Happy Jack

Mill Hill Complex is basically a bunch of WW2 Nissen Huts which were used as an industrial estate in the 50s and 60s. It's a total throwback to the days when rehearsal rooms stank of teenage sweat, stale cigarettes and rancid lager. And the parking is utterly appalling. I rather like it. In their defence, if I was running that place myself I cannot begin to imagine how I could do any sort of 'deep clean' without gutting every single room and starting over. The dispersed layout would also make further cleaning between sessions even more challenging. Realistically, they shouldn't be open for business during a health crisis.

Has anyone made them a Senator yet?

So how close are we @ped? Give us an updated number!

Shallow of me, perhaps, but I tend to assciate black hardware with the 310. Both my 320s had gold hardware. Lovely looking bass, mind, and clearly priced to sell. Collection from Tonbridge, on t'other hand, is doing the vendor no favours at all.

And that's just about the size of it. You can get a staggering range of totally useable, musical tones from a Wal. I sold my first Wal when I realised that I spent all my time making it sound like a Precision ...

The best-laid plans, eh? Firstly our Thursday rehearsal got moved to Wednesday, then we set up our kit in the woods and the Hotone/BoxKing rig suddenly misbehaved and died again. It had done this previously in my home studio when we were preparing the first bunch of videos, leading to another topic elsewhere: However, switching to just using the 4Ω Embee 1210 cab seemed to cure the problem and a couple of hours testing gave no recurrence. As soon as we set up in the woods, there was a straight repeat along with an interesting selection of squeals and howls. All very dispiriting, so we switched it all off and put it away. Plugged it all together again today at home and ... it all worked perfectly. Ah well, we'll try again with my other band on Sunday. Meanwhile, we were left with just the PJB Briefcase and it was superb. I genuinely couldn't hear any difference between using it when plugged into the mains and using it on battery power. Set to full volume, it was about the right level for a no-PA rehearsal or for busking in a relatively quiet area ... you'd have no trouble with this in a shopping precinct or a public park, for example. Don't be misled by the overly quiet vocals here - Rick is capable of singing very loudly indeed, far far louder than this, but he wasn't there to test my kit, he was just running through stuff we haven't played live for too too long.

We are, aren't we? We're actually going to re-do the entire FRFR topic less than a year after it ran to 97 pages (or whatever).

But on a piano the only keys that are flat are the white ones ...

I may have to try putting my Broughton HPF up front ... it might be an impedance-matching issue.

EDIT: I should point out that through the camera and then through my own PC the PJB Briefcase actually sounds way better than it seemed to me when I was standing next to it. At the time @Silvia Bluejay was standing behind the camera and was surprised that I was so critical of the Briefcase with DB.

What happens if you want to go battery-powered? I've invested a fair bit of time & money (nearly £200) over the last couple of weeks in experimenting, so I thought I'd best start sharing some of what I've learned. WHAT I'VE GOT I've ended up with two possible solutions: 1. PJB Briefcase (the original, not the 'Ultimate' version) powered by a newly-bought Lucas battery at the spec recommended by the PJB manual. This was easily found and cost £19.45 new through eBay. I've had the Briefcase for many years but I've always used it with mains power. 2. Hotone Thunder Bass micro-head (£87 online) powered by a hard-to-find BoxKing PowerBank (coincidentally also £87 online) running into an Embee 1210 cab. I already had the cab so all I bought was the micro-head and power supply. The head runs best off >1Ω and prefers 2Ω but this power pack includes a dedicated 18V supply running at roughly 0.5Ω. This results in slightly less volume, not quite as good tone, and occasional connectivity issues. Also, please note that the Hotone works significantly better when paired with a 4Ω cab (like this one) as opposed to an 8Ω cab. WHAT I'M DOING This is the first of three pairs of videos intended to give you a fair idea of the practicality of running off lightweight batteries ... volume levels, achievable tone quality, and so on. Pairs because each session includes both electric bass and double bass. Mind you, the first pair needed an intro and an outro (because I had to set up the plot and introduce the main characters) so that it's not actually a pair so much as four of a kind. My main aim is to show how these rigs sound in the real world, in my case rehearsing live with my bands in a small private woodland in the Chilterns. That sound can best be gauged if you have a 'vanilla' benchmark, so Silvie and I have started by recording solo videos in the studio. The plan is that the second pair of videos will be shot on Thursday evening in the woods with The Junkyard Dogs (using battery-powered guitar amp + battery-powered cajon), and the third pair will be shot on Sunday morning in the woods with Damo & The Dynamites (using acoustic guitar + acoustic cajon). How much of this plan survives contact with reality is anybody's guess. All sessions are without a vocal PA, so the overall volume level is automatically set at whatever the vocalist feels comfortable singing over. THINGS TO REMEMBER Obviously what I'm doing here is rather different from busking outside a bus garage or in a busy town centre, but these videos will hopefully give you at least some clue as to whether this is an approach that you might want to pursue. Secondly, these videos are not here to demonstrate what a superb bassist I am. I could have spent far longer preparing these videos by playing stuff over and over until I got the perfect take. Instead I've just laid down a quick & dirty take for each recording in order to concentrate on the real subject of the videos. One last thing ... the Briefcase is much heavier than it looks. For busking purposes I very strongly recommend that you use a trolley of some sort. You'll likely mess up your back if you carry it one-handed for any great distance.

Go with the one who smelled the least.

Is that the original NEMS ... the Brian Epstein one?

Emo Shoe Gazer

Damn! You mean I should have read his post before replying? Well that's just not the Basschat way ...

Ah yes ... white, the new black.

I use a Genz Benz Streamliner 900 with a valve-driven pre-amp stage. Reckon that might tick the boxes you describe.

Once it was enough to be a really good bassist. Then you had to be a really good bassist in a particular age range. Now you have to be a really good bassist in a particular age range who stands over 6' tall ... https://www.joinmyband.co.uk/classifieds/serious-rocknroll-bass-guitarist-needed-inquiries-only-t1245035.html

Aaaaaargh! Not good. On t'other hand, there ain't no law says you can't use a stool on stage ... I used to do it all the time when my back trouble was bad, and drummers do it at every bloody gig. Also, in a bizarre way, your timing is excellent. There's plenty of time to get yourself sorted, back up & running before any gigs re-appear.

Damn! I rather wish I'd seen that sooner ...