Jule Amps Monique part 5

[Dominick C.]

So...question/s in regards to clipping as it may pertain to the Mini in a Mo & Mini situation. 1.) How does one know if they are clipping the amp (assuming they didn't notice anything immediatly perceptable (as it is loud and they are wearing ear plugs) and 2.) Might it be reasonable to think that, barring additional pedals that boost one's signal that this configuration would likely well handle an active Dingwall? Reason I ask is, I recently purchased a used Mo/Mini. Sounded/worked fine in basement. (Just me @ low volume). Used it at an 8 minute rehearsal..and now Mini is enroute to get repaired. I think it was just bad luck....but head might be fried. I'd like to think that I usedit no differently than everyone else...but who knows.

This might be a silly question, but did you have the fan on? I flip mine off every now and again when i am playing quietly. I run Monique at 9pm with the sensitivity at 9 and the knob pulled. My cali76 I know is pushing a fair amount of signal into her. I am running 3 cabs that equal 4ohms and Minnie is usually sitting at noon. It is silly loud, it's turn down loud.

 

[Jule Potter]

Monique plays better with my pedals than many other amps I have used. It brings out the true effect of the pedals. Adds a little warmth to my delay and chorus, together they can sound quite haunting. Love it.
View attachment 450651

Thank you. I am very glad to know she works in your pedal world.

I admit I am in a learning mode as it comes to pedals and this new 700 watt amplifier. In the past, I left the output level issue up to good people like James. Now it is my turn.

The question becomes, "Do I reduce the overall gain of the amplifier so that it works well with the highest output pedal (usually called a "boost" pedal) at the highest volume setting of the pedal?" The alternative is to understand that with some pedals we will all have to turn the volume of the amp down.

Quandary.

 

[Jule Potter]

This might be a silly question, but did you have the fan on? I flip mine off every now and again when i am playing quietly. I run Monique at 9pm with the sensitivity at 9 and the knob pulled. My cali76 I know is pushing a fair amount of signal into her. I am running 3 cabs that equal 4ohms and Minnie is usually sitting at noon. It is silly loud, it's turn down loud.

Dude! Thanks for bringing the all that love to the shop. Any time. The whales are scooping up the anchovies right out from the beach where we enjoyed the evening.

I would recommend that Minnie fan being left "on" whenever possible. There is a lot of heat being generated under normal circumstances inside that little box.

 

[pmad_bass]

This might be a silly question, but did you have the fan on? I flip mine off every now and again when i am playing quietly. I run Monique at 9pm with the sensitivity at 9 and the knob pulled. My cali76 I know is pushing a fair amount of signal into her. I am running 3 cabs that equal 4ohms and Minnie is usually sitting at noon. It is silly loud, it's turn down loud.

Full disclosure, I did not have the fan on...as the fan thing is new to me and I forgot. That said....it couldn't have been in use for more than 7 or 8 minutes. I did mention that to the good folks at Demeter and they didn’t seem to think that should have been an issue…if I recall how our conversation went. No one at the rehearsal mentioned that if sounded bad...which I know a few of the guys weren't wearing plugs. When I first got it a few weeks back (it was used), all was well...though the power output seemed far less loud than my Woods. Granted, the Woods is 1000w @ 4ohns (when bridged) and Mini is 800 @ 4, but the just Mini seemed WAY less loud than a 25 % reduction in output wattage….at least in the manner in which I was using it. In corresponding with the seller (early on), he asked where I had the Line Level on the Mini set, which I had set relatively low. Per his recommendation, I crank it all the way. That seemed to give Mini more volume but something still seemed a miss. If I were to have had the Line Level only at @ 9:00 (i.e. aprox 25%)...it would have been WAY underwhelming.

 

[Jule Potter]

Think I'll stir the pot for fun. The less junk you have between the input (your fingers, pick, bass) and the output (the sound from the cabinet) the better off you'll be. (Including whatever is in your amp) How can you find your 'tone' with all those variables in the signal chain? Unless you're a technical genius like Steve Morse better to keep it simple. Your sound comes from your software (ie you) NOT the hardware. Are you a bassist or a guitarist?
OK, fire away brothers - I can take it. We grumpy ole farts love a good scrap!!!!!

I totally agree, but . . .

My helper in the shop is a young guy named Sam. Great, smart guy. We are all lucky to have him on the team. He plays in about four bands, one of which does "Doom Metal."

I have learned that his Doom Metal requires songs of about 45 minute duration, all of which are driven by a series of Overdrive pedals fed into a Boost pedal. The input level to Monique could almost drive a small speaker itself (I exaggerate). In truth I am grateful to Sam for the opportunity to learn that there are players out there who will push to these limits.

 

[Jeff Moote]

The question becomes, "Do I reduce the overall gain of the amplifier so that it works well with the highest output pedal (usually called a "boost" pedal) at the highest volume setting of the pedal?" The alternative is to understand that with some pedals we will all have to turn the volume of the amp down.

Quandary.

I would much rather have the responsibility as the player to keep things within reason, but I can understand that for a designer it's a matter of people damaging things and then coming back to you needing repairs, etc.

I'm not sure if the 700W module you are using has the ability, but if there was a way to monitor clipping with a light or other cue (ideally before it gets to the point of damaging things) that would be my preference, over reducing the gain available.

 

[Dominick C.]

Dude! Thanks for bringing the all that love to the shop. Any time. The whales are scooping up the anchovies right out from the beach where we enjoyed the evening.

I would recommend that Minnie fan being left "on" whenever possible. There is a lot of heat being generated under normal circumstances inside that little box.

Jule!!! Meeting you was awesome. My family really enjoyed the trip. You live in a paradise. Seeing the love you have for your wonderful wife, your "job", and the beach made everything make a little more sense. You somehow trapped that huge heart, and a little Sea Lion, inside of Monique. I don't have words for the kind of hospitality you showed us, all I can really say is I felt at home for a little while.

Make a trip to Austin, I'll return the favor!

P.S

Got some fig preserves shipping out to you on Friday, keep an eye out!

 

[pmad_bass]

Dude! Thanks for bringing the all that love to the shop. Any time. The whales are scooping up the anchovies right out from the beach where we enjoyed the evening.

I would recommend that Minnie fan being left "on" whenever possible. There is a lot of heat being generated under normal circumstances inside that little box.

Yeah...It wasn't my intention to play w/o fan...just forgot to turn it on, as it (the fan) is a new thing for me to have to consider. I may just tape the fan switch so that it is always on...so no way to forget. That said, I've never fried a head....or have heard of folks frying their head with an active bass. I'm guessing it has/can happen just never picked up on the horror stories. I'm guessing there out there. I don't recall...but I don't *think* I had the actives engaged 100% and I would have to think that the Mini could take that a little juice under normal circumstances.

Anyone out there ever fry a head with an active bass (i.e. w/o additional external peadles boosing the signal)? Possibly a naive question.
Having never fried one, I would think that symptomatically, the distortion/noises I hearing when play now would like be indicative of having fried the head, possi-probably from lack of fan use for the 7-8 minutes it was in use....who knows (I will soon as it gets looked at). But the other symptoms I'm now also having (crackeling/popping) if I gently...and I mean ever so gently wiggle the power cable (i.e. no where near the point of unseating or disengaging it) at the point where it seats into the Mini. To me, and to Rick @ Demeter, who got to hear it, albeit over the phone when doing some troubleshooting, that seems like a curve ball. Maybe not. But like I said, I'll know more once they receive the Mini and put 'er on the lift.

 

[Jule Potter]

I would much rather have the responsibility as the player to keep things within reason, but I can understand that for a designer it's a matter of people damaging things and then coming back to you needing repairs, etc.

I'm not sure if the 700W module you are using has the ability, but if there was a way to monitor clipping with a light or other cue (ideally before it gets to the point of damaging things) that would be my preference, over reducing the gain available.

Jeff, I thank you for your input. Somehow, I had forgotten that most of the larger wattage amps out there have a clipping light. I used to think it was a bit silly. I was wrong.

Yes. There is an output on the amplifier that I can use to indicate Clipping. I am in communication now with Hypex to make sure I implement it as it should be. My focus has been to keep the front of Monique clean, devoid of "stuff", but now in the world of amplification I am going to have to relinquish more of that clean space.

Yesterday I confirmed (thanks again to Sam) that a "Big Muff" pedal puts out a bit more than 8 volts. This is compared with .001 volts that a passive bass will give us. That wide variance is the issue that all amplifiers face.

Thank you Jeff.

 

[BurningSkies]

Jule, can you make the clipping indicator a HUGE bright flashy light, so that if it goes off people know to run for the hills.

Another shot of a 'green light' Monique in the wild...outdoor hippy-fest. 90 degree late afternoon...running my power amp bridged for 2Kw+ DI plus mic.

Link Removed

 

[tomshepp]

Jule, can you make the clipping indicator a HUGE bright flashy light, so that if it goes off people know to run for the hills.

Another shot of a 'green light' Monique in the wild...outdoor hippy-fest. 90 degree late afternoon...running my power amp bridged for 2Kw+ DI plus mic.

Link Removed

Love your bass! Beautiful, and bet it sounds great too.

 

[BurningSkies]

Love your bass! Beautiful, and bet it sounds great too.

Thanks! It does. It's a swamp ash body (dual density) with some interesting electronics, and I've stacked the deck by having some of the best gear in the world...fEARful cabs, Monique preamp, etc. I can use all the help I can get.

 

[Jeff Moote]

I trust that with Jule, the clipping light will be nothing but elegant. I am sure the design will retain the amp jewel power light that we all know and love.

I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on the 700 when it is time!

 

[chadds]

A 700w clip light!

 

[BurningSkies]

Elegant, huh.

...Maybe Jule better be thinking about a clip chandelier.

 

[nomatic]

Elegant, huh.

...Maybe Jule better be thinking about a clip chandelier.

If you are clipping the 700 your speakers voice coil is all ready turned to liquid and you should have a hose near by......

 

[BurningSkies]

If you are clipping the 700 your speakers voice coil is all ready turned to liquid and you should have a hose near by......

Maybe not. I've had power stage clipping with an amp that's more than twice that power and not had problems with my speakers.

 

[Mike Arnopol]

It sounds great with double bass. I had to eq to a pretty extreme degree but when I got it dialed in---it was gorgeous.

My initial impressions of the Monique were so-so. I was running into the effects return on my Puma 900. Through my warmest speaker. Not a good combination. Veiled--not enough highs and definition.

Well--I played through my little 1200 watt Ice amp through the same speaker. Huge difference. All of a sudden the highs were popping out but it still seemed that the warmth of the
Monique and my 66 were too much of a good thing.

Well---just played a gig with it through the 1200 watt Ice and my 112. Bingo. As symbiotic a relationship as you could want. The 112 is very flat through the low to upper bass region with more pronounced mids.

All I could say was ---wow!!!

 

[Mike Arnopol]

I have a Monique 700 on order and looking forward to playing it through my HD-112's.. I've been using a Shuttle 9.2 which has been nice, but I think the Monique will have alot more going for it.. I previously had a Monique which I played through an IP-112ER rig and that was fantastic, along with a Kern... I wonder if you can have a Demeter power section installed in a Kern ???

If you have a pic of the Kern opened up I could tell you. I have those same Ice modules here and am putting the big one (1200 watts) into a pre of mine. The smaller one (in eveything from GK to Puma900 to Minnie) can fit into a single rack space. I could tell you from looking. They're actually pretty easy to install---a hellava lot easier than I would have thought. Any electronics repairman can do it for you. You can even install a Jensen transformer on the input.
EDIT--looked at a pic of the inside--Burning Skies is right---no room
back to the Monique---

 

[nomatic]

Maybe not. I've had power stage clipping with an amp that's more than twice that power and not had problems with my speakers.

Have you played the Monique 700!? It is about three times as loud as It should be.....
I would put this in the ballpark of a 1200 watt amp with the most insane burst power.
I have never heard a power section quite like as it stays uber hifi whilst kicking you like a mule.
I have yet to hear a speaker with this amp that I can't take to the mechanical limit
by 10 o'clock on the volume.