stevie

I checked the manufacturer's demo, which is interesting. Without the pad, the guitar has noticeable, and not very pleasant, distortion. With the pad, the distortion has cleaned up and the guitar sounds cleaner. Hey ho. The pad reduces distortion as well? And why did the guitarist fiddle with his volume knob while they were adding the pad? And another thing: the OP says the pad made a large difference when playing on a concrete floor. I have no doubt he believes it did, but perhaps someone could explain to me how the airborne vibrations from the bottom of a cabinet could cause several tons of hard, poured concrete to audibly resonate.

So these things work on concrete floors when the speaker cab is on castors. What principle is involved here? Has anyone carried out any before/after measurements?

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1329683653' post='1545952'] I just couldn't get on with the TC Electronic head I had because, although it was light as a feather, it didn't have that 'weight' you're talking about. It's difficult to put my finger on the quality you describe but I felt it was if a whole band of low mid frequencies was missing on the TC. However I twiddled with it the amp just couldn't produce the sound that I wanted. Now I've bought an ABM it has the 'authority' that the TC lacked (I think the technical term is 'bollocks'). Maybe this lack of 'authority' is a feature of digital amps? Or maybe it's a figment of my imagination? I was hoping the MiBass would be different. [/quote] I'd normally equate 'weight' with the bottom octave of the bass, i.e. 40 - 80Hz. The TC is known to roll off in this area. Although it sounds fine with a cab that has some bass extension, if the cab itself is rolling off in the same area, you are likely experience a lack of 'heft'. I'd guess that the ABM is flat to 40Hz and is therefore simply producing more of the bottom octave. It looks like the MiBass might have the same 'contoured' bottom end as the TC. By the same token, if you use an amp that's flat to 40Hz with a speaker that extends down low (especially 15s, which tend to lack highs), you can easily end up with a sound that is 'wooly', Now where have we heard that before?:-)

[quote name='Moos3h' timestamp='1327252809' post='1508377'] <snip> I found the EQ section very frustrating. The build quality also felt very cheap to me, all sharp edges and iffy printing for some of the labels, the Ampeg and Orange gear feels a LOT better made, for what that's worth! [/quote] That's what the review says, although it's overwhelmingly positive.

Our keyboard player has decided to invest in a decent keyboard amp (hooray!). We are a backline and vocal PA band at the moment playing pub-sized gigs. I've no idea what his budget is, although he's not short of a bob or two. He would like a reasonable bang for his buck and will not spend silly money (although his keyboard was two grand). He has been told that Roland combos are good but perhaps overpriced. Then there is the option of a small mixer, power amp and PA speaker. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Just bought a pair of cables from Andy. They arrived quickly and were exactly as described. Nice one.

It could be one of several things, of course, but you should check out the L-pad used to control the volume of the tweeter. As you've had the tweeter turned down, the L-pad has been on its maximum setting all the time. Just adjust the control a little with the amp on. If it crackles, you've found the culprit.

Just sold a set of tuners to Tom. What an great chap to deal with!

I can't see any reason why this should be a problem, apart from the fact that the kit will sound a bit dull.

That's how most people play it and how Dire Straits played it live. I much prefer the original bass line as recorded, which has half as many notes. It's good though, and you seem to have the bass sound spot on.

If the problem is the bottom panel of the speaker cab transmitting energy through the air to a resonant floor, wouldn't it be easier just to brace the bottom panel of the speaker cab (assuming the cab has rubber feet at least)? I can't see how a Gamma pad could possibly make any difference on a concrete floor though.

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1326300193' post='1495160'] I know the whooping, merry women at the various dos we play at would struggle to tell. [/quote] I don't know about that. Did a club gig last week and this gorgeous blonde came up to me and said 'Your amp sounded great. I bet you've had your valves cryogenically treated, haven't you?' I replied, 'No, I haven't, but my leads are 99.9% pure OFC.' She nodded knowingly and took my arm.

I'm doing a similar thing for my band. I'm sure there are plenty of people on here who can tell you what brands are good and what aren't, but for starters.... With your budget, I'd definitely go second hand. Although you can usually get nearly new PA for around half the new price, I think you'll probably end up with something older for that money. If you get decent brands, reliability shouldn't be too much of a problem. Put as much as you can into the speakers and go for a vocal PA only - i.e. forget about bass cabs. A 12 and a horn is probably the optimum configuration for vocal cabs. For pubs you should be able to get away with 250 watts of amplifier power, although more is always better. Check that all the inputs on your mixer are working and check for noise from the control knobs, especially sliders. Avoid piezos and bullet tweeters in your speakers (like in the old HH PA cabs). Make sure the horns are working on your PA cabs - listen to some music through them. There were some very cheap Peavey speakers for sale on here not so long ago that might be worth checking out.

And what did your measurements reveal?

Give Roland Lumby a call. I've used him over a number of years and there's none better. And he'll give you an honest opinion. His number is here: http://matrixamplification.com/index.php?view=article&id=16&option=com_content&Itemid=4&limitstart=1

[quote name='markstuk' timestamp='1323963069' post='1469261'] I remember when the gramophone was invented ... [/quote] That would make you about 140.

Anyone else have that problem? It opens up fine on my machine, although that's not surprising. I didn't think PDFs needed special fonts.

[attachment=94751:Merry Christma.pdf] You'll have to change the suffix to .pdf. This it will open.

I'm doing my best to attach a PDF but not having much luck.

Bought a mixer from Nick on Sunday. It was sent off on the Monday and arrived on Tuesday. Great service, and it was packed up really well. Can't recommend highly enough.

All you have to do is ask yourself why it costs 400 quid. You're answer's right there.

I'd agree with that.

What cabinet material are you using, David?