itu
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@Macbass68: Remember that power does NOT tell you about loudness. dB is the right instead of wattage. When you double the power, you gain 3 dB in loudness. 100 W to 200 W. This amount of difference can be heard in studio surroundings. When you want to get 10 dB louder (this can be heard on stage, too!), you need to multiply the power by 10. This means that a 100 W amplifier should be replaced by a 1 000 W amp. Low impedance (Z) is also hard to the amp. 8 ohm is an easy one, and does not heat the amp that much. You can think Z as a stick that you push. If the number is big, the area of the stick head is big, and it is easy to push it with your thumb. The smaller the Z, the thinner the stick, and at some point like a needle.
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I've tried Braun and Philips, and this time the latter won. I had a Washburn Status copy long ago, and the neck shape did not feel good. A local and very talented carpenter took off the lacquer from the body, and did some extensive shaping of the body and neck. Neck lost several mm from its thickness. Felt far better, but because Washburns had somewhat soft necks, this became really springy: no need for trem. (Now I have a bolt-on copy of Status. Although the neck is thicker, its shape is boxy and fits my hands well.)
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Musicman stingray (dartray) with status graphite neck.
itu replied to reggieboomboom's topic in Basses For Sale
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EBS had a built in 9 V Phantom in their preamps. Just connect your bass with a stereo (TRS) cable.
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Basic theory (that was cut short last time because of a cat): Sound travels 340 m/s in the air (20 °C). Wavelength of a 20 Hz wave is 340 m/s / 20 Hz = 17 m. 40 Hz is half of the previous, 8.5 m, and so on. Standing wave means that some distance from a wall to another parallel wall happens to be the same as some wavelength. Therefore to avoid standing wave the space should consist of non-parallel or well damped walls. Standing waves can be best tamed with (parametric, or 31-band) equalizers. Basically if you know the height, width, and length of a room, you can easily calculate standing waves and their harmonics, and kill the ringing with an eq. As cabinets are usually the shape of a box, there are also three main frequencies (and their harmonics) affecting the sound, if they are not tamed with suitable damping material in the walls. Horn or high range driver has usually its own case (or does not need one at all). A box volume limits either from the two: lowest reproducible f, or sensitivity. If the box is small, you can go low, but you need extra power. If the box is big, and you don't have to go so low, you may get a louder unit. A bass cab can be considered as a PA speaker, that doesn't have so neat f response, but can push lots of sound out. A good quality HiFi speaker may not be very efficient (like 0.1 %) whereas a PA speaker may have 2 % efficiency. In power numbers a 100 W amp creates up to 2 watts of sound in PA system, while at home the level is ridiculously low, like 1/10 W. But the response can be pretty straight. Why is a non-linear response OK? Because it is one part of the sound. Besides the response is usually some sort of a band pass filter (BPF), like with bass it could be 60 Hz - 4 kHz that removes over three octaves of the sounds we are able to hear. Ear can sense 10 octaves (some papers claim 16 Hz as the start): 20 - 40 (Hz) 40 - 80 80 - 160 160 - 320 320 - 640 640 - 1250 (yes, you saw the rounding, and understand the reason in the next lines) 1250 - 2500 2500 - 5000 5000 - 10000 10000 - 20000 In a band context there are several other instruments and sounds (drs, keys, g, voc...) that compete with the high end parts of the bass' response. Therefore we could cut quite a lot of the high end without issues. Remember a g-word response starts from 80 Hz, which is only one octave higher compared to bass. It is not even feasible to mix many similar frequencies to create any more mush. In studios the (frequency) bands are limited more or less between instruments to get better overall sound. If this raises any ideas/questions, I may continue. Now that cat tries to reach my keyboard.
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30 Hz x 2 = 60 Hz. As I wrote earlier, this 60 Hz is the first harmonic of B. Ear needs this to create the lowest f = 30 Hz. It does not have come out from the speaker. Human hearing is around 20 Hz - 20 kHz. Yes, it is possible to use subwoofers to go lower. Problems: A) How to control the lowest (mush) range? B) Wavelength is quite long at the low end. Is the space big enough that the frequencies are usable? C) Lowest frequencies need a big box and consume LOTS of power. Is the system feasible to carry around? D) The highest f that comes straight out from the neck (24 frets, 4 string in EADG tuning) is around 500 Hz. Put there three harmonics (1 kHz, 2 kHz, 4 kHz) and there you have the upper limit of the need. This is not very easy to push out from a big cone. X-over and a horn?
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1) An ordinary bass cab does not have to produce but the first harmonic. Therefore the usable f range should start from around 60 Hz. HiFi is another world. 2) A bass with a coil-magnet pickup can produce frequencies up to around 4 kHz. 3) Back to HiFi, and the linearity of a f response. If the range is expressed with the Hz only, it is useless. If the (±3 or ±6) dB limits are mentioned (or they can be seen in the curve), the audible range can be estimated. A ±20 dB curve is worthless, but suitable for marketing... 4) An element may have some specs. When it is built to a cabinet, the end result depends on the build quality, dimensions, a possible X-over, are the seams air tight, stability of the materials, stiffness and so on. A shorter version: a) The bass needs a cab that is able to produce reasonable sounds between 60 - 4 000 Hz (and between maybe ±9 dB). Bass is not HiFi stuff. b) A good, solid cab with relatively big dimensions is most probably functional. Has to be listened with the amp and the bass you are using. c) Everyone can make a cabinet, few can build a good one. Plain numbers of one component do not reveal the performance of the whole system.
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Glockenklang amps can do dirt. On the other hand, very clean, too.
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Hellborg: - Wal double neck, and a fretted one - 27 fret bass (Italian Reccanati?) - Status (36 V circuitry) - Wechter - Warwick - amps and cabs like TE, EBS, Warwick... He's obviously been searching for the perfect sound.
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Older Ibanez, and EMG have P pickups in one cover. They look exactly like humbuckers. Some Ibanez units have visible polepieces.
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Stan the Man (Alembic, Löwenherz, EBS, Carl Thompson...), Jeff Berlin (Markbass, Cort...), Les Claypool (Carl Thompson, A/DA...), Phil Lesh (Modulus Graphite, Ritter...), Stuart Hamm (Kubicki, Fender...), and the list goes on. Certainly not least: Jonas Hellborg.
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Status was not mentioned, although that name states "stable". I know they can only be found 2nd hand with some luck. But if you are after a Status, you sure want to invest to your bass, and not waste your money to Fender/Squier. Have you ever tried a Limelight?
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This is old. Zombie. But important. Anyone has the paper available?
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This is an EMG magnetic viewing film that I found from some music shop maybe two, three decades ago. I do not know whether they still sell it. Green thin film filled with oil and iron particles. You can buy similar stuff here: https://e-magnetsuk.com/product-category/magnetic-measurement-tools/magnetic-viewing-film/?srsltid=AfmBOorfmS1KTjOfyFqR4muH4SaqQq50KoIPhFn1zOUjMcd29qqtPwtH
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This is a picture of the magnets from my Passion II from 1989. As can be seen, here the polepieces are not visible, but magnets are.
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Defret a favourite neck or buy a fretless neck?
itu replied to Grooverjr's topic in General Discussion
You can ask a luthier to build you a similar fretless neck. Can be a really attractive option, also pricewise. -
Not specific. Usually those models mentioned have a thick sound, if not heavy bodies, too. If a suitable instrument happens to pass by, I might be tempted. But has to be with a dark fretboard. I am actually amazed, how cheap most of them sell, as they are real workhorses. Probably you could use one as a shovel in the garden, and play a gig in the evening after wiping soil off of it.
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Anyone has a Roadstar/Roadster with rosewood board? I see maple every now and then, but where are those darker fretboards?
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That fingerboard is the crown jewel of the bass. Very attractive.
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...and the comparison of about similar units pricewise. A £179 solid state amp is not directly comparable to a £1500 valve amp.
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My feel has been that single coils tend to sound somewhat compressed, no matter split duals or true singles. But that's probably because of my instruments, amps, and playing style.
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Please open up this comment a bit more. Would love to hear details.
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Maybe the band has decided to play the song half a step lower, and the previous bassist has had issues with transposing. He has just lowered the tuning, and still could have used the common positions on the fretboard. To me this looks like a lazy way to transpose.
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One big issue I learned from my then colleagues: Pineapple is just one system that is updated every now and then. Robot is a family of operating systems, because manufacturers can and do tweak it for their own HW and UI. This has led to several funny (or less funny) issues over the years. Sunny has a lot different OS than Singsung than Two- than many others. Banana is much more expensive (one manufacturer) and its pure number breaking performance is quite lame compared to Aliens, but as the system is just one, it has won many users, and coders (which means applications including HW). With Papaya you most probably would have a working system. With the other, I wouldn't ever be so sure. And after any update anything can happen. (I use both, because I have to use Fruit 12 Pro at work, and it is the worst phone I have ever had. One dealer started to laugh when he saw it, and asked have I managed to make any calls with it? Truth is: not many without WLAN. The same with email.)
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I've heard there may be exceptions, but Burners are mostly bolt-on.