chyc

Request: If anyone has a bass (normal or 6 string piccolo variety) with a Fishman Fluence pickup I'd be very grateful if you could bring it. Reason being I've been reading and seeing a lot of chatter about them and want to hear what it's all about.

Looking forward to it. See you all on Sunday

3 hours ago, polvo said:

An update for anyone still following this, or for anyone who might have this same issue in the future...

 

Bought one of these Lehle DC filters, but it doesn't solve the problem. 

Sorry to hear that.  

14 minutes ago, Muppet said:

They're still producing the other amps, like the Head of Doom, ABM Evo V, Shavo etc - they're just under the 'Custom Shop' banner now. 

Yeah, I missed that, but in my defence the site is currently a mess. The ABM page and UK ABM page make no mention of those, and the dropdown of the "ABM Series" only contains EVO-IV.

5 hours ago, Russ said:

I like the look without the case - it's smaller, and probably substantially lighter too. But they should sell it with a gig bag, like they did with the first-gen Rootmasters. Although maybe not with the wool lining! 

Sadly it's actually heavier if going by their website (links to source)

ABM EVO-IV Metal: 13.8kg

ABM EVO-IV Wood: 12.5kg

I agree, a gig bag would put my mind at ease immensely. 

1 hour ago, la bam said:

They do some out there things sometime ashdown. I can't work out why they'd market the new abm in that metal case with no protection. It's either to keep costs down, but then offer you the wooden sleeve at extra cost, or just a bit crazy. We know it won't last without protection with all those exposed knobs and sliders. 

Totally agree with you. I have dropped my ABM, and the wooden sleeve saved me big time. Saying that, the all-metal cover looks damn cool in my opinion.

I see they've removed the AGM model from their line-up, which is sad as they looked rather nice.

Actually, they sold two similar AGM amps, one in a wooden enclosure, one in a metal one. Was that Ashdown testing the waters?
 

Interestingly Ashdown have updated their product range, and the ABM Evo V is no more. In its place is a new ABM Evo IV with an all-metal chassis. I think it looks fantastic, and it will continue to look fantastic right up to the first time you take it out the house .

https://ashdownmusic.com/products/uk-abm-600-evo-iv

1. Rich - Trace Elliot TE-1200 amp, Barefaced Super 12T cab, earplugs , Shuker custom 5, Tanglewood TRB-CE acoustic bass gtr.

2. Woody - Rickenbacker 4004-L5, maybe Sei Flamboyant, Same old basschat 12" with some amp, other stuff TBC

3. Pinball (tbc) - some interesting basses

4. Stubsy - Joyo BadASS, GRBASS AT212 slim - only 50W but that should give 120dB at one metre 😇. (or I bring my TE 1110 combo). Some fun pedals. Perhaps the AVII 1960 precision, the Sire P10 and maybe the Fender Performer and something unexpected...

5. Sean - Mesa 400+, Laney Nexus Tube 400 [oh jeez], MJW Taranis 200 (Filthbox Matamp clone with extra channel and EQ), GK MBF500, GK Fusion 550, 2 x LFSys Monaco, 2 x Japanese Market Spector Euros with LHZ-03 preamps, Valenti #005 Super P, Yamaha BB1300, my small but well-appointed pedal-board (Origin Cali 76, Origin DCX, Aguilar Chorusaurus, etc) plus a mini walk-in bass surgery if interested. Plus whatever I might be selling at the time.

6. Rosie - likely I'll bring my upright, set up for bluegrass/folk/jazz if anyone's not played upright before and fancies a go

7. Phil - BassChat cabs, maybe some sort of shootout?

8. MikeD - Laney Digbeth, Zilla 212, Dingwall Combusion, Revelation PJ, pedals, try to finish home made bass🤞🤞🤞🤞

9. neepheid - G&L CLF L-1000, Yamaha BB1200, Sire D5, Sire Z7, Greco LGB-700, Reverend Triad, Epiphone Les Paul (not so) Standard, Epiphone Thunderbird '64, Squier Jaguar H (with Ibanez CAP double humbucker from ATK200/800 etc), Gear4Music rat bass (with Lace Aluma-P), £150 giggable bass challenge, 1 or 2 amps depending upon space...

10. Jabba_the_gut - Note sure what stuff yet........10. Jabba_the_gut - Status 3000, Status 4000, Stingray 4, USA Sub 5, Markbass Tube, some pedally bits inc Valeton GP5 cheaply thing

11. Wolverinebass - Grainger Hades, HX Stomp, GK Fusion 1200s.

12. Japanaxe - Precision(s) & Dingwall(s), DIY 100W Bassman head if finished by then(!) as people seemed to like my B15 clone, At least 1 other amp (see sig)

13. JohnDaBass - Fender Imp combo, Fender Mike Kerr Jaguar, Fender Stu Hamm Urge 1, HB ThunderStang, Squier Paranormal Rascal, Mark Bass Bronco ( very yellow), Ashdown Capri ( very Pink)

14. Geek99 (tentative) - sire v7 5 string (rapidly becoming my favourite bass ever), vintage est96a (punches above its weight as judged by basschat midlands massive and Stub Mandrel), Tc electronic bh250 and A cab that was dragged out of the sea    (Possibly) but only cost £10

15. chienmortbb - Fender Aerodyne AJB65, G4M pretend aerodyne, Sire Narcus M2 (possibly for sale. Ashdown Restoglide 800 and Bugera Veyron  1001M, LFSys Monza cab. Possibley a number of accessories for sale.  I might have to rrim the list as I am due an op shortly and am not allowed to lift anything for 6 weeks. You will notice me as the bloke with no trousers.

16. Richard R.  - Brawley 4 and 5 string basses,  Ashdown ABM C300-100+15"extension, Roland V-Bass COSM system pedalboard plus HB Musicman fitted with hex pickup, headphone amp, raffle prizes. Hopefully my son and his Ibanez. Definitely trousers.  V-bass system and bass possibly for sale.

17. Scrumpymike - Gillett Contour ST; Harley Benton MV-4MSB Gotoh BM; Rascal Mervyn-Lyte (Fender Rascal re-bodied a-la P Lyte by Andy Jr); Sandberg California ll SL TM 4 SHORT with recent Aguilar upgrade; Vox Starstream A2S; Ampeg SVT-7 PRO; Fender Rumble 100 combo;

BF Super Compact Gen 3; LFSys Monaco.

18. rwillett - Depending on what space @neepheid leaves me in the car,  Fender Jazz, 3d printed headless, 3d printed jazz & 3d printed six string (if I finish them both), Jazz Bitsa, Matching Westone 1A Guitar and Bass, Mustang Bass, Gnome Pro V2, some sort of large speaker that was donated. Possibly a Strat and.or Tele to provoke sharp intake of breath, Tonex and Mod Dwarf. If he brings too much, either he's sitting on the roof bars or I am 

19. Mottlefeeder - Yamaha RBX765: 5-string '80s solid body. Ibanez EW205: 5-string ABG. Ibanez EHB1265MS: 5-string fanned fret, headless. Hohner B2AV: 5-string active cricket bat. Home-brewed briefcase - battery/mains 175 Watts through twin 5 inch speakers. Eminence Basslite 10 in home-brewed cab *2.  Ashdown Mybass Mk I (500w). Warwick Gnome. Vong HPF/LPF pedal.

20. CHYC - BC112mk3, BC110T, GSS 06b400mkd, Ashbory, Warwick fretless, double bass. 

8 minutes ago, polvo said:

 

Would something like this be what I need? https://ebay.us/m/EnJIZt

Those are for speaker crossovers, so no they're not the right ones. If you rip off the charcoal padding on the blue PCB in the circuit diagram you should see a physically much smaller capacitor, and with luck there will be the rated capacitance written on it. On the circuit diagram above, it is not shown, but would be on the blue thing in the centre, on the other side of the board.

7 hours ago, tauzero said:

PS: you could try connecting a high value capacitor between the preamp output and the jack socket - as there's a DC bias you could use an electrolytic. High value as it'll be in series with the output capacitor so it'll minimise the capacitance reduction.

You can purchase such a thing in pedal form. There may be extra sorcery inside this one, but I'd guess it is just expensive packaging around a capacitor, albeit in a high quality metal box.

https://www.lehle.com/Lehle-DC-Filter

24 minutes ago, Rosie C said:

 

I too will take a look. A good battery powered bass amp has so far been out of my grasp. I have a Roland Cube Street Ex for my piano accordion & synth but it doesn't do the low end well enough for my jazz or my bass uke, and it's no good at all for my upright. The best I've managed so far is an Orange Crush-B with a Jackery camping power pack - but I'd rather not have mains leads playing outdoors. 

The GSS Bulletpack runs on DC and has a barrel socket, so you have options with batteries meant for laptops. GSS also sell compatible batteries on their website, but I only own the amp. It's kept up with loud big bands in village halls but I've never used it outside.

If I am able to make this bash, I'll see if I can bring it along.

It's a really interesting video.  Tallies with the Andertons blind shootout that they did at roughly the same time.

4 minutes ago, police squad said:

I'm still thinking to stick with the ampeg sound. All the people that have the rig love it.

So there must be something in their cab design that gives the classic sound

Alex at Barefaced wrote a fabulous article on what gives a bass cabinet its bottom end sound. In it he describes that the classic tone that many people like is a bump in the 100Hz region, basically exactly as @Phil Starr has said!

https://barefacedaudio.com/pages/what-is-bottom/

1 hour ago, police squad said:

I have other cabs to use but I have these neos that I'd like to use

Understood. From what I can see the S2012s would make for a very potent rig, and if the cabinet is built around the dimensions of a V4B that would sit on top, yeah that would look pretty nice as well.

This is going to be an interesting topic!

So is the brief that you like everything about your Ampeg SVT212 except the weight?

There used to be a page on Barefaced's website about mixing cabinet and amp ratings. It's gone now sadly so you cannot verify what I'm relaying, but it basically boiled down to that you can pair any powered cabinet with any powered amp, if you're sensible. If the cabinet rating is higher than the amp rating, then you're not reaching the cabinet's full potential. Any online information about how distorted waves coming from an underpowered amp break a cabinet just aren't true.

If the amp rating is higher than the cabinet rating, then the amp has the potential to blow the speakers. However, with sensible usage you will be fine as the speakers will be telling you that they are unhappy with unpleasant distortion, particularly on the low notes. Only caveat to that is when you put an aggressive HPF in the signal chain and you reach the thermal limit rather than the excursion limit of the speaker. With decent drivers such as in the Barefaced or LFSys ranges, you'd have to be absolutely ragging them for that.

This Barefaced page is still referenced on their Info pages, but the actual page is no longer there. Are we to read into that? 

1 hour ago, Phil Starr said:

Don't tell anyone but my BC110T is my favourite speaker, it never sounds wrong and I've had a couple of sound engineers, when mixing the band at festivals, describe it as the best sounding bass cab they've ever heard. It's a little gem that just gets the balance right.

I will take your secret to the grave.

I'm in a similar situation. I turned up for a big band gig once and there was an audible gasp from the band members when I started playing through it. No FoH with that one.

2 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

First of all well done, they look great and I'm waiting for the results you find when you finally get them to a gig.

They've been gigged, a few times actually! I wouldn't claim to have the most critical ear, but they certainly did the job on electric. On the double bass, with everything set flat, they do a good job, but it surprisingly isn't my favourite pair of speakers. That award would go to my 10" BassChats which for whatever reason manage to capture the warmth of the double bass and project without the piezo honk. You can get there with EQ.

Saving £400 sounds wonderful if you put it like that. Not sure my wife sees it that way though 😄

If it's of interest, what I do is I click the [Quote] button of the previous commenter, select all text, copy it to the clipboard, then delete everything and paste, adding my name. It's not slick, but for something you only do once a year it's good enough.

If you leave it within a Quote then it's unquotable, so bear that in mind.

#1 - Paul @NancyJohnson

#2 - Paul #2 @prowla

#3 - Martin @Merton

#4 - Matt @Wombat

#5 - Andy @Wolverinebass

#6 - Stevie @stevie
#7 - Lozz @Lozz196

#8 - Matt @neepheid

#9 - @bassace97

#10 - Robert @bass_dinger

#11 - Christopher @chyc

#12 - jaco @Geek99 **

37 minutes ago, Wombat said:

It's Matt the Wombat for the next person who knows how to post in the list....

Because I'm so nice:

#1 - Paul @NancyJohnson

#2 - Paul #2 @prowla

#3 - Martin @Merton

#4 - Matt @Wombat

#5 - Andy @Wolverinebass

#6 - Stevie @stevie
#7 - Lozz @Lozz196

#8 - Matt @neepheid

#9 - @bassace97

#10 - Robert @bass_dinger

#11 - Christopher @chyc

5 minutes ago, JPJ said:

You could try the Basschat 1x10 here 

Totally agree with this suggestion here. I've made it four times, and it was super easy. If you're not bothered about the tweeter just get rid of that portion and it becomes even cheaper and easier! There's a video on YouTube which uses the same build technique albeit for a 1x12 cabinet.

If you're near me, I have an unloaded cabinet I can give to you to try, although you would need to construct a new tweeterless baffle if that's the direction you'll be going. Ashdown drivers are different to the Basschat 1x10's Celestion Pulse10, but I can't imagine they'd be miles different.

On 10/06/2025 at 06:58, Phil Starr said:

In PA active speakers it is even worse. They add the power of the tweeter amp to the amp driving the bass unit despite the fact that they don't both work together at any frequency other than at crossover where the power is reduced 3db. Then they save money by using the same amps over all the ranges but throttle them back so they can't damage the speakers. The poor old horn driver is likely to be 30W handling. The protection circuitry makes ssure there is no chance of it ever seeing more than that whatever you as an operator do.

So true. An obvious tell is when a manufacturer manufactures both active and passive PA cabinets. For some mysterious reason, their active speakers' amps are dispensing watts that their passive lines aren't rated for. 

QSC K12: 2000W

QSC E112: 400W continuous, 1600W peak.

24 minutes ago, e28m54 said:

Could it take a higher power speaker without having to change the horn?

I guess it's not dangerous or anything, but I wouldn't recommend it. The crossover is designed specifically to pair a Faital 12PR320 with a Celestion CDX1-1425. Swapping the woofer (I assume you mean rather than the tweeter) for a higher xmax will make it sound top heavy, and there will be phasing issues and potentially a dip in the mids.

FWIW the 12PR320 is a very nice speaker, and the price is insane on this thing. The cost of parts themselves alone will be approaching the asking price. I would buy it myself, except I own three of the things already

Shout out to Mark at speakergrills.co.uk, two grills arrived very quickly and at a reasonable price (£110 for the pair, with  all the trimmings like boxing and powder coating). The quality is good, as is the fit. I'm in no doubt they will protect the speakers very well.

Will take these for a gig in a week. I'm sure they'll be great.

3 minutes ago, Richard R said:

The amps rating is relevant - 200W at 20V is 10A. That would melt a 3A cable which at 250V would handle well over 500W.

The voltage drop you need to worry about is from one end of the cable to the other. Tauzero's power equation is what you need, and you need to measure the resistence of the wire but trust me 13A is plenty, the resistence of the wire will be tiny, orders of magnitude lower than the resistence of the cabinet.

26 minutes ago, Richard R said:

It's jack plugs at either end, and my question is this:   I have high quality jack plugs, and flexible 13A mains cable. Is there any reason I can't make up my own lead?

On a practical level, mains cable will not be as flexible as dedicated speaker cable but if treated right I would happily use repurposed mains cable (and I have done, albeit internal to a cabinet). It's not going to be melting the wire. For reference, a 13A mains cable will happily take multiple kW of power.

Using the cable as a guitar lead will not work out so well as the cable will be unshielded so you'll get a lot of unwanted interference added to your signal so bear that in mind if you want the cable for double duty.