the day. [i][b][u]£££ HELP[/u]!![/b][/i] I've written a cheque for £80 this morning for the hall and Mrs Scrumpy has been spending cash filling our freezer (and part of next door's!!) with home-made goodies for the big day. If you you know you'll be coming and don't mind paying up-front, please pm me. Anyone who pays but can't make it on the day gets a full refund. [b][i][u]STOP PRESS[/u] - Stephen Chown's contacts at Bass Guitar are giving him some freebie mag's to bring along! [/i][/b] [/quote]Put me down for an XL Shirt and I will PM you about paying.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1489761261' post='3259598'] The feature set looks like a lot of '90s amps, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Since their Nexus amps mention being Class-D in the specs and this one doesn't say anything about it, I wonder what sort of power amp they're using? It looks like it's less than £300 too. [/quote]From memory, Nexus were either Valve or class A/B. Of course they could have added Class D later

[quote name='grandad' timestamp='1485377558' post='3223560'] For some inexplicable reason I have never used or had the opportunity to try a Trace Elliot bass amp and always wondered exactly what is it about them that generates so much affection amongst some BCers. I must say the aesthetics are appealing to the eye. However for me, possibly only Peavey and TCE have got it right for a small lightweight amp. In the 200 - 500 class D watt range I want a built in tuner and compression. [i]edit - (got it now, if used with the Transit pedal then you have it all).[/i] With all the class D amps I've tried, at 12 o'clock, I hear an eq that favours the mid's. But looking at the curves, (frequency v gain), the class D module here seems to have a super flat response? [url="http://icepower.dk/files/solutions/icepower_asx_series_class_d_amplifier_oem.pdf"]http://icepower.dk/f...plifier_oem.pdf[/url] [/quote]Which module do you think they are using? One of the ICEPower ones in the link.

Neos v Ceramic is a bit like Valves V Solid State. Some neos are poor speakers just like some ceramics are are poor. Sweeping generalisations are rarely accurate.

[quote name='LewisK1975' timestamp='1489422515' post='3256788'] If anyone is looking for one: - http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Barefaced_Super_Compact_12.html Price seems pretty good, condition looks good, looks to have a roqsolid cover too. Not mine! or anyone that I know! [/quote]Interesting that they will sell them used but not new?

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1489411528' post='3256650'] Ceramic capacitors can also display microphonic behaviour in some circumstances, and that's what those little brown jobs in between the resistors are. If the cab seems fine with another amp or when the amp isn't on top of it, it would probably be wise to have the amp looked over. [/quote]That's true when the capacitors are in the signal path but if they are used for decoupling or HF bypassing they should be OK.

This is a guess but probably a faulty jack socket. The -15dB pad is probably switched on by inserting the jack plug. The signal inputs tend to be self cleaning in that each time you put a plug in, the friction keeps the contacts clean. The switch contacts are not touched by the plug and so are not kept clean. You can get contact cleaner at Maplin although the best stuff to use is Deoxit, available from Amazon. It does mean opening the amp though.

Up until now the thread has been a little behind the build and testing of the prototype cab. We are now right up to date, except for some tidying of the drawings, so new information may seem to slow down. The 15mm poplar plywood, cut to size, has been ordered for our cabinets and hopefully the builds can begin next week. I will take some pictures as I build mine and post them on on a separate build diary as I do not want to make this thread any longer than necessary.

The problem is that the cabinet was tuned with the EV in mind. You may find it hard to replace the EV but it can probably be repaired. Try http://www.audioloudspeakers.co.uk/boultons.shtml they quote £70 for an EV 18 repair. Alternatively Wembley Loudspeakers http://wembleyloudspeaker.com/

Stevie I can draw out circuits. It will have to wait though as I am away until Sunday.

[quote name='Danuman' timestamp='1487938705' post='3244335'] Thanks, that's good advice for sure, but in this case it just doesn't work. Even with the output fully open it won't go loud enough before any prohibitive clipping occurs (which, let's face it, is any clipping at all with this kind of amp). The other day I had a lengthy discussion with a well known Dutch dealer of basses and amps. He had less than nice things to say about the power ratings the big brands award to their class-d offerings. I'd definitely be interested in the results of some proper bench testing. [/quote]There are not too many Dutch amp makers and he is probably right, The problem, with Class D is the manufacturer's claims. I will do a thread on it soon to try to demystify it.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1489069385' post='3254140'] Alas, I don't have an excuse to be building more bass cabs any time soon, since the pair of 1x12" cabs I put together last year are doing a fine job, and I'm already keeping myself busy with a guitar combo project! I'm mostly following the thread out of curiosity, and was checking out the drawings to see how the proportions of the box compared to mine. This new design is looking well thought-out, and it's interesting seeing how the choices around the two-way design are made. [/quote]We have all learned a lot from this and many of the original ideas have changed.We (or rather Stevie) went through several iterations of the port design before settling on the large single port. Also the Compression driver and Horn combination worked so well with Stevie's crossover design that I think he is almost convinced that he does not need a three way. It is hard to explain but the two way design seems to make the bass sound better but the important thing is that as it is crossed over lower the just about any commercial cab, the "tweeter" really adds sound rather than fizz and zing. It will be really interesting to compare it to other offerings at the South West Bash in April (oops that means I had better start building).

[quote name='Passinwind' timestamp='1489011964' post='3253805'] For things like electric upright it's just mandatory in my world these days. But I really like the option forks you guys are developing, well done. BTW, how's your amp build coming along? [/quote] Working on the front panel hope to finish it in time for Basss Bash/GTG on April 2nd.

If Handbox use a Trace/Ashdown MOSFET type output stage, it is easy as you just add more MOSFETSs. You may not get a great deal more power though as the the power supply is unlikely to be able to supply much more unless it is stupidly over-spec'd and the heat-sinking/heat management may not be designed to cope with the extra heat.

[quote name='Passinwind' timestamp='1488991489' post='3253564'] Absolutely, it's all about tradeoffs as always. At this point I have less than zero interest in any bass cab that only uses a single driver though, personally. Many people do prefer that format, of course. [/quote]Once I heard a good two way at Stevie's I came to the same conclusion.

[quote name='Tech21NYC' timestamp='1488911451' post='3252891'] Geddy does not run the signal at equal levels which makes stereo (for him) a moot point. I don't think he even runs the Deep channel to his in-ears. That's really more the "DI" signal for the real low end the PA produces. Bass for the most part is rarely run in stereo. You can, but those lower registers are omni-directional which will not translate well in stereo.For a big live show, stereo is kind of pointless unless you can get the entire audience to somehow sit in the middle of the venue. [/quote]True, there is little point having speakers on both side of the stage too as it just adds more nodes and causes dead spots as well as high spots in the audience.