Mottlefeeder

[quote name='david_l_perry' post='158756' date='Mar 17 2008, 07:44 AM']Sorry Mottlefeeder.... ...I still think the mids [i]massively [/i]overpower the omni 12 so much in the btm end...but do read it in the context of the rest of the thread...:- As I said, I came across the exact same sound with the Omni 15 that i tried out in Leeds, after a couple of gigs I tried it out again and suddenly the btm end was explosive, to the point that it moved from my 'not to build' list to 'I must build it next'.... Will in Leeds had his Omni 15 for roughly 12 months previously but only played it at very low levels in his house. Will said that his first gig at higher levels 'didnt inspire him' as it was lacking the btm end, the second gig however was a completely different tale, and it was after this that I heard the cab again in the same room with my gear again....without doubt the sound had [i]radically [/i]changed after his loud gigs...massive btm end. Dave[/quote] The bass speaker (Eminence Delta 12LF) was run in before I fitted it. 100 Hrs at 10 Hz, before fitting it to a baffle, with the level set to give maximum excursion without hitting the end stops. The 10 Hz came from a tone generator and I was pleasantly surprised to find that my old hifi amp had any output at that frequency. I have also been gigging the Omni 12 for the best part of a year. With regard to the sound, I have always said that it sounds good with a flatwound fretless, but never really thought that through - a flatwound fretless doesn't have much output in the area you find overpowering. Also, when I use roundwounds on a fretted Yamaha, I turn down the upper mids. What I like about it is the bottom end extension and clarity, compared to the boom and muddiness of other speakers I have owned. As we agreed last time you auditioned it in our church hall, the Omni 12 is very good as a full range PA cab. Whether its perceived weakensses as a bass guitar cab can be fixed with EQ (and amplifier headroom?) is something we have not really explored.

[quote name='david_l_perry' post='158547' date='Mar 16 2008, 07:47 PM']... The only cab that didnt inspire me was the Omni 12 ...[/quote]

[quote name='bass_ferret' post='156702' date='Mar 13 2008, 01:17 PM']Flats are wound with flat wire (like tape) not like halfs that can be squeezed (pressure wound like roto solo bass) or ground (lots of ground halfs around). See the Wiki for more info.[/quote] True, - sloppy use of words on my part.

[quote name='dood' post='156559' date='Mar 13 2008, 10:36 AM'][url="http://www.bkelec.com/HiFi/ClassD/ClassD.htm"]http://www.bkelec.com/HiFi/ClassD/ClassD.htm[/url] I owned one of these.. All ya need to do is fit a lead to connect to the additional speaker cabinet. (A 5 min job, believe me.. then you are all set to go! £280 Infact, if you want to go the whole hog, these are actually designed to fint into a cabinet to make it active, but can be used standalone.[/quote] Can you tell us what made you get rid of yours?

[quote name='synaesthesia' post='154847' date='Mar 10 2008, 07:58 PM']...If you are willing, Line X is available in the UK, and costs roughly 75 quid to 'do' a speaker box. At least in my neck of the woods... they sell franchises to operators but I don't know if they manage the retail prices to maintain some semblance of equity. [url="http://www.line-x.co.uk/"]http://www.line-x.co.uk/[/url] have fun,[/quote] A cheaper alternative might be Protecta-kote. A paint finish that you put on with a roller, which contains rubber granules . One £15 tin will do all six sides of an Omni 12 (28x24x15 inches), and it is available from chandlers etc. [url="http://www.protectakote.co.uk/index.htm?gclid=CIiE45mNi5ICFRKHMAodqU589g"]http://www.protectakote.co.uk/index.htm?gc...CFRKHMAodqU589g[/url]

The pitch of the note is determined by the weight per unit length of the string, its length and its tension. Where a flatwound string has been squeezed flat (as against ground flat) it will have fewer/smaller holes between the internal overwindings, and so will be heavier per unit length. This type of string will need higher tension to get up to the same note as a same-sized roundwound.

It may not be as arbitrary as it first appears - Some US companies specify that for orders over a certain value, ($100 I think) they will only send them by a specific US postal service, so that they are insured in transit. That service feeds into UK parcelforce, who will collect VAT and delay delivery by about a week, and charge you for the privilege. Other carriers will have other partners over here. I ordered 5 hipshot ultralites from the US, and by the time the bank took a cut on the exchange rate, and parcelforce added its £13.50, the total was about £95, £10 less than buying in the UK.

[quote name='allighatt0r' post='156258' date='Mar 12 2008, 06:52 PM']Recently my brother bought himself a £99 6 string bass, and the price tag shows... but it's given him his first experience of a 6 string and he likes it, and it's a bit of a project upgrading it, new strings, nut, ...whatever. And as the tone layout is frankly stupid (two volumes, one for each pickup, and no less than three passive tone knobs (each pot has a capacitor....)) So, we've come to the conclusion that it wouldn't be a bad idea to make it into an active bass, changing the three tone knobs into a three band EQ... I was wondering what would be the best way to go about doing this, should i try to purchase a ready made wiring set on Ebay, or would it be better to make one myself, buying a 9-volt battery adapter and some wires from Maplins and soldering the lot together, between me and my dad we have some half decent wiring and soldering experience. Thanks for any help in advance. [/quote] If you feel up to making one, there is a lot of useful information on this thread at DIY Audio [url="http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=75949&perpage=25&pagenumber=2"]http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread....mp;pagenumber=2[/url] - it starts as 2 band EQ and then branches into 3-band eq and 3-band swept mid EQ Also worth a look is this two channel 2 band eq design the bare bones bass blender (BBBB for short) [url="http://personalpages.tds.net/~fdeck/bass/"]http://personalpages.tds.net/~fdeck/bass/[/url]

I agree with Bod2's post. I started with cabs that limited my sound - large speaker in small box boominess - and bought a Zoom Fx unit to provide what I thought I wanted. Since upgrading my gear, I like the sound of the basses, and the Zoom unit sits at home as a flat-EQ preamp and tuner feeding my mixer. If you are doing covers, you may have to go that route, but if you apply your own style to what you play, pick your own sound.

[quote name='gary mac' post='153601' date='Mar 8 2008, 02:15 PM']Illness is keeping me housebound at the moment and yesterday in an attempt to stop climbing the walls, thought I would install Cubasis. Typically, I can't do it. I suspect I am missing something obvious and hopefully someone can point me in the right direction. It's not a ripped off copy, geniune article that I purchased a few years back. I had it installed on my preious computer and all was well. Yesterday when trying to install I had problems. Wavelab lite installed ok. Master unit istalled ok. But not Cubasis VST. Any help would be much appreciated. Cheers, Gary.[/quote] Cubase VST is quite an old version, so could it be that you have moved to WinXP, or even WinVista, and that is giving you problems?

Looking at your problem with fresh eyes, a conventional amp built into a combo is going to be heavy for rehearsals, and I doubt it will equal a 1x18 plus 2x10 when connected to an extension cab. An alternative might be a Class D lightweight amp built into an Omni 10.5 for rehearsals, coupled to an Omni 10 for performing. The preamp could be a floor based DI with eq box, by Hartke, sansamp, microbass or Behringer. This practice rig would just about fit in the front of your car, and the complete rig would be more efficient than an average set-up, and would take 750 Watts. If you have not heard of Omni speakers, they are self build, or commision build, and the Omni 10 is a horn loaded 2x10, and the Omni 10.5 is the 1x10 version. A more conventional approach would be a Markbass amplifier, with a loud 1x12 for practice, and a completely different performance rig, which sounds a bit like what you already have.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='150797' date='Mar 4 2008, 03:56 AM']This interesting tidbit came my way today: [url="http://consumerist.com/362926/do-coat-hangers-sound-as-good-monster-cables"]http://consumerist.com/362926/do-coat-hang...-monster-cables[/url][/quote] I bought a new CD player and found it too bright for the rest of my system. The shop advised me to use solid-cored mains cable (1 sq mm) to link it to the preamp. It did sound less bright, but did not fix it for me, so I had to exchange the CD player instead. I have also 'upgraded' from Maplins thickest white figure-of eight speaker cable to their transparent figure-of-eight speaker cable, and found the speakers sufficiently brighter that I found them tiring to listen to. I am back on the original cables now. YMMV

Those of you who are interested in BFM designs might like to know that I am bringing an Omni 12. It seems to be the least favoured of the three Omnis, since most go for the easy built of the 10, or the massive bass of the 15. I like it - you can make your own minds up. Here are the response curves from the BFM site - [url="http://billfitzmaurice.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=889"]http://billfitzmaurice.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=889[/url]

[quote name='Smash' post='148623' date='Feb 28 2008, 09:13 PM']Cheers Mottlefeeder, but I really need to travel light as I can as I walk to this place which is about 1.5 miles and even a 10kg amp with bass can be hard work, well for weedy me that is. Does anybody play acoustic bass here with acoustic guitars? any ideas?[/quote] The message seems to be that whatever route you go down, it is not going to be light emough to carry 1.5 miles. Time to look outside the box? How about a lightweight porter's trolley. We use them to load in/load out, but there is nothing stopping you taking one further afield.

[quote name='Smash' post='148508' date='Feb 28 2008, 05:05 PM']Having to do quiet practices with an acoustic guitar, took along my standard bass with a mini boss recorder and headphones but that's no good as guitarist didn't know what I was playing. There is no power in the room so I am looking at either an cheap acoustic bass or a very small battery powered amp, but.... worried incase the acoustic bass would be drowned out and also the only battery amp I can see is the new Roland Cube RX but its not out until April/May. What do you reckon would be the best option? PS. sorry if this is in the wrong forum, thought it was more to do with monitoring[/quote] I have used both my Hartke kickback 10, and my Hartke HA 300 (but not at the same time!) with a 12 volt caravan battery and a 12 to 240 volt convertor. The only problem I had was a slight buzz, which disappears when you touch the strings, or turn the treble down. It's not a safety problem, it's the harmonics from the invertor. An invertor is about £20, and a 12 volt burglar-alarm battery should be about £10 to £15, so you could use your existing amp for £35-ish in extra parts if you felt comfortable putting it together. That's a fairly comon set-up for buskers.

[quote name='trevthebass' post='145503' date='Feb 23 2008, 11:24 AM']hi ya nik ive played all over the world matey for all top cruise ships in the jazz trios, QE2, P&O, royal carribean e.t.c i was londons premier coparate bands bass player www.chanceband.co.uk working along side toni kiley drums chris de burgh, and sessions for bmg, warner bros, what is it you would like to learn nik how to play a waltz or how to slap a million miles per second i teach all styles and bass playing whilst singing and my rates are fair im going to be loading up some sound clip demos on my space page www.myspace.com/trevthebass soon thanks for the interest trevor.[/quote] Do you do punctuation?

[quote name='Leowasright' post='146791' date='Feb 25 2008, 06:07 PM']Listening to what my current band have recorded, there a low Bs being played, and apparently he had a 5 string... ...Has anyone tried setting up a 4 string as the bottom 4 strings on a 5 string ie .065" to .125" guage tuned to BEAD? I cannot believe nobody has tried this...... David H[/quote] I have a four string fretless that I strung BEAD for a couple of years before I moved to a 5-string. The biggest problem that I had was the confusion it caused my bass teacher. The down side is that you have to buy 5-string sets and waste the G, or buy singles and pay extra. Some US string companies do sell BEAD sets, but I have never seen them advertised over here.

Roots are important to emphasise the chord changes. Between the chord changes you can choose what you play. For example, 1) If the chord changes every 1st beat, you should play the new root every 1st beat. But, if you have the same chord for several bars, you could play chord tones every 1st beat. 2) To get from one root to the next, ideally you should play something that is melodically interesting, harmonically strong, and fits in with the drum pattern. In practice, you compromise, e.g. walking up the scale to a new root note is melodically interesting, but harmonically weak. Playing chord tones for the chord you are on, or the chord you are going to is harmonically strong, but melodically weak. And, what works in one song, may not work so well in another. How you get from knowing this to applying it is something I am still working on! Next...

I'll be travelling from Lymm with a Ford Focus estate, and space in the back. I can detour by Altrincham/Sale, or by Warrington (but not both!) if anyone wants a lift.

[quote name='Linus27' post='133520' date='Feb 4 2008, 12:02 PM']Thanks Birdy but a bit out of my price range. Good luck selling it though. Does anyone know what the Hartke VX115 speaker is like? Its a paper cone, can handle 300W at 8 ohms and is only £165. My other option is the Hartke 115 XL but this is only 200W at 8 ohms. Would Hartke be a better option that Ashdown?[/quote] The Hartke VX115 is solidly built, but not overweight, and when I auditioned it, it sounded warmer and cleaner than a second hand 1 by 15 H&K or a second hand 1 by 15 Peavey for the same kind of money. It takes a low B without problems, and does not seem to suffer from the boom of a big speaker in a small box that you will hear from some smaller combos. I used it in a church and occasional outdoor gigs (without PA support) and never ran out of volume. The only time I did run out of volume was at an audition in an empty club, where the lead guitarist had a large amp, and I only had 200 watts to play with. I stopped using it when I finished building a BFM Omni 12 (£250-ish for the parts + 30 hours work). You might be interested in buying my Hartke if we can work out a way of getting it from Warrington to Surrey without adding 25% to the cost.