Rosie C

Joel bought an IEM amplifier from me. No problems at all, a pleasure doing business with.

There is a middle-way. I'm currently studying for a music degree at the Open University - it's distance learning, and can be done part-time (16 hours per week) over six years. I happen to be a "mature" student, but I think it would have worked well for me when I was younger.

My first band - yes - we played a gig in London (a bit deal for a little band from South Wales), thought we were making it, but our singer got military call-up. Second band - no - I objected to a song on the set list. The rest of the band agreed to take it off. But then played it at the gig anyway. I quit on the spot. Third band - yes - a combination of serious illness and a new child on the way in the space of 3-4 weeks, everyone went their own ways.

This is how mine arrived. It was during covid lockdown and as I watched it unload I had this awful sinking feeling of "what have I done?!" ... if it was so large it needed to come by forklift!

Today's gig - playing as part of a weekend-long fundraiser for Noah’s Ark children’s hospital . I'm loving how (a) I look about 6" taller than everyone else in the band (b) I've been captured in a rare "playing beyond the 4th fret" moment This is likely my last outing in a rock covers band. I've done all the gigs I signed up for, but heading in a more acoustic direction now.

I injured my back in my 20s, it seemed to recover but in my thirties I messed up my left leg pretty badly and the imbalance from that brought the back problems back. 20 years on it's a matter of managing it rather than fixing it. Regular exercise definitely helps - walking and Pilates. When it was particularly bad I bought a Höfner violin bass - they're only about 4lbs, but still have a fat bass sound, and a GR Bass graphite cab - also very lightweight. I have a decent stool and have used on stage, and I've had to learn to ask for help from band members with lifting stuff - hard as I have an independent streak and prefer to struggle on if I can. But keeping going does help - my mood can drop quite low if my back goes, often the best thing for me is to keep going as best I can.

While I like the tone of Orange amps (I have three) I have to admit the colour played a part in my purchasing decisions. I'm currently wearing an orange checked work shirt too. Unsure what my lizard brain associates it with, but I love the colour.

Yesterday's "gig" was a bit of a challenge, but unexpectedly rewarding - I worked as in-class support at a music summer school, playing bass with 8-12 year olds learning drums, guitar and keyboard. I showed an 8-year old to count in the song using his drum sticks over his head, we learned to swing quavers (no doubt letters from classical piano teachers will be coming in!), kept tight as a band, and learned to keep a nice steady beat over repeats.

Boss TU3 tuner, GE7 eq, CP-1X compressor and CEB3 chorus As a bonus, a solar panel 😎

I bought an Orange 25B practice amp from Tim. The amp is nice condition, and just as described. Very nice guy, easy to deal with.

I have a 250W amp, I've found it good enough and there's some reassurance that even flat out it shouldn't overload the speaker.

I have the 4Ω AT110 and it's fantastic. I can literally lift it with my pinky, and yet it holds its own in a big band. Here it is on our local bandstand - open air, with keys, drums and a dozen horns yet strangely loud enough! Mine came from Bass Direct. At the time the 8Ω were on the shelf and I debated but went with the 4 to suck the most power from my amp.

Ours costs £60, every six months or so

Sort of - I'm still working on singing while playing bass. I'm much better singing while playing mandolin. I've not used any other harmony pedals, that wasn't the main reason I went with the VE-8. I liked that I could have my mic and instrument into the same unit, and could then drive my IEMs with a mix of the two. There's a lot of things I do like - the vocal and guitar "enhancement" works really well. The looper is pretty good and it has a memory bank so I can store settings for different songs or instruments. There's a built in chorus and tuner, so that removes the need for a couple of other pedals. It's reasonably programmable - I can set how it starts up, and what comes out the of stereo XLRs. I've just added an external switch pedal to make controlling the looper easier, as you can configure what the external switches control. On the down side, while I've read good reviews of the vocal harmony, I've not had particularly good results so far (with a mandocello signal) - it sounds artificial. Also it's a shame though that there isn't a Mac/PC application to manage all the settings stored in the memory, rather than twiddling buttons to do everything.

Posting about my pedalboard last week reminded me I had another that needed finishing... and here it is! It's another battery-powered board, using the same Erbauer drill battery, but a much smaller 9v regulator. It will get used with my Fender acoustic bass and various mandolin family instruments. The VE-8 provides chorus, EQ, reverb, looper, DI and USB interface - as well as a bunch of vocal stuff.

I'm booked at a northern workingmen's club next year for a solo singer-guitarist performance, and the first thing I thought was the reputation of the tough crowds, I shouldn't have read this topic, it didn't help!

For bass guitar, at small gigs, that's me: bass guitar->lead->amp. For double bass I have to have something or other in the line for impedance matching and something to prevent feedback, so a pedal board comes into play. If I'm using IEMs I have a pedal that splits the signal. But generally, the fewer things I have to carry around, the happier I am.

Thanks for the welcome! My everyday bass is a Squire jazz bass, with has a Fender fretless neck and chrome XLs and using just the neck pickup I get a reasonable sound from it. It doesn't have the "thump" of a double bass though

I did have one for a while, but I struggled to stop the strings - on my upright I rest the body against me and can pull the strings with my arm, but couldn't do that with a EUB. That said, I saw Hereford's Blackthorn Morris a few weeks ago and they have an EUB player and it looked awesome and definitely wasn't lacking in tone. Edit: here's the one I used to have...

I play with Innovation Rockabilly strings - they're synthetic and have a nice dark sound, and they're much easier on my hands than metal strings. I play big band music and have played a bit of bluegrass previously and they worked well for both of those. The only downside I've found is they're no good for bowing. https://www.thestringzone.co.uk/innovation-rock-a-billy-set