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Excellent afternoon gig at the local beer festival near Bristol. Went very well, great fun

The heart of my pedal board. Top row bass and delay bottom row guitar,

Re the comments about the Acinonyx pre-sets, I get arguably more versatility from my Andy Rogers custom-builds without the use of push-push buttons that are prone to mechanical failure in my experience. Mine have 3 pick-ups and 8-way switching that allows instant pick-up selection - singly or in any combination of two or all 3. Now I'm used to this, I wouldn't be without it and it beats me that the only adoption of this configuration I've come across from the usual suspects was Fender's limited-run s-s Rascal. Its quirky body shape and bridge position made it feel more like a standard-scale and IMHO stopped more players from buying this otherwise superb bass. It's got the best s-s neck I've ever played.

My preferred solution would be to avoid gigs like that! 😂

This topic often comes up on here so I thought I’d share an anecdote from one of this weekends gigs. Marquee gig, black tie event-so everyone thought they were better than everyone else, but the lining for the floor was not very level. Consequently the dance floor wasn’t either, which got wet with lots of spilt drinks and our PA columns, a HK elements in line set up, are a bit wobbly. We’ve had people swing from them like a strip club before so we looked at how to minimise the risk. Putting boards underneath them made them more wobbly if you stepped on them, and right out at the edges of the tent the ground was even more uneven. In a lose lose situation we decided to make them as obvious as possible by putting our lighting stands by them (on tripods), the same set up either side and hope for the best. We were on late and doing three sets, so by the time we got to our third set the crowd were plastered, trying to get onstage with us, drink was all over the dance floor and they were requesting any song they could think of, to be played at maximum volume whilst we grabbed a drink. My wife and I were just minding the stage when one gentlemen managed to lose his balance. The sequence of events was roughly- he falls into the edge of the stage of his own volition, keyboard with laptop goes over plus microphone, he puts his arm out and rolls off the stage into the PA column, toppling it and the lighting stand. Five minutes before the lighting stand would’ve sliced somebodies head open- it’s on of those bars with 4 LED digital par cans on. Somehow no one was hurt and nothing was broken but we would’ve had a very challenging situation on our hands if an accident had have happened. We will be be upping our cover, fastidiously updating our player list and checking renewal dates in the future- that was a seriously close call.

Latest update guys. I finally received the money today 3 weeks after sending him a "letter before action" giving him 2 weeks to pay. Then on the last day of the 2 weeks, he emailed me saying how disappointed he was that I went this route. I know, pathetic huh? He still saying that the online banking dongle hasn't arrived. Then he asked me to give him another week and if the dongle still not arrived by the end of the week, which is today, he would go to the bank. Hmm...shouldn't he do this many weeks ago? Again, thank you all for the advice. 😁

I honesty thought the hoarding behind that stage said "dadband" 😀

Bought this beaut from Geoffio a few months ago, Euro 4LT violet fade, it’s no.1 bass now!

Last night was a small club venue, stage cluttered - even had a bagged up double bass in one corner and a piano in the other. Started with a small but enthusiastic criwd, who then grew to a full house for the second hot sweaty set. My predecessor with the band was thete and was very kind praising my sound and dancing with his wife. Today was Caerleon Arts Festival. Lots of angst as last year pa was poor. No worries as it turned out to be excellent. We went down a storm. Soundman told me I sounded like Jack Bruce which has made my year 😎

I play with a really low action and occasionally I’ve had to add a shim , many say that if it was built properly you wouldn’t have to do it 🙄, but depending on your set up preference I don’t see anything wrong, stewmac sell them

Soooo.....has he won then? Is that this thread finished? 🤣

The Number of The Beef ～ Ïron Maiden

Muscle memory works well but fluorescent dots work better! Had my fretless jazz fitted with fluorescent side and fingerboard dots, and now I love a dark stage not least because dots floating in the dark look rather cool.

Do I dare to post after this spectacular pedalboard ? made myself. Not perfect but really happy 🙂

You should go and buy something off him now and tell him as your dongle isn’t working either you’ll pay him in 3 weeks…

It just means some of these jokers on here will have to start getting serious 🤣

For Those About a Lock ～ AC/DC

Penultimate gig with the trio on Friday night, nice easy biker club rally over 2 days with camping etc (not that any of us stayed over). We did the Friday then another band headlined Saturday. The monitoring is still ropey (they provide all PA) but FOH sounded fine apparently. It was sweltering on dance floor in front of stage yet some folks were still up and grooving away both sets which was nice. Having gigged so little i was concerned I'd get cramp in fretting hand (it's happened before after a lay off) but sailed through it no problem, got some good feedback from punters. I think the other two will probably carry on with another bass player but gigs have been very sporadic and the other 2 have now gone on to other side projects so that's not going to change.

Tom Bowlus and I created this mammoth Trace Elliot (Elf) review for Basss Gear Magazine for this who'd like to know a bit more about the lil Elves! https://www.bassgearmag.com/elvish-appetizer-trace-elliot-elf-bass-head-elf-1x10-combo-elf-2x8-cab-elf-1x10-cab-and-transit-b-bass-preamp/ I'm allowed to be honest about my review kit, so I can happily report that I loved the Elf head - and when I have some cash I'll probably buy one for myself!

Harriet Harry - Sham 69

In circumstances where the Public could come a cropper, I would suggest having a barrier around the stage area would be advisable. These should be provided/set up by the organisers...

More rugged Locking Proper cable clamping Handles higher power Can carry 2 signals (if 4 pole) Plugs are protected from short circuit, unlike jacks Takes thicker cables (some jacks do too) Solderless

Played to a very busy local beer festival yesterday.

NBD CIJ PB70 99 reissue - a beaut and super light. Love CIJ basses such quality builds, had a PB62 reissue and loved it but sold to fund custom build. I been after a natural PB70 but hardly see them, I just love a natural bass. I had the MIM FSR PB70 from think 2018 and the neck was superb but didn’t like the pups - should’ve changed them as regretted selling it. This might give my custom build a run for its money, got gig next week might take it out. Free set from Bass Bros too - recommend them

New one on me - had a bit of a dig and it's on page 56 of this 1988 Greco catalogue: https://vintagejapanguitars.com/greco-1989-catalogue/ Should be good quality, at this point Greco was still exclusively MIJ & Fujigen was the factory. Not going to be a particularly common bass so I'd leave it stock, or at least don't do anything irreversible.

Nothing wrong with a shim, I too like a low action and have put plenty in but I try and make sure they fit across the pocket and taper toward the open end of the pocket. I’ve used veneer and card (mulched wood) and some fine emery cloth to achieve this. There is an argument that shims can expedite a ski jump at the end of the neck but there are also those that argue against if done properly. All major (and a few minor) manufacturers have used shims from the factory. I’m not too keen on the shim you have there but I’ve seen it done a lot as a quick fix, I would be replacing it with a decent shim and not worry about it As for the refret, the neck (and bass?) is 59 years old, if it’s been played and loved since day one it probably needed it.

Quite like me then (apart from the slab front)

I have the preamp as well and it's pretty good. Really flexible eq and switchable drive is something I have really appreciated (also having drive at the end of my chain has proven to be very useful). One thing I thought would be really useful but I never use is the tilt. I've played around with it but not found the real benefit yet. Everyone uses different things though so I'm sure someone gets full use out of it but if that's the only reason you would go for this you may not be fully satisfied. I would also say it is one of the cheapest DIs out right now considering its feature set.

Bobby Brown goes down (Frank Zappa)

When I was doing concert work, either at the console or doing the lights, it was de rigueur to have the desk area bounded off by barriers of the sort above, to keep the area clear of unwanted interference. It worked very well, especially when the bands provoked much animation from their public, and/or the drinks flowed freely. Similar protection for the stage area, if there was any chance of the Public getting out of hand. It's been a very long time since I've seen a lighting rig or PA tower come down. Just sayin'.

Harriet Jacobs Ladder - Rush

Had a go on this old Midge Ure song..bit more notes but the bass sounded inviting.

Just to clarify. It is the Ian Hill neck shape (1.64 nut). The info on the webpage is a poor cut and paste by Bass Direct

I'm not sure any amount of PLI would cover you having knowingly set up your kit in a situation that wasn't safe.

I have Dunlop flats on my smoothie! Awesome low tension vintage thump but as mentioned still holding down some slap !

Yup, both @Merton and I have been on Mark's back about this for a long while now. It's not something they're keen to do sadly. I know there was an ABM NEO a while back but that wasn't much smaller and had one of the older, not so good class D power stages, things have come a long way since then. I really think a downsized ABM with a compact but old school solid state power stage would sell so so well...

Any amp designed to IEC-60965 or 62368 in the EU must operate (and is tested by a nationally recognized test lab) at 230V +/-10%. That would be 253V high line and 207V low line. If the amp needs certification to operate in regions with nominal 240V, this would include Australia and New Zealand), the national differences approvals would add a 264V high line test. Virtually everything of any quality these days is designed to operate at a high line of 264V because it makes no sense to design multiple versions (at least with SMPS) because it would add more cost to the certification process than could be justified. The homogenization limits tolerances really do work quite well in practice, and in fact utilities have adjusted their generating and distribution voltages a few percent to improve compliance as well. Australia has some additional challenges, primarily around voltage regulation on long transmission and distribution lines with varying loads in the Outback.

Easy Meat - Frank Zappa

Yesterday I was playing in a marquee in a field and in the interval a member of the audience came up and complimented me on the bass sound. It's always nice to have confirmation that what you intended was actually being heard by the audience.

At a Beer Festival last weekend: