EliasMooseblaster

Maybe that's why the Gain and Master knobs are so big - does each one have to house a pair of 9V batteries?

First concert - Peter Green Splinter Group & John Mayall's Bluesbreakers at the Albert Hall, around 2000 Last concert - The Who, Wembley Stadium, 2019 Best concert - Can't decide between The Who (above), Brian Wilson at the Festival Hall (2002) or Soundgarden in Hyde Park (2014) Worst concert - Elbow, at the London Astoria, probably 2000/1. My sister persuaded me to go on the strength of a song which I thought was rather good. They opened with that song, and it went downhill from there. Holy Mary, mother of Christ, were they ever dull. About 45 minutes in, just when I thought they couldn't put any less energy into their performance, they pulled out the chairs and acoustic guitars and decided it was time to do a few low-key acoustic numbers. I thought I might fossilise just standing there watching them. Loudest concert - Dream Theater at the first Ramblin' Man festival (2015?). I wasn't even bloody watching them - I was trying to enjoy someone else on the Blues stage, but they were so loud they were encroaching on every corner of the festival. Seen the most - The Hamsters. They used to play the Half Moon once a month back when I lived in West London; it was a regular outing for some of my friends. Most surprising - Hooverphonic at Aula Magna (2008). For a band who come across as quite low-key and mysterious on record, they knew how to translate it to an atmospheric live show. One of the last shows they did before Geike Arnaert left, so I'm glad I saw them when I did. Next concert - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, at the O2. Wish I could have seen - Original lineup of The Who. Any time from about 1967-1973 would do, but one of the well-known shows like Leeds Refectory or the 1970 IoW festival, ideally.

High Mids at 2.2 KHz? What do they think we are, lead guitarists?

I'll also stick up for Wilkinson pickups, having stuck one in the bridge position of a bitsa bass, and a pair of their humbuckers in a skinny-string. That said, if you're really not sold on the sound of them, there are options at a similar price point. Tonerider spring to mind: similarly underrated for the money, and allegedly good enough that Squier were putting them into their "Classic Vibe" guitars and basses at one point.

Time to put the proverbial cat among the punk pigeons... Jerry Only.

This is a good point - I take a Fast Fret to gigs as more practical/less of a liability than the little Dunlop spray bottles. I don't think I've had to buy a new bottle of Dunlop in about four or five years. That said, the big bottle might go a bit further than the little Dunlop if I also want to buff up some of the wooden furniture at home...

Have you tried the "bass shift" switch on the front? I tried that a couple of times and went back to having it turned off, as it was too bassy for my tastes - but you and I may have different ideas of "deep" in our heads!

I can't remember the year, but the venue was the grounds of the Tower of London. The headliner was Jeff Beck; the support was Buddy Guy. It's not that Jeff Beck was bad - he did his Jeff Beck thing perfectly well, his guitar playing was lovely, and the band were really good. But if you're doing an entirely instrumental set of jazzy, soft-rock numbers, it's going to feel a bit flat when the chap before you is not only an original Blues legend, but also just radiates charisma from the second he wanders onto the stage. Guy's performance was still up there with the best of them, but his rapport with the audience was superb. He was engaging, he was funny; his manner was warm and he clearly loved what he was doing. Poor old Jeff managed to mumble a "thank you" into his mic about twice, and that was the totality of his interaction with the audience. His music might have been more technically interesting than Buddy's, but the vastly greater passion and energy of the old bluesman rather trumped the sight of four guys staring at their shoes while noodling away in a much more subdued groove.

That sounds like a pretty solid recommendation to me. In which case, I'd better get along to Tk Maxx before every other Basschatter in SW London gets wind of this advice, and strip the shelves bare like a swarm of bass-playing locusts.

Good god, that's much better value. Now, I have been warned that you have to be careful about the type of lemon oil you wipe on a fretboard - apparently if it's too concentrated it can damage the wood - but judging by the label on that bottle, I assume it's safe to apply to your basses. I might have to take a trip to my local Tk Maxx - in the meantime, do let us know if your fingerboard shrivels up and falls off, there's a good chap.

I went to see Danzig in Brixton last year, and was very glad that most of the set drew on the material from the first three albums. You can probably dispense with everything after those. (Good gig, though!)

If you could take the song and its subject matter purely in isolation, then I imagine you could make a case for it being apolitical. Unfortunately, there's too much baggage attached to it, and the context around it. The song was clearly written as a protest against the way black Americans were being treated by the majority of white Americans who held the power - not just the angry rabbles who saw fit to blame the nearest black guy for anything that went wrong in the town, but the authorities - local, federal, governmental - who turned a blind eye to the fact this was happening. When the song was released, Holiday experienced a furious backlash from white record label execs and commentators, who were utterly livid that she should sing about such a thing (their point being what?, you wonder - "Yes, we know this is going on, but don't tell people it's going on"?). One of the other well-known versions was recorded by Nina Simone, who was a very active and outspoken supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. And if it's not clear from her associations, it's clear from her chilling performance that Simone had a point to make when she sang it. So whilst it may not political in the sense of party politics, and whilst it may not have been as much of a turning point as Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on a bus, it's definitely a bit of an "event" in the story of America's racial tensions. Ironically, I think the best solution for @AdrianP is going to be the same consensus that we reached on a thread about Conferedate flags a couple of years ago. Which is to say: err on the side of caution. There's an argument for saying that it might be timely to revive the song, but with all due respect to your band, I don't know whether a mostly-white covers group at The Trout and Kettle Plug are the most appropriate people to undertake that job.

Ah, you'll be after the Roadworn series for that...

I can see where you're coming from - they don't look like a "pair," in the same way that they do on a Jazz or a Thunderbird, for example. I've often wondered why P/P didn't become a more popular combination.

Yeah, I think I must have got one from a different run - mine has a much more subdued colour scheme, I'm glad to say...

^ I'll second this. My Precision copy sounds subtly different from my P/J with the P-pickup soloed, but then the former has a Fender '62 pickup, and the latter has a Duncan SPB-2. Worth noting that the P-pickup is very slightly closer to the bridge on my P/J as well. Next to one another, you'll hear a difference, but I don't think you could listen to either of them and declare that one didn't sound like a Precision.

Not a dedicated headphone amp, but another candidate for the "smaller budget" shortlist is the Hotone B-Station. It's a preamp+DI pedal, first and foremost, but it does have a headphone jack amongst its numerous output sockets. 3-band EQ, compressor, and drive stage built into a small box that will run off a 9V. Doesn't offer as many features as the Zoom, but it is certainly easy to use: https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/26141-hotone-b-station-review Plus it's a DI box, in case you're ever out gigging somewhere without backline, or want a quick means of doing some "silent" recording at home.

All other variables being equal, greater cone area would be expected to create greater air displacement. 2x10 isn't necessarily a greater cone area, as the depth of the cone also dictates the surface area. And, of course, other factors such as sensitivity cone displacement can have a huge impact on the overall "loudness" of the cab. Regardless of overall SPL, the RM 2x10 probably favours different frequency ranges from the RM 15. I've heard some vague suggestions 'round these parts that 10s can often sound a bit mid-scooped, whilst 15s are good at reproducing the lows and low-mids, but don't always get the highs. Not that this is a reliable theory, as a good builder can design a small cab to sound like something much bigger, and the frequency response of the cab can be counteracted with the amp's EQ, to a greater or lesser extent! But in short, it might just be that you need to push the low mids a bit more on your amp.

If you have an afternoon free, take your amp head along to one of the bigger music shops in or near the capital, one that carries plenty of different cab configs from different manufacturers. You may be amazed by how much two 4x10s from different manufacturers can differ in their sound, let alone two cabs with different driver combinations!

Are you sure it's Manzarek's left hand on the studio version? I can get pretty close to that sound on a Precision with a bit of overdrive, and the tone control opened up to "angry goose" levels.

In a partial echo to what everyone else has said above - it's worth a try! Personally I take the approach that as long as you get a "safe" choice (i.e, R/3/5) firmly on the 1 of each bar, you can get away with being more melodic and colourful through the rest of the bar. Just as a couple of common examples: - for a chord built on G7, you can happily walk down the mixolydian mode from the root, i.e., G, F, E, D (R, 7th, 6th, 5th); - for a Gm | D7 change, walk up the minor scale: G, A, Bb, C | D (R, 2, 3,4 | 5) - the 4th isn't normally a "strong" choice, but it creates a tension which is resolved perfectly by leading you up to the root of the next chord.

Ibanez make a bass version of their famous Tube Screamer. Personally, I find that the TS-9B was exactly what I wanted from a bass overdrive. Most of the other ones I tried seemed to gobble up my low mids; if anything, this one gives them a bit of a boost! Probably worth adding the caveat that I use mine as a boost for soloing, but I think it's versatile enough that you could experiment with it for more workaday purposes.

Not a local myself, but I did head down to Dereham for three consecutive summers, when Cherry White played their local blues festival. That was always well attended (obviously one has to enjoy blues or blues-oriented music), but I got the impression Dereham was quite lively as far as music was concerned. The Cherry Tree seemed to have a pretty busy programme of live music throughout the year.

Sounds relatable. The last time I gave my CTM100 a proper workout, it was into my Berg 2x12 at an outdoor gig without any PA support. I was also asked to turn down!

I believe they developed an 8-string in the '70s - John Entwistle played one of the prototypes on The Who's Success Story. Whether it made it to market, I don't know, but I think it was based off the 4005 design. In any case, this sounds like quite an exciting development!