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DaveB
03-28-2011, 09:39 PM
Hi Thunder Row!

I'm Dave Brown (DaveB) and I'm the proud new owner of a TMBG course. I received my course materials last Thursday and began with Lesson 1 yesterday. I've had my bass (Yamaha RBX260 with a Peavey MicroBass amp) for several years, but never got anything going with it. I bought a computer based training course that was okay but every time I got to where things started to get interesting I had to stop for one reason or another. Then when I tried to get started again I would have to start from scratch (very discouraging). Now that I'm retired and have the time (and TMBG) I think that I can make some real progress.

Let me tell you a little about myself. I was born and raised in Virginia. I attended Lane High School in Charlottesville and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond. I graduated from VCU with a AS in Electrical-Electronics Engineering Technology in 1973. In 1979 I moved to Maryland to work for a NASA contractor (Bendix/AlliedSignal/Honeywell) at the Goddard Space Flight Center supporting NASA's satellite tracking stations. After 30 years in Maryland I retired and moved back to Charlottesville.

Over the years I have had many hobbies including motorcycle riding, flying lessons, target shooting, and photography. My current hobbies are golf, fine cigars, listening to music, collecting movies (DVD and BluRay), and (now) learning bass guitar. My favorite bands are The Beatles, Led Zepplen, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and The Beatles.

Well, I guess I'd better get back to practice. Those 4X4s aren't gonna learn themselves.

Cheers,
DaveB

P.S. Did I mention that I like The Beatles?

P.P.S This is a picture of me and my bass. Wait a minute! That's not a bass, it's a bass.

thunderman
03-28-2011, 10:58 PM
Hey, Dave - It's a joy to welcome another Beatles fan to ThunderRow. This is a great group of folks - many of whom have similar stories - and a shared passion for bass (the guitar, the fish? Not so much - though lightly grilled and served alfresco over a bed of sauteed rice noodles with a dash of . . . I'm getting off topic. You've certainly had an interesting career and are most welcome to share any anecdotes that might occur; we're not ALL bass ALL the time around here . . . just most of the time! Again, welcome to the row. Post pix of your basses when you get a chance. P.S. You're going to LOVE TMBG!)

Elmeaux
03-29-2011, 04:22 AM
Welcome, Dave. Nice bass. Looks pretty passive to me. :p

Beatles fans abound in these here parts, so you're in good company.

Enjoy the course. We love pix and videos.

SilverFlame46
03-29-2011, 06:49 AM
Welcome to Thunder Row and TMBG, Dave. Glad to have you as part of our family. Roy is a GREAT teacher and makes learning FUN. So, above all make sure you have FUN while learning. Love the photo but I can't determine whether that is a left or right handed bass as your holding it by the head(stock). WELCOME!!!

OH, congratulations on VCU making it to the Final Four!!!

Bassix
03-29-2011, 07:45 AM
Welcome, Dave!

Enjoy TMBG and the gains that are sure to follow.

And that IS a very nice bass.

Q: How do you tune that thing?? :confused:

jthomas353
03-29-2011, 09:05 AM
Hi Dave,

Welcome to Thumder Row and TMBG. You're gonna love the course and the folks here on the Row.

I also worked for Bendix/Allied Signal at the Goldstone Tracking Station in Barstow, Ca. from 1983 to 1996. I worked mostly at the Apollo site but spent some time at the Mars site as well. It was a great place to work except for the drive. Lot of great memories, especially the Shuttle missions.

Beatles, PF, Led Zep all at the top of my list too. :D

Best of luck to you in your bass studies.

John

DaveB
03-29-2011, 09:06 AM
Hey, Dave - It's a joy to welcome another Beatles fan to ThunderRow. This is a great group of folks - many of whom have similar stories - and a shared passion for bass (the guitar, the fish? Not so much - though lightly grilled and served alfresco over a bed of sauteed rice noodles with a dash of . . . I'm getting off topic. You've certainly had an interesting career and are most welcome to share any anecdotes that might occur; we're not ALL bass ALL the time around here . . . just most of the time! Again, welcome to the row. Post pix of your basses when you get a chance. P.S. You're going to LOVE TMBG!)

Thanks ThunderMan
Looking back it was a pretty interesting career. About the coolest thing I ever did happened at the very end. I was down at Johnson Space Center in Houston giving a maintenance class and I got to fly the Space Shuttle Simulator that the the Astronauts use for training. We did a couple of simulated launches and I got to sit in the commander's seat and perform a landing. I'm proud to say that I was able to make an almost perfect landing. Of course, I was talked through the landing sequence by one of the simulator personnel (who sat in the pilot's seat), but I had control of the stick.

Cheers,
DaveB

DaveB
03-29-2011, 09:14 AM
Welcome, Dave. Nice bass. Looks pretty passive to me. :p

Beatles fans abound in these here parts, so you're in good company.

Enjoy the course. We love pix and videos.

Thanks Elmeaux
I have seen some Beatles related articles on the site. I read Paul's bio and I really liked the video of Paul at Ringo's birthday. Seeing them together again was special.

Cheers,
DaveB

DaveB
03-29-2011, 09:26 AM
Welcome to Thunder Row and TMBG, Dave. Glad to have you as part of our family. Roy is a GREAT teacher and makes learning FUN. So, above all make sure you have FUN while learning. Love the photo but I can't determine whether that is a left or right handed bass as your holding it by the head(stock). WELCOME!!!

OH, congratulations on VCU making it to the Final Four!!!

Thanks SilverFlame46
I haven't really followed VCU basketball since I graduated. They were just starting to try to build a team back then ('70-'73). When I used to go to the games they only had six or seven players on the team. VCU was established in 1968 by combining the Medical College of Virginia and Richmond Polytechnical Institute, so they have come a long way since then.

Cheers,
DaveB

DaveB
03-29-2011, 09:35 AM
Welcome, Dave!

Enjoy TMBG and the gains that are sure to follow.

And that IS a very nice bass.

Q: How do you tune that thing?? :confused:

Thanks Bassix
I had fun catching it. How do I tune it? Well to paraphrase REO Speedwagon, "You can tune a bass, but you can't tune a fish."

Cheers,
DaveB

DaveB
03-29-2011, 10:03 AM
Hi Dave,

Welcome to Thumder Row and TMBG. You're gonna love the course and the folks here on the Row.

I also worked for Bendix/Allied Signal at the Goldstone Tracking Station in Barstow, Ca. from 1983 to 1996. I worked mostly at the Apollo site but spent some time at the Mars site as well. It was a great place to work except for the drive. Lot of great memories, especially the Shuttle missions.

Beatles, PF, Led Zep all at the top of my list too. :D

Best of luck to you in your bass studies.

John

Thanks John
It's good to hear from an old BFEC guy. I was out at Goldstone once and remember that it was a long drive from Barstow. And actually, I helped to make it even longer for some of your personnel. I was part of the susatining engineering team based in Columbia, MD, that worked on moving the Station Voice Terminal (SVT) from the site adjacent to the admin building all the way out to the site where the 70M dish is located. That would have significantly increased the drive for the voice techs. Sorry about that, if you were one of the affected people.

Cheers,
DaveB