Painy

[quote name='hiram.k.hackenbacker' timestamp='1479255558' post='3175196'] This one.... ....and this one.... Yeah, I know, it's cheating. [/quote] Looks like a really fun way to cheat to me though!

[quote name='Treb' timestamp='1479243169' post='3175061'] Great job. Looks better than original IMO. I bet they sound better now too... When do you start taking orders? [/quote] Thanks I am finding myself preferring it now too to be honest. You know it actually made exactly as much difference to the sound as one of those audiophile power cables that cost several thousand pounds! Taking orders? Let me see... Just found on eBay where I could get enough ply to make 2 baffles for £7 so £3.50 each. Take that material cost of £3.50 off the £204 cost of a complete grill and you're left with a cost of £200.50 for re-covering it with fabric. Obviously I'd have to undercut Aguilar's prices so round it down to a nice even £200 per grill (that's for a 1x12 cab - I'd obviously have to charge more for bigger cabs). Right who'd like to place the first order then?

A few from Saturday night just gone:- [URL=http://s38.photobucket.com/user/Richard_Pain/media/Mobile%20Uploads/FB_IMG_1479249191496_zpsbnj8mocy.jpg.html][IMG]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e113/Richard_Pain/Mobile%20Uploads/FB_IMG_1479249191496_zpsbnj8mocy.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s38.photobucket.com/user/Richard_Pain/media/Mobile%20Uploads/FB_IMG_1479249256266_zps1oebgjbl.jpg.html][IMG]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e113/Richard_Pain/Mobile%20Uploads/FB_IMG_1479249256266_zps1oebgjbl.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s38.photobucket.com/user/Richard_Pain/media/Mobile%20Uploads/FB_IMG_1479250112435_zpsj7s3igcg.jpg.html][IMG]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e113/Richard_Pain/Mobile%20Uploads/FB_IMG_1479250112435_zpsj7s3igcg.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s38.photobucket.com/user/Richard_Pain/media/Mobile%20Uploads/FB_IMG_1479249851920_zpsm1lmr1dn.jpg.html][IMG]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e113/Richard_Pain/Mobile%20Uploads/FB_IMG_1479249851920_zpsm1lmr1dn.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

If it's 2 pedals then my Palmer Deepressor and my MXR M80 Bass DI+ but not sure if that's cheating as the MXR has distortion as well as being a pre-amp and I also have a distortion channel in my amp. If it's 2 effects rather than 2 pedals then for me it would be compression and overdrive.

Wasn't too difficult at all with a little help from my wife but an extra pair of hands definitely makes the difference - once you've got the cloth positioned and tight you really need someone else to put the staples in. Just a tip - the staples need to be at about a 45 degree angle to the edge of the frame and only staple about every inch and a half until you've got the tension in - then add more staples inbetween about every quarter inch.

I gigged expensive Warwicks for years and they were fantastic sounding basses, lovely to play and looked very nice too. However my Squier VM P5 is by far the most comfortable bass for me that I've ever played and the sound I've had out of my Sterling SUB Ray 5 at my last few gigs has probably been the best tone I've ever had too.

Just got back from our first gig back at an old favorite venue in over a year after they'd stopped having bands for a bit. After a few technical problems with our singer's guitar in the sound check we started playing to a completely empty room (it's a basement club within another club) but a couple of songs in it started to fill up and after about 20 minutes it was absolutely heaving with everyone in the place dancing and singing along. We decided to play straight through without a break to keep the momentum going and ended up playing an extra half an hour at the end too as none of us -or the crowd - wanted it to stop. I was also pretty pleased when one of the staff came over to tell me that he played bass himself and to compliment me on my 'sick' bass tone. Happy days and we're back there again next month and booked again all through next year!

Both speakers now done and I've gotta say, I'm pretty pleased with the end result. [URL=http://s38.photobucket.com/user/Richard_Pain/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG0485_zps8n7ykf5o.jpg.html][IMG]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e113/Richard_Pain/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG0485_zps8n7ykf5o.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Thanks for the kind comments first of all. I'll put a picture up all stacked up when the other cab is done. I did nearly have a heart attack when they quoted £204! It's a bit of cloth, some piping, a bit of plywood and some staples. I'm not even sure that would have included the badge! Their prices do seem to have taken a bit of a jump recently (along with everything else at the moment though I guess) but when I see that the new price of just one of these cabs is now well over two thirds of the price I payed for the full rig used (including the AG500 head) I have to agree I wouldn't be looking at their stuff new. I'm very happy to have picked it all up at the price I got it for though !

Whilst replacing a blown speaker in one of my Aguilar DB112 cabs a couple of weeks ago I was unfortunately unable to get the front baffle out without damaging the grill cloth and piping. As Aguilar - via Barnes and Mullens - were unable to provide replacement cloth or piping (although they did offer me a complete grill for the bargain price of £204) I just ordered some Marshall gold piping from Strings and Things and some random brown speaker cloth from eBay all for under £20. I still have to do the other cab so they match but thought I'd share a quick side by side 'before and after' photo as I'm quite proud of the result so far. Original on the left: [URL=http://s38.photobucket.com/user/Richard_Pain/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG0481_zpsknu1bk70.jpg.html][IMG]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e113/Richard_Pain/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG0481_zpsknu1bk70.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1478621733' post='3170372'] Pressure wounds are missing from it though. Ground wounds tend to have a tone somewhere between Flats and Rounds. [/quote] I did actually try some pressure wounds initially as I was worried I'd miss the bright, aggressive tone that I've always used too much to go fully flatwound. They did feel nice but it felt like a bit of a half hearted effort in the end.

[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1478620698' post='3170356'] Technically what you're describing are groundwounds. On flat wounds the out wrap is a flat section wire, as opposed to round. [/quote] That'll teach me to get my info from YouTube videos That shows it nice and clearly too though, thanks.

Flatwound strings are basically roundwounds which have had the surface polished off so the windings are flat and smooth. The difference in sound isn't just subjective - they produce less harmonic overtones than rounds so they tend to be less bright and zingy but that allows you to hear the fundamental of the note more strongly so they often tend to be described as more 'thumpy' sounding. Rounds on my Ray:- [URL=http://s38.photobucket.com/user/Richard_Pain/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG0480_zpsq4gxxpfx.jpg.html][IMG]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e113/Richard_Pain/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG0480_zpsq4gxxpfx.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Flats on my P:- [URL=http://s38.photobucket.com/user/Richard_Pain/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG0479_zpsqoggrr7b.jpg.html][IMG]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e113/Richard_Pain/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG0479_zpsqoggrr7b.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Flats arrived yesterday. Only had a chance to play with them through my little practice amp so far but already I can see what all the fuss is about a P with flats and I'm loving the feel too - including the increased tension as it goes. Can't wait to play through the full gigging rig at the weekend now .

[quote name='sirmuppet' timestamp='1478523452' post='3169580'] Thanks. I had an M80 but can't remember ever trying the distortion side for some reason. [/quote] It was probably for the best

Not tried the MXR M85 but I do have the M80 which I love as a pre-amp but the distortion I really don't rate at all - sounds like the built in distortion on a cheap solid state guitar practice amp I had years ago, really fizzy and buzzy and not smooth or warm at all. The YouTube demos of the M85 sound a million times better to me personally.

I play the same basses at home as I gig with anyway but this thread did make me take a look at the comparative set-ups between my basses. My Squier P has a very low action which is my preference - basically as lows as it'll go (I like the chiming overtones of the strings hitting the frets) without the notes choking. My new SUB Ray, I had lowered the action a bit when I got it and it was pretty good but comparing them properly there was a bit more relief in the neck than I like so I've just tweeked the truss rod a little and it's now much better and on par with the P. My Fender Jazz on the other hand I've never been able to set up quite as low despite it being the more expensive of the three. I think I might need to invest in some nut files before I can get it quite where I want it. Basically though I find the setup that works for me works for everything I do whether it's gigging, practicing or recording.

They're only a couple of quid more than my normal Prosteels so if they're any good at all I'll be very happy.

I've just ordered my first ever set of flats I'm trying the relatively inexpensive Fender strings to begin with but hopefully they'll do the job. I've always gone for a super bright, aggressive rock tone but the Sterling SUB Ray I got recently is doing a better job of that than my precision ever did - only some of the stuff in our set really needs something warmer and a bit more old school. Can't wait to try 'em out now!

Just a quick update on this. Contacted Barnes and Mullins - Aguilar's UK distributor - and they don't stock the grill cloth or the piping so they in turn spoke to Aguilar for me who were apparently also unable to provide the cloth or piping. They did however offer to provide a complete replacement baffle for £204! I have just bought enough cloth and piping to do both cabs (so that they match) for under £20 total.

Thanks for that. I'll have a read through the other thread too (probably a bit at a time - like you say, it's a bit of a monster). Given that the difference in cost between buying a second receiver and buying a complete second system is only about £50, I'm thinking it probably makes more sense just to get 2 complete systems.

When I started out it was literally a case of buying whichever amp had the highest wattage that I could financially afford in an effort to simply be heard over the rest of the band. So my gear progressed in power (but by no means in quality) from 30W to 60W to 75W to 100W until I got a 150W Trace Elliot 1x15 combo which was the first amp I owned that I actually liked the sound of. After that I reached the stage where my band was earning me enough money to go out and buy pretty much whatever rig I wanted so I stuck with Trace Elliot and bought an AH400SMX head with 4x10 and 1x15 cabs. When the head eventually started to get a bit unreliable I replaced it with what I thought was the logical alternative (TE having folded at that point) and bought an Ashdown Evo 500 head. Unfortunately I absolutely hated it. Just couldn't get it to sound any good for me no matter what I did with it so traded my whole rig in against a Line6 Bass Pod XT Pro, a QSC 1450c power amp and Hartke 4x10 and 1x15 XL cabs. Enjoyed gigging that set up for a good while until our current singer joined the band and mentioned his friend was selling his Ampeg B500 2x10 combo for a stupidly cheap price. Bought that and picked up an Ampeg 1x15 classic cab to go with it. Finally had a rig that I loved as much as my big old Trace set up and gigged that for a few years until the amp in the combo finally gave up the ghost. Unfortunately by then having children had drained my financial resources so I had to once again look to the cheapest solution and bought the Behringer copy of the Ampeg head that my combo had been based on, to run the speakers I already had (I removed the amp from the combo to use as a cab). Sadly it wasn't loud enough, didn't sound much good either and my back was starting to complain about the weight of it all but it was all I could afford at the time. Shortly afterwards though my wonderful wife inherited some money and at the start of the year was generous enough to buy me my current Aguilar rig (AG500 into 2 DB112 cabs). I struggled for a good while to get it to sound how I wanted as I prefer a very bright, aggressive tone and I was finding it a bit polite. A couple of weeks ago though I bought an MXR M80 Bass DI+ and a Sterling SUB Ray 5 string and all of a sudden it's all fallen into place. The sound I had at last night's gig was quite possibly the clearest I've ever heard my bass on stage in over 21 years of gigging and by all accounts it sounded great out front too so right now I'm a very happy bunny. Can't wait for my next gig now to hear it again (got next weekend off though which is always the way). In the words of Vinnie Jones, "It's been emotional".

Yeah, it was the separate frequencies bit that I had doubts about. Second thought then: Both of us use monitors only for vocals and therefore would prefer to use just one earphone so we can still hear the band (as the instruments other than drums aren't mic'd up) with the other ear. I'm guessing we could just have his mix through the right and mine through the left then just use the right or the left earphone to hear whichever mix. Any reason that wouldn't work?

My band has just ordered one of these for our lead singer after his old wedge monitor was knocked off the stage by a drunk punter and stopped working. Looking at the spec for the transmitter on the Thomann site, it has separate left and right inputs and can apparently be used for "2 systems parallel". Would this mean that we could use one transmitter sending to 2 receiver packs, set to different frequencies and with 2 individual monitor mixes? If so I could order myself a receiver pack and save having to take my own wedge monitor to gigs for my BVs.