LawrenceH

This intrigues me as a 1073/84 is one of the more obvious 'bigger, better' coloured preamps and EQs. Be interested to hear your thoughts on how it compares to the 'real thing' as you get more time with it, as I assume it's a stripped-down/partial version of the circuit

Mine is inputs on the side 😆 I find on the top is nicely out of the way especially on any single-row board, and it's easier getting the short cables to play nicely But really the most annoying thing is when you have a mix of both!

I think it's for people with big feet and/or chunky boots! Especially ones who are a bit more energetic on a dark stage - they don't like the switches being too close together.

Hi all, looking for recommendations please! I'm after someone in or near Bristol to do a setup on a Mexican 70s RI jazz including filing down nut slots (on a bound neck so can't just easily take the nut out to file the back) and potentially a bit of fret dressing if deemed worthwhile in pursuit of low action (7.25" radius I think). Also, any tips on going rate for this sort of work appreciated. Obviously I'd prefer it not to cost hundreds given that it's only a MIM but main priority is a competent job! Thank you in advance

I'd also add, that if you do want to focus on things like dynamics or smooth legato playing or whatever, it's probably better to spend a short time per session drilling exercises like scales/arpeggios where you focus just on that skill in a simplified context. That might appear to contradict what I said above but I think the short time is key. Do it only until you feel concentration waning or you've plateaued for the day. Try playing a C major scale up and down at p, then f, then after a while introduce mp, then mf. Do it legato, and do it staccato. Try doing it up and down one octave with a steady crescendo. Then up and down with steady diminuendo. Think about how your fingers are contacting the keys before and after the notes are played. Get your wrist angle right. I guarantee that kind of focus will help you when you go back to playing actual pieces where you're having to think about more aspects at once.

I'm not a pro-level musician/teacher so take what I say with a pinch of salt, but yes - I think only a minority of early-stage learners will play a piece 'perfectly' no matter how much they drill it. It's just not an efficient way to build up skill, you need a variety of exercises and challenges that involve as much of the brain as possible so one circuit isn't carrying the whole load. My own experience regardless of instrument is that improvement comes from moving on and learning coordination/phrasing/dynamics more holistically over many pieces. Sticking with your footballing analogy, it'd be a weird method to just drill one skill session after session. Pace of learning just won't increase beyond a certain point so you may as well move on to something else. Benefits of playing many pieces, all inter-related of course: 1. Rapid improvement per piece, keeps you motivated. 2. Builds versatility by practicing essentially similar skills but each in a unique context. 3. Improves sight-reading. This is huge, not just for the skill itself but what it means. You are decoding and finding the musical message in real-time, not just the black squiggles themselves but including the sense in the phrases, which means your ear is being tested in numerous ways. 4. Pattern-spotting between multiple musical pieces in succession, helps with reading, harmonic/scalar/rhythmic theory, general ear training, dexterity. 5. Going back to a piece after a break doing others gives you a fresh look with new musical perspectives and a chance to avoid baking in bad habits/mistakes that then take ages to undo. 6. Versatility gained here helps playing with others, and will translate e.g. from piano to bass! Edit: 7. Forgot this one, but avoids fatigue! As alluded to above, practicing one thing again and again is more fatiguing, relates to efficiency/rate of improvement. That bit of the brain is knackered now and won't get any better for a bit, move on to something else. Learning a new piece you're not just focused on coordinating fingers, but also all the sight-reading stuff (theory, reading, musicality etc). You're spreading the cognitive load!

I nearly mentioned Fohhn as being the ones I'd consider - really, really excellent speakers! As you say though the price is a fair bit higher than something like a DXR8 or similar...

Thinking about conventional small PA speakers - in small pubs I've happily used a single Yamaha DXR8 to carry vocals/acoustic instruments. It's good to have two for those instances where the room is wide, but one is enough for a lot of small UK venues if you position and angle it right. Sometimes, by the time you've put two speakers up you've obscured more than half the performance area from view!

Not sure what generation that is exactly, since round here I probably see as many if not more Gen Xers having those choices as Millennials/Zs! But IMO he's a really interesting choice - someone who merges music with hacking culture and has a popular 'new media' presence. Offers interesting possibilities for documenting development of a song/performance over social media which would be a very novel way of engaging people in the build-up, especially if followers can interact with the process. He's someone who I think retains something of the earlier DIY, anarchic spirit of pre-google YouTube in a positive way.

Fingers crossed!

I dimly remember - and could be wrong - the specs of that driver favoured using it in such a way that you could get a good amount of upper bass from it, but if tuned this way in a fair-sized box it was particularly vulnerable to unloading below the resonant frequency, so pops and thumps with ultra low frequency content would be dangerous, and accordingly it particularly benefits from a (steep) high pass filter. Xmax was also measured using Klippel analysis which put it around 4mm, because it remained quite well behaved as the coil started to leave the magnetic gap - but really Xmax by measurement the old fashioned way would be just 2.5mm.

It's a decent driver really when kept within it's limits but the xlim doesn't give the safety margin as for other premium drivers from European manufacturers. It was very popular in bass applications a decade or so ago, and works well enough but I think it must fail quite quickly above the point where it stops sounding ok. I have blown one myself and remember plenty of other users did too!

The irony for amplifiers is these numbers matter a lot less now that power is cheap and light. Just makes it even more confusing pairing with appropriate speakers. Having said that, subjectively these micro amps don't quite seem to match up to older class AB amps with nominally similar ratings. Whether that's because their power supplies can't sustain the demand for as long under load, or the older amps have more forgiving distortion characteristics at higher loads, or it's all in my head, I don't know enough to say (it's not all in my head though it's really reeeeeal :p). BUT, with my £150-when-new Bugera Veyron it's all immaterial. Weighs not much, fits comfortably into a laptop bag. Claims 2000 fictional watts, supposedly measures a hair under 800 watts, in reality it doesn't matter if that's not ultimately as loud as 'old watts'. I drive 2x 250w RMS 10" drivers and it's always enough. Played the Fleece in Bristol a few nights ago, it filled the stage easily and it sounds great, and the subs/PA take over for the venue anyway as is required in a place that size whatever you put on stage.

I like that tortoiseshell, where's it from?

Think that would count as 'cruel and unusual punishment' under the UDHR?