alexclaber

[quote name='mr_russ' post='423845' date='Mar 3 2009, 07:24 AM']This is why I believe every bass player should learn to play with both; [url="http://www.bassplayer.tv/?req=1&station=bvega"]BOBBY VEGA[/url][/quote] Bobby Vega is the man! Alex

[quote name='KASH' post='423321' date='Mar 2 2009, 03:37 PM']Thinking about getting one for my rack. I've checked the Samson PS10 and Furman MX-8, both quite cheap. Are they any good? Any recommendations on other models or brands? Not looking to spend a fortune though. [/quote] B&Q do some nice lightweight ones that fit in the back of a rack and take four 13A mains plugs whilst being surge-protected. Alex

[quote name='cheddatom' post='411839' date='Feb 17 2009, 11:56 AM']IMHO you won't be able to get a mic far enough away from the cab to capture real lows.[/quote] With a sealed cab you'll get full bottom however close the mic is to the speaker. With a ported cab some distance may be required so you get the port output in sufficient quantity, but not much distance especially with a cab whose port is close to the driver. Alex

Totally pointless! How many dB SPL is a Wetherspoons when full of drunk students despite having no music? Bet it's above the 80dB limit. Give the bar staff earplugs. I have never ever been in any club that comes near complying with these regulations - if you have to shout to get a drink then it's above legal limits. Alex

You absolutely do not need more than 25W for practising at home. Going to a 100W combo with a larger speaker will mean worse mids and highs yet still not enough power to gig with. What exactly is this 25W amp and where are you placing it? Alex

Just fitted the tilt-and-roll casters, feet, and an additional handle to the Big One. It now matches the Compact on the comical ease of movement, though via a different route! Alex

"We didn't get forty acres and a mule..." Alex

[quote name='51m0n' post='420155' date='Feb 26 2009, 03:36 PM']Nooooo, tell me it aint so bruther [/quote] And you ain't so white either, baby... Alex

[quote name='spike' post='420100' date='Feb 26 2009, 02:34 PM']Shouldn't that be The Television Will Not Be Revolutionised? [/quote] Mandate my ass. I think if you really want to get funk then you need to listen to the lyrics. As you may have noticed I ain't so black but I am totally into the attitude and message that drove the funk revolution - "I don't want nobody to get me nothing", "They call it the White House but that's a temporary condition", "But since John Wayne was no longer available, they settled for Ronald Reagan". Almost nothing annoys me more than cheesy whiteboy lameass funk covers bands. Where is the dirt, where is the grease, where is the message? This might sound like party music but it is protest music! "You don't need the bullet when you got the ballot." Alex P.S. Dig your inner afro.

[quote name='Kirky' post='420041' date='Feb 26 2009, 01:04 PM']+1. The main thing I noticed when trying all the lovely basses at the Yorkshire Bash was how low the actions were on all the modern instruments. Seemed to me to be much harder to influence the tone with my fingers, and I felt like it was all dependant on the electronics of the instrument and amp.[/quote] My RIM Custom 5 may look like some fancy modern thing but it plays and sounds like a big old beast! It's incredible how good a tone you can get by stripping back the signal chain to the bare minimum - in my case two passive pickups, a 4-way switch, passive tone and then a Class A preamp/DI. And an action high enough to get huge dynamic range. Big old strings and a longer scale help too - I'm running year old nickel rounds, 38-58-78-104-134 on a 36" scale. I know I'm like a stuck record on this subject but if you're into really big fat rock/soul/funk/reggae bass sounds, the sort that entirely envelop a mix, then this hybrid old school/modern approach pays amazing dividends. Bass tones that get me excited are the likes of Willie Weeks on Donny Hathaway Live, Jamerson of tons of Motown (though sometimes he's too low in the mix), Jaco on Invitation (midrangey but still BIG!), Family Man on every Wailers album, Larry Graham on anything, Geezer Butler on early Sabbath. Thick and fat and big. Something punchy, sometimes deep, sometimes greasy, sometimes gnarly. No EQ needed, the pickup switch, passive tone and my hands are more than enough. I never plug in at home but every gig and recording session I get the tone I want so I must be doing something right! Anyone looking for their 'tone' without context is doomed to failure. EQ is an unreliable friend but you can always trust technique (not poncy flash technique, I mean manual control of tone through your plucking, fretting and muting) as long as you listen and react. Alex

[quote name='mcgraham' post='419863' date='Feb 26 2009, 09:32 AM']My Berg rig has a very flat and even sound, with a slightly enhanced bottom end that is thicker than Neo cabs (which to me introduce a bit more 'air' into the sound).[/quote] My neo cabs laugh hysterically at your skinny-ass sounding non-neo cabs! My sound(s)? I stopped trying to quantify them years ago but I certainly have no problem getting them. Give me almost any bass and I'll usually be able to find some of my tone in there. The key word for all of them is BIG! A word you probably wouldn't use is pretty. Alex

I've read this thread a few times and I'm still puzzled! You have a preamp and a head but no cab, so why is the solution to build an active cab? Alex

James Brown P-Funk The Meters Remember, if you fake the funk your nose will grow! Alex

By all accounts it's a great amp - but remember to lift with your legs, not with your back! Alex

Exactly - there are no 12" cabs currently available with enough volume displacement (cone area x cone excursion) to handle high SPL 5-string action unless you are willing to give up a lot of bottom. There is a new Eminence 12" on the way that will be able to do this but the downside is the price of a completed cab because it has to be used with a midrange driver unless you're solely playing reggae. When you first run some excursion related power handling plots of the current 10" and 12" speakers on the market seeing their lack of LF power handling is quite shocking! Alex P.S. Those D-basses were great at the old price - they actually make sense as a combo because there is some clever feedback circuitry between speaker and amp, it's not just like a head plus cab in one box.

Family Man. Alex

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='418725' date='Feb 24 2009, 08:38 PM']Was the Acoustic 408 bass cab isobaric then, or is it some other thing entirely? [url="http://acoustic.homeunix.net/twiki/bin/view/Acoustic/BassCabinet408"]link[/url][/quote] No, it was a ported direct radiator with the central fifteens acoustically lowpassed by the chamber they're firing into - like Schroeder cabs. With the much greater Xmax of modern fifteens you can get even more bottom from a pair than the Acoustic could do with four, hence them not being around any more. Alex

If I ever build an amp it will not have an effects loop - it is an utterly silly thing to have when the vast majority of bassists use stompboxes which are designed for instrument level, not line level. They can be useful if you want to bypass your preamp or need another line level out, but why not label them as 'power amp in' or 'preamp out' and stop causing beginners to put their effects in exactly the wrong place in the chain. Alex

I used to have ten pedals on a board (compressor, synth, harmoniser, overdrive, fuzz, delay, volume pedal, flanger, phaser, envelope filter) but when I started singing I theoretically stripped that down to overdrive, phaser and envelope filter but then never got around to taking the trio to rehearsals. I suppose that leads me to conclude that the only dispensable effects are what you can do with your hands, a good bass and a good amp. Alex

The series resistance with the piezo is just to ensure your amp doesn't see too low an impedance in the very highest frequencies and therefore shut down. You can't adjust the level of a piezo with a series resistance or an L-pad unless you also add a crossover and a dummy load. Best way with piezos is to use multiple ones in a vertical line and add a switch to shut some off to make them quieter. Be interested to hear how the midrange sounds with the pair direct-radiating compared to the isobaric design. Alex

Basically there's a lot more to a note than its fundamental frequency - it's the balance of overtones that make it sound musical and separate the sound of one instrument from another. And although the F3 is the half power point it's the F10 that is the half volume point. The half loudness point is in between the two and varies with SPL according to Fletcher-Munson. Alex

[quote name='bass_ferret' post='416198' date='Feb 21 2009, 03:29 PM']What is it like at gigging volumes? Does it cut through enough without a tweeter?[/quote] Do you dare borrow one once I've caught up with production demands? Alex P.S. Does it cut through the mix, or does it punch, roar or thunder through? Depends what goes in!

Yep, Acmes are only direct from the USA. Great cabs and unbeatable if you want to go really low. The curious thing about AccuGrooves is they claim to be 'audiophile on steroids' but all the AccuGroove cabs sound different to each other, so how can they be all that uncoloured? [quote name='dood' post='417207' date='Feb 23 2009, 10:14 AM']I grabbed one of my Mission Hifi cabs and uncoupled the BiWire, so I could just use the tweeter with my bass gear . (I turned off the Epifani one) and straight away it sounded WAYYYYY better playing CDs! As it happens, Mission I believe use Audax tweeters, that Accugroove and ACME use. (well.. same make.. different model). I feel that it is either the tweeter itself, or the tuning of the crossover that has the resonant peak to it. Either way, it now annoys me!! ALL THE TIME! - I'm thinking as far as a little upgrade... or maybe sorting out some kind of top box to use.. But I think I'm going to grab maself a couple of Audax (or similar) tweeters to see if it makes any difference. I just need to find out how I will get a tweeter to match the 104dB sensitivity of the Epi' cab.[/quote] This is where it gets interesting! If you want to get a nice sounding tweetery top-end then you either need a midrange driver and a nice small tweeter or a single huge tweeter (plus a well-designed crossover). If you use a dome tweeter then either you need to match it with low sensitivity woofers and pad back your mid or accept that it won't be loud enough to get flat response. You could use two but it doesn't work very well because the wavelengths are too short to couple properly. If you use a normal sized tweeter with a woofer you end up with a serious gap in the power (sum of on and off-axis) response and either higher distortion levels due to hitting it with lower frequency power or a gap in on-axis response. Alex

All this new TC stuff is in GAK. Didn't have a chance to try it, looks very nice though. Alex

[quote name='roycruse' post='415756' date='Feb 20 2009, 08:34 PM']Alex - Whats the average F3 for a low-medium cost bass cabinet and what would be considered good...[/quote] About 60-70Hz. Good isn't so much managing to lower the F3 alone as also managing to increase power handling and thus maximum SPL as you drop further below 100Hz. [url="http://billfitzmaurice.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2357"]http://billfitzmaurice.net/phpBB3/viewtopi...f=12&t=2357[/url] Bill has done plots of typical twelves and fifteens as well, which are all worth checking out. Alex