Phil Starr

Check that you are switched to mic rather than line as Jakester has said.

@Chienmortbb is our expert on this

Never set the master to 11 😀 Joking aside the ‘clipping’ light doesn’t mean the same thing in different amps. They can be there to tell you if the input stage is just starting to go inti drive, if the compression is active or if the amp power stage is overloading, just as Bill said. The fact you heard the distortion and described it the way you did suggests the latter. 400W should be loud enough for any sensible rehearsal, unless you were usin g a lot of bass boost and cutting the mids?

The Antex 25W are a good basic iron. I've been using mine since the 1970's without problems. They are kind of the Shure SM58 of soldering irons.

If all else fails ping me a message with some details of the cab dimensions and I might be able to suggest something that will work

Yea h the big problem is feedback due to the resonant body of a DB. At the very least it is going to smear the sound and at worse it is so bad you have to turn down because the feedback is horrendous. A lot of commercial cabs have too much bass in the wrong areas for an upright even if they work well with an electric bass. The flat response of the 110T and limited deep bass become a real bonus.

You could try rotating the horn 90° It fans out the sound wider than high so rotating it will deliver more to your ears. Alternatively get a stand that leans the cab back. Sometimes the room acoustics boost the bass a lot drowning out the top end especially if you are stuck in a corner. It's good that yoiu've used the 110T with a DB I always thought it would be a good match but sadly I don't play an upright.

If it is relatively minor and you just need something to keep the wound clean and closed then I use microporous tape. The stuff that is used to keep dressings in place. The problem with plasters is the bulk and if they are fabric then the fabric itself as well as the pad. Microporous tape is thin and relatively smooth. It keeps the wound closed but only really works if the wound has stopped bleeding or weeping. In your picking hand it wears away so take a roll to the gig. Soak it off in water to avoid pulling the wound open. Clumsy? Me?

I'm up in Reading brushing up our set with my duo and for a break in the evenings we are hitting the open mics. Tues night we turned up to the loudest sound ever at an 'acoustic' open mic. I actually didn't think the House Jam Cab stood a chance as the rear wall was so far back there woud be no help from there. The guy running it was a bassist who'd toured with name bands back in the 70's. We had the lead for DI into the PA ready and I'd made the obligatory "we're going to need a bigger cab" crack. I turned the amp up plugged the bass cab in and had t turn it down. The response from the host was just WTF and he was still muttering it at the end of our 'set' as I packed up. This cab was meant to push the envelope when I designed it but it still surprises me. It sounds as good as I'd hoped but the volume was really unexpected.

Hi, I'm using a SansAmp programmable or a Zoon BION with RCF PA's as monitors. The problem is PA speakers are designed to go on stands and you get 6db of bass boost off the floor reflection. roll off the bass by that amount or lift your monitors on to stands and you'll get great sound. You may be able to just roll off the bass on the SansAmp and restore some balance, something like going from 12.00 to 9.00 o/c should do it. I can shape the bass response in my mixing desk and do that when we are PA supported. If not I use the B1ON (now the B1 Four) which has a lot of eq available as my Bass pre. There is nothing to stop you using the Sansamp as well if you want to split the signal to the PA and need a balanced output. I've also used the Zoom as a tuner then into the Sansamp.

Is there any reason you can't just try it? The only issue is signal levels and that is a function of which model of PA cab and which bass amp. Nearly all active PA speakers will take a mic level and a line level signal. Your DI out could be either or both depending upon your bass amp. Not all 'line' levels are the same. However you have volume controls which should let you balance the two 9 times out of 10. Turn the PA speaker right down and run an XLR from the DI out switched to post to the mic input. If the volume is at zero you aren't going to get any sound so nothing can go wrong. If you are really worried switch the gain on the PA speaker to 'line'. Turn the volume on the PA up really slowly and something should come out of the speaker. If you can't get it loud enough but the sound is good then you just need more gain. Switching the PA from line to mic will give a lot more gain so turn the volume right down before you try that. Or you can try turning down and switching the DI out from mic to line and trying again. Somewhere you should be able to get a match where the whole volume range is available to you. So long as you always turn the volumes right down before each change you can't really go wrong The only problem with the send is that in a few amps plugging into the send disconnects the bass amp from the pre-amp. Again that depends upon exactly which model you have. Sends are generally line level but may be a slightly lower line level.

I'm a very average bass player. Funnily enough I came to playing from cricket where I'm a very average bowler. First change bowler, medium pace and naggingly accurate, good enough for village cricket, which pretty much sums up my bass playing . Holding down an end in village cricket meant the team usually won and I figured holding down the rhythm and chord changes would work for a band. So far so good There aren't many really good drummers in the pub band equivalent of village cricket but our band gets regular gigs and we are a happy team. I'm in heaven now, no better reason to up my game, I wonder what the effect will be on the rest of the band.

We have a new drummer. Oh the joy of a drummer who can really play, something I've tasted only briefly at open mics and with one band which didn't last for other reasons but this is our drummer. After one rehearsal and one gig we went into the recording studio which we'd booked to record with our previous drummer. We're only a pop covers band but song one we did two takes 3.14 and 3.15. Song 2 2.46 and 2.46. third song 3.34 and 3.33, song 4 3.22, 3.23 and 3.23. My god playing bass is easy even though I'm going to have to up my game it's going to be such a joy. Not just perfect timing either.

I think you've realised you just have the wrong tool for the job and Bill has explained why. Your speakers are notable designs and there are advantages in small drivers, yours don't lack bass but they are only the equivalent of inefficient 1x10's where efficiency has been traded for good bass. Not all tens and 12's are equal but really the minimum you need is a good 2x10 or really good single 12 to keep up with a drummer. For mid range gear a couple of 12's will work well using one for the less demanding situation and doubling up when you play bigger venues. You probably need to upsize but remember to look for something that sounds good to you, not just to jump to the first thing.

They are singing this morning. I have spares here

the 45-105's were reduced on Amazon three days ago.

I started out with Rotosounds, hated the 'zing' when new but a week in they were perfect for me. I couldn't afford to keep replacing them once a month though. Tried everything and decided flats weren't for me and only stainless would do. I ran my own trial of Elixirs versus Blue Steels on two different basses, which I changed after a year. You could easily hear a difference with both sets of new strings but the improvement was similar for both so I concluded that there was no advantage in spending out on the Elixirs. Since they also sounded like old strings from the get go and I preferred the Blue Steels throughout they have been my go-to strings. The difference between new ones and year old ones is minimal. I've never used them for 4 years before though On the plus side if I do prefer the old ones it's going to save me a lot in the future

I'm not quite replacing like with like so I'll need to do a set up and check intonation. I'll take a second bass along too Rationally we all know what new strings do so I'm presenting this as an irrational fear. The sound is going to be a bit brighter but the studio will do what it wants/needs to do. It's a lot simpler to take stuff out of the signal than to add it in. I'll clean up the old strings and keep them for a while just in case they are the golden strings but I'm not really a believer in magic. It's a case of 'holding on to nurse, for fear of finding something worse' of course. I'm just wondering if others share that feeling or alternatively how we all feel about old strings, and if there are any real benefits. Thanks for the suggestions though

I'm genuinely nervous. We are going into the recording studio next week and my strings (Dean Markley Blue Steels) date back to 2BC, two years before Covid. It's time for a new set, Blue Steels really last but I usually changed them once a year. The trouble is that this set have been sounding absolutely great for the past few months. I've been loving playing them, am I going to regret this? New strings always makes it feel like a new bass but they sound so good...... Does anyone else get this sort of anxiety? Anyone else get the 'it's working don't touch it thing? On the plus side my poor bass will get a proper clean, wish me well I'm going in

If this is a multi-band event you may have to go with it. It won't be a matter of just parking your stuff on stage and playing. There's going to have to be connections to the PA and a balance to set, potentially cabs to mic up and they won't know what standard of care you've taken over your gear and what might not be working as a consequence. Then you've got to take all your stuff down at the end and the next band have to wait whilst you are moving out. It can easily suck up half an hour of everyone's time to change over between two bands. There is no harm in asking though, and if you are the only band it isn't very reasonable. If it's one of those events where they give each band half an hour then you'll probably have to roll with it or politely turn the gig down. If you go ahead it might be worth chucking your gear in the van anyway. The sound engineers may be a lot more flexible than the promoter (or not)

You don't suggest a budget but The Zoom B1Four is such a good shout. There's absolutely nothing to beat it for anything like the money. £69 Here is what it does. You plug the bass in and a set of headphones and you can practice in silence. Inside are electronic patches that will make your bass sound like you are playing through a whole range of different and very expensive gear. Unplug the phones and you can put it through your amp and even use it on stage. It has a mini-jack input so you can plug in your phone/computer etc and then you can play along with any song you choose. It has a built in tuner for getting those strings in tune. It has a built in metronome and drum machine to play along with This is the perfect practice engine. The headphone sound is great and playing along with your favourite songs is a great way of mearning.. Playing with drums that you can slow down and speed up is probably enen more useful. if less fun. The Zoom runs on batteries or a power supply or with a USB lead. I use mine for 80-90% of my personal practice. It also has dozens of studio quality effects built in and it works as a looper Zoom B1-4

It's hard to see on the pics but to me that looks like a split rail supply. The rectifier bridge is to the right of the transformer and there is a positive and negative lead sheathed in black going up to the main board between the two fuses on the left. there is another lead running from the transformer that runs up to connect between them and you can just make out the track beneath the board which is the centre/earth rail. This isn't gospel, I'm just saying that is where I would be looking. If you don't understand any bit of that then it is probably sensible to pass this on to someone else. The electric shock you might get off those smoothing capacitors ( the big black things) will be much worse than any mains shock and in rare cases are capable of stopping your heart. I can't see any sign of a bleed circuit so they will retain their charge for some time even if the amp is switched off and unplugged from the mains. Please be careful, this is not a trivial job, blowing the amp is the least of your worries.

Always the way, I had one glorious year using someone else's PA until I accidentally let slip that I'd picked up a few bits and pieces Glad it went well

Sometimes I worry about how my mind works. I love this sort of discussion I don't think there is a problem free way of fixing a speaker to a cab. All the regular methods are problematic in some way. You start with fixing holes which are often around 6mm from the speaker cutout with a 5mm hole drilled to take the fixing. that leaves you 3.5mm of 'wood' to prevent any sideways movement. Less unless you've cut both your cutout and drilled your screwhole perfectly. After you drill a hole the wood fibres, released of pressure are going to expand a little and close the hole, that's why you can't just slide the T-nuts in or why your Rawlplug needs hammering in. If you are using plywood you will have unseen voids which will mean some of your screw is going into air, not wood. Not all timbers are equal, some species are a lot harder than others. Fast grown poplar is softer than many timbers, oak famously hardens with age, the moisture content affects hardness as does the part of the tree the wood is taken from and so on. If you are dealing with plywood most of the time you have no idea what the inner plies are. A lot of 'poplar' ply is actually Eucalyptus internally and even the outer veneer is a Chinese poplar. Baltic birch is often only birch on the outer layers and if it comes from Kaliningrad it is probably from trees grown in Russia (which may be fine of course, it's a big country) I quite like t-nuts, you are pulling them up towards the speaker frame with the baffle sandwiched in between The shape of them spreads the load a little and if you have a weaker piece of wood underneath it is still going to hold. Your bolt is in a metal thread so it's way stronger than it needs to be and you are going to have no problem removing the bolts unless it all rusts. The downsides are the appalling quality of most T-nuts with poorly sharpened prongs at well off 90 degrees and poor thread cutting. They can be quite big so the diameter takes them right to the edge of the cutout and the prongs break the edge or even stick out past the edge. After losing one or two by pushing too hard on the bolt I now don't push too hard and I don't cross thread then because if they are tight with my fingers I stop and investigate. I don't hammer them in either, not on a speaker mounting I use a washer and tighten the bolt against it and pull them in, Screws are great in that they are quick and easy. you need a pilot hole if they are close to that fragile edge, even if they say they are self drilling you are going to get some expansion when they go in and a couple of mm of ply won't take that. Every now and then one will slip and pull out when you tighten it, all that variable wood or lack of wood. I just drill out a bigger hole and use a Rawlplug. I've never used a threaded insert, though I've come across them in commercial cabs. They seem to work. The biggest lesson I've learned is that you need to drill the right sized hole, at right angles with the right drill bit and properly centred. Use a brad point bit They are much easier to centre and they are self guiding , cut a much cleaner edge and clean out the sawdust effectively. Ordinary twist drills are much harder to centre and often wander off when you start to cut, in something as soft as timber it's really hard to stay square and you can easily end up with a slightly oval hole with rough edges. Don't pooh pooh the speaker clamps either, the metal L shaped brackets. Ugly as sin but that's not a problem if they are under the speaker grille and are painted black. By moving the fixing point away from that soft edge you have a much better chance of a nice firm fixing. I use them a lot when developing a new speaker as getting the speaker back out is simple with less chance of sticking a screwdriver though a nice new speaker That all makes it sound difficult but it really isn't, just take a little care and it'll be fine.

Let us know how you get on