Happy Jack

And my current gear sell-off just got weirder. There was a time, many years ago, when my future seemed to hold a lot of Americana, Bluegrass, Country, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot and owning a decent autoharp seemed like a really good idea. So I bought this one: https://www.u-buy.co.uk/product/2E2HT894-oscar-schmidt-osc-os45c-21-chord-autoharp?srsltid=AfmBOorOBOfKzWY5oVTqysQCWaBMBMP6btilmF7GfA9JbyujrqlrqBCCJwg Now I don't know if it's currently unavailable because they've stopped making them, or their last batch has sold out and they're waiting for the next, or if The Ginger Baby President has slapped a 3-million % tariff on them or something, but for some reason the expression "rare as hen's teeth" springs to mind, especially in the UK. It has been very little used and is in as-new condition. It came to me with strings that I reckoned were already past their best. I can't see that years in storage will necessarily have improved that. It is the highly-desirable 21-chord model, far more versatile than entry-level autoharps, and of course it's electric ... which means that it's acoustic but it does have a pickup should amplification be required. This very odd sound-hole apparently improves all sorts of things. I have no idea if that is true. In truth, this is not the sort of thing I'd normally consider posting but my old mate Confucius assures me that I should never say never. I don't plan on leaving this here for a long time. If I don't get a buyer within a week or two then I suspect eBay is the right place for it.

The text from when @Rich sold his amp was too good to not nick it: Genz-Benz Shuttle 9.2 bass amplifier. Superb sounding and VERY LOUD amp. Power output: 500 watts @ 8 ohms, 900 watts @ 4 ohms Dimensions: 63mm H x 250mm W x 265mm D Weight: 4lbs / 2kg It has a valve preamp (a standard 12AX7/ECC83) and a very powerful & flexible tone-shaping section featuring shelving controls for bass and treble, a semi-parametric control for mid frequencies, and three pre-shape buttons consisting of bass boost, mid cut, and treble boost. But wait! There's more! I've had this amp for years in a theftproof flightcase where it is an unreasonably good and secure fit. I'm selling the whole package ... the amp, power cord, Speakon cable, XLR cable for the DI, AND the bright yellow flightcase. Everything is in pretty miuch A1 condition except the interior of the flight case, where whatever it was used for in an earlier existence left a couple of odd stains. I think it's old glue, but I'm not certain. Loads of flickswitchy options there if you like that sort of thing. The fit is SO good that the case could have been carefully designed to hold this amp. It wasn't, it's just a coincidence, but it's such a good coincidence that I've decided to sell both together. The car-washing sponge is there to protect the knobs from any wayward bits of cable. There's not as much of me as there used to be. Still, that's 180lbs of Happy Jack standing on the case without the slightest qualm that something might get damaged. In truth, if you could fit them then you could put The Weather Girls on that case without losing any sleep.

Still for sale.

Luxury! Why, when I were a lad ...

So it turns out that buying new keyboards is just as addictive as buying new basses. Who knew? This is a genuinely excellent, light-weight all-rounder of a keyboard, extremely portable, and with four banks of SIXTEEN presets each, making it an ideal gigging unit. I haven't done a factory reset, so these are the settings I used for the presets at the last gig I played with it. Banks A and B are largely populated with presets from the factory (none of which were of any use to me) so my presets are in Bank C and Bank D is IIRC pretty much empty. Strong suits are pianos and brass - especially brass - whilst organs and synths are fine. Weak suit is the strings, which can be tweaked endlessly to get the sound you want but are not as instantly lush as those with - say - Yamaha kit. The carry handle is not just cute - it's really practical, especially at festival-style gigs. On the original padded gigbag, the original power supply plus a photocopied manual. How portable do you want it? This keyboard will even run off batteries with no loss of quality. Gigbag has built-in shoulder straps for gigging by public transport. Basschat is not a great place to sell keyboards (the clue's in the name) so I won't be leaving this here for months. If it hasn't sold within a week or two then off to eBay it will have to go. Trying to gauge prices for pre-owned keyboards is a f***ing nightmare. On eBay I've seen these selling recently for over £400 and I've also seen these selling recently for nearer £200, with no apparent reason for the wide range. Not many at the £200 end, mind. LOL It doesn't help that the Korg Kross II looks pretty much the same (no! really?) and people get confused.

Chris, if I didn't already have a Ui-24 plus a Ui-12 arriving tomorrow morning then I'd have this off you in a flash. I could almost be persuaded that I should do a deal for it anyway so that @Silvia Bluejay and I have a spare for our frontline (>80 gigs a year) mixer. How interesting would a bass need to be to get your attention?

I bought this to pair with my Trace Elf head and I love it to bits. Sad to relate, @Silvia Bluejay is the sound engineer for my bands and she's taken agin' it, doesn't like the sound, won't let me use it. Not best pleased, but what can you do? My loss, your gain. It's handy that there's a handy carry-handle which handles it duty with ease. Not pristine but a quick wipe with a damp rag would help. As you can see, I was dahhhhhn the lockup when I took these photos, and damp rags were in short supply. Thank God for that! I was getting quite concerned about the Formaldehyde, and positively apoplectic about the Casualdehyde. Listed at a silly-cheap price since I know that the main competitors for this cab have slashed their prices recently.

Dimensions weren't enough - people now want to know about the weight. According to my incredibly accurate and reliable bathroom scales, the amp head weighs near enough 18Kg, the flightcase weighs 8Kg, and the entire package (including appropriate heavy-duty Speakon cable + power cord) will be roughly 27Kg.

How about a thread from 2013 to cheer you up?

I've been asked for dimensions on this amp: W = 21" D = 9.75" H = 9.25" (+ handle)

Incidentally, I feel I have to point out that these were shot in September 2020, just before Lockdown #2 came over the horizon. The reason this matters is that I used Lockdown #2 as an opportunity to learn video editing so these two videos are pretty much the last I ever did before that. And they're both perfect, error-free "One-ers". Eat your heart out, Steven Spielberg ...

The rather 'arch' comment early on about rubber straplocks @ped was a then-current reference to something under discussion on Basschat at the time.

Oh looky looky looky what I've found - my original pair of NBD videos from five years ago!

Fundamentally, they're very closely related amps. The first AD200 was simply a re-badged Matamp. How closely this particular example compares with a selected AD200 rather depends on what valves have been installed - I'd be a liar if I said they sound the same, since I've never A/B'd my Matamp against a similar Orange.

Enough people have asked this question - or variations on it - that I should probably take this opportunity to reveal my God-like bass-playing abilities. 🙄 Grosman Piezo Jazz.mp3