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Played at the Half Moon in Littleover, Derby last night. It's a rather odd shaped room, we're down in the bit with the pool table which sort of protrudes rearwards from the main body of the pub. @SpondonBassed lives nearby and dropped in to watch us for a while. Singer was unsure how well his voice would hold out so we dropped a couple of songs which most strain it. I managed to make more mistakes on "Make me smile" (the only song that I sing) than I have on any previous performance. And I forgot my massive floor fan. Otherwise it was all good.

Great gig last night with Nine Lives at the Tolbooth in Ellon, NE Scotland. Small but vocal crowd of folk who were right up for a singalong. Someone even came up to speak to me at half time about my bass, the Reverend having caught their eye - that's a rare occurrence! We put a new (to us) song in the set and played it pretty well, so happy with that too. Got lots of nice comments after the gig, they were a chatty bunch! Dunno if it'll come to anything (because even lovely, polite and enthusiastic drunk people forget stuff), but we did get an enquiry about playing at someone's wedding, they enjoyed the show that much. Gear was the Sire D5 followed by the Reverend Triad into the usual Markbass toan cubes. Footwear by Vans as usual, pink suede this time - sorry, forgot to photograph them!

Tonight was a private do - a 65th birthday party for a guy we've known for absolutely ages. His birthday isn't actually until April, but he rearranged the party around our availability. He's a really nice chap but it's always hard work at one of his events - backing him singing for half a dozen songs as well as doing our usual sets. The evening started with a chap playing some nice smooth, tasteful jazz/latin trumpet along to backing tracks through the tiniest little Bose combo. What a great little setup for dinner/dances or a bit of event background music. He was followed by a girl with acoustic guitar and a great voice doing some unaccompanied covers. It turned out she had got up to play guitar with our band in a pub aged 15 nearly 40 years ago! It was great to hear about the musical career she had made after that early encouragement (no, neither me nor the guitarist could remember the event, but she still did) Anyway as it was a party we dialled down the heavy rock & prog and dialled up the pop & funk. We had them dancing all night -win! The venue was a village hall geared up for the local am-dram society - quite a high stage, but a great sound The theme was beachwear, and they had hired a photographer... It looks like a scene from a Weekend at Bernie's - if you're old enough to remember that film 😂. They have also cropped out my burgundy suede Vans 😜

Last night I was engaged in a little light piracy with the Punk Pirates in Fareham. Crazy set. Crazy crowd. Many scary women. All good fun banging through a bunch of punky covers with not a great deal of concern and many Eric Morecambe moments. Loud and fast were the main objectives for the nigh. Decent wedge at the end of the night as well as only a four piece with no extra costs for pa/soundman etc.. 🙂 Guitarist from the main band came down for support and pointed out that the song I struggled with most we used to cover - in my defence it was in an earlier band and probably 30 years ago. Took the Hartke LH500 and only one BF BB2. I had considered a second but didn’t bother in the end. The second cab wasn’t really required, as one made a righteous sound 😁. I don’t normally get to be that raucous but it was fun and solid as… I am coming to the conclusion that I should probably sell the second BB2 I picked up here last year (or maybe the year before) as it only really comes out as an alternate for a run out and never as the full rig (only been done twice in all the time I’ve had it) that would free up for a Three10 🙄

Aaaaaargh Jim lad ‘tis Anchorface Al 🤣

A very late end to three hard days, after two days away teaching in the Cotswolds/Wiltshire, I continued onto Petersfield in Hampshire via a night in a Travelodge at FourMarks near Alton for a gig at the Petersfield Festival Hall with the three tribute act live show I play for. Excellent gig, sounded fantastic in the Festival Hall, but a long 180 mile trek home to Derbyshire afterwards. Getting home at 3am isn't getting any easier now I'm getting older.

In a studio yesterday. I noticed a Sandberg hanging on the wall, black with maple board, active P, 2 band less expensive Electra series. Asked the artist if they minded if I used a different bass to the ones I brought, and they were fine. Well I have to say, I loved it, despite the poor set up. Very comfy and well made neck and even though I’m not normally a fan of active basses, the 2 band eq was very useable. Although I ended up keeping t&b on centre indents. Sounded great recorded too. I now have gas for Sandberg but have absolutely no money. Don’t see many come up for sale on here, but I may be keeping an eye out. Sandberg, lovely surprise.

Thank you all for your lovely comments, it means such a lot to us honestly

Me neither in terms of being a Labour man (well not for a long while anyway!) but I've always tried to give credit where it's due to anyone who's earned it, and it seems that our PM is playing a blinder right now! If he (i) manages to secure a tariff free position with the USA and (ii) gets a credible UK/France/Ukraine peace plan on the table as alternative to the ridiculous Trump/Putin carve up of Ukraine (lest anyone forgets what happened post the Bug River carve up of Poland in 1939) he will have earned his place as a statesman this parliament.

Ladies and gentlemen; I proudly present a new Brooks Bass! The EXB-12-SA. A semi-hollow twelve string bass. - Mahogany body. Chambered - Quilted Maple top, bookmatched - Nine ply laminated Mahogany set neck. Glued in - Cherry Burst finish. Naturel Mahogany back and sides - Pearloid binding - Ebony fretboard - Abalone position dots. Aluminium ring in 12th position - Jumbo frets - 34" scale - Buffalo horn nut - Custom made twelve string brass bridge set, gold plated - Two spokewheel double action truss rods - Carbon reinforcement strip in the neck - Lace Alumitone Bass Bar in the neck position - Lace Alumitone Bass Bar in the bridge position - Pure Tone output. Gold plated - Toggle switch (single coil/humbucker). Gold plated - Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners, Gold plated - Gotoh Stealth CXB-01 guitar tuners. Gold plated - d'Addario EXL 170 - 12 strings - Weight: 4.1 kg Serial number: 2025001 I'll post pics of the build process in separate posts below

What a weekend! So much better than last year. I won’t mention Fridays M6 closure for 2.5 hours. Was ace to meet so many of you. highlight for me was finally meeting @cetera after so many years; talking like old friends straight away. met loads of great people - sold lots of dangerously good basses. Played less than last year…but, that’s probably best for everyone’s ears. Lovely time with @walshy Happy to say home journey was uneventful and under 2 hours…got bless the Passat’s Motorway manners. and… a STOWAWAY! Curses…

Really good day. Nice to catch a few of you there today. Thanks to @walshy for letting play a couple of very, very nice P basses. Bass of the day was @Manton Customs short scale beaut. Very impressive! Time to save some pennies I think! Also pretty blown away by the AC guitars basses as well as meeting them both. Another highlight was catching Phil Mann trying out a couple of Anaconda basses and having a little chat. Superb player a lovely sounding basses!

I once played at a place where the really small, but highly sensitive mic was set into the wall. It didn't trip after I'd stuffed a load of loo roll into the hole on top of it! Hate the things!

I fell for this little thing....So much fun amongst all the boutique spendy stuff 🙂

I only took a couple...

Was Stingray Sunday at mine

Visited today with my boy, the deciding factor was ACS being there, so I had my custom earplugs done as well. Some really good stuff there and a fun afternoon wandering around. My son came back with so many stickers and plectrums, but other than the freebies the highlights were: 1. Vintage Bass Room - some really lovely gear and it was nice having a wee chat. I was very taken with the Wilcock Long Scale, that nearly got me, it was just a lovely sounding and playing bass and top quality build. I was thinking about it for a few hours. 2. I played the prototype far east made Dingwall SP-1 PJ 5 string. Not much of a 5 string player these days but what a bass. Played beautifully, build was superb and sounded great with a nice 4 way pickup selector. Might be in trouble if the production model 4 strings are that good. 3. Absolute Music had a 77 Stingray that just floored me. I very nearly called the wife to warn her it was coming home but did resist even after a second visit. I think that bass might haunt my dreams and I’m still thinking about it. 4. Realising that I know what I like and what I need. I wasn’t tempted by much gear, most of what I tried was superb quality and sounded great (Spector Euro comes to mind) but it wasn’t for me and the GAS remained low. On the whole it was a great show for not much money and I will be going back next year. Only downside for me was the noise, but the quiet time came around quickly. I actually found the bass room worst of all, a mix of heavy overdrive pick playing and frantic slap at the same time can drive you potty! It made it hard to try a few things but almost everyone had headphone rigs which was great.

No s*** were you taking the p*** there Dave

I have this lovely thing, to compliment i'm also looking for an elusive 2eq Natural/maple, there must be one somewhere........Anyone

“Broadcast live on Friday 28th November 1985, plus the songs they carried on playing when the show went off-air after transmission”. On YouTube. Go watch it. Michael Burnett playing a Stingray that sounds amazing. What a player. What a singer. What a band! Eyes right!

got this general disaster in a trade for some pedals i wasn’t using and it turned out to be a beauty! the neck is too narrow, the electronics are a mess, the bridge is a joke, but i love how it feels, sounds and it’s super inspiring every time i pick it up… i love the other basses in the house as well, but never expected this to become such a thing, i guess you never can tell…

Was hoping for a good gig today, my and the singer's home town and a fair few people had said they were coming. A 5:15 sunday gig. We used the venue pa but the desk does auto setup with white noise so we had a good sound (4 vocals plus drums) restof us backline only. Had a decent soundcheck. Hadn't played a gig since start of December, just two rehearsals with just four of us. Place was rammed, which was great considering we've only played Barry once before. We made a handful of cock ups but recovered well. Went down a storm, the bucket added over 50% to our fee. Plenty of dancing(!) Lots of compliments especially for the sound and our singer's voice, also loads of great feedback on our setlist. Playing songs we love seems to work. Screenshot from a facebook live...

This weekend's rig of choice was based around some old school Ashdown kit. A big mag and a wee mag. The wee mag 200 is tried and tested, and was brought along as a back up to the big mag 600. Reason being, the big mag was bought as a parts only unit a few days ago. Both are UK built, and the big mag 600 only needed some minor repairs to get it going again ( new input and output volume pots, a new sub harmonic pot, and lastly a new VU meter bulb). Serviced and fully cleaned. Did its first gig in alledgedly years, sounded brilliant and performed brilliantly. I've owned a few mag 600 evoII before, but never bonded with them. This old UK built one sounds so much better than any other MAG i've used. The only real difference is that the UK ones came with very high quality and high output Demeter transformers instead of the generic PRC ones. Bass and pedals - same as it ever was. Cab is my 4 ohm Laney R210.

Just got back ! Superb weekend, I was on the Darkglass stand 90% of the time and it was fun catching up with lots of people. I ambushed @Rich mid pastry and we had a chat. I finally got my D-Roc signed by Sheldon which was awesome too. Ended up going out for a meal with the BassDirect crew, along with Sheldon Dingwall and Dave Swift - all super people. Time for a beer and a shower, followed by an early night ! (ps it's SO quiet at home).

Another stunning piece of craftsmanship Rob. 10/10

I ordered a set of LaBella flat wounds from BD and they came the next day at £10 cheaper than Amazon!

Ordered a LHZ preamp from them yesterday, turned up this morning. Can’t grumble at that

Yes, it was a gross simplification. Basically, what the winning sides told them after they lost. The victors get to write the narrative. However, the German people did have collective guilt for their past militarism, the Nazis and the holocaust. That led to their post war consensus on military spending, how their military could be deployed, etc, which was the main point of my post.

We live in a time where manufacturing has never been cheaper or more productive. Material cost of ash has dropped 25%, maple is down 30% from 2020. FMIC hourly rates are the same as 6 years ago, maybe longer. Fender charges what they think the market will pay and what will keep their books looking good for owner Servco Pacific Captital. An alteration to the system used by cheap Japanese guitars/basses of the 60's.

I have a secondary pupil in Wiltshire who has a very metal looking Schecter bass. I have to say it's very nice to play, but the sound is a little generic. I would however, like to try one of the Charles Berthoud Signature Schecters. Not keen on the looks particularly, but it certainly sounds good in the right hands.

That makes sense to me. I've picked up many an "amazing" bass in stores with shoddy setups and couldn't put them back on the wall fast enough 👍

To make the most of one of those, I'd need Charles Berthoud's hands.

Absolutely.

Agreed. It also needed to be signed off in a hurry to offer some sign of acceptance to Trump’s demands. I doubt a wealth tax or taxing energy companies would be a quick or easy task.

Interestingly (and I'll have to pop round and kill you all after this), when I was employed in the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (called the secret branch of the MoD in the papers), I was sat next to a guy who was desinging missiles for use in 30 years time. This was back in the mid 90's and it was said that the future battlefield would be about (what they called) micro planes. Small planes with a wingspan of 6" or so. That may not be entirely the case but the rise of the drone clearly indicates that train of thought.

Well, it is not. There are actually two bass players credited, Andrew Wells (who also co-wrote and produced the song) and Matt Kirkwood and I think it is the latter that you hear playing. He uses 5-string Jazzes, according to his Instagram page. EDIT: Just found an old IG story of Matt. It's his Marco bass.

Often when people speak about the impotence of NATO without the USA they forget that Turkey and Finland combined have as big a presence. Sure they don’t have the hardware but the Ukraine war has highlighted how cheap drones can be very effective against multi million pound equipment. Germany, France and the UK can learn a lot of lessons about how to invest in defence and modernise their defence capabilities. It’s late but hopefully not too late. As for Ukraine right now I am very concerned. It’s time for Europe to step up as culturally and geopolitically under Trump, Vance and Musk the USA is drifting into some pretty dubious territory. Europe needs to rise to the challenge and I have to admit to being surprised by Starmer and Macron. We need diplomats. Even the language being used by the GOP to describe people who they disagree with I find violent and repulsive. It’s not TikTok. These comments and narrative are being replayed on the world stage. China must be relishing these developments. If I was a leader of a country in the far east on the fence about whether to put my trust in China or the USA it would now be China. At least you know what you are getting into. Trumps duplicity with Macron and Starmer and subsequent treatment of Zelensky has laid bare to the world he is not to be trusted.

@Steve Lawson's set was amazing. I saw him many many moons ago and he's come on stratospherically since then both in terms of gear (oh god, that Elrick ❤️ ) and 'composition'. His sonic landscapes are quite astonishing, complex and tasteful.

I'm with @tayste_2000 on the small, it would fit all the same pedals as my PT classic jnr in a smaller footprint. Plus the clearance underneath and the weight is better than the Schmidt Array. Though I don't think it'd fit my Moog MF 101. I'd be a little concerned about how it carries in the bag as its a pretty chunky box all wrapped up. Don't worry, it's actually only £114 for the small bag if you bundle them together 😂

This week I ordered a set of La Bella Mustang flatwound strings from BD, which arrived super fast. The D string was totally dead and unusable (on inspection, the winding seemed compromised). I called the guys at BD who not only offered to replace the faulty string but sent an entire replacement set which arrived the next day! Above and beyond! Thank you BD