sandy_r

...i hope that Explorer has agreed to share driving duties?

I have a very specific question - grateful for any comments by people with a fretless bass, having direct experience of moving from either groundwound or chrome flats to nylon tapewound onto this same bass Question: Does the nylon tape contribute to the usual increase in tension in standard (or 'heavy') guage, compared to medium guage? (or, to put it another way: Would a standard guage nylon tapewound need approximately the same tension as a medium guage metal flat?) The reason I ask is because I want to transfer to nylon tapewounds but keep the lighter tension of medium guage - if standard guage tapewounds don't need greater tension then it gives me a greater choice thanks in advance

Hah - dilemma! The transparent pickguard does at least show more mahogany, but the routs are masked off with tape to hide my slapdash teenage trenchwork maybe a compromise would be to replace just the black tape with veneer? ...although i think the Black Walnut is too grey to complement mahogany, so a warmer tone seems called-for? thanks for ideas, all 👍

Newsflash: 'Global copper shortage causes buzz on Stock Exchange'! ...those pickup cables look thin - are they shielded co-ax?!? (...any copper in the pickup cavities?)

...I hope one (or more) will be appearing at the SWBB? ==== IIRC Blue LEDs operate around 2.8V +/- which suggests 2 strings of 3 in serIes across a 9V PP3 in the body (assuming no voltage converter circuit) Just adding a series resistor into each string of 'N' LEDs across the PP3 might not work well - you may find it's better to connect all LEDs currently on a battery to be in parallel (difficult in the neck?) and then connect one 10K ohm, say, trimpot in series between the LEDs and the battery. Sounds like fun 😉

Ah ok - apologies - i thought you must already have the rest of the bridge from which the brass saddles came, and could try placing it alongside the existing one to compare. No worries, it was just another possible design idea to consider Good luck with project #2 ...I hope it goes as well as this one, your 'baptism into bassmaking'!

Hi thanks for the comments - i agree I'd sort of ground to a halt with ideas/motivation re. the pickguard. It was originally in white formica (how G plan is that?!?), but much later i thought it would be nice to reveal more of the mahogany with clear perspex. Then, of course, I needed still to cover the wiring routs So, temporarily, I used black tape, with the intention of masking a better outline on the rear of the guard later, removing the tape and spraying it instead Since joining BC recently, however, I've seen the amazing range of possibilities and one such was exactly that - I realised that I could now obtain and use a thick (mahogany?) veneer for the pickguard Also, I missed a trick with the pickup cover all those years ago : I made a mold out of some of the scrap mahogany from the body, and applied car-repair setting-paste (!) to build up and smooth for the cover. I see now that I could have been really ahead of the game by several decades and just hollowed out the mahogany! Not surprised to hear of a G-plan vibe - my Dad and I were both heavily into DIY furniture in the 60s/70s, and our home probably looked like a G-plan showhouse cheers [Edit] hmmm ...just remembered I've got a 10" wide roll of Black Walnut veneer left over from renovating a vintage radio last year - it's thermo-glue backing, so probably wouldn't be a happy outcome applied to the perspex, but if there's enough left it may work doubled up, back-to-back Hah - second thoughts - that won't fly: not strong enough to support pickup, controls & jack! Maybe if I place layer of veneer under the perspex? ...could look something like this?...

yes, i liked it - i thought it was nicely understated, given the subject matter. Good relentless and unsettling grind from the bass thanks for sharing

Hi Mr Bacco I really appreciate what you have achieved here - you have given your guitar so much character! Please consider one more suggestion (and maybe OCD can be outvoted?): The Control plate and the Tailpiece are both on the body, and near each other - the machine heads are further away and on the headstock. My (aging) senses tell me that there would be greater symmetry on the body hardware if the tailpiece was Brass and the bridge saddles were 'silver' (to match 'silver' controls on the Brass Control plate) Just an idea to consider... In any case - Bravo! (I've tried to Photoshop your photo to give an example)

thanks, much appreciated!

Making a more modular - and manageable - rig, downsizing the amount and weight! For the last 20 years or so, my gear ranged across:- 1. for busking/electro-acoustic-friendly gigs: a 4W battery-powered setup (where I could carry travel-bass & Ubass in one hand, tube 12" speaker in t'other, and have the amp & stands in a small backpack) [1 trip, car-to-stage]; 2. for small gigs and band practice: a Warwick Blue Cab 60W combo, (20kg of single-arm-extending tension) [1+ trips, car-to-stage]; 3. pub/mid-level gigs: Palmer Bass Preamp Plus a 2x400W flat-EQ slave amp (17kg) Plus 2×12" 300W Eminence Gammas, plus tweeter, in re-purposed cab (27kg of excruciating side-handled pain, refitted with 2 castors + top-handle) [2+ trips, car-to-stage] ...but now the plan is… as 1) above; one channel of 2x 100W Class D amp + 1x 12" in compact & light cab; both-channels of 2x 100W Class D amp + 2x 12" in compact & light cabs; 1st step along the way arrived today:- 2x channel Class D amp; 2x 100 W into 8 ohm 2× 180 W into 4 ohm 1× 350 W into 8 ohm, bridged 19"x7", 1U rack height, weighs 2.4kg; 20-20,000Hz, 0.05 THD, 100dB Sig/noise; Speakon o/ps, XLR/jack i/p, 2x Vol, 2x clip LEDs; (£125 new & delivered) (old amp, standing on the floor in the background) ....next steps… retrieve 2x 12" Gammas from old cab; house each in separate DIY compact, ported, ply cabs; sell Warwick Blue Cab; sell 2x 12" cab with original 2×12" replaced ...TBC...

Thanks - initially i thought the Casady control config would work for me, but trying the pickup straight-through, i realised that it was better to preserve the already low-level signal onboard, as much as possible, and do any tone-shaping in the preamp The low-Z pickup approach of Casady does seem to result in a good tone though - good catch!

...strange - there's no mention of that in the DTC manual (the Tone Capsule Wiring section just shows a single 9V battery setup) does it make the same 'noise' if you only use 9V?

...you should see him in his Bootsie Collins gear! 😉 (Ceilidhs are something else, in the 'Shire)

Phew - glad to hear all to be sorted! cheers

Hi The crossover (apologies, pun unintentional) between traditional PA units and newer 'powered speakers' is becoming more blurred and seems the sensible way to go, from a technical PoV The low-end needs, however, will always be a bit of an exception, i guess, due to the physics of low-frequency sound There's also the market-driven inertia caused in part from "if i'm not standing in front of some serious audio weaponry, it's not Rock&Roll" and also in part from the comparatively large audience-base who want live music entertainment still, in venues too small/traditional to justify serious investment of PA technology & support

blimey - that's unusual for both legs to separate from that sort of resistor! If the legs were also unsoldered (ie. both completely loose & free) there must have been some serious heat thro the res to desolder itself - it's rated at 20W, so it would probably handle a good proportion more before failing, so could have been at least 30W, say Sounds like something has shorted in the extension cab - it could still be something in the crossover like a coil or cap - the tweeter seems an unlikely culprit if it's piezo - possible if its moving coil, but would have expected the coil to fail open- rather than short-cct The amp protection should have kicked in while this was happening but unless a fuse blew as well it should be working ok now. The fact that you heard hissy signal thro phones connected to spkr o/p suggests no fuse blew in main amp section (if such a fuse exists) and the continued operation of the pre (up to the DI) shows the main fuse didn't blow Presumably the total speaker load on the amp was no less than 4 ohm, otherwise the protection would have kicked in If you were only using the extension cab (ie Redsubs own spkr disconnected) then a serious failure in the extension could have damaged the power amp section (but doesn't seem to explain the loss of phones out?) Sorry to hear that a trusty amp is now poorly - hope it can be recovered to full health again [Edit] of course the crossover res fault could have happened at some other time - if there are no other issues inside the extension (component/wiring shorts, driver failures, etc) then that could be result of poor production/vibration issues. In which case, you're back to a possible failure in the Redbus (maybe only around the Muting circuitry - or even the power protection sensing, itself)

If your amp has Mute logic (rather than just the headphone jack switching out the speaker), then it could be that the mute switching logic circuitry has failed - since both speaker and phones signal paths will be switched, the failure mode could affect both 😞 [Edit] ...looks like the Master Vol is in the sig path between DI and power amp/phones - its shown in the block diag as being a mixer stage for EQ out/Di and Aux In Try a quick lowish-level 'sound check' with a known good signal into Aux In and see if that is also silent (with Master set to 1/3, say?))

Hi What voltage are you using for the DTC? You mention "has anyone had any joy with this set up? Is there something in that 18v set up I am missing?", but on the Darkglass Tone Capsule site, all I see is a single 9V battery. If you do happen to be using 18V, and it only expects 9V, could this be the problem? ...just an idea

Hi Aguilar schematics are rare beasts - maybe to stop people messing with life-changing energies? I think I read somewhere that Aguilar would release a schematic, but only to an approved Tech (seems reasonable) On the schematic for the DB750 they have certainly adopted the same approach you experienced on the DB659 (and possibly similar to that other amp you had re-configured for Mains supply voltage) The schematic shows a double primary (which could be connected in series for 240V type supplies, or in parallel for 110/120V) Interestingly, no Mains voltages are shown on the schematic - and the User Manual for the DB728 does mention alternative mains voltage operation and respective Fuses, so the evidence is in your favour I'd recommend identifying a well-established and respected local Tech who would be willing to do this task, and either they or you contact the appropriate Aguilar representative organisation to request the relevant tech info is provided into safe hands HTH

Hi The service manual for the Series 6 shows a Mains transformer with two 0-100-120V primaries This suggests that the primaries are joined in series for (nominal) 240V markets and in parallel for 110/120V markets Definitely worth asking a friendly & reliable tech to check the Xfr and see if this applies to your rig, 'cause it's likely to be a simple re-configure & test job they can do for you ! (ie. no new parts required) HTH

...don't know if it's possible to upload the mp3 clip of the pickup in action, but here goes... SR-pickup-raw.mp3 (Best heard tbrough headphones, of course) Ok, so this clip is recorded thro' my Palmer preamp, flat EQ, clean drive, no amp sim - masses of gain! Using a Zoom H2 recorder, mp3 file passed thro' Audacity only to Normalize level and reduce recording hiss Listening back to it, I'd probably want slightly more bass (maybe some mid and a touch of top?)

Getting back to Low-Z pickups... (er, but not Casady ones - do I need to ask for my posts to be moved/start new thread ?!?) I've disembowelled my bass and had a butchers at my pickup -'butcher' seems an appropriate word... The windings (4 in series) total 185 ohms. I've just disconnected it from the pots; so at the moment it connects straight to the jack I have a variety of high value bipolar caps but the ones similar to the Casady circuit are way too big physically to fit in the guitar. In any case, I'm thinking that it's better to leave the pickup signal unmodified for the initial journey out to the pre, to maximise the signal-to-noise level I'll try and get a recording thro' my Palmer Pocket Bass Preamp at flat EQ and post a link if I can...

The only thing to watch is the stability to knocks - the Sinsonido (when using 1 bout) also just fits on the compact Hercules stand - I've been using this arrangement for some years and its been fine, but I do need to be careful to place the guitar amongst my gear where it's less likely to get brushed against (it would tip one way more readily than the other)

I asked the Luthier to make me a new bridge when he replaced the fretboard - i think i sketched out something chunky with a triangular cross-section and he obviously decided that wasn't going to fly and did his own thing (unfortunately, his own thing turned out to be mandoleles!) Yes, the edge string spacing is my fault - i just plucked (sorry, no pun intended) a neck width out of the air and ended up with something 4 matchsticks wide 😞 I replaced my original white formica scratchplate with the perspex one shown above - i need to rethink that because of the pickup wiring rout The rout near the end of the board is to give spanner (yes, spanner) access to the industrial rebar truss-rod nut (don't ask!) ok - i think that's enough painful weirdness for one day After I mess about with a 'Casady' controls mod, i may document a bit more of the weirdness in a build archive A guitarist friend i jammed with at college christened my bass "The Washboard". He wasn't joking