Woodinblack

Went to see musical box yesterday, the Genesis tribute act. I like genesis, although TBH, I prefer the Phil collins stuff to the Peter Gabriel stuff (who I think did far better stuff on his own), and they are more a PG era band. They do the whole album of Lamb Lies Down, which I am not bothered with as an album, but my friend really likes it and he was impressed. All in all they are a very impressive tribute group and I did enjoy it, especially the second half where there more of the stuff I was familiar with. For my money I enjoyed Steve Hacket last year doing trick of the tail more, but then that is one of my favourite albums of all time, so not a fair comparison. If you like the music and the effort that goes into using all the period authentic equipment (which I don't get that much), very well worth seeing.

I have those moments with some of the songs we pick. Luckily we don't have a band leader as such, we are more.. I won't say democratic as generally what the guitarist wants he gets, but I do have an endstop of 'no way am I doing that'. But we still do some dull ones. I find the dull ones are better when doing it with a band as you can add a bit of life to it, like the slap bass section of 'Need your love so bad' (what do you mean there is no slap bass section??) and in general there are a lot of songs that are more fun to play than to listen to. TBH, the first year with this group every time they said 'we are going to learn this', I would spend time getting it right and learning it, then go to practice and say 'are we going to try X now' and get 'Oh I didn't really get time, we will do it later' and years later we still haven't, so basically when someone suggests something, I work out what it sounds like, the key etc, and don't put much work in until I have figured out that someone seriously wants to play it. The guitarist wants to do the durgy john lennon christmas song. So I ended up practicing Everyday Hurts by skunk anansie, that is a fun bass line. OH John Lennon, right, I will get right on it!

One of our regular pubs, not too heaving because of the weather, but not empty either. Almost didn't happen because the guitarists baby was taken to A&E so we called it off, and then it was ok, so it was back on. Just long enough for the drummer to get drunk (it takes very little time). So timing was all over the place, although mainly way too fast. Still, I wanted to do it as I had the ashdown CTM100, and it was its first outing. I did have to turn it a long way up to get to the right volume, although when setting up one of the guys in the crowd said it was too loud, but I just told him he was a crazy man, as there was no such thing! The gig went ok, I enjoyed the amp, it can sound rather nice cranked up!

Haha - will do. Don’t worry about making a space for it just yet!

OK, gigged tonight, doesn't go as loud as the TC goes, and certainly not near the volume clean, but it sure does dirty well! Also the sound is very.. I don't know, alive I guess. Certainly wasn't disappointed by it, and It is loud enough for the group (although only just and we weren't our loudest tonight) so it is a keeper.

Actually, it is probably all already on the videos that you can get, but not so in depth and not so structured, he almost said as much as that.

I don't know if mine has improved, but I have become more aware of it, which is probably a good thing, and aware of how I am playing a string too.

I only use a strumpet for a few songs, so when I get to the next one I look and my strumpet has fallen under the amp!

I spent some quality time in the late evening with it yesterday, at really low volumes. I was amazed at how well it handles the sort of volume you can play in the living room at 23:00 with someone in bed upstairs - much better than the little ashdown mibass upstairs with its fan and hard to adjust volume. Sounds so good. The tone control is very responsive. I still don't understand what it does yet, but it certainly responds to you changing it! - oh and the power is ok, the guy selling to me confused me, and the fact the light is on whether it is on or off.

The current precision elite has this.

Its here!

So this turned up today - Literally, its previous owner drove down from Bristol to bring it to me, which was nice. Obviously, as can be seen from the picture it is an Ashdown CTM100, and equally obviously as I got it today, I don't know really what it is like. A few initial impressions, it isn't as heavy as I thought it would be, its a shame it has jack sockets for the speakers instead of the speakons on the CTM300. and mostly, WTF is going on with the power switches. So it has a green button which is lit all the time, but switched on if it is up, and a red button, which isn't lit, but is on if it is down. I am sure that isn't normal. Anyway, will play around the house with it, but won't really find out what it is like there, but I have a gig at one of the regular pubs on friday, and I know what my amp sounds like there, so I will take this along and see what I can get out of it

All this talk of valves - as tempting as the pf50 was, I was thinking it was just too small. Then this turned up, and I figured, probably still too small, but it wasn't that expensive (sh), so worth a spin. Turned up tonight: Certainly looks the part. Have a gig at one of our regular places on friday so I will take it along and see what I can make it do!

I think I might be too scared

Would be tempted to phone the venues back and tell them that someone was scamming your name, and you were still going. And then it would be time for a kick in the balls!

On the other hand, we were playing Dani California at a pub last year, and the guitarist broke a string just after the start. We just carried on because me and the drummer were already past V1, and we did almost the whole song without him. I am not sure the audience noticed much, they danced and sung and applauded.

I think in that case I wouldln't get sacked, I would say, 'my band, you leave and make your own'

Pretty grown up. The bass I use depends on what I want it to look like and what I feel like playing

No they had those temporary things, where they put 3 sticks up around the area and then transported stuff in. Of course, a bunch of drunk guys would nick one of the sticks and start chasing each other around the pub with it!

My TC450 has quite a high impedance input so it doesn't make any difference if it is passive or active. I also just set the gain to as high as it goes without clipping, and then adjust the volume with the volume, but this is because it is a clean linear amplifier in effect. However, if I was using something valvey, then it would make a difference where I set it. But I don't use that currently, so I will answer again in a few weeks!

Thanks for that - I will download it and give it a spin

Oh I don't currently see much of a need to update anything* - I am in a disturbingly happy place, currenty I don't even use what the B3 gives me that much apart from a few songs, so something like a helix is way over the top - I would imagine in a few years I will come across one cheap and then pick it up, until then I can live with it. *ok, yes, I have a new amp coming tomorrow and got a new bass a few weeks ago, but apart from that..

So does the B3n sound that much better than the B3? I have a B3, never really thought that much about updating it, occasionally think about having separate effects, but then I play with a guitarist with a pedal board of separates and have to wait the 15 minutes while they try and find the buzzing or dead lead and I go off the idea again. I have an expression pedal too, but never get round to using it.

I love the album. Had it on picture disk so I will avoid the re-issue like the plague, as I have yet to come across a re-issue that isn't a butchered mess.