Bottle

Tried my bass tutors' fretless Warwick Corvette five-banger - it was an awesome experience. Also tried Silddx's fretless Warwick at a bass bash once as well, liked it a lot. I'm planning on defretting my spare Precision Special bass (well, now my [i]second[/i] spare bass!!), since I have two basses with rosewood boards, both currently fretted. Looking for that sweet 'mwaaahhhh' from it once I swap over the LaBella flats from my Vintage 'Ray copy. That will get me into fretless territory without a large amount of expense. I'm eager to hear of people's experiences with fretless P-basses and what pickups they'd recommend Ta, Ian

[quote name='neepheid' post='1284217' date='Jun 27 2011, 03:28 PM']Assuming that the correct wires are soldered together then it could/should be black - south coil ground green - north coil hot Red and white is the tricky one, one will be the south coil hot and one will be the north coil ground. You should be able to work it out with a multimeter. Set it to ohms. Break the join at the red/white. Take the black wire and try it through the multimeter with the white wire. If you get a sensible reading (some kOhms) then that's one coil and black is ground. If you don't then it'll be black and red as the first coil. Then it's easy from there. The remaining wire will be north ground and you already know that green is the hot wire for the north coil. Matt[/quote] Matt, Had the control plate apart now, looks like I've got ~ 4.5k between black and white, and about the same between red and green, seeming to suggest it's the same as the SD wiring colour code (it appears that when in series it didn't matter if black and green were reversed). In that case, I'm going to use the SD colour scheme and switching arrangement - I've got a spare DPDT toggle knocking about at home. Tasks for tomorrow will be to re-dress the control cavity wiring (BTW it ain't screened either!) and fit the switch as well as drill 'n' fill a couple of holes with stripped threads. Ta muchly fella, Ian

Hi Chaps Just got a Vintage copy of a single H Stingray. Had a quick shuftie under the control plate and it appears the humbucker is wired in series (which is kinda what I expected). Black appears to be grounded along with the screen, red / white soldered together and green goes to the vol pot. Wanted to fit a series / parallel switch for coil tapping. Just wondered if you guys had a wiring colour code for the Wilkinson humbucker pickup. EDIT: No matter, doing a bit of Googling, there appears to be several colour-coding schemes in use for Wilkinson pickups, looks like the most accurate one is the same as the Seymour Duncan one, so will try that with a toggle and see how I get on..... Ta, Ian

Vintage 'Ray copy arrived safe and sound today (incredibly well packaged, shares in BubbleWrap company? hehehe) after it's trip south. Fantastic, quick response and service, and a real pleasure to do business with this fine gentleman Ian

All good info. OBBM for ready-made cables (and can make to customers' specs too) I'm happy making my own cables - have been doing it for twenty years, so not a problem for me Canford Audio for cables and connectors. I use their HST for microphone and jack-jack cables, MCS-HD for speaker runs (4mm[sup]2[/sup]) and Neutrik connectors/Speakons. HTH, Ian

[quote name='Al Heeley' post='1280718' date='Jun 24 2011, 11:16 AM']This shows current standard parallel wiring at the back panel of the Hartke cabs, if I rewire as per Series diagram then I should just need a shorted jackplug inserted at the end of the signal chain to complete the circuit if series extension to 3rd cab is not being used.. Proposed setup: [/quote] Looks good However, to keep the speakers in the series chain in-phase, you'll need to wire it: Input from amp (+) to speaker cab #1 (+), Speaker cab #1 (-) to Speaker cab #2 (+), then Speaker cab #2 (-) back to amp (-) Hope that this makes sense? HTH, Ian

Further on to my last post, was thinking about getting a cheap s/h 'beater' Jazz bass (preferably in black) and modding it, maybe make a 'stealth' bass. Either that, or an identical Inanez GSR-180, but in black. Some thoughts that occured to me - changing out the pickups etc, leaving the neck pickup in, but either disconnecting it and solely relying on the hum-cancelling properties of having a humbucking pickup in the bridge position, or leaving it in and recessing it (kinda like the Ray HS), wiring it in switchable series/parallel with the original bridge pickup, like a phantom/hum-cancelling coil. I've seen someone on this forum do something like this - can't remember the thread on this now. HTH, Ian

I don't own a Whammy (or have ever used one!) but I believe that the bassist for the band Clatter uses a Whammy in fifth-up mode. Need to go to about the 3 minute mark, but the video is worth watching all the way through anyway, lots of interesting info on her tri-amped rig there too HTH, Ian

I use 4mm[sup]2[/sup] for my amp > cab connection cables, especially with the amount of power most micro-heads chuck out these days. I've never used OBBM cables, but they get a lot of support on here from happy customers, so give 'em a go. If you're a dab hand with a screwdriver and wire-strippers then you can make your own - I use Canford Audio for pukka Neutrik Speakons (beware cheap Chinese copies elsewhere) and their MCS2 HD cable (2 core, 4mm[sup]2[/sup]). If you don't need a metre of cable between head and cab then make/buy one shorter, no need for extra length here. I personally go for 0.5m (call it foot-and-a-half in old money), since I can get that nicely in the gig-bag with the head. HTH, Ian

[quote name='JTUK' post='1269390' date='Jun 14 2011, 10:55 PM']My experience of bi-amping was that the amp was 200/200 into 4 ohms..so 200 watts was the most I could squeeze out of the amp. The sounds was pretty decent and I ran 115 and 210, but not that much worse that 400 bridged into the same cabs. I maybe preferred the split sound but I wanted/needed the extra volume. The variable x-uver was a must though and provide the most flexibility of sound, IMO. Without a variable X-over, not worth doing.[/quote] Similar to my power amp, 200w a side into 4 Ohms. EBS 1x15 gets one side, the pair of 1x12 PA cabs gets the other side. X-over is variable too, input gain and relative levels of the low and high-pass outputs, with adjustment in the x-over frequency, minimum f[sub]o[/sub] is approx. 125Hz, max is 1KHz, and I have a 10x range available too, and if needed it can be changed from stereo two way with low summed out, to mono three-way. Like I said before, it's all an experiment. I'll try to record some clips at some point. I have some ideas I'm working on at the moment, and it would be handy for me to track everything in one pass, then I can mix the tracks later to get the effect I'm after. I'm also looking at getting a re-amping box to go with my PC interface - BTW anyone got one going spare? Ian

[quote name='JTUK' post='1269260' date='Jun 14 2011, 09:35 PM']I wouldn't bother... and to my knowledge the GK head isn't a proper bi-amp option anyway.. but in the interest of expeimentation..I wager this isn't worth the effort. Well..?? was it..? To me, for bi-amping to work.. you need 2 power sources and a varibale x-over..so you send to a sub unit and a top unit. Out of the quality cabs you have.....send the lows to the 115 and the higher end to the 410..but I'd think the 410 would sound pretty ugly with a passed signal...IMO.[/quote] Could well be right in the long run, but hey, if I didn't do it, someone else would, right? Besides, that's how progress is made LOL This was my inspiration: HTH, Ian

[quote name='escholl' post='1269216' date='Jun 14 2011, 09:05 PM']holy phase issues, Batman. Still, if it sounds good... [/quote] Haven't tried it at serious gig volumes yet - this is aimed more at a recording/re-amping setup to give the rec. engineer a lot of flexibility at the mixing stage. Just trying different stuff out to see what works and what doesn't - mostly planning out what I need to do to isolate cabs from each other during trackig etc. It does kinda work in a live environment, but I'm taking on board the phase issues as well. HTH, Ian

As the topic suggests, this is a little thread to document my forays into bi-amping (and along the way, a few experiments in Tri- and Quad-Amping) First off, I should mention the gear at my disposal (well, go see my gear thread link in the siggie) - I have a GK MB500 head which has lots of I/O options, and several bass-specific and PA-style cabs knocking about. In more detail, I have an EBS 4x10 and a 1x15, plus a stack of 1x12 and 1x10 PA cabs (relatively low power handling), not to mention some chunky 19" rack-mount power-amps. So, my task was to utilise these for backline purposes, mostly for sh*ts 'n' giggles to see if it was at all possible to get a good sounding rig out of relatively cheap components (OK, so the GK and the EBS gear wasn't cheap, but at least most of it was S/H). My first cab was the 4x10, which was a marked upgrade over the Line 6 1x10 combo I'd been lugging to gigs. I then spied a matching 1x15 for sale on here earlier last year, which I snapped up too. These went together remarkably well, although I was limited to using one or the other with my bass head, being that the cabs are 4 Ohms each and the head won't go down to 2 Ohms. I started using one channel of a stereo power amp to drive the 1x15 from the line out on the head. This worked well, and I also started using the other half of the amp when I got my SansAmp pedal to add a little drive to a pair of 1x12 PA cabs. The SansAmp gets it's input from the GK Efx Send/Return feed. Some experimentation later and I started using a crossover to send just the clean lows to the 1x15 mixed in with some of the SansAmp drive. Highs from the SansAmp went to the 1x12's. This is my preferred tri-amping setup. I've used this on numerous occasions including bass bashes last year, to some effect. There have been several threads already on bass biamping too, which I have read and digested. Some very useful information contained in those pages. Now to my current experiment..... I recently purchased a Bass Big Muff Pi off of a member here, and immediately set to work trying to get a quad-amp setup working. To start off I used my current tri-amp rig unmodified and drove the GK's input from the 'Dry' output of the Muff. The 'Effected' output went to my trusty Line 6 combo, and used the DI out to go to the PA desk as a second input. Took the 'Clean' out from the SansAmp, setup using the default 'Active Bass simulated' setting in the manual as primary PA desk input. It then got my thinking about balancing the various amp levels, so I looked at inserting the BBM in the GK's effects loop. I've heard that this doesn't always yield good results, but TBH I've not found it to be a problem. Signal chain is a little more convoluted now - GK Effects send > SansAmp input....SansAmp parallel out > Bass Big Muff Pi. So: [i]GK power section > [b]EBS 4x10 (clean, full-range)[/b] GK Line out into channel A of X-over (f[sub]o[/sub] = 200Hz) SansAmp effected output straight into channel A of stereo Power Amp > [b]two 1x12 PA cabs (smidge of drive, approx. 60/40 dry/wet blend, full range)[/b] BBM Pi effected output into channel B of X-over (f[sub]o[/sub] = 150Hz) X-over low-summed output into channel B of stereo Power Amp > [b]EBS 1x15 (<200Hz, mix of clean and fuzz)[/b] X-over channel B High output into channel 1 of second stereo Power Amp (bridged 8 Ohm/500w) > [b]one 1x10 PA cab (>150Hz, fuzz) (for testing only)[/b][/i] That's about it. I might replace the second power amp driving the single 8 Ohm cab with a suitable valve head and monster guitar cab Feel free to leave comments! Ian

[quote name='Fat Rich' post='1268831' date='Jun 14 2011, 04:19 PM']Ah well, could be worse.... could be in the wrong forum! [/quote] Could be even worse and he's a drummer at the wrong gig

Only go between my house and the church/school so soft gig-bag is fine. Pluis it has all the room I need for the amp head and patch cables etc If I had a more expensive bass, I'd use a hard case HTH, Ian

Hello chaps Thought I'd plumb the depths of knowledge here further. Some may remember a build/mod thread I started last year detailing the changes I made to my current Ibanez GSR-180 ([url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=90862"]here[/url]). Well, it was a successful mod and I'm very pleased with the result. So it got my thinking about what else I could do to the bass. Had a trawl on the Seymour Duncan website for sh*ts 'n' giggles and found that they do Classic and Hot Stack Jazz Pickups with hum-cancelling windings. Not only that, they have 4-wire lead-outs, so would be able to be coil-split or tapped - am I correct in this assumption? What I'd like to do is stick a pair of Classics (or Hot Stacks - somebody please explain the difference!) and coil-tap the pickup in the Bridge position only. I'd keep the internal wiring all the same then i.e controls would be VVT, and the coil-tap switch would just change over the Bridge pickup from series to parallel. The Neck pickup would remain as wired in series hum-cancelling mode. OK peeps, am I mad for wanting to do this? Second question, could I mix 'n' match Classic and Hot Stack p'ups in the same bass? Maybe a Classic in the Neck position and a Hot Stack in the Bridge? Has anyone got any experience with these p'ups? Soundclips? Thanks for indulging me! Ian

Just purchased Paul's BBM Pi - very fast transaction (popped in post before I'd even finished sorting out the PayPal - fantastic), pedal arrived yesterday morning (door-to-door, all less than 24Hrs after I pulled the trigger), well-wrapped up and packaged. Pleasure doing business All-in-all, very happy with the service! Top marks for a top bloke to deal with. Ian

[quote name='wulf' post='1258102' date='Jun 6 2011, 09:41 AM']You'd be welcome. It's all free and informal enough that I don't need exact numbers before the day so, if you can make it, just turn up (let me know though if you need any more information). Cheers, Wulf[/quote] Thanks Wulf Will be there - have permission from the lovely lady (in fact she may well tag along!). Looking forward to meeting up with some other Christian bassists. Sounds like it'll be a great day. HTH, Ian

QUOTE (Ancient Mariner @ Jun 3 2011, 11:53 AM) This mix of controlled improv is one of the things that I especially like about playing worship, whether bass or guitar. I find bands that are tightly rehearsed much less satisfying than playing with a bunch of guys who want to work together and have a basic chord structure and some words to follow. It all feels much more creative, and being open to the worship being a vehicle instead of a destination makes for enormous freedom and enjoyment. It also allows injection of things that make it fun - like doing a hymn reggae style or borrowing little quotes from well known songs and adding them into the backing. This is true to an extent - something I truly take to heart. I believe in being able to express myself as a bassist by having a structure to work within, without the constraints of making the song note-perfect to the CD version we used as practice material. It's something that I have tried to get across to other members of the worship team, with varying degress of success. I willing to accept more than one point-of-view as being perfectly valid; sometimes it is nice to play a song with faithfullness to the original intent of the songwriter (and this would be true of songs written within our church), however it is also good practice and honouring to God to just let Him dictate where worship is going (after all, it's who we're there to praise and worship in the first place, right? ). If that means the worship leader takes a walk off of the map, well, then it's my responsibility to back them up with a tastefully appropriate bassline . QUOTE (mcgraham @ Jun 3 2011, 12:01 PM) Indeed. It's a very particular skill set that people pick up really quickly. What I would say is that once people get to that standard of just being able to plug'n'play everything plateaus very quickly, and suddenly improvement is rare. Also, what people think is 'good musicianship' for a worship team is sub-par compared to true masters of their instruments. I would love to see more christian bass players (see? keeping it on topic ) spend more time working on their instruments outside of sunday mornings or band practice. Because it's all improvised to some extent, the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The best bit of advice I was given from a fellow worship musician (albeit by someone who was just repeating something that had been told to them) was 'learn jazz theory - if you can play jazz, you can play anything'. I did and continue to do so, and it has definitely allowed me to plug into any genre that I might want to experiment with. All very good advice - I have found that since I've been to jam nights outside of the church worship band context, I've improved a great deal in my playing confidence and ability to listen to other musicians during a song etc.

[quote name='mcgraham' post='1255212' date='Jun 3 2011, 11:21 AM']One thing that has come up a lot in the above posts is how it places demands on you to create music with others of varying ability and preferences just from a lead sheet/chord chart, and I think that is one of the strongest elements of developing musicianship that worship provides that you just can't find anywhere else.[/quote] +1 indeed [quote]It's the balance of improvisation, bandcraft, and (for lack of a better word) performance/purpose that ties it all together so people do their best with far less prep time than a normal performance band would, [b]but also don't go crazy or off on musical tangents like they may do at a jam night or the like[/b].[/quote] Agree with this, however, you ain't been to my church seems like we do go off on musical tangents on a regular basis! Keeps me on my feet, and rooted firmly on the ground (LOL) HTH, Ian

[quote name='wulf' post='1253068' date='Jun 1 2011, 07:40 PM']I've played at church and other Christian settings almost as long as I've been playing bass but I've also had lots of other playing experience along the way. It seems to me that there are plenty of distinctive things about the setting, some good and some not so good. For example, at a lot of churches you are improvising the song based on chord charts or simple piano arrangements; generally there is a lot of room for playing excellent and interesting basslines (although you can can get away with a very basic level of skill and simple often is the best choice). On the downside, there is often a lack of preparation time, you might find yourself playing with people who aren't very good and don't seem to do anything to improve and, rather than having to cope with a singer, you've got a whole congregation-full of them. As a bassist who is also a Christian, I'd be at some kind of regular gathering anyway, so the chance to take a bass along and contribute still feels like a privilege. However, it hasn't always been the most demanding playing setting and I'm glad that, looking back, I've taken plenty of opportunities to develop my skills in lots of other settings too. Wulf[/quote] I actually agree with a lot of what you're saying! Being in a church environment certainly challenges me to be a better player, particularly my improv skills. I also agree with the comment about the lack of preparation time - I'm often playing songs off of a chord sheet I may have been given that morning when I turn up to the meeting. I think 30mins soundcheck and a quick run-through is more than enough prep time I find myself being the most inexperienced player in the band so for me, the musicians are generally better prepared and have a higher level of ability than me. It is a demanding and challenging environment, but I thrive in that place and some of my best playing has occured in worship time. [quote name='wulf' post='1253068' date='Jun 1 2011, 07:40 PM']ps. if anyone is from the direction of Suffolk on 18 June, I'm running an informal event called [url="http://www.web-den.org.uk/bassist/deepdeep.php"]Deep to Deep[/url], a long-running series of get-togethers specifically for Christian bassists.[/quote] Had a quick shuftie at the website. I think I'm free that weekend and I'm just up the road near Newmarket (plus have family in BSE), so would love to come. Need to run it past the other half, but I can't see it being a problem