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BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam Rock covers gig tonight in a small bowling club in Polmont outside Falkirk. Sold Out tho and what a great wee night it turned out to be. They provided 2 trays of freshly made sandwiches from a shop supplier with water, soft drinks and crisps. Paid at half time too so that was nice and we've been re-booked for start of next year again. Great feedback and lots of dancing and people simply enjoying themselves. Varied age group as well which is always good seeing the different generations enjoy what we do. Sandberg VM4 running flat into Shure Wireless and then Ampeg SVT7 Pro almost flat EQ with just the bass boosted up to about 2 o'clock. Mesa SW210/115 cabs and my EBS Env filter for one song. Quite a quiet gig as we were well down on the amps and just using the smaller 12" QSC vocal PA. I find it difficult getting into a gig when its too quiet. I prefer a bit of volume to take my speakers into "working mode" where they sound a lot better. All in all a good night and well paid for such a small venue on a Fri night. Dave Not sure if this FB link will play. http://www.facebook.com/100008786168497/videos/693312746064498?idorvanity=1143195093294609

New venue (for me anyway) last night - the Harbour Lights in Peterhead. What a different experience compared to the usual "wait a mo while we move the pool table, then you can set up everything" - an actual stage, with a drum riser, house PA and a sound engineer. Guy did a good job too - sound on stage was excellent, lots of monitors and good levels all round achieved with minimal fuss or input from us. The gig itself wasn't super busy, but we had folk up dancing and it picked up in the second half. It's been years since we played in Peterhead (not since pre COVID days) but some of our old regulars came to see us which was really cool. With big PA support my amp had a leisurely time turned up about half way instead of the usual 3/4 ish. Really cool gig, I hope we get asked back to play here.

Good fun last minute dep with Imposter Syndrome last night. Booked for it Wednesday evening. Worked through the proposed set Thursday evening. Flew by the seat of my pants Friday. Got through relatively unscathed with plenty of eye contact and knowing nods. Crowd were happy so any fluffs passed them by😁 A load of songs that’ll be standards for others, but I don’t listen to as a matter of course or have ever really played (Ruby, Dakota, I Predict a Riot, etc.,) but survived. First gig with the new car and its voluminous boot which was nice. Took the small rig (two BF One10’s and Tonehammer 350 with a couple of spare amps) and they disappeared into the recesses with room to spare. The band all use IEM’s so ran a line to mine through the Behringer PM1 and mixed with Mixing Station on my iPad

We played the opening slot at the Charlbury Oktoberfest today - so, now I have a souvenir "glass" with the band's name on it. Unfortunately, the bassist of The Inflatables (also mentioned on the glass) isn't on this forum; apparently they've been playing since 1980 and he was one of the founders.

I don't drink. I hate drunks. (I know, so why play in pubs? ) Friendly or aggressive, makes not a lot of difference, can't stand any of them. Almost by definition there are more drunks at large on NYE than any other night of the year so, speaking personally, I'd need a rather big pay check to play. On a brighter note, my blues rock trio Toredown played our end of the month residency at the Shamrock in Ipswich last night I'd say it was the best night we've had there, totally awesome atmosphere. As guitarist Alan accurately summed up 'We rocked it to the rafters' A12 shut on the return leg with a detour through small roads, got in at 1:45am but still smiling. Next up in 3 weeks, Blues at Barleylands club on a Saturday afternoon. Not been before, should be interesting.

I Want Your Socks ～ George The Greek

Bandeoke in Bristol last night. Wet night, bar staff said they'd been dead for the week - didn't auger well. However we ended up fighting them off with the proverbial soiled stick. The owner is talking about increasing our residency from monthly to fortnightly. I count this as a success.

So I have these two bad boys to compare: On the left is what was a typical AliExpress "Chickenbacker", and on the right is a Rickenbacker 4003 from 2018. The Chickenbacker has been upgraded with Retrovibe pickups, treble mount and knobs. The cheeky Rickenbacker logo printed onto the truss rod cover has also been sanded off. I thought it interesting to compare the two basses, so here's some stats: Rickenbacker Chickenbacker Scale Length 33 1/4" 34" Nut Width 42mm 40mm String Width (nut) 34mm 33mm String Width (bridge) 52mm 55mm Frets 20 22 Body Depth 32mm 43mm Truss Rod Dual Single Ric O Sound Yes No The neck on the Chickenbacker feels chunkier, but not in an unpleasant way. It's just more like a Fender Precision or Musicman Stringray than the Rickenbacker. The bridges on both basses are terrible designs, and I notice that Rickenbacker have recently introduced a more practical design as well as a single truss rod on current production 4003 basses. The worst aspect of the Chickenbacker bridge is that there's no height adjustment for individual strings, and the bar that the saddles sit on is flat so it doesn't allow for the radius of the fretboard. I solved this by having the little metal pieces that sit under the E and G strings ground down. In terms of build quality, the Chickenbacker's only production flaw is a sightly uneven binding at one point on the neck. Meanwhile, the Rickenbacker suffers a common issue - the treble pickup is not straight. This is a common problem, which I assume is left unaddressed because as the bass leaves the factory it has the plastic cover over it, but it becomes an issue if you want to fit a plastic "treble bezel". Sound wise, they are very similar despite the difference in scale length and the treble pickup being closer to the bridge on the Chickenbacker. As for price - the Rickenbacker is around £3,200 to £3,800 if you can find one and this particular Chickenbacker was £320 shipped from China (plus £150 for the Retrovibe upgrades).

Playing bass for 44 years (I'm 60) and I played to my biggest crowd of approx 1200 people this year and to top that I'm involved in negotiations to play bass with a big name next year at an even bigger gig! You're never too old... unless you think you are!

From my experience the 71 Precision that I have came to me with a lot of rust on the hardware, probably been left in a damp enviroment. Anyway I had to make a neck adjustment and found that the truss ros was seized, took it to my luthier who had to remove the fretbaord to install a new rod, the old was was badly rusted so I ended up with a new board and frets which is fine as I got it for a fair price. Looking at this one I would be concerned with the condition of the neck as it appears that some of the finish near the heel looks like damp/mould penetration and not to mention the amount of dings especially as it was only played for a short numner of years. Normal patina is fine but the rust and pitting would put me off, I think a good inspection by someone on here who lives close by would help.

Greatest female vocalist of all time for me. And Teddy Pendergrass just in case you were going to ask.

Here comes the voice of reason. For assorted reasons, swapped out a fair few pickups in my time, irrespective of the maker/cost etc, the end result is that all of them sound more or less the same. All this nonsense about growl, vintage warmth/aggression can be dialled in from your amp/outboard gear. Any nuances from pickup to pickup will be lost in a full-band context anyway. Your listening audience don't give a toot about your pickup choice either! Go with the cheapest or the ones that suit your visual aesthetic. Even better, support small makers, like Josi Warman.

For that money you can have my 1961!

NBD! Just arrived yesterday... there appears to have been a large wave of new Rickenbackers in Matte Black finish that hit the UK recently... This is the first Ric that I've ever owned. A few observations: The fretboard is Caribbean Rosewood, and seems to have a light matte finish(?). The knobs are more 'vintage' style, at least on this 2023 one. The new-style bridge looks great to me, and really fit for purpose. The stock strap-locks are apparently made by Schaller for Ric, so my locking straps snapped right in! It's not very heavy, and to me the neck seems quite thin and slim. The store that I bought it from didn't bother with any kind of setup at all... there is no intonation set, and there is quite a lot of fret buzz at the moment (I'll fix that myself...). The case contained very minimal stuff... a single dual-purpose certificate / warranty paper, together with a plastic bag containing a polishing cloth and some keys (assorted hex + case). No manual! Stickers were removed on the first day. 2BA68974-2101-49B5-B9D2-4B75797BC66D.heic A7B35AB5-D5FF-4642-9BB8-373843478545.heic 25D8F5CE-8623-4944-9A8D-C64B47C838FA.heic 5720CF65-8D1B-447F-920E-EF43D894222F.heic FEAADC73-0D29-4427-B1E6-09BB6AC98887.heic 12E73001-E99E-4C3D-B97F-593F0C7253EA.heic 09D8A5C6-C39E-4E93-A99D-841DF4F45D77.heic 3B6918C4-943B-47CC-AB79-6BD45B7BD41A.heic DA961C3F-2C66-4B6B-A506-2AAA1B481A8D.heic B8748E01-C9AF-4395-B266-944EAFF4DF84.heic

Picked this up today. Ebay 125 quid and local collection Flight cased its whole life This is the 3rd one of these I've had. This is for when my wife decides to start gigging again. She doesn't really like my Ashdown RM500. She has done hundreds of gigs with one of these and knows how to get a good sound from it

I've had a few Rics (many years ago) and tbh I never once used the stereo malarkey

Sounds a bit fancy that , would only lead to more GAS for me , as if it wasn't bad enough with all these gorgeous instruments appearing lately

"Stereo" out, ie seperates each pickup so you can stick each one through a separate amp, or whatever

No Feelings - Sex Pistols

I do need to work on the positioning of the band members/monitors on the stage - that's a very good point. Might require a bit more "negotiation though ....... We currently use a single monitor shared between the vocalist and the guitar player who also sings. If we "split up" the vocalist and guitar player I suspect we would need another monitor. I'm wondering whether that might actually be a good idea anyway, as each individual monitor would have to cover a smaller space and consequently be able to be quieter. Each monitor would also be more able to be positioned in the Null Zone of each Mic. One is an SM58, the other an SM58Beta. In the rehearsal space the bass cab is not near a wall - it's centrally placed in the room, at least 2meters away from the nearest wall. I'm trying to measure the volume of overall sound pressure waves reaching my ears rather than the bass volume. The (doubtless approximate) sound-meter app seems to suggest that we are a tad loud and that it's not just my perception or aged ears. I've re-read the info on SM58 placement relative to a monitor and we're pretty much in line with that, except the wall behind the vocalist in the rehearsal space. So next steps are - use 2, different monitors - away from the reflective wall and in the null zones of the mics. If this helps, negotiate the position of the band members on stage. (This would also be really helpful as it would move me away from the Crash Cymbal!.)

Well done, very impressed sir. Huge respect from me. Dave

Smalls change. Tom Waits

How good new year's gigs are depends very much on what sort of band you are playing. I can imaging that for a typical pub covers band with their typical audience turned up past 11, it has the possibility of being pretty horrendous. I've done one new year's gig. The line up was a goth band, The Terrortones, and Vince Ripper & The Rodent Show who do weird psychobilly-ish sci-fi/horror music complete with back projections some of which are in 3D for which they hand out those old-school red and green glasses. As you can imagine this is about as far from churning out standard covers to out of control drunks as you can get. The gig was absolutely fantastic even if some of more serious goths in the audience were a little taken aback by Mr Venom's antics. Given a similar opportunity I wouldn't hesitate to do NYE again.

I haven’t done a New Years Eve gig in years, they were never enjoyable and I haven’t missed them. I’d rather be somewhere else with my family. My last band made a decision to never do them as we’d all had bad ones.

Jesus Christ Pose - Soundgarden

Hi guys, what are you thinking on this , in need of cleaning and maybe some restoration as it’s been in storage for apparently 54 years 😧, what’s it worth and what would be the value once restored https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/david-duggleby-scarborough/catalogue-id-srda10703/lot-0e92cae3-582c-4775-9521-b06600ee80cd

Touch Me I'm Sick - Mudhoney

The thought of having to use a bass with a Fender active circuit makes my teeth itch.

I have to agree. Reverend Thundergun, one of the best-kept secrets in the bass world...passive, pure and potent!

Decided to go for the safe bet rig for fridays gig. You can't really go wrong with an ABM.

I’ve just got in from a Black Stone Cherry gig. The guitarists used various guitars, Gretsch, PRS, Fender, Gibson, the bassist used Stingrays and various different types of Fenders. The band sounded pretty much the same throughout. So if a band sounds the same with different brands of instruments then yes, very unlikely that different bridges or pickups would be noticeable at that volume.

One Way Street - Go West

Can't fault Overwater for their service. Chris May once even personally delivered a repaired bass to my house!

When I got my 4003 it wasn't set up either. The relief was all wrong so that it had a choke on the 3rd fret. The intonation was a fair bit off too and the pickups were too high. Plus, the case was broken with one of the studs having been bashed through the abs. It was new. Guitar Guitar couldn't have been more helpful and exchanged the case in a day and I did the "lower than the 9th circle of hell" setup on it. Sounds amazing now. I only got it for a laugh and now it's one of my favourite basses.

Buying the right aftermarket pickup for punk is a detailed and time-consuming process, if you wish to be authentic to the spirit of punk and truly seek to honour the forefathers of the genre. Much chin-stroking consideration lies in your path, as it did theirs.

No gigs until 10/7. 😒 Blue

Well I did this. Love it

Congrats on the new Ric. One day, I'll get one myself.