alexclaber

A good 2x15" at full blast might produce about 130dB SPL @ 1m which is roughly 10 acoustic watts. A decent band with good dynamics might run between 100 and 120dB at the audience, which is between 0.1 and 1W. We often see cabs quoted as 500W power output, 1000W power etc. 1000 acoustic watts would be 150dB. That's loud enough to make Motorhead sound like a coffeeshop duo. Alex

Good points! Have had quite a few enquiries due to google picking up the site so I think the basic text site is good for the search engines. I think I did put meta tags in the original site too. Colourwise I'm a great fan of orange but Markbass have already claimed that. Blue doesn't feel right. Hmmm... Alex

The watts don't really matter, you don't hear them - they only go on. What comes out is dB SPL (which can be measured in acoustic watts but that's just depressing...) If it farts out with big bottom then maybe different speakers will help but to be honest a 2x15" is so damned efficient that's pretty unlikely. Alex

I think in the petite genre of multi-tracked solo bass funk it stacks up pretty well - could certainly teach the esteemed Mr Wooten a thing or two about tone too. Alex P.S. So who else really plays funk bass in this town? We need to get a proper scene happening!

[quote name='51m0n' post='486151' date='May 12 2009, 05:19 PM']Don't know if I'd have the audacity to send it to Roscoe as a potential demo, thats kind of brash isn't it?[/quote] How very English of you! Alex

The posts about stiffness are spot on. I tried Prosteels years ago on my '87 Warwick Streamer because they'd been recommended as being higher tension than most but they're not, they're just stiffer. Extremely bright and extremely rough on your hands - possibly the worst match of strings and bass ever heard, so trebly even Mark King would have run a mile. I bet they'd be great on a Thunderbird for someone wanting an Entwistle sound though. Nickel strings often feel a little softer than s/s ones of the same gauge because they're smoother and less stiff but the density is a bit higher and thus so is the actual tension. I've yet to play a bass where the strings feel too tight - but then I rather like how uprights feel and think guitars seem like toy instruments! Alex

[quote name='larrikin' post='485156' date='May 11 2009, 04:20 PM']I got the 4x10 hlf cab recently, and i tried to copy the sound, even set my the amp to the same settings he has! but it still didn't sound like that sex on fire video i put up. i found out that these are all the pedals and effects he uses, so it must be something in here, right?? # Ampeg SVT Classic Head and 8x10" SVT Cabinets[/quote] Buying gear to get someone's sound is sadly rarely effective. Note that he's using a U5 DI so he's running a clean DI to the board as well as micing the amp, so you're never going to match that sound with a bass rig on its own. Furthermore he's using the SVT810 cabs whilst you're using a 410HLF which sounds totally different - the 810s are tight in the lows, plenty of mids, decent top, whilst the 410HLF has huge bottom, very little upper midrange and then a tweeter for the highest highs. If you EQ the same as him your rig will sound totally different. Try cutting the lows, boosting the high mids and cutting the high treble. Raise your pickups up high, lower your action just enough to get some buzz and rattle when you dig in, and use dirty old strings. If you don't like clean sounds from a bass then work on playing your bass until it sounds dirty and angry even before you plug it in - it is possible! Alex

[quote name='51m0n' post='485816' date='May 12 2009, 12:23 PM']Left hand damping as I have described it completely takes care of this. DO NOT underestimate the power of left hand damping!!!![/quote] Exactly! Try to keep the left hand as relaxed as possible so it mutes the unused strings. My main reason for shifting thumb on the right hand is to improve the angle at which I'm plucking, reduce right hand tension and thus improve both dynamic range (can dig in harder without buzz when so desired) and speed/endurance. Alex

My approach is a hybrid one - the thumb rests on the pickups, B, E, A or even D string depending on what the fingers are playing but it doesn't always shift, totally depends on the line being played. I also use my thumb and ring finger to pluck at times, so the only digit that's never used is the little finger. Eg. if playing octaves between A and G string I'd rest on the E. But if playing a line that starts on the A string and then travels up to the G I might shift from E to A as required. It's similar to left hand technique conceptually - do you keep your thumb in the same place and pivot the hand around it to reach a note, or do you shift the hand because the subsequent notes all require that shift? Alex

[quote name='AM1' post='485694' date='May 12 2009, 10:28 AM']Claber - you leap into so many threads/posts of mine, to take a personal pop at me.[/quote] Interesting that you should think that - I post in threads where I have something to say, unfortunately you often seem to consider a dissenting view to be a personal attack. Curious... [quote name='AM1' post='485694' date='May 12 2009, 10:28 AM']Clearly life circumstances/choices never change! You're another one of the assumption brigade, you do it so well.[/quote] Very hard to be anything else when so little information is provided - one has to fill in the gaps to the best of one's abilities. [quote name='AM1' post='485694' date='May 12 2009, 10:28 AM']Pity you can't invest your energies where they really matter. You never add anything of any value. You are boring. Earth is full, go home.[/quote] What was that about personal pops? Alex

[quote name='AM1' post='485651' date='May 12 2009, 09:52 AM']Where did I state, explicitly, that I am asking for free lessons because I simply don't want to pay for them? That is utter nonsense. Why don't you try finding things out instead of making assumptions.[/quote] Being a car enthusiast I tend to remember things like this: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=34763&st=20&p=360545&#entry360545"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...mp;#entry360545[/url] You can understand my confusion. Alex

I suppose my thinking is that there is a difference between really wanting lessons yet being unable to pay for them and really wanting lessons and not wanting to pay for them. Hard to know which of those you are though your past posts unfortunately suggest the latter. Alex

It's tough enough earning a good living as a fulltime musician without people going around offering a valuable service for nothing! A good teacher is worth paying for. Alex

Conventional NiMH rechargeables self-discharge far too quickly to be a good idea in basses. However the newer 'Hybrio' ones that are fully charged when new are very good and have almost zero self-discharge (about 10%/yr) - I gather they are now available in a PP3 size. I've been using the AAs for a while and am very impressed. Alex

[quote name='bubinga5' post='485481' date='May 12 2009, 12:13 AM']A low frequency buzz..its only coming from one speaker, which worries me![/quote] Constant, just when you take your fingers off your strings or just when you play a loud low note? If it's the former two it's probably a ground loop. If it's the latter then you may have upset that woofer in the past. Try plugging the speaker into a different outlet. Alex

Many of the Markbass 15"s are rather short on interna volume, hence lack of fullness to the tone and the Ashdown Mag are a bit handicapped by being so price constrained. The first Vintages will be done later this month - note they sound very similar to a pair of Compacts, just a bit bigger and fatter in the lows. Though saying that no-one other than me has heard a pair of Compacts! (Which do the usual stacked matched pair trick of sounding a lot louder, bigger, fatter and clearer than a lone cab). Alex

My RIM Custom 5 is currently ~2mm 12th fret G, 3.5mm 12th fret B. Strings are custom gauges - 38-58-78-104-134 - and scale length is 36" so tension is nice and high. I believe there is a wider tonal range and wider dynamic range more easily available with a higher action and higher string tension - and fret clank is always accessible through a switch in technique. Alex

[quote name='WinterMute' post='484598' date='May 10 2009, 08:56 PM']I have small hands, and the span on a 5 or 6 string was making me stretch my left hand on the lower end of the neck, couple with the scale length of the Warwick and the angle of my wrist when playing the bottom of the neck was causing problems during gigs, long session and rehearsals, it never became a real problem as I moved into studio production before i did any real damage, but it bloody hurt at the time. I find the Squire jazz to be much easier to play for extended periods.[/quote] It's probably not the 5-string thing, it's the Warwick Thumb. My Streamer has the same problem but the Thumbs are even worse - it's all to do with the position of the strap pins and thus how the basses sit against your body which causes the nut to end up miles out to the left. My RIM Custom 5 has a 36" scale yet fretting down near the nut is easier than on my Streamer 4 34" scale. Alex

I know I'm not a double bass player (though I have messed around on a few) but for me the really big difference between an acoustic and electric upright is how the balance of harmonics changes through note envelope. As such my focus would be very much on finding a way of dampening those upper harmonics whose sustain is so much shorter than those of the lower harmonics. I would even consider trying gut D & G strings to get this vibe. All a pickup can do is take the sound of the bass and amplify it and all EQ can do is mess the the steady state EQ. You could do it electronically with a low pass envelope filter designed to close in response to the note but that's rather overkill! I'd start at trying to get your electric upright to sound as much like an acoustic upright when not plugged in - find a way to get the thump and midrange and finger noise on the attack but then something to mellow out the sustain and also take a lot of energy out the lower harmonics after the attack (that's what gives uprights that thump, the quick decay of the thumpy harmonics). Once you have that sorted, then consider the amplification chain. Alex

[quote name='Uncle Balsamic' post='484552' date='May 10 2009, 08:13 PM']Are wheels standard now or are they an extra? How much do they cost?[/quote] Standard on the Big One and Vintage - they're tiltback ones with rollerblade wheels so you can get to the gig extra fast! Alex

Well I should have the first of the Midgets done by the end of June if you'd like an easy solution! Alex

[quote name='Kongo' post='483842' date='May 9 2009, 05:03 PM']I went onto the site and was quite interested in "The Big One"...A 15" coupled with a 6.5" is genius! I need huge low end but with clarity too.[/quote] That's what it's good at! [quote name='Kongo' post='483842' date='May 9 2009, 05:03 PM']I use my Low-B a fair ammount (as the guitars are drop- and find alot of 15" speakers don't like this other than cabs that are ported at the front and not many companies do that. But having that smaller speaker too would be great.[/quote] It doesn't really matter where the ports are, so it'll just be coincidence that the front ported cabs contained better 15" drivers. The smaller speaker is really essential on this design because the woofer is almost a subwoofer, very different to the 'fullrange' 15"s normally found in bass cabs - more akin to a good PA sub. [quote name='Kongo' post='483842' date='May 9 2009, 05:03 PM']Alot of cabs I use just can't take the power or bass that needs to be pushed some times...were not talking a lot either! 300 Watt pushed almost half way causes a lot of cabs to break up and I like to hear notes as much as volume.[/quote] That's where the high excursion design makes such a difference - about three times as much clean excursion as typical bass guitar 15", which gives you nine times the power handling. [quote name='Kongo' post='483842' date='May 9 2009, 05:03 PM']Also, is everything here true to a T? I've seen many companies say about what they do compared to others and whereas I believe this I'd like to know if they really are this great and why others ain't doing the same before I think of parting cash.[/quote] Yes, the information on the site is honest - even the name is a bit of a tongue in cheap jibe at the barefaced lies pedalled by some in the name of specs. Glockenklang, SWR, Dr Bass and AccuGroove have all made similar cabs in terms of large woofer plus midrange driver (though often with an additional tweeter) but they haven't used as potent (and expensive) drivers and/or they haven't engineered the design so thoroughly (especially the crossover). [quote name='Kongo' post='483842' date='May 9 2009, 05:03 PM']I'm all for supporting our boys (and girls) in this country and find £625 to be very modest a price...Quite cheap for what you get.[/quote] It certainly is cheap - if you were buying such a cab from a shop you'd be paying about £1200! [quote name='Kongo' post='483842' date='May 9 2009, 05:03 PM']Portability weight is always good for cabs and this one doesn't sit much taller than my current Laney 4x10 for a double speaker enclosure.[/quote] The reason it's relatively small is that the midrange speaker is in a very small sub-enclosure so almost every bit of internal space has been given over to the woofer for maximum sensitivity and bass extension. It's still relatively tall - I need to update the specs to include the added height of the feet and wheels (which weren't originally on the pre-production version) - don't want anyone buying one and finding that extra inch or two makes it too big for their car! Alex

It doesn't really matter because hardly any bass cabs can handle the full 500W output of each channel. Even one decent 8 ohm cab should be loud enough if the specs are honest. Strange design decision but presumably led by the power modules they could find. Alex

It's all about the midrange! Alex

[quote name='paul h' post='483303' date='May 8 2009, 08:57 PM']I don't think we are wasting our time. It's quick to bang up a quick idea and we only do it because we are genuinely interested.[/quote] Excellent! Like me and DIY speaker designs. Alex