Phil Starr

I think people are right to concentrate on moisture. Some cars seem to be worse than others in this respect, everything ends up damp in my old Fiat, not so much in our Golf or Astra. If your car screen is running with condensation then you can reckon there will be some condensation on the metal parts of the speaker. That's not going to happen overnight, if you've used the speaker in a gig it is likely to get quite hot and keep a bit of residual warmth, even if it does cool right down a little condensation isn't going to spell much trouble but prolonged exposure could lead to some corrosion of the metal parts and really long term damp could affect the cone and possibly the adhesives on older speakers. I'd move it somewhere dry but temperature per se isn't an issue. Coming home after a gig and leaving it one night wouldn't worry me but personally I'd put it somewhere dry the next day., but I do live in a part of the country that get's nearly a metre of rain a year

Musicians eh?

Thanks guys, I've had a quick look at all your suggestions, I was looking at Band anyway. seems like a good general purpose diary app, ironically nothing to do with bands but a good adaptable possibility. Band Mule looks interesting with shared set lists and a chat room built into the app. I'm sure there were others like this

I'm looking for something that we can use to keep a band diary and communicate with each other, half the band use emails and won't touch social media the others won't read emails as they have hundreds of unopened ones. I'm sure there was a thread on software for bands in BC a few months back but I can't find it. Any suggestions?

Yeah there are still some people fitting piezo's which saves the costs of a crossover. I spent some time experimenting with piezo tweeters a few years ago including some of the so-called quality Motorola tweeters. They universally gave a tizzy sound and even trying out crossovers I couldn't really tame them, the best I got was an 'OK' sound with the tweeters dialled back a couple of dB. The poor reputation of tweeters is partly down to people's first experience being with cheap piezo's. I'll have a look at Dan's Magellan review later

To be fair they aren't the only ones rehashing old ideas and claiming them as new. Looks like that Dynacord was a PA speaker. 103dB/W according to the back of the cab (!) and they seem to have a following in Europe as hi fi cabs. crossover at about 500Hz.

That's a new one on me Stevie there's nothing new under the sun I'm going to look it up though.

I love these as a design, you don't really need really the high frequencies from a small horn driver so the 3" drive units promise more of the mids you do need and the possibility of a lower crossover point. Then the line source offers a broad flat radiation pattern from the speakers, ideal as everyone in the audience gets to hear pretty much the same tone but you cut out some of the reflections off the ceilings. I've not heard these speakers yet, they don't seem very widely used but if they've got the implementation right they ought to sound great, review please when you've had a decent time to get to know them.

I think that's a good choice, if you prefer it to the fitted speaker you could always swap that one later, the speaker is a real bargain and Beyma is a good make, so far I've had zero failures and they look to be nicely made.

Before you go to all that trouble. if it is just the cone detaching then it might be possible to repair the speaker. A lot of old drivers suffer because the glue becomes brittle with age/oxidation/exposure to light and goes all crumbly. If you go carefully you an usually re glue. I usually use Copydex for this, it's latex based and water soluble so bonds really well to paper cones and cloth and remains flexible for a very long time. The join should be stronger than the cone if you do it right. I usually assume if one part of the cone has come away it all will but you might not feel confident being so drastic. I separate the whole cone and glue the lot but if you address the offending 'split' you need to clean off any old crumbly glue and make sure the area is dust free, then just glue together following the instructions on the glue. I usually also check the join in the middle where the domes paper dust cover fixes to the cone, the glue is often in the same state. Try not to get too much glue spreading across the cone and you need to be careful not to distort the cone but it is basically a simple job, just be gentle and methodical. You've nothing to lose by trying. Good Luck

Just a thought, if you love the sound of these then using a different driver will change the sound and mixing them won't necessarily sound like a blend of the two. You'll have three sounds one from each cab and one from the pair. If you like that idea then no problem If not then go to Tecamp and see if they can provide a replacement. I'd forgotten you had two cabs. Another thought is that this cab looks to be a 50litre cab tuned roughly to 50Hz or maybe slightly lower. I'd need measured internal dimensions to tell you exactly. That's not far off the Basschat design Stevie did for a top quality FRFR cab, the equal of a BF or Fearless/Greenboy cab IMO. It wouldn't have the same internal bracing of course. If you wanted to invest the money you could fit the same drivers and crossover into your cab, this wouldn't be a bad bet.

Hi I've responded to your pm but if anyone else is interested you asked me to comment on Blue Aran's recommended replacement an Eminence Gamma That's shockingly bad advice from Blue Aran specs for the Gamma are: fs 57 Hz Re 6.52 ohms Le 0.95mH Qes 0.75 Qms 6.86 Qts 0.67 BL 10.9 T.M Xmax 1.6mm Xmax of 1.6 is just not good enough for bass and power handling will be poor, fs is too high for my taste (no deep bass), BL is lower than I would like because of an underpowered magnet and a speaker with a Qts=0.67 isn't really suitable for a small reflex cabinet you'll have an insane upper bass bloom and no deep bass again. I suspect you got the Saturday boy Blue Aran do speakers that are a whole lot better. If you want something cheap then this would be better http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=BMA612CVM28&browsemode=category Xmax is 7mm more than 4x better and the magnet system is more powerful so the frequency response will be better too, and it's cheaper. If you want an Eminence then the Beta 12A-2 is a much better speaker than the nasty little Gamma and it has a nice response in the mids which will give you a nice baked in sound. http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=EMIBETA12A&browsemode=category For a bit more you can get the Beyma SM212 which is a tried and tested model with a much more neutral response which a load of basschatters have used. If you want to spend more still then the Faital PR 320 is a lovely speaker and lightweight too http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=FTP12PR320&browsemode=category

I had to play this for someone at a jam session, that'll be easy enough I thought. It's fast though I hadn't left enough time and was sweating, on the night he played it about 10bpm slower and I survived. It will come but remember you are playing the chords Em to B. At a pinch you could get away with just straight 8's on E and B, it wouldn't be right but playing the root note in time would let the rest of the band play their bits and they wouldn't notice in all probability, they will all need the E and B on the first note of the bar though. On the night I just played the root/fifths, I ignored the shift to G (10 on the A) in the tab above. Good Luck

I'm not sure relying on memory is a good thing. My memory is pretty good so when I started playing as a late starter going straight into a covers band it seemed natural enough to just memorise stuff. As a result I have little musical theory and a very poorly developed ear. Every new song I just go to the tabs or you Tube and … just memorise it. It's a dead end musically I know now, but with three new songs to play next week I'll just rely on memory again. I'm so jealous of those people who can hear a song and just work it out. Toscanini probably didn't need to know every note, just that one of them wasn't in the key the piece was written in. So I've found my carrying capacity for songs is somewhere up in the 120-150 mark, three bands worth of set list plus a few old pot boilers. Any more than that and I'll start making mistakes (well more than usual) That will involve playing most of them once a month probably. Interestingly the ones I've gigged a few times stick better than those that never get out of the rehearsal room. Is it the adrenaline of performance that helps? It's plate spinning though, you have to give them a little tweak now and again in personal practice or they keep falling over.

I love that this is running on all this time, six pages and still going Just listening to the song he doesn't play the same thing all the way through and I doubt he plays it the same way every time. The only other Bowie song I play is Rebel Rebel and that has variation on a basically repetitive bass line all the way through too. I think that's just the way he plays. There's an interview kicking around somewhere where he said he doesn't know what he played on the recording so I guess that would be definitive. My take is that on the first verse coming out of the intro he definitely plays the G# and then repeats for that verse, later in the song he does play G and sometimes just E and A. Playing loose sounds fine in this song and as we have all found out no-one notices. That little 9-7-6 triplet on the intro I find tricky if I haven't played it for a while and I naturally keep that shape in the first verse, I guess he did the same. After that I just tend to keep the groove going and my fingers wander into paying the G and that gives it a bluesy feel. I don't think music theory informed the playing when it was recorded Just seen the above, there might be more than one clip doing the rounds

Thanks, I was hoping you'd spot this. How good is the backup with Midas? if it is the same as Behringer then it is problematic, I had real trouble getting spares for a Behringer floor monitor that was out of guarantee by a month or so (but cheap enough when I tracked down a supplier) If it is proper pro backup then that's worth the full price never mind just the difference. Any direct experience? As to the mic pre's? We're using QSC K12's and RCF speakers and I really notice the difference between the Behringer mixer and my Yamaha MG which surprised me at that price point, the Yamaha's are really much better despite it basically being a cheap mixer. Are the Midas pre's going to be better by a similar amount? If so that's worth it for me, 5-10 years of just not quite being happy with the sound has got to be worth thinking about.

I'm about to take the plunge and go digital. This is for live work with a covers band. It's hard to look past the XR18 but is it worth spending the extra on an MR18. What do I get other than better mic pre's? Am I likely to use the extra features in a live situation? It's not a huge extra cost (less than the money for a single gig) So does anyone have any thoughts? https://www.behringer.com/Categories/Behringer/Mixers/Digital/XR18/p/P0BI8#googtrans(en|en) https://www.midasconsoles.com/Categories/Midas/Mixers/Digital/MR18/p/P0C8H#googtrans(en|en)

You could probably just use a Y cable to split the signal or something like this https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/Behringer-ULTRA-DI-DI20-Active-DI-Box/297 You'll probably need to do a bit of experimenting to get the best out of these, though you may just like the sound out of the box. It looks like there is just a 500Hz crossover built in so the lows going to the 18's and the highs going to the 10's, you could just go direct into both pairs of speakers by passing the crossover but beware of overloading the 10's. Some power amps like my Peavey 1600's have a crossover to a sub, I'd certainly try sub to the 18's and tops to the 10's if that is available, which will effectively mean you've shifted the crossover point to around 100 Hz. If you can borrow a proper crossover you could experiment with other crossover frequencies. You could also try just mixing two entirely different tones to each speaker giving you something like the 'stereo' effect you can get with a Rickenbacker or the old bassists trick of feeding half their signal to a bass stack and half to a guitar amp. The options are quite varied and it is up to you how much you want to experiment My only worry would be that these are old speakers and of unknown health, start with the volume right down and listen for signs of strain and you shouldn't go far wrong. Good luck and have fun

It's hard to say without hearing the sound but my immediate response was that the string is hitting the pole piece too. The Pole is quite strongly magnetic and if the string goes near it will be pulled down by the magnet making temporary contact and a loud thump. If your string height or neck relief are way out the string can also make quite a thump on the end of the fretboard/last fret. It could also be a speaker or amp problem if you are overloading the amplification. Try turning the amp right down to home practice levels and then try playing really hard, if the thump has gone it's the amp/speaker combination. If the speaker coil is hitting the back of the magnet you'll destroy the speaker and it can make a noise like you describe. It may also be hitting the speaker grille especially if it is distorted or dented.

You've probably found this, but if not enjoy

This is true, but if you buy something big end efficient that won't be an issue, you won't want an extra 4x10 and almost certainly not a second 2x12. It probably won't be a problem It's a lot harder to get the sound you like than match impedances though which is why I'd always say find something you like the sound of first. Only then worry about the impedance.

Honestly stop worrying about impedance and speaker sizes, probably to least important things to worry about. Find a speaker you like the sound of first. Sound comes first second and third. If is isn't loud enough then buy a second identical speaker to get more of what you like. If you play small and medium sized venues then you only need to be as loud as the drummer and the PA will do the heavy lifting if you play bigger venues on occasions. Size isn't important If you are starting from scratch then a 2x10 or a 1x15 will be loud enough for most gigs but a good, high efficiency 12 will just about get there too. Anything bigger (4x10, 2x12) will be well capable but you don't want capable you want a good sound that suits your playing, and only you can judge that. So have some fun and start trying stuff, you wouldn't buy a car without a test drive.

Looks Like the Warnex and the Tuff Cab are very similar, Tuffcab is cheaper at the moment.

There are standard ways of describing and measuring power. This is both in the legal sense of governments drawing up regulations to allow us to make sense of what is being advertised (CE regulations refer to RMS and the US FTC 1974 of continuous measurements using sine waves are still in place.) There are also engineering standards for making measurements. Peak measurements should be measured with sine waves and simply double the continuous/rms power. Music power is meaningless. The only reason I keep posting on this is because essentially you are being cheated by false advertising claims and people who spread half understood information are effectively undermining the companies who are being honest with you. If you want to check you could start here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_power

This too is true