91
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97
The Bass Zone / International tour for me
« on: October 26, 2010, 08:04:21 PM »
Well, sort of. Rolling Stoned have been booked for an 8 night stint at an Irish pub in Singapore in December. They're looking after us pretty well - airfares, hotel accommodation, hired backline, 2 meals per day, plus $150 each per night.
Should be a blast!
Should be a blast!
98
The Outpost Cafe / I made a new website for our band
« on: October 20, 2010, 06:35:18 PM »
I don't do flash, frames or other fancy stuff, but I built a pretty basic website for the band that contains everything we really need. We already have an established Myspace and Facebook presence, but thought it was time to fork out for a domain name.
Feedback and constructive criticism about the website from any of you cluey IT dudes is welcome.
http://www.rollingstoned.com.au
Does the favicon work for any of you guys on Firefox or Opera (or Macs)? (I'm on IE at work so can't check)
Feedback and constructive criticism about the website from any of you cluey IT dudes is welcome.
http://www.rollingstoned.com.au
Does the favicon work for any of you guys on Firefox or Opera (or Macs)? (I'm on IE at work so can't check)
99
Bass Amps & Effects / New SVT-7 Pro - with free pyrotechnics included
« on: October 14, 2010, 10:47:19 PM »
I bought a SVT-7 Pro this week to see what they're like. 1000w of SVT tone with a tube preamp in a 15lb head? Call me curious.
Got a nice price from a store here, it arrived by courier the next day, I got it home and everything was totally virgin sealed up like the day it left the factory in Qingdao or Dalian or wherever Ampeg farm these things out to.
I checked that the voltage selector was on 230v, not 115v, plugged it in, switched it on, and sat back to wait the 5 seconds it supposedly takes for these heads to start up. Well, the loud pop that accompanied me throwing the on switch made me think "that was a little louder than I expected", and then the black smoke pouring out of the unit 1 second later had me moving fast to pull the plug at the wall outlet. This thing cooked itself in a manner of seconds, so it would appear that one of the guys at the factory may have been drinking a bit too much of that nice Qingdao lager.
The dealer got onto it straight away and sent me a replacement that arrived at work today. I'm not overly excited about taking this one out of the carton and plugging it in, but hopefully I can put the first one down to experience and this one will run just fine. The dealer did say that this time they unpacked it and ran it for 3 hours in the store before they sent it to me, so maybe Wroker B was having a better day than Wroker A did at the factory.
Got a nice price from a store here, it arrived by courier the next day, I got it home and everything was totally virgin sealed up like the day it left the factory in Qingdao or Dalian or wherever Ampeg farm these things out to.
I checked that the voltage selector was on 230v, not 115v, plugged it in, switched it on, and sat back to wait the 5 seconds it supposedly takes for these heads to start up. Well, the loud pop that accompanied me throwing the on switch made me think "that was a little louder than I expected", and then the black smoke pouring out of the unit 1 second later had me moving fast to pull the plug at the wall outlet. This thing cooked itself in a manner of seconds, so it would appear that one of the guys at the factory may have been drinking a bit too much of that nice Qingdao lager.
The dealer got onto it straight away and sent me a replacement that arrived at work today. I'm not overly excited about taking this one out of the carton and plugging it in, but hopefully I can put the first one down to experience and this one will run just fine. The dealer did say that this time they unpacked it and ran it for 3 hours in the store before they sent it to me, so maybe Wroker B was having a better day than Wroker A did at the factory.
100
The Bass Zone / Wig and gig pics from last weekend
« on: October 13, 2010, 10:06:49 PM »
This was our show to celebrate the DVD release of Ladies and Gentlemen. We played the same songs that are in the movie, from the '72 tour.
101
Bass Amps & Effects / Incoming! (sealed cab content)
« on: September 30, 2010, 06:22:17 PM »
Found a great deal on a discontinued Markbass Classic 152 (2x15), around half retail price. It's 2" taller than two of my SWR Goliath Jr 210 stacked, but weighs 17kg (37lbs) less - 33kg (73lbs) vs 50kg (110lbs).
Vintage style tone plus easier to lug. And it should still fit in the rear hatch compartment of my Mazda3
Vintage style tone plus easier to lug. And it should still fit in the rear hatch compartment of my Mazda3
102
Other Bass Brands / New bass day - Aussie made content (Maton)
« on: September 21, 2010, 04:03:45 PM »
I grew up seeing great Australian bassists in pub bands playing Maton JB4's, and never got around to finding a nice one myself, until last week. So, after 30 years of looking, I've finally the owner of an early 1980s Maton JB4 (I've emailed Maton to date the serial number, but I won't hold my breath). It arrived yesterday, and I must say the neck is one of the nicest to play of any of the 60+ basses I've owned over the years.
103
The Bass Zone / Where I've been the past few days
« on: August 25, 2010, 06:28:28 PM »
I just got back today from 3 days at an improvised recording studio in a country farmhouse with a really cool engineer who really digs vintage gear. He's got some microphones that are 80 years old from radio stations and all kinds of nice old school toys to counterbalance his Pro Tools rig.
We got drum and bass bed tracks down for 10 songs, as well as percussion, some backing vox, hand claps, acoustic guitar and some rhythm guitar. Richard, the guitarist, is still at the farmhouse tonight with the engineer and he's aiming to get most of the guitar bits finished tonight.
It's the middle of winter here, with the temperature at the farmhouse down to just under 30F at night, so we had the fireplace going non stop.
I took a Nash P, the Dark Star P and the Big Al, and as expected, when I mentioned I'd brought 3 basses along, the engineer asked "I hope one of them is a P bass?" I used the Nash on the first four tunes, and then used the Dark Star for two bluesy power trio songs, and by that stage I was feeling comfortable enough with the engineer (and he with me) that I brought out the Big Al for the next song, and ended up using it for the rest of the session. It recorded really nicely - I used my favourite neck + middle + active setting for 3 of the tunes, and the "all buttons off" secret setting for the other.
He recorded me clean direct into an Avalon tube preamp, and after we had a bass track that we were happy with, he would run the clean bass track recording straight into my Ampeg SB-12 absolutely f***ing cranked and record that, so he then had a clean track and a dirty tubey track that he can blend in teh mix. It sounded really sweet. Although, it's kind of weird to be standing around in the kitchen with the rest of the band having a beer while your isolated, warts and all clean bass track is blaring away in the next room through a distorted tube amp being recorded with a mic.
There are vocals to go down next, plus some horns, strings on one song and keyboards, and hopefully the final product will be available in a few weeks. This really was a shitload of fun for a weekend warrior like me.
Here's some pics ...
No noise problems here:
How cool is this place?
The view out the main room window:
Now THIS is a cooker:
The main room:
The SB-12 cranked:
Axes:
One more:
Big Al resting on his laurels:
Drummer at the base of the stairs:
Richard in action:
Syd the very cool engineer:
A productive session:
We got drum and bass bed tracks down for 10 songs, as well as percussion, some backing vox, hand claps, acoustic guitar and some rhythm guitar. Richard, the guitarist, is still at the farmhouse tonight with the engineer and he's aiming to get most of the guitar bits finished tonight.
It's the middle of winter here, with the temperature at the farmhouse down to just under 30F at night, so we had the fireplace going non stop.
I took a Nash P, the Dark Star P and the Big Al, and as expected, when I mentioned I'd brought 3 basses along, the engineer asked "I hope one of them is a P bass?" I used the Nash on the first four tunes, and then used the Dark Star for two bluesy power trio songs, and by that stage I was feeling comfortable enough with the engineer (and he with me) that I brought out the Big Al for the next song, and ended up using it for the rest of the session. It recorded really nicely - I used my favourite neck + middle + active setting for 3 of the tunes, and the "all buttons off" secret setting for the other.
He recorded me clean direct into an Avalon tube preamp, and after we had a bass track that we were happy with, he would run the clean bass track recording straight into my Ampeg SB-12 absolutely f***ing cranked and record that, so he then had a clean track and a dirty tubey track that he can blend in teh mix. It sounded really sweet. Although, it's kind of weird to be standing around in the kitchen with the rest of the band having a beer while your isolated, warts and all clean bass track is blaring away in the next room through a distorted tube amp being recorded with a mic.
There are vocals to go down next, plus some horns, strings on one song and keyboards, and hopefully the final product will be available in a few weeks. This really was a shitload of fun for a weekend warrior like me.
Here's some pics ...
No noise problems here:
How cool is this place?
The view out the main room window:
Now THIS is a cooker:
The main room:
The SB-12 cranked:
Axes:
One more:
Big Al resting on his laurels:
Drummer at the base of the stairs:
Richard in action:
Syd the very cool engineer:
A productive session:
