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Just got home from playing what might be our last gig at the Musician in Leicester (another local music venue due to close with some uncertainty over what comes next etc). Anyway - the Andy Wales Band and Friends saw us joined onstage by guests including local legendary harmonica player Honeyboy Hickling and guitarist Max Manning of local blues combo the Della Grants. Decent turnout, very appreciative audience, and very loud indeed. I’ve been having an absolute dog of a week and really really needed something to look forward to - thankfully this gig delivered that in spades. I feel blessed, rather sweaty and knackered. A job well done.

Decent crowd last night for a Restoration Jazz Band gig at a rented hall. This time we had a guest vocalist and she was fabulous, only had three rehearsals with her but she's a real find, she has done lots of musical theatre stuff but had never sung with a band and the audience loved it. Odd set up, we will move the drummer in next time, he couldn't hear us very well and at times we couldn't hear him, he's usually between me and the keys. A few flubs on my part but several compliments on the sound of my Shen SB100. As usual I used a Schatten Design pre amp mounted on my music stand, it has a volume control and I use the Bose to EQ my sound. First gig using my NUX wireless from bass to pre amp and very happy with it, after several years my Boss wireless started making strange noises so I replaced it with the NUX. All in all a good gig.😊

Alton Beer Festival, 2-300 people enjoying some lovely real ales. Nice vibe with lots of people singing along but only a handful dancing. New songs went down very well; REM's "The One I Love" and Travis' "Why does it always rain on me". Good run for my still relatively new Boss Katana 500, which sounded glorious and was proper loud. Cab is my FMC 1210UL from Germany. Basses are a Sire P8 and my trusty Franz Bassguitars Sirius DC.

Last night marked my return to the fray for a busy November. An hour's drive up into the valleys, to play in an underground snooker club with Bendricks Rock. Deeply weird setup, down with the snooker tables in a vast echoey room, with a few small tables, while 90% of the audience were above us in the bar BEHIND us! We set up on the 'dance floor' while a DJ blasted (literally) out a mundane rotation of 'disco favourites' and irradiated us with an insane whirling light show. So loud that I had to put earplugs in when we weren't playing! It wasn't a great gig, the sound was appalling with everything reflected back at us in a mush, compounded by an electrical whistle that I couldn't completely suppress (probably from the lights). I had to wind my volume down between songs. Also we had whirling lights on us the whole time. We didn't play brilliantly, but for fun I took a "DILLIGAF" approach to Crossroads and went full on random in the guitar solos... Ironically the locals were friendly and helpful, and although sometimes it felt like we were playing to a handful of people (we could barely see the real audience) the response afterwards was positive. Here's a preview of the migraine inducing setup, and the rest of the bad during the break, when the audience went out for fireworks and the musical assault stopped. It sounded like WW2 but felt peacful. Never felt more relieved to get home after a gig!

Paid rehearsal last night at the Balaclava in Fraserburgh. Too many trick or treat sweeties consumed perhaps - I know I feel pretty peculiar these days if I consume too many Tangfastics in one sitting... Anyway, despite there being no more than a dozen folk in the bar at any one time, we cracked on regardless - if only for the lovely older couple who stayed the whole night and seemed to enjoy it in their own, quiet way. Later on we had an enthusiastic gentleman who was enjoying the heavier stuff in the second set. Both he and a lassie at the bar clearly knew their Iron Maiden so we gave them two Maiden numbers - Wasted Years (which we usually play after Teenage Dirtbag - duh!) and because they were digging it we did Hallowed Be Thy Name too. A quiet one, but it doesn't take much audience interaction to still make these nights fun. The worst is when you play to a bunch of indifferent so-and-sos who, all things being equal, would rather you weren't there in the first place. Gear: Epiphone Les Paul Standard (revision 3) then Reverend Triad into the usual yellow and black boxes

I couldn’t resist this one! I’ve got a collection of Peavey T-40’s, and owned a T-45 (and T-15 and T-60 guitars…) but never tried the T-20 so I figured I’d give it a go. Surprise surprise, I love it! Sadly the case foam is disintegrating and making a mess all over the bass. I’ve dismantled it for cleaning (to be fair I do this with each new instrument I get anyway) and need to replace the comically oversized odd tuner and old/gross/dead strings. Not looking forward to sorting the case but, I’ve done it before so at least I know what to expect! I like the fact that the case is brown (all my T-40 cases are black) - I clearly never paid much attention as I didn’t know they were any love for the humble T-20?! And anyone else pretty much immediately dismantle a guitar as soon as they get it?!?

Spooky Halloween gig for us on Friday night! Complete with spooky spider lurking just above my head the whole time!

Royal Blues, at The Sindercombe Social, Shepherds Bush, last night. We'd sent our spec 5 weeks earlier, but there were still not enough mics and stands. Fortunately the guitarist had some in his car. TBF there was just the one chap running things and he was helpful, can't fault him. The venue bass amp didn't work, so I was DI'd. First gig with the upright. Ibanez UB804 → wireless → DI. At least for the soundcheck. When we were due to start there was no sound from the bass so I switched to a lead. The onstage levels were different from sound check and I couldn't really hear myself, which did affect my playing. But apparently it sounded great out front, and the UB804 got compliments for it's sound. The promoter was happy, and we were approached by another venue owner who wants to book us. And there were a couple of 'industry' people who liked us too.

A bit of cable tidy up, only a couple of bulky connectors to go... also got some of those footswitch topper things - makes pressing those upper two way easier!

OK, it isn't a bass pedalboard, instead it's for vocal and two mandolins. But with the arrival of an XLR patch lead from @Chienmortbb today, I finished it and I'm pretty pleased with it. Mostly plywood construction, set into the lid of an aluminium case. As with my bass pedalboard it runs from a Screwfix Erbauer cordless drill battery - about 6 hours from a 4Ah battery. The "MicMute" is new (since moving to a headset mic I can't just turn away from the mic) and there wasn't space on my old pedal board for it. The first version was flat, and I couldn't easily tap the pedals on the back row, so I made an angled plywood shelf. The shelf also helped hide the cabling and power distribution. The missing gap is in the hope that Santy Claws brings a Joyo "Oxford Sound" pedal 🤞 so I can take the mandolin straight into our PA rather than via my Orange amp.

This afternoon I had a session with mates I have known for getting on for 50 years now, were in my first band(s) and the drummer in many more afterwards. Guitar bass and drums got together in a country band playing working men’s clubs with an older bandleader as teenagers and then morphed into a spiky new wave originals band. Current vox was our ‘manager’/roadie/van driver and instigated the recent get together just before lockdown happened culminating in a support gig for my main band the weekend before the world stopped in 2020, and has got together on and off to make some noise, do a couple of gigs and generally have a laugh blasting through our back catalogue. Haven’t managed to get together for a while, but today was a day for some noise 😁 Banged through the ‘set’ and it was all pretty tight despite the gap. All good fun to get together with mates, have a laugh and make a row. We played together enough back in the day and are not yet completely senile so can get through most glitches that occur with a look or a nod that might go through a weird jam to get back on track, but I love it 🥰 A gig may happen though vox remains a weak link. The Wal came out to play, which doesn’t happen often nowadays, through my usual pedalboard [TU3 -> CE20 -> SkarBassOne-> Origin Bass DCX -> MicroThumpinator] and into the studios bass rig. Sounded lovely where I was sat. I have yet to hear recordings taken.

Raffle Time. But making up for last night. For Mickey...

2001 Ltd Edition Thumb BO. Sometimes, only sometimes, “the one that got away” swims straight back into your net. I bought this bass in 2003, brand new (despite its year). Gigged with it loads in London, recorded an album.., and then traded it in 2011/12 (not sure) for a Stingray. It quickly went to the top of the list in my head of basses I’d wished I’d never got rid of. And then… it appeared up for sale , on Facebook, this week. Mind blown, messages sent and received, confirmation made, bass purchased. I am so happy. And it’s the beautiful beast of a bass that I remember and with 12 years or so having passed, an instrument I can now appreciate more and make sound even better.

Unless I use I different bass rig, I don't repeat my genre (Bendricks Rock is, classic rock*; Bluesfire is blues rock 'power trio') usual setup each time I post - An Orange Bass Terror with a GRBass AT212 slim. My arthritic left thumb was screaming at me on Thursday when I had a Bluesfire rehearsal, so yesterday I took the Flea signature '63 Jazz and the Sire P10 mainly as they have skinny, easy to play necks. Ibuprofen and paracetamol got me through and using the joint means it's actually feeling better today, which is good as we are at Borough Blues Club tonight. *At the heavier end of the spectrum, even when we play Cliff Richard and Tom Jones 😁

Well, a test I've been asked to make recently said that I am a people pleaser, so I have to comply. But I'm genuinely embarrassed by showing those. There is no build quality at all. As I mentioned before, this kit has been used for a couple of builds, so every three of the knobs are Gain, Treble and Bass accordingly. I couldn't've been bothered to make lettering complaint. This one won't last any long too, as I've got a genuine midrange control toroidal inductor and will make use of it someday.

Hi everybody, my name is Brad Lang and I'm a bass player. Thank you for welcoming me to Bassaholics anonymous. My attention has been drawn to a few contributors unaware of any work I've done apart from ABC's 'Lexicon of Love' album. Some suggesting that I only played the fretless parts on said album, and the fretted parts were either Mark Lickley or Trevor Horn. Let me set the record straight. I played both fretless and fretted parts on ALL of the album apart from 'Tears are not enough' 'Poison Arrow' and 'Look of Love'(synth bass) I must thank you for all the nice comments regarding my bass playing on that and further ABC albums. It definitely was a game changer for my career, I was aged 22 at the time. I had played on Philip Jap's single 'Save Us' (and other album tracks) which led me to work with Trevor Horn (with ABC, Dollar and Buggles notably) Natasha's 'Iko Iko' is another track I remember from around that time and of course Wham!'s 'Young Guns'. I also remember from the 80's recording with Jody Watley (Shalamar), Haddaway, Samantha Fox , Adrian Gurvitz, Alvin Stardust, Jermaine Jackson, Elkie Brooks, Gilbert O'Sullivan to name a few, some I can't recall... it was 40 years ago! Chris Tsangarides, Martin Rushent, Gus Dudgeon and Nigel Gray were producers I often worked with. Nigel Gray at 'Surrey Sound Studios' in Leatherhead I remember particularly fondly. Later I recorded albums with Black, Toyah, John Parr, Judy Tzuke , Ray Charles, Wishbone Ash, Gilbert Montagne, Ute Lemper, Barbara Dickson, and tracks with Brian May, Bonnie Tyler, Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams (my first double bass session) I also worked regularly with Simon Brint who wrote the music for many TV shows in the UK. In case anybody is remotely interested... Thanks for listening to my story.

Zappa's playing is fantastic on this utterly fantastic record. Love love the drumming from Don Brewer

Grand Funk Railroad have never been on my radar for some reason but I'm listening to the Gail Ann Dorsey podcast from another basschatter here and she says the first bassist she listened to was the GFR bassist...thought I'd check em out and here they are with my favourite guitarist (bassists have favourites! 😲) Frank Zappa. My missus entered a competition to win the entire catalogue of FZ's 2012 remastered reissues and won! That was 2013, I'm still working my way through them 11 years later 😄

Bass Day Europe, in London. Whilst geographically correct, this might have folk of a certain political persuasion squirming in their chairs. I did not use the B word, I may have alluded to it, but I think I’ve got away with it.

'Do I Look Like I Give A Fvck' ...........hope that helps. 😎

I had a jam with an erstwhile bandmate on Tuesday this week, and I took this bass with me; I have to say that it plays well and sounds excellent (cue all of that stuff about butter and grand pianos...!). There's a wide range of tones, but being a find-one-you-like-and-stick-with-it kind of player I'm not sure I'll ever find a use for all of them, but when I make a rare excursion into the clankier sounds this bass, presumably due to those Limelight pickups, retains a sweetness that's quite surprising. There is plenty of bottom end available and it's nice and defined whilst still being big and fat. Suffice to say that I'm really enjoying playing it, and rather than just being a project for a project's sake this one is a keeper. Cheers, JRK

Can you explain for this ignoramus.

Also: £ 5,000 now reached! Yay! Well done, folks!

53 years old

Bristol Bandeoke, Blue Lagoon. It was of course the 31st so lots of crazy costumes and comic turns. Elvis was particularly hilarious. Me and the BL....