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Friday we played Cropredy Fringe at the Brasenose Arms. I've done this gig before, depping with someone else, and this was pretty much the same deal. Great weather, a bunch of middle class families out enjoying the food and drink, and not seeming too interested in the music. However, about 3 songs into our set, the generator failed. Our singer is a master of this, and he went straight into an old folk song. He got everyone to join in, AND he got them to gather down by the stage making it feel like a proper gig. Once the generator kicked back in, everyone stayed down the front and had a good dance. Not a huge crowd, but good fun, and we sold some CDs and Vinyl. Saturday we played Gig In A Field which is a small outdoor festival near Doncaster. Maybe 500 people there. We did an hour set and they sang along to every song. We sold loads of merch and the pay was good. The only downside was the creepy female promoter (she was there as a punter but has given us gigs in the past) who insists on touching me up. It's so gross. I think I've mentioned her previously in this thread. Sunday we played at Grand Social in Dublin. We go to the ferry 10 minutes before sailing which was a bit nerve wracking. We had a few beers and a good laugh on the way over, then drove into town. We couldn't park by the venue but it was only a 2 minute walk from the van. They'd insisted we didn't bring any gear, just guitars and sticks. I (on drums) tend to break gear so I took my snare, stool, pedal, and cymbals just in case. In the end used all of their gear except for the snare drum. This meant I didn't have to pack anything away so I could go from stage to my brother (who lives in Dublin) and stroll out for a brief pub crawl round Temple Bar. Apparently we went down well and sold a decent chunk of merch. I went to meet the guys at the accommodation at midnight. Unfortunately the guy assigned to meet me with a key was very drunk and his phone wasn't working, so it took a cold and lonely 30 minutes to get to my bed for the night. I didn't get any photos from the shows but here we are on the ferry home

Get a room ...

Back at The Harley Motor Bar & Restaurant this Saturday! Enjoy the *bourbon and BBQ specials and we’ll provide the tunes! 5:30-8:30pm Daryl *Seriously, who drinks bourbon in Wisconsin? That's a down south thing.

Some stuff. In Absentia: DG AO900 and Behringer 8x10 are around at the rehearsal space

Recieved my new Stingray 5 Special yesterday, and boy is it great I'd been selling my Lakland DJ5 to fund an ADHD assessment for my youngest, but as it took so long to sell, shortly after we got a letter telling us she would have one on the NHS, which freed up some money. That coupled with being 40 soon meant I jumped on this, I've never had an instrument of this quality before, it's just brilliant The neck is so comfortable, I found my hand dancing over it, easily playing things I'd found more challenging before. The tone is clear, articulate and punchy without being thin or clanky; I'll need to spend a bit more time with the onboard pre-amp and my practice set-up to get the best out of it, last night I was pretty much running it flat The low B is excellent, articulate and big sounding, but still well balanced with the other four strings - something I've been searching for in a five string for ages That 18v pre is a monster though, a little goes a long way and you can get into clipping very easily. It seems a bass that's very responsive to your playing, the tone shifting a fair bit depending on your hand position and how much you dig in. I wasn't running any compression last night, but I'll experiment with that too. All in all, I'm a bit smitten and very glad I've bought it Technically, I received two basses yesterday as I also paid my colleague for the de-fretted Ibanez SR505 he leant me *ages* ago, so whilst it's not new to me, it is newly mine. I'd been having a lot of fun playing the fretless, I definitely need to work on my intonation though. Looking forward to dropping the tuning down a tone to play some Death and Cynic Anyway, I know you're mostly here for pictures, so

NBD 30.5” Passive Made by @Lukasz Chyla of this parish. Exceptional for the money when you consider it’s handmade in the UK. Plays really well. And yes, it has a fabulous B. Not for sale.

We did a corporate thing on Saturday afternoon, a manufacturer of road sweeping equipment had their annual summer do for employees and their families. We did an hour in the afternoon, nothing particularly remarkable other than it is the first time I have set up in a Sweeper Test Area. New vocalist settling in well and this sort of low pressure, short gig is good for building confidence between us all.

You're in the running for a medal; maybe gold.

I'll be using this setup at a low volume easy going blues gig this Thursday. The cab is a regular feature for rehearsal and small gigs and has proven itself with a few different amps. The little Ashdown class-d head was a fairly recent purchase as a back up/home studio use only but has worked really well with the R210 cab in particular. It's not my first class-d amp but is my first Ashdown class-d head. It's simple to operate and easy to get a usable tone from. Very reminiscnet of the MAG/Electric Blue pre-amp sections and i'm guessing might be like the Rootmaster heads although I havent tried them. The killer feature for me is the shape button which is just like the one on Ashdown ABM's. It gives the amp a surprising punch and low end presence. There's a curious master volume that goes up to 27 but around 13 or 14 is more than enough for a small pub sized room. Lovely warm fat tone and so far no sign of the class-d auto compression and limiting I usually associate with class-d stuff. I think its 300 watts but sounds about the same output wise as my TE GP7 SM130 head. Obviously one other bonus is that its very light.

Back to nano board going for a more compact setup and channeling my inner IMA. XD Here’s my utility board.

I'm gonna be contrary and say I can't see much point in preamp pedals. Perhaps they are useful playing through a PA with no backline and not wanting to DI from an Amp, but multi-fx would seem a more flexible option to me for that most of the time. Even a cheap multi-fx unit will do a better live job by having Amp/Drive/Cab/IR/EQ/HPF/LPF and presets all available. And if playing live at pub sort of level then most players still go through an actual Amp which includes a preamp so not much need for a pedal version. And if home recording then a clean signal generally seems best (to then edit later) - multi-fx can act as an interface to your Laptop for that whereas many preamp pedals can't. I dunno, but they kind of seem to be a solution to a problem that doesn't exist for 90% of situations.........perhaps why so many are for sale on here?!

Alice Cooper?

With our duo we have a policy of never letting people get up at all - once you do then you’re forever getting people wanting to have a go. In the blues band I play with, it’s a touch more relaxed - had a couple of drummers get up with us at the weekend ( see previous post above) , one who was pretty grim and the other bloody amazing - ex Status Quo drummer Jeff Rich. Lovely bloke too.

I’m in the house band for a Sunday blues jam , and just recently was informed I’ve been doing it for twenty eight years. … shameless

The temptation that is Chimike's place, has struck again. Was after the DB750, as just can't seem to find a 751 that anyone wants to sell. Day off work, and drove from Norfolk to Worthing (Sussex) - I don't know how people do the M25 every day, I really don't. Had a remarkably close shave with a car spinning off after hitting the concrete centre right in front of me on the way back- no idea how I and others missed him really, but there you go. So went down to get the Aguilar, and ended up depleting all that money I had after selling two basses, by buying the Trace too. I'm sort of glad that I'm now out of dosh completely, and that Mike is so far away, or I'd be helping him in his quest to clear out the hoarders paradise that masquerades as an engineering unit. Just a quick pic

I’ve just caught up with the thread because I’m borrowing @johnbiffa’s YI200 (with matching neo 4x10). Good to see you on here @Stoneham I’m looking forward to testing the amp. Cool that it fits under my desk, too!

I've had and gigged both. Both great amps. Different amps, but both great. The 3 channels and the tilt wins it for me. You can really get a lot of drive and distortion if required, or a nice valve sound, and then flick to a clean when required. Or mix both. The tilt is great and a very easy way to get a great sound. Works really well. Looks really cool too. Light as a feather as well. Saying that, if you really know how to use eq to get the sounds you want the abms are great. I'd have either and be really happy.

That's the intended use (not the knees) - outdoor gigs on sunny days. The debut ([Eddie Waring] and first appearance also /[Eddie Waring]) will now be on 25th August at MarlowFest with the RBL.

So this has taken a back seat. Partly being winter and couldn’t spray in winter so trying to get to some spraying this summer. I wear my bass high ish, so the slab body wouldn’t be great for me so I’ve carved a tummy cut into it. Very much a hybrid thing but has elements I like/need with the look I’m going for. Still some final shaping and details to sand but it’s pretty much there. 🙌 I worked from a photo, but I think it’s pretty much a fender looking tummy cut.

I love this board. I'm scared of the stomp though, but well interested in a capo....albeit it looks pretty pricey! Think Ian Allison uses a similar set up?

No, I disagree. The correct word is "envy".

a lot of jealousy can be seen by these comments

Heroes - David Bowie

I can definitely handle sit in singers, blues harp and guitar. I get the willies playing with an untested drummer. Lol Daryl

That’s wonderful to know. Might take the bad boy to Chinatown later (love that song)

How to win at Basschat: be unsuccessful and always be negative.

I loved their early stuff. Freaky Stylee was my first introduction to them & BSSM being their last good album. Californication is where they got stuck in this mould & start to make every song sound the same, so I’d listen to them, but get bored very quickly (I really tried to like Stadium Arcadium, but it sounds so bland). Then more recently, they decided to show their support for apartheid & the pervy singer is not someone I’d ever want anything to do with, so I don’t even listen to their early stuff anymore. They’re on my boycott list.

A brave thing to admit in public

I guess that YT is the new way to get known, have fun and pay the bills. The hours are good and no travelling so you can still have a life. It's not like there's an abundance of sessions like the old days anymore. There's an abundance of musicians instead. Any musician who can do their thing, enjoy themselves and give up the day job has my respect.

Check out his profile on Soundcloud, it's examples of his session work. Not flash, just very accomplished. You can criticise his YouTube if you wish, but don't assume he can't do what we try to do.

We were up in the wilds of Northumberland again plying our Americana trade. Great gig, well attended and received, which is all the more note worthy given it was about 25C and sunny outside. For the first time, we had the drunk punter, an older guy who ‘wanted to get up and play a song he’d written’. No amount of explaining that we couldn’t do that, that the audience were there to see us and not him etc could dissuade him. Fortunately, shortly after the start of the second set he got the message and left.

If you allow yourself to be the band dad once you will always be the band dad. Keys player - "I've forgotten my iPad" Me - "Well just download the Behringer app for your phone then." Keys player - "Which one is it?" Me - "I have no idea, I don't use it" He finally downloads one... Keys player - "How do I use this?" Me - "I have no idea, I don't use it" Keys player - "Well that's not very helpful, is it?" All this while I'm setting the PA up and he has already got a pint in his hand.

Played our monthly Sunday late afternoon gig at The Sun Inn in Beverley. Very quiet when we arrived so we were worried the great weather had kept people at home having BBQs in their gardens. However around 4.30pm people started to come in so by the time we kicked off at 5pm it was getting full. Plenty of requests, ranging from Tony Bennett through to Del Amitri and George Ezra. Some old friends in too so great to have a catch up in the breaks. Fortunately I also remembered to take my big electric fan otherwise the heat would have been a problem- as it was I’d just restrung my Ibanez bass and had to tune every couple of songs. Ended up doing a couple of encores before finishing around 8.30pm. Really enjoyable gig.

So after the show yesterday I rushed back to Hereford to see my band playing at the gig they had! They were booked for a party in the bar at the theatre and used the A guitarist on bass and the B guitarist on guitar, the A drummer was available, and the B trumpeter was as well (our hottest hot lips was on the show with me) so they took the gig. Really great to see them all play. But it was nice to back in the saddle this evening. Pleasant wedding at Stone Manor just outside Kidderminster, a nice gig, just Sunday evening vibes after a warm day, some were in the mood for partying but I think a lot had an eye on the clock. Still, enjoyed it and it was nice and rowdy from about half the crowd by the end.

OK, last few bits and bobs with this one. Setup first. I like to be able to get the action pretty low. 1.75mm for the E string at the 12th and 1.5mm for G string. That's with only a touch of relief on the truss rod. I've stopped using nuts and instead have a zero fret. The fretwire is the same for the zero fret but I don't level it when I'm doing the other frets. All this means that the action is incredibly light. Particularly the first 5 frets. My daughter's guitar teacher (who's a far better bass player than me) came round the other day and said it felt like playing a fretless! That's definitely my goal. Most people probably will want to raise the action a bit, particularly since this is an acoustic, but it's nice to know it can go low if necessary. My setup routine is probably similar to everyone. The only thing slightly unusual is that I level the frets under string tension. First step is getting it to tension (or actually a semitone below), then using a straight edge on top of the frets to get the neck as straight and flat as possible: I then use an aluminium C-shaped beam with 400 grit sandpaper on the bottom to level all the frets (as mentioned above, apart from the zero fret). More or less the final job is the pickup. I'm using a fishman matrix Infinity piezo which is under the saddle. This means I need to drill a hole in the top for the cable. After countless hours of work this was definitely a job not to do with a hangover. Or given I've got an eight year old, high on gummy-bears. Mark up the bridge location with tape, then a 2.5mm through the top, praying that my plans are accurate and I'm not about to drill through the X brace..... Phew. Done. Tomorrow I'll string it up again and plug it in for the first time.... One thing that has turned out beautifully on this build is the finish on the top. It was an epoxy seal coat then 5 or 6 wipe on/wipe off coats of tru oil. As a finish it look stunning. The last one had a french polished top which was nice, but dare I say it this one is better. It's hard to see in my rubbish photos, but the wood glows....

Screenshot just for you @rwillett from a Vid taken at BLOCKBUSTARZ gig on Sat night at Longstone Hearts Club in Edinburgh as proof it did actually happen. Honest i tell you no lie. Vids are on our FB page. Dave

Fantastic band. Had lots of good conversations with Karl and Owen over the years. Karl did the whole moving to America thing as well, and we compared notes. Makes me wonder what happened to a load of the other bands who were around at the time.

There was a time where I always brought a full repair kit including soldering iron, tools, spare parts, valves, jack sockets, guitar and bass strings, plectrums, batteries etc and I was the only one in the band who had an old Boss TU-12 tuner. I recall one gig at the Cathouse in Glasgow where I repaired several guitars owned by other bands with mostly dodgy jack sockets and leads in one evening. Needless to say my TU-12 was passed around everywhere with everyone until one day it wasn't returned. I have also been the PA provider in past bands and rarely ever got any help or thanks for doing so. Things aren't so bad these days. I only jam with folks who have their own tuners and ken how to intonate their instruments. I've found that people who know how to setup their instrumetns are mostly gear savvy as well and look after their rigs well. My only "extras" contribution these days are the stands for the small powered PA speakers brought by my buddy. Everything else is for my setup alone and whittled down to bare minimum for lightness and fully checked prior to every outing. I wouldn't say I was a professional player, but it's not difficult adopting a professional mindset when it comes to my own gear, and doing my best to not be a burden to my bandmates.

Saturday I was “Anchor Face” Al on the good ship Punk 🤪 All good fun. One rehearsal and a couple of rough play thoughs at home and I remembered/managed to busk through it all watching the guitarist’s hand and catching up quickly when a song completely escaped me. Old skool rig: Hartke LH500 into a pair of BigBaby’s, tuner in the loop and an Origin DCXBass for an extra kick when required, battered FPPR Status S1 that has seen many SEBB’s. I nearly only used one BB then remembered (a) it’s punk; and (b) the band I was depping for has a drummer who really lays in so went the whole hog. Sounded flipping marvellous where I was 😁 I’m not normally allowed to be such an hooligan and ‘twas fun 🤩