Beer of the Bass

Looks good. Have you had a chance to check it out with the s112s yet? I wonder if the HPF might do useful things for them. I had an Acoustic Image head with a variable HPF, and it was handy for getting a little extra loudness out of a small cab before it starts to complain. I tend to like what a bright switch does for the voicing of an amp too, so the features on this one look quite attractive.

How tight is the tolerance on a typical inductor? Is the difference between 0.56 and 0.6, or 0.17 and 0.18mH all that critical in this application?

If you cover Hawkwind, King Crimson and Van der Graaf Generator, the pubs might hate it, but I'd come and see you!

I wonder which model the Ibanez I had in my teens was? It was through-neck and had the fake mudbucker, but the inlays were greyish and not sparkly.

It's a little DIY 1x10", made from birch ply and stained. I have a Faital 10FE200 in there which is a cheap driver with modest excursion, but has nice even mid response and decent treble for a single driver cab. I use it for double bass mostly, and my 1x12" cabs do the electric bass gigs.

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1496778483' post='3313831'] I've never owned one [/quote] I've never owned a bass without one. The severity varies though - sometimes they're barely noticeable and not enough to be a problem. But they've all had one or two notes on the G string that sustain slightly differently due to neck resonance. Do some people only call it a dead spot when it's particularly severe?

Ah, I was thinking more of a utilitarian recording or low-volume gigging setting where the look and vibe are less of a consideration as long as it nails the sound. But for your context, the B15n would be a lot of fun to have around.

Trying one would be a good plan - if that's the sound you want and you don't need a whole lot of volume, it's a classic. Though there may be other routes to investigate for a low wattage valve amp with that kind of flavour. Do I remember you saying you were using a Barefaced Retro 2x10? One of the new Ampeg P50T heads on top of that would probably get you to a similar place, with more versatile EQ and useful features like a DI output. Or there are other heads which are going for a similar sound, like the EBS T90.

[quote name='neilp' timestamp='1496442406' post='3311555'] I have a fairly nice carbon German bow that I'll part with for a reasonable sum. Bought it cos I took on a pupil who had learnt German and didn't wan to change, and I needed to be able to demo stuff to him. He's moved away, so I no longer need it. PM me if interested Neil [/quote] Cheers for the offer. I had just ordered one of the Thomann carbon bows before I read your post, otherwise I'd have been tempted. However, their return policy is quite good, so if I don't like the feel or build quality of it when it arrives I'll drop you a PM.

[quote name='owen' timestamp='1496351388' post='3310824'] Tip facing split = a dab of glue. Wedge falling out = if it was having a re-hair the wedge would be out anyway. Don't buy a new one. Treat yourself to a rehair. Job done. [/quote] I did think about that, and I've had it rehaired once already about 6 years ago. But I think a rehair is £60 or so, the tip repair would probably be extra, and it starts to look uneconomical with a cheap bow like mine. I could attempt to glue it myself before having it rehaired, but I have a feeling they might not be happy about rehairing a bow with an amateur glued-up repair. It looks like the split facing is the reason the wedge is coming loose, because the crack widens as the bow is tightened, and can be pushed closed with the hair slackened off. [quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1496335461' post='3310681'] The Yita ones are well respected around these parts, Geoff 'Discover Double Bass' Chalmers made mine sing at the bash and Jake Newman bought one as his backup for West End gigs after trying mine too. [/quote] Doing a quick search, the Yita bows do have some favourable reviews. That would make me a bit happier about the idea of ordering from China, certainly. Though I'm also wondering about this cheap carbon bow from Thomann; [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_cbb01g_34_carbon_bassbow.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_cbb01g_34_carbon_bassbow.htm[/url] It's short, but it turns out that it's the same size as the one I've been using for years, which might help with familiarity.

I use the pinky a lot, but I tend to use double bass style fingering lower down the neck, where the hand spans three frets and the pinky is supported by the ring finger behind it.

Hmm, looking around at bows online, I'd never realised that the one I've been playing for years is not full size! Mine is 52cm hair length and 71.5cm long overall. This seems to be described as 1/2 size or 3/4 size depending on where I look. I'm not sure how I managed not to notice that...

I've used the same cheapie bow for more than 10 years, I bought it used for something like £30 but I believe it was one of the $99 jobs that Gollihur Music in the US used to sell. It is starting to flake out on me; the tip facing has split and the wedge is creeping out. I'm going to have to cross my fingers that it holds out for the two gigs I have in the next week, but I think I need to sort out another bow sharpish. I'd like to look at better bows at some point, but right now would not be the time. So which cheap German bows are worth looking at, up to about £100? The local string shops tend not to have much choice in German bows and the ones they do have are usually out of my range, so I'll probably be buying online. Thomann have a couple, either their own £50 carbon job or wooden bows labelled Gewa or Alfred Stingl. Lando Music in Germany have wooden bows labelled Gasparo that look like they might be OK; [url="http://www.kontrabass-atelier.de/bogen_e.html"]http://www.kontrabas...de/bogen_e.html[/url] Or there are various Chinese suppliers via eBay, although like the idea of going with a company in the UK or Europe so that it would be easier to send back it it's terrible! Any recommendations would be welcome.

[quote name='Thunderpaws' timestamp='1496179548' post='3309432'] Is it the volume of the port that matters? For example, if corner triangular prisms were used, should the volume of the prism be the same as the volume of the cylinder that makes a circular tube port? [/quote] Unfortunately, the relationship between port surface area and length for a given tuning frequency is a bit more complex than that, which is why most people use modelling software rather than working it out on paper. As the surface area increases, the length required increases too, so for example a 100mm diameter port needs to be longer than a 75mm diameter port would for the same tuning frequency.

It's probably best to start by asking a couple more questions about what your application is. Will you be running through a bass amp or straight into the PA? Is there a lot of arco in the set or mostly pizz? What sort of ensemble will you be playing in - any drums or other loud instruments? For mostly pizz work with a backline amp, some kind bridge wing pickup is the most obvious choice. There are lots out there - check the classifieds first. If you're using the GK gear listed in your signature, a lot of them will sound fine plugged straight in without a preamp. But almost all bridge wing pickups sound less natural or even a bit harsh with the bow. They also often need the wing slot on the bridge to be enlarged slightly to fit them, though they're easy enough to fit and remove once that has been done. The cheapest workable bridge wing pickup would probably be one of these: [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/J-tone-Big-double-Bass-Pick-up-/201498506263?hash=item2eea3f3417:m:mMv8R28HOczqgXmXPBsADZw"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/J-tone-Big-double-Bass-Pick-up-/201498506263?hash=item2eea3f3417:m:mMv8R28HOczqgXmXPBsADZw[/url] Piezo pickups that fit under the bridge foot are usually a bit more tolerable for arco use, like the Realist or Shadow SH965. If it's not a high-volume setting and you want a more natural arco sound, other options might work better. I like my AKG C411pp contact mic, especially when running direct to PA, though it needs a mic preamp to run into a bass amp. Or there are a few dedicated bass mics, though they can get quite expensive.

I've never understood why the convention of not labelling controls on instruments still holds out when there are that many of them! I wouldn't fancy having to memorise the layout of all those knobs.

[quote name='DIYjapan' timestamp='1495885157' post='3307331'] Thanks for the tip. I was thinking of staining the finished cab brown then sanding it back a bit for a worn look followed by try-oil or Danish oil. How did you apply the briwax? Any tips there? [/quote] It was a couple of years ago, but as far as I can remember I used a water-based stain, then let that dry for a couple of days, then a couple of coats of Danish Oil applied with a cloth, then Briwax applied with a Scotchbrite abrasive pad before buffing with a cloth.

It would be a good idea to have somebody check the bias if you've changed the 6v6 power valves. It's a quick job for any amp tech and they should be able to check there's nothing else amiss, if you're worried about that.

Regarding the Bag End/Wall of Sound look, I got a similar sort of finish on a little 1x10" cab I built using birch plywood, stained brown then finished with Danish Oil and Briwax. If you did that and mounted the speaker with four metal L-clamps it should look about right.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1495742210' post='3306322'] Anyone play in a bar or pub where you had to set up in front of the entrance to the bathrooms? I have. 😞 Blue [/quote] Perfect for that old Creedence song "There's a Bathroom on the Right"!

I would have no problem being naked in the right setting where it would not be unexpected, like an event arranged by naturists or for some daft arty thing where nudity was part of the performance. At an ordinary gig where the audience might not be into the idea, not so much.

There can't be many necks in the world with a fake Squier decal! I hope the quality is good - my £30 Chinese guitar neck has fretwire that seems softer than the good stuff.

Looking at the one on my MB200, GK serial number stickers are not the most substantial things. I could imagine someone removing one if it had already started peeling. I guess you may never know, but that scenario doesn't seem impossible.

After getting distracted with a few other things for several weeks, I've had a go at winding an inductor for the midrange circuit using these instructions. [url="http://www.frontiernet.net/~jff/SonOfSVPCL/DIYSVTBassPreampInductor.html"]http://www.frontiernet.net/~jff/SonOfSVPCL/DIYSVTBassPreampInductor.html[/url] I couldn't find exactly the same core in the UK, but I found some with a very similar AL value which (according to my back-of-an-envelope calculations) need just a handful more turns of wire. My winding method was crude - I cut notches in both ends of an ice lolly stick and wrapped wire around that to use as a shuttle to pass through the centre of the core by hand. I used 0.4mm enamelled wire, which should be about the same as 26AWG. The resulting inductor looks like this. I still need to attach leads to the taps and I may dunk it in some varnish to stop the wire from moving around. The winding is less tight and more scattered than the original Ampeg part, but I borrowed an inductance meter today and the values seem close enough. The target values are 800mH with taps at 100mH and 300mH. Mine measures 99, 290 and 767mH, which is within a 5% tolerance. It doesn't seem like an application where the values are especially critical, so I'm sure that will be fine.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1495565874' post='3304933'] Thee Jazz Hands [/quote] This is wandering of topic a bit, but does anyone have any idea where the use of "Thee" instead of "The" in band names comes from? I have always puzzled over this. It's a spelling that Genesis P.Orridge was fond of, but I don't know if it came from them.