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The last year has been ... difficult! Fire destroying my flat, a back injury meaning that I am no longer able to work as an ICU bedside nurse and 'artistic differences' with a band I'd played in for 7 years. The support here on BC has been, well, I've no words! Thank you! xx My flat is scheduled to be restored by 11-Sep, 13 months after the fire! The builders have said that they are going to be able to cover the cost of a carpet which is amazing. The insurance are going to pay for me moving back (which is surprisingly expensive even tho it is just about 100m oer the road!) as well as the professional exit clean from my temporary rental. And this morning, I interview for a clinical Research Nurse (Cardiology) role and heard this afternoon that I have been offered the position, a big change ... but the "office hours" and lack of need to do a lot of moving of patients are just the ticket for my physical capabilities; but there are loads of things to learn and a lot of patient contact so my mind and my heart will still be fed! And the new band is slowly but surely moving forwards! S'manth x

Some positive feedback from my experience with Fairdeal this week. I walked in on my lunch break for a mooch, no intention of buying anything (yeah you've guessed what's about to happen here...) and I noticed that there is a really decent range of basses in stock which is a vast improvement on the last time I visited a while ago. A lovely shell pink Ashdown 'the Grail' Jazz caught my eye and after picking it up, admiring the what appeared to be a roasted neck, light weight (3.8kg) and lovely matching headstock I had a play and decided to buy it. I explained that I was unable to take it home and asked if they could courier it and the assistant told me he would drop it round my house after work. Shortly after I paid for it I checked the website and it correctly indicated that the bass was now sold out so they are clearly on top of inventory control. It arrived in a lovely blue Ashdown padded gig bag perfectly set up, only 1/8 turn of truss rod required. Top marks for customer service and attention to detail. I think it is worth highlighting these positive music shop experiences as bricks and mortar can't be an easy selling format these days but I am lucky to live in a city with no fewer that 3 substantial guitar shops plus Bass Direct and Bass Bros less than an hour's drive away. p.s. I am not connected to Fairdeal in any way, just a happy customer 🙂

I've been meaning to update everyone on here on last weeks gig. I'm hoping it will be a bit of encouragement for those who are considering this journey or who are part way through. It's the first time we've managed to get the monitor mix perfect first time and throughout the gig for all the band members. Keeping this in perspective we've never had anything like so good a sound from floor monitors even on a professional stage. It's been a long journey in time because we've had changes in band members and a lot of gigs with deps but probably only half a dozen gigs with our permanent band members. Most of the deps are more comfortable with floor monitors. First of all the experience as a band, set up was a doddle, fewer trips when loading/unloading. Really grateful for this as I was gigging with a broken foot. The digital mixer is such a boon as you don't need a line check, the meters show everything including identifying a broken Active DI creating a lot of electrical noise (I carry a spare). My own in-ears confirm the sound without a lot of 'one -two ing' the band all know how to mix their own in ear mix with their phones apart from the drummer who never remembers to log on to the network "it's not working again Phil". Today we have someone mixing out front but honestly we've saved a successful mix so actually very little twiddling is ever needed. Sound check was a minute of one song and it all sounded good, well as good as we ever do. The gig goes like a dream, having that sound in your ears where everyone can hear just what they want is so liberating. Halfway through the first song you forget they are there. No struggling to hear what the guitar is doing because you have a nasty bass trap/resonance in the poky corner of the stage with the wooden floor and low ceiling, no feedback from the floor monitors. It's the tightest we've ever played. We are all watching the audience and the interaction is ramping up, guitarist is grabbing an extra few bars in the solos because the sound is right and it's a great night. The confidence you get from a great sound relays out to the audience, frankly the fears of feeling isolated with in-ears are forgotten. You don't realise how much extra concentration you need to compensate for not being able to hear properly. It's you ->music->audience->you and nothing in the way. It's actually relaxing when it works and I sang more than I ever have before with this band, I had a little 'more me' in my ears and was confident of pitching OK. Smiles from our singer so I knew she could hear me and was happy. Yeah, it was a good gig, added to by tech that worked. So tech wise we are all in ears, ZS10 Pro for singer and guitarist, I use Sennheiser IE 100 Pro and I'm not sure what the drummer uses, Shure I think. Guitarist and I use Behringer P2's and singer my ancient Trantec wireless system. Drummer has her own mixer with a feed from the desk. Desk is an RCF M18 which is reliable and idiot proof. I've swapped out my ZS10's for the Sennheiser IE 100's because they have a flatter response and a more honest presentation especially across the mid range which helps a lot with vocals. They are a single driver unit but I've had no problem with bass or kick distortion and volume is absolutely fine they'll run way louder than I'd ever want or use. Speakers are RCF ART 745's So that's it for me, all the promises of studio quality sound in my ears, freedom from poor room acoustics on stage and preserving what's left of my hearing have been achieved by the in ears and a convenient, easier set up by the digital mixer. Any fears of feeling isolated and cut off from the audience turns out to have been unfounded. I won't be going back.

One of those new basses you find you just can't stop staring at!

daal basmati rice naan bread onion bhajis samosas

The new single by my band Hurtsfall - Tilting - is out today and is available to stream or buy on all the major platforms It's our first new recording for a while and it's been a favourite at gigs over the last 12 months where every time someone has come up and asked about "the new one" so we though we should get it recorded and released. All the "guitar" and "bass" parts were done on an Eastwood Hooky 6-String Bass running through a Line6 Helix.

Emailed enquiry about Lindy Fralin pickup at 6pm Wednesday. Response received at 7:20pm. Ordered at 7:19 yesterday and fitted into the bass this afternoon. Can't argue with that.

Oh Carillonneur Shaggy

'How many sound engineers have you got?' 'Two...two...one...two...' 😀

Private function last night in a local venue we’re very familiar with. It was a tad odd though, cause our guitarist was away, so the engineer depped for him and our backup engineer took over FOH. The sound was odd all night, I was adjusting to a more compact board I’ve prepared in readiness for a couple of shleps/tight spots, and the room is like a giant toilet, so I was glad to be done tbh.

If you're feeling brave, you could use the well know Paul Simenon technique (little known fact is that the photo in question does not capture a moment of existential rage, merely an attempt to loosen a stripped neck screw)..... If not, drill them out 👍

I can.

Oh, and just to add another thought - most hard and classic rock lyrics are not what a woman with a modicum of self-respect would want to sing.

Surely these issues are not gender specific?

😄

Don't push it, don't faucet it - Leon Hayward

I used to do a job doing flyers or whatever promo, you meet the best and worst of artists. hands down the coolest, most charming, charismatic, sharpest dressed, biggest star of them all. Even took the time to thank us, totally showbiz and total gentleman.

So far this seems to be working, early days but not had any issues resuming since I changed that setting, good shout @Dad3353

Would also recommend the ms60b. Several reasons, 1, it's a good way to 'try' multi effects without committing to the concept. It's small enough to fit on most boards, but also it doesn't take over your existing board and therefore your way of thinking about effects. Its an accessory pedal, not the one stop shop, or main focus in the same way I feel the stomp or a helix would be. 2 it is solidly built and not expensive, as far as these things go. Even brand new it's cheaper than most multis (other zooms aside) but it is also solid metal. I know it sounds silly but that makes feel more ' real' to me and not an entry level product. With these 2 things in mind I feel it can grow with your board. It's a real handy little device that doesn't take up a lot of space so you can afford to have it hang around for the sounds it does well. Also another handy thing is it's a BASS pedal. It has just about every flavour of effect but they are tuned in for bass and optimised for a bass specific role. You don't have 70-80% of the presets that are absolutely useless for your application. I felt it gave the initial explorations a more grounded feel and less likely to result in overwhelm. So downsides - it's eh, small. It does make setting up presets and the like challenging/frustrating. They have really thought about how to make the most use of of the tiny space available but it results in a lack of intuitiveness that I think a larger screen and touchscreen capabilities etc would really help with. That's the main issue, namely, it's a multieffect and therefore doesn't rely entirely on knobs and led lights. If that bothers you in this setup it's a cheaper lesson than a stomp or the like. If you are in a cover band or something where you need A sound, night after night, ideally at the push of a button. Dive into the multieffects world and just go for it. If your still experimenting and seeing what you want and what you love then something like the zoom starts to make a lot of sense. Oh and it needs really clean power otherwise it's a hummy mess. It needs quality isolated power or a wee power conditioner then your good!

My Yamaha BB734a seems to play 20 or so wrong notes at every gig i play. I've tried taking the strings off and putting them on again, but the issue remains I'm stumped as to what it could be......

Not yet. I won’t be home until the weekend, so I’ll try then. First thing I’ll try is to tap them out with a punch, and try to work it loose, as suggested above. Failing that I’ll get the drill out. I’ll report back with results when it’s (hopefully) done. Thanks so much for your suggestions everyone, very much appreciated 🙏🏻

Looking, yes. The 250 superdream was a 400 superdream with smaller barrels. So it had the weight of the 400 with the power of the 250. It was wallowy and horrible. That is compared the the Z250, GSX250, GS250 (which in itself was a bit wierd) of the time, and the RD250/KH250 which were older. Before the world went crazy with the RD250LC and RG250.

Certainly if I was starting a band, either originals, or gwad forbid, covers.. I'd be wanting a female singer, I think there's a lot more scope with a female voice.. very much imho of course

Effects pedals. Sort out a convention for placement of input, output, expression and power sockets

Classic Trace Elliot SMX gear. I adore everything about it except the weight.

I hate that my old Ampeg rig weighed more than the sun.

I had one for a few years. Didn't use him for hunting. He was a pet (purists can look away now). Great character. Used to take him for walks with a cat harness and long lead. It was amusing in the local park when dogs used to run up to him. He'd arch his back with his fur standing on on end, bare his teeth and hiss at them. He never backed away (I was always ready to grab him and pick him up if things got ugly). Must have been something about the smell or sound of him, but dogs, even large ones, never pushed their luck with him. Owners would come up and say, "Did my dog frighten your... what's that, mate?" "A polecat", I'd reply (he was dark marked like a polecat). They'd drag Fido away, complaining that I shouldn't be in the park with a "dangerous animal".

The night after the above Huginn & Muninn gig, I was playing keys and weird noises with space-rock band Litmus headlining Friday night at Tannerfest, in Loddington, near Kettering. A few photos have appeared, but I am invisible in all of them. The email I received with this photo said: "Richard is represented by a glowing green stripe" - which is actually part of my keyboard stand setup.

Here's a pic from a gig I did a couple of weeks ago with gonzo morris duo Huginn and Muninn. I was playing the nyckelharpa, while Jess played a shaman drum. It was an album launch party at an East London brewery for the band Raven Age, recently (currently??) on tour supporting Iron Maiden. Apparently one of the band members is Steve Harris's son. Hence the pic:

We’ve just had the opposite experience, much to my surprise. Advertised on local Facebook groups and JMB for a female lead to join our male lead. She would get half the lead and half the backing. We shortlisted four, and all of them were excellent at auditions in the last two weeks. It was a tough job choosing. We asked them to learn three specific tunes, and pick another one or two from the set if they wanted to do more, but it was not obligatory. In the end we went with the girl who was most relaxed, and who sang effortless harmonies behind the male lead on songs we hadn’t even asked her to learn. Two of the others asked for feedback in order to understand why they hadn’t got the job and address any issues. Our feedback was all positive and encouraging, any of them could have done the job. Maybe there’s just a lot of talent up here, auditions were in Blackpool. Rob Edit. We did ask for video/audio of them singing prior to shortlisting. I actually didn’t get to hear any of the ones we didn’t shortlist, so maybe there were some shockers, but I don’t know.

I'm an ambidextrous bass player. Absolutely crap with both hands.

As per Happy Jack, it’s pre-filled and all it takes is an accidental click on send, which is all too easy when scrolling on a smartphone.

There are several I'd love to see that will unfortunately never happen outside the realm of dreams -- Marillion with 'Clutching At Straws', It Bites 'Once Around The World', Queensrÿche 'Empire', etc.

Stellar voice, wonderful performer, and what a legacy...

That Simple Minds announcement (see also https://simpleminds.tmstor.es/😞 (footnote on product page: "product may differ to image displayed" haha)

I guess this thread is making me realise just how much I should be grateful for the excellent, committed female lead vox we have in our band and the privelege of being in the large and diverse talent pool that living in the big smoke, provides.

Usually, when I find something I really like, the company either goes bust, or stops producing that particular model. Finding spares, etc. becomes a pain. Maybe I'm a jinx? 🤭

I concur completely with this opinion. Even though mine is the entry level active version the fit and finish are absolutely flawless and there wasn't a single fingerprint anywhere that I could see. The fretwork and wiring were also as good as I've ever seen; in fact probably the best, and I have owned a Wal. There's even a circuit diagram attached to the inside of the control cover; I've not seen that done before. The active preamp is remarkable in that the frequencies are perfectly selected to maintain a usable sound even at quite extreme boost settings. Switching to active mode on some of my basses changes their basic tone significantly but the JD allows you to sculpt the tone in a more "natural" manner precisely as John describes on his website. I'm surprised considering I've been smitten by JD basses from the time I heard Mark King in 1981 that it took me 40 years to order one! I don't have a formal bucket list, but if I did, having JD build me a bass has just been ticked.

I lost interest at "I". I really hate people starting their sentences with "I". I'm a man of principle, I.

Lemmy getting ditched by Hawkwind. If that hadn't happened, Motorhead wouldn't have formed and Lemmy wouldn't have achieved metal god status and Hawkwinds latest bassist wouldn't have bought my Thunderbird vintage pro which I wish I'd kept