LawrenceH

cheapest option by far is to make your own. If you're doing a few then I used to find studiospares prices were pretty competitive for components, good range too. It's worth using decent cable as the jackets are much more resistant to stretching and horrible coiling/kinking that you can never get rid of.

[quote name='Dubs' post='1003474' date='Oct 28 2010, 10:44 AM']What are the problems when pairing ported and sealed cabs? After reading this thread a few days ago I was half considering to make a sealed 2x8 vertical array cab with the Fane speakers to make a matching pair with my 1x10 ported cab that I made a few months ago.[/quote] It's a problem if the sealed cab goes low enough to interfere with the bass from the ported cab to a significant degree, as they won't be aligned below the point where cabinet/driver interactions start contributing to a noticeable delay in the bass response.

Circle of Fifths, I agree with most if not all of what you say - in case I wasn't clear, I wasn't saying one or the other is necessarily superior, just pointing out some differences between US, MIM and Jap basses that hadn't been mentioned yet. Whichever pickup set sounds better to me out of the MIM Standard Vintage and the US Vintage 75s will be what stays on the bass, I couldn't give a monkey's where they're made as long as they have that sound! Very interesting to hear some of your insider info by the way, cheers.

Don't the standard/deluxe USA necks use a different construction with graphite rods in? Probably good for stability, no idea if it affects the tone (although I'm beginning to realise that necks do play a big role in shaping the sound of a bass). Plus the HMV bridges/through stringing is probably pretty good for those who like that sort of thing. Obviously those features don't apply to the reissues. Regarding pickups, I have a Jap 75RI and the original (supposedly US) pickups are decidedly lacklustre, not like 'real' US pickups. On the other hand, the ones in the MIM Classic 70s are great. Note that these are 'Standard Vintage Alnico' (same as HWY1) and don't seem to be the same as in the MIM standard. I now have some US Vintage 75 pickups waiting to be fitted to see if there's a noticeable difference, I would also like to compare to US Standards/Custom 60s all in the same bass. Build quality of my Jap bass is good, though the poly(ester I think) finish is THICK. The MIM was let down by poor finishing around the nut but was otherwise fine, and a lovely neck to play, though again it's a thick polyester on the body. The US ones I believe have a thinner polyurethane. The neck on the MIM is significantly lighter than on the Jap, though both are similar profiles. I wonder how that affects tone? The tuners are brass on the Jap, look like steel on the MIM, though I prefer the latter since they're lighter and the Jap ones combine with the heavy neck to give a bit of dive. Am considering changing them over. Finally, I don't think you can get ash bodies with MIM basses, only jap and US.

For future reference, those bass collections are poly finishes (very nice ones actually), hard as anything and chemically inert. T cut would be fine I'm sure or just normal domestic polish. Those lemon oil-type polishes (I think they're really just a particular grade of mineral oil) are more usefulfor guitars that lack a thick lacquer-type coating, like on the rosewood fretboard of your SB330. Great bass by the way, is yours fretted or fretless?

[quote name='basskit_case' post='1003330' date='Oct 28 2010, 08:37 AM']We definately need this "stickied", these are great basses, but there is so little information on the web![/quote] +! It might help if the thread was boringly just titled 'SGC Nanyo Bass Collection information resource' or similar. There are a lot of them kicking around in the UK, and they are very nice basses especially given how cheap they go for.

[quote name='silddx' post='1002546' date='Oct 27 2010, 02:55 PM']They are very easy to apply, so don't listen to the hamfisted Email this guy and ask for what you need. I have used his decals and they are excellent! [url="http://thedecalshop.co.uk/"]http://thedecalshop.co.uk/[/url] Cheers.[/quote] +1 for the decal shop - but I'm not the world's most clumsy person and I messed up two(!) large late-60s/early-70s style logos trying to do it the way he suggested, they're just too damn big to manoeuvre easily without tearing. I think there must be a bit of a knack to it and it's potentially quite expensive to get good at. Annoyingly, had no troubles with the smaller practice bits he included. It's very easy to scratch the inks off as well, especially the gold, even just excessive wrinkling of the decal seems to lead to small imperfections. If anyone's got any hints and tips I'd appreciate them. Had most luck using paintbrushes, am thinking a really big one that'll just let me lay the logo on flat might be the way to go.

Love Thodrik's list, those features add up to pretty much my 'dream' amp of uselessness. Quite like a parametric mid though, but then I prefer passive basses! Oh yes, add in clip lights that come on either too early or too late.

[quote name='Phil Starr' post='1000645' date='Oct 25 2010, 11:26 PM']So, my conclusions are: piezo's can sound OK even in midpriced/mid-performance speakers and speakers really do 'break in' over time. If anyone is interested I'll start a new thread and put up a few details[/quote] Definitely interested in that - what piezos, how many, crossover and frequency if used. Id love to know how to make piezos sound less than awful!

Great review, I really, really want to try one of these. But on the other hand if I do, it would ruin me, so I mustn't!

[quote name='bigevilman' post='1000216' date='Oct 25 2010, 05:14 PM']Hey guys I've just invested in a nemesis 15" cab and am looking to make it my main cab. I want to put a new speaker in there as 250 watts rating ain't nearly enough! I'm looking for something that's a good all round speaker for all styles (play in a few different bands). I'm not too bothered if it's neo or not, my backs still relatively good a high output rating though @8ohm is essential (600 upwards) Cheers guys [/quote] 600 watts is asking an awful lot of a single 15" speaker. The Eminence Kappa 15LF will take it thermally, but it will be a heavy cab as the driver alone weighs over 9kg! And the xmax doesn't offer any advantages over the neo kappalite 3015 (NOT the 3015LF), thermally rated at 450w and weighing a much kinder 3.6kg

The Ashdown octaver thing, especially if we're talking about the small combos like my old Electric Blue 12".

[quote name='CHRISDABASS' post='996764' date='Oct 22 2010, 10:09 AM']I really missed the way that a little fret buzz cuts through the mix!![/quote] :smug:

Just to buck the trend, recently I've realised I far prefer a nice clanky low-action fretted tone. 90% of it gets lost in the mix and you're left with something with a bit of character, that when you dig in can really jump out. I love the way that on a jazz bass with a low action you can just go beyond a certain point and bang! It's there in your face. With a high action I find the bass just gets lost. Good for P-bass rock tones, bloody rubbish for funk and fusion. But if you play with a pick or just play really hard all the time, then I guess a high action is preferable. EDIT: Also I've just realised that where I pluck the string makes a huge difference with respect to where the action should be set.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='994727' date='Oct 20 2010, 01:05 PM']One thing im confused about is the cab experts saying 'dont mix drivers' yet the BF site says you can mix the 12 with the 15....who is right?![/quote] You can mix drivers fine if you design the cabs with that in mind (no doubt the BF cabs are), it's mixing random cabs that can lead to problems. You need to design them with a compatible group delay or you'll get phase issues in the lower registers which will screw up the combined frequency response. You can get just as much a problem if you use two cabs built around the same driver but with different port tuning. Which means, incidentally, that I'd be rather cautious mixing all these different 12" Markbass cabs together! Having said all that I've heard plenty of great-sounding rigs where the speakers are highly unlikely to have been matched in this way...as we keep coming back to, if it sounds good it is good!

[quote name='Slipperydick' post='994315' date='Oct 20 2010, 12:21 AM']Thought about a Bass Collection 5 string ? Never tried a five one myself, but my old 4 string one feels like its made of Balsa Wood, bought it when I had back trouble and compared to my Precision it really is featherweight and not at all neck heavy.[/quote] Good call, I have an SB330 and it's probably even lighter than my Ibanez was - Sen body looks like nice ash but doesn't weigh anything like as much. Lovely balance to both the SGC Nanyo bass collections and Ibanez SRs too, better than you're ever likely to get with a Squier IMO because of that big fat maple Fender-style headstock.

If you know enough music you can find these 'rip offs' everywhere. It's more just a reflection that a lot of pop and rock's pretty simple and hasn't really changed much other than in superficial elements of production over the last 30-odd years.

A drummer? Being a twat? It just sounds so unlikely! But seriously, I'd be pretty annoyed about this and if the bloke didn't offer a proper, decent apology then I'd find it hard to work with them. I'd also consider billing them for your time...seriously! A band is a business after all, as well as a hobby, whatever level you're at (and regardless of whether you actually make anything) and if they cut you out after putting work in but before getting the chance to get something back then you'd be justified in doing this.

[quote name='JTUK' post='992957' date='Oct 18 2010, 11:37 PM']In that case you should at least be able to build a decent looking box. There are a few self builds on here that are pretty damn decent from the pics...and that is from guys who may profess to not having done anything like this before.[/quote] The man hours are the issue! There's a killer build thread on talkbass relating to a composite cab, foamcore and fibreglass I think. Weighs next to nothing, stiffer than a conventional build cab and raw materials cost pretty similar. But the labour is the deal-breaker for making those things commercially, unfortunately, or we'd have cabs that you could carry with one finger.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='992902' date='Oct 18 2010, 10:53 PM']Yes, I agree aesthetics are not a priority, but if its between a high end fantastic large manufacturer and a small DIY high end manufacturer, I know which I would choose.[/quote] If, and it's a big if, all else were equal, then I think I'd usually choose the small manufacturer assuming they were in the same country as me. One voice has a lot more weight with their reputations so I'd hope that would translate to good personal service. East, Shuker, Wizard and Barefaced all seem to fit this judging by the bulk of reports on here. And in terms of value for money, I think the loss of bulk buying power is easily offset by their lower overheads. Despite what I said about the Eminence drivers, the cast chassis Kappalite range Barefaced uses are a lot higher build quality than, for example, the OEM Sica speakers loaded into Tecamp cabs (whose build quality gets raves about) with a noticeably higher rrp. These are pressed steel chassis models and not even the premium Sica models. I was quite surprised when I discovered even quite high end cabs are typically not using the top-range drivers offered by companies like Eminence, Celestion etc. Alex's cabs are by far the best value in this respect. Again though, if you don't like the sound of them then that's all that matters in this particular case! But I would think that reflects a particular aesthetic rather than an inherent aspect of 'small v big' companies. Wizard are another whose products seem to cost a fair bit less than equivalent big-name offerings. This may reflect the fact that both conventional cabinets and pickups are pretty old, mature technology - most of the hard design work for cabs is done by the speaker manufacturers, the 'big name' cab manufacturers are just box builders really.

[quote name='Lozz196' post='992632' date='Oct 18 2010, 07:30 PM']Very true, a watt is a watt, however you rarely see 100 watt solid state amps being able to cut it in a live situation in heavy rock/punk bands, but 100 watt valve amps don`t have any trouble at all. Straying onto guitar amps, our rhythm guitarist used an Orange Tiny Terror for a while, all 15 valve watts, and at gigs it had no problems keeping up. This in venues that held 150, and we are a punk band (tho not a hugely loud one). I`ve never seen a 15 watt solid state that could manage that, even flat out. Valve amps do seem to be louder pound for pound/watt for watt. Dunno why, I`m not a technical person, but I`d stand in a practice room with a 100 watt solid state amp flat out. Valves - forget it![/quote] It's the distortion, innit. Sounds a lot less noticeable when you're driving a valve amp to absolute blue b****ry whereas solid state clipping is just nasty and onset is very sudden once you exceed the rail voltage.