Obrienp

Yes, you would think they would do a 500, or 600 watt head. They have a Peavey 600 watt head in the same stable.

In this case it was a pub. Fairly narrow long bar room packed with punters.

This is a FB comment I got from my local luthier and multi-instrumentalist who attended one of my band’s gigs on Sunday. I really respect his opinion on all things musical. I think it demonstrates how good a single Monza is. “Patrick T R O'Brien. Bass sounded great down the room - really fat in the low end and punchy. Great sound from such a small rig. Sounds much bigger.”

Two x 2 hour gigs at the Dereham Blues Festival on Sunday. These were the inaugural gigs for the Checkmate Kings new line up and the first the band has done since last year’s festival. The first was outdoors at the George Hotel to a packed beer garden and pub. Despite some significant cock ups it went well and we got plenty of positive feedback, including a possible return match later. It was pretty hot but we were under two gazebos, which gave us the space to spread out. Gear was 2 x LFSys Monzas, Blackstar U700, MB LMIII 500 back-up, Mooer Envelope filter pedal, Boss Tu3, Maruszczyk Elwood 4a 32” and Greco Atomic 32” as spare. Everything was DI’d, so the master didn’t go above 9 o’clock on the U700. One of these days I’ll get the chance to open up the rig! The second gig was early evening at the Red Lion and indoors. Hot, hot! We were squashed into a small space at the end of the bar. It’s a small pub, so pretty tight. However, our keyboard player wasn’t able to attend as he was playing at the Ely folk festival, so at least we were down to 5. Minimal equipment, just vocals, kick and sax into one PA column. I only used one cab and the guitarist used a small combo. Without the keyboard player we had to drop some material and rearrange on the fly, which had mixed success. I had some brain farts, which was embarrassing given some of the people who came to see us. Just as we were starting, I noticed that one side of the bridge saddle on the A string had dropped, which explained why I could hardly hear it (choking off). Fortunately I had my guitar multi-tool with me and I was able to fix it. Ah! I can’t post the pics, I seem to have a 43KB limit! That’s tiny these days!

Think you are correct regarding what NI pays for. I looked it up on the Gov website once.

I’ve always found them disappointingly bright but I guess I have the James Jameson sound in my head. You might think that rolling off the tone would get there but then you can’t hear the top string at all. I always ended up throwing money at them to try to improve the tone and never got there. Shorties seem to provide that tone much more easily. However, that’s just IMO. Agree about Maruszczyk prices; especially when you see what used examples sell for in the BC listings. I have an Elwood 4a 32” that I bought used and I could never afford to replace it with a new one now, if it got pinched.

I’ve had this but not as acute as your episode. For what it’s worth, I eventually had to see a consultant because it kept recurring in a milder form (and still does a bit when I get run down). She gave me these exercises to do which basically involve making yourself so dizzy that you nearly lose your breakfast. If you persevere, you eventually get your brain to compensate. It works. I could trust myself to ride a motorbike again and do all normal activities. These days, you probably don’t need to see a consultant, you can probably find the exercises on t’internet, e.g. https://www.entuk.org/patients/conditions/93/cawthornecooksey_exercises/ Good luck and recover quickly!

Sunday afternoon gig with the covers/original band at the Red Hart in Bodham. We were meant to be playing outside in the beer garden under the newly completed covered area (nice job) but the governor was worried by the forecast of thunderstorms and the likelihood of the rain being driven under the shelter (guess there are insurance implications). It was decided we should play indoors in the dining room but needed to wait until the end of the main service before setting up. I have been to jams and open mics in the dining room and wasn’t too impressed with the acoustics, so I was a bit apprehensive, especially as we had come equipped for playing outside. Fortunately, our drummer plays an electronic kit, so we can turn him down 😀. I had my two LFSys Monzas driven by a Blackstar U700, with a MB LMIII as standby. Basses: Guild Starfire 1 and a custom made P/J shorty. In the end I only connected the top cabinet and the guitarists just used their amps, with only vocals, drums and keys going into the PA. Somehow we managed to get a good sound, according to friends who had come to watch. I had the master on the U700 so low it was almost off but apparently could be heard throughout the pub: testament to the amazing projection of the LFSys cab. Unfortunately, waiting until the main service was over meant that we lost 50% of our audience and instead of a full beer garden, we ended playing to about a dozen people, with some leaving and new arrivals taking their place. The governor said he would normally have a full beer garden but the weather forecast had obviously kept the punters away. We were supposed to do a three hour stint but ended up doing an hour and 10 minutes for the first set and almost an hour for the next two sets. This was largely because the audience was appreciative and we decided to see if we could get through every song on the set list (bit of a paid rehearsal). Despite the temperature dropping it was very humid and with 5 of us crammed into the end of the room, it felt like a sauna. Anyway, we got good feedback from the punters and the governor has invited us back, so not a disaster. No pics: I must remember to take some next gig. Footwear: trainers to cope with being on my feet that long.

@RichT I’m surprised you are getting hum from an active bass but perhaps you use it in passive mode? I’ve always found the active circuit does away with the hum but perhaps I have been lucky with my active basses. If you like the sound of the 4J 70s, I would be inclined to try copper tape shielding of the cavities, before lashing out on another set of pickups. I have always found this very effective with jazz type basses. It helps if you run some ground cables between the cavities that are not contiguous, with everything going to the output jack ground.

I had one of the Indonesia passive single humbucker models that I bought direct from Vox. There were no problems with it but it had clearly been removed from the shipping box and worked on. It was well set up and everything fitted properly. Unfortunately, the price I paid was much closer to RRP. I was in the process of selling it when they dumped remaining stock on GuitarGuitar at fire sale prices. I had to go even lower to sell it. Consequently, I have lost my trust in Vox and radical designs in general (although I still have a Nordstrand Acinonyx).

I guess big boy prices, big boy bass. Shame in a way but the original models didn’t sell well and they seem to have concluded that the scale length had something to do with that. I wish them well but I think these are going to be even less successful at this price.

Quite expensive: £599! £250 more than the Streamliner Jet. Apart from the 32” scale and front humbucker, I don’t see a huge amount extra to justify the higher price. A little bit of contouring to the top is welcome but no belly cut. It looks like the same super cheap BBOT bridge and knock-off Gotoh tuners, which will probably need replacing quickly (at least there are plenty of drop in upgrades), adding to the cost of ownership. Always nice to have another “affordable” medium scale on the market, of course.

How long before they start being discounted? Having been burnt badly on the previous Starstream, I certainly wouldn’t buy one of these for that money, even though they are now Japanese made. It seems like a lot of cash for a very marmite design (one that I like BTW). You could spec a Maruszczyk Frog, or the Mensinger equivalent for similar, or less money.

Played a gig at a classic car show yesterday afternoon with the covers/originals band. The venue was a farm/caravan site in Nelson’s birthplace. We were playing in the doorway of a barn which had been converted into the amenities block for the caravan site, so not as bad as it might originally sound: it even had coir carpeting in the band area. This faced across the main entry road to a courtyard/stable block which had been converted into a cafe, bar and shop. The classic car display was in a field to the right of this area. All a bit odd in terms of our audience but on the other hand, the owner was extremely welcoming, told us to get whatever we wanted from the catering for free and paid slightly more than the usual local pub rate👍. It turned out that kit messages were somewhat confused prior to the gig, such that I arrived with my EV active 12” PA speakers, as did the keyboard player with his Yamaha equivalents, the drummer also brought an active sub. Given the distance from our location to the punters, we opted to use all of it and DI everything. That made my two LFSys Monzas somewhat overkill for “onstage” and consequently I didn’t get my chance to open them up. The gig itself went OK but seemed a bit of a paid rehearsal as most of the punters were a long way away. It was like a sauna in the barn entrance but fortunately I had brought a towel and a change of shirt. I got somewhat irritated with the lead guitarist who was constantly turning round, urging us to speed up. I agree that we took a few numbers at a leisurely place but given the lack of A/C, or fans, I thought our drummer was heroic. Everything has to be taken at breakneck speed, or the lead is not happy. IMO some stuff just doesn’t work fast: I Can See Clearly now at almost 150 BPM; nah! It’s also pretty tiring over a 2 to 3 hour set. Anyway, we got a lot of compliments from punters; even some we couldn’t actually see during the set but evidently they had no issues hearing us given our double PA 😀. More importantly we have got a follow on booking from the venue.👍🤟

I guess I do. I don’t have a bass that cost more than £1K but the one that cost the most (used Maruszczyk Elwood 4a 32”) is my main bass with one band. I couldn’t afford to replace it with a new one now and I would be upset if it was nicked, or seriously damaged but instruments are not ornaments, you have to use them. The Maruszczyk doesn’t get any audience attention but the much cheaper Guild Starfire 1 does. I guess the latter is big, red and retro looking.