Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Brand new experience: looper with live band... And it worked!

Last night's jam at YATES'S in Reading was fun, if a little quiet - we used the time to run through the Shaydes set, and I got to do something with the GR55 synth - live - which I never thought would work.

Fairly simple but groovalicious bassline, nailed the built-in looper on it while Demetrius was playing, he held tempo and it worked, so I started playing Rhodes Piano on the Tobias(!!) and it sounded EXCELLENT!

All this through the new 2x10 markbass traveller: quite a feat for that little cab.

I'll be trying that again!

Marshall do a Bluetooth speaker(!!) - they do these for £150 at GAK, and they sound really good! http://ift.tt/1RfIkMs #blog #music #Marshall


via Instagram http://ift.tt/1o5Q4Vj

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Jam Night at Yates's in Reading - nice venue up here! #blog


via Instagram http://ift.tt/1Ry2Bij

Bass Repair! Crafter Acoustic bass will live again...

Time for some bass repair work - my Crafter BA-400 electro acoustic bass (nice piece of kit, handy for parties!) needs a new nut and new pins.

Luckily it appears Strings Direct do a lot of good repair gear! This looks like the job-

https://www.stringsdirect.co.uk//parts-c4/nuts-c105/graph-tech-pq-1200-00-tusq-nut-slotted-bass-4-string-p10307/s10606

that should do the nut Ok, and

https://www.stringsdirect.co.uk//parts-c4/bridge-pins-c98/pinz-brass-bass-guitar-bridge-pins-mother-of-pearl-p1648/s1690

Nice brass mother of pearl inlaid pins! Better than the god awful plastic things it came with, one of which has snapped!

Look forward to restringing with some nice lightweight strings for chilled summer evening jams with friends. I may even get a battery amp!! It's loud enough with a pick though.

Ttfn BassPeeps!





Jam nights aplenty! Tonight...

I've become... attached to some excellent musos in Reading: the Butler Thursday night jam sessions are great - particularly when Champion Be comes along and fills the pub with keyboardly goodness - and now there's a new one as well: YATES'S pub in Reading, every second Tuesday.

Should be fun - it's a big venue, good stage area, and great bar: roomy feel, space to jump around a bit!

I'll have the chance to try out some gear tonight in a live situation which I haven't yet: should have some good power and lots of tones on hand.

See you there!