Happy Jack

It all rather focuses the mind on why anyone needs guts in 2024. Playing low-volume acoustically there's no real doubt in my mind that guts sound simply sublime, and are a pleasure to play. Introduce any amplification worth mentioning and the benefits start to slip gradually away, until you reach gig volume where you're feeling the notes as much as you hear them and the material used to make the string becomes of very limited interest. And then you go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like "but what about other people?". Ah yes, other people. your band members, other musos in the audience, bar staff, punters, drunks ... what do they hear, what do they notice? We've all answered tougher questions than that, right? I could afford the £700 if I needed to, if I spent my hours in recording sessions at Air Studios and if the sound would be valued and appreciated, but I'm a pub/club player. Seriously - what's the point?

Jane's Addiction have apologised after they cancelled an upcoming show following an on-stage brawl in Boston. On Friday night, the American band cut short their gig after frontman Perry Farrell threw a punch at guitarist David Navarro. The world's gone mad, I tells ya ...

And for today's delight & delectation we have Dickensian Victoriana Metal with Gothic Groove twist No, I didn't just make that up. They're a band based in Hemel Hempstead, I think ( @Lozz196 might know), called Tellers Scribe.

I've bought gigbags for less than £150. I've bought pedals for less than £150. I've bought amplifiers for less than £150. Hell, I've bought basses (and gigged them, for money, in front of an audience) for £150. Robin Williams was wrong y'know ... it's double basses that are God's way of telling you that you have too much money. 🙄

I'm sure I have NO idea what you are talking about ...

My XR18 used to be mounted in a Gator 8U with wheels and a handle (like a suitcase). That ensured that everything racked could be in a single box with permanent signal & power connections, then towed easily across the car park with one hand. System changes last year mean that I do it differently these days, but my Gator was then listed for sale here for months. I withdrew it due to failure to sell, but I still have it if you're interested.

Of course, rough trade around Denmark Street used to mean something very different ...

If you want to A/B them, feel free to come over.

These differences carry through to the sound, as you'd expect. The AliKat body is very oil drum indeed. I have a Rockabilly slap piezo (bridge wing and end of fingerboard) AND an underfoot piezo, with the signals blended using an LS-2. I can dial in appropriate amounts of oil drum to flavour the sound of the strings. The Alcoa, whilst definitely an ally bass when played acoustically, sounds far more 'normal' once amplified.

They're wildly different, @PaulKing. The AliKat was built by a specialist aluminium worker with very little luthiery experience, whereas the Alcoa is clearly a luthier-designed instrument but using unusual materials. The AliKat uses OTT construction for the body (unsure of the strength, I imagine) and a wooden neck & scroll sourced from China. The Alcoa is 100% aluminium and the construction is more reminiscent of a plywood build.

Oh wow, I'm sorry man, like, y'know, what was the question again?

But the octave-switcher is instantly accessible at all times. If you're a one-hand player (my soul band has a bass player, natch) then you can select where you want to pitch those three octaves at any time.

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He'll be missed.

They'd need to come with a free weight-lifting course ...

All things being equal (which they rarely are) a pair of 10" cabs should be nearly 50% louder than a single 12" cab [arithmetically it would be (25x2) vs 36], but there are SO many other variables ...

Country music is really forgiving ... the songs tend to be about the story-telling aspect rather than how well you deliver them, so that relieves at least some of the pressure. It's also a very broad church. There's pretty much bound to be a number of singers whose voice you can emulate to one degree or another. There's a long list of country artists I can't get anywhere near, but I have no real trouble with Merle Haggard songs and I do OK with Hank Williams. Singalongs where you just know the audience is going to sing the chorus for you are also helpful ... Take Me Home (Country Roads), The Gambler, Wild Side Of Life, you know the drill.

Absolutely this ^. Mine is G.

Fascinating to see how many people are advising the OP to more-or-less just jump right in. Hmmmmmmmmm. My advice would be to find a local guitarist who's in the same sort of situation, and jam along with him for weeks, maybe months. Playing live with even a single real musician is MASSIVELY different from playing along to your favourite CDs. Once you can cope with playing live (for a given value of "live") start attending your local blues jam, see how you feel about getting up in front of an audience. That's pretty different too. After playing at half a dozen proper jam sessions you'll have no need to ask when you're ready to start looking for a band. Good luck.

Christ! There's a case too? 😨