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A great weekend of dep gigs with the wonderful 'From Gold To Rio' Spandau/Duran tribute show at the lovely Whitby Pavilion and Wakefield Theatre Royal! My 1st time going completely ampless with only my Spector Dimension HP thru my Shure Wireless/Thumpinator/HAZardlAMPs pre pedal and HX Stomp (set to GK800RB/Ampeg 810) between me and the desk....! It all worked great though... compliments from 2 separate sound engineers, audience members afterwards.... and the band members loved what they heard in their IEMS too (as did I!). Result! 😃🎸😎👍 Lovely to meet forum member and ELO Experience bassist @TPJat Wakefield too! Whitby Pavilion: Wakefield Theatre Royal:

There's been a bunch of news stories today about fake bailifs - my plan would be to give them a Trace Elliot cab to guarantee they never came back following whatever back injury they give themselves... 😮 !

First gigs of the year for the Zep tribute, up to Kinross in Scotland on Friday then Cullercoats in the Northeast on Saturday. Quite tiring, driving for a 512 mile round trip in two days, setting off at 10:30 on Friday and getting home at 2:30 on Sunday morning. Both gigs were well attended (101 tickets sold in a 120 capacity in Kinross, with a 220 sell out in Cullercoats), which was good as we had just had to cancel a gig in Yorkshire due to poor ticket sales. The first gigs we've played since November, so we were a bit rusty, but we played well enough over the two gigs. A very good crowd reaction on both nights.

I played with The Paper Castles at Market House in Maidstone on Friday for valentines. The gig went pretty well, its the best local venue to play at in my opinion and it was busy. Ive been playing with these guys since September and now settled in with the setlist etc. Im now in two bands, as my other band doesn’t gig too much I managed to join this second band. However it’s quickly turning into number one band as it has a lot more gigs. We played a softer mix of dance, pop and rock ( 3 piece band), which is a nice contrast to the full on heavy rock of the other band (4 piece). Im getting some good use out of my Tech 21 Steve Harris pedal, as this band is softer I don’t need the heavy distortion from my Darkglass Alpha Omega amp. I’ve also been getting good use out of my 5 String Ibanez, as the extra string is helping with the more dance oriented songs. A good night all in all, albeit didn’t get home until 1.30 Rubbish picture of rig attached!

The band found a new bassist quickly, and is still running. I've no idea whether the BL's wife learned the bass. My leaving the band coincided with the return of some neck and shoulder problems I'd been having, so I took 6 months out. Last month, I was appeoached by a drummer friend about helping him to start his own band, and I agreed. Sort of a blues-funk covers band. 5-pice band; lead guitar/BV's, drums, keys/rhythm guitar, myself on bass, female lead singer. Our very first jam session with 6 try-out songs is this coming Friday, 21st February.

My new board

Private sellers assume they can achieve sale prices you'd get in shops. You also get people who consider themselves to be "dealers" – buying and selling to make a profit on what once was a thriving and growing market. In both cases, they tend to massively overprice gear and fail to sell it. Then they complain about a slow market. Private sales should be about 60-70% of shop prices. The market for instrument sales is falling, especially at the top end. What were once reasonably priced older guitars are now fetishised as artisan pieces of handmade luthiery, not the factory made, mass produced utility items they always were. It's BS in the end, but humans are dumb. (I say this as someone with vintage guitars!)

Headed to Guitar Guitar Birmingham today. First thing to say is they had a really good stock/selection and I was totally looked after/put up with. It’s the same chap each time I go in, and he’s a gent. A/B’d Squier CV/New Standard/New Player II and US Pro Precision basses. The Indonesian made Standard bore the spaghetti Fender logo, and played fine but….they were NOT ‘better’ than the Squier. The neck was anaemic and the ceramic p/us were rather lacking in character. I played a 3TSB and the Poplar was rather ugly under the laquer. At £549, it’s the logo you crave at a price you can afford, but the Squier (possibly made in the same factory) was a much nicer looking and playing instrument. Same Poplar/Laurel combo and more pleasing Alnico p/u. £369. The New Mexican made Player Ii at £749 was an improvement on the previous iteration. They had a glorious Alder-bodied Aquatone blue example I played and it was a much more appealing neck with rolled edges to the fretboard. It just played and felt £200 better! Model I played had a maple board, so not an exact. A/B…but the quality jump was obvious. The USA pro was £1000 more. It had the best wood under the laquer, fretwork was 10/10 and the neck just sat right. The tuners, the bridge, the neck joint…it’s a better quality of parts. It’s sound was impressively round and full…yes there is a difference from the Squier CV 😘. There were Ultras and US Performer PJ version available, but I stuck with the single pickup instruments for sake of reference. My conclusions.. The Standard is a marketing ploy…I wasn’t disappointed, just felt it was a triumph of brand over substance. The Squier CV remains a very gig-worthy bass The Player II was impressive; it felt and looked like it was worth playing and equally paying £749. The Pro is what it should be. Anyway, my two pennies worth. PS I don’t, or ever have owned, a Precision bass. I want to add one to my arsenal. Today made realise I really should dip my hand in my (bass) pocket.

My Energy 5 string - doesn't get any use with the punk covers band unfortunately, but hopefully a project coming up soon that will get it back out again! 🤞

New to me again.

If you want to play in bands forget about YOUR tone, it doesn't matter. It's no good having great solo tone if you disappear behind guitars and drums.

Transparent Cherry, Metallic Silver Freeze, Venetian Gold

I made a new year's resolution to tidy up the nest of cables, plugs and musical doodads that was filling up my attic. It took a while, but I've consolidated everything down to a few shelves next to my desk (which, I have to admit, doesn't help me keep focused on zoom meetings). I'd been working on a layout that involved a sort of patch bay unit with dozens of jack sockets front and back routed to a bunch of rotary switches, but after I got the Trace Elliot GP11 from @Skinner, I realised that it had outputs enough to do everything with the green box. I can plug an instrument into the GP11 and have it to through effects (in the FX loop) and then on to either my bass amp (with home made cab), my home made valve amp/cab, or my computer interface. Or all three at once. Now I just need to re-cover the manky tolex on the valve amp with brown faux leather to match the other components.

Thanks, man. ❤️ Definitely a different flavour than the usual - pictured below..

I enjoy Mark from Gary's Guitars commentary on the used gear market. Yes he's talking about the US, but I think a lot is relevant here in the UK too, and he has the perspective of a traditional bricks 'n mortar retailer.

Managed to get an appropriate amp and cab for my S23

Any manufacturer who still can't make a good P or J copy shouldn't be in the business of producing bass guitars.

The way it was explained to me was: If you are a shop, your inventory costs you money, you're paying for floor space, you're probably paying for a loan to purchase the stock. If you have an item that isn't selling, its making a loss. You have no emotional attachnent to the gear. You're better off dropping the price and getting rid of it and buying something else with the money, that's more likely to sell for a profit. If you are an individual, you probably don't have a loan on that specific piece of gear (but you may have a credit card bill for other gear) and you won't be equating floor space in your house as costing you money (it is, you are paying to run your house). The costs are hidden and it's not so urgent you clear the space and sell the gea unless you need the space for something else. You also will be emotionally attached to a piece of gear. It only really becomes an issue when you run out of space at home and need to declutter, or the bailifs come round...

Ozfam is a legitimate, registered charity, I'm sure of it.

A european union - that sounds like a great idea 😄

Of course announced AFTER tickets have sold out... I mean it was fairly obvious his appearance would be very limited, and tickets would have sold out even if they said this before hand, but doing so directly after tickets have sold out feels very underhanded.

Cough... Clip-on Tuner, Cough...

Great crowd for last night's 60th birthday party gig. A slightly shortened set to allow for the buffet at half time, but had plenty of singing along and dancing to the 70's and 80's punk classics. All done and dusted by 11pm due to noise curfew at the pub, home by midnight as we had hired a PA so just had to stuff the backline gear into the van and away!

First gig back last night and down a guitarist who was away on a delayed holiday following a family bereavement. We can cover one or other guitarist and drummer either as a four piece for guitars or with one of a couple of drummers. Not for vocals and whilst I have been covered for a couple of times it was not possible for next weekend after I got diaries mixed up and booked a weekend with family too far away to sneak back and do the gig. Thought we’d found cover but he decided it was too much work to prepare, which is fair enough. The week after I have a gig with my band, and a dep the following night, with a dep with a different band the week after that, so other than the mess up for next week it’s a busy month. Last night went ok for the first play in anger for the year. Vox says to me just before we start “how many songs am I going to forget?” Not too many as it turned out. 🙂 First set with the Status 5. Second with the FrankenJazz 4 with a Status neck that I am currently loving. I do need to sort out a new slightly larger pedalboard and have a rejig to fit everything. Currently I have to rearrange bits to fit the OCX Boost and last night added the C4 synth (though I couldn’t work out why the midi switcher wasn’t working until after the gig when I remembered I had forgotten to fit the midi link 🤦‍♂️). I also need to get a different IEM setup as the xvive seems to wipe out my connection to the mixer wherever I put the transmitter. Switch that off and go back to hard-wired with the Behringer P2 and everything is fine 🤬 Gig went well with plenty of crowd participation and no major gaffes on my part, and we ended up slightly overrunning with “just one more”.

My modest rig - Orange 25B practice amp and Squier fretless jazz. I didn't think I needed anything else, then I saw @Yorkshire Bottom End's Trace Elliot cabinets... 🙄

Always thought Duran were a great band with some amazingly talented musicians. The Taylor brothers were very talented Dave

I'd be happy getting the same make & model - Aria Pro II Wildcat in white. But it would need to be exact. I keep looking on ebay, but white with the earlier P/J pickups seems pretty rare. Nothing particularly special about them except my dad bought me one as a kid. Here's one in red...

Nice to meet you as well @cetera. Your bass looked and sounded great. It definitely suited the music and show. I didn't think I'd like the show as much as much as I did, being more of a rocker and soul guy 😄 🙃

I can't recommend sire enough. I've had: x2 V7 v2s. x1 P7 x1 P5 X1 Z3 All outstanding. Work's of art and fabulous sounds. Its almost embarrassing what these sell for, especially second hand. Fantastic instruments.

Black wishes it was purple!

I love the look of the purple Dimension HP basses. I briefly had an original flavour. I liked the parallel fret being the 9th compared to the 7th on my Dingwall. A small change, but it is noticeable.

If you get nowhere, I am happy to talk to them. 10 years a VAT inspector and over 30 years in industry, as head of VAT for the European region.

I had no idea of the range of models Sire produce. Went to a musical last night and the pit guy was playing a Sire. Seem to cover all basses…. and v well regarded.

I tried them in Guitar Guitar when they came out and was hugely surprised just how deep and full they sounded. Dave

"Underhanded" is being generous!

I used to have the original Terror 500 head as well, it was a great amp and very loud with the cab,but I moved it on a couple of years ago. I find that the cab sounds a bit muffled when the distortion is on from the Darkglass amp, so I have ordered a Darkglass Microtubes combo which is arriving this week. Due to random website pricing it was about £300 cheaper to buy the 2x10 combo than it was to buy a 2x10 cab.

"Hey Daryl Inventors would like us back on Friday April 11, 6-9pm👍🏻👍🏻. Bob "

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.

And she truly lives! Pretty damn happy with the results. Plays nicely, pretty light, nice punchy sound (once I'd sorted the pickups being out of phase).

I’ve literally been searching all online resources for a new (used) bass, in and around my budget, and there’s literally nothing that tempts me. The Sire ticks all the boxes already. I think I’ll save my money until something irresistible comes along.

The princely sum of £30 all in.

Also, that £90 bass in 1980, is (inflation linked) a £360 bass now - basically a Squier CV, which in most people's mind, mine included, is very much a genuinely good quality gig-able instrument.

Possibly an unpopular opinion here, but Power Windows is my favourite Rush album. The trio of Manhattan Project / Marathon / Territories is still my favourite three song run from any album ever.

Take one out, measure it and go to the Hipshot website, their fitting instructions often have a dimensions schematic. Conversely, drop them an email, I’ve found them to be super helpful in the past.

Yep the ole expensive boom and wool out front, hear it time and time again. Easier for the desk to add bass than to remove the boom that many peeps think is ok. Our instrument should really be called the 'Low Mid Range Guitar'.