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Last Saturday, big local pub. Loading the new car took a bit longer as it appears my cabs don't fit side by side, they're about 0.00001mm too wide. So had a bit of jiggery pokery taking stuff in and out to rearrange. Arrived at the venue about 15minutes later than intended (leaving 45 minutes to set up before start time). Parking was a bit of a struggle, but I managed to get lights set up and all my bass gear in with plenty of time to spare. There was no sign of singer, who arrived at 8:30 for an 8:30 start. 🙄 Played really well, we are well rehearsed but quite gig rusty, so some tunes and particularly endings weren't as rehearsed. Audience loved it, some singing along, a bit of dancing. Booked back to do 2 more gigs. Will see if we can move tables to create a proper dance area next time.

Just got sent a pic from last night's punk gig.

It's over a year since we last played at the White Hart in Ashby de la Zouch. It's usally a really buzzing town, having at least 6 pubs within a couple of hundred yards of each other on the main road, and a constant stream of itinerant drinkers. The cold February drizzle reduced the number of young ladies wandering around in next to nothing, but didn't stop them completely 😄 So the pub was a bit quiter than normal, but a more challenging load in due to the number of cars stacked up outside the surrounding takeaway outlets, making it nigh impossible to park up outside. It's always a place where we debate if we want to carry on playing there... until we do. We had a great night, managed to retain a crowd, got so many compliments and only had one instance of a drunken dancer trying to knock the guitarist's teeth out with his mic stand. We're back there in June - the night before we play another pub in Ashby! We wouldn't normally book gigs that close, but the other pub is off the main drag and we'll be doing it acoustically, for a completely different audience, so no conflict there. Usual kit: Sire & Rumble + DMs and elderly drummer On another note, in a recent post I mentioned that I have 6 weeks off. No I don't. We have a smattering of gigs over the next month or so, but then 5 weeks off. Still, it's a bit more relaxed gigwise and I might be able to get some spannering done on my old VW camper

Our 80s punk band played at the Brit club last night. Right place, right audience= a great gig with fantastic atmosphere and energy. Played at the Canadians the other month and they didn't get it, played to the Brits, our home crowd, and they loved it. Middle aged ex punks singing anarchy in the UK! Half the audience weren't even born in the 20th century but they got the vibe, joined in and loved it. You have to enjoy the Jam and Clash for energetic sing alongs. I wouldn't have picked it as my fav but a Town Called Malice went down a storm with everyone. On the technical side used a zoom L20 for the gig and it sounded great and was easy to use. Also recorded it the SD card. Also went old school with old passive Yamaha speakers and amps.... best sound we've had so far. Could just be the desk that made the difference but equally loved going to passive speakers.

Finally got my main board rearranged for 2025, it’s been largely unchanged for 5 years or so, but I wanted to shake things up a little. Off came the Noble (plus the power it provided), and on came the Barber Linden EQ and my Schu-Tone FJBOD. Needing power, I opted for the GigRig Generator into a couple of Isolators (via a 2-way power splitter). GigRig provided some over-and-above customer support helping me get this setup sorted, huge thanks to Joe and the team there. This setup allows a fully isolated power setup, which the Noble couldn’t provide. I also ended up swapping out all my old pancake jacks for EBS patch cables, solid, tidier, more space, love ‘em. Cheers Si

Went to rescue this from a weekend in a DHL warehouse, bright and early. 1972 P was lake placid blue but stripped with Brazilian rosewood and vintage C neck on a B nut width. Strung with La Bella’s - had tort pick guard but came with the original mint guard which went on straight away. Well after letting it warm up and played for an hour. The search is over this is my bass now. I got leant a 79 P, nine years ago and it was love but the guy just wouldn’t sell (he rarely plays it as he’s a guitarist) as he’d had it new, I tried quite a few times. This is bass is lighter and every bit as good as my memory of it. The vintage C neck isn’t chunky but lovely roundness and whoever sanded and sealed this has done an awesome job. So resonant Put the covers in from an old late 80s P which was one that I had chasing the 79 vibe. Just for fun - taken off now as I prefer TI flats and I have a set ready but for today I’m enjoying the La Bella’s but they’re a heavier gauge and stiffer than I like. Happy days

I've played classical viola for a few years - but got increasingly bored with the typical viola parts, with all the good bits of tune going to violin and 'cello. Then I got into folk music, and playing folk tunes meant for violin on viola was just making my life unnecessarily hard, especially as I'm not a particularly good player. So yesterday my viola got chopped in on a violin! I went to the shop expecting to buy a basic acoustic student instrument. But this beasty was up on a high shelf - too high to make out the price tag. But I asked and it was surprisingly affordable. I love its style - a sort of clash between very modern but with hints of the mediaeval. First play I had that instant feeling it was the one I was going to buy. Built-in electric pickup is a bonus and being semi-acoustic it's quiet for practice.

BOOM! Tier 1 fail!

I can't dance to anything.

Picked up this on Thursday. LX basses are genuinely excellent things... I've had a few top end masterbuilt Warwicks over the years and the LXs are really just as good.

Welcome, @ezbass

Does the 300 have an adjustable bridge as the Pro does? You see, having sold the Bryant I’m getting itchy for something user friendly for an old person. Yes, 84th birthday today.

Cool, thanks. Not what I thought then.

IMHO these are the best filters ever made!

Not quite last night - Tuesday was the Kingfisher in Castle Bromwich, started by running through a few songs with mine host while the attendees trickled in, then the other bassist (Simon) and I partnered with various people, including me on bass for Simon while he guitared. I made a right cockup of a couple of songs with Annette, who I regularly accompany here and at the Shirley Legion. Mrs Zero and I did three songs from films - Ring of Bright Water, The Hanging Tree from the Hunger Games tri/quadrology, and I'm a Believer from Shrek. Wednesday was the Shirley British Legion again, no Blind George for a change, and there were three bassists. To be more accurate, there were two guitarists who know which end of a bass to blow down and one bassist. Did a song with Annette which we had intended to do the previous night but she'd decided not to at the last moment, Bad Dreams by Teddy Swims, plus Back to Black, and got them both right. Seeing as Mrs Zero and I had given Ring of Bright Water and The Hanging Tree a run-out the previous night, it seemed only right to do them again.

Oops, I forgot to report about last weekend - a double header so I must have been knackered on the Sunday! Friday night with Nine Lives at the Butchers Arms, Inverurie. Two people in the bar when we first went in, lots of car parking spaces nearby, we feared a "paid rehearsal". Thankfully some more folk came in and made a night of it so in the end it was quite an enjoyable gig. Gear was G&L L-1000 then Epiphone Thunderbird into Markbass toan cubes. Then Saturday night, on to the Harbour Lights in Peterhead. Again, we arrive and the place is empty. And yet again, it got better as the evening progressed and by the end we had a small but enthusiastic audience, including one guy who was performing backflips to some songs! Gear was Sire Z7 then Yamaha BB1200 into the Markbass terrible duo. Had a great sound because the place has monitors which they let us use and it made for a great onstage sound (yes, there was an actual stage - luxury!)

So I’m reaching a landmark year this year, and I decided to treat myself to a new bass? Well of course I did! I have an amount of money, and my budget could stretch to something nice, to mark the occasion. I’ve been window shopping for a couple of weeks, probably for a 5 string….. possibly another Gibson Thunderbird, maybe Sandberg, Musicman, Shuker …. there’s a bunch of stuff in my watch lists…. But there’s a fly in the ointment A f*****g Sire V7 5 string, that I can’t put down. It does everything, it can sound like anything, it plays beautifully…… I got it for peanuts, and quite frankly I cannot fault it in any way. It’s ruined everything! Now I can’t justify buying anything else, because I can’t believe that anything else is going to be that much better?!? 😠

I've been giving the Mesa Walkabout pots a bit of a once over with contact cleaner and just checking everything generally today. I took a few shots to share as it's not often you see Mesa workmanship. I've had this a long time. I bought it from Molan probably about 08-09. It's ridiculously loud in its combo form for reasons I don't quite understand. It's paid its dues and is one of those bits of kit that would get replaced if something happened to it.

Deep down everyone loves Rush 👍

I’m sure I heard my neighbours groan as I unloaded my newly acquired TE gear this afternoon 😆

Yeah for clarity, whilst I’ve had things on reverb before I’ve never actually sold on there, the items always go via here or eBay. This message felt very wrong. I copied and pasted the link into as safe a browser as I can, and it’s a VERY convincing Reverb knock off asking me to add credit card details for payment… it’s been reported

Yep, still in.

Safe as houses IMO.

Yes, same position and same as a Stingray. The preamp is very different but the "Stingray sound" is most definitely there (as if there were one sound... but hopefully you'll get what I mean). Maybe oscilloscope fiends would argue, but I won't 😉

I’ve found Sire to be very helpful and responsive, so that’d be my first port of call for a replacement. If you can’t acquire a replacement from them or the other suggested sources, CPC Farnell might be worth trying. I bought my replacement knobs from them for my Maruszczyks to give them a bit of a Sadowsky vibe.

It's inevitable. The Gibson bass choice is limited to three or four models and a limited colour choice. You'll probably find a larger breakfast cereal aisle in you local Lidl.

No gig, I had a cheap meal for one from Lidl and my cat walked sh*t through the house. So all in all, an upgrade on the last few valentines days.

That headstock is not to my taste but there is something I like about these basses though I would never play one myself, I think it's cool somebody is trying to build something that looks a little different! That body shape sort of looks like a cross of a fodera monarch and a spector ns2.

Looks scammy, I’d report it

This makes so much sense to me. A bass either sounds good to the user or it doesn't. Does it really matter if it doesn't sound EXACTLY like bass X or Y if it pleases the ear?

I think this is the best solution for everyone 😀

Good for you - and thanks for taking the banter in the spirit of humour with which it was intended. Where I'm coming from - I don't chase tones, I've got this ill-defined, nebulous range of what "good" sounds like to me and if a bass tickles my ears in that range then it is deemed "good". Beyond that, it's aesthetics. Now I have a bass with one of those types of pickup and that kind of vibe and I'm done, because variety is the spice of life.

Likewise. I can move about when I'm playing but remove my bass and I'm immobile.

Or you could buy My ACG which would enable me to buy Mertons ACG 😉(see my thread!)

They don't. This is coming from a guy who owns half a dozen Gibson basses and has owned many more in the past. The only time Gibson put some serious thought into their bass guitars as well as into marketing them was a short sting during the Norlin era which brought us Ripper, Grabber, G-3, Victory and a couple of lesser known/less successful models. Gibson sells guitars and mandolins, and has been for well over a century. That's their bread and butter. They had to design and produce bass guitars along the way but these were treated as an afterthought 90% of the time. Fender's marketing philosophy has always been a very different one. These new Standards will sell well, IMO. The power of the brand name on the headstock should never be underestimated.

We had a rehearsal last night with our blues trio ‘The Alligators’. Only my second one - been gigging with them since last June! Got a few things topped and tailed, as well as sifting through some ideas for new songs to be introduced into the set. Used a Sire U5 short scale into my regular Rumble 500 combo, sounded great. I think it’s my new go-to bass for this band now, going to use it on our next gig a week on Saturday. Was really cold in the rehearsal room though, so I didn’t feel warm until I got home. Not overly keen on this rehearsal lark.

Sounds like you need some boutique all-tube amplification, that'll get the costs back up again 👍

CNC Machines#

A quick update: Even though the moulds are technically past their 3 month warranty ACS have agreed to make new IEMs using new impressions at no cost to myself. I have an appointment at their London office on Friday 21st.

All OK for me Windows 8.1 Luddite

Total fake, and I don't know why you're even questioning it when you start with "Having not sold on Reverb before..." Don't question yourself just because it's an electronic message. It's a 100% phishing attempt - look at the link - it's not even got the slightest mention of reverb in it. The gentle persuasion of "you'd better do this or something will/won't happen". It's all 100% guff.

Apparently when I play DB I look like i'm dancing with a beautiful woman (comment from more than one audience member). However, when I actually dance with a beautiful woman I tend to look like I'm misusing a piece of agricultural machinery. Dancing is a complete mystery to me

Just watched this video comparing (at the beginning anyway) the SLB 300 to an acoustic bass, with Chris Mihn Doky, who is awesome IMO. I’m amazed by the sound, but at the cost of a 300, it needs to be really good. I’ve been struggling with the idea of keeping my NS WAV4, as I don’t play it live and seem to be playing it less at home recently too. This video, however, may be the spur to get right back into it and buying the freestanding peg might be a good way forward. Can’t see me buying a 300 though, as much as I’d like to.