msb

The Spurs , our little Mexican band , playing in my favourite dive downtown. This was our third night out. I had the big orange Gretsch out.

Just got it home and tweaked the bridge. Action is low , might raise it a hair , it has an older set of rounds on it , I may leave them on , I have Thomastik flats on the yellow one. These are a good looking pair!

It appeared last week on kijiji for a market price , a blue reissue Samurai , the Yamaha SBV500. I have a yellow one , and spent some years looking for it. It’s one of the few long scale basses I regularly play , I think of it as being like a Jazz bass on steroids , but much funkier. And today got a call from some friends that work at our local L&M , the big music retailer in Canada. The blue Samurai had appeared at the store , they were going to move it for a really good price , and was I interested … Now I have a yellow one that I love , but I could not turn down the deal. I’ll pick it up tomorrow. And I’m flattered that they called me before they put it out! Sold!

Beauty , I love a nice Ric , I still get a little weak in the knees when I see one.

I found a Barefaced One 10 I’ve been using for rehearsals. It’s not much bigger than the C2 , and it will fill a room. Quite an amazing little cab. They are rare over here.

The MB200 is a great little amp , I found the HoTone underpowered , but gave it a lot of use as a headphone amp.

Darkglass e500 and C2. Also use a PhilJones BigHead for headphones.

I mostly play mid sized bars downtown , and in many venues am not in the PA. No rack. Small stages. Amp , preamp , small cab and I’m good to go.

A friend , and great player.

I always ask my wife what she thinks before I buy something. She usually gives a big thumbs up so when she doesn’t I pay attention. It’s usually cabs that she doesn’t get. It’s hard to sell another black box coming in …

My condolences to you and your family.

I picked up a TMB30 as a mod project. I liked the shape , it reminded me of some of Paul Barth’s designs in the late 50’s. I had mixed first impressions. Neck dive , heavier than the basses I had been using ( to be fair I had been playing some very light short scales) and quite a wide chunky neck. The neck is still chunky but I quickly became accustomed to it. The weight doesn’t bother me , and the dive is not severe. Try the Gretsch G2220. Good price , not a bad little bass.

This getting older is not easy. BCDEG all end in eee and that’s all I hear all too frequently. My sense of mis direction was legend so that’s nothing new. I’ve learned not to panic when I don’t have signal. It’s usually operator error. I simply try to get the job done without any drama. Still love a good gig. Thankfully modern gear is light and manageable. And I no longer have to lug an Ampeg fridge around.

I’d think so , you can run them clean , or grot them up , the tone stack is surgical. They’re very flexible , and with the various heads there’s a lot of choice. There’s reason for so many to swear by them. I know they weren’t available in the UK , but that is apparently changing. Try one out. I run a Bergantino rig , and a tube preamp. I also love Mesa.

Don’t forget Mesa.