Phil Starr

Very few strings will maintain their sound for six months, corrosion and the build up of dirt will change the way they resonate. New Rotosounds are very bright sounding, you don't say which string you changed either and we don't know what the original strings were, Rotosounds are out to one end of the sonic spectrum. I'd expect adjusting the pickups to have a more subtle effect unless you've cranked them so close to the strings that the magnets are significantly damping the string movement. You say noob? if you are new to bass you may also have changed the way you play, a lot of what we describe as tone is in our fingers.

Hi Steve, I'll look out for you. Welcome to basschat.

Poundland have a website! do they deliver, is delivery a pound? we should be told.

I found very little in the way of useful soundclips on any PUPs when I was trying to research them. A few you tube clips but with bassists of wildly differing skills playing their pride and joy all through different amps/speakers and fitted to different guitars so you can't make any meaningful comparisons. Seymour Duncan have clips of theirs but even then the bassist was more interested in showing himself off rather than the pups. In the end i took a leap in the dark but it worked out OK, better than OK really. Hot trad really describes what I bought from Kent Armstrong.

if you've ordered the Wizards they have a great reputation for everything except answering their phones. I've just fitted some Kent Armstrong Hor traditional Pups to my Precision copy and I can't tell you how good they sound, just the sort of thing you are looking for in your post. Might be worth seeing if they do a replacement for your PUPs. Only £50 for mine

I just thought I'd update you on this. The mic has arrived and we gave it a good going over at rehearsal. It does sound a lot, lot better than our second best mic which is a decent AKG dynamic (our third best mics are SM58's) It is much more open and natural sounding but what surprises me is the warmth. The sound doesn't sock you in the face though, it just subtly sounds more like you, if you are in the next room it sounds like someone is just speaking very loudly. In front of the PA I suspect the 'sound' you are hearing is that of the PA, not the mic. Sonically it does what it says on the tin. Feedback wise it really beats the dynamics hands down, we are at least 6db up on the SM58's which is pretty impressive for a condensor. It has a really tight pickup pattern which is switchable to cardioid and pickup falls off stunningly quickly if you pull back from the mic, It really isn't going to pick up a lot of spill from the drums etc. Pychologically it has made our singer read up on mics and mic technique. Within an hour she is really aware of addressing the mic, holding it straight and being aware of distance positioning she is experimenting all the time with the sounds she can get out of it, you can't take hold of something like this and treat it like it is just another piece of metal. So, would I recommend this mic, yes, if cost is no object. Price wise it's a bit like buying an American Standard bass, Oh, you have? Better start saving.

[quote name='aende' timestamp='1368780059' post='2081311'] Hi Phil, I am using Eminence Beta's in one cab (500w total) and Eminence Alpha's in the other cab (300w total). The cabs are old Peavey TX's that have been refurbished. I am thinking that the Delta's may give me more flexibility and I can make the cabs 8ohm instead of 4 ohm and use a wider range of amplifier...... Thoughts? [/quote] The betas are a couple of dB louder than the alphas but only in the midrange, their efficiency in the bass is the same. with the deltas you'd get a an extra 2dB of bass efficiency. However they all need different sized boxes to get the most out of them. The Alpha really needs a huge box to be at its best and the delta the smallest. They are all limited by their excursion which means putting even 250w of power through them from your E string will drive them into overload, so if you did get a bigger amp then you'd have to roll off the bass to avoid the speakers farting out. The alphas aren't really good enough for ported enclosures either. All of them have big midrange peaks which will make them quite punchy and 'loud' sounding. I think if I wanted a cheap fix I might swap out the alphas for betas so you have two matching cabs and then if you give me the dims of the cab and port I can help you tune the cab to get the best out of the betas, Try some really critical listening to the Beta filled cab to see if this is the sound you really love though. Two Betas will cost you £105 and four Deltas £230, though the Deltas will give you a small increase in volume and tighter bass. There are better speakers for the money though four [size=3][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][color=#000000][b]Beyma SM110N w[/b][/color][/font][/size]ill cost about £200 and give you a much cleaner sound and more extended bass in a much better made speaker. the only downside is a bit of a wait to get them as Blue aran have to order them in from the factory in Spain. Like everyone else I think your rig ought to be loud enough though and PA support is what you need for big gigs.

The difference between 1000W and 500W is only 3dB, noticeable, but not by much. Changing speakers can cause problems as they have to match the box and more expensive speakers are not necessarily louder. One of the problems with mis matching speakers and box is that it may mean the speakers won't handle their rated power. Deltas have a limited Xmax excursion rating so this might be a problem. Without knowing the dimensions of your 2x10 and what drivers are in it this is all speculation, but you may be about to embark on a plan which won't deliver what you need. If they are big gigs then you ought to be thinking in terms of PA support anyway. with 500W into 4 10" speakers you should be louder than your drummer and he will have to go through the PA, so why would you choose not to? If you generally need more volume then changing cabs will potentially give you a lot more than an extra 3dB but simply swapping drive units might not be the best option.

sadly it isn't as simple as this. Most speakers are a similar size but the bass response goes to pot if you put them in a box the wrong size. The problems are multiplied if your cab is ported as the ports tune the cab to that specific speaker. To match your cab we'd need to know the internal volume and the size and lengths of any ports. Add on to that the sound of a speaker is only very loosely correlated with its size, Not all 12's sound the same so changing the speakers and then matching the cab to driver will still leave you with a very different sounding cab. It could be better or worse or just different. Someone might know what the original Eminence was and if you want to keep it simple then just put one of those in. Plenty of people here will help choose a speaker if you give them your dimensions but be prepared for head spinning detail.

Different processes for different challenges but the first thing is to hammer the song into my skull. I put it on the iPod and listen to it over and over again in the car/kitchen/headphones until I've got the shape of it. Whilst i am doing this I'll look up the chords (yeah I'm lazy) which are usually, but not always, more accurate than the tabs. Strum through the chords to check and if it sounds OK over to the bass, By this stage I've learned the chord changes and the bass line just kind of grows around that usually. At this point we'l be trying out the song as a band so the bass line won't be settled until we get a settled arrangement. After a few weeks the whole thing becomes automatic and the chords get forgotten, a bit like driving in an area you know well and can't actually remember how you got home.

Something is still wrong, mine just blows cold air when there is no signal. I don't think bias is adjustable so probably the transistors in this part of the circuit have blown. This is probably what blew the original output devices. Or he may have caused another problem in fixing the original. Don't use it, it will only make a more expensive repair.

Oh my lord! If you are thinking of putting on decent PUP's onto a cheap bass do it now. I've just received my Hot Trad Kent Armstrongs and 30 mins later they are fitted and I can't believe what it has done to my bass. Just night and day. To cut a long story short I've a Cort Action Bass IV that was my starter bass, I've also a Gibson Thunderbird and a MIA Jazz which i use for gigs. I hate playing the T'bird though it sounds great and I always practice with the Cort because it plays the best of the three and has the best finish and fittings. With your advice I ordered the KA pup but whilst I was dithering someone gave me a Wilkinson to try. That was a huge improvement on the standard pups, all the uneveness between strings went and the uncertain sound with it, suddenly the bass had a bit of character to add to the nice neck. Started to wonder if I had wasted the extra money on the Kents, not a bit, there's just a bit more of everything, punch, definition, clarity. It just sounds like a good Precision. For £150 including the new PUP, why didn't I know this before? Thanks for your help, I'd recommend the KA's to anyone. Other pickups are available. I'm off to the shed.

Actually a lot of desks like my little Yamaha do use the L channel as mono and you only get stereo whenyou plug in the R jack. also you can use the pan/balance control to send the signal to whichever side you want. Behringer desks generally have a mono output too. A bigger problem might be your record deck if the output is direct from the cartridge. This will need RIAA equalisation as the signal has the bass deliberately cut and the treble boosted to reduce record noise. You can buy a box to add this equalisation or a few old mixers have it built in. DJ mixers might be worth a look if you don't intend using the mixer for anything else as some of these still have disc inputs. Also worth a look is the Hipster PPGM which I use for headphone practice, though it won't take a disc input it works great with an iPod.

Hi Lawrence, Celestion told me on the phone that they don't release the details of the speakers they make for Marshall. there's a Marshall logo on the back of these

OK after a lot of dithering I went for the Alnico version. To be honest I couldn't find a negative comment about either model. thanks for your help again. I'll let you know how it sounds.

Yeah, I remember, though more how you played rather than what you played. Proper Job. I thought you had a fretless there?

All the advice is good. Isobarics are a gimmick for bass, you could probably take the second speaker out without too much of a change. Why carry around two speakers that only have the output of one? 2x10's have the advantage of only needing one for most gigs, but with the option of taking two if you need a bit of extra output. The advantage over your current cab is that you can vertically align your speakers and it will improve the dispersal of your speakers and give you better mids and tops. It'd be my tip too. A vertical 4x10 would work as well but is a bit of an awkward shape. I wouldn't go for complex woodwork for these speakers, they don't look good enough to merit it. If you like the sound you have you could always just rebuild the cab in lighter materials. You could build a sealed cab which will give you a different bass response or if you can find the speakers T/S parameters from Celestion you could design a proper reflex cab for them, correctly tuned however i know Celestion won't release the specs of Marshall speakers for contractual reasons, I asked. if resonance is 72Hz then you could just tune your cab to that and it'll work. You don't really have a lot of sensible options, these speakers are OK, but only OK.

Hi Dave, who were you playing with then?

Looks like either would be a good choice then, especially at that price. that's the trouble with pups I guess, you don't really know what you are getting until you try them, then it is a bit late. Any one else tried either of these? Thanks to everyone who has helped so far.

just about to upgrade my pups and these have come recommended and at a good price. the trouble is I have a choice and without hearing them..... Alnico 10k 57ish [url="http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/hot-vintage-p-bass-pickup-alnico-2467-p.asp"]http://www.wdmusic.c...nico-2467-p.asp[/url]or slightly hotter ceramics at 11k. [url="http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/hot-p-bass-pickup-ceramic-magnets-1079-p.asp"]http://www.wdmusic.c...nets-1079-p.asp[/url]. As you can see there is almost no information there, has anyone tried either of these? What sort of difference is there likely to be?

Play through headphones, it is relatively easy to have an accurate low powered amp and most headphone amps have a flat frequency response with very little other distortion. The headphones themselves also benefit from very light diaphragms and a very controlled environment and will have a flat response over the whole range of our hearing.

Our band is called Wet Playtime! She still doesn't know she is getting a new mic' it's a birthday present. Our PA is Yamaha club series stuff so this is serious overkill really. Certainly won't be able to tell the difference between this and a beta87 which is what I suggested in the end. Still me buying a Gibson rather than an Epi was fairly serious overkill given my very limited talent. Anyway thanks again for all the advice, there's some serious know how on Basschat, surely you can't all be as geeky as me!

Sounds like a power supply problem in the amp.Faults elsewhere are usually affected by the volume control. Unless you know about power supply design leave it alone and take it to a tech, there could be dangerous voltages in there that hang around after the amp is unplugged. Could be a power supply cap on the way out.

To really understand loudness you need to know about decibels not watts. That's a little complex to go into a forum so you need to google it, you might find this useful [url="http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/columns/gear_maintenance/making_it_loud.html"]http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/columns/gear_maintenance/making_it_loud.html[/url] A watt is just a measurement of power, in this case electrical power. this means the maximum power from an amp. Music has quiet bits and loud bits, even the note you play starts off loud and fades away.If your loudest bits need 100W then your average power use may only be 3W. The biggest reason valve amps sounding louder is about compression and what happens when amps overload. Valve amps overload gracefully and gradually, they distort when overloaded but the distortion doesn't sound awful. Solid state amps distort by simply chopping the top off the waves and sound horrible. This means you can use a 100W valve amp to reproduce the average level of 3W or maybe even a little more without it sounding awful. If you get a peak needing 200W it will only be for a few thousandths of a second and you may not even notice the distortion. Demand a 200W peak from a 100W SS amp and you'll notice. Use a compressor with a knee at roughly 80W and 2:1 ratio and you can make the trannie amp sound just as loud. Think of it as being like the ads on telly. The peaks in volume are the same as the programmes but the average volume is raised because of the compression they apply to the sound.

Is the buzzing coming out of the speaker or something inside the monitor?