ShergoldSnickers

No really a gig bag so much as a gig box - an old mandolin case. Kettle lead - long, tea bags and chocolate digestives or chocolate gingers. (Nice one Marvin ) Distribution board Boss GT10B and power supply 1 x large and fluffy cat blanket to wrap Boss Multifx - perloined from the a household menagerie member. FX safety is more important. Bubblewrap to line gig bag, and those packaging 'airbags' to top off with. Set of leads plus spares Speakon cable All leads are marked with a large gaffa tape wraparound tag with the band name on*. I can spot my leads at 20 paces, and it makes for a quick tidy away amidst the maelstrom after a gig. *The flaw in this is that I'm still required to remember to look around properly. I managed to leave a new lead behind at the last gig.

[quote name='Paul S' post='959826' date='Sep 17 2010, 07:38 PM']Just a thought - specifically Peavey PV118 subwoofer speakers. At first glance they appear to offer a lot of things I am looking for - they have 18" cabs and don't weigh as much a a small planet. Presumably when used for a FOH PA system then bass goes through them then. There must be drawbacks though?[/quote] Are you thinking of using them for bass guitar only, outside of their normal PA use? If so, I would think that the main drawback is the limited frequency range. They have a bypass filter that cuts off much above upper bass and low mids. You'd need another cab capable of reproducing the missing frequencies to make up for this. They are also very inefficient. In itself this is not necessarily a bad thing, but the speakers don't handle enough power to really make up for this inefficiency, as they start from a low level. Each extra 3dB of sound pressure level requires a doubling of the amplifier power, and it looks to me that they will simply not be able to handle enough power to stack up the missing dBs. If they are to be used in the role intended - as PA subs, I still think the lack of power handling will hobble them.

In my day it used to be the bass part to 'Badge'. ***Shuffles off with Zimmer frame heading for Shackleton's high chair near window***

The speaker dimension is only one of dozens of factors that can affect the bass extension a speaker is capable of, and of itself doesn't tell you much about the end result once put in a cabinet. Others are: Cone suspension compliance - how hard it is to move the cone The enclosure type and dimensions Port tuning if a ported enclosure The free air resonance of the driver and how it resonates - over a shallow hump of frequencies or over a very tight and pronounced peak. Cone mass This is before other factors such as response smoothness, efficiency considerations, crossover design (if a crossover is present) are taken into consideration. Given a credible designer, and enough time and money, it would be quite possible to design several enclosures, each using one or more speakers of differing dimension to that used in the other enclosures, but all giving similar results. There is nothing inherently good or bad about big or small speakers for bass reproduction. Other than needing lots of small ones if that's the way you go. Practical considerations usually dictate the most sensible way through a problem for a given situation though. Speaker enclosure design is all compromise. The trick is getting the cleverest compromise with what you have to hand and that still meets your main goals. Your main goal may be cost. Or it may be efficiency. Or something else - pure sound quality for example. The prime examples of this art are the designs of Bill Fitzmaurice and Alex Claber. Both ingenious in their own way, and both providing something that most major manufacturers seem unable or unwilling to do. Edited for a modicum of clarity.

The guitarist from the current band used to have a Burman Pro 501 combo amp. He sold it in the late 80s and has regretted it ever since. The sound was exquisite - everything from that creamy Fripp type infinite sustain to gritty overdrive to a cutting clean sound cleaner than a bottle of Cillit Bang in an operating theatre. The three stage input gain was to die for. Heavy little git though for its size .

Grado. [url="http://www.iheadphones.co.uk/sennheiser/76/Grado+Headphones.htm"]Scroll down for the 'inexpensive' models[/url] The SR60i, SR80i or SR125i would be more than adequate. I have the SR125i. These are all open backed so may not suit use for personal monitoring by band members when recording quiet vocalists or some acoustic instruments, but for another device for checking a mix they are astoundingly revealing. The best range of headphones I've heard so far.

Had the first opportunity last night to really let the BigOne cab sing. It's coupled with an Eden WT550, and a Shergold Marathon fretless with TI Jazz flats. [b]The weight and transportability[/b] Straightforward to handle. The tilt wheels do the job, as do the strap handles, and picking it bodily off the ground is easy. It can be lifted by the top handle with one hand, although two are needed to carry it up steps or along narrow passages where it cant be wheeled. Easily fits in my boot (11 year old Saab 9-5 estate) with the length aligned with the car, leaving plenty of room at the side for other bits of gear. [b]Adapting EQ settings[/b] This is in comparison with an Eden NC115 bass combo I used to use. I had to take a shade of the bass end off! This is running from a bridge pick-up located about a centimetre away from the bridge block. The avatar shows the old cream DeMarzio J in this position, now replaced with a Wizard. I put more into the 2k region and a bit higher up as well to get more bite from the mid unit. This unit is very smooth in it's delivery. I'll probably take some out from the 150 - 200Hz region next time, as there was a slight amount of upper bass boom in the smallish rehearsal room. [b]The sound[/b] Immense. Utterly spectacular. The bass extension is very, very good and is well controlled. The whole bass end is taught, articulate and responsive with no hangover of notes on damping a string. Ghost notes stop when they should. On use of an octave divider, the cab still coped with me playing a bottom E, audibly reproducing the octave below - there weren't masses of fundamental but it was definitely there. I've only ever heard this on headphones before. It wasn't long before the amp fan came on full time. As mentioned previously, the mid unit is pure silk - no nasty resonances or spikes in the response, and handled all the patches I chucked at it from the fx unit. The two drive units combine very well indeed. It sounds like a single speaker pushing out the sound. Not something I could say quite as authoritatively about the Nemesis combo with the 15" driver and tweeter. I've never heard the Shergold bass sounding this good - I dread to think what a good modern bass would sound like with this cab, things have moved on a long way since 1980 when I got the Marathon. It's days may be numbered! [b]Never mind all this - how loud does it go?[/b] More than loud enough with this amp. The Eden pumps out 500w into 4 ohms, and this being a 6 ohm cab - or is it 8 ohms - I was getting 300 to 350 watts into the BigOne. I wouldn't want to fall much below this to be honest, but the drummer does have a loud Yamaha kit (very loud) and at times I was only a few clicks away from full on the master volume, about three quarters. I do tend to run the input gain below anything that might remotely give clipping though. [b]Overall[/b] Joy. A real bass end coupled with smooth mids and highs that can do gritty and dirty if that's what your fx chuck out. Not only that, it does it all effortlessly. I did notice the smell of warm electronics coming from the cab port when bunging the cab back in the car after the evening's work-out - I assume the crossover or driver coils had been getting a tad warm.

[quote name='Beedster' post='950791' date='Sep 9 2010, 04:34 PM']Whilst I agree that I can use my hifi speakers for the time being, I kinda want to try the NS10s (I've also found a pair pretty cheap). I can at least run them side by side. Anyway, is running the NS10s from a hifi amp, albeit run flat, going to defeat the object (the speakers I'm running at present are also 6ohms)? OK, I'm aware that most hifi amps are not flat even if set as such, but I've got two decent-ish hifi amps here and pending getting a decent power amp (or opting for a different monitor solution to the NS10) down the road, using one of these seems most economical? Cheers Chris[/quote] Most amps worthy of the tag hifi should have made strenuous efforts to be flat. Mine has no tone controls whatsoever and is ruler flat. The NS10s although they have been periodically updated are a very old design - they were discontinued in 2001. Monitors have moved a long way since then. An experienced engineer will be able to cope well with them, just as they could cope with an SM58 or SM57 for delicate vocal parts for example. The point is that you wouldn't necessarily want to start from there. Overrated in comparison with modern designs in my opinion - like the aforementioned Shure mics, they have acquired a mystique way beyond their actual performance. As ever, do NOT take my word for it - try them out if you can against several modern designs.

A Melanie Phillips moment there with this thread then Nige? Well I think it's good to stir up the natives - gets us all thinking about areas outside our little fluffy comfort zones. A good thought provoking discussion with good points scattered throughout. Anyone seen Bilbo?

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='949330' date='Sep 8 2010, 12:18 PM']Ooh, look at those hooters."[/quote] Just had a terrible flashback to a traumatic incident as a child at a vintage car rally.

[quote name='jakesbass' post='945925' date='Sep 5 2010, 09:42 AM']Shergold I really appreciate your comments, especially as you're honest enough to be objective when it's not your thing.[/quote] I didn't think it would be, but it's grown on me with repeated listening. Just goes to show you should keep an open mind. I again bow deeply before your collective talents.

[quote name='Earbrass' post='949193' date='Sep 8 2010, 10:10 AM']..... but listening to John Wetton improvising out of his skin with Crimson (LIVE) was one of the things that got me into bass. I'd cite the live version of Schizoid man recorded at the Concertgebouw in Nov 1973 as my fave example, but there's loads of others.[/quote] That makes two of us.

I'm on tricky territory here as the band I'm in only ever improvises. That's the whole point in our case. With nothing to learn (except how to listen and how to play with restraint), we can just turn up to a gig and play. For as long as required. We make no claim to be fantastic musicians, but we enjoy what we do and it's immense fun. We keep getting asked back to various venues so we think we are doing something right - primarily managing to find venues that will have an audience that is more conducive to what we do. It does vary in content sometimes sounding jazzy, sometimes like prog rock or moody film music. And sometimes just plain barmy or wrong - that comes with the job. We limit ourselves in time to each 'number' having a large clock on stage - the final minute concentrates the mind into having a stab at stopping together. There's certainly no-one else in the area doing what we do, but if we thought for one minute that we were only torturing an audience - we'd stop gigging at least. None of us are too proud to be told the truth as others see it. I'm not sure your comments would really apply to my band in any case silddx, as the whole point is that the entire band improvises and I'm therefore left with no option but to join in.

[quote name='silddx' post='948783' date='Sep 7 2010, 08:50 PM']Is there a point? Unless you play jazz I can't see one. The occasional inspired extra note here and there, sure, but studying improvisation on a bass!?! It seems ridiculous. Learn to cook instead, it's much more useful and pleasing for other people. It sounds like a recipe for cheating your audience to me. Only musicians will feel any "magic" happening, and that magic will be VERY rare. The audience won't get it anyway, and why not compose something beautiful in the first place. For me, improvisation on a bass is for jazz and pompous tits who convince themselves it's entertaining. I wish they would realise NO-ONE GIVES A sh*t.[/quote] Oh bollocks - you've been to one of our gigs haven't you?

'Badge' - the Cream number. My own 18th birthday party at the Shay Club in Halifax, 1975. An Avon EB3 copy feeding a Linear Conchord 30 watt amp into a home made 2 by 12. All borrowed.

Oozes class. I'll be honest in that it's not totally my cup of tea... BUT.... you've managed that nigh on impossible trick of conveying effortless emotion as a band - and over a wide dynamic range. This is spectacularly difficult to pull off, as the quiet bits often collapse, or the louder parts run out of expansion room at an emotional level. Very, very jealous of the musicianship of the band - it's more than technical ability here - it's an awareness of the whole. Missing the brylcreme and monacle though.

[quote name='dood' post='945025' date='Sep 3 2010, 10:29 PM']f*ck my ole boots, is this *still* going?[/quote] Don't tell me your boots are custom as well?

[quote name='Bilbo' post='942282' date='Sep 1 2010, 03:58 PM']I find that I often type the wrong word because my finger/muscle memory overides my conscious thought processes. However hard I try, I always type would as woudl and the as teh. I am sure there are many others ....[/quote] When I type Yorkshire it invariably comes out as Yorksh*te. The shame.... Looks like the item has indeed been withdrawn after a quick eBay check. Wonder what the reason was...

[quote name='umph' post='943325' date='Sep 2 2010, 01:16 PM']It's always great when valves go up in a big fireball, well it looks cool, the smell and cost aren't so great. do love soundcity 120's though try one out with a modern decent cab and complain about the sound![/quote] Sadly it's long gone, but the home made wardrobe (4'6" tall 3 feet wide and 18 inches deep) won't have done it any favours at all. Slot reflex at the base and lined with an eiderdown. Very heavy. I did have a Marshall superbass 100 (1980 vintage) after that and it seemed better balanced in being slightly less bright. This fed a Fender Dual Showman 2 by 15" and they sounded pretty good together as I remember.

[quote name='silddx' post='943328' date='Sep 2 2010, 01:18 PM']Your shoes are the wrong colour and your stone cladding is sh*t.[/quote] Best remove the Artex and polystyrene tiles from my Shergold then. :snob: I too rather like the Big Al Shape - it sort of works because it shouldn't. But it does.

[quote name='King Tut' post='942893' date='Sep 2 2010, 12:37 AM']Use a credit card to push the string down on the 12th! [/quote] That means I've got to wait another 10 days...

Spectacularly Variable Tone Salaciously Voluptuous Trollop Standard Volatile Troll Senile Vacuous Tit Special Vacuum 'Tachment OK, I'll stop.

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='941789' date='Sep 1 2010, 10:14 AM']I can easily beat an all valve head by pouring a pint of Guinness in the vents. Ka boom. Obviously the 'Ka boom' has superior tone to a transistor explosion though.[/quote] I accidently did this with a pint balanced on a cab. The vibration from the home-made chipboard behemoth sporting an 18' speaker - all made in woodwork at school - pitched the glass over and into the top vent of a Sound City 120 placed on the floor. The farty noise and cloud of steam was spectacular and almost poetic. A thorough rinse and dry, and a new set of valves, and it worked good as new. The sound was still pretty average though.