Yeah, just cabs in general. It doesn't make sense to build a marshall/mesa/emperor/whatever-style cab from scratch from anything other than good birch plywood. And to my current thinking, it doesn't make sense to put anything other than actual greenbacks or G12T-75s or V30s or G12H30s into such a cab. Both of which cause a build very quickly to eclipse the cost of a bog standard but completely serviceable quality marshall cab. Looks like a lot of new-looking 1960A specimens in this area for $300-ish. I would be all about a properlyfunctional-but-trashed-looking one for less.

I might need to visit some local used-type stores and see what else is around. Craigslist actually seems to have a bunch though. I am a little afraid that if i walk into a music store though, i might walk out with a bunch of shit i don't really intend to buy just yet. Cymbals being perhaps the most dangerous temptation.

Actually, I've fallen asleep during every episode. I don't know why, I mean I love the show, and I'm always really stimulated at first. I think it must be the warm euphoric vibe and NDT's deep soothing voice.

But yes, it's great to see the logical smackdown happen on national television. Something we need more of.

And yes, those tardigrades!



Yeah it's a 57. I tried the i5 at first but the 57 is more cutting in the mids...

The snare mic is my unannounced NMD, a Blue Encore 100. It is quite a nice snare mic, as well as vocal.

Yesterday was a bank holiday so I thought I know, I'll strip down my AOR and build a Splawn Nitro in it as its has had an intermittent fault for a while. I pull the chassis and immediately spot the problem

The wire bridging two of the filter caps had snapped, leaving the screen filters running with out a ground path which intermittently made contact with the chassis, creating a rather disconcerting and loud buzzing sound. This must have happened as I was reassembling after replacing the OT. I shelved the amp for a while assuming that it must have been a bad trace on the PCB or that the valve sockets were hosed or some other fault that was going to be too much of a pain in the ass to fix. I also noticed the voltage selector had been set to 240V and not 230V as is now standard across the EU. With all this fixed it is now working and fuck my ass, it is loud. The new OT I dropped in it is rated for 20Hz-20kHz at 140W so it packs some serious punch, even with 30 year old filter caps. I should probably think about replacing them at some point but that is a job for another time.

I have one of these. They do the job quite well.

I might order an unloaded 2x12 from these guys. : http://www.seismicaudiospeakers.com/Bas ... goryId=444

Those prices are super cray cheap. Looks like they only use 1/2" Birch Ply but whatevs.

Cheap, yeah. I dunno though, there are a lot of cheap options out there. 5/8" ply is definitely, IMO, too thin for anything but maybe the main baffle and maybe the back on a 2x12. You put speakers in that and i dunno, you seem to be right back up to a $300 cab anyhow?

I was thinking about it, and another interesting option to me anyhow, is the idea of a cheaper constructed 4x10. Some of those fender 4x10s sound fucking great. They are nice and weirdly small, they are light, and they are cool. Usually pine i think, and some decent Jensens in 'em. I will probably build something like that for myself further down the line actually.

My immediate want though, is for an absolutely cliche bog standard marshall cab. I need a basline where i know what is supposed to come out of the thing, so that i can more correctly design what is going in the thing. My current arrangement has too many elements of custom i-feel-like-doing-this-this-way-today and frankly, i think that when all of the small decisions along those lines add up, perhaps many of the problems that i have mixing guitars come from some odd audio frequency choices that i have produced in the process.

Also, though i remained conflicted to the very end, i did gamble on that busted $80 US1800. I hope it is fixable when it gets here, because it doesn't appear to be returnable. If it is fixable though, it is definitely the cheapest way to solve my issues of needing a more permanent setup in two locations at the same time. Even to get a cheapo 2-channel usb interface to run as a simplified setup in one of the spaces, would cost minimum, 2-3 times as much. I hope i get away with it.

I finished my classroom observations for the semester today. I'll miss the privilege of using the faculty restrooms.

The Seismic Audio stuff I've used or encountered has all been well-made, which is surprising considering how cheap it is. Can't speak for the cabs though. Chris has a point about the cost- and I totally get the reasoning behind wanting a plain old 1960A/B as a standard issue piece of kit. You know what you're getting. Re: the 4x10s, I believe I've seen some Marshall 4x10s as well? Also, if you had an empty one, there's always the 10" Greenbacks. Though that would make it a very different animal than a classic Fender cab.

What's f'd up on the US1800, anyhow? Does it not power on, pass signal, etc,? Not that I've any clue, just curious how buggered up the thing is.

Won't know 'til i get it. Got it from MF. They had two listed that were busted. They used to give some information about what was broken on the "level 4" (i.e. non-functioning used, gear they were selling, but the two tascams didn't say shit.

One of them looked visibly banged up and the other didn't look messed up at all. I actually went for the visibly beat one.

My thinking is that it clearly banged into something, and so right there it might increase my odds of being able to fix a cracked solder and be done with the job, something simple/mechanical like that. The other one actually seemed like more of a gamble, because with no sign of something that physically happened to it, it seems more likely to me that it might have some deeper internal issues, like a bad usb chip or some blown converters or something.

Issues, which frankly, so very well could the one i bought possess. But my hope is for the issue to be related to the impact that bent the front of it a bit, that it be mechanical, and that it be easily rectified.

Dunno. Even if it is not easily fixed, i can probably do something with the bits of the thing. It does contain the components for those eight mic preamps and phantom power. It is of course possible, though i feel it unlikely, that all of that stuff, is what is broken. I suspect i should find something less than that worst case scenario.

We will see.

Aslo, the marshall 4x10s can sound awesome too. To my tastes i like the 4x10 in general as a thing. Something about a pile of smaller speakers. I like those 8x10 ampegs as well.

The marshall and fender 4x10s both strike me as generally crisper and brighter, thinner, lighter, than a typical 4x12, and seem to produce a tighter, more my-flavored, broken clean sort of sound when fed something not-quite-cleanish. Those 10" greenbacks definitely make me think more of something like a normal-sized celestion blue, than of a small Greenback. The jensens have elements of that in them as well. They are bright-ish on the top end, but they break up pretty smoothly.

On the subject of Tascam interfaces, i hadn't seen this one until just now, but it is actually kind of cool as hell to me:

http://tascam.com/product/us-1200/overview/

Utterly simple, single rackspace, six analog inputs and just about nothing else. 4 xlr with phantom, 2 mic/line, volume knobs for everything, and then the back has just about nothing on it except the balanced monitor outs. This is my sort of interface.

The current sale price of the US1800 kind of defeats the little guy's purpose i think(twenty extra bucks for four more +48v xlr preamps, plus MIDI IO, plus SPIDF IO? Why not?).

If the US1800 goes for its normal $300-400 price though, the US1200 starts to make a bit more sense. Because there really isn't anyone else giving a simpler way to put 6 analog channels into a computer for less money. Closest might be that weird-looking Akai thing, but i don't really get along with its form factor(and i think it basically has two fewer analog ins anyhow?). I like the tascam's single-rack format a lot though; i use it as a platform under the laptop; it is fantastically efficient for space consumption here in the crowded confines of my various caves.

I've rocked the laptop-on-interface many a time. My inyourface currently has a monitor on it, sitting on top of my computer case (shades of sitting a CRT atop a Flat Mac back when desktop cases were flat and Macs used Motorola chips) with my Novation sitting in front of the interface on the case. The Focusrite interface is pretty heavy/sturdy/solid, but the flat panel monitor and Novation controller are pretty lightweight; all told the lot of 'em must way a fair bit less than a CRT monitor.

Re: the interfaces, at five bucks per extra mic pre, I see what yer getting at. The Tascam inyourfaces in general seem like the cheapest functional way to get a bunch o' stuff into the 'puter all at once, and through USB, so no messing with Firewire cards, and you guys seem to be getting good results with 'em.

Nice. Just saw that Every Time I Die and Touche Amore are playing at Reading festival this year. I was wishing I'd got tickets for sonisphere but this changes things

Got that busted US1800 today. And yup, it sure is busted.

Haven't really looked into it too far, but so far it just kind of makes the sort of sad slow blinking power light thing that so many digital devices do when they are just dead, man.

Maybe the power supply pcb. Luckily everything is modular in there(power section, analog preamp section, analog output section, digital/usb section) and luckily i do have a working US1800, so i might try to see if the power board from the good one heals the bad one.

Hopefully the bad one doesn't kill the power board from the good one though.

Unfortunately, these things seem to be a bit new still so there doesn't seem to be too much available in repair docs/schematics. If i have to i will try to make something up. Hopefully though, i can just pinpoint which bit is toasted by swapping in boards from the good one. At the very least, it would be nice to know that not all of the boards in the thing thing are totally fucked.

If replacing a board makes it decide to function, would it be possible to acquire the relephant board from Tascam?

That i dunno yet. Seems like it might be possible. They do list the US1800 unit on their parts request form on their Teac Professional site, so, maybe?

'Course, with my luck if they do have it, they will want $250 for the fucking thing.

haHA! My $80 US1800 works perfectly with the PSU circuit board from my $220 US1800 swapped in!

Now to see if 1. Tascam will sell me a new board, and 2. what they want for it.

If 1. is "No" or 2. is "too much" i will have to see about tracing/troubleshooting what i've got here i guess. As a start i think i will see about checking solder joint continuity and whatnot, still hoping for a stupid/easy/free fix.

Excellent nooze! Here's to hoping it turns out to be something repairable on the currently extant board.

The current board definitely has some fuss.

I am seeing at least 4 bad caps and a bad diode, and those are just the things that i can easily test. Haven't seen the diode for sale anywhere either, so i am trying to find a datasheet for it to see what else might be a compatible swap-in.

Good news for finding the issue, hope you can trace down the troublesome thingamabob


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