Leaderboard

Benefit for Amnesty international in Bournemouth with the Otis Jay Blues Band. Flea through Barefaced One10 and Elf. We had a dep drummer and guitarist - the mighty Robert Ahwai, who played for 30 years with Chris Rea and replaced Jeff Beck in the Jeff Beck Group (Hummingbird). He had been at college with our singer 50 years ago and, though they’d lost contact since, came down to do the gig gratis - good bloke and a fine player. Turned out our drummer had seen Rob playing at Ronnie Scott’s in the 70s with Gonzales … small world!

Two gig weekend. Night one, first time in a local pub (only lived here 20 years and been playing with this band for 7!), so didn't know what to expect, very small pub. Setup in the corner, very hot then people started coming in, and kept coming in. Setup, the sound seemed ok at front but I really couldn't get much sound from the bass in my iems - no idea why, and the bass speaker was slightly in front of me. The sound where i was wasn't great. As a result I didn't really enjoy the first half and I played really hard. For some reason my EHB strings seem really tight. Second half I switched to my acrylic bass - if I couldn't hear it and it was hurting, I might as well dazzle the audience right? The output of the acrylic isn't high, unlike the action, but I boosted my iem levels in the break and it seemed better. But so hot, luckily the guitarist had brought a fan. Very up close and personal gig, by the end of it my fingers hurt a lot. After the gig we got a lot of good comments, although the only ones I got personally were they liked the bass! Realised I had done some damage, and sure enough got blisters, which wisely I popped. Bought some plectrums on saturday, and went out to do another local club - we had never played the general room there, just the event room at other peoples request, but I had played the front with other bands. A lot more room, still hot but with a fan and an open window. Started off quiet but was soon heaving. Did the first half with the #1 ibanez that I hadn't used for a while, remembered why I liked it. Second half I did with the acrylic as it seemd that sort of venue. Everyone up and dancing and quite lively. Had to play everything with a plectrum, and can't say it is the way I play. although ok for most of the songs, but some things I really can't do - Impression I get, Alright now, poker face, so made a few mistakes trying plectrums on that. Anyway after that gig, lots of nice comments - one woman who came out to see us having seen us in another pub said that we were the best live band she had ever seen - I pointed out that maybe she needs to get out more - A lot of 'you were great lads' and offers of other gigs. Always nice to hear when you finish anyway.

Good gig with punk covers band Emergency Exit in one of our fav venues The Dreadnought in Bathgate. Wasn't exactly a big audience but we had dancers almost from the start. Feedback was good and at the break i was told by the singer that a regular band reviewer was raving about my playing. He then approached me and said he had seen the band many times but was usually too busy dancing about that he just enjoyed the music and never really gave a lot of thought to what the bass was doing but tonight he was in on his own and said he was gobsmacked how good the bass playing was. He compared me to John Entwistle and i made it look as tho it was just routine and relatively easy. Using my Sandberg MarloweDK into Ampeg SVT7 Pro and Mesa SW210/115 cabs. Have to say i was fair pleased with the bass tone tonight. I could hear every note nice and clear. I had recently changed the strings to Elixir 45-100 nickels. That additional increase in D & G gauges seemed to make quite a substantial difference to the volume across the strings. I really like those Elixirs. Dave

Absolutely fantastic!! Played the Crooked Crow Bar in Leighton Buzzard last night. Played there in February for the first time and loved it, a real mix of people in through the door who were all there to enjoy live music. We had been looking forward to this one and it didn't disappoint. Sound guy was superb, got us set up with no fuss and gave us possibly the best sound we've had, and he was dancing away making a show of the lighting too. For months now I've not really played my Jack Cassady bass. Its a lovely bass but I wasn't sure it fit. Well. EBS Microbass ii to the PA, SWR Working Pro on stage for monitoring and I had a blast. Got loads of compliments on the bass sound. Before the end of the second set the sweat was dripping off the ceiling. Can't wait to go back there.

First gig with the blues/soul band last night, also my first real gig in about twenty years barring the occasional school fête appearance. Beer garden of a pub as part of Stalybridge’s ‘Bridgefest’. Far from perfect, but we were pretty happy with it for a début! There was a guy sitting at the front during the previous band’s (very competent local music school kids under the name of The Fixations) set who I reckoned was a dead ringer for Marc Riley, but he’d left by the time we played. Probably for the best if it really was him. Also first gig for the homebuilt 1x12, which acquitted itself very well.

Played The Howling Wolf in Glasgow last night. It's unusual, in that it's a bar that only has Blues Bands playing and all the piped background music is also Blues. It was a fun gig, the place was pretty full and the audience had a really good time. We're a pretty hard hitting blues band so we fitted the bill. The manager was a happy bunny and asked us back but the times they had available didn't really suit our guitarists work schedule. We'd all like to play there again but we'll have to work something out.

We played at Buxton Opera House last night. Sold out crowd of around 900 in this grand old venue, which dates back to 1903. Another of my favourite theatres that we visit, I’m realising I always prefer the older venues to the often bland newer ones. Had to have a beer and pizza at the wonderful Buxton Brewery Tap House before the gig, where they were promoting us! Last week the band played at Camper Calling Festival at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire. Due to a family thing I had to dip out, but my friend Doug did a great job depping for me - first time in over 11 years I’ve had to miss a gig and it was a belter too!

We played on Friday night in Baldock. The sounds was surprisingly great considering it was in the pub garden. Went direct to the PA via my pedalboard with amp and cab sim pedals and into the fx return of the supplied back line for monitoring. Nice to not have to take the ampeg with me and didn’t actually miss it.. too much. Lots of good feedback from people which is always nice.

Tonight - O'Neill's Harborne (again). Good gig, good crowd - there was a hen do and an 18th birthday party in. But the big news is I used my Thumpinator for the first time, bought from @fretmeister of this very parish. Sweet Holy Moses, it sounded amazing with my MIM 70s RI Jazz - Thick, full, fat, rich, round, warm, sweet, PHAT... just glorious. You should get one.

Good gig tonight with 4 Play (kill me, not my band etc). Singer only had one brandy and coke and it showed… way less cluck ups. Need to sort the guitard’s pedalboard and amp coz the volume was all over the place. I cranked the GK at the end and I NEVER turn up after soundcheck, EVER. Not a great sound - I’m gonna bring my personal vocal mon for an exclusive Aux 2 mix next time. But: played well overall and the pub (Blue Bell, Werrington near Peterborough) is a proper music venue. Lovely people, great room, excellent beers, crowd there for the music. Lots of compliments including for my playing AND tone (rightly so, Moley’s good tonight isn’t he?). So chuffed with that!

They say that southern England is a very heavily populated place, but judging by the view from the field in the backside of beyond where we played last night I had to doubt the truth of that! Our band Mustang Sally was a last-minute sub for another that'd pulled out of a farmers 'working weekend' gig at Ebbsborne Wake, in North Dorset. Not heard of it? Well, I'll share a secret - it's not far from Sixpenny Handley... close by Fourpenny F**k. The event wasn't widely publicised, and was mainly intended for agricultural folk to try out their new and vintage tractors on a vast acreage of stubble (no, not my beard...) The hospitality tent and band seemed like a bit of an afterthought, while the two Portaloos stood like forgotten sentinels 80 yards away, a lonely walk of shame in full public view for those taken short and not prepared to pee in a bush somewhere... We could only muster four of our possible six musicians due to the short notice so we set up with just drums, keys/vox, singer/acoustic guitar and me on bass doubling sax. The tent was mostly empty til the last 15 minutes (how unusual) while the punters sat outside and stuffed down hog roast and cider whilst watching a big orange moon rise over the distant horizon. There was absolutely no sign of any other human habitation from where we were set up, on top of a hill - total darkness. It was two hours bl**dy hard work. Still, we had as much fun as we could with our clothes on and it was my best-paid gig since last NYE, so no complaints on that front. Talking of fun and lack of clothes, I got home at 12:30 am to find Mrs G still up and doing a jigsaw wearing nothing but her undies, sitting at a table in the front room window (it was a very humid evening). "What would you like?" she enquired sweetly as I staggered in. "Is there anything special you might fancy?" "Oh yes please!" I replied eagerly. "A mug of Earl Grey tea and a couple of digestive bicklies would be absolutely perfectl!"

Odd one yesterday. Local food festival at the racecourse and we’d had a tricky time getting the organiser to sort a definitive playing time, which was still changing the day before. In the end it got called earlier, causing us a headache trying to scramble the troops (11 of us). Then access to the stage was limited, having to drive through the public area with security grumbling like it was our fault- the promoter was genuinely surprised the drummer had a kit to set up, go figure. Said drummer then had an issue with his iPad losing all the charts so I spent a frantic 15 minutes airdropping them to him before we had to get on stage. The act before us overran and the promoter was still changing how long he wanted us to play for as we got ready. In-ears, which last week were absolutely perfect, were shocking and it really affected my playing for the first seven or eight numbers. I eventually got it sorted and the crowd ( not the numbers anybody was expecting) got into it and we kept them entertained. Still, band on after us put their heart and souls into their set, only for the sound guy to turn the drums ON halfway through the song. The last song of the set. 🤦‍♂️

A trip out for Fine Lines to the Moseley Folk and Arts festival. It was a lovely setup, with two stages set next to each other, with acts palying at alternate times. The back stage area was lovely, with everyone being very friendly and helpful. The stage crew were great and they put a lot of effort into making us feel relaxed and worked hard to give us a good front of house sound. The on-stage monitoring was a bit compromised, as they were using a single desk to cover both FOH and stage, so a lot of the eq-ing was set for what sounded good out front. Also, having to line check whilst another band was playing meant we couldn't fully judge what we needed. I decided to reinforce my (self-proclaimed) position of coolest looking member of the band by wearing sunglasses whilst playing. However, almostvas soon as we started playimg, I realised what a fatal mistake this was, as I struggled to see the fretboard, meaning I spent the majority of the first song with them in my mouth 🤣 There were a couple of minor niggles with our playing, which obviously were annoying for us, but overall the crowd seemed to enjoy our set and we avoided any stray bottles. One big plus, was that they seemed to have dedicated a caravan backstage entirely for my use...

What a difference a day makes (and a different bar in a different locale). Played at Wilson's in Aberdeen last night and what a terrific gig it was! Pub was busy, loads of people up dancing and singing along, real positive vibe and energy. This made me play noticeably better (to me anyway) - a good crowd always gives me that extra 10% confidence to play better, throw some shapes on stage, have a bit of banter with them etc. We weren't even supposed to be there - we were filling in for a band which had to cancel so people could only have been aware that it was going to be us instead for a couple of weeks at best. We're back in a fortnight's time, so I had better rejig the set list! Good/bad end to the night: GOOD - got the details of a potential replacement singer. BAD - I've done a mischief to my amp - the power stage cut out during the last song (preamp was still working as I could vaguely hear myself coming out of the PA). Amp investigations today. Hopefully the cooling fan has died, it got hot and protection kicked in. Amp head body felt warm to the touch, but I couldn't smell any magic smoke, so there's hope.

I was sitting in bed one Sunday morning, perusing Reverend basses on Glasgow's Merchant City Music website and Mrs BillyBass, sat next to me, started talking about going on a spa break. After a quick online search I suggested a spa hotel near Glasgow and she liked the idea. I then came clean and told her why, this was followed by a short negotiation and she agreed on a deal, she gets the spa break, and I get a new bass. On the first day in Glasgow I went to Merchant City Music and GuitarGuitar, which is just up the road from it. Both shops have a decent selection of basses; Glasgow puts London to shame on that point. In Merchant City Music I tried the Decision P and the Reverend Mercalli 4 and 5 strings. Lovely basses all of them, I picked the 'Venetian Pearl' Decision P due to its appearance, it didn't sound better than the Mercallis. They also have a couple of Reverend Thunderguns there too, these have set necks, which are glossy. The bass cost £879, which is a bargain. Reverend don't seem to have hiked their prices like Fender and most other brands. I've had the bass one week now so I've got over the initial 'wow'. This is a keeper, the pick ups sound right for the music we play, the neck is lovely, the string spacing/nut width is comfortable, and enables me to play root-octave-root-octave with a pick comfortably (my previous main basses-Charvels-have Jazz sized nuts)...and I love the look! Venetian Pearl, is actually a gold burst, going to a cream sparkle and the pickguard is a lemon yellow. It looks like a yellow burst in the website photos but it isn't.

Cheat Trick's view from the stage... open act, day 1. Stormin' the Castle

Last night was at the Dog Inn in Water Orton. As I pointed out to the others, we can boast something that the top rock bands can't - we know everyone in the audience by name. There was a small group of (I assume) locals who were dancing around in the first half and then went into the other room. I wandered in there when we were most of the way through the second half and tried to get them in, but unfortunately one of them thought I was inviting him to sing. Oh well.

Called ''Mud fest - 2023''. 2,5 hours with car. Total rain on soundcheck, but the gig was ok. Public liked our 1 hour gig and other bands. Nice outside experience, free fuel, food and drinks.

Thought I'd bring out the "Bling " rig for an engagement party gig ! Sounded Great !

Yes, the body lights up too - its an acrylic bass from aliexpress with blue LEDs - as per here:

Lovely couple of gigs this weekend. Yesterday A very friendly village pub in Suffolk who laid on a marquee and barbecue and very sensibly scheduled us to play between and 5 and 7pm. It was like finishing work at lunchtime and going home early. Which was nice. Flattering comments about both band and bass player from the very receptive crowd. Today was Bnatural Festival in Bildeston. Band on top form, plug in and play and another early finish. I’d forgotten how good an SVT sounds (so long as someone else carries it) on stage The sound engineer says he also has an 8X10 but it was a bit much for the stage today. With 4 subs out front, and the SVT and 1x15 classic cab my bass sounded huge.

Can't resist sharing this pic. Haven't got many pics with me and my rig!

Another gig in the Huddersfield locale for the glam lads last night. Great stage and boozer but the crowd was on the thin side. Fortunately the sound was great, we had a bit more time than usual to perfect the foh sound. Due to this it was a pleasure being able to nail the backing vox as the monitor feed was great. The land persons were happy despite the lowish turnout and look forward to a return. More local gigs for us over the next few weeks and trying out some new PA which should be a bonus.

Support to xSLF (IE Henry of stuff little fingers) at a pub near Gloucester... We played very well, only one mistake where drummer miscounted a 6 beat rest as eight. Luckily I was watching him! We supplied the pa which was added grief and made it a much later night but at least we got paid! Highlight was when the singer from the other support took his shoes and socks off and ran into the crowd - this was in the pub garden. Unfortunately, unlike me with currently seven dogs, he didn't have the turd eye. When he got back to the stage he complained about a terrible smell, checked his bare feet and noticed the smeared dog egg 🤣

Weird, quiet night last night. Meagre attendance, only sporadically interested in the music, sound was off/weird too - nothing I could put my finger on but my JC was misbehaving and feeding back when I had my overdrive pedal on the high setting no matter where I stood, it just seemed to take a dislike to being anywhere near my amp, the singer's monitor, the PA speaker, so anywhere really. Used the OD on the tamer setting for the rest of the night. When I say sporadically interested, there was one lass who was VERY interested in our drummer, sort of draped herself on/around him and mimicked hitting drums, mid song while he's looking at me with his eyes screaming "HELP?" - he managed to power through it until she was persuaded to leave the area. There was this guy who came up to us, seemed interested, named a bunch of stuff he likes THAT WE ACTUALLY PLAY FOR ONCE, then was missing for most of the stuff he spoke about. Like I said, weird night. It was a case of grin and bear it, be professional, get paid, eff off home. Hoping for better tonight - different venue, different town.

Good gig,small but appreciative crowd. Four piece Acoustic gig. Jenny was great with the crowd. Great low stage volume and I could hear my signal loud and clear. We provided sound and lights. I was happy with my playing. A little over a hundred bucks in tips. Not the best pics, but it's all I got. Blue

I is taking a selfie. What is the possible worth of that photo (apart from @Clarky being in it)?

@dmccombe7 - +1 on the gauge thing from me. I moved to heavier D and G strings on my fivers and I’ve found the same, noticeable improvement to balance of sound across the board

You realise that isn't actually see through, and is instead their Persian Rug finish.

This didn't go to plan... The venue insisted I use their bass stack last time, I didn't check and actually it's out of action. I also gave the singer a lift so didn't have room to bring my ABM rig just in case, so I chucked my SWR Working Pro 10 in the car. I ended up DI'ing off my preamp pedal and having the SWR for some sound behind me. It is not what you'd usually pair with this bass but it all worked out fine...

A night to remember, lovely images, especially your missus giving you bicklies!

Result ? ............. or did she hear the car pull up and the back door was open. Have to admit all i want after a gig is to get home and have a nice hot coffee and a dooker. Dave

IMO it's a big enough category for it to be a top level forum within "Gear" and not a sub-forum and certainly not a sub forum of "Other Instruments".

Obviously I don't know whether this sort of thing is important to you or not, but when I replaced the original brass saddles on my Wilkinson bridge with the threaded vintage-style jobbies as mentioned on your other thread, I also replaced the saddle screws so they didn't protrude quite as much, if at all. The grub screws I used came from Model Fixings https://www.modelfixings.co.uk/cup_point_grub_screws.htm#M3 cup but I note yours have got slotted rather than hex heads, which isn't an option from Model Fixings - however, Spalding Fasteners do offer slot-heads https://www.spaldingfasteners.co.uk/m3-metric-a2-grade-stainless-steel-slotted-grub-screws/. Can't remember what lengths I used now, but think it may have been 10mm for the A and D saddles, and slightly shorter (looking at them in situ, possibly 8mm) for the E and G saddles. Definitely looks neater without bits sticking out, and avoids the possibility of any annoying scratches and scrapes if you go in for palm-muting - I don't, so it's just for looks in my case. Gear Tart? Moi? 😁

I have specifically NOT learnt Mustang Sally, just in case..😐

He should be up there with Entwistle, JPJ, Squire etc. as one of the great British bassists.

This is the first ‘proper’ album I ever owned as a kid. To this say, when I listen to it, the raw energy and pure excitement takes me back to being an awe-struck kid. That said I personally don’t think it trounces the studio stuff. Slade had a fabulous knack of producing the most exciting studio tracks, that sounded other-worldly on the mono radio (1) at the time. Massive, boot-stomping raucous rock ‘n’ roll. Big guitars. Big drums. Even bigger vocals! For me, both the studio stuff and Alive! are fabulous, but in their own way. I’d say neither is better, just different. Brilliantly different. One final peeve I have re. Alive!, though. When I was a kid the sound of someone burping on a record was one of the funniest and cool things I’d ever heard! Now I think it detracts from the stunning Darling Be Home Soon and really wish they hadn’t done it! Though I still do laugh at burps!

Postscript to above post-but-one: Robert and Keith, our singer, we’re on a college course with a certain John Deacon - two of the three feature in this…

Post resurrection!!!! I’ve just removed my HiMass bridge on my PBass and fitted the Hosco Vintage bridge with threaded saddles As long as the saddles stay put I’m going to do my other PBass too. Very slight mark in the lacquer where the large HiMass was fitted but I’m hoping in time that will disappear? In terms of tone .. same I guess but I can get action lower and it looks more like the original. Looks like my Vintera bass now too

I'll happily mention it. It's so bad, it makes really bad things look great. I like this remix.

We (Deadlight Dance) played one of our local pubs last night. Nick (my professional other half) has been committed with family stuff for the last couple of weeks or so, so it was brilliant to regroup. We worked up Revolution (The Cult), Science Fiction Double Feature (Rocky Horror) and New Dawn Fades (Joy Division) as mandocello / mandolin arrangements. We also reworked our album acoustically. My absolute highlight was my 16yr old stepson (he has Down Syndrome and Nick is also his teacher at school) dancing away to our acoustic originals that he's seen on YouTube. Sadly, I fear I'm his second favourite member of the duo (!) but I think I still make the grade.

Mrs might help me with this one. 😎

Dylans version of all along the Watch Tower is utter crap compared to Hendrix’s original !!!!!!

Really disappointing one last night. I depped with our singer's other band and we played a holiday camp in the Forest of Dean. Arrived to set up at 7 and were told we had to wait until the bingo had finished which we did, and as soon as it did finish the bingo caller left with about 90% of the punters and in truth the evening never recovered. The band was pretty sloppy with missed cues, untidy starts and endings etc. I really felt quite low after it and considering I was the dep, felt the other band members were really just going through the motions. Makes me feel grateful for the band I'm in.

You’ve taken up weaving ?

It’s not me. I’d have put EMG’s in it.

Calm down you lot - this thread's just stalling time until we've all formulated our ideas on tone woods.