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Artisan Tap in Newcastle-under-Lyme on Saturday night. Basically a home town gig for us. The local following seems to have really built over the last couple of years. For the first 10 years of the band we were more popular in Nottingham than we were in Stoke/Newcastle! Anyway, 120 tickets sold plus guest list and the place was dangerously full. We had 20 songs on the set list but our front man kept calling out random numbers. I reckon we played 30 in the end. Still struggling with my injury but what an ace night!

Our first gig this year at The Lookout on the Pier in Scarborough harbour. The weather had improved so apart from some patchy fog the journey was fine. Usual full house of diners with plenty of requests, some of which I’d not played for ages. These included ‘Waterloo’, ‘Moonlight in Vermont’, ‘Losing you’, ‘Starman’ and ‘Ever fallen in love’. ( We couldn’t manage ’Peaches’ but swapped it for ‘Golden Brown’ !!). We are there again at the end of the month and it’s always a pleasure to do.

Bargain at £350 including case

A luthier is a person who is professional trained and highly skilled in the art of wallet emptying.

The whole live concert is pretty amazing. I always sort of got him but never really musically understood him because I don't like fusion so I got a little bored. But his playing on this and the way he outlines the chords and the notes he plays are just magic. You can hear his musical influences with the notes he chooses imo.. the more I listen the more mind bending his playing gets.

We are really really excited about this! Big fans of Alembic here, always trying to get in pre-owned instruments where we can, and to have the opportunity to open some Alembic sized parcels from the USA is a bit of a dream come true. If you guys ever have any questions at all, just drop us an email/call Hope everyone is keeping well!

Don’t leave the window open if the light is on.

Latest haul this 2025 My friend from talkbass offered the Proton and Omnicomp for a straight trade for my Neptunium, an offer I couldn’t refuse. Now my Fliptop is partnered with a Brough comp for my micro board project. And I’ve completed the 3leaf trifecta. No issues with shipping as my colleague from work was in the US and was few minutes away so he kindly offered to bring it here. Just waiting for the latest Doom2 that I’ve ordered in the last drop. Hoping 2025 will be a great year for our GAS desires!

Nice I’ll get in first - tort plate to finish it off.

And the master Martin Luthier King.

So a number of years ago, a HH 2x15 bass cabinet nicknamed "Giggles" was sold on this here site by @itsat34. There ensued a fun tale of Giggles getting from Essex to France where it now resides with @Dad3353. Fast forward to the present, and I'm on the lookout for a HH cabinet to match my HH Bassamp VS. One popped up on Gumtree near(ish) to me, complete with a HH Bass Baby head. I travel over to collect it in a ZipCar that the previous renter and chums had clearly smoked copious amounts of weed in. The car stank, had lots of detritus in the back from the bout of munchies the weed smokers must have suffered, and to top it all the heating didn't work. It turns out I'm buying the HH stack from @itsat34, and after his lovely wife made me a cup of tea I learn the story of the original Giggles. So now I've christened the HH stack "Son of Giggles", although it's journey to a new home was far simpler - albeit in a freezing cold car that reeked of super strength skunk. Lots of great sounds in the EQ section of the Bass Baby as it distorts in a very pleasing way at higher settings of each slider, while the compressor on the top channel goes from subtle to super squished. So now I have two, quite different sounding HH amps that I'm rather enamoured with. The temptation is to get another HH cabinet, and run them in a dual amp setup via my home made Ric-O-Sound splitter box.

There is a desperate shortage of mental health workers (and all other health care workers) in the NHS. If only they could work out why no one wants to train for years to earn a terrible wage. It sure is a mystery.

This is great news for me. Now when I really want to get a custom Spector or Warwick I can justify the price on the basis that it will be about 1/4 the price of an Alembic.

I saw an interesting video from Rob Harris - the Jamiroquai guitarist - about making it as a pro. He said that for guitarists and bassists, the session world is pretty much gone now. Apparently there are 2-4 guitarists who make a living doing nothing but sessions in places like Abbey Road, but it's a very closed-off world and almost impossible to enter - I'd imagine for bassists it's the same. Most of the people namechecked in this thread are not session bassists per se, but pros who do some sessions. I'd guess the bulk of their income comes from West End shows/touring/gigging. Interestingly, he also mentioned music colleges are selling students a dream which is nigh-on impossible to achieve. Yes, you can get a degree, learn to sight-read and buy an Overwater, but you have to be really good to actually make it to the top - as well as have the right personality, look, etc. Most of my gigs are doing wedding/corporates, and it's interesting meeting some of the pros that still dep on those gigs for £250 on a Saturday night, as well as actually meeting some 'pros', who got their degree, do make a living from music (mostly through gigging and teaching), but actually aren't that great as players.

"Where's that 'effing lute player?...... Where's that 'effing lute player???"... Oh I'm terribly sorry.... It's my 'pre-minstrel tension'

This is great news for the second mortgage 😉

We had an acoustic show case at The Cause in Chippenham. A truly fabulous space. Amazing sound guy who was genuinely interested in the bands, an audience who came to listen and the promoter even made us pizza! We played mainly original material, ending on a token cover. I played mainly mandocello, some guitar and a bit of mandolin at the end (so no bass yet in 2025). The other two acts were a folk singer and a fun time covers band, so a nice mix. The benchmark for which I will base other 2025 shows.

Just got back from a gig. This was a party in honour of a local jazz musician who died just before Christmas (made it to 90, and this would have been his birthday). He was a friend of our BL, so we volunteered to entertain. Good gig - the audience were very appreciative and enjoyed the material (inc. dancing at the end). The highlight for me was some recitation over musical accompaniment of prose reflecting the deceased's other hobby of ancient archaeology. The result resembled an extended jazz version of the Spinal Tap Stonehenge intro, with soprano sax noodling. Nice!

Ridiculous! if a squier topped the list they could at least spell it correctly.

Was expecting a dead pub tonight but was pleasantly surprised how busy it was. Some people actually caught the train to come and see us from the next town We havent played for a few weeks so again I wasn't expecting much but we played pretty well considering. Landlord and I swapped numbers for more gigs after March. I'll be asking for a little more in the fee. Still not sure I'm enjoying flats on my Jazz. They're heavy gauge as well so my hands are aching after a 2 hour gig, may have to go back to Elixr nanowebs.. No backline, bass to pedalboard (Laney Digbeth preamp) then to desk, in ear monitor and Porter and Davies KT Platform. Passed some guy half asleep in a hedge down a country road on the way home. Felt sorry for him and turned around but when I slowed down he suddenly sprang to life and tried to get in the back of the car without saying anything. Freaked me out so I took off. Called the police when I got home, hopefully they will find him and get him home but it felt sketchy at the time. Home for cheese and toast and a glass of vino, 1.20am.

First off.... This is for home / light rehearsal use.... I'm not expecting to play the Albert Hall with this thing!.... But I would like it to sound as good as it possibly could, given its limitations... And mine! A while back I was given this Bell & Howell 631 projector speaker cab, complete with its 12" Jenson 'fan-frame' speaker and thought it would make a nice little home bass cab project. So far I have swapped the speaker for a Celestion Pulse 12, added a jack socket and plate, blanked-off the two semi-circular vents to the rear of the cab and added a bit of padding to the inside of the rear door, along with some door seals. I also added some 1960's grill cloth that I had knocking around. (which I might change at a later date). I had to increase the diameter of the apperture in the baffle plate as the Celestion was about 10 or 12mm larger but the baffle retains its felt lining. I also had to remove the extruded aluminimum grill as it rattled like a snare drum. Having removed the original grill, I then opened up the lower portion of the front of the cab to match the apperture in the baffle plate as the original design had the bottom of the speaker behind the fascia. To port or not to port?... That is the question... At the moment it's more or less a sealed cab, but quite a small cab, somewhere around 36.3 litres. It's hard to be exact as the sides on the cab taper inwards as they reach the top. I could possibly fit one or two 2" ports in the the front fascia but 'tuning' them would be another area where I'd need some advice. I will probably 'square-off' the front of the cab's opening (see mock-up photo) as I don't really like the 'smiley face' front it has at the moment. The amp for this cab is a T.C. Electronic BAM200... So nothing too heavy or ambitious. Photos... 1 - How it looked originally (not mine as I forgot to photograph it in its original condition). 2 - As above.... 3 - How it looks at the moment 4 - Inside View 5 - Rear View 6 - Mock-up for 'new look' front. So... Your thoughts, comments and advice would be most welcome.... Many thanks.

It was a particularly fun gig Dave - this is me after I messed up ‘Duelling Banjos’ would you believe……

https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=26519.0;topicseen

Sharing my cute little project board. Can’t wait to finish work and test this! *UPDATE: Initial impressions. The comp is really good! It’s like Empress and a Diamond comp’s offspring minus the metering. I’m happy with the seperate attack and release knobs so I won’t miss my Cali76. I’m liking the Fliptop more than the B15 voice in my SGT! The more I add in cab emulation, the low end gets more tighter and cuts the high frequencies for a warm, vintage sound unlike the SGT, a tad muffled and not as clear as the Fliptop. Also, edge of breakup sounds natural and rich just the way I like it which is important for me. Can’t believe I only found out about Broughton’s stuff now. Amazing stuff! Now I’m GASsing on a Studio One to place it at the end of my chain. That or a messenger Jr.

What did you think this thread would be about? 🤣

Once is a mistake, twice or more is jazz.

Not exactly live music, but musically related... on Friday evening I attended an event at my local venue, The Sound Lounge in Sutton, where veteran DJ Nicky Horne was talking about his encounters with The Beatles and David Bowie. He recently found the original tapes of his interviews with them that he thought had been lost and played some exclusive clips throughout the show. I used to listen to Nicky's Your Mother Wouldn't Like It and Six of the Best shows on Capital in the 1970s, when I was very young and Capital was quite a decent station. Some great stories. Worth catching if you have the chance.

Shouldn't you reprobates be playing bass or something?

Bit the bullet yesterday and took to the neck with some light sandpaper and wire wool, didn't go mad on it but managed to remove the offending layer of varnish with the chips and sticky sweat damage etc, already feels 100% better than before but I will probably take off a fraction more to really smooth it off and apply some light wood stain to seal it off... should have done it years ago but hey ho you live and learn, thanks for all the encouragement guys 🙂

In terms of value for money I think Squier are doing a hell of a job in recent years. When I started playing guitar in 1999 there were just the Affinity Series and Standard Series which were very decent but nothing special, and the plywood Bullet Strat which was... meh? But with the introduction of the Vintage Modified series and especially the Classic Vibe they really made a huge leap. I'm not too familiar with their current bass offerings, but I would happily play one of the Classic Vibe Jazzmasters or Telecasters, especially that Andertons limited edition in Danish Pete Purple! Lush My number 1 guitar is a 1980s MIJ Squier E-series Strat and I wouldn't trade it for anything. But I guess I fell for it and now I'm feeding the troll. Sorry!

Apologies, but it is a craft, not an art. Let's not sell craftsmen short here.

First gig of 2025, a birthday party, but the venue was part of a busy restaurant so they asked us to be mindful of volume. Felt like a great excuse to use my little cab for a little low end whilst the pa did the heavy lifting. Forgot how nice these eden cabs are and I got it for a steal.

A 6 string Classico Deluxe with front and back buckeye is $62,000 according to Alembic's current price list. That's £51,000 without shipping or import taxes, WITH those it'd be £64,000. Sixty. Four. THOUSAND. A Series II under the same basis as the above would be £45,000. Pocket change really...

Only if you watch bands with barristers and dentists in. 🤣

Well not a huge audience last night, about 35, but most of them came to see us and quite a few were local musicians. Had some of our best feedback ever 'the dog's bollocks' was one memorable judgement. We were very relaxed and played pretty loosely, Alex changed a few arrangements on the fly and I was in the mood for a bit of improvising. A bass player said 'I liked your solo on Bright Lights' - it wasn’t a solo, I just couldn't remember the (very simple) bass riff...

Well... I said no gigs this month but I now have three with Bluesfire. One I hadn't got the date for, one in Cardiff both in a fortnight the other side of the guitarist's other band supporting Cardinal Black. The other is tonight at my local club standing in for a band whose singer is poorly (my other band shares a guitarist with them). Just hope word gets about tonight round as people have being asking when we are back there but not booked until September.

Tonight's gig was brought to you by max-strength paracetamol and sudafed. I guess I must have picked up something from the great unwashed crowd at one of our gigs around NYE. I felt a bit dodgy last Thursday night and by Friday morning felt too bad for work! The cold/virus/manflu has waxed and wained over the last week, ending with an invasion of my sinuses this morning that woke me at 5am in pain. Any sane bass player would have pulled the gig. Not me! We only have a couple this month, so I dosed myself up with (legal) drugs and went for it. Not so much jigging about as normal, a bit "heady" bending down to set up and pack down, but otherwise quite an enjoyable gig. Nice pub, decent crowd, hot & sweaty. Hopefully it might have fried off a few of the unwelcome guests infesting me at the moment. I forgot to take any photos. Usual rig with just the Sire P7-5 this time for some P-bass loveliness. Solovair boots are getting to be quite comfortable now. Let's hope I wake up feeling a bit better after some of Dr Jim Beam's post-gig medicine...

Yet he mostly plays in west end pits… He could be, but I wouldn’t say he’s widely known for it - although I’m not someone who would know that sort of thing anymore. Jeez that hits a bit close to home 😅 They are very well built and the electronics have a flat response which make them very useful for sound engineers to get the cleanest sound possible. Just very reliable in all scenarios.

Without going into the maths the bigger the box the more bass you get from any given speaker. This isn't just offset by the additional problem of transporting something big and heavy; the 'wrong' sized box brings problems withgettinga flat response. Typically an over large box gives a droop in the bass response and is difficult to make flat, a too small from ideal cab will have a much higher resonance and less deep bassbut will give some bass boost around this raised resonant frequency. This happens with all cone speakers and in both reflex (ported) cabs and sealed cabs though the details differ. These are the calculated bass responses of a 10" bass driver in a 40l cab (blue) 20l cab (green) and a 5l cab (red). The medium sized cab in green gives the flattest response and a practical size. The red cab is way too small and -3db (the lower dotted line ) is 150Hz ish way to high to be useful. The large cab in blue has the response gradually falling from 500Hz and clearly isn't flat but crosses the -3db line way lower than the smaller cabs. Generally speaking cheap speakers with weaker magnets work better in huge boxes. A lot of old cabs tend to be large because speaker magnets in the day were weaker and powerful magnet systems were extremely expensive. Cheaper manufacture and better manetic materials have allowed box sizes to be reduced but big old boxes can still be fun and have a sound of their own.

Personally I’ll give you a hall-pass. Or maybe a trump style “discharge” dont don’t do it again