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Played a Studio 8 session for RTE 2fm today. Got t cplay in the legendary studio 8! Sounded unbelievable. Beautiful EBS Neogorm combo

I'm proud and excited to share that I will shortly be heading off on an extensive 22 date, 5 week, European tour, playing bass for US blues rock sensation Dudley Taft! Hugely looking forward to it... and to catching up with some of my European friends!

I have the onset of OA in the fingers of both hands and have found fingerless compression gloves help when it starts to flare up. Can still play with them on. I do find the ladle gets in the way sometimes.

That sounds like the old Tommy Cooper joke Doctor, my arm hurts in two places. Well, don't go to those places then.

If the band are good its a foot in the door for that area. "Build it and they will come". Played a gig in Methil Scotland about a 2 hr drive for me each way so nowhere near as horrendous as @cheddatom but first time was around 50-60 people in a club that holds approx 180-200. 2nd time was sold out so its all about getting in the door and showing how good you are. That was just after pandemic and that had a big effect on how many people wanted to socialise. Not so sure i'd drive 5 hrs each way tho. That's a long haul especially on way home after a gig. Dave

Played with The 77s at Market House in Maidstone last night. It was our last gig with our outgoing drummer, I thought it might be a bit awkward but it turned out fine. The place was packed, and we had a really good gig. It’s my favourite place to play locally, I have been playing at the weekly jam night that is held there, but it was nice to play a full gig there. There were a couple of the other “big” local covers bands playing at other pubs in town, but it didn’t seem to affect our attendance. we have a dep lined up for our next gig in March, and then nothing currently booked until June whilst we sort out a new drummer. The only downside was having to load out in torrential rain.

Started the first 2 gigs ( of 4 in Eastern England*) at Norwich Theatre Royal on Thursday. Due to a number of reasons we hadn’t played this wonderful venue for a number of years, so was great to return here. Lovely crew and facilities, and a great sell out crowd of 1,300. Gig went really well although I was feeling a tad under the weather - dropped a couple of silly mistakes but styled them out ( I think!). Friday saw us drive up to The Cresset Theatre in Peterborough. One of our regular gigs, about 3/4 full and a nice crowd again. Decent 2 hour drive home too, so in around 1am. * The other two gigs are this coming Friday 23rd in Newark, and Saturday 24th in Kings Lynn.

I once owned a lovely metallic purple Music Man Silhouette Special, that I unfortunately had to sell when money was short after my car needed replacing. It was a lovely workhorse with a fantastic neck and a huge range of sounds thanks to some interesting wiring on the 5-way switch, but at the time I often favoured my (much cheaper) Squier MIJ E-series Strat so it made sense to let it go. It was shipped off to Finland, never to be seen again. But a certain level of seller's remorse always lingered... 10 years went by, and then suddenly a whole collection of high end guitars appeared for sale at the same time from a single seller: PRS, Gibson, Fender, Taylor, Godin, and several Music Man guitars - including a metallic purple Silhouette Special. The asking price was quite high, so I didn't bother inquiring but I did follow the ad. All the guitars gradually got sold, except for that Silhouette Special and a modded Fender USA Strat... I have been following that ad for 1.5 years, and it remained unsold for all this time! Finally, last week, I couldn't bear it anymore and sent an inquiry. I got chatting to the seller, asked for some better pics (which showed a pretty concave neck) and made an offer - under the condition that the neck would adjust well at the turning of the truss rod - and the seller accepted. So to cut a long story short: Turned out the seller was a widow, selling off her deceased husband's collection. She'd had many lowball offers, and was happy to finally see it go to someone who appreciated it and she loved my story of The One That Got Away. It's a late 90s model, just like my old one, with the only differences being the rosewood fingerboard and hardtail bridge (my previous one had birdseye maple and a trem). The neck responded well to my adjustments (almost a full turn of the truss rod) and plays like a dream. I hope this one will be a keeper for a much longer time than the previous one!

This Saturday in Devizes, Wiltshire - our 50th show!

Ooh Aah... Just a Little Brit - Gina G

Around the turn of the millennium, I was in a 70's disco themed band. We were successful weekend warriors doing 2 to 3 gigs a month and had build up a good reputation locally. We were a 7 piece outfit with one male and two female singers. The male lead singer wanted to bring his girlfriend in on backing vocals and the band just said No - so he left. We then replaced him with a far better male vocalist who took us up by several levels. He started getting us a few more gigs - but further afield. We were doing gigs alongside fully pro show bands, and putting on better shows than them. He kept telling us that we could be fully pro and eventually it came to a band vote on whether to pursue this option. I had a good, well paid job, mortgage, kids etc and although I wanted to go for it in my heart, my head (and wife) said No. The keyboard player also had to leave. It was a real shame as we were the longest serving members of the band. It had been pointed out to us at the band meeting that we would all have to have our equipment, stage clothes etc in the backs of our cars in case we got a call saying we had a gig that night in any given part of the country. The rest of the band did try but it didn't work out. The drummer who was only in his mid 20's ended up having a nervous breakdown. He would sometimes get home at 4,00 am and be expected at his day job at 6.00 am. People seem to overlook the gap between performing one, maybe two gigs a week, and getting up to five a week, regularly. You need to maintain the day job whilst building up the reputation and demand. The band broke up shortly afterwards, and I still feel a gap as no subsequent band that I've been in has given me the buzz that this one did. Looking back, not going pro was one of the best decisions that I made.

Mr Phillips has done for luthiery what square wheels did for transportation.

Immersion in hot water helps with both my thumb ip joints to the point I can begin to bend them slightly without excruciating pain. The pills and potions haven't worked for me. Thankfully this condition hasn't affected my fingers, yet. Sorry can't be of any further help.

We drove from Stoke to Margate on Saturday. 5 hours with a couple of stops. Olby's Soul Cafe is a brilliant venue! Great PA and the engineer was brilliant too. Unfortunately the choice of some unknown band from Stoke to headline a night in Margate didn't work out so well. The old story of a local support band bringing most of the crowd, then taking them with them after the set. All that way, writing off two full days, to play to less than 50 people... still, at least we got paid and had a laugh

@SimonK I am definitely guilty of letting off steam in this thread because as church musicians, we all know that playing in church can be equally rewarding and frustrating. Yesterday I led the sung worship, I was on bass and lead vocals, we played I SPEAK JESUS and whilst we have played it countless times before, for some reason it really resonated in the hearts of the congregation. There was a huge and very vocal outpouring of love for Christ and it made the hairs on my arms stand up, it was a honor to be a part of it and it made me love what I do even more. I'm still buzzing this morning. Yes, I moan about playing in church but, I love it too 😁

I tried! I failed! But I failed well, and will try again. I managed to strum the songs at home, and plugged into an amp via a tuner and chorus pedal, to get used to the sound and work out how to set up the kit. On the day during the practice, we couldn't find a channel to plug into, and I couldn't hear myself in the foldback. Sound levels were painfully loud as the band played on, and it was easier to step down from that morning's service. However..... I learnt that I could still play guitar; that it was fun; that it was hard work and very physical - and my fingertips hurt! I will play again with the guitarist and his tame pianist and am comfortable that I will hold my own. But for now, I remain a bassist.

Now the core has replaced a number of pedals my boards looking a little lite. Probably gonna take the Ricochet off the core has pitch bend and once I get the midi adaptor from Source Audio will get the C4 on there too and need a dual foot switch for the core too

Another morning after the night before post for you My mob Yellowhouse played the Essex Riviera with a dep singer. She's done a couple of gigs with us over the last few months with us and it's getting better each time. I think this is the best bit of video I've ever seen of my lot. The sound is great and the vocals are immense. It's an old Skunk Anansie song which I've always wanted to play and Susie blows the doors off here.... (Cort A4, Orange 4 Stroke, Laney Digbeth pre on the tube setting and a couple of Barefaced Big Baby cabs for the geeks)

Overview. I recently purchased an EBS Reidmar 752. I had never played through an EBS amp before so I was keen to try it out. Disclaimer: I’m just a dude who plays bass in a few projects and bands for fun, I am by no means a pro musician or online reviewer. All views are my own and I have not received any payment or other incentives to produce this review. I am only reviewing gear that I actually own or that I have access to due to items being on loan from various friends. Build Quality. The Reidmar 752 is a nice neat little amp that is not much bigger than a 14” laptop. It’s approximately twice the height of a modern laptop, but as EBS themselves say, it will fit nicely in a standard laptop bag. I transport mine in a laptop backpack rather than a courier style bag, but you get my drift. The amp is very solidly constructed and has nice clear writing for the controls which, for those who can see, is very useful indeed. The aluminium casing is nice and sturdy and the hole thing is robust. Amp Dimensions & Power. Dimensions: Width, 36.3 cm (14.29”). Depth, 26.2 cm (10.31”). Height, 7.6 cm (2.99”). Weight: 3.8 Kg (8lbs 6oz). Power: 230 watts into 8 ohms, 450 watts into 4 ohms, 750 watts into 2 ohms. Knobs & Switches. The knobs on this amp are nice and solid and feel good under the fingertips. All have a recessed line to indicate where the control is set and it is tactile enough to feel with a fingertip or thumb nail. If on a dark stage or if you are blind like me this is very welcome. All of the EQ filter controls have a centre detent which I always like. The mid frequency selection control, input gain, compressor, drive and master volume knobs do not have a centre detent however which of course is pretty standard. The push buttons are of good quality and respond well under the fingertips. All are of the type that stay in when engaged and pop out when disengaged, which is excellent for blind players like me but also useful for people trying to figure out how their controls are set on a dark stage. The power switch is a rocker style, is good and solid with a positive clunk under the fingertip when engaged. Features, layout & ease of use. Front Panel (from left to right). 1/4” instrument input jack. Character push button: When engaged, the bass and treble frequencies are slightly boosted whilst the mid frequencies are slightly cut. Input gain dial: Turn this dial clockwise to increase the input gain. An LED illuminates to indicate when clipping occurs. Compression dial: Turn this dial to increase the amount of compression. An LED illuminates when compression is occurring. Filter active push button: When engaged, the EQ filters are active on the amplifier. When disengaged, the EQ filters are bypassed. Bass filter dial: Cuts or boosts bass frequencies. Mid filter dial: Cuts or boosts the mid frequency selected on the Mid frequency selection dial. Mid frequency selection dial: Selects the mid frequency to be affected by the Mid filter dial. Treble filter dial: Cuts or boosts treble frequencies. Bright filter dial: This is an advanced low noise high pass filter that adds space and presence to the overall sound. Drive dial: Turning this dial clockwise increases the amount of drive produced in the tube emulation stage. This control can boost gain up to 34db. When at its maximum the drive is compressed, resulting in natural limitation. Drive can be engaged and disengaged by footswitch. Master volume dial: Turning this dial clockwise increases the output volume of the amplifier. It does affect the volume of the Line Out. It does not affect the volume of the DI Out. Rear Panel (from left to right). Power switch (top). Voltage selector switch (bottom). Fuse cover. Power socket: Insert an IEC cable with the correct fuse for your location into this socket to power the amplifier. Speak-on socket: Connect your speaker cabinets to the amplifier using a speak-on cable into this socket. The minimum load for the amplifier is 2 ohms. 1/4” effects send jack (top): Run an instrument cable from this jack to the input of an effects pedal or first effects pedal on your pedal board. 1/4” remotes jack (bottom): Connecting a footswitch to this jack enables remote operation of the Drive and Mute functions. 1/4” effects return jack (top): Run an instrument cable from the output of an effects pedal or last effects pedal on your pedal board into this jack. 1/4” filter remotes jack (bottom): Connecting a footswitch to this jack enables remote operation of the Character and Filter Engage functions. Note that the Character and Filter Engage buttons must be at the in position for footswitch operation to work. 1/4” headphones jack (top): Connection for standard headphones. Plugging headphones into this jack does not mute the signal to any connected speaker cabinets. 1/4” line out jack (bottom): Use this jack to connect the amplifier to additional power amplifiers or to other devices that require a line signal. The volume of the line out is affected by the master volume control. 3.5mm aux in jack (top): Connect an external device such as an mp3 player to this jack. Volume of the signal to be mixed with your bass sound is controlled by the external device’s volume controls. The signal sent to this jack is not present at the DI output. Post EQ push button (bottom, left): When engaged, the signal sent to the DI out contains all filter, compression and drive features that are engaged on the amplifier. When not engaged, the signal sent to the DI out is a clean unprocessed signal. Ground Lift push button (bottom, right): When engaged, the grounding pin is deactivated. This can help if grounding hum is present, as disengaging the grounding pin can reduce or eliminate the hum. When not engaged, the grounding pin remains active. DI balanced output socket: Studio quality balanced direct out XLR to connect to front of house or a recording device. Sound quality. EBS have some black magic going on in their amps which apparently maximises the power efficiency to squeeze out every last decibel of volume and tone. Whatever they are doing is very definitely working! The Reidmar 752 is rated at 450 watts into a 4 ohm speaker load. I ran mine into my Barefaced 210 cab (4 ohm 500 watts) and was easily able to compete with a loud rock drummer, 2 guitars, keyboards and vocals but still have some juice left if I needed it. It feels like there’s a lot more headroom available in this amp than it is rated for and it is stupidly loud for a 450 watt amp. Don’t forget, its maximum power rating is 750 watts into a 2 ohm load, I imagine this would be usable for pretty much any gig situation. I haven’t tried the amp into my Barefaced SuperTwin yet but I can’t imagine it will be anything less than glorious through that cab. There is a “Character” push button on the front of the amp which boosts bass and treble slightly whilst cutting mids a little. To be honest, I keep this on all of the time as I like the tone it produces as a starting point for tweaking the rest of my EQ and drive etc. You can actually disengage the EQ filter section so all you get is your bass’s natural tone. I really like this as I can switch between 2 different tones without having to mess around with my EQ, also great if you use the drive but don’t need it for a particular part of a song as you can simply disengage the filters section all together. With all the filter controls set to 12 o’clock, the drive all the way off and the compressor all the way off, the amp is crystal clear and punchy with great articulation. Once you start sculpting your tone with the EQ filters and compressor it really starts to get fun. The Reidmar 752 has a semi parametric mid EQ filter which consists of 2 controls. The mid EQ which cuts or boosts the selected mid frequency and a mid frequency selection control which sweeps you through a broad mid frequency range. This is fantastic for really dialling in that tone that is going to cut through the mix in a difficult venue or if you have a particularly dark sounding bass. The bass and treble EQ filters do exactly as you would expect, they cut or boost the bass and treble frequencies. The bright control is fantastic for adding some airiness to your tone and generally giving you some more top end sparkle, also great if you’ve got old or dull strings that need brightening up. The drive on this amp is fantastic. It’s not a rip your face off pedal style fuzz but is instead a drive designed to emulate classic tube amps at their various stages of break up when being pushed hard. You can get a lovely subtle harmonic effect with this control set low but the more you turn the control up, the more breakup warmth and character comes through until it sounds like you’re pushing a 300 watt pure tube amp to within spitting distance of meltdown. My default is to have this control set somewhere between 10 o’clock and 3 o’clock depending on the style of music I am playing. Conclusion. Even though I’ve never played through an EBS amp before this one, I have been aware of EBS’s reputation for well made products and extremely high quality sounding gear for several years now. What immediately struck me about the amp is how simple the front panel layout is. You can literally start at the left and work your way along and find what you’re after intuitively, even if you can’t see anything. It took me minutes to learn the front panel controls rather than hours, and that is something I really appreciate in an amp. Overall I have to say, I’m very impressed indeed, its build is good and solid, it’s easy to use, it sounds fantastic and it punches well above its weight when it comes to volume. There’s a vast array of tones available and I’m confident you could cater for pretty much any musical genre or playing style with the amp. The ability to engage or disengage the EQ filters is a really nice touch that to be honest, I wish more manufacturers would incorporate into their amplifiers. The compressor is very usable and not at all noisy which is nice. I love the drive on this amp, it sounds and feels warm and natural but has real teeth when cranked. There’s everything a player could possibly need on the rear panel of this amp. DI with pre/post EQ selection, ground lift, effects send and return, 2 yes 2 footswitch jacks, aux in, headphones out and a line out jack. The DI, line out, effects loop and headphones all sound crystal clear with no added hiss, just excellent stuff. I absolutely do not regret getting this amp, I will use it for jam sessions and smaller gigs for sure but I’ve also found since buying it that I’ve used it constantly in my home studio. If you are a blind player, the EBS Reidmar 752 should definitely be on your short list of amps to check out. It has everything you could need for an amp of its size and power class and it’s very intuitive to use. To find out more about the Reidmar 752 and other EBS gear, visit the EBS website at: https://ebssweden.com/content2/amps/ #BlindMusician #BlindBassPlayer #Blindness #PlayingMusicBlind #EBSReidmar752 #EBSReidmar752GearReview #MusiciansWithDisabilities #ExperiencesOfTheBlind #BestBassAmpForTheBlind

Always gonna be different viewpoints on this one. Theory or not to theory. I did take lessons for approx 18mths at which the teacher said there wasn't much else he could teach me. It was time to go out and pick it up yourself now. How wrong that was. There was a lot more i should have been taught. I have a basic knowledge of theory and can read music but not sight reading. Its been a bonus for me in that i have always written out almost every song i've ever learned. That for me meant i learned it by ear and could remember it and also writing it out allowed me another avenue of recall when playing it within a band. I would always recommend lessons to start with and depending on where you want to go with it either learn by ear, tabs or whatever you can to learn a song. I'll literally use anything i can find to learn a song note for note. I've never been asked if i could read music and its never been mentioned in any band i've ever played in but it allows me to understand music better and following other musicians in a band. Knowing scales and correct fingering technique can help reduce strain in the long run. As an aside i suffered hand / finger issues a few yrs back and decided to go back and perfect my technique again and the strain was gone. Reading isn't for everyone but its a good starting point for many. I would also ask your teacher to try songs you like and listen to and that will maybe give your interest a little boost. Dave

Some sayings can be useful, others less so. Years ago I had an issue that was eventually pinned down to an interaction between two medications I was on. I would wake up in the middle of the night feeling really nauseous, jump out of bed in fear of being sick, then black out on the floor. Not pleasant, and it scared the Bejeesus out of the missus. I was given all sorts of blood tests, a 24-hour blood pressure monitor, and a ride strapped to a thing called a 'tilt table' to check for variations in blood pressure and the function my inner ear in different orientations, all to no avail initially. On seeing the Consultant to assess the results, he said, "So, you wake up in the middle of the night feeling sick, jump out of bed, and pass out?" "Yes" I replied. "Well, if you wake up in the middle of the night and feel sick, don't jump out of bed!" Monty Python came to mind...

If you don't want to use one, don't. Nobody is forcing you to. But I'm also a working bass player and gig regularly and always use one, my bass sound is more controlled and sits in the mix better because of what my compressor is doing. Plus I still have total control over my dynamics, the idea that compression destroys dynamics is a myth that refuses to die... It's worth it to me but if you see no benefit then don't bother.

Play with other people. If you know any guitarists, see if you can join them for a jam. Maybe try a jam night or an open mic night.

Insane price.

And for bands that play small venues and no sound engineer ? Again I see no evidence a compressor is needed in a typical pub band scenario!

See if you can borrow a short-scale bass to see if that helps. If movement is the issue then less movement than usual might be beneficial.

I knew I would like this community, and hopefully it is a bit more "English" than all the Americans on Talkbass who can't help mixing politics into their discussions (and for the record I only want to talk about music here - I can get the politics/theology elsewhere!). Here was this week's rather abnormal setup for me. Next week will be back to bass duties on the rather lovely Trace in the background (I can tell you the story of how I rescued it from certain death at another time!):

I'd be very wary of using a heat gun - something like an iron can direct the heat, through the stud, directly to the glue, whereas a heat gun is going to spray heat all around the area (cracked finish?) If you haven't got an iron (or soldering iron, away from tip?) you may be better off using the Vinegar approach, if @Beedster has got good results with that?

Great fun song. Here's our version with guitars if iflt helps

What a weird venue. It must have been like playing to an audience peering over a fence! Was it disconcerting?

Same here / hear... In my SR600. Reverse P in a Soapbar, not a Full Width Humbucker as often asumed and compared with.

I was picked up in West London at 8 am, we drove in an old ex-GPO commer van to Ponteland for a gig, then we drove straight back. Got caught up in the morning rush hour coming into London. Dropped off at about 11 am. About a year later also did the Sunderland Empire as a one-off. Sorry but no downsides for me. We had 2 great gigs.

Me too - 1997 & 1998 I played full time in a function band touring Europe. Thing is we were in a a couple vans, carried our own PA, and although it was fun for a bit, as an 18 & 19 year old I remember looking at one guy who was in his 30s and had been doing it for ten plus years, and while he was an excellent musician, I didn't want to be him ten years later. So I went to University, and have played music pretty much ever since, but also with a job that pays! I suppose if we had been doing bigger gigs with someone else carrying things and running the PA it may have been different, but very very few people get gigs like that.

Just bought @theplumber Godin Classic Shifter 4 tonight. One of two he owns. I was offered the black burst with rosewood neck version. The other had the creme brulee finish with maple neck and that actually felt better to play but not much in it. Both are pretty impressive tho. Known Stevie for a good few yrs now as i took over his duties on bass when he left the punk covers band Emergency Exit. He even delivered the bass to the house for me but i reckon he just wanted to play with the toys in the bass cave. Bass is in perfect condition as i would expect from Stevie. It just needs a little tweak of the P pick up height to balance the volumes across the P and J pick ups and its good to go. I'll fit a new set of Elixir nickels ASAP and ready to gig. Neck on these basses is pretty impressive and i'd compare to the Sandberg MarloweDK that i have. Very Jazz neck feel to it. No rough fret edges and no fret buzz at all even with quite a decent low action already set up Tones are quite different from the 4-position selector switch and the tone knob has quite a wide change to it. (1. bridge, 2. both series, 3. both parallel, 4. neck ) Controls and tuners all feel pretty good quality and sturdy with smooth actions all round. Got a rehearsal on Sunday with Glam band which will give it a good trial run pre-gigging. It will either be a back up to my Sandberg VM4 or possibly a main bass in the Glam band as its passive there's no batteries to worry about. All in all a good day. Dave

The trouble with the term "music theory" is that it has a lot of unfavourable connotations for many. It can conjure images of poring over dry textbooks, having no fun, being rapped over the knuckles by the teacher, etc, etc. All of that is to do with the way it is taught in some quarters, not the subject itself. The reality is a lot different. It's all about demystifying how music works and learning why some things sound good and others don't. Some knowledge of it cannot fail to improve your playing. Even if you never intend to read music off the page, it will make you a better improviser, because you will have a better idea what to play and what not to play. bass_dinger sums it up very well when he observes that his 7 year old daughter learned in 3 years what took him 30 years to learn. There's no downside. You don't have to go the whole hog and learn how to compose for a full orchestra, but it's mad not to learn anything at all about it if you're serious about playing.

7.x volts means the battery is history! Plus it’s just a PP3, replace it already!

A sure fire contender for my favourite venue, Bath's Chapter 22 Roots and Records was host to my humble duo of darkness, Deadlight Dance, last night. Dean and Nic always looks after us. The setting is a record shop in the city centre that also trades in plants. Playing mainly mandocello and mandolin (with a second time on guitar for a song), my basses took a break. We were a little light on audience at first but it didn't take much to fill up the shop. The performance was one of our stronger ones. Honourable mention to co-headliner Steve Mercy. I think it's our 40th show. We walk the line between taking our music very seriously whilst not taking ourselves too seriously at all! People like our onstage chat. Gothic, but more Carry on Screaming meets Hammer Horror rather than anything too po-faced and serious. And if Boss are looking at this post, yes, you should endorse us!

Spacewasters gig at The Trinity Bar, Harrow last night, as part of a Shake Some Acton event with four bands on the bill. Very small stage that, now we’re a 5 piece was cramped to say the least. Being so small onstage sound was poor but having heard the other bands we knew sound out front was good - kudos to the sound man, he was attentive to all the bands all night and didn’t blast the volume to max or make bass drums sound like explosions. Went very well, lots of applause and cheering, which is always nice, and was home before midnight. Forgot to mention, the rig I used was a Hartke HA3500 into a Trace Elliot 4x10, was easy to get a very decent sound from it.

So today (yesterday) I played two gigs with two different bands. First gig was a local bar with in-house PA & engineer. You play on a small corner stage and the acoustics arn’t brilliant with the drums dominating the on stage sound. Result was we made a lot of mistakes and we were well off our best. Anyway, dashed off from that gig to my second gig 30 mins later. Threw our PA and lights into an already packed pub, quick sound check, and on we went. Great gig, great on stage sound, and the punters seemed happy with my FOH mix. Thank god for the Behringer XR18 as the ability to recall saved scenes make setting up on gigs like this a breeze. Oh and we must have done something right as the landlady gave us a little extra in the pay packet 😎

Just a weird mish mash of style with no coherence to me. Why the pick-up cover but not a bridge one? Why the modern hi mass bridge but 60s rest? Why the lollipop tuners? Weird.

I was lucky to be one of the few who has been pro and I say lucky as for me, I was living my dream so I look back with absolutely zero regrets. It is incredibly hard work, absolutely no doubt about it and the band have all fallen out and no longer speak to each other, arguments with the record company resulting in us suing them and winning, arguments with producers, managers and A&R guys, we've had it all. Plus its incredibly tiring both mentally and physically and even go as far as stressful and a pressure cooker environment at times. However, I loved absolutely every second of it because I was living my dream. From the many years of playing hundreds of gigs, travelling up and down the country, building a buzz and a following to then get the offer of a record deal and that moment where you go into work, stick two fingers up and say to all the doubters, you've done it and you're out of here, see ya. Then putting pen to paper and actually signing your record deal. Getting an advance and heading down to the Bass Centre in Wapping, picking out your dream bass, a huge rig, a spare bass and other bits and pieces and saying, the record company will pay just felt so good. Spending 6 months living in a studio with a top producer recording the album and b-sides while having our own chef, cottage and being able to focus 100% on music and being creative was incredible. Then going on tours to promote the album with our own crew, tour bus, tour manager was to me awesome. I loved going on tour, travelling, seeing new places, staying in hotels, meeting new people, playing new venues and being fed and watered was amazing but the rest of the band didn't seem to enjoy it as much and found it tiring, boring and a bit of a slog. Plus, playing two John Peel session, a Virgin session, Radio 1 roadshows, advert music, songs on the radio, CD and records in shops, interviews, photoshoots which I did hate, and then all the fan mail, gifts, being spotted and the attention. What's not to like but as I say it was hard work. Being locked in the studio was hard as you'd have periods of doing nothing for days and its no 9 to 5 type schedule either. For example, it's 2am and we need you to lay some vocals down or let's start recording the bass for this song at 9pm and after trying lots other ideas, its 4am and you are mentally drained. You then go to bed to then get called back 2 hours later for something else. Then, being locked in a studio for weeks or months, not seeing anyone but the same few people can do things to you. Just going out to the shops feels odd and all of the band had periods of paranoia thinking people are staring at them. Plus you don't see girlfriends or family and you do kind of get used to that so it can cause tension when you do to the point of feeling like you don't want to be there and you can't wait to leave again. Then the pressure of writing new material, maintaining an image, not just from gig to gig but photo shoots, interviews, TV etc. Keeping relationships among the band and crew can also be challenging and maintaining a positive attitude to keep selling the band and yourself to fans, promoters, radio stations, pluggers etc. can also be draining. You do live in a bubble and you can be so isolated from the real world but also living in a pressure cooker and not actually realise until it explodes. However, we were pretty smart, we knew we were all young so we negotiated with the record company to not give us our advance in one hit to last us 3 years as certain band members would spunk it all on various alcohol and substances within a year but instead, pay it to us monthly. We also set a routine which was Sunday and Monday is our day off, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we'd either stay at the rehearsal studio to write songs and rehearse from 10am till 7pm and then spend the evening having dinner and then Friday and Saturday we'd gig. If we weren't at the rehearsal studio, then me and the singer would stay at mine to write songs and the other two in the band would do band admin, promotion, tax forms etc. It actually worked and we stayed on the straight and narrow and did quite well and actually became quite savvy. So as I say no regrets. This is the moment I'm actually signing the record deal with the lawyers in London 😁 My bass corner at ths rehearsal studio.