LawrenceH

Personally I think tone makes an enormous difference to perceived playability - think about how much harder work it seems playing a passive bass straight through a line input versus DI, even when you adjust the levels to compensate, just because of the difference in how the pickup reacts with one versus the other. So I'd think nine times out of ten tone and playability to an extent go hand in hand. And if a bass sounds great and plays lousy then I'd usually look to a decent set-up to sort it out. Beyond that, and any really gross ergonomic issues like massive chunky necks with heavy dive, I'd expect to be able to adapt to the smaller differences given time. I found jazzes strange having moved over from Yamaha/Ibanez but now I'm able to do what I could before on my jazzes. Not sure I could replicate it on anyone else's though!

[quote name='King Tut' post='962715' date='Sep 20 2010, 08:50 PM']OK Laurence thanks - I checked for resistance and there's nothing. That's the second blooming driver that's gone in this pair - not sure if it's the same actual one - could something be wrong with the crossover or have I just hammered them too much? The speakers are pretty much redundant to be honest so guess it'll make a nice big paperweight!! Now - what to do with the other driver? Are these speakers good for bass cabs?[/quote] If you're getting repeated problems with blowing drivers you may be pushing them with too much bass. I re-read your original post and see that you say you put the Kappas in there yourself. If the reflex tuning is suited to a speaker with different specs then you may well have a complete mismatch which first means the bass response will be screwed (perhaps forcing you to turn up too much and burn out the voice coil) and second means that probably the speaker isn't being protected from overexcursion at the correct frequencies when you do drive it hard. You can't just mix and match speakers and cabs without tweaking the cabs to suit the drivers, by changing the size/length of the reflex ports. I think the kappa pros are probably quite good for bass cabs - get something like WinISD and have a play around, or have a look online for reflex cab designs built around them. Eminence may publish some designs themselves. Apologies if this is a grandma-sucking-eggs type post!

[quote name='charic' post='963124' date='Sep 21 2010, 11:14 AM']In the acg for a while I actually quite liked the distortion I got from a dying battery... Is that weird?[/quote] Yes. Pervert!

[quote name='King Tut' post='962611' date='Sep 20 2010, 07:30 PM']Not strictly backline but . . . . I got a pair of Peavey PA speakers that I've loaded with Kappa 15 pro's. One of them is putting sound out of the tweeter but not the woofer. I've put a multimeter across the terminals - can't find any voltage but there seems to amps there (sorry I'm not much of electricity buff!). However - whichever way I put the probes on the terminals - the amps are popping the needle against the stop. I'm assuming that as I'm reading 'something' at the speaker terminals, then it must be the speaker that's gone kaputt? Would that be the considered opinion of the experts out there? And I'm assuming that if the speaker is shot, there's nothing I can do about it except replace it? Any thoughts? Cheers![/quote] You need to check for resistance across the speaker terminals, not voltage! Should read about 5 or 6 ohms. If nothing, then most likely the speaker is toast, unless you can see a break where the wires join the terminals which might be repairable. If it's fried, you could probably get a recone, depends how much the kappas are versus the cost of reconing. EDIT: Oh, and do it when the speaker's not plugged into an amp.

[Hijack] I'd be very interested to know the pickups fitted to various Fender basses, and how they relate to the ones available for sale separately. Is there anywhere giving definitive info, or does anyone here know? [/Hijack]

I really have no idea about who the best or most collectible are, but those Yamaha BB basses with the voodoo (marketing?) wood treatment sound as good as any I've heard ever. And I'll bet they play pretty nicely too!

[quote name='basskit_case' post='958051' date='Sep 16 2010, 09:50 AM']Hello Pete, I am in Ipswich, just off Cauldwell Hall Road. Thanks for the offer, very much appreciated, but took the bass into work yesterday and managed to get the repair done at lunchtime. Knowledge of electronics and using a soldering iron is definately something I need to work on.[/quote] Hurrah! What do you think of it now? I must say that on both mine I found that the treble control mainly just added hiss. But I still love these basses.

[quote name='basskit_case' post='955724' date='Sep 14 2010, 09:13 AM']I recently purchased the above bass, but have found the active’ness’ to be a bit ‘meh’. I am sure this is a Noddy question , but Is there a good way to check the state of the electrics on an active bass?[/quote] I think the active'ness' is the weakest part of these otherwise great basses. If there's a fresh battery, you can hear the EQ working and it's not distorted, then it's probably working fine. It's just not very good! May be worth checking for adjustable pots inside the electronics cavity (one of mine had that) which you could note the position of then try tweaking, see what they do.

[quote name='cameltoe' post='953208' date='Sep 11 2010, 10:10 PM']I wanted to solve neck dive on my Road Worn P bass, so I ordered some hipshot ultralites from the US. Obviously there are a couple different sizes made, the biggest size hipshot make are 1/2", with 3/8 being the next size down. I knew that one of these sizes was a direct fender replacement, so I checked my tuners and the peg looked to be around 1/2". I ended up ordering some that were advertised as a direct replacement for Fender J/P basses. They're too small! Exactly 1/2" peg, whereas on reflection mine are a bit wider. just a slight touch bigger, like 11.5mm to 13mm. Being a Road Worn, and hence using vintage-style hardware, would the tuners be a vintage size, which (possibly) were slightly bigger than modern P bass tuner sizes? The standard ones on my bass are reverse tuners. Or have Fender basses always used them same size tuners? If so, I can give them a hard time about it and try and get my money back. If not, does anybody want to buy some 1/2" Ultralites? [/quote] As far as I understand it, Fender bass tuning peg holes are 11/16" but nonetheless the 1/2" ultralites are the ones that're supposed to be used...and no, why they don't make them the right size makes no sense to me either :S Out of interest how much were they?

[quote name='LukeFRC' post='936853' date='Aug 26 2010, 10:14 AM']yeah they look good.... one question, is the pup in the 70's possition as it seems to stick out the top of the cover?[/quote] No it's not. I have seen one single MIJ 75RI with the 70s pup position, and all the rest I've seen in real life or online have been conventional placement. I must say I was seriously impressed with the tone of my MIM Classic 70s j-bass (which does have 70s placement) - before I took it apart to refinish it! Hopefully I'll get it finished in the next few weeks and it'll look as good as it sounds (crosses fingers and prays to the god of paint runs to be merciful).

[quote name='ironside1966' post='949360' date='Sep 8 2010, 12:51 PM']From my experience The older experienced pros have a sound of their instruments that work well in the context of the band and often this is mirrored in their arrangement of the song so all the sound man has to do is lift the sound. Younger’s less experienced players have a sound that sounds good on its own so then you have to try and correct that and make it work in a band context.[/quote] I concur. I often preferred to use a DI because it was much easier to get a serviceable sound from it than a mic - since every loudspeaker is to some extent a compromise especially at the bass end, it's better to have one lot of compromising going on than two (PA alone rather than cab then PA)! Add to that the mic roll-off, non-ideal cab placement in many venues, the tone being set on stage with a background of very high treble from drums/upper mids from guitars and nine times out of ten you're better off DI-ing. The tenth time out of ten is a good venue, with good kit, and a good band who REALLY know their tone AND how perception of tone varies at different volume levels and against each others' instruments. A half decent PA rig will have far more sophisticated tone-shaping capabilities than your average bass amp anyway. You just have to hope the sound engineer 'gets' your tone (and that your tone is actually one that works in the context of your band as ironside says!). But if they don't they'll stuff it up from the mic or from the DI so it makes no difference.

[quote name='gafbass02' post='949319' date='Sep 8 2010, 12:11 PM']Cheers. That's the pics I saw but diagrams scare me!! So I just pull the plastic plug out and stick em in the next hole over as it were? ;-) Cheers dude[/quote] Yup, that'll do it. Have fun!

[quote name='gafbass02' post='948422' date='Sep 7 2010, 03:59 PM']I get mine straigt from gorgomyte.com. It's about a tenner I think[/quote] Is it just me who reads this word and gets an unfortunate vision of greasy, bespectacled, long-haired, black t-shirt boys intently engaged in a long game of warhammer?

[quote name='cocco' post='947271' date='Sep 6 2010, 03:02 PM']Yeah I'd agree. I need that slight buzz to penetrate the mix properly. I wonder if this is true of all genres or just rock and it's sub genres? Any Motown/jazz/soul players think on similar lines?[/quote] Bass-driven funk is all about the growl IMO. Check out Electrocuties by Funkadelic! One of my favourite tracks for lovely 70s jazz bass low-action zing is the mutant disco classic Que Pasa (Me No Pop I). I want that sound. Having said that I don't like the mixing/playing on modern rock tracks where the growl is monotonously there every single note without variation, loses the point of it for me which should be articulation of a phrase.

Watch out it's a slippery slope, soon you'll be sucked into a world of orange drops, copper foil and S1 switches never to emerge!

[quote name='adledman' post='945427' date='Sep 4 2010, 02:53 PM']as i thought it is just going to be sanding and heat gun. i have tried nitromors before and it worked a little bit still left a load of scraping and sanding. LawrenceH what hair dryer have you got that gets hot enough? cheers[/quote] My wife's 2000 watt tresemme on maximum heat and blow! It's hot...but not heat gun hot, which will scorch wood easily in my experience. That was on a black (polyester) MIM Classic 70s. I did NOT sand at all, with that finish it's a mug's game and I'd be too worried about gouging through the wood once I got past the rock-hard outer shell. You have to be patient for the dryer to warm it up sufficiently, but conversely don't leave the dryer on hot for more than a minute at a time or it may die! I ran the dryer on cool for a few seconds every minute or so to help it survive. I took pictures of the process and will put it all in a build diary once the respray is finished, but here's a few to give you an idea of what I mean. The first one shows my woeful and very brief sanding attempt, and where I then chiselled into the body at a bit that's hidden by the pickguard (and in any case I wood-fillered that pointless routing hole along with the chisel marks) so I could get the scraper in. I guess removing the finish took about an hour for the main bit, then another hour tidying up around the horns, but it's much less energy than sanding! [attachment=58104:DSCF1124.JPG][attachment=58106:DSCF1127.JPG][attachment=58107:DSCF1128.JPG] [attachment=58108:DSCF1129.JPG]

[quote name='adledman' post='945015' date='Sep 3 2010, 10:20 PM']hi, so what is the best method of getting lacquer off a modern bass? any chemicals that will touch it? or heat gun and elbow grease groan groan![/quote] Modern polyester is pretty much impossible to deal with chemically as far as I'm aware, BUT some polyurethane-compatible strippers (nitromors?) may loosen it thanks to the sealer coat that's underneath it. Otherwise my powerful-hairdryer-plus-careful-paint-scraper technique worked surprisingly well if you can get it started with a chisel in a non-critical (i.e. hidden) area. It's better than a heat gun because it softens the sealer and seems to make the polyester more flexible but doesn't scorch the wood at all.

[quote name='cameltoe' post='941573' date='Aug 31 2010, 11:40 PM']Great, will try this first! Ok cheers[/quote] Forgot to say I'd preferentially use wet'n'dry paper to avoid all those nasty little bits of wire wool that stick to the pickup magnets. You can get it up to 1500 grit at Halfords

Before shelling out for hipshots, take off one of the tuners and weigh it to check the difference is enough to be worthwhile when multiplied by 4. I know the stock tuners on my Classic Series 70s RI are a LOT lighter than the tuners on my Jap 75RI which feel like they're made of depleted uranium.

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' post='940566' date='Aug 31 2010, 01:06 AM']No.2 They are better built and the basswood adds resonance, and maintains an overall lighter weight.[/quote] The CVs are certainly lighter, and better made, but IMO the wood of the VM is much richer tonally, the unplugged sound is a lot warmer on the ones I tried. QC was an issue though. For future modding, I'd get the best VM I could find. For just keeping as-is, probably the CV, but I don't think it'd ever be the tone monster the VM has the potential to be. Maple is an unusual body wood, I think it's a good one if you can stand the weight.

+1 to the fine grade wet'n'dry. 1500 grit used wet should leave it totally smooth to the eye but take the sticky shine off, you won't take off a significant amount either. EDIT: Also, if you don't like it you can just re-gloss it using rubbing compound and it's indistinguishable from new.

Gosh, only just seen this. Sincere condolences to family and friends of someone who has put so much of genuine value into this online community.

[quote name='lanark' post='939701' date='Aug 30 2010, 12:00 AM']So - it sounds like removing the paint may unearth a lot more problems than it would remove .... so what would people suggest to touch up an area about an inch square ... maybe an inch and a half, that's right down to the polished wood, with ragged edges?[/quote] I have just stripped a polyester-coated (note that's not the same as polyurethane! But a Squier is probably polyester?) jazz with success and relative ease using a Tresemme hairdryer on maximum setting (!) and a metal paint-scraper and butterknife. Absolutely minimal damage to the body. The key is to get the poly nice and warm and this seems to soften it up, giving it enough flex to lift up in sheets off the body with gentle pressure from the scraper. I think where people go wrong is in using a heat gun which is actually too hot and melts the polyester/scorches the wood. Having said that I'm currently still in the middle of refinishing, and the painting seems less straightforward. For touch-up, try a couple of coats of black nail polish underneath, with superglue dropped on top once dry, then smoothed level with 800 to 1500 wet'n'dry paper used wet and then rubbing compound to bring back the high gloss. I have to say I've only done this on a clear-coated bass where the grain makes it difficult to see if an edge is visible, but this would certainly make it look better than having a great big hole!