Rosie C

That puts it into perspective!

True. I had an un-diagnosed dairy allergy for 8-9 months, including having to call for an ambulance at one point when I couldn't breathe. But the GP kept brushing me off saying my 'sore throat' was 'just a virus that's going around'. Being overweight compounded the problem of poor medical care of course. My best wishes for a speedy recovery to Mrs.Woodinblack!

All that for £150?! Incredible. I remember when the original Martin moving head lamps came out and they were as much as a car EACH. We only have 4 PAR type LED lamps, which have spent the last couple of years fixed to the ceiling of our practice space, but we recently brought them down ready for moving house and fitted them to a T-bar. They've been setup at one in built-in mode, with the other three following it. I didn't like it as a lot of the colours are cold - a bluish white, pale blue, cyan, lavender etc. (as seen in the photo actually). But I've just ordered one of those £20 DMX controllers from eBay and I'm planning to set up a few scenes with deep, warm colours.

I learned about fake books from my double bass teacher. He had me buy a Jazz fake book and each lesson we played a game where I would flip the pages of the book and stop at a random tune/song and I would have to improvise a bass line to it.

OMG! You're right! But my memory is so hazy of that night...

That is an amusing thought, particularly given the headache it's causing my mechanic. But no, it's definitely MY van. I have a Morris band practice on Monday and I need to take double bass, I guess my bass uke might have to get a trip out.

Morris band practice on Thursday: Our violinist doesn't do practice sessions, our mandolinist was ill, our band leader (clarinet) was unavailable and my van is off the road [1], so taking my double bass to practice wasn't possible. So with very little preparation I took my Roland piano accordion... and it was one of the best practices we've had in a long time! Perhaps there is something to be said for shaking things up once in a while. [1] and is still off the road - the central locking module is not recognising the key fob 'beepers' and putting the key in the door lock doesn't unlock the doors.

Ooh, tricky, I play in several bands - but the main one I suppose is the one I'm most invested in which is our Renaissance-Folk band 'Minstrels Guild'. We play a mix of authentic renaissance ballads and dance music, as well as Blackmore's Night covers, and ballads written ourselves in the style of renaissance music. Sadly, we have our last UK gig on the 19th December and quite what the future holds musically is unknown as we're moving to the Republic of Ireland next year. It might be that we keep going via a YouTube channel and Bandcamp. Or we might hook up with local musicians and go in a new direction.

For years I worked on a mobile 'heavy rock' disco but we didn't want the disco flashing light thing, we wanted to created a mood. The lights were all DMX controlled and we had a PC in a flight case with a USB-DMX adapter. From memory the rig was 6 x PAR56 on dimmer packs with rainbow gel selection 4 x gobo scanner 2 x moonflower Each PAR can was one colour of the rainbow and we worked out which gobos were which, I wrote simple programmes that were just red, or just orange. Some move complex ones that moved the scanners, flipping gobo as they changed direction. But it was all very low key. We retired from that game a long time ago, but a couple of years later someone asked us to do one last gig. We didn't have the PC anymore and had to borrow back the lights from the local high school we'd donated them to. I found that with only one scanner running a built-in pattern, the other three set to mirror it, we got 4 scanners all with the same colour, all moving in a sequence and it was fairly low key and not flashy. The dimmer packs let us put the PAR cans on a slow fade between channels - maybe a minute to move around them, and that worked OK. So looking back I probably wasted a lot of time programming fancy light shows - the built in stuff could be tweaked to be OK. Of course this is going back years to the days of single-colour halogen lamps.

I like the idea. Polycarbonate (e.g. Lexan) like they use in rally car windows might be a better choice as it cuts much better. [Edit: I see that later down the thread, @SpondonBassed mentioned polycarbonate]

Ah, I'm sure it looks great, but imgur doesn't work in the UK anymore

I was just about to say that!

Apologies for taking you literally, but I can't disagree - Wetherspoons do a decent breakfast for the money and their beer is fairly price[d]. Also, I saw The Smiths live in 1986 ish at "The Tube" filming and while I really wanted them to be rubbish so I could wind up my friend who was a big fan, they were actually rather good.

I posted 'Emmet Otter' on the word association thread this morning, and later as I was driving I realised a washtub bass uses resonance in the same sort of way I was thinking 🤔

Thanks @itu ! Lots to think about there...

🤞

Me too. I also wonder how large it needs to be - in the photo it looks like it could be half the area which would make it more portable, but maybe less effective. Also does standing on the platform help, or would it work as well or better if I lowered the end pin a bit and stood to the side. I feel I might have to make a prototype to answer all these questions!

I play double bass in a Morris side, and I'd rather not play with an amp but it's not loud enough in many situations. I've been thinking about a 'cello riser, but I see differing opinions on whether they're just to increase the height of the 'cellist, or actually increase resonance/volume. Has anyone any experience of using one? I'm also wondering if anyone has made a DIY one?

Gladly!

Soundproofed basement is nearest the truth - we have a little stone barn with 2' thick walls that we use for practice. But we're moving next year and we're planning some sort of combined lounge-come-practice-room so we'll have to see what sort of house we find.

Thanks!

Indeed it should! Each time I needed to move the amp I had to get my partner to help move the cabinets, and it felt like that children's 'Towers of Hanoi' puzzle, lifting the pieces of the puzzle from one place to another. Except each piece is 37kg! Wheels are definitely the way forward

Having made up my fancy lime green cables, I couldn't fit them without lifting the cabinets & amp which were stacked against a wall. So at the weekend I had a little DIY task... Two layers of 12mm plywood and some PSE: The amp came with a little trolley which wasn't up to much but the castors were worth re-using: Slap on some black paint: Ta da! Now it wheels around easily