stevie

[quote name='fatgoogle' post='705027' date='Jan 7 2010, 11:59 PM']Thanks you very much Steve just what i was looking for. Just to confirm if i make internally 18"x16"x18" will give me 51 litre cab.[/quote] Sounds about right. [quote name='fatgoogle' post='705027' date='Jan 7 2010, 11:59 PM']Now im thinking if i wanted to mount a power amp in the back of it i would need to extend it so maybe if i made it 18x16x19, to give a bit extra room. Or will a standard 2u preamp not take up enough room to make a difference. Also front or rear mounting the speakers, does it make a difference. Ive only front mounted so far.[/quote] I don't think a 2U power amp would make all that much difference, but you should really take its volume into account. You normally deduct the volume of bracing, handles, the speaker and so on when you calculate the net volume figure. Try to avoid having any two dimensions the same or very close in value, by the way. 18" by 18" will reinforce resonances and standing waves. Better to do 20" x 17", for example, instead. I've always front mounted speakers, too. Rear mounting means having a removable baffle or rear panel, which is not always what you want. One of the benefits of a 12" speaker is that it allows you make very transportable boxes. I'm not sure I'd want to detract from that by making it into a combo - but you obviously know what you're after.

I can help you with this. I've just modelled it on the PC. The best driver to use is the Sovereign 12-300 - don't bother with any of the others. You need a cabinet of around 50 litres (45 to 60 litres is OK) tuned to 48Hz. Use two ports 125mm long with an internal diameter of 70mm for 50 litres net internal volume. If you can get flared ports (inside and out) use those in preference. The system will handle 200 watts before you exceed xmax. The best material for your cab is probably 15mm birch ply, if you can get hold of it. I've attached a jpg of the design for a 50 litre cab. It's large so that you can see the detail.

[quote name='Mottlefeeder' post='704886' date='Jan 7 2010, 10:25 PM']I had a conventional amp with a buzzing transformer that I could only hear when we all stopped playing. It still drove me nuts while I practiced at home, and I ended up trading it for one that did not buzz.[/quote] Me too. I couldn't hear it when I was playing. I managed to fix it but it drove me nuts until I did. Another thing, what if this noise gets worse? Having already agreed to accept an amp with a noticeable background noise, you will then have to prove that the noise is louder than it was originally. Not an easy thing to do.

[quote name='Beedster' post='704298' date='Jan 7 2010, 03:23 PM']"he [PJ] said that the Flightcase does produce a background noise because its a class D amplifier with digital switchmode power supply, all class D amplifiers have this background noise however the Flightcase has a very low signal to noise ratio of 90db which Phil claims is better than any other class D amp on the market" Does that sound reasonable[/quote] No, it is complete nonsense. An amp with a good signal to noise ratio has low background noise by definition. (background noise - signal to noise, get it?). Your guy is saying you can hear the background noise because the background noise is low. Utter twaddle.

[quote name='Major-Minor' post='703077' date='Jan 6 2010, 04:48 PM']There are no easy or quick fixes with music reading I'm afraid ! It's all about recognizing patterns and seeing the possible fingerings in different positions. Like any skill it takes practice. The more reading you do, the more you will see things you've seen before and you will build up a repertoire of fingerings in all the positions. Stevie - I'm going to try to provide you with some suitable material, to get you moving up the neck. Bear with me - I will try to drip feed this stuff over the next few months. Each one of these sessions is several hours work, so i can't rush things.[/quote] Thanks for the advice. I'll just keep on plugging away then. I'm looking forward to the new stuff. It is very much appreciated.

I'd want my money back, Beedster, as it's not fit for purpose. Sounds like the company doesn't know how to build an amp that doesn't whistle. How useless is that?

[quote name='petetexas' post='701592' date='Jan 5 2010, 01:53 PM']Update, Have now fitted the two 100 mm dia ports, and left them 180mm long as bought. Got a tech guy to feed a sine wave, using a signal generator, into my HIWATT 200 Valve Bass Head and the cab, and found that the cab `vibrates` at 22 / 24 Htz. The rest of the time there is is no vibration . The sound is really even and smooth across the fretboard, no particular notes are `booming`. Does this mean the cab is tuned to 23 Htz ?[/quote] No, you've probably got a vibrating joint somewhere. If your measurements are right, your cab is tuned to around 35Hz, which is too low. Either follow Celestion's advice or put a third port in there, which will tune the box to just over 40Hz. I'd definitely add another port, as two 100mm ports isn't really enough area for 4 12" drivers.

I like that story!

[quote name='Uncle Balsamic' post='700649' date='Jan 4 2010, 05:00 PM']What about the Barefaced Midget? It seems to be voiced well for rock.[/quote] I've been messing about with the Eminence driver used in this cab. It's very good, and I'd expect the Midget to be very good also.

[quote name='mikhay77' post='700735' date='Jan 4 2010, 06:03 PM']After trying these new style neo speakers,I have gone back to old skool .I had a trace 2x10 with horn,uprated to 400w neo style,yes more responsive but didnt seem to handle the full range,tried it along side my 1048h (also 300w)and no comparison,yes I know the cab is larger but there is no substitute for movement of air,and the neos did tend to break up when pushing the lows,also thats why I got rid of the markbass,but thats just my personal opinion.[/quote] Which neo 10s did you use in the Trace?

[quote name='Major-Minor' post='700592' date='Jan 4 2010, 04:23 PM']Cheers Stevie. I'm only too happy to produce this stuff as long as it is of interest to you guys. Please let me know if there is anything that you need particular help with and I can taylor the sessions accordingly. I've had a fair bit of time over the holiday to produce this stuff, but as I'm going to be fairly busy in the coming weeks, my production rate will probably slow down a bit.[/quote] I've noticed that there are quite a few players here on Basschat who can read, but who struggle with anything beyond the first position. I've been working through the Filiberto Bass Position Studies book and am semi-confident at sightreading up to the fifth position now, but it has taken me longer than it should have done - and I still stay at the bottom of the neck whenever possible. What I (am probably others) need is a system - a methodical approach - for reading at any position on the neck in all (or at least the common) keys. The Filiberto book is based on the use of positions - basically the fifth, seventh and ninth position. Wendi Hrehovcsik's book Music Reading for Bass (the Complete Guide) promotes the use of 'scale forms', or what I would call box positions. Is this the best approach? It might well be, but I have my doubts about an author who thinks she can cover Walking Bass Lines in half a page. The timing aspect of reading is covered in depth by a number of methods - not surprising, since this is something all musicians have to learn - but I've yet to find a decent method for learning how to gain reading mastery across the entire bass guitar fingerboard. I'm tempted to see what the double bass literature has to offer. Still, if you have any insights that would help me master the remaining section of the fingerboard, which is currently uncharted territory, I'd be very interested to hear them. If your boot camp lessons could include some material on these particular points, so much the better.

This is most welcome. I have a stack of books on reading for the bass and the only one that is any good doesn't progress past the first position and has been out of print for decades. None of the material I have contains musically interesting exercises like this one. I have high hopes of this series of lessons from The Major.

An almost identical one of these went for £100 last week, attracting a single bid. That was cheap, but £300+ is ridiculous. I wonder if the 'winner' will cough up.

Valve amps belong in a museum next to black and white TVs. You wanted an opinion? It may be a minority opinion, but that's mine.

[quote name='voxpop' post='689632' date='Dec 20 2009, 11:38 AM']For the very best try....Chord Company Cream cables..... [url="http://www.chord.co.uk/cream/index.htm"]http://www.chord.co.uk/cream/index.htm[/url][/quote] The very best in what respect?

[quote name='geoffbyrne' post='688899' date='Dec 19 2009, 09:54 AM']Buy good quality jacks & learn to solder.[/quote] Agreed. Failing that, buy cables fitted with the cast body Neutrik jacks, which have been designed to be virtually indistructable and to grip the cable properly. You'll pay a few pounds more, but it's worth it.

[quote name='rip-da-cut' post='687124' date='Dec 17 2009, 10:51 AM']In what ways do some amps/cabinets colour sound?[/quote] To answer your question directly whilst everyone is busy in the other mega thread, there are three ways I can think of in which an amp/cab can colour your sound. Distortion, delayed resonance and frequency response anomalies. The concept of distortion is self-evident. It is introduced both by the amp and the speaker. It is not always perceived as 'distortion' but rather as a lack or clarity, mudiness, added warmth, softening of attack, compression, and so on. It's not always unpleasant (valve amps) but should be kept to a minimum unless distortion is part of the target 'sound'. Delayed resonances are produced by the driver and the cab 'ringing' when the actual signal from your bass has stopped. How well these are dealt with is a matter of good design and (frequently) cost. All cabinets and drive units ring - some more than others. Bad ringing in the passband is always audible but usually difficult to 'put your finger on'. Frequency response anomalies are the most obvious colouration and also the easiest for the user to deal with. Some manufacturers deliberately boost or cut bass, boost treble or cut mid in their amps in an effort to get the best out of their speakers (or, dare I say it, to fool the punter). For reasons that I won't go into here, most bass cabinets have a rising midrange response that requires equalization to prevent the bass sounding honky and nasal. All things being equal, larger cabs need less midrange eq than smaller ones. This is where the bassist's 'smile' comes from. As a postscript, I always try to eq cabinets before comparing them. Otherwise, I am liable to prefer the one that is closest to my preferred eq setting (which is fairly flat).