Leaderboard

Y'know, I love reading this thread. Even though I don't know any of you in real life, and haven't seen your bands play, I still get a real kick out of hearing about all the great gigs that have happened for everyone (and commiserate with the disasters). There are so many styles, genres, line-ups, methodologies, countries etc on show but the diversity of it always gives me a real lift. It's a joy to know that so many people are out there playing and bringing music in all its' forms to appreciative (mostly!) audiences. Cheers all. JRK

We had an outdoor gig in Walsall - there was cover over the band, but no chance of moving indoors into the tiny pub if it rained, and it did seem rather ominous (it pissed down in the morning, and briefly in the early afternoon). There was a singer on before us, who finished at 5:15, and we were due on at 6. Working round him as he knocked down, we managed to get completely set up and ready to go by about 5:55, brief soundcheck and we were off. Due to the failure of the woofer on my combo, I was using a Tecamp Puma 900 and BC 112 Mk3 cab, and I noticed that on low notes on a dirty patch I had, it was making rather horrible noises, so I stopped using the dirty patch and all was well again. I did ask Mrs Zero to take some photos, but almost all of them she took while the two guitarists were playing "Time of your life" and the drummer and I were doing nothing. Well, I was doing the traditional "waving of the candle". However, we did have a stage invasion.

So….. I’m putting this here rather than the build diaries because it’s complete. I found the bass on the bay for peanuts, largely because it had a warped (forward bowed) neck, and the truss rod was maxed out. The previous owner had given up on it, describing it as “f@&£&d and bent like a banana” and “ beyond help”. “The fretboard will need to come off and the truss rod replaced….. it’s f£&!@d mate”. Is it really I thought. First job, will the truss rod loosen and the nut come off….. Yep, it did. So, knowing that the truss rod worked, I knew there was hope. I Ordered some tiny washer/shims to drop onto the end of the loose truss rod, just to give the nut some help when it goes back on. I also found, unbelievably, a period correct truss rod cover to replace the one that was missing, thanks to the awesome Henning at Twang vintage guitars in Sweden…. Next, was to clamp it, over heat (a hot water bottle) to coax the neck straight again. Actually it was clamped slightly more the other way, so that it could be loosened off a bit if needs be. I cooked it for an hour, and tightened the truss rod back up while it was still clamped and hot. The hot water bottle doesn’t get hot enough to worry about melting the glue, but the neck got pretty hot under there. After it came out, the result was absolutely perfect, with a slightly bent backward neck, still under tension from the truss rod. The heat had worked perfectly. The plan was to fit the strings in the morning and loosen the truss rod off a bit if needs be to get the action right. So, all that was yesterday, and today the strings went on, after cleaning and conditioning the beautiful fretboard With sheer blind luck, when fully tuned up, the action was perfect! Lovely low and buzz free, it’s spot on at the first attempt. Needless to say I’m over the moon….. These Korean ones had the US made white top pickups, and are really well made and respected, although the shape isn’t for everyone. They CAN fetch quite a bit on the used market. The plan was to fix it, practice my tech skills then flip it….. but I dunno…. 😆, I really love how this bass turned out… What a cracker of a bass. Another one saved from the parts bin. Delighted indeed. Thanks for reading this far 🤘🏻

Saturday saw us playing at a wedding, the bride is our drummer George's cousin so it was a pro bono job. It went well and we had lots of compliments. We had Danny, George's Uncle sit in on vocals for a song called 'I loved her first' which is a family favourite and was performed in memory of the brides' father. There were a few moist eyes after that one and we were chuffed we didn't farp it up. The nosh was decent.... especially the corned beef salad sarnies, which me and our 6-string maestro Phil (yep, 2 Phil's in our band) wolfed down with aplomb post performance. Sunday we were at O'Neill's in Leicester to a middle-sized crowd who seemed to enjoy our sets. Here's the pre-gig pic with the atmospheric images on the TVs... Used my go to gig set up of Mike Lull P4 through the Handbox R400 with matching cab. 2 gigs this coming weekend too, so no rest for this weekend warrior

This coming Saturday (31st) I’ll be gracing the main stage at one of the biggest local bike rally’s Stormin’ The Castle with our tribute to Southern rock “Southern Incorporated”. We have the prestigious 8:30pm slot just before the headliners Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons (let’s see what the profanity filter makes of that 😂). This is probably one of the biggest local gigs you can get as a covers band so to say we’re excited is an understatement. If any Basschatters are in attendance please come and say hello.

A double-header again this weekend (Sat/Sun) for Mustang Sally, once again with a fluid line-up (dep guitarist #1) due to ongoing holidays and stuff. Saturday saw us setting up in the function hall at the Mere Social Club (line-up was D/B+sax/G/KB/Vox+guitar) for a private 70th birthday bash, very well attended by a great audience who seemed to appreciate our medium-octane pop playlist. This list is very much in contrast to the AVGAS-strength guitar fireworks numbers we used to play before our genuine rock-star walked out in May. It does make adding new numbers much easier with virtual rehearsals (and sometimes no rehearsals except the gig!) for simple numbers like ‘Walking on Sunshine’ and ‘2-4-6-8 Motorway’. Compared with, say, ‘Hotel California’ or ‘Echo Beach’ these new numbers are a doddle and the punters do like something really catchy for jumping about to. Pix are from this gig, including one that proves I actually DO play bass! Sunday we played at the George Inn Castle Cary, a gig organised by its enterprising landlady to compensate for the local council cancelling the town’s annual ‘Party in the Park’ on cost grounds – line-up (dep #1 and dep#2 guitarists as KB man away) was D/B+sax/G1+B/G2/Vox+guitar. This pub is a rabbit’s warren of interconnecting bars and rooms so the headbangers can jump around in the hub where we’d set up, while others could eat and drink in relative peace and quiet around the edges! We started at 18:30 and finished at 21:10, so home for an early cocoa; it rained hard during the evening so if the gig had been in the Park, everyone would have been well-drenched… It was another really enjoyable gig with a lovely crowd, resulting in that lovely landlady booking us for NYE – result!

Photo from Sunday….fretless Spectracore with flats.

I do have a few relic basses, which have been done really well IMO. I couldn't buy a Pino P any other way unfortunately. I'm okay with them because I don't get stressed when they pick up dings on gigs. I hate scratching pristine basses. YMMV of course.

And there I was playing at the Kerry Lamb on Sunday, outdoors on a lorry trailer, cold and wet plus the other Kerry pub also had a band on. I am told people enjoyed it and we will be back.

Surely that pair of mono-browed lunkheads aren't in need of more money. Afraid I really detest Oasis

Just to add insult to injury - literally! Thanks for the solidarity; my injury is fixing itself, it would appear, but very.... very.... slowly. I'm doing as little with it as possible, and instead of having to go every week to have it looked at I'm now on three-weekly appointments. The consultant seems happy, so I'm cautiously optimistic. I have played my bass as much as I've felt able to, but three fingers on the fretting hand takes some getting used to, especially when the inoperable one gets in the way of the three that are having to work harder to make up for it. Still, it's still attached, so I won't complain too much. Cheers, JRK

Last night's rehearsal became a gig at short notice when we played in the local RNLI lifeboat station as our usual hall was the venue for an art exhibition. The Station Manager and one of the helms are in the band so it was all above board. Despite the rain earlier in the day, we played to people coming off the beach and a family who were staying in a holiday cottage a few yards away. Surprisingly for the boat house, the acoustics were good and we had a lot of fun. I played my Hohner 'The Jack' through a Zoom B1Four DI'd into the desk. EDIT: YouTube link to a short video from this 'gig'. This is one of the helmsmen, our band leader.

And here's the long-awaited debut gig ...

First reaction is it's really nice and might be perfect for my current needs. I still need to try it plugged into a cab and with my pedalboard, but straight in and through the headphones I'm very impressed. The "valve" channel is lovely and squashy. The clean sounds the same as the valve, but clean. You can make it sound really dark but there's a lot of clarity which I think will work well in the band. I'll be able to give it a bit of a blast at home tomorrow as everyone else will be out. It would also look so cool in purple tolex, grey piping and a matching grill cloth to my cab. Might need to see if Zilla will swap my badge to black and silver...

...or the Beatles...

yes I do want the gig. I'll let everyone know if I get it

A mate of mine has just given his opinion on when the re-split will happen: It'll be during the first sound check. Noel: Can you check our kid's microphone, his singing sounds shite. Liam: 💥

I don’t mind a bit of Oasis, but I couldn’t listen to a whole song 😁

This made me smile.

I know what you mean. I've been a member of Bass Chat so long I feel like I do know some of you. The gig stories are fantastic. Most of the stories I can say " been there, done that". But nobody can top my Baraboo Blues Fest story when I forgot to bring my bass. Lol Daryl

Dave, At least for the material we do. I'm no longer a fan of technical drumming with fancy riffs and fills. Just keep the beat and tempo consistent and I'm good. Most of the time our drummer is only on the snare, high hat and the kick drum and I love it. Example attached. It's a recycled video clip of " Ohio " Crosby, Stills and Nash. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/jZ21spbRNUPMAvU3/?mibextid=qi2Omg Now, when we're talking about fusion or more progressive genres that's a different discussion. Blue

I would argue timing and good fortune are part of the recipe for success. Noel has penned some reasonably catchy tunes (first 2 records). Oasis were the right band in the right time in a similar vein to the Arctic Monkeys or Nirvana.

I've just seen a post from the Music Venue Trust that say less than half of the 34 venues Oasis played in on their first tour still exist. It's a proper shame that folks will throw their money at multi-millionaires playing venues that are so huge they have to wear their coats, instead of supporting the hopefully up and coming ones before all the venues disappear!

If you’re playing in a covered band in a pub you should respect what Oasis did for live music. They acted as a gateway for many people of my age (40s) to get into guitar based music. From there I’ve moved on to more esoteric stuff, but Oasis was the start…

Two in a couple of weeks.

ACG basses are outstanding instruments. Alan’s work is always stellar. I’m lucky enough to have several ACG basses fretted and fretless and they are all a joy to play. Happy new ACG day 😀

I'm thinking of starting a sweepstake on how long they get into the "tour" before splitting up again in a blaze of sibling acrimony. First prize is a copy of Beady Eye's first album. Second prize is two copies of Beady Eye's first album.

There's the SB-ONE which looks a lot more budget friendly.

Updated last week. Bought 4 Jazz basses this year and sold 1. Pretty good net gain I reckon. Don't think I'll be buying another bass for a very, very long time...

Spent half the day cable managing and swapping out a few plates for 3M tape.

Excellent! Very cool bass, a cracking band, and happy dancing punters. Plus the most excellent line, "Where's my bass player gone?" 😅

After wanting one for some time , I finally landed an Elf.

Had to give this a blast the weekend, drum song riddim

😎

I'm the opposite now, wouldn't cross the road to see big bands in massive stadiums, I'd rather go and watch a good tribute in a small venue. Back to Oasis, wonder how many who slag off their songs as simplistic have written a million selling song of their own, if it's that easy why not? not many know the secret of writing a hit song, Noel Gallagher is, or was, one of them, it is something that is indefinable.

Festivals are often a total pain in the a*se. We did an annual one somewhere in the North of England yesterday. It's quite a big event and we got on after two years of asking - they always lose our applications. The tech spec said we needed to bring breakables for drums and amps for guitar and bass - cabs were provided. The venue wasn't set up for a 3 piece rock band. But you show willing, don't you? It didn't help that the band before us over-ran up to the start time of our set and really dawdled when it came to packing away. When they finally buzzed off, it turned out there was no bass cab, just a bass bin attached to the PA, so my amp was routed thru the PA which was sounding like a pair of transistor radios. The guy behind the desk seemed to be unfamiliar with what they actually do, as my bass was pretty much non-existent and he kept turning our vocals and the guitar off. Our drummer told me to 'be nice' and not to tell him off. I felt absolutely murderous. It ruined the gig for me - qualifying it as the worst 40 minutes I have ever spent on a stage. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. 40 minutes of sheer frustration. I will never leave it to chance and trust a festival team again. I will always drag my bass rig along. It would be a close contest between myself and the OP as to who is the most angry.

Leigh-on-Sea this weekend. Nice and local for me.

So on Saturday we were at a social club we know well, with a nice big stage and decent acoustics. Took our usual set up of Electrovoice ZLX 15" tops, Mackie Thumps as monitors/back up tops, and a Zoom LiveTrak L-12 mixer. Not my favouritest mixer, as it's not quite as intuitive as it likes to think it is, but it has the advantage of being both relatively compact and having multiple monitor outputs. We run two vocals, guitar and kick drum through the PA, the guitarist uses a small amp for monitoring and I take a 2x12" 400W rig. Our standard mixer settings were 95% there, with just a bit of minor tweaking of vocal reverb and the gain on the kick channel, and we had a nice balanced sound, clear vocals, not too loud, and a nice 'punch' from the kick. At gigs at venues where we know we have feedback issues (and everywhere we've never played before) we take an acoustic dampening backdrop, which definitely helps reduce feedback by helping control the noise bouncing around behind the mics. But not needed on Saturday, in fact the loudest thing on stage was the lead vocals monitor. And both vocalists are starting to think about using in-ears, which, while presenting their own set of challenges, will definitely help with controlling feedback. We've thought about moving to a smaller tops and subs set up, but we've a fair bit of money invested in the current set up, and it works!

There's a lot of hate from people who play in guitar bands towards the likes of Oasis, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, Nickleback etc. I'm not a big fan of any of them, but surely the fact that they have actual Bass players on stage is a good thing? I mean, have a look at the top 40 and I'm pretty sure there isn't hardly a single 'band' in it. If Oasis play to 100's of thousands of people then hopefully a few of them will pick up instruments and there will be some type of revival for bands and live music in pop charts.

This, and have a DFA (does feck all) fader for the ones who insist on watching you make a change 😉

I’ve only written one new bass day post before but I’ve been very excited to share this one because it’s the first bass I’ve ever had built to my spec: a Dingwall D-Roc Custom 5-string in matte ari gold. I’ve had it a couple of weeks now but it’s taken me a short while to get around to writing the post. I would love to blame the delay on spending all my time playing the bass but I’m hoping that time is to come. From ordering to having it in my hands playing it took just shy of a couple of years, although I think the expected wait times have slipped out a bit since then. I was playing my Thunderbird a lot at the time of ordering but wanted a good five string. Ian Allison serendipitously released a video comparing the Thunderbird to a D-Roc and I was quickly on the phone to Bass Direct checking what was possible. The bass is effectively the D-Roc Custom stock spec except, like the ari gold D-Roc in Ian Allison’s video, it has a wenge neck. In a divergence to the one in the video, I asked for no face dots, no pick-guard and uniform dark wenge to go for a sleek black/gold look. It came out exactly as I hoped it would. I’m looking forward to spending more time with it. I’m relatively used to fanned frets from playing an NG3 but it would be good to spend more time building some muscle memory. The tone is more growly than that of the NG3, which is what I was hoping for. It’s also the first fully-passive 5-string bass that I’ve owned. It’s a bit strange not to be playing with a fully-featured preamp but the 4-way pick-up selector means there are a variety of tones available. I would write/gush more but I have a bass to play!

Didn’t like them, both as a band and as people, still don’t. Hard to believe that this reforming has made some of the front pages.

I’ll be going, and I’ll be taking my 2 teenagers - because all the negativity people seem to put on them as a band/solo artists doesn’t make an ounce of difference to me and what happened when I heard them for the first time aged 11. they were massive for me. saw them 3 times - once on their last (I think) tour. No matter what people think of them - for a lot of people, they were an era defining band. shame that guigsy/bonehead most likely won’t be involved - the word is that it’s Liam/Noel and the High Flying Birds as the rest of the band.

Not my favourite show… at all. A gig at a festival in Northwich. I rented possibly the worst hotel en route (didn’t spot the shared bathroom bit and there wasn’t even a curtain over the window of my room!). I contemplated sleeping in the car but pressed on to the show after a mixed night’s sleep. Just a line check, which was fine, but when we came on, someone had knocked my bass and the A string was significantly out. I tried tuning it but it was difficult to do discreetly. Sorted it out and then it sounded like the house cab had blown. The sound engineer just kinda left me hanging. Upon reflection, I think my wireless was the issue letting me down. Annoyed at myself for not overcoming the issue. I tried to put on a good show (& the audience said it sounded fine out front) but I think if you knew, you knew. I’ll be more on it in future but yeah, not my favourite set. I got sent a couple of nice pictures which I am sure would look nice on my mother in law’s mantelpiece!?!