Rosie C

We had a bonus gig today. Given that we are a Blackmore's Night style renaissance-folk-rock band, the chance to play in this genuine Tudor manor house was irresistible. 2 hours of ballads accompanied by octave mandolin, interspersed with seasonal tunes on recorder and tambourine. We have an invite back, and we've also agreed in principle to use the location to record videos for our forthcoming album of renaissance tunes & ballads. The venue: The owners suggested we play by the log fire and so we did our first ever acoustic set.

Just a little MIDI progress this holiday break. @Chienmortbb made me up another two patch leads, so all 6 outputs are available at the front of my rack. We had some success using the synth for recording our first album - one track has a low E drone, a sort of Celtic pipe sound. That was played live and recorded as a WAV file to share with the studio - so easy-peasy. The album also has a self-penned jazz number on it - featuring a band mate on solo clarinet. I played bass (of course) and recorded it at the studio, but there was also a piano accompaniment. I recorded this as MIDI straight into Logic Pro at home. I tweaked the odd out of time or quiet note then played it back through the synth to record as a WAV. We did the same for the percussion for the jazz tune, recording the high hat, toms and cymbal separately, but next time with the patch panel I'm set up to record them all in one go as my Zoom recorder has 6 tracks. Sorry a very blurry photo from just holding my phone at the back of the rack and hoping for the best. Of course, I could just go straight in the back, but the rack is heavy and has no wheels, and I like having a front panel

Happy NBD! I'm loving the colour

I placed an order for mandolin strings with Strings Direct on Saturday evening. They arrived this morning which I think is pretty good service over the holiday break - so a 👍 for them from me!

I've no advice to give, but congratulations on getting a JT Dingwall, and on starting on lessons! John Taylor inspired me to take up bass, though I've never really been able to play his lines

Thanks for that - it's definitely worth trying, and would fit with the suspicions that the foot pedal switches need cleaning - if they do, maybe other jacks and switches do

That's a shame! I'll probably still give it a go. It wouldn't be a problem on stage, but I only need the main volume knob at '1' for home practice and it's a little annoying.

I know! For bonus fun there's that little capacitor beside them, just asking to be damaged

Already done and dusted!

Fretless jazz with flatwounds. Fingerstyle. 100% neck pickup, 0% bridge. Tone knob set right round to the most mellow. GEB7 pedal with the lowest band set very low and the rest in the middle position. A clean amp with the EQ set level across the bands.

None taken! Nice work! I did look on ebay earlier for new capacitors, but immediately realised that I don't know what sort of pins they have soldered to the PCB - some of the new ones have wires, while some of the larger values have flat blades - so I can't progress until we open the amp again and this time look at the underside of the PCB.

My friend is a knowledgeable amp tech She explained it to me (though I've since been to Google to make sure I get it right here)... The 50Hz AC mains is rectified, converting it into a series of positive DC pulses, and the capacitors smooth the pulses into a steady DC voltage. If the capacitor isn't working properly, the ripples aren't fully smoothed and you can hear a ripple frequency in the speakers. But because it's between the peaks of the rectified wave the frequency has been doubled to 100Hz. I found this drawing which sort of shows the frequency doubling...

Thanks for all the responses. To answer the various questions: I don't know if it's the right foot switch for the amp - it came with the amp, but it was an estate sale so there's room for error The problem seems limited to the foot switches, it works fine when I just use the front panel switches None of the switches seem to be latching, they are just momentary Our best guess is that as @Sparky Mark says, the foot switches need some switch cleaner and a bit of use In other news, I had a friend stay over Christmas and she's an electronics engineer, so we took the amp apart to look at the front panel illumination. Inside the amp: Confirmation of the age: It turns out it didn't need great electronics skill. The front panel is connected to this board, and there is a 2-pin connector on the board (yellow ellipses) which comes directly from the mains transformer (yellow arrow). So the panel AND its drive circuit have been disconnected all this time! I had worried that maybe the panel was disconnected but the driver had still been live and was possibly damaged. I re-plugged the connector, and voila! Mmmm! While we had the case open, I took a photo of the power supply capacitors. There's a bit of 100Hz hum on the speakers and we're suspecting dried out capacitors. There's a bit of work to do to remove them though.

Before. It seems to power up OK. The pre-shape lamp is the only one lit and that's on both sets if lights. I was thinking of doing some testing today, see whether it's the panel switches or foot switches that cause the problem, and whether all five switches have problems.

I've finally got to play with my AH300 today. It's awesome, but there's some strange behaviour. The front panel has lamps for pre-shape, valve, compressor, effects loop, etc. and the pedal board has the same set of lamps. I'm assuming the same lights should be lit on both panel and pedal board. But when pressing various panel switches or foot switches it's easy to get them out of step - e.g. valve lamp is lit on the panel, but out on pedal board. I press either switch and it swaps over. Is this anyone has experienced before? Google AI seems to think it's a common problem, but I can't find any real website with information.

lovely!

We collected it in November but today I'm finally allowed to play the [1990s] Trace Elliot stack my partner bought me. AH300, 1x15 and 2x10. 😁 Edit: and on Boxing Day we took it apart and fixed the light-up front panel!

My take on 'elf on the shelf'... I sold my Orange Crush 25B this week and replaced it with this Elf 110 combo 😁

I attend a 'mass jam' in the Forest of Dean each month, and in December they have a bonus Christmas. I'm in the rainbow jumper at the back. I played bass uke most of the night through my Roland Cube Street EX, but did two solo numbers on treble recorder - "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" and "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day" - I do like a bit of 15th/16th century music

It's a long time since I've had blisters, but electrician's tape was my usual remedy. I think Mark King did similar, if so I'm in good company!

Our carol gig last Friday - this is our biggest gig of the year, with maybe 120-130 people. That's me in the top hat. Sorry, I'm not playing bass, but that was covered admirably my friend and former bass teacher. It went very well, everyone is keen to have us back next year which may be tricky, but not impossible!

I was thinking along those lines, specifically, sandwich it between two pieces of 18mm ply, then drive my van onto it

I used to have electrician's tape on my bass, but it encouraged me to look rather than listen so I took it back off. That said there is a little burr in the neck wood just where the fourth 'fret' would be, for emergencies!

Our renaissance-rock plays probably our last ever gig tonight. It should be a good one - the last few times we've played the venue it's been sold out. After tonight we're moving away from the UK, and rather than start again from scratch we'll focus on studio recordings and have an online presence.

That's the way we're going - being in a niche, and moving soon, we decided to focus on a YouTube channel. But I'm just not good enough to sing and play mandolin (from memory), while moving around in a vaguely co-ordinated way and smiling at the camera. So we abandoned the video until we've recorded our songs in the studio.