LawrenceH

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1193397' date='Apr 8 2011, 11:15 PM']When removing the decal you will inevitably end up cutting through to the wood in key areas, if you ignore this and go ahead and apply more lacquer without fully prepping the area you will end up with uneven blotches and tide-marks in the finish not only because of how the wood reacts to different finishes but because all clear lacquers are not in fact clear but are idiosyncratically coloured.[/quote] Ah right - ta! I'd not needed to remove the decal on mine as I was spraying a solid colour on the front, and the clear over blended fine with the rest. I wanted to check there wasn't going to be some horrendous peeling years down the line.

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1193293' date='Apr 8 2011, 09:00 PM']It's the difference between getting the job done and getting the job done right.[/quote] Err, OK - what's the difference in terms of what you see afterwards then? I'm not being facetious, I'm genuinely interested!

Bergantino cabs ARE just bits in a box! The concept pretty much describes how any conventional speaker cab works, right up to some incredibly expensive and wonderful-sounding studio monitors. I expect Bergantinos do use some relatively expensive bits and they are probably combined in rather more careful fashion than a lot of bass cab manufacturers, but all the same you probably pay more because it's a small company making an upmarket product.

Can I ask why you have to take it back to the wood? I thought old Fenders were coated in some kind of inert poly before spraying the lacquer - is it to do with the use of a clear rather than solid colour? I did spray the Halfords acrylic lacquers over polyurethane no bother, in fact it was easier getting a really flat finish with the poly there than on the stripped and re-sealed wood of the body.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='1192191' date='Apr 7 2011, 08:05 PM']Hey, I'm not actually complaining. I'm just discussing my opinion. This is allowed. Please dont dismiss other views just because you might not agree. Some of us don't just fall for hype, we ask why! No one should pay a premium just because its a high end product. Look at the USA prices between two or three cab makers, then look at it here in the UK. Disproportionate differences. One or two have a massive difference when in the USA they are virtually the same price. I'm not aiming this at any manufacturer, I've seen it quite few times. Certain cabs are overpriced in this country when you compare it to the USA, and what I mean by this is the fact other high end gear doesnt have the vast difference once they get to the UK.[/quote] I don't think Stevie dismissed your views or was being combative, he just gave a reason why a 4x10 might be very expensive. I dont' know if that applies to Bergantino cabs or not but take the scenario of a small US manufacturer using high-end European drivers (that are more expensive than the Eminence units anyway), which are then shipped to the States, then shipped back to Europe in cabs without the economic scale savings of a larger manufacturer - easy to see why they might be so expensive. A truly decent compression driver/horn/crossover isn't cheap either and a lot of bass cab manufacturers will skimp in all these, even if they use good woofers. It would probably cost literally ten times as much as the piezo used in SWR/some Markbass combos (about a tenner retail I think). The silly light GK neo cabs could well be using pressed frame woofers with quite small magnets - these are much cheaper, and weigh very little. Bung them in a box made of relatively thin ply and you're done, but it'll sound pretty different to a proper high-end driver in a decent box. The thing is, it's bass guitar not hi-fi so you might like the sound, even though it's technically quite distorted/inaccurate.

[quote name='stevie' post='1191684' date='Apr 7 2011, 01:20 PM']The difference is probably due to the quality and cost of the drivers they fit.[/quote] +1 - Being bassists we tend to get a bit fixated on TS parameters and excursion as the markers of a 'good' driver but there's an awful lot more to it than that. B&C PA drivers are excellent, and fitted in a lot of the big pro-sound systems. Funnily enough I've never seen any with Eminence drivers in, though that could well be because we're in Europe - and I've only used a few big systems anyway so I'm sure there are some. What BFM says about the market sorting itself out in a year or so is probably true, but speaker manufacturers tend to be relatively small concerns so I do wonder if the after-effects of this are going to be felt for a lot longer than that.

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1190784' date='Apr 6 2011, 06:19 PM']It certainly sounds like something you'd read on here..... utter tosh. [/quote] You should hear how loud my bass is when I take the pickups right out But it does seem to change the tonal balance on top of the volume drop in my experience

[quote name='machinehead' post='1188362' date='Apr 4 2011, 09:29 PM']I've often wondered about pickup positions. Especially when people talk about the "sweet spot" for a Stingray or similar. Surely all this changes as soon as a fretted note is played? The higher up the neck you play the more the effect is. Am I missing something? Frank.[/quote] You're right, but there are trends you can pick out. As the pickup moves towards the neck it will always get proportionately more of the fundamental compared to higher harmonics, pretty much wherever you play - until the point at which the pickup is more than halfway along the vibrating portion of the string. Which is only going to happen right at the dusty end of the fretboard, if at all. Similarly, if you think about a bridge pickup then it gets relatively little of the fundamental, and moving across just a few frets especially lower down isn't going to have a massively significant impact on that either. For the first few harmonics, then there are going to be points on the fretboard where a given pickup is at a null wrt to a particular harmonic. As you move the pickup towards the neck then this is going to lower the harmonics that are affected by this, and I suspect this will lead to a more pronounced unevenness of tone across the fretboard - having the pickup halfway along the vibrating length of the string, ie right in the null of the powerful octave harmonic, could really give an apparent drop in output for that particular fret position across the strings.* The bridge pickup should be comparatively immune to this since the harmonics affected will be higher up. If you wanted to have a vaguely scientific approach to positioning the neck pickup then I'd guess a good approach would be to calculate the position of the lower (say, octave and octave+5) harmonics for each of the first few frets, and make sure the pickup was 'between frets' for the major null points (and maxima), and ideally have the nulls between a couple of frets that are keys you don't play in all that much! Alternatively, I suppose a fat double pickup allows you more leeway as its sensing field can span either side of a null point. *edit: assuming you have trouble reproducing the fundamental to similar volume level, which is likely often the case

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1188048' date='Apr 4 2011, 06:01 PM']Not at all. What I am saying is that 'stunt' bass is not very entertaining. Its like those video outtake programmes. watching people forget their lines or fall over is amusing a few times but quickly gets boring. Same with the home movie howler programmes: 'oooh, look. He fell over/the kid headbutted him in the nuts/the cat opened the door'! It gets tedious quickly. If a solo has no musical 'point', its acrobatics. And I don't know about you, I don't find acrobats very entertaining Of course its subjective. But lets not all agree that its all good. Its not. In the grand scheme of jazz, some of it is good, some of it is great and some of it is pony poop.[/quote] Acrobatics is awesome - I wish I could do a double somersault or a volley of backflips, that would be deadly. Also, how is acrobatics like those outtake programmes? No-one watches them except to laugh at other people's failure, whereas acrobatics is about skill, grace and poise - pretty much the complete opposite. But back to the jazz. It's different things to different people, and I hope you'll forgive me if I say that judging purely from posts on here, you have a very 'serious' attitude to jazz. Which is fine, and Coltrane's unfettered intellectualist fervour is a great thing. But for me, just as important is the fun. A huge aspect of jazz is the live performance and it makes no sense in that context to separate out 'musicality' from the 'entertainment'. Whilst jazz has become its own, huge thing, that approach seems to completely disown jazz from its roots in music for dance, entertainment and general good times. We talk all the time about musical language and dialogue with the audience is an essential part of that. I do agree that there's a fair amount of pretty rubbishy fusion and that musicality is something that to an extent, if not being objective, at least has a common subjectivity that we can define. But you can't be the sole arbiter of which goals are 'worthy' in the music upon which we make the judgement. My wife is a keen dancer and her appreciation of music is based on very different, but still completely valid, criteria, to what I perceive yours to be. Also, there is at least as much crappy jazz as there is fusion, where there's not even any kind of pyrotechnic to detract from the general averageness of the music. Btw I think Wootten tends to be very musical even when he's doing technical displays, for me it sets him apart from a lot of the other bass 'virtuosos'. Berlin as well, although I still don't like his stuff, is generally a musical player.

I recently got hold of an aerodyne in a trade. Not sure if I can afford to keep it really, but I'd like to, it's great! Really light, well balanced and great quality control to the fit and finish. It plays very nicely as well, the neck is a shallower profile than my CIJ 75 and MIM 70s and unlike typical jazz basses isn't finished to a high shine, so it's good if you don't like that glossy neck thing. The binding looks a lot cooler in real life than a lot of the photos suggest, too. The sound - I was slightly surprised after reading a couple of comments online about the stock pickups. It has pretty hot output (much more than my other two), J and P are really well matched volume-wise and it has very authoritative presence, lots of solid bass but still gets the Fender-y growl across very clearly. This is important to me and I've previously avoided overwound pickups because I like a bass with a characterful tone, but this one is great. I was thinking about dropping DiMarzios in (cream, after seeing TRBboy's awesome black Yamaha) and if I keep it I may well do that, but actually the sounds is already quite a lot how the Model P/J are described. Acoustically, the bass body has a warm, rich resonance too. The frets - they seem very small to me, more like vintage than the medium-jumbo I thought they were supposed to be. They are very well dressed at the ends too. But now, I'm really thinking about defretting and epoxying this thing as an excuse to keep it. Dare I try and bind the neck in matching cream as well? Risky, but I like the feel of binding and it would look absolutely killer! The lack of upper contour is the only possible problem I can see, but the curved top mitigates against that and in any case I've been trying to rid my playing of 'lazy' arm resting because I've been told it can trap the nerves and it definitely cramps the wrist. Anyway overall I didn't expect to like this bass and am now having a serious dilemma about how to fund keeping it! I notice the new ones are now £700 and tbh this one plays just as well as any other Fender I've tried, US, Jap or Mexi.

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1187939' date='Apr 4 2011, 04:27 PM']I think we need to define what the purpose of a solo is. WHen someone like Wooten does one of his mad clinic solos, its not good jazz its great technique presented in a circus act/entertainment fashion. I can't access the Salina video here so can't comment but a lot of fusion solos are not, for my money, jazz solos per se but something more akin to HM stunt guitar [/quote] So what you're saying is, that jazz isn't meant to be very entertaining.

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1186761' date='Apr 3 2011, 02:48 PM']Pants. Well if all is lost, why not try what I suggested earlier with the acetone fumes? You might still be able to coax it in the right directions with a rolling pin or something.[/quote] Rolling pin is actually a really good idea! I'd whack the guard on a piece of greaseproof paper with a correct-sized template drawn on, give that a go with a warm pin, and maybe positioning a hairdryer above to get some gentle heat. I guess the acetone fumes could help but I'd be worried that by the time they'd penetrated enough to soften it, it would take ages to firm up again. Plus containing the fumes would be tricky - I could do it at work but I'm guessing you don't have large containment hoods at your disposal!

I haven't needed to read anything for years (I'm just a weekend warrior though! Doddy tends to come at this from a working pro perspective), and in fact I'm not sure I've ever read anything for bass as such, though in another life I was a pianist so I could do it (but wouldn't enjoy it). However...although Ive said in the past I don't think 'formal' theory is /absolutely/ necessary, the things I learned for which reading was a prerequisite inform my playing enormously. I think in keys, degrees of the scale and chords which reading can help you do. Don't confuse 'theory' with 'reading', which seems to be implied quite often by comments on here. Just because you know the alphabet doesn't mean you know the language. Reading is to me the boring bit that you get out of the way to assist in unlocking how music works with your ear. It's perfectly possible to be an excellent reader and know next to nothing about music theory - likewise as long as you understand the relationship between your fretboard, note names, chords and keys then reading per se only matters at gigs where sheet music is plonked in front of you. Music theory is way more fun and involved than learning to sight-read. Plus a little bit goes a long way in a lot of styles of music.

UV is normally used as a curing agent, not to make stuff pliable - not sure how it affects nitrocellulose though. Gentle controlled heat is probably a reasonable starting point. Something like an electric blanket around glass plates might be an idea, or one of those heat mats used for keeping exotic pets or germinating seeds! I'm used to having all sorts of laboratory equipment at my disposal that would be ideal for this, but I'm guessing you don't unfortunately.

[quote name='endorka' post='1185841' date='Apr 2 2011, 02:38 PM']My experience is completely the opposite. Unless they are going to provide a perceptive and skilled accompaniment, I'd rather they just stayed out the way. Particularly the hi-hat. My preference is for soloing over ballads, I find it is the arena in which I can make the double bass "speak" most, and where its low register and volume are the least detrimental. Jennifer[/quote] I kind of agree with both you and Doddy, even though you disagree! What I mean is, solos in groove/swing-driven songs often totally ruin the mood unless the band keep going - it's not like the rest of the band stops for the blistering trumpet solo, is it? On the other hand, unaccompanied solos in melody-driven ballads can be beautiful and give the bassist a chance to bridge harmony and melody in interesting ways, often unique in style compared to other instruments. Although, if the accompaniment is good and gives harmonic space, it can make it even better.

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1186384' date='Apr 3 2011, 01:02 AM']It's Kibisi Douglas' bass from Baka Beyond.[/quote] It's bloody ridiculous is what it is. There's one of these for sale for £220 down the road from me, and it hasn't needed repair work either, unlike that one.

AFAIK celluloid is a thermoplastic so heat should work. I'd want something a bit more controlled than sunlight though, and I'd also suggest that given the potential value of this piece it'd be worth trying on a repro made from the same material first and expecting the older one to be even more brittle, or as Ou7shined suggested, the tip. Water might be a good way to control the temperature as long as it doesn't lead to clouding of the plastic, but I'd be careful there as well.

I think analogue tape is often a big part of these bass sounds. Certainly that's how I've got closest playing about with recording bass.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='1182373' date='Mar 30 2011, 03:48 PM']If they are all in the same box, when the bass drivers go out, they'll try and suck the guitar drivers in, and that messes with all the speaker /air pressure balance stuff that goes into making a cab sound right. If there is two compartments, then you'd have bass drivers in a too small box, so probably wouldn't be loads better off than just using it as a guitar cab, and playing guitary bass, with the low cut.[/quote] Actually half the box would still be big enough for a lot of tens, but looking at images online not only does it appear to be a single box but it is open backed. It won't work well at all I'm afraid.

The OP was talking about not having room for a bass amp, rather than money, and I think depending on your situation it's a viable option. In the past I've done sound for a functions band that didn't bother with amps at all, just DI'ed and used foldback. Worked fine out front but that was a situation where they had their own PA plus subs that were adequate for the job. Mind you, after a few years they switched back to using amps and it did sound better, though that was more obvious for the guitars. Half the time a decent bass rig is using PA-type drivers anyway. Just don't expect a cheap monitor to be able to thump like a dedicated bass amp! Also when I was a student I frequently let student bands use the PA rig for bass foldback. I often preferred it because they weren't in a position to be overly fussy about stage tone, I had no problem getting a nice clean signal and as a result I could get a better mix out front.

I've swapped maple and rosewood necks. The 'maple sound' that I've always associated with maple went with the neck. Doesn't remove all variables (neck density, fret profile) and really depends on your playing style and setup how much of a difference it makes, but I'm satisfied that it's real and pretty consistent. I'd agree with what Wayne said though and suspect that the difference would be greatly reduced if the rosewood was given a hard finish. Obviously switching between a jazz and a p makes more difference than the neck finish but it still makes enough of a difference to me to make it a factor in choosing a bass! Having said that the sound is what matters and if I got a great rosewood jazz that sounds to my ears like a 'typical' maple then I'd be perfectly happy with it.

[quote name='lemmywinks' post='1178959' date='Mar 27 2011, 11:06 PM']Cheers Lawrence! I'm just using the bog standard WinISD i downloaded ages ago, i'll get the other one. What are the differences? I have got the file pretty much done, was just short of the Sd value. Ta Steve[/quote] Tbh I can't remember, sorry! But I remember there was something that was pretty useful in the 'pro' version - perhaps it's to do with displaying cone excursion for a given wattage? It's still free. Just fired it up and Sd for the speaker should come in at 346.4cm^2 That's an oddball driver the orange label, it has such a high resonant frequency for a bass guitar application. I suspect it was really designed with sealed multiple-driver cabs in mind, eg a 4x10. You'll have to watch the amount of bass you put through it especially if you put it in a reflex cab.

WinISD calculates a lot of values automatically, derived from the others e g Sd is derived from D which is provided on the Celestion spec sheet. Input too many and they often won't tally with the calculated values (due to e.g. rounding errors) and WinISD will refuse to save the file, which can be quite annoying. If you like I can send you a file with the appropriate specs in. The only value that differs for the modelling AFAIK when comparing Celestion to some other manufacturers is the Xmax which will affect the maximum spl/wattage charts. Their measure is based on the assumption that the driver starts to behave in a non-linear fashion as soon as the speaker moves enough for the voice coil to start to leave the magnet gap - the method of calculation is usually listed on the specs. From what I've gathered from Alex and others, this is generally overly conservative compared to other manufacturers' methods, which are based either on distortion analysis or a calculation adding in a correction factor. For example, Faital list a driver (PR300). It has a 12.5mm voice coil and 8mm gap depth, and they give an Xmax of 4.92mm. The BN300S is nearly identical (just 0.5 mm shorter voice coil) yet has an Xmax of just 2mm according to Celestion's method. The Faital is a cast frame and likely a better driver, but the gap between the Xmax figures probably exaggerates the difference in performance. I've recently finished testing the first prototype of a cabinet built around the Celestion NTR10-2520D. This has a calculated Xmax according to Celestion of 4mm, but subjectively to me sounded pretty good up to what should be much higher than this, and positively creamed an Eminence Deltalite II with Xmax 4.2mm based on distortion analysis. Long story short, you can probably work to an Xmax of more like 3 or perhaps even 4mm (optimistic but comparable to lots of other manufacturer claims) with the BN300S, just use your ears when you crank it. What really matters is staying well within Xmech/Xlim, the value for mechanical damage. It's not listed on the celestion specs but when I emailed them about the NTR speaker they told me the Xlim value was 13mm, with braking starting to make things sound nasty around 10mm. They'll probably tell you if you want to know for the BN300, I'd guess around 8mm maybe? Oh yeah, Pe is the watts rating, nominal ohms will calculate automatically from Re. Make sure you're using the winisd pro alpha version.

Low tension strings by definition need more allowance for vibration than regular - is it continual buzz no matter how gently you play or is it just that your regular playing style is too hard for them? You can put a tad more slack into the neck than the credit card width if you normally play at the lower end, but if you play all over the neck a higher action it is. A replane might help but only so much