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As the title suggests, this should probably be in feedback, but it's too nice and life affirming a story so here goes..... I sold a couple of items to one of our long-standing elder statesmen @Oldman a while back. We haggled over prices a little and money went back and forth. Eventually we agreed things and I mentioned to him that I was taking my young 'uns Ella and Katie into town to spend the cash he'd sent. All done Today a card arrived addressed to me. The girls had their birthdays recently and I assumed that it was a late card and that I knew who it was from, so I passed it to them and said "This is for you girls". They both ripped apart the envelop and showed me two gift vouchers with their names on and I said "Is it from .....?" to which they replied "It's got something to do with an old man Daddy". We read the card together and given we were having a bit of a crap morning (it's a very first world problem we're currently dealing with BTW but nonetheless a crap morning), as a family we all sat down and said 'Wow, that has made our month" The internet's a funny place, we build sometimes good and sometimes problematic relationships with people we've never met (I've done both), but all too often it's at arm's length and lacks real emotional clout. Brian @Oldman, thank you so much for this, it made us smile and reaffirmed our faith that the world is a great place, and reminded my daughters that kindness is a really important thing 👍 Chris

Finished my gig tonight at the commonwealth games closing ceremony. First stadium gig and biggest audience especially if you count the live tv audience. not a great photo but.

Once again Covid spoiled the party and the seven piece swing band had to cancel last night's gig, the second gig in four days we have had to cancel. Since I had the day and evening free I was able to do a blacksmithing gig at a provincial park a couple of hours away. This park has a replica of a winter lumber camp as it would have been in the early 1900's complete with a blacksmith shop and I have volunteered to work at the forge many times over the last 25 years or so. With a background that includes 27 years as a farrier and blacksmith I have a lot of fun forging some things and explaining a bit about horseshoeing to people who are camping in the park and other visitors and had a very hot but enjoyable afternoon at the coal forge. Not the gig I was expecting on August 6 but a good one nevertheless, no bass but lots of rhythm from the hammer and anvil. I hope the band gigs on the 10th and 20th happen without Covid problems, fingers crossed.

Love this!

Arguably! I had a "neighbour" (he's 400m away, on the other side of the valley!) complain about band rehearsals we were doing in our garage - it was once a week from 630pm - 8-30pm. So I told him I'd sound proof the garage and could he let me know if it was any better. So we built a box in there, he wasn't happy, so we moved into our garden room - this is double glazed, brick-built and insulated. We also moved rehearsals to Sunday afternoon, 3-5pm which coincided with his incessant chain-sawing. Didn't hear anything, assumed all was fine (it was audible 20 yards outside the house but by no means loud). Then we got a letter from the council detailing the noise complaint. I told them the story so far - but it appeared we'd been noisy again for 1/2 an hour, I think we'd had to open a window due to it being boiling. I told the council we wouldn't open the window again, and that we'd stick to those hours. And also I told them TW@ttyBollox had a name for being a whinger; he'd complained about his next-door neighbours "burning noxious rubbish" - turned out it was a kids bonfire party on 5th November. So we got three more letters saying that they were setting up monitoring equipment. Then Covid and lockdown came along; during one of the breaks our then reduced band (drummer had left) recorded a couple of on-line charity gigs using EZ drummer. Lockdown started again, I noticed one of the bass tracks could do with re-recording, so I played back the band through the PA and re-recorded my bass parts - this had to be at decent volume as bass had to match. Imagine my surprise when the police turned up to investigate an alleged breach of covid regulations, and their surprise to find me on my own playing along to a backing. How we laughed! After all the lockdowns had ended we starting rehearsing again. Just as we'd finished 2 chaps turned up, said they were from the council and that monitoring was finished, and they'd just listened from the other side of the valley. They explained that while it was faintly audible, it was by no means a nuisance ( a lot quieter than the b road below) and that Complain-Man had been told he was being deeply unreasonable, and that we had shown ourselves to be just the opposite. Council said that "unless something changed substantially" they wouldn't act on any more of his complaints. About anything. So it goes to show, there's miserable gits everywhere!

Good day for us on Saturday, we played the middle day of the three-day Stone Valley North Festival in Ushaw Moor. Unfortunately just the second stage, which meant a tent that was largely indistinguishable from a million other tents we've played this summer, but still. I was asked if I wanted to use the Ampeg half stack that was provided as backline, to which I said that depended on how much they could give me through the wedges. The monitor engineer seemed to take that particular comment on board and it was like a blinkin' reggae gig where I was standing. Good times.

Nothing to do with noise, but in the mid 80s when I was living with my parents, a neighbour accosted me as I was leaving for work to complain that our cat had been 'going' in her garden. I didn't know how to respond to this so I said I would "have a word with her." The neighbour seemed to be happy with this response and never mentioned it again, even though I never actually discussed the matter with the cat.

About 4 houses down from me there’s a group of guys who use their summerhouse for band practice every 2 weeks on a Sunday afternoon, they play heavy rock and are really dreadful, all out of time , the drummer is too loud and you can’t hear the bass, I often want to knock , not to ask them to be quiet but to tell them to get more practice in and sort their sound out , or even better, play some reggae 😁

Gorgeous. My 30th Anniversary re-boot for comparison.

Inspired by Musicman666's beautiful Image and stunning bass above, I went and dragged my old Status out of storage last week. I hadn't seen it for around a year, though still in tune of course. Not exactly bookends, but an example from what now sadly appears to be the closing days of full-scale production, and one from the early days (well, around 1986). Some important evolution/innovation, of course, but clear consistency in the lineage. Whilst I'm a massive fan of pretty much everything Status (and I've had a good number of Status basses over the years), it's the SII that I think of when the brand is mentioned - sort of quintessential for me.

Genuine question if any of you can help? I have a duo that I'm part of with an old school friend from 30yrs ago. We have two small practice combos and a drum machine stored in a small summerhouse which is about a 3 minute walk from his house and that backs onto open fields. He's a music teacher and I think we are both of a reasonable standard. Yesterday, we were rehearsing down in the summerhouse (as we do about every once every 3wks - a session usually lasts 3hrs, always sometime between 10am - 5pm) and received the following text; "I hope you are enjoying the lovely weather as we are and having a good summer holiday. A polite request, do you think you can please turn down the amplifiers on your practise sessions when your playing in the summer house, I'm not sure if you know but the sound travels up making it sound like Glastonbury in the garden from up here and we cant hear our own radio in the lounge when windows and doors are open. In the winter months we don't even hear it however during the warmer months it does become a little over powering when doors and window are open, and we are in the garden more. Many thanks, speak soon Debbie & Steve x" My question is this; if Glastonbury is £300 a ticket, does £180 sound reasonable to charge them?

665 Neighbour Of The Beast Iron Maiden

No he’s got more stock…..

Going to be hard to beat that lot - but here are my five Fenders which is my complete bass collection.

I'm pretty sure the green 'vintage overdrive' one will be a tube screamer clone, but I'm not so sure about the black 'ultimate overdrive.' I might consider getting one of these instead of a mosky 'black rat' if I can find confirmation that it is a Rat clone. This chap who posted this review seems to be pleased with his pink pocket metal pedal, but he issues a valuable warning about the rough edges of the aluminium housing.

I gigged this bass last night - keeping hold of it was absolutely the correct decision, it's killer.

This carpenter thinks you're better off using brollys 👍

I did wall hanging in the old house but since I hate decorating there'll be no holes to fill in this place.

That blank should only have been used for a solid finish.

Remember seeing Black Uhuru in the early '80's IIRC at Notting Hill, I could feel my viscera resonating with the bass. Glorious sound and feeling, absolutely glorious

then I do also believe that the environment and weather both played a role in the genre development and the feel too. not saying one can't play dub in Norway! but, that way of playing, to me, reflects the 40C degrees one might experience in Kingston but again, this is more about how it started, one can learn and play reggae regardless the location

Big part of playing reggae bass for me has been the other musicians, the way the bass sits in time is as much about them, especially the drummist but also the guitars, keys etc. I doubt my ability to play reggae has changed much band to band over the years, but the degree to which is feels like an authentic reggae bass vibe certainly has 👍

Facebook update: https://www.facebook.com/HandBoxAudio/posts/pfbid0UmqrxTG7pgyUi44bJSwNbtKtHap9Zsw12rLrLmA1HWCWaEZ5SFhWAMKP5Rywfei1l

I think ours must've come from near enough the same batch. Mine's a November 2021.

Jungle basically became DNB. Jungle is typically the 'Amen' drum break (or similar) cut up and looped at about 170BPM with Reggae/Dancehall vocals and samples and basslines. It became DNB as it got more 'techy', not built around samples and Reggae vocals so much, more of a focus just on the drums, bass, synths. Take some pills, go to a loud dark club and get on the dancefloor at 2am is about the only way I'd say it's fully undertstood. There is 'daytime radio' type DNB but that's not the good stuff in my book and not where DNB originated or where it's soul is. This tune for example - nothing flashy, but if you know the feeling then you love DNB. It's not for everyone though I guess. It's the same sort of ethos as Dub or Techno or minimal funk, or tribal drumming, there's not really anything to 'get' other than how the groove of it makes you want to listen to it loud and dance.

Compiled from the early days of @ReggaebassReggae thread. A bit of everything in this list! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/59RhYT5dLPwboS9u3njL4S?si=WHG8qho2Q2GrssAELJYnRQ&utm_source=copy-link

I found Ed Friedland's book of reggae riddims really useful. https://edfriedland.com/product/reggae-bass/

Different strokes, for sure. If we all liked the same thing, music would quickly become very stale.

Do you listen to much reggae, I was brought up with it so I kinda get the feel for the Bassline quickly, what I find is sometimes less is more, leaving space is important and don’t rush it, playing slightly behind the beat gives it more of a less rushed feel, it’s hard to explain, you may have already seen this video , he breaks down the great Bassline Police in Helicopter ,don is a great player and has some good tips

It's a sad, sad day in Chez Maude today. I have broken my one per decade rule and sold another bass. My BB1024X has gone. 😥 @Al Krow, strike the 1024X from the front page please... but add a 734a while you're editing. 😀

Livin next door to Malice. Smokie

I don't listen to a huge amount of dnb these days unless I'm exercising, when I do it's usually Feint.

54-46 Was My Number -- Toots & the Maytals, Aswad, Yellowman, Sublime, etc

Loves a bit of Black Uhuru... May I add Ini Kamoze... 'Statement' and 'Shocking Out' for some more Robbie Shakespear and Danny Thompson Goodness...

Reminds me of a guy I used to work with, Brian. A new couple moved next door to him, and were doing up the house, hammering/drilling etc til well past 11pm. after a bit he knocked on the door and asked them if they would be mindful of the sound & time, he got a mouthful of abuse & threats in response. Now Brian wasn`t scared of anyone, he was ex military and a boxing coach, but he just smiled, left and thought "you`ll get yours". A couple of years later the couple had a baby, whose bedroom was next to Brians house. In the evenings when he got home from work, every hour on the hour he would place a piece of wood onto the adjoining wall and hit it with a hammer until 11pm/midnight. For some reason this woke up the baby who started crying loudly every time. When the man of the house (and chief responder/hurler of previously mentioned abuse & threats) asked him to stop he replied as per the response he had received years before.

Well…I did a little thing last night - we had a bbq with family who are heading back home so I indulged in a shandy or 2 and wanted to make noise. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vM-s9iu1iuijYIxKhx1lSx2dU9XghMXd/view?usp=drivesdk think I over-egged the drive a bit…but, all good fun.

Must admit, I think I’d be looking around for somewhere else to rehearse where nobody was affected by it. Or even just try headphones in the summer months? Less grief for all concerned.

The important thing to remember about drum and bass is that it’s not as good as it used to be when I was a lad.

Diamonds on the soles of her shoes - Paul Simon

Damn. Spoke too soon re: The Saga Of My Fingertip. Washed the car today…. No more scab / hard skin. Cut the remains away, been dipping in surgical spirit. Rehearsal Tuesday, gigs Friday and Saturday. My friend:

Look who’s home 🥰