Bass Guitar Amp Question

[Big Toot]

Minnesota is absolutely beautiful, in my opinion. Of course, I like bodies
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of water, and MN is replete with them.

Throw in hundreds of tractors (this year featuring Massey Harris/Ferguson tractors) on the shore and you've really got a thing of beauty!

i love old tractors. my grampa had old John Deere and Case when i was growing up. the JD was a huge tricycle putt-putt... it had a huge pulley on the side that we used to put a belt on and power all kinds of machines like grinders, mixers, escalators...

when we bought this farm, i bought 2 old/vintage masseys... a circa 52/53 TO-35 and a circa 56 massey 35 with intentions of using them on my farm... i did for several years and did a good deal of restoration... i finally traded them to a new 35 hp 4X4 tractor.

the TO-35 was evidently produced during a transitional period, it had factory gray, red, and green paint on it... i was told that at one time massey, harris, and ford were combining and the parts were interchangeable...

My grandpa and my dad were/are Farmall men through and through. While I'm not into them, I still know way more about tractors than I need to. They are pretty cool, though. I once got to help splitting a tractor *in half* for repair. Cool stuff.

[MN_TimTuba]

Seriously - what bloke said. To add a different timbre to the ensemble, consider capo'ing up and using alternate chord positions to fill in the next octave up on the chords. For example, if the song is in G, capo the 3rd fret and play the chord as "E" position, or the 5th fret and play the chord as "D" position, etc. This will help keep the ensemble from devolving into mud. And being higher in pitch you can play softer and the sound will still contribute to the mix.

the guys here take the high strings from a 12 string set and string their acoustics... it gives a jangly sound without being over powering. i hear similar sounds in recordings. on some of the old les paul recordings i've searched out from the yard sale circuits it sounds like he's doing that. like a piccolo guitar

Now, that sounds interesting. I was recently given an old small-bodied (parlor?) flat top with a damaged bridge; I may consider trying this idea. Thanks!

[MN_TimTuba]

Toot - Same here on the Farmall tractors, mostly from the 1940's - 1970's, with a few odds and ends thrown in (a big - for us - Ford, 2 Minneapolis Moline R with hand clutch, and briefly an Allis). I spent my summers raking hay and pulling wagons on a Farmall B, and could not have been a happier 10 yr old.

[Big Toot]

Toot - Same here on the Farmall tractors, mostly from the 1940's - 1970's, with a few odds and ends thrown in (a big - for us - Ford, 2 Minneapolis Moline R with hand clutch, and briefly an Allis). I spent my summers raking hay and pulling wagons on a Farmall B, and could not have been a happier 10 yr old.

I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' dairy farm when I was younger. I was mostly outside because my cousins were violent @ssholes, but I did learn to love the outdoors there.

[iiipopes]

Not really that I have anything to say about capos, just suggesting that for chords - if you haven't tried it, move up the neck and play those "barre" chords or whatever they're called, where all the strings are stopped and you have full control of the sustain, and then do some rhythmic stuff and see what I'm talking about.

Yes, this is the essence of the harder rock-n-roll styles, from Chuck Berry onwards. In the summer of 1975, at 13 years old, after I got my first guitar (electric - I still have it) that spring, I started learning barre chords with the now-traditional rhythms and such to play my favorite songs of the day in the manner of the records. I remember vividly putting my left hand over the strings and frets in the proper position for "real" rock-n-roll chords, taking my right hand and pressing my left hand fingers to press the strings down to the frets, and playing the chord for all I was worth before my hand cramped and I had to let go, also without callouses and leaving blood on the fingerboard, which you can still see places on the fingerboard being discolored even after 44 years of playing.

[iiipopes]

The guys here take the high strings from a 12 string set and string their acoustics... it gives a jangly sound without being over powering. i hear similar sounds in recordings. on some of the old les paul recordings i've searched out from the yard sale circuits it sounds like he's doing that. like a piccolo guitar

Indeed. Otherwise known as the "Nashville Tuning," for the second rhythm guitar player in the mix. I just didn't know if Tim wanted to go to the trouble of changing strings.

[MN_TimTuba]

The guys here take the high strings from a 12 string set and string their acoustics... it gives a jangly sound without being over powering. i hear similar sounds in recordings. on some of the old les paul recordings i've searched out from the yard sale circuits it sounds like he's doing that. like a piccolo guitar

Indeed. Otherwise known as the "Nashville Tuning," for the second rhythm guitar player in the mix. I just didn't know if Tim wanted to go to the trouble of changing strings.

Roger that. With 3 guitars sitting here, having one of them set up differently makes sense. I'm looking forward to giving all these suggestions a try!
Tim