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FIrst gig of 2025 last night and it was a cracker! Played with Nine Lives at Wilsons in Aberdeen. Was a little worried that it wouldn't be busy, being the middle of January and right enough when we first arrived to load in it didn't look great. But part way through the first set a big group of ladies came into the bar and they were well up for a dance. Plus a few regulars came along to support us, which was lovely. Not wishing to disappoint (and fearing that our enthusiastic dancers would naff off if we stopped) we decided against taking a break and just plowed on through the entire three hours. Plenty of songs in "the box" to plug in. Played some new stuff too which went well. I was a wireless pest as usual. Great to get back in the saddle. Because we didn't take a break, the second bass didn't make it out of its bag! Got a few weeks off, but we'll be back with a double header at the start of February. Gear was the Reverend Triad into the usual Markbass tone cubes. Footwear was a pair of Vans classic slip on in a teatowel/picnic basket cloth type pattern. Got complimented on them as well - bonus!

Definitely going to be filing this one under "strange". Thursday evening on FB and we were tagged in a 7 bands in 7 hours festival as one of the bands had been forced to cancel. Less than 36hrs notice and they needed a band to open a festival in Calne. It was to raise money for a young man who'd been killed leaving a young family. I messaged the organiser and initially had no response. A few people "liked" that we got tagged so I sent a 2nd, more personal message. No response but just as I gave up, he messaged in the morning saying we could open. Very much an electric set but we've only rehearsed the acoustic set recently so in a head vs heart decision, we decided to stick with an acoustic set. I then got added to a bands Messenger group (normally my pet hate in band life but this one had pretty much sorted out the 100s of messages about high hat stands and 4ohm cabs. Everyone seemed cool, which was nice. Pro sound guy, full backline etc, by all accounts. Playing acoustic versions of original gothic songs on folk instruments was going to be a tough sell, especially in what was effectively a working man's club but I was adamant in our self-belief. We had little more than a line check but the plan was I would play my bass parts on the mandocello, before moving on to guitar (a recent addition) and ending on my mandolin. I'd talked Nick into a smaller, more discreet music stand and we now have a band flag that we hung behind us. We go on and it was immediately apparent that we meant business. The (initially) small crowd were actually fairly intent on listening and gave us a warm reception. I noticed the sound on the mandocello kept completely cutting out and coming back in. That was down to the soundman and not the kit. I figured it was purely onstage as nobody batted an eyelid. And like Nigel Tufnel, I am a professional so I rose above it. We were going great guns until when Nick took the mandocello, it completely died. It rather killed our momentum and the soundman was initially clueless. We had a second mandocello (I refer you back to the Nigel Tufnel comparsion) and we bypassed the pedals to get a signal. Initially nothing but then Nick spotted the error (him, not us) and we finished our set. He checked all the kit at home and there was no problem with our gear. Chalk it up as experience. We stayed for a couple of the bands and mingled a bit. All the musicians we spoke to were super friendly but we left as the young teenagers with the Axl Rose style egos showed up. Some of the audience were absolutely wrecked. We saw one woman turn around and offer to smack some bloke in the face. I don't know what he had done but it seemed very OTT. We also made the mistake of momentarily stopping outside the ladies during load out. As the door opened a very mad (in every sense of the word) lady shouted at us for stopping outside a doorway. We'd only stopped momentarily and it was purely coincidence that she'd opened the door as we stood there. She started screaming about it being an entrance (we'd already immediately moved and apologised) before she added very loudly that she only had one eye. I felt the evening was starting to take a surreal turn so we made our excuses and left. We played well, overcame the technical problems, met some great people and encountered one or two characters. Business as usual in a small Wiltshire town.

A simpler way to deal with it is to give your opinion and back it up, and if someone proves otherwise (and you disagree) just say: “OK, my evidence shows otherwise, but there you go” Not hard. Let the silent majority who enjoy the well presented experience and information make up their own mind. Nobody knows for sure anyway. Surely that’s part of the fun.

New venue for us tonight, a sports and social club. We set up and with about 10 minutes until we were due to start it looked pretty bleak It did perk up a bit as more people arrived. We also started messing about musically (while keeping it tight) which made it a lot more fun for us. The audience also fed off the happy vibe and we ended up having a great night. Oh and the main musical silliness was putting quick "zips" up the fretboard into inappropriate places 😁 Drummer in the middle of his Moby Dick solo Slight downside were the cheese and onion cobs - not enough cheese, too much onion. Sire P7-5 > Boss GT-6B > Fender Rumble v3 500 combo Black bass, black shirt and jeans, so black DMs to match Nice bit at the end: the landlord told us we needed to charge more money. Apparently he pays some other bands a lot more than us and says we are much better. So a substantial pay rise for bookings next year 🤷‍♂️

Late-notice stand-in with Dire Streets at Axminster Guildhall, having spent a day and a half getting back up to speed with a 2-hour set that I hadn’t played in a year (although I had done some more gigs with them on rhythm guitar). Excellent venue with great lighting and PA and a good-sounding room, plus nice green room with refreshments. Not a capacity crowd so the seats were set out to leave room for dancing in front of the stage, which plenty of people made good use of - more during Sultans of Swing than Private Investigations it’s fair to say! Got a compliment from the sound guy on my bass sound: '73 Precision > Origin Effects Cali76 Compact > Origin Effects Bassrig '64 Black Panel > DI to PA. I had been suffering some IEM angst over my Sennheiser XSW setup but it worked brilliantly last night. In the close-up pic I must be playing the solo run from after the last verse of Telegraph Road, as none of the other songs take me so high up the fretboard!

A reunion gig with what we call the old Sunday band , one that hosted a jam for about eleven years , and one that is generally ready to try most anything. In the spirit of things we did some requests we’d never done (later period Elvis tunes) , and everything worked out fine. Great Remington Ride , an instrumental take on Goldfinger , some surf , some Dick Dale and a nice mix of blues grooves. We’re in the dead of winter but the weather was mild. Unfortunately a lacrosse game was happening around the corner , parking was a misery. Big appreciative crowd , great night. Big orange Gretsch with Monique , the Forte and Berg cab. Back to the old dive ( well , really the new dive) for the jam tonight. I’ve got a new power amp in the mail that should arrive this week , might be the last run with the Forte for a while. It was an absolute joy hearing the guys play last night.

Back to normal now please? One of the most useful threads on BC. Don’t ruin it by arguing about something so daft.

1st gig of the year for me (and first in about a month) at The Duke Of Edinburgh in Maidstone. Nice venue and friendly staff etc. we had a decent space to play, it was a bit quite which we put down to the time of year, but those who were there enjoyed it. I am now used to playing my 5 string (after 30 years of playing 4 strings). The landlord booked us for a summer outdoor event, so that was a big positive.

Yep, the problem with web discussions is that it's all two easy for people who - were they in a bar or at a gig with a beer in their hand would get on famously and have a good chinwag - to get quite worked up about stuff (I've been there too many times). Here's a round for y'all 👍

As above I do sincerely hope no one has fallen out here over a difference of opinion, it’s subjects like the stack knob dating and similar that I think we (certainly me) can really learn from, @Rick's Fine '52 and @Hellzero your knowledge and experience here is greatly appreciated, as is everyone’s , I do hope you will stick around 🙂

First gig of the year this afternoon and it was a dep for some old band mates. 4pm-7pm Sunday afternoon type easy going blues/jazz event at Baker Street in Stirling. Band going by the name Blues Delux this time. The name seems to change every gig at the moment for these guys as does the lineup. Drums/bass/guitar/saxophone/vocals and harp. Very enjoyable three hour gig and for the most part a bluesy jazzy jam with good friends. Only downside was not having a huge amount of room to set up. The new LFSYS cab was a godsend size wise and there wasn't really any room for anything bigger. New Mighty Mat carpet square is my latest gigging accessory and its job is to keep cabs and stuff off dirty pub floors. Works perfectly! Over-did the amp side of things but well I just had to hear for myself if Trace Elliot watts are different from all other watts😉 Good feedback from quite a few punters asking the name of the band, and surprisingly good feedback about the bass sound from several band mates. The cab was phenomenally good and it takes some getting used to hearing everything so clearly. It's easy to assume the amp is up far too loud, but it wasn't. Saw some folks taking video footage but nothing available yet. Home by 8pm, got paid, and relaxing with a nice Bowmore malt to see out Sunday evening. Lovely.

I don’t fall out with anyone, life’s too short, but some of these points aren’t opinion. Some things are of course, but not the details referenced in the exchange. I will hang around, as had some very kind and interesting messages that have given me reason to stick around. Happy Sunday everyone! ✌️

Personally speaking, I think that’s a real shame. I have found your contributions, experience and insight to be incredibly helpful and always interesting. Be great if you were to reconsider at some point!!

It’s a real shame it’s gone this way (and also a bit sad).

It's the 150 kV forcefield in between them that really helps keep the drunks at bay 😉

A young Andy Baxter dismantled it to check its authenticity

Hear hear, totally agree, come back Tony...

Very well put mate 👍 Personally when I see equipment demo'd in the usual fashion, slap or technical funk in one or other form - I find it a turn off, and over and above it all too ofetn being an ego trip for the person doing the demo (understanadle biut not necessary), it's not letting me know how the gear is going to sound when I play the rock/blues/soul stuff I tend to play.

Absolutely agree his playing is fine, it represents the vast majority of limited players like me, so you get an idea of what u may sound like. Dont buy an item of clothing based on how David Beckham looks in it, you wanna see Romesh Ranganathan, Wayne Rooney currently etc in it - then u know what you’ll look like!

Such an entertaining video (as are their others). I've had a couple of disagreements with Alex over the years, largely - well entirely - my fault, but we should all be bloody grateful that Alex and BF are out there doing what they're doing, and that they're doing with such class and without compromise. I've often wondered why they didn't get into combos given how highly rated their cabs are, but I'm guessing they've identified the direction of travel with this unit. Well done guys 👍

Just got back from a fun gig, made somewhat scary by my pedalboard simply giving up the ghost moments before we started! For this particular gig, I use both electric and upright, and I'd recently rationalised my pedals down to a HX Stomp and drive pedal, with an always on tuner and a MIDI pedal to change presets on the Stomp. It's worked fine since I had that setup, the only previous hiccup being the power doubler cable worked its way almost imperceptibly out of the connection, giving some horrible noises. Once pushed back in though, all good! Used absolutely fine last weekend with no issues. Get on stage in a very rushed setup (15 mins to set up a 45-piece orchestra!) only to find no sound. Quick diagnostics suggest it's the pedals (direct into amp works); and for some reason, it's the Stomp. Ended up bypassing it completely and going direct into the amp; interesting swapping between DB and electric that way! One tune which called for swap mid-tune just had to be played electric. The other issue was when the first tune started I realised I hadn't actually tuned up on stage, so had to mute the amp, unplug, reroute into the always on tuner, tune, and then plug back into the amp before the bass solo part! Bit of a faff is understating it. Also meant no time to really EQ as it was all done on the Stomp, so DB was on edge of feeding back (because no HPF) and electric sounded very harsh until I'd tamed it later on. Still, blasted through the gig and got good feedback from the organisers, so can't say fairer than that! Someone's potato-phone cam footage: 014ab591-c0e8-4d1c-a969-e55664ef2f02.mp4 71b15e94-dbcb-458c-83bd-11248081c44c.mp4

Mate, apart from the fact that we’d all miss you and your contributions, you do realise that BC is like Hotel California; you can check out any time you want but you can never leave 👍

Does a toddler leaving chocolate ice cream on top of my vented amp head count as equipment failure?

Hi @80Hz As somebody else has said the petting zoo is as good a description as I've heard. I may well change the title of this thread to just that We have family in York (Fulford) so we come over to York regularly. Partly to see family but also to check on what Geoff has in RWB guitars on Bridge St. Do not worry about bringing lots of gear, I can assure if it's anything like last year, you'll have lots of things to pet. The aim is to have some fun, play stuff you might never get the chance to play, marvel at @LukeFRC pedal collection, wind the volume up whilst comparing various bass heads and generally chill out. Come and go as you please, it's exceptionally laid back, its a small village and we might get a few people pop their noses in, but its minimal fuss. You are very welcome, it's two hours or so depending on traffic through Harrogate and Ilkley. Rob

Looks perfect!

It was really good to see you back, shame it's going to be an 'albeit briefly'

Sounds a plan. We are pushing our fees up as well but I’ve no idea if where we sit versus other local bands. We just agreed two one hour sets for £400.

Today Michael Leagues CASA head officially (and quietly) joined Markbass 58R line. https://www.markbass.it/product/little-mark-casa-58r Without much fuss (one post on socials, webpage) or any promotion it joined 58R line, which was introduced over a year ago. Many of us saw the amp on earlier promo shots of 58R Line, but it was never mentioned by Markbass or Michael League (who still uses old CASA live and currently recording and album with Snarky Puppy) Finally for those who wanted it -CASA in small package. I wonder will the new CASA be able to compete with Little Mark Vintage 58R and Andrew Gouche signature signature. All of them have quite similar target and old school vibe. Changes? Two basic EQ shelving bands are now changed from 50Hz to 100Hz for Bass and 5kHZ to 10kHz for Treble, which I find less appealing. This is how the EQ is set now: BASS: frequency 100Hz (shelving); level ±16 dB TREBLE: frequency 10 KHz (shelving); level ±16 dB ULTRALOW: center frequency 65 Hz; level ±16 dB LOW: center frequency 180 Hz; level ±16 dB MID: center frequency 500 Hz; level ±16 dB MID HIGH: center frequency 1.4 KHz; level ±16 dB HIGH: center frequency 3.8 KHz; level ±16 dB Weight: 4.4 lbs /2 Kg

My old band used to put a rope light around the playing area if we were on the floor. Not sure how much it helped but we would quite often see people not step in to our area but walk around it.

1000 pounds - competing with some high end powered 10 PA cabs there.

Penthouse?

I like the lights on the stands @markbunney, they provide a nice and subtle boundary line, something other posters on here have mentioned needing.

The Rockinbetter circuit was completely different to that of a Ric, where it "replicated" the layout of a Les Paul rather than a Ric. IIRC: Switch up was the neck pickup, switch down was the bridge pickup, middle is obviously both. The top row of knobs is Volume & Tone for the neck pickup, bottom row of knobs is Volume & Tone for the bridge. Again, IIRC, there was little variation in tone from 0 to around 60-70%, then it was a noticeable lift in treble. The ones that I had were always set with full volume and tone on the bridge pickup, around 75% volume and full tone for the neck, both pickups selected. Although it doesn't quite sound like a Ric, it gets most of the way there, and the necks are pretty much dead on. Have fond memories of my old Rockinbetter's. Enjoy.

Agree, but the debate does show what a bloody minefield vintage Fenders are, hope no-one's fallen out over it 👍

I totally agree Bill. I see it when I'm forced over to the guitar side to help out with support, and some of the comments players state as fact would take your breath away... they are really that gag-worthy.

It's now on my wall, in the dull 40 watt glow of cheap lighting - a dark jade green in that light, but in a photo, it is more of a dark blue. Like the luthier said, it's one of those colours that change depending on the lighting. Also, because the slightly yellow maple cap colour combined with the blue stain, gave us a more green colour. The jade green is stunning - I am fixated by it. And the fingerboard visuals work too. I'm in love!!

Having waited patiently for a call from the luthier to pick up the finished bass, I gave them a ring this afternoon, to be told that they had emailed me earlier in the week! "Rob in your parts you were one control knob short So we need to find a suitable knob for the volume control - In a way having the volume knob be slightly different can be a good thing as it will be easy to locate whilst playing - did you want us to find a plastic or metal control knob? Also we have held off putting the truss rod cover on as the old one looked a bit scruffy by comparison , so we thought we’d look at options that would suit the bass well Sorry pic is a bit dark - we need better lighting in our front room" I picked up the bass this evening. First impressions are that the colours differ, depending on the light (much more turquoise and purple in real life, compared to the photos ); the satin finish is immaculate; it still smells like a spray shop (nice!); the g string feels very thin. The old truss rod cover is indeed too ugly to put on this bass so I will share photos later. Also, I seem to be missing the correct volume knob. However, when I played it, in the workshop, it sounded great - very rewarding. I was surprised at how I was able to hit the notes, pitch-wise. The edge-lines really helped, So, when I get back home, I plan to stop caring about authentic truss rod covers, and correct volume controls, and play the bass. Over the next few days, I will try to record some samples - although right now, my PC Interface has stopped working, and my preferred replacement is out of stock. I am happy.

Hi, new to group. I've been playing bass for a little over a year now. I usually turn on my spotify list, hit play and see what sticks. I find this to be a great way to learn and not get bored and actually learn a couple songs in the process. I play a squier jazz bass. I love it...except it weighs around 50 pounds. Thanks for the add.

Just based on my experience and knowledge, I’ve never seen, or known any credible collector or dealer that has seen a genuine, unmodified stack knob from even close to 1962. Pretty common info that the 3-knob started mid-61. I’ve owned one dated 9/61, a sunburst that Andy Baxter sold for me a couple of months ago, I’ve seen another as early as 6/61, and many more in between. I think the confusion wasn’t helped by the early stack knob Custom Shop reissues being called ‘62 Jazz bass.

They are amazing basses, the build quality is just off the charts and the range of tones from one bass is pretty much unmatched (to me, we are all different of course) I can't wait to be displaying these basses here, I dreamt of owning an Alembic for years as a kid, and had one myself for a few years, which is just dreamy! Hope to share some Alembic love with all the UK guys! Cheers for the comments