Beer of the Bass

I've kept flatwounds on fretted bass for maybe 4-5 years before I feel they're lacking something. Roundwounds I like when they're a little played-in, my last set on a regularly used bass went for 18 months. I do have a set of Status groundwounds on my fretless bass that must be 10 years old, but that bass only gets occasional use.

The bands at the top and back joint are usually referred to as external linings. They're often (but not always) associated with German made basses. I would say the scroll and tuners don't look like a Kay, the outer part of the spiral scroll is a separate glued-on piece on a Kay, and they have tuners with smaller gears than most double basses.

It's interesting, for the feature set and size of these, I feel like if they didn't have a coveted older name on them, basschat would have greeted them with a collective "meh". Just from the control set it looks fairly generic.

I feel I'm doing OK with a 50 watt Ampeg PF50T at gigs that are either small or PA reinforced, with one or two DIY 1x12" cabs. If it's a larger stage or a reasonable size room without bass in the PA the second cab makes a big difference, so I wouldn't want to wed myself to a single 12" rig. I think the Barefaced 12" is efficient, but not in a way that would be a night-and-day difference with another quality 12" in a low-powered valve amp rig. The viability will depend a lot on how much amp your guitarists use, and how the drummer works with the rest of the band too.

I'd have to check, it's the one they recommended with it, one of the SMPS800 variants. Amidst all the "heft" discussions on bass forums I liked the concept of using a more than ample power supply.

It's this one, 600 watt version, plus the recommended power supply. I'm sure it'll be fine if/when I get around to doing something with it, but a succession of house moves and band changes disrupted what projects I'd been getting up to. https://connexelectronic.com/product/irs2092-modular-amplifier/

Yeah, especially with how much the song was championed by and associated with John Peel, given how the discussion about him has moved on. (That bit isn't the Undertones' fault, but it doesn't help)

I have a Connex power amp module and power supply that I bought a few years ago and never quite got around to doing anything with. I never managed to get even a basic spec sheet for it from them, stuff like input impedance and sensitivity, cooling requirements etc. Literally the modules in a box with no info even when I emailed them asking for it. The website still says "more details soon" for that model, and it must be getting on for 10 years.

It seems to depend on the brands with electric strings. Basic rounds from D'addario, Rotosound etc seem to cost about the same numbers as they did 20 years ago from local music shops, but there are a lot more options easily available now, which might cost more.

Do pro orchestra players get some sort of stipend or expenses for instrument running costs like strings? I always wondered if that affected the pricing strategy of the string companies (or it might just be that running a manufacturing business out of places like Vienna is expensive)

I always think Charlie Haden is the prime example for "sounds great, culturally important, just don't look at his hands".

How old is this person we're stopping? If they're under 30, I reckon Davie504 might make an appearance, and probably one or two who almost no-one on basschat has heard of.

No-one's really going to notice how his voice sounds at the Oasis gigs, not over the thousands of middle-aged former Lads bellowing along.

You just can't win with the Basschat sartorial police. Short skirt, low-cut top and calf boots - disapproval. Sensible anorak- still disapproval! (this will make no sense if you haven't also been reading that other thread...)

It's not that different to Joe Dart's tone, I figured that's just a popular sound lately.

Ah, but could she hack it at the Tickled Trout?

Hmm, sounds like a less cheery Frank Sidebottom.

Your favourite Ms Kaye wasn't all that demure back in the day either, looks like her session wardrobe included short skirts with white leather calf boots, and the famous leopard print catsuit. I dunno, it does feel like people are clutching at straws for reasons to be dismissive of DeTiger in this thread.

That was Misdee again, sorry if it read as having a pop at you.

Honestly, I think we get too hung up on birth names. The name someone commits to using is their name, I reckon.

A lot of people have chosen to use a middle name, that's not unusual (Alexander Boris DePfeffel Johnson, anyone?). But the point for this discussion is that there's no basis for "correcting" Blu to Blue when the former is part of her actual given name as well as the name she uses.

It reminds me of the people I've seen "correcting" Jimi Hendrix' name to Hendricks, even though the spelling with the X was what his father used and not a stage name that Jimi adopted.

I feel like that wouldn't work out for a few reasons. She played a Fender on the records she's famous for, but today she favours an Ibanez which is a discontinued model. So if Fender approached her about a signature model, she's unlikely to play it, and Ibanez would have both the extra expense of bringing back a defunct model and the perception that people influenced by her older work are just going to buy a P-bass. On top of that, she's quite an unfiltered, opinionated character prone to lengthy social media rants. She's a hugely important figure in popular music, but I wonder if she might not be the easiest person for companies to work with.

There are pitfalls to be avoided with physical approach which mean it's best not to just assume you can hop across from electric bass without further input. The right teacher is always going to be a more direct route, but I feel like the "no discussion, just Get A Teacher" dogma of the in-crowd on a certain US bass forum ignores that not everyone lives in a large city with suitable music professionals offering lessons. And not everyone feels inspired to work on classical music. You can pick up a lot by using books, watching great bassists and talking to other bassists informally, and there are some good video lessons now that will at least get you off to a physically safe start. If you can find the right teacher in your area who you can afford, go for it, but don't let it stop you if you can't.

When looking for a new acoustic guitar I tried a couple of used Avalon models and quite liked them. But the CEO was Northern Ireland's first upskirting arrest, and then got nobbled for even worse stuff on his hard drive during the investigation, and the guitars lost their appeal a bit upon discovering that.