stewblack

But don't listen to these heathens, an overhanging amp is nothing less than proof of the devil's presence here on earth. 👿🙈🙈🙈👿

Not pretentious at all. What you describe is close to HDR and I have that in mind with my bi-amped rig.

Hofner club is nice as well

I have had a quick blast through a Barefaced Compact. 8ohms, so a little bit more heft to be had if a second cab is added. Holy moly. This thing is loud. Trace Watts translate into micro amps very nicely. That cool 'edge of breakup distortion' as the gain begins to clip is really good (to my ears) at volume. Think a low gain distortion pedal rather than a valve overdrive. Compresses the sound slightly and roughens the edges. How can those old TE Watts possibly exist in such a modern amp? I think I can explain. Despite having 'facts' on their side the pointy heads and boffins still get their baggy Y fronts in such a twist when the rest of us talk about Trace Elliot Watts. Obviously they are juicier than common or garden watts. Everyone knows that. All the chalk board stuff and logarithms and whatnot 'proving' that all watts are equal misses the point. The phenomenon owes its existence to a magical property of green on black when arranged in the form of an ancient rune. When applied to the outer surface of any amplifier it instantly doubles the juices in each watt, while leaving everything else appearing to be unaltered. QED. It so happens that this mystic rune appeared, from some angles, to spell the words Trace Elliott, and that is how the company got its name. The rune was discovered by a apprentice cleaner in UU when dusting the appendices of the Octavo. But he didn't know what it meant. Later he came to Fred Friedlein in a lucid dream (this was widely thought to have been an accident as he had actually intended to visit Zarniwoop on his legendary office bound intergalactic cruise to ask why everyone kept telling him to turn down these days ) and so the magic passed into our reality. It's a huge relief to finally end one of Basschat's longest running arguments.

I do too. And am similarly buggered.

One of the areas of transcription I'm still weak on is adding chords. It has been suggested it's a useful addition to a score, and I have to agree. Knowing at a glance I'm moving between say, Gm C and F gives that little boost to my knowledge of which notes I am likely to be playing. However, as confident as I am in finding the notes in any bassline, establishing, with that same confidence, which chords are being played isn't easy. Here's what I do at the moment. 1) guess the key sig. Learned a trick to do this by ear but also by how many sharps (or should they be flats?) occur with great frequency. 2) assume I have the correct key (a leap of faith in itself) and I can establish the chords in that key - so broadly speaking I've narrowed it down. 3) look for triads. 4) hope for the best. How is it done by those who don't have to guess (I have no piano or guitars to try the chords with)?

I can't keep up!

Ever rediscover an old tune and think, wow this so much better than I ever realised at the time?

I will do. I have only shared first impressions here. Can't wait to crank it through a bigger cab. I cleared space at the back of the garage for a lockdown practise space but the blue tits are nesting right outside so I don't want to use that now. I get the house to myself for half an hour a day, I'll blast it then and get back to you.

What is this 'need' of which you speak 🤔

just when I thought I couldn't love this guy more. beautiful to watch. You notice how as his first note approaches he seems to slip towards a trance state? Then he's gone. He's in that wonderful place that only a repetitive bass groove can take you.

Got myself an Elf. The lockdown has been an illuminating experience for me. I live in one room. I share with three dogs and a ludicrous amount of big old bass gear. Until I found myself in here day in day out I hadn't accepted the obvious truth. I am crazy to keep it all out of sentiment. So I'm downsizing. Basses will come and basses will go but amps and cabs seem to stick around. Way too long. So out with the Ampeg and Ashdowns, time for Trace Elliotts to find new homes. Younger bassists deserve to experience these classic rigs. I have a plan, and the Elf is a part of it. You probably know all about them, they've been widely discussed here and elsewhere. My impressions? Even though I have seen pictures and videos I was still taken aback by the tiny size. Its quite unreal. It's silent. I didn't know the thing was even on. The tone isn't TE but it's meaty. Oh and when you crank the gain it breaks up, and not in a bad way. Not gigged it (obviously) but I can tell its going to be louder than I was expecting. The 1 x 10 I put it through can handle a reasonable amount of heft, oomph, and wallop, but this had it struggling. It's definitely not a toy, not some novelty, I will be using it. It's green and says Trace Elliott on it!

My kind of bass player, I doff my cap.

Wow.

Different bass. The knot IS the fix 😃

Is it saturday?

I received my Superlux HD681 earlier in the week. Would not have known about them without Basschat so thanks folks. First thing I noticed was that I didn't notice anything. No impulse to reach for the eq, no thought of how deep or bright the bass sounded. It just sounds like my bass. I think they're great. Really happy and at 18 quid (I bought a Harley Benton bass as well so I could get free postage) they were a steal.

Oh my god. Just googled him. "Nine vulvae in a shoe box" 🤢

Love this.

Ha! Just a bit of fun. The Bass Collection instruments are rightly famous for two things: 1 Superb quality instruments which punch well above their weight and price point. 2 The world's most horrendously designed headstock logo. It looks like a horror show of worms, or possibly amputated fingers or penises entangled in such a macabre fashion as to spell the word bass. All drawn by a child. Holding the crayon between her feet. I just put a sticker on it.

While we're at it. Is it actually silk?