Agent 00Soul

Just watched the video. He doesn't say it was designed for plectrum per se, he was referring to the amp tone he uses on the songs he picks. He also talks about the songs he plays fingerstyle and demos them. Amp sounds great through. And he's right: it does actually have a very "rock" sound. Or at least the U2-style of small instrumental combos.

They are still making them. I think it was just a short pause. Of course, if you a lefty you never know if there will ever be another production run....

I've literally never heard of an amp being designed especially for a rock music plectrum player. What does that even entail...or sound like?

This is true. I often have to sign in the UK when I use the same US credit cards that I don't have to sign with in the States for some reason though.

That’s true. I don’t know how much it would help the touring musician, but in terms of daily life about half the places I visited post-Covid did contactless. When I left only a few years ago, almost no place did.

I used my US bank account - I still keep a bit of money there for occasions like this. You might well need one for Venmo or a card reader. Not something I ever looked into. In that case Cash Is King. Just make sure you have lots of change to give. 20 dollar bills are the most popular denomination to pay for stuff. For the phone, I would just buy/rent one at the airport if your UK plan doesn't work or is expensive in the US. That's what I did first time I went back to NYC. I also recommend renting a personal Hotspot at the same time.

Card readers are getting more common, but Venmo transfers (which aren't available in Europe that I am aware) is what I've seen the most recently next to cash.

How I wish that better instruments led to better players! I'd start with me.

It seems I tend to get a new instrument shortly after joining a new band with a different style of music. I don't know why, but I seem to subconsciously associate the sound and feel of the main bass I am playing with the act I'm a part of. When I change bands, I try using the same instrument but it seems to leave me in a bit of a rut and I have to use a different one for the different act. Having said that, I'm not a collector at all and "only" have 5 basses out of the 4 bands I've played in over the years. It must be some kind of compulsion because realistically you don't even need that much.

It turns out Epiphone actually do make one, but most places have sold out (post-Covid supply chain issues?). Anyway, I did find one store in Kent that had 2 left. It arrived in a box with a quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche written on it.

Any ideas for a hard case for a lefty Jack Casady? I bought it new this month from a place in Germany and there wasn't any kind of covering but the cardboard box it came from the Epiphone factory in. It's in one of my better gig bags at the moment, but the lower bout is too wide for it to be properly zipped up. And anyway, I don't trust soft cases for semi-hollowbodies.

Another big difference is that the transients of the bass can be massive. They are much less of an issue with guitars. That might lead to a different route to engineering tech.

Thanks everyone! Great stuff here that I didn't know about.

Does anyone have any experience with any battery powered bass amps? I am playing with an acoustic singer/songwriter of late and we've been setting up in places that often aren't near electrical outlets, including outside in the warmer weather.

My university dormitory was in Hove

Maybe it was the drugs that made them brave enough to take a chance with Revolver. I sure couldn't imagine BTS, who are about as sophisticated a boy band as you will find today and who I like personally, suddenly making an experimental musical collage for their next record though. But I couldn't imagine them taking drugs either.

When you think about it, just the act of making Revolver was incredibly brave. It seems the obvious thing to have done in hindsight but they must have been taking a big chance on their careers at the time. The Beatles entered 1966 as essentially a (very sophisticated and talented) boy band and left as Avant Garde aesthetes. I couldn't imagine Col Parker allowing Elvis to make such a radical change in musical direction by way of a simplistic comparison. Luckily for them, the record buying public loved it, but think about what might have happened had it flopped. No Sgt Pepper, no White Album etc. They could just as easily become a Badfinger-style power pop band in an attempt to salvage their careers if Revolver didn't find favour. As for the Rickenbacker thing: I've owned Ricks and Fenders over the years. The thing to realize about Paul's use of the Rick during his Beatles days was I suspect that he and the EMI engineers rolled a lot of the treble off so it is not the typical sound that Ricks are known for. His work with Wings is more of the classic Rick sound from my experience playing one.

When DIs first started becoming common, people liked the way it sounded with a bass but not a guitar. The low-fi sound of a valve amp has continued to be the almost exclusive sound of choice for guitar and with bass it was just one of several that have evolved over the years.

The stereotype of the young 2010s guitarist was of a person playing a 1950s or 60s-design offset guitar plugged into a low wattage valve amp with 17 boutique pedals in the chain. The stereotype for the 2020s is the same person, but plugged into a digital modelling amp with a pedal controller and a couple of vintage 1970s-90s pedal reissues.

I want an Ikea-style instruction manual with the two blobby assembly guys and no words! I'm actually of two minds about this. On one hand, ashtrays are more authentically vintage - which is no doubt why they are included in the case unmounted - but the fact remains that the vast majority of players since the 1950s have removed theirs because they hinder play - which is also no doubt why they are included unmounted. I like the idea of having the option to install them, but I don't trust myself to drill the holes properly. So I could really mess up the aesthetics of a beautifully finished instrument. And if I ever decided to take the ashtrays off, the screw holes that I added will now be visible. But at the same time, pre-drilled holes would also mess up those same aesthetics if they were never used to install the ash trays. If it were a Doctor Who episode, it would be called "The AV II Paradox".

Somewhat OT, but they've been progressive with their amps. Aside from coming up with new ideas themselves, I've seen things that used to be the preserve of boutique amps that they've included much cheaper, probably do to the economy of scale and their deep pockets.

If the lefty Jack Casady bass was around at the time I was using my Viola for the lounge stuff I definitely would have bought one!

I did eventually replace it with an Epiphone Viola bass. By that time, I was playing in an electronic longue sort of band (think Air or Koop) and I was amazed to find that it was the best bass in my collection for recording that style of music. I was surprised.