LawrenceH

Aerodyne will do the job nicely, or a Jap 75 Reissue with the PJ config.

I'd be surprised if it worked out selling to PA/hire companies in the UK tbh regardless of the quality of the product. For better or worse, these companies tend to want/need the sound systems that are specced on riders and that will be your turbosound, meyer, nexo etc and at the low/small end Mackie, RCF, JBL which are more known quantities. Also warranties come into play. Maybe better with bass cabs but the market doesn't seem too buoyant at the moment.

[quote name='kevbucket' post='1269119' date='Jun 14 2011, 07:59 PM']hey Daddios , iv'e blown the speaker in my markbass 12" combo , has anyone ever had to replace a speaker in one and with which one , heres hoping someone can help , Later Daddios Kev[/quote] Markbass use custom B&C drivers, if you want the correct driver or a suitable recone you'll likely have to go through their service people (Proel in the UK maybe?)- I'm guessing it won't be cheap unfortunately.

If you have to play 'Chameleon', insist on going into the proper B and C sections regardless of what anyone else does. Especially if it's a jazz-type night and people are using real books, where those sections aren't even on the leadsheet. Loved doing that whether I was on bass or keys at my old jam!

[quote name='JPJ' post='1267273' date='Jun 13 2011, 01:36 PM']and another useful tip is to warm the rattle can before spraying by standing it in warm water, it helps the lacquer to fully atomise in the nozzle meaning less droplets hitting the body. Just remember to fully dry the rattle can with a cloth before spraying as wet lacquer and water dont mix [/quote] Oh yes, I did that as well - only thing is it makes the stuff flow a LOT faster so you have to adjust or you very quickly build up too thick for one coat. Gently warming the body itself also drives off residual moisture and means the lacquer flows on neatly and hardens quicker too. Helps with the dust. Wayne, from what I understand the nitro clear coat they supply will be easier to work with than the Halfords stuff - plus I think the nozzles are better on those cans making it simpler to get coats thin and even. If not you can get replacement nozzles that angle the spray flatter and wider which is useful.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='1266519' date='Jun 12 2011, 07:55 PM']Just out of curiosity what do you use to polish?[/quote] On a couple of mine I took it up to 2000 grit and then use Halfords rubbing compound in the yellow tube, and then T cut. How easy it was to get a good shine differed between a polyurethane finish (quite easy) and rattlecan lacquer (slow, and easy to cut too far as Delberthot says!). My father is a mechanic who used to do a lot of bodywork with lacquers back in the day - he reckons the 3M stuff would do it quicker and go very fine indeed. Edit: Oh yeah, and the key to getting a decent finish with the rattlecans from my experience is in putting down a decent amount of clearcoat, in really thin layers, with plenty of waiting between each, which is a nightmare if you get picky about dust etc. That Halfords stuff takes an age to harden if you put it down too thick. That was my mistake and after a month it was still soft enough that firm pressure would leave an imprint. I think now after about 6 months it's sufficiently hard for me to use in rehearsals etc without having to worry about dents!

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='1266089' date='Jun 12 2011, 02:14 PM']Point of order, but acoustical engineers don't refer to accepted acoustical engineering practice as 'old wives tales', so clearly Phil does not earn his living designing loudspeakers. Not good speakers, anyway. And being named Phil I doubt that he is himself an old wife either. If she is her parents owe her an apology for giving her a gender inappropriate name.[/quote] To match your point of order, accepted acoustic engineering practice for musical instrument cabinets has different design goals and acceptable compromises to hi-fi style cabinets designed for accurate reproduction. In the context of a budget alteration to a bass cabinet Phil's comment was a fair enough reality check, from his other posts it's clear he understands why there are limitations to mixing drivers - the physics behind it is something a child could understand (and yes, I have demo'd wave cancellation/reinforcement at a science festival for children). But from a practical perspective I've certainly never had serious problems mixing different bass cabs that were caused purely by phase compatibility, that weren't dwarfed by the usual limitations of playing in enclosed spaces or the inherent voicings of the speakers themselves. It's typically not nearly as a big a problem as having crap drivers or a poorly tuned cabinet and certainly not the deal-breaker it's sometimes made out to be when considering straightforward upgrades. In fact, mixing drivers often has the subjective effect of smoothing out the mid-range which can be beneficial. I don't understand the need to be so combative about these things. Your own cab designs contain many compromises from the point of view of convenience/cost some of which go directly against 'accepted acoustic engineering practice'. Not least arrayed tweeters spaced greater than 1/2 wavelength for much of their operating range. Yet you count yourself an acoustic engineer, understand the compromises and for you and the majority of your builders they're acceptable. Oh btw Phil was saying he is both 'old' and 'an acoustic engineer'. Hence 'both' in response to your 'neither'

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='1263395' date='Jun 9 2011, 10:43 PM']And old acoustical engineers. From your response I gather you're neither. [/quote] Manner, please! This isn't talkbass

A lot of the problem with that finish is because it has been oversprayed without cutting back. I'd be tempted to try working up through the grades of finishing paper to get rid of the orange peel, then either polishing it to a shine directly or clearcoating it. You'd keep the colour that way. I'd do it on the back first though in case it didn't work as well as I hoped!

[quote name='henry norton' post='1261187' date='Jun 8 2011, 01:49 PM']People think you're more of a pro with a maple fretless [/quote] I think that's what I meant! It looks way harder to play than an ebony neck and I can think of absolutely no reason why. Am looking forward to the epoxy 'how to' thread should you ever get round to it. Got a neck on the way to me that I'm going to try it out on.

His funk stuff is great of course! But for the more tuneful tunes, Superwoman, Bird of Beauty, Smile Please, Big Brother, Golden Lady are all beautiful. Special mention to A Seed's a Star and Send One Your Love since they're awesome tracks hidden on a relatively unpopular album.

[quote name='chris_b' post='1264948' date='Jun 11 2011, 02:30 PM']That's why you wouldn't choose a replacement pickup which made you sound "modern and crisp" if you wanted to sound "full, deep and warm". From Wizard to Bartolini there are replacement pickups for every need.[/quote] But without the sound in the bass, the 'vintage' voiced pickups don't quite give you the sound - a pickup can only reproduce what's there. The reason I said 'modern and crisp' is because in my experience that sound is more independent of the acoustic tone of the instrument so you can get it with almost anything. But the classic middy Fender growl is much harder to get just right - the reason I say this is because I have tried all this swapping about.

[quote name='chris_b' post='1264788' date='Jun 11 2011, 11:51 AM']Welcome to the world of Fender basses! I'd worry about the sound later. The most important thing is to find a good used bass that feels “just right”. Then if you find the sound is not to your liking you can then replace the pickups and electrics with any one of a dozen units and make a better sound than any stock Fender.[/quote] I disagree, up to a point. Having owned 4 different Fender jazzes in the last year, and swapped out pickups, fiddled with set-up etc on these, I think the acoustic sound translates a lot to the tone of the instrument plugged in. If the CV sounds good unplugged, nice and resonant in the range you like, then a pickup upgrade will get you a great sounding instrument for a bargain price. But if it doesn't, then with a pickup upgrade you could make it sound 'modern' and crisp but IMO a bit characterless in the mids compared to a nice example of a Fender sound. Mind you I know Grand Wazoo has said elsewhere that the CVs sound good with a pickup upgrade!

[quote name='dumelow' post='1264511' date='Jun 11 2011, 12:03 AM']Should I be using a limiter to achieve this?[/quote] No. A typical limiter isn't frequency-conscious and will mess up your dynamics and the tone of the bass itself by changing the attack/decay envelope of the louder notes. In any case this problem shouldn't arise in the first place, better to prevent in happening rather than try and fix it after the event. Sounds like the EQ boost is either covering quite a narrow frequency range which happens to highlight that string, and/or there is an issue with the cab/room/instrument that causes a particular frequency to boom disproportionately. Running the bass with flat EQ but loudly, is the problem at all evident even if less obvious? I'd try the bass through decent headphones, fiddle with the setup paying particular attention to pickup height and angle, and perhaps different strings as well. I'd also play the bass through a fully parametric EQ so I could identify the problem frequency range. Better electronics (pickups and/or pre) in the bass would be a possible solution but only once you've ruled out the cheap/free options to do with setup etc.

You're just one matching headstock away from achieving the impossible - turning a 5-string jazz with 5-in-line tuners into pure instrument porn. Get that headstock painted, man!

[quote name='51m0n' post='1263005' date='Jun 9 2011, 06:00 PM']I wasn't trying to say a compressor wont even things out some, I was saying it will neither completely remove all dynamic expression, nor hide bad technique. As you say it will even out over abusive dynamics, but at the expense of showing up any poor technical limitation the player has. I constantly use a compressor to even things out in mixes and live, but the more work you make the compressor do the more artefacts it leaves, the more obvious it gets. This can be great, or it can be pants, depends on the player and the musical setting. You are setting up a compressor to try and take out the peaks as quickly as possible when someone gets over exuberant, you may find a limiter for the peaks and lengthening your attack gives an even more natural sound when the player isnt going mental. If they even care , lets face it punk as often as not has a dynamic range between in your face and total annihilation. I think we are saying the same thing really [/quote] Sure. I think with those types of live bands though, the other artefacts are pretty effectively hidden by the rest of the band! It's the odd notes jumping out and others disappearing that are what an audience will pick up on, and where the compressor does compensate effectively for poor technique. It's never going to work in a jazz settingof course. The most audible aspect of poor technique to be highlighted by compressors is inadequate muting IME.

[quote name='bgmttt' post='1263385' date='Jun 9 2011, 10:36 PM']75 japanese reissue:[url="http://www.fenderjapan.co.jp/jb75.html"]click[/url] 3 color sunburst is available option. Awesome bass![/quote] The Jap 75 reissues are generally nice - I have one of these in ash/maple and a MIM Classic 70s alder/rosewood, love them both. Secondhand I'd guess you're looking at £500-600 for a Jap bass, £380-400 for the Classic 70s. The one I'd choose would depend on whether you want 'standard' or 70s pickup spacing. For some reason the Jap has 'standard' spacing even though it's a 70s reissue, whereas the Mexican instrument has 70s spacing where the bridge pickup is set a bit further back. It has a small but noticeable effect on the tone, but also on the feel of the instrument if you like to play over the back pickup. Oh yeah, better pickups in the Classic 70s IMO.

[quote name='peteb' post='1263407' date='Jun 9 2011, 10:53 PM']Great post - real talent is in producing simple music that is also original and distinctive![/quote] That is one talent. But producing incredibly complicated music that's original and distinctive is also a talent! The cliches of some genres annoy me with their tedious predictability but really it's just personal preference. I love funky stuff and I've listened to enough to 'get' it a lot more than many jazzers I've heard and played with - its predictability doesn't worry me one little bit because it makes me want to tap my fingers and dance around. There's joy in artful, intricate structure and there's joy in the minutiae and meat of a solid groove. I do think there's such thing as 'better' and 'worse' in music - it's not ALL relative - but it's harder to say one musical aim is superior to another. Jaco had a coherent musical vision that he knew how to achieve, which is what makes him undeniably a great musician irrespective of whether we enjoy it personally.

Fender Classic 70s MIM is the cheapest Fender with block inlays that's available in sunburst I think. It's bloody good, too

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1261493' date='Jun 8 2011, 05:31 PM']His cliches have a rock sensibility; they are based on entertainment not music.[/quote] You do make me smile sometimes, Bilbo! I'd hate to think music was invented as some form of 'entertainment' Love the Jaco though, good clips, thanks

I don't disagree with the thrust of Simon's comments on this thread, but as a soundman I have frequently used a compressor to even out playing due to a dodgy technique, especially for those types of bands that pogo around shouting like mentalists when they play. For that I use much faster attack/release times, and a threshold of around 4:1 with a soft knee set so it's just biting on a slightly quieter than average note. Not perfect and decent technique is preferable but it does save the day sometimes.

40-16000Hz +/- 2db isn't bad at all...the original D12 was used for kick no?

Very nice! Is it just me or does that maple unlined fretless neck look far more intimidating than the equivalent in a dark wood like ebony?

That 'binding' looks like tippex

The Markbass F500 plus a gently warming valve pre. And about £250 less than the current F500.