MoonBassAlpha

Old Laney Supergroup series. 4x EL34s. It's basically a 70s Marshall knock-off but without the ridiculous prices. Equall nice for guitar or bass. They come up occasionally. I sold mine to King Tut on here before I had a decent cab, and when I heard it through the cab he bought to test it with, I almost wished I hadn't agreed to sell it! I believe he is using it as his main gigging amp now. Jules

^ yep, got one of those!

I played an acoustic night at the Labour club in Northampton (the Barcelona of the North, the locals call it...) It was a strictly no amplification night, but I was promised an acoustic bass guitar would be there. The girl bringing it never turned up, so I ended up using my fretless Jack bass that I'd chucked in the car on the offchance, through....... ..... wait for it...... A "Smokey" fag packet guitar amp, that I had in the gig bag. The battery was on the way out. It just sounded like an angry wasp. There were about 8 people in the audience and it was a 100 mile round trip. Unpaid too. Not my fave ever gig. By a long way. In fact, about 100 miles.

That was the "bright" cap mod, mentioned in an earlier thread. It looks a bit unusual as I had to use a 0603 smd cap with flying leads attached to it. I didn't bother with a switch, as I wasn't keen on the non bright sound

Different word for the same thing.

[attachment=30696:P1010370.JPG][attachment=30697:P1010364.JPG] Hope this is enough info to advise about the mods Dave. Cheers Jules

Hi all I did my first loud gig last weekend with this setup^, guit. bass drums lineup in a smallish pub room, good vocal pa. There was no time for a sound check, so it was set and leave. The EQ was left flat with no "shapes" set, passive (humbuckers) bass, input gain just about right up, master on just under half. I found that as the gig went on, the input clipped a bit more than I would normally set it (getting excited? at MY age?), but also the output clip/limit light was coming on a lot in the louder bits - what a nice sound! The way it transitions in to clipping gives the same sort of feel that a valve amp does, it seems to articulate in a very similar way. The balance with the drums was just right, and we somewhat ruled the guitar between us! It struck me that higher powered Shuttle users would miss out on this sound because it would simply be too loud to get to this nice clipping zone. I felt at the time that if I wanted a really clean sound at this volume, then the Shuttle 3.0 doesn't quite do it, though backing off the input gain a tad and taking the master up might just do it. It's a shame there wasn't time to experiment, but there was a ton of bands to get on/off that day. The cab sounded fine throughout, tilted back a touch (tight stage) and apparently reached the back of the pub just fine! Jules

[quote name='Alien' post='562294' date='Aug 6 2009, 09:45 PM']Was your BSc an 'ology? You're not a scientist unless you've got an 'ology! A[/quote] Many physicists would disagree with you on this one too!

MMM, I had my neighbours round the other day, and not in a good way. It appears the bass is louder than it used to be.....

Out of interest (Alex), what is the -6dB (upper) point for a Compact?

When you put negative relief in the neck, string it (relief goes too far positive), when you take it off again, is the negative relief still there? I think that if it isn't, it is likely the nut has slipped, ie stripped. If it is the nut portion, not the rod then a new nut alone might fix the prob. You aren't using massively heavy strings are you? Hope this is some help. Jules

Fro anyone considering the Celestion from Watford Valves, they are doing them post free, a special offer ending today! (6PM) Mine arrived Thurs, ordered Tues and was about £48 n a bit all in. Seemed a good deal to me. Just got to decide on the size and shape of the box now... I think it needs about 1 cu foot (correct me if I'm wrong) If I put a slot port in, should that volume include or exclude the port? And I'm still thinking of angling the speaker up a bit, say about 15 degrees. Any comments, as always, most welcome. Cheers Jules

Dil Katz on Wilde Tales by Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia. I think he is the first person I heard doing sliding harmonics, or could've been Percy Jones, or John Giblin for that matter. Nice player with great tone. Jules

The crackle is likely to be a dry joint. It's often the big psu caps (if they're pcb mounted - I've got one of these amps and never even looked inside- most unlike me!) The vibration makes the solder joint fracture. I've just done a repair like this on a cheap Marshall guitar amp. Look out for large resistors, fuse holders etc. as I've seen this happen on different amps. These are decent amps, not light, but not the heaviest you'll ever pick up either. I'd say go for it! Jules

Well, lightly amplified acoustic and 2 vocals through a little PA is what we usually get, and possibly a quiet drummer. I currently use a Lowdown 110 (75W) and that easily covers what i do with this outfit.

I could see giving up SPL might not be too much of a problem, since the amp is relatively high powered for a practice amp, so there would be the power available to push air out of a less efficient driver. I'm out of touch with hifi stuff - are we talking high 80s efficiency as opposed to the claimed 96dB for the Celestion?

Hi Alex what it says, really. I'm looking to make a small light cab to go with a Shuttle 3.0 for when I just don't need the size and oomph of my Compact (which is working out nicely with it, incidentally) I've only looked at the Celestion BN10 200X (neo magnet) from Watford Valves at £42 odd + vat + post. Are you aware of anything better, value or performance-wise that would be worth checking out? Also, would a slot port at the top of the cab angled upwards somewhat have a similar effect to tilting the whole cab back? Cheers Jules

I would expect it weighs a LOT. Looks to have more wood (!) than a std 450B and they weigh 12 0r 13 lbs

[quote name='ivansc' post='539589' date='Jul 13 2009, 07:11 PM']Hi - Ivan from Wistow near Peterboro. I quit playing bass professionally many years ago when I got trigger finger in right hand one and two. Started playing one of those skinny stringed little things for a living but never lost my love for bass. Now after retiring off the circuit I am playing bass again and my hands arent falling apart yet! I made the mistake of selling my old bass rig to a pupil years ago and then made another mistake recently buying a poxy little laney combo amp. 160 watts and not man enough to do a bar gig with a proper drummer.... So I was attracted here by the tales of DIY cabinets, since this is how I started out in 1961/2. There just werent any bass amps and cabs around in the UK in those days. Hi There! did you get treatment for the trigger finger? I've recently had it and it's pretty much back to normal after 1 treatment. I'm having another soon, and that should fully do it. Only takes about 5 minutes, but it does hurt a bit while they do it. It's just an injection (cortizone) All the best Jules My first rig was a Philips mono valve hifi amp and a 22" jukebox speaker in an open backed 1/2" plywood box. And that is about it. I`m currently picking up a lot of dep jobs and doing the first fledgeling gigs with Catfish Jones, a nasty 3 piece r n b trio...[/quote]

[quote name='Eight' post='525758' date='Jun 27 2009, 10:17 AM']If that's true - then surely it would apply to all guitars with wood+ebanol neck combinations?[/quote] I think it depends on how well the wood is sealed against humidity, I dunno! It did belong to the wife of the luthier that I normally use though, and he seemed resigned to having to tweak the truss rod regularly with changing weather.

The old metal necked Kramer basses used ebanol and they were anything but cheap at the time. I've heard of one bass (a Cort Curbow) where the neck would bow drastically with changes in humidity - I guess the wood expands/contracts and the ebanol doesn't, but that's only one bass. The owner said you could use it as a hygrometer. Its tough ol' stuff.

[quote name='LukeFRC' post='514802' date='Jun 15 2009, 09:49 PM']ronseal dimond hard wood varnish is what i used. no recomended really, hard as anything but to tends to flow a lot, so either it just slides of the radius of the fretboard or if you mask it in puddles and you loose the radius. then its too hard to sand back! works ok though apart form that[/quote] You could try rubbing that stuff on with a cloth. If its that thin it should go on a treat and you can put on really thin layers, as you can wipe off the excess as you go.