FinnDave

Well, Oxford PMT came up trumps and had the amp ready for me today, so I drove over with my Super Compact and Jazz Bass to give it a whirl. Sounded great, a lot of amp in a ridiculously small package. The my guitarist friend showed up with the battery inverter and we tried it with that as the power source. The result was…. quite surprisingly…. it sounded just as good using that power source as it did when powered off the mains. Obviously, I paid up and brought it home. I have a feeling that either my Ashdown ABM 600 or more likely the Rootmaster 800 will make their way onto the for sale lists before too long. Saturday will be the real test - playing through the Elf & SC at an outdoor gig, with no mains power. And the amp really does fit in my pocket! One less lump to schlepp across fields to these fly-gigging adventures (kind of like fly-tipping but considerably less harmful to the environment).

Thanks, Pete, it was an auto-correct that I didn't notice. The packs we are using wouldn't fit under a pedal board, guitarist is using one to power a Marshall combo (can't remember the wattage) and I used one for my little Peavey combo which worked fine, just not loud enough for band work - I bought it to use solely as a home practice amp to save me having to plug up an amp and cab just to noodle around a couple of ideas. The PJB stuff looks like it is just what I need, but I need to keep the costs down - I will only buy the Elf if it works with a cab I already have, and it will the double up as a very portable back-up amp. I doubt that we will continue rehearsing and gigging in fields after another couple of months, but it is fun while it lasts!

My Barefaced Super Twin is a great cab - bought it new 7 years ago and have no intention of parting with it. Haven't actually used it for over a year, though - most of the time, the Super Compact is enough as my bass is mic'd and DI'd anyway. Just that much smaller and lighter to lug in and out of the car and the venue. I must find a couple of gigs to use it at next year!

Like quite a few people, I am currently only able to rehearse & gig with a band in the open air - where there is no power available. So far, I have been plugging into a small PA monitor, which works, but the sound is very thin. I have also tried using a portable power pack that supplies 240 AC from a small box of Li cells and my little Peavey 15 watt combo (worked, but the amp really wasn't powerful enough). I have arranged with the local PMT to try a Trace Elliot Elf through my small cab (Super Compact) with one of the battery investors we've been using. Before I lay out the cash for yet more gear, does anyone have any experience of using the Elf for this sort of thing, and does anyone have any better ideas?

I've been playing the others, it's just a bit too posh to play at home and the only rehearsals and gigs I've been playing are in fields, so prefer to leave it safely at home. I played one gig with it in February, and it sounded and felt great. Its time will come round again if/when we can resume playing regular gigs.

I thought I'd already established the point to aim for by buying a 2000 quid bass three days after the new year! And have barely touched it since!

I can offer a pivot point to the west of Oxford - and often in Oxford itself.

The photo bit got completely forgotten in the heat of the moment. All went well, quite a few people spread out responsibly watching the bands. Played for and hour and then asked to play another song or two, pleasant way to spend and afternoon in good company.

Oh come, I do realise I don't have to send the film away for developing and printing. I just take the film into my local Boots and they care of all that. I think there is some recent video of me playing with this band around, try looking for Franklin's Tower on Facebook. If the bass player doesn't look like me, then it's their regular guy, if the bass player does look like me, then it probably is!

Don't sit so near the screen, then!

I will if I can, but only pics of the other bands as I'll be a bit busy when we're doing our thing!

I don't pay any extra, they are the same price as regular matched ones. There was a guitarist I was playing with a year or two ago, I took my shoes off at a rehearsal and he freaked out completely at my non-matching socks. Strange, some people.

I never watch videos, I just can't concentrate on them. I always wear mismatched socks, in fact it made my day recently when I discovered you can buy pairs of socks that are mismatched (so not really a pair, more just two socks packaged together).

My next gig is in four hours, with a local Deadhead band in a field in Oxford as part of a four band mini fest. We did the same thing a couple of weeks ago and had a reasonable audience. No money involved, but it's fun to do and keeps the flame burning.

I'd be happy to be part of a chain passing a bass along, but these days my idea of a long drive is going into Oxford (about 15 miles). No gigs around the country this year - and no holidays either.

Have you ever managed to successfully claim on a courier's insurance? I have tried (once) and their contracts have get-out clauses to cover everything imaginable and quite a few that aren't.

I think the first song I learnt was Interstellar Overdrive, or possibly Fohat digs holes in space from Gong's Camembert Electrique. I learnt them both when I first started playing, because both are very easy.

If you want to give the Dead a chance to impress ( and no one is saying you should) then skip the studio albums and stick to the live recordings. In my opinion, they were dull in the studio but came alive in front of audience. I have most of the studio stuff and haven't listened to it in years - I only ever listen to the live stuff, of which there is plenty - almost all of their 2500 plus shows were recorded.

Most of our gigs are paid as a percentage of the door take, so as long as the same number of people turn up, we'll still get paid the same. I think for all of the band's members though, the gig money barely covers travel to and from gigs & rehearsals and other incidental costs.

I often think about listening to music in Finnish. I mean, my thinking is in Finnish, not the music, unless I am thinking about listening to Sibelius or perhaps Yö. As one of the people who says they rarely listen to any music unless I am learning it for a band, I should add that the music I like most is burnt so deeply into my brain that I can experience it without the benefit of any music actually playing.

I can't listen to music 'casually' anymore. I only listen to stuff related to what I play - I prefer silence to music that doesn't interest me. I know that might sound snobbish, but it isn't meant to be - I envy people who can enjoy a soundtrack to their lives. I've never switched the radio in my current car on - I haven't even looked at how to do it, it simply doesn't interest me at all. It's quite some time since I've listened to anything except the Grateful Dead. I get great pleasure from listening to the many different live versions of their material, and different combinations of songs. I rarely listen to music unless I am playing along to it or trying to work what Phil Lesh is doing. Just listening to the radio or random music (or TV and its constant chatter) drives me nuts, though. Now silence, I can take a lot of. Not sure if that's because I spent years in Finland or why I spent years in Finland, but I learnt to appreciate the many surptly different types of silence when I lived there and still do so. 99% of the time, I prefer the sound of the wind or the rain, or just listen to the music streaming through my head that no one else can hear.

The deadheads in Oxford I played a sort-of gig with a week or so ago (outdoors, in a field, about 70 or so in the audience) are doing it again this coming Saturday and possibly on the Monday bank holiday as well. No pay, no power, just battery powered amps and hand drums. There were 4 bands last time, hopefully the same again. OK, so it's not putting food on the table, but it really helps keep the spark alive.

That only really works if you're in the audience, might be a bit too obvious if you're on stage!

I'm in