Marvin

Excellent band. Wish I could get to one the gigs, but as usual by the time I finish work the venues are too far away. Oh well.

I think I would have clubbed the drummer with my spare bass if he'd done that to me.

Back in the early 90's I saw this band only a few times, but they were absolutely brilliant every time. These were gigs I loved, great bands, great crowds, venues packed to bursting, hot, sweaty, lots of beer. The Retreat were a genuinely great band, d

Best wishes to your drummer, sincerely hope there's no long lasting damage. I've got a circular saw and I really don't like them to be honest. I'm massively cautious using it. If it doesn't cut with just gentle pressure applied I stop. The power tool I hate the most are those large angle grinders. Used one when we built our extension, awful things.

I have some AKG K52's Light, comfortable, good sound and not very expensive. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B019EACGSU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_p.sWFb0CBB65Z

Very nice bass. Great for the money. I had one of those once, but I sold it. That was a few years ago and I still regret it. One of the nicest basses I've owned.

Well, I did it. It's been 2 years since I last played in a band (to be honest the last gig I did was disappointedly bad, hey ho) and after that one split up I sold my amp and cab. I had no intention of buying any more. But you just can't can you. We may be in the midst of a pandemic but we've got to be hopeful we can recapture some of the way we used to live. SO, in a spike of optimism I bought an amp from a fellow Basschatter some time back (Peavey MiniMax) and today a Fender Rumble 210 arrived, in the hope one day they'll be gigged... in the meantime I can attempt a few jams with my son who's learning guitar. I've been mulling over what cab to buy for months. I wanted to get something second hand however, living in the sticks most cabs were several hundred miles away and that's simply impracticable. It's a shame really, especially as there have been some Genz Benz cabs come up and I always wanted one, but it can't be helped. Several new cabs caught my interest. Markbass 151 Blackline, Markbass TRP 102, Ashdown RM 210t or the 115t, Ashdown 408 and the Fender Rumble 210. I chose the Rumble because I've owned Rumble Combos before and always liked them. I've had the Rumble V2 and V2 combos, and they've been great. So the Rumble brand is a known quantity to me, and when you're buying without trying that makes a difference. I did seriously think of getting a MarkBass cab, but from what I've read about them I'd really want to try one before committing. There are smaller cabs, but this one is still quite compact. It's also not very heavy, 17kg or 39lb. Matched with a 500w modern compact head, it'll cope with the gigs I'd be doing. For the last 18months if I've played my bass I've had to use headphones through my Zoom B1on. It makes quite a difference hearing your bass in an actual room again. Paired with the MiniMax it sounds really good. I've been playing around with it for a while and there are quite a varied number of tones you can get out of it. Turn the tweeter off, tweak the knobs only a little and you've quite a nice vintage sort of tone. Turn the tweeter on and you can go more modern. And then there's all the ones in between. The tweeter impressed me more than I thought it would. It's not brittle (not to my ears). There is that bit of a gap between where the 10's high end starts to roll off and the tweeter starts to make itself known, but it's not in a bad way, neither is it harsh. I prefer the tweeter at -6db on the switch on the back of the cab. It's good with the tweeter full off, but with just that bit of tweeter it gives it more bite. It hasn't taken me long to find the tone I like out of this set up. Obviously when you play in a band that tone might be useless but... This is all pretty much entry level gear, but as has been said so many times on Basschat, I wish entry level gear of this quality was around 20-30 years ago. My last set up (amp and cab) was more expensive than this. Sure it would probably hold up longer played at high volume but there's not a lot in it to be honest. There is only one thing that I wish I could do now, get in a band situation. I'm sure it'll perform well. I remember the first time time I took the Rumble V3 combo to a band practice I bored everyone senseless by constantly say 'Hell, this thing sounds good'. ELECTRONICS Wattage: 350 Watts @8ohms HARDWARE Cabinet Material: Lightweight Plywood Amplifier Covering: Black Textured Vinyl Grille Cloth: Silver Handle: Recessed Side-Mounted Steel Bar (2) SPEAKERS: Two - 10" Eminence® Ceramic Magnet & Compression driver horn with attenuator switch MEASUREMENTS: Amp Weight: 39 lbs. (17.7kg) Amp Height: 23" (58.42 cm) Amp Width: 19" (48.3 cm) Amp Depth: 14" (35.56 cm)

A few years ago I saw The Winery Dogs touring their second album. We'd managed to get to a really good spot near the front towards the side Kotzen was playing. I know, Sheehan was there and all dues he plays some unbelievable stuff on a bass, but Kotzen just ripped it up for me, he was outstanding, the band were amazing but he was incredible. I'd seen them play about 18 months prior at The Slade Rooms in Wolverhampton. Unfortunately I got stuck behind a pillar and could only see Sheehan, which wasn't that bad, but the sound was a bit meh and the heat was so oppressive you could see it was taking its toll on the band. Many years ago I saw The Real Sounds of Africa at a local Arts Centre. They were phenomenal, both in terms of musicianship and performance. Wille and the Bandits at a place called The Palladium Club in Devon. Small place, what a gig, they were on fire that night, the playing was great.

The Smiths were a great band of musicians ruined by Morrissey moaning over the top. I've always viewed him as one of those terminally irritating schools dweebs who think they're far above, and way cooler, than anyone else, when in fact the opposite is true. It's quite telling that some of the 'musicians' held up as being rebellious or cool in their day, have just turned out to be the conspiracy theorist and/or pub bores they were supposed to rebel against. Perhaps I've been lucky so far, I've never liked Morrissey, Ian Brown, John Lydon, Roger Daltrey... I'm sure there are a few more. As for the BBC, it's been on a downward trajectory since it had to apologise for Andrew Gilligan's piece for Today on R4. Now it's scared witless of rocking the boat of those in government, whatever the colour of their rosette.

I've used the MiniMax just using a pair of headphones and I was very impressed with the range of tones I could get out of it. The fan is a bit noisy but it's not an issue for me. I'm looking forward to pairing it with a cab.

A Peavey MiniMax 500 from a fellow Basschatter and I'm waiting for a Fender Rumble 210 cab to arrive soon. I'd sold my previous rig as I had no intention of going back to playing, but sometimes you just can't help yourself. Very proud of one of my sons, he's 13 and just bought his first guitar. That's it. I might buy a small USB mixer

In all seriousness. In North Devon the pubs that put on music aren't very big. Appledore had quite a good music scene, places like The Champ had a landlord that is a real music nut. You've got village halls that occasionally put on a band maybe. The usual beer and food festivals which are usually quite good. There used to be a festival called The Final Fling, that was excellent, great festival to play. In Bideford there is/was The Palladium Club. Had a good mix of stuff. Played there a few times. In Torrington there's the Plough Arts Centre. Played there a couple of years ago. They put on mainly blues and folk. Local bands don't play there a lot though. Getting to South Devon is a bit of a pain, and I've never been in a band that did gigs in South Devon. From what I hear Torquay and Paignton can be good for bands. However, it's easier and quicker to get to Taunton to be honest 😁 Like a lot of places there seem to be more bands than venues and you get quite a few that'll play at the opening of an envelope. In my experience nothing's big. And like everywhere right now, everywhere is shut ☹️

I just watched this clip by Guy Pratt. Quite interesting how he's approached playing early Pink Floyd, especially as he playing with Nick Mason. Thought it might be of some interest Just to add, it might not play. Apparently YouTube's copyright monitoring doesn't like this video sometimes 🤔

I've tried to read album reviews but stop about 2 paragraphs in wonder off and go and watch some grass grow. I'm not really sure what the purpose of a music critic or album review is. How can you know if you'll like it from someone else's opinion (usually someone who never even learnt how to play an instrument, let alone had the guts to get up and put their stuff out there)? I'm currently listening to Hard-Fi's second album. I just had a quick Google and apparently it wasn't much liked by the critics, I prefer it to their first album. Just to add, I never ever bought or read NME, had better things to spend my money on, usually beer and cigs.

You could get some lessons if you wanted. @Stuart Clayton lives just outside of Barnstaple. Although given lockdown he's probably only doing Skype lessons so it doesn't matter where you live then... I'll get my coat