The Last Bass Outpost

Oh dang, thanks for posting that, I had no idea. I've seen Bob solo a few times but never with a band, and would really like to see this.

Greco T-bird IV. I forget if i ever posted this here. World Record Players recording remote pandemic-style back in 2020. I think we started with a click track and guide guitar/vocal and just gradually layered stuff using dropbox. This is me doing my bass part and deciding to film it with via webcam with the scratch mix.

It was a fun pandemic project, and sorely needed, but of course there were tradeoffs. The drum sound is errrr not my favorite, and this is missing lead guitars and maybe some backing vocal that probably came later ... i later did another bass take on this with fewer mistakes (and no video). And then we ended up re-recording the song from scratch in a studio a couple years later! Still, there's a vibe to this version that I like.

To me it doesn't look any better or worse than any of their other odd T-bird choices over the past decade(s).
It's a lot like the 2015, just presumably cheaper to manufacture the neck this way?

I wonder if this started as "what should we do with this little pile of pickups and bridges in the storage room"
"let's make a couple hundred or thousand of another t-bird variant till we use them up"

I bet that rig sounds as good as it looks. I got by for a long time with a single EVM 15L in a badly-made cabinet I built. Those speakers really kick. It's been a while since I've played through a classic 2x15 rig, always a good experience.

Hadn't seen those Marshalls, cool - but hey if we're talking about non-black Marshall cabs, I'll take a purple one please

Oh, I really like that.

I was considering buying a Roland Cube 100 bass amp with a 15" back in the 1980s, as an upgrade from my first amp (also a Roland, but a cube 60 with a 12"). That 100 had a great punchy sound in the store, but for some reason I decided against it and I kinda regret never having one.  Anyway I mention that because that's maybe the only other silver tolex amp I've seen? It looked great, much better than the boring black they replaced it with:

RIP Tim Thomas, guitarist/vocalist of Babe the Blue Ox, they were the best live band in NYC circa 1995. Found out from mutual friends that he died suddenly a few weeks ago, survived by his wife and two teenage daughters   
Been listening to them a lot.

Love midnight oil. I like both their bassists. The late great underrated Bones Hilman.

I just read that drummer Martin Rotsey has died as well. Sad.

Nice tracks!

In the "trying hard not to get old(er) and (even more) out of touch" category...
I can't tell whether it's confirmation bias of The Algorithm(TM), but the interwebs seem to be telling me that Doom Metal is all the rage these days. I didn't even know what that was and literally had to google!

TL;DR it all goes back to Sabbath. There is a whole sub-genre of people playing slow, sludgy, moody riffs tuned ever lower and lower. (I've literally seen people on reddit asking about string gauges and gear for playing in DROP E. Like, tuning the whole bass one octave lower than standard). Also about ten thousand "What fuzz/distortion/amp should I buy for doom?"  Seems to heavily overlap with stoners.

Anyway, I listened to both some vintage stuff (mostly sounded to me like lesser-known Sabbath clones) and some modern stuff. Not really my thing, but not bad, and I kind of get the appeal?
This seems fairly representative:

But, as is my wont, I also recently went on a binge of re-listening to stuff that I've known for decades.
In this case, Canada's best complicated hardcore-adjacent band, NOMEANSNO.
I used to try to play along with one of their albums and it was very challenging!
I love, love, love the sound of Rob Wright's aggressively picked P-bass through a distorted amp.
Recently came across this great live footage I'd never seen:

I miss the always enjoyable Nasty Habits clips and the parade of variously colored Veronica 'birds!  Thanks for posting a new one!

I mean, this old school kind of rig definitely has a visual appeal .... And getting enough volume to be heard next to Hendrix via sheer speaker surface area (a dozen 15"!!!!) and efficiency (JBL!) instead of wattage ... it seems wild now, but those were the times.


I've never played through anything like that rig, I bet it would be shockingly loud for the power involved (supposedly this is a pair of 200s, so a mere 130 watts!)

If I were in something like a doom metal band and had roadies, I bet it would be fun to stand in front of that.

Instead, it's the tiny Shuttle, unless I don't even feel like carrying one twelve and one ten!  Ugh my single twelve isn't even neodymium! f*** it, I'll just show up with my bass and risk playing through the venue's amp du jour!

I like the red deluxe!

Rest in peace, Dave, and thank you for all you did for us.

Wow, that thing sounds HUGE. And very cool concept/look.

What does it weigh and how's it balance? Looks pretty steady on your lap there!