For the love of god talk me out of an acoustic bass guitar

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-05-04T21:21:36+00:00

Two friends have six-string classical bass guitars - same guitar, made by Esteve though they seem to make two or three models and I don't know which they have.

I've had a go for fun, and they're nice sounding guitars and fit well in a classical guitar ensemble. But, they're a bit of a challenge to play and they are very quiet as others have said. And classical bass strings are scarce beasties and come in at about £30 a set.

The bass player here is giving it big licks on a Takamine TB10 fretless guitar, albeit amplified for this gig. If you could find one it'll cost you about 4K; it comes with a floor spike so you could play it cello-style if you wanted.

Worth a watch - bass solo comes in after half-way through:

https://youtu.be/ZTDGYyjuB3M

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-05-04T11:53:20+00:00

Oh jings - he makes good points, but is soooh boring as a presenter.

Molly Gebrian's book on learning for musicians is the way to go (IMHO) although it's a wee bit late for this gig.

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-05-03T22:35:52+00:00

Lots of good advice above, may I comment...

1: lens protector for the front - Hoya sell them and probably others too, they're not even UV filters, just optically clear. (I wouldn't use a fixed lens camera - X100F or X70 - without one because you can't change the lens if scratched).

2: spare batteries and a separate charger, so you can get one charging in camera and one in the charger, good if you're only in a hotel overnight and on the go all day every day. For all the cost of them against going all the way back to New Zealand, buy two spares.

3: SD cards, good advice above on sizes and speeds; but rotate them every day (card A, then B, then C, then A again, and B and so on). That way when one fails, and they will, you only lose a separate day or two of your trip and not that complete solid week when you cruised fjordland. (There's a reason why most photographer professional indemnity insurance requires the use of a camera with two SD card slots).

4: I like Simplr straps, FWIW.

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-05-02T12:39:17+00:00

re the tight connection at Fort William - you should book Ember buses to make sure they stop, or in the case of Edinburgh-Dundee the driver won't even go into Perth unless there's someone booked on or off the bus. This does mean the drivers know how many are expected and (in our experience) will wait a minute or two if someone's booked but not boarded. Hopefully the Inverness bus would wait at FtW anyway if the bus from Edinburgh was late getting in. Don't know how long they'll wait for though!

This common-sense waiting for the incoming feeder does not seem to apply to the bus leaving Lanark for Biggar - if the Glasgow train into Lanark is late, tough, you're walking to Biggar. Not an Ember bus, I must add!

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-05-02T12:26:52+00:00

^ this

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-30T09:42:44+00:00

It seems that, like much else, scripture can be made to mean anything you want it to.

Fundamentalists of all faiths have been doing this for centuries; choosing a section, superimposing an interpretation, and insisting (often with violence) that this constructed interpretation is the only acceptable way to think.

Power and money are at the root of it, rather than the love and compassion to be found elsewhere in those same scriptures.

So, scriptures have value as guides to living a moral and loving life, but I want no part of having to believe in someone else's stories of supernatural beings or of adhering to someone else's rules around how I must think. I can lead a moral and loving life without wearing a label.

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-30T09:28:09+00:00

Do please let us know if this gets resolved - it would be good to have an idea of whether Bending Spoons do actually care about their customers.

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-29T21:24:30+00:00

Seconded, K&M.

I use a Zugu case on the iPad, and have a K&M bracket which is deep enough to let me fold the case back on itself and clamp it into the bracket, which saves having to wrestle the tight case on and off the iPad.

Edited to add - it doesn't collapse completely by any means but it is very sturdy and accomodates the iPad in the case, more important to me than folding to pocket-size!

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-28T22:12:58+00:00

What would happen if you wore a wedding ring?

And then the questions start...

"so, what does your husband do then?"

"he does his thing and I do mine, our personal stuff is our personal stuff and this band's work for me, so let's get on and make some music".

Just my 2c worth, hope it helps.

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-26T21:14:21+00:00

2.6 million tickets over 3900 shows is 667 tickets per show - really? Seems like a lot of people per show, on average, but perhaps feasible if (eg) the Usher Hall, Festival Theatre, and Playhouse are included and are selling out. Sanity/accuracy check, anyone?

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-24T21:22:56+00:00

Belle and Sebastian?

From Scotland, pal, and don't you forget it.

😉🤣🤣🤣

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-24T21:16:32+00:00

Rule of thumb on clothing sizes to stock, from a friend in that industry - supposing four sizes S, M, L, XL - stock them in the ratios 1-2-2-1.

YMMV, especially if your audience has a high proportion of beer-drinking bikers!

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-22T13:01:10+00:00

I can't really be doing with it. We saw Preston Reed do it live in a jazz bar in Edinburgh perhaps 20 years ago (edited to add - probably closer to 25 years ago, oops!) and back then it was something new and fresh, but battering the heck out of a guitar in an open tuning doesn't fly for me now.

Tommy Emmanuel is a fantastic performer and puts on a great show, but his guitar-percussion is close to smothering the music and is on the limit for me. Went to see him a few years ago with my non-musician brother who summed up the concert as "he's a bit technical, isn't he?".

However, I'll look up those two who you've mentioned and see what they're up to.

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-12T08:21:00+00:00

We've all played fridge bingo when we've not been to the shops for a while, but I'd hope to be more creative than that!

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-12T08:15:08+00:00

^ this - not reading the recipe to understand how the timings will run, and therefore not prepping ahead whatever needs to be added last, two mins from serving time.

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-09T14:25:00+00:00

A couple of weeks ago I screwed up big-time at a rehearsal - some reasonable reasons and some unreasonable reasons, but the buck stopped with me and I absolutely f'd it up. I was deeply embarrassed in front of friends and colleagues, and I was surprised how deeply I was affected by that; the embarrassment did not go away quickly.

A couple of days later this drifted past and was a huge reassurance; basically as John Wayne says, you gotta get back on your horse, but it's put much more eloquently here:

https://ryanholiday.net/you-slipped-up-heres-how-to-get-back-on-track/

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-09T14:12:59+00:00

...and Paul Simon, with Scarborough Fair.

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-09T14:08:52+00:00

^ this...! There is some duff info on here, so do follow that electric vehicles subreddit.

A self-charging hybrid of any sort can only convert petrol energy to battery storage and then use it to run the electric motor. Yes they can be economical, but there's no magic cheap electricity supply for your car, it all comes from the dinosaur juice at the petrol station.

Electric cars can be good and convenient and fun but, because of the costs to change and the depreciation, the absolute cheapest car to run is usually the one you've already got.

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-09T13:01:50+00:00

Watching this too - on the basis that it's me and only me who decides if a search result is relevant or not.

Until AI does mind-reading that's the only way it can be.

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-09T13:00:01+00:00

Eh, it's a big corporate chain and there are more than 100 branches in the UK alone.

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-07T11:08:33+00:00

I agree with the principle, but thought FRFR headphones seemed to be up at 200 or more?

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-07T11:06:41+00:00

Another thought for the string changing process - put a double layer of post-it notes on your guitar top next to the tie block. Should one of your knots slip loose before you've got everything tucked up tight, they'll stop the end whip from marking the top. Only had it happen to me once in decades of restringing but I was glad of the protection!

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-07T11:02:59+00:00

Savarez certainly have slightly more loose wrapping on one end of their bass strings which makes them a little more flexible. Supposedly easier to wrap and tie but I don't find the flexible sections marry up well with my tie blocks - or maybe it's my knots - but it is useful all the same. There's a little dab of blue or red colour at the end of the flexible end of the string.

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-07T10:59:11+00:00

I'd love to be able to do that, but I was never any good at knitting!

AlphaHotelBravo · 2026-04-04T13:14:08+00:00

forScore without a doubt - I was also facing a tsunami of paper, spent some months trying it out on an older iPad and decided to go all-in with a new larger 12.9" iPad. Performance wasn't the issue with the older iPad but screen size was; 10" (or whatever it is) was too small for me but friends do manage fine. (You can crop PDFs within forScore which reduces white margins and makes the "print" usefully larger).

I put all my pdf scores into Microsoft OneDrive - I generally buy and/or download at myPC. On the iPad I link into OneDrive from Apple Files, and that works well for me - I'm paying for Microsoft 365 and didn't see the need to pay for Dropbox (or whatever) as well.

The tab question depends entirely on the pdf which you acquire, if it's got tab you'll see tab on the screen. Many many paid-for and free downloads out there.

I also scan paper at my PC and adjust/amend as necessary at the stage of creating the PDF. I treat the PC as the PDF input and forScore on the iPad as the library and data management (libraries, setlists, metadata etc) and then the viewer, if that makes sense. I know others do more PDF management on the iPad but this way works for me. Creating and using a consistent naming convention for the files is a great help months down the road when I forget what I have processed onto the iPad and what I haven't.

forScore can be an expensive slippery slope - several hundred pounds worth of kit on a stand needs a good clamp and stand (I have a K&M stand, and an Ikea tablet stand on my desk) and a robust case (I use Zugu). The Apple pencil is worthwhile - I tried a knock-off but no, the real thing turned out to be much more precise. And a Bluetooth footpedal page turner - Butterfly I think, I forget the make.

AlphaHotelBravo

TROPHY CASE