nekomatic

These were included with the excellent R500H head that the excellent Risk101 sold me a while back, but excellent as the head is I have decided I don't need to plaster my life in stickers saying so. But if you do then now's your chance! Yours for postage (standard letter), or collect in Stockport if you're local…

I didn’t say it was a bad question, just a frequent one!

Many years back I used to take a 1x12 cab on luggage wheels - and a bass - from Clapham Junction to if memory serves Highgate for a jazz class. Ask me about the time I got there and found the escalator wasn’t working.

I assume @Smanth means that the label next to the Speakon specifies the amp’s maximum* load as 4 ohms. In which case you might get a bit more than half of the power rating in 8 ohms, as the 4 ohm spec might be limited by the thermal design and/or the current capability as well as the voltage capability. For example the Warwick Gnome is rated at 200 W into 4 ohms, but 130 W into 8. * maximum load as in fewest ohms

Help me understand ohms

This was quite fun, I do like non-English lyrics although there’s always the risk they could be singing about something dodgy without my knowing. Five point penalty for the synth brass though.

I'm not a Rush fan but might read that based on the above. He's also going to be the guest on Craig Charles's show on 6 Music this afternoon, apparently.

I put this on on Sunday afternoon while the family were all out (!) and I was making them dinner. The first track reminded me of what it used to sound like when you fast forwarded a CD, which I guess is a retro reference these days. I was a little surprised when it stopped and changed to something else, because I could have let it carry on doing that a bit longer, and I got the same feeling for several of the other tracks. Some of the later ones sounded a lot like the sort of game soundtracks they play on Radio 3 on a Saturday afternoon. I was never quite sure if there was an emotional heart to it or if it was all surface. But I was disappointed when it finished and there wasn’t any more, which can’t be bad.

One practical point if you want to minimise weight: a tweeter is surprisingly heavy, and the coils for the crossover are a fair amount of copper as well, so if you aren’t sure whether you need a two-way design you might want to try it with the Beyma on its own first and only add in the HF side if you feel it’s necessary. This is the sort of thing you can take your time faffing about with when you build it yourself.

Ha, I drafted something prefaced with ‘I’m not an expert but’ and meanwhile an actual expert has shown up (and luckily, not contradicted anything I was going to say too badly). You want the cabinet to be as rigid as possible to avoid resonances which will colour the sound. From memory of trawling through various cabinet building threads, I’m fairly sure it was Bill who stated the most effective bracing to start with is a batten tying the middle of one panel to the same place on the opposite side. Running a signal generator app on your phone into your amp and feeling each panel for vibrations as you ramp the frequency is adequate to identify whether you need to add any more. I think commercial PA speaker cabinets often use moulded plastics, and there are companies like GR who make bass cabinets from carbon fibre, but I’m not sure how feasible either of those is for the home builder. I think you will be very pleased with an SM212 in a Basschat 112 enclosure though.

I just decided I didn’t want to be responsible for any more lead entering the environment, however small the quantity. With a temperature controlled iron (which I recognise is an expense) and the right size bit for each job, I’ve found lead free works fine. If you look around you can get stuff that melts at 217 degrees rather than the standard 227, which may help a little.

I was referring to the Switch Electronics one that uk_lefty linked to, which is what I thought they were asking about.

If you look closely at the picture, the symbol at the bottom of the label shows it’s centre positive. Of course the picture might not be of the actual product, but centre positive is standard for everything except effects pedals so if it weren’t I’m sure they would say so. It does look (again assuming the picture is accurate) as if the cable is a figure-8 style, which makes it an easy job to solder on a replacement plug with the correct polarity. Either that or get a polarity changing adapter.

I was being far too polite to ask.

So I got the good headphones on for Medúlla and turned the volume up and I think that's how it needs to be listened to - it isn't furniture music, it's meant to be immersive. Of course it turns out I do know some of the tracks, and could hum Who Is It, but this is still an album I'm not very familiar with despite having owned it for I assume the (gulp) 19 years since it was released. I do get that not everyone likes unaccompanied choral music, and I guess I do, but I didn't find myself thinking at any point ‘oh this is unaccompanied choral music’ - it makes a complete sound world that I was very happy to spend three quarters of an hour in, and the variety of what she does with it only really struck me afterwards - Vökuró for example is pretty much a straight classical choir piece, Oceania is drum'n'bass, and there's plenty in between. And of course not everyone likes her voice, and the way she sings each syllable as if it's the first time she's ever tried to pronounce it, but for me it all works - taking some time to really listen properly to something so complex and engaging was an experience I really enjoyed. And I have to say, I struggle to think of anyone else around at the moment who has had such commercial success with such bold and experimental music (suggestions?) My takeaway from this week then is that not only should I listen to Medúlla more, I should listen to Björk more, because she's done so much more since then that I also don't know properly (well it has been 19 years). Bring on next week!

You’ll be able to find the cap elsewhere, including on eBay - I just linked to CPC because they have a good range and good data. I’d probably replace all three of the electrolytics to be on the safe side, then if it still didn’t work move on to unsolder and test the transistors.

The main difference in specs between electrolytics of the same capacitance and voltage is the temperature rating and lifetime - the cheapest ones are usually rated 1000 hours at 85 C, more expensive ones for longer at 105 C. If that lifetime sounds short, AFAIK it is quoted at the maximum voltage and temperature, so at room temperature and less than max voltage it should last much longer. If you have a look at suitable capacitors on CPC (you may need to adjust the filters on the left hand side) you can get one that meets the specs for the princely sum of eight pence (plus 4.99 p&p, unless you order some other gubbins), or you can pay a bit more for a higher spec brand name one which since they are so cheap, I probably would. It's worth bearing in mind though that although one component has obviously failed, others may have been taken out by the AC supply as well - the resistors and ceramic caps will be fine but possibly the other electrolytics and the transistors. Unfortunately the JFETs aren't so easy to get hold of nowadays.

Well that's a surprise - I was expecting someone else I'd never heard of! Having said that though, while I know Post and Homogenic like the back of my hand, and love them both, I have listened to most of her later albums multiple times but they haven't stuck with me in the same way (yet) - I can't name or hum any tracks from this one. So this is the ideal cue to listen to it again with fresh ears and think about what I do or don't like about it. Which is the genius of this concept.

Jim Fleeting update: he's still in Stockport, but now in Pear Mill (on the fourth floor, next to Stockport Studios). I took the Jazz in to get a couple of neck dings sorted out and a professional setup for once, and he did an excellent job which was both quicker and slightly cheaper than his original estimate, so I came away a happy bunny. I can also confirm that he's a top bloke to chat about basses with.

I liked this from the off - it's energetic, the sound is complex but well balanced (imho) so you can hear everything that's going on, and there's variety from track to track. The bass is rewarding to listen to and the perc is fun (I do like a bit of conga, me). If I had an alt-rock band I think I'd be pretty happy if it sounded like these guys. If I had an alt-rock band that sounded a bit boring I'd definitely look at this album for a few ideas to change things up. I guess about half way through it started to run out of anything new to do for me, but that's not a bad result for a genre I'm not usually all that drawn in to. This is a brilliant idea - thanks for starting it and I look forward to the next one!

It’s such a shame that these attitudes ever existed, and all the more bizarre because I don’t think they have done for many years along the people who actually play the stuff. All the classical musicians I know are just as likely to enjoy listening to pop, blues, jazz, rock or dance when ‘off duty’ as to Mozart or Szymanowski, and not remotely snobby about what other people choose to like.

I’m really enjoying it! It’s well judged, funky, it’s keeping me interested and above all it’s fun. It’s putting a big grin on my face on a Monday morning and really, who can ask for more than that? It’d be great live too - has he said if there’d be any chance of them touring it? (PS I think I heard a slap at the end of track 5.)

I saw that trio at Sadlers Wells, on what I believe was the tour on which they recorded the Songs With Legs album, so I like to think I’m (silently) on it somewhere!

I just found out Carla Bley has died. RIP 💔 https://youtu.be/Osh6LbSRU9Y?si=GLjgM9cMdK-fIL-b

Ooh, good shout thanks. Although reading their FAQ reminded me about the Feeds view which is a lot better than the default.