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Just played at Nene Valley rock festival. It’s a fantastically organised and well attended setup, volunteer run and not for profit. This year it was in the grounds of Grimatone Castle. Three stages, lots of food and drink and the weather was perfect. We had a 45 minute set, my second gig with the band (Genius The Fool). For some reason we didnt get a sound check so we jumped right in, and I couldn’t hear the keys very well. It sounded like why applied reverb to the whole mix or something. Anyway it sounded ok out front and the other bands I watched on that stage were great (Especially Haze who were amazing… bassist had a twin neck Shergold (bass and 12 string guitar) and a Sei five string). I was really pleased with how we played overall. I made a couple of errors but stuff only I would probably notice. I don’t gig that much so whenever I consciously thought to myself ‘smile and look at the crowd’ it threw me a bit but by the end it was feeling really natural. I think we had about 70 people in the audience, probably one of the better crowds of the night (I think the band have a bit of a following, I’ve only joined recently).

This is ace. Full run through of his di rig for bass guitars, DB, and synth, all with playing examples. Few anecdotes about when things have gone wrong too.

An all day punk lineup at Whitehaven Civic Hall on Saturday. We were on at 5pm. I didn't realise but this clashed with a football game. It could have been that, or our reputation, but the crowd really thinned out for our set. That was a little embarrassing as I'd taken my partner to see me play for the first time. She seemed impressed but I think that might have been because she'd helped herself to most of our rider 🤣. Anyway, it's a nice venue with a great stage. The sound was absolutely terrible, as was the provided drum kit, but we just roll with it. I was staying in Whitehaven so the band took all of my gear back for me. A 5 minute walk to the hotel had me feeling pretty smug. Apparently we sold some merch to new people so that'll do

Beer festival held at the Shirley British Legion, which is where the open mic I attend is held. Every year the organisers get the open miccers to provide the entertainment. This year I was providing bass accompaniment for three others (one of them is a blind 13 year old guitarist, very good, who plays plenty of assorted blues), as well as playing guitar for Mrs Zero to sing to. We like to stretch ourselves a bit, so we did Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad as one of our numbers. The final act of the night, though, was Space Monkey. We haven't played together for three years and didn't have any rehearsal, our glorious leader just sent out a song list which was vaguely adhered to. I'd got my notes, then right at the end for the last encore he called for Gold. Slight moment of panic then I remembered I'd got my full cribsheet in Dropbox, quickly pulled it up and got in just in time. There was a really enthusiastic reception - we built up quite a fanbase in the year or two we were together, and quite a few people said they were looking forwards to us. We had almost everyone up and dancing, which was pretty good.

Gig at the BL's local (and the place I did the Jam Night Band residency for a year or more a while back) Satdy night, it had been booked for a 30th with public walk-ins allowed, too. Small bar, very full, tiny stage with five people on it so no room and boiling hot. It sounded OK through my inears, tho we were on the 4th choice drummer which meant a busy night for me, but the guest singer is very good, so she made up for it (sort of). Got paid, but motorway closure meant my journey home was twice as long as it usually is. No setup or breakdown, as the BL had been there during the day setting up, and left the gear (PA, lights, etc) to pack up Sunday. Bonus. £150 Squier (modded) P, Stomp, inears. Packed down in 4 minutes. Boom.

After many months of fruitless attendance at OM nights I went to two last week and ended up with three invitations to co-play at next months so I have to learn Dakota folsom prison blues she sells sanctuary I still haven’t found what … but in f# sharp dressed man i know it’s not likely to have troubled Jaco to learn these (or indeed 99% of you folks) but I’m time and talent-challenged so have my work cut out. lady who runs both nights is bass-curious and very taken with my acoustic bass @Len_derby as she is quite petite and found a full size bass attractive but also daunting. I have started her on her way learning “the chain” on it in the time honoured manner 👍

Hope you all are doing well. So, I’ve played full scale basses since i started playing bass almost thirty years ago- only now, with the purchase of a JMJ last year, i‘ve become a vocal fan of what short-scales bring to the table. Also, I’m not the biggest fella, so with a short scale i actually feel in proportion with my instrument for once! My shorties are a ‘78 Musicmaster and a JMJ- that’s a ‘66 Precision sat in the middle. The JMJ was modified with a Serek B90 for a time, but i’ve since switched it back to stock while i consider if i want to part with it. All i really need/ want is the Precision and the Musicmaster. The JMJ feels excessive, but i thought it’d be nice to show off in the mean time! The eagle-eyed amongst you might notice the B90 isn’t in the original Mustang pickup position- this is because i shifted it back a little toward the bridge to place it in a 30” scale proportioned P bass position. This made it a bit less tubby, more lean sounding. It was also super responsive to picking position- changing position had a much more noticeable affect on the tone than i ever experienced in the original Mustang position. I might be talking myself into restoring the mod, haha.

Punk gig on Friday at the Banshee Labyrinth in Edinburgh followed by Roslin Fete yesterday. Definitely a tale of ups and downs. We'd been led to believe we were on second at the Banshee, but we ended up going on first. Tough crowd - there was a bit of a bro vibe going on and as we were the only females on the bill, we felt a tad uncomfortable, especially when we started and the audience just stood and stared. Singist eventually had enough, so when we played a song where our guitarist takes the lead, she jumped off the stage, grabbed the only woman in the room and started dancing with her. It worked a treat - the lass came down the front and stood there starry-eyed. But overall, we felt a bit deflated. Guitarist took it quite badly. She's only 26 and I got the impression she hadn't faced a tough crowd before. But after we'd finished, a few people came up and said how good we were, which cheered us up a bit. One old punk, who bore more than a passing resemblance to Johnny Rotten was really singing our praises. Then on to yesterday. There was so much fog about that I was wondering if John Carpenter was in town. But no matter, the fete was well-organised and we set up and did the soundcheck. Then it all went tits-up. We were last on the programme, so after the soundcheck, we moved our gear to the back of the stage to await our turn. Then, when it came, we were bombarded with horrendous levels of feedback. The sound guy spent ages trying to track it down and we eventually started more than half an hour late feeling seriously stressed, and inevitably made a lot of mistakes. Then I discovered that (a) my monitor was turned down so far that I couldn't hear anything and (b) I was singing into a dead mic. Shortly after, the guitarist's monitor cut out completely. By that time, I just CBA doing anything else other than getting through the set. Everyone else felt the same way. When I drove home, I was all set to pack in music and take up stamp collecting. Then we had a lovely message on Instagram from the Johnny Rotten guy: So yeah - I'm back on a nice even keel today!

Does that bloke in the bright orange hat and the camo jacket actually want to be seen or not? 😐🙂

One from each gig last weekend. Friday - fresh faced, energetic, ready to go. Saturday - after a stressful journey home and little sleep the night before.

I couldn’t agree more. Summed up in a better way than I ever could! Visconti’s 2005 mix lost some of Herbie’s presence, so it’s the original album for me every time. I also love that Herbie was at the forefront of the band revolt regarding them not being told beforehand they were recording the gig for a live record - Bowie, and his then manager Tony Defries, wanted to pay the band the union rate of $70 for the recording, whereas Herbie demanded (and got!) $5000 apiece for the group. Bowie was fuming. Herbie Flowers: Fabulous musician; wonderful human being, and man of the people!

One from this evening at Nene Valley Rock Festival

Played the Ex's in Penarth last night, my 'home' gig in many ways. Was expecting a half-empty room due to awful weather, but it was pretty full. It seems our loyal fans plus the local musos had come out, but not the 'casual' punters which meant lots of appreciative listening but little dancing. Awful new lights that just dazzle, hope my forceful feedback can get them toned down a lot. I used my new Sire and had a great sound but felt the PA was just reinforcing the bottom end. Playing with pedals again. The drive on the mojo mojo was set too high and the octaver just made mud, but chorus, compressor and hpf all worked fine. We invited a well respected local singer up for The Hunter which went down well. A less successful song was finishing on Sultans of Swing as Al forgot the words and got a bit lost... but e solos were ok. Lots of positive feedback, including on my playing which was an ego boost! Got sent a video by a friend with apologies for sound quality. I am pleased with the little improvised diddle I managed at the end 😁 WhatsApp Video 2024-09-08 at 18.38.51.mp4

So I was already at full capacity, bass-wise, and had promised not to buy any more. Plus, I have recently been yearning for a fretless again, having joined a band 11 months ago, which would suit a few songs on fretless. Then, this little 23.5" scale beauty turned my head, and I weakened... as I thought I never would! Lol. Bought from @threeof this very parish. I believe it was previously owned by @Owenon here too? It was built by @Jabba_the_gutwhose work i had previously seen on several of his excellent build threads, and I knew this bass would be absolutely top notch, as his workmanship always looks great. So why buy a bass I wasn't looking for? And at a time I should perhaps seek out a fretless for my latest band? Well, I usually carry a spare bass, as a backup. Plus, I like to have 2 bass guitars, with different tones, for some gigs. Also, I play upright in a couple of bands, and I like to play a few songs on Bass guitar too. I'm always looking for ways to travel a bit lighter, and more compact, and this ticked those boxes. I sometimes play a few songs on U-bass, which is great - but the range of notes which is reachable with the left hand on a U-bass is rather limited. They're absolutely fine of course, but I sometimes like to play a run up to higher notes. Anyhow, enough rambling on from me. Jabba's work is indeed super quality. The bass is slightly heavier than I thought it would be - but it's still considerably lighter than my Fender P. Nice & compact too, it came with a small gigbag, but it fits into an even smaller generic U-bass gigbag. I think I will get more used to the scale length than I ever have with my U-bass. It's active and the pickup sounds absolutely thunderous. The bottom end sounds way deeper than looks possible from such a small instrument, and I'm pleased I went for this bass. Last photo is for size comparison, with a standard size Kala Uke bass. Now I need to sell one of the 2 U-basses I own.... or I'll be in trouble! 😉

Having a laugh with one of the Guitards.

That was a very cunning plan, get her drunk on the rider so that she`s impressed with the band, well done!

So I’m a relative beginner and only have one bass, my fender P I bought new. I like a slightly higher action cos I play hard with a pick and I’ve always struggled with fret buzz in various places. I wanted to send my bass to a pro to set up but after looking at some setup videos it looked really easy. My first few attempts didn’t work too well. I got new strings and did the whole thing properly. Polished the frets, set the neck, installed the strings and it sounded great. But still got a lot of buzz above the 12th no matter what I did. Eventually found that if that happens then the neck might need shimming so took strings off, unscrewed the neck and slid in half of one of my wife’s business cards. Put it all back together and WOW sounds great, no fret buzz, action perfect. And for no cost and without having to do without a bass for 2 weeks while a pro sets it up. I do have an advantage that I’ve spent decades setting up bikes and I am a very competent DIYer but in reality if you are carefully and do things in the right order it’s not hard. Now all I have to do is learn to play better but that’s gonna be easier with the instrument set up nicely.

This afternoon my recently started acoustic duo, Desperate Cowboys, played a 40 minute set at The Wirksworth Arts Festival. Me and Mick, the singer in my covers band, started the duo as a way to stretch-out and keep busy when we have no band gigs. It was actually our first proper gig, having limited ourselves to open mics for the last couple of months. It all seemed to go well, with good audience reaction but we now need to do some tweaking of our arrangements and song choices. Those things you only discover when you do it for real. Incidentally, it was the first gig for my Taylor mini-bass, recently bought from our own @casapete. Played through my Trace Elliott Elf and Barefaced one 10.

I used to play in a function band covering Solar artists like Shalamar and The Whispers, the Philly Sounds e.g. O Jays, Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes plus KC & The Sunshine Bad, Sat Night Fever and stuff from the Chic stable. Tracks that used to be really popular were And The Beat Goes On (Whispers), There It Is (Shalamar), Disco Inferno (Trammps), Jive Talkin' and Lost in Music (Sister Sledge). Great stuff for the bass player and not a single slap in sight ...or sound. Only hassle is finding singers with good enough chops.

Well, quite rightly, they never got anywhere after that did they?

Here’s 2 pics of me, one in deep thought whilst in Westfield Stratford and the other is a screenshot from a recent YouTube livestream from my church 😁👍🏻

A good night for us back at Birchanger Sports & Social club. They had a fete on during the day so asked us to start an hour or so earlier than usual at in order to keep people there. It definitely worked, the place was full when we got there, all the tables were booked for dinner (unfortunately that meant the only food available to us was a couple of plates of chips and onion rings) and it stayed full. The first set was good, but challenging to get people up, but once we launched into our second set, they got up and stayed dancing until the end. Whether it was because we were playing well, or the early start and therefore finish, they kept asking for more, and we ended up playing 5 encore tunes. The manager apparently asked one of our singers, “how much for another hour?” He replied for all of us, “I don’t think I’ve got another hour in me!” Quickish packdown, and were was out by midnight and home by 1am, and enjoyed a well earned lay in this morning.

Seriously spicy meatball this one Supplied by Andertons at a great price Lovely low B Need to change the strings and raise the action slightly but she's almost perfect out of the box, even in tune! Gonna give her a blast in anger this coming weekend for 2 gigs Delighted so far!

I’ve recently sold a SWR HeadLite , picked up an Elf , and today my Microtubes 200 arrived. Time for a new group shot. edit .. just realized I missed the Aguilar ToneHammer 350 , I’ll try it again tomorrow. Edit … with the TH350

Picked up this unused Signature branded J bass loaded body and unused neck. Neck had no holes drilled for machineheads or body attachment. Came with good quality hardware and decent pots/pups. String through body. Neck had date stamped Aug 08 87 (indented not just stamped/written) and control cavity QC dated May 90. The neck where the stamp is looks like it has a crack but it’s actually only a stain run. I’ve put it together and it’s a lovely bass, the bridge pup is a monster and the tone control has a nice wide range. I believe there was some chatter on TB about the original Signature brand being some collaboration with Rush guitarist and some luthier. But the brand didn't last and someone bought up all the stock. Theres also some stories of someone using a Chinese company to produce them now. Anyway, I don’t particularly care as it’s a great bass. Happy Slappy.

I remember how angry the fans were when Bruce Dickinson took over from Paul Di'Anno

Can’t remember all the cabs that were tested, but there were definitely BF & LFSYs cabs @ the South West Bass Bash. The LFSys was the clear winner to my ears.

As great as Herbie was, the album was all Dave Richmond. Live was certainly Herbie though.

Some great photos of Herbie plus some close ups of his 59J (page 2) https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/photos/herbie-flowers

From last Saturday in Pwllheli

I thought he was brilliant. Thoroughly enjoyed everything about it! The guy is amazing in my view.

Isn't this the same with every copy bass? Lost count of the posts I've read here and elsewhere (for instance) extolling how a £125 Harley Benton Stingray clone growls as much as the real thing or how Rockingbetter clones clank like the real thing etc. I think usage of 'special sauce' wins Basschat for today. "Oh, your Epiphone is fundamentally all round better than the '60s Thunderbird it's copied from, y'say? Does it have the special sauce?"

Fifty gigs a year, that’s on average almost one gig every weekend, do you rely on the gig money?, if not, then it’s almost like doing another job. My solution would be to be very selective and weed out the poor gigs, this could possibly drop it down to 30 gigs per year and then use the freed up time between those gigs to learn some new songs.

hey guys, Jake from Trickfish here. Maybe I can clarify couple things. The quoted wattage ratings for the 3K's dual amplifier outputs are RMS ratings per the power module manufacturer (Pascal). The amplifier cannot be bridged at 3000 or 5000 W (8 or 4 ohms). Each of the output channels was designed with enough wattage (1500 or 2500 at 8 or 4 ohms ) for that not really to be a necessary function. While the chassis is in fact machined/manufactured, the amp is hand built/assembled in Texas. I guess the PR could have been more accurate in that description. 🙂 Feel free to let me know if you have any questions that I can answer about the 3K. Here's a picture I took on a gig last week. I cant say enough good things.

A Wal is like… where as a clone is more like…

Quite a weird one for us last night! We trekked all the way to a campsite near Pwllheli to play at a North Wales car and machine club annual shindig, which raises money for Blood Bikes Wales. After we'd set up our tents and had a fine pint of Trooper Ale we got the gear on the (rather spacious) trailer/stage, did a quick soundcheck and we went on just after seven - billed before the raffle! and sound was excellent, everything could be heard, there was a bit of kick in the PA plus Vox (and a tiny touch of guitar) but bass was just down to our own rigs - Raph with his tiny Elf driven by Sansamp into a no-name 4x10 and Squier bass, and me with the ACG into Helix, my ancient Marshall Jubilee and Markbass 4x10. I'd managed to get a really fat but slappy sound sound with various amp sims and tube compression which cut through beautifully at all frequencies with no boom. No mistakes, plus a bonus moshpit of about 10 6-8 year old kids and maybe 300 others, including a couple of patch clubs. No adult dancing, but it was early! Comments after were largely appreciative, one Manchester bloke told us he was "madferit", and another larger chap stormed over - we were a bit worried - but he said "it's great to see bands who are actively anti-fascist!", which was nice. There was a display of cars and bikes - highlights were a De Lorean, a Lancia Stratos, a David Brown DB1 (first vehicle I ever drove, aged 10 or so!) plus a brace of Buell M2 Cyclones. And the Raffle showed why it was called that, our Raph won two prizes. Afterwards, a most excellent covers band played two sets of AllTheRockin'Hits. Highlight though was a crazed contraption made from a car turbo mounted on a beer keg filled with some sort of fuel - this made a rudimentary jet engine which was used to start the firepit, and sparked up periodically to freak folks out...

Following on from my experiences on Friday (see above), I headed back along the same roads to Port Eynon for a wedding party gig yesterday. More rain was forecast but the venue, another outdoor tented affair, was much better. We avoided the road I got stuck on (there were cars that had been stranded in the water still blocking it) but the road in to Port Eynon was blocked as it had collapsed into a sink hole! We found an alternative route via an unmade track behind the dunes. The venue was flat and the tent was actually a double teepee(?) with plenty of room and, more importantly, dry and sheltered. We had a few issues with power as we set up - it was coming from the village hall about 50m away. Fortunately, two of our line-up are electricians so it was quickly sorted. We played our full set with a number of requests from the bride and groom. Our first half was very tight (it benefited from having been played the night before) the second suffered a little from being a bit rushed between songs. I was very tired from the previous night's adventures, so I wasn't playing at my best during the second set but it went down well with the folks who were there (we had about 50-60 guests). We had dancers from the start and through to the end. I'd left my kit in one of the vans from the night before so the line up was my Ibanez EHB1000s through an Ampeg pre-amp into the desk. I had my full IEM set up, which was great, and this time I was singing. For once we had plenty of room on stage.

Well the private function last night with BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam covers was a retirement party that actually turned out a great wee night. Club wasn't full but dancers on and off the first set and almost all the 2nd set and i think at one point everyone was on the dance floor. Smallish stage so i set up bass rig on the floor next to stage and played there. 8:15pm start 9:30pm buffet that we were told to help ourselves and it was very nice with a lovely salted caramel cupcake. Mmmm 10:30 to 12-ish 2nd set. We were requested to play Ballroom Blitz at the end again as the girl that booked us had said her Grandad missed the first song and its his fav song ever. Used the usual Glam rig with VM4 into Keeley compressor and Mesa TT800 (mainly the Boogie channel that i love) into Mesa SW210/115 cabs. We played a little more quiet last night and the cabs didn't quite reach that sweet spot but still a wonderful rig. Packed up and left venue just before 1am and home by 2am altho a lot of mist and fog on country roads but no traffic. Unloaded car into garage and then my usual coffee and 2 tea biccies as part of my post gig routine and then bed for 3am Back up at 8:30am with cats making their usual nuisance noises to waken you. Mrs dmccombe7's birthday so loads of cake planned. I do like cake. Dave

Another wedding for the Hey Yahs at the Haybarn, Dulas in Herefordshire’s Golden Valley. The 8 piece line-up only just fits on the stage there but the team has gotten really good at setting up quickly and tidily, so we all squeezed on. We struggle to understand why wedding planners think cake cutting takes 15 minutes and then it’s the first dance, it’s three most of the time, so we’ve learnt to be ready when they slice away, but they called that early too making it bit of a scramble to get on stage. Some sound issues in the first half, not quite enough vocals but second half was spot on. I was much happier with my pedal settings last night, particularly the drive from the Stomp. I bought the bright onions extension switches so I can change between banks of presets much more easily- then we choose a set where I only had to use it once! It’ll be great for the future!

To save everyone else googling:

Well, it wasn't a Country Club. I guess you could call it a tent and the stage was adequate. The event had something to do with people that hunt with a bow. We played 3 long sets with 2 long breaks. They had a DJ playing Salsa when we were on break. There were a lot of attractive people that were advanced Salsa dancers. Very diverse crowd, which was cool. All ethnicities and ages.We were quite loud. We were pretty good and we actually had a lot of young people dancing. I didn't get home until 1:00. I don't like that. However the pay was top notch. I do like that. No video. However here's a few pics. All humorous comments are welcome. Lol Daryl

Just in from our gig in Stirling, where we played under the stairs. Sounds terrible, but was actually fine, plenty of room and a decent sound too. It’s kind of a 2 shift place, live band from 7-10 and then a disco for much younger folk from 10-3. I think the good weather kept folk at BBQs rather than going to the pub, but a decent enough crowd, who were appreciative and complimentary. The boss lady liked us and chatted with for a good while outside, after we’d packed up. I’d happily play there again. I think I finally managed to nail the settings on my VTDI (far more aggressive than what I’d set at home), it sounded great, the Mustang veering into classic Ric tone territory. The view from outside the establishment.

Nice pic from last weekend’s Brew Beat festival in Leicester city centre with the Andy Wales Band.

16 years apart…