Obrienp

Good luck coming to a decision. Let us see it when you’ve got it.

Matter of interest: did you find what you were looking for?

Just to finish the story off, Andertons have issued me the full refund. The last comms I had from them said that their tech department was going to see if they could fix the noise problem (presumably with the last returned cab). I haven’t heard anything further, so I assume they couldn’t fix it. Bit of an indictment of Positive Grid I feel. Anyway good on Andertons and I have to say I was impressed with their after sales support.

I think I may have my answer to my noob question, as the C24 has already arrived, which is amazing: less than 24 hours from placing my order. A nice little unit. Very nicely made. You wouldn’t know these are a small production item. I have had a brief play with the unit, putting it after a Battalion preamp, before my power amp and then into the LFSys Monza. I tried a P Bass (32” scale) with Tone Rider pickup and then a Guild Starfire 1 (the p pickup one) tuned down a semitone. Setting the HPF just under 40 Hz and the LPF a bit over 1KHz is interesting. It has an apparent reduction in volume, which is cured by the boost control. I’m still not sure whether I like the HPF effect but it does seem to make cabinet response clearer. The LPF is certainly doing something to get rid of the brittle overtones, at the risk of making it all sound a bit muffled. It does get rid of the huge transition I was experiencing on the Guild between the A and D strings. With the LPF engaged, I don’t feel that the top two strings are competing as much with the guitars. How that will affect the bass in the mix I’m not sure. Obviously more experimentation is needed. Also the Monza is known for having a very tight bass response already, so perhaps the HPF is having less effect at the lower end. I am guessing the HPF/LPF combination may do more for the BF Two10 that can sound pretty muddy on occasions. Also I haven’t tried my amps yet, or any effects beyond compression and drive (from the Battalion).

I was thinking of the LPF in the C24.

Actually your first point was very much on my mind. Both my main gigging amps are not really driving my LFSys Monza anywhere near its max of 600 watts into 8 ohms. Now as it happens 300 watts is probably more than enough for any of my gigs but I don’t really like the idea (or the sound) of these amps flat out. I could do with more clean headroom from the amps (no problem with the cab). If the HPF avoids me having to shell out on an amp that can get closer to 600 watts @ 8 ohms, all the better. Its sounds like some experimentation, on placement in the signal chain, is going to have to take place.

Having tried to wade through most of this thread, I have convinced myself that it is worth ordering a HPF/LPF pedal. I’ve gone for a Sine Effect C24 (https://sineeffect.com/C24-High-Low-Pass-filter-pedal-p595346070), which seems reasonable at around £137 with postage and was available immediately. TBH, more than I have paid for a pedal in a long time but none of the usual online sources seem to carry these kinds of pedals and this is UK made. Anybody got any experience of them? I am hoping it will come with some instructions/recommendations for placement in the signal chain, as views are very mixed on this thread. My current thoughts, for what they are worth, are that it depends on what I am using. I’m thinking that when I use the my Flyrig V 2 into a power amp/desk the C24 should be after the Flyrig. Using the Mark Bass LM111 into either a LFSys Monza, or BF Two10 S: after the tuner pedal but before any other effects pedals I might use (chorus, overdrive, compressor, envelope filter). The quandary comes when considering my Blackstar U700 with the aforementioned cabs. The U700 has a bunch of built in affects, plus preamp and power amp voices. I am thinking the C24 probably needs to go into the effects loop so it is after all the above because they might be adding a whole load of unnecessary frequencies into the signal. Its probably quite clear from the above that I haven’t really got my head round this, so any advice or views would be welcome. Final noob question: will the low pass filter act like an attenuator on the LFSys Monza’s compression driver? It’s great having FRFR but sometimes I also want to dial in a bit more of a vintage feel. Both the U700 and the LM 111 are quite good at providing that old school tone when you want it but I sometimes get some additional harsh/brittle artefacts that come through the compression driver. It would be nice to be able to prevent that getting through.

Thanks. I’ll be able to sleep tonight 😀. As an aside, I wish there was an after market bass bridge that came with string mutes but I guess it would make manufacturing costs too high and it would have a small market. It would beat messing around with bits of foam, or fret wraps.

I’m sorry, it must be my obsession with detail but I have to ask what that second row of small cross head screws is for? How many screws does it take to hold a bridge plate on? There already seem to be 5 large cross head screws holding it on.

Best and worst so far: Best: LFSys Monza, such an amazing cab. Read the reviews on here. I haven’t seen a bad one yet. Worst: Positive Grid Spark Cab. On paper sounds like a great enhancer for your Spark 40, or other Spark amp, or even a low powered multi-instrument active FRFR cab, for not much cash compared to other offerings on the market. In reality it turned out to be very noisy on idle and through the DI out. Such a shame because the bass tone was pretty good through it and it worked well for acoustic and electric guitar as well. I sent the first one back and ended up returning its replacement. I’m still waiting for the refund.

Tony Edwards Guitars does rewinds: https://tonyedwardsguitars.co.uk.

In the Far East I should imagine at this price.

There are two of them in the Vintage Revo range: this solid body and a classic design semi (Supreme). Also with a mudbucker but it has a toaster pickup in the bridge position. I was very interested but noted that the Vintage website doesn’t give the dimensions of the nut. I enquired of a dealer and they measured it as 44mm. That and the 3 point bridge on the Supreme put me off. I prefer the Jazz bass style neck on the Guild Starfire models (and the bridges). If the above aren’t drawbacks for you, I think these look like great SS basses with a vintage feel and reasonably priced.

I couldn’t find the EBO case on the Epi website but the SG bass case is on the Gibson site: https://www.gibson.com/en-GB/p/Hardshell-Case/ASBASSCASE-ORG/ASBASSCASE-ORG. Just short of £260! Probably worth it for that EB-3 though.

I’ll be interested to see if somebody comes up with an answer for you. I don’t think there are many short scale cases around. There are some gig bags available and some folks have had success using guitar gig bags for SS bass (Gator Jaguar for instance). There seem to be hard cases for some semi-acoustic basses like the Epiphone Rumblekat and the Guild Starfire but I’ve not seen one for a solid body bass.

I think the very existence of physical musical instrument shops needs to supported. I always try to buy something when I go into them. It’s a super tough market for them and they are competing with the online box shifters who don’t have the same overheads (sorry for restating the blindingly obvious).

I know he was planning to go on holiday for a couple of weeks, so he might still be away. Don’t give up if you don’t get an immediate response.

A compensated bridge saddle will help with the intonation and there are masses on fleaBay. Just make sure you get one that is close enough to the width and thickness of the OEM, otherwise it’s a lot of work with sandpaper to get it to fit. It needs to be snug in the slot to improve transfer of vibrations to the top. If it is an electro acoustic, with an under saddle piezo pickup, a loose saddle can cause uneven string balance amplified and it needs to be flat on the bottom to exert an even pressure on the pickup. Material wise bone or Tusq will provide better tone than the cheaper plastic ones. It’s worth the extra, especially if you change the bridge pins. Go for harder wood (rosewood or ebony), or bone/Tusq pins for the improved tone. Some people rate brass but it sounds a bit harsh to my ears.

I’m getting boring but have a look at Tony Edwards Guitars https://tonyedwardsguitars.co.uk. Tony made me a short-scale to my spec with Babicz bridge and his own hand wound pickups for around the £1K mark. Now things have moved on price wise but I still think he will be very competitive and you get it to exactly what you want.

It’s called the Glaven Bistro at Glandford, near Holt (and Blakeney). I think they spent a packet doing the place up, so it’s not the cheapest around but the grub looked pretty good to me. Wine is a tadge expensive because it’s all English, in fact all from Norfolk I think, as is the beer.

Did a gig with the covers band, at a fairly newly opened bistro, yesterday evening. I had my doubts about this before because, however low we turn down, a four piece (keys player not able to make it) is still going to make it hard for the diners to hold a conversation. However, it went well and people enjoyed it. We did the more mellow part of our repertoire, with a load of originals written by our lead guitarist. This was split over a couple of one hour sets and got a local solo singer songwriter to do a half hour set in between. There could have been more folks there and I was disappointed that a few friends, who had said they would come along, didn’t show up. A few of the other guys had the same. Why do people do this? Raise expectations and not deliver. I wouldn’t be bothered if people just said nothing, rather than promise to be there and not show up. Now I’m a bit miffed at them. Despite not getting as many diners as they would have liked, the owners were very pleased with the evening and said they were going to have us back. I guess it takes time to build these things and live music can be a draw. The pay was OK for Norfolk as well. Gear wise, I used a Guild Starfire 1 with rounds for most of the numbers (tuned down half a step) and a Nordstrand Aacinonyx with flats for the numbers we do in standard tuning. This went into a Flyrig v2 -> Harley Benton GPA100 power amp -> LFSys Monza sitting on an Auralex isolator. It was the first outing for the GPA100, which had arrived the day before, so it was a bit of a risk but I had my Warwick Gnome iPro as standby. I was happy the way the GPA100 worked for this low volume scenario. The Gnome really doesn’t like going that low but with the GPA100 volume at 12 o’clock it was comfortable without working too hard. What surprised me was just how different the rig sounded in the bistro (basically a converted barn), compared to my studio. I am going to have to work on the EQ and drive settings a bit more. I was getting a touch of break up on my clean channel. About half way through the first set I noticed that the peak light was flashing on the Flyrig, so I was obviously digging in a lot more than I do in rehearsal. Dropping the drive setting a bit and turning up the volume on the GPA100 cured it. More work needed.

Interested to know how you got on with the HB after that. I just received mine. I’m running it into a LFSys Monza with a Flyrig v2 in front. It gives me a low volume option and I find it much less aggressive sounding than my other small amp: a Warwick Gnome iPro. The latter can be turned down to a certain point and then it’s like flicking an off switch. The GPA100 seems to be able to go to lower volume and still keep it together but I’m not sure how sensitive the Monza is at such low volumes; after all it is rated at 600 watts AES @ 8ohms. I also noticed that the GPA100 gets a bit distorted much over the 3 o’clock position and this is without the Peak light activating. If I turn down the Flyrig output level, the distortion goes away but the overall volume drops. I guess this is about the GPA100’s operating ceiling. I haven’t tried it with my 4 ohm cab yet. I’m hoping for a bit more headroom with that. I’ve noticed the GPA hardly warms up at all even after an hour’s use, which is pretty impressive given there is no fan and is much better than Gnome. So far, I think the GPA100 is amazing value for £68.

Tony Edwards built me a short scale PB a few years ago and it came in at around £1K. Things have gone up a bit but I would imagine he could do a 32” well within your budget. https://tonyedwardsguitars.co.uk. I happen to know he is on holiday at the moment, so you might not get a response immediately, if you do want to follow up with him. I am very happy with the bass. Babicz bridge and Tony’s own hand wound pickups. Probably not the best picture and this was to my design, so might not suit everybody’s tastes.

This happens with nothing connected and the output volume off, connected to the Spark, or connected to an external preamp. No effects in the chain. The noise disappears for a second when you switch the input between the mini-jack socket input (for the Spark) and the combi inputs. When I said the noise disappears when you play into the cab, I mean you don’t notice it. I don’t know whether it disappears, or is just drowned out be the instrument noise. As soon as you stop, it’s there again, so I guess it is just drowned out.

Good on Andertons: they are arranging for the cab to be picked up for a return. I guess they will want to check it before coughing up. This time I literally removed the cab from the packaging, switched it on, heard the noise and repacked it. I didn’t put the Spark on top, as it left feet marks on the previous one after only an hour or two on top. I didn’t even open the accessory packaging. Consequently, I am confident that I will get a full refund. They could sell this one as new, no problem. I feel quite disappointed about the Spark Cab. It has the potential to be a really good piece of kit. Unlike some active FRFR cabs, it isn’t a repurposed PA speaker. You can actually stack your Spark “amp” on top without it sliding off. It also makes a good preamp platform. It doesn’t boast massive volume for bass at 140 watts but is more than adequate for guitar. It is compact, light (under 14Kg) and well built. I really liked the bass tone that it produced and I think it would be loud enough for intimate gigs (coffee shops and the like). Just a shame that the power amp they put in it has such a loud noise floor and this gets through to the DI out. Close but no cigar Positive Grid!