Chienmortbb

Yes I it was tongue in cheek. The truth is that any wood can be tonewood and that no particular species has a particular "tone". The tone of a wood is detremined by its density and some woods have a vast range of density. Also remember that the woods used by Leo were those availabke locally in the USA. They had no special qualities in the smae way that CTS pots were/are not special. Just a good brand available in the USA when Leo started. However don't take my word for it. A fascinating research project on woods for classical/acoustic guitars was done by The Leonardo Group of Luthiers. https://sites.google.com/site/leonardoguitarresearch/background/the-lgrp-programme This details the research they have done into using native European woods is both interesting and revealing. Good luck with the project.

I am sure that te VAT rate charged within the EU was for the county of origin. For Example Germany has a 19% rate but Thomann shipments to the UK had 20% VAT. Of course in the EU you cannot change VAT downwards so thankfully once Brexit is done we can have 19% in the UK. Great, when will brexit be done?

Not wishing to restart the tonewood wars but what do you class as a tonewood?

For that sort of money you could get a Blue Acoustics system. They are a class apart in my opinion. All Powersoft Amps and Faital Pro drivers. They sound so good. All made in Welsh Wales.

Well I have had little time to play with it but with my main bass, a Fender Aerodyne with the stock pickups changed to a DiMarzio P/J set is would distort at higher gain settings. However I think that is because the DiMarzios are high output. If you can wait a day or so I will record directly to the PC via a USB interface. I have three basses at the moment. Apart form the Fendee Japan Aerodyne, also a Peavey P Bass and a Marcus Miller M2. IF you forgive my crappy playing I will use with all three on various Pre amp settings and also go straight into the USB interface using the HiZ input. I will change the strings on the Aerodyne first. I have the choice of D'Addario's or Roto Nexus coated strings. As I have D'Addarios on the Marcus Miller, maybe they would be the best choice? The P Bass is fitted with Fender (D'Addario) Flats, about three years old

200W is 5 amps into 8 ohms or 7 amps into 4 ohms. The average signal jack is rated at between 0.5 and 2 amps because they are designed as signal connectors. Neutrik, Cliff and Switchcraft and a very few others do design jacks for higher current but the current rating depends on both the jack and plug. As most plugs are for signals again they are rated at 0.5A. So there is a good chance that you are overloading one of the 4 connectors ona jack lead. A good manufacturer will know that and install high current jacks, however offshore production does add a variable into the mix. Did someone "improve" the design by substituting a locally produced jack? I know a lot of people will come back saying that they have put 400W or more through a jack connection for 2 zillion years. I like to look at it like car tyres. Each has a speed rating and exceeding that rating may or may not cause a blow out. However if you consistantly go outside the specs, something disastrous could happen. As for the issue of grounding a class D output. It may or may not be disastrous. Some will, like AB amps, be ground referenced and normally these will be the higher powered amps. Smaller amps will usually be made with chips that require bridging to achieve the power output. If an amp is bridged, then connecting any speaker terminal to ground, earth, 0V or whatever you want to call it may, at best, test the protection circuit but could destroy the chip. That is when you find out that magic smoke is not really magic at all. Neutrik did not invent the SpeakOn connector to p155 us off. It was because jack(and other types) speaker connectors were the cause of the destruction of many amplifiers.

I recently made a jack-speakon lead for @JohnDaBassfor his combo but personally, I would not buy an amp with a jack speaker output. Jacks were never designed for speakers, they are too easy to short out*, and many cannot take more that 0.5 amps. That is 2 watts for an 8 ohm speaker and 1 watt for a 4 ohm speaker. There are jacks (sockets) that will take more from Neutrik, Cliff and Switchcraft (I think). The jack sockets in Neutrik combo SpeakOns are rated at 10 amps. *A manufacturer, that I will not name, once told me that shorted jack cables were the biggest single cause of solid state amplifiers blowing.

I have recently built or rather reimagined an Ashdown 8" Combo and it sounds great, I also have recently heard @Phil Starr's 6" and both are absoluteky fine for practice and the acosutic gigs Phil does. In facr they are more that fine. However when I plug into my 12, it just sounds easy, it oozes the sound I want in my band. That does not mean there is anything wrong with, say a Phil Jones system but smaller speakers are really fighting physics. However for some people the compromise is wort it for the portability and if you are using public transport, I can understand it.

To be fair I know a tad more than sod all after 40 odds years.

Can you record the noise and post it here?

Many of us oldies will remember that those old figure of eight cables always had the +ve on the wire with the stripe.

Starting to look at the front panel and have come up against a problem with the VU meter. It is 80mm long, the same as the height of the enclosure but the mounting screws extend off the PCB. making a combined height of 84mm. So I either mount it horizontally or use a different VU meter. I could even use an analogue one like Ashdown.

The Connex modules do have a temperature output that makes it easier to monitor temperature and to turn on a fan if the temperature gets too high. I could add a fan circuit if needed and will leave space for it.

Thanks for the support. It is staring to feel like a real project now. I put the sockets on the outside as I decided that it would give more space inside the case and aid cooling. It does not look quite as good as when they are mounted from the inside but there is a gain of about 2 cubic centimetre of air per connector. That gives between 10-12 cubic centimetres in total and might be important if the heat management is marginal. I believe there is enough heat sinking to keep the unit cool in most circumstances but it has to be remembered that even the best Class D Amps with a Switch Mode Power Supply is around 85% efficient. That means 15% of all power used produces heat. That means over 17 watts of heat per 100 watts delivered to the speakers or close to 200 watts at full power for this amp.

Here is the assembled back panel. I will be mounting amp modules on the chassis next.

I got this reply from Mojotone last year when I asked them “I believe the cane grill types we carry shrink slightly when misted with water and dried. However, we do not use this technique in house. None of the plastic-made cloth will shrink. ”

There are people on here that really know what they are talking about and some that know a lot less than they think they do (like me). However the best advice I can give you is to use your ears rather than your eyes when selecting a cab. The second bit of advice is that you cannot "remember" how a cabinet sounds, unless you can do a side by side A/B audition (preferebly a blind audition), comparing two cabs would be unhelpful.

I agree and also its worth checking the relief the day after adjustment.

I think this is just about right. If the above trick does not work you need to talk to a tech.

I have just been re-looking at DiMarzio wiring diagrams and they suggest 500K for Vol and 250K for tone. Also the tone cap was 0.33uF or 33 nF. Worked well for me on two basses. They also suggest Log pots that also worked for me giving a more useful control over the whole pots.

Apparently American style grille cloth can be heated and will shrink to fit. @Phil Starrhas mentioned this on another thread, I will try to find it for you.

I have been quite poorly fo tge last two weeks and just about coming out of the other side. Not COVID although a nasty virus and it really knocked me sideways. When I ordered the back panel I calculated that each threaded hole cost 11p more than a clearance hole. My original thought was that I had enough machine screws, nuts and washers. Just to assuage my curiosity, I had the holes for the mains connector tapped and it was a mistake. I did not have as many fixings as I thought so the £2 odd saving I made was more than wiped out by the cost of buying more machine screws, nuts and washers. The next thought is whether to mount the connectors from the inside or outside, It is tidier from the inside as seen above but in such a tight space it makes sense to mount from the outside of the panel. It adds internal volume and also removes a number of surfaces from the inside that could restrict the airflow. As most of the connectors use faston connectors, it would not be difficult to revert to internal mounting. Of course this would not be possible if all the holes were treaded as this would mandate mounting the connectors on the outside. Off to start assembly.

A good review pointing out both the benefits and shortcomings of this type of system. Having owned several Yamaha systems over the years, I suspect it would be a better buy than the Bose L1 equivalent in the long term.

I have never written it down but that sounds similar to how I do it. One extra point, despite the amount of solids in TuffCab, you still need to sand the cabinet smooth. It barely notices but there is a line on one of my cabs where two panels join.

Sorry I should read posts fully before posting,