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Beer of the Bass

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Everything posted by Beer of the Bass

  1. Beer of the Bass
    Though one could make that same argument about the EQ in active basses, particularly as those are usually limited to battery power...
  2. Beer of the Bass
    Oh dear, have we drifted into the old "miking bass cabs" discussion? I played at Nice n' Sleazy in Glasgow a few weeks ago, and was surprised that the house sound guy put a mic on the my bass amp, with no DI, without even discussing it. Perhaps he spotted my Ampeg PF50T and figured I might want some amp colouration, or perhaps so many bassists in an indie venue like that are using overdriven sounds that it's easier to mic them, I don't know. But otherwise, I don't bother asking about a mic any more. It's nice if they do, but I can also give them a post power-amp DI from the Ampeg, or just a straight DI with LPF to tame my fuzz pedal if it's a gig with shared backline and limited setup time. For the kind of situations we play I'd rather the sound guys spent their time getting the vocals right than arguing the toss with me over my bass sound!
  3. Beer of the Bass

    HPF + LPF

    Beer of the Bass replied to Ruck's topic in Effects

    Mine has been really useful so far, and it does fit a lot in for such a small box. It's a shame there's no ready built option on these, I can imagine a lot of bassists would find them useful.
  4. Beer of the Bass
    If it's not at a level that's noticeable in use, is there really a problem there? I get that from an engineering POV it's desirable to minimise it, but if you're juggling port velocity against the size of ports you can fit, surely some turbulence below the point it where causes audible artifacts could be an acceptable compromise.
  5. Beer of the Bass
    I have a particular soft spot for John McLaughlin's electric playing in the few years before the MO - the spots with Miles Davis, Lifetime, Carla Bley etc. For me, there's something compelling about that era when he was beginning to bring in rock elements but just cranking up through whatever combo he had around, rather than the pre-meditated wall of Marshalls.
  6. Beer of the Bass
    I find it weird that most of the lookalikes and signature model go as far as copying the missing red from the three-colour sunburst where the pickguard would be. I presume Fender only left this off originally because that area was never meant to be on display, so it's a curious detail to reproduce, really.
  7. Beer of the Bass
    I had a similar experience with them at Milngavie Folk Club. The resident sound guy was having some trouble with the PA setup, Carthy made some surprisingly withering remarks to him, and they opted to go without! Really glad I got to see those two play together, they were great.
  8. Beer of the Bass
    I'm not sure it'd be a fair contest! Even one of Mingus' famed open letters to Downbeat would probably be devastating enough...
  9. Beer of the Bass
    I'm going to go the other way and say that flats have an interesting attack/decay envelope that I can't entirely reproduce with rounds, and miss when it's not there. It's true enough that this happens over a narrower range of frequencies, but that high end just isn't a big part of the voice I'm looking for from my bass guitar. So I enjoy flats on my jazz-ish 5 string. (Though if I had a P-bass around, I'd probably put rounds on that!)
  10. Beer of the Bass
    It's odd, just after seeing Mr Bonamassa explain that electric guitarists must use all of the amps, turned all of the way up, all of the time, I pottered over to another forum where double bassists were bragging about using no amp and supposedly never needing one even with drums. And both were equally absolute about it!
  11. Beer of the Bass
    The Beta 12 is working out nicely for me after a couple of years use, but my cabs are around 45 litres. They do have a flattering voicing for the kind of bass sound I like, but I wonder if the bump they have in the midbass might tip over into sounding boomy if you went much smaller.
  12. Beer of the Bass
    Glad it went OK. I find with gigs like that you can often get a reasonable balance with less amp than you'd expect, provided the drums aren't heavily amplified and the audience come in close. Maybe not with massive low-end, but audible and danceable at least.
  13. Beer of the Bass
    TI Jazz flatwounds might get you there - they have a lot of mids and decent clarity, but are not bright in the zingy sense. The tension can be a bit of an acquired taste, but I'm enjoying them.
  14. Beer of the Bass
    Bump with a little video demo. received_316504045692220.mp4
  15. Beer of the Bass
    It doesn't have a standard XLR DI output - the 1V line level output on the back panel is a summed output of the original preamp channels, and is on an obscure 3-pin DIN connector so I haven't tried it. It appears to be intended for connecting other Dynacord gear of the same era in a slave setup. But the 6sl7 preamp channel that I added is mixed in after this stage, so wouldn't be present on this socket anyway. For a DI output from this head, a speaker-level DI box connected to a spare speaker output should give decent results.
  16. Beer of the Bass
    Also, coat hooks and a whiteboard in each room.
  17. Beer of the Bass
    Additional pictures showing the case, back panel and a crack at the back corner of the plastic outer which is taped over.
  18. Beer of the Bass
    70s Dynacord Eminent II amplifier. This is a valve powered amplifier originally intended for PA use, using a pair of EL34 run at high voltages for a rated output of 80 watts. In stock form the amp had a four channel transistor preamp, and was built to be very clean and linear sounding. The perspex front panel has green lights behind it, so it's quite stylish in a kitschy way! I have modified the amp by removing two of the transistor preamp channels and building a preamp based on a late 60s Ampeg B15n using a 6sl7 valve. This is the four black controls on the right of the front panel. I used a high voltage FET stage to match the output and impedance requirements of the 6sl7 preamp to the power amp section of the Dynacord, but the signal path for this bypasses all of the original transistor preamp circuitry. I have also rebuilt the power amp with new filter capacitors and a new pair of JJ E34L valves, and set the bias to suit them. The two original input channels and their master volume and EQ are still functional too. With the Ampeg style preamp, it provides a very pleasing classic bass sound, and would be a good addition to a retro-minded studio or for moderate volume live use. It doesn't provide heavily overdriven sounds, but with the preamp gain turned up it does a great subtle breakup that thickens up the sound nicely, and it also has a nice range of clean bass tones. It's quiet in terms of background noise too. It's relatively compact for a valve head, and comes with a well used but useful ABS flight case to carry it in. It has impedance selectors on the back panel to run 4, 8 or 16 ohm cabs.
  19. Beer of the Bass
    The Reserved signs weren't there on Monday.
  20. Beer of the Bass
    They are indeed. Weirdly, they had a couple of Foderas in the window when I passed on Monday, one of the Vic Wooten-ish 4 strings and a 5 string fretless, both quite well worn. I have no idea what the story behind those must be.
  21. Beer of the Bass
    It looks like they've retained the not particularly great back-angle on the saddles, and the chunky bits of the mute assembly that make it hard to palm mute. Those are interesting design choices!
  22. Beer of the Bass
    I've seen some far more niche products, but they're probably not things I should post here!
  23. Beer of the Bass
    As far as I'm aware, the SVT was built on multiple PCBs right from its introduction in 1969, not point-to-point.
  24. Beer of the Bass
    For four 12"s it's going to be £200 minimum, and there are a lot of competent bass cabs, large or small, that you could buy used for that amount.
  25. Beer of the Bass
    I've played in DIY venues and rehearsal spaces that used guitar 4x12 cabs with bass heads as the house rig and got away with it. Though that was very much on the basis of cobbling together whatever gear was available, not something I'd set out to do. So I'd second the "why?", but if you really must, then a 16 ohm, closed back 4x12" has about the best chance of not breaking, out of the common guitar cab configurations.
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