Dood

The market is certainly catching on with the likes of D-Class power amplification.. Another variant is H-Class. I'll spare the details but most get referred to as 'Digital' power amps. Technically, they aren't and whether or not you have a D Class amp with a linear power supply or a Switch Mode Power Supply, the results are more or less the same.. light weight, loud and efficient. I'll spare the details as to which configurations are best for different applications, but there is a ton of info' out on t'interweb. Errrmmm lemme seee now... BK Electronics [url="http://www.bkelec.com/Pro/Amplifiers/MXF1200D.htm"]http://www.bkelec.com/Pro/Amplifiers/MXF1200D.htm[/url] - This is a great company who supply lots of OEM stuff, so you're unlikely to know the name, but their amps go into a lot of PA gear for example. Powersoft are amazing but likely to be out of your price range.. but if you can find a second hand one (theres a couple on ebay) they are pretty much the best. QSC Crown Chevin I think Crest as well? not sure... There's a few to be getting on with.. but be aware, if you are looking for D Class / lightweight you will be expected to pay more than a linear/AB amplifier. If you can deal with 12Kg and want a cheap but awesome power amp, see if you can find yourself a Yamaha P series, such as the 3500, 5000 or the big 7000.

Yes, I am certainly intrigued.. would be fun to pit it against the MarkBass F1 or it's brother the F500 as it appears to be it's nearest contender. I love the idea of slotting the amp into the back of a combo cabinet.. That's great. Infact I was having a discussion with 'Stag' the other day about active cabinets.. I feel I'm about to take a saw to the back of my Epifani UL610 in order to make my Markbass F1 fit inside ;o) +

Cheers Al, I'm sure - if I ever pull my finger out and design some boards, I will be in touch! Thanks!

[quote name='OldGit' post='486190' date='May 12 2009, 05:48 PM']Wow! hang on, the P pickup is on the wrong way round![/quote] Si, interestingly my Fender CIJ Power Jazz Bass Special has *it's* P pup round the wrong way too.. I dunno what difference it makes onally, but it's certainly a lot fatter sounding than my 70's CIJ P. That could just be down to the type of pup tho'.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='486323' date='May 12 2009, 08:27 PM']Shouldn't that be Bl? Alex[/quote] Yeah, there's a typo in the copied text. ;o)

[quote name='stevie' post='486320' date='May 12 2009, 08:25 PM']Thanks. Neville deserves to be [i]quoted[/i] more, don't you agree? Good googling, by the way. [/quote] Yes, yes he should. - I did google.. but then, I didn't pretend to understand what Neville had written "Back to you"... It's ok, I'm only playin' with ya.. just tickled me.

[quote name='stevie' post='486298' date='May 12 2009, 08:04 PM']Just to amplify that, [i]the magnetoelectrical performance of a loudspeaker driver is often characterized by the force factor B1, in units of tesla-meters. However, the parameter B1-Rc, in units of newtons per -watts, which can be described as a force conversion Fme, allows more meaningful comparisons of magnetoelectrical structures, while a second force conversion factor Fam, with units of -watts per newton, similarly allows comparison between the acoustomechanical characteristics of different cones. The efficiency (ratio of acoustic watts out to electrical watts in) of the driver is derived by multiplying these two force conversion factors together and squaring their product.[/i] Back to you, Alex.[/quote] Written by Neville Thiele, 1993 in the Audio Engineering Society publication. Nicely quoted.

[quote name='ped' post='477688' date='May 2 2009, 01:49 PM']Just made this: [url="http://www.youtube.com/user/BasschatTV"]http://www.youtube.com/user/BasschatTV[/url] Only a prototype at the moment, but hoping we can build up lots of nice bassy videos to the channel. I suppose the way to do it would be for me to tell everyone the password details for logging in and uploading? The formatting on the youtube channel is not much good, I can't move the boxes down the page so the basschat banner shows properly, but it looks OK I guess... ped[/quote] Feel free to add my you tube stuff on to the basschat page.

I was put off the Lexicon stuff by QC issues mentioned on Lexicon's own forum.. I found it too worrying to go ahead and purchase. I have no personal experience of the units though. I chose to go with line 6's UX series interfaces.. and later on the strength of that, bought the X3 live. for 20 quid though.. sounds like a bargain if it works out ok!

[quote name='M4L666' post='483986' date='May 9 2009, 08:11 PM']Does the POD X3 work like a pedalboard? i.e, would I be able to string effects (stomps specifically) together? My Bass PODXT only lets me have 1 of each effect at a time. Or would I be better off buying an actual pedalboard?[/quote] As VK has described, you get the ability to drop a selection of 'effects' into the chain, but there are limitations. It's hard to explain.. but the manual is your best bet for getting an idea of what you can do. You can have an preamp/amp+cab sim, a 'stomb box' a 'modulation effect' and a 'delay' in the chain along with a Wah/volume pedal and compression/boost level. There is also a stereo effects loop available for other pedals. The stomp section includes a massive selection of distortions, filters, octave, synth, compressors etc. The modulation block has all manner of choruses, flange,phase and yet more filters. The delay block.. well.. fairly obvious is a massive selection of delays and echos from strereo multitaps to space tape echo! Ahh.. what else.. oh yeah.. the compression boost button allows you to either compress the signal, boost it or both.. handy for soloing etc. What makes the X3 pretty cool is that you have the ability to run two totally seperate stereo signals and run them as two totally seperate processors. Its up to you how you mix the signals at the output... or not as the case may be! That's only touching the surface of the X3, but I have already found that I havent missed the ability to arrange effects in every possible order on my ole TC Gforce. I guess ultimately it depends on what effects you want to use and what order and whether the X3 can do what you need. If you have any specific questions, there are a few of us on the board with X3's (Or X3 Live in my case) who will be able to help you more.

[quote name='pjbass' post='472087' date='Apr 25 2009, 11:29 AM']+1 for the c300, i followed Dood's recommendation & I've been really pleased with the results from this rack unit- it sounds very open to my ears but can do the squishy stuff well too.[/quote] Ahh yes! Absolutely! - I like sending my bass signal through some of the other instrument programs to see what effect it has.. As you say, some are lusciously squidgy!

[quote name='crez5150' post='475766' date='Apr 30 2009, 10:01 AM']It would be great if there was a manufacture out there that could produce a product with the tone from your head you want straight out of the box.... ;0)[/quote] Hmmmmm... it's a horror film in the making! ;o)

Hi Lee, I guess it depends on what you are wanting your effects to be capable of. Are you looking for digital amp modelling too? Certainly that is what the Vamp is more catered to, as is the likes of the Line 6 units, such as the X3 that I own. If you are after pure effects, then I think looking at companies such as TC Electronic (one of THE best in my opinion, having used their gear for ten years or more), Rocktron, Digitech, Alesis, ART, Lexicon, Zoom... Boss do their own rack gear still I believe.. there is quite a long list of manufacturers out there. My money would go on the TC Electronic G-Force or G-Major everytime..or the Line 6 stuff for digital modelling.

[quote name='RIM Basses' post='390422' date='Jan 24 2009, 04:03 PM']Hi Guys, Got a nice email back from Thomas yesterday, looks like i will have to go thru Rosetti to get hold of these amps. They have sent me info on setting up an account and the tecamp catalogue. So hopefully i will know more next week, fingers crossed i can get them for a good price but I'm not sure I can get as good a deal as from Marc in the US. Cheers, Robbie.[/quote] Any news on a price list Robbie?

Hey everyone! Well... coffee in hand, I enjoy a quick mid morning surf to satisfy my geeky techno bass passion. As some may know, I'm fascinated by progression in the design and concepts of bass gear, so it filled me with a certain amount of nerdy joy to stumble over yet another company excercising it's marketing forearm with a foray into the active cabinet market. Well, it seems they have been doing it for a lot longer than other companies.. lol.. maybe I just hadn't spotted them! Seems they haven't had a mention on BC yet.. so here goes! ISP Technologies are offering a number of active bass, PA and guitar cabinet solutions that seem to me (at least with the Bass and PA department) like a really good idea. [url="http://www.isptechnologies.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=144&Itemid=99"]http://www.isptechnologies.com/index.php?o...4&Itemid=99[/url] Exhibit A: [quote]Extreme performance 18 inch woofer and dual 8 inch midranges; 1000 watt RMS into a single cabinet, and 1000 watt RMS total when a second, passive, cabinet is added. Line array topology; The bass cabinet to die for![/quote] here: [url="http://www.isptechnologies.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=43&Itemid=99"]http://www.isptechnologies.com/index.php?o...3&Itemid=99[/url] [quote]LF Driver: 1 x 18 inch, large excursion, 1100 watt rms. HF Drivers: 2 x 8 inch, high sensitivity, 250 watt rms total. Sensitivity: 98 dB @ 100 Hz, 102 dB @ 1KHz (1 Watt at 1 meter). SPL: 128 dB at 1 meter, long term. 132 dB at 1 meter, peak. Frequency Range: 29 Hz to 5 KHz (-10 dB). Freq. Response: 39 Hz to 4 KHz (+- 3 dB). Amplifier Power: 1000 W rms, high current DCAT, fan cooled. Power Required: 5 Amps x 120 VAC typical, 10 Amps max. Construction: Baltic Birch Plywood, extensively braced. Finish: Rubberized Polyurethane. Dimensions: 30” W x 21.25” H x 24” D (without casters). Weight: Active - 130 Lbs[/quote] A point of interest, the almost 'world famous' Tom Bowlus (Hi Tom!) wrote a review for Guitar World that also appears on the site: [url="http://www.isptechnologies.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=214:guitar-world-magazine-vector-review&catid=55:featured-2009&Itemid=83"]http://www.isptechnologies.com/index.php?o...9&Itemid=83[/url] Anyone who has read Tom's blog will know that he has a massive amount of experience with gear..and writes a damn good review! - I'd love to spend a day in his garage! [url="http://bowlusblog.blogspot.com/"]http://bowlusblog.blogspot.com/[/url] I was also pretty excited to see a range of PA gear, including active cabinets [url="http://www.isptechnologies.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=148&Itemid=4"]http://www.isptechnologies.com/index.php?o...48&Itemid=4[/url] Not suggesting that the 'head and passive cabinet' bass combination will ever be superceded, but with modelling and digital technologies being discussed on the board more often, I wonder what future technology will hold for us as musicians.

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='472425' date='Apr 25 2009, 10:43 PM']I've thought about it but I don't think it would motivate him that much. Jon's not in the game to make money, I think. He's in it to earn a living but to enjoy what he does. If he was in it for the money, he could have become a furniture maker instead and earned loads more. I'm meeting up with Chris Celinder next week when he stops off in London and he's in pretty much that same position (although his operation was larger than Jon's at one point). Being essentially a one person operation, whatever time Jon spends talking on the phone or to people who drop in unannounced, chasing suppliers or doing the accounts, the less time there is to spend on the luthiery. Rob helps but doesn't get involved in any of the tricky custom stuff, so a long wait is inevitable for the custom work. Plus the more I harrass him about my stuff, the less time he has to spend on other people's instruments and there have been some like MacDaddy who have been waiting longer than me. At least I've managed to play my instrument! In project management there's always a trade off between time vs cost vs quality. You can have two at the expense of one, basically. Jon's definitely about quality and value for money so its inevitable that things are going to take longer if he has to figure out new ways of doing stuff without charging by the hour for his time. I think it might be like this for most one person operations that are successful regardless of how much they charge.[/quote] I just like to say, excellent post. The wait for a custom instrument is totally worth it and I have utmost respect for Jon.

Absolutely fantastic clips!!!! If I were looking to purchase a bass, this is exactly the kinda comparisons I'd like to see and hear! - I can really see the merits of BassChat having these kinda videos available in some kind of review section. WoT, thank you for recording them.. I love the Maple 73.. Sounds lovely mate!

[quote name='SammyDamacy' post='467595' date='Apr 20 2009, 04:17 PM']Wow, cheers guys for all the advice! And as for the question am I using an active bass, yes A Status Kingbass and a Spector, the two loudest most powerful basses I have EVER come across. Hence why I'd like a pretty good compressor, and these two just seem to attack any compressor I've found! And I would prefer rack I think.....no real fiddling about and it's out the way! Cheers kids![/quote] For a Tapper / Slapper, the most versatile compressor that I have ever used is the [b]TC Electronic C300 [/b]and its XLR version the C400. As opposed to most compressors, it features program specific compression in the form of Full, and Multiband Spectral. It is one of the very few compressors on the market to feature parallel compression and is truly transparent in sound. What makes this compressor so versatile is it's program dial set up. You turn the dial to the type of music / instrument that you are playing and it configures the compressor for optimal settings. For example, you'd never used the same compression for a kick drum that you would for horns. All you then do is set up the threshold, make up gain and Ratio. (Oh and you have the parallel mix in there too). I find that this is the only compressor that eliminates noise artifacts right up to heavy compression.. something that really annoyed me about other compressors. My second recommendation would indeed be the EBS Multicomp... but I found it could deal with anything below a low B as well as I'd hoped. I still use my C300. I rate TC Electronic gear very highly.

"The problem with the POD for a lot of people is the manual." - It needs to be read and understood. I really have seen so many users of 'modelling' kit get it so wrong and end up with the 'headroom-less moosh' that I believe is being discussed above. As Ped suggests, you need to understand how the kit works properly before you start faffing around with ya earphones on, wondering why it sounds aweful through ya 'normal' bass stack.