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Long day yesterday. Left Surrey 10.30am, drove to Manchester (well, Steve our drummer did, I sat and talked in the passenger seat), quick lit stop via Nicki McBrain’s Drum One and onto Gullivers in Manchester for soundcheck A self-promoted Katy Hurt gig with Gasoline and Matches providing first class support. (Great songs, vocal harmonies, guitar solos, musicianship, lovely people). Not a huge number of ticket sales sadly - that’s the problem with a last-minute self-promoted gig 😆 A fair bit of walk up though, so the room’s atmosphere certainly didn’t feel lacking by the time we hit the stage at 9. Just under 90 minutes later we’d had an absolute blast, played two new songs which went great given we’d only run them both once in soundcheck, and the crowd were marvellous. Used my Zoot P5, TE Elf and Barefaced Two10; onstage bass was immense and the lovely sound guy did a superb job with monitoring and FOH. Finished up, packed away, back on the road 11.10pm and home 3.15am. Very glad when the boss decided to get up at 7.30am to make a cuppa and then sit in bed noisily drinking it 😒 But a great day! Roll on Friday 13th in Sutton for more of the same, only significantly closer to home 😎

Penultimate Jump the Shark gig was a weird one. The Railway in Royton, usually a great gig. It was busy (not as packed as usual) but the crowd didn't seem as into it as normal. As a consequence we never really got into the top gear you find when you're getting a great reaction. Sound gremlins meant I had half an ear out for feedback all night too, which probably affected my ability to relax and properly enjoy it. Rig was my Ibanez sms1005, Ashdown RM 500 and TKS 212, which sounded reliably great.

Epic. That’s how last night’s gig was. We played our debut gig for the Cow & Telescope in Southend, one of the cities premier music venues for cover bands. So much so, you need to sort out dates about a year in advance. We’ve been trying on an off for some time to get in there so we were dead excited to finally get the opportunity. We brought a sizeable crowd of friends and family with us who along with the colourful regular were ready for a party from the get go. We were told that most bands on their debut at this pub usually pull 50 punters at most. Apparently we pulled in excess of 170 according to the doormen. Not far off some of the more established top tier bands on the circuit. Indeed, the buzz from the regulars was that we was just as good as those particular bands. The boss and staff were very happy and want us back next year. So yes, a great weekend!

Last night in Edinburgh's Wee Red Bar with the Girls Rock School showcase. This one featured some of the students from the spring term that I'd helped teach. Girls Rock School is primarily about helping women build confidence rather than become festival headliners, but they put on some pretty impressive performances. The punk band I'm in was supporting the main act - here's a song from our set. Includes profanity. I Like Fucking.mp4

We travelled to a reasonably new venue last night, The Foundry in Brecon, and very nice it is too! Easy load in, helpful and very pleasant owner/soundman, decent little room (maybe 140 capacity?). First up were some crazies - Anoise who had stand-up drummer, dancey backing tracks off a laptop and bassist triggering fx and playing dubby stuff. They had a dancer dressed firstly as Mr Blobby (Mr. Bezzy!) who stomped about while the band made who knows what sort of racket, complete with costume changes. And they'd brought 90 balloons, all blown up by the band which were scattered hither and thither. Huge Fun and recommended! Then we were on, unfortunately, the guitar cab was next to our drummist so he couldn't hear many of the cues he needed but we muddled through. In fact despite me not being able to hear me (the usual "everyone needs to turn down" during soundcheck then I'm the only one that does it, but luckily I can play all our songs without hearing any of it...) there was jumping about and gentle moshing and obligatory balloon football form much of the 50-odd people there. The Anoise bass player even jumped up on stage at one point to tell me I had "amazing technique" - while he probably wasn't wrong (🤣) he was a touch inebriated. Excellent fun had, and those Brecon folks are Madferit! And I used my ACG Recurve with Helix into Marshall Jubilee and Markbass 2x10. Must turn it up a bit next Thursday for 999 support in Birmingham! Finally we had Dropping like Flies, long established South Wales punkers and a proper bunch of comedians - their between songs banter was worthy of Frankie Boyle, but a bit more risque! and they were tight as a gnat's with great sound and good bunch of songs.

Yeah def similar - we’re possibly a little more raw live but I’d say we compliment each other quite well. Katy’s got a fantastic ear for a catchy hook. We’re down in Sutton on Friday, albeit a bit of a trek for you. Will keep you in the loop for future gigs edited for spelling mistakes and now to add a cool pic:

Came down from Hertfordshire to play the Brewhouse in Cardiff last night. Incredible experience, absolutely packed venue in the heart of the city centre where it's just utter carnage around all the bars. Great gig, decent crowd, probably going back next year.

Overall a good gig . However, initially unbearably cold ( 50°) and windy. When the wind died down it was tolerable. You can't tell from the video but we had an awesome crowd. We used our new digital mains. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid09zVbFaLXvdsnR7F5Cz3rtyGoEK7Z2tDpgMM3sBgxomBTxcSC17W9txgfrUVHvjaQl&id=1470144703&mibextid=Nif5oz https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02xk521A7V9AF4K2xkYgBx4wJo2XxHMktNjMXFnwRDLDTRVogGGcWPym3PAzzoUwkgl&id=1470144703&mibextid=Nif5oz Blue

Forgot to say thanks to @Phil Starr and everyone who lent amps to the shootout. I had fun playing them all, I hope what you heard was ok! 😂

What an extraordinary day out that was. Thank you to Mike and the Scrumpettes. You continue to build on the success of previous years. Wonderful. Enjoyed meeting you all so much, and missed those who couldn't be with us. I confirmed my reputation as a soft touch where buying basses is concerned - as @Kateplaysbass put it - "don't ever play poker Stew". It was apparently obvious to others that I was going to cave in long before I had admitted it to myself.

Had a great time as one-third of the Andy Wales Blues Band, opening for a band called the Cinelli Brothers at the Musician Pub in Leicester. Good crowd came to see the headliners (who were ace) and thankfully it was already pretty full when we played our 45-min support slot. We are quite a new band but seem to go down really well, mixing up some carefully chosen old blues/soul covers with our own original material, and turned up dead loud. What’s not to love?

Hastily arranged almost last minute booking at a local sailing club to celebrate a birthday. Although walk ups were allowed in free. Despite a lot of other venues in the town having live music last night we got a reasonable crowd. Small room, no stage but a good sound. I gave the Stingray its first gig despite its initial reluctance to intonate properly, I had the Jazz on standby just in case, but it behaved itself, stayed in tune and sounded great. Free parking right outside the front door always a bonus especially so with the room being upstairs and no lift. Can’t have everything. No more gigs until the end of November due to holidays to get some sun before winter comes. No pics, we’re not that good looking.

Another nice local gig in Rotherham last night. A well run and packed social club with a verrry compact stage. The audience were up for it from the start, I was just about sat on the drummers lap 😂 The club was full by the time we’d got the gear in which compromised the sound check somewhat but we managed. It was a 3 spot gig which is unusual for us but it made the night go quickly. That’s the last local one for a while, next week it’s the seaside - Withernsea.

Pub gig in Walkden, half-empty pub (like an awful lot these days), half-arsed response till, of course, the end, when the drunks were all jumping about and on the 'More!' train...luckily there's a hard 12pm cutoff, so we could ignore them after that. Inears as always were fantastic, all nice and quiet and mixed the way I like - those wireless transmitter/receiver things were the best £70 I've spent in a very long time...plus no backline to haul around means I'm set up in about 2 minutes, and broken down and into the car in less than that...

Last nights gig Sounded superb

Well, that was my first Bass Bash but it won't be the last! Thanks to everyone for making me feel so welcome - you couldn't wish to meet a friendlier bunch of people, and I got to see and play some fantastic basses too. Many thanks to @scrumpymike, Mrs Scrumpy, and everyone else involved in organizing/ catering. The crumble alone was worth a trip down the M5!

A very good day out as usual. Schoolgirl error though @Kateplaysbass - @stewblack should be encouraged to play poker by the sounds of it! Great to catch up with old friends and to make some new ones too 👍

There’s not been a great deal of activity on any of these links, so, fair enough, I guess there’s less interest than I’d hoped. Don’t worry, it’s all cool and just life. I’m not young/pretty/click bait enough I suppose. It’s likely I’ll let these links go (not that GI mag ever really pushed them anyway) along with my 7 string and a bunch of other stuff over the next few months. Sad to say, I’m just exhausted with everything. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has said such kind words.

A double header for the Zep tribute this weekend. First up was a gig in St Helens on Friday. A slightly strange venue, a very small theatre with a seated dress circle and a decent sized stage. We were a bit rusty and had one of our old keyboard players depping (who was good), but not a bad gig. Quite a reasonable crowd in the end, despite initially slow ticket sales, so all in all a pretty good night. Saturday night was at the Cluny in Newcastle, one of our favourite venues. We had Phil Manchester (aka Didge Digital from FM) depping on keys and a big step up by the band from the night before in terms of performance. A packed crowd who were great (as they always are in Newcastle), a top performance and a decent payday. A 100 mile drive home (for me, longer for some of the rest of the band), but an awesome gig…!

Yes, thanks @scrumpymike for organising, and the scrumpettes for looking after us with food and drink! And thanks to everyone else, including what was the longest raffle I can remember!

Agreed, what a super duper day, helped in no small measure by the wonderful weather, but chiefly by the forest of amazing kit and the company of smashing people. I love this place. Huge thanks to Mike for the organising and to the wonderful ladies for an awesome spread as per. The crumble. Oh god, the crumble. @BreadBin, your car is not supposed to sound that good 😍😍

Yeah - I think the drummer is the only one who didn’t play lead guitar at some point! But he did a drum solo, so that made up for it. They were great tho - a good match with our little trio in terms of the sort of material and audience they attracted too so it worked out really well.

You were great @MichaelDean. I was quietly pleased with how my Ashdown CTM-30 sounded, but was seriously impressed with the Elf and the Ampeg.

NBM = New Bass Month. Yes it's over a month since I acquired my latest bass. I prefer to post after I've done at least one gig, which in this case was last night. I bought a Dingwall Super PZ5 through BC some 4½ years ago and really enjoyed it. Earlier this year I got a D-Roc 4 and the longer scale was a revelation, which got me thinking about other Dingwall 5s. As luck would have it, another member was selling his NG2, was interested in the PZ5, and happened to live along my route to a gig. A meet took place and a deal was done - we each love what we got from the deal, so smiles all round. This is the third 5-er I've owned (the first being a G&L L1505) but I finally feel comfortable on a 5. The narrower neck (by 2mm) and longer and firmer low strings make it a joy to play, and the active electronics are another game-changer. By way of context, I had settled on Precisions as my bass 'home', which is one of the reasons that I went for the PZ5. You can do a lot with a Precision, but maybe not everything. I had also settled on passive electronics, so until recently this NG2 would not have got a second glance from me on the wall of a music shop - too many knobs, and not just one PP3 battery but two of the buggers! The plus points: Plays like a dream - if the action were any lower it would play itself. The Darkglass Tone Capsule - instead of a treble control it has high mids (2.8kHz) which is into the presence band - turn it up for MM-style sizzle. The mids control adds punch without too much honk, or you can dial it back for a more old-school sound. Emergency escape switch - if the batteries die, finish the gig in passive mode. Loads of excellent sounds to be had - a very modern-sounding bass on the whole. Plays in tune all the way up the neck on every string - not something I could depend on from a Fender. The white/tort colour combo is lush (originally came with a black scratchplate). The (lesser) minus points: No tone control in passive mode. At all. The jack socket doesn't like right-angle jacks, they tend to pop themselves out. However, the location is perfect for a wireless transmitter dongle. No Elixir strings is long enough for the low B position (please correct me if I'm wrong). Last week I rehearsed with a band playing a mix of pop, R'n'B, soul, electro-funk, and Afro-beat. Last night's gig with them was at Thatcham Festival. The guy in charge of the stage insisted that I put my amp stage right to 'balance' with the guitar amp stage left, but with no fewer than 4 vocal mics at the front, I had to stand back so that I was no further forward than the baffle of my Super Twin. Miraculously, I could still hear myself ok and I can report that the NG2 100% did the business. Never before have I played 10ths on a bass at the 16th fret, let alone live! Although you can get a kit to convert an NG2 to an NG3, I don't feel any need to do so, as the 4 pickup combinations already give me everything I need. And if I really want 3 pickups I can get my D-Roc out.

Massive thanks to Mr and Mrs Scrumpy - and all her crew - for making us all so welcome with care and attention! Great to make some new friends, learn about the huge variety of gear available, and enjoy the wonderful setting on a warm autumn day @neepheid, i hope you had a relaxed trip back to the North East looking forward to more refreshing banter on the forum with everyone again soon

Having just returned to my abode in the west I have to agree what an excellent relaxing day it was. My first SW Bash after many years in the SE and it didn't disappoint. Congratulations to Mike and his able helpers, especially the catering department, you excelled. Nice to meet some names that I only ever knew as customers. I'm looking forward to next year already.

Thank you turned the bass over to begin undoing to see if bad connection lokked at 9v baterry did the tongue test nothing put new one in up and running thanks again for your time 🫶

Private function in a cocktail garden in Hereford. Pretty fab night all round, small crowd of lovely folks, paid well, easy load in, good sound. All good Outdoors, but under cover and a pleasant, balmy evening. I used my new bass and was very pleased with it. It’s been a bit of a nightmare situation, but almost sorted. I might post about it soon, it’s pretty damning for a well known bass specialist retailer. Sadly the video was shot using a potato. VIDEO-2023-10-07-01-31-13.mp4 VIDEO-2023-10-07-01-29-00.mp4

So ive upgraded from there Blooper to the Dirt Fixer and damn having the eq is a massive plus this does so much more and its made even my fav drives/fuzz sound better! The del Fuego has replaced the Fig Fumb V2 for a min The sound last night at the gig was grand! this video clip is the ehx nyc in the loop of the DF into my ashdown little giant 1000 ( and the sound guy put a mic on the cab!) 385803030_6353566981419598_2254543085833442014_n.mp4 My bands called Stealth Moose if you fancy having a listen online \m/

So, if you don't mind me asking, what did you buy this time? ) 🙂 Another great day and I second the thanks to all those involved in the organization and to everyone who bought fantastic interesting gear to see and try.

Thanks for all of your input. Been playing the bass most of the weekend and really falling for it I sent an email with photos of the damage to the place I bought it from and will update with their reply/suggestion. If they knock something off the price or give me some in store credit, I think I'll hang onto the one I have now. This one was the only one they had in stock the time I ordered.

That's a cool band you've got. Proper old-school punk sound.

From the limited amount I’ve heard from Gasoline & Matches I quite like them so will have to check out the Katy Hurt material if of similar genre?

Aren't they! We supported them last year and they are totally brilliant. Nice guys, too. I thought - their bass player is a bit good. Then they swapped around and he was an even better guitarist!

Did you look at the instruction manual? Reddit, Reddit

My cooker chew. Alvin Starbucks

You’ll always find me in the kitchen at parties. Jonah Lewie

My daughter wants to play! Happy days! Also twice as much gear to buy which I see as an additional plus point. She quickly dropped playing guitar after a couple of tries but has stuck at 4 strings and asks me to use a bass almost every night. She got the bug big time and is soooo excited by anything and everything bass. I'm loving it ❤️

No, that's more than a £100 ding. B stock stuff, if the dings are more than superficial, can be 20% off full price.

That’s an awesome bass…. F*** the ding. If you can get some kind of compensation, that would be good, but otherwise, Keep it and enjoy it

Sounds like somebody left the lead in the jack socket when the bass wasn't being used.

High on his pills lived a lonely goatherd, yoddle, oddle, oddle, oddle, oh, eeh, eeh ... ...

You’re a better man than me for allowing the mixer to be placed on top of your cab! Admittedly I am a bit touchy about things that may vibrate or cables everywhere though, and when set up space is limited there are sometimes no other options. Like the look of your TKS cab too. 😊

I'll raise a cheese scone in your honour folks 👍