alexclaber

One other thing - clipping the input won't damage anything. And if you like the sound of it clipping (especially if it's a valve input stage so you can get some nice overdrive) then feel free to let it distort as much as you like! Alex

"High gain / high impedance / low voltage / passive" inputs should always be used for passive basses unless you prefer the way the "low gain / low impedance / high voltage / active" input rolls off the highs (like a passive tone control does). HOWEVER, most active basses are sufficiently low in output that they too can be used in the "high gain / passive / etc" input without clipping. If your bass has a very hot output (like an 18V Status, or a Spector Tonepump, etc) then it will clip the passive input so you'll need to use the active input (or engage the pad). If you're someone that plucks hard you may need to use the active input whilst someone else with a lighter touch using the same bass and amp might be able to use the passive input. Also, with an active bass using the EQ makes it louder or quieter - in particular using the bass boost knob will significantly increase the output. When you plug your bass into your amp, check that the most extreme onboard EQ settings you use (don't just crank up all the knobs because you'll probably never do that on the gig) will not clip the passive input - if they do then switch over to the active input. So in summary - always start with the passive input but check that it doesn't clip with your hardest plucking and most extreme EQ. If it does then use the active input. Alex

[quote name='lowdown' post='624747' date='Oct 13 2009, 10:04 AM']In the Uk apart from the Strictly Come Dancing band[/quote] Great band and a fantastic and very up-front-in-the-mix bassist! [quote name='lowdown' post='624747' date='Oct 13 2009, 10:04 AM']4 Poofs and a Piano - Nice![/quote] Are they ever in tune? I hadn't really heard Jimmy Johnson's playing before now, though I knew of him as a low B pioneer with his Alembic - he's great. Quite similar to Anthony Jackson in the way he'll find those big but sparse notes that work (though Jimmy seems to be yet more minimal) and then occasionally throw in a monster fill that fits perfectly. Great! Further to your workshop Jake I have just dug out my far too unthumbed copy of 'Building Walking Bass Lines' and will endeavour to get somewhere instead of doing my usual wandering off into writing a new song... Alex

I wouldn't run it bridged into a 410HE, too much risk of damage IMO. Alex

The unreliability and short-life of valves is fortunately mythical. They are tough components and even power amp valves can last decades - and unlike transistors can be easily replaced when they die. Lots of great heads out there which have one or two valves in the preamps and are thus well worth considering. A nice thing about valve preamps is that if you're bothered you can try different valves to tweak your sound - when I had an SWR Grand Prix I found that sounded much nicer with a NOS 5751 (a lower gain 12AX7 variant). To give you an idea of the toughness of valves, NOS military spec valves were produced for use in things like air-drop field-radios whilst the MiG-25 interceptor used valves for all its critical electronics because they're so tough and more resistant to electromagnetic warfare than transistors. In fact I would expect electrolytic capacitors (which are found in all amps) to wear out (within a few decades) before preamp valves do. Alex

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='624380' date='Oct 12 2009, 08:36 PM']Alex does serial numbers now? Mine's just blank. Black. None more black.[/quote] All the cabs have serial numbers. Whether they're actually on the cabs is a different matter! Yours is V1. Alex

[quote name='51m0n' post='624212' date='Oct 12 2009, 05:59 PM']Big One 'Plus' with the variable tweeter goodness going on?[/quote] Already done one of those! Alex

Did you add damping to the cabs when you swapped the speakers? I know many Ashdown cabs are a little short on that front! Alex

Following Ped's V-bass demo, if I was a modelling type of person I'd definitely be leaning that way - what an amazing piece of kit! Alex

[quote name='stevie' post='623926' date='Oct 12 2009, 01:20 PM'][url="http://web.archive.org/web/20041027051204/http://www.integracaraudio.com/caraudio/resources/fiberfill/"]http://web.archive.org/web/20041027051204/...rces/fiberfill/[/url] is a much-quoted experiment by Tom Nousaine which demonstrates that stuffing a sealed box can lower Fb by at least 10 percent. He also, interestingly, shows that stuffing is less effective with larger boxes and that overfilling is counterproductive.[/quote] Interesting. If the increase in compliance was due to a lowering of the speed of sound one would expect this to be consistent with larger boxes - so does this suggest that a larger box is inherently more isothermal due to the greater heat capacity of the air within it and the greater radiating area of the enclosure? I presume overstuffing is counterproductive because the increase in compliance due to heat absorbtion is offset by the decrease in actual net volume. Alex

[quote name='Merton' post='623916' date='Oct 12 2009, 01:10 PM']Keep hold of it til you're next in my neck of the woods dude, no massive hurry [/quote] Stop-Press: CK and I are doing a house-swap for six months. Alex

[quote name='Ray' post='623908' date='Oct 12 2009, 12:58 PM']Does this still apply if the pickups are wired in series?[/quote] Something completely different happens in series though I've yet to work out the details of why. My bass has a 4-way neck/series/parallel/bridge switch so I'm very familiar with the different sounds. My four starting points for tone are: Neck (default) - fat, open, punchy, very responsive to plucking changes, most dynamic, most natural Bridge - growlier, leaner, punchier, more aggressive, much more compressed, not as responsive to plucking changes Parallel - smooth yet growly, rather sweet sounding, sits further back in the mix generally and makes slap sound less in your face, fairly responsive to plucking changes Series - louder (+6dB), less top, thicker boomier lows and mids, less absolute depth than neck, least responsive to plucking changes, fills up space nicely when the guitarist isn't playing chords but isn't a pretty sound I suspect that with the series setting you lower the resonant peak of the pickup system, which brings back a load of upper mids that the location related phase cancellation removes. You definitely lose top because of the higher inductance causing a roll off. And gain output due to the voltages summing rather than the currents. Alex

[quote name='Adee' post='623865' date='Oct 12 2009, 12:07 PM']Anyone suggest the best method to send ie. carrier?[/quote] I use Fedex and they've been quite reliable. However it's very very VERY important to pack it up securely. Recently I've switched to wrapping the 2" thick polystyrene corners in packing tape to stop them breaking apart - works really well. Also adding extra cardboard sheets along all large panels. It will get dropped enroute and without enough protection it will get broken. This is why I was reluctant to send the Big One on tour - on the other hand so far no Compact has been damaged in transit bar a couple of cracked but easily replaced plastic corners, despite shipping many many more. Alex

[quote name='silverfoxnik' post='623460' date='Oct 11 2009, 08:59 PM']3rd Prize - went to Merton and he chose the 'Standing in the Shadows of Motown' book that was donated by Clarky[/quote] Am currently babysitting this. Been on my Christmas list for years yet keeps getting ignored. V good indeed. Alex

[quote name='Shockwave' post='623880' date='Oct 12 2009, 12:25 PM']Interesting, I put a 8ohm 1x15 Black widow cab up to a 4Ohm 1x15 Black widow and the 4ohm was much louder. The problem is, for some reason some amps just prefer running flat out at 4 ohms. Case in point an Ashdown Little Giant. Really quiet when running at 8 ohms. And only really get any power at all when going between 12 and 5 oclock. But the 4ohm seems to be quite loud from the off and just continues to get louder the more the master it turned up.[/quote] Personally my suspicion is that there's a lot of super-lightweight amps that simply don't deliver the power they should. Chris B and I spent a bit of time pushing three very different rigs to the limit on Saturday and it was very enlightening. I'd like some more time and a suitable venue to continue this testing (though next time with one preamp and then running in through each FX input so we're truly only testing the power amps - note that you can't do an accurate test like this with most cabs as most speakers crap out before high power amps do). Anecdotally we had a chance to try my PLX 3002 into Jake's Schroeder 1212L and my Barefaced Big One and we were all really surprised that the 4 ohm and famously loud Schroeder didn't appear to be much louder than the 8 ohm (I call it 6 because of some crossover weirdness but it's an 8 ohm woofer) Big One. Anyway, here's how it works. You pluck a string on your bass and it generates maybe 0.5V in the pickup. Your preamp stages take that up to maybe 3V. Then your power amp stage takes that up to maybe 10V, or 20V, or 30V, etc depending on how loud you have the amp turned up. That voltage then causes current to flow through your speaker - and if the speaker is 4 ohms then twice as much current will flow, hence twice as much power. But if you turn your amp up some more then you'll get more current to flow hence as much power from an 8 ohm cab. The amount of current an amp can supply is limited, so with a 4 ohm cab the amp will run out of current capacity at a lower voltage than with an 8 ohm cab. So the only time you should get a 4 ohm cab instead of an 8 ohm cab is if your amp cannot generate enough voltage to get your 8 ohm cab loud enough (and it's definitely the amp running out of power, not the cab running out of power handling) - however a better solution is almost always to get a second 8 ohm cab which increases your sensitivity so fewer watts will get you more loudness, and more current flows from a given voltage because the load is now 4 ohms so it's a win win. Something else to consider - when Chris and I were testing the dual Compact rig we kept swapping who was playing. He has his action fairly medium-ish and doesn't pluck softly (not like Ped and his crazy 'breath to fret' Vigiers) - yet when we swapped to me I was more than twice as loud - we had to turn the amp down a LOT! So when I pluck a mf (i.e. standard loudness) note I'm generating about four times as much voltage in the pickup, etc etc. Bear in mind that now amps are so powerful, the biggest issue is how much power speakers can handle in the real world (not the somewhat irrelevant thermal ratings normally quoted). Alex

[quote name='fenderiko' post='623194' date='Oct 11 2009, 03:59 PM']I disagree . I have the feeling that you need to speak, play , hear and interact with more guitar players.[/quote] I said most, not all. I've encountered plenty of exceptions - but many more clichés. Flick through a guitar magazine and then a bass magazine and you can see how differently the markets are skewed. Alex

[quote name='nash' post='622674' date='Oct 10 2009, 08:50 PM']you had the same strings on for a year!?!?!?![/quote] Nicely worn in then! Alex

[quote name='fenderiko' post='623156' date='Oct 11 2009, 03:11 PM']I hope you are not suggesting that guitarists are prejudice...[/quote] I'm suggesting that if it doesn't have a pre-1980 brandname most guitarists won't touch it - unless their hero endorses it. Look at all the boutique basses out there (even if lots look like Fenders) - and then look at what guitarists spend their money on. Not saying they're wrong, just somewhat blinkered. Alex

Hey, and I learned something useful about myself yesterday - just as I'm great at remembering faces but a bit sketchy at names, I'm really good at remembering avatars but not usernames (especially if they're somewhat random). So could all those whose username is unrelated to their name or their avatar to their face, please print out a picture of their avatar and wear it as a facemask at future bashes. Thank you. Alex

[quote name='fenderiko' post='623080' date='Oct 11 2009, 01:32 PM']Yes, unfortunately you are right , having a light but loud cab means such a bore sound with no any consideration to colors , definition and general sound.[/quote] I could understand such baseless prejudice on a guitarist forum but I'd expect better on here! For me, tone comes first. Then loudness (which is a power handling / sensitivity balance). And finally weight - to be honest the only reason I designed a lightweight cab for myself was because I couldn't see the point of a heavy cab and I enjoyed the engineering challenge - I occasionally lift heavy weights voluntarily for no reason other than exercise so I'm not scared of moving something that weighs more than some backing vocalists! Alex

[quote name='jakesbass' post='622972' date='Oct 11 2009, 11:36 AM']It was really great to meet a lot of like minded individuals, thanks for all the kind words, I had a blast.[/quote] Very inspiring Jake, thanks! I now have a blister on my thumb from trying to walk through So What and get a vaguely double bass sound... Alex

[quote name='Shockwave' post='622675' date='Oct 10 2009, 08:51 PM']-Bassfaced [sic] cabs were very good and light, Though i probably wouldnt use them with a 5 string as i felt they lacked the extreme lows that i would need. But great punchy cabs![/quote] Most of the Barefaced cabs were on the stage away from the wall so the extreme lows they can produce would not overwhelm everything! Though I think Chris and I succeeded when comparing the Shuttle 6.0, Thunderfunk 550 and Avalon U5/PLX3002 into a pair of Compacts - LOUD!!! Alex

A few things I've remembered: Firstly, I now realise I only hung out in two places and I believe there was a third location AND I saw some bits of drums being carried out at the end - the horror, did I miss a chance to make some more organised noise in the jamming room?!! Secondly, despite rambling on for an hour and half with barely a word on speakers, I still managed to miss out a couple of key points - the perils of illegible notes... So here they are: 1. Silence is good. Use rests and longer drop-outs to add interest, work the dynamics, chance the feel, and add impact to a bassline. A great place to to try dropping out is on the first half of the final verse of a song - really lets you pump the second half of the verse and drive into the final chorus with maximum energy. If you rarely/never drop-out with your current band it will take some retraining to get them to carry out grooving without your support - and in the process if they don't already appreciate your groovacious workings then they soon will! 2. I spoke about how pickups colour tone and then out their position affects how bassy/trebley they are. What I failed to mention was how their aperture affects the tone - the wider the aperture the thicker the midrange but the duller the treble (due to higher overtones cancelling but less high ones adding). And then the bigger and more important point for which I'll start another paragraph: When you mix a bridge and neck pickup equally, the resulting tone is not an average of the two - i.e. adding the neck pickup doesn't simply add lows to the bridge pickup, and vice versa. What actually happens is a load of addition AND cancellation due to differing phase (like with the bigger aperture pickups). If you take a bass with a couple of jazz pickups, the most natural tone (i.e. similar to the acoustic tone) will be with just the neck pickup. The bridge pickup gives a more trebly, more high-midrangey and bottom-shy representation. But blend the two pickups equally and the resulting tone is more like the neck pickup sound but with some extra treble added (as you'd expect)* BUT ALSO a load of midrange cut out. Yes, two jazz pickups on full gives you a scooped tone! The further apart the pickups the bigger the midrange scoop, and the closer their midpoint is to the bridge, the higher in frequency that that scoop is centered. Have a close listen next time you have a two pickup bass plugged in and you'll see what I mean. As I said at the time, how and where you pluck has the most significant effect on your tone but if you're needing to punch through the mix yet you're running two similar pickups up full then you're removing a lot of critical midrange - so instead of twisting EQ, back off one of those pickups and reclaim some punch. Alex P.S. For those that didn't consider coming along, do it, it's far too much fun having so many different facets of bassness and likeminded yet disparate fellow groovers all in one place on one day - come along next time! And for those that wanted to come but didn't manage to make it, honestly it was rubbish, I'm sure you had more fun wherever you were... * Oversimplification.

[quote name='Fraktal' post='622431' date='Oct 10 2009, 01:54 PM']Well, then, can you explain us why there are 21" and bigger speakers built with the purpose of handling low frequencies? And the same applies to 1" and smaller high frequency drivers. Surely if 10" speakers were efficient at handling low and high frequency content, those other speaker sizes wouldn't exist?[/quote] Different speaker sizes exist to give different dispersion/power handling/sensitivity/box size/frequency response/cost/etc. There is also a historical legacy in what's sold, as well as marketing led decisions. Alex

[quote name='Fraktal' post='622431' date='Oct 10 2009, 01:54 PM']A 10" speaker is inherently a mid frequency driver.[/quote] No it isn't. Look at the T/S parameters to determine its best usage. Alex