Phil Starr

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?

Thanks for all the input, The outcome was he went straight for the top, she is about to get a Shure KSM9! Just a bit more than £200. I've really enjoyed reading up on all you suggestions though. Me, nerdy? Surely (Shurely) not?

Thanks for all the suggestions. I hadn't considered Heil or Beyer so I'll look into those tonight. I'm increasingly thinking of going for a condenser though, the lighter diaphragm does automatically make it easier to make a decent mic and i love the airiness of the sound, even if it isn't for me. The Shure87 is looking interesting. any other condensers people have tried?

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1367784032' post='2069465'] I changed the speakers in a cab..because I couldn't get replacements.. and I used 2510's I don't think this worked in my case. Whether this just wasn't a great match or whether I just don't like NEO, I am not sure, but I liked the cab with the original speakers far more. [/quote] If you still have them let us know the cab size and I'll see if I can make some suggestions. Neo is just the magnet by the way, it doesn't have a 'sound', that depends upon which model.

As one of the aforementioned techies I'd add a few things. The Basslites weren't a bad match for this cab so they were always going to be OK. They are also good speakers.The cabinet matching only affects the frequencies covered by the bass tone control and lefrash could probably tighten up the sound in this area by re-tuning thee ports and it might well improve his cabs power handling. However he might be fine as most bass speakers have similar resonant frequencies. Cheapo speakers save by having tiny magnets. swapping for more powerful magnets is going to make the speakers louder. Swapping for decent speakers can have the same effect as anything between doubling and having ten times the amp power. If lefrash gets time he should try wiring the basslites in parallel. He could probably leave his 15 at home then.

Help, a friend is buying a new vocal mic for his wife, and has asked me to recommend something. this is way beyond my pocket, I think SM58's are expensive, So I'm struggling to come up with a shortlist. She's obviously a female singer with an alto voice, She isn't very loud and tends to hold the mic about 5cm away from her mouth. The SM58 really doesn't suit her by the way, We play loud enough for feedback to be a bit of a problem. The short list of dynamics I've come up with is: [color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=3]Audix OM5 [/size][/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=3]Senny E945 [/size][/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=3]AKG D7 [/size][/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=3]Shure Beta57 [/size][/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=3]Electrovoice ND967 [/size][/font][/color] Has anyone direct experience of these or better still able to suggest some Condensers to consider? £200 or even a little more, what a great problem to have.

Don't worry about the complications, once you have a system that works for you then you'll set up that way every time (well until you get bored enough to try something else) . When listening get well back from the speakers. If the subs are 1m from the tops you want to be at least 10m back, Just to add one more possibility, probably to try later [url="http://totalproaudio.stevebunting.com/206/system-design/aux-fed-subs/"]http://totalproaudio.stevebunting.com/206/system-design/aux-fed-subs/[/url]

Now I'm not really disagreeing with Stevie but it depends upon the size of the venue. When we play small places I often run our subs in parallel with no crossover for the subs but that's a bit lazy really. You'll usually get a better sound if you keep the bass well away from your tops. Lots of bass pushes the speakers so that the coil starts to move out of the magnet and the speakers then distort, keeping the bass out avoids this. Your Yammie 115's will start to distort at less than 100W if the bass goes really low, with a 120Hz crossover they should handle peaks well in excess of 350W. If the venue is small there is less of an issue as your power levels will stay low. Unless you have an external crossover you'll have to use the crossovers built into your amps.

Without having figures to hand it is about efficiency. Your 15 will be taking twice as much power as the 2x10 but the 2x10's could easily be 3dB louder for each watt you put in which would make them equally loud. Our ears are also much more sensitive to higher frequencies so that if you have more mids and top end the new speakers will be what you hear best. pleased you like the sound

If the cabs are ported then when you put the new speakers in measure the inside of the cab and any ports and I'll calculate any re-tuning you need to do.