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Last night I was depping for a NE based big band - it was an absolute roast sight-reading these charts having never seen / heard them before! Still I managed to quite myself pretty well! SSBB Sr Duke.mp4

TONIGHT! More of a concert than a gig... depped with Tamworth Wind Band in a church in Tamworth. Lovely bunch of folks, really nice vibe, good players and appreciative of me standing in. They'd commissioned the ex principal director of music at the RAF (!) to write a piece celebrating Tamworth (!) especially for the band, so we rehearsed/workshopped it with him in the day and performed the **World Premiere** at the concert. He's a phenomenal musician, he picked up and pointed out loads of tiny little things that really elevated it. Lovely bloke as well. It's not often you get to perform a world premiere in Tamworth... I certainly don't. There was about fifty of us, so it was a fantastic sound. The tuba player was playing an absolutely beautiful old horn- I don't know much about tubas but I'd guess it was a BBb Conn 20J with a recording bell made in the Elkhart factory some time in the mid-late 1920s? He even let me play it. Cheers, Colin! The rest of the repertoire was pretty standard wind band stuff - Vaughan Williams, a couple of film medleys, a slow one with a lovely Cor Anglais solo and some Andrew Lloyd Webber - not my favourite, but Jesus Christ Superstar has got some bangers in it. The highlight (apart from the piece specially commissioned for the band 😳) was the music from 'The Incredibles' - spoof/cheesy superhero film music - a cracking Bass riff driving the whole thing along, bars of 5/4 mission impossible type stuff all over the place... loads of fun to play. Played the 'Ray -> Thumpinator -> VTDI -> MB 802, Rainbow Converse foot fans. Radio 4 on the way home - the evolution of instant messaging, from the invention of the emoticon on MSN messenger to a woman who married a chatbot. Weird. Home just after 10 for a G&T, a slice of raspberry cheesecake and a very stupid cat.

#metoo, albeit with Aggie cabs. The Louisiana, Bristol with George Montague. 90 minute set, attempted from memory which I’ve got lazy at of late with more regular gigs, using a iPad most of the time. Helpful sound guy and the ever excellent Tom Hooper on drums. Much easier to keep the cable runs tidy at this one….

A first gig of the year at an award-winning Glamping site in deepest Dorset. We - the Otis Jay Blues Band - had to tweak our repertoire to include more danceable/recognisable stuff as the glampers have come for a good time. Hence a closing Mustang Sally with three young ladies around the mic adding the responses! (Sadly not pictured…) The applause sounded tumultuous, though that was clearly assisted by downpours onto the clear plastic covering of the bar. Only mystery to be solved was why four cop cars and a paddywagon turned up during set two. A Blues Brothers moment😂 Gear: Flea Jazz, Elf, 2xBarefaced One10.

The Hulla played an 80th birthday party in the local village hall last night. The potential for getting the setlist wrong was great as we didn't know what the demographic would be. Fortunately, we have a range of tunes on tap but as it turned out we found the right mix with the initial selection of songs. It was a small hall, there were around 100 people there and everyone was handed a glass of Prosecco as they walked in, so the atmosphere by the time we squeezed on stage was pretty good. Unsurprisingly there was dancing from the first song and for every tune thereafter. I was using IEM and my mix was great. The stage was very cramped (there was a plan for getting everyone on and off!). My B6 was under the cymbal stand where I had to stretch my foot to tap the switches without kicking over the ride cymbal. The saxophonist on front of me was occasionally stepping on the mic stand leg, so I had to anticipate him and move my mouth away from the mic to avoid impromptu dental work. I played my Ibanez EHB1000s as any regular scale bass would have been brushing up against the curtains at the side of the stage, or slapping the guitarist on the back (I don't play slap style 😃). Overall a most enjoyable gig without the pressures of the drunken city mob. An earlyish finish and the birthday girl really enjoyed herself.

Back to the pubs for me last night with a dep gig with my old band Isabelle at The Brave Old Oak in Towcester. Drummer really struggles with loud bass players, so I took in ears to supplement my rig so I could be fairly quiet on stage. Next step with this band will be to go amplesss for me. Anyway, I remembered all the stuff, decent crowd and went down well, home by 0045. Happy Daze!

About 3pm yesterday we got a message asking if we’d play a gig that night. So, with no recent band practice - we jumped on it. My 5 string anniversary Dingwall had some issues with tuning (it was going sharp) and only grabbed it from my tech place the day before. It would also have been my first gig with my quad cortex (since my last one died at a gig). I haven’t even tested if my “amp” setting actually worked, so decided to run direct (which I’ve wanted to do for years). We had some cable issues with a mic splitter so decided to forgo backing vocals and my QC output was quite low. I haven’t figured out why as yet. But we got everything sorted quick, crowd seemed to enjoy us, got some moshing and folk singing along. The basses tuning issues seem completely sorted now. Afterwards, I got complimented on my playing, my tone, my bass and my LEDs 😂 we didn’t get a photo afterwards due to being slightly moist, but grabbed one prior. Super metal looking poses. Fun fact: I had my Garmin on. 27 mins with a reported 500 odd calorie burn. I can live with that.

The Rebbels played The Cock Inn in Warminster last night. We have not played together for about a month and in the meantime I have had the nasty bug that is going around and could not pick up the bass for long periods. I admit it was a trial and not one of our best although the audience loved it. The room was hard floors throughout and the sound was a bit bass light initially. My rig was LFSys Monza 10, with a Bugera Head fed from my Marcus Miller M2 via the Zoom B2-4. As the bass has active electronics, I was able to push a little low end to get to where I wanted to be. It was a struggle for me, especially second half, but I got through with a few more pink torpedo ups than usually. Despite all this they want us back.... To top off a hard night, the rain was biblical and a 1 hour 10 minute journey home took closer to two hours with the road of Wiltshire and Dorset trying desperately, in cahoots with the rain, to aquaplane me into a ditch/hedge. Maybe it will not be raining next time1

Strange weekend for my lot, Tore Down - unusually back to back gigs Friday night and Saturday daytime. Friday night we resumed our residency at The Shamrock in Ipswich. Drummer is a farmer and had a lamb problem so we started late at 9.45pm. Hardly anyone there, even fewer listening to us, didn't bother with an encore. This was the place at 8.45. Opps, didn't mean to post yet. Late start meant late finish - less than convenient because next day we had a gig in Newmarket at the Harley Davidson dealerhsip there. We played 2x 1 hr sets, starting at 11am, needed to get there for 9.30am-ish. I'd booked a Travelodge locally to save going all the way home then all the way back, which kind of worked out OK - managed to get about 6hrs sleep. We'd played a gig at the Harley place before - odd. On the face of it there was no reaction at all - the band seem to be completely ancillary to the event, with nobody watching, virtually no applause or reaction after the songs. But afterwards loads of people came up to say how much they enjoyed it - especially the manager there, Mick who, true to his word, booked us for their 28th birthday bash this year. Which proved to be exactly the same Saturday. Dull drizzly day although we were outside under cover - dry but cold. Good turn out but very little reaction. Every now and then whatever we were playing was drowned out by someone starting up a bike and revving it - particualrly one of our lovely slow blues tunes 'Blue Jean Blues'. Nice food available - either a free BBQ although I opted to buy a stone baked pizza. At half time someone who runs a Harley club asked us to play at their summer bash next year. Mike and the crew at Newmarket loved it and are going to ask us back again. Loads of good feedback from punters, too. Strange. Good pay, though.

The Roundabout club in Sandy, Bedfordshire. Decent gig in the end. We don't often use our own PA and we have this digital system that none of us really understand. Worked fine last week. This week, full of gremlins. We also managed to blow our sub somehow so I was trying to play to the venue through a 100watt amp I was planning to only use as a stage monitor, plus a bit of bass in the tops. Regardless of those and other sound issues the actual gig was good. We were really relaxed so no starting at 200mph or messing up of songs. Decent venue, good little crowd who seemed to be enjoying it. Played my "new" MIM Precision throughout and was very happy with this through my SWR Working Pro, good job that amp has a built in limiter considering how much I was having to push it.

Up close and personal kind of gig, a bit too up close because someone hit the end of my microphone stand hitting my microphone into my teeth, and a bit too personal as a rather drunk young lady forgot to not keep herself clothed in public! So this was the first gig with no bass amp, and as my dwarf is off being fixed I was playing with the zoom. It was the first time with 2 Evox8 speakers. It takes a bit of getting used to it, and for some reason the mixer was working weirdly, and as the keyboard player has a huge monitor speaker hard to get the sound right. It sounded quite good at the start but people complained the vocals weren't loud enough although this might be positioning, as the guitarist has now put his amp up high and point out to the crowd, if you are on that side that is all you can hear. But as I pointed out, sound through their monitor is their issue, it causes feedback sometimes and unbalances things, and the guitarist looks to me to sort it out, but I point out it is their monitor. I was getting over my cold, my first songs sounded ok, but then I do the high bit in crazy horses and my voice just said, nah, not doing those notes, would you like another note just a bit lower? So I cancelled doing any of my songs (which is only a few after that, although one of our encores). my voice even for backup vocals started getting bad after that. Glad my main songs were at the beginning! I recorded it, but unfortunately as it was on the guitarists side, it is basically just his guitar. Still, hugely interactive crowd (possibly too interactive at times), and not a bad gig at all.

The Gig That Nearly Never Was... Or... (cue silent movie style music) The Perils of Facebook Videos. A bit of background to the tale. As a band, we (Rascallion) have always agreed that any of us could go and play with anybody else as long as they were open and honest about what they were doing, and it didn't interfere with or compromise us as the main band (our drummer, for example, has been hosting a weekly jam session in his studio with some other local musos, but has also been keeping up to speed with our core material). Having been on hiatus since October 2023 while our esteemed frontman recuperated from an operation to fuse one of his ankles, we finally resumed rehearsals in March when he declared himself fit and ready to go. We were all a bit rusty, but things soon slotted into place and we spent the first couple of rehearsals working up three new songs, which went surprisingly well (though I do have to wonder what @casapete and his bandmates would make of our rendition of "Showdown" sans strings!). We then turned our attention to the rest of the setlist, most of which we've been playing for the past couple of years, and this is when things started to go pear-shaped, with Mr Frontman failing to remember how to start the tunes he'd normally start, along with most of the chords, lyrics, and arrangements to the rest of the set. Initially, we jokingly put this down to his age (70+), but then at our next rehearsal, it was even worse, with umpteen songs grinding to a lyricless halt (if they even got started in the first place), so in preparation for our third rehearsal, I printed up a new setlist for him which included the first line of each verse as cues. Then, on the evening before said rehearsal, and with just over two weeks to go until our first gig of the year, our drummer came across some videos on Facebook of a new-to-us band playing at a local pub back in February, and who should be there, upfront and centre? Yep, our frontman. Despite his protests, the rest of us (particular Mr Drums, who's a great drummer and a lovely chap, but has a very short fuse when he thinks someone's taking the proverbial) struggled to accept that Mr Frontman was apparently fit enough to gig (and presumably rehearse) with another band in February, but not to rehearse with us, and must also have been concentrating all his efforts on learning their stuff rather than keeping up to speed with ours. To be honest, we've had our suspicions that he's been "playing away" before now, but this is the first time he's actually been caught in the act. Anyway, after initially refusing to ever set foot on stage with him again (and insisting that he removed his gear from our rehearsal room), Mr Drums finally cooled down and we all agreed that rather than pull the gig, we'd let Mr Frontman back into the fold for it, and after three more rather edgy but improving (in both mood and performance) rehearsals, the gig went ahead last night. After all that drama, not much to report really. A smaller than usual turnout (possibly down to an outbreak of random end-of-the-month-itis), and less dancing than we've had before, but still a great reaction from everybody, with a bit of singing along and plenty of complimentary remarks afterwards. Performance-wise, it's probably safe to say we were still a little ring-rusty, but we managed to negotiate the occasional curve-ball thrown by various members (an extra verse added here, a breakdown section omitted there), and our revised, slightly rockier setlist seemed to work well. For some reason, I really struggled to get my onstage sound sorted on this, the first live outing for the Squier 40th Anniversary P, and eventually resorted to just pressing the "Deep" button on the Ashdown - luckily this produced a suitably deep (sic) tone which I could both hear and feel, so I felt a lot happier in the second set than the first. On the plus side, it apparently sounded OK out front, and in what seems to be a new atmosphere of entente cordiale, it looks like we won't be having to find either a new frontman or a new drummer before our next scheduled gigs in July after all! Quick FB reel from the first set - really must ask our man with a phone to shoot some footage of our second set sometime as that's a bit more lively! https://www.facebook.com/reel/438884908720268

We played third out of 4 bands at The Herdsman in Hereford last night... First band up were ANoise, who do a sort of dance-punk craziness with lots of bizarre costume changes... Lots of fun, though unfortunately only about 6 people had come in by then. Then it was MC16, who do an excellent agit-punk thing - highly recommended (but no pix, though we're playing with them again next week near Telford). Then it was us - luckily I'd brought my Big Amp (1500W!) so I could be heard, which is always nice cos it's all about me 😁. We had the biggest crowd, either because somehow we have fans or, more likely, we had the best time slot. And actually, rather than muttering about how rubbish we were or shouting "Oi, flash w4nkr!" if we dared to play above the 5th fret, someone came up and said I played like Les Claypool! I suspect he must have been very, very drunk. And we are also now officially a covers band, as our other bass player suddenly started playing RATM's "Bullet to the Head" and then our encore was our Cameo/Penetration mash-up of "Don't Dictate"... Headline band were Last Tree Squad who do a ReggaeRapPunk thing and are proper groovy, though I only saw one of their songs due to having to get my ancient self to bed ready for work at sparrow's in the morning... ChokedBulletToTheHead.mp4

The 1973 Jazz I'm restoring had a horribly fitted Schaller bridge on it. The original bridge was present, but it was missing mounting screws and two intonation screws. So I bought new screws and springs and re-fitted the bridge. You can see two sets of three screw holes: my guess is the Schaller was fitted once, they found out it couldn't be properly intonated and then re-fitted it. I really like the discolouring undereatb.

Lot of photos here. But in terms of what I do and why (and always the disclaimer to not assume this is necessarily the best/only way): - First, I have to get all traces off of the old glue. I generally use a single edged razor blade used as a mini cabinet scraper: - As part of the process, I give the fretboard a healthy water spray for two reasons. Firstly, it reveals remaining glue. Secondly, it's wood - it moves by itself and in different conditions. When the fretboard was first fitted it will have been damp from the water-based wood glue. That moisture gradually reduces (it's one of the reasons that fret ends can feel sharp on a new bass after a year or so - the timber shrinks, exposing the sharp edges of the frets previously filed flush) and certainly does when a domestic iron has been used to remove it! Water spraying it damp right through gives it at least half a chance of returning to the shape and length when first fitted. - I then sand both surfaces. This is a cheap sandpaper holder I found in, I think, Homebase. It's great - and especially for my increasingly arthritic hands! : - Next. I use two-sided sticky tape to stick a protective clamping cawl, using some old mahogany offcut, to protect the back of the neck when clamping: - Positioning the forward/backward placing using the side-dot holes as the guide (see previous post), I use a bobbin clamp to position the fretboard side-to-side and then drill two positioning 1.5mm holes through the saddle base to the neck for a couple of panel pins to be used as locators: - and yes - as I said above, wood moves. And the whole fretboard has a bend in it. With the above panel pins in place, and a second bobbin clamp holding the fretboard in position at the 5th fret, look how much the natural bend in the board is out of line with the heel end! : - To correct this bend (it pushes back straight and flush fairly easily) I could just use bobbin clamps at the heel end too, but, for the sake of a teeny hole in the fretboard, I think a better solution is another panel pin locator: - I will be clamping using radius blocks so that I can clamp in the middle, using that protective strip of mahogany at the back, and still have the clamping forces being applied fully either side of the fretboard. So ready for masking off the trussrod slot and the sides of the neck, Titebond is applied to both surfaces: - and, finally, panel pins are pushed into place, the radius blocks positioned and the clamps fully tightened down. Once it is fully clamped, and the squeeze-out has been cleaned up a best as can be done, the three positioning panel pins can now be removed so they don't get glued in! : Later this afternoon, I will be able to take the clamps off and see if we have a satisfactory re-fitting

Led Zep tribute at the Motorsport Lounge in Llandudno last night. A great night with a sell out crowd, nice venue (the stage was a bit cramped though) with very friendly people running it and enthusiastic punters. We had an issue with a guitar amp and the monitors were right on their limit, so not the greatest onstage sound, but with such a good crowd - who cares? https://www.facebook.com/themotorsportlounge/videos/1175097643505412

Looking OK Decent join, lined up OK left/right & backwards/forwards... phew! So tomorrow, when the glue is fully cured, I'll try the trussrod and, assuming all is good: add the side dots; lightly sand the edges; add a whisper of finish at the edges to blend in the present finish with the sanded edges

Went to a private 'birthday party open mic' last night. Good idea for a party, my btother is planning something similar for his 60th. Some friends debuted their new band with a few songs. I got asked to back a few people. A fun, mellow night.

Tears.

Thanks going out to all contributors here. Problem now solved after purchasing a Fat Finger from fellow 'chatter', @bassbiscuits (thanks for your help in this one). No more dead spot on the 'C' at fifth fret, and as a bonus, the dead spot doesn't appear to have moved elsewhere. Back to being a happy bunny again. 😁👍

Latest Buy lovely blue metalic Chowny chb1

Chicken … so they say. Chicken chow meow …

What does cat taste like?

Last minute gig last night at the Butchers Arms in Inverurie with Nine Lives (as in the band that was supposed to be playing dropped out on the day due to illness). Luckily, our drummer happened to be perusing Faceache at the time and saw the venue put a cancellation notice - just one of those serendipitous moments. It was a bit of an odd one, not super busy with an odd crowd that would alternate between great dancing and singing along then nothing at all. Typical drunk guy was in attendance - put his arm around the singer's shoulder, barely coherently requested some Bad Company and got escorted out a little later. I thought I played ok, but I made a massive flub in one song (the "f*** I've lost my place entirely, quick, make some s*** up in the rough vicinity until the riff restarts" type) and some drunk guy manages to film that exact moment in a 3 hour gig - typical! Win of the night - finding out that somehow my amp and cab fit in the boot of my wee Colt. Score! Equipment - Markbass Mini CMD121P IV + NY121 cab, G&L CLF L-1000, Yamaha BB1200

Sight reading Sir Duke! respect!

We played a sound provided theatre gig last month. Great sound but not tidy. Daryl

There’s gotta be a way to make it all fit! 😰

Yet another gig for us... This time at the Guttercrush Punk and Alternative All-Dayer at the Wrekin Inn, Wellington near Telford on Sunday 5th May... Even got a video flyer with our own audio! ChokedGuttercrushVid.mp4

Alder body,roasted jazz neck ,black hipshot hardware.plays noice

IME when a room is so small that sub placement is an issue you don't need subs. Good quality ten or twelve inch mains shouldn't have any problems, as they should always be high passed no lower than 80Hz. As for central placement of subs, that should very seldom be employed anyway. The beauty of omnidirectionality is that subs can be placed out of the way.

Back into rehearsals last night. We haven't gigged since January as our singist was made redundant and he's been spending his time trying to find a job. Fortunately he's all squared away now, so we're back into it. We travel light for rehearsals, monitors and my Orange Crush. I took my my Fender Mike Dirnt roadworn and the Ibanez mandolin. Did about two hours, tightening up in a few new songs were doing and dusting off some old ones we hadn't done in a while. Went OK.

First live use tonight, probably psychological but everything felt a bit punchier, must be the bouncy lights. 😂

It's a sign that I spend too much time looking at gear on this site that I genuinely thought this was an Ampeg. 🫤

Update….. So in addition to the two black ones…. I now have this white (ish) one……. Totally stripped it, dressed and polished the frets….. rebuilt and replaced the electrics…. Although the pickup, and everything else is stock. Fitted with flats…. it’s absolutely great, love it. The pickup is a bit low output, but the tone is lovely. Next…… is a red one, just bought on the bay. Details will follow.

The Bush in Cwmbran, pretty compact but wonderful pub. Had a real blast. Sound was very boomyn asked sound to turn down my bottom end and he replied I have can you turn yours down and I said I have! Stone flag floor and stone wall behind rear ported cab... I had to repair my finger with superglue after slicing the tip on Wednesday. Three layers lasted the night. My playing was a bit scatty on a couple of songs and the night seemed to suit sticking in some frills and whistles 😁 noone seemed to mind and we had a few musos in so that was ok. Alex was trying out his new Gretsch Electromatic for the first time. I barely appear in the short vid below, but it gives an idea. https://www.facebook.com/story.php?id=100024370338008&story_fbid=1613621292793533

21st birthday in a pub. 3 fights, finished at 22.00.😂

Yesterday afternoon I was resigned to a two gig weekend then I got a message inviting me to a last minute gig in Bath. Squashed into the tiniest corner we played to a typical Friday crowd of ever changing gangs of pub crawlers. Went down a storm and got home in good time. I took minimal kit as parking is a nightmare, so I had to be prepared to sack truck my gear through the streets. I must say that's two nights on the trot I've used the Cort, it usually gets overlooked for whatever reason. It's a simply wonderful bass. Light and beautifully balanced, rich tonal palette, fast comfortable neck.

In the vintage guitar shop I used to work in, the general consensus among staff and customers seemed to be pre-1980, for some unknown random reason. I always thought pre-1970 or pre-1966 would have been nearer the mark. We did sell pre-WWI instruments sometimes, which often looked (and smelled like) closer to antiques. Depends on the viewpoint of the buyer or seller to some extent, maybe? I’m sure George Gruhn would have a different take on it.

Not by some standards

Played at the Ipswich Regent Theatre last night with The ELO Experience, my penultimate gig with the band. Bit of a nightmare journey of around 200 miles each way - one of our vans broke down on the A1 en route to Ipswich. Clutch master cylinder was to blame, so RAC summoned to trailer the van back home whilst a replacement LWB hire van was found in nearby Grantham. This resulted in us being nearly 2 hours late arriving at the venue, so a mad set up and sound check with little time to eat etc. The Regent is a big Grade 2 listed theatre built in the late 1920’s. With a capacity of around 1500, we had it just over half full. Was a slow start but they warmed up into the second set - maybe took us a while to settle into it after the rush to get there. Used my GK800RB into the Neo 410 cabinet - last time with this cab for me as I sold it after the gig! It’s been a great cab, never missed a beat. (For my final gig with the band this Saturday I’ll be using my trusty Loud 4x10.) For once a drive home with no diversions, but still got in around 2.30am. Must admit I won’t be sorry to see the back of these long gigs - driving over 400 miles in total and two long sets is getting a bit much for me. Easier drive to Birmingham tomorrow though, so looking forward to it.

A bit late reporting, The Rock Formation played The Prince Albert in Milton Keynes on Saturday. Seemed to go down well.

Sims Enfield Fusion Jazz bass. J retro and badass 2.