Stub Mandrel

Nice to see him nearly cracking up near the end. I always imagine Eric Burdon stealing Chas Chandler's dinner money...

I have several different cases, but the most rugged is one from our own good @ped It's a cosmetically abused SKB case that keeps a Jazz or P as snug as a bug in a rug. I had to glue one of the inserts in place to stop it flapping down* and fix the strap that stops it opening too far, but looking at the 'relicing' on the outside it's clearly suffered a long hard life without taking any real damage. *Actually no! That was a no-name case I bought new.

You could buy a Harley Benton and throw away everything but the neck and still get value for money...

Instrument cables are screened to reduce noise (often with extra layers to further reduce noise and improve performance with small signals), and have relatively thin conductors for flexibility, lightness and to reduce cost. Used as speaker leads they work at low volumes but will probably 'fuse' if pushed hard or at least run warm and limit output. Speaker cables don't need screening (which reduces cost) as they carry larger signals and use thicker, heavier conductors instead. Used for an instrument they will be noisy and clumsy. You could have a dual-purpose cable with thick conductors and screening but it would be heavy, fat, expensive and probably less flexible than ideal. For a short unscreened cable you might get away with it in a not-very noisy (as in electrical noise) environment, but usually it will mean annoying hum when you aren't playing. Jack sockets themselves work with high currents and voltages and they have been used for instrument speakers for many years. They have two main disadvantages - an unplugged lead can easily short out and they can accidentally be plugged into sockets meant for instrument level signals. They also have less current carrying capacity (up to 15A - still enough for a pretty scary amplifier) than Speakon (which can take 30A). Speakon were only introduced in 1987 and were initially used for high power PA speakers and only relatively recently for lower powered instrument amplifiers. Before Speakon special XLR-style jacks were typically used for PA speakers (and sometimes still are). These share the risk of being confused with instrument/microphone leads but are less likely to get shorted accidentally than 1/4" jacks. Although Speakon are the ideal, you will find that most lower-priced amps/speakers will use 1/4" jacks. Some gear even has hybrid sockets that take Speakon OR a 1/4" jack: https://www.neutrik.com/en/neutrik/products/speakon-loudspeaker-connectors/speakon-chassis-connectors/speakon-combo My (rather elderly) amps and speakers all have 1/4" jacks, so I made up sets of speaker leads with heavy-duty mains cable in bright orange with high quality plugs that I can't confuse with my instrument leads, but if I had the choice I would go with speakon.

Every time I hear a chopper... I get the red mist.

It's worth considering that adding a second, different, cab can improve the overall sound if the original cab is not quite up to scratch. In practice, 'suck it and see' is perfectly rational approach if this doesn't demand risking a lot of money.

Famously Blackfoot, who were reformed by original member Ricky Medlocke, but he has the role of producer rather than musician. There are some bands where an evolving lineup doesn't seem to do any harm and even contributes to keeping their creative output fresh (Fairport, Hawkwind, the Animals), others where certain lineups are particularly significant (e.g. Deep Purple)

While what Bill says is perfectly true about modern speakers being much better at covering a wide frequency range, it's also worth noting that now bassists have access to a much wider range of tone shaping options on amps, pedals and via active basses. 25+ years ago it was an unwritten rule that bass players used 1x15 or 4x10 cabs. 12" speakers were for guitarists... some people thought I was really weird for using two 2x12 cabs, of course that would be perfectly normal now. Some bands I joined questioned whether or not they would do the job (until they heard them). Ironically I now have my dream 4x10 combo on top of a 1x15 cab as well, but it is as yet ungigged just practiced with, my only gigs since coming back to the fold have used supplied backline or only needed my 150W head on a single 2x12 :-)

The Fender "pure vintage '64" ones supplied as fitted to mine give a lovely wide range of sounds and great tone IMHO but are not very 'hot' although give plenty of crunch if you turn up the amp gain and dig in. When I bought it (Flea Jazz) I tried it side by side with a Mexican Deluxe active and far preferred the sounds from the Flea bass. I am very much a lover of a 'traditional' bass sound though. (It seems they are no longer available as the listing has disappeared from Fender's website - they do do ''60's custom shop ones' which may or may not be the same.

I can provide a definitive answer to the original question 'Thomann Price?'

Cunningly hidden in a spoiler box! I didn't think we have got past the cardboard concept (which still looked better than some eBay offerings...)

Certainly caught my attention.

Sloppy seconds...

I once tried out an acoustic bass, I noticed the bronzewound strings were dead as a dodo, crusty and horrid although the bass itself was immaculate. Surmising it had been in the shop a long time I was offered it at 50% off but something put me off, I think it was dots between the fret positions on a fretless.

Wizard!

🙂 I wonder if it is actually in eeprom - that would be more likely if it's caused by boot up glitches and woudl explain toneprints not being affected. But without ripping one apart and maybe seeing the source code...

Musicman: "Introducing the Bongo!!!" Vox: "Hold my beer!!!"

Yeah, that would reduce weight, but who wants a cab with a big hole on top? It arrived as four 8 ohm speakers in series/parallel for 8 ohms. It had an over-spec power supply (46V-0-46, instead of 40-0-40) but only a single pair of output transistors. The connectors were wired so you only had the choice of the internal speakers OR and external 8 ohm cab. The suggestion is it was a bodge made when there was a shortage of 150W transformers. Effectively they made it 150W at 8R rather than at 4R. I added the extra Mosfets and gate resistors (the boards had the connections) which made the board into the 250W version (I got the schematics) which let me add the extra socket and rewire so, you can use internal speaker + external 8R, two external 8R or just a single external 4R. I should add that the output transistors' heatsink had the cooling fan used on the AH250 but not the AH150. All that is missing is the UV light! Incidentally the original output transistors had been replaced as had the speakers (one of them was wired out of phase!) so perhaps even with the 8 ohm limit the overspec PSU was all too much. It's been running well now for over a year, although rarely with a 4 ohm load - it's loud enough!

This is a nice exercise for one finger per fret. See how fast y0ou can do it, and just play it further up the neck if the first four frets are a bit of a stretch. Can you work out what it is without looking? Q H Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q G|----------------------|----------------------|----------------------| D|----------------------|----------------------|----------------------| A|----------------8\----|--1----3----4----3----|--1-------------------| E|----------------------|----------------------|-------4----3----1----| Q Q Q Q Q H. Q Q Q Q G|----------------------|--------------------|----------------------| D|-----------------1----|--3-----------------|----------------------| A|--3----4----1---------|--------------------|--1----3----4----3----| E|----------------------|-------1------------|----------------------| Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q W G|----------------------|----------------------|-------------------| D|----------------------|-----------------1----|--3----------------| A|--1-------------------|--3----4----1---------|-------------------| E|-------4----3----1----|----------------------|-------------------| Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q G|----------------------|----------------------|----------------------| D|----------------------|----------------------|----------------------| A|--1----3----1----3----|--4---------4---------|--4---------1---------| E|----------------------|-------4---------4----|-------4---------1----| Q Q Q Q H. Q H. Q G|----------------------|--------------------|--------------------| D|------------1----3----|--------------------|--------------------| A|-------4--------------|--1-----------------|--4-----------------| E|--2-------------------|---------------4----|---------------4----| H. Q H. Q Q Q Q Q G|--------------------|--------------------|----------------------| D|--------------------|--------------------|----------------------| A|--1-----------------|--4-----------------|--1---------4---------| E|---------------4----|---------------4----|-------4---------4----| Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q G|----------------------|----------------------|----------------------| D|----------------------|-----------------1----|--3----3----3----3----| A|--1---------4---------|--1-------------------|----------------------| E|-------4---------4----|-------4----2---------|----------------------| W W W W G|-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|-------------------| D|-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|-------------------| A|--1----------------|--L----------------|--L----------------|--L----------------| E|-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|

>Jealous<

I'm trying to convince myself to split my 1110 combo into a 19" head and a 4x10 cab. 63kg is manageable for me though, especially as I've fitted castors, reading this thread makes me feel it's a bit special and more reluctant to start butchering....

I'm lucky to have one of these, it's the dog's chestnuts (£169.99 direct from Antex, up to £299 elsewhere! https://www.antex.co.uk/products/soldering-stations/760rwk/ Best bit is all the other uses for a precision temperature controlled hot air gun - such as heat shrink and bending plastic.