3below

A book arrived from Lawrie. well packed, rapid arrival and great communication as always. Many thanks.

You must have found enlightenment of the one true path, surely it is not possible to have too many basses?

As per @Beedster Live at Leeds is magical, always wished I could play like JE and have that tone, never going to happen though. As for the magic, I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it You can have her for just one hundred pounds

This morning, in my bit, yes combined with ice. Some poor unfortunate has had a bad drive this morning: car down a ditch and totally wedged sideways into a full size hedge

Snowed in at present. Luckily I am a man of leisure these days so not a problem.

The Abbey regularly run music events, usually of a classical bent but also pop, poetry, bugles of The Rifles, etc. etc.. Our drummer (who lives near Shrewsbury) negotiated and persuaded the Abbey to try our Blues show. The business manager who is into music had seen us in another Shrewsbury venue so knew what they were getting. The money side was a complex arrangement of costs, equal shares and then door split, about 290 tickets sold, we organised the online tickets. The sound was challenging. Usually we are playing to about 100+ audiences, pa takes vocals only, we play to the volume of the sax and trumpet, i.e. deliberately lowish volume. The PA was at its limit in the Abbey, they also took feeds off vocals, guitar and the horns which went into small satellite speakers throughout the building. The delays due to the speaker separation and the reverb from the roof and altar behind us were very noticeable. Really tight stops in numbers ended up being `blurred`. If we did it again, we would hire in a sound engineer who knows the venue and has the kit to manage delays. We chose no to at the time since the whole venture was a bit of a financial unknown. The Abbey were more than happy with the number of tickets sold, significantly more than the target. We now have the (nice) problem of choosing RCF 945s or 932s since the `war chest` has been topped up. On a personal note, it was the largest audience I have played to since 1982. I only dropped two noticeable clangers and played my way out of them. In another number some solid bass playing dug our irons out of the fire. Live music, stuff happens or doesn't . A good night at the office.

Sunday at Shrewsbury Abbey. Getting something approaching a good sound was a challenge, a negative reverb feature would have helped considerably. Apart from my cables, the kit is all BC supplies (SG bass, Ashdown EVO combo), no effects just as it is. Hands got cold in the first set despite the heating (hmm) being on, being gentlemen of age we all found the temperature challenging. Aptly started with "Burning Hell" and ended with "John the Revelator" into "Let the good times roll". Pretty well filled the Abbey so a good result. Playing pic to follow.

Bought an acoustic bass case from Joel, what a gent. Excellent communication and he went that extra mile after our schedules made us like 'ships in the night'. Top BC chap.

Did the same at home for my 'low rent' Peavey speakers (large room, no neighbours for 300m). Never did it for the venue as above, getting the quiet time needed at the venue seemed to be asking too much. Despite that, with the rough and ready home DSP equalisation they worked remarkably well for pub and small venue jobs.

When I owned a db many people were impressed by the volume and projection of my hybrid (solid top, laminate back, sides,1950s Czech). Outclassed imo by a laminated bass that was in the school music room where I taught. There seems to be such variability with most instruments it is a matter of finding what works for you and your situation.

Just bough some 'junk' from @lemmywinks. The 'junk' included straplocks and several really useful P and J pickups, plus a pre-amp. What a great deal! Excellent communication and speedy dispatch. Another credit to BC. Many thanks.

You may find that the intonation makes string through impractical, the strings shown are medium scale TI flats. Short scale Labella's are too short even using top loading- they went onto another bass. The strange string angles are an artefact of the close camera shot.