chris_b

At the end of a gig the singer was winding up. He said, "Thank you, we've had a great night." "It wasn't this one, but. . . . "

As the OP is talking about $10 cables I guess he's in the US and is probably not going to ship OBBM's cables across the Atlantic. Although they are the best I've used in years. If you want to find out about cables, go to Youtube and search for something like, Taking care of cables.

I'd add the Quilter BB800m to the list. I heard one paired with a Super Compact and it is a great combination. My main amps are an Aguilar AG700 and a TH500. Aguilar are hard to beat when it comes to making basses sound good.

. . . . it's called dynamics.

Last weekend I did 3 gigs, 6 sets, using my favourite bass which weighs just over 9 1/2lbs. By halfway thorough gig 2, my back, shoulder and neck were in a lot of discomfort. By the middle of gig 3 I had to switch and did the last set with my P bass, about 8 1/2lbs. No more pain or backache. Many things can help. Do exercise, do Pilates, build up your muscles, improve your posture but my bottom line is, if you have these "issues" and 1lb can make such a difference, reducing the weight of your bass and gear is something that should be at the top of your to-do list.

Very sad news. He was the reason I started buying Joni Mitchell records and the reason I bought Hot Rats, my first and last Frank Zappa record.

Well, they do, so you should be wondering why you don't understand something so fundamental to public musical performance.

I've played Summer of 69 in several bands. I think it's a good song, I like playing it. Does it really matter what notes they played on the record? If you've got a 5 string bass and can use the low D great, or play it an octave up. Each will work just as well as the other.

Too many favourite bass lines to list, but, for me, these have to go at the top of the list . . . Little Feat, Spanish Moon (Kenny Gradney) Mean and moody, contains one of the best drum breaks ever put on record. Sly and the Family Stone, Thank You (Larry Graham) When I first heard this in early 1970, on a US Air Base jukebox, I played it 20 times in a row. Aretha Franklin, Rock Steady (Chuck Rainey) I still can't get that middle 8! Jean Knight, Mr Big Stuff (Vernie Robbins) The first time I heard this, I had to pull the car over until it finished. Keb Mo, Just Like You (Hutch Hutchinson) Beautiful, tasteful bass lines. Stevie Wonder, Do I Do (Nate Watts) I don't like the tone he gets but this is a tour de force of bass playing. Keb Mo, Muddy Water (Reggie McBride) Great tone, pure class.

IMO these are great amps, they have their own sound and the one thing they are not going to do is sound like your Eden. I found the TH500 to be pretty intuitive. I kept the drive switched off until I'd got a sound I liked out of the rest of the amp.

If you are never going to gig then a small amp like the Ampeg pf20t would be an idea, or any 200 watt amp. But if there are gigs in the future I'd get a good 500 watt amp. One that sounds good at low volume and can be cranked as well. That's my Aguilar amps to a T. I'm learning some songs for the weekend playing along to the laptop in my front room and I'm using my Aguilar TH500 and 2 BF One10's. As quiet as you want it to be and bags of great tone.

Apparently Sadowsky has split the ranges between dealers. I'm not sure about Bass Direct (but they are a dealer), the Bass Gallery only handles NYC basses and Guitar Guitar Metro basses. I believe Thoman does them all. If you can buy the bass from a dealer here you might not be troubled by HMRC. Email Sadowsly to ask who is the dealer for the series you want.

Love it. 2 drums and a hi-hat. Love that especially.

IMO if we all agreed it would be great. Who doesn't like being patted on the back and told their views are spot on. Tell me you think I'm right. . . that never gets boring!

On a gig, in any genre, JB always gave 110%. I bought Songs For A Taylor and Harmony Row (he started to lose me after that) and saw JB with Tony Williams Lifetime, at the Marquee, and with John Walters big band all over London (all exciting gigs). Didn't buy any Cream records though. After seeing the gigs the recordings didn't do them justice.

The Vox Foundation was also available at the time. 50 watts and a 118. I had one. Nothing but extreme woolliness. You guys think you can get a bad sound today!!!!

Ed, 100% on target, as usual.

I've just put a set of D'Addario NYXLs on my Jazz. No residue problems for me.

Oh Yeah and Ah Um were required listening in my school band, we had a 3 piece brass section. We used to play Oh Lord, Don't Drop That Atomic Bomb On Me.

Agreed, but it's also a testament to him being such a royal PIA flip-wit that he managed to gett himself kicked out of the band that's finally stopped putting up with his nonsense after 40 years.

This could easily be a weight issue. I screwed my lower back 15 years ago after 10 years of lifting very heavy Mesa Boogie cabs, about 90lbs each. Now, any bass over 9 1/2 lbs is too heavy. On a good day 9 1/2lbs is my maximum for a 2 hr gig, but way too heavy for a 4 hr rehearsal. So far my experience is that less than 9lbs is OK. When I'm feeling good I can use my Sadowsky but otherwise it has to be the 8 1/2lb Lull P. So depending on the problem even something as small as 1/2lb can be make or break for a damaged back. The serious bit: If you get a lower back problem you'll discover, if you are very lucky, it can stabilise. These injuries rarely go away completely and the usual course is that it will gradually get worse over time. The time to be looking after your back is before you have a problem.

I remember double bass player Brian Brocklehurst (and his Sherlock Holmes pipe) frequently on TV backing folk singers etc back then.

The band I was in at school has an annual get together. The band was very good for the time and the places we used to play, think Blues Brothers minus the dark glasses and about 10 years earlier. It even worked pretty well when we did some 30 year anniversary gigs. Sadly, we've lost a few guys since then so, these days I'm happy to be sitting in a pub in the West End with no instruments involved. We reminisce a little but usually the chat is just about life during the last year.

Last night there were several instances of, "Phew, I don't think anyone noticed. I might have got away with that one!"

The first guitarist I played with used a Futurama 2 Deluxe. When we started practising together I switched to playing bass lines on my awful and impossible-to-play-chords Spanish guitar. Bass playing. What a revelation that was!