jason priestly strings story

tom lees on granville

so we guess the time is getting just about right to finally blog about our experience at Tom Lee’s Music store in Vancouver this past summer. the reason being that the GHS brite flats strings we bought that day are now in use.

we stopped at Tom Lee’s on Granville to check out the much ballyhoo’d store and perhaps buy a pedal (that ended up being the EHX bassballs that we dearly love). so as we are trying out the pedal in a soundproof room we spied none other than 90210(amongst many other roles) star, Jason Priestly(JP) shopping in the guitar section with his rather large body guard/personal assistant in tow. being much interested in the pedals we were trying out we didn’t give it much of a 2nd thought until we were ready to pay for our pedal at the one and only cash. there in the lineup right behind us was JP.

we had discussed with the store help that we needed strings as well as the pedal yet as we were ringing up the total the strings we had decided on were nowhere to be found. so a search for the strings ensued followed by a struggle to find out actually how much the strings actually cost. now the lineup had gone to 1 to about 6 ppl in this time. how much time had gone by was beyond us since we were in no hurry. no one was really bothering JP but the more and more a crowd developed around the cash, the more and more JP and his large ass. man were getting nervous. it was obvious they were in a hurry and wanted no part of an impromptu autogoof session.

the situation was out of our control. there were 2 sets of flat strings we wanted to purchase cuz according to the staff they were on sale. but what the actual sale price was proving difficult to locate. the tension in the lineup was building and building. the expression on JP and his ass. man were priceless.

finally the staff relented the cash to JP and the others so they could be served while we waited for the price. a few evil eyes were given by the large ass. man but really the situation was the result of the staff and not us. in our mind, we’re thinking yer not quite the big deal u still think u are. none of the tweens in the lineup had recognized him and in real physical life JP was actually super small. we doubt he reaches 5 ft. on a good hair day.

after they departed, the tension eased and we discovered our strings only cost $10 a set. worth making JP wait any day! what a bargain! we left the store and there was no sight of JP anywhere. a trail of dust was all he left.

now its a been a few months since we bought those strings and they’ve been on our gibson bass for about 2 months. the review is that we don’t like them and will likely not use the 2nd set. the tone and feel is just not suited to us. no matter how we tweak things we just can’t seem to get a sound we like out of them. the best way we can describe it in words is that it sounds as if the tone is being choked. we’ve been using the bass/strings set up for jams just so they get some use b4 we replace them. but nonetheless, we’ll never forget the day we made a hollywood star wait so we could get bargain strings for 10 bux!

in a totally unrelated note, here’s a pic we took of a streetfight later that same day. the suit actually kept talking on the cell as he tried to break up the fight. the fight started when the 2 guys on the ground bumped each other and then it just escalated from there. some nasty punches were thrown and then it got broken up by onlookers and every1 went their separate ways. stay classy vancouver!

even wks after the canucks playoff loss there was still fighting in the streets!

big bassy debut!

well we survived our debut with mollys chamber.  learning 30 new trax in 2.5 weeks was a daunting task to say the least and we put our best foot forward.  some missteps along the way but we kept things pretty bassic and low key in order to put the best sound out.

here’s a pic of the stage that night:

mollys stage at black cat

it was nice to have some light at the back but also odd to have some light if u know what we mean.  good times and good ppl at the venue and can’t wait to return!  the black cat pub and grill on dundas has a sweet menu and plenty of wellington on tap so that made the evening even better!  a few songs into the night though we developed for the first time a thumb blister:

thumb blister after the first set

we’ve been trying to incorporate more thumb into our playing and we think the mix of the outburst of energy and lack of a decent callus gave us the blister.  we worked around it for the rest of the evening but it was defo difficult and the thumb was burning hot by the end of the night! on the advice of just about every1, we did not pop it and have let it heal on its own.  so far, so good.

peggy at the jam space

in other big bassy news, our 2×10 ampeg has found a new home at the jamspace for Mollys Chamber.  it suits the tone of the band nicely and puts out just enough to keep up with the jam volume.  peggy is a heavy one so hopefully she stays put for awhile!

current rig

our current rig for shows:

eb3 with tu3-sft-bassballs-bf2 into a little mark 250 and a 1×15 fender bassman

lots of headroom and sound.  we can dig! can’t wait to take this rig out again soon!

bassmorgasborg II

before we get to the bass, as we’ve stated previously we are keeping up with are drumming on a every other day basis.  we think its a good to keep tabs on the ol’ kit and tricks just in case and to help keep that sense of what its like going.  anyways, the other day we responded to an online request for a drummer to come out to a casual jam and play along to some songs by the Clash.  well, being that the Clash are our fave band of all time, this was a no brainer for us and we wholeheartly took up the challenge.  we blasted thru 15 or so songs in 2.5 hrs and at least 60% of those would have been stage ready IMHO.  it was crazy good and met all our expectations!  plans are to have another go at some songs in sept.  can’t wait!

peggy's buddy!

we scored a bass cab the other day.  15″ that can handle 300w easily.  its pretty darn big and weighs about 60 lbs but the price was right and its not like we’ll be using it at every gig.  the plans are to use it mainly for outdoor shows.  we took the grill off as it was rattling and then took the Fender logo off that since the look of logo wasn’t that retro.  the rattle was the grill hitting the edges of the speaker so we added some weather stripping to the points where the 2 were touching and put the grill back on.  it bows out a bit but sounds great now and thats what matters.  we plan on taking the direct out of peggy the amp and feeding that into a PA amp(thats all we have for a head right now… ah, the search for a bass head is ON!) and enhancing the low end signal that way.  we plan to debut it next weekend at one of our outdoor gigs.

peggy's buddy with the grill on!

finally an update on our pedal situation.  we were not using our EHX bass big muff as much as we woulda liked and our BBE sonic stomp was always in use but we never quite 100% happy with what it was doing to our sound.  so we’ve been casually searching for a replacement for both and we think we found it with a Catlinbread SFT.   it not only add some variable grit to our sound but also is quite nice at allowing us to tweak our tones.  we took it out to our gig last weekend.  we had only really spent about 30 mins with the pedal to make sure it worked and sounded ok.  it took about a set to get used to her sensitivity(it responds to how hard or soft u play!) and once we locked in a setting that was right for the sweet reggae vibe it was perfect the entire night!  any pedal that inspires you and makes u anxious to get back to playing again just so you can hear it HAS TO BE GOOD! its also likely that her sensitive side will make us a better bassist in the future.  here’s a pic of the august pboard set up.  looking at the pic makes us think that less is more. the sft is a good step fwd in usefullness and quality so we can’t wait to enjoy it more!

august pedalboard!

replacing peggy

“peggy” is our ampeg ba210 amp that we’ve had for just over a year.  we’ve gotten to know her well and get used to her and her ways.  we bought her gently used and she’s seen over 30 shows with us.  not to mention many a jam.  we love her warmth and tone.  she is great at jams and at intimate venues but she is lacking the punch we need for bigger venues and shows.  last weekend we accidentally dropped her in the parking lot getting to our civic holiday show at the Boardwalk Pub.

not only was the pressure on us to perform well (our bass teacher was in the audience) that day but there was a sizable crowd and it was outdoors.  not a good mix.  not having enough guts and the nick she took in the parking lot made for a tense show.  we just couldn’t get enough sound out of her for our liking.  our bass teacher said all was fine with the sound but we knew it wasn’t.  we knew her limits and being outside for a gig just made it hit home.   its been problem that has been building up ever since we started giggin.  the need for more bass sound than she can give us.  we considered the dropping of peggy a sign that the search for something louder had to start in earnest.  perhaps it was her way of saying “enuff with bringing me everywhere“!

peggy at the bottom!

here’s a pic of peggy in action at the fionn macools gig those handsome hooligans did.  wow that stage was small.  we’ll likely keep her for jams and home practices but the need for something bigger for gigs is a need that is now too hard to ignore.

let the search for a 400w or better rig begin!  having said that, we’ve rented a Traynor DynaBass 200 for this weekend.  it the biggest bass amp our local music shop had for rent.  we’ll try her out at the 2 small gigs we have this weekend with TooNice.  hopefully there is a tad more punch and the tone is acceptable.  its a start.

Solid State Traynor DynaBass 200w

on a final note, following up on our purchase of the bassballs pedal…. we love it still!  been throwing it into a few numbers here and there.  love the little tickle it gives and then there more room to give more warble if we ever want to get zany with it.  we also revamped the pedal board order for more effectiveness.  it now goes: TU>MUFF>STOMP>BASSBALLS>FLANGER.  so sweet!  now how are we gonna fit on a 6th pedal?

august pedalboard setup!

from alley oop 2 zimbabwe

11 tracks from our May 7th Yola’s show in Oshawa have made it online.  we dunno how long all of them will stay up but if u ever wanted to experience an entire TooNice set from the comfort of yer home, now is the time!  the sound is decent, the viz a tad blurry and there’s some guy on the bass in the freakin’ way.  mayday!  mayday!  enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/user/toonicereggae

Tone Update: after this weekend’s 2 hoppin’ shows at the Music On Main Street Festival, (thx Loretto and Tottenham!) the new tone settings seem to be better. at least for the short term we are satisfied. our Ampeg BA210 comes with 5 presets of which we’ve choosen the flattest setting and then we’re tweaking lows at 8, mids to 5, highs to 7 (all are ish’s) for a decent foundation.  after that we can do finer reggae bass tweakin’ at our fingertips on the bass itself on a song by song basis for what the next song requires.  in other bass news, we open up the case on Friday only to discover that we’ve worn a thumb print into the instrument right above the pickup!  at first our reaction was ACK!  then ah, cool. the thumb print symbolizes at lot of practice and fun at shows!

here’s a few phone pics of the venues from the Music on Main St. Fest.  also with the phone so the quality is meh but u get the point.  natty times and we never thought we’d ever be playing a bonafide country bar (Loretto) and on top of that, in a reggae band.  truly unforgettable!

catching up with tone

its been a busy few weeks on the bass.  after this coming weekend, it will add up to 7 shows in 5 weeks.  slightly more than the one every other week we thought we’d have when we started this whole learnin’ the bass business.  we’re not complaining though.  every show has been so memorable and for various reasons.  for instance, we played our first “dry” cafe event this past weekend and by the sounds of it, you’d have thunk ppl we’re getting sloshed.  the small but vocal and energetic crowd blew away many a bar crowd with their level of intensity. great times!

skipapalooza was also a great event.  we packed the joint with a crowd to see the debut of “Those Handsome Hooligans” and the return to the area of “TooNice“.  the 5th/last set is still a blur and we managed to keep the energy level up throughout. 3 regrets from the THH debut though:

1. not happy with how we played “come together“.  it was ok, but we would have liked to have played it better (more on this later).  maybe it was just too early in the set for our “A” game.  this has happened b4 to us on other songs.

2. having a blank out moment in the middle of one song.  too funny!  we still don’t know what the heck distracted us or what our mind changed to, but it sure wasn’t about the song!

3. not being able to share a drink with the other Hooigans post set as we had to get back onstage asap for TooNice.  ah well, thats what we get for booking both our bands on the same night!

Hooligans are busy on adding to our 30+ songlist and making promo material.  follow us now on twitter and also here’s a slice from our recent photoshoot.

Those Handsome Hooligans Promo Pic!

in our “spare” time, we’ve been attempting to bring our bass playing up a notch.  a lot of the songs we do in both bands we can either “get by” or is what we consider “sufficient“.  we’ve really been trying to improve on those songs in particular.  we’ve been noticing that the songs we do improve upon bring more enjoyment the next time we play them live.  perhaps it might have to do with the fact that by the end we’re not thinking that “geez, wish we could play that better” and instead the new thought is “thank goodness we learnt that song properly. it sounds so much better now!”

another issue we are dealing with this week is our reggae bass tone.  its slowly slipped into a murky mess in the past 2 shows and its gotten to the point that it needed to be rethought out from scratch.  it used to sound ok but somewhere along the way it changed.  all part of the learning process we gather.  so we took advantage of some free time the other night and just worked on tone until our ears couldn’t take it anymore.  we tried a slew of different settings on the bass, on the amp, on the pedals and mixed and matched til’ we couldn’t any more.  we think we’ve got it nailed down now though. we’ll see how it goes this weekend and likely that will be next week’s post.

last but not least, thanks to clashblog for posting our last post on the strummer nights on their website.  that was fantastic and much appreciated!

No Strings Attached

so when we got the new(to us) gibson sg bass, it came with the strings from the store on it.  who knows what they were?  most likely some nickel something somethings. we’re diggin the flatwounds anway so a change in strings was inevitable.  so here’s a pic of what the bass looked like before the string change.

you can see that the part of the strings where the winding at the end is actually going over the bridge.  this can’t be good we thought.  so sure enough when we put the new flats on the same thing happened.  the G string actually cleared the bridge on its own.  and we could clearly hear the tone difference between it and the 3 other strings that had the winding on and over the bridge.

so what do we have handy that could extend the winding part of the strings over the bridge?  well, we have just taken off some useless strings… could the ends of those slip over the string and add to the length?  why not reuse what we just took off the instrument?  lets try the ball ends of the old strings!

so we did and in the end we got it to work.  it took some time, patience, and some fiddlin’…  especially with the E string since the winding was thicker and the string ball end couldn’t quite get over it.  we had to take some wire cover trimmers to it to shave it down a bit.  no harm done to the string, u just needed to be gentle doing it.  as u can see, some strings needed more than one ball end.  the tone of each of the 3 strings we did sounded so much better once we had done this that it made the time and effort all worthwhile.  the bass stays in tune and we get great comments on its sound.  now only if we could figure out the sweet spot for that “tone” knob…. more on that in another post!

ps: here are the results in picture form.  hopefully, they help explain and show u what we did.  the blue part was going over the bridge before we added the ball ends of the strings.