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Just back from my first gig in 8 months. The break was due to osteoarthritis in my left hand fingers. A few weeks ago I bought a couple of short scale basses (Mustangs) in the hope that I would be able to continue playing, and tonight was the time to put the theory into practice. Well, it certainly worked - we played as a three piece, so lots of room for interesting bass, and we held a good crowd outside a small pub in Witney, even though it was pouring with rain. We had a gazebo style canopy over us (that the bar owner put up) but the weight of water on it caused a small waterfall to cascade between me and my amp & cab. Luckily, the mains plug and socket was just out of range, but we stopped and moved the sensitive bits somewhere safer. Home again, no problems with my fingers after nearly two hours of energetic playing. Good to be back!

A smaller cricket club gig last night so I thought I'd give the Elf a run out, and oh boy did it not disappoint. Plenty loud enough and great tone, and I think will my smaller gig amp of choice for the future so I don't have to lug the ABM around (although it will remain in the boot of the car as a backup). Not a huge crowd who mostly stayed seated all night, but they seemed to enjoy it so happy days. I even met the band's first bassist which was fun, and I suspect was the cause of some ego stroking by the rest of the band as I gather he left under not the best of circumstances. It was a clammy night so my strings and neck were stickier than usual, and led to some on-the-fly simplifications as my fingers got stuck, but otherwise I was really happy with my playing. Some u fortunate humming from my pedalboard meant I had to stick to just the tuner and compressor, and so I think my cheap-as-chips daisy chain power supply might need an upgrade!

The covers band, Night Shift, played ‘top of the bill’ at Folk in The Woods for the Waingroves Community Woodland. As far as I could tell, no acts were folk music! Anyway, fun times with lots of well-oiled punters dancing away. Those familiar with the Derby/Notts borders will know that up to 40 years ago there were coal mines all over the place. Now, unless you have personal knowledge you’d be hard -pressed to tell. The venue was a case in point. Apart from the odd bit of brick and girder work here and there nature has reclaimed the site. It’s being brought on as a nature reserve and community asset by local volunteers. Back line supplied, so I took the opportunity to travel by bus with my bass and walk the mile-or-so through the woods to the marquee. Fortunately we had a window of fine weather to travel in, play our hour and move off after the 8pm curfew. I just made it back to the bus shelter when the heavens opened. It was an interesting ride back to town through flash floods and lightning. A £2 thrill 😆.

We did our annual gig last night at Conkers Discovery Centre, which is in The National Forest in Derbyshire. It’s an outdoor gig, in a small natural amphitheatre next to a lake. Great PA from Roger at Sonar PA and Lighting, and a capacity crowd despite the dreadful weather - torrential rain and lightning. Most of the audience were under cover but those who weren’t didn’t seem to mind! They were very appreciative of local band ‘Landslide’, who played a brilliant set of Fleetwood Mac tunes to start the night. We then went on to do one 90 minute set, which flew by. Quite disconcerting to hear torrents of water lashing down a few feet away from your bass rig, but no real issues thank goodness. The usual speed limits and diversions all the way back meant I wasn’t home until 2am, feeling rather knackered.

BLOCKBUSTARZ 70's Glam band at Cairnsmill Caravan Park, St Andrews. Friend of the band has a caravan there and asked us to play once before. During that visit a woman took a heart attack. Luckily our singer Lynn is a nurse and jumped right in until ambulance arrived. She was ok the following day. Tonight we managed to complete both sets without any serious issues or events. Odd how we advertise as a 70's Glam Rock covers band and we still get requests for other styles of songs. Tonight a young woman asked if we could play something for the very young kids like Shania Twain. We had to explain that wasn't a 70's Glam cover. Mmmm Another weird gig with lots of cameras going all night and lots of applause and cheers etc but no dancers until last 8-10 songs and then requests to do more. Great feedback at the end too. The young kids were up dancing all night until there bedtime took over around 10 ish. Not keen on these kind of gigs where the interaction from the audience is almost nil during the songs. Hopefully last time we do a caravan park with no curfew on kids. Dave Forgot to add it was a 2 hr drive home in torrential rain. Home at 3am, coffee and biccies and bed at 4 back up at 8 with a cat walking round my head and not the usual wee pain in the bot,

Sarum’s Lot played at The White Hart, Bishopstone near Salisbury - they had planned a Sausage and Cider fest (what’s not to like?). We ended up playing inside since the weather was against us (seems like pretty much everywhere has rain yesterday), a god turn out, got rebooked and had the offer of a couple of private parties which are always welcome, thoroughly enjoyable despite us not being quite at our best.

Two this weekend, both pubs not too far away Friday was The King's Head in Seaford, I quite like it there nice folk if a bit quiet as it was so hot and most were in the garden Saturday was The Garden Bar in Eastbourne; I'd had a very challenging day with our autistic/ADHD children to the point of unsuccessfully trying to find a dep, but by some stroke of luck managed to get the youngest settled for bed before going out with just enough time unload, set-up and start playing. I was running almost entirely on adrenaline so gave a very energetic, cathartic performance - really needed it and it went down very well.

We played at Dublin Castle on Thursday night. Seems to have got fair reviews.... 😁 😁😁😁😁🤘

Back at one of our regular pub gigs in Brixham. A bit quieter than usual as it wasn't advertised, but with some of our regulars and the rest it was ok crowd wise. Got complimented on my playing by some old boy who chatted to myself and our drummer when packing up. A big surprise was getting asked out by a lovely lady, a friend of one of our regulars, who I was chatting to in the break. She was a bit embarrassed she hadn't seen my wedding ring! Still, it's good to know I've still got it, although it wasn't my bass playing that got her attention.

Summers night, outdoor gig, riverside, pub, what’s not to like!

Played a hot and sweaty pub gig last night in Stanton Suffolk ( many punters outside due to heat ) Jazz bass used with a pick through my Ashdown ABM600 and SVT212AV cab. Very pleased as I had a great sound and using the pick really improved the clarity. Happy venue who claimed we were the best covers band they had ever booked !! Drink 🍺 talk I assume !!! It was a revelation for me who in the past played finger style but always found something lacking. The new set up with a pick, EQ pedal, Jazz bass and both pups on full sounded good. This is my new favourite pick

Private party in a marquee last night. The whole thing overran so the guests were fairly far gone by the time we went on, but we won them round. I used the Trace Elliot on my Zoom B6 as a preamp DI and it sounded to my ears very nice indeed. Paid and home just after midnight. Win.

We were playing at the Dark Horse in Moseley, Birmingham last night with 3 other bands... And we were very grateful for the cloudbursts and lightning because it meant that the organisers of the Mostly Funk and Soul Festival just up the road closed down early due to being scared of imminent deaths. So as the Dark Horse was the nearest pub, and the venue upstairs was free entry (donations gratefully received!) it was packed. First band on were doing Joy Division-ey post punk and were OK until they had a melt down (with tears!) over the lack of vocal monitoring (welcome to rock'n'roll in pub (and other!) venues...). Next band were pretty decent, with groovy bass and excellent drummer and slightly crazed ranting and guitar FX from dishevelled singer. I liked 'em! (Pulsar). We came on to a pretty full house, with folks actually moving about (I hear it's called "dancing"), lots of cheering and even folks seeking us out to give compliments, rather than the usual pitchforks and flaming torches. We even got paid (a bit!) and sold some tshirts and cds which was nice. And even better, my Super Mario Cart managed to smash the Google maps expected return travel time of 1 hour 45 by 25 minutes! Snippet (not sure why uploaded mp4 video comes out audio only?): KissThisDH8-7-23.avi

Mustang Sally played the Gillingham dorset music festival on Saturday afternoon, good setup with two outdoor stages and PA provided. Our 75 minute set went well, but the rain that threatened arrived big time for the last three numbers. The stage was well protected but the punters weren’t, didn’t stop them dancing resulting in a lot of wet but happy people!

A corporate family fun day event, for Cat Surveys in Brentwood - a.k.a “CatFest”. Really nice setup when we arrived, with a small fun fair for children (inc dodgems and lots of inflatable bouncy things), pizzeria, candy floss station, hotdog wagon, waffle vendor and bar… all free! We were given a 90min slot from 6pm, after a children’s entertainer and before the DJ, in a lovely, large teepee with plenty of space to set up an and a generous dance floor. Not a lot of time to set up everything - just about 1 hour, but we did it with minimum fuss and with discipline. We finally got our IEM issues resolved with a single, balanced mix for everyone (some of us wired and some on wireless all from a splitter box). Me and the two guitarists each brought our usual frfr speakers as backline which were left switched off - I finally feel like we’ve reached the point we don’t need them anymore. The IEM sounded great, and the recent addiction of a sub woofer has filled out the FOH sound. As such, all our vocals were on point - a couple of songs with big harmonies/backing vocals such as “Blinding Lights”, “Long Train Running” and “I Gotta Feeling” sounded massively incredible in my ears. Apparently the sound out front was just as good. We played well, and kept the set moving with minimal gaps between songs. It took 20mins or so for people to have the courage to come in and have a dance, but after 40mins, the dance floor was full and stayed full (which surprised me as it was twice as hot inside the teepee than outside - sweating buckets!). Only a couple of fluffs from me, one brain fart and one where I jumped a song in the set, but I saved them both and nobody noticed apart from the band). Happy people and happy customer who said they loved it and definitely want us for next year’s shindig. Oh, and the heavens opened just as we finished packing the cars - so we stood in it and basked in the cool rain. Obligatory photo of the setup:

The 77s played the Friday night of a local private festival called The Big Stiff, near Sevenoaks. They had hired in a full lorry to play on, and a full pro PA and lighting rig, along with sound engineer. It was great to play on such pro equipment compared to our usual Facebook marketplace PA & lights. It went pretty well, and we were able to get some good pictures and videos for social media. All I had to take was my bass and pedal, and one of the best things about the night was it only taking 5 minutes to pack up! we played for over 3 hours, which became a bit of a drag to be honest, as it had been a long hot night. I am trying to convince the rest of the guys to play for a bit shorter duration - less is more etc

A park bench in DC. Quite surreal!

Feet? Luxury! The overflow from the hasty erected gazebo formed a small waterfall about 3 inches in front of my cab and at one point my mains power block was sitting in a puddle while I was playing. Obviously wasn't my time to go, as nothing went wrong. I suppose if it had, I might not be here to type this today!

Turns out that CNC machines in China and Indonesia work in exactly the same way as CNC machines do in Mexico and the USA!

This weekends rig!

We were Passing the Dutchie and headlining at CamperJam last night in Weston Park. Great audience considering there were a few heavy downpours, there were still shed loads of people who still stayed out to catch our set.

First gig for us last night at the Howlin’ Wolf in Glasgow ( there a separate thread about playing in the ULEZ zone 🙄 ) and it went down a storm with the crowd. Before we started we got requests for AC/DC and Led Zeppelin, so carried on with our planned set list. Afterwards the bar manager said, despite the crowd and reactions, they might not book us again, as we weren’t “Bluesy enough”. After such a good set and fantastic audience, it was a wee bit of a sour taste, but it’s their pub and they’re trying to carve out a niche in the city centre, so we’ll wait and see what’s said on Monday. But it’s typical of my luck right now, spending £15k on a crew cab lwb van for one gig. 🤣

Yep and I can't play the bagpipes either, thankfully.. 😁

NBW = New Bass Week, as it is 7 days since I bought it. I've been a Precision devotee for some years now - a good P does 95% of what I want from a bass guitar, so I had ended up with 2 actual Precisions (a '73 and a RI '63) and a Dingwall Super P 5-string. The other 5% is what you get from more than one pickup, and/or a bridge pickup on its own. Jazzes never did it for me though, and I recently started looking in earnest for an alternative. I'm not drawn to active circuits either, which narrows the field considerably. My shortlist included the Dingwall D-Roc. Bass Direct had 4 in stock, which dropped to 3 even as I watched, but then one came up on BassChat so I arranged to check it out and duly purchased it from the gent known on here as @Jimryan. The following day dawned with a serious case of buyer's remorse - had I blown a considerable on something I didn't really like? Then I got it out to play again, and all such thoughts swiftly evaporated. I have spent some time fettling it to suit my own preferences, which involved filing the nut slots, fitting new Elixir extra-long strings (I didn't care for the Paysons it came with), and making adjustments to the truss rod, action, and pickup heights. I spent some time at home getting used to its range of sounds and how it responds to my playing. The major wow happened when I took it on a wedding gig last night - Demeter 800W head into BF Super Twin. Not only did it play effortlessly but it sounded phenomenal in all 4 positions on the selector switch. Those different sounds cover all the main bass pickup 'food groups'. You can get an after-market replacement switch to give you 2 more options, but tbh I think Sheldon has nailed it with the ones he's chosen. The extra tension in the low E (with a scale length of over 36 inches) meant that I could play notes on it that I would normally choose to fret on the A string, with no flub whatsoever. A friend asked me 'Is it as punchy as it looks?' and as I told him, 'punchy' is definitely within its repertoire! The position of the strap attachment points means that it balances perfectly, and the head end is not uncomfortably hard to reach. The only downside is that the bass-side part of the lower bout sticks out where you don't expect it to, resulting in the occasional clash with (a) my cab and (b) parts of me. I've included the second photograph in an attempt to convey how sparkly the finish is - it's as sparkly as a very sparkly thing on World Sparkle Day. More so under stage lighting - we're talking Sparkly Mc Sparkleface here. The eagle-eyed may notice the absence of the black striped vinyl 'scratch plate' - that was removed before I bought the bass, a modification of which I approve 100%. I can barely wait to play this live again - would it look out of place in a Dire Straits tribute?

Oy @Baloney Balderdash, don't be 🤣 I definately get a different tone from my Ibby 28.6 inch and my Kala 23 inch, the latter is smoother and sounds more like an upright to my ears ... I love them both! IME Sorta. There are different string formulations (and even steel wound) available. The intonation ... challanges ... are partly due to the physics and lack of adjustable string scale lengths, but also technique plays a big part. I used to really struggle with intonation on my Kala 4-str fretted UBASS, anywhere above the 5th fret would start to sound off! A lighter touch (and also tuning at the 3rd fret instead of open) helped a lot. For me the game changer was going fretless, which now that I'm used to it, works really well (and also adds to the tonality I enjoy on the UBASS), tho my fretless 5er has a slightly longer scale length which also helps. S'manth x

Spotted in my local rehearsal studio: 🤣

I get this - I think the frets hold the notes on to the fingerboard and if you don't have any the notes slide off the neck overnight.

I find my fretlesses completely mysterious, in that it's a complete mystery where the notes are...

Eh, don't over analyse it - I used to have a G&L Tribute L-2000 which I modified to give 27 different switch combinations (pickup select, series/single/parallel, passive/active/active with treble boost) plus 2 band passive EQ. Found one combo of settings I liked (both pickups, single (inner coils), passive) and left all the knobs at 10 for practically the whole time I owned it!

The name of my next band. 😄

That was the same as me, I’ve no use for slap reggae 😁, but I wanted to be able to play one tune I really like which is Forget me Nots, I watched so many videos and tutorials but couldn’t get it right , I ended up having lessons , imo it’s much harder than it looks and takes up a lot of time, I don’t like the really fast stuff but this is pretty cool

I just pulled the trigger on a Rootmaster 500w 2x10 combo, as an upgrade from the 300w Studio 15. Hoping for a bit more clean headroom. I have a 1x15 cab to go under it if I need to, but I'm hoping to run it as a stand alone. I guess I'm a convert to Ashdown, I dig the punch and flexibility.

I'm not anti-slap AND I can't do it. Do I win a prize?

I had this exact model of Dymo when I was a kid...

Grabbed this medium scale fretless (think it’s been converted to fretless) jazz, with trem from eBay recently. Really great fun, now on a bit of a hunt for a fretted version / or fretted neck to fit. I really like how the body and headstock are slightly smaller too.

I wouldn’t dare. My bass has a sharp left hook.

If only there was some kind of online academy where there were resources for learning stuff like this, they should send out emails relentlessly about the subject

I can't help thinking that a lot of the anti slap brigade are people who can't do it.

That's more than enough for anyone...

I love my 28.6" scale 4 and 5 string Ibanez Mikro Basses, so much that the 4 string has been my main for the last past 10 years, and at the moment I am exploring the 5 string, which otherwise haven't got much love. But that's also about where I set my limit of how short a scale a bass can be for me to feel comfortable playing on it, and for it to sound proper, though I am aware that you will have a different opinion on this, but I like my tone to have some zing and snap, and those Uke basses just have a bit too fundamentals dominated and smooth tone to my liking. In fact I even string my Mikros with relatively thin gauge strings and tune them both, yes also the 5 string, to F# standard tuning, the is 2 half steps above regular 4 string E standard tuning, to avoid thud. I should probably make clear that my point with this was not to be that guy who budges into threads/topics where they don't belong to tell everyone that they are wrong, it was really just to say that I have a love for sub short scale basses too, just not that short. To each their own, and more power to you folks for loving you Uke basses.

This is it, by the way. Looks (apart from the refret and refin) pretty stock to me.

A lot of people have it in their heads that Fenders are better than Squier - fair enough. Are they ten times better if the price is ten times more? No! When I started playing the build quality of Fenders was abysmal which set my mind to thinking that people are buying Fenders because that's whats on the headstock. This has stayed with me for my whole playing "career" - I've owned a LOT of basses but only about 3 Fenders. What you get from a Squier is a good, well put together bass with good tone. What you don't get with a Fender is a 10x better bass, 10x better put together or 10x better tone. For your money, the Squier is the better bass.

If Mark King never had a dummy... his thumb would of been busy... and things would be different... just saying... time travel and all that, whilst ya sortin out Hitler and JFK, that kinda thing... know what i mean... wink wink... Steal his bloody dummy!..

I've only tried maybe a dozen active Fender basses, never found one that had me reaching for my wallet, but these really surprised me, especially the P bass...impeccable fit and finish, fantastic neck and fretboard, and the pickups and electronics seem made for the GHS tapewounds