Al Heeley

My MB4210 + MBC115 did me proud at the wedding gig last night, solid full tone, my bypass fix on the broken inductor coil in the 1x15 extn cab seemed to work only the MB4210 ran incredibly hot, it did not cut out. The front metal panel (with the ctrl knobs on) was almost too hot to touch. For me this rings warning bells. I'd be interested to hear if any other MB4210 owners experience a very hot runinng amp after a couple of hours gigging. Volume level was about halfway.

They really are superb instruments, I'm very jealous. Not sure whose it was now I got the chance to play at the Harrogate bash but it was so marvellous to play. Looking forward to seeing another masterpiece developing.

yes, looks right, but these Allparts blend pots might state they're ok but most aren't. [url="http://www.allparts.com/store/electronics-250k-pots-ep-0385-000,Product.asp"]http://www.allparts.com/store/electronics-...000,Product.asp[/url] Not sure if you'll really know until you get a multimeter on it and check the residual resistance at the centre detente position.

[quote name='Grissle' post='550670' date='Jul 24 2009, 10:50 PM']Interesting, thanks for the info. So do true balance pots exist that can be had by the public?[/quote] yES - i think Fender do them, John East was kind enough to send me a 'spare one' he had and that had none of the centre-position drop-off. I think its something you have to try; I was pretty disappointed it became such a struggle, and ended up going back to twin vols and master tone, the classic JB setup. Don't let me put you off experimenting!

Glad you got the pcb - that circuit looked too complex for me I used patrick Johnson's mini blender circuit posted on the diystompbox site, I converted his circuit to a simple veroboard layout and posted it on the second page of this thread: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?s=&showtopic=54915&view=findpost&p=545688"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?s=&sho...st&p=545688[/url] Works great, uses a single 2n5457 jfet.

I had a shedload of problems rewiring a jazz bass with a blend pot a couple of years ago, seems the blend pots you get from most of the retain outlets on the net are not actually true blend pots, there is a drop at the mid point which causes a significant loss of volume, since the 2 pot tapers do not end at zero ohms in the centre, they sort of run a bit past midway before reaching zero. It became such a pain balancing the blend with volume level that it ceased to be a useful configuration. I must add this was a passive wired guitar and you can get perfectly functioning blend pot configs with active setups, its just getting hold of a true blend pot that doesn't give you the volume drop in the middle is a pain, no matter how much the outlets protest they are selling you true blend pots, many are not, so beware.

OK I got the little blend circuit wired up and installed this evening. Basically a pretty transparent tiny circuit that behaves exactly as you would expect - fully off you get the dry tone of the bass through the circuit, at domestic levels you can certainly hear nothing added or taken from the tone. At fully on the circuit feeds direct fuzz nastiness to the amp. the blender works really well at 2 or 3 to start feeding in a bit of fuzz into the dry tone for a less in-yer-face distortion. Nice just backed off a bit at 7 or 8. I'll put that one down as a success. Its a much more controllable and usable fuzz with the blend circuit in there.

I have the classic old Boss CEB-1, for me it's the benchmark chorus pedal. I'm sure there are marvellous exotic and boutique ones available now but this is still a classic workhorse for me.

[quote name='nick' post='549908' date='Jul 24 2009, 10:48 AM']What are thinking of building mate?[/quote]Gawd - I hope he doesn't say anything with an elephant in the name.......... :brow:

I have a warmoth gecko 5-string, the neck is beautiful - birds eye maple, ebony fingerboard. Lots of money. Mighty mite necks - I've fitted 2 (strat & tele necks, no bass necks) they are good quality. Allparts - seem quite dear for what is a chinese replacement neck but I can't comment on quality. Ebay - £35 generic P-bass neck fitted, surprisingly good quality, nice to play, accurate fretwork, presumably chinese, no name brand. My gut feeling tells me that its more pot luck if you go to ebay and pay £50 or less, you may get a good one, it may be a bit ropey. Pay £120 - £150 off Allparts or WD or one of the many other outlets and you get more chance to have some level of QC in there, or a place to return it if its a dodgy one. Probably the same factories supplying all outlets at the end of the day. StewMac - I'm not prepared to pay these prices plus shipping and import duty although the product range is vast.

I was in a similar position a few weeks ago - Behringer synth pedal looked great for under £50 but trying it out in the shop it was horrible tracking and the sounds were harsh and uncontrollable. i ended up trying a Boss SYB5, far better, good selection of sounds but out of my price. I then found a SYB3 on ebay and bought that one. Very happy with it so far.

You have a short, it gets hot as its running overloaded due to the short, and the thermal safety cut-out is kicking in. Once its cooled again the thermal safety cut out resets and you can play agin. Needs professional servicing to locate the short. If its a valve amp this could be particularly dangerous. Not to be attempted by the uninitiated in the pwer of electriccery. Seriously.

Do you have a large pickup truck? Last thing I'd want is to have to augment the lugging around of the bass amp and cabs by adding a couple of big concrete blocks to the itinerary. For a gigging musician i see the half squash balls as a more practical approach

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='548457' date='Jul 23 2009, 12:14 AM']...but that is like your Zvex clone being in a bigger box.[/quote] it's a bit more than that though, its my interpretation of someone else's schematic of a WM, sketched out onto a slightly different veroboard layout with some of the components substituted, eg: a couple of the resistors, capacitors and one of the pots - I did not have exactly same value as on the schematic so i used ones close to it, slightly changed the placement on the veroboard to save space, now adding extra bits and pieces too. Circuit is similar, not identical, layout internally is very different from the WM. Fuzz circuits have been round for ages - its all in the public domain, one transistor driving another into clipping. Add some correct value resistors to balance the type of transistor used, add some caps to get the right filtering, add some pots to control volume, tone, effect, etc. You can't copyright stuff in the public domain, otherwise going back to the bear-face cab example, anyone else making a same dimensions wooden ply box using same method of jointing would also be accused of ripping off the barefaced cab.

[quote name='mrcrow' post='548134' date='Jul 22 2009, 08:29 PM'][url="http://www.juno.co.uk/products/283809-01.htm?utm_source=google_uk&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Google%2BShopping"]http://www.juno.co.uk/products/283809-01.h...ogle%2BShopping[/url] anti vibration pads or as my friend did with his bbc monitors..hung them from the ceiling with piano wire...a bit permanent though...but not a chance of vibes escaping also a concrete block may do the necessary[/quote] Heh- those blue sponge squares are an attractive addition to any audiophile's listening room. concrete blocks - great idea but you are obviously entirely mad.

Maybe its ok, but since I didn't set off to exploit other peoples designs as a means of making money then I'm ok with it. Any of you guys into racing sims? I did a lot of graphic add-ons for Live For Speed, I'm still a (somewhat inactive) mod on their forum but every now and then there used to be hassles about the use of a legit logo like Bridgestone or Tag Heuer on a billboard or car skin. Some forum members used to get a little zealous about the use and abuse of other company's IP and copyright, etc. but at the end of the day it was just a graphic panel on a community race sim - no-one was trying to profit from ripping off other people's IP, it was just hobby stuff coming out. I'm happy with that. And I've enjoyed the debate, there's been some valid points raised. Sorry if any offence has been caused. It was certainly not my intention.

Nope he ain't. (making any money that is...) The above one is my own personal test kit version to play around with R & C values. This thread has sparked off a lot of interesting debate though - far more than I imagined!

This thing's starting to evolve now. I'll call it the Fozzy Bear until I hear from Jim Henson's legal team for infringement of copyright;) This is as yet untested on the mods front, but the plan is to add the blend pot oin the right to blend the wet and dry signal together in an attempt to moderate the massive animal fuzz this kicks out. then theres a dpdt switch on the left which will give a little voltage sag and reduce the drive power for some nasty chainsawness. On the right is a 3pdt switch which will allow 2 different output cap values for some extra Phat tone. You will see from the extensive custom graphics i have emulated that "decorated by a 10 year old" feel of the original Zvex boutique pedals but adopted a more post-renaissance feel to the art-deco felt pen work, altogether more contemporary and yet strangely tasteless.

What a great idea, sounds plausible, not sure how you could fix them without nails/screws into your cab base, i reckon glues would not hold them but it should keep the cab from bouncing about. They charge a lot of money to audiophiles for acoustic dampening feet to put under your amp, cd player, speakers. They are said to improve the acoustic resopnse 'significantly'. I use an old mouse mat and cut coin-size circles out of it. It solved the problem with my friends expensive cd jumping whenever the kids charged into the living room. Very happy with the sound of my hi fi but I've never tried the squash balls on my bass cab yet. I'm going to hunt for a couple of old balls tonight to try out at the wedding gig this weekend.

[quote name='Musky' post='547392' date='Jul 22 2009, 10:44 AM']Al, I don't think you're remotely morally corrupt. [/quote]Thanks for the support! [quote name='steve' post='547272' date='Jul 22 2009, 08:10 AM']Did you try the blend circuit Al?[/quote]Not yet - waiting for a couple of components and a 50k linear pot, should be wiring it up tonite, will report back. [quote name='alexharvay' post='547381' date='Jul 22 2009, 10:31 AM']I'd love to build my own pedal to learn a bit more about electronics. Can anyone point me in the right direction of online resources?[/quote] Best place I can recommend is DIYstompboxes dot com and General Guitar Gadgets, these sites are a wealth of info on effects pedals, techniques, supplies, theory and contain active forums where you can ask like minded geeks who are keen to help assimilate you into their world. Check out Beavis Audio Research as well - great site with some interesting projects [url="http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/"]http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/[/url]

I guess we all have the right to adopt our own moral stance on this, I'm a bit disappointed some may view me as morally corrupt for offering to help out a fellow musician to cover the cost of the parts while I explore my electronics hobby. Is it ok to clone a vintage classic Tubescreamer type pedal? What about an A/B box or a simple treble boost circuit? I'm unclear why there is seen to be some sort of mystic preciousness about the ZVex pedals, which for me are absurdly overpriced for what they are.

up to 18db of boost is a big increase in gain but I'm not sure if it would be right to drive a power amp. What's your thinking behind the project?

[quote name='nick' post='546854' date='Jul 21 2009, 06:56 PM']Am I the only one who thinks those handpainted efforts look a bit naff? [/quote] Heh, I would expect a much better finish from my 8 yr old lad to be honest, if I were to spend that sort of money on a pedal I think the artistic finish is an embarassment.

I thought it worth mentioning my phone call today with a very helpful person at Marshall spares who offered to put a new inductor coil in the post to me with no more questions asked. (once I said that shipping back a huge heavy box instead of a 2 minute solder job on a postcard sized simple pcb was not practical) They said they were not permitted to send out parts for amps to unqualified/unregistered people due to the potential electrocution hazards, which is fair enough. The extn cab does not carry potentially lethal currents

+1, the use of a similar themed name pays homage to the original (even thouth the WM is itself not an original circuit) but I can't see how this can rely on any reputation - its contrary to reputation. Anything you use which is not designed/manufactured/marketed by Zvex will have no reliance on their reputation whatsoever. It's like thinking you will have the same level of build quality with a home-made clone as an original/boutique pedal costing 3 times as much, if it shares a similar name - well that clearly isn't going to happen.