LawrenceH

Total volume available is roughly dictated by a combination of the amplifier power, the speaker size/sensitivity and the voicing (how deep it'll go). I recently sold an older UK-made Ashdown Electric Blue (130 watts into 1x12) for about £90 that would be perfect in this scenario. Look for the older Electric Blue and MAGs as they are cheap as chips and they're well-made and reliable, more recent ones made in China less so. Otherwise an old Peavey or Trace Elliot should do the job, around 100-200 watts into either 1x12", 1x15" or 2x10" speakers. I am frankly amazed that a 15 watt combo has been enough to play with anything but the quietest drummer using brushes! Probably doesn't produce any actual bass, since bass eats watts like nothing else. But you'll realise what you've been missing as soon as you try something with a bit more power, £100 secondhand spent wisely should be plenty

[quote name='apa' timestamp='1339319118' post='1686665'] All will be revealed but we digress from the thread [/quote] Look forward to seeing the end result! Needlessy butchering a nice blocked and bound neck earns extra points as well, I like it when people aren't too precious about these things

But WTF are you DOING to it?! Is there some crazy build diary I've missed? [quote name='apa' timestamp='1339150445' post='1684337'] And the mystery is solved Appolagies for the quality and a small caveat: Its a 5 string neck and was rebadged but Im 99.99% sure its a VM neck! A [/quote]

In other news, violin players have been banned from playing pizzicato cos it's just too 1780s... also that 300 year old Stradocaster design is SO boring, time they released a graphite headless version... with LED fingerboard markers.

The mixer is probably running at 18V, ie using the two batteries in series. Two parallel connections from a 9V supply won't substitute for this

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1338665723' post='1677885'] Oooh, your fretless PJ sounds interesting. If I could come round at some point I'd love that. Although I'm afraid it could just make me want this mod a lot more. [/quote] I just realised, if you're still with Sea Bass Kid then I think we must have played on the same bill at Henry's cellar bar the other day - in which case you might have already heard it if you stuck around, as I was playing with NUF just after you guys! Though, the bass amp there is knackered as hell (farting so much on the low notes that I had to rewrite a few lines as we went!)

We've got an old copycat somewhere, and had some fun dealing with Charlie Watkins in the 90s, he was a great character!

I'm no drummer but have noticed differences and spoken to various good drummers about this. Something to bear in mind and encourage good technique... Heavy cymbals tend to encourage harder hitting, if a drummer adjusts to light/thin cymbals he will find he's hitting softer with lighter sticks to get a similar tone but at lower volume - hitting hard just ruins the sound and leads to broken cymbals ie a financial AND musical incentive! Choosing a good snare drum for low volume playing also makes a BIG difference. Some are just b&*(%^d loud no matter what, definitely noticed this when playing with the same drummer but on different kits.

The Markbass F1 is a flat amp in the [i]good[/i] sense of the term, ie a very even freq response across the spectrum. The danger with the markbass stuff is IMO misunderstanding the VLE/VLF controls - so often I see both set to 12 o'clock as though that means they're off/neutral like the EQ controls, but it doesn't at all. EQ an ampeg 'flat' and it won't sound flat at all, especially not through ampeg cabs. If you like that sound then great, but I find it easier to start with a 'flat' amp and EQ to taste rather than start with one inherent EQ colouration and try and alter it to another. Ampeg cab sound is all about the midbass hump.

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1338551231' post='1676164'] I would put a humbucking J there. Just not sure what. I like the Dimarzio Model J, but looks wise is a no-go, and not sure it would be well matched to the existing P. I have to investigate. I was never a big fan of P/J (mostly because I was not a fan of P basses!), but I find a P-bass does a passable impersonation of a neck Jazz ( just heard so many times the opposite, that I could not resist to throw that one in there! ) and adding a bridge Jazz seems the reasonable thing to do [/quote] I think the Model J would match well to a 'typical' P in terms of levels. But if looks rule it out... actually the stock ceramic P/Js in my now fretless aerodyne sound great IMO, the bridge pup in particular has a nice meaty tone despite being single coil. Since you're in Edinburgh you could come and check it out sometime. If you do add the bridge pickup I'd suggest thinking carefully about placement in relation to the tones you want, the P pickup position means that with a 60s style J bridge the spacing doesn't give quite such a 'jazz' tone as if you move the j bridge-wards, OTOH if you're not really using the blended sound as much then you might prioritise the solo tone.

Seems a bit of a waste to have a maple-board fretless [i]without[/i] a J pickup at the bridge. Model J maybe, or something a little overwound. Burp city!

Good post. Is slap bass an 'effect'? [quote name='bobbass4k' timestamp='1338346654' post='1673101'] The problem essentially comes down to peoples ideas of what a bass [i]should [/i]sound like or what the bassist is [i]supposed [/i]to be playing. Without wishing to offend anyone I think most of the players who question the value of effects are of the pub covers or generic rock ilk, who have a somewhat traditional view of bass as fulfilling a specified role. [/quote]

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1338246912' post='1671724'] Cool! Love the colour! Truckstop [/quote] Cheers, I ordered a whole load of little vinyl swatches to choose from! This seemed in keeping with my jazz bass blue refin that I put up on here a while back...oh the vanity! Mr Beer I might just have to repaint the F1 someday.

[quote name='thebuckets' timestamp='1338376310' post='1673436'] Wise words neep Does anyone know how does the hydrive dissipates the heat when switched to 8 ohm? [/quote] I /think/ their drivers have dual voice coils so one just gets switched out - no extra heat to get rid of. I can't imagine the design is optimal for either scenario though, but I've not got any experience with them myself.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1338225085' post='1671119'] Having heard these in person, they do sound very good, even alongside a drummer who is at the lively end of things. What did the finished weight end up as? [/quote] I don't have any scales here - but the bare poplar cabs felt so light that I decided to prioritise comfort, durability and appearance over weight for the hardware. The steel grill is probably where one could make the easiest weight reduction and one day I may replace this with something else. I may just be able to weigh it tomorrow as the midwife will be weighing my new son! I suspect it weighs less than 8 kg. Could probably lose a bit more using different hardware [quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1338225085' post='1671119'] I suspect that one of these may go a bit louder than my EA Wizzy 10 cab too. You just need to find a head that comes in blue now, or would that be vain? [/quote] Comparitive volume is probably very frequency dependent. I bet the EA is louder in the upper mids, but not sure if it could match these in the lows - we could always A/B them sometime, or if you want to borrow one of these to try on a gig you'd be welcome. I'd be interested to know! Oh and the vanity, isn't that what we're all in it for?

So that's where I'm at. Things still to do include getting the finish washers on exposed screws and adding feet to an extra side if I want to stack on the shorter dimension. I'll try and arrange it so that the feet of the top cab when stacking sit with the screws/washers of the lower cabs inside them to stop and chance of slipping. Similarly it'd be good to add something to secure the F1, and a tilt function. On the second cab I haven't got quite as far but I think that rather than screw the corners straight over the foam/vinyl I'll put in a nylon washer instead of the foam, 1mm thinner than the surrounding foam, so that it doesn't compress the vinyl quite so much on the corners but still holds it nice and tight. I may also get round to making a vinyl cover to help protect the speaker grillcloth when transporting it, and am idly contemplating a logo of some sort. How does this final version sound? Well, I've gigged them a couple of times as a (bare wood) pair and a (nearly) finished single cab and I really like it - clear, articulate and smooth. It doesn't boom and tweet and as a result, with the Markbass F1 on flat almost sounds bass-light because of the clear midrange, but this is deceptive. It gets pretty loud and deep when you want it! I'd love to try them with an SWR-type creamy valve preamp as I think they'd be awesome (I do wonder if the MB fusion could deliver this in a micro package). They were designed to give me a killer jazz bass sound in a tiny package and I really think they deliver. As a bonus if I wanted a more hyped up bass sound without EQing it in, then I could swap out the Celestions for the Eminence 2510ii as they'll also work well in this cab and give an instant scooped boombox 10" driver sound.

As you can see in the previous picture, the grill is held on by rubber feet. There's a reason for this rather odd arrangement apart from the fact that IMO it looks a bit cool and quirky in an oddly Scandinavian 1970s way. First I wanted maximum flexibility for stacking with these cabs, but also to use a really good comfy handle - which for me ruled out the recessed ones meaning whichever side it was on would not be stackable (the cabs were built with offset baffles in mirror image to minimise driver spacings whether stacking on long or short edges). Second, with the prototype I found that the easiest way of carrying a cab one-handed is with the longest edge horizontal against your body, and the shortest edge horizontal perpendicular to this. So both things pointed to putting the handle on the back. In this pic you can see this and also that I dealt with the vinyl seams by cutting a thin channel into the wood, overlapping the vinyl slightly at this point and holding it in with beading to give a smart finish: [attachment=108881:DSCF1569.JPG] This, with the nice leather handle, small overall size and light weight makes it exceptionally comfy to carry! Luckily given the expense, the poplar made a noticeable difference when comparing the final versions with the prototype.

So next was addition of the vinyl itself. Rather than a loudspeaker tolex I went for a premium high-abrasion-resistance contract vinyl, designed for heavy-duty commercial upholstery. Decent grade PVC on a tight weave polycotton scrim. Drawback is it's more difficult to work with as it's thick and the backing is not the same colour so seams are difficult. I also decided that this look would suit a retro grillcloth so put some speaker cloth on the grill, glued on to help keep it looking tight and neat. Here's a couple of pics of one very nearly finished cab, one thing I will change is to replace the panhead screws holding the corners with countersunk screws inside round-edged finishing washers so they're not liable to scratch anything they bash against. [attachment=108880:DSCF1570.JPG][attachment=108879:DSCF1569 (2).JPG]

So for a finish I decided the poplar ply really was too soft for any of the brush/spray versions, even rubber/polyurea-based, to be viable. I really wanted these cabs to be smart and 'professional' looking enough for functions gigs, and I feel people often judge these things on quite superficial aesthetics rather than performance (fair enough on here where you can't hear them anyway!) so felt the looks should match the material and driver quality employed. Tolex (vinyl fabric) is hard to beat on looks but people often complain it gets tatty quickly. I decided that some padding would both help protect the poplar or at least hide dents, and also protect a top layer of vinyl as the cushioning would help prevent it tearing due to catching on stuff. I would've liked to use closed cell polyolefin but gluing is a bit of an issue, especially to tolex, so for the time being I've used an open cell (polyurethane?) furniture trim. You can see the folded-edge grill here too. Definitely worth the extra effort.

Right, so this has been a very boring build diary since other things got in the way, but finally I have nearly finished these cabs in case there is anyone out there who still cares! Afraid I didn't take pics all the way through. But. Rebuilt the cab as a pair based on the prototype but tweaked the port length to drop the tuning slightly, bringing it pretty much to 55Hz as intended. I also abandoned the rear-mounted driver idea for these versions for finishing reasons, so lost a tiny amount of internal volume with the required extra 12mm recess but the acoustic difference this makes was fairly negligible in the real-world with a port length adjustment to maintain the tuning frequency. This time rather than a flat grill, the edges were folded over which adds a really worthwhile and noticeable extra rigidity. To prevent ringing I mounted it onto padded vinyl-covered wood in the corners and put a few extra blocks below the baffle to further deaden it and add more strength. It would be very hard to damage the driver by kicking now! [attachment=108875:DSCF1494.JPG]

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1338021304' post='1668649'] The area of the port has been cut by about half. Had I though ahead I probably would have gone out and bought some thinner batons to make the grille with, but I am a very impatient person so I just cracked on with whatever I had to hand! [/quote] Hi, looks great, nice work! I notice you say you had problems with the adhesive, was that the Stikatak brush stuff that I recommended? It does have quite a slow tack time which can be good or bad... Unfortunately I do think that your port grill will cause problems, as well as lowering the tuning with the batons, it will impede the air flow causing issues with turbulence at higher volumes - cab ports are usually left uncovered (or with a high-void-percentage grill offset a cm or two) for a reason. I'd suggest you try with and without at a decent level to see if it matters to you.

I particularly like the way it's the best condition 1st year jazz bass on earth... and to photograph it, they take it out into the sun and lean it precariously against some Chinese ceramics standing on a rough brick floor

Gotta be slightly careful buying glues for vinyl fabric (flexible PVC). Plasticisers in the vinyl can leach out and stop the glue setting properly. Using a proper flexible vinyl adhesive is the safest option - I've used Stikatak from B&Q (check the vinyl flooring section) as a brush/trowel on glue and it's pretty forgiving, takes a while to dry so allows for repositioning but sticks well when dry. It's also fairly cheap, just under £4 for a litre pot or £8 for 2.5l and is water-based so low on the nasty VOCs. Stikatak also do a vinyl spray adhesive that I saw in B&Q which may be faster? Many spray adhesives will specify that they're not for flexible PVC even if they're fine on uPVC (the rigid kind). Hope that helps!