Leaderboard

A bit late to the party here, because the gig was on Tuesday, but hey.... We played a tiny little pub in Shrewsbury called The Yorkshire House. The other band brought the PA; well, sone powered speakers and a desk, but no monitoring. They also brought instruments and drum breakables but nowt else, so we lent them our amps (the smallest ones we own, to save space), mics, mic stands etc and were good to go. It was very hot and sweaty, the sound was crap and we had to do the best we could to hear what was going on, but other than that it was great! We went down really well, received lots of compliments from the surprisingly large crowd, and have the landlady wants us back later in the year. What topped it off for me was some friends coming down from Manchester to see us play and really enjoying themselves. Obligatory glory shot: My gear was my usual three basses (2x Player P and nasty Squier plywood J-type), pedals and the big Eden was substituted for my Ampeg PF500. Cheers, JRK

80% of The Inevitable Teaspoons played at Drummonds in Aberdeen last night. Our sax player guffed up his dates and realised he had a wedding to attend (not his own, I must stress!). So to be honest I wasn't feeling it going into the gig. Isn't it funny how sometimes the gigs you're not looking forward to end up being great fun - maybe because there's nothing to lose and it takes pressure off oneself. So when we arrived for soundcheck, we learned that the support act had cancelled, so the whole night was ours to play with. We ended up playing for 2 hours (with a 15 min break) which is rather unusual for a no-name originals band such as ourselves, but we had enough material to cover it, and threw in some covers to break up the relentless cycle of "tunes nobody knows". It wasn't super busy, but we had folk up dancing nonetheless, so I guess we were doing something right! I expected it to be a bust, but it ended up being a really fun night! I played the G&L Tribute LB-100 into the house amp which was some sort of Ashdown ABM head into some sort of Trace cab. Sounded good, but it was just for monitoring, FOH was handled by the venue's sound engineer (who did an amazing job - I had a wander out front cos wireless and it was sounding great).

Emergency Exit at Tomintoull bike rally. Left the house at 2pm got there 6pm with a 15min stop at Costa coffee in Aviemore. The organisers of TMG Bike rally gave us 50% more than we originally asked to cover our fuel costs as well so all in all it turned out to be a worthwhile gig. Busy, plenty of dancing and full floor by the end of the night. Lots of people telling us good things at the end when i was packing up the car. Luckily my wife took a spell at the driving and that made a huge difference on the 3.5hr drive home thru mist, fog and heavy rain. Only good thing on way home was not a lot of traffic but weather kinda defeated that advantage so no real time gains made once we got past the average speed cameras on the A9. Used my Godin bass into Shure GLXD wireless and into Handbox WB-100 and Mesa SW210/115 cabs. No PA support but from what i was told it sounded good out front. Dave Just a wee update with some pro pics from this gig and thought i'd share some.

Well, whoops - I bought one, and im very glad I did! This is an amazing instrument. It feels great - I cant describe it, just really well constructed and "Premium" (which youd expect considering the price...) Even the rear of the bass has been bound at the edges with the classic Ric checkerboard finish. The bottom string using the neck pickup is thunderous bottom end, its like an EB2 on steroids. Then one flick to mid position and youve got a honky sort of vintage 70's tone... lastly on full bridge pickup (with a pick, preferably) you've got a sound very close to the classic 4003. A very versatile instrument indeed! The case is somewhat bigger than the other vintage case I have for my 4003 BRG but thats to get the wider body in... speaking of which this might be short scale but it doesnt FEEL it. Reason? The body is basically a 360-shape body so its mahooosive, so the bass itself is pretty much as long in total as a 4003. So if you are put off by shorties, maybe try one of these first and see what you think - its not dinky like an EB3 (which puts me off using my SG Bass). Oh yeah, and theres 24 frets so dusty-end widdling is very much catered for here! There's a great deal of "give" in this neck, absolutely no effort is required to bend strings on this unlike nearly all my "early" Rics. The independent dealer I bought mine from had FIVE (!!!) of them in stock, i picked up the one which was the lightest (got to start thinking about my back now, haha) which coincidentally also had the nicest wood figuring under the finish on the body, as well as the darkest fretboard, which I like.. particulaarly in contrast to the crushed pearl sharkfin inlays. Feel free to ask any questions... this one is a keeper!

My originals band, Diamond Bridges, played a set at yesterday’s Nailed It festival in Belper. It’s a great little one-day event with music in eight pubs across the town. All within 15 minutes walk of each other. The ethos of the festival is very much original music only. Consequently, there’s a lot of solo performers and duos but all of the larger pubs had at least a couple of bands. We had the 9pm slot at The Cross Keys. Slightly shonky shared drum kit and back line but a good Bose PA and a sound man who was on the ball. Hectic turnaround and no soundcheck, but such is the life of a small-time originals act out in the provinces. Very busy pub and appreciative audience. We even managed to come home with fewer cds than we took!

Old Masons Arms just south of Leeds last night. Second Glam Fever gig with the new dep drummer and things had tightened up considerably thankfully - he did a great job and we had a blast. We've got him until the end of September when we take a month long break to allow for any hospital treatment I might need, then a new drummer starting in November who knows the crack. It was a hot and sweaty one - just the sort of gigs we enjoy with lots of dancing and whatnot; it was nice to see a fair few faces from bikers rallies who'd travelled far and wide to catch us in one of our rare visits to this locale. The 'tip bucket' was nicely full at the end of the night!

Saturday, Played 9-10 at the Hanbury Arms with Bluesfire. One of two pub venues in an 11 day arts festival. We had over 100 people which is good for what is basically a beer gardens and marquee. Plenty more people out of sight down the slope between us and the pub. Very responsive music-loving audience. One woman told Al that when she was down the slope she thought there were give or six of us, not three. A lapsed guitarist budy telling everyone the gig was 'exceptional' which was nice. Al ignored the setlist and just called what he thought people would like. Best one for a while. Got back to the club in time to catch the bands last four songs. Today, Bendricks Rock at the Llandovery Bike Weekend for Blood Bikes Wales. The event is 10-4 and wew were on at 11:30. Left at 8:00 to pick up vocalist! Better attendance than I expected, nice but simple setup with vocal PA and plenty of space. And a proper if brief soundcheck- the only feedback was for me to turn up. Don't mind if I do. Purple, Zeppelin, Cream and Sabbath all went down well, our setlist was not long enough so we added two extras and then an encore - What Is and What Should Never Be. Tricky and with the potential to be a car crash, but we nailed it. Our endings were a big sloppy, but our best playing so far and a great reception. Watched a couple of the other acts. Drive back was extended by 30 minutes due to a "diversion" and a crash blocking the a470. Got back and somehow found the energy to catch a train to the far side of town and catch my brother's band Stonehouse closing out Cadstock to a couple of thousand people.

I never buy from Amazon as they are a dodgy company in terms of how they pay tax and treat their employees. But also, I want to have independent shops where the people know what they are talking about and where customers are important to them. The only time I will ever buy from Amazon is if they get exclusive rights to life saving medication one of my family needs, otherwise they can FRO.

Hurtsfall played on the second day of the Leodis Requiem Festival at Wharf Chambers in Leeds. It was an all-dayer with 8 bands, we were in the second half starting at at 7.30 and the first band to have a 45 minute time slot. This was the fourth time I'd played at this venue and it's a bit of a strange one. Unless the bands are actually playing there is hardly anyone is in the room, they are all either in the main bar next door or in the garden at the back, so it's always slightly worrying when we're setting up with just the PA engineer and the festival promotors in attendance. However it does mean that it's possible to do a proper sound check without giving anything away. Luckily for us just as we're due to start the room fills up with punters. I don't know if it's that I had a different perspective from the stage compared with being an audience member, but it did feel as though we had the the biggest, most attentive and vocal audience of the 5 bands I saw. Simply announcing some of songs (one of which is so new that the only way people would know it is if they have seen us play in the last 3 months) brought cheers from the crowd. Didn't sell much merch but AFAICS none of the other bands were doing at any better. I did manage to get a festival T-shirt in small for me, as pervious years they've always sold out the day before my band played.

Played at The Victoria in Swindon last night with Phantom Droid and Thrakian (we're Hora). It's a cool venue. Decent size live room, good sound, very competent sound tech, good lighting, smoke machine 🤘 Despite growing up in rural Wiltshire where Swindon was the closest big town, I'd never actually got my act together as a teenager to play there. So, it was nice from that aspect too. Really good fun. I did have a few flubs though. I blame that on almost having a migraine on Friday. I'm still not 100% and my wife didn't really want me to go out. I felt like sound check actually helped my head in a weird way though. Very strange. Gear: Combustion, GX-100, Mojo Mojo, Bass Big Muff, ABM-600 into the Hartke cab that was there.

Wedding gig last night for the daughter of one of the guitarists. As such, the band and partners were graciously invited to the whole day, which meant a rather early start in order to get in before all the guests arrived to set up followed by a very long day. Out other guitarist, who usually sets up half the mildly complex PA was also unavailable for this one as his wife gave birth to a baby girl the day before. We’d planned for this with my brother stepping in for him. He’s depped with us several times before so I knew he’d be okay, but this was his first experience of gigging ampless, relying totally on IEMs. I’m not sure he totally loved the experience and now wishes he had bought new foam tips for his old IEMs that he hadn’t used in years, as the silicon tips didn’t seal that well. I was also anxious before hand and got a little stressed during set up as I knew I had to wire up most of the PA more or less on my own. I think going forward, we need to give everyone individual tasks to do to make this process easier and quicker. The set was handpicked by the bride and groom (not something we usually let happen), but we agreed it just this once. They love alternative music so we got to play some heavier numbers with a few classic bangers. Luckily for my brother, it was a shorter single set of around 80mins rather than our usual couple of one hours sets as they had also booked a “superstar dj” who rounded of the evening with some old classic and modern metal. Totally broken by the end of the night and had a well deserved lay in this morning.

Set lists are a bug bear of most bands. It always seems to end up being behind band fall outs and politics. I'm a bit of a set list nazi if the band let me get away with it if I'm honest. I used to be a DJ in the days of vinyl 45's and the whole show was really about creating an atmosphere in the room with the choice of songs. I was also a schoolteacher so manipulating a group of people into doing something they didn't want to do and getting them to enjoy it was a bit of a career choice Left to my own devices entertaining the room is what I want to do. I'll play pretty much anything that will create an audience reaction, Mustang Sally, Seven Nation Army, Summer69, Sweet Caroline are all grist to the mill even if I personally hate the songs. However I think the best bands have an identity and that is reflected in the music and the set they put together. I probably wouldn't go to see a general covers band other than as research but I'll quite enjoy and seek out pretty much any genre band. I'd never listen to country at home but a couple of Modern Country/ Americana bands I've seen recently have been a joy. @Happy Jack is right too, if the singer can't sing it why are you even considering it? You can't put a capo on a singer. Why would you do a keyboard song if you have no keyboard or eff up a 7/8 song if your drummer is strictly four to the floor. If you have a great Sax player why wouldn't you look for great sax songs. However you've got a band leader, a nice guy who works hard and crucially gets the gigs. Maybe he's formed the band just to play that set list and that's why he works so hard at it. I've joined existing bands and just accepted their set list and that's a different joy. You turn up plug in and play, somebody else does all the work it's bloody wonderful while it lasts. Then someone starts lobbying to change the set list and the band leader accepts a few changes but loses heart as their project falls apart and tensions increase when two or more people form a clique and suddenly it's all over, the magic is gone. I'd be looking carefully to see where this band is going, presumably you accepted that set list when you joined, this is never going to be a reggae band or play hip hop. If you really wnat to play an entirelydifferent set then look for another band. I love a democracy but if one person is doing all the work then they get to make most of the decisions. You guys need to talk maybe but be careful not to kill the goose that lays all the golden eggs.

A message I received from Paul Jefford, Strings Direct: Hello Mick A few years ago I took a phone call from a customer… who was banging on about Amazon and comparing us with Amazon. He asked… ”So why on Earth should I deal with you instead of going to Amazon?”. Good question I thought… why should he buy from us? My reply was off-the-cuff but honest and legitimate: “Well, the fact that you have called me and spoken to the director of the company on the phone is the first reason. Try calling Amazon and asking them a few questions... or asking to speak to Jeff Bezos”. “Being a family-run business for over 25-years now, we care about our customers and our reputation is our business, and when we get something wrong (which we do, believe me!) we take it personally and rectify it”. “We have on-site string experts and guitar techs who can answer pretty much any guitar-related question you have”. “We've built rock-solid relationships with the world's biggest strings brands and get our stock direct from the official suppliers, and - I’m not gonna sugar coat it - there is a counterfeit guitar strings epidemic on sites like eBay and Amazon, so if you see a set of Ernie Balls for £4 with free delivery it's odds-on they are cheaply made strings in wolves clothing”. With us there is no guess work – we are selling the real deal”. Look, I’m no salesman and honestly, I hate sales spiel but I was quite proud of myself by the end of that call. It goes without saying that the guy ordered then and there! I still speak to him now when he calls up... nice guy! Thank you, Paul Jefford Director Stringsdirect.co.uk

Royal Blues, at The King & Queen, in Fitzrovia. Acoustic night, drummer played a Cajon. It was still a tight squeeze on stage, our line up is vox, bass, guitar, drummer, and 3 backing vox. It went really well, people were surprised when told it was the first gig for the band. Gear for me, Rob Allen Mouse, Swiff Audio wireless, into the house bands mini Markbass combo which fed into the PA.

TODAY! Depped on Sousaphone for the AD concert band at a garden party for one of the band member's 80th birthday. It was in deepest, darkest, poshest Knowle, where the drives are bigger than the flat I've just agreed to rent. Nice marquee in the grounds (!) of his farmhouse (!), a fair few family and friends were there (his, not mine) and we played well (the band is a pretty high standard which not all 'community' wind bands are). The birthday boy is a big sports fan, so we played the old Ski Sunday theme and the old cricket theme (Soul Limbo) while some folk played cricket on the field in front of us, which was jolly good fun. Other highlights were a Mary Poppins medley which rattles along at quite a lick (*and* I got the important tubular bell solo cue bang on, which was nice) and a Sousa Medley which is obviously fun to play on a Sousaphone. Other pieces were the usual wind band rep, Seventeen Come Sunday (every wind band must play this by law), A Sodding Andrew Sodding Lloyd Sodding Webber medley (Jesus Christ Superstar is acceptable) and a piece imaginatively titled Waltz no 2 (Tchaikovsky? Stravinsky? Someone like that) which is a really, really beautiful piece of music (Actually, it's Shostakovich now that I think about it). A record five people asked what the instrument I was playing was (It's a Sousaphone, basically a marching Tuba, named after but not invented by John Phillip Sousa, the American composer and band leader of the late 1800s (I should have this printed on a business card, it would save so much time) and yes it is very heavy) and one woman knew what it was so she got fifty points. Two sets, a sandwich, a glass of very passable red, a brownie and a meringue thing at half time, lots of thanks for standing in, a few viola jokes shared with Colin the Eupphonium player (his best mate's wife plays Susan in The Archers) and home in time for a stiff G&T. Oh, and it's my 50th birthday today *and* I've agreed to rent a tiny flat in lovely Bewdley. Cheers!

Saturday saw our (Rascallion's) third appearance at our local charity outdoor festival, Anderby Rocks. Shan't bore you with the details of why the first two bands who were due to appear had to be replaced by a solo acoustic singer and an acoustic duo, but the upshot was that after the acoustic duo who were scheduled to appear before us had finished, we ended up being the first full band on, which actually worked in our favour in terms of setting up, though it still didn't mean we got anything more than a basic line check - luckily the regular sound crew working the festival know their stuff, and after one minor burst of feedback early on, quickly gave us a superb onstage sound and, as confirmed by my Better Half who's fussy about volume in particular, the sound out front was equally good, balanced, and just-loud-enough. Just to add to the fun, we'd not managed a full rehearsal this week after our frontman went down with the lurgy on Monday. It had been touch-and-go until Friday morning whether he'd be fit enough to handle the vocals and harmonica, but luckily he'd recovered enough to do so, and apart from a couple of minor on-the-hoof rearrangements which we managed to catch and cover hopefully without anyone noticing, everything went well. Not much in the way of dancing to report, though a few folks did stand up from their camping chairs and jig around a bit towards the end of the set, which to be fair is all we ever tend to get anyway. At least the weather, which had started off alternating between drizzle and light rain, finally got its act together and it stayed dry throughout our set, not so much of a concern to us due to the solid tentage covering the stage, but great for the hardy souls in the audience, bless 'em. In the rush to set up, play, then get off, I didn't manage to grab any rig photos, but I used my trusty MIJ '51 Precision Reissue --> Thumpinator --> NUX tuner --> Ampeg OptoComp --> Ampeg Scrambler --> Ampeg Liquifier --> Ashdown 12-band EQ (pre-shape only engaged) --> Trace Elliot AH200 + BLX-110 cab --> DI'd into PA. Couple of photos from the event FB page...

I started with a P bass, only because it was cheap to get started, it was an Ibanez Blazer and was ok. Then I chased THE sound in my head for 20 plus years with Modulus, Jazz, Rays you name it, all great but not the sound. Eventually persuaded to try the P again and yep, that was the sound I was chasing all along. Simple yes, but perfect. Oh, I also have about 12 of them too🤣

If I didn't buy from Amazon, I'd buy very little, as there are very few outlets for many items locally available to me. I also buy from other web outlets, such as Thomann for music stuff, PB Modelisme for modelling materials, Berlin Packaging for glass jam jars, and many more. My only criteria would be to not knowingly give my custom to any Israeli company. Of course, I also shop locally, as a preference.

I’ve been fortunate enough to play many of the venues I went to see bands in when I was just starting out with bands myself. Favourites have included Sheffield City Hall, Liverpool Empire and Newcastle City Hall, all wonderful places full of band history. I’ve also done a gig at The Royal Albert Hall ( a corporate do with an orchestra too!) as well as most of the top hotels in London. Hometown gigs at Manchester Palace and Opera House along with my adopted hometown gigs at Hull City Hall and New Theatre were also significant for me, although my most memorable was maybe the Victoria Hall in Hanley (Stoke). I was telling my dear old dad about it when it came up on my gig list, and he said he’d sung on that same stage as a choir boy in the 1920’s. Was hard to concentrate on the gig when we did it, wondering if I was standing on the same spot as him.

Pickups are wired out of phase. Choose one of the pickups and swap the connections. Nordstrand Info

We played The Ziegler Winery yesterday 7/13/24, 3-6. Finally a good gig. We were tight and hitting on all 8 cylinders. The sound on stage was beautiful. The crowd got us . Tips were lucrative an extra $50.00 for everyone. Daryl

It’s a regular thing at this pub done entirely by the good spirited Landy. It’s the only venue we play that does this.

It’s not much, but as a youngster starting out in the 90s, playing the now long-gone Princess Charlotte in Leicester seemed like an unattainable dream. I was ultimately lucky enough to play there dozens if not hundreds of times, on bills with big bands and to eventually sell the place out many times with my own band, I even ran the sound there a few times. That’s the only place I can was ever say was somewhere specific I really Wanted to play. Beyond that, I’ve been lucky, Hammersmith Apollo was an iconic stage to play on, Manchester Apollo (best dressing room) and Liverpool apollo too. The SECC in Glasgow was fun, (small dressing room) And the symphony hall in Birmingham (biiig dressing room Rock city I always enjoyed playing, on any stage, and the cavern (blew up three bass amps in one night there!- oops.) Camden underworld felt similar to the Charlotte for me which I liked, and Bradford Rio’s. Limelight (Crewe?) and what’s the place that was in Dudley, that was ace? - Nice cuppa and curry on arrival there. Recently I’ve been pleased to play Cheltenham town hall, ladies college and pump rooms, which are all now local to me venues that playing at makes me feel like a proper local lol. But above all, god, what I wouldn't give to spend one more sweaty night dodging feedback on stage at the Princess Charlotte back in my home town. Lovely memories.

Pretty much my view, but I've always found that the Veto is a useful pressure release valve for my bandmates. A number of very good songs have been banned over the years for reasons varying from "that's not what I signed up for" through "too cheesy" all the way to no apparent reason at all. Frustrating as that is, if it made them feel better and having some sort of influence on the band's direction of travel, then that's all good. We are able to select material from 70 years of popular music, millions of songs, many thousands of hours. If we can't find three hours' worth that all band members want to play then there's something seriously wrong somewhere.

Nice, was my go-to OD for many years until I got my Monomyth. Also well done for powering through - the show must go on!

The above is a truly excellent post!👏

Though you could with some right claim that the latency is several years to forever.

Yep Shostakovich - it's from the Jazz Suite. I've played it on tenor sax in wind band. I've played the orchestral version (on cello) of the Vaughan Williams (Seventeen Come Sunday etc) - not sure if I've played the wind band version.

Well Blue Aran finally delivered my speakers, if you order from them and anything is marked out of stock then cancel that item. They held on to my order until everything was in, literally for months. Anyway here now and I've sent the revised drawings to @Bassybert who will turn them into something presentable and double check everything. I'll start making sawdust once I have the drawings back.

I loathe and depise amazon . Working practices , anti union stance etc etc . Never have and never will buy anything from them . BUT . It is sharp business practice as people are lazy and money/value oriented . My major gripe is that customers expect every business to be the same 24/7 , feedback etc and answering emails at all hours of the day . My business consists now of 2 people . I am not going to answer emails at 0330 on a sunday . We are doing fine by the way 😁

This is the lesser spotted Jackroadkill in his natural habitat.

There does seem to be people taking this (frankly pointless) moral stance against Amazon, based off taxation, work conditions, dealing with suppliers etc. To be brutally honest, customer is king. Why should I pay £55 for a set of Elixir Nanowebs from Strings Direct when I can get the same product for £15.00 cheaper from Amazon? Same thing applies pretty much everything that comes in through my front door and they'll always be the first point of call for pretty much everything we buy. I honestly couldn't care less if Jeff Bezos doesn't want to contact me about my choice of lawnmower or water filter, it's all about how much you pay and how fast you can get it. If employees are disgruntled at the working conditions, then leave. That's their prerogative. Look, I used to by an awful lot of books from a two independent booksellers and was frequently told that once the independents shut down the book market would crumble. What actually closed their businesses was the council hiking fees rates and the collapse of the net book agreement (which kept books at an artificially high price). The book market hasn't crumbled, far from it, and in part Amazon is keeping many publishers in business. Elixir don't care if they sell into Strings Direct or Amazon, sure they'll make less money selling to Amazon, but they're selling way more that they would through Strings Direct. As a society we're conditioned to sneer at success; it doesn't matter whether it's Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Jobs/Wozniak or any number of entrepreneurs. These people got to where they are because they either had an idea or the tenacity and drive to make their business succeed while others didn't diversify and fell aside. Sure they ruffled a lot of feathers, but as my mate's dad used to say, "that's business, you won't get anywhere just sitting there with your thumb up your a$$." Nobody is getting all tetchy about the people who own and run Samsung or Sony or Walmart or Vitol or Cigna Health, because they're not in everyone's faces or trying to put rockets into space. I know this all sounds cold and harsh, but if you want to spend 30% more for the same product, then knock yourself out.

We allow all members to veto any song they hate. With so many songs, why would play stuff some of the band hate? There are very few on the list and it’s never been abused.

I played many of the iconic London dives venues - Marquee (twice, once supporting Carter, once headlining), all of the Mean Fiddler venues (Subterranea, Garage, Mean Fiddler at least twice each), Underworld, The Dome, Electric Ballroom, Dingwalls, Opera on the Green etc but not any of the bigger ones... Played Edward's No. 8 in Birmingham too, supporting Gaye Bykers. Biggest venue was probably The Great Hall in Exeter (with Carter) or Guildhall in Gloucester (Gaye Bykers), or more recently, Winter Gardens in Blackpool (Rebellion)

I didn't get to do the 100 Club or Bridport, playing original Blues Rock until I was 55. I'm now 60, and after a short (but still too long) hiatus, I have every intention of doing it again. Also, forgot I once played the Royal Albert Hall!!

My own thread here, and all your lists, has got me thinking about all the places I've played in the past, and I realise they add up to a pretty good tally of renowned venues. The most notable ones I can remember: The New Morning - Paris Islington Assembly Hall O2 Academy - Glasgow The Stables - Milton Keynes and the aforementioned Band On The Wall I'm not getting any younger (60 next birthday), and I thought my days of being in a great band and playing great places were behind me. But this chance of a gig at Matt & Phreds has me pinching myself and thinking there might be more yet to come, and I like it. Rob

Tl064 is not a complete analogue of Tab1043. Current consumption of the whole circuit is about 500mA, if my memory serves me right) to be specific, the op amp model does not play a key role, except for the noise level. This circuit does not require high fast action, so I put TL06x. With the same success I could have put LF44x, and the result would have been the same. Half of the circuit is a copy of the original circuit, except for the input stages, which are my commercial development, which of course I can not share with you. But I am ready to answer your questions regarding the original circuit, timbre formation, no problem. Sorry for my English, it is not my native language

Bloody hell, I'd rather have an accordion than that. Whatever it is, it makes my eyes hurt 😂

It certainly isn't. Some cracking songs in that list though! I have Holiday in Cambodia and For Whom The Bell Tolls on my personal to-learn list, but songs for my bands have to take priority. Our 80s band has an additional constraint, in that we push our USP as covering post-punk and indie material rather than anything between 1980 - 1990. So no cheesy pop, S/A/W, hair metal and so on. This constraint - which we don't enforce too rigidly, BTW - might have cost us a few bookings, but OTOH when we do get gigs we know we're going to get a good crowd. We played a birthday party not long back and this was the set list: 1. Teenage Kicks 2. Somewhere In My Heart 3. Back On The Chain Gang 4. Love Will Tear Us Apart 5. Rip It Up (the Orange Juice song) 6. Love Shack 7. Town Called Malice 8. The One I Love 9. Call Me 10. Suffragette City 11. Happy Birthday (the Altered Images song) 12. Psycho Killer 13. Long Train Running (at birthday boy's request - dad rock isn't really our thing) 14. Dignity 15. The Whole Of The Moon 16. She Sells Sanctuary 17. Don't You Forget About Me 18. This Charming Man 19. Tainted Love 20. Purple Rain All in all, it went down very well. We had people up and dancing almost immediately (although we started long after the party did, so the punters were nicely lubricated) and we got a lot of applause at the end (or they could have just been relieved that we'd finished!). I think having the constraint in place helps to narrow things down when selecting songs, but it just reduces the disagreement problem rather than eliminating it completely.

I've played the 100 Club which was a bit of a thrill, and also played at the Crystal Palace Bowl which has hosted many greats, including Bob Marley. My favourite however, was a beautiful little restored theatre in Bridport - Bridport Electric Palace.

Took a punt on this Vintera II Early 60's model just under a month ago, the neck shape has took a bit of getting used too, but it's a lovely thing, Fender Ensenada have really upped their game over recent years.

My gig is a postponed one from last Saturday. I shamelessly intend to change into my 1966 World Cup shirt for the encore, and alter change the chorus of Mustang Sally to Win England win… 😂 Sadly, I think Y Viva Espana would be more accurate.

After many goes at building a big pedal board with lots of Juicy expensive effects I've finally given up and gone small, compact and functional. Bass - Caveman BP1 Compact - amp. GR Bass preamp in the effect loop of the BP1 compact and used for drive / fuzz only.

Well, the morning after the night before, and only 6 hours sleep because I have a plumber coming at 8am. I am blown away by how good this cab is. I didn't have to EQ my sound in, it's right there with everything set flat. It's got the right amount of everything, deep but not too deep, not boomy, not too toppy, lovely pushy mids and it's loud. I ran the Bergantino at around 9 - 10 o'clock on the volume and it was plenty, enough to control things from my bass. Also, I think every other member of the band commented on how good my bass sounded last night. It helped that we had a really good night musically. The band is really starting to cook. I'm a very very happy customer. Rob