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1st gig with Glam Rock band and our new guitarist at The Dreadnought in Bathgate. One of the singers had food poisoning from the night before so she was extremely unwell but like the trooper she is The Show Must Go On she carried on. New guitarist did a sterling job after just 3 weeks with the songs. Venue was pretty busy with people up dancing almost from the 1st song. Quite a few standing with mouths open when we took to the stage but the feedback has been amazing. Several people mentioned they were too busy watching the show to dance and were amazed at the outfits and what they were witnessing. Very hot on stage and drank about 2 litres of water during the show. Few early bird pics have appeared so here's one of them to give you an idea of what we do.

Dmccombe, I took a few pics for you at the HD Museum yesterday. The gig went well. Great weather and receptive crowd. Blue

30 minute set for Nottinghamshire Pride today. Big crowd.....great gig ....end of gig shot

Had a couple of nice gigs this week. First was our monthly acoustic duo gig at a local pub. Plenty of people in, including Andy, an old band mate of mine from years ago who now teaches music in Beijing. Haven't seen him in 15 years, so great to catch up. Then at the weekend we played at Marlborough College in Wiltshire as part of their Summer School programme. Originally planned for during the Covid lockdown, it was nice to eventually get to perform there. As it was a stand alone gig now (originally one of a few darn sarf) this involved a 5 hour drive each way so a bit of a slog for us. An amazing venue, originally designed for classical music and theatre, so a challenge for our sound tech but he coped really well. Great support from their crew too. Needless to say though the gig was fantastic, a lovely sell out crowd and we were well fed and watered. Absolutely shattered next day though!

On my birthday I completed the build of a new bass: The Brooks EXB-MS-5 - Mahogany Khaya body - Quilted Maple top and headstock face - Three piece Mahogany Khaya set neck. Glued in - Blue burst gloss finish on top and headstock - Pearloid binding - Ebony fretboard - Luminlay Blue position markers - Jumbo nickel silver frets - 37-34" scale - Buffalo horn nut - Babicz Solo Rail bridge. Black - Double action trussrod - Two carbon reinforcement strips in the neck - Lace Alumitone Bass Bar pickup combination - Pure Tone output. Black - Volume and tone knob. Black - Rotary pickup selector switch. Black chickenhead - Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners. Black - Dunlop flush mount strapnuts. Black - Dingwall strings - Weight: 4.25 kg Rotary switch options: 1. Both pickups in series 2. Neck side pickup 3. Bridge side pickup 4. both pickups in parallel 5. Both pickups. Out of phase with a capacitor to maintain the low frequencies. Circuit and wiring by BQ Music. Pics of the build process can be viewed here https://www.enkoo.nl/brooks-exb-ms-5.html And I made a quick video as well. Being a life long 4-string player I have no idea what to do with that fifth string! But you get an idea of how she sounds. (I'm quite sure the guy I built it for will put it to good use!)

Not really. The product of cone area (Sd) and excursion (Xmax) is displacement (Vd), which combines with sensitivity to give SPL. To further complicate matters driver size, and in the case of multiple drivers layout, affects dispersion. There are no short and sweet rules of thumb, other than always use the same drivers in a grouping, and always have that grouping vertically aligned.

More pics, hot off the press from Leszek... mid knob info and logo reveal! 😍😍😍

A sports bar in Washington last night, one of my favourites with regards to load in and stage space. We play there maybe every 6 months and it's always a good gig with a good crowd. Our mission? To keep people in after the football. It didn't really work too well but it filled up again with a new crowd before we started. Rig was a Sansamp and I took a wedge because I usually stand too far away from the other monitors but we set up a little differently this time and I ended up with my head about a meter from the stage left pa main. Oh well, overkill is the correct amount of kill.

Just got in from a gig on Portsmouth Pier (pic of backstage below). Went well tho the drummer suffered for his art as he managed to cut his hand on the second to last song so blood over him and provided kit - oops. Lot of good comments on my first “over the sea” gig.

Right, spent the morning making a routing template, routing the battery cavity, drilling a new pot hole in a new control plate and doing all the soldering. I located the battery where it is to try a counter balance the neck dive, which has worked to some extent - better but not gone. It sounds really good and given the money I’ve spent it’s remarkably close to a classic Stingray. It’ll come with me on my next gig. Here are the results, I’m well cuffed.

On a bolt on neck, the neck pocket is pretty much the datum for everything else. So, after one further check that I have the bridge in the correct potential position, the next step is cutting the neck pocket. The only router operation I trust is one that is totally captive with a bearing bit involved - and so I personally always start these types of chamber with a Forstner bit and some chisels. It's generally not the way other builders do it but it works for me: Then a trial fit of the chiselled outline: And, that all good, a top bearing router bit that uses my chiselled outline as the guide. This may be a mm or so higher than final depth - I'll check that once the bridge is fitted when I can again use the captive router bit. I will then also cut the pocket to length (the extra length at the moment gives me support for the router base if I need to use it any more): Next will be a similar process to create the pickup chamber, and then the carve can begin

This is my MB-5 SBK. Stock except for the pickguard (can you tell I despise tort? ). I love this bass. It's passive but I don't feel the urge to mess with that, it sounds great as it is. I was recently going over a bunch of little demos I did last year and there was one in particular that I thought "ah, I love that Stingray, it sounds so good" then I heard a low D... "hmm, I do have a Hipshot D-tuner thingy on my Stingray but I don't recall having used it in ages"... and then a low B... ah! It was the Harley Benton 5 string!!! Nut needed some attention as it was cut slightly too tall, and the fret ends were a little sharp. Both issues were sorted easily in about 30 minutes. I wish the string spacing were a bit wider, as the fingerboard has room for it, but it's a really nice bass to play regardless. This is the bass that finally made me appreciate 5-string basses and now I'm comfortable playing 4/5-ers equally.

Don't stop minnow - queen

Stage for tomight’s gig at Reggaeland Milton Keynes.

My trusty old 92 jazz' neck was like a banana and the truss rod was knackered so I treated it to a new neck, gave it blocks and binding, quite frankly it looks amazing

I'm going to work on those moves!

brilliant work kinkh. I'd had an idea to do it for years but never had the patience. I'm really suprised that the pick attack is derived from the neck pickup; I'd always assumed it was from the sum of both or maybe from the breidge (which is the default in the ACT=EQ-01). It makes sense as the only way to get a good slap sound out of a Wal is to blend in more neck than bridge pup - evidently that is wher the "twant" comes from. One thing to remember is that the impedance of the pickups themselves is also part of the circuit; those RC circuits on the inputs will likely interact with the pickup inductance. PS A good (free) circuit simulator is Microcap - easy to put *.wav files into circuits as inputs.

Growing up in a biking family (and the only one to not get the bug) I find that statue a little much, no way a Harley could get up a hill that steep.

GALLIEN-KRUEGER PLEX BASS PREAMP PEDAL I just picked this up off the market place here. I’ve been after one for awhile to try out and as a back up just in case. From what you’ve requested it ticks all the boxes. EQ, basic Sim, DI ( pre/post,) Drive, compression and an in built tuner. I’m really looking forward to trying it out when it arrives. it also acts as a recording interface with the USB and allows media playback for practice.

The Reggaeland gig went really well. We were limited to a 1/2 hr slot.

I would recommend a decent fret job as a first step in any case.

After awhile with it I can’t praise the ‘old smoothie’ enough, the best stingray I’ve played with the best tone. Currently strung with labella LTF’s it growls, it thumps, but it still slaps with the signature stingray sound. Very impressive.

It’s a question of good muting between each note. I found that using synth pedals highlighted problems in my technique, mainly that I wasn’t alternating fingers strictly, which in turn caused muting issues. The Gary Willis muting technique of placing the non-plucking finger on the string immediately after the plucking finger has played the note works well. This in combination with left-hand muting between notes should help a lot. You can actually use the C4 as a practice tool to work on these things.

the ghosts of saturday night - mr waits

No One Knows - QOTSA

No fun - stooges

So many great amps for sale right now, and I'd like to get my mitts on many of them. Funds wouldn't quite stretch to them all but two came my way this week. The Behringer BX4500H I've owned since my kids were little. They have their own kids now and the amp is beginning to get a bit battered and bits are dropping off. Time to retire it then. Imagine my joy when I was offered one, delivered to my door, in perfect condition. In my experience and opinion it's probably the best kept secret of the bass amp world. It sounds absolutely phenomenal. I also scored a Bugera BTH3600, known less formally as The Nuke. I wanted one of these when they first came out and simply couldn't resist this opportunity. I remember all the wailing a gnashing of teeth at the Bugera and Behringer brands all those years ago, and I'm so glad I ignored it. I now own three of each of their amps and I can't wait to gig The Nuke...once I work out what all the nobs and buttons do!

Quilter Bass Block 800? Just about in budget new. Solid little amp, works for me. Possibly a bit lacking in high frequency sparkle if you’re into tweeters though - I have a dull set of flats on my fretless and through the Quilter into a BF One10 it still sounds dull!

Personally I aspire more to the smooth, come-hither stylings of this fleet-footed charmer from 1969. Jump to 0.40 if you can't handle great music...

Decent gig in Glasgow's West End. The pub was packed to the rafters when we entered as the Karaoke finished. We started just after 9pm and the set up was dreadful. We were squashed in a corner beside stairs leading up to a raised area in the bar. I was side on to the band with the drummer right behind me. I ended up doing no backing vocals as I had to give the keyboard player a loan of my mike stand as his fell to bits just before we started. Very mixed age lively bunch dancing and singing along. A fair few were very very refreshed and indeed falling about the place. One guy in particular danced about 6 inches from the singer......a fu**ing pest! In fact it seemed to be the prefered route to the toilets in the raised area so we had a constant stream of folk coming and going all evening which was very off putting.Soundwise was pretty dreadful as we were squashed together. We went down well and have been asked back but I think we need to try a different set up next time in. Pubs with drunk folk.....whatever next!!!!

The Clapping Song - The Belle Stars

Lysteria - Muse

Of the two choices, always 2 speakers of any size for me. Never been a fan of single speaker set ups in anything, guitar combos included.

Pub not packed but busy, went down well but felt a bit off, partly due to horrible layout. Now unable to sleep.

However if you run your 500w amp at 500watts then using an 800W at 500w will mean that the amp has extra headroom and thermal capacity. ie it's less likely to stop working.

He does have a bit of a point. The vocals define what the band is about to a large measure and while the drummer doesn't necessarily have to be great, he at least has to be solid. That is not to say that, generally, a guitarist isn't more important to the sound of a band, but there are many times when you have seen a band get a more experienced drummer once they got a record or management deal, because the old guy couldn't immediately cut it at the higher level they were going to play at. You can carry a mediocre guitarist or bass player to an extent, but not a drummer.

Wired up the speaker sockets and pre-amp valves, except the heaters - I leave those buggers till last!

I'm not looking to sell, just lend you what you need until you get contact with Smoothhound, or get sorted permanently, if it helps you. All I'd need is a PM with your home address and I'll post a Tx. You can keep it for as long as it's useful to you. No need for complications such as payments and stuff. Over to you...