Maude

What, like totally bogus dude?

An interesting building there, looks like there's a lovely stained glass window depicting a bass player to the left.

This build might take a while as I'm not really sure what I'm doing but the three main points I'm aiming for, in reverse order are, something that looks good, something that sounds good and last, but certainly not least, not to die! Oh yeah, and if I do you can all blame @rubis as it was his B15 build thread that got my idle mind thinking. 😉 The back story; I was having a clear out and found an old Dynacord amp with the front and back plates and all the knobs missing at the bottom of a chest. It had been given to me years ago and I'd pulled it apart to give it a clean as, from memory, something was noisy. The stripped parts had long since been thrown out and the newly discovered amp was about to go to the tip. At the last minute I thought I'll just put it to one side as it's an old valve amp and who knows, it could be alright. In my shed/workshop I also have my old home built (rediculous) bass rig, a bi-amped set up with a pair of 15" celestions as the bottom end that is just in the way and will most likely never be used again due to size, a pre-amp/crossover, stereo graphic EQ and stereo power amp in a rack with a 2x10 for the high end and two 1x15s for the bottom, it used to have a 4x12 for the high end but that's just silly, right? 😁 Anyway it has virtually no resale value but has to go. So I have this gear in the way when I read Rubis' thread about his Ampeg-esque cab build a light bulb came on. I've always loved the Ashdown Drophead with the Little Bastard head, and the classic Ampeg fliptop, in fact any fliptop but have absolutely no use for one so could never justify buying one just because they're pretty. Then it dawns on me, I have an old valve amp and some lovely sounding celestions. I give the amp the once over inside and all seems OK and plug it into one of the 15" cabs, plug in a Precision and it sounds pretty good, albeit at low volume. So my mind's made up, I'm going to build a fliptop and re-house the amps internals to have the cool (or should that be hot?) bits on display and put it all in a new cabinet, it will hopefully be a nice combo to keep that doesn't take up much storage and won't cost very much, mainly just my time. The amp is a Dynacord Imperator which manages 80watts by putting 750volts through it's pair of EL34 valves, which would normally only produce 50watts. The amp query thread is here if anyone's interested, This is what I started with, and after some careful de-soldering, chassis cutting and most importantly labelling wires, this is where I'm at. I'm planning to build something along the lines of the classic look of the exposed transformers at either end with the valves in the middle all above a housing with the controls on. I'm no electrician, but I'm not stupid either, but as long as everything is wired back to where it came from, what can go wrong. It's only 750 volts after all. 🤪 Both the amp and speaker, from quick research, seem to be early 70s so it's nice to pair them being a similar vintage. Anyway enough rambling, I just thought if I start this thread then I'll have more incentive to carry on, I'm in no hurry so this may take a while though.

We played a rural social club last night which was disappointingly quiet. Those that were there enjoyed it but it's hard work to put on a show when it's like that. Afterwards, one by one, most people came up and thanked us and said they really enjoyed it, and then the landlord came over and explained that the booking had clashed with other yearly events going on resulting in low numbers in an area of few people. But he said we were great, booked us for next year, gave us £50 on top of our fee and waived our bar tab by way of apology for the low numbers. So at least they were happy which is what matters.

What works for one might not work for another. Yes it's clichéd but it's our differences that make us what we are. Not better or worse, just different.

Like'd 👍

Yep, bought my Hofner Club from them, cheapest at the time, delivered in a couple of days and no hassle whatsoever. I've had strings from there at various times as well, same great service. No idea what they're like if it all goes wrong though, which is where it counts.

Oopsie, finger slipped. They'll be here next Thursday. 😁

Here you go. It won't be massively loud but probably enough to keep up with a banjo. That went wrong. Click the link and scroll down and there's another link to the PJB advert.

There's a PJB 100watt two speaker amp for sale in Bristol on here. I'll find the ad.

I kind of agree, but my having never played, or wanted to play, those aforementioned songs has nothing to do with snobbery. I honestly believe that there are a vast amount of songs that average pub punters will enjoy and dance to, and you don't need to play the same songs as the band last week, and the week before that and so on. There's seventy years of popular music to draw from, surely we can think of a set that other bands don't play that folks still love. I'm a 46 year old male playing Britney Spears, Girls Aloud, Katy Perry and Pink on doublebass. I don't think you could possibly class that as music snobbery. 🙂

I suppose it also depends whether you want full semi or semi semi , by that I mean hollow or a solid centre block. My semi's, Yamaha Bex4 has a centre block and is a great bass, Hofner Club bass is properly hollow and also great, but very different sounding. I really fancy giving an Epiphone Jack Casady a whirl but I have my Faker 4005 which is similar.

Grapevine, nope. Mustang Sally, nope. Superstition, nope. Play that funky music, nope. Mr. Brightside, nope. Brown Eyed Girl, nope. I've always been in bands that will choose a setlist from the other few thousand big hits that are popular rather than the fifty that 90% of other bands play. The Slits did a good version of Grapevine.

Dont be knockin' Cliff! His epic late 70s/early 80s trilogy of Devil Woman, Carrie and Wired for Sound is right up there with Copacabana in my house. Only Sir Clifford of Richardsville can make being given a shove from stage left whilst teetering on rollerskates look cool.

Thanks to this thread I've just seen they are playing just down the road me in March next year, thank you. 🙂

Don't care about the guitar, but 22.75" annoys me. Yes, I am a grumpy fart!

I have two Harley Benton uke basses, one with Pahohoes and one with the Thunderguts it came with. The Pahohoes seem stiffer and more stable to me. I much prefer them to the Thunderguts, slightly stiffer and not so grippy so don't do that rolling under the plucking fingers thing as much.

To be fair I have tried to buy an Aerodyne Precision, Aria 4001 copy, Yamaha Bex4 and a Takemine TB10 but for one reason or another none have worked out. It's not been my year at all. I did buy a cheap 'Ritter' (no not that one) gigbag for my uke bass which for £15 is actually really good. If anyone needs a uke bass gigbag then here's the link. https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F333246012660 They've gone up since I bought mine but a little searching may find one cheaper, it's the 1/2 size classical you want.

I love lyrics. There's a few Ian Dury songs where I don't much care for the music but the lyrics are fantastic so the track doesn't get skipped. Mark Knopflers lyrics absolutely make Dire Straits the band they are. Yes the music is good but the storytelling on songs like Romeo and Juliet and Sultans of Swing lift it to another level, I struggle not to be reduced to tears whenever I hear Brothers in Arms. The throwaway pop of Bronski Beat can stand the test of time if the lyrics are as strong as Smalltown Boy. I love The Cure for the imagery Robert Smiths lyrics conjure up. Tori Amos can tell a story over simple piano tune and it's beautiful. Hell I even like Stan Ridgeways Camouflage for the storytelling. Without the lyrics these songs wouldn't be held in the regard that they are IMO.

One of these was my first 'real' bass. I had a terrible cheap SG copy when we got our first gig, only problem was we didn't actually have a band so I was dispatched to Mansons to buy a proper bass, I returned with one of these beauties. The gig was awesome, much mayhem ensued and we were told we'd never be allowed to play there again. 😂 I traded it in after a couple of years for a brand new BBG5s which I still have. To this day a Yammy feels like coming home. Back on topic I've just realised that I haven't bought anything this year at all............ I've got six weeks to remedy this. 😁

I like this, it reminds me of Tanya Donnelly in Belly, which is no bad thing. 👍

I only know his playing with The Small Faces and the popular Faces tunes that get airplay, but was happy enough to be told out of the blue by a punter after we debuted our latest original tune, that it sounds like a bassline that Ronnie Lane would've written.

Fantastic! That alone would make me feel so happy and proud. 😎

I'll just link this post from the 'How was your gig last night' thread that I posted a couple of weeks ago, it fits in with this topic I think. Another one was back in the summer, we played a Commrades Club and I wasn't expecting much as they are hit and miss but we had a really good night. Being a Mod band we usually recognise people from the scooter scene but there was a group up dancing that we didn't recognise anyone from. Speaking to them afterwards it turned out they were from Slough and had heard some of our stuff on a Mod radio show, they were down in Cornwall on holiday and saw the gig advertised so came to see us. Really made me feel quite pleased about our little band. 🙂

We get this as well, signing setlists and CD's and having photos taken with people. All very strange if you ask me but enjoyable all the same.