JapanAxe

Bring on a 100W Little Stubby!

I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it.

I was wondering the same.

Not quite, Bill. In the Bose L2, the HF line does indeed slot into the top of the LF cab. The L1's HF line slots into the 'footprint' that houses the amp, but the LF cab(s) is/are connected by a 4-pole Speakon cable, so you can separate the elements by a couple of feet, or more if you get a longer cable. The reason I know this is that I have owned and used an L1 (Model 2) for some 7 years. The main issue I have found is that when you raise the volume, the LF cabs (which are pretty conventional 'point source' units as far as I can tell) can't keep up with the HF line array, so the sound becomes thinner. Bose will happily sell you more LF cabs and a little 'Packlite' power amp to run them - a friend of mine did exactly this to avoid losing the bottom end of his keyboard! To me the Bose is a reasonable compromise between portability (entire system weighs 50kg) and convenience (hardly any cabling to run) on the one hand, and cost on the other, and the sound is good within limits.

Depends what you mean by 'full band'! I used a Bose L1 Model 2 system just for 2 vocalists in a 3-piece country band. Drums were unamplified, electric guitar and bass used their own backline. This was not a loud band, so it worked. I then joined a 4-piece country band, where everybody sings, and the lead singer plays electro-acoustic via a combo plus a bit of PA reinforcement. When the band heard my Bose system they wanted me to bring it all the time, but they eventually went back to a boxes-on-poles setup. I think that was too much for the Bose, which was originally conceived of as a 1-per-player setup!

Good buy - I paid a fair bit more for my near-identical '73, but that was from a dealer.

I had the Rob DeLeo model in black a few years ago. It wasn't one of my better buying decisions...

Mainly Dunlop 1.14mm (fuschia colour) for me, but also partial to a Pure Tone 1.50mm. EDIT: I like even a thick plectrum to have some flexibility, I hate those hard plastic ones that look a bit like a sucked-flat boiled sweet!

I know. The band operates without a permanent bass player, I am first call out of a pool of 3, so I'm not in the strongest position to take issue with it.

If I'm singing at all, I keep a drink close by, usually in a holder on my mic stand. My preference for conditioning the throat is tea with just a small dash of milk, or failing that diet coke (no ice) or water (ditto). I rarely drink alcohol on a gig, it affects my playing detrimentally, and anyway I am usually driving. No food on stage, and no nuts before singing lead - small fragments always reappear in my throat and threaten to choke me to death. One of my pet hates is a TV screen in my field of vision while I'm on stage - incredibly distracting. Mobile phones - mine goes into flight mode, not least because of the unwanted noises it can produce through my bass/amp or the PA. The drummer in my second band will switch to playing one-handed while he answers text messages on his phone; I would love to confiscate the damned thing. /sensible

^^ What does 'need' have to do with it!?

WANT! Or do I? OK I want to try one in the flesh so that I can either deflate the GAS or buy one on the spot.

I'm guessing it won't run off USB power then...

Things not to do? Any of these: Criticise their woefully inadequate range of bass guitars, and even more limited selection of amplification. State that you like an instrument you've been trying - next thing you know they are taking it to the till and trying to upsell you some accessories. Mention the expensive axes you already own - a keen salesman will take this as a personal challenge to find you something from the Squier or Vintage ranges that will blow it out of the water. Enquire whether a lower price might be available for cash (actual folding money) - the days of shops buying and selling in paper money are pretty much gone, they almost all have card facilities, and it can actually cost them more to bank cash than to take a payment on a debit card. Offer an existing instrument as trade-in - you'll get a better price from the first low-ball Gumtree chancer that comes along than from a retailer.

I don't see this as a problem, unless you miss out on work because the booker only wants a Precision player for whatever reason. That must be a fairly rare situation these days.

At the end of the first section of Take Me Out (Franz Ferdinand song, not TV show), the guitarist and I used to have a mock fight where we would try and prod each other with our headstocks. As bass player I had the longer reach, and invariably 'won'. For one particularly leery gig (which Mrs Axe described as like playing in a creche, on account of all the blatant under-age drinking), I threaded a piece of wire wrapped in tissue paper between my tuners, and when the moment of combat came, I whipped out a lighter and set fire to it. The effect was dramatic, if short-lived. Thinking about it, I could have burned the pub down, caused death and/or serious injury, or worst of all, got us banned from the venue!

And the result?

No plans to add to it.

Ooh, that's the WB100, the all-valve Handbox. Have you done a thread about it somewhere? Just found it! (I've been wasting a lot of time on the Fretboard forum recently.)

Want to stop a guitarist from widdling? Put the music in front of him...

My Mustang is just a little bit too long to fit in a guitar gig bag, at least without straining the zip.