alexclaber

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='402488' date='Feb 6 2009, 11:19 PM']Jon was told by some bloke at a trade fair that blue jazz was the nicest one they'd ever played. I tried it as well but Jon hasn't wired the pickups out of phase so it wasn't emitting classic scoopy jazz sounds.[/quote] But jazz basses have the pickups wired in phase. Alex

Just one?!! Tom Morello Billy Gibbons John Frusciante Jimmy Page Eddie Hazel Alex

I would generally disconnect a horn on the amp side of the crossover, as simply removing the horn could cause a short circuit across any shunt components in the crossover. If you can be sure than there is simply a series capacitor on the horn and no shunt components (inductors in parallel with horn) then you just disconnect the horn - leave the circuit open otherwise you'll end up with a super low impedance load at high frequencies which your amp will not like! Alex

[quote name='chris_b' post='402006' date='Feb 6 2009, 01:55 PM']The 15 will sound fine, but you could also try another 2x10. You can get a lot of bass out of modern 10's, but they will have a lot more definition and punch than any 15's.[/quote] Well that depends on the specific speakers - nominal diameter tells you very little about how they actually sound. Good indicator of how big they look though! Alex

Yep, we've moved from ~2 USD/GBP to ~1.5 USD/GBP. Some companies may have hedged so price rises won't have to happen until their hedges expire but I'd anticipate all US sourced goods to rise in price by ~30% unless GBP recovers relatively soon (unlikely IMO based on how much it was overvalued in recent years). That is likely to also affect all Far-Eastern manuafactured items (China works on USD whilst JPY is at a record high against GBP). The Euro has had two large shifts in value vs Sterling so we've already seen one wave of price hikes on Markbass et al, more to come I suspect. On the positive side, bass gear is still fantastic value compared to ten or twenty years ago. Alex

By the way, it's Barefaced - one word, with a 'd' at the end. Barefaced Ltd in fact (as of today!) Alex

Mr Easton, there aren't many out there yet but give it a few weeks and there'll be a couple more customers out there! Looking to increase production over the next few weeks to catch up with the growing waiting list... Alex

Could that rig be any more rock?! Alex

Simplest vaguely accurate way would be to plug it into a suitable cab, run a sine wave through it at about 200Hz and put a volt meter across the outputs. Find the highest voltage you can get whilst the sine wave still sounds clean to you. Then Power=Volts squared divided by resistance (4 or 8 ohm depending on the cab). This should be accurate enough to be useful. Note that matching power output of amps with power handling of cabs is a very inexact science. A 2:1 ratio in either direction is pretty well optimised but I wouldn't worry too much about going as far as 10:1 in either direction. Alex

[quote name='The Bass Doc' post='400077' date='Feb 4 2009, 03:41 PM']Hows about this - the prefect solution would be a zero fret - hence the open string note should sound the same as any other - simple eh?[/quote] Except on every bass I've played with a zero fret the open string is noticeably brighter than when fretted. Place your finger on the headstock side of the zero fret though and it sounds much more like a fretted note. The ebony nut on my RIM Custom 5 seems to achieve a similar effect. Alex

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='400372' date='Feb 4 2009, 08:09 PM']Surely that is a contradiction Alex? You of all people surely accept that the measurement of a watt is a scientific equation; Hence a valve watt can be no different to a tranny watt... yes?[/quote] No contradiction at all. I clearly stated that a valve watt is no more powerful than a solidstate watt, which is true. I also stated that a valve watt is louder than a solidstate watt. Loudness is not a measurement of acoustic power, it is how humans perceive acoustic power and the relationship between acoustic power and loudness is not constant, varying with frequency as shown by the Fletcher-Munson curve (midrange is much louder than lows), with crest factor (ratio of peak to average signal level - lower crest factor is louder for a given peak level) and with distortion (more distortion is louder). [quote name='warwickhunt' post='400417' date='Feb 4 2009, 08:58 PM']Valid point, I was simply responding to the statement that watt A is louder than watt B. Just as Alex would dive in (rightly so) and nip in the bud any misconception that certain speakers can defy the laws of physics, I think 'facts' need to be just that, otherwise we just perpetrate the same myths time and again. I've known SS amps of certain wattages 'appear' louder than other SS amps either by dint of the manufacturer (cough... TE) manipulating the gains to make them seem to have masses of volume at low settings and others (cough... GK) with things like boost stages and though I can't 'prove' it, some manufactures appear to just make figures up. [/quote] I totally agree that facts need to be facts but this sadly isn't a fact. Gain staging which tends to get you full power earlier on the knobs doesn't have any bearing on loudness vs power. However an amp with more midrange, less bottom, nicer overdrive, better limiting, more compression will sound louder with the same watts as an amp which is flat in response, low distortion, makes nasty sounds when it overdrives and doesn't have good limiters. Hence GK amps tend to sound loud for their rating whilst EA amps tend to sound quite quiet. Something else that should be borne in mind is that most amps are rated when driving a resistive load in a lab. When driving the reactive load that is a loudspeaker cabinet although both amps can produce the same max voltage (and sustain the appropriate current in phase into a resistive load) one of the amps could have a much better ability to deliver current out of phase without its voltage rails sagging, and thus in the real world will actually be more powerful. (Note I said more powerful, not merely louder). Alex

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='400286' date='Feb 4 2009, 06:47 PM']A watt is a watt... a valve watt is NOT louder than a tranny watt.[/quote] A valve watt is no more powerful than a solidstate watt but it IS louder! No more dBs SPL will result but it'll peak higher on a VU meter (though not on a peak level meter) and it'll sound louder to our ears. Alex

I have a theory that nuts should be made out of a softer and more self-damped material than frets otherwise open notes will be brighter and have longer sustain than fretted notes (due the the finger behind the fretted note adding a degree of damping). Alex

[quote name='JPJ' post='399911' date='Feb 4 2009, 01:02 PM']If that sounds even remotely like my little PJB 'bass buddy' then I want one![/quote] I don't know how many exist - it sold for $10k and I think they still lost money on each one. A true 'halo' model like the Veyron. Imagine it stacked on top of their 16H cab - possibly even too loud for Lemmy! Alex

If you can get hold of one then surely the PJB T-500 takes first place: [url="http://www.philjonesbass.com/PRODUCTS/AMP/T-500.htm"]http://www.philjonesbass.com/PRODUCTS/AMP/T-500.htm[/url] Alex

[quote name='odub' post='399689' date='Feb 4 2009, 08:51 AM']"Why not take the head out of the Walkabout and then use that as a preamp into the PA?" Ah - now can I do this? Can I run it without a speaker load? the di level is linked to the volume knob, so It's not possible to have everything going out to di only.[/quote] Yes, absolutely, no additional equipment required. The only heads that cannot run without a speaker load are those with valve power sections (i.e. damn big and heavy heads) or with output transformers on s/s power sections (solely the Jonas Hellborg sig models). Plug bass in as usual, adjust EQ and gains/master as usual but then just connect the DI or line out to the PA system. Sorted! Alex

[quote name='cheddatom' post='398935' date='Feb 3 2009, 02:02 PM']Can't you plug the american psu (with an adaptor) into the mains? That should work.[/quote] Only if it's a regulated SMPS which I don't think it is. I've had two Deep Impacts in my time and although it's a while since I sold them I do recall there being something unusual about the PSU voltage, I think that it was closer to 10V than 9V and due to the digital circuitry the pedal had a habit of freaking out when run from a lower voltage 9V supply. Great sounding pedal, horrible reliability issues. Alex

I too noticed that the Deep Impact does not like to be run on other 9V supplies (I think the Akai power supply might actually be 9.5V?) Alex

[quote name='William James Easton' post='398592' date='Feb 3 2009, 08:49 AM']oooohhh![/quote] Good cabs those, very underrated! Alex

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='397784' date='Feb 2 2009, 12:51 PM']So what happens to the Vintage on its side? Does it start seeping a puddle of pure bass onto the floor, like a badly sealed milk carton?[/quote] Yes, that's it, the Vintage is so full of funk that it spills out when tipped over! What it really is is that the midrange dispersion of a loudspeaker array is inversely proportional to the size in that direction. So a short wide array of speakers would have broad vertical dispersion and narrow horizontal dispersion whilst a tall narrow array of speakers will have a narrow vertical dispersion and a broad horizontal dispersion. Clearly in the vast majority of situations you want to minimise sound heading towards and thus bouncing off the floor and ceiling whilst maximising sound heading out sideways towards bandmates and audience members. In the Big Series cabs all the more directional midrange content comes from the single midrange driver and because there is a steep crossover between it and the woofer the dispersion remains near as dammit identical with the cab vertical or on its side. Obviously I wouldn't recommend putting the cab on its side unless you're also raising it higher off the ground as your ears are likely to be quite a lot higher up and the more on-axis they are, the better, so if stacking a Big Baby and Baby Sub you might put them on their sides to be less imposingly tall. In the Compact and the Midget there is only one speaker so dispersion is effectively the same regardless of orientation. As before though you're generally best off with a single cab vertical to get the speaker further from the floor. I can imagine someone stacking a pair of Compacts is likely to put them on their sides. In the Midget Twin the second woofer is only producing less directional lower midrange and lows so dispersion should only be marginally affected by turning it on its side. However in the Vintage both woofers are running in unison so putting it on its side effectively halves the horizontal dispersion. This is why you're pretty unlikely to see me make a conventional 4x10" - the side by side drivers cause really poor off-axis response unless you take the Acme approach and cross over to a separate midrange speaker. Alex

[quote name='clauster' post='397662' date='Feb 2 2009, 10:58 AM']Alex, do your cabs work if they're on their side or does it mess with their dispersion?[/quote] Yes indeed, all except the Vintage do. Alex

Why not take the head out of the Walkabout and then use that as a preamp into the PA? Alex

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='397562' date='Feb 2 2009, 09:36 AM']Isn't your bass longer than standard scale? Makes your cab look even smaller than it is.[/quote] It is indeed, 36" scale. Huge tone! However because the bridge is placed so far rearwards its total length is no greater than that of my Warwick Streamer. Probably actually slightly smaller than a Precision though I don't have one to compare. [quote name='johnnylager' post='397565' date='Feb 2 2009, 09:42 AM']Like it mate - the logo, the site & me upcoming gig with the Big 'Un! You snowed in?[/quote] Good stuff! Yes, I am - live on top of a hill so the only car I've seen move this morning was a Freelander - that'll teach them for driving a 4x4, no excuse for not turning up at work when it snows! Technically I work from home most of the time but as my region is Kent and Sussex I can't see cold-calling being a terribly fruitful affair... Alex

Unfortunately the real solution is practice, and lots of it! Really focus on listening to how how you play changes the sound you get. Forget twiddling knobs, work on getting that vibe from the bass with your hands, then tweak EQ etc to add seasoning. Alex

Bit of a website update done... Alex