Jackroadkill

NMA have had some great bass players; Morrow, Moose Harris and Nelson being my favourites. Such a great band - pretty much all of their records are excellent, as well as under-rated.

It's how you find out who your mates are.

But you're the guy with a metre and a half of wood in your hand - they'd have to be mental to take you on!

I'm pretty sure that Progressive Vegetarian Grindcore was a thing in the early 2000's.

Sounds a bit like Welsh time - "I'll be there now, in a minute".

I fired the cab up in the rehearsal studio tonight and have some observations: 1 - It's very loud; when compared to my usual cab (Eden 2x15, no tweeter) using the same amp settings it gives noticeably more volume. 2 - Frequency response (or perceived frequency response) is very good; it maintains sweetness in the high end and it doesn't get overly clacky, even with the bass's tone control fully up. 3 - It's chuffing heavy; I've not weighed it, but it's somewhere between monolithic and made of the hearts of collapsed stars. 4 - It's very responsive; even with my Cali76 Bass compressor in use the dynamics are pretty open, and when digging in it moves air around without hesitation, but when playing normally it stays pretty sweet. 5 - The bottom end is big and full but not woolly. 6 - It pairs well with my amp. All in all I'm very happy with how the project has turned out. Cheers, JRK

Talking of pushing air, those ports really do their job. I could feel my shorts flapping when I turned the wick up.

@Greg Edwards69, same here. Hope you get sorted swiftly.

Whew, good job I did this yesterday, eh?!

I think the only things I've bought this year have been a pair of 15" speakers for my old Sunn cab. They sound cool and shift some serious air, so I guess they're my winner.

I managed to get some workshop time in today, and scrubbed the Tolex clean (well, cleaner, at any rate). Then I was able to connect the speakers, screw them in and replace the grille, which I'd cleaned with a carefully-applied pressure washer. I hooked it all up to two different amps and tried it out; oh my goodness it's loud! I also noticed that it made the differences between each amp very apparent, so I'm happy about that; it also gave a lot of definition in terms of the tone and volume controls on the (cheap plywood) bass. So far I'm very happy with it. Thanks once again to everyone who chipped in with advice etc; I'm looking forward to getting it into the practise room on Tuesday and giving it a workout. Cheers, JRK

Absolutely; @Bill Fitzmaurice's advice has been invaluable with this project and I'm very grateful for his taking the time and effort to help me.

Coolest car ever.

I find this incredibly frustrating; it's simple good etiquette to allow the previous band to vacate the stage before bringing any gear onstage.

I think the cables are steel, Bill. Not sure if that makes any difference? Still, thanks for the tip; all knowledge gratefully received. I managed to clean the grille cloth today. After some umm-ing and ahh-ing, I took the agricultural approach and pressure-washed it, which worked a treat!

No worries, Richard; I was hoping to have something more exciting to show you by this evening but have encountered issues with my soldering iron (as in, it's knackered) and so I've had to order another. I have, however, come up with a plan for the connection of the drivers - tin the cables up, run them through the spring connectors and then heat-shrink them (carefully) into place. Cheers, JRK

Ha, yeah, I didn't think of that..!

Right, the new speakers are here and I've degunked the internals of the cabinet in preparation for fitting them. Whilst doing this I looked at the cabling and wondered if it's going to be up to the job or potentially going to melt under the workload. It wouldn't be a big job to replace the existing wiring with some heavier-duty copper, after all, so I may well invest in some for this project. What do the BC hive mind think? Once it's all together I'll get the Tolex cleaned up; the grille cloth is also disgusting (it's had 40 years - minimum - of spit, beer and bodily fluilds rained down upon it, so that's coming to work for a pressure wash and trauma counselling before it goes back on. Side by side comparison. A (nearly) clean interior; whatever has caused the splashes in the bottom port isn't keen on coming off with water and elbow grease so I may have to get a bit medieval on it. This is the wiring; do we reckon it's up to the task? 800w each at peak power should be enough.... Sprung connectors, though. I might need to do something about those to ensure that the wiring stays attached. So, things are coming on, and hopefully I can get the drivers (which actually fit in the holes cut in the baffle!) fitted soon. Cheers, JRK

To be fair, I'd have been effing raging, too.

Thanks all, that should get me going!

Hi all, just wondering if any of you have any tricks up your sleeves when it comes to cleaning 40-odd years' worth of nicotine stains, beer and dust out of the Tolex on your amps or cabs. I'm in the process of giving an old cab a new lease of life and although I have all of the functional aspects of this well under control I'd like to get the exterior cleaned up a bit, too. Years ago I worked in a music shop and we used a foaming cleaner for this, but I don't remember it being particularly effective, even when combined with a good helping of elbow grease and a scrubbing brush. If anyone has any tip, I'd be very grateful. Cheers, JRK

Having previously moderated an internet forum I can quite categorically state that it can be a monumental ball-ache, so thanks very much to the guys who give their free time to herd the cats, push the fog up the ditch and plait the yoghurt in order to make BC the welcoming, friendly and wallet-hazardous community that it is.

Funnily enough I was guessing Basingstoke would be the initial answer!