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Last nights Hogmanay gig with BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam covers band went pretty well. Lot better than we all expected at Westlands Country Club in Annan. We were simply advertised as BLOCKBUSTARZ but no pics and no mention of being a 70's Glam covers band. Singer overheard a couple of guys saying they hoped this wasn't going to be a guitar rock band all night. When you have guys turning up with tweed and wax cottons on it doesn't look good for the night. Majority of people had no idea who the band were and the look on their faces when we walked in was a treat and several bottom jaws needed to be pushed back up in place. It was very slow to start but we did have a row of kids sitting in a line on the floor directly in front of us who seemed to be having a great time. We did notice a lot of cameras being used and we did get decent applause and cheers after each song but the dancers didn't really start until a few songs into the 2nd set. and by the end of the night floor was full. We finished our set at 11:45 to allow for a piper to bring in the bells. As we finished the organiser came up and asked if our singer could bring in the bells and announce the piper. Not part of the contract but we obliged and the young piper took us up to and thru the bells. Organisers were pleased with how the night went and thanked us for a great night. We did the usual requests for songs that had nothing to do with 70's Glam Rock and even for a song to dance the slosh too but unfortunately we dont do that. Home for 2:30 for my usual coffee and biccies. At least the roads were quiet on way home. Think i saw about 3 trucks and 2 cars on M74. Back up for hungry cats at 8am so a wee bit tired. Only the pre-gig dressing room pic at moment Dave

Hey folks! A dream of mine for many years has been to build my own bass, from scratch. I was formally a carpenter, and I've done repairs, services, setups and mods on guitars and basses for many years. However, making the neck from scratch always scared me too much! My long time friend and guitarist/singer in my band started building guitars a few years ago, and has made quite a few now, with great results! I asked if he would help me build a bass, and at the start of this year we began. Finally, in early December we finished it, and I have already gigged it! I'm so happy with how the neck turned out, and it sounds incredible. I still have a few minor setup tweaks to resolve, and I did mess the paint job up not once but twice, so a respray might be on the cards in the spring. I had it in my head that I wanted to use native British woods, so the body is solid Poplar, and the neck and fretboard are Sycamore. It's nice and lightweight! I based the shape roughly on my old Yamaha BBN5, as it's just a good, generic, comfortable shape, but nut width, fretboard radius and string spacing are based on my Sandberg California TT5 passive. I struggled to find Alnico V PJ5 pickups at the right spacing, and was recommended Catswhisker pickups. Allan did a fantastic job, and they sound amazing! I'm really pleased with it, and I really look forward to playing it more next year! I'll try to take some better photos when I can. I did mess up the paint job not once, but twice, so a respray is probably on the cards in the spring! 😅 Specs: Solid Poplar body Sycamore neck and fretboard Black dot inlays Dual action truss rod with carbon fibre reinforcing bars Gotoh hardware Graphtech nut Custom Catswhisker Alnico V PJ5 pickups VBT 'no load' passive controls Lychee pink Matt finish

Back home from our NYE eve gig at The Oak in Sevenoaks. We had our first gig as a band here earlier in the year and so it was nice to be back. gig went well, the pub was very busy but it took a while for the dance floor to fill up, but when it did it was chaos. Drinks being spilled everywhere, mic stand & iPad knocked over, people walking across the band area and tripping over our cable etc, I am amazed that nothing got broken. the very drunk crowd did spoil the enjoyment of the gig due to constantly having to keep an eye on the equipment. I had to move my couple of pedals to the back of the stage by my amp due to spilled drinks. we ended up moving some of the songs around to try and be more adaptive and reactive to the crowd. We initially dropped Club Foot but then ended up playing it just before midnight. The crowd were singing the bass solo, which was a very bizarre experience as no one has ever sung along to a bass solo at a gig before! overall it was good fun and only half an hour from home. The main downside of today was getting some of the band lights out of the garage and discovering a leak

Great night in Bradford on Avon with the ska band. Half judgment half luck, we managed to time it just right with the last song of the set finishing a couple of minutes to midnight... countdown, skanky 'Auld Lang Syne' and then straight into a few more tunes. Crawled into bed at five to three. Too old for this sh*t I'm getting.

Maple Road NYE 2023 The Precinct Germantown Great gig. However NYE is always a smooth sailing gig. 📸 Watch this video on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/share/v/2QnnqnBYuTBBL2t2/?mibextid=qi2Omg

So, I got through the dep gig previously posted about. I ended up being the one wearing the mask, while Covid afflicted drummer coughed away behind me. It was a private function for a bloke’s 70 in a large pub. As can be seen from the photo, it was pretty cramped for the 6 of us. We had a lot of feedback issues tracked down to one of the drummer’s overhead mics, the sax player’s mic attachment and I suspect the guitarist’s miced cab. We cured the first two after an anxious half hour but the latter announced itself between each song. The gig itself went really well. Lots of dancing and general appreciation from around 100 party goers. I only came unstuck once, which was not being able to remember the groove for Stand By Me, which is embarrassing when you are doing the intro. My mind went a complete blank. By the end of the third set, about a quarter past midnight, I was really enjoying myself and wanted to keep going. Gear was a Maruszczyk Elwood 4a (medium scale) through an MB LMIII and Barefaced Two10, with a DI the PA. Got home about 2am. Crossing my fingers that I didn’t catch Covid from the drummer and I will be able to have my operation on Tuesday!

To Mere in Wiltshire for Mustang Sally's final gig of '23 - the rest of the band live very close to the town but I had a 50-mile journey through some very heavy rain and minor flooding; still, say what you like against 4x4s, but when it comes to this kind of journey the Jeep Cherokee just lapped it up! The George pub has three large-ish bars - we were set up in the front one with all tables taken and a lot of punters eager for the gig to start at 10pm. Due to lack of space in the band area and the low ceiling I decided to use the HB shorty rather than the Bongo but made a mistake in not putting a booster pedal in the chain thinking it wouldn't be needed - but it would definitely have been handy. Although the bass was going through my Ag700+Darkglass 212 rig as well as the PA, volume levels on the PA couldn't be maximised due to the room acoustics giving incipient mic, sax and acoustic guitar feedback, so I was left with the only option of cranking the amp up to 11 just to be heard... recordings I made revealed later that this was not excessive! Pix below show cramped 'stage' area. We had a great time, with the place rammed until we finished at 00:50 - 20 minutes extra so the landlord paid us extra too after a very busy night for him, saying that last year there were only half a dozen punters at 11pm so he'd paid the band off and closed early (wrong band maybe?!) and watched Jools Holland instead! Old Lang Syne was successfully tackled, our lady singer climbed on a table to deliver the last few numbers, the drunks managed not to collapse into the band gear, and we were able to introduce a couple of new numbers. 'Brown Sugar' may not be quite PC nowadays but the audience loved it; 'Hotel California' is an interesting thing to play on bass (I realise now why the Eagles dubbed the number 'Mexican Reggae') but it needs polishing before we resume gigging in March. It was really nice that Mrs G agreed to come to the gig and enjoyed herself - she has developing Parkinson's and has lost so much confidence in communicating and being in new places with strangers over the last year, but all the folk at the gig were so friendly and inclusive - surely the best kind of therapy! It was another wet 50 mile drive home, arriving at 02:30, asleep by 03:15, feeling whacked out today!

Played a dinner dance with friends last night at a nice hotel in Scarborough. Usual type of stuff, so we started off with some jazzy standards only for a lady to come over and request ‘some Quo’. Quite surreal for me to be singing ‘Rockin all over the world’ at 8.30pm on NYE sitting down & dressed in a dinner suit, but the customer is always right! The 12 o clock thing was supposed to be done by the events manager using the BBC feed from London, but gremlins meant we had to do the countdown and Auld Langs Syne bit so we duly obliged. Out by 12.45, home by around 2am. Roads very quiet so an easy drive home. Bit knackered today so it’s going to be watching Hootenanny for me this afternoon. Happy New Year to all the people on here, all the best for 2024.

I've always wanted one and was lucky enough to get this a few days ago. Gunna have to start learning some Free but have been having a go at reggae today, not something I usually play. Straight into a Marshall in GarageBand and I think it sounds pretty good. Got band practice this coming Saturday afternoon and can't wait to see how it sounds through my LM3 into two Barefaced One10's.

Our NYE evening gig in Southport: Facebook post: " You just couldn't make it up. #365 The blind guy who wanted to video us at tonight's gig. He was somehow able to sneak behind Ian on guitar and make his way over to the side of Graham's drum kit where he lurched around rather uncertainly, threatening to fall into Graham's kit. I was having nightmares about insurance. We didn't stop playing, but Jan came up and did her best nightclub bouncer impression and gently moved him to safety. I breathed a very small sigh of relief, which was rather stupid of me because a minute later he was blundering round right in front of us, threatening to knock Ian's mic stand for six and to go a.o.t over my floor monitor. I must have looked slightly more ridiculous singing with one leg stretched out to reach my monitor, but I guess it's a lot better than him going over it and landing face first. I'd love to see the video he got from his phone. his camera seemed to miss us most of the time. That's the first set done. Two more to go. Graham has just been to tell him not to do it again." The rest of the gig went without incident. We had a rather small audience, but they were into it. The bar staff loved us. My voice survived. We played from 9.30 - 10.25, then 10.45 - 11.15, then 11.30 - 11.55 (stopping to let the TV bring in the new year and to gasp in awe at the hideous waste of money that was the new year firework display in London, a total slap in the face to the NHS) and finally from 12.15 - 12.35. I got home at around 2.15am and was in bed at 2.30am and asleep moments later.

Happy New Year to everyone. Assuming no one will be offended that I’ve misread the thread name (for today only) as “How was your gig last year?” here’s our offering from the December Jam Night. No one else did a Christmas set (or song even, other than the host band). I think we made the right shout as it livened up from our set onwards. Our normal guitarist was absent so one of the other guitarists joined us for our set. He’d never played with the singer Vicky before, and he hadn’t seen the set list or chords until an hour or so before we went on, so it was a proper jam. There are a few sound problems with Vicky’s voice early on, but it does improve.

Don't think this has been posted yet but here's a well filmed YT mini documentary on Alembic. Good explanation and sounds of the Q circuit.

After a few years break from NYE gigs we were offered one at a pub we play in Brixham a few weeks ago. Our drummer wasn't able to play due to work shift arrangements so we called on our dep drummer, our son, who was up for it. The evening went well with plenty of people getting into the swing of it. Met a few old faces and made some new fans. I used my Stingray through my TC Classic 450 and BF 210, with a DI into the PA. We played 2 x 1 hour sets, finishing at 11.45pm. After midnight we finished with that classic Christmas no. 1 Killing in the name. Had a great stage and FOH sound and watching everyone enjoying themselves made it a great night.

I'll play... Excalibur.

And the winner is... @skankdelvar..! Here, then, is your Winner's Certificate (download and save as pdf file, then proudly print and frame...) ... BC_Chal_Cert_2023_12.pdf ... which looks like this (but bigger, of course..!)... ... and a Happy New Year to one and all.

Great gig, even though we were almost in the kitchen. The place was packed and the dance floor was filled. Which is impressive considering we're not a dance band. I was encouraged when I saw a punter drop a hundred dollar bill in our tip jar. Lol We have a gig at Foundry 45 this Saturday. Classy room , it's new with state of the art sound snd lighting. Have a great New Year Dave. I love your commentary. Daryl

OK, so I'm just a 'home' musician. I have a few basses, but I sort of went off bass playing a number of years ago. I lost the spark, lost the mojo. I figured that I might get it back a year (or two?) ago by designing and building a bass. I had a thread about it somewhere but it died off towards the end (the thread not the bass!). Well, I made the bass, never got it finished totally but it was playable. It lacked a bit of something and ended up back in the case for most of the last year. I have other instruments that I was more into. Anyway, for reasons unknown I dug it out again yesterday, set it up properly and it just clicked! I have had great fun playing it the past 2 days! All good, but ..... I have the urge to stain the body, so it's literally all in pieces again now! Hopefully I can get it all sorted whilst I am still high on interest. That is all.

Sell away, it's all about the lack of gear coming in rather than what's going out the door. Selling to someone participating in the thread would be a super wicked way of knocking out the competition

Dave, Last night I felt like we were playing in a restaurant kitchen. Daryl

Finally bought one after many years thinking about it. Sounds great, I definitely prefer it to the Legacy 800 that I owned for a few month before punting it on. New strings on the Streamer and neighbours away on holiday... my fillings are now loose.

🥴👍🏼

We've been showing the same Hootenanny for 17 years and you haven't noticed, BBC confirms https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/weve-been-showing-the-same-hootenanny-for-17-years-and-you-havent-noticed-bbc-confirms-20231231243994

That happened to me once. The band was playing downstairs (the dedicated venue for bands) in a pub and for the first half, there was no one. During the second half a young couple appeared and politely clapped after every song. When we finished, the landlord appeared and advised us to stay where we were as there was a massive fight going on upstairs and the police were trying to stop it. The couple had retreated to the cellar to avoid the action.

I swapped the amp over at the shop. Tried both amps in the store no difference, both were quiet no buzz? Brought the new amp home and there was no buzzing with the dimmer light. No idea if the original amp was faulty, but the replacement is quiet. Excellent sound, really nice eq and great preamp switching options. It's also super loud!

It's not hip to criticise. The Hoot' is as outdated and banal as Andy Stewart's Hogmanay TV shows and needs to be consigned to the bin. It's a music show for people who don't really like music.

Last gig of the year was beset by technical issues. To start with our singist had forgotten to charge the batteries for his wireless mic, so that took a bit of time to resolve, after which it was my turn. After some random cut outs during our first set, it was unfortunate that the first song of our second was A Town Called Malice. In an effort to find what was causing the – frankly mortifying – breaks, I tried changing over the cables and bypassing my pedalboard entirely, but it was only swapping basses that seemed to solve the issue, and although I think I detected one or two glitches after that it could have just been my imagination. Thankfully the crowd took it in good spirits and our singist kept that mood light as I abandoned the P-bass and dashed across the bar to fetch the Sire. I managed to get through the rest of the gig without incident, apart from forgetting my coat in the rush to get home for midnight. It's a good thing I have next week off work as I need to do a deep dive into what the frick frack snick snack is going on with my gear. I'm hoping it's not an issue with the electronics in the Squier as I can't really afford to replace them at the moment. I'm also well aware of the irony of this happening after I'd started a thread about bringing spare basses to gigs...

Our little Mexican instrumental band , The Spurs played last night in our favourite dive , not a great crowd , it was a dirty old night , but a warm and appreciative one. This time of year the police set up checkpoints to nab drinking drivers. I drank ginger ale all night and had one beer for the tear down and wait for the pay. Sure enough , there was a check point on the way home and I did confess to having one beer so it was the breathalyzer for me. Blew into the tube and the officer said “ You did have just one beer”. Don’t have any gig pics yet , but here’s the stage after drum check.

I've had a great, super grown up idea! Every time I'm tempted to buy some gear, I'll take the money I was going to spend on gear and chuck it into my mortgage as an overpayment instead. Then I can't use that cash to buy gear and it stops burning a hole in my pocket and does something actually useful...

I'm waiting for a dentist's appointment meself ...

Reading through this topic, I note the comments about them being uncomfortable because of the sharp front edge. I just don't lean my arm on that sharp edge and the problem is solved. These are my Rics. I've had a few decent replicas and have sold them all because I decided why bother with replicas when the real thing is sat looking accusingly from a corner muttering 'take me out'. The BB gets less use as the value has gone through the roof. The MID still has the bleed in the binding, but plays like a dream. The FG and W get the most use,, though.

I'm just disappointed, saddened and disappointed, to find that not one Basschatter is having a New Year down-sizing involving selling a Barefaced Big Twin at a knock-down price, preferably within 50 miles of Harrow. I don't feel as if I'm asking too much ...

Cataracts ～ Sparta Happy New Year All, plus a quick thank you to everyone who PM'd about today's wobble. Not serious in Osaka thankfully. Thoughts with those up North who weren't so lucky.

STOP…….. ………Hamer time. Nice bass indeed.

I'm back.... I've been slowly settling into a new work/life/making stuff regime and hopefully things will happen a bit more regularly now. To catch up... The headless bass is on a back burner. The flying v is finished and I have gigged on it. The front burner is currently occupied by a hollow body travel guitar that I was hoping to complete by NYE but I'm waiting for suitable binding to be delivered. Simmering away next to it is the double denim bass. It's come out darker than I was expecting but I can't change that now. Also after thicknessing the body I've realised that I need to add another hit of epoxy as I've sanded through to the denim in a couple of places. Eventually I'll be fitting these jeans rivets for dots. Sanding the radius on the fretboard using a piece of salvaged mahogany to act as a guide rail for the sanding block. I have a jig for guitars but haven't got round to a bass one yet. This morning I installed the maple binding on the fretboard. I had to use the bending iron for the two bits at the end.

Well, I made it! Not a single purchase of anything in 2023. In fact the last thing I bought was in June 2022 so I lasted 18 months. I think I may have cured my GAS and in 2024 I can see myself actually shedding some gear. There are only two things that might change things in the future; 1) an unexpected influx of a reasonable sum of money and; 2) the discovery of a pre-CBS Precision in original condition for a price that the aforementioned reasonable sum of money would cover. 😉

That band doing the Irish stuff seemed familiar!!!

A pic of the band last night

Tonight is BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam covers band last gig of the year at Westlands Country Activity Club in Annan. Its only an hours drive for me but 3 hrs for guitarist from Perth. At least we don't have snow today. Not sure how this gig will pan out as the staff had no idea what we did when the drummer dropped in to see what size PA we need etc. No stage and having to play in what looks like a Hotel Reception foyer. Getting paid well and we need to finish for 11:45 to allow the piper to bring in the bells in a traditional Scottish fashion which i always like to see. Dave

Last gig of what has been another extremely busy year for us a wedding in Garstang up in Lancs. Nice change as for the last 5 years covid permitting we have played a dinner dance at a hotel in Ashton Under Lyne which year by year has had less people attending, so was really looking forward to tonight. However, like many others it seems I've been afflicted by a sore throat and chest infection for most of December so just going to dose myself up and struggle through. Good luck to everyone who is gigging tonight hope you all have a good one and happy new year to you all.

Another Bandeoke in my end of year gig run. This time we were joined by a sax player who clearly missed the brief and thought it was a jam session. Nice chap though. Took my sexy white bass and paired the Promethean with a Barefaced 1x12. Yum.

That's quite a good idea to mark certain songs to be cut in the event of time restraint. Think i'll suggest that with our band rather than decide / debate on the night and everyone getting confused what to play next. Dave

They were ones that we were going to cut if we were running out of time to get to midnight. As it turned out we had plenty of time so played everything. ps you are not being thick as I also had to ask what they meant 😂

Cross-eyed Girl - Van Morrison

Your comment and @Obrienp just reminded me from last night when singer announced a song by Roxy Music and for some odd reason i thought we were doing Lets Stick Together and started on the A after the drum count and low and behold it was Virginia Plain as per our set list that i provide everyone. I quickly realised my mistook and went straight into Virginia Plain but i did get a fair bit of ribbing at the break as i gave the guitarist a ribbing few weeks back for starting it in wrong key The joys of live music. Dave

Agreed that considering the amount of tv dedicated to music, this seems over indulgent, its a show that was past its prime a few decades ago. Obviously you are not going to like everything that is on a show, but the forumula seems just very tired, mainstream act, fringe act, new music act, old 'legend' that jools is going to play piano with. There have been some amazing performances, but they seem few and far between, and it is much more a recording and watching later so you can skip through 80% of the music. As my wife says to me when he is on 'oh is that joolz holland, ok, I am off to bed'. Thing is - I think Jools hollands band is great, and he does some good stuff himself, just think the TV show is past its prime. As the meme says..

Rick Astley on Beeb 1 is much better.