Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[Stumbo]

I bought my wife a Subaru Impreza-- brand new-- last year....When I showed it to my wife, she decided she wanted to keep her 2010 Forester.

Wait, wait, wait!

You bought a car for your wife without telling her?

Are you a rookie?

What century is this?

You forgot our motto "Happy wife...

Now go sit in the corner for 2 hours and think about what'll do next time you want to spend more than $100 for your wife's happiness.

 

[BadExample]

Maybe they have his brain connected to a computer like they did with Spock's.

I've heard about internet rumors. Be careful, you wouldn't want to start one.

Edited: Now it's officially a rumor

BTW: Just by liking that post, you are on the red list. Big Bro. is listening.

I'm joking. I sure hope they have a good sense of humor. Gulp.

 

[BadExample]

You forgot our motto "Happy wife...

Or not crazy in the head, not crazy in the bed.

 

[Al Kraft]

I remember when we had engineering solutions but the computers were not powerful enough to process the algorithms in real time.

I would implement some code in assembly to have more control over execution speed. It required understanding how the microprocessors worked. Some functions were implemented in hardware to attain even faster speeds. A lot of time was spent trying to get around computer limitations. DSP chips came out, they helped.

Eventually affordable computers caught up and those solutions were no longer needed. That’s how R&D goes. There are often many, time consuming small steps that go into the seemingly latest “new technology”.

I just had a similar conversation with one of my colleagues about the early days of using CFD for air-wake modelling. Wind tunnels offered a lot of insight, but sometimes too late to have prevented wasted design time. Once we had serious high performance computing we could get much higher fidelity understanding of root and secondary modalities in problem areas, particularly when looking at aircraft landing on moving ships in the presence of significant surface winds.

 

[BassmanPaul]

How many of our GOF’s did you use to power the wind tunnel??

 

[beans-on-toast]

I remember people connecting Apple computers years ago for distributed processing. The CPU sharing was built into the OS. There were even internet based projects where, if you agreed, they would link in your computer’s processor to number crunch. These computers were on the do not sell list to prevent unfriendly countries from building powerful computers.

It is interesting to note that quad core Raspberry Pi’s are being networked in large numbers to create “super” computers for system design research.

Things have changed, now you can do it with $40 computers.

 

[BassmanPaul]

I prefer strawberries.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Ya, but those Los Alamos raspberry pies are huge.

 

[12BitSlab]

I remember people connecting Apple computers years ago for distributed processing. The CPU sharing was built into the OS. There were even internet based projects where, if you agreed, they would link in your computer’s processor to number crunch. These computers were on the do not sell list to prevent unfriendly countries from building powerful computers.

It is interesting to note that quad core Raspberry Pi’s are being networked in large numbers to create “super” computers for system design research.

Things have changed, now you can do it with $40 computers.

The magic of Google is not search. It's the methods used to distribute the workload.

 

[alaskaleftybass]

Wait, wait, wait!

You bought a car for your wife without telling her?

Are you a rookie?

What century is this?

You forgot our motto "Happy wife...

Now go sit in the corner for 2 hours and think about what'll do next time you want to spend more than $100 for your wife's happiness.

Actually we negotiated for almost a year after she finished paying off her Forester. I'm kind of dense sometimes and I should have seen the signs that she wasn't that interested in it. I guess I was creating all the excitement.

It was so funny -- she had the new Impreza for one day, with dog Shadow. I asked her how she liked it and she said, "I'm putting my foot down. I want to keep my own car." I kind of fumed and said quietly, "This would have been good information to know BEFORE WE SIGNED THE CONTRACT!"

She later admitted to me, she wanted me to get rid of the 2003 Toyota and figured I'd end up having to like whatever we bought. She wanted me to have AWD. Wommerns. Go figure!

 

[alaskaleftybass]

In other news today, I received my Ampeg BA108v2 from Amazon and honestly I wasn't impressed. The amp farted out about halfway up-- with a passive Pbass pickup. I think the GK MB108 is a much better performer. It can really put out the low end, which Ampeg couldn't do. There was distortion on a low level P bass pickup only 50% power. My 1986 Peavey Silverfin Microbass combo sounds better than the Ampeg BA108V2. I'm very surprised and kind of saddened. I was ready to embrace the Ampeg tone and see if I could adapt it to my tone but it didn't work out.

So it's going back to Amazon tomorrow. I'm glad that Amazon pays for return shipping and even creates a UPS Pickup label. My next attempt at a micro rig is probably going to be a Euphonic Wizzy 10 or Barefaced One10. I'm also considering buying an Eden EX110 U 4 ohm with my MB200, but it's a bit bigger for home jamming and it's sitting not so inconspicuously next to my recliner in the living room. But not that much bigger, and the two EX110's I use with my MB500 provide a lot of noise for a small portable rig.

 

[Al Kraft]

In other news today, I received my Ampeg BA108v2 from Amazon and honestly I wasn't impressed. The amp farted out about halfway up-- with a passive Pbass pickup. I think the GK MB108 is a much better performer. It can really put out the low end, which Ampeg couldn't do. There was distortion on a low level P bass pickup only 50% power. My 1986 Peavey Silverfin Microbass combo sounds better than the Ampeg BA108V2. I'm very surprised and kind of saddened. I was ready to embrace the Ampeg tone and see if I could adapt it to my tone but it didn't work out.

So it's going back to Amazon tomorrow. I'm glad that Amazon pays for return shipping and even creates a UPS Pickup label. My next attempt at a micro rig is probably going to be a Euphonic Wizzy 10 or Barefaced One10. I'm also considering buying an Eden EX110 U 4 ohm with my MB200, but it's a bit bigger for home jamming and it's sitting not so inconspicuously next to my recliner in the living room. But not that much bigger, and the two EX110's I use with my MB500 provide a lot of noise for a small portable rig.

Interesting outcome Will. IME folks who find a lot of joy with GK gear sometimes have difficulty getting to "their sound" (or at least a familiar sound) with Ampeg stuff. I've owned Ampeg gear and it treated me very well, but it was never home base for me in terms of the voicing I like in a band mix.

I feel a little odd saying that though since I really like using the Tech21 VT Bass V2 with many of my amps. However, it's not an all the time thing, but rather a voicing I'll use occasionally - more for effect.

 

[alaskaleftybass]

Interesting outcome Will. IME folks who find a lot of joy with GK gear sometimes have difficulty getting to "their sound" (or at least a familiar sound) with Ampeg stuff. I've owned Ampeg gear and it treated me very well, but it was never home base for me in terms of the voicing I like in a band mix.

I feel a little odd saying that though since I really like using the Tech21 VT Bass V2 with many of my amps. However, it's not an all the time thing, but rather a voicing I'll use occasionally - more for effect.

I had used various versions of Ampeg backline stuff from the 70's through the 90's and I had a romanticized perceived tone that I thought Ampeg had. I read a lot of great reviews on the little BA108v2 and was hoping it would give me a mini-"svt" tone for home. Sadly it didn't.

Like you, I've used Ampeg but I've always depended on other brands for my personal backline on tours. I still feel GK MB series are the ones to beat. Except, I must admit, the Mesa Boogies sound like the Mercedez series of the bass world. I think eventually I'm going to get around to buying one...

 

[rust_preacher]

Two things in one reply:

1) I once wrote code for a "massive parallel" CPU constellation... then learned I would have to wait 2 weeks to get access to the batch processing queue.

2) Why is it that people are turned off D-class/micro amps and NEVER EVER have they tried the Aguilar TH500? If you want Ampegy tone in a micro amp form factor, TH500 is your choice.

 

[BassmanPaul]

I remember people connecting Apple computers years ago for distributed processing. The CPU sharing was built into the OS. There were even internet based projects where, if you agreed, they would link in your computer’s processor to number crunch.

I remember setting up my son’s G5 tower to join such a network. It had something to do with NASA.

 

[BadExample]

Why is it that people are turned off D-class/micro amps and NEVER EVER have they tried the Aguilar TH500? If you want Ampegy tone in a micro amp form factor, TH500 is your choice.

Because they heard it on the Internet... and fell for it. Class D can't sound as good. It's all over TB.

 

[ric426]

In other news today, I received my Ampeg BA108v2 from Amazon and honestly I wasn't impressed. The amp farted out about halfway up-- with a passive Pbass pickup. I think the GK MB108 is a much better performer. It can really put out the low end, which Ampeg couldn't do. There was distortion on a low level P bass pickup only 50% power. My 1986 Peavey Silverfin Microbass combo sounds better than the Ampeg BA108V2. I'm very surprised and kind of saddened. I was ready to embrace the Ampeg tone and see if I could adapt it to my tone but it didn't work out.

So it's going back to Amazon tomorrow. I'm glad that Amazon pays for return shipping and even creates a UPS Pickup label. My next attempt at a micro rig is probably going to be a Euphonic Wizzy 10 or Barefaced One10. I'm also considering buying an Eden EX110 U 4 ohm with my MB200, but it's a bit bigger for home jamming and it's sitting not so inconspicuously next to my recliner in the living room. But not that much bigger, and the two EX110's I use with my MB500 provide a lot of noise for a small portable rig.

If I may offer an alternative suggestion, you might want to take a look at the Genzler MA350-BA10 combo. They're not cheap, but people have been very happy with them and they pop up used every so often. I've been using the 350 head for a few weeks now and I'm very happy with it. It's much better than the Shuttle amps, which left me kind of underwhelmed. A lot of guys are using the new combo with a second BA10-2 and covering all their gigs with it.

 

[Ken Morgan]

I dunno, man...in the recording world, we used to have a saying: if you want the sound of a U47, then you gotta use a U47.

Translation - lots of things might sound kinda like, maybe sorta, close copy, etc, but if you want the real deal, you HAVE to use the real deal

 

[alaskaleftybass]

If I may offer an alternative suggestion, you might want to take a look at the Genzler MA350-BA10 combo. They're not cheap, but people have been very happy with them and they pop up used every so often. I've been using the 350 head for a few weeks now and I'm very happy with it. It's much better than the Shuttle amps, which left me kind of underwhelmed. A lot of guys are using the new combo with a second BA10-2 and covering all their gigs with it.

I appreciate that Mr. @ric426 but I was wanting an excellent tiny practice amp for the living room/recliner sessions. I'm beginning to think there isn't such a beast that exists... maybe the GK MB108.... I dunno...

 

[BadExample]

In other news today, I received my Ampeg BA108v2 from Amazon and honestly I wasn't impressed. The amp farted out about halfway up-- with a passive Pbass pickup. I think the GK MB108 is a much better performer. It can really put out the low end, which Ampeg couldn't do. There was distortion on a low level P bass pickup only 50% power. My 1986 Peavey Silverfin Microbass combo sounds better than the Ampeg BA108V2. I'm very surprised and kind of saddened. I was ready to embrace the Ampeg tone and see if I could adapt it to my tone but it didn't work out.

So it's going back to Amazon tomorrow. I'm glad that Amazon pays for return shipping and even creates a UPS Pickup label. My next attempt at a micro rig is probably going to be a Euphonic Wizzy 10 or Barefaced One10. I'm also considering buying an Eden EX110 U 4 ohm with my MB200, but it's a bit bigger for home jamming and it's sitting not so inconspicuously next to my recliner in the living room. But not that much bigger, and the two EX110's I use with my MB500 provide a lot of noise for a small portable rig.

Was it amp distortion or was the speaker farting out?