Beer of the Bass

I'd rather use a proper DI box than follow those instructions for a simple resistor divider, as with a DI box you usually have tranformer isolation between the amp and PA and a ground lift switch in case of hum. Also, sound guys tend to be much happier taking a line from a familiar looking DI box than some home-built contraption! I have an older BSS AR116 that can do this (with the 40dB pad engaged), though it's an active rather than a passive DI, and obviously you still need a speaker to present the correct load to the amp. I think the current BSS models are quite pricey though. I think the cheapest DI box that claims to be suitable for this use is the Behringer DI100. There are also dedicated guitar speaker level DI boxes from Hughes & Kettner or Palmer which offer speaker simulation on the DI output. This might be handy to take the edge off if you're using overdrive or fuzz sounds, but maybe less useful for clean bass.

The external linings, gamba corners and the tuners are very much like instruments I've seen attributed as about 1900 (or a couple of decades either way), German or perhaps Czech. Is it a beech neck too? Many of these basses were never marked with makers names, so you might not get any closer than that.

I have a GK MB200 with a single volume control, and I reckon that a second volume control would be useful not so much for pushing the preamp into overdrive but for improving the signal/noise ratio when used at low volume. GK tend to voice their amps so that the highs are quite strongly boosted already with all of the EQ knobs at noon, and the preamp volume is early in the circuit, before the EQ. This does give them quite a lively character, but the extra gain in the highs can make them a bit more hissy than a flatter voiced amp would be. (Though I've not heard the Fusion 500 - maybe it's quieter than their op-amp preamps).

After having played around with building a B15n style preamp into my old Dynacord hybrid head; [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/277312-new-old-amp-day-dynacord-eminent-ii/page__view__findpost__p__3252758"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/277312-new-old-amp-day-dynacord-eminent-ii/page__view__findpost__p__3252758[/url] I have found that I really like the sound of that particular preamp circuit and I've started thinking it would be a handy thing to have a similar sounding preamp I can use as a standalone unit and plug into other power amps. A good DI output would be useful too. I also have a good few of the parts I'd need hanging around already; I have some valves in the stash, a neat little toroidal power transformer and a couple of salvaged audio transformers I can try for a DI output. After mulling it over for I while, I've worked out what I want to build. The B15n preamp circuit sounds great, but with only bass and treble controls the EQ is not very flexible. I've been reading up on the inductor-based active midrange used in the SVT, which seems attractive apart from the high parts count. But there is a more economical version of the Ampeg midrange circuit used in other amps like the 90s V4BH which uses only one triode for the midrange, with the other half of the valve used for a cathode follower for a low impedance output. The multi-tapped inductor used by Ampeg is a proprietary part which is hard to find, but I have found a useful set of instructions on how to wind my own. So the rough plan is to have a 6sl7 valve for the initial gain stages (with a pre volume and bright switch in between), a bass/treble James tone stack, then an ECC82 for the active midrange and cathode follower output stage. That should be able to feed the jack output directly, with a transformer for the DI out. If I take some care over the layout, I think I can get it into a small project box of about 250 x 170 x 50mm, which should stack quite nicely with most micro heads. I thought about using a 1U rack case, but I have never got into the habit of using rack gear. The first thing I'm going to attempt will be winding the inductor for the midrange, as the rest of it depends on whether I can do that successfully...

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1492699899' post='3282503'] We haven't sold anything like as many T-Shirts as we have CDs and records, but our T-Shirts sales have made a profit for both designs unlike the music which has yet to sell enough to cover the recording, and production costs for any of the 4 releases. It always seems strange to me that people will happily pay £10 for a T-Shirt that probably cost less than £3 to produce, but aren't so keen to spend the same on an album whose unit cost will be considerably higher. [/quote] It's not impossible that our t-shirt art is better than our music, though that's probably a thought I should not bring up with the band!

When I buy music from independent artists I prefer a hard copy if at all possible, but I will download if that's not available. Though having said that, the band I play guitar in have had a surprising number of younger people come up to us at gigs, look at the CD's and pronounce that there's not much point since they don't have anything to play it on. That always makes me feel old, and I'm only 36! Typically we shift more t-shirts than CDs at gigs...

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1492631507' post='3281892'] he's not wrong! [/quote] What happens if you do? I'm curious now!

Is bass much welcomed by the Morris crowd? My brother used to know a few down in Gloucestershire and Somerset, and he reckoned that any attempt to play chords to the tunes was frowned upon - his local lot were all melody instruments and the odd bit of percussion (apart from Melodeon left hand which is on the wrong chord as often as not anyway).

Hmm, it's elegant if you ignore the pointless extra holes drilled in the top and plugged with grommets, the preamp that does nothing and the big hunk of end-grain scrap wood secured with honking great screws through the back!

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1492368679' post='3279730'] During the RATM set, a drunk guy climbed onstage... singer handled him well, let him jump a bit and then his friend came to pull him out, no harm. A little while later, the same drunk gets his willy out and starts pissing on the floor in front of the stage. He was promptly kicked out... but wtf??? [/quote] Ooft! Was that Whistlebinkies? We've played there a few times in recent weeks, and it does seem to attract some boozy punters. This has good and bad sides, I guess.

[quote name='ezbass' timestamp='1492265042' post='3279094'] I agree on the rose tinted specs with regard to some of the content, you can't please everybody, as tastes in music differ (fortunately) but I still think the format was superior to Later. [/quote] While I feel it could have done with fewer mimed performances, I think I do prefer the old OGWT format without the studio audience or the unconvincing party atmosphere of Later. Although Bob Harris's attitude towards anything he considered to be unworthy was rather off-putting and did the show no favours IMO. In retrospect it seems comically short-sighted to have been so dismissive of acts like Roxy Music as Harris was...

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1492260935' post='3279073'] I have never ever been able to get a sound I'm happy with from that Orange rig... ever. And that stage is so sensitive to excessive volume and/or bass... I always take my 210 cab to put on top of their 410 and only use that. I still use what they have sometimes if it's not practical for me to bring my own stuff but I'm never as happy, and that's with the 'less busy onstage' bands (RATM and Urang Matang), with SBK having 3 guitarists.... forget it. [/quote] Yeah, it's an odd choice for a house rig really, since those heads distort so easily and have a baked-in tone that the controls can't do much about. The cab being down at floor level doesn't help either. I still feel like I'm fighting it a bit, but got it somewhere tolerable last night, and a small amount of preamp dirt seems to work OK for me in this band. We had the guitarists combo sitting on top of the (unplugged) house 4x12", which helped a bit to keep things clear and less muddy. The guitarist has been a pro sound guy in some good sized venues for years, so he's at least fairly good at not doing anything daft with his sound on stage even if he does like to turn up a bit! We're still at a volume level that I can just about manage with my GK MB200 and pair of 1x12"s, so while we're loud by my standards, we're probably not [i]that[/i] loud in the scheme of things.

Last night's gig was quite satisfying, in a band that we originally intended to be a bluesy trio but which is steadily drifting in a more rockish direction with a mixture of covers and originals. It's not a style I've done much of previously, but we're having fun and getting paid, so it's all good! It was a decent sized room so the guitarist got away with being a bit louder than usual on stage, which kind of enhances the rock angle for us. I used the house Orange Terror Bass and matching 4x10", and unusually the sound guy was happy to run a mic on the cab. I like to kick in some fuzz on a few tunes, and it works much better that way. After a couple of gigs in that venue I think this might be the first time I've figured out how to get a sound I'm happy with out of the Orange, by cranking the mid up a fair bit and turning the gain down so that it only breaks up a little. I would have preferred to bring my own amp, but the street the venue on is not the easiest spot for parking and access. This was also the first time I've attempted backing vocals at a gig (with this band), and I've definitely got some work to do there, but it's fun to have a go at it...

Some US sellers of the Tung Sol caution against using it in cathode follower applications, so I'm surprised that hasn't filtered through to the UK suppliers. In a typical cathode follower (whether of the AC or DC coupled type), the cathode will be at a lower voltage than the HT voltage, though still potentially high enough to cause issues. Anecdotally, the ones to avoid are Russian made valves with a spiral filament, most of which come from the same factory despite the different names on them. That leaves JJ from Slovakia, the Chinese manufacturers or older European or American valves.

I'm not too familar with the Mesa, but there is a known issue with some cathode follower circuits (not specifically in Mesa amps) where the voltage between the heater and cathode is higher than some 12ax7/ecc83 types can tolerate. The Tung Sol has a reputation for failing in cathode followers in other amps, as do most of the other current production Russian valves. It may be that if you can check the data sheets to find a 12ax7 with a higher maximum heater-cathode voltage than the Tung Sol you'll be OK, though buying from Mesa does at least save you the hassle of searching those out. The JJ ECC83s is one that has worked OK for me in the cathode follower position of another amp, FWIW.

I have a bitsa guitar with a strat shaped headstock which is blank. I've got so used to seeing headstock logos that it looks oddly incomplete with nothing there, but I think those jokey decals (Fecker et.al) are a bit naff and I don't want to stick my name on there since I only assembled it. I can see how that thought process could lead some people to stick a Fender decal on. It's often more about a familiar aesthetic than any attempt to deceive.

I like Fender type preamps too, they just have a different character going on from what I hear with a B15-esque 6sl7 preamp. Subjectively, my 6sl7 preamp has a nice thick, flattering quality (though not muddy) and isn't so edgy when pushed. I don't know if that's down to the difference between 12ax7 and 6sl7 valves, the Fender vs the James tone stack or whether it's the different approach to biasing - without taking the time to experiment, it could be any or all of those factors. It's a character that I liked immediately and don't hear in a lot of modern bass amps, though admittedly I haven't tried a lot outside of the mainstream stuff that you see everywhere. I do wonder whether some of the small-maker preamps and hybrid amps that get such enthusiastic reviews here and on Talkbass might also be going for that kind of sound.

I guess I'm suggesting that there are varieties of pleasing and recognisably "valvey" colouration that come from particular preamp topologies (in addition to the effects observed from the power amp) that could make them well worth using even without a valve power amp. The preamp I put into the Dynacord is a simple 6sl7 circuit based on the front end of an Ampeg B15n, and when pushed a little it produces a kind of distortion that barely even sounds dirty, but has a flattering thickening/sweetening effect along with some compression. It's a sound I'm particularly enjoying, and quite different to what I hear from Fender-ish valve preamps. And since I can directly compare it with a clean solid state preamp into the same power amp, I can be fairly sure that that colour is coming from the preamp in this case.

I'm struggling at the moment - the guitar player wants to do this, and it would sound a lot better if I sang the responses (the "Hey Pocky way" bit); [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEtXT9w9AYU[/media] It's not a hard bassline, and not a hard part to sing, but attempting to do the two together is doing my head in! I'm trying to figure out a methodical way of practicing it...

I'm not always as certain about the relative contribution of the preamp and power amp in valve amps. I have an old Dynacord Eminent II which has a transistor preamp and valve power stage, and to be quite honest it didn't sound all that special until I modified it by adding a valve preamp. That may be because the original preamp was made for vocal and keyboard use and wasn't very well voiced for bass, or it may be because the Dynacord power amp is designed to run clean (high plate voltage and lots of negative feedback) but it's a lot more musical and fun to play with the valve preamp. So while I agree that a valve power stage does contribute some unique and pleasing qualities, I wouldn't dismiss what a good valve preamp can do either. At some point I will try building the same preamp stage as a standalone box I can plug into other things, which might make for an interesting comparison.

Ooh, nice. I didn't know Carl Martin made amps - I'd only seen their pedals.

What value are the pots? If they're 500k or 1M, changing them to 250k will mellow things a little. A larger value tone capacitor could help too. This should be cheaper than changing pickups.

Did they not share UK distribution with Tokai for a while, or something like that? If shops were ordering them from a distributor with "Tokai" in the name, I can see how the name might become associated with them even if it tells us nothing about the manufacturer.

[quote name='Chienmortbb' timestamp='1491818773' post='3275528'] Not often someone makes me laugh in here but that tickles me. [/quote] Well, Dusty Hill did once describe his bass sound as "a rhino farting into a trash can"!

I picked up one of these recently. [url="http://www.rapidonline.com/uni-t-standard-digital-multimeter-tester-ut39c-85-4077"]http://www.rapidonline.com/uni-t-standard-digital-multimeter-tester-ut39c-85-4077[/url] It probably has more features than you need unless you're into pedal and amp DIY, but for guitar electronics it's useful to be able to measure capacitance, and the hold button is handy too. It's quite chunky feeling and seems sturdy enough.