fEARful™ Part Ten (10)

[greenboy]

I'm with you guys on the paint stuff. I helped do a downtown Seattle studio with the same texturing/layering techniques - different treatments everywhere - and there is little reason to use fancy Tolex. Also I'd like to see some metallic stuff like the inside of Aphrodite's shell or the underside of some bird wings while I am at it ; }

Maybe if I am not sick of painting after the stuff I have to do around the property this year, I will do my babies up a little more.

 

[Passinwind]

I'm with you guys on the paint stuff. I helped do a downtown Seattle studio with the same texturing/layering techniques - different treatments everywhere - and there is little reason to use fancy Tolex. Also I'd like to see some metallic stuff like the inside of Aphrodite's shell or the underside of some bird wings while I am at it ; }

Maybe if I am not sick of painting after the stuff I have to do around the property this year, I will do my babies up a little more.

There's a TB member local to me whose business is holography...

 

[Sundogue]

I'm with you guys on the paint stuff. I helped do a downtown Seattle studio with the same texturing/layering techniques - different treatments everywhere - and there is little reason to use fancy Tolex. Also I'd like to see some metallic stuff like the inside of Aphrodite's shell or the underside of some bird wings while I am at it ; }

Maybe if I am not sick of painting after the stuff I have to do around the property this year, I will do my babies up a little more.

Ooh, airbrushing using pearlescent paints. Hmmm...there's just so many possibilities one can explore. Of course being an artist I tend to think of my cabs as both form and function. Some want to hide their onstage gear whereas I want to make it part of the show!

Which reminds me...I have to get going on our band's backdrop. I'm sick of playing shows with neon beer signs, posters, windows and other crap on the wall behind us onstage. We've played about 20 shows now with our new computerized LED light system and I want to maximize their effect so I have to get that done and hopefully...set my cab on fire.

 

[lelandcrooks]

I've done distressed leather with duratex. Put on a moderately heavy coat, cover it up with a .99 drop cloth, peel it off. You can do anything with duratex you can do with paint.

 

[Bill Whitehurst]

Leland's crossovers aren't that hard to build.
I'd use a Dremel or somesuch to cut the trace material.
It takes a while with a pocket knife.

Use PL, hot glue or something to secure all the parts.
Lots of bass vibration will loosen most anything.

 

[greenboy]

Another thing I've meant to mention in fEARful threads: if you guys have cabs (or other gear) you no longer use consider donating them to young guys who could use a boost. maybe ask the price of shipping if they are not local to you. There's a lot of kids out there that really would appreciate the encouragement and it'll make you feel great too!

Kind of puts everything in perspective.

 

[Sundogue]

Order expected today never came. Must have been the storm although Fed Ex updated the tracking from "Expected delivery Mar 23" to no expected delivery at all. Nothing...just the ship date.

Geez, it departed the Fed Ex location (only 95 miles away) at 3:23 AM this morning and now its in limbo.

Probably in a pile of other packages strewn all over a field and under two foot snow drifts.

EDIT: They must have had delays because of the weather. This morning it says its on the truck locally to deliver today.

 

[cableguy]

Sundogue,

That is very cool with the flames. Wish you were local, you would make some money of me painting my cabs. Don't know how flaming cabs would go over playing worship though. But that with an airbrushed flaming pet screen grill would rock!!!!

 

[deb]

+ 1,000,000

Greenboy: Awesome of you to send this out there.

I highly encourage everyone to listen to greenboy's suggestion and be active. Everyone needs support and encouragement now and then.

Personally, I'm giving a local yout' some free bass lessons. And, I recently gave away a brand new Fishman acoustic guitar amp to a band that is utterly fantastic but in dire need of half-decent equipment. The man I gave the amp to was stunned and almost started weeping on the spot. Simple gestures with huge effect.

Be good,
deb

...if you guys have cabs (or other gear) you no longer use consider donating them to young guys who could use a boost ... There's a lot of kids out there that really would appreciate the encouragement and it'll make you feel great too!

 

[Sundogue]

+ 1,000,000

Greenboy: Awesome of you to send this out there.

I highly encourage everyone to listen to greenboy's suggestion and be active. Everyone needs support and encouragement now and then.

Personally, I'm giving a local yout' some free bass lessons. And, I recently gave away a brand new Fishman acoustic guitar amp to a band that is utterly fantastic but in dire need of half-decent equipment. The man I gave the amp to was stunned and almost started weeping on the spot. Simple gestures with huge effect.

Be good,
deb

Having so many cabs and some backup amps, I often borrow my gear out to other bass players in need, allowing them to use it as long as they need to.

The last guy I did that for had to pawn off his gear because he was really hurting for money, but still had gigs to play. He almost quit because of having no gear. I let him have my gear for over a month until he got back on his feet.

I've given away gear to other musicians...especially young guys who are cash poor but have talent and a passion for playing bass. I built a cab for one guy using some speakers I had lying around because he was so talented, yet had no way of even playing with anyone because all he had was a little practice amp. He had enough money for a cheap amphead but not enough for a cab too. I had lots of speakers lying around so I just made a 210 for him. He still uses it and he's now playing with some real cool guys. He told me he'd pay me for the cab, but I told him that all he had to do to pay me back was to keep on playing.

Always good to "pay it forward".

 

[tombowlus]

Always good to "pay it forward".

Agreed. I tend to lend out a lot of gear, myself.

 

[deb]

Awesome guys! Ya' done good!!

 

[BurningSkies]

Yep. I've given away some fEARful stuff... And I really think the BEST thing we can give is encouragement, quick-clear-easy info to those interested in having or building these cabs. Please everyone, if you see misinfo call it and correct it.

In other news, I took the new Kern to rehearsal last night and "tested" it for a hard 3+ hours with a makeshift amp setup of 300w per cab. What an absolute monster. What a really really big fat a** this pre has. I ran my bass eq flat and my pickups in series and had the 777 with the bass at noon, mids at 2 o'clock and the treble at 10 o'clock. Deep engaged, the balance at 10 o'clock. Deep, defined, smooth But with good clarity. I also ran in parallel and bumped up the lows a touch and it's vintage warm & wide 70's roots all over.

There were some places where I was being distracted by the depth of the tone and just how smooth yet complex it was. The fEARfuls definitely help bring out the detail without being clinical and cold.

 

[BurningSkies]

Sounds like it's the thing then, BurningSkies. I kick myself for going for an Alembic F1X rather than a Kern when I was at Bass Northwest so many years ago. Ironically a $180 Peavey Max made the Alembic look like a puff piece and I got rid of it rather quickly. I should have auditioned with more cabs and listened less to advice about Alembic being at the apex of preamp design ; }

Well, you know it will take a while to really feel like I know the Kern, and of course it’s the first day of the gear honeymoon.... When I was first casting about for preamps, I was sort of turned off that it has a [DEL]Baxandall [/DEL] Fender type tone setup, but it really seems to be a different monster than most I’ve touched. I did use a Mesa 400+ for a couple years and I always could never quite get what I was after…it always was *just* not quite what I was trying for. I also never felt like I could get it as clean as I wanted. There was always a hint of noise floor in my sound I couldn’t really identify, but couldn’t get rid of either. I’ve also used a few others along the way. Without having a wide range of pres that I’ve touched, I have to think that this might be as close to ‘full tube’ sound as you’re going to get without a tube power section.

I had sort of given up on the concept of having integral tubes in my sound, but this may change that. I think that when grafted to a decent power section and the 2 fEARfuls it’s going to be silly good. I know that some of the ‘old’ guys like to gripe about the 3015LF not being as smooth as some of the old speakers like the D140 and all, but not if what I hear is accurate.

I can understand for what you play (in terms of variety of tones) this kind of pre might be a straightjacket. But I also think you probably need and use way more sounds than I do. I’m going to guess that some of the ‘big and deep’ may present some additional work in a couple of the more problematic rooms I play in (I’ve got an upcoming month long weekly ‘band residency’ in our favorite funk music/coffee house/waffle bar/live music venue and the room is a nightmare for bass if not done perfectly due to funky angles and hollow walls, fer instance).

The end message I think is that if you’ve got a great sounding amp and a great sounding bass, the fEARfuls are also going to sound great.

 

[Passinwind]

[FONT=&quot]Well, you know it will take a while to really feel like I know the Kern, and of course it’s the first day of the gear honeymoon.... When I was first casting about for preamps, I was sort of turned off that it has a Baxandall type tone setup, [/FONT]

Are you sure? I think it uses the Fender style tone stack, at least according to everything I've ever read. Many Mesa designs do as well. That tone stack get a bad rap, but IME it can work really well if you just bake some midrange boost EQ somewhere else in the circuit. That's Mesa's deal, but I've never seen a Kern schematic or poked around under the hood in one to suss their EQ scheme.

 

[BurningSkies]

Thing is, if I would have went with the Kern, and then bought the Peavey as a backup pre, I would have had two good preamps ; }

Well, don't think I've ruled out having other preamps...especially since there are some good ones out there for fairly cheap.

Are you sure? I think it uses the Fender style tone stack, at least according to everything I've ever read. Many Mesa designs do as well. That tone stack get a bad rap, but IME it can work really well if you just bake some midrange boost EQ somewhere else in the circuit. That's Mesa's deal, but I've never seen a Kern schematic or poked around under the hood in one to suss their EQ scheme.

And you're entirely correct, of course. It is based upon the Fender circuit (passive mid, bass/treble active) vs. what's roughly the reverse with the Baxandall.

I did misspeak when I posted earlier...as the Mesa is the Fender style on the 400/+ and I have a variety of Fender amps as well.

Most of my turn off I think comes from my Mesa and how hard it was to find a sound in that black box. Although the Kern strikes me as quite different. I did for a moment with the Kern try a 2/10/2 setting and can confirm that it sounds pretty "flat" to the casual listen.

I had been thinking of taking the lid off my Kern just to get some reference pictures, but thought again as it's in pristine condition and unmounting the lid looked like it may be more than just a few screws in the top. I was laughing that just a pre weighs about 3x what my LMII weighs.

 

[Robby Hoinsky]

Here is a pic of the crossover for Deb's 15/6/1. It might help answer some questions about layout that people were having.

And here is the input terminals that will connect to the two speakon jacks. There was a question about that the other day.

greenboy, feel free to post either pic on your site.

Robby

 

[Passinwind]

And you're entirely correct, of course. It is based upon the Fender circuit (passive mid, bass/treble active) vs. what's roughly the reverse with the Baxandall.

I did misspeak when I posted earlier...as the Mesa is the Fender style on the 400/+ and I have a variety of Fender amps as well.

Most of my turn off I think comes from my Mesa and how hard it was to find a sound in that black box. Although the Kern strikes me as quite different. I did for a moment with the Kern try a 2/10/2 setting and can confirm that it sounds pretty "flat" to the casual listen.

I had been thinking of taking the lid off my Kern just to get some reference pictures, but thought again as it's in pristine condition and unmounting the lid looked like it may be more than just a few screws in the top. I was laughing that just a pre weighs about 3x what my LMII weighs.

I think I told you in PM how much I like the Kerns.

BTW, the Peavey preamp that greenboy mentioned also uses a derivative of the Fender stack in its passive EQ channel-- he just sent me the schemo so I could see what they did 'better' than Alembic.

I've never really come to grips with Mesa stuff I've tried, for either bass or guitar. As usual though, I've heard them sound absolutely great in other people's hands, especially at some of our GTGs.

 

[BurningSkies]

I think I told you in PM how much I like the Kerns.

Hrrrrmmm. I don't think I was CC'ed on that memo? Feel free to resend if you'd like.

BTW, the Peavey preamp that greenboy mentioned also uses a derivative of the Fender stack in its passive EQ channel-- he just sent me the schemo so I could see what they did 'better' than Alembic.

Heh. You know for all the Alembics out there, I actually usually hear negatives rather than positives.I think it could be worth it to have several different types of tone compliment depending upon the situation. As you know I pretty much do one thing these days though.

I've never really come to grips with Mesa stuff I've tried, for either bass or guitar. As usual though, I've heard them sound absolutely great in other people's hands, especially at some of our GTGs.

I really tried to love the Mesa. I worked at it for a couple of years until I realized I was happier leaving it at home and bringing a backup amp to gigs. They CAN sound great, but apparently I can't make them sound great.

 

[Passinwind]

Hrrrrmmm. I don't think I was CC'ed on that memo? Feel free to resend if you'd like.

Moot now, innit?

Heh. You know for all the Alembics out there, I actually usually hear negatives rather than positives.I think it could be worth it to have several different types of tone compliment depending upon the situation. As you know I pretty much do one thing these days though.

Me too, but that doesn't keep me from having at least 5 rack preamps and different onboard electronics in each bass. Preamps are the sweet spot for DIY builds for me. I would probably enjoy a Kern clone a lot actually, but I have a few outside-the-box ideas begging for attention at the moment.