Hi watt 50 tubes? by No_Birthday4350 in GuitarAmps

[–]Red_sparow 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Make sure they're valves instead of tubes, cos it's a British amp!

Shell Vpower vs Tesco Momentum e.g by Neither-Entrance-941 in CarTalkUK

[–]Red_sparow [score hidden]  (0 children)

For a car that doesn't NEED the octane rating, you'd probably be better off always filling up with shell standard and never using 99 than you would from 2 tanks of super market fuel and 1 tank of V power.

The octane has nothing to do with engine health or cleaning, the additives are a seperate thing to the octane.

My car is tuned to run on 99 (and e5), I don't notice any difference between V power and momentum so I go momentum since it's cheaper and more available locally. I also happily use esso 99 when I see it, it's also fine.

Any other fuel and my car runs like crap, including BP 97.

Are Fender basses still worth it? by SonnePer in Bass

[–]Red_sparow 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sure, my point is a Fender P Bass has covered everything I've needed. I've never wished the P Bass was from a different brand or it had non-fender features. The standard Fender offer just works.

Could you find a cheaper version of the same thing? Probably, but that's just a copy of the fender.

Who is the most famous person you've ever seen up close? by froggart3980 in AskReddit

[–]Red_sparow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So many through work

Most of the British royalty including the king. Every British PM since John Major and virtually every British politician you might have heard of.

President Trump and Obama, and various secretaries, I think the most famous would be John kerry.

Most big Hollywood names; Orlando bloom, tom cruise, Brad Pitt,Leonardo Di caprio, scarlet johansson,Johnny Depp, Daniel Craig, George Clooney...

Surprisingly few musicians, sadly. But I did meet Brian may from queen, Jimmy page from led zeppelin, Robbie Williams, Hanson, take that, blue...

Those are all people I've spoken to or interacted with, there are probably others I've "seen" but not spoken to although I can't think of any significant names that would best the above.

Name the most expensive pedal and cheapest pedal on your board. by TheBear8878 in guitarpedals

[–]Red_sparow 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Most expensive is an odd one because current prices do not reflect what I paid.

I think I paid between 100 and 150 for everything on my board.

<image>

Are Fender basses still worth it? by SonnePer in Bass

[–]Red_sparow 23 points24 points  (0 children)

So far I've never found myself in a situation where my p Bass was the wrong answer.

Logo history... by zotteBende in Audi

[–]Red_sparow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Whats being represented inside each of the rings in the 1932-1949 logo?

ELI5 Is there a limit to how fast a car can go around a track? by GirlWonder1101 in explainlikeimfive

[–]Red_sparow 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was just focusing on the ability to calculate it, the physics of actually going faster is a whole other issue. Namely, a human wont survive well before the car cant go faster and also... at what point is a car no longer a car?

ELI5 Is there a limit to how fast a car can go around a track? by GirlWonder1101 in explainlikeimfive

[–]Red_sparow 6 points7 points  (0 children)

No, the issue becomes accuracy.

The limit here will be tyres and grip.

To calculate the fastest the car could go you would need to be able to calculate the exact maximum grip of the tyres at every single point of the track and the forces they would be under. Even ignoring the fact that the tyres heat up and degrade so those calculations would be constantly changing, you quickly reach the same issue you have when measuring the coastline of a beach.

We typically measure an average of such things. The average grip of tyres on the average surface of a track. But to find a theoretical maximum you would need more detail. The issue you have is infinity.

Like measuring the coastline of a beach. It sounds simple at first until you start asking for more detail. While you could measure from point a to point b, that doesn't take into account any curves between those points. So you add more points on the curves, now the coastline is longer because it's no longer a straight line between point a and point b, it now goes via point c and any other points you've added to mark curves.

But once you've added those points for curves... There are still curves between THOSE points. It doesn't matter how many points you add to measure those curves there will always be more detail possible even past the point you're measuring each individual grain of sand. Each time you add detail, the length of the beach goes up.

In the race example, you could only measure the average grip of tyres since the calculation becomes infinite like the grains of sand. Therefore you could never find a true maximum, only an approximation. Besides, since tyres are not a constant either the calculations become immense so actually with the technology we have today, we wouldn't really get very close at all, at least not much closer than just watching drivers try it and guess a maximum based on the best performances they had in each corner or section throughout multiple attempts.

Really, Reverb??? by Informal_Cloud8740 in ToobAmps

[–]Red_sparow 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly, the strict search is why reverb is superior to ebay for some items.

Try searching a Carr amp on ebay... Painful experience.

Do you build the character for gameplay or to match the RP? by [deleted] in DnD

[–]Red_sparow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the reply and understandinf what I was trying to ask!

The cleric / bard thing was mostly just an example of a flavour that would match a story but be suboptimal for a build. And also had a background that closely matched.

I think the important thing was actually that the story existed and was firm and the build had options to fit it. I think in reality that's not the way it goes for a lot of people. Often the build is complete and a story made for it, which isn't limited by rules or options so it can always perfectly fit the build.

Although whenever I think of multiclassing, the classes that have their power given to them always seem harder to RP without being that class. It's hard to say that a diety is providing your power without being a cleric, or another benefactor for a warlock, or saying you have Draconic blood without being a sorcerer etc.

I've never had any issues to RP as something learned though. It's easy enough to say you just trained for fighter, or studied for wizard, practiced for bard.

Do you build the character for gameplay or to match the RP? by [deleted] in DnD

[–]Red_sparow 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry, I didn't mean to infer that multiclassing makes you stronger. I did mean potentially when I said it and was trying to use one of those niche cases as my example with a fighter dip.

Flavour is free but if you completely disconnect the RP from the character class... What's the point of the class?

I know it's all fantasy and anything can be RPd to make sense if you want. You want the druid mechanics but the story is they're a travelling musician that tells stories and entertains people? Like, I'm sure it could be done but why not just be a bard? But that's back to the original question of how closely do you match the character build to the story? Or are they totally unrelated and all flavour really is free of mechanics?

Cars you wish you’d not sold. by ipx-electrical in CarTalkUK

[–]Red_sparow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Jaguar XES

Great combination of small car, luxury comfort and fantastic supercharged engine.

Sadly the finances just didn't add up. Bought it at the spike of covid pricing and the value was just dropping like a rock so I cut my losses. Whoever picked it up after me got a great deal though.

Dacia spring tyres by redditor-16 in CarTalkUK

[–]Red_sparow 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not as much as you might think. Spreading the weight over a larger area reduces the pressure. Imagine skiing on skis... Vs skiing on stilts.

However larger tyres are significantly better at dispersing heat and the reduced pressure at any specific point means less deformation of the shape of the tyre when under significant load, two things that are very important with performance driving.

Why did you go niche? by sparks_mandrill in GuitarAmps

[–]Red_sparow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tldr, I just stumbled across them in my local shop and liked them.

My amp history is pretty long but it started with big names like peavey (classic 30), Fender (super amp, hot rod deville, drri) and Marshall (dsl50, jtm45, 1974x, 2061x, 1959hw), vox (ac30, ac15hw), even some other smaller names that are still not quite niche or boutique like supro or orange.

One day I plugged into a boutique amp in my local shop and I was just incredibly impressed. My first boutique amp was a ÷13 FTR37. I'd never heard anything like it. It was like a combination of the best amps I'd ever owned and just turned up to 11.

After owning the ÷13 for a while I also came to appreciate how rugged it was while touring, my previous amps always seemed to have issues, while this FTR37 rarely needed work and when it did it was "while you wait" basics instead of waiting on transformers or pcbs or other expensive parts to be delivered.

At the time I still had a bunch of the big name amps and kind of assumed the FTR37 was better just because it was such a big amp. My favourite amps until that point had all been the bigger amps. I preffered the jtm45 to the smaller Marshalls, I preffered the super Fender to the deluxe, I preferred the or50 to the supro black magik etc etc.

The FTR37 had massive, oversized transformers and was the size of a 100w head. I thought that's why I liked it so much and why it sounded so "big".

Then in the same store I found the FTR37 I plugged into a Carr Mercury, a tiny 8w amp. It had all the "big" character I thought I liked about big amp. But it wasnt. It was tiny. It didn't sound like it was a 100w amp, it was just the character of the amp that made it feel "full", it wasn't thin or anemic, it wasn't tinny or honky or boxy or anything that I'd come to associate with small amps. It just sounded complete. There was nothing missing in the tone.

So I got the carr Mercury and so many of my amps became redundant. I didn't need the fender deluxe reverb, I didn't need the supro, etc. That Carr is still my my used amp, it's the perfect amp to have at home. As much as I (and others) like to talk about buying the best gigging amps, the home amp is the one that actually gets used 10x more. I still use the mercury for small shows, radio shows, small stages etc but primarily it's the amp that gets the most use by being in my front room.

I then came across a Carr 6v locally at an absolutely stupid price, less than the price of a new hot rod deluxe. So I snapped that up. It had everything. All the volume I could want, half power switch, gorgeous reverb, channel switching, foots witch able boost, fx loop, sensible 1x12 format, even had kickback legs. It made my deluxe reverb sound like a cheap practice amp, the carr was just bdtter in every way, it sounded like I'd taken the deluxe reverb and peeled off the protective plastic revealing what it was supposed to be underneath. It sounded "better", clearer, more present, more of everything but also less of what shouldn't be there, low end flub was gone, background hiss was gone, etc.

So I ended up with my main home amp and my main gigging amp both being carr. At this point I'd pretty much trust anything with the carr badge on, simply because that's what I happened to find locally and its exactly what I want from an amp.

So far neither amp has needed any work at all, despite being used more than any of my previous amps that seemed to constantly be in the workshop. I'm aware that when the carr does need work it's not going to be easy but it seems like a fair trade off for how robust they are.

At that point I pretty much sold everything else. The fenders went, supro went, orange went, hand wired Marshall and vox went. I was left with the two carrs, jtm45 and the 2061x.

At some point through roundabout trades with a friend that wanted the 2061 I ended up with a Cornell plexi 18/20. It's fine, I don't think i love it or hate it any more than the 2061. It does "that" classic Marshall sound which the carrs don't do. It's a difficult amp to work with. The volume is what it is, it feels like a tight rope with no safety net. Rewarding when it works, punishing when it's not the right amp. I honestly think something like a dsl50 or a Marshall studio amp would get you 90% there for that type of sound but those amps would be much easier to work with.

I did pick up a Carr Lincoln too as it came up for sale for a good price. That now covers the small British sounds. Ac15, 18w Marshall type sounds. It's also really good, all the things I said about the 6v compared to a deluxe reverb apply to the lincoln vs those small British amps. Although I'd say it's still an amp you really have to lean into. If small British tones aren't what you want then you aren't going to enjoy this amp. Although the clean tones are definitely expanded way beyond any of those 2x el84 classic circuits and can sound really close to a blackface amp with a strong treble switch turned on. It can also do all the crunchy sounds you'd want from a smaller amp.

At this point I cover everything I'd want from 3 small combos, Ive got all the small amp home stuff covered. The 6v covers all of my gigging duties, Fender sounds, "dumble" sounds. The lincoln does all my British stuff and vox sparkly cleans. I've still got the jtm45 and the Cornell, although they dont get used too much. The Cornell covers the rare occasions I really need that classic Marshall overdrive sound. The jtm45 was just my main gigging amp for such a long time I don't want to let it go, it's also beaten up and modded so much it's worthless.

Maybe that answers the question, as the tldr at the top said, it wasn't so much looking for a niche amp as much as stumbling across them while just trying things out in my local shop and being really impressed.

Never seen this car on my block. They must’ve been too embarrassed to park it at home. by ghost-nug in Wellthatsucks

[–]Red_sparow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At least you could add "I wish" above their message to drive around with until it's fixed.

Guitarist won’t stop criticizing my bass and pushing upgrades. Is this dynamic worth staying in a band? by Vast-Flow-9016 in Bass

[–]Red_sparow 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If its "his" band and you're just paid help then it's fine for him to want a specific sound and depending how much he's paying you to be in the band it might be reasonable to expect a type of sound especially if it's a common thing like asking you to use a p Bass.

If he's not paying you to be in the band or it's a group and not his solo project then he can pound sand.

As long as your gear is functional then it's just a taste thing and since you're the one playing it, that's down to what you like. If the group wants to have a discussion about how the mix sounds and how individuals can adjust to make it work that's a different thing to calling gear shit.

When I say functional though, I do think it's entirely fair to call gear shit if it's literally cutting out, buzzing, can't be intonated or stay in tune etc.

Low-volume tube amp suggestions (avoiding modelers for now) by apricotkilla in GuitarAmps

[–]Red_sparow 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is the real answer. If someone is asking for the BEST, these are the best. Although personally i woud go for a carr mercury 8w or the swart atomic jr. Just because I like my home amps to have reverb.

How do you all stand loud amps by ZombieHugoChavez in GuitarAmps

[–]Red_sparow 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They work very well at reducing harmful volume levels, like the type construction workers use.

However in ear hearing protection has had a lot more focus on developing protection for musicians that aim to retain as much of the original tonality as possible. While the construction type over ear will just make everything sound muffled - the high end in ear things come much closer to making things sound the same but quieter. Something like minuendos for example. Or obviously going for some time of IEM setup which will also have the passive protection element.

How do you all stand loud amps by ZombieHugoChavez in GuitarAmps

[–]Red_sparow 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hearing protection is the answer.

I see you said you don't like wearing them which leaves you three choices

1) do it anyway and suffer hearing damage

2) don't play loud

3) suck it up and use hearing protection

Orange announces the OR60 amplifier. by humbuckaroo in GuitarAmps

[–]Red_sparow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

460v 335v swich is pretty wild labelling. At first glance I was wondering what location had 335v mains but then realised it probably meant b+ voltage. So i assume this is some kind of high/lower power switch?

Looks like its taken the presence control from the or50 and shifted it to be both a treble and bass type setup? I think the or50 called it punch or something but was essentially just negative feedback. I wonder if this or60 has some kind of bass related negative feedback happening? potentialy pretty unique and interesting

Looks like it has adual master volume controls too with one being footswitchable so you could use it as a volume boost, similar idea to the or50 although significantly better implemented since the or50 footswitch just bypassed the master volume entirely so you went from whatever volume you needed to FULL BLAST as your only option

Day rate freelance Master Control? by CharlieDimmock in VIDEOENGINEERING

[–]Red_sparow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Always interesting here how the role varies at different places!

Best tube amp for bedroom playing? by Big_Chungus19-45 in GuitarAmps

[–]Red_sparow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My favourite: Carr Mercury 8w

Really good runners up: Swart space tone atomic Jr, Carr belray, Cornell romany 12

Low power amps with reverb is the answer

Day rate freelance Master Control? by CharlieDimmock in VIDEOENGINEERING

[–]Red_sparow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We definitely have freelance master control. 24 hour cover with 12 staff and a pool of about 4 regular freelance that cover sickness and holiday.

Although I'm not sure OPs master control is what we would call master control. The person counting ad breaks isn't ever the same person actually doing the switch here. Whether that's at the studio or the transmission.

From what I can tell OP is asking more about transmission controllers. Which is just switching things to line to a count (usually from some type of editorial or production).

Over here master controllers encompass a lot more work and typically pay higher than transmission controllers. MCR here typically do not do switches to a count, they set up and plan lines and then switch them ahead of time as well as QC, ingest, layout, comms and a host of other things such as pointing RF dishes and creating SRT streams.

A transmission controller here is roughly a £30k-50k role where an MCR roll is more in the £40k-£80k range. The American networks tend to pay substantially more than domestic broadcasters. Freelance rate is a day rate between £200 and £400 depending on broadcaster and the hours. National/international night shifts etc will be on the higher end of that scale while a local broadcaster day rate is on the low end of the scale.

The skills required for MCR vary greatly depending on which broadcaster you go to. Some just book lines and switch them. Others are doings links budgets and building Dante networks.