alexclaber

[quote name='AM1' post='468688' date='Apr 21 2009, 04:03 PM']You are making up your own interpretation of my Master Blaster question to fit your argument. NOWHERE in that question did I mention tone. Not even vaguely.[/quote] That's exactly my point. You still aren't even considering the effect of where you're playing on the neck upon what tone you get. Alex

Exactly. It's as useful as saying that a Fender sounds like X. Which Fender?!! Alex

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='468669' date='Apr 21 2009, 03:48 PM']Dirty pool, Alex. Using someone's genuine query on another thread to diss 'em.[/quote] I'm sorry but I totally disagree. If you're still at the point of asking basic tone related questions how can you justify presenting such strong opinions and arguing them to death? If I gave you advice on how to wire your house and then you found I was posting a question elsewhere like "what's the difference between radial and ring main wiring?" wouldn't you feel that my advice was unqualified? [quote name='skankdelvar' post='468669' date='Apr 21 2009, 03:48 PM']Also - those of you who feel that posting an opinion about a sound requires years of experience, that 'less experienced' posters should gracefully roll over when challenged by self-appointed experts and that moonlighting as a semi-pro cab builder entitles you to sneer at a genuine query...[/quote] That isn't the case at all. It's a case of providing some perspective and weight behind all the opinions on here. Everyone's entitled to state their opinion but everyone should be open to their opinion being proved inaccurate and needing reconsideration. Despite what some may think my opinions are not fixed but those grounded in deeper understanding are less likely to change! Alex

[quote name='cheddatom' post='468635' date='Apr 21 2009, 03:17 PM']Alex - What if nick oliveri asked you to get his distorted valve-driven sound out of my peavey combo?[/quote] Might have to dig my BassDrive out of retirement for that! OK, so it won't be perfect but it'll do. My point in general is that you can't just say that "That is the Ampeg Sound". There have been so many different sounds recorded over the years through Ampeg rigs, and even more live instances heard, that the Ampeg sound covers pretty much the whole spectrum of bass tones - from Jamerson's rare live outings, through about half the rock bassists from 1970 to now, to even Victor Wooten's slap antics (until very recently). But why I'm arguing with this point with someone who's just asked: [quote name='AM1' post='468578' date='Apr 21 2009, 02:37 PM']What do you guys do in terms of working out the best fingering/fretboard position, for a piece of music? The score doesn't show anything? The immediate theme after the octave intro...there's a certain type of phrasing that you hear in the original, but recreating that means working out the notes in a certain position on the fretboard. When you see a series of notes written down, those notes can be played in several different positions on the bass, I'd be interested in what method is used to decide where to play.[/quote] is baffling me. If you're still at the stage where you're learning about the tonal differences across and up and down the neck why on earth are you digging your heels into a determined argument about tone? Alex

Do they not use the same bulbs as UV lights in venues? You can probably get spares from any stage/sound shop if that's the case! Alex

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='468583' date='Apr 21 2009, 02:40 PM']Ivory tower? Why was that called for? There is hardly any ivory tower near me. The only thing ivory around here is my bathroom suite.[/quote] Sorry for the confusion but I was looking at you whilst talking to AM1. The perils of sightlines from down here to up there. Alex

[cough] Alex

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='468516' date='Apr 21 2009, 02:12 PM']PS - I take it if Alex is building cabs professionally, he has done all the paperwork for running a business and HMRC know. It just seems a little... erm, risky selling your wares in such a public way.[/quote] Yes I have - and what a joy all that admin is... Alex

I know it might seem hard to believe from atop your ivory tower but there is so much tone within the instrument itself that you have yet to find. Give me any half decent bass and amp and I can get almost any tone you could want with hardly any fiddling with the amps controls. You certainly entitled to state your own opinion but anyone reading this needs to be able to place it in context. I've been posting on forums and their predecessors since I started playing bass - over time my posts have shifted from total newbie questions ("How can I get my 30W combo heard in a metal band?") through more searching enquiries to generally answering others' questions. But to put myself in a position where I feel qualified to give good advice has taken years of obsession over bass playing and the design of instruments and amplification. You don't have to know everything already. Alex

Unfortunately you fail to grasp that any bass rig covers a wide range of tones and many of these spectrums overlap substantially. Anyone who is so certain that they can reliably identify a single BRAND is clearly deluded. Your lawyerese speak may make you feel better about making such blinkered claims, especially as having bought an amp with such a fine brandname one would want to be confident that no gear missing said logo could make such a wonderful magical sound but unfortunately there is more to amplification and bass tones than a name. Sorry. I understand that bass is not your first instrument and you have years of experience in music but maybe you should consider that those for whom it is and who have been playing substantially longer than yourself may actually know more about how to get a sound. Just a thought. Alex

[quote name='AM1' post='468259' date='Apr 21 2009, 11:30 AM']I'm deadly serious - when you hear the same sound regularly for a long time, it becomes very recognisable.[/quote] And so speaks the voice of experience... Alex

[quote name='AM1' post='468241' date='Apr 21 2009, 11:19 AM']So, what other rig do you think gives an identical Ampeg tone? This should be amusing. [/quote] I think if you know what you're doing you can get a similar tone out of countless different rigs. However most people don't know what they're doing. The concept of an exact Ampeg tone is farcical because there is so much variability from how you play the bass alone, even before you start looking at EQ and how hard different gain stages are being pushed. Alex

[quote name='AM1' post='468212' date='Apr 21 2009, 10:46 AM']I have seen Ampeg rigs being used by a few well-known bands in fairly large venues and the sound is unmistakeable, even with a bit of colouration from the PA.[/quote] I really don't buy that. Yes the all-valve SVT and sealed 8x10" cab has a distinct sound but the rest of their gear varies hugely. I would suggest that if you see a rock band who have a nice fat rock bass sound happening and there's an Ampeg rig there then you attribute that to the rig when you could get that same sound from so many other rigs. Just like the hordes of guitarists out there believing that you can only get 'that' tone from a Marshall stack cranked up to 11. The power of marketing and subconsious self-persuasion... Alex

I like the way TE have the badges the right way round on those cabs. Nice win! Alex

[quote name='bassman2790' post='467857' date='Apr 20 2009, 09:15 PM']I don't mean the bass so much as the amplification. Bad playing doesn't come into it when even playing an open string doesn't produce a big broad grin. No matter how I alter the EQ on the amp, I can't get any of my basses to sound remotely like this [attachment=24158:The_Running_Free.mp3][/quote] That's a nice bass sound and I know exactly how to get it. Front pickup only, tone knob rolled back a bit depending on how new your strings are, when it kicks into the straight eighths shift you plucking hand backwards to get more growl. No EQ needed, just a cab that's running clean and is fairly uncoloured. And most importantly - guitarists that have turned down their lows and low mids just like on the recording which frees you up a nice big space in the low midrange. Alex

[quote name='DSGW' post='467983' date='Apr 20 2009, 11:55 PM']I was told Ashdown were pretty good for the money and I thought 90 watts vs 180 watts was a no brainer (even though the Carlsbro is bigger and has a 15" speaker)[/quote] The extra size and larger speaker more than make for the the wattage shortfall! And as other have pointed out you don't get 180W from the Ashdown without an extension cab. Watts don't matter much, dB SPL is what really matters. Unfortunately it's quite hard to find out how many dB you can get from a rig without trying it as most manufacturers' info is limited or inaccurate... Alex

[quote name='clauster' post='468146' date='Apr 21 2009, 10:00 AM']Not me! Can I bring my Warwick down to you every couple of months pls?[/quote] I'm sure an annual wax is more than enough in our mild maritime climate. Remember, the dirt keeps the funk! Alex

[quote name='largo' post='466679' date='Apr 19 2009, 12:41 PM']However, when I slap/pop (sound's so 80's) my amp doesn't clip but our sound guy (also the guitarist) moans that I'm putting the desk into the red and I'm going to blow the PA speakers !!![/quote] Putting the desk into the red will not blow your speakers, it'll just make your bass sound a bit dirtier. I know it might seem impossible but with practice you can get fingerstyle and slap to match levels-wise. However if you like to boost your lows and highs and cut your mids then it will make this very difficult - leave the sound flatter so you have plenty of midrange and the fingerstyle will sound louder whilst the slap won't become overwhelming big deep thumps and trebly pings. Don't spend any money yet - turn the gain down on the desk and experiment with your EQ. And practice! Alex

I wash my earplugs annually. Alex

Yet to be allocated from this next batch: 4 x Compact 2 x Big One Alex

They're certainly still the dominant name in bass amps but that's probably because they've been around for about 80 years and were the first company to make a serious bass amp that could actually be heard over loud guitar amps (the SVT plus dual 8x10" rig). They do seem to be rather hit and miss with their products - I would never assume that because it's says Ampeg on it's going to be good - but conversely I would never ignore their amps, some of them are very good. Not sure what's going on with all the ownership issues and moves of production to various factories overseas, it's looked like they might go under entirely but the brandname is too valuable not to resurrect. The 410HLF is a bit of a strange beast - it uses relatively similar woofers to those in Acme Low-B cabs, which gives it deeper bass response and greater excursion limited power handling but means it also needs more power to get loud. However unlike the Acmes which use a midrange driver to take over where these deep bass focused woofers give up, the 410HLF has rather a large gap in the upper midrange and low treble before the tweeter then kicks in. So although it does big bottom well it doesn't bring much midrange punch and character to the party. If you ever feel your rig is lacking in that department then that's the reason - don't blame the head! One thing I do like about the big SVT heads (i.e. the 4, 6 and 8) is they have enough power to get every last dB out of my bigger cabs - few cabs can really handle their power (despite so many 4x10"s being thermally rated at 1000W+ they can't handle more than 1/3 of that in the lows) which I suspect is one reason they're not rated as highly as they deserve. Maybe that's why the touring pros continue enjoying them - they don't try to get a single 4x10" to do everything, they tend to use a dual 4x10" stack or more. That and because it's what's always provided free of charge! Alex

[quote name='Delberthot' post='467719' date='Apr 20 2009, 06:29 PM']I think its red or red. I don't know how i would differentiate between soft clipping and overloading the thing completely[/quote] I suspect it'll start sounding nastier when it hits the hard limiter at clipping. Why they didn't just make it a clip light I will never fathom... Alex

[quote name='Delberthot' post='467653' date='Apr 20 2009, 05:30 PM']One thing I would say that the Shuttle is rated at 600 watts but that limiter comes on constantly very early on, whereas I never had anything come on to suggest that i was overdriving the GK at 480 watts. The 1001RB is probably going to be more power than you will ever need.[/quote] The GK amps don't have any output limiting circuitry, they're designed to overload with that nice growl when they reach their limits - and to get that sound RAG recommends you choose an amp that doesn't have too much power or you won't reach those limits. You were probably frequently hitting full power but it sounded good and there were no lights to frighten you. The Shuttle on the other hand has the most foolishly calibrated clip/limiter light ever. It comes on at 6dB below full power, which is 150W into 4 ohms - this is the point when the soft limiter starts to gently work its magic. Eventually you will reach full power and the amp will clip (but this will happen much later than with an amp which runs uncompressed right up to clipping) - does the LED change colour at this point or is it completely uninformative? Great amp, great limiting circuitry, one v weird design decision. Alex

[quote name='stevie' post='467585' date='Apr 20 2009, 04:09 PM']I'd be happy if there were one single definition of xmax that everyone could agree on and stick to - preferably one that cannot be manipulated.[/quote] I don't believe its entirely a marketing game. For instance, the change in response when the voice coil starts to leave the gap will be much more drastic in a speaker with a shorter gap height than that with a longer gap. Also there are hi-fi speakers out there where the suspension goes non-linear well before the motor does. And what about underhung or split gap topologies? [quote name='stevie' post='467585' date='Apr 20 2009, 04:09 PM']Xlim certainly gives you a good idea of how much abuse a speaker will take. I note that the Eminence 3015 in the Compact has the same Xlim as the Beta 15. [/quote] When Xlim is almost double Xmax it's certainly more than enough - if response was linear you'd have to put four times as much power in to get it there which above the tuning frequency is more power than almost any bass amp can manage. Something that has thus dawned on me is that Qes must rise substantially once you go beyond Xmax, which explains why having a high excursion speaker can not only make your tone less boomy through lower distortion also through the response staying more tightly damped and the transients more precise. Alex

[quote name='Delberthot' post='467653' date='Apr 20 2009, 05:30 PM']...the hernia inducing beast of a GK.[/quote] 19.5lbs. You big girl! I'm starting to think I needn't have bothered putting the side handles on the Big One at the balance point - is no-one else going to do the rack in one hand, cab in the other trick? They're only 47lbs each. Alex