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Thunderbird Club

#88,261
Kriegs said:
Man, I'm all sorts of not fitting in! :roflmao: Here's my sonic launch pad:
View attachment 3099845
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I mess with this or that pedal all the time. Right now I have an octave/fuzz on the board. It's fun, but I haven't figured out what it's good for yet. The next experiment coming up is an EHX BassBalls envelope follower. There are a few songs that it will probably work well with. I haven't done much experimenting with a bass wah pedal just yet.

As far as tripping over it, I went wireless, which means the pedal board is out of harms way (mostly).
 
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#88,262
Christine said:
There are lots of young bands about who actually play guitars

So if we all follow suite then guitar sales will drop further, amp sales will die off as we all start using house PA, drum kits will become a thing of the past and rock and roll will become that quaint old thing that they did in the olden days. Surely we as musicians (myself in the loosest sense) have a duty to fight to keep the skills needed to set up some amps in an old barn and make music because before long young bands won't be able to do even that without the help of a sound person. Personally I think it's something worth hanging onto
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Of course it's worth hanging on to, just not sustainable. There are a some trumpet "playing bands" (to quote Knopfler) and other older type bands around that continue with success. They will soon be gone and no one will replace them, that's all I'm saying. I don't want to sound like a downer, I try to be realistic. Some time back, there were bands that would not allow an electric player favoring uprights. Anthony Jackson (who went on to develop the 6 string "contrabass) wrote about this. Today, the electric bass is the instrument of choice. Why shouldn't that change?
 
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#88,263
Christine said:
There are lots of young bands about who actually play guitars

So if we all follow suite then guitar sales will drop further, amp sales will die off as we all start using house PA, drum kits will become a thing of the past and rock and roll will become that quaint old thing that they did in the olden days. Surely we as musicians (myself in the loosest sense) have a duty to fight to keep the skills needed to set up some amps in an old barn and make music because before long young bands won't be able to do even that without the help of a sound person. Personally I think it's something worth hanging onto
Click to expand...
One thing to think about is demographics. How many guitars have been made, how many guitar player are there, and do guitars wear out? The answer is a whole lot of guitars, plenty of guitarists, but guitars don't wear out so the market is awash in used gear of all ages and qualities. I think there are plenty of young people playing all kinds of instruments, not just synths and loopers. They play everything from trombones to Peruvian flutes, just like every other generation. Plus, they are a big demographic, but their buying power is restrained by housing costs and student loans. They will play guitars and buy guitars. They just won't buy guitars until they can afford it.
 
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#88,264
Chucky Stiletti said:
Of course it's worth hanging on to, just not sustainable. There are a some trumpet "playing bands" (to quote Knopfler) and other older type bands around that continue with success. They will soon be gone and no one will replace them, that's all I'm saying. I don't want to sound like a downer, I try to be realistic. Some time back, there were bands that would not allow an electric player favoring uprights. Anthony Jackson (who went on to develop the 6 string "contrabass) wrote about this. Today, the electric bass is the instrument of choice. Why shouldn't that change?
Click to expand...
I'm just not the sort of person who rolls over and dies
 
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#88,266
Chucky Stiletti said:
I hear you. I'm not being as drastic though. Times change, technology changes. It's inevitable..
You are a perfect example, you've been playing for a long time but you don't use a 60s amp, do you?
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I do some of the time. I even have a 1949 guitar amp that I use a lot.
 
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#88,267
Chucky Stiletti said:
Of course it's worth hanging on to, just not sustainable. There are a some trumpet "playing bands" (to quote Knopfler) and other older type bands around that continue with success. They will soon be gone and no one will replace them, that's all I'm saying. I don't want to sound like a downer, I try to be realistic. Some time back, there were bands that would not allow an electric player favoring uprights. Anthony Jackson (who went on to develop the 6 string "contrabass) wrote about this. Today, the electric bass is the instrument of choice. Why shouldn't that change?
Click to expand...
There are still plenty of us who play the doghouse. Probably more than for a long time, since there's a broad variety of music bubbling right below the surface that uses upright instead of bass guitar. I think we are all worrying too much. Now get offa my sidewalk or I'll turn it into lawn!
 
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#88,269
Seems like it's a cat pic day. I submit for your perusal, Peter.
Peter.jpg
 
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#88,270
Chucky Stiletti said:
I hear you. I'm not being as drastic though. Times change, technology changes. It's inevitable..
You are a perfect example, you've been playing for a long time but you don't use a 60s amp, do you?
Click to expand...
If I could get my hands on a Marshall superbass again I would but they are outside of my priceband. My amp situation is one reason I want a bigger one so I don't have to rely on having my little Rumble miked to play a big room, they can still do it if they insist but personally I like to keep control of my part as much as I can and I seem to have lost it. Using solid state is a trade off I have to make, I do like valves, they have a durability about them as well as a fragility.

How many players today could tune their bass if the batteries on their tuner packed in? I figure a few of us here still have a dusty tuning fork somewhere about the place, actually that would be an interesting question in the GP if you could get a sensible answer set.

Times do change and we all move with the times but we should also preserve the past and the knowledge gained along the way
 
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#88,272
Chucky Stiletti said:
I think it has to do a lot with how much one plays out. Unless one has a roadie, I would say that at least 90% of players that play out more than 10 times a month use a modern class D type setup..
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For sure - you do what makes sense. I played a small stage at an outdoor festival last month. We loaded all our stuff on a golf cart for a 10 minute ride from the parking lot. I'm glad I didn't bring my tube amp. This was my rig. 8 pound amp + 27 pound cabinet = 35 pounds and a line out to FOH.
IMG_1730.JPG


This was the rig on the next stage over. 2 x 80 pound amps + 2 x 140 pound cabinets = 440 pounds. I bet there was still a line out to the FOH.
IMG_1729.JPG
 
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#88,276
Engle said:
For sure - you do what makes sense. I played a small stage at an outdoor festival last month. We loaded all our stuff on a golf cart for a 10 minute ride from the parking lot. I'm glad I didn't bring my tube amp. This was my rig. 8 pound amp + 27 pound cabinet = 35 pounds and a line out to FOH.
View attachment 3100012

This was the rig on the next stage over. 2 x 80 pound amps + 2 x 140 pound cabinets = 440 pounds. I bet there was still a line out to the FOH.
View attachment 3100013
Click to expand...

But it looks at least 15x cooler when you have the 810s stacked on their sides... So their cool per pound is higher.
 
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#88,277
Christine said:
If I could get my hands on a Marshall superbass again I would but they are outside of my priceband. My amp situation is one reason I want a bigger one so I don't have to rely on having my little Rumble miked to play a big room, they can still do it if they insist but personally I like to keep control of my part as much as I can and I seem to have lost it. Using solid state is a trade off I have to make, I do like valves, they have a durability about them as well as a fragility.

How many players today could tune their bass if the batteries on their tuner packed in? I figure a few of us here still have a dusty tuning fork somewhere about the place, actually that would be an interesting question in the GP if you could get a sensible answer set.

Times do change and we all move with the times but we should also preserve the past and the knowledge gained along the way
Click to expand...

All is not lost! My 15 year old daughter plays upright and electric bass + piano, can tune by ear, reads paper books, and draws. She also spends a lot of time on line and plays video games.

I have a tuning fork on my workbench. What I found amusing recently was an old pitch pipe I found in a guitar case. It was way off!
 
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#88,278
Christine said:
If I could get my hands on a Marshall superbass again I would but they are outside of my priceband. My amp situation is one reason I want a bigger one so I don't have to rely on having my little Rumble miked to play a big room, they can still do it if they insist but personally I like to keep control of my part as much as I can and I seem to have lost it. Using solid state is a trade off I have to make, I do like valves, they have a durability about them as well as a fragility.

How many players today could tune their bass if the batteries on their tuner packed in? I figure a few of us here still have a dusty tuning fork somewhere about the place, actually that would be an interesting question in the GP if you could get a sensible answer set.

Times do change and we all move with the times but we should also preserve the past and the knowledge gained along the way
Click to expand...
My 27 year old son grew up knowing how to take care of vinyl records, how to dial a rotary telephone, and things like that. Mostly because I'm cranky and my wife lets me be technologically cranky. He's now a trumpet player, which is an obsolete way to make noise. If we had let him have a Gameboy back when he was a kid, instead of making him listen to Charles Mingus records, he would be highly paid video game designer and would be able to support us in the manner we would like to become accustomed to. Instead, he's making music for part of his living and driving his car as an Uber for the rest of it. We really blew it. Dammit.
 
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