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I’m a day late on this one - sorry - but on Thursday night I played Rebellion in Manchester with Stray. We were supporting British Lion, what with Del being good mates with Steve Harris. Bit of a hero moment for me. It was a bit nerve wracking as we had to pull in a sound engineer to take with us who fortunately did a sterling job. I gigged my Epi Thunderbird Classic 4 Pro for the first time. Loved it except for the fact that the side markers disappeared on the dark stage. It’s now been tastefully modded with electrical tape for the next gig! Also got Steve to sign the back of it for me. Anyway, we played well and the crowd were really receptive. The British Lion guys were all really helpful and welcoming and we all had a splendid time. Shall be repeating the experience in Nottingham tomorrow! Steve and I Steve’s Basses One bit of our two vehicle convoy with Maiden’s tour bus in the background!

Dutifully went to Mrs Gasman’s Rotary party tonight as her guest. Live band was setting up for after-meal dancing. I escaped the table chat and went to ogle the bass player’s gear, particularly the metallic red go-faster striped Mustang, rare beast down here in Dorset. The owner then appeared and we got chatting, she was about 4’ 11” hence the short scale bass, and a sh*t-hot player. I was then most unexpectedly invited to sit in and play a couple of numbers, as we know it’s unheard of normally, I didn’t ask, she just took a gamble on me after a ten minute chat and anyway if a bloke from a band called Mustang Sally can’t play Mustang Sally on a Fender Mustang it’s a poor show! It went fine, but the real revelation was how good that Mustang sounded, and how smooth and easy it was to play despite it being my first short scale dabble for 50 years; I know it was fate, I must get one!

Maple Road This Saturday 7/1 @ The Baree 7:00 Thiensville Very cool upscale outdoor venue. Probably the most important gig of the summer. Blue

Line 6 released the Variax bass (700 & 705) in 2005 which emulated 24 basses including solid, semi, hollow and synth. Lots of folks don't like them but I really like mine. Rather than thinking of the settings as actual basses I just consider it to have a huge range of tones. As well as different tones the sustain and attack is different on different models. In a band setting they can sound great, especially a covers band if you want to try to copy original tones.

On an unrelated note has anyone seen that new band, Border Force and the Stolen Instruments?

Today:

Thanks! Alex picked it up yesterday...he pretty much said the very same thing

Plate done, actually done two…one using a 4mm strip of pine & stuck the veneer on using an iron, the other some UHU glue onto the aluminium plate & clamped it up. Roasted a 10mm drill shank up and fired it thru the holes.

Gigged last night and used my Player Series Jazz bass which is now back to stop pickups and Nickel Roundwounds. In the past I ran it to try and mimic a PBass ( neck pup on full, bridge in 50%, tone full on ) but last night .., I used it with both pickups on full, tone on full and then used my EQ pedal to boost 400-800hz. It sounded amazing in the rock band with gut rumbling lows ( deeper than a PBass ) and using the MXR 6 band EQ pedal I could put back some mids that get scooped with both pups in together. It fitted every song very well and it’s the first time I think I understood what a Jazz bass can really sound like. With EQ adjustment it sounded really good and different to the PBass thump. Better ?? Not sure but I like it and it’s worked out well.

Congrats to @AndyTravis on last month's success. We start the second half of the year with a reminder of some of the weather that broke after the lovely June sunshine. "Taken a good few years ago, walking home from the pub in a storm. Lightning and Street Lighting…" Simple rules ✔️ Entries must be <5 minutes and recorded between now and the deadline. ✖️ No illegal samples, copyright infringements or other snide goings-on ✖️ Bagpipes. please no bagpipes, there wasn't a truce worth noting this month, and if there was, we probably missed it! ✖️ No voting for your own entry. We'll know. And we'll shame you.. Deadline wise , we will go for midnight on the 24th which means you'll probably have till tea-time on the 25th A line or two of blurb as well for the vote thread will be lovely. Have fun

I was thinking about a other popular thread on here at the moment (combinations of gear made in heaven) which got me on a bit of a nostalgia trip about gear I've had over the years.. Number 1 goes all the way back to 1998 / 99 and my early years of playing. Wanting a small and portable combo I could carry (unlike the heavy valve amp and WEM cabs I was using), my step dad and I went amp shopping. We tried a few home / practice amps in the local shops but all were a little underwhelming and we were about to give up but he suggested we go up to Academy of Sound store despite most of their stock being new. The words 'Trace' and 'Elliot' meant nothing to me at the time but a little green furry covered amp with 'Boxer 30' written on the black and green panel was sat there amongst much bigger examples. He said we should try it although it was likely to be alot more expensive as it was a Trace. It blew everything else we tried that day clean out of the water - it was louder, cleaner and had a proper, full sound. I paid £100 for it brand new - even to this day, I consider it good value and was very pleased with how it sounded. 25 years later, I don't have the little Boxer (I traded it for a Squier Tele, I think) but I do have any number of green furry boxes with the words 'Trace Elliot' on them and, despite them being much bigger that little Boxer helped pave the way. Number 2: A Peavey 410TVX which I bought used about 20 years ago. I was saving for a new one at the time as they were about £350 / £400 and I was a student. Luckily a very clean looking used one appeared in the local shop and he wanted much less (I think I paid less than £250) for it. It weighed as much as the world but it performed far beyond what I had expected. It played loud and clean with lots of articulation - all the dynamics and nuances shone through with every note. One of the best sounding cabs I've owned, a proper unsung hero in my opinion. I sold it to downsize to an Ashdown 2x10 which was OK but not a patch on the Peavey cab. And Number 3: An Ashton BV300H valve amp with matching cabs. The head was a 300w all-valve head which sounded fantastic and came with EHX valves, chunky transformers and decent upholstery - it was basic with very few 'clever' features but was well up to the job and I did a good few gigs and recording sessions with it. The cabs appeared to be much the same and were again better built than their price tag suggested. Both came with TF series Celestion drivers which seemed to perform well above their apparently moderate specs suggested. I still have the 1x15" cab although the Celestion was replaced with a JBL K140 for an 'older skool' sound. Anyways, thanks for induging this rather long opener!

Rather than list what's wrong about this bass, its easier to list what's right about it. A list of everything that confirms this bass as being a 2007 USA Fender:

I have had a think and attached pics of the worse and best changing rooms we had over the years - A muddy horse box in a farm yard at a private event, and the best was the main ball room at the Cafe Royal over looking Regent St. as it was empty and we were playing in the small room next door. No M&M's but we did get Champagne and pistachios.

It's either A or D for me. Figure of 8 gives me the creeps somehow and anyone doing the elbow/hand wrap should have all their cables confiscated.

Yup he just loves it. I saw them last year at The Craufurd in MK. When Maiden have a couple of night at a town on the current tour, he’s scheduling in a BL gig at a nearby venue, and using some of Maidens support band as their techs!

Amazing, what an opportunity! I saw British Lion last year in a tiny pub in Gravesend, they were really good. I find it amazing that Steve Harris happily goes from playing huge arenas to small bars because he loves playing so much

I've mentioned this one before in a similar thread, but the Behringer BX4500H deserves another nomination. I gigged mine again on Thursday and was reminded just how solid it is. Incredibly flexible, every tonal configuration imaginable, loud and clear. I've been underwhelmed by other Behringer heads, but not by this one. It's easily one of my all time favourites.

Nearly there!!

I love these old designs dating back to before research and science caught up with cab designs and building cabs was as much an art as a science. The scoop horn on the back was really too small to make much impact upon the bass and the 'sound' of this speaker would have been dominated by the direct radiation of the speaker but we tried everything to lift the sound output of the cabs. Everything was suck and see, build a cab and listen, swap speakers around and try again. I still hanker after designing and building some of the more ambitious and impractical folded horns and hybrid monstrosities I dreamed of back then. Thanks for reminding me of where I came from and well done with this refurb. Please don't try to carry it on your own

First of 3 this week for us at Bournemouth Pavilion theatre. Grand old place, with a very interesting room backstage (see below). Good to meet up with @Mickeyboro and his wife before the gig too.

We just got a couple of videos sent through from a recent gig. The audio is a bit 'quick 'n' dirty straight off the desk, (had to tweak the bass in post a bit cause of tech issues caused by monitor spill). But anyway, here's a 'Royal Blood' cover. Its almost all bass from my Zoom B9.1ut with a bit of help from a sparrow Di and a graphic EQ pedal. The guitarist does play a few quiet bits, but otherwise its just me doing what I could fuddle together without spending any money when the band said they wanted to cover Royal Blood! 😂😂

The massive, weighty cab quest/collecting is at an end. I think I’ve finally scratched the itch. This cab was the final ‘must have/try’ cab that I’d lusted after as a young player. It took me 35 years to find one of them. I drove to London to collect it in December. It came with a blown driver and missing one piece of plastic trim. Thankfully this one didn’t need re tolexing. Only a couple of small nicks which I was able to glue down. the plastic trim was impossible to find. A very flat ‘h’ shape with a coloured insert. I had to create the profile with 3 separate pieces of plastic trim and then get the colour matched and ended up painting both trims so the matched. The colour is remarkably close but the remaining trim had been non uniformly faded/stained with nicotine. the grill frame had cracked but only required gluing. I added some wooden fillets to the baffle as the grill and whole front is angled back and was Probably the cause of the crack as it wasn’t supported and difference of about 20mm between the top and bottom. Baffle painted, new 600w eminence installed and the Badge attached, I’d bought the badge around 15 years ago ’just in case’. These cab restorations often end in great disappointment when I play them in a band context. This wasn’t the case with this. Very loud and consistent timbre. It’s a great cab and now Part of the ‘keepers’. There is no other cab I fancy and I’m no longer searching. That said, if a second one came along or a second peavey 3620? 🤣

Back at the scene of the crime last night, where the ABM500 I'd borrowed from @merton decided that power amps were passé and decided to blow its one, taking down some other bits with it. I only had two people ask me if I was going to blow an amp this time... Fortunately the new ABM600 held up nicely and sounded amazing, let down only by its operator missing a cue and coming in half a bar too late on one song, causing us to have to stop and start again, but other than that everything went well. Apparently I was too loud, but oh well 🤣 I even managed in this unlikeliest of venues to find a kindred spirit with whom I reminisced about 80s kids TV shows, and agreeing that excluding Tom Bombadil from the LOTR trilogy was a good decision. The band's tab was also comped by the guy whose 65th birthday party it was, which is a great thing in a brewery tap! Back rehearsing tomorrow before the next gig Saturday week.

Back in the day when bands were usually a gang of mates, a drummer I played with (through several incarnations of a few bands) was exactly that, we were best mates and used to hang out, go to gigs, take funny little pills, get off with girls, eat kebabs, etc blah blah.. This was all, I believe, reflected in our playing as a "rhythm section" if you want to call it that. We'd just naturally play stuff, lock into grooves, jam things and develop them into song structures, whatever. I somehow doubt this kind of way of going exists much now, (tho I'd like to think it did) Anyway good plan to try a "bass and drums alone" session and hope it is productive.. In your case I guess I'd make a mental note in advance of a few things or areas you think would be useful to work on. I'd start off with just jamming with some bass line ideas and go from there...

I've played with the same drummer since 2009. We've done some practices together just the two of us when we want to figure something out about a song that's bothering us and it's always been beneficial. Did it work? Well, we haven't killed each other yet, so I guess it did! But in all seriousness, I would definitely say it helped foster a "rhythm section as a coherent unit" mentality. Maybe time alone did that, who knows? Hints? Keep it light hearted, but have a purpose - like working on a song or portion thereof in particular. I'd say going into it entirely rudderless will amount to playing 2 songs then spending the rest of the time drinking tea and talking bollox.

I have short scale TI Jazz flats on a 32” Aria TSB 650. Fit well, play great. Some useful info here <https://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/blog/how-to-measure-bass-scale-length/>

Good gives me time to save for a T47 mini 😁 Now a mini T70 would rule the planet.

The decals say 'Made in USA' on both the front and the back of the headstock so it must be true. 🤣

I didn't say which way the band was heading when we got the horse box gig. Just look at Glastonbury a few acts there all back on the farm after a glittering career 😆

I did a degree in music tech. In our first studio session, we were shown how to do A and that was the expectation of the studio. The beauty of it is when you've got long runs. You can pretty much hold on to one end, throw the lead and it shoots out in a straight line to your destination. Or you can uncoil half and leave it there tidily next to a mic stand rather than have excess leads going everywhere.

I have to wear glasses to do pretty much anything. Spent a few years wearing contact lenses but in venues they would quickly dry up (especially before the smoking ban). I have varifocals now but there's a certain distance that isn't covered. It can be best described as the distance between me and the setlist. Regardless of where the setlist is! 😀

Houston we no longer have a problem! Gigged last night and I went belt/braces and took EVERYTHING; IEM, monitor, backline, Rolls PM351, Behringer P2... you name it. Intent on having bass through backline regardless of IE. Bass > pedals (ditched digital Plethora just in case it caused cumulative latency) > amp amp tuner send > Rolls amp DI > desk desk Aux send (vocals/guitar/bass) > Rolls Rolls mix desk + amp > IEM Initially all of this was hooked up with cables so that I could have no potential for digital issues etc. Amp into Rolls was fine in my IE. Desk into Rolls into IE 'awful' as before. I then swapped to wireless so that I could easier get around out front and to the main desk interface; sound with wireless bass and wireless IE was the same as wired, no change in signal or tone. I plugged my IE into the guitarists Aux channel and his bass feed was fine ergo the issue was something on my Aux feed. I then had to do a quick vocal line check and the vocal sound was equally as bad on the FOH as there was IE. My vocal mic was swapped (assumption being it was my mic), just the same! A minute of messing with the desk interface and clarity, vocal mic OK.... within seconds my bass is clear through IEM! I queried what had changed as I needed to be sure it didn't happen again and it transpires that it could have been a combination of a guitar amp patch/setting/template that was applied to my channel (my words/definition) and a noise gate kicking in/out. Apparently because the room we were playing was significantly smaller/different to any other + we were using a sub with a full range signal sent to it, we didn't use a previous saved board. I now have to ensure that when we play on Sunday (different band but same PA/guitarist), whatever was applied/disapplied to the desk is done on a saved board. Genuine heartfelt thanks to anyone who has given me pointers, tips or suggestions. Cheers folks.

You're right. All these puns are giving me a splitting haddock.

Yeah, I know, but waiting for shiny things to arrive is rubbish. I guess my main annoyance is the inconsistency - another bass gets dispatched DE>UK on the same day from same company using same courier and sails through.

It's a bit random at the moment as to how expeditiously items get through customs. I've had things sail through in no time at all and others go nowhere for a week. Unfortunately, things are not as seamless as they were...

My kitchen scale says 4.18 kg

I’m out, surprisingly a lot later than I thought I’d be at the beginning of the year. I bought myself a Backbeat purely because my gig tonight has a stupid 75dB limit (honestly what are these guys smoking…?) so we are strictly on IEMs without anything onstage. So a sort-of necessary purchase but still it stops me from making the cut this year sadly. Maybe next!

We used MU contracts but would also have a conditions of contract that went with it stating key points. Just a one side of bullet points will do. As well as electrical issues, If outside, cover to protect band from the elements should be provided, The Band requires hard surface to perform on e.g extended dance floor, or staging We reserve the right to terminate the performance should a guest or guests behavior threaten the safety of the band or equipment. A room is required for the band to change and leave personal belongings, this should be secure dry and well lit, toilets are not acceptable. etc etc. And I haven't mentioned blue M&Ms once yet. 😆

Current line-up (left to right). SQ Squier Precision (about '84), Tokai Jazz Sound (about '82), '66, SVL Reserve, 72/68 'The Wreck', SVL Reserve, '71, Japanese A/E fretless, Greco Spacy Sound (about 1982)

Someone on TB just posted this lovely rehouse.

Antidote to big rigs...my humble set-up for our Cuban Jazz outdoor last night. Note Noble and Cali Compressor on the floor. Also DI'd through the PA