flyfisher

Another thought. I've also used those foam bedding rolls available in Millets and the like for lining carrying cases. Easy to cut to size and they are 'closed cell' so don't retain damp unlike some foam. Lining a soft carrying case with this stuff will provide a lot of protection agains light knocks and general vibration during transit. Not as good as a full-on flight case, of course, but probably adequate if you don't throw your stuff around or chuck heavy amps on top of them.

[quote name='Jesso' timestamp='1339493357' post='1689116'] Great info. Did you just use normal plastic shopping bags? [/quote] Bin bags. But preferably not the really cheap thin ones, because of the above-mentioned risk of tearing during the setting process. It doesn't really matter if the bags are too big as the unused bit can be folded back or cut off with scissors, but if they're too small and you use too much foam then you're in for a mess! Incidentally, the foam can be added in a number of stages. Use much less than you need at first and then top-up with some more when the first lot is fully expanded and set. This will also give you practice at judging how much this stuff expands - which can be surprising if you've never used it before. If the 'top' half of the foam ends up expanding beyond the carrying case then it's very easy to cut back down to size using a bread knife, or similar serrated blade. Have fun!

Using two PSUs with floating outputs is electrically identical to using two batteries (which, by their nature, are 'floating' voltage sources). Depending on the exact design/construction of the units to be powered, a mix of floating and non-floating PSUs MIGHT work but two floating PSUs WILL work. Besides, keeping the PSUs identical makes carrying a spare one simpler. I missed the point about the other unit with a power input socket. I've re-read your posts and you mention a 2.5mm jack. I'm assuming you mean a normal audio 'mini-jack' rather than the sometimes used 'barrel jack'. For this to accept a 9-0-9v it would have to have 3 conductors, i.e. a stereo connector. I can't recall seeing a piece of equipment made this way (which doesn't mean such things don't exist) so I would suspect it would be a more standard single voltage input. Is the equipment marked with the voltage input for this socket or do you have a manual with any details?

[quote name='lettsguitars' timestamp='1339455913' post='1688876'] Just pray the bags dont split. You'll never remove that stuff from you're expensive equipment. [/quote] Fair point, but it's a widely used method for protecting equipment worth far more than most music gear. First time I saw it used was as the packaging for a piece of HP test equipment that cost about £20k - and that was back in the early 80s. But use two bags if you're really concerned and beware of any sharp corners on the item being packaged. When the foam has set it's no longer sticky, so it's only the initial moulding that has to be done with care. Also, if the item to be protected is an irregular shape, be careful not to mould the foam around it in such a way that it can't be be extracted when the foam sets! In such cases it's an idea to first cover the item with a cardboard cover to give a smoother shape. But be prepared for the first attempt to go wrong. My mistake was using too much foam because I didn't really know how much it would expand.

Blimey, that Joe Brown is a dark horse - I thought he was an old skiffle player. [quote name='BRANCINI' timestamp='1339461994' post='1688915'] Probably easiest to use two 9V PSUs with PP3 type connectors on them. Theyre cheap and you wont have any worries about safety. [/quote] Frankly, that's the approach I would take. Quick, reliable, safe, probably less than £20 the lot and cheap enough to carry a spare. I have little doubt that PSU article is sound but I'd bet the components would cost at least £20 and it would take the best part of a day to build (including sourcing and ordering all the components and doing all the box work).

[quote name='EskimoBassist' timestamp='1339446891' post='1688741'] Not been a problem for me with my Ampeg Combo, and it's just a solid state jobby. [/quote] Ditto. Could it be a cable problem?

Another possibility is to use expanding foam - the sort of stuff builders use for sealing gaps. Get a plastic bag and use it to line the carrying case. Squirt a load of expanding foam into it and fold the top of the bag over (needs to be a fairly large bag). Then push the light (or other object) [u]halfway[/u] into the base of the foam-filled bag and leave the foam to set. The trick is to use enough foam to half-fill the carrying bag when fully expanded and set, so some experimentation might be needed. Next, get another plastic bag and squirt a load of expanding foam into it. Close the top of the bag and gently push it into the carrying case over the top half of the object to be protected. Again, the trick is to use just the right amount of foam. When set, you should have two plastic bags moulded to the shape of the object to be protected on the inside and to the carrying case on the outside.

Drat and double-drat!

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1339432168' post='1688382'] Creep! [/quote] Well maybe, but it's still true. However, I'd rather this discussion doesn't turn into a mod-bashing one. I'm not a great advocate of censorship and if someone wants to start their own topic to bash the mods then fine, go ahead, but don't use mine. (I guess that confirms the 'Creep' comment )

[quote name='FlatEric' timestamp='1339398921' post='1687759'] Johnny be good and Route 66, never fails. [/quote] I love the original version of Route 66. OK, not a wild dancing tune but a definite toe-tapper. We've played it this way a few times (though not so well!) and it got a good reaction with people saying we'd done a good job re-arranging it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLUYf6cekMA

Not wishing to revive a locked thread, but I would like to record my admiration for the way the mods occasionally step in to close down a topic without creating loads of discontent. This one in particular is a masterclass: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/111461-why-does-no-one-buy-anything-on-this-site/page__view__findpost__p__1687722 If only BC-style moderation was applied on some of the other forums I visit where the mod's behaviour often causes a bigger argument than the original discussion being moderated. Yet another win for BC. Thanks guys!

If you can't find a commercial 9-0-9 PSU then the easiest option would probably be two 9v PSUs. Might not be easy to find such a device with a 9V battery clip on the end, but that could easily be fixed. Just have to make sure that 9v output is floating, but most of them are because they often have a plastic "earth" pin, so there is no ground reference anyway and they get that through the connected equipment.

[quote name='daflewis' timestamp='1339288458' post='1686551'] Hi Flyfisher, Well, that's the best description of voltage i've ever had! thank you. and i get the idea about batteries being "floating devices" - i even got the bit that if you try to use a grounded power supply (or if batteries weren't "floating" for example) they would short, as one would end up connected to ground at both the + and - .... i think .... but this leads me to think that i was lucky not to damage the unit when i tried to power it with two feeds from the power supply - would that be right? [/quote] Probably not lucky. You wouldn't damage the mixer because with the PSU shorted there would be no voltage going to the mixer anyway and any decent PSU wouldn't be damaged by being shorted because the designers should have realised that such a thing was almost inevitable at some stage and would have built in some form of short-circuit protection. A simply fuse would do the job, though these days some form of electronic and reversible protection is generally used. The thing about rechargeable cells is that they usually provide a lower voltage than their disposable equivalents. Depending on the device being powered, this can result in the rechargeables not lasting as long. bertbass probably has the right approach - just get a 9-0-9v PSU.

[quote name='oggiesnr' timestamp='1339360190' post='1687495'] Mind you it's not just Donnington, try getting out of Knebworth after a big gig. [/quote] We live less than 5 miles from Knebworth park. The first time we went to a concert there we got home at about 4am! It was a lesson learned and we subsequently parked in Stevenage and walked the mile or so to the car before the 10 minute drive home.

It's a bit difficult to describe without drawings, but imagine an audio signal as being a sine wave that moves up and down (i.e. the voltage increases and decreases). The louder the signal the higher (and lower) the sine wave will reach (its amplitude). As the audio signal gets quieter and quieter the sine wave amplitude becomes less and less until, when there is no audio at all the "sine wave" is just a straight line. This straight line corresponds to the ground level, sometimes called 0volts. When the sine wave is above this ground level it is a positive voltage and when below it is a negative voltage. An amplifier operating with a -9 : 0v : +9 volt power supply will be capable of outputting an audio waveform that extends up to (just under) 9 volts at the 'top' and to -9v at the 'bottom'. But batteries don't have 'ground' terminals, only + and -. They are 'floating' power sources. So, to connect two 9v batteries to give -9:0:+9 connect the + of one battery to the - of the other and connect this point to the ground wire of the amp/bass/whatever. Now, the spare + terminal will be +9 volts above ground and the - terminal will be -9 volts below ground. However, trying to do this with a non-floating power supply is not possible because the '-' terminal is already tied to ground, thus it is not possible to connect the '-' of one output to the '+' of another output - or rather it is but it will short-circuit the power supply outputs, which is not a good thing. Hmm. Re-reading this, I'm not sure I've explained it very well. I guess the key point is that batteries can be connected in a 9-0-9 configuration because they are 'floating' devices and any replacements for them must be similarly floating (or a purpose built 9-0-9 power supply).

Interesting question but I can honestly say I wasn't inspired by anyone really. What I do remember, from an early age, was picking out and listening to the bass line in any given piece of music. While others would whistle or hum the melody I was always dum-dum-dumming along to the bass line. When I started the inevitable fumbling around with an acoustic guitar it was bass lines from favourite songs that I would try to pick out. I taught myself to strum chords OK but I could never get on with playing any lead guitar or melody parts, which pushed me even more towards the bass guitar. The fact that bassists were generally ignored by the cameras on TOTP and that players such as the Ox would pretty much remain motionless on stage, instead of all that daft posturing, prancing and pouting by lead guitarists, also appealed to my generally introverted manner. Add my interest in all the technical stuff associated with bands and I reckon my bass playing was inevitable.

[quote name='LawrenceH' timestamp='1339259749' post='1686051'] The mixer is probably running at 18V, ie using the two batteries in series. Two parallel connections from a 9V supply won't substitute for this [/quote] Yes, and possibly even as +9v : 0v : -9v It should be possible to power the mixer from two separate 9V power supplies, but only if the two supplies have floating grounds - which actually might be unlikely for a PSU designed to power multiple 9v devices.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1339232487' post='1685560'] I like what I like..and am way too picky so have to see the thing and like it so this makes blind sales a bad idea. [/quote] But the point about DSR is that online sales are not blind sales. You get the chance to try the item in your own home and if - [u]for [b]any[/b] reason[/u] - you don't like it then you can send it back for a full refund. Surely it's better to play a new bass, with your own amps/cabs, for a few days than travelling miles to a shop and only getting to play with a new bass for a couple of hours?

Not sure about what things [u]should[/u] sound like, but the fact that you are able to make all your different basses and amps sound the same would seem to make GAS a rather futile pursuit.

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1339187030' post='1685223'] If I don't, they come delivered, for the SAME price, and if there is a fault (eg poor workmanship which I believe to be a fault) then you have the right to cancel the order and have it picked up. [/quote] it's even better than that. The Distance Selling Regulations allows you to return mail-order goods [u]for any reason[/u] even if the item is in perfect working condition. The rationale behind this is that if you visit a store you get the chance to closely examine the goods and make an informed decision if its really what you want. With mail-order/online shopping this is clearly not possible, hence the DSR rights. There is a hell of a lot of consumer protection legislation in the UK. Frankly, buying online using a credit card is about the safest way of buying anything these days.

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1328454572' post='1527240'] He's a bit of a funny geezer though, the Roman Numerals were wrong and I had to tell him to send me another, correct, set, he asked me to pay for the postage! He said he'd sold loads of them without any complaints. I told him they are probably the same people who get a tattoo of what they think is a lovely meaningful Chinese proverb only to find out much later that it says "Pork in Black Bean Sauce and Egg Foo Yung". [/quote]

Isn't the real beauty of music the fact that it can't be boiled down to a few simple rules and formulae? Or, rather, it can but the results are not satisfying. Thus, a drum machine is a poor substitute for a good drummer and similarly for auto-generated bass lines. Take the emotion out of music and what's the point?

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1339084847' post='1683430'] Bump for this post. The linked blog also contains a splendid debate from which we could all learn. Thanks for putting this up, Uncle Psychosis [/quote] +1 [i][b]"[/b][b]Basically, it just doesn’t add up."[/b][/i] . . . . on either side, it would seem, most of the time. Good job most people have day jobs to subsidise their musical interests.

OK, fair points, except . . . after buying all the gear, it costs a band nothing to play a gig. A promoter might be certain of their own ability to organise etc, but they can't be certain about a band's appeal, especially new/unsigned bands. Again, I'm in no way agreeing with pay-to-play but I am trying to understand the market forces that have created the concept in the first place. We can't deny it exists and we can't deny that many bands go along with it, so why is this?

[quote name='TheRev' timestamp='1338994462' post='1682119'] A promoters job is to stage events, which involves a certain level of risk for a potentially large return - much like investment banking. I don't like subsidising those b#*tards either..... [/quote] Yep, the old risk/reward equation. So a band taking zero financial risk gets little reward and the promoter taking all the risk reaps the benefits. That's how the world works.