4 Strings

I suppose Laney never really got to be a Marshall or Hiwatt and have kept themselves going on a diet of pretty poor quality beginner type stuff, hence his reactionary comment. I have had two Laney things pass through my life, a 30W valve guitar combo and a bass combo used by a mate. Both have been very good, no problems at all. The guitar combo actually is excellent, used by the lad at uni at the moment and its popular with everyone. I have a friend too who turns his nose up at the word 'Laney', his loss, I'd recommend them. Just need to recognise their cheap stuff is just that. Laney is worse than not fashionable, they are unfashionable and so have little second hand value compared with more widely accepted names. I'd happily have a Nexus set up (although I'd like to try one first!) but I would expect to lose a lot if I came to sell it. Do let us know how you get on with it, I Kind of like the idea of encouraging British made gear.

Phew. Although I'd still prefer to hear properly than back through headphones. [quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='1053318' date='Dec 9 2010, 08:31 PM']That was ironic. Obviously the ideal setup is all of them. At once.[/quote]

No, no, no, no, no. Did a gig like that, electronic drums to boot. It was a horrible (an horrible?) experience. No idea what the sound was like, no feeling at all, just away in my little world. Its one thing getting things accurate in the studio but this was so sterilised for a live performance that the word 'clinically cold' would be best used to describe it. Another subject, I know. btw, here's a pic of the 18 I'm always looking for opportunities to use: [quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='1053231' date='Dec 9 2010, 07:14 PM']The ideal setup is DI and in ear monitoring.[/quote]

Lets hope he was the one who took the solo on that cut! [quote name='Bilbo' post='1052663' date='Dec 9 2010, 12:57 PM']There is a lovely story where an old big band jazz saxophonist (who I can't name) heard himself on a record in a bar and then heard the record again straight away and then a third time. He approached the guys who were playing it and asked why they kept playing it. 'Because we love the saxopnone solo' He smiled and walked away without telling them....how cool was that? [/quote]

My mind stopped at imagining being in Tesco. [quote name='guyl' post='1052638' date='Dec 9 2010, 12:31 PM']Whilst it would be great to travel the world and play with mega-stars, writing/recording/playing on hit records would be the best job for me. Imagine being in Tesco and hearing your hit over the tannoy. You'd be itching to shout - "everyone listen to me!"[/quote]

Nother for Pino here, mainly because he tours with The Who and gets to play with Zac Starkey too.

If you're happy with a valve pre-amp Hartke amps are Class A Valve pre-amps. To me they sound fabulous, they are also amazingly cheap, especially 2nd hand. An HA3500 would be plenty loud enough and give you a valve sound. Not the same as a 'proper' valve amp, but a fraction of the cost. [quote name='ianSB' post='1050555' date='Dec 7 2010, 02:15 PM']im just looking to start getting into the valve equipment so all valve or valve pre am doesnt bother me as long as it has a valve haha, weight and maintenance doesnt bother me really, just looking for something with a bit of headroom which sounds good and is good value for money[/quote]

I do! Well, I'd like more of an opportunity to, a Hartke 1800, it gives a truly massive sound. Thread here: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=109207&st=0&p=1010193&#entry1010193"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...p;#entry1010193[/url] Reason 1 is that its a huge lump of a thing. Got wheels and a handle etc but you can't pick it up. Not going to be in regular use. Little Ampeg 112 goes out way more often. Reason 2 is that I know I'd be trying to justify it to the rest of the band who will be thinking I'm just trying to be louder Reason 3 is that full range tone is now expected by bass players, back in the day bass was expected - might be changing back towards that actually - and 18s don't do upper registers too well, almost always sound muddy compared to what's now expected. As an add on to my regular 2x10, if the gig is big enough (and just for the fun of it), its great. [quote name='Slipperydick' post='1051424' date='Dec 8 2010, 10:35 AM']Why does nobody use 18" speakers anymore ? I used to use an 18" Goodmans and a Marshall 4X12 at one time, and it was truly, awsome. But then I stopped playing for a few years, and when I started again 18s seem to have dissapeared.[/quote]

Thanks for the Marvin clip, seen that one, class all the way through. Any others of our esteemed Hooky friend? (Hooded or otherwise?) (apart from this one - [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBmaiMJdWEA&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBmaiMJdWEA...feature=related[/url] )

Well, what a journey this as been. Started off wanting a suggestion for a replacement speaker as mine distorts when I turn it up too much. Went through the fact that it had a port instead of a tweeter, to putting more and bigger port in, to not replacing the speaker as its actually quite a good one, even though some parameters I'd never heard of were not suitable, to me putting the tweeter back in and being ok with the result. Totally opposite result to that expected. All because of some good advice from those who know way more than me. Thanks all, been a great ride, I hope to continue it if I need more power and dig holes in my little Ampeg cab, and I'm really grateful for the advice. Please don't fight about it though.

There seems to be only a handful of photos of our hero let alone movie film of someone who was never let out of the studio. But, I found this. Its a great film of the Supremes, wonderful in fact in that they are singing to a live band and the band appear to be the Brothers themselves. You can clearly see Jamerson (although his head i cut off for some of it) standing up high. Thought I'd share, sorry if you've seen it before. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8yOn8SMeus&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8yOn8SMeus...feature=related[/url]

The Thumpinator sounds great but for that price I could buy a pretty good speaker. Is there a cheaper way to hit the rumble? If I wanted to put a cap in line I could solder something to the crossover board. Any ideas on values etc? Also, would it be in parallel across the speaker?

[quote name='Doctor J' post='1043590' date='Dec 1 2010, 11:44 AM']Eight and a half grand doesn't get you an E string that isn't practically hanging off the side of the neck? I'll pass, thanks.[/quote] Move the camera to the left a bit and it will miraculously all become central. One of the reasons Entwhistle liked these so much was to do with the additional 'growl' of the pickups and tone controls. The famous 'Frankenstein' was so popular with him for that reason. I'd love to have this bass. If I had that sort of money for a bass I'd consider it, must be loads of history attached (assuming it is actually original). Sign of the times that Fender would make a re-issue of what was a re-issue in the first place.

For those who remain interested, things will not be getting more interesting, I'm afraid. Put the tweeter in and connected it up (works still, even the attenuator but not really a useful addition, definitely prefer more bass than glitter) and gave it a try indoors. Sounded fine. took it to rehearsal (not a loud time - electronic drums and the noisy keyboard player replaced by the original jazzy one) and it was great. If I could describe it I would say more punchy and better defined. True, not much deep bass but enough punch to compensate. I would add that it was on the edge of its performance. Turn up a fraction and it complained. However, it was fine and will now stay like this until I feel the need to bore two large holes into the side of the cab because things get noisier. Thanks all who have taught me stuff in this, sorry it didn't end up with any real experimentation, but it sounds fine within its limits while I can get away with it. We may be joined by another guitarist which may push it over the edge ...!

[quote name='JPJ' post='1033404' date='Nov 22 2010, 11:40 PM']Oh don't get me wrong, I'm at that fortunate stage of life to be able to afford one of these if I wanted to, a statement which probably sounds vulgar in today's economic climate. My point is that premium components or not, it's a lot of money for a 30w combo which is going to be of limited practical use other than recording or quiet practice. For me, who would only be able to use this for home practice, I guess it's going to be the Little B'stard and my Schroeder cab [/quote] Didn't the OP just rattle on about how loud this thing is?

Black Rick is great, really aggressive looking. Not really played Ricks, so daft question I'm sure, but what's all the chrome gubbins around the bridge pickup?

I must admit I would have contacted both Zoot (Purple Chili) and Markbass about these problems. Although out of warranty they are not out of reasonable duty. You might have had to pay something but I bet they would have helped fix things. If the new control panel works then you have a great cab, surely Markbass might be able to help out with the amp. In which case you get to keep your first choice (and very nice) gear.

What do they sound like?

Ok, first thing will be to put the tweeter back in and seal it for rehearsal next Monday and see what the difference is. I must admit it was a bit boomy, I rolled the bass back a bit. I'll give it a try for exhaustive comparison. But, I have played with some big, bassy cabs, I have the celebrated Monster even now, and the sound is affected throughout the fret board. Even playing up high on the 'G' sounds different with a big bottom end attached, it is fuller and, I think, more powerful. Its wrong to say that because I have a 4 string I don't need anything below the sine wave frequency of bottom 'E'. The strings give out frequencies across a wide band including rumbly lows and piercing highs (depending on your eq, string type etc) even if the majority of volume comes from the expected range. If I'm not happy with the sealed cab because the sound is not deep enough, then its butchery time!

Thanks so much, everyone (and to our Barefaced friend Alex Caber for helpful pms) all great stuff, I have learned a lot and have come up with a cunning plan; Sealed box would appear to give too lightweight a tone for the purposes. I need efficiency, so I don't have to put too much load on the speaker, and depth (coz I like it) and so I'm going for porting. Internal dims are 380x380x250(ish, it curves) deep and I've calc'd the internal volume to be 33 litre. The ports may go in the side (could be one in each side - the air will be confused!) as this gives more length (~340mm as I'd like to keep at least half the tube dia space at the end) but I am also aware that the internal tubes will take up volume. I found this: [url="http://www.linearteam.dk/default.aspx?pageid=ventcalculator"]http://www.linearteam.dk/default.aspx?pageid=ventcalculator[/url] which tells me that for a volume of 33 litre I can have 2 x 80mm x 170mm long ports and tune for 53Hz and I almost get to the non-whistling (chuffing?) threshold if I put 100W through it. (I know the amp will do a lot more than that but it rarely goes above 1/3 for rehearsals.) If I go for the 66mm tubes I can tune the cab lower (50Hz) and they are shorter (200mm) but the air velocity goes up further and chuffing may still result. I'm not too worried compromising this last part a bit as the site this calc comes from is for hi-fi and so the threshold level of acceptable chuff (tee-hee) might be very low compared to what a bass guitar cab can get away with. The compromise will be low chuff vs depth. I'm going to go for chuff and depth (66mm) first, if its too bad I can always open the holes for the larger tubes. The down side is irreversible changes to the cab, but then it'll never be original again anyway. The upside is, as someone suggested, I get to put the tweeter back! (not too much point as there is loads of brightness from the Beyma - but there is an attenuator for it). What do you think?

How I love a slab bodied MM! I was going by the transfer on the P. Sounds like an ace gigging bass, certainly looks the biscuit. Two very nice basses, glad to hear you use them. Just noticed all those other MM bodies on the wall. Quite a collection! [quote name='cd_david' post='1034096' date='Nov 23 2010, 04:48 PM']It is indeed a pre EB body with a Status neck, but the P is a recent parts build (Jap body, Mighty Mite neck fender hardware and kent armstrong hot vintages) to look like a Roger Waters bass due to my current role in a floyd tribute. Cheers mate Dave[/quote]

Ok, all god advice, I'm sure. I think Ampeg know a little about cabs, and this one is nicely made (even with a handle hidden underneath to make it even easier to pick up) and that I'm not likely to improve on it ... apart, maybe from a port or two. On the link to Falcon Acoustics there's an 80mm version with bell mouths. I'm thinking of two of those.

So, it seems I'm not going to improve things too much by changing the driver but might do so with adjustments to the port. Bit difficult to tell if the port is 'chuffing' or the speaker complaining. Assuming we do have 'chuff', what to do? There's not really space to make the port larger in diameter, what if I made the tube longer? How long would be best? What if I made another 3" port (say, in the back). What length tubes would be best?

[quote name='cd_david' post='1030542' date='Nov 20 2010, 03:53 PM']My two current favourites [/quote] These both look in perfect condition. Is that a pre-EB Stingray body and a '70s Precision?