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Frequency response

You're absolutely right. You probably know this already but for anyone else wanting to read up a little more, what you've just described is known as Hofmann's Iron Law.
In practice, a 3cf cab with a genuine 100dB/2.83V/1m (for an 8Ω speaker) would have F3 somewhere around 60-65Hz as a result. (Eminence's Kappalite 3015 (not the LF version) gets close to this, for example.)
To get flat to 30Hz in that same box size would require finding a driver with around 89-90dB sensitivity and would likely resemble a car subwoofer more than a musical Instrument woofer.
A grossly inaccurate generalization IMO. It’s. It an all or nothing proposition, and each driver design results in different performance in the same box.
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Pay rates for general business in New England

The only gig where I'm playing 4 hrs of music is probably a wedding, and even then very unlikely to have to play that much.

Generally when I sub on a bar/club gig, it's ~3 hrs of music. I'll pull around $200 for that. For a country club/hotel, that's more of a corporate gig or private party. Usually 2-3 hrs of play, but I'll get $400-500.
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Club Bergantino! Let's See Those Rigs!

Any of the club have dimensions on the shipping box for the NV410T/ NV312T?

Pirate ship got an adjustment form UPS and it drastically changed the shipping price which they took out of my account without notice.

Thanks.

@Jim Bergantino

Here are the FedEx shipping details from my pre-owned NV312T (sent in the original box with some extra protection inside).

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Fryette PS2 & preamp question

I also own a PS1 and a PS100. I foolishly did not employ them into two recent gigs with a full band and a loud drummer. My '65 Fender Showman struggled to keep up and fell short. The difference in clean power from the PS100 compared to my Showman (4 x 6L6) was surprisingly significant. Maybe my showman is showing its age or needs to be rebiased. Either way, the power station solution for more volume without compromising the tone of the amp was right under my nose, as confirmed AFTER the gigs.

I need to do more testing in that environment to fully capture the difference in output, but even at home, I could tell a difference in terms of the clarity, and headroom of the power station.

School Me on Running Preamp Pedals into Clean Power Amps

The only bass amp I have is a 1970s Fender Bassman.

WHICH IS GLORIOUS.

But it also lives on my guitar cabinets because it's an amazing guitar amp as well. Which means to play the Bassman, I either have to lug that heavy bastard across the room or run speaker cables across the room (which is what I do).

It's brilliant and I love it, but this Fryette setup is meant to be more of a "plug in and jam" thing. Whereas my Bassman is a recording situation.

However, no FX Loop on the bassman unfortunately. Also, it wouldn't fix the inconvenience issue unfortunately!

In hindsight, it's why I'm starting to believe that Bass Amps are kinda more flat than I expected. Because there isn't a HUGE difference in terms of overall tone between the Fryette and the Bassman. Except for the "excessive frequencies" thing that I talk about

If you haven't tried using your Bassman as your preamp, running into the Power Station, you are missing out, in my opinion. In the power station, you have clean, linear power, at any volume, plus an effects loop, and a direct out to FOH. You can set your Bassman up for maxium tone, and then run that exact sound at any volume level you desire.

I run a 1965 Fender Showman this way. The Showman typically has plenty of volume on tap, but for full band situations with loud drums, it struggles to keep up, and I end up with a sound that starts to fart out. Not so when adding the power station into the mix. You arguably have the ultimate preamp in your bassman, and you have a damn fine power amp to push those speakers very efficiently in the power station.

3 cute micro amp heads on Thomann…

Impressions on the Joyo BantAmp bass:

1. The Bluetooth connection with my iPhone works flawlessly; you can just use the amp to play music in the house through whatever compatible speaker you may have.
2. The vacuum tube preamp is hot; you feel the bass’ tone becoming sort of grindy when the gain control goes at around 09:00; around 12:00 it is clearly overdriven but in a warm way (the cabinet I bought is not the best as in my opinion if tends to always compress the tone a bit; the amp may sound better with a better cab I believe).
3. I didn’t understand how it works but the volume of the Bluetooth source is only controlled by the source sending the Bluetooth signal to the amp which offers the user the possibility of adjusting the instrument’s volume independently (I think this is a positive feature).
4. The amp and the cab are well built without any defects and/or imperfections.
5. The compressor is brutal in my opinion; it should have been designed for being more gradual and less aggressive towards the other frequencies; however one can use an external one.

All-in-all I’m happy about having bought the combo.
I’ll try to combine it with a low-budget Valeton GP-50 soon.

Music you enjoy listening to but don't enjoy playing

I've experienced the opposite, in a huge way. While I was a mild fan of the Grateful Dead intermittently in my early years, I generally disliked them past about age 20. I respected their musicianship, but I thought most of the material was seriously weak, and I never listened to them.

Then I ended up in an original band with two Deadhead guitarists, and we occasionally warmed up with jams, which, unbeknownst to me, were often based on Grateful Dead songs. We eventually played a couple of GD tracks for select gigs, and I discovered I liked playing their stuff. That band dissolved in 2018.

Fast forward to 2023, and through a somewhat convoluted sequence of events, I ended up in a Grateful Dead cover band. It's been among the best musical experiences I've ever had, and I love playing their stuff. The freedom and improvisation are extremely rewarding, and audiences love it.

I've grown to like more of their material and now consider myself a fan, but I doubt I'll ever enjoy listening to them as much as The Who, Stones, Prince, Pearl Jam, etc.

A less extreme example is Billy Joel. Again, I respect the talent, but I never listen to him. About ten years ago, however, I was in a cover band that played a couple of his tracks, and they were a blast.

Which 9v batteries for active?

Rechargeables are a great idea in theory. At least presuming a reasonable charge / discharge cycling lifetime.

Big problem has been that most rechargeables have actual operating voltage of 8.4V. Those have issues in certain preamp circuits due to the lower voltage.

But, I see there are now 8 cell NiMH batteries with actual operating voltages of 9.6V. Those might be worth checking out.
After a bit more investigation, it seems that the 8 cell rechargeable variants actually have initial ioperating voltages around 11.5 VDC, which as others have posted, may be problematic for some preamp circuits.

I’ll be sticking with my alkaline copper tops for a while it seems.
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GK 700RB-II Repair

I've had several 700RBs and 1001RBs and when they did what you describe, it was dirty effects send and return jacks. Run a patch cable between the 2 jacks and see if that fixes it. If so, you can get some deoxit5 and spray a Qtip and use it to clean up the connections. If you don't use the effects loop, you can just leave the patch cable plugged in. It won't hurt anything. Good luck.

Mark Bass 800 watt 410

This was my 58R 104 Energy yesterday at the outdoor gig. I used maybe a bit more than 1/4 volume as I was standing in front of it, with the cab at roughly chest height. I could hear myself plainly without killing the monitor beside the Hammond B, with a LOT more available. You can see the Dingwall (green bass by post) and Spectra Pro (blue bass in front of drums) set up for the day. I used them both, they are both using bridge + neck pickup single coil pickups and have a very similar volume, so no adjustment was required.

IMHO this combo may be slightly overkill but it looks cool, it's not heavy (my 102HF is 29lbs, the 104E is 36lbs) and will last forever at that output. As for the Bergantino head, it may look like it could slide off, but it you could almost push it over before the amp would move. I might be more concerned if it was running 3/4 volume or something.

The lady with the red hair, Laura Richards, stepped in for the day and played saxophone. I wish I could pay her to play in all the time, but I'd have to start taking bigger venues and they are thin on the ground here. :(

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Adding a Bartolini neck pickup to P bass

Just though I would post this with a few pictures . Built this P bass a few years ago and was originally an experiment (successful) to see if I got on with a headless . And then after that , it became a fretless . And again it was the base for an experiment with changing the cap on the EMG solderless tone pot to one of 100nF . There is a thread on here somewhere about it . And then the poor thing was used as a test bed for BEAD tuning which is how it still is , strung with Labella DTFs . A great bass but you know how things go . It was time for another experiment with it . I have , and love the tone of , a Burns Bison . Despite all the array of switching options , I always come back to the neck pickup , sometimes with the middle pickup as well . So the hunt started for a pickup to add to the neck of the trusty P bass . To cut a long story short , I bought a Bartolini BB4CBC-B from the wonderful chaps at Bass direct . A weekend in the shed making sawdust and Its done . It is switched using a Les Paul toggle switch for neck , neck and P bass pickup , and P bass pickup only . Having had a play with the pickup before fitting , it turns out it would have been out of phase with the EMG GZR P bass pickup so some wires were swapped round on the Bart .
Very happy with the outcome . EMG on its own sounds the same as it ever was . Bartolini is an absolute beast on its own , and with both pickups on it seems to combine the best of both .
And just for information , this little bastardised P bass is no lightweight . Not measured it after latest additions , but it was the heavy side of 12lbs before . A solid piece of baseball bat ash for the body , with no contours at all . With an 8mm fretless board from some unknown hardwood that was given to me , the neck is not for those with small hands . Its not for everybody , but I love it .
:crazy:
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This the bass originally
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New Pickup
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Body marked up and template made
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Test fitting to lump of 4x2
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Template mounted and pickup routed
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Phase reversed on Bartolini
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PIckups and controls fitted . Pickguard painted
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All finished for now .

Can”t hear any bass at live shows anymore

My non-professional take:

To me it seems the “kick” is the focal low end element in a lot of rock mixes. The bass is sitting in sub territory and then some highs you can’t even hear. Guitarists have a lot of lows too.

Has anyone asked their guitarist to cut lows?
Haven't read through the rest here yet, but to answer your question - yes...

...and that guy isn't in the band anymore :bag: :laugh:

Magnets & Copper Wire: A Pickup Building Thread

The R & D continues on my EUB project, and I'm now experimenting with a different configuration of the Percussive Pickup. It's a different combination and position of the coils, but I'm using the same type of construction as I used above. A simple walnut block, cut on my Pin Router, with the two coils epoxied into the block.

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Cutting out the walnut block on my Medium Green Pin Router. You've seen that technology over on my Pin Routers thread, I hope. A basic 2-D pickup block like this can also be made with a hand router and fixture, or a CNC router, or a 3-D printer.

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The block is simple; a chunk of 3/4" thick walnut with two rectangular openings for the coils and a smooth straight perimeter. All cut with a straight 1/4" dia router bit. The block is held onto the fixture with two 1/8" steel dowel pins.

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While it was in the fixture, I prettied it up by running a 1/16" Beading bit around the perimeter.

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Adding shielding around the coils: I drill two small holes at an angle into the end walls of the openings for the coils......

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I cut a short length of 20ga Buss Wire, bend it into a U-shape, and plug the ends into the two holes. Then bend it up against the end walls. Then I cut strips of 3/4" wide conductive copper shielding tape and stick it in all around the walls.

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And there's the shielding. The tape makes good conductive contact with the Buss wire (I checked to make sure). Later, I'll wrap a wire around the Buss Wire and solder it.

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I put two layers of Clear Packing Tape on the top side of the block, wrapping around onto the sides. Then flip it over and stick the coils down in, sticking them right to the Packing Tape. Those coils are same as I use on my AMB-2 Scroll Basses.

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Then set it on some waxed paper, and pour in the West Systems epoxy, letting it fully fill in around the coils. The coils had previously been potted with Total Boat Clear Penetrating Epoxy, as I do on all my pickup coils.

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After the epoxy cures, I pull off the tape and do a light block sanding on the top surface. I wiped on a coat of Osmo, and it's ready to install.

This is for a diaphragm-type percussive pickup. The diaphragm and bridge assembly mounts on top of this block. And the diaphragm wiggles over top of the coils to make that distinctive Diaphragm Pickup sound.

Is the HX Stomp still a viable “center” to base a pedalboard from?

HX Stomp is right at that sweet spot of well-priced, well- documented, and ultra flexible.

Once you get a hang of it, you never get bad tone. It’s always useful in some capacity.

However, if I had nothing right now and I had more dollars to spare than the HX Stomp costs, I’d get the Anagram for five reasons:
- bluetooth
- XLR
- better UI
- better bass drive tones
- bass-centric, not guitar-centric

I don’t really think there’s a gaping chasm between them but to have my time again I’d buy HX Stomp second hand or anagram new. I probably wouldn’t buy an HX Stomp new.
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