Leaderboard

more of a lame to fame but I put up curtain tracks for a mate and his missus asked me about my music. I'm a bass player I said. Oh my uncle plays bass. Oh yes, is he local would I know him? No uncle John doesn't live around here. You might have heard of him though. He used to play with Queen.

Well for the first time I actually really enjoyed playing last night. It was our first ever festival. Only a small affair, and the sound guy was useless. But the band were really tight and the crowd were great. Whether this was a light at the end of the tunnel, or just a one off remains to be seen, but fingers crossed.

I was just wondering whether it would be good to have a stolen gear category, having been the victim of a couple of thefts over the years? As most stuff will probably end up on eBay, second hand shop, or similar perhaps it would be cool to be able to upload photos of what's gone missing here? Any thoughts?

Initially thought someone wanted a BC section for the selling of stolen gear 😀

I found myself in a queue of vehicles in front of her's a long time ago. No security. Her first album had been on heavy rotation in our car as one of the few albums my whole family could happily listen to at the same time. I wanted to say something but decided that "we really like your album" was lame in the extreme so opted to say nothing. I used to play in anothet band and the pianist kept saying he had found a percussionist at a party in the mountains and wanted to bring him along to sit in. We just said no. That inveriably meant a bloke with one bongo and a dog on a piece of string. He eventually ground us down and bloke rolled into the gig with a full van of proper perc and make us sound like a million dollars. We cornered the pianist during the break and demanded "Who IS this guy?!?" "Oh, he's Peter Gabriel's drummer, did I not mention that?"

Just remembered this. I got my youngest daughter some VIP tickets to go and see Prof Green a few years ago. We do work for his agency and they owed me a favour. Anyway, she had a great night, and she said she told a few people she knew the Dave Pearce (DJ) very well to make her sound cool. Apparently it worked. First time and last time my daughter has used my name to get a drink lol.

On meeting folks from bands etc I always assume everyone else is an idiot and adjust my appraisal from there on. If an 'idiot' asks to borrow kit at a gig I've got to also assume said idiot didn't have the capacity to organise himself/his gear or cares so little that they think someone will sort stinky poo out for them in which case either way the answer is NO. As a young man I did a gig supporting a band who were over from Sweden. Bassist hadn't brought his bass and manager asked if he could use mine; I agreed and I watched in horror as at the end of the gig he took his frustration at not getting the adulation they expected by throwing my bass to the floor. I ended up punching him out and a ruck ensued between bands... it's only Rock N Roll. Feel sorry for the OP, hope all is sorted and a lesson for all.

Or you could just kill them, and then spit on them afterwards. They won’t do it again

Arian's a lovely chap, a rotund little ball of fun when he's not stabbing Triad envoys in the eye; but it's his older brother Fatbardh who takes care of the money. 50% upfront, 50% within 28 days is the deal, all expenses must be receipted, so pretty much industry standard. Thankfully, Fatbardh doesn't have the Kukësa lip, but try not to notice his missing ear, nose, hand and foot, his twitch, his shrill, high-pitched voice and his inability to pronounce the letters R, W and Y. Other than that it's a cakewalk.

I would like to proffer my profound thanks for that timely and sage advice. While it would never occur to me to comment on a colleague's physical peculiarities, it would not do to display an involuntary reaction. Particularly as I have just been contacted by a 'Mr A' inquiring about a bus. Speedy work, Mr Del Var. I trust he pays promptly?

Finally picked up my new Cobia from Alpher HQ today a 4 string to go with my 5er. It's bloody lovely and sounds amazing with the Nordstrand Big Man pickup, just passive this time but with a 3 way toggle for single coil, series and parallel, I have to say its spot on and only weighs 7lb 2oz (most of that will be the pickup!) Hipshot hardware all round makes Jeff a very happy bunny!

Just been watching the Andertons/Marcus Miller video, and MM states Sire use plastic knobs on their previous basses as using the wrong metal affects the tone. Now they have devised a way to add plastic inserts in to the metal knobs. Next week the Emperor gets his new clothes....

Twin Kasugas out for the evening

My compliments to Mr @NancyJohnson. This is turning out to be one of the most entertaining threads for ages

I played a wedding at a nice venue near Halifax 10? years ago. In our break the Groom asked if it was alright if him and some of his mates used our instruments to play "Like a Hurricane (or similar) by Neil Young and a few other tunes after we finished the second set. At the time there had been a similar thread to the current one about lending gear so I said to the guy who wanted to play my Bass and use my gear "fine but give me your car keys" He asked why and I replied that 'I was unwilling to lend out my valuable gear to someone who had been drinking all afternoon and for all I knew would trash my gear, so I wanted some sureity'. He was quite offended, him and another guest were the Bassist and Drummer from Embrace! I let him use my gear in the end....

Not wishing to worry you, but In the interests of personal safety, you may wish to redact your last sentence. Publicly identifying (or even appertaining to) such personas has given some strange and seemingly inexplicable occurrences. One can only wonder how Raoul came to swallow two golfing 9 irons and a boule de Pétanque whilst roof riding a TGV. Why a gentleman would require two 9 irons is beyond reason.

I beg to differ. When a bassist did that to my amp, I just got on stage and lowered it. It was that or just or I turned it off. My head is far more valuable to me than their set time. In interest if full disclosure, I had agreed in adv to him using my rig via their drummer, but when he didn't introduce himself or thank me during sound check for the kit share, alarm bells started ringing.I find the ill mannered ones are usually the ones to abuse someone else's kit.

Just wait until December when you’ll have to compete for space with the bloody tree!

get a headless bass, and start clearing room with it without going out of tune I needed it for survival when my very very smelly guitarer would stand in front of me, trapping me between the drums and wall, and drop the foulest filthiest farts I've ever encountered. Then one day I bought the headless, and I shoved him outa my way with a prod in his back lol,sent him over the monitors lol.

Corrine Bailey Rae stood on my foot/ankle as I was laying in Hyde park waiting for Stevie Wonder to come on. She was very apologetic and her security guy was massive!

It is painful whenever altruism is repaid with carelesness. But being kind and sharing is always a good thing, for you and for others. I hope this incident doesn't change that side of your nature.

The only time I've ever done festivals has been as the guest of a label and have done many pees next to many people. While Brian Adams at Milton Keynes Bowl was somewhat standoffish, I'd say Mick Mars from Motley Crue was an absolute delight; Motley had just opened the Monsters Of Rock show at Castle Donington and we urinated freely together in the backstage area minutes after he'd come off stage. He was still in his stage clothes. He actually opened the dialogue with a cheery 'Hey, how are you?' thing while I was already at the trough. We discussed Roy Thomas Baker's remix of Too Fast For Love.

I nearly got hung, drawn and quartered for criticising Stand By Me. Plus on eth original teh bass is mixed so low it's barely audible, it's only covers that have it dump-te-dumpting.

Last night we did a 60th birthday party for the landlady of a pub we played about 3 months back, it was in a barn, on a farm, in the wild depths of South Bucks, adjoining field for car parking and camping..there were a few there Hog roast and free drinks all night, nice, but 1 x 13amp power lead and no lights in the barn meant many nervous glances regarding taking out the power...but all good. Polite, but very appreciative audience until about halfway through 2nd set, when suddenly EVERYBODY decided they wanted to dance, including the 83 year grand matron of the clan, we ended up doing a 40 min encore including many songs we had already played but no one was oiled enough to dance to 1st time round. Absolutely brilliant night, and we got a couple of taps for future gigs as well. Breakdown was...interesting as we had to use car headlights to illuminate the barn once we had broken down our lights, people were still dancing in a field with cows when we left...I love my life!

So, the couple of minor OMFGs for me were... I'm at a gig in a club in Manchester to watch Pete Shelley (then solo following Buzzcocks going on hiatus) and I'm standing close to the sound engineer at the mixing desk. A little while later two sharply dressed guys come and stand next to me for the whole gig and they have two big heavies keeping everybody else at a distance. It was Paul Weller and Bruce Foxton from The Jam. Back when I lived in Highgate whilst studying at University College London, I'd go drinking with fellow students in the local pubs and one night was in The Angel Inn with a few mates. We spotted Graham Chapman (of Monty Python) who was a regular and was with a small crowd of young men (yes, well...). We try our best not to start talking in loud Pythonesque comedy voices when in walks this chap in a very smart suit indeed, walks over to join Chapman's group and I'm thinking he looks really familiar... then I twigged that it's only Keith Moon!

I still think you may be looking for a solution to a problem which in practice doesn't exist. So long as the OP isn't running a 1000w full tilt, I think he'll be happy with the combination, which whilst maybe scientifically imperfect, does work incredibly well! I run mine with an Eich T900 at up to 50% on the master happily. Just be sensible and listen out for strain from your cabs, as always.

Got there...! I'll know next time to get these in place before I do anything with the body...two might have went slightly too far in to be honest, but I'll try sand the wood flush around those.

Great to see you yesterday Jeff!!! all the best with your new bass!!!

Planks!

Please say that is not a euphemism or the new auto correct

A veritable cad, sir! And probably a bounder to boot! Certainly no gentleman, and worse... ... a golfer! *shudders with horror*

No, luckily guitarist is a capable singer too so he does all backing vocals. I just get to swag about with my pink Yamaha 😉

I did two double bass gigs on the same day yesterday. Four one hour sets and three set ups and tear downs. No pain, no strain - all perfectly comfortable. We get there in the end, don't we?

Gigging days were long gone, not so long ago - go on son, go balls deep!

I haven’t enjoyed gigging for a while - well, I haven’t gigged in a while... But, prior to the Hiatus (while we got used to our youngest Daughter and her level of need - a very bleak prognosis has actually ended up much better than hoped; odd heart attack inducing trips to hospital every now and then) I hadn’t enjoyed the covers/function/wedding gigs I had done. So, on the 18th of August, the new band has a gig. All songs are from ideas I provided to the singer (I’d been in a Motown band with this guy until i “quit” music). It’s all really bass heavy, really funky...and after a second studio session yesterday, I’m kicking myself for writing such mad baselines. I now have “i’ll F*ck this gig up” in my head... A weird mental block to have as I’ve played big festivals, big venues all over the show in the past...I suppose it’s because it’s heart on sleeve time - and it’s all so oriented on the bass...

Although the spec sheet says the Mooer can handle speakers they don't say how much power (amperes through the switches) it can take before it explodes. It's probably fine for low wattage guitar amps however I doubt that it can take 500-watts from a bass amp. I would contact them and ask what the upper limits are. In answer to point 2, I've never come across a speaker level mixer. If you are running a bass amp at a modest 200-watts and you want to attenuate that by 50% then 100-watts is going to be absorbed by the attenuator/volume control which means it will get very hot. Think about how hot a 100-watt tungsten light bulb gets. There are such devices for guitar amps such as these (https://www.thomann.de/gb/attenuators.html) however they will not handle bass amp power outputs. As I said previously the simplest, easiest and cheapest solution is to run a second power amp/bass head in parallel with your bass head. Not what you wanted to hear but I hope it helps.

That'[s great news. I hope that posting here helped.

Had a gig in our regular monthly pub on Friday, and it was the first after we resumed practicing, the guitarist got an evening job so we hadn't had any practices in months, but now he has lost it. This was the first time we were going to do 'feel it still' with me singing. We learned it about 4 months ago but hadn't practiced it since so I was beginning to forget it again. When it came up to doing it we were in all the high energy songs so I was a bit nervous and said to the frontman that we should skip it, but he insisted it would go down well, so we did it and it went down very well. This means that all the songs I sing go down well. If I was more arrogant i would assume that means I am a good singer, luckily I know it is just because they are good songs and people are more tolerant of singing in a live band!

Thanks for clearing that up. A thousand apologies for even casting a shadow of an infinitesimal doubt upon your lexicographical excellence. He sounds like a lovely man when unless he is riled. A bit like a certain Ronnie from days gone by, although I must point out that I am in no way making any suggestions regarding his personal persuasions - I don't think I would want to be on his bad side due to a misunderstanding (or at all, come to that). You nay, however, have inadvertently given away a clue as to the gentleman's surname: as his brothers name is Fatbardh, I suspect it may be Stadt?

Oh and I almost forgot. We got a booking for another festival off the back of our performance. So we can't have been too bad. 😁

There is something wonderful about the phrase ' resting my nuts on the hi-hats'. could be your autobiog title.

I remember a bassist in another local band coming up to me a bit worse for drink and telling me how much he respected me for standing my ground against the rest of my band and persuading them to let me use a wireless kit and get out at the front with my foot on the monitor, as he’d tried to have that conversation and been told the answer was ‘no’. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that no such conversation had ever taken place in our band and I’d actually be more likely to get told off (jovially, of course) for just standing there at the back and not putting on a show! Maybe if I had a mic set up for backing vocals and/or constantly needed to do the pedalboard tap-dance I’d stay a bit closer to my starting position, but as it is I don’t even feel the need to stay on the stage all the time. Get wireless, go walkabout, throw a few shapes and take up some space! 🙂

We have a boat cruze gig on Lake Michigan tonight. Join Maple Road aboard The Vista King Saturday Night 7/27/2019 9pm - 11pm Milwaukee Boat Line 101 W Michigan St, Milwaukee Blue

I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you're looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money... but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for unidentifiable basses... I’m useless at pretty much anything else.

Time for a diplomatic but assertive conversation!

You know why he's called Slash? He stinks of unrine apparently!

There's a good way round this, if anyone asks me to borrow my rig I just hand them a 9 quid DI box and watch the confusion. Sometimes if they've managed to irk me in some other way I 'forget' to put the battery in. Ain't I a stinker?

About 20 years ago our then next door neighbour says: 'My sister's going out with a bloke who plays guitar. You should get together'. 'Oh,' says I. 'Is he any good?' 'He used to be in a band with his brother. His name's Dave ... Knopfler, I think'. "