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NYE was the usual annual shindig at the 5* Grand Hotel in Eastbourne with The CoStars. A great night, we all played well, happy punters and hotel.... and good food and drink enjoyed. Home at 4am and slept through till early afternoon

one of the cameras that we set up to record our NYE gig got accidentally set to time lapse mode, so we ended up with a three hour gig condensed into 1 minute https://www.facebook.com/reel/7045610022162924/?app=fbl

Well, after the previous misgivings about the NYE gig (agency gig, 5 x 30 min sets with 30 mins between each, plus DJ-ing; total band entertainment time 8pm - 1am*) it went...OK. Venue were a bit twitchy at first, but relaxed when they saw we had it covered, and no objections to the iPad/Playlist DJ parts. Turned out it was £25 to get in the pub (inc one free drink and some circulating nibbles), it was maybe 2/3rds full of locals, but certainly no passing trade at that sort of money. The 5 x sets with half an hour in between was complained about (to us) by quite a few people, it really did kill the vibe, we just directed them to the bar manager, perhaps they'll rethink it. Oh, and nowhere to sit between sets was a pain in most of the lower extremities, we were literally on our feet from half six till half one. No disasters, the musical bits of the gig were fine, and it went off (politely, this is Cheshire with a £25 cover charge we're talking about here) at midnight, plus the load in/out was right next to the door, so it was logistically easy; we were mostly loaded (all bar the mixer, one PA speaker and the iPad) before the last DJ set finished at 1am. Not a gig I'd choose to do again, but hey, we got paid. * Sorry if I sound a bit wet here, @Bluewine, but that's a chunky shift for the UK...

BTW I read that on the internet so thought I'd repeat it here 👍

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.

The argument might be, the travel, the load in and out are not fun. We've always been a tipping culture and it's gotten bigger. For our tip jar I've seen it empty at the end of a gig and I've seen it with $900.00 at the end of a gig. The tips make it a $1400.00 gig . Again, I understand that means very little to those not in this for the money. " I don't care about the money I just want to play". But for the few of us that are in it for the money a full tip jar certainly helps us get through the month. Daryl

People don't appreciate that for some bands a gig is a 10-12hr day for the band if travel is included even when gigs are reasonably local and its a standard band venue. Possibly longer for wedding bands who need to set up before the happy couple arrive and are there until the end of the night. Dave

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.

Found another clip from NYE. It's long. You can see how tight we were for space. Good thing the hard working folks in the kitchen. 📸 Watch this video on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/share/v/7SHKV2WY3SYuLboc/?mibextid=qi2Omg

Here's a clip from the weekend, with flats in situ. You're mostly hearing the cab here. Very happy with it.

My Cruise bass. Yummy. I was thinking about moving this one on, but it's just too nice.

It warmed my heart a bit to see Paul Jones to be honest. He was a fave of my mum, who passed away a couple of years ago. It's the little things like this that light up a little corner in my mind, memories of mum. I am a musician because of my mum.

I'm in a couple of bands, and one (sadly the quieter one) is a trio where we've all made efforts to simplify the setup (whilst keeping the quality - and even improving it - with new tech), so we can be loaded in, set up, soundchecked and good to go in half an hour, tops, but the other's much more of an 'event', which, to be fair is a selling point in itself (a 4-piece with congas/bongos/percussion, lots of lights, even smoke, and a geetard/singist who also plays the sax - the punters love it), but requires much more gear, and a longer setup/breakdown. Given the choice, I know which I'd rather be in, but a gig's a gig...

Live - it worked really well! A very simple set up which consisted of my bass into the Mooer with the out going to a DI box > in-house PA (aux feed to a monitor for me). I didn't need to switch between core sounds or add effects for any songs, so it was a case of using the one preset which I created from scratch, which in fact was the last one I used in the house so I could have turned up at the gig with no phone/interface and it was the preloaded sound ready to go when I powered it up. The sound guy was super impressed and he kindly did a few checks for me to see how it's performance rated. There was zero audible background/baseline noise when not actually playing; his display showed a 'tiny' amount of signal in the low end but he said it categorically couldn't have been heard and he'd not have even noise-gated it out. He does sound for bands 3 times a day all weekend and he is going to investigate buying one as it looks the ideal back up tool for multiple needs.

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!

Browsing the web one evening just before Xmas I came across a fabulous original Japan-made Aria Integra IGB85 active bass from approx 1990 for sale. This was the top of the range custom model favoured by Billy Gould of Faith No More back in the day and quite a rare beast.... The bass was in Japan and the price was already very low but there was a 'make an offer' option so I calculated shipping and import taxes and thought "sod it, why not..." and put in a silly low offer. Imagine my surprise when 20 mins later my offer was accepted!! It turned up today, beautifully packed, with a nice note from the seller and some lovely free Japanese sweets/gifts included. 🥰 So, how does it feel/sound?! Well, it plays beautifully with a low action, slim & playable neck and comfortable curved top to the body. Soundwise it has a lovely full tone when flat and the EQ takes it into the Spectorish 'clank' I love....and you can hear on Faith No More's best known tracks. Preamp appears to be a Mighty Mite Hazlab clone or similar which is a wonderful surprise and explains the Spectorish tone...👍😎 A very satisfactory purchase and a bass I can highly recommend, especially if you see one at a competitive price!

For anybody thinking of building a cab or upgrading the connectors to Speakon, I found this on Ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165973127947 Two connector plates, each taking two Speakons, plus four Speakon sockets. All for under a tenner.

Four coats of lacquer on. That'll do, it's not a piano. I'll let it cure for a bit before doing velcro tape.

Entering the 2023 gear abstinence thread in 2024 is cheating.

500 milds - proclaimers

Its ok for me as i wear that gear every day anyway. ......... honest Dave

Another 91 Chaparral here. Fabulous thing altogether.

Hi, I got this Hamer Chaparral 1991 last year and it's a very good bass. I'm not playing out much so I haven't tried it yet with a band. The pickups are not original, it was like this when I got it. z

We generally push it most at the end of the gig, with something like "we'll play another song if you buy us a beer" kind of thing. The tip jar is labelled as "beer money" as well. The way I see it is that if people are having a good time and want to buy a beer/chuck in a couple of quid then that's great, but if not that's also great, as long as they are having a good time

I'm approx 1-2 hrs drive to any gig because i live in countryside. The Glam band has costumes and make-up to be sorted before playing so that takes approx 30-45mins. We tend to arrive 2hrs before doors open and have a costume change at the break so on our feet usually from the get go. Only time i sit down is to put my Glam boots on and sometimes i need to stand for that bit too. Dave

I'm a trained singer - but classical - I have 30+ years experience mostly singing as a baritone, but I've been workign with a teacher to sing tenor (there's a long story there but I'll leave it for another post). What many people (including singers) don't realise or understand is that there are different styles of singing and the techniques required are different. Not only that, but no one voice can sing all styles. There's a huge difference to being a choral singer to being a soloist. There's a difference between singing German lieder, singing opera, or singing musical theatre. It's a different style to be a Rat Pack crooner, a folk singer, or singing hard rock. If this person wants to sing rock/pop then they need to realise that it's a different style, requires different techniques and you can't just "have a go" and expect it to work. Even within one 'genre' there are variations. If I sing renaissance a cappella polyphony, it's a very different style to singing big C19th choral work with a large orchestra. Some more self awareness would help... suggestion about needing to work on 'style' with a teacher is probably a good route - but you need to find the right teacher...

I think the decision whether or not to take a spare depends quite a bit on the basses that you have/use. Mine are vintage 70’s for the most part, and very recently I had a pickup spontaneously expire. If I had been on a gig, with no backup, it could have been awkward. It was a Jazz bass however, so I could have got away with just using the other pickup for the rest of the gig. In the case of a Precision pickup failure, it’s game over. Since the pickup failure happened, I have bought a double gig bag, and always carry two basses. The chap who rewound my Jazz pickup (Ash from Oil City Pickups) told me that pickup failures in 70’s Fenders are becoming much more common as they hit that 50 year milestone. Rob

A few places over this way I suspect use it to get out of paying full whack band fees, where we'd have to hope the tips would make up for accepting below-par payment from the venue. We aren't keen on this approach.

It's becoming more common in Wales.

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

Thanks Dave, Lol, I know they were making some pretty good pizza back in that kitchen. It's a Iittle hard for me to watch when I think about how much older I am then my bandmates. You might get to see us live. Keep checking your local kitchen directory for us. Daryl

Dave, I hope I'm not making tips a bigger thing than what they actually are. As you know. tips are not going to amount to much at a crappy gig. The big tips happen when your playing to an affluent crowd, the band is hot and you've created a cool vibe for everyone . We don't use the tip jar at private events, theatre gigs or large stage festivals. Love your comments Daryl

It’s probably code for Sex on Fire 😀

Yes. The conversation is pretty easy. "We've given it a go, you're just not suited to it. Think it's best we move on." Dealing with the aftermath is the sensitive bit everyone doesn't like doing. But that's down to her friends so find one of her good mates to help. You may find they're not actually that into it. If they were they'd probably have been trying a lot harder at it. The whole thing does highlight when choosing musicians for your band: get it right at audition stage and if its not working within a few rehearsals, move on quickly and find someone else. A bit cut throat but performing in bands isn't a place for people who get offended easily.

A very fine selection of end-of-year covers. Best wishes to all participants, espec those kind souls who keep the Composition Challenge on the road.

I started doing a series of videos that covers topics that a lot of us working Top 40 bass players did back in da day. The Fake Fretless technique was a popular one but hardly gets discussed anymore so I thought Id post it here for you guys to ponder and/or scrutinize lol

Send her a link to this thread. Job done.

I've just knocked up a pickguard out of some red pearl celluloid sheet I had. It's too thin really for a pickguard but it has a crazy depth to the pearl. It's almost black until the light hits the pearl blocks, then a lovely deep red. I've never seen any of the newer pickguard material act like this stuff. The shape needs refining as I just did it quickly to see if it would look OK being so thin, but I think the depth of colour makes up for lack of thickness. Also will need a good polish but I don't want to put the polisher on it indoors as if it gets too hot it self combusts. It's hard to catch the colour 'popping' but here ya go. 🙂 Oh yeah, the black has been flatted ready for some fun and games. 😉

The trouble is that if you only have a Hamer, everything looks like a Nial.

I'll play... Excalibur.