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Second of our 3 gigs this week was at The Fairfield Halls in Croydon. Interesting venue with great crew, and an enthusiastic audience. Had some lovely food before the gig at The Boxpark too. Finished up our gigs with a festival at Madehurst near Arundel. Organised by the local cricket club, it’s an annual event which funds the club itself as well as various local charities. Around 3,000 tickets sold meant the organisers were happy. We were on with 3 other bands, who were all really good. Great to see young musicians knocking out recent chart stuff for the audience dancing - also made us wonder if we could follow them with our 90 minute set of ELO stuff. Needn’t have worried though, and I was amazed that a lot of the younger people actually knew most of the songs.

Settle Down festival on Saturday. We were on first at 3pm and I didn't have high hopes for a crowd but they really packed in. My mate has loaned me a very nice drum kit to try and I always think you get a new source of inspiration when on a different instrument... either that or the fresh heads I'd just put on, but it sounded awesome. Our bassist was told to turn right down on stage, which he hates. The engineer did explain the issue to him but I wasn't paying attention. Anyway, I asked for bass in my monitor as I couldn't hear the bass amp, and he says "sure, you can have as much bass in the monitors as you like". What's the difference between loud bass on stage from an amp, or loud bass on stage from monitors? I must be missing something there Anyway, the crowd were on our side from the first note. It felt like the best gig for ages.

Headlined an event called Picnic in the Park at Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire yesterday as part of the Elton John tribute band. Nice afternoon out, good crowd, didn't rain (yay!) and a big stage to throw rock star shapes on. All boxes ticked really.

I’ve been lucky enough to be approached again by LFSys to take their latest offering out for a spin. (that’s a lie, but sounds more professional – I begged via private message) Having tried the 12” Monaco earlier this year, I was looking forward to comparing the Monza. The Monza is a 10” woofer/compression driver combination mounted in an enclosure only 53x36x30cm. Yep, that’s small. It certainly looked lost in the boot of my car! The cab is internally braced to dampen resonances. Whilst small in stature, the cabinet weighs in at 11kg. It’s built to last and built well from quality materials. The enclosures are finished in a grey paint with a green baffle. It utilises a Faital Pro neodymium driver rated at 600w / 8 ohms with a hefty vd measurement of 251.5cc for all you Thiele Small fans out there. Compare this with the Celestion Pulse 10 used in the 10” bass chat design cab that a few of us have built @ 138.5cc and you begin to see that this is one serious piece of kit output wise. The design uses an in house designed, developed, and built crossover sending all the mid and high frequency goodness above 2khz to a Celestion neodymium compression driver which is coupled to a rather large vertically aligned CD horn. No token “el cheapo” tweeter spitting out some hissy stuff here for sure. A front mounted, single round port is used. I heard no chuffing whatsoever when giving the cab the beans at gig levels. A heavy-duty grille and corner protectors take care of your investment. Bespoke covers are also available at a sensible price. A single handle on the top of the cabinet makes carrying this little wonder a cinch. It’s a comfortable and dare I say “good looking” handle. The handle has also been recessed to allow for bass amps with low height feet to sit on top with no issues. LFSys listened to their reviewers and made changes to their design. Brilliant! Two parallel wired speakon sockets on the rear of the cab take care of connections. They’re mounted on a bespoke lightweight aluminium plate that really does look professional. And that’s it – all you need in a dinky package! So… to the main event. How does it sound? Good. Very good. I had a gig at a club on the Norfolk Coast and took the Monza along for a workout. It’s a strange building, as its almost three rooms joined together. We play in one room facing into another with yet another room off to our left-hand side. I would estimate the crowd was 120 or so people. It has a low ceiling and it’s probably 70% carpeted floors. I walked in with my kit (one trip – result!) and felt as though I was missing something. I placed the cab in my limited amount of stage space. With my TC electronics BH800 perched on top my rig looked, well, a little lost if I’m honest. The drummers 12” monitor beside it dwarfed the Monza. A couple of comments about the size (or lack of it) and we were ready to go. I play Glam and 70’s Rock covers. I dress up and look like a potato in a pair of flares. I don’t care. I’ve reached that age where most of my self-respect has gone out of the window. We have a drummer that is rather deaf. He sets the volume for us as a band. As hard as I try to tame him a bit, the adrenaline takes over and we creep up until its quite loud. It’s hard to describe a band’s volume, but we’re definitely not “sit and have a nice chat 20 ft from the stage” material. His monitor seems generally almost as loud as the PA, so stage volumes are high to say the least. No in ears or technical wizardry in this band, just old kit gaffa taped and tie wrapped together working very hard. Setup wise, I use a Yamaha BB734A bass in passive mode as it eats batteries, a lead, a TC electronics BH800 head and the Monza. I run a little bit of compression via one of the onboard tone print slots. I play with fingers. The EQ section of the amp was bass, low mid @ 12 o’clock and high mid and high around 2 o’clock. I find the TC heads (or at least the 2 I own) are a little lacking on the top end side of things. I recently compared it to an old Genz Shuttle 6.0 and this seems to have much more sparkle. I set my amp to where I’d normally be, and my glamorous assistant said I was a little lost in the mix. I would estimate I had to ramp up about 15% on the master volume to get myself where I like to be in the mix. I set the gain so only the heaviest of playing would occasionally wake the peak LED up. There I was. In the mix. Playing at gig levels with a 10” driver carrying the whole room. It didn’t feel “right”, but sure enough the little Monza pumped out a most enjoyable tone for three (hot and sweaty) hour long sets. I didn’t tweak the amp. I could hear all I need to hear, and I play with 20dB attenuating moulded ear plugs (due to aforementioned tub thumper) If I was doing a blind test, I would be confident that I was playing with a 12” driver behind me. The bass was very prominent without being boomy or harsh. My only concern was having to drive the Monza harder to be sat where I’d normally be in our mix. Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t complain in the least, but I knew I was working it quite hard. Gig over and gear packed away (one trip again. Brilliant) I reflected on my test. This shouldn’t be “right”. A 10” equipped cab shouldn’t be punting out this level of bassy goodness. But it did. It did it well. I still believe that you must be realistic about your expectations. For example, I have a gig this weekend outdoors for a bunch of Harley Davidson riders. Would I expect the Monza to perform as well all by itself? No, I don’t… But given the opportunity of a little assistance through the PA then it’d be fine. BUT – on this occasion I’ll take my 2 bass chat 112’s and cover all eventualities. Big sound equals big enclosures, right? Well, not always. The Monza is living proof that good things really do come in small packages. I’d like to thank Stevie of LFSys for trusting this idiot with one of his products. I’d recommend heading over to www.lfsys.co.uk to read more. Jon

Bassworld (2002-2007), then Basstalk (2007), then Basschat (2007-current). Bassworld was originally started by a chap named Gerard and I came to help him run it in 2004ish. It started to fall apart as Gerard disappeared for a long time (he had a good reason which I only found out about recently) so we needed to jump ship. Kiwi (a long term member of BW) said he'd help so we took the database and started Basstalk. Basstalk had to be shut down and we started from scratch with Basschat with an empty database. We wanted to make a clean break as Gerard wasn't happy with the fact we took the database and then the FBI shut it down because it was on a managed server in the US which was taken offline without any information. It also let us explore using different software, which had it's main major upgrade to the system we use now with the marketplace etc in about 2017 I think. I think that's roughly it, anyway. Tbh when we did Bassworld I don't think there was a dedicated UK based bass guitar form. I remember using some 'UK bassist' threads on Talkbass (who banned me for suggesting we start a UK forum, but later unbanned me). Guitar forums may have had bass guitar sub sections, but honestly as the costs were basically zero I don't think we really checked.

I played my first bluegrass gig at a festival on Saturday and Sunday. I'm primarily a jazz player but got involved in bluegrass when the mandolin player saw me at a jazz gig and after a few rehearsals I became part of the band for this festival and one in September. I had to learn 26 songs but it was great fun playing with really good musicians and it certainly keeps you on your toes since the arrangement that was rehearsed may not be what happens on stage, very common in bluegrass so you have to listen carefully. Great weather and a decent crowd and I'm looking forward to the next time. I used my Yamaha SLB 200 instead of my DB, easier to haul around and easier for the sound guys to deal with. Quite a few bluegrass bass players have gone to EUB's especially for outdoor gigs, it doesn't have the visual impact of a DB but it's more practical. It was at a large campground on a beautiful river and In the photo things look pretty "rustic" but it was a great place to play and the sound system was superb. 😊

Back on ham hill after a month. A bit different this time. The last time we went was with our replacement guitarist who left and this time it is with our old guitarist that came back. Although the last one should have been better, he is a better guitarist, it was warmer etc, this one just seemed to be better, everything gelled, I played well, it sounded better so no idea. Maybe it was just after we heard he was leaving, so there was a bit of a worry. However the crowd seemed better, maybe last time was just too hot, there was a lot more dancing and engagement right from the start. Played the bongo - really like that bass, plays well, used the dwarf, again, works well, especially having the synths in the board too, all on the new HB rocketship pedalboard which is smaller than the previous one (wish I got the metal case now!), everything seems to be going well, noone complained about the sound at all. Shame that it was the last time I decided to record and video rather than this time. Still, got sent a few short crowd videos.

I heard a PROPER rock band rehearsing recently - I could hear them from the kitchen. Absolutely smashing Guns & Roses, Ramones, Stooges sort of stuff and (I think) a couple of originals. I posted on the local fb group saying how good they sounded (and a request for some led zep), turns ott they're all 14-16 years old. Got loads of replies saying how good it was to hear young 'uns rocking out, and people asking when they were gigging next. There is hope for the future!

I've got two gigs coming up at the weekend, Caerleon Festival, and Cubanas, a local venue that started doing Sunday gigs last year and has really taken off. But what I'm really excited about is my brother's band have sold out a gig for Saturday evening (so I can go after the festy spot) and they are setting up on Friday. The bass player can't make the soundcheck evening, so they've asked me to stand in. Even if it's only a couple of songs, it will be great fun.

Precision. Close the thread. 🙂

Thanks chaps. Seems somebody with very little previous engagement on this site feels the need to make unqualified comment on my personal need for, or reasons for wanting, another instrument. I can assure him that all my instruments are hard earned, bought and paid for. I am also willing to pay for materials and someone's time/experience. I just thought that it may be a fun project that someone here has the access to material and necessary skills for.... and would like to join me in. Maybe @JohnH89 might like to get to know the good people on this forum and contribute a little more, positively and in general, before making judgements and commenting here? "No disrespect intended...."

Minety Music Festival on Friday night. Oh what a blast. Big crowd, they loved it. Predominantly twentysomethings, they sang along to everything but they were in loudest voice for our horn-driven version of Glee's take on "Don't Stop Believing". VID-20230630-WA0006.mp4

People might not be able to articulate or specifically notice what the bass player does, but surely a bass player that has thought about and sought for their tone, feels good and sits in the mix is going to make an objective difference to how the whole band sounds and feels? I couldn't tell you one thing about water colour painting, but I'd be suprised if brush selection had nothing to do with me thinking "oh that's kind of cool" when I see a nice daub. Passion never goes out of fashion.

Played somewhere in the Cotswolds last night. Aren't satnavs great? Started the day in Charmouth and several hours later ended up headlining an event somewhere else. Just bunged in the what three words link and headed off. Modern gigging. Don't even need to know where you are, where you've been or where you're going

The Baree was a good gig. Fantastic crowd. Blue

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!

Maybe he identifies as a Jack plug. 😁

I don’t know people flock to see the Colosseum, Hadrians Wall, The Acropolis etc and they are well past their prime.

Thanks, but I don't really do anything except tricking people into thinking I'm better than I actually am. 😅 lol Blue

I bought a bass from BD. Turned out not to be what I wanted. My return was acknowledged within the hour, bass picked up the next day and a full refund soon after. Exceptional service.

Tonight: Ten minutes from home, round of drinks on the house, one set, massive PA provided, dep singer/guitar smashed it, I sang lead on one, done by 8 o'clock and paid in cash. Today was a good day.

And...it's finished!!!! The 'last few jobs' always turn out to be a 'myriad of final jobs. Anyway, all sorted. I'm passing it across to Alex tomorrow - I will try and get him to do a bit of recording at one of their band practices but, in the meantime, you'll have to trust me when I say it sounds great Although it is just a small wiring change and no hardware change, I've opted NOT to go for the P-rails standard wiring system which gives: Full series humbucker; parallel humbucker; P90; Rails. I've used that system in a number of my own gigging guitars and I found that: - the fact that both pickups are always in the same configuration for the four options is actually, ironically, quite limiting. I was always hankering for, such as, 'neck pickup full series humbuck for the depth, mixed with bridge pickup in split coil mode to add a bit of extra treble and dispel any muddiness' and similar - I also never, in practice, used the rails by themselves...not enough ooomph - and I never, in practice, used the humbuckers in parallel...not enough depth I talked that through with Alex and, for kickoff, we decided to have a standard split coil option for both pickups where the operating coil in each case was the P90. So he can go full series humbucker with 3 way options, P90 with 3 way options and one (either) pickup P90 and the other series humbucker. It's a 30 minute job to change the wiring to the 'P-rail standard' options if he wants to try that in the future. Anyway, here are some of the arty-farty finished pics: Many thanks for looking and for your kind comments - in spite of the fact that it is another one from 'the dark side'. It's hugely appreciated

New bass day for me - and quite a special one for me personally. I've always loved the 'Smith Sound' and grew up listening to John Patitucci playing his early six string Smith. I recently realised my dreams of owning one when I bought a beautiful BT5 from Basschat last year. However I'm not really a five string player, but I can adapt. Smith basses tend to be 5 or 6 string so there wasn't much choice. But then I saw this. Not only is it a 4 string, but it's a very early one built just two months after I was. It was finished in January 1984. The serial number is 151. Early Smith basses have a few differences from today's models - first of all the brass fittings on the headstock, especially the 'S' logo in a brass disk which I remember seeing on those early Chick Corea vids, whilst my brother watched and analysed every move Dave Weckl made. I got some info from Ken about the bass who said the neck joint is a hidden mortise which I believe was inspired by a damaged double bass from a car accident in the 70s. The preamp is made by Haz Labs; it has volume, balance, treble, bass (not sure of frequencies but the treble control always feels very musical) plus a phase switch which Ken said they subsequently removed because it's not very useful. It's quite unusual to see Smith basses without an exposed centre block like my 5 string - I think some of the Hadrien Feraud models have a solid top like this one. It has a walnut top and maple back with an ebony fingerboard. The whole bass has a very light satin finish which feels great and shows minimal wear except usual playing in. It's been well looked after! I wasn't able to play the bass first so I was kind of nervous but Smith basses are so consistent I needn't have worried - the neck is dead straight and the action was pretty bang on right away. I've got the G string a little higher than my 'strings painted on' Vigier because I find it makes double stops on the G string more pronounced. As usual have the neck with almost zero relief and the other strings very low. Someone described the sound of their Warwick Thumb as 'digital' here the other day; that's quite a good way to describe this. I'll do some sound clips asap to show you. So yeah I'm really pleased. I think that's my bass buying escapades over for a while. Some pics!

KFC bargain bucket works for me 😋

Anyone Who Adder Heart - Our Cilla

That would've been a classic Vesta beef risotto of course...

That is called "real man road warn"! 😁

I don't get all the criticism of Debbie Harry. At the heart of it you have a musician who does her best for people who really really want to see her. Is the sub text that old people should give up and just crawl away or just people thinking 'I'm so much better than that'? Thousands of people were there having a great time watching someone who had given them a lot of pleasure over the years who they wanted to see live, no-one forced them to be there. Few of us will be as good at things we did when we were younger when we reach the age of 78 but if you have the energy and bottle to keep going and people keep coming good luck to you. I didn't think it was that awful either, I've heard a lot worse down at the Dog and Duck. I've played a lot worse at the Dog and Duck come to that

I currently play with an incredibly rare beast of a drummer - he is tasteful, measured and considered. We have gelled really well, at a recent practice we were working on a new tune and when we got to the end I said I liked what he had been doing with the kick. He replied that he was following my right hand. "That's funny" I said. "My right hand was following your kick!"

Some nice gigs here, folks. Clutching at Straws did Rock on the Rec festival Stamford earlier today. A lively line up of songs… we started with Mamma Mia 😂. New “floor amp” setup for our singer/rhythm guitarist and mind on other things (plus the usual “you get what you get” line check monitor mix) meant it wasn’t popping, but we played well and I mixed up the 20 year old set list for an hour of bangers that the boys had to think about a bit for once. If previous band was anything to go by, there was absolutely no bass guitar in the foh mix! Hey ho.

BLOCKBUSTARZ 70's Glam covers band at The Dreadnought in Bathgate last night, one of our fav venues. Had some issues with Handbox WB-100 DI being too hot (no pad on the desk) Bass was clipping in first set. SE fitted a DI in the break and all sorted. Great turnout with lots of dancers all night after the initial staring at the outfits for first few songs. Mobile cameras going all night from 8:30 till we finished 11:30 with a 10min break in middle. No vids or pics as yet. Group of "fans" came down from Dundee to see us after we played Beat Generator few mths back and quite a few came up from Dumfries & Galloway to see us too. Looks like we are getting a fan base Thoroughly enjoyed it. Dave

Played with The 77s last night at the Market House in Maidstone last night. It was our third gig in 4 weeks playing in Maidstone and was by far the best. Quite a tight area to set up in, but a great crowd and we ended up playing for nearly 3 hours.

Like @Franticsmurf last night was my first gig using IEMs only. A wedding gig near Holborn, the “wedding planner” company did a fairly poor job of considering both band and DJ (stage set up for DJ booth, “oh we forgot we’d need to put a band somewhere too…”) 75dB limit, we were not allowed amps, monitors, acoustic kit, even our own DIs and mics… We ended up in the corner, with the electric kit wedged between the stage and the PA speakers. Guitarist other side of the speakers, keyboard player out in no man’s land. The singer and I were both wireless so ended up being either side of the DJ booth, or on the dance floor with the lovely crowd. Going back to the organisation, we were proudly given a “green room” 5 minutes walk from the marquee which had no food, drink or toilet facilities, when we got fed our singer’s chicken wasn’t cooked and we ended up starting about 1 hour later than scheduled (which to be fair is standard for a wedding… just that by this point no one from the planners was around so no one was taking charge!!) We decided to shorten our two sets into one long one, and as we neared the end we played our “last song” then immediately got switched off for the DJ. Thanks to the minimalist set up we had finished, packed and loaded the van within 15 minutes 😂 All in all, the playing part was ace, my first IEM-only gig and it generally worked fine (got to check a niggle with my earbuds but I think operator error highly likely the cause) plus it was an excuse to buy a Backbeat. The crowd were great and danced all night. Just a shame about the “wedding planners” and their lack of organisational skill 😃

The covers band, Night Shift, played at the South Normanton Gala yesterday. South Normanton has the distinction of being on the Which short-list for the shabbiest high street in Britain but fortunately the Gala took place in the grounds of nearby Carnfield Hall. The gala is totally run by volunteers, including the bar staff, and we just got expenses plus free beer and chips. Only a 15 minute journey too. Lots of very drunk happy people dancing around to our set. It was also the first run-out for the shirt my daughter brought me back from Bali. It was a bit breezy in the field but I took off my jacket for show time.

We played a birthday party for a relative of the band's sax player last night. It was the other side of Cowbridge in sunny South Wales, in a little village buried in the farmland. I had a lift with the drummer and the sat nav decided to play games and sent us along an ever narrowing lane, until it became a farm track and then a rally stage. Several clunks and bumps later we emerged onto a real road and managed to find the venue. It was the birthday boy's back garden, complete with bar, barbecue and buffet (the three 'B's that complete the perfect gig). The whole village had been invited so volume wasn't an issue (although we're not really a loud band) and the relative jumped up to play a couple of songs with us. First time using only IEMs for me with no back line to fall back on (literally and metaphorically). I have been working with our FOH guru to get a mix I'm happy with and I've converted out keyboard player to IEM as well. The rest of the band have yet to see the light - or is that 'hear the word'? I took and used my Sterling HH - the sound cuts through nicely with this line up, which is drums, bongos, guitars x2, keys, sax, trumpet, ukes x3 and banjo along with a singer and 3x BVs. As a back up (and because I wasn't sure how much space there'd be) I took my recently acquired Ibanez EHB1000s. It stayed in the bag as I had acres. After last weeks 4 hour marathon we were all still a little weary but fortunately there was a 10pm curfew and we only played for 3 hours. Much dancing, singing along and and appreciation from the 100 or so that were there and great stage lighting courtesy of a lovely sunset through the trees in front of us.

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.

No Space Cowboy ～ Jamiroquai

English is complicated but you don’t improve if people don’t pick you up on mistakes (kindly)

Was that an anodised aluminium pickguard in the thumbnail? Surrounding pickups in conductive metal is known to affect their response by causing eddy currents - similar to adding extra coils around the pickup which are shorted to ground. It's a measurable effect, well known to designers of anything using coils. I don't know how noticeable it would be in this instance, but the premise isn't so wild if they're comparing aluminium to plastic.

Yellowhouse had a good one last night. Large sized pub in Harlow and our first gig there. They have bands a couple of times a month and it's a typical sports bar/food place. Quite a difficult sound though - it was long and low with a wooden floor, no carpets and full length glass windows down the whole of one side. The bass and kick drum was just disappearing as soon as you stood 20 feet away out front. (On stage it was loads of fun though as the bass was properly cranked up to compensate - my eyeballs were shaking. New strings on a Warwick Corvette with EMG's, a Mesa BB750 pushing hard through a pair of Barefaced Big Baby cabs.) We weren't sure if we may be a bit too rowdy/rocky for what we assumed would be a Sex On Fire/Mr Brightside crowd but had loads of people coming up after saying it was refreshing to see something a bit different from what they usually had there. Half a dozen regulars also went down the 'best band we've ever had here' convo which is always nice for the ego. Rebooks guaranteed for next year. Easy load in and excellent hospitality from the owners and security guys as well. We enjoyed ourselves. Oh, and i was back home in 20 minutes 🙂