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Well, it seems I’ve had some bad luck. We were on holiday for a bit, so today for the first time in about two weeks I went to my study/music room, when I noticed a smell. I thought maybe it was something in the bin, or maybe my son (6) had been up here, but I didn’t find anything. After playing for a bit I decided it was bad enough that I really should find out what was causing the smell. It seems quite a lot of rain got in through the (closed) air vent above the non-opening window in our (fairly new) dormer - probably during storm Benjamin the other week. We’ve only been living in this house for about six months, and the weather apparently hadn’t been too terrible over here, so I never even thought to check. Unfortunately, this means it’s very likely that all of my amplification equipment was stood on a sodden piece of rug for about ten days… Two Vanderkley cabs (mould in the covers), a Genz Benz shuttle in a wet gig bag, an Eden WT550 head in a gator case and a 2008 Deluxe Reverb. The soldering station on the windowsill is standing in a puddle of orange liquid. Fortunately it seems my guitars have been spared. So how bad do you think this is? Obviously, I’ve moved everything to a dry place and I won’t be powering any of it on for a bit, but is there anything else I should (or shouldn’t) be doing? Thanks for reading, all tips are gratefully received!

Portsmouth PMT I would have a long history with, as it was originally Telecoms, then Nevada. I bought all my first musical equipment there, my first new guitar (a westone concorde), electric piano, pretty well every effect boss did in the 80s, used to practically live there in the early 80s!

Absolutely wouldn't be something I used (3 up or down), I guess they just put it there as they could

I think it wise not to buy any vintage TE gear unless it's exactly what you really want. Don't compromise, you can almost predict that once you buy anything different, what you really wanted will be advertised for sale somewhere. New TE equipment is pretty expensive IMO, and although very good, sounds quite different to the vintage gear. I did see a guy playing rock/pop through an elf head with two of the single 10 cabs in a small pub and it sounded really good, but I'm not sure how that rig would perform in larger venues?

Excellent creative night tonight.

Had a debrief on Saturday night whilst waiting for drummer to arrive - he’d warned he’d be a bit late. Took the Tokai and Darkglass Anagram and plugged the latter into the effects return which worked well. Only the second time in anger, but it’s pretty intuitive so adding effects and tweaking foot-switch assignments was a couple of quick clicks. Once we got started a couple of new songs mapped out and a few songs for Saturday’s set run through .

Just had a great rehearsal. We started by regining the structure ofour 'standout' song. Then my Deep Purple/Black Sabbath style slow riff song, and we added a double tempo bridge. Really chuffed thst everyone likes it. Then the backing singer shared something barely audible on his phone and I came up with a line that worked and everyone joined in, but this one is more like Kraftwerk so we're covering a fair range. Then we worked up a song the lead singer had previously recorded as just vicals and acoustic. We are all enjoying the creativity.

Ummm.... a 64' stop? Sorry. Pedantic. I know.

Well, first outing for the SX. I really can't believe how good it sounded in the band mix. This is a definite keeper!

It's the same workshop with the original workbench where Leo worked when it was the original Fender factory, so a lot of classic Fender design work was originated there too.

I’m really enjoying it atm!

I'm wondering if it's not such a mad idea after all. You could alternate gigs with O Fortuna: Carl Orff to bring in some vocals and maybe the Dies Irae I actually think Zarathustra at really high volume would probably just impress the audience and maybe even drag people in just to see what was going on. You don't get bassier than a 32' stop after all. If you haven't seen it, this might be interesting. There's a link to do the measurements using some free open source software.

But, annoyingly for the rest of us, you seem to have sufficient other talents to more than compensate. Spare a thought for those of use without such balancing abilities in other areas🤪

Robbed Blind - Keef

You seem to be acing it so far.

Hi, my Markbass CMD121P combo is noticeably quieter than it used to be with the same bass guitar. I’m having volume trouble even in small venues. There’s a company in Sheffield I could send it to but the minimum labour charge is £79 plus Vat. I’m wondering if it would be best to buy a spare amp head and have that installed. Any suggestions please?