The Last Bass Outpost

Like Dave said, I was just informing of why my internet posting has been so sparse. TB doesn't need me to bash it; that forum speaks for itself. I appreciate the words of support and comraderie. Believe me, I have no desire to re-live in any fashion, the situations I encountered in that forum.

 My only caution is to be VERY careful of those you put your trust in on any internet forum, myself included. Anybody worth talking to should have no problem proving their legitimacy and discoursing passionately without it being an issue. IOW, people who have nothing to hide don't have to keep secrets.

That's why I like the openess and laid-back nature of this place, including the clear limits on discussions and the lack of mob mentaility-pandering. That stuff is human nature, and it's only through discipline and respect that it is avoided. Especially since this also a sort of an indirect offshoot of another once popular forum that crashed and burned and hurt alot of people in the process.

I appreciate it. It's not that I've been boycotting the internet or anything, there just hasn't been much I've wanted to talk about.  I spent ten years helping Talkbass become what it is now, and the lowdown pieces of shit permanently banned me for telling too much truth to the detriment of some manufacturers and their endorsees who shill there. It tends to take the wind out of one's sails. 

i made an assumption about the center tap (but i am in the Ben Franklin stage when it comes to electronics) and cannot read a schematic. thanks. i know the jack is a switching jack of some sort because the second jack will not work unless the first jack is used. maybe a simple on/off type switch.

Fender used shorting jacks to protect the amp from no-load situations. Until you insert a plug into the primary output, the amp is dumping its output directly to ground. They're technically not a switching jack like in the original Ampeg SVT's extension jack, which selects between separate OT taps.

the 12's are rated at 75 watts each, the JBL is rated at 200 watts @ 8 ohms. both are sensitive speakers at or above 97 db @ 1 watt.

Keep in mind that 97 dB is at 1 kHz; at bass frequencies you'll be lucky to have 80 or 85 dB.  

so bottom line = 8 ohm cab then no other cab and 4 ohm cab then one other 4 ohm cab is okay?

Yes, HOWEVER you could go lower in impedance-eg more speakers, but you will reduce your output power and wear the output tubes faster. Since tubes are relatively low current devices, lower than rated loads aren't the danger to them that they are to transistors. In most cases, you'll lose any volume gained by the extra speakers to the decreased headroom of a lower load, but it depends on the speakers, the OT, the tube quality, their current and the amount of gain you use. IOW, you could try it and see without it really hurting anything. If you see your output tubes' plates start turning colors from overdisappation, then you'll know not to do it, but if your amp is biased fairly conservatively, it might be just fine.  I'd wager it won't be a good idea, though. Where your speakers are paralleled, they will have a greater voltage drop than a series or series/parallel combination.

kinda scary when you realize that vacuum tubes produced by the same technology are probably controlling all the nukes.

That's not a bad thing. Tube computers don't get the blue screen of death. 

Seriously though, tubes were never in the control computers, except maybe CRT displays. They are/were in the guidance systems of the missiles themselves. OUR missiles still used tubes until 1993.  Know why? It took over 40 years to design solid state electronics that could stand up to the high G strain and still work properly.

While I think that free downloads are currently a shitty fact of life (with potential to be used FOR the artist), the premise of that article is horribly flawed.  Live performance is simply no longer a feasible means of sustaining acts other than already established mega-stars. Transportation, venue, crew, and equipment costs are simply too high and there is no way to make them drop. Even most major tours rely on corporate sponsorship to break even. Record labels consider tours loss-leader promotions because unless you're Madonna or the Police, there is no money to be made by touring.
  Second, the way an audience now expects to hear music has changed. As anyone who plays live can tell you, public performance is a dying interest.  With modern society focusing on being "wired," the bulk of music sales is rapidly becoming an intangible stream of ones and zeroes carried not a static format requiring a separate playback device, but on any number of music or video players, cellphones, or portable devices. Compare the growth of digital wireless to the decline in live venues; the two ARE related. Couple format woes with a lifestyle that demands "music" be an afterthought or marketing tool sandwiched in stolen moments of 'free' time. Not only are audiences not wanting to view live performances as much in the whole, their lives do not allow them time for it when they DO desire it.
 I could go on, but I think it suffices to say that Jack Ely is now a horse trainer and NOT a touring musician and his thinking is based on a decades-lost model of business.

I think he frankly has a bad sound. His preferred type of Marshall's lack of headroom might be more to blame for this than his signature Ric or are those pups the culprits?

It's a combination of pretty hot pickups and the Marshall tone stack, but the thinness is mostly the Marshall. When I saw him a few years back, he had no low end at all and the bass drum was mixed to take up the bottom, but it sounded VERY good, and oddly, never stepped on the guitars and vice versa. However, I was so close (front row), I was getting stage wash from his backline and I could easily guess that his 4x15 was filling out the low mids in a way that might not be translating through the PA.

When Lemmy isn't playing rhythm guitar on bass, his playing can be downright funky in a rock way.  I have few compilations where he plays bass and instead of his usually blown-speaker bass tone, his tone is traditional and fat and his playing is nothing that would expect if all you know is Motorhead.

Groove Tubes NEVER made tubes, regardless of what they may have claimed through implication. All this amounts to is a sell off of matching equipment and inventory.