4-string-thing

[quote name='Paul S' post='1108165' date='Jan 30 2011, 02:30 PM']That we care about the state of our hearing? If they think anything else I couldn't give a toss, frankly.[/quote] TBH, I don't think many of my bands audience give a toss about their own hearing, never mind mine! I get stick from my bandmates about wearing earplugs at rehearsals, but would wear them at gigs too if I thought I'd get away with it.

An assortment of womens clothes, leather codpiece, wig, mirrored aviators and possibly a hat. On the gear front, a stand, hardcase and a tuner are probably the only things apart from the obvious! By obvious I mean, bass, amp, leads, spare leads and gaffar tape. Some have mentioned earplugs.... For rehearsals yes, gigs no. What does it say to your audience if the band are wearing them?

[quote name='flyfisher' post='1106914' date='Jan 29 2011, 12:42 AM']. . . and that the solid copper core lasted for 30 years without breaking - or perhaps the rig wasn't moved in all that time? [/quote] Lots of gigs done in those 30 years Fella..... Testament to the quality of My Acoustic 220 head and 404 cab, and my soldering skills of course!

[quote name='icastle' post='1106721' date='Jan 28 2011, 08:58 PM']Yep The bit I find most surprising is that you managed to fit that chunky old coax into the jackplug in the first place![/quote] ha ha....a lot easier than when I tried the same thing with 2.5mm flex the other week!

[quote name='icastle' post='1105804' date='Jan 28 2011, 02:26 AM']Yep - that doesn't surprise me at all. But 'off the reel' TV coax from 30 years ago is a lot different to the coax they use on instrument cables. The centre core has to be getting on for 4x the thickness and the old solid type insulator is about 10x the thickness. I wouldn't recommend it, but I reckon I could shove 240V and pull a good 6A through that old stuff without frying anything... [/quote] Probably helped that my amp was only 125w til recently!

Me neither...cheers!

Years and years ago when I was very young, foolish and probably broke, I made myself a couple of "speaker leads" using some tv coax and jack plugs.... I've only just bought some proper speaker leads after using the others for about 30 years! Mainly because I read on here that you should be using proper ones.... In those 30 odd years, I've probably gone through dozens of instrument leads but my homemade speaker leads have never let me down or caught fire....

[i] Needless to say he was massively apologetic about the whole thing and told me to never lend him anything ever again... [/i] I think that last bit probably didn't really need to be said!

[quote name='chris_b' post='1101344' date='Jan 24 2011, 08:45 PM']That's God's way of telling you to get a neo 2x12![/quote] 12" speakers for bass? You'll be telling us that valve amps are good for bass too next!!!!!!

[quote name='Doctor J' post='1101300' date='Jan 24 2011, 08:17 PM']I usually find Dingwalls quite offensive to the eye but that one is rather nice.[/quote] Each to his own I suppose, but good luck with the deal!

Had a bit of a tester last night (we have only played on our home turf to what is basically our mates so far) But last night was a bikers rally where only a couple of them had seen us before. We weren't really sure what a bunch of bikers would make of us in full glam-rock attire, but we went down pretty well and had a few very positive comments, and didn't get anything thrown over us! My new rig also sounded great and kept up with our manic drummer and 2 guitarists 200w stacks pretty well too.

[quote name='LITTLEWING' post='1099448' date='Jan 23 2011, 11:18 AM']Personally, I can't rate Ashdown high enough. I have a MAG300 EVO II (307 watts) into a 2 x 15" Hartke cab and with a versatile amp and superb cab you won't look back. You'd be lucky to blow up a Hartke, ther're just about bullet-proof and the sound is awesome for the money. Also don't forget a decent amp to cab cable. There's a guy on here called OBBM. Great prices and even greater cable. [/quote] I've recently retired my old Acoustic head and replaced it with an Ashdown MAG600 which I've been using into my Acoustic 2x15 cab (upgraded drivers) and I have to say it sounds fantastic. We're not a metal band, but we do have a very loud drummer and two guitarists with 200w Blackstar stacks, the Mag 600 keeps up ok, but I struggled a bit with the 300. We don't use PA for the instruments though, only vocals. For the money, the Mag heads are great, don't let anyone tell you they sound muddy!

Richard Thompson or John Otway (if you can call him a guitarist)

[quote name='73Jazz' post='1094959' date='Jan 19 2011, 11:46 AM']everything after 65 is rubbish..hrhr [/quote] I'm happy to stand corrected on the year of the CBS takeover (and my grammar) I could have checked in my copy of The Fender Bass book, but TBH, couldn't be bothered, so I took a guess!

I'm not convinced that all late 70's Fenders were bad instruments or badly built. I've had mine for over 30 years and it sounds and plays great to me, though I would like to compare it to others of the same era sometime. I'm old enough to remember when people would lust over "pre CBS" Fenders, citing that anything built after 1966 was rubbish. Wonder if these people still turn their noses up at a P or Jazz from 68?

Just remembered another little gem: Be nice to people on the way up, cos you'll probably meet them again on the way down!

[quote name='bumnote' post='1091323' date='Jan 16 2011, 01:14 PM']Going back to the OP the best thing you can do is to connect it up with the proper cables and actually try it. All this theoretical stuff is all very well but does it do what you want or not. One thing to remember about acoustic amps is that the volume control is not consistant all the way round. By that I mean that the amp will be running flat out long before the volume knob reaches no 10. When I used to use mine with a hefty bass boost, I was often on volume no 2 or 3 and the amp was not far off flat out.[/quote] Agreed, I never used to have mine above 2 or 3.... its only recently that I've retired the poor old girl, due to the geetards in my band refusing to play at anything less than ear-bleeding volume!

[quote name='thumperbob 2002' post='1090419' date='Jan 15 2011, 01:55 PM']If its not fun in the band you are in- leave. Do not hesitate.[/quote] I'll be taking this advice myself after next Saturdays gig! As for my own 2p worth..... always tell the guitarist that the rehearsal starts 30 minutes before it actually does.... And Richard Thompson..... "The song is king"

Ok, I'm not wanting to start any arguments or anything (apologies to the OP for hijacking his thread) But after a quick google for speaker power handling and wiring etc, it seems that the general opinion is that adding each speakers rating together gives the total power handling however they are wired. Some people seem to say that wiring 2 100w speakers in series only gives you the power handling of 100w, as the signal travels through the first speaker and then the second. Whereas, in parallel, the signal is split between the 2, so each speaker receives half the signal. Therefore when wired in parallel, my 2 350w speakers can handle an amp of up to 700w.

[quote name='icastle' post='1090622' date='Jan 15 2011, 04:49 PM']Nope. Each speaker will still have the same wattage if wired in parallel - in series you just add up all the wattages and that's what your power handling is. Best example I can think of off the top of my head is the old fashion xmas tree lights - loads of little 6V bulbs wired in series and able to run off of 240V. If you wired each bulb in parallel (like your house lights are) each 6V bulb gets 240V... but not for very long... [/quote] Ok, I have 2 Acoustic cabs that both use identical drivers. Cab A is a 1x15 rated at 125w, cab B is a 2x15 rated at 250w. I've just replaced the drivers in the 2x15 to increase the power handling, the original drivers in the cab were wired in parallel, so its power rating was incorrect? I've put in 2 Eminence drivers rated at 350w and wired them in parallel too, so its power rating is still only 350w? This still seems odd to me, as I said before adding more cabs surely increases power handling, so why not adding more drivers to a single cab? Maybe I'm just being a bit dim here.....

[quote name='icastle' post='1090087' date='Jan 15 2011, 01:58 AM']Probably not. I'm guessing that for a 4x10 200W 8Ω cab they are probably wiring two 100W 8Ω speakers in series and then paralleling those with the other two speakers (also in series). If you have two 100W speakers in series you can put 200W through them - If you take the same two speakers and wire them in parallel you can only put 100W through them. Put the whole lot in parallel and you will only be able to handle 100W.[/quote] Is this right? Surely adding speakers increases power handling however they are wired? After all, if you add a second cab (wired in parallel to the first cab) you will handle more power, won't you?

The Acoustic 220 head is a great amp and will work down to 2 ohms. You will only get around 100w at 8 ohms though, but these amps are pretty loud for their wattages. They are also very reliable, I've used mine for 30 years and its never let me down! You should only use one lead from amp output 1 into one of the speaker inputs. You could add another cab and this could be connected to either amp output 2 or the first cab (daisychaining) You should use a decent speaker lead though, not a guitar lead. The third socket on the back panel is for a footswitch to turn the graphic eq on or off, they're not labeled on mine, so make sure you don't connect the cab to this by mistake.

[quote name='ironside1966' post='1083165' date='Jan 9 2011, 02:30 PM']From my experience the bands that busk tunes rather than learn them properly tend to be in the in lower paid gigs.[/quote] Good job I don't do it for the money then!

I would rather learn a song from chord charts (with the help of tabs, which are usually wrong anyway) then play something close to the original, but within my capabilities, than try to play the original and mess it up in front of an audience! Obviously things like Alright Now and Eton Rifles would need to be as per the recordings, but most of the stuff my band does can be simplified, or are really easy anyway! As I said in my earlier post "I like to THINK I am being creative" This doesn't necessarily mean I AM being creative.

This is a bit of a sore point with me and our band. I have never bothered to learn a bass line note for note and probably never will, unless it is the main part of the song and needs to be exactly as the original. I like to think I am being creative, even if in reality it's just me simplifying things cos I'm not good enough to play the original! Our guitard on the other hand, likes to learn his riffs, solo's etc note for note. He claims that people in the Dog & Duck on a saturday night, will be able to tell if its "not right" This is why its taken him 10 months to learn a one hour set, and I can learn 3 songs in an evening with youtube, a tabs site, and a pair of headphones! As someone on here once said "nobody notices the bass player unless he's on fire"