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Started my final run of gigs last night with The ELO Experience at Milton Keynes Theatre. As you’d expect, a large modern theatre with great staff, load in and backstage facilities. It has a capacity of 1400, think we had just over 1000 people in so felt quite full. We haven’t played for 3 weeks, so were all a bit on edge hoping we would be okay. Didn’t start well at soundcheck with a few tech issues, but with the help of our guys we got it sorted eventually. We were just leaving the theatre to find somewhere to eat and bumped into Warwick Davis passing by -nice bloke and a favourite of our lighting maestro Rob who got a selfie. The gig went well, lively audience in good voice. We all got through it without any major problems, although I was quite tired. 170 mile drive back home as the gig was a stand alone, have been having a quiet day today.

Back at the Cow & Telescope in Southend-on-Sea on Friday. Our third time at this venue and by far my favourite place on the pub circuit. Always an appreciated crowd who turn up for the music. A decent night with a good turnout of our friends, family and followers. Unfortunately for us, we were told by the landlady that about 15 of the regulars (who wanted to see us) were up in London to see Slash and Myles Kennedy - I don’t blame them TBH, I’d rather watch Slash and Myles than us, lol. We’re gradually getting used to the Allen & Heath desk, and it’s getting easier to dial in and tweak for every venue,. I had a slight issue with my IEMs - the cable came out of the right one halfway through the second set. It was so hot and sweaty in there I could grip the plug firm enough to push it back in, so I played the remainder of the set with one IEM and a glorified earplug. Oh well. Our super sub Sophie did and fantastic job yet again and received lots of compliments. She blew our socks off on Proud Mary, she really went for it. I had an interesting chat with one chap. One of my wife’s younger workmates introduced me to her new boyfriend before we started who is a drummer. Nice chap, and got a chance to chat with him after our first set. He was very impressed with our drummer, asking me who he is. I replied he’s a grade 8 qualified drummer who’s a full time drum teacher, played in a number of bands, including originals and previously a busy, touring a punk band. The chap said, I’m a session drummer and he’s better than me. He then asked who our bassist is as he’s pretty good as well I don’t think he could see me where he was sitting and didn’t realise it was actually me. I said, “that’s me, and thank you. He told me one of his regular session gigs is playing with Samantha Fox, and what am I doing in a couple of months time as there’s a gig their regular bassist can’t do. I told me I’m not a session guy and I have a full-time day job so I’m not sure about that thing. He said, “Oh the songs are easy, and it'll be a case of fly into Lithuania on the Friday, gig Saturday and home again Sunday"! I'm extremely flattered and we shared details, but I don't think I'll go for it if he does end up asking. Not only do I need to renew my passport, but I don't own any flight cases for my gear not to mention a massive dose of imposter syndrome and I don't think I'd be able to dedicate time to learning a batch of songs I've never heard of at very short notice - it's just not a skill I'm used to doing. Still, it's nice to be asked. Obligatory venue pics, including the tools for the night - the very unidentical twins.

Hi y'all! Just 2 weeks ago I wouldn't have even imagined I'd ever own a bass like this. I accidentally ran into an ad for an Ibanez EHB1005MS for less than half the new price (presumably because of an issue with a tuner). I made my homework, checked for monorail bridge+tuner prices and made sure I could repair whatever issue for cheap, and pulled the trigger, with MOSTLY questions (many firsts, first headless, first multiscale, first bass with the horrible Bart BH2s, etc.), but that of the "investment", being that cheap, if I don't happen to like it I can get rid of it losing no money, or even earning some. On a side note, I've been looking for a cheap travel bass. I know this is not as cheap as I'd wanted, but it's a hell of a travel bass (as per dimensions) and much more, a perfectly competent instrument. The bass happened to work OK, no tuner problem, 100% user error AFAICT. I don't know what string gauges were on that bass, but they were THICK, and the SUPOSED G string measured thicker than my regular (.065) D. Being that the scale for that string is 33", you will always max out the tuner threading before reaching pitch. WIth my usual strings it works perfectly and I have lots of threading left in the tuner. BTW, no need for weird string sets on this bass either. The same as a Schecter CV-5 I used to own, my usual Warwick Red Label Nickels are long enough, there's about 1cm of string winding left past the nut. Surprisingly I like the bass a lot. Plays wonderfully and has lots of nice features. It has 2 problems tho', one's stupid, the other is a REAL problem. The stupid thing has to do with fret markers. The front markers apparently aren't for the player, as you CAN'T SEE THEM, the low B string completely covers them from your viewpoint when playing. The side Luminlay dots are nice... IN THE DARK, AS IN NATURAL LIGHT THEY GET COMPLETELY LOST. I don't rely on markers much, but being this my 1st multiscale I'd love to have clear markers for the upper register, where frets are more tilted, at least while I adapt, as I occasionally might get lost. Nothing some stickers won't correct. Now the real issue with this bass is the crappy Bart BH2s (not real Bartolinis, but a "licensed copy" some chinese manufacturer produces for Ibanez), which come wired in series and sound totally DEAD (excessively and unnaturally scooped). I don't have a problem using a soldering iron, so I rewired both as single coils (neck side coil of each PU). I don't discard going the Nordy Big Splits route in the future, but the change to single coils at least made that necessity les urgent, it's the only way I find these BH2 pickups acceptable, they're beyond crappy. It's silly that Ibanez offers this bass with such poor pickups (IDK about you, but I DON'T PAY 1200-1300€ FOR DEAD PICKUPS). But also, the next EHB/MS model up is simply paying 200-300$/€ more for just pretty wood, USELESS. You have to pay 500$/€ more to get Nordstrands (plus the useles fancy wood, guess you can't avoid that). Just don't get it, my Sire V3, at 1/3 the new price, has 10X better pickups. I insist, once rewired to single coil the bass sounds a lot better. Not as good as the demos I hear with Nordstrands, but definitely a "normal" usable bass guitar. The rest of the bass is awesome, comfortable, light, steel frets, the finishing, the neck profile (sorta' D, but as skinny front to back as SRs), the roasted maple, the birdseye in the fretboard, I even find the aesthetics on this graceful, or let's say it could be worse (it could also be a single cut, for the ultimate aberration). Here's a clip I've recorded with the EHB, a song by Argentinean supergroup Divididos. The EHB here does a great "impersonation" of the original neck pickup Jazz Bass tone, with highs cut and lows slightly boosted. My stable looks like this now...

Played at the Half Moon in Littleover, Derby on Saturday. We were a bit worried about the load-in and out as it's double yellows on the street outside and the car park is over the road (and I think is actually the Co-op's). However, the landlady said everybody unloaded on the double yellows so that's what we did. Not an ideal playing space as there's a column 2/3 of the way across which was a bit in the way, but we overcame that. The landlady also gave us free drinks (which we took advantage of without taking the piss), and included Mrs Zero and the drummer's wife in the freebies, which was very nice. On the musical side, I'd been experimenting with the XR12 and put some reverb on, but I couldn't get it dialled in right so abandoned it after a couple of numbers. At least I now know the basics of how to do it. One or two minor fumbles but nothing disastrous. Almost everything went down well - the one exception being Get Lucky which we brought in recently, but both times we've done it it's gone down like a plate of cold sick. I suspect that it's a song that's of its time. Both the guitarists had a long way to travel (2 hours for one of them) but they were really happy with it. Landlady was happy with us so hopefully we'll be back there.

Definitely this. I do enjoy it when you've learned 30 songs in a week and you know the set better than the band do. Also when you play the correct line but they think its wrong as their usual guy has been playing it wrong for years. I once played Alright Now, when it got to the guitar solo and the famous bass line they thought I must be Andy Fraser cos they'd never heard it like that!😂

I wasn't sure where to post this - gig or rehearsal thread, but it's felt more like a gig than a rehearsal. I've spent the weekend at Stonegate Recording Studios near Bentham North Yorkshire. We set up Friday night, and have done 10-6 Saturday and Sunday. This is the new blues band, with only one 45 minute gig under our belt so far, and this was for recording a few tracks to promote the band. We have really gelled as a unit, personally and musically, and it's been a really positive experience. The band leader does his job well, directs with without being over-bearing, and is a consummate musician, playing Hammond, Rhodes and Sax, and the drummer is one of the best I've ever played with, really exceptionally good. We managed to get down 6 tracks yesterday, without vocals and solos, which we've added today. We had a guy filming too yesterday, which we're hoping to sync with the recordings at some point. I took two 70's P basses and have played everything through my rebuilt '73 Bassman 50 and a Barefaced Super Compact, it was a great sound to me. When the tracks have been mastered I'll post some links up. Knackered now though! Rob

My 1993 MK2 😉

Played a gig in my home town Saturday night so only a short drive home for me, started at 9pm, first set was great, had people up dancing, really looking like they're enjoying it, just as we were finishing most put coats on and left and the second set was very quiet in comparison, spoke to friends who play in other pub cover bands locally and they say its the way things are nowadays? Weekend before we played in one of the 2 big cities locally and the pub was packed until 1am.

Beligerence. You are the best bass player in the building at that time playing a bass. Oi, smartarse heckler, come up here and have a go if you think you're good enough - thought not - back in your box then. They could have asked anyone to take the gig on, but they asked you. Don't dwell on mistakes. Accept that they happen - pick the song up again ASAP and forget about it - the time for analysis is after the gig.

We had a gig at a pub in Watford that we had played before, in fact they gave us our first gig. The landlady booked us on a day that all the locals left to go to a golf tournament. We played to about 6 people! We then offered to take a cut in our fee but the bar staff wouldn't have it. The Load of Hay in Watford, good pub.

You should do it - as has been said you'll regret it if you don't. And think of the thread you could start here. 😃

A busy weekend of rugby and finishing things. Pickguard and control panel facia now done. Bottom of guitar glued in place. Pickups are currently slanted as I think they are too wide for the strings to sit in the middle of the pickups. My Fender Jazz pickups aren't perfectly aligned but still better than this. Is this normal? Intending to have this finished middle of the week now. Need to glue the top of the guitar on and then get into setting it up.

Most unusually for me I have pre-ordered one of these. Hopefully with a few mods will be a decent enough and gig-able substitute for the real thing. https://www.fender.com/en-GB/squier-electric-basses/jazz-bass/limited-edition-classic-vibe-mid-60s-jazz-bass/0374533505.html

My band 'Shreds.' are playing at the Star & Garter in Manchester with 80's hardcore legends NEGATIVE APPROACH on May 28th. The guitarist in my band is a huge NA fan, so this is basically a bucketlist gig for him (my bucketlist gig is our show with the Subhumans in Lincoln at the end of April). Anyway, this is pretty awesome especially considering the recent death of the licensee at the S&G, and the fact that my band has real difficulty playing anything other than weekend shows. We knew it was a bucketlist gig for our guitarist, and everyone went out of their way to help fulfill his wishes. Hurry up and get your tickets though! I heard that more than 50% of the tickets have already been sold!

Two Rinses ～ Spin Doctors

I hope you're having those at home and not giving those welching cockwombles any more money!

This would be the last time I ever darkened the door of said venue, and well done for naming and shaming so that others can avoid the embarrassment.

Ghost notes are my friends - I just fein confidence and play them until I work out what note I'm supposed to be playing!

I picked up this 1990 TL5 very recently. Really a top notch instrument… solid maple wings, lovely jet-black ebony board. Can’t fault the build quality on it. The neck is very comfortable with a very flat D profile. Sound-wise, it’s in beefy jazz bass territory. I’m suitably impressed.

To bring this train-wreck somewhat back on topic Jaco Pastaurius Pizza Butler Veal Murray Gravy504 Farls Berthoud Adam Filet-on

The only issue I can see is that carrying a leather Chesterfield is very awkward in a full length smoking jacket.

I found the two Tripadvisor reviews that mentioned the venue's treatment of bands useful. 😁

Name and shame 'The Sh*thouse pub in Slough' on all the Social Media sites to let other bands/musicians know what happened.

The breach of contract described doesn't sound remotely shaky. If the truth hurts the business, well, that's the nature of truth. They don't get to cherry pick the genuine and verifiable facts that end up in the public domain, much as I'm sure they'd like to. A savvy new owner will quickly capitalise on the change of management/ownership to underline the past and kick-start things anew. It will only linger like a stale fart if they choose to let it. And to be honest, better a live venue disappear down the U bend than keep shafting hard working musicians. I don't want to see live music at the cost of people being effed over.

Close your eyes or look away from it and do your settings by ear, not with your eyes.

(not mines)

You'd think they'd have a forum where they share and compare scams 😂

Just remembered, there was a benefit to me playing sitting down with a previous band - the rest of the band were so short that despite only being 175cm (0.0086992 furlongs) tall, it was like being Gandalf with a bunch of hobbits.

Washing well - Terence Trent d’arby

The G&L looks great (well the Jackson does too, but I'm a G&L fanboy). FWIW if the main thing stopping you is learning the songs, I think you'll find 2 months is actually quite a long time (depending on how many songs you need to learn and how much other stuff you have on). 18 months or so ago I depped for a gig (not a pro one) with about 3 weeks notice. The set list was 15 or 16 songs. I'd played several of them on keys (IIRC), but I don't remember having played any of them on bass. 5 or 6 were originals that I'd never heard before. I knew them all by the gig - but did have to cram. I probably made up my own lines rather than trying to be true to originals other than for ones with instantly recognisable bass lines (e.g. Come Together). I did a video diary on Instagram of how I prepped for the gig. I have been meaning to put it together as a complete YouTube post as there isn't much resource available on how to prep at short notice for depping. If you want to see the diary message me and I'll try to make it available (un-edited at this point). I'm not trying to persuade you to do it, just sharing my (singular) experience in case you do decide to do it. Edit: having looked at the extremely popular post I did, (a grand total of zero replies- I'm guessing I didn't "win the day" with it 😊) I may have had less than 3 weeks (3 weeks is my recollection though) https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/471508-tips-for-deps-aka-subs-in-american/#comment-4851807

I have an occasional dep gig with a busy function band, it's all 'top 40' type stuff and nowt too challenging. They give me plenty of notice and a set list so I have time for practice at home and to make up some crib sheets. I had one 'gig' with them a couple of years back, it was in South Wales at a holiday camp about 90 minutes' drive away... the band leader/frontlady was assured time and again that they had a substantial in-house PA, but we got there to find that substantial actually meant a 2 channel 30w vocal PA with a pair of Radio Shack speakers. The camp ents. manager still expected something from us, so the band leader sang to the backing track tape she always carries Just In Case, and the rest of us went home. She was mortified that I'd had a long pointless drive, was incandescent with fury at the camp and vowed to screw them for the full band fee plus nuisance money, which she got - the band has a good standard contract, and she's a lawyer by trade and very good at getting what she wants - so I was well compensated for my wasted time. But in truth, I didn't mind that much. I'd caught up with my friends in the band, albeit fleetingly, and it was a beautiful evening for a drive, so I took the scenic route home. But it was a good lesson in the band always having a watertight contract!

Despite having done hundreds of gigs prior, I suffered from terrible performance anxiety issues all the way through uni. I came very close a few times to dropping out. It wasn't helped by the fact that some of the tutors shouldn't have been teaching at that level. They were great bassists but awful tutors. Two tutors however were fabulous and gave me loads of advice. Always prepare well Do everything you can to avoid unnecessary anxiety. Relax properly beforehand. Set up, then remove yourself from the performance space and just sit quietly, focusing on what you have to do. It's a form of meditation. Avoid alcohol. I don't drink anyway, but it doesn't help. Also, avoid too much caffeine.

Even though they made good on the fee eventually I'd still name and shame on as many social media sites as I could. The next band they try it on with might not be forceful as you, or worse, be EXTREMELY forceful. Alternatively you can always suggest that they discuss the matter with your extremely experienced lawyers at MU who deal with matters like this all the time.

The Brickhouse in Slough is the pub in question. On my avoid list.

My 1991 MK2

We put a fresh set of DR Neon strings on the 4 string earlier and it's really annoying, it sounds better than my Ibanez that cost 10 times as much. It plays really nicely as well

I’ve done rather a lot of dep gigs, so here are just a few examples of what might happen :- “No problems mate, everything’s played in the original keys” – Err - no, I discover this lie immediately the song starts. Drummer’s count in for a song may have no relevance to the actual tempo that follows. Guitarist thinking that the first chord of a song is therefore the ‘key’ of the song. “We play it just like the record” – apart from the fact you completely missed out the Middle 8. Guitarist and kbds player are clearly playing different chords at the same time. Whole band staring at you as if you are some genius because you played the actual main hook bass line from the song, rather than what their regular bass player Billy plays. Band appear to have taken a vow of silence and all clearly hate each other both on and off stage. And the reason you’re depping is that their regular bass player has already abandoned the sinking ship. “Can you arrive 7pm, we start playing at 8pm” – so, you’re set up on an empty stage by 7.15, but the rest of the band start arriving half an hour later with no apologies or explanations. Actual fact, I love doing deps, they can be great fun, but equally can be very annoying and frustrating. You have to be prepared for anything and everything 🙂

I think some of the punters who enjoyed it sort of 'encouraged' them. 😉

Well, we finally got paid in the end. However, a few of the punters have refused to drink in there again. There was no agreement about payment based on bar receipts as far as I know.

Take them to court. A small claim will cost you about £35 and is worth doing. It shows you’re serious and also that you won’t settle for less. When they settle (which they will) they’ll pay your costs back. I run a small business and have done this several times.

Tell them they can pay in money or teeth. Let them decide.

I'm fortunate enough to have a man-cave/studio/office daaaaaaaaaan the bottom of the garden, so naturally have rammed it fully of crap. Does mean that I can blast through the Marshall VBA at full volume or smash the drums to pieces without anyone hearing/caring! Usually though, it'll be an ACG 6 of some sort through a Helix and into an Epifini UL901 and Bergantino 410. 👍