Beer of the Bass

Last night we had the most aggro I've had at an Edinburgh gig, oddly enough whilst doing a barely amped acoustic trio set in a tiny pub on Rose Street. It was fine until a group of guys in their 40s and 50s came in. They were conservatively dressed middle class guys of the sort you might see going to the rugby. I think it was one of those things where a group of work mates go out and drink rounds and no-one wants to admit that they can't really hold their drink. First they were shouting requests at us (we don't do requests), then trying to sing over us, then one of the drunker of the party stumbled into the guitar player. The guitar player is no shrinking violet, and some curt words were had. The bar staff then told them that none of the group would be served, but didn't explicitly tell them to leave. Just when we thought things were starting to calm down, we ended up with one of them squaring up to the band and threatening the guitarist as his friends tried to usher him out of the door. About half of the party (who had already been served) stayed around giving us dirty looks for the next hour while the others hung around outside. No-one got hurt, but the gig was no fun at all and not worth what they were paying us. I do think the bar staff could have dealt with things better too.

I think the manager of that venue has gone off us, but if I'm back there some time it might be interesting to try my GK MB200 in the same setting and see how it fares.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1502698323' post='3352866'] Strangely, most (if not all?) 600w class-D 'powerhouses' have hi-pass filters to remove the really power-soaking lows, yet a 120w valve head can outperform them. But watts is watts, right? *raises eyebrow* [/quote] I'm pretty sure the Ashdown MAG in Whistlebinkies is old enough to be one of the class AB models, and the Orange is a solid state guitar amp, no valves. I wouldn't say that output topology is the issue here.

I haven't gigged there with the Orange, but I've been surprised at how far up I have to turn both the Ampeg and Ashdown heads with that cab in that room. I had put it down to the cab having low sensitivity, so I'm surprised the Orange is louder. I wonder if it has something to do with "guitar clean" not really being clean, and not wasting power on the sub-100Hz stuff.

Would it not be Britpop-esque 90s attire to accompany one of these?

I'm none the wiser about P-basses, but I'm kind of enjoying the guy's dress sense. Check out these fine socks: [url="http://youtu.be/CVAogj4U92M"]http://youtu.be/CVAogj4U92M[/url]

Hooray, it's working and making the right noises. The bias voltage was not quite right at first, so that required a resistor change to get it into the correct range. The reverb is a little shallow at the moment so I'm going to play around with that some more, but I've had fewer issues to iron out than on the last one. I've just been using an old speaker sat in a cardboard box so far, but even with that I can hear that it's a nice sounding amp.

My favourite "no need to bring your amp, you can use ours" was at a gig where the other band actively offered to share backline then brought a 1x8" practice combo just for us, but when it was time for them to play their bassist rolled his 8x10" rig out of his van. I've been wary of such offers ever since!

I've been cracking on with my 6v6 version in the last week or so. I've got everything wired and checked over bar a few connections on the reverb circuit (I'll try it with that disconnected first). With any luck I should be able to pop some valves in and give it a try over the weekend, then it'll be time to get the cab for it built.

Is your bridge missing a bit? It looks like there should be some sort of raised saddle in between the studs. That would certainly explain the duff intonation if so!

[quote name='scrumpymike' timestamp='1498746410' post='3326802'] Wonder what this is worth now... sold it and another identical one around 12 years back after gigging them exclusively for a few years. They were a delight - only 550 LP Triumph basses ever made apparently. Can't help thinking they've squandered their valuable heritage! [/quote] Did you a piece for Bassist magazine about them some time in the late 90s, maybe early 2000s? They had a regular item where readers wrote about their basses, and I'm sure I remember one from a chap who had a pair of these.

I bet they'll keep sending out the Cease and Desist letters to anyone who makes a bass resembling the ones they don't make, though!

Are they running a mic on your cab there? I always like it when venues are up for that. Edit; aah, you posted about the mic while I was typing. Makes this post a bit redundant!

When you look inside the bass through the f-holes, is the end block that the end pin slots into split? If it is, it's time to start looking for a loaner bass for your gig. If the end block looks OK, then I think I'd risk it until you can get to a luthier.

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1498415444' post='3324417'] Ok, not basses but guitars. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (!) had 3 guitarists playing odd shaped guitars (Danelectro, Vox, etc) that had extra frets between certain notes so they could play some quarter-steps. For some songs they all switched to regular guitars with the front man on 12-string. Very odd, never seen this before, as the guitars appeared to be different makes I can only assume these were custom mods? Edit: Yup, this sheds some light on the subject: http://www.audiotechnology.com.au/wp/index.php/king-gizzards-lo-fi-gut-feeling/ [/quote] Ah, I've just heard them on the radio, been intrigued by the microtonal weirdness and looked them up. At first I thought they might be using an electric Saz or something like that.

Taking a wild guess about this, considering the following; -specifically looking for someone "level headed" -cautioning against "attitude, egos and weirdness" -not sharing the band name or links to material when it would be easy to do so I suspect their last bassist doesn't know they're leaving yet!

[quote name='Adrenochrome' timestamp='1498208673' post='3323096'] I thought was a little flat. I'd expect an ad for a young originals band to have more spark about it. [/quote] Possibly, but adverts that try too hard to be quirky can be a turn-off too.

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1497872864' post='3320960'] I'd love to see a soundy in my situation. I have a valve amp with no DI & have no DI pedals, so the only option is to mic me up. [/quote] They'll probably stick a knackered £10 Behringer DI in front of the amp, from past experience.

What about these guys? Same diameter, and you can get them in black, but the flattened shape is distinct enough that you could easily feel if you grabbed the wrong knob. [url="https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=94_108_314&zenid=0g5bpmf24n71eta7f3elanj5r0"]https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=94_108_314&zenid=0g5bpmf24n71eta7f3elanj5r0[/url]

I have a C411pp, which I've usually used with an ART Tube MP. This doesn't allow for blending, but gives you a jack output for your amp and an XLR out for the PA as well as providing phantom power to the C411. I've also tried an ART Promix microphone mixer which runs on batteries, but somehow never sounded great. The Headway EDB-2 looks like the ideal thing to use, and can do the blending thing, but I've never quite got the cash together for one. If you can find a small mixer that has both phantom powered mic inputs and a High-Z instrument input you might be able to blend the C411 and pickup more cheaply. I've not seen many that have both on separate channels, but the Allen and Heath Zed 6 looks like it would do the job. There is quite a lot of scope for tweaking the C411 to taste just through positioning; if you move it closer to the bridge feet you get a little more high-end detail and less thump, more of a "pickup" sound, while it gets darker with broader dynamics (more mic-like?) further away.

I dug out my copy of the Ray Brown method (which is from 1963, not the late 50's as I'd thought). While he clearly has gut strings in the pictures, the closeups of his right hand don't look as if his action is punishingly high. It's higher than you'd have a set of Spiros, but he was playing in and out of thumb position, doing double-stop 10ths and things, and I think had his bass set up to allow for that. There is a kind of "Emperor's new clothes" thing around no-amp bassists where no-one wants to admit they couldn't always hear Mingus or other greats clearly. Actually, it goes on to this day if you look over on Talkbass!

[quote name='Pea Turgh' timestamp='1497792596' post='3320569'] I think I'll just go ahead and make the cab that has been tried and tested! I can keep the mahogany beast in the house to run my Pianet through. [/quote] Ooh, N, T or one of the other Pianets? I love those things, and have an N myself. I think I like it best through a guitar amp rather than bass or full-range amplification though. (Apologies for dragging the thread way off topic!)

I have a copy of Ray Brown's bass method which was written in the late 50s. That has some good close-up photos which look like he has plain gut on the D and G and wound gut on the E and A. Also notable in those photos are his big beautiful Italian bass with the hollow tuning keys, and his great suit jackets! I'm not sure of the exact date when steel strings started being used for jazz, though I'd guess they caught on and became ubiquitous through the 60s. From what I've read Thomastik made their steel Precision strings surprisingly early (they claim 1926), but those were stiff solid-core jobs, and I don't think jazzers started using steel strings until more flexible types were available in the late 50s. Lots of older bass players still rave about Lycon strings, which were one of the earlier flexible core steel sets available. Mingus sounds (to my ears, anyway) like he only adopted steel strings late in his career - I think he held out with the gut for longer than most.

[quote name='RichardH' timestamp='1497441141' post='3318144'] That sounds a good way to do - I had been thinking of using the phenolic sheet. The eyelets idea is genius - that way you can pass leads though the board rather than keep it all on the surface. I guess a punch tool might be needed too, though I wouldn't be suprised if that can be got around without too much trouble. If I go that way then I wouldn't mind knocking up a few blank boards for anyone else who wants to build a crossover. [/quote] I don't have the proper eyelet setting tool, but I've found it works OK to place them in drilled holes, turn the board over and splay the other side by tapping them with an old centre punch.

There are lots of ways to skin a cat, but the method I've been using to make eyelet boards for valve amps might be applicable to crossovers. I use 2mm phenolic sheet bought cheaply from eBay suppliers (easier to cut and drill than fibreglass, more resistant to soldering heat than ply) with brass haberdashery eyelets set into holes (easy to solder to, cheaper than turret terminals). Larger components are held in place with hot glue or cable ties.