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Classical Gas - Mason Williams

Thanks for that Blondy. A great initiative to see his instruments passed along and shared, as he did his talent.

I'd love to play it, but I've got no interest in being a punter.

Lucky You, meat patties could be a good addition.

I can see the headline now: "Shortage of bassists in Aberdeen after they were all press-ganged into working on a galleon....."

I'm a fairly casual player these days, absolutely no classical aspirations, I either dip into the local free improv scene or play in folky acoustic or singer/songwriter type situations. I do bow a certain amount though, either for more melodic parts, textural stuff in improv or to work on my intonation when practicing. I play German bow and have had the same no-name wooden student bow for about 20 years now, a fairly generic Chinese one. I've had it rehaired in that time, but it's quite a bit overdue for another. Though I did some DIY repairs to it during lockdown in 2020 (when everything was shut) just to keep practicing- the tip facing has been reattached with CA glue and the wedge at the tip is a homemade replacement I whittled from a piece of maple scrap. I don't if those plus the low value of the bow might make it marginal for another rehair. I could look at a new bow, but in my budget it would be a <£200 student bow. There are probably more options today than when I got this one, but that's still not getting me into nice bow territory by a long way. I'd probably be looking at things like the Vingobow from China, importer brands like Gewa, possibly the P&H carbon bow, or I think Bassbags have Romanian made student bows. I know there's a rehairer just a couple of miles away from me, I could possibly drop in with my bow and see if they think it's viable for a rehair. But I'd be curious to hear the opinions of the Basschat massiv.

Oh, good shout, probably best avoid that weekend then - place will be hoaching with tourists probably in a sort of mini version of how Edinburgh gets with the Fringe.

Thank you. I appreciate your help

https://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/people/music-donation-to-thomas-deacon-academy-to-ensure-much-loved-peterborough-bass-player-nick-smiths-legacy-lives-on-5190446 Just wanted to share this article from Peterborough today, our local newspaper. Ally and I visited the Thomas Deacon Education trust to donate some instruments and equipment. It was exciting to start the NSFT! 🎸🙏💚

If I could justify it to the management …

Is this coming up? It's not like the BBC have mentioned it... #SmashThatCapitalism!

Canary In A Coalmine - The Police

So far all ok for me except 12th July & 2nd Aug. FYI the 19/20th July is when the Tall Ships are in Aberdeen.

Digging In the Dirt - Peter Gabriel

I`m not that fussed about damage to my basses - they`re Fenders so not too much that can seriously do them in, it`s more if someone stole them. I`d be annoyed if any of them got nicked but my fave, well if that went walkies it would make me seriously unhappy hence why I don`t gig it.

I'm keen to make this happen, so let's get some ideas bouncing around. Main issue would be "when". I'm thinking weekends are best. For me, I have a gap in my gigging schedule next month with folk away on holiday and whatnot, so I have the following weekends free: 12th/13th July 19th/20th July 27th July 2nd/3rd August Any of those work for folk?

Good luck, with that kind of preparation am sure you`ll get it

I saw them on that tour, the bass was stolen in Nottingham a few days later, as I recall. Savage gig, although quite short as it was all of the first album and one song off what would become Legion.

down in a hole - alice in chains

This doesn't really make sense. A passive bass doesn't have detents either, would you say the range of detent-free travel on a Precision tone pot means you can never get the same tone twice? A two band Stingray has bass boost only, along with treble cut and boost. The way I set them up was to use the grub screw on the knob as a marker. For the bass knob, turn it all the way down, no boost, and have the grub screw pointing straight up, from the playing perspective. Then you know when it's flat and, if you boost, by how much. For the treble knob, I move it to roughly half way, then set the grub screw pointing straight up, from the playing perspective. You're roughly flat, at that point and it's very easy to see whether you're cutting or boosting and by how much. Very simple. FWIW, I would set passive basses up the same way, the grub screw pointing up when the controls are up full, i.e. flat, not cutting. That way you can see very easily how you are set on any bass, passive or active whether you have detents or not.