Leaderboard

Just got in from a Spacewasters gig at The 100 Club in London, supporting King Kurt & The Polecats. Used my JMJ Mustang into my Ashdown RM500v2 into whatever the cab that was there was. Doors opened 7:30, we were on at 8:00 and for that time not a bad sized crowd at all. Played well and got some very good applause. Was nice to be on a big stage again, especially now we’re a 5-piece. One of the guitarists sadly broke 2 strings (at separate times) so we had to change things about a bit (they both work in London so only had one guitar each as had come from work) a bit disconcerting for me as I then ended up doing half lead vocals on a song which ain’t my bag, but the show must go on. Nice & easy trip home too which made for an all round good gig.

A three-band bill of folk (State of Undress), blues (my own Otis Jay Blues Band) and Americana (World Gone Wrong) at New Milton’s Forest Arts Centre. Capacity audience of 125, which is gratifying. Sound technician Alice did a brilliant job considering the variety of instruments involved. A super fun evening, and though we had a few duff intros - new drummer’s first gig - no one seemed to mind. Photos show me having foolishly raced to the top of the theatre with Sandberg in hand, and descending rather more gingerly… Love to take this package to other venues - suggestions gratefully received.

Bandeoke in Bristol again last night. The guitarist is getting married today and Wednesday was his stag. It was easily detectable that the band doesn't usually go out on the night before Bandeoke. We crawled over the finish line

Here's a brief catch-up on Mustang Sally's gigs since our Jan-Feb rest period. First off we were asked to play a Sunday afternoon gig (3pm) mid-March at a pub in Shaftesbury that had recently changed hands. Rain stopped us setting up outside as originally requested (thank gawd - it was ruddy cold too!) so we played in the bar to a maximum 'crowd' of about 25 people. I can't imagine why the new landlord thought it would work, but we got a paid rehearsal and a few compliments from the punters out of it. Next up we played the Mere social club, a tiny venue with the acoustics of a concrete prison-block shower room. More punters this time but I didn't enjoy it, had great difficulty trying to hear what I was playing; the miked bass drum was interacting and clashing with my bass in the PA mix, in the end I disconnected the line-out from my amp and played old-skool direct to the room - better but still not happy with it. Most recently played at the Marnhull British Legion - fabulous acoustics (real wood floor) perfect mix, good crowd, and as compiler of the set list I 'accidently' forgot to include Sweet Home Albania - result! Not exactly Glasto-level gigging, but they all count on my admission scorecard to Bass-Heaven in the afterlife, where I hope to be hitting the frets alongside Bruce, McVie, Nilorius and all the other bass legends...

There is an easy response to this. For each venue, try and listen for what works best. If you are running an analogue desk without outboard, your options are more limited in terms of processing (compression, gates etc) but it worth remembering a HPF, at say 100Hz, is not literally cutting everything (e.g. hard cutting) below 100Hz. There will be a slope associated with that drop off and that drop off may not be behaving as you think. Let me try and explain how even with an analogue desk, and without the flash toys, you can make your kick drum thud at that fundamental. For the benefit of this example I'll tell you that kick drum fundamentals (depending upon kick drum) are typically somewhere in the 50, 60, 70 Hz zone. (Depends upon type and size of drum, tightness of skins etc) So... I've googled generic analogue desk and the Allen and Heath ZED something or other came up. Quite a common mixer the ZED... so I downloaded the manual to find out what the channel strip looks like - So we've got (at the top) a HPF which is 100 Hz. I've looked at the specs of the roll off and it's 12dB/Octave. I'm not sure of the Q on the HPF as it's not stated in the manual - but I'll show that for the roll off, it's not that important anyway, especially when we're using the eq in the manner in which I'm going to show you. So... here's our EQ with no gains applied on any of the EQ filters and no HPF applied. As you can see, totally flat. If you feed in anything in the lows, it will get pushed to your output bus. First things first, let's push in the HPF button and see what that does to our frequency curve. As you can see, with a 12db/Oct cut, it actually starts cutting above 100Hz and tapers down as the frequency lowers in accordance with that 12db/Octave gradient. Now let me show you what is actually happening at that 100Hz point on the HPF... Before we move on too much, lets come back to the Q. In the above example, the Q (shape) is at 0.71... is we lessen it to 0.1, we can see how it impacts the roll off - And if we boost the Q we can influence the eq quite dramatically... But... it's worth noting, the last thing you want on a PA, is a huge bump like this when putting on a HPF (I'm just showing you for your understanding). In reality I would wager Q is probably around 0.75 or 0.71 so there is cut only (e.g. nothing going above the horizontal line in our graphs). So just to get us back on path, as stated before, with the HPF button depressed, your EQ is going to look something like this. OK. Now lets look at the LF filter on the channel strip... As you can see, this is at 80Hz and is a low shelving filter (as shown by the logo under LF) So lets whack that up to +15dB and see what we get... You can see that shelf curve in action (curves upwards and then flattens out (the orange section). Our resulting EQ curve shows we are still getting a boost of low end from around 50Hz and above. So thats our target kick drum zone right there... however... it's also probably including a lot of unwanted mush because of the breadth of frequencies being boosted. So what can we do...? Lets set the LF back to 0 to get back to just our HPF being applied. ... and now lets draw our attention to those lower mids on the channel strip. So bearing in mind I told you a kick drum fundamental could be typically found around 60Hz, lets apply a boost of 15dB with a Q of say, 2. (Obviously you'd be using your ears to determine how much you want to boost that frequency so it sounds right - and remember, the volume of kick controlled via this channel (for the overall mix) would be controlled via the fader) Well, would you look at that! A kick drum fundamental which is poking out like mad but with some significant cut between 70 and 100 where all your mush resides. And on the other side of the equation, you have mega cut from just above 50 which is getting rid of all the sub mush and unwanted energy sapping, speaker punishing frequencies. So there you go, you have EQed your fundamental on your kick drum channel... and you still have the upper mid to address any 200-400 boxiness. You've also freed up a bit of space in your mix for your bass guitar to reside! (although you may want to be EQing your bass channel with a different approach based on what you've just learned - e.g. still using the HPF albeit with maybe some LF and LM with different frequency centre points and Q. Granted, it all depends upon how feature rich your filters are on your analogue desk... but hopefully this has demystified HPF somewhat!

I’ll get a round. Beach Boys

Got mine at long last! pure Alice in Chains tone. Unreal.

The itch gets scratched… then the reality of the cost sets in? Was often my dilemma anyway when owning old gear and the prices went north.

Just realised I haven't put up a poster for tomorrow night's Hurtsfall gig: The line-up has changed somewhat since this was produced. It's now: Ghost Dance Hurtsfall Katolik We're on at 8.35. Tickets are £17 or £20 on the door.

I went for the burgundy strap and it looks amazing, it compliments the pickguard 😀

Shiny shiny, shiny frets of nickel....

Limited editions for 2024. They're so hideous I want a VI.

During this time when you can't buy a G&L (USA or Tribute) for love nor money right now, here's a pic of my Tribute LB-100 for no reason other than it was there.

Winning - I'm negative gear for the year - just sold a Tecamp Puma 900. The trouble ahead is that's most of what a Sire Z7 costs... still, stock won't be available for months - plenty of time for the car's MOT to eat those funds instead!

The only thoughts that matter are yours. 😉

Mid week gig at The Chapel in Nottingham supporting Empathy Test and Black Nail Cabaret. Flag Promotions always know how to put together a great gig line-up and look after the bands, even when pre-gig ticket sales looked like being a bit slow. In the end it wasn't a bad turnout for a school night and most of the audience were in early to see us. Not the best gig that we've played, there were a couple of technical issues the most perplexing of which was the complete change in sound on stage from the sound check to the gig, despite being first on and last to sound check. We had no fold back at all for half of the first song and it took another two before the stage mix was close to what we have had during the sound check. This has happened more than once at this venue and beginning to wonder if there is some kind of user error the part of the PA engineer there. Anyway the audience didn't seem to notice that anything was amiss, and we got plenty of positive comments afterwards. We're in London at the New Cross Inn supporting Ghost Dance on Saturday, and then WGW...

The cats woke me up before five this morning to let me know that they wouldn't survive until a more reasonable hour without food. I used the opportunity to get the frets in. I covered the tangs in wood glue to fill any voids left in the fret slots. I also added binding to the headstock, I'm trying a partially bound style. Dolly and Tammy on the brink of starvation

I had a very positive experience of music and lessons at secondary school. Straight from the off I started learning trumpet and joined the school band. I don't remember much about the early lessons. I took music as an option. We spent quite a bit of time studying and listening to pieces, one of which included Dark Side of the Moon, which was an eye and ear opener! This was around 1980. The music department used to hire instruments. I had been toying with learning electric guitar, but when I saw a bass for hire I had my light bulb moment and it came home with that day. I soon joined a few other bands as there were hardly any bass players at school. The music department had some good sound proofed rooms and we would regularly be in there during breaks to jam. One of the teachers would join us on mouth organ for some 12 bar. The teachers were very supportive of our music and we got to play at assemblies, Christmas concerts and some out of school events. I soon got the hang of bass and for my music practical exam played Money on bass and another piece on trumpet. Some good memories. I'm still in touch with the guitarist and keyboard player from my 1st school band as seen below.

Always liked Antigua, but then, I have no taste. Quite relieved there's no Jazz. And I definitely don't need another Strat. Do I? That's no SnotBurst! This is SnotBurst - or more accurately, SnotGlo.

Top carving continues. I've hummed and ha'd long and hard about final thicknesses. Ken parker thins his tops to between 2 and 3mm, he mentions D'Aquisto tops were 2.5mm to 4mm thick. Obviously those were guitars but the string tension is actually very similar. The arch is a bit flatter on mine and the wood is certainly cheaper...so plugging all those variables into the scientific calculator, my finger in the air came back with the following: 4mm around the bridge, 3.5mm around that thinning to 3.2mm at the periphery. I don't know if you can read any of these numbers, but here we are, getting close:

Nice venue. I do like that part of the world, we keep looking at whether to move New Milton / Barton way.

It’s definitely intended humour. This clip made me pee myself (you’ll know which bit):

While I like the finish... It does make me think of a very badly stained pub toilet.

Member Statistics Total Members 51,285 Might get expensive...

I’ve just remembered why i kept changing mine. I did start off with the normal set, but at the time i was using a couple of TC Electronic pedals. The ones with the app that sends the changes via the instrument pup. I found the cable tone feature was attenuating the high freq and stopping this from working. So i got the full range set. Then i found that to be a bit ‘clicky’ when using a pick and a bright signal, so i ended up going back i the standard version. 1st world issues 😂

This one will need a quite feature rich digital desk or outboard (however, I will drop in an easy alternative once I've talked you through it) Basically, kick drums on mics can be quite a pita in the live environment because they tend to pick up not only the kick drum but all the low end rumble crap on stage. So theres a number of things you can do to address this. The common one, is to use two mics. One which is getting the all the beater frequencies and the other which is getting the lows - but the gain can be a lot lower as you don't need to boost the gain on that mic to capture the beater frequencies. Lower the gain and closer proximity to the drum means higher signal to noise ratio without all the bleed. OK what else? You can also apply a gate. The gate stops any signal from the mic getting onto your mix bus. Once a threshold is exceeded (e.g. a kick drum is kicked), the gate opens and lets the sound of the drum through... before closing again. All this means is that you get the sound of the drum but the ambient mush which is present whilst the drum isn't being kicked doesn't go into your mix. However, the low end you are getting may be that fundamental plus still quite a lot of mush. So how can you get all the low end fundamental without the mush? Answer? Fake it. So you use a mic to capture the beater and roll off all the low end and associated mush. So how do you get that low end thump of the kick? Easy - that's where the sine wave comes in. So lets choose say 60Hz. Set up a sine wave (some desks have sine generators (usually labelled oscillators) - other desks without the functionality, you'll need to plug in a sine generator onto another channel - however, if you haven't got an oscillator, it's unlikely it will support the next bit). Of course, what you have now is a permanent sine wave present on your mix bus. What you need to do is configure it to be side chained and triggered when the gate on the kick drum channel opens. When you've done that, you'll end up with the kick drum with the inferior low end being augmented with the pure sine wave. That will give you purest bottom end - and with some big subs, you'll be pinning people to the wall with the most precise sounding kick drum you've ever heard. BUT>>>>> as I said, not every desk can support this. Whats the alternative? Drum trigger. I always carry around a Roland TM-2 with a RT30K trigger. This gives you the opportunity trigger a sine... but if you are going to do that... you may want to trigger the complete kick drum sound completely. Whats not to like about a lovingly crafted studio quality kick drum sample in a live setting? And that's it! PS this is a cheat which is also used on more studio recordings than you would think. Gives you that low end precision which a mic simply can't deliver.

Just an update on this after a lot of shopping around and hmm-ing and haa-ing I finally settled on an Ibanez SR655e second hand! I found somewhere where I could test some of the Ibby necks (thought they didn't have that exact model in) and I'm sure I've made the right choice! Now I just have to wait patiently for it to arrive!

I bought Matt's Tecamp Puma yesterday afternoon, and it was delivered at 10am today. Great packing, double boxed, amp is superb, and the price was right. Fabulous chap to deal with. Thanks Matt. Rob

I have a Ditto Looper (but tbh it is redundant as I have one built into my Plethora X5) and it is simple to use, you just need to get used to how many times you are tapping it.

No doubt he is an incredible player and I find some of his videos quite entertaining, I cant help but think he is wasting his talents on these videos. I'd like to hear him play in a really great band with a great drummer. Perhaps he's already done this but it hasn't shown up on my radar yet. Maybe Youtube is the best way for talented musicians to make decent money now - which is a bit sad really.

Very luckily as my Mrs is a tattooist! Free tattoos! Woo Yes I have 2 bass related ones amongst others. . .

Hi To “All” Bass Players In The UK ! Been Playing For 42 Years Now Here In The USA

TBF , I Iove a thick dubby sound . The 734a works for me for any songs I play . It really is the go to bass for me . It will do pretty anything that I want it to do .

I got a Hofner violin bass due to knackered shoulder / weight issues a few years ago and in terms of weight it was like there was virtually nothing there, it weighed about as much as a bag of crisps. Unfortunately, the neck dive was incredible, even sitting down, so I let it go. I still have a CV Mustang which is very light and a Squier Jazz which is surprisingly light too, but I only play bass sitting down nowadays so weight (up to a point) isn’t such an issue. Shoulder still is a problem though! I remember seeing Incognito live once and whoever was on bass sat down through the whole set. The audience was still dancing 👍

Get some Loc-Tite Thread Lock.

Antiguaaaaaarghhh my eyes

Well… they had a b-stock for £228. With delivery. I bought it!