LawrenceH

Hmm the babicz bridge is aluminium apparently... not a good idea to mix with the acid (bang!), though IF it is nickel plated underneath it MIGHT still be ok. If I was going to try this, I'd use a small amount of diluted acid solution on an inconspicuous part of the bridge first and rinse very thoroughly when done. There may be other chemical strippers for aluminium that'll leave behind any nickel layer. Replating aluminium is probably more complicated than brass though so I wouldn't do it unless you know it's nickel underneath already. Maybe easier just to trade with someone who has a nickel version?

[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1337010889' post='1653942'] Is there nickel under the chrome? [/quote] Typically yes. Whether there is for your particular hardware though, is worth checking!

Markbass amps are internally switchable, and probably quite a few others as well. The cynic in me thinks this is probably about limiting the number of people buying kit from countries where it's cheaper.

It's not something I've done, but shouldn't muriatic acid strip the chrome and leave the nickel plate that's already on there?

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1336903482' post='1652444'] Why not use the volume control on the FOH for your amp, for the FOH mix, leave the volume on your amp at the levels you need for on-stage monitoring, and additionally leave the vocal monitors for vocals only? [/quote] Typically it's the directional higher frequencies which you need for monitoring, but then are too loud for the overall mix. Setting up your rig so these are firing straight at your ears but not necessarily out towards the front can save a lot of mix problems.

BRX - I had to change how I strung slightly moving from Ibanex/Yamaha to Fenders in order to get the strings to wrap ok, but I don't have any tuning stability issues, certainly nothing like +/- 20 cents! That sounds like something was wrong to me. But actually I really prefer the feel of the E string in particular on a Fender to how it was on my other basses. It was very noticeable when I first changed, so to me whether it's poorly designed is moot, subjectively it feels better. Anyway I still reckon compliance could be a likely source of possible difference if there is one at all. Also I suppose strings provide a certain amount of damping to each other in terms of neck vibrations? Certainly adds a bit more mass, though it seems like that'd be pretty marginal to me. What about position on the neck in relation to centre of mass/rigidity? There are several things that [i]could[/i] make a difference, whether they do or not I've no idea, I'm no five-stringer! BB's experience is pretty interesting though

Can you get class D car amps that are any good yet? That will surely help a lot with the battery life.

I didn't mention dispersion but that is absolutely the best reason to choose smaller drivers and/or vertical stacking which have other significant compromises in terms of cost and weight. But even with dispersion it isn't a panacea, since vertical stacking reduces spread in the vertical plane. On a lot of tight stages unless your stack is right up to ear-height then doing it that way means you don't hear as much since you're still above your speakers which are now firing less at your ears than ever. A single driver on a tilted stand can be a better solution. Some people (including anyone who gigs a Jack) don't really need much above 1k in their sound anyway, so for them it's not an issue. The dispersion is IMO much more of a regular problem with guitarists using 12" drivers because there's so much more going on at the higher frequencies and there's a real beam of death from their cabs. Incidentally I think Alex C got into speaker building through an interest in extended range bass stuff, no?

There is one difference between E strings on a 'typical' 4 string versus 5, and that's the amount of string that sits behind the nut, often at a pretty shallow angle which could affect the string's compliance. A B string pushes the E one peg further up on a Fender-style headstock.

JTUK makes a fair point. There is a lot of 'myth debunking' online from people looking at things from an engineering perspective, and theoretically things like '10" drivers don't have a particular sound' are perfectly true. Thing is, once an idea has taken hold or a brand has established a dominant position, then a generalisation whilst not totally true can still be pretty useful. I still reckon a 'typical' 15" cab and a 'typical' multiple 10"-loaded cab will have a particular sound just because they are designed around relatively few drivers to conform to market stereotypes. Yes, there are cabs out there that are exceptions, and these are becoming more common, but the trends are still there. Another thing that's often overemphasised is the 'requirement' for long-excursion woofers. A lot of the interest amongst the bass-playing community originally came from people who were into Extended Range Bass - unusually low tuned instruments which typically have active EQ providing significant amounts of boost at VERY low frequencies. A world away from the typical tones of a passive P or J. Most of us have gigged or heard effing loud, great sounding mixed rigs where the speakers only have 2mm xmax. Not many people who sing the praises of the BFM jacks seem to realise that the bottom couple of octaves on these cabs, ie where excursion plays a significant role, basically behave like a typical reflex box! The horn loading only extends down to the low-mids, THAT'S where the volume increase is. Those sound of those cabs is subjectively nice on certain bass sounds, but they get their volume boost at the expense of any evenness in the frequency response. There is a massive hole between 1 and 2k in those cabs. Furthermore if you look at the port size then you realise that it's not even designed with really high excursion true bass in mind. The final thing is the mixing cabs - phase matching etc. If you can hear this, then good on you, but really these frequencies are not that big contributors to your tone and room acoustics will often dominate. I say all this as someone with 4 BFM Jack 10s, and who's just finished building a pair of speakers based around long-excursion 10" neo drivers! The advantages Alex and others talk about are all engineering facts, but they really apply more when you want to push the envelope on portability or frequency response, otherwise older designs are more than adequate.

Dennis Rollins is absolutely one of the best performers I've seen, worth more than the ticket price just to see him and his band! I hope you raise a good amount from this, best of luck.

To the OP, try just tilting the top cab back if you can find a wedge of foam or similar to support it, so it's firing more at your ears! I think this is the second time today I've suggested this, but it's a cheaper than actual chips solution.

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1336684329' post='1649612'] I agree with that. But then again the OP video is just a Jam. Garry [/quote] I don't agree, because unlike the Clutterbuck stuff it is funky throughout. Just good tight groove that happens to involve quite fast playing. I guess it boils down to whether you like that particular off-shoot of jazz-funk (jazz's deformed cousin). He's a funny one to me - I don't really like any of the recorded stuff I've heard but I love some of his more off-the-cuff jams.

Maybe the ones who succeed at it are s^&t-hot at time management and therefore not on basschat...

It's not just the coupling that is an issue raising the cab, there is a cancellation effect. Often better to tilt the cab back so it's not firing straight at your knees, but keep it low down. Of course, if you tilt it too far and you're not relying on PA then it'll go over the audience's heads...

Wow I missed this first time around, looks awesome! Plus, vintage white plus maple is a top top choice. The decal issue is kind of interesting really, but since it's using a Fender-licensed neck a bit of a non-issue here. All gets a bit philosophical when you start questioning what is a 'thing' when it's made up of other constituent 'things', and how an object can have multiple simultaneous identities... Actually this one reminds me a lot of that recent Fender 'anniversary' bass that got a bit of a bashing on here, but that I liked the look of. This does look better though. And looks are what matter, right?

If I was looking for a 'retirement' bass I'd want one whose aesthetics weren't likely to fall too drastically out of fashion and would fit in with whatever musical directions I took. As such, I'd look for a really nice playing/sounding example of quite a 'standard' instrument, probably starting with the Yamaha BB2024.

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1336399865' post='1644991'] Prometheans are Beyma loaded! this one for the combo: [url="http://profesional.beyma.com/pdf/10MI100E.pdf"]http://profesional.b...df/10MI100E.pdf[/url] and this for the extension cabinet: [url="http://profesional.beyma.com/ingles/pdf/10LW30N.pdf"]http://profesional.b...pdf/10LW30N.pdf[/url] I hope i haven't given you the wrong link for the combo's driver but i'm sure about the ext cab's driver. I had both combo and extension cab and took out both drivers and searched for it's origin landing on Beyma's site! Cheers [/quote] Hmm, I'd be rather surprised if that is the driver used in the combo since that's really a dedicated midrange driver. On the other hand, it IS a pretty small box. Perhaps the user who I got the info from was mistaken or, which I guess is just as likely, the spec has changed. That neo Beyma is about as powerful a 10" bass driver as you can get btw - if that's what's in the extension cabs then it's better than anything else I've seen on the market!

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1336262378' post='1643389'] Easiest solution? Leave it. It's what it sounds like that counts. You've obviously got too much time on your hands. [/quote] From the man who put a custom name-plate on his DIY cab [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/105476-first-build-bfm-j12-check-it-out/page__hl__first%20build__st__20"]http://basschat.co.u...20build__st__20[/url]

According to a user here who has a Promethean, this is the driver employed: http://www.elderaudio.com/products/Loudspeakers/LowMiddle/2009/10LB075-U.html Looks a decent enough PA driver, with a cast aluminium basket and hefty magnet, though no response curves are shown as far as I can see. He wanted to upgrade to one with a longer linear excursion and lighter (ie neo). Though it's worth noting that if this driver was made by Faital, 18Sound or several other manufacturers they'd claim an xmax of about 4mm.

[quote name='EdwardHimself' timestamp='1336060098' post='1640327'] They wouldn't though, because they would have to pay up or get out. [/quote] If you know who they are. Which takes considerable resources, burden of proof is on the educational establishment. Valve amps in particular are not forgiving of apparently minor acts of clumsiness, students can surely learn this on their own equipment. In the meantime something SS and reliable will address both the constant stream of damaged equipment and the need to monitor constantly everything they do while allowing them to still actually have a go at making music. I'd go Peavey over nearly anything else I could think of in that sense; certainly with the kit I've seen, when opened up they're more robustly put together than a lot of offerings from Fender, Marshall and the like. I dislike nearly every other aspect of them but hey! The problems Owen talks about are probably not so much indicative of general 'failings of society', but very specific failings of society to project an image where 'rock' is equated with 'moderate and careful treatment of unusually fragile (in some ways) electronics'. Can't think how this happened...

Bass direct into a really nice mixing desk, recorded using a well-calibrated tape machine driven hard so it's close to saturating, then run through a nice multiband compressor or several, is a sound that I would dearly love to be able to emulate with a £100 pedal! I suspect more recordings use tape or at least tape emulation for the bass than just the old stuff since the effect is so damn good. There is generally a lot less actual bass frequency on recordings, the fat tone is mostly upper-bass/midrange. This is important when setting up compressors to emulate that sound since without some pre-compression filtering the bass will tend to dominate the signal, you need to EQ down the bass until it's more balanced as far as the compressor's concerned, then adjust EQ to taste post-compression to bring back that live 'oomph'. Btw does anyone produce a decent tape emulator in pedal form?

The bass pod pro xt shouldn'tbe a problem as IIRC it has pro level (+4dBu) outputs, the zoom b3 I don't know about, often more budget kit is either consumer level or somewhere in-between. Depending on the power amp this can be a problem.

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1336057585' post='1640270'] You could try a PM to [url="http://basschat.co.uk/user/121-oldgit/"]OldGit[/url] on here, I think he has a P Bass lyte diagram. [/quote] Very sadly he's no longer with us. http://basschat.co.uk/topic/118975-the-official-oldgit-memorial-gig/

[quote name='EdwardHimself' timestamp='1336056504' post='1640233'] It's the 80/20 thing. As owen has already said, 80% of the breakages are caused by 20% of the students. Assume say half of them leave then you still have 90% of the students on the course, and they are going to be more dedicated to actually getting a qualification. [/quote] But you've still got the other half of the students who were breaking everything, and you only need one person who doesn't/won't learn and the whole thing is ruined for everyone. Deposit systems require monitoring to be enforceable, which then takes time away from other things, like teaching... I'm with the Peavey Bandit option.