Phil Starr

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1460798544' post='3028795'] Obviously it's not illegal to send the pot around or for the pub to say "it's for the band", and then keep it. We've had that happen in the past. Currently all the gigs that put the jug around give us the money. There are no "rules", so there is nothing you can do except cross the gig off your list. If it's a good gig I'd still do it. [/quote] It's in France so who knows but in the UK it's illegal, actually fraud. Of course nobody can actually afford to enforce the law though there have been cases where restaurant owners have been prosecuted for not passing tips on to staff. I'm with the OP though, you get to a point where dealing with dodgy dishonest B*******s just leaves such a nasty taste that life is too short to put up with it.

[quote name='Gottastopbuyinggear' timestamp='1460119139' post='3022765'] Looking forward to making some more progress, but work and other things have a habit of getting in the way so I'm not sure when I'll get the chance which is a bit frustrating. [/quote] That's why I don't have a full set of instructions written up yet.

There's a few reasons for battening all round. It increases the glue area, actually it doubles it increasing the strength and reducing the chance of failure. It also braces all the panels, effectively supporting them further in towards their centres and helps with panel resonance. Mainly though for a home builder it means you can screw your cab together which holds it whilst the glue sets. This makes it a whole lot easier if you don't have a set of clamps to hand. Drill out the battens and screw them on from inside, make sure the screws are short enough that they don't penetrate through the cab walls. I mark out all the panels before starting. Screw and glue all the battens on first then make a sleeve of the top bottom and sides. and sides. If you slide the back and the baffle in whilst the glue is drying they will hold the cab square until the glue is set. Then you can glue in the back. I fix the baffle with screws and a gasket. If you can't get the baffle out then screw something into the bit you will cut out for the speaker and pull on that, obviously not a problem if you have done the cutout first. Good luck, I hope you like it.

I used to build PA systems in the early 70's. The problem then was lack of volume and that dominated everything. Backline had to often do the job of the PA and reach the back of the room. Early solid state amps struggled for power, the early WEM amps wouldn't really do 100W and the HH amps only gave a lttle more (I'll see your 2N3055 and raise it a 2N3773 Dad ) Valve amps were heavy and expensive. Speaker drive units were low powered due to the materials they were made of and burnt out frequently. As a consequence speakers for PA were huge with a lot of drive units and a lot of complex horns around. The sound quality of live bands was frankly fairly iffy most of the time as few people could afford enough gear to do much better and 'engineers' were making it up as they went along. We didn't care though, it was our music and no-one had done it before so we didn't know any better, and it was louder than any music that we had ever heard. So the reason we use more powerful amps is two fold. It's cheaper and so we can afford it and it makes more sense to ditch the huge, hyper efficient speakers and carry something manageable in terms of size and weight.

Lemonrock is worth checking depending upon where you are in the country. It's a subscription based site for pub bands mainly, though free to gig goers. Not so many ads as the above but they are pretty much all from gigging musicians/bands so a lot fewer dreamers to sift through. Open mics and music shops always worth a trawl. I find JMB quite useful but word your ad carefully. As soon as you put the words 'gigging cover band' in you'll sift out the youngsters looking to form a first band, the dreamers who've written 200 great songs 'looking to put an album together' and those just looking for someone to jam with.

[quote name='Fonkbass' timestamp='1459550859' post='3017702'] Ok, i see your point on the Fane's, do you think the Beyma's would suit the Simplexx 212 design? [/quote] Stevie's right, or you could copy the design for the 1x12 we've been working on. If you wanted a 2x12 it wouldn't take a minute for one of us to re calculate the porting for a 2x12 twice the volume of the 1x12.

[quote name='Fonkbass' timestamp='1459446806' post='3016729'] Thanks Passwind, i'm beginning to realize this fact....i also had a look at Bill F's Simplexx 212, at least a choice of drivers is offered. I like the look of the Fane 12 500LF....I wonder if they will work with the Simplexx I've had Fane in the past and like the sound of them. [/quote] The Fane Sovereign range aren't great for bass guitar on their own, they are designed to be the bottom end of a PA speaker really. The response is usually flat and rolls off fairly low down. If you were going to use them in a multiway design then they might sound fine. Generally anything labelled LF won't be too good for bass on their own as they are designed for LF only.

Confession, I bought mine from Lidl, if the Aldi one is the same then the arbor (bit in the middle) is standard and you'll be able to buy any number of cutters that fit, should you later need a different size. Good spot Stevie.

Go for it, there's a lot of great music there to play and far too many people competing over earlier decades which have ever reducing audiences.

If you like the rig then buy another cab, it'll make a real difference to the sound which doubling the amp output won't equal. If that isn't enough then a Thumpinator or another HPF will limit the subsonic bass and clean up your sound much better than just backing the bass off a couple of clicks and will achieve that without affecting your sound.

30mm, I haven't looked it up but the cone will travel something like 14mm, you'll want some sort of grille to protect the cone and that will need some clearance so the cone doesn't hit. Most grilles end up with dents or a sag, so make that generous then you'll probably want the cabinet sides extending beyond the grille to protect it, maybe another 10mm. 30mm is a minimum in a practical cab that is going to be chucked in the back of a van. IME It'd be better if you did want it less to simply reduce the depth of the sides which would make the cab slightly (probably insignificantly) easier to carry. I mount all my speakers from the front, and simply run a gasket of draught proofing foam stuck to the baffle if there isn't a gasket on the speaker.

Maybe if I make it to the Festival this year!

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1459420936' post='3016324'] I'm still keeping the SM212 in mind as a possible option for my DIY cabs (which have Eminence Betas currently), but I'd want to spend some more time with the Betas before deciding if actually have a need to change. If I end up in a louder band some time, that might tip the balance... [/quote] Honestly I don't think the SM212 would be an upgrade, just different. The efficiency is roughly the same. The SM212 has a better xmax so will handle deep bass at higher power before farting out but the Beta isn't bad at that. At the other end the Beta has a nicely shaped upper mid peak and the SM212 a flatter response and slightly better top but I'd be reluctant to call one 'better' in that respect, just different. The extra Xmax and the cast chassis of the SM212 edged it for me at the time but I'd happily see people use the Beta. If curiosity overcomes you I suggest you try just one of the SM212's

[quote name='Chienmortbb' timestamp='1459352767' post='3015714'] Once we have the design sorted and drawn with instructions, are we going to do a group buy on the drivers? [/quote]I suppose there is no harm in asking Blue Aran or LMC audio if there is enough interest. Interestingly enough I've changed the amp I gig with from my Hartke 3500 to a LM Tube 500. I was using a 15" Deltalite with the Hartke but the Beyma sounds better with the LM Tube. I suppose that means I'm interested in a couple more myself. Anyone else interested?

I braced the rear panel, which is the biggest, with a couple of offcuts of the 3/4" ply glued along the longest length of the panel roughly 1/5th of the width in from each edge. This is the panel most likely to vibrate badly and the vane bracing just stiffens it up a little, it's fairly hard in such a small cab to brace it meaningfully front to back. I'm going to brace the side panels with a couple of broomhandle/dowels, just glued in place, again you could use off cuts of the ply, I have a lot of timber around so the dowel is to hand for me. There isn't too much flexibility in positioning the braces here either as they'll have to be clear of the speaker and the ports. The whole point of the 3/4 (18mm) ply was to reduce the need for pracing and to keep it really simple. The unbraced panels are really fairly dead with the exception of the rear panel. The material I use for a gasket to seal the baffle is the closed foam sold by all the DIY chains for sealing windows and doors against drafts. I always leave my baffles just screwed in place so I can get access to the inside should I need it, much easier than access through the speaker cutout.

1. Don't Panic, it may settle down, gigging all weekend knackers us all, well me anyway. 2. See a doctor, don't look for medical advice on the internet. Ask your GP for referral to a specialist, GPs won't have any special training in this area, keep on until you reach a specialist. Tell your doctors you are a professional musician even if you are only semi-pro. 3. Stop doing whatever gave you White Finger. 4. Nothing wrong with a pick. What goes on in your head is every bit as important to the music as what goes on with your fingers. Good luck and keep on playing!

Seriously, if you couldn't hear the drummer then within a few years your hearing is going to be so shot you soon won't be able hear anything, even when the music stops. Having volume wars is just ultimately stupid. If you can't hear the drums then you are up at about 110dB. That's going to cause irreversible hearing loss in minutes. http://dangerousdecibels.org/education/information-center/decibel-exposure-time-guidelines/ In addition you'll have a c**p vocal sound because all that noise will be bleeding through your vocal mics. You guys need to talk, preferably before you lose any more midrange and high frequencies from your hearing!

What do you want out of music? It takes all sorts in this funny old world. I love performing, happy to have a hobby that pays but I just love an audience, musically I'm just a tart, I'd play anything pretty much for a decent audience. For other people it's about the money and yet others it can be about the music or sometimes just about mastering a skill. One of my best friends spends hours on his guitar perfecting music he will never play in front of another soul and he thinks I'm crazy playing Mustang Sally! There's nothing wrong in going for what you want, if anything the crime is not finding what you want. Recognise reality but within that enjoy what you do and look out for opportunities when they come along. For me those realities are that covers are more likely to bring you paid gigs than original songs, no band will give you everything you want from music and you will never find another musician who will share your musical ambitions exactly. Almost no-one ever 'makes it' in music and scratching a living is hard and you'll have to make more compromises if you do want a living from music. So, don't expect any single project to give you ultimate fulfillment. One band might give you the joy of live performance in front of an enthusiastic audience, another the challenge of composition and a third the chance to play the music you love. Stop worrying about the things you aren't getting out of a project and enjoy what you can. Move on when you are no longer enjoying a project and think of your music as a journey, there's things you want to see and do, but you won't be able to do them all at once.

Really hard to diagnose with this distance, intermittent faults are always tricky anyway. One problem with the 3500's is the power supply, there's a separate set of caps and associated components for the pre-amps and the caps are just soldered into the boards with no support. Over time the weight of the cap pushes the track off the board and will also find out any poor solder joints. That's what caused the crackle in mine and when I went online I found a number of people with similar problems. The best way to find an intermittent fault I find is with a freezer spray. The nozzle will allow you to rapidly cool one component at a time. Cooling the dodgy component or joint will usually create the fault at will or even cause the amp to cut out momentarily. The other thing with an old Hartke is that there may be a series of faults. having said that once i cured my power supply faults mine has gone on strong. Good luck though

A lot is down to taste and the only way to find out is by trying them. Sooo hard to describe a 'sound' for strings beyond a simple 'bright' or mellow. FWIW I go for strings that maintain a good tone over time. Just over a year ago I started a comparison between Elixirs and my 'normal' Dean Markley Blue Steels, unfortunately one on a P and one on a J. Not dissimilar at the start with the blue Steels being just a touch brighter. After a year I'd say the Dean Markleys had kept their sound slightly better than the Elixirs. These are still expensive strings but a lot cheaper than the elixirs, so that's a win in my book. I ought to restring now but I'm curious as to how they fare over an even longer time. Both are still perfectly acceptable though, and more lively than the Rotosounds I used to use would have been after 4 months use.

Andy in Axe music Axminster is worth a shout if you are this end of Dorset.

You say 'some' passive monitors. So that's not the ones that don't do the job? What are they by the way? What do you want your monitors to do? Are they just for the singer(s) or do you need them for the whole band to hear. I've been using little personal monitors recently and find them excellent for helping you pitch your voice. And yes, you can use the Hartke to drive the speakers but the only way of knowing what they sound like will be to try them. Use the FX return if there is one.

[quote name='sunburstjazz1967' timestamp='1458985766' post='3012565'] We have a behringer xair18 mixer (18 channels) and a pair of RCF 735s for front of house, OK they are expensive tops but they remove the need for subs unless you are a Motorhead tribute act, a pair of DB opera 10s as monitors which on their own would be good tops paired with our old passive subs and a poweramp, as the desk is digital it can handle 4 individual monitor mixes or in ear monitors (5 with the headphone out used for the drummer on wired in ears), as the desk is digital we can if required for any bigger gigs use it to EQ a killer kick drum with gate and compression like a pro gig then send that to our old Peavey PA and two old bass bins so we get the extra thump of the subs but the tight modern mix! So the whole PA consists of; Two RCF 735s Two DB Opera 10s One mixer smaller than a breeze block 4 10 metre xlr cables 2 10 metre 4 gang extension cables Oh and a tablet to control it, that's it, done, more power and clarity than a pile of old passive stuff and the desk alone in old money would cost ££££££s to get all the features it has, in built FX and digital plugins etc, 31 band EQ per output, multiple monitor mixes etc etc. If you play the same venues again just re load the mix you saved from the last time and bingo perfect mix! I have never heard vocals as clear at ANY pub gig as from the 735s as they have 3" voice coils allowing the 15" speaker to deal mainly with the guitar, bass and drums. They look like regular old Mackie tops but I am fairly sure I am going to ditch my amp totally as they are that good, if you went for 745s (£1000 each) there would not be many pub and small function bands with a better PA really, and all in two easy lifts! [/quote] That looks like the sort of set up the OP should be looking at. Those RCF's are quality and short of a fully pro touring rig are pretty much state of the art at present (no pun intended). Left out of my original post, but hinted at in this post is the question of monitors. Your options are floor monitors, personal monitors like the MackieSRM150/BehringerBD205D or TC FX150 or in ears. One of the things that will influence your choice of digital mixers over trad is that they offer a lot of monitor channels which you only get in fairly big analogue mixers.

[quote name='lojo' timestamp='1458890047' post='3011825'] Cheers Drums,bass,guitar,keys,vox x 2 Would be handy to have a few spare for extra vox / brass etc Budget flexible but interested what minimum to meet requirements is I realise small might not be the right word , but looking for smallish cabinets / wedges and hopefully minimal power leads [/quote] Great, though a budget would be great still. A function band would normally go out with a few thousand ponds worth of kit but a pub band a few hundreds worth so there is quite a range. The biggest decision is whether the sound the audience hears will be from the back line or from the PA. Most pub bands and a few smaller function bands will opt for the former. This leaves just vocals and any acoustic instruments going through the PA with Drums acoustically and bass/guitars through their own stacks. A few bands will put a little bit of kick drum through the PA as well. This is really simple and cheaper (good sound isn't cheap)and can be set up and run without a sound engineer. The other classic set up is with everything going through the PA. This lets you reduce the sound levels on stage with all sorts of advantages but you'll need a bigger PA as effectively it will have to give all the sound output of bass and guitars as well as what it is already doing. Then the on stage monitors will need to be much better as this is most of what you will hear when you are playing. Getting the mix becomes complex enough that a sound engineer becomes part of the equation if you want to exploit your new system fully. That's when you go for a digital mixer. Smallish implies you will go for something without bass bins? That means probably keeping bass and drums out of the PA where possible. The simplest system would be to have active speakers and active monitors, with a passive deck, that means a mains lead to each speaker and monitor. If you genuinely want to reduce mains leads then an active desk with passive speakers will reduce the mains leads by two. Using passives and amps will increase the spaghetti but that will all be concentrated in one corner. One trick is to use the same speakers for mains as for monitors. A couple of 12" mains and a couple of the same speakers for monitors means in an emergency you can swap speakers around and use a monitor as an emergency PA without any loss of the audience's experience. You could even carry a single spare which would act as either monitor or main. A couple of RCF's or K12's etc will handle most PA requirements and make great monitors, but at a price. You are going to need at least 16 channels for mixing but make sure those are mic channels. Stereo channels aren't always useful unless you run a separate drum mixer. I use a Yamaha mixer but Mackie, Soundcraft, Allen and Heath all make good kit. I'd probably look at digital mixers now though, but you'll need some technical expertise to get the most out of them.

Try Andy at Axe Music, Axminster [color=#373E4D][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=3]01297 631609. Lovely man to deal with.[/size][/font][/color]