David's Life Blog

As I stated in "My Life With Polio (Part 1)" ,  once I "recovered" from polio, life was pretty normal as far as I was concerned. I started working early in life. Looking back, most of the jobs involved physical labor (which is ironic consider I was basically cripple). That did not stop me. Throughout school I worked in a grocery store unloading trucks and stocking shelves. I was Assistant Fire Chief in my early twenties. A very physical job. I worked in a factory which was very physical and really hard work. I worked in construction, all kinds of constructions. Roofing, plumbing, general construction, I did it all. Again, very physical work. During the early years of my marriage, we rode and raced motorcycles. I had my share of crashes and broken bones. I guess I did a good deal of damage to my body racing and riding. But it was (and still is) fun! I guess I was in my mid-twenties when Brenda and I became business owners. It was a good business. We did very well wit

This post is a review of the AudioKinesis Hathor 1203 bass cabinet . I have been gigging either one or a pair of these cabs for over a year and a half now. I generally use a Monique 700 when I gig two of these cabs and either the Monique, a Thunderfunk 550B or Aguilar TH500 when gigging one. I use two of the cabs when gigging my Americana/Rock/classic country bands in theaters and/or outdoor gigs. A single 1203 handles rehearsals and the acoustic gig. The primary reason I purchased the 1203 cabs was the insane weight. Each of my cabs weigh 24 pounds. Yes, 24 pounds! Another reason was the rather small size. They are so easy to load in/out. They easily fit in my "Tour Bus" (2002 Toyota 4Runner) with all my other gear. Plus, they sound great! Of course the sound was a big consideration. Thankfully, several TalkBass members posted audio files of the 1203, so I had a pretty good idea of what I could expect. Rehearsal rig When I started doing research on a pair of new

OnSong is an app for the Apple iPad that manages and displays chord charts. The app can only be purchased in the iTunes store. Currently, OnSong is $19.99. This post will list what you need to get started setting up and using OnSong. In order to setup and use OnSong, you will need the following: Mandatory: An iPad (gen 2 or higher). A computer with Internet access. An iTunes account. A DropBox account. A text editor (Notepad++ for Microsoft-based computers). Optional (but highly recommended) ChordSmith chordpro editor (giftware, payable with paypal). Chordpro Buddy (iTunes purchase). In reference to ChordSmith , you can do without it, however, I highly recommend you drop $10 or $15 dollars to the author and install this program. It is feature rich, and makes quick work of editing a chordpro file. Plus, it has a transpose function to boot! Go ahead and purchase it, cause I'll be referencing it quite frequently. Setup your hardware: The first step is

Today was a weird day at work. It was relatively normal as far as work goes, however I was feeling a little strange. It had been a very trying week both for me and Brenda. Life is tough sometimes. I was going about making backups, updating firewalls, and installing software. Just trying to tie up odds and ends. I had a few minutes waiting for a DVD backup to finalize, so I thought I would check out Facebook. Nothing much going on there, I decided to check out Tumblr. I love photos, especially old ones. As I was viewing the vintage photos on my dashboard, I saw one that blew me away. I mean, it made me stop everything I was doing. At that point I just had to stop and take a walk outside. Now, I've had polio since I was a little over a year old (as of 2014, over 58 years). So, I've gotten used to living with it and the displeasure,  pain, suffering and inconvenience it causes. But for some reason, the photo I saw really hit home. I have my medical records from when they first s

August 2014 makes a year since I took possession of the Monique by Jule rack preamp. I have used Monique through a Crest ProLITE 2.0 and two Aguilar GS112 cabs for every gig played in the past year. Recently I switched to AudioKinesis Hathor 1203 cabs. Playing my regular theater gig, a few outdoor events, and a few events at different venues. Enough time has passed, and enough playing time under my belt that I feel it is time to revisit the Monique Preamp. As of the last gig, Monique is still just as awesome as it was when I first purchased it. In fact, it is better. I guess I should say, I have learned to use it better. Monique really hasn't changed! I must be honest. When I first took possession of Monique, it took time for me to get used to her. I had spent the last five years playing through a Thunderfunk. Totally different animals. Out of the box it sounded great, I just had to spend some time with her and learn how to dial my tone in. Probably my biggest hurdle was the Se

I've had several people ask me about the difference between the Thunderfunk 750A and the Jule Monique. I figured it best to put down my observations in a blog. While this is by no means a thorough, scientific shootout, maybe it will be useful to anyone considering a Monique purchase, especially if they have experience with the Thunderfunk head (or similar head). Before we get started: Warning, this might get wordy! I like to talk about music and gear. Hey, I am an old musician that is fortunate enough to afford gear far beyond my playing ability. My gear, music, and hanging out with my musician friends make me happy. So indulge me...... This is not a post to declare a winner between these two heads. When you get to this level of gear, you are going to discover subtle difference and things that you favor over another. As far as I am concerned, I am talking about top-tier equipment. I will be pointing out differences between the two. Not weaknesses, since it is my belief that I h

On June 20th, I contacted Jule Potter to place my order for a Monique Rack Mount PreAmp. I have to say, Jule was such a pleasure to work with. Jule is such a genuine nice person. He seems to be laid back, yet devoted to building and perfecting his product line. It has been such a pleasure to deal with Jule during the process. He has consistently taken time to answer any questions and keep me updated throughout the process. Plus he has quite an interesting life story to share!   Monique arrived on Tuesday, August 20th. I got it around lunch time, so I slid it in the rack and hooked it up. It came up and I played a while during lunch. As I was checking the controls, I noticed, as I adjusted the EQ pots, I couldn’t hear a difference. I couldn’t really hear a difference in the Sensitivity knob either. In addition, the output seemed weak. I had to go back to work so you can imagine that I had a slight sick feeling in my gut. I thought about what could possibly be wrong with Monique. Whe