rmorris

Just becoming aware of this company / products this info on current commercial status https://forum.moddevices.com/t/mod-reboot-we-made-it/8484

I like it. Have you considered some sort of strain relief on the cables to/from the amp to reduce the tendency for them to pull on the first / last pedals ? Maybe by threading through a couple of holes made in each of the supports ? Or something...

logically they are ac coupling capacitors to block any dc components in the signal. You'd expect the external kit plugged into Send and Return to have them on their own inputs / outputs so I don't really see the case for them here. They are also quite a small value so use is limited to high impedance inputs. Okay with most pedals / amps but using with typical line or mic inputs will give significant low frequency loss.

Yeah - I mean he was good on the Beatles and all that. But little will surpass the Wings version of the Crossroads theme tune (classic Tony Hatch) that they used for particularly dramatic episodes. Disclaimer: May make no sense to younger, non-UK or those that weren't permitted to watch ITV.

Why do you think cheaper pedals might be an issue ? Less power supply noise rejection ? That should really be eliminated in the PSU itself imo. And more expensive pedals ? If they draw more current than the power supply can...errr ... supply, then that's obviously a problem. Bottom line (pun intended 😊). For least potential noise / problems use a supply with properly (galvanically) isolated outputs. That will work well with digital pedals etc. And if not then using individual outputs is better than a daisy chain power cable as it reduces common impedance in the 0V ("Ground") line.

Water Wings. A swimming Paul McCartney tribute act ?

wrt Tube compression (aside...Tube, is this Talkbass now ? 🙂. We'll have "Valves" here thank you very much) yeah - the dynamic range is reduced (compressed). But it acts on each waveform cycle instantaneously, rather than reacting to a time averaged signal level. Signal is clipped it to varying degrees producing additional harmonics. With reference to the OPs concerns around "Overtones" - this process increases or adds "overtones" (harmonics). With 'normal' compression there is some distortion produced when the gain (attenuation) is being altered. But this is not the intended purpose an the effect is of a much lower order.

The pineapple should be on a pizza ???

Yes. I don't think anyone here is advocating dynamics processing as a substitute for technique. The issue is what compression does to the sound in terms of harmonic balance etc.

I read the comment as claiming that the compression would 'remove' the top/bottom of the waveform itself (as opposed to restricting the frequency range at either end). ie a degree of clipping. That would, of course, very much increase high frequency content . Including frequencies not in the original signal. But yeah - in simple terms it just lowers the louder bits then turns everything up as required.

The guitar thing there is interesting. It's quite common for engineers / producers to note that what sounds great on acoustic when being tracked often has to be severely controlled by eq/dynamics etc in mixing to fit in with the recording. The last time I saw this it was indeed a Martin acoustic that was used as an example. IIRC Yamaha acoustics were well regarded for being 'recordable' and fitting into a mix.

Wrong. Compression simply lowers the amplitude of the signal. It reacts according to the level (averaged / RMS / peak depending on the unit) and not to the individual waveform. Except if you set it up badly eg fast attack/release times on a frequency corresponding to a longer time. Typically this might occur using very fast attack / release on the low notes of a bass guitar. But that is basically a user error (unless going for special fx) and will be obvious. A simple compressor simply detects the signal level and lowers the gain when it is above a threshold level. Typically by altering the dc control voltage into a Voltage Controlled Amplifier (VCA). The VCA does not discriminate wrt frequencies. It's just an amplifier with a nominally flat audio band response. You could, in concept, control a motorised pot or fader in the same way. Don't try it though ! - for various reasons it not practicable. Compression can indeed 'dull' the sound but it's not because it specifically removes overtones. It's simply due to the energy in an audio signal being a lot more at lower frequency. So, depending on the signal and the compression parameters, the low end can dominate the operation. So you get a large low frequency event and that causes ALL frequencies to be attenuated. The low end may then still be loud enough because it was too loud without the compression but higher frequencies that were not too loud to begin with may now be too quiet to be audible in context. Solutions to this include "Split Band" compression - anything from the Trace Elliot SMX type compressors to sophisticated Multiband Compressors (typically used in mastering) and their plug-in equivalents. Basically they allow the bottom end and top end to be compressed differently (or not at all). So a bottom end thump doesn't wipe out the highs.

It is the same. Just using a different detector (ear vs electronic level detector) and attenuator (fader vs VCA / FET / LDR) . Technically it is feedback compression. As opposed to feedforward. Nothing to do with "guitar" feedback or howlround !

What Jjimfist said. Compression can be used creatively to emphasise and better define note attack. Eg "eighth note pumping".

Currents in the ball park of 20mA are normally far too much for a realistic light level. An LED of any colour will likely be too bright for comfort at that current (it will also produce a heating effect that reduces the brightness a bit and shortens the life expectancy of the LED). Values of 10/20mA are often quoted as max continuous rated current etc but typically much lower currents 1 - 2 mA or even less for "High Efficiency" types give a usable light level.

Thanks for those photos.

So back in the Bethnal Green Travelodge after a day at APE in Victoria Park. Thought some here would be interested in checking out the interesting assortment of basses used by Thom Yorke and Greenwood's use of a bow on electric bass in The Smile.

Fair enough given its your actual experience. Out of curiosity who are you "Tributeing". Not a real word I know 🙂

Does anyone on the audience actually care as long as it sounds right ? I can see that a seven string fanned fret bass might spoil the mood. But J Vs P ?

yeah - I'm used to the Loctite threadlock products from industrial use although I couldn't quote the colours now. But you do need to use the one that just "holds it in place* against vibration as opposed to a moderately strong adhesive. The colour also acts as an anti-tamper warranty thing - basically users trying to improve something themselves . messing it up and then making a warranty claim. Cheap nail polish/varnisg also works pretty well. But it lacks "professional credibility". Good Luck.

All good advice on here imo re loctite and bridges etc. But...have you thought about replacing the grub screws themselves ? I'm not certain about grub screw tolerances but with machine screws there are at least three degrees (make your own musically related comments heer 🙂) of tolerance - basically loose / medium / tight. Standard default is the medium but tight may be an option if available. alternatively it could be a loose tolerance thread in the saddle.

Anyone know how the "Classic Chorus" differs from the "Analog Chorus" in the Horse pedals ?

As PaulthePlug says - try the fretrocker thing first to check if the issue is with "Fret Number Three Please". If that's okay then go to the truss rod. Turn it to the left (as you look at it) a tiny bit, leave a few minutes, test, repeat... What bass is it ?

Good deal of truth there. Although I'll add that if a pickup isn't "getting" some frequencies in the first place then that does affect how you can process the signal. Typically you can hear this with a passive "P" pickup vs a passive "J" type, where the "P" type doesn't give you the top end frequencies of the "J". Additionally "hot" pickups - ie more windings, more inductance - will tend to have a more restricted frequency response. Beyond that there is noise immunity (or lack of) to consider. fwiw I put a Warman MM type into an old Ibanez ATK200 where the original pickup had become very microphonic when tapped. Works fine with good tone.

Yes - widely used in bass and guitar amps. Either in terms of jfet input opamps as paul-5 has said. Or as discrete jfets eg classic Trace Elliot preamps (not sure about later stuff) but much of the Clive Button stuff. Apart from the overload / distortion characteristics - they are well suited to passive Hi-Z pickups since they tend to have lower current noise than bipolar solutions - and so develop less noise with the resistance of the Hi-Z pickup. For Hi-Z pickups this is basically more important than the voltage noise where they are worse than bipolar solutions. Unfortunately the lowest noise jfets are now difficult to obtain eg Toshiba SK170 and associated dual jfet are obsolete. Equivalents are manufactured by Linear Systems - LSK170 / LSK389 - but purchasing and availability can be challenging esp for small quantities. fwiw similar applies to the lowest noise bipolar transistors that were originally produced for the mass phono pre-amp market and are now discontinued. On the upside the classic TL07x and LF351 jfet opamps have been superseded in performance by eg OP134 etc.