stewblack

I have made a firm decision. Based on common sense rather than any moral ground. I live in an overcrowded, damp, cold room. I took a bass out the other day having not used it for a while. The pots crackled, there was rust on the pick ups, the strings were dead. I simply cannot in all conscience bring another instrument into this room. Apart from anything else I'm falling over the ones I already have!

@bnt it never ceases to surprise me how different the on stage sound is from the 'bedroom' sound. Or rather how better suited the sound can be live, when it seems underwhelming at home. I'm not surprised you enjoyed the HB at a gig though. They're just so much better than people expect them to be.

My old man made my first combo from an old lo-fi record player. My first 'effect pedal' was one of those old shoe box tape recorders into the mic socket out of the earphone (singular) socket, push up the little tab while pressing record and play, and off you go!

I think Josh is hilarious, knowledgeable, entertaining and promotes a hell of a lot of other people's equipment. It's not his fault if the market is so influenced by his videos. It's just silly people being silly and greedy people being greedy.

A weekend of Bandeoke for me. New venue Friday and an absolutely storming night. Paid to play another half an hour at the end so with tonight's wedding gig that's about 7 hours of playing . I could have done another couple of hours easily but then, strangely enough, had zero energy when it came to carrying the gear out to the car.

Like you @Lozz196I have to make concessions to my advanced state of physical decay. My preference is for 8x10 stacks and no thought at all to the weight of the bass. But lately I seem to gig with a medium scale, lightweight Maruszczyk bass and two teeny 10 inch Trace cabs which together weigh the same as a half eaten candy floss. Oh and my bass strap is about a foot wide . Every now and then I throw caution to a cliché and take out my HB jazz anchor, but it's a gamble.

DFTT

https://youtu.be/Ci6Xl5hyIfU

Trying something different this weekend. Swapped the Plethora for the Ampero so I can use the preamp and a, ahem, plethora of always on effects, plus 4 selectable and a tuner. Oh and another synth and couple more filters, because.

Just picked this up in a less than salubrious location in response to a FB advert. It produces a bunch of sounds not dissimilar to those I can already produce on various of my pedals. But that hardly seems important. Review: I like it.

Yes! 77 to 84 for me. A 7 year decade!

Just that horrible glitzy production and the demise of my favourite bands I guess

I agree with @Lozz196 for bass the early 80s was a great era. In terms of the prominence if the instrument in the mix. It was when I started on the bass so I'm probably biased. The decade itself is a real musical game of two halves. Amazing at the start dwindling by '84 and dominated by absolute garbage after '85.

I made some terrible choices in the past. Swapping beautiful basses for stuff I didn't really need or even like sometimes. Even selling some for a pittance. But it is a learning curve and I don't make those mistakes now. But for some reason the one that really niggles wasn't an expensive Fender, but a budget Yamaha BB. Lovely colour, balance, weight, sound - a bass that really fitted me.

I'm with you 100%. Obviously I have no opinion on other people hacking up their own instruments if it gives them joy. That's none of my business I have changed tuners on a bass which suffered from a fraction of neck dive in the hope it might correct it and I've made up a bass from bits and bashed it around a bit to try the roadworn look. However what I produced was so realistic it confused the road worn crowd, who prefer something that looks like a brand new instrument rubbed in one place with a sander. But I digress. The only other changes have been aesthetic.

Home is for learning, or noodling. Performance is where I come to life.

Played a multi band St Pat's event in Bristol yesterday. Chaotic as these things often are we ended up going on late, no set up time so played by Braille. Couldn't hear anything beyond the vocals and we were pulled early so that the band after us didn't have to finish late 🤷🏻‍♂️ Still, I got paid and got home in reasonable time.