Leaderboard

TONIGHT! The Dysfunctionals 3-piece at O'Neills in Solihull. Dep drummer (our usual skin-botherer was out on the lash), lovely old geezer called Nige - 70 years old and still doing the business. It was nice to not be the oldest one in the band for a change. I was a bit trepidatious about having a dep drummer if I'm honest, but he was great. He's been playing since before I was born and I'm no spring chicken... He's probably forgotten more than I'll ever know. We've done a lot of O'Neill'ses (O'Neill'ss? whatever the plural of O'Neill's is) with a few different lineups and they're always an absolute hoot (we *still* talk about the Paddy's Day one in Nottingham) so we were looking forward to it. I had a gig cancelled last night, so I was extra looking forward to it. Load in was the usual, the place was pretty empty as everyone was outside in the sun so we thought it might be a quiet one. First set at 9 went well, enough people appeared to make it feel like a pretty decent audience and a good few dancers by the end. One woman was loving it but hiding round a corner, so I went for a wander to go and say hello. The wireless setup's working well! (Subzero bug and Lekato wireless XLR for IEMs - they've worked perfectly every time (so far (touch wood))). I sang lead on a new one, which was nice. It was too low (my fault) which was not. Half time, we went out for some air, got chatting to a young lady who turned out to be a singer (the fact that she had a wireless mic case and mic stand with her gave the game away) so I tapped her up to do some depping with us which she seemed really up for. Second set is a bit more party time and the place was rammed. Packed dancefloor, everyone loving it. Great stuff! Our singer friend from half time appeared and absolutely loved it. Three songs in, our singer reckoned his voice was going, so he suggested we invite her up to sing one. We did Summer of '69 (It's O'Neill's on a Saturday night, of course we're playing Summer of '69) and she was brilliant, absolutely smashed it. I went and joined her other half on the dancefloor for a bit of it.. did I mention I'm loving the wireless? Our singer was starting to croak a bit, so I 'helped out' with the vocals for the rest of the set (remembering lyrics isn't my strong point) and he got the audience to sing the worst bits, so it was all good. I got to sing the stupid high bit in Teenage Dirtbag (It's O'Neill's on a Saturday night, of course we're playing Teenage Dirtbag) which is always fun. It was an absolute corker by the end, I had a couple of "I can't believe I get to do this! This is ace!" moments, which don't happen at every gig. Played the StingRay (Old Faithful!) -> amp board (Thumpinator -> VTDI) -> MB802. I didn't bother with pedals, as I was inbetween the DJ and our beloved audience - visions of a punter treading on them on the way to ask the DJ for the latest smash hit record by the coolest new beat combo on the scene (?) put me off. All done, the DJ played a couple of absolute bangers before descending into thumpikrap, pack up and load out was a nightmare as there was an absolutely heaving dancefloor between us and the exits and all the cases were in the van. All evenually done, home about half twelve for a blue cheese and chorizo sandwich, an Aldi Weston's Vintage Cider (6.8% ABV) and all the tunes I wanted that the DJ didn't play (Groove is in the Heart, Loveshack, Sweet Dreams, Kickmuck etc). A good night!

Folks - thank you all for your thoughts and suggestions. The basic issue here is that the keys player just isn't good enough to be in the band. She's there because she's the BL's wife. She spends most of her time shaking a tambourine. Recently, she decided she wanted to do BV's. She managed an occasional "ooh" here and ther, but that was it. She's a nice enough person, and she tries hard to play the keys, but she doesn't have the talent. I've had enough. I handed in my notice yesterday. I'll honour the next gig which is 8 days from now. The one after that is 3rd of August and I'm being asked to honour that one too. I don't feel I want to - that's 5 weeks away and, in my mind, that's enough time for the band to make alternative arrangements.

I did a dep last night with a friend’s blues band. The gig was for a 60th birthday at a village pub near the East Yorkshire coast. Long room, us at one end, buffet at the other! Only around 40 guests so quite a challenge for the band, but we seemed to go down okay. The birthday boy had seen the band a few times so he knew what he was getting, not sure about all the others though. Anyway, fed, watered and paid so no problems for me. I actually enjoyed playing something different, plenty of stuff to keep me on my toes including a couple of northern soul classics reworked. Used my Precision Lyte into GK800RB and a 4x10, sounded fine. I’ve been asked to do a festival with the band in July so looking forward to that too.

A few weeks ago our drummer (#4) gave his notice and then was unable to play last night's gig. Luckily our son ,drummer #3, who used to play with us decided to rejoin the band and was able to do last night's gig. We had to tweak the set list to suit him, which is fine as he had depped for us few times. It was good to have him back as he is our favorite drummer out of the 4 we have had. We played well and sounded great. A couple of songs in and our singer tells he can't hear my BV's, so I check my mic and hadn't turned it on! Next song for me is much later. I didn't realise as I can't hear myself in the monitors anyway because of earplugs. We are looking forward to our next gig in a months time and our son will learn a couple of new songs for him.

I played with the Hulla band at their annual Hullabaloo festival yesterday. On the preceding few days we were glued to the weather forecasts as there was rain about. We set up the covered stage on Thursday evening and did all the wiring and line checking Friday morning. I sound checked with the support band I put together ('50% Dave', as two of the four of us are Daves) as a kind of 'is it all working' check (it was!) The Hulla band sound checked in the evening and we usually play a mini gig (30 minutes or so) as a thank you to the helpers and to let the visitors know we're around. (The festival is held on the village green about 20 yards from a popular beach and within a couple of miles there are several large holiday caravan sites - we usually get a few people wandering in to see what's going on. Just as we finished, the heavens opened and after the rush to tie tarps down and seal the stage, we settled in to a fish and chip supper. Saturday's weather was great - not too hot and with a breeze blowing as we did the last minute checks before sound checking the other acts. By the time the first act went on there must have been upwards of 200 people there and by the time my first band went on (around 4pm), perhaps 400 were seated around the green. We'd sold around 800 tickets and as it's a charity event we don't expect all the people who bought tickets to turn up but we were also having a lot of 'on the day' ticket purchases so by the time the Hulla band went on at about 7pm, the place was packed to capacity. Two songs in to the set and it was clear that the singer's voice wasn't going to last - he'd been croaky all day and comparing the whole event hadn't helped. The set called for seven up tempo, rocky numbers (think 'Town Called Malice', 'I Fought The Law' etc) to start with before a local choir joined us for another 5. One of the female backing vocalists and I sang with him (I was sight reading the lyrics from the Sax players music) and we managed to get through to the choir section. After the choir left the stage, the choir leader joined us on stage (she sings with us a lot) and after a few more numbers the singer's voice started to improve. We managed to get through the rest of the set (about 3.5 hours in total) and carry off a couple of encores before his voice finally called it a day. It was a great day - the support acts were really good mix (sea shanties, blues, punk rock (my band) and the choir. We had around 100 people upfront dancing from the start of the Hulla set until the end. I'm just back from the post gig site breakdown which we managed to do in the drizzle, so we were very lucky with the weather. My kit for both bands was my Fender P bass through a Zoom B6 DI'd to the desk. For 50% Dave I also had an Epiphone Les Paul going through a patch on the B6 set to give me just reverb and a dab of chorus, with an EHX Hot Wax pedal for drive and lead sounds. With the Hulla band, I used my in ears via a Behringer P16m monitor mixed receiving the pre-fade signals from our X32 desk as there's quite a din on stage with brass and percussion. With 50% Dave, I was able to hear the monitor speakers. The Crowd Our singer 50% Dave

My favourite bass is my 2003 Warwick Corvette Standard. I’ve owned it for 17 years, and I’m sure it’s got some magic in it. I’ve had other Corvette Standards, and I’ve got other ‘nicer’ and ‘fancier’ Corvettes, but this one is special. Maybe it’s just the nostalgia of being my first ‘Wick, but I love it. It didn’t have the most careful first owner, and it’s not exactly been a garage queen with me, and it had picked up plenty of scratches and dents along the way. I decided that I wanted it to look as good as it feels, so I started cooking up a plan. First of all, I stripped it down. Without any hardware, the Swamp Ash body and neck felt astonishingly light - I was tempted to see if I could throw it over the roof of the house! (Even with hardware, it’s only around 3.6kg/8lbs.) Then I set about making a scratchplate. Having never done this before, my favourite bass seemed like the right place to start. Now I know that Warwick sell pickguards for Streamers, and I like the idea but I’ve always felt that they weren’t quite the right shape, so I drew out my own on a piece of cereal box. I then photocopied it, glued the piece of paper to a piece of 6mm ply and rough cut it out with a jigsaw. I did lots of drilling and hand filing to get the neck pocket and pickup hole right… …and then did the same for the outer edge. Then I borrowed a router from a friend, and had my first ever go at routing cutting the scratchplate out of 4-ply pearloid, and putting the 45 degree bevel on. It didn’t come out exactly perfect, but it’s not far off. (This picture is before further refinement with sandpaper, and although it’s still not perfect, it’s a bit better). After then, I took it to Rob at Manton Customs who added pearloid blocks and refretted it. There’s a lovely YouTube video about it, which I found slightly disturbing to watch - it’s not every day you get to see someone taking a chisel to one of your favourite possessions! He does beautiful work, and he’s a lovely chap to boot. Then I took it to Dave Wilson for paint, and it turned out beautifully (as expected!). I also went for a matching headstock, and took the opportunity to swap my broken Just-A-Nut II for a shiny brass JAN III. Then it was just a case of reassembly (most of which Dave did) to see what it all looked like! And a bonus pic with my ‘05 Ltd Ed. I know it won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I’m happy!

Pop Punk Prty's 4th ever gig. A nice, small affair in Ushaw Moor. Don't know how backline bands would squeeze on the stage but hey. First gig we've done that I'm happy with without qualifiers. No "it was OK but..." or "well, for our second gig..." we just nailed it.

Our favourite gig of the year at the Farmyard bikers rally at Helmsley. Middle slot on the bill so the crowd were well warmed up and singin and dancin from the first number. Looking forward to the official pics as we had no guests this time to photo and vid. Had an issue with the Smooth hound wireless set up - it couldn’t cope with the level of wifi interference and I had to swap to a lead rapidly after the second song, guess it’s time to look for a more modern set up.

Saturday night was a wedding, very definitely NOT our usual gig as a rock covers band but the couple had come to see us and knew what they were getting. A cross section of ages but we’re old, so… Got in and set up. Not a huge room and I was worried that it would get loud. Thankfully it stayed under reasonable control and sound was sorted reasonably quickly with no sound check. The good thing was it wasn’t just the bride and groom getting into it and we had a good to excellent response all night. Lots if dancing and singing and ended up running over with a number of ‘encores’. singer from one of my function deps was effusive about our vocalist and how tight it all was, which was nice. Also funny to watch a couple of younger guys in their glad rags stood mouths agape at the widdly harmony guitar solo in Final Countdown 🤣

Our Fête de la Musique passed off rather better than we had feared, given the level of information and organisation experienced beforehand. The town square parking, just in front of the Mairie had been cordoned off; we learned that we should show up at 14h00. I collected the Trafic we'd been lent, we loaded up at 13h00 and were well on time, to find that the 'stage' (a curtain-side trailer...) was due at 15h00. In the end, and in view of other timing issues, we decided to set up on the pavement, and leave the 'stage' to the other group, supposed to arrive at 17h00. Meanwhile, a 'boom-boom' disco DJ was set up in front of us, on his own little trailer, and spend the next couple of hours blasting out '1...1...1...1...' Big Beat disco stuff, more appropriate (if ever such stuff could be so called...) for a midnight 'after-rave' party for sozzled ado's on the beach. Once the noise came to an end, the other group arrived, loaded into the 'stage', and spent half an hour doing a sound check, from a tablet. That finished, we were asked to start; it was now 20h00, and the bright, almost hot, sun had become overcast, with even a slight chill. Never mind, we played our set (cut down to be under an hour, as we no longer have a second guitar...). Well received and applauded, all were happy with our prestation, but I found that 'in-ears' are fine for hearing my own drums (e-kit through a laptop running Superior Drummer 3...), but the acoustic isolation removed 'live' feedback from my fellow musicians. Next time, I'll either use 'open' 'phones, or set up a drum monitor fixed to the rack. Lesson learned. With our shorter set, I had energy enough to get through (the repertoire is made up of 'energy' numbers, followed by 'recovery' ones...). We finished, and packed away the gear into the van whilst the other group roared into life. I was able to carefully edge the van through the crowd (lots of kids running around, having a great time...) and got a passage though the barriers to drive home. We unloaded just in time before it started to rain; the lads went back to continue the fête and I made myself comfortable back in my armchair. Altogether positive; could have been better, but I'll take the modest win. It was heartening to see the townsfolk enjoying the occasion, helping out with erecting the marquees for the barbecues, filling the pavements with customers for the bars and cafés, the whole town enjoying a simple village fête. That's what makes it worthwhile.

Epic pedalboard failure for our guitarist last night. His Golden plexi pedal started smelling really bad and stopped working halfway through the second set. Then he found all his other pedals after that one also didn't work and he thought they had all blown as well, (2 delays and a phaser). So he had to go straight into the amp, no fx, sounded pretty awful to my ears but we soldiered through. I took his pedals home and apart from the plexi they all work fine so its probably a power brick issue or patch leads. He was well relieved when I called him this morning (he's not very good with anything Tech related)

Shared before but I changed the tuners to save some weight and have less neck dive. Upgraded to Aguilar pickups and in doing so needed a new plate. Which I got a luthier just to do whatever he wanted. And loved the final shape. Oh and added flush straplocks. Also made a quick ramp.

A local one for us, playing at a tea room (yeah, we're that rock and roll). Still, the audience enjoyed it and hopefully the link below works... https://www.instagram.com/stories/knutsfordtearoom/3396275720256766434?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=MWhoa2I4a2ZsNnFyaA==

Two for us yesterday. The first was at a beer festival in a local town at 3.45pm, and the venue was the engine shed of a narrow gauge railway. It was approx 6m wide, 7.5m high, 100m long and had a shiny concrete floor. The entirety of the structure was steel. Can anyone see where I'm going with this?! We were about 25m from the back wall, so when the drummer hit a skin you heard it immediately, then again as it came off the back wall and then again what seemed like minutes later as it made its' way back from the far end. We knew the acoustics would be shocking, but what didn't help was that the guys running the PA had the volume set way beyond 'stun' (possibly into 'bludgeon'), so when in full flow none of us could hear much at all. I, for example, could only hear my bass, which for some reason was pumping deafeningly out of the singer's monitor but not mine, and the snare drum. Unfortunately this didn't make for a particularly enjoyable gig; we hung on rather than ripped the venue a new one, if you catch my drift. Mistakes were many and varied, and one member's temper frayed afterwards. However, we went down well and the punters enjoyed us, and we got paid in actual money rather than exposure. The band that were on after us annoyed me a bit as they started bringing their gear on before we'd cleared the stage, which is an absolute no-no in my book. Anyway, here's evidence that we were there, even if I couldn't have stated with any great honesty if we sounded very good: So, after my head had stopped reverberating (think Steve Earle's spoken word bit at the beginning of Snake Oil), it was on to the next one, a private party at the studio we rehearse at (this being also on the farm that I work on when not teaching). Two sets, the first one a bit more staid and the second one much more punchy. We debuted our version of Crazy Horses to general approval, brought the roof down with For Whom The Bell Tolls and finished with an extended Rocking In The Free World. We all played better as we could hear what we were doing, and mistakes were few and far between. Far more enjoyable all round. No money, but we were fed well and it was for friends, so no worries. In the interests of fairness I should say that our rhythm guitarist (stage right) doesn't normally look like Josef Goebbels, it's just an unfortunate picture. At both gigs my gear was my usual; two Precision Basses and a nasty plywood Squier Jazz Bass into the Strobostomp, then the Cali76, Ampeg Scrambler, Bass Clone, Digbeth pre-amp and then into my amp, which was the Eden WTX500 and Eden 2x15. We're next playing on this coming Saturday night, at Bryn Goebbels's birthday party. Cheers, JRK

My beloved G&L SB2 Tribute in suitably pop punk seafoam green into a Shure glxd and a hx stomp. It looks and sounds like this.

I’m in a Smiths tribute band as you can tell from this pic…..

Sure there is, a bass both with and without a headstock

They are - the fender ones are pretty ugly, the telecaster (and original P) are beyond ugly but everyone is used to them.

I'd be quitting. There's no way I'd be putting up with "Linda McCartney having a go." It's not an argument you'll ever win and it'll only get worse. The more you dig your heels in the worse the atmosphere will get. The more you accommodate it, the more will be taken from you. Sod that. Leave.

Brooks family update. Per theme (TB, EB, EXP, EBN, (another)TB, 12):

I just love details. I am a nerd! And if, knowing the name, I saw the band were on locally I would probably go see them to give some BC support. I’d google to find out genre, if it wasn’t obvious. I have my band’s FB as my sig so people can check me out. I enjoy this thread and probably would even more if I couldn’t gig myself. EDIT Am saving Franticsmurf’s for later with a cuppa. That’s my kind of review!❤️

Don't tell him, Pike!

I am also suffering the keys players left hand problem. It's just a musical maturity thing. I've had to talk to keys players before and explain why it doesn't work and the way I've done it is to say that we would need lots of extra practice to make sure we are exactly together otherwise it'll sound a mess. In the same way as backing vocals need extra practice. These things don't just happen. Make it a two way problem rather than suggesting the keys can't play what you're playing and that's their problem. I did have the same problem in a two guitar band where I had to diplomatically tell the guitarists to play different parts as it sounded a mess. They had more fun working out what to play instead and it sounded 100% better.

A c4 combined with an Eventide H9- The Butyl pedal

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/VfibzLbLDhXhLzHY/ The annual Fete de la musique in France always managed to turn up something special.

Simple equation helps here and works in every situation ever. x=y+1 Where x= perfect number of basses and y= the number you already have. Also works for motorbikes.

I'm sorry, I don't understand that sentence.

I will Salive(r)- Gloria Gaynor

I'd be keeping in close contact with the singer and guitarist.....

Exactly this, it's much easier to eq stuff out than in!

Depression is an awful, insidious illness, and even though outwardly someone might appear to be fine, inside there can be a fierce battle raging. Often there can be no external trigger and it's all about what's happening inside their head, and it can be a vicious circle of misery from which it can be impossible to recover. So sorry to hear this news.

Or as the self service machines at Tesco might say: "Unexpected Trombonist in the Worship Area "

‘The Unexpected Trombonist’ could be the title of Richard Osman’s next Thursday Murder Club novel.

It looks like its 100% original but still struggling to see why its this sort of money If this was previously owned by someone special, then there might be some sort of premium, e.g, Entwistle snorted Bolivian marching powder off the body (of the bass) not his female friend, or it turns out that John Paul Jones actually composed Stairways To Heaven on it and Jimmy Page nicked the idea. Or is it that Les Paul's are so expensive, that people are looking elsewhere for an investment opportunity? I read that Bonomasa believed that a very few individuals with money could move the guitar market and so lead to the first $1m Les Paul with no provenance, just a nice guitar. Too much money and no common sense. I'm in two minds whether to buy the bass, 1. Absolutely not. 2. Absolutely 100% not. Rob

Just done my "blues jam" in the local church... We were meant to noodle for 1/2 hour to get other folk to come along and play too but ended up doing 2 hours. A bloke joined in on harmonica too so it all worked quite well despite every "song" being based on a groove I started. We even managed a little blues guitary version of Sylvester's "Do Ya wanna Funk", which is probably one of the only times it's ever been played in a church! Used the ACG into Helix/BBE pre/DBX comp/Crown Power/Markbass 2x10, sounded funky...

James Tyler has excellent basses, I've heard, but that headstock...

Time for some new ears methinks 😎

Any other bass chatters get there heads turned so easily by the prospect of a new bass in there life ..I’ve found 2 on eBay (and no I’m not telling anyone else what they are )🤣! I find it quite worrying that I was more than happy with the 4 basses I have but all I can think of is which one to dump so I can get the new shiny one ..I’m sure it’s a bassist hangup as none of the members of the 2 bands I’m in get through the same amount of gear I do ! ..do I have a mental problem if so do we have a bass chatter physiologist on here !

Please don’t search Laurus. Save yours eyes. For saying the Italians are infamous for art, they’re bass guitar designs are shocking.

Benylin and the Jets — Elton John

My other half used quite a few old sets for strapping some trailing plants and a grapevine horizontally to the garden wall and fence. We fixed some small hooks to the wall and fence to go through the ball ends, and used electrical cable connector blocks to join two strings together. worked a treat.

Tried putting mine in the recycling, but the collection guys took them out and left them on the drive! I solved the problem, I don't put new strings on my basses any more. The PJ has flats and the Jazz has a set of NYXL's that have been on a since 2019 and they still sound good, warm and mellow.

This thread, again?

My USA Sterling, I picked this up from @Happypants September 2022 was a long time search bass for me after I tried one in the early 90’s I preferred the overall feel and tone to the stingray but at the time I was recording with a stingray and didn’t want to upset the apple cart. Got the full works, string mutes, a beautiful Birdseye maple neck and the ceramic pickup. No matter what happens this is my fall back never sell bass. cheers Jason