Stub Mandrel

I got the confidence to jam during covid. I would put on Planet Rock and try and play along to every song. Not aiming for perfectionn just in tune, in time and try to get the right feel.

Last night the band played Thunderstruck. I was talking to their singer/guitarist and mentioned that their keyboardist took over the riff... he said she'd never played it before but realised his fingers were cramping up. Incredible.

To me, jamming along to a song you've never heard before is as good as it gets.

Phew. We are at Tenby Blues Festival. Last night we went to Bella Collins' late night jam. Turned into an epic session ending after 4:00am. Headliner Sean ‘Mack’ McDonald’ joined in and has an incredible touch on guitar (and played a storming boogie woogie onbthe piano after it was meant to have finished). Met a guitarist and singer and stood in for three songs (I have no idea what they were) with them, an excellent saxophonist and a young woman on drums who was really good. Got called up a bit later to support a lady who hadn't sung for a while and got her confidence to sing again. Lots of variety and really captured the feel of a big community of musicians. Our first time here and we're meeting people we know wherever we go.

Last night (Darren was hiding in the corner).

Tried a new rehearsal space with the originals band tonight. Tea, coffee a fridge with milk and cans of pop. Even a packet of choccie buscuits. Played a Warwick Gnome through a ~12" Orange speaker, sounded ok but when I gently boosted middle and cut bass it went very brittle and odd, so I set it back where I found it with a fair bit of bass boost. Gain and master both low. Decent electric drum kit (dodgy cymbal feel apparently) so we could keep volume down. Less space led us to a good sound. Apologised for going increasingly ott towards the end of a song that starts slow and speeds up, but that was liked. It's a three chord fairly slow number (66bpm) so getting more intense and doubling the tempo (bars don't get shorter, we just put in more notes) halfway keeps it interesting. All enjoyed it.

Reminds me... after my dad died, we wentfor a brotherly breakfast. One of my brothers found a photo of the three of us with dad. "We look like a country band!" said my other brother. "No!" I cried "we look like a band of c..." and the words died as I remembered the elderly couple at the next table.

How peculiar the photo is my tiny 4x4 combo!

We really felt like rehearsal was needed after our last gig. Tonight we focused on the weak points and also played Alive by Pearl Jam for the first time. Alive is a blast to play. My jazz was sounding awesome, I'd boosted the mids a tiny bit and made sure the gain was high enough for a bit of overdrive. Half way through I realised I hadn't checked the controls on the bass, but they were exactly in my favourite spot - neck full, bridge about 20%. Only point of contention... they all think the bass on Uprising sounds better clean! Have they ever heard actually listened to it?

I liked it, very different from what I play. I try to follow Jack Bruce for the main part, although I steal a ZZ Top turnaround because it fits really well 🙂 Not being him, 'improv in his style' might be a generous description of what I try to do in the solos...

Excellent and very professional presentation too.

Ohio is exactly the song for these times. Well done for playing it.

I thought there would be a clever explanation about allowing for the width of the sawcut 😁

The chance of major damage would have been mitigated as the power amp would not have been getting any input.

Feeling below par so somehow got distracted by Teen Town (again). I've learnt the first section but there are a few bars I can't get up to speed, but it gets a little better with each attempt. Edit: I managed an 'almost right' play though of the first section in 43 seconds. Jaco does it in 30!! Loads more work needed for both speed and accuracy (let alone feel)!

Alive by Pearl Jam. Not a big challenge, but one of my favourite songs so really looking forward to performing it. Rehearsal monday.

Play them on it over bluetooth from your phone. If you press the bass knob it goes into Bluetooth mode.

I have a usb powered air purifier that runs of usb and uses carbon cartridges. That could run in a car.

Nearly 25 years out getting married, having a daughter. Getting back into music helped me cope with divorce. I'm only an amateur but I identify more with being a bass player than my various work identities.

😯

Damn you folks, sent me onto a deep dive where I found this, which is a partial and imperfect answer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weber–Fechner_law As a biologist I would say one reason why the ear can cope with both a huge range of sound levels and doesn't respond linearly to volume is that it has tiny muscles that 'tighten up' the system to mitigate damage by 'turning down the volume'. I looked into this in a bit more detail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_reflex The reflex clicks in for sounds over the threshold (which can vary between 70 and 100dB). A sound 20dB above the threshold might be reduced by 15dB. A reduction of up to 20dB is possible. It takes 2-3 seconds to click in (which is why being close to drum hits is just so horrible). There are lots of subtleties. Also, it click in automatically to give ~20dB reduction just before you speak, so if you are expecting sudden bangs, try talking to yourself...

I just looked at the DFSchat forum, and they have a topic called sofas on the bass.

Probably it's urea-formaldehyde glue which can break down if kept damp and give off fumes (including ammonia) that smell like wee.