Painy

I'd love to pick up a second one to be honest. I reckon that would be a lot of fun.

I picked up this mini-beast yesterday for what I think is a very decent price. It's an Ashdown ABM 48 mini. 4x8, 600w at 8Ohms and, despite its small size and from the weight, apparently constructed from the heart of a neutron star. Our lead guitarist recently took a power amp with a blown transformer in for repair with a local amp tech but the guy made a mess of it and then promptly folded his business. The guy offered our guitarist this cab as compensation for the damage and he has now sold it on to me for the measly sum of £60. 🙂 I'm going to use this in smaller venues where there either isn't space or access is difficult for me to use my ABM 610 cab. I gave it a quick blast during last night's sound check and, while it obviously can't really compete with the 610, it's was a surprisingly loud and full but precise sound - certainly enough for on stage monitoring with PA support and probably enough on its own in the kind of smaller venues where I intend to use it. Great little cab and I'm now actually looking forward to the next time we play a tiny little pub with a stage area the same size as the pool table.

There is a very simple way to get around the problem of them not being equal in height - simply stack them vertically like this. 🤪

I'm finding the older I get the more I actualy prefer a heavier bass. This is because, as I've gotten older my belly has started to protrude further beyond my belt. I find a good weighty bass to be better at pushing down on my belly and flattening it back out. 😁 In all seriousness though I don't really like the feel of an overly light bass. They just feel kind of flimsy insubstantial to me. Anywhere between 8.5 and 12 lbs and I'm pretty happy.

Forgot to mention that the one time the bridge cover gets in the way is if I ever need to play with a pick (can't palm mute with a bridge cover). To get around the problem I have made my bridge cover quick release using strong magnets counter-sunk and epoxied into the body. The screws are then epoxied to the bridge cover and the screw holes drilled out very slightly larger than the thread so they work as locating pins that slot in to stop lateral movement. If I ever have to use a pick I can just pop the bridge cover off and then back on again when I'm done. Also makes string changes and setting intonation / action a lot less of a faff as I don't have to unscrew the cover to get to the bridge.

I don't find that they get in the way at all as my preferred playing position for tension and tone is between the P-pup and the bridge anyway. In fact I went to a great deal of trouble to find covers to fit my 5 string precision (purchased on ebay from a seller in China who would only post to the US. They sent it to - if I remember correctly - the New York home of the sister of helpful BCer. She then took them with her to Florida to give to said BCer who was meeting her there for a holiday. He then carried them back in his hand luggage to his home in the Republic of Ireland where he finally posted them on to me here in Norfolk). I'm very happy with them. 🙂

That after meeting at a gig and having watched my band play all night, this beautiful young lady then actualy agreed to go out for the rest of the evening with me - and eventually to marry me. 😊

My best mate got a drum kit for Christmas and picked it up really quickly so decided he should start a band. Seeing as I was his best mate he asked me if I'd like to join rather than try to find somebody that could actualy play already. He suggested bass as I wouldn't have to learn to play chords so we could start playing sooner. Because he was really into Nirvana at the time he gave me a cassette copy of Unplugged in New York to learn and an old acoustic guitar with only the E and A strings on it. Within a week I'd learned the bass parts by ear (pretty accurately to be fair looking back) to about 2/3 of the album and I was hooked. So that I could be heard against his drum kit, my mate then lent me the money to buy the cheapest bass that was available in that week's Free Ads paper - a Hohner B2a for £70. I didn't have an amp so I plugged into his Goodmans twin cassette home karaoke machine which was just about audible over the drums with the volume on full but distorted horribly. My older sister then introduced us to one of her husband's friends who played guitar and sang so I had to get my first bass amp (a Laney Linebacker 30) so that the karaoke machine could be our vocal PA. We were terrible but it was a start and within a year I'd joined the band that I'm with today and have been gigging with for over 23 years!

Just bought a VT Bass pedal from Nigel in the easiest of transactions. Thoroughly pleasant chap to deal with - deal with complete confidence! Thanks again!

In case anybody here has the necessary skills/experience and fancies it... https://scottsbasslessons.com/director-of-operations

Thought I'd revive this thread with a very short clip of this rig in action. Terrible picture quality I'm afraid so I apologise for that but hopefully still worth a quick listen (through headphones) if anyone is interested.

It's Norwich Open (the Old Barclays Bank regional headquarters building).

2 private functions for us this coming weekend. Wedding gig Sunday but the one I'm looking forward to more is on Friday when we're playing for the 60th birthday of the deputy chairman of Norwich City Football Club at this charming little venue:

Is possible that your band mate may be even less keen on that scenario than you are. 😐

How about taking your accommodation with you with one of these pop up roofbox tents for your car? 😁

Just had this video come up on YouTube. Looks like fun!

I can ask my friend from Halflight Guitars if you like. He's primarily a guitar builder but he's done some excellent work for me on one of my basses and he's used stainless frets on all his guitars. https://www.halflightguitars.com/

Here you go, fixed it for you...

Don't think our guitarist has sorted it yet so I've passed a link for these to him as well. 👍

If I want to give anything a relic look I just tell my kids not to touch it. 🙄

Looks like the band is happy to go with these people. Thanks! 👍

My band is booked for a wedding in a couple of months time and the venue requires us to have public liability insurance. This isn't something normally required in the venues that we generally play so we don't have anything in place at the moment. We're really just looking for the most basic cover to meet the venue's requirement so ideally a cheaply as possible (while obviously being legitimate). Does anybody have any recommendations they could suggest?

Damn straight! 😁