TimR

Haven't contacted Warwick yet. I'm not convinced that the lead I had came with the amp. Inrush current is the current that flows in the transformer when you initially power it up. It can be up to 10x the transformer rating for 0.1s The power rating of the transformer is 500W so 2A under full load but possibly up to 10A on start up. A 5A will blow straight away if you catch it on the wrong point of the cycle, but this is going to be random hence it being only occasional. A 10A fuse is going to be fine. The important thing is to protect the lead as that's the most likely part to get dammaged and you want the fuse to blow before the lead catches fire. I'm sticking to a 13A cable 1mm2 and a 13amp fuse (only because 10A fuses seem to be difficult to get hold of, I'll swap it for a 10A when I next see one, or I'm at the electrical wholesalers). The amp is protected by the 6.3A slow blow fuse (marked as a 5A on the Warwick drawing!) 10A on the IEC relates to continuous current and is not an issue, the 5A sticker on the plug top relates only to the size of fuse fitted. I am going to open my amp up on Monday to look at the transformer and associated wiring to see what I can see.

[quote name='discreet' post='843727' date='May 21 2010, 12:25 AM']Thanks very much, guys - I picked up a supply of 5A fuses from feeBay, but obviously these are of little use to me - I'll run out! Anyone want? I've also ordered a shedful of 7A fuses, again off peeBay, and a 2m IEC cable rated at 13A, but have not had the opportunity to try them yet. Yeah, EU... that's a whole other topic right there. 10A I didn't know about at all, but hey. Thanks for the offer of a 10A Ian, will gladly accept and add to the equation... PM'd. TimR, thanks, it's a ProFet 5.1 I'm talking about, as you no doubt knew from my sig. Reassuring to know the problem may soon be history, thanks! 5A certainly does seem to be a bad idea... Will let you know how it goes. Thanks again. [/quote] I hadn't noticed your sig. I'm going to contact Warwick tomorrow. Seems a bit of a coincidence. Maybe there's a problem with the transformers. BUT why have a 5amp slow blow internally and then put a 5amp normal fuse in the lead? What is also interesting me is that it appears that IEC connector on the amp may only be rated at 10amps, but I'm not sure that matters too much. There are also IEC leads that are only 0.75mm2 and therefore only rated at 5amps don't put a bigger fuse in them! If we are putting fuses bigger than 5amps in them we should be using 1mm2 leads. More investigation required!

None of it makes sense to me, I think I have missed something. How many are in this band - the ad doesn't even say! Have you/they ever played in other bands? If they are a start up band then they should have all gone away for a few weeks and learned lots of tunes on their own, then 4 weeks of 2 practices a week should have them up and ready to gig - do a few small pub gigs to gage audience reaction and clear first night nerves - job done. Were you just rehearsing music or adding choreography too? They say they are making money - you say you are not gigging. They say you have no gear - you say you aren't willing to leave your gear at the rehearsal space. I joined a 5 piece and was gigging with them within 4 weeks one practice a week. We practice once a week and there have been issues that mean we've only gigged twice this year. I'm looking for another band to do in parallel, one that plays more than it rehearses. Be careful - some people just want to be in a band to tell their mates that they are in a band. They say they want to gig, but really only ever want to practice and do the occasional gig in front of those "mates". Move on. Work out exactly what you want to do and are prepared to do first. Make that clear to the next band before you join.

I've got a Boss SYB-3 bought off a fellow forumite. It didn't fully work, tracked terribly, wouldn't switch on and off very well and the mixed output only outputs the synth. I think it's had a hard life. I cleaned the board up with some cleaner and brush and it now works fine except for the mixed output. It would make a nice project, even if just a mixer to bridge between the two outputs. I paid £45, make me an offer?

Alex's was Mechanical. Speaker and cabinet design is all mechanical. Crossovers and thermal limits are fairly simple electronic concepts to grasp if you are bright. Mine's Electronics with an Acoustics module but that was in '94. Things have changed a lot since then. The way that engineers resort to numbers, formulas and long words to explain things hasn't and I still get the salesmen giving conflicting advice in shops.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='843520' date='May 20 2010, 08:32 PM']Don't make generalisations for the benefit of people who don't understand, they are the reason why they don't understand. Because they are wrong.[/quote] Indeed but most of us would rather buy some gear that works as sold than do a degree in electronics and wade through the tons of opinion and misdirection on the web. After reading that attachment written by an engineer in an attempt to clarify things. We get to the crunch.... [quote]clipping is acceptable provided that the average power over time is lower than the speaker’s limits[/quote] The big question is "How do we know what the average power over time is and what the speakers limits are?" If anyone knows a quick easy way to calculate that from the smoke and mirrors leaflet that comes attached to your nice shiny things let me know. Go careful when running your amp to distortion.

My Warwick ProFet 5.1 did this. When I checked, I found it had a 5amp fuse which I put down to having loads of IEC leads in my box and had picked up an old PC or lighting one. Fuses will run for hours at up to 1.6x their rated current, but will blow instantly at 2x. The nice people at Warwick have put a schematic on their website. The problem withy my amp is that it just has a switch between the mains and the transformer. There is no soft start and transformers take huge amounts of current at start up. 13amp has solved it. It's got a 5A time delay internal fuse anyway which leads me to belive that a normal 5A fuse on the mains plug is a bad idea!

OK I've taken points 2 and 3 out and condensed them into one point as they were basically saying the same thing, but re-reading them I can see how they could be confusing.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='843459' date='May 20 2010, 07:43 PM']Still trying to disagree with the rest of the thread then? 1 is fine. 2 is wrong. Huge speakers are awesome for sensitivity, so you get plenty of volume from not much power 3 is also wrong. A huge amp can drive any speakers. Also, a distorting amp will only melt speaker coils if it is outputting enough power to do so, even fully distorted, it might not be. And noisy and unintelligible is awesome. Distorting power amps are awesome. This is why we have power brakes and low powered valve amps. Or really really loud high powered valves amps of Doom.[/quote] You've basically just agreed with everything I wrote, while saying you disagree? Weird, I'm lost. To recap: Power ratings mean nothing. When you go into a shop and the salesman says you must have speakers bigger than amp, or amp bigger than speakers you will know he is talking rubbish. I said that distortion is bad if you don't know what you are doing. Using low powered valve amps, power brakes etc sounds like you probably do. It was intended as straightforward advice for the newbies who are always asking the question. "I've got a 100W power amp what speakers do I need?" and "Why did I fry my 400w speakers with my 150W amp?"

Layman's guide to the Speaker power v Amplifier power myth exploded with no maths or numbers (or techie terms?) Generally people mistake loudness for noise and the untrained ear will ignore distortion. Distortion is your enemy. Even comparatively small amounts of distortion, using effects or over-driving pre-amps can be bad if you don't know what you are doing. Once an amplifier starts distorting the speakers are not going to get any louder no matter how far you turn up the volume knob. Everything will just get noisier and less intelligible, defeating the object! Published amplifier power is fairly meaningless as it is given as a power with a small amount of distortion. A lot of amps can give out huge amounts of power at huge levels of distortion! Large amp -> small speakers. The danger is that the user will turn the amp up beyond what the speakers can handle. This will cause distortion in the speakers. The speaker will either overheat or mechanically destroy itself. Small amp -> large speakers. Again the amp can get turned up beyond the point at which it produces nice clean sound. At this point the amp is distorting and producing much more than the rated power of the amp. Most of the power will be dissapated as heat in the coil and can literally melt the speaker. So neither is the correct solution: 1. Use your ears not the spec sheets or labels. If you hear distortion - stop and turn down! 2. When buying an amp and cab try before you buy and don't believe the hype.

With respect, no one knows everything, music and performing are life long learning processes. Stop learning and you will stagnate. There's always someone who has seen something different or learned something you don't know. Asking for advice is not a weakness. Learning by making your own mistakes is a long road. You can spend a long time repeating mistakes thinking you doing OK before someone points them out. I'm sure we've all been in bands; when your audience say it's good but never come to your shows; or you play cracking tunes that everyone in the band loves playing, but no one gets up and dances to; or one mate tells you something when they're drunk which leads you to fire someone because you had got used to how much their playing sucked. The OP suggested criticism from someone invited to criticise. For a long time I used to go and see bands and think "The drummer was bad because..." or "The singer was bad because...". Now when I go to see a band I watch the audience reaction and try to work out what it is that the band are doing right/wrong to get that reaction. Criticism and advice is always good because it's free and you don't have to take it. Sometimes your band-mates will only listen to a third party and not the bass player/band leader who is always going on about the same old things. As a musician I am constantly amazed at the way bands with poor quality musicianship can still get amazing reactions from the audience and that's disappointing when we spend so much time practicing and putting in the finest details to the music. That's entertainment!

Feedback is always welcome. Whenever someone tells you something that they think you should do, or something that you did that you shouldn't, its from the audience's perspective. The audience are the people you perform to and the people who pay you - remember? The bonus is that the person telling you has hopefully stood in your shoes and knows the problems you are facing. Unless you video your performance you will NEVER see things from that point of view. Just because someone says what they think doesn't mean you have to do it but I expect 9 times out of ten you'll give it some thought before dismissing it. If you don't you'll never improve. I've had long chats with other bands about how I've/they've done things, what has worked, what hasn't. Essentially its a bit like being on a forum but you actually can see, hear and touch (if you want to) the person you are communicating with. Its rather novel and called 'real life'.

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='818143' date='Apr 25 2010, 04:04 PM']One of the most interesting ones is "America" from West Side Story. It's marked at the beginning of the piece 6/8:3/4, meaning that the whole piece consists of one bar of 6/8 followed by one bar of 3/4 over and over again.[/quote] I had to play this in a show and no one, not even the MD or drummer could get it. I had to stand up in the end at a pre show rehearsal and teach a stage full of kids, a pianist and a drummer. La-La-La-La-La Me-ri-ca. Took a few minutes but sounded really good. I don't think I'll ever forget that experience.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='816809' date='Apr 23 2010, 11:07 PM']Haha if I'm honest I've never played any Queen ([b]I f***ing hate Queen[/b]) and I've only just been asked to do it. I was wondering what songs I'd need to learn and more importantly how to achieve the tone of [b]who ever Queen's bass player is/was.[/b][/quote] Sacrilege. I believe that it is a condition of the forum membership that all members must like Queen and know who John Deacon is! Hopefully by the end of the show you will be enlightened and allowed to post on the forum again!

Superb. The studio version is on my iPod. Although they play it live there I'm sure it must be sampled on the original recording and I've always wondered where the line is sampled from.

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='810325' date='Apr 18 2010, 02:15 PM']How many logos do they need onstage? Just one on the bassdrum or one cab would be enough. Any more looks like you're trying too hard. Less is more! He'll be getting his auntie to make band uniforms next - fell him to feck off.[/quote] +1 It looks really cheesy and takes the focus away from what is actually happening on stage. We had covers for the PA speakers. Some material that had black elastic straps that just strapped round the speakers. Then they wanted music stand covers and band t-shirts and backdrop and .......

A member PMd me asking me more. I've got it out and taken some piuctures. Its a Japanese B2 from 1986, the colour is supposed to be 'cream' but its a bit yellow now and has more dings that I remembered.

Humans are visual creatures. We consume with our eyes. Food, sex, basses. Everyone has their own tastes, if we don't like the look of something we won't consume it. There was a thread recently on a custom bass £5k+. No one had even heard it and they were all knocking it for its looks, even the price tag was steep and raised a few eyebrows, but had it been more traditionally shaped everyone would have wanted to hear it/play it before making judgement. As Bilbo says, the problem is that the image we try to portray doesn't always come across to the people we are trying to portray it to. Even if the image is that I don't care what you think about me. In the words of the song - If you chose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

You sound like a whiny twat who needs to get off his arse more. Why did you make mistakes. I generally make them for one reason only - complacency. I expect you know the tunes inside out and don't need to practice them, you got on stage and your mind wandered and you forgot to concentrate on the playing. You shouldn't need to concentrate on having a good time, that should just happen when you are confident in what you play.

I have played in pubs where a six inch oak beam on the ceiling has literally stopped ALL the sound from coming into the rest of the pub. On the side the band was playing it was deafening and there were horrendous feedback problems, on the other side of the beam the band could have been playing in the pub down the road. Its complex and there are no rules of thumb, you just have to experiment and learn. What works in one situation doesn't work in all.

You'll do fine if you remember. Bass is not just low frequency, most of what you hear and what goes up to make the character of your tone is middle and high frequency. The higher the frequency the more directional it is and the narrower the 'beam' of sound from your speaker is. To hear the proper tone you need to be in this 'beam'. Either by standing away from your cab, or by pointing your cab up towards your ears if this is not possible. Low frequencies (bass) are less directional and have less energy and are easily absorbed. High frequencies (treble) are more directional and bounce off hard surfaces, but are absorbed by soft surfaces, sofas, curtains, people. Sound can form constructive or destructive waves, ie when the waves bounce off the wall; the waves going towards and the waves bouncing off can either add together or subtract from each other. How they do this is complex and its not necessary to understand exactly how, just that it does happen. Where they add together it is louder and where they subtract it is quieter. This is dependent on frequency and distance so in some places the bass will be loud while the treble is quiet and vice versa. Some points in the room will become sweet spots where it sounds perfect. Some notes you play will sound dead, others will ring on forever. Changing the direction and position of cabs affects this. Move the cab around, but always try to get its back as close to a wall as possible. Sound waves will also reflect off the floor and the ceiling as well as any walls. As was said above to increase the bass more put the cab in the corner. If this makes it too boomy move it away from the corner, but keep it against the wall. Angle it if necessary. Other instruments can mask the tone of the bass and the bass can mask the tone of other instruments. You need to work with the guitars to decide what overall tone you want from the band rather than the guitarists wanting a guitar tone and you wanting a bass tone. That's the most difficult part to work out.

[quote name='51m0n' post='757500' date='Feb 25 2010, 07:54 PM']... If you put your amp ANYWHERE in the room the bass frequencies (and all the rest) will reflect back and forth off all walls. Bass frequencies are omidirectional, ie they propogate evenly from the source in all directions. They are tricky blighters like that! Mids and above are directional. ...[/quote] That's not quite true. As you move the cab (source) around, the nodes of the standing waves will move too. If you put it against the wall you will cut down on the chances that the waves coming from the wall behind are out of phase with the long (low frequency waves) coming from the speaker. Moving the cab around has a big effect. Putting it in the corner should reduce the number of nodes, but this is depedent of frequency and room size. The highs and mids are directional but they will also spread out (in a cone shape) depending on the cab and speaker design. Usual figures are around 30 degrees. Angling the cab out from the corner will also mean that those frequencies go directly into the room and don't get bounced of the walls (you may or may not want this, you have to experiment). Standing about 10ft in front of your cab (1x15,2x10,4x10) will mean that the waves have spread out high enough to reach your ears.

If you have your amp flat against a wall in a small room the bass frequencies from your speaker will reflect back off the opposite wall and the wall behind and cancel the ones coming directly from your speaker. Put your amp in the corner and try different angles. If you are still struggling then the guitarists need to cut their bass.

[quote name='silddx' post='755451' date='Feb 23 2010, 08:37 PM']I'm sorry mate, but you are drawing the wrong conclusions based on a very simplistic analysis. The marketing surrounding the brands of transport you mention are many and varied, depending on model. Simply put, the more expensive models are marketed by selling a lifestyle, the more practical (like the Cayenne) by selling prestige and luxurious practicality, and the "budget" models, if you can call them that, by brand leverage focusing on aspiration. The GUS is none of those, it is simply a very expensive product because of very expensive production processes, and the result is meant for musicians who want supreme design and quality, and who happen to have the money and may want to demonstrate that via a unique appearance. You think the chrome saveloys are there for anything other than brand identity? They have no practical use whatsover. It's the Fabergé egg of the bass world.[/quote] Ultimately supply and demand set the price. If the demand is not there at that price and the price cannot drop then the item will not sell.