benadrian wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 12:45 pm

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 12:36 pm Be a bass player in a big city....it's easy! Bass amps are always in the backline. I walk to and from most shows that I play.

Fair enough. For a while I was the king of "borrowing a cabinet", then I just had to bring one guitar and a head.

Still, I'd say L.A. is a big city, yet there is no backline culture here. Maybe a few pay-to-play venues in Hollywood, but other than that it might as well be any other non-urban area.

Yeah.....a dense or dense-ish city? Does Chicago or Philly or Boston do backlines?

I'm from Houston originally and I remember shows in the early 00's with three bands, all FRIENDS, and yet each bass player brought their own Ampeg 8x10. WTF.

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 12:47 pm


Yeah.....a dense or dense-ish city? Does Chicago or Philly or Boston do backlines?

I'm from Houston originally and I remember shows in the early 00's with three bands, all FRIENDS, and yet each bass player brought their own Ampeg 8x10. WTF.

lol this is O’Brien’s pub with any Aging Allston Rocker bill. Dudes who’ve been accumulating gear for 35 years and haul it all out for local shows. There’s no green room so everyone dumps their vistalites and JCM800 half stacks in front of the soundboard, which is like 4 bands deep in gear and eats up 30% of the audience space in front.

People are getting better now though about sharing cabinets and drums.

Also I’m not sure about other scenes but that 75-150 person club thing here is getting replaces with craft breweries carving out space for bands. The advantage is that space doesn’t need to exist solely by selling beer from 7-midnight every day and shows are more of a value-add than a necessity which makes it a little nicer experience I feel.

mrcancelled wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 10:28 pm Pristine condition, sounds amazing... I really lucked out. The VM/CV guitars are seriously impressive for the money.

My "main squeeze" lately has been a VM Jazzmaster that I also got used. Unfortunately instead of getting a free pickup upgrade, the original owner of mine had taken a triangular file to the "vintage correct" Jazzmaster bridge (with the two grub screws per string threaded perpendicularly through six tiny pieces of all-thread). So I got a Staytrem bridge to match the "modified" 9.5" neck radius, and I should probably never spend another dime "upgrading" anything on any other guitar, because that was the single most impactful $100 I have ever spent.

Two more cheap PA speakers (Alto) to go with the two I already have, for use as FRFR. I am tired of carrying big ass speakers and amps to play for half an hour to people who really don't care what gear we have. I get more control over my sound by curating it from guitar to pedals to amp/cab sim to PA speaker than I ever will with a real amp in most rooms I'm gonna be playing in.

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 12:47 pm

benadrian wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 12:45 pm

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 12:36 pm Be a bass player in a big city....it's easy! Bass amps are always in the backline. I walk to and from most shows that I play.

Fair enough. For a while I was the king of "borrowing a cabinet", then I just had to bring one guitar and a head.

Still, I'd say L.A. is a big city, yet there is no backline culture here. Maybe a few pay-to-play venues in Hollywood, but other than that it might as well be any other non-urban area.

Yeah.....a dense or dense-ish city? Does Chicago or Philly or Boston do backlines?

I'm from Houston originally and I remember shows in the early 00's with three bands, all FRIENDS, and yet each bass player brought their own Ampeg 8x10. WTF.

Stage Left at Rudyard's:

benadrian wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 11:43 am

seby wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 4:58 am Let us all take a moment be grateful that we are not into violins or cellos or anything like that!

Counterpoint: every time I go to see the symphony I always notice the musicians going in through the musician entrance. I always get extreme "load in" envy. For most players, their whole "load -in" consists of one reasonably sized case. Assholes.

This is exactly why I roll acoustic these days : )

twelvepoint wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 7:37 am

seby wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 4:58 am Let us all take a moment be grateful that we are not into violins or cellos or anything like that!

My father-in-law, a retired French horn player, spent 15k on his last instrument. And generally speaking, those instruments don’t really get collectible, or mojo or whatnot with age; they just wear out and get put in an attic. I got to see a brass instrument maker once and the amount of specialized tools and experience is incredible. Once you see brass being engraved and formed on a mandrel, etc you realize what a joke jerking off to plywood shells and 50 year old capacitors is.

Ha!

I'm buying a nice, very well priced Gerstner tool chest from a grand-daughter of a machinist, with unknown tools still in it. Tool roulette!!! I'm so excited.

TylerDeadPine wrote: Thu Sep 04, 2025 6:47 pm I'm buying a nice, very well priced Gerstner tool chest from a grand-daughter of a machinist, with unknown tools still in it. Tool roulette!!! I'm so excited.

Jealous. Please follow up!

twelvepoint wrote: Thu Sep 04, 2025 7:12 pm

TylerDeadPine wrote: Thu Sep 04, 2025 6:47 pm I'm buying a nice, very well priced Gerstner tool chest from a grand-daughter of a machinist, with unknown tools still in it. Tool roulette!!! I'm so excited.

Jealous. Please follow up!

Quite happy. Nice condition USA Gerstner, possible kit build because of the model but unsure given it's from the 80s. The finish is impeccable and I couldn't see them using the more rare (light) walnut on a kit so I have to assume it's factory.

Photos are from the listing, but inside was a 1" Starret OD mic, two mitutoyo verniers, one brown & sharpe vernier, planar gauge, full set of radius gauges, small set of german pin gauges. about 10 machinist scales. a bunch of well taken care of 1-2-3 blocks and an assortment of high quality end mills among many other odds and ends.

Girl who sold it just wanted it used so win-win, I'm going to use the shit out of the box and the tools.

In hindsight I wish I got her to throw in that 7-up box.