Leaderboard

This has been through many BC hands - at least @Gwilym, @bubinga5, @carlsim, and @eddking (who I bought it from). Ed and I met up at Gordano services after an eventful journey down (for me) and exchanged a Cort GB5 Custom and some money with the Sei. The neck is lovely, as I'd expect from a Sei - slim and shallow. It's light and is well balanced, both seated and on the strap. The tuners are smooth and free of play. The bridge is nice and chunky. Soundwise, the Bartolini pickups have plenty of output with nothing lacking. The East Uni-Pre controls are volume/blend, bass/treble, mid sweep and boost/cut, and passive tone, plus a mute switch and an active/passive switch. The blend is very effective. Treble and bass do their jobs nicely, with a lot of boost and cut but very controllable. The mid controls definitely work but I think I'll steer clear of them. The "passive" tone works in both active and passive modes, and in extremis gets rid of all the treble. With any luck, the Basschat bike has found a forever home.

Well it had to happen one day. For a long time I've had low level GAS for a Hayman or Shergold and that GAS built up and finally released when @AndyTravisput his Marathon up for sale. I've got an Eastwood Hooky 6 which is a faithful copy of the Marathon six string bass but I just fancied an original 'Hand Crafted in London' Shergold four string, and I'm absolutely delighted with it. A very Precision bass like tone but a touch more aggressive maybe, like a tiny smidge of Rickenbacker had been infused in a P. A bit of overdrive and you're in JJ Burnel territory. Tone down and it's still got plenty of vintage thump. Just lovely. Enough waffle... Pictures! 😁

Now that we've all finally got rid of (though not yet fully recovered from) the Covid which scuppered our birthday gig at the end of July, we (Rascallion) reconvened on Thursday afternoon to bang out a few tunes for the "Family Day" event at the care home where Mr Lead Guitar's mother had resided happily for the last few years of her life. Same as last year's event, the weather forecast wasn't looking too hopeful, but we set up as best we could in the shelter provided by the small wooden gazebo in the garden, which had been extended forwards with a pop-up gazebo (thank you Lily's Boutique of Woodhall Spa!). Mr Drums was using a reduced kit of just snare, kick, hi-hat, and a couple of cymbals, so a few tunes didn't sound quite right, and for once I struggled to get a decent onstage sound out of my trusty Trace Elliot mini-rig (AH200 head + BLX-110 cab). In desperation I did something I've not done in ages, punched in pre-shape 1 plus a less-than-carefully-sculpted gullwing shape on the EQ, and was rewarded with a lovely deep, rich tone which fitted in beautifully without booming - must try this more often! Luckily the overall sound out front seemed to be good right from the start. First set was rather soulless / soul-destroying as we played to a small number of folks loitering in the summer house to the right of us plus an equally small number dotted around the garden under various umbrellas, and got pretty much zero reaction until we finished the set to a smattering of applause. We had originally intended to take a 20 minute break, but as the rain had now set in (along with a distinct "let's-get-the-heck-out-of-Dodge" feeling), we gave it 10 minutes then cracked on. For whatever reason, the second set felt much more satisfying, and by the time we hit Roadhouse Blues, a few folks were actually up and showing an interest, and even applauding loudly. Our final run of Walking By Myself, Long Train Runnin', Gimme Some Lovin', Whiskey In The Jar and Bad Moon Rising went down a storm, and we even had to pull Old Time Rock & Roll out of our back pockets as an encore. Totally different to the first set! As we were packing up, half a dozen folks wandered in from the small "Garden of Tranquility" where they'd been hidden from view round the corner from us, and said how much they'd enjoyed it and had been bopping along (embarrassingly so in one case apparently!), which made it all worthwhile. We also got a couple of enquiries from folks about booking us at a later date, though to be honest the same happened last year without anything coming of it, so we're not counting our chickens just yet. That's it for now as we've nothing else in the diary for this year, so it's back to the workhouse next week to work on a few more new songs, and see what might come up. Definitely one of the more interesting setups we've had, but happily, despite the rain dripping in through the small gap between the two gazebos, all the gear stayed dry (with the help of several carrier bags and amp covers) apart from one DI box which somehow got overlooked.

Last night was the first proper run-out for my new acoustic duo. The vocalist and myself, from our covers band, have got to the point where we want to gig a lot more than the rest of them. We are both retired with no childcare responsibilities, the rest of the band are younger than us and have either one, or both, of those things to manage. So, we’ve put together a duo for those weeks we have no full band gigs. The plan is to tap unto the micro pub and café market locally. We’ve already got a few in the diary, including an Indian restaurant that Mick, the singer, goes to every week. I’ll be happy to be paid in-kind for that one ☺️. For now, we are just plugging straight into the PA with no monitoring. We will review that as we go along. Our set is unashamedly sing-along covers.

Something like this?

Fantastic Fender P. Daryl

What a bloody racket! Does it run on batteries? If so can someone take them out.

Big Gig this Saturday. Big stage, Big sound & lights. National Headliners. We only play for an hour. Daryl **Waukesha Rotary BluesFest**, August 9 & 10 at Naga-Waukee Park, Delafield featuring the "New Generation" of the blues with headliners **Ally Venable** and **GA-20** plus **Tinsley Ellis** (solo) and **Buckwheat Zydeco Jr. & The Legendary Ils Sont Partis Band**! www.waukeshabluesfest.com

It's getting close. I've added a narrow sided pickup ring just to hide the gaps around the pickup: Not much left to do - swop the electrics, fit the string tree and then just a few tidying up things and set up. All being well, should be all done and dusted by the end of the weekend

found one that fits! thank you all!

I am custodian of a close relation...

I own a Bite bass. I had never heard of them before until I entered an online giveaway and I was actually lucky enough to win. I got to go on their "configurator" and design a bass and then they build it and sent it to me. You can see my bass below (yes, I went over the top with the design, perhaps, but since I wasn't paying for it, I figured I'd just go for it. I still like how it looks though, ostentatious or not). I wrote a review of it for their website shortly after I got the bass, which you can view here. I've had it since October of 2021, so almost 3 years now. It's held up in that time. After owning it for all this time, I can still say I honestly love it. I was probably going to end up buying an American Professional II P Bass from Fender, to have a nicer P (I have a few basses, but I am definitely a P bass person), but since winning this bass I haven't felt the need. I think the neck is better than the fender bases I've tried. I did get the "J" style neck on it, which is something the Fender mod shop still won't let you do on a P Bass. It feels great and has flawless fretwork with no sharp ends. The while they use CNC machines for a lot of the build, the finishing and fretwork are apparently all done by hand. I like my action medium-low and I have no issues with buzz. I also really like the tone. It's got tone you'd expect from a P bass, but maybe just a little brighter than typical. It cuts through a mix really well and sounds great in all of the various projects I play in that span several genres. I get compliments from other musicians frequently on its tone and looks when I'm out gigging. I really have no bias here, since I won it and didn't pay for it. I could sell it and it would all be profit, but it's become my #1 bass now, so I don't have any plans to part with it.

It's not actually as bad as it sounds. 😆

The one that got away….. and finally back. A 2000 pre LX Euro 5 in rare emerald green color that I had imported from the USA in 2006 and sold ohh so foolishly in 2009. I was quitting playing bass but soon realized I’d better off mentally if I keep playing music anyways. Having kept a good correspondence with the owner and then one after him I was able to finally buy her back last weekend. (With both previous owners being present and happy as things coming full circle- both of them play Spectors btw 😀 A surreal experience indeed to say the least and it’s as great a bass as I remembered and even more so. But enough of this rambling let’s have some pics. The one with the dragons I took in 2008ish and the others are current. A happy fellow I am for sure

Just did a farewell gig for our guitarist/singer in the covers band and unfortunately it's probably the worst we've ever played! For some reason we were just not connecting musically, which is unusual, but these things happen and we still had a good time. For this band I'm playing drums but I thought I'd tell this anacdote here as it's quite amusing. So, singer/guitarist starts the song with me on rim shots (guess the number!), and at the appropriate point second guitar and bass join in. At this point I assumed we would stop and restart given that the bass and second guitar are each in a different key to each other and the singer... but no, apparently that's unprofessional so we limp on playing the number in three different keys. I could see the confusion in the bassists eyes as he goes over to the second guitarist, they nod at each and at the end of the bar they change key but in the confusion they just swap keys, neither of which is what the singer is in! Eventually they figure out that they probably need to synchronise with the singer which they managed for the last chorus. Basically they forgot we had changed the key for the vocals with the bassist in the original key and the second guitar a semi tone higher for some bizzare reason. Anyway, it was quite the most novel free form jazz rendition of 'run to you' I've ever heard (we even apologised to the audience it was that bad! Although if it had been a jazz venue I think it would have been genius).

My favorite Spinal Tap scene is when they opened for a puppet show playing " free form" jazz. Lol Daryl

Another example this time with digital cymbals

latest version of the small board. this one might stay like this for a while. hopefully.

Close enough to be a pair? Definitely related. Shergold Marathon 4 & Eastwood Hooky Bass 6 Pro (Fac 51 edition)

And of course the Born To Rock F4B with a one-piece aluminium neck and fingerboard:

Looks like a great venue Daryl, Have a good one sir. Dave You like it so much you posted it twice Daryl. Agree 100% with you. We've all experienced the same transport issues, audience response, venue issues, equipment issues, odd audience members whether fun or worrying no matter what style of band we are in. I've also picked up on how others on BC have developed with their bands over the years. BC is such a wonderful place to share our experiences and pass on advice we've gathered. You're never too old to learn from experience. Dave

BTW, tin foil is really good for cleaning off rust if there is any.

It's why Spinal Tap continues to be relevant. There's common themes and people doing stupid stuff at every level! It doesn't matter the genre or location.

The SB2 is back on the board, just adds that little bit of fairy dust to the Mustang and P.

Erm. Brief. Multi band “battle” thing…I know… But, we smashed it - playing a festival tomorrow. Nice little event - about 40-50 folks In a lovely venue. Sound was shocking onstage, but played alright - nice response considering we didn’t really take anyone of ours (as they’re out to see us tomorrow).

So true. I've had phone videos of me singing and I think I sound awful, yet on the same video the crowd are applauding and having a good time. So I can't be as bad as I think I sound. (I keep telling myself this!)

Mine's a 1994 MIJ '51 reissue, custom pickguard is homemade - self-adhesive vinyl (AKA "sticky-backed plastic" to Brits of a certain age) stuck onto a single-ply white aftermarket pickguard. The other bit of customisation you can't see is a set of Webbteca phenolic saddles - old school dodgy intonation ahoy! 😄

Seems like a good kid. He’s just given away thousands of free tickets to his festival to those on low incomes. We may be old and embittered but there’s something about your first rock band or rock artist and the guy seems to be doing great business around the world.

I have a couple of thoughts...I'll have another ponder ("Oh no - he's pondering again!!!!")

Stylophone IT - from the people that brought you Horizon.

I wasn't due to start playing at my new church until September, when the next Worship Team rota came out but, I'm on bass on Sunday 18th August 😀. I don't want to slag my old church off because it was the right church at that time in my faith and in my musical journey but, I have to say that my new church is far more organized, better equipped and they have a better stable of musicians and I know that I'm going to enjoy myself, God has placed me here for a reason. There are some songs that the old church played that the new church don't and, vice versa so, I'm looking forward to seeing what the songs are and, starting the next chapter in my musical journey.

Maybe you could switch mode the input supply but sfa to be done about the output transformer. It would take a big lump of transformer out of the equation that says it's too heavy to bother with but it would still be blimmin' heavy.

I changed the pickup wire over to check that I was in phase for both the neck and bridge pickups and it made sod-all difference. Still sounded muddy. After looking at it again, I realised that the tone pot which makes a tiny difference when the pickups are in parallel, makes a yuugge difference when the pickups are in series. I'd left the tone pot turned one way as it made so little difference and basically ignored it. Now the bass growls and it's really good. Will play it a bit more to see what sounds I can get out of it. Changed the wires back. Sometimes the simple solution is the one to check first

Here ya go @hiram.k.hackenbacker: https://imgur.com/a/sylvia-qz15Bcz If the link doesn't work, let me know and I'll change the page status from Hidden to Public.

Budget acoustic instruments are usually built very heavily, not what vintage connoisseurs are looking for but they have the advantage of not folding up on themselves after a few decades. A mate of mine has an ancient Columbus 12 string Gibson copy which hasn't needed any fettling in the 20+ years he's owned it, has always had a low action and sounds lovely despite being built like a tank. He paid around £60 for it (with case) back when it was hideously uncool to play those types of brands. Around the same time I passed up on an Aria SJ200 copy, really regret not buying that as they've put on some serious value!

Paid last night, finally, after getting the '504: page crashed' message over and over. Really looking forward to adding this to some recordings when it finally arrives. This will be the first Dubreq instrument I've ever owned. Unlike seemingly every other kid of my age, I never got a Rolf-endorsed Stylopedophone at Christmas in the 1970's. The inspiration for getting one was Via Mardot. I am not - and never will be - in her league, but I do love her compositions.

WoooOOOooooo!

Andreas Basking Shark Bass with an aluminium fret board. I used to own the Black Shark Guitar, and other than looking great it didn't really make the instrument sound any different to my other HSS strat-type guitar made with more conventional materials.

Try getting in touch with Mark Wright - https://www.facebook.com/MarkWrightMusicdotcom He's a former Line 6 employee who does a fair few repairs on Line 6 stuff.

Gone from the board: Source Audio Ultrawave Bass, Joyo Tidal Wave New on the board: Dirty Haggard Audio Broken The ultrawave was great (for digital) and the Tidal Wave is also an awesome bit of kit, bit for what I do it was too dark and the ultrawave too much effort to program. I'll reserve judgement until I gig the "Broken" but through headphones it sounds FILTHY! JPTR FX Jive as an always on sweetener, call76 always on, and drive duties now handled by the Joyo Monomyth.