wrapping up 2011

we’ve got a moment to blog so here’s a wrap on 2011:

Those Handsome Hooligans did 2 holiday parties in December to rave reviews and we had a blast!  t’was a great way to end the year off and keep us keen for 2012. we even made it to a gig in a full blown blizzard!  white knuckling indeed!

if u don’t follow our twitter feed, we scored some neon strings over the holidaze.  we’ve been dying to use them since we read about them in BassPlayer mag awhile back.  they look sick and hopefully sound and play well enough.  we’ll post something here when they make their way onto the bass.

2011 ended on a shocking note for Molly’s Chamber as we lost our singer.  so tryouts have been ongoing since the week before the holidaze and now we’ve trimmed the Chamber Idol list down to just 3.  we plan on making each of the 3 jam an entire night with us instead of just 30mins to get a better sense of them and then make a final choice.  fun but a lot of work.  i doubt we’ve ever played PJ’s “alive” so much and so often as we did during the tryouts!  here’s to hoping we get the ball rolling again quickly as gigs are already lining up! all 3 of the finalists are top notch so the outlook is fantastic!

we rented a traynor dynabass 200 to rave reviews for our last gig of 2011

the final count for gigs in 2011 was 41.  if u’d have said we’d play that much a year ago, we’d have laughed at ya.  to say we are pleased with how 2011 went we’d be understating the fact.  so many great times!  we truly had a blast this memorable past year!  its doubtful we’ll get to 41 again in our lives but never say never.  the learning curve was quick and steep in 2011 and well worth every note, every km travelled and every moment spent on the bass.  here’s to a rockin’ 2012!  lookin’ fwd to whatever lies ahead!

peggy part 2

so we took peggy apart the other day:

we gather that if u understand electronics this makes sense.  we could barely make heads or tails out of it.  basically we checked to make sure nothing looked cracked or broken or wasn’t connected.  after poking and proding, we nervously put her back together with the hope that she’d be better but the issues still remain.  we’ll have to bring her in to see whassup.

as for her trial replacement, we got the traynor dynabass 200 for the weekend.  our first gig was last night and she was just ok.  we need 400w and not 200.  though our bandmates liked this amp as it was a improvement over peggy’s current state it was still not up to snuff for our liking.  the one highlight for us during the evening was we did get the darn thing to feedback when we wanted it to.  sounded so sweet to our ears and something peggy’s never done.  regardless of our amp trial and tweaking the entire night, the show at the wild moose near haliburton was an historic fun filled evening and we can’t wait to return!  playing their grand opening was an absolute honour!  the view of the lake and the sun setting was worth every km to get there.  good times and even better ppl.  one huge lesson we learnt though for the next time we play a muskoka evening show outdoors in the summer, bring bug spray!

toonice at the wild moose grand opening!

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!