casapete

Couple of Prince programmes tonight on BBC2 starting at 10.55pm after Later with Jools.

I’m in an occasional country band which also includes my guitarist mate who forms our acoustic duo. He’s one of those amazing musicians who can use any kit and somehow still make it sound great. Recently he’s started using (and collecting) older Peavey combos, including some of the 70’s / 80’s models which had solid state preamps and valve power stages. They sound amazing, and are what are annoyingly now called a ‘good pedal platform’ - in other words a proper design with a quality clean sound. Our local tech guy loves them too, and reckons they will outlast him! For my (very) occasional guitar dalliances I’ve always preferred an amp that will give me the sound in my head with minimal pedal usage. After parting company with my vintage Marshall 18 watt combo, I now have a Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb RI, which is far too good for me. Ace reverb and vibrato means only need to use a boost or overdrive and that’s it, job done.

Edit - forgot that I’d had one of their 100 watt bass combos, which sadly wasn’t a patch on the guitar ones. Big graphic EQ and quite heavy although not that loud.

Session did do a valve combo, the 15/30 if IRC. Loud AF with a 12” Celestion. All their other stuff was transistorised I believe. Great gear at good prices. 😊

I only get Sky Arts on Freeview channel 11, so have to watch stuff when they air it. Seen this before though, and it’s deffo worth catching.

Tonight (Saturday) on BBC4 at 10.35pm - ‘Once we were brothers’ , Robbie Robertson and The Band.

Played at Newcastle City Hall last night with my regular rig - GK1001RB into GK Neo410. Got my spare bass out for an airing too - no name P-bass with a Japanese Fender pickup. Sounds just like it should, but need my Precision Lyte for 2 hour gigs.

First of 3 gigs this week for us. Again, one of my favourites last night - Newcastle City Hall, or as it’s now known 02 City Hall. Wonderful venue with great staff, and special for me as have been to many great gigs there in the last few decades. ( One of the crew showed me some of the tickets they’ve had framed, see below. ) We had around 800 people in, and from the massive welcome as we walked onstage they were in good voice. Something about the people in the north which always makes for a memorable gig. We were a touch rusty after a 5 week break but no big c*ck ups, and a great house PA meant the sound was ace. ( band pic at soundcheck ). We have two sold out gigs tonight and tomorrow in Bridlington and York, so hopefully the good northern vibes will continue.

A difficult choice for me - born in the late 50’s so the 1960’s were my formative years. Beatles / Stones / Motown / Soul and probably the best pop music ever. However, the 70’s and in my teens was when I seriously got into music. Springsteen, Faces, Bowie and Stones again, and then the arrival of more great soul stuff, Disco, Punk and New Wave. Such a great decade for me, forming my first band and going to every gig I could on my pittance earned in a record shop. Great times.

Long time user of D’Addario EXL170’s so interested in these. Do you have a link to the place where you got the deal please? Cheers.

Thomann do a good bag - Thomann Accessory Bag Pro, for around £40 IIRC. Also worth checking out Studiospares site, they used to do a decent one too I think. Edit - just Google ‘Cable gig bag’, the above and many more listed.

Sky Arts are showing it again at 12 am on Friday 2nd June. ( which makes it Thursday evening at midnight really 😆) Freeview channel 11 for those of us who don’t subscribe.

Surprised I'm apparently the first in this thread to recommend the Fender Rumble V3 stuff. Both the 200 (1x15) and 500 (2x10) combos are IMO perfect for what you need. Sound great, with excellent DI XLR output and speaker extension sockets if you find you ever need to add another cab (you won't, especially with the 500) and very portable, loud, light and compact. A s/h 500 can be found for around £400/450 ish, new they're circa £629.

Just noticed that Martin have got on the short scale acoustic bass bandwagon, and have also come up with some strings for it which sound very much like the D’Addarios mentioned earlier. Martin M4750 Acoustic Bass Junior Series Phosphor Bronze strings are for 24” scale length instruments, in gauges 45-96. Not sure if they’re on sale here yet, so will be interesting to see how they price them.

I’m jealous! Seen him a few times since the 70’s and love his stuff, one of my favourite artists. However, I just couldn’t run to the insane ticket prices that were on sale - did you manage to get yours on a good deal? Must admit I’ve lost a lot of faith in Bruce for seemingly endorsing this new ‘reactive’ ticket pricing. I’m sure it will be a great gig though, one of the best bands I’ve ever seen. Enjoy!

I think Trace Elliot stuff typifies the issue. Everyone knows that it’s great, but now sadly simply isn't feasible for many people due to it’s weight and bulk and therefore can be had for a song. Was used by everyone back in the day, from pub bands to stadium gigs, but nowadays only the die hard TE fans still using it. Will probably outlive them too.

Definitely white for me ( and with the original bridge too…😆)

Seen Albert a lot over the years, lovely guy. Despite his crazy guitar skills, I actually love to hear him sing and play the piano. Rodney Crowell’s song ‘Till I gain control again’ is one of his best.

My thoughts exactly. Just wondered if there was a story behind the bass that someone on here may know about. My knowledge of stuff like this is non existent!

Just watching some 60’s stuff on TV, and saw Manfred Mann doing ‘Fox on the run’ with Klaus Voorman on bass circa 1968. He was playing what looked like an 8 string - found these pics on Google, and it says Vox on the headstock. I’ve never seen one like this, and it does look a bit ‘customised’ so just wondered if anyone could verify what it is?

Agreed, but would think that (despite the popularity of Helix / FRFR / IEM's etc) a lot of players ( maybe the majority?) on here do still use their amp and cab on every gig, for whatever purpose ( FOH or via PA etc).

Nice one - a great venue too.

I disagree - don't think I'm the only bassist who uses their amplification as an integral part of 'their sound', same as if you are using any tone shaping kit such as a Helix / pedals etc. Even more so on smaller gigs where the bass isn't in the PA?

Both common issues. We do ‘Take it easy’ in my country band and never as per the Eagles original recording, and nobody has ever picked us up on it. I’d be inclined to think the original isn’t ‘wrong’, just depends on the count in I think.

As well as OBBM I’ve also used ClearTone Cables - good quality and prices. www.award-session.com