Color me crazy but....

    I keep looking at bass amplifiers, what’s new, what’s great and I have to admit that I’m set pretty well. I like to keep up and often assume that new must be better.

    I can’t justify any spending. I’ve made good choices in the past and all the stuff still holds it own. My primary gig amp is the GB shuttle 9.0 paired with either or both of the two SWR speaker cabinets, a 2 by 10 Golight jr. and the 4X10 Goliath SWR(David Eden), I still have the original SWR Studio 220 amp that I purchased with it. It’s a great rig and still viable, considering my first bass amp was around 50 watts. 

    A bunch of years ago I came across a good deal on a GK mb 150e, I was getting tired of hauling my SWR 220 and the SWR 4X10 cab to rehearsals. 

    For the home I’m using a Fender Rumble 40 hidden behind furniture with an on off switch I control with my phone. A really under rated 40 watt amp. A couple years back I rounded out my amp assembly with a Phil Jones 2 by 4 and rechargeable battery to power it off grid, it replaced the Roland Micro Cube which never impressed me. I have a few other amps that I’ve picked up with basses I purchased. I’ve got every thing covered. I even have a PA System that was given to me.

The last huge outdoor gig I did was the River Walk Blues Festival in Ft. Lauderdale. All I had at the time was the SWR 220 and The Goliath 4X10, the amp had a direct out and the PA/sound guy tapped into that. He even had me plugged into a stage monitor. The sound was huge I could hear it bouncing off the buildings.

Make’s me wonder how much power I really need.

I love the farm country I’ve retired too but I miss the stage work and opportunity I had living in the Miami area. I’ve done a few auditions up here but the groups actually went with lesser skilled bass players, I don’t sing. The one guy I knew back in Miami. He called me a few years back freaking out because he accepted a gig with guys he had never played with. He showed up at the house practically begging me to cover for him. He knew he couldn’t fake it. I had him call the guy and spoke with him. The money was OK, It was that evening so, I went on cold. I only knew a few of the tunes but didn’t have too much trouble pulling it off. Got compliments from both the band and audience. The Keyboard guy took my name and number for future reference.

My guitar playing has gotten much better as I don’t sit around the house running bass lines. Maybe I should look around again, maybe even put a project together myself.

    I can’t read charts either, it has hampered me to a degree, mostly limiting my studio work, except for a couple of friends who have studios. These guys will send me the recordings or have me sit in with the musicians, it doesn’t take me much time to get it. Often they go with my bass lines. 

    It could have something to do with dyslexia, It hasn’t messed with the printed word too much, it did when I was A Kid first learning how to read, word reversing all kinds of crazy stuff. I can hold a printed page up to a mirror and read it as clearly either way. Written music goes weird on me, the symbols and staff messes me up, dots and lines. letters are all different enough that I can make them out regardless of how I see them.

    I’ve been tested a bunch of times. Even a simple reply like this can take me up to half an hour to make sure I got everything down and mostly proper. 

    One thing that’s kind of humorous is “enter” “exit” signs on clear glass, I’m always reading these backwards, I just have to remember right for enter and left exit, occasionally I read the enter on the left side, not aware that I’m seeing the reversed word as proper.

    Most people and friends don’t know this about me. I’m fairly functional “o) in many ways music makes more sense to me than almost everything else. I do OK.

    I’m 100% lefty, when I was 7 maybe 8 years old dad took me to an interview with the Orchestra Director. He told me he would put me on violin. I wanted to play guitar, he said and you will, eventually if that’s what you want. I said OK, what do I know. I mentioned that I was left handed. The Orchestra guy said, that’s good for you, it’ll be easier since your left hand will be doing all the fingerboard work and your right hand will just be holding the bow. OK, sounded logical to me. And I was set. In a little over a year I got to second chair, until he found out I wasn’t reading the music. I was taking the music home and figuring it out, but I couldn’t actually sight read. Through this episode I discovered I was a bass player and have been ever since.

    I’ve thought about this for years and I’m still convinced that what are considered right handed string instruments are actually left handed instruments. So you pick up your telecaster or Martin and your strong hand is holding onto a bit of plastic and working 6 strings were as the left hand is dealing with six strings and 24 frets that’s 144 straight up positions not counting the variation of chording options.

    Possibly because I started so young but it feels much more natural for my strong left hand to be working the fingerboard the 5 fingers of the right hand feels natural plucking the strings, particularly when finger picking the guitar. That finger style of playing guitar can partially validate the right handedness of the instrument, at least in the classical and flamenco style of playing.  I think that during this renaissance period all the great luthiers were left handed and built the instruments accordingly. The Piano is obviously a right handed instrument.     

“It’s the fingers on the right hand that work the valves.”

I can see that.

“The band that went with a lesser player were probably intimidated by you.”    Nice of you to say but probably more like the path of least resistance thing.

    A drummer and I were auditioning. As I was setting up I ran through a couple warm up lines, setting the amp provided, for tone and volume. I overheard the guitar and keyboard guy talking about me, saying that I was pretty good. The story is the band’s bass player, the guy I knew back in Miami, and the drummer broke away from the group to get in to a more active gigging group. 

At the audition I over heard the two guys talking up the drummer and me. I figured I’d give them a few more rehearsals to see how it panned out. I wasn’t sure this project was for me, the music selections were not what I would choose to play. I logged onto their FaceBook page to find out the next rehearsal but was locked out of the site. They wouldn’t answer my calls. The drummer called me and told me that the two guys that left the band couldn’t get into another project and came back to the group. For the group it was the path of least resistance. I probably wouldn’t have stayed with them very long anyhow. I was primarily trying to get my foot into the local sene to fish around for my best options. I’m not interested in the Gainesville sene as that rehearsal would be a hundred mile round trip. OK for a gig but too far for rehearsals.