Rosie C

I had a similar conversation with my piano teacher a few weeks ago. I complained that when I first bought an octave mandolin I was able to play it at a gig a month later. Accordion was similar - I was playing at morris performances after 3 months. Piano... I've had lessons on and off since 1977, I must have practised for thousands of hours, yet I still can only bash out simple tunes that a moderately talented 10 year old could play. My teacher simply shrugged and said 'piano is hard'.

I find practice with a metronome useful - it highlights where I speed up for the easy bits and slow down for the hard bits.

Oh indeed! I once accidentally bought a book, the blurb of which said CCM musicians and especially Christian Rock musicians were all going to hell. I thought it was a satire, but no the author was deadly serious.

I play double bass in a Morris band, and when the accordionist isn't available I play accordion. But I got fed up practising accordion wearing builders' ear defenders, and lugging a heavy accordion around. So Thursday's band practice was the first run out for my new (to me) Roland electronic accordion. It went well - it plays much the same as a regular accordion, and the band were happy with the sound it makes.

What separates your band from the other bands in the areas you work in ? - we play renaissance folk rock What do you have that others don't ? - there aren't really any others nearby. If you were pitching your band to a prospect, what would be your bast selling point. - the authenticity of our music - tunes that were played and danced to 500 years ago You can also add in areas where you think your band struggles - it's very hard to get the right sort of gig. We've done pub gigs but the songs that went down best were folk-rock covers of modern pop/rock tunes. We've played churches but some of the bawdy original lyrics don't suit. We're not period-accurate enough for re-enactment events like Worcester. We've played folk clubs, but the room is generally full of people who are also chasing gigs. We're currently trying to get onto a pirate/shanty weekend as that maybe fits us best.

A month on, I've rack-mounted the XV-3080, and hooked it up to a CME "U4MIDI WC" MIDI router so I can drive the synth from two MIDI devices and my iPad simultaneously.

I had one of the Gear4Music EUBs and from memory it had a 9v battery inside. But I found it a poor substitute for a double bass - lacking a proper body I couldn't follow the technique my teacher encouraged of using forearm muscles to 'fret' (stop) the strings.

Green Lung, back in March, who were excellent. My partner is into this sort of muisc more than I am, but it was a good night.

@itsmedunc bought some MarkBass rack ears from me. All went well

Done! Now only 350 votes needed

It was touch and go getting our donkey, and our neighbouring church didn't manage to get one.

Palm Sunday, and at the last minute we managed to blag a donkey for our procession. On alternating years we meet at our (Anglican) church and process to the nearby Methodist church... and process the opposite direction the other years. Needing to be mobile I played mandocello rather than bass, and was joined by my partner on 10" side drum, along with our church choir. A little nerve-wracking as I had to play the lead-ins. The hymns were: Carl Tuttle's "Hosanna" "Make Way, Make Way" "You are the king of glory"

thank you! I have a plan for the amp, I'll start a build thread in a few days

I'm looking to build this project! A perhaps foolish question, but if I change the dimensions to make more of a monitor speaker shape, preserving the cross-sectional area... would that work? or would it undo all the careful work that's been put into this design?

I did have a PJ double-four for a while, but the DI was noisy and I managed to blow the pre-amp, so while they do have a good reputation, I'd not have another one. I was going to post an update as it was used for the first time properly on Thursday - our local British Legion hall for a Morris dance practice. It was loud enough, and while not as deep as tone as I'd like, it was acceptable. However, it was strangely directional - from where the dancers were it was very loud, but to the sides the other band members could barely hear it. I've not experienced that before with bass. Next rehearsal I'll take my Crush 25B instead and see how it compares. A new enclosure is an idea. I started this project thinking about building the basschat cabinet project, but with an additional compartment for my amp. Seeing how I unwittingly bought a hi-fi woofer instead of a bass guitar speaker, it would be an opportunity to move up to a 10" driver. Also moving away from a heavy lead acid battery to power tool is a great idea - I already use a Screwfix Erbauer battery for my pedal board... Thanks for the comments, which broadly are the same as @Paddy Morris I feel a woodwork project coming on!

That would be a fine thing, but no, it would be double bass.

I'll be pretty busy playing in the band of two Morris sides, but my own band only have one summer gig in the diary - playing at a Knights Templar re-enactment in June.

My example is Carlsbro too, a late 80's / early 90's 30W with Trace Elliot style green/black finish. It had a continuous mains buzz, a particularly loud 'thump' when switching on and switching off, and had nothing inspiring about it. Yup, I bought a piano accordion which seemed perfectly OK, but when I got it home it stank of mould. Fortunately it was from a dealer, so it went straight back the next day for something that didn't engulf me in mould spores every time I squeezed the bellows!