New in the Midlands

[DaveAlex_ZAR]

Been lurking on a few forums, but see the benefit of chatting with others more in the know.

Sorta novice/intermediate bass player, started on six-strings, brother played bass in a death metal cover band for a while but never did anything more than jam with them.

Got my first bass as a gift from him, and watched it gather dust for many years until my P.A. was round at my flat and noticed it in the corner,  and introduced me to her hubby who was in a band looking for a bassist, so had a crash course in "Boere-musiek" bass riffs and the circle of fifths, and found if I can stay in key I can hold a few tunes. (That was all in South Africa) Moved to the UK and brought my stuff with, busy teaching my kid how to play.

Gear wise:

Guitars -

• Academy Bass, got as a gift 20 years back, Korean I believe, blue in color. Used it on stage a lot. Does the business.
• Emex Romaxe, blue, £56 on e-bay, never played on stage, know nothing about the make, but sounds good through effects. (See my other post), has a free bottle opener.
• Rocktile Replica of the Hofner beatle bass, Christmas present, a beach to set up, had that on stage twice, needs tuning every hour, could set a clock by it. Small frets so surprisingly good to teach the kid on.
• Dean, 4 string acoustic bass, using that for when I cant be bothered to switch the amp on. Nice sound.

Amps -

• 2 x no-name practice amps, one 10 Watts and one 15 watts. (£20 for both - Car boots rock)
• Peavey 10W practice amp, small but nice sound, that, a pedal  and a crate of Carling = hours of practice fun. 
• Fender  Frontman 212 R, 100W. Good for small venues, quite powerful. Does the neighbors head in (shouldn't mow the the lawn on a Saturday then should you).

Pedals / Effects

• Boss ODB-3 Overdrive pedal, strangely enough not really needed if you mess about on the Fender Amp
• iRig 2 Guitar Interface used with IPad mini and the full Amplitube app. Used this set-up on stage a bit, takes a bit of time to get used to for what you want the sound to be, but if you are playing "Boeremusic" a bit of Chorus, noise reduction and occasionally Octave is all thats needed. Surprisingly better than I thought when I bought it.
• Zoom BFX 708 Bass Pedal, combo unit... still messing about with this. 

Anyway... thats my lot

Cheers

D.A.

 

[Dad3353]

Good afternoon, DA, and ...

Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

[baldwinbass]

Hi D.A. - welcome to the forum

[SpondonBassed]

Welcome Dave.

[josie]

Welcome! Nice to see you play an acoustic, completely agree it's good to have something you can just pick up and play. Small Peavey amp works for me too :-)

Whereabouts in South Africa? I'm lucky enough to have been there twice but it's a big country...

[naxos10]

Welcome to the forum D.A

[tredders]

Welcome aboard...  You live in Solihull?  My birth town 

[Guest MoJo]

Ideally situated to hop over to the next Midlands Bass Bash. Welcome aboard

[DaveAlex_ZAR]

Thanks for the welcomes, I grew up in Middelburg, Mpumalanga (the old South Eastern Transvaal), moved over here 10 years back, but then went back to work in SA for 4 1/2 again, in the Limpopo province where I started playing in a "Boereorkes".... roughly translated, Farmers Band.