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Another early evening gig yesterday at The Lookout on the Pier in Scarborough with the acoustic duo. We arrived there slightly later than usual due to a traffic accident, meaning we had to divert through Bridlington but still got set up in time to start at 6pm. A full house of diners, some who had come with requests already written so we had a pile of them to get through. Best ones for me were ‘Wichita Lineman’, ‘Just a gigolo / ‘I ain’t got nobody’ ( David Lee Roth style), ‘No particular place to go’ ( which I sang for the first time in my life, forgetting how hard the phrasing was!) and then ended with ‘Enjoy yourself’. Used my Fender Kingman bass into the Rumble 100, with no PA support needed. Still exploring some settings with the preamp on the bass, including the subtle effect the phase switch has on things. We are back at this wonderful venue on 30th March, and it’s always a pleasure.

The Twisted Pair gig was very good. I didn't think we sounded all that great, but still a good gig. We're still working in a dep drummer. He's not the best drummer I've played with. However he understands the band and what we're trying to do. I arrived at 1:45 the place was packed. I couldn't find one open parking space. The reason I say it was a good gig is solely based on the number of people that came out. Very generous tippers too. I asked the manager if they always have a big crowd on Sunday afternoon. He told me they had a band last Sunday and the place was dead. So I was feeling pretty "stoked". I've attached a few pics. I bet many of you have rolled up to one of these venues sitting out in the " boon docks" Daryl

Splendid weekend of shows with From Gold To Rio (Spandau/Duran show). 99% sold out show at the lovely St Austell Keay Theatre on Friday to start off.... great sound... and staff were fab. Audience were up for a party from the get-go too 😃👍 Then it was off to the beautiful Littlecote House (a Warners Hotel) for our Saturday show. A stunning (and haunted) place... with a posh venue within. Audience older and not as demonstrably enthusiastic as the night before but they seemed to enjoy it, so job done!)

Friday saw Hurtsfall in Coventry at The Arches Venue for the Necroscope Goth and industrial night. Great venue although a little difficult to find if you've not been before, and a great promotor. Pity I can't say the same about the sound engineer. Set up and sound check went very well, we were playing last so sound checked first, but there appeared to be a lot of unplugging and moving of cables between our soundcheck and getting the other two bands set up including a lot of worrying sounding pops and bangs coming through the PA as unmuted channels were plugged and unplugged. When we came to play we were told that there was no need for a line check as none of our stuff had been moved since the original soundcheck. Come the first song there's no sound from one of the synths. We play through regardless, but pause to get the problem sorted before starting the next song. First the promotor has to go and find the sound engineer as he's gone outside. Then there is an almost point blank refusal on his part to accept that the problem isn't with our equipment. Finally when we persuade him to check the connections to the PA, and after even more pops and bangs through the FoH it turns out that the PA's XLR lead connecting the synth to the stage box is dodgy. Once that has been replaced everything is fine. I accept that if you work at a venue not every band that plays there is going to be to your musical taste, but you have one job and that includes being there in case there is a problem with the sound during each band's set. In a way programmable digital desks have made some less than enthusiastic PA engineers even more complacent. I didn't say anything on the night because we hope to playing there again and I don't want to see what happens if he deliberately messes up our sound, and anyway come the end of our set he was nowhere to be seen and his assistant who was very pleasant and easy to get on with was left to pack everything away. After all that we played really well, so it's pity that the audience was somewhat on the small side. We were competing with another Goth gig in Coventry that night and it was also the first night of Corrosion in Morecambe where more than a few of our fans were in attendance (they were all posting photos from there on Facebook). Still those that were in attendance seemed to really like the band, and we sold a surprisingly large number of T-Shirts and singles afterwards. The promoter is very keen to get us back later in the year when hopefully there will be a bigger audience. I'd saved posting this hoping that there would be some photos on social media over the weekend, but despite seeing at least one professional-looking photographer in action during our set nothing has shown up so far. Our next gig is in Sheffield on 5th April supporting Deviant at The Corporation.

A 5-7pm slot yesterday with the acoustic trio, The Desperate Cowboys. We picked up the gig after the booked band cancelled due to illness. A large, busy pub and we were playing in a roofed outdoor area. It started to get a bit chilly after the sun went down, luckily I’d put a pullover in the car for the second set. The audience wandered in and out a bit but there was always enough to make it worthwhile. Taylor mini bass through Trace Elliott Elf and Barefaced one 10. Home by 8 and a couple of cans of Hobgoblin Gold.

Yes Pete, those Chuck Berry words are something else. We play You Never Can Tell. Only two chords to worry about but witty lyrics. Truly a Rock n’ Roll poet.

Played at Drakes in Maidstone on Saturday, and it was the first gig I’d had with this band since December. It went well overall, but we were playing outside in the courtyard and it was freezing! I had to put a jumper back on a couple of songs in. There were plenty of people there, but mainly they stayed by the patio heaters rather than come up dancing. As usually happens, those people came to life at 11.30 just as we were heading towards the end of the set! The outside area had had a makeover since we last played there, and decking had been installed, along with a raised stage area which was nice. A good, but cold gig overall. We finished with a rocked up version of Livin La Vida Loca which was quite amusing. I’d also installed some Schaller strap locks earlier in the day and was pleased with them.

Played effectively a home town show last night at club 85, hitchin. Really cool line up and first gig since November for me and Gévaudan. Outed a new song, new drummers second gig and it all went off really well. One of those gigs where it just all clicked in and sound was great...although maybe a touch bass heavier would have been cool. Managed to pull some stupid faces as well which was cool. So good night all round. ✌️🧙‍♂️

Is a Ferrari better than a Ford Focus, a £75 bottle of wine better than a £7.50 bottle, or a Fender Ultra better than a Sire? To many people they are. The bottom line is always if you can tell the difference then that difference will matter. Your choice. For me my Sadowsky sounds better than most of basses I've played since I bought it. It wasn't cheap, but it's worth the extra. . . . to me. @NancyJohnson is right, the person who will notice most is you. But if the bass makes you happy when you play it then you'll play better, and your band will notice that. So it's always a good idea to buy the bass that makes you smile. I had a great gig on Friday. During sound check the drummer lent over and said that bass sounds good. That made both of us happy and we played better as a result. That made the promoter happy and she gave the band more gigs. So buying the right bass, whatever the cost, not because it's the cheapest or most expensive, works best.

We've just put 13 Question Method into our set, and managed to get Yakkety Sax into it as a sax solo! Went down well last Saturday night 😁😎

Hi Pete Hope you are both keeping well. Yes, keep going as long as you can. I'm in 5 bands as now covering Jazz, Americana, Blues, Rock&Roll and Rock. They don't all gig on a regular basis but enough to keep the excitement there. Two of them are sit-down jobs so easier on the back and I've now bought a short scale passive 4 string from Alpher Instruments (both light weight and easier on my injured shoulder). It's a great instrument and a joy to play. I recommend trying them out. I'm lucky to have a supportive wife who encourages me to keep going. Take care my friend

An unpopular opinion. I 85% agree. On the first part (and by extension, presumably the second too), you do occasionally get other bass players in the audience of which some actually come up and talk to you about gear and stuff. I had a lass come up to me at my last gig and ask me about my Reverend Triad as it had caught her eye. She clearly cared (or at least had some interest in what I was playing). It does happen, rarely. -5% agree on those two. In my bands, the rest of them do notice when I get a new bass (it is a source of mirth, generally) and at least one fellow band member has expressed the fact that they have favourites amongst my basses. Another -5% agree. The last one is bob on though (in a live band context at least). I get slaughtered when I say "all basses sound bassy" because it's so reductive, but I do believe it. I favour ones which I don't have to work hard with the EQ to be heard in a live band context, that's about as picky as I get.

My basses range from a wonderful 1978 Aria Primary bass (a Precision copy that came as part of a £50 job lot on Gumtree) up to an equally wonderful £5.5k Mike Lull custom build. There's a bunch of other stuff in between. Given the amount of money I've haemorrhaged on basses over the last four decades there's a few things I've learnt: - punters don't care what bass you play, - punters don't care how you sound, - your fellow bandmembers don't care what bass you play or what you sound like, - all basses sound more or less the same. If I were starting over now, deciding on a preferred bass would be based around choices that on the surface seems to be fairly trivial; I'd decide what shape of bass I liked (Jazz/Precision-ish, Thunderbird-ish, etc), my preferred colour, preferred fingerboard choice etc. You want to love what the bass actually looks like to make you want to pick it up in the first place and, when it comes down to actually buying something, fundamentally make a decision on buying something you're going to love, cherish and keep, rather than falling out of love with it and continually chopping kit in in search of the dream. Ultimately buy what you want, new or used, but buy something that you adore and see yourself playing in forty years time. Had I gone with my gut, I'd have bought that white Gibson Bicentennial Thunderbird I saw in Denmark Street when I was 18 and I'd wager it would still be my #1.

Thank you, that’s my wife on harmonies, she’ll be dead chuffed you mentioned that.

Just got some footage of the penultimate song- warning, Robbie content, we ain’t making musical fusion here. 7df2d8ff-83df-4485-b7ea-829eafa69251.mp4

We played a 40th b’day party last night. Had punters up dancing from the first song - that’s a new and novel experience, so we enjoyed that. Except we later learned it was because the do started about 2.5 hours before we set up, and they were already well and truly lubricated with booze. By the second set, the families with young kids had gone home, and the remaining punters had largely passed out/thrown up or were harassing the pub staff. Total mess of a night - even though we played well. Not a family we’ll be working for again.

Been waaay too long since posting here and to be honest, my gig rustiness showed, having a few numbers where I just made stupid mistakes. But the rest of the time was ok, at the Playhouse Cheltenham. Very difficult to sell tickets at the moment, especially for an out of town band doing its 1st gig in the city but we got about 70 in a 190ish capacity venue, so enough for a party. Tenor sax player went down ill the day before but fortunately the trumpet 2 player lives a member of the RSC orchestra so she slotted in just fine. Took our own FBT Pa, great quality stuff and the foh and in ears sound was great, plus the drummer turned up with his dad’s DW kit so we sounded fruity. Played much better as the gig went on and the audience were good fun. Much less time to wait until the next one.

Dep reasonably close to home. Small venue with an odd layout with us off in one room off the main bar playing through an arch. All seemed to go ok. A few flubs and nowhere to hide as the second guitar I have played with depping with them in the past was not there so just guitar, drums, Vox and bass. All good fun and generally got through ok with a good bunch of guys that it’s easy to work with with knowing nods 🙂 Having used the old skool (and heavy) Hartke LH500 last week it was back to Class D this week and I do find that the latter always seems to start sounding great but after a prolonged group of songs they ‘go off’ and need a break between songs to get their puff back, whereas the LH500 ‘seems’ to be more consistent. Maybe that’s just my ears ‘going off’ and needing the break, but it’s odd. Still living the FrankenJazz and the S2 didn’t get a look in. Still working out the new IEM’s and despite working through menus and setup in the week I was still only getting signal on one plug which I don’t understand, so more to do there.

My '91

I'm off to see Steel Pulse this week, supported by The Selecter. Can't wait to see this again live:

If I could I would!

Either detune a step and play like it's in E (the easiest solution) or standard tuning and play a lot of inversions (the interesting option).

Punters don't know or care, in general. You might (as mentioned in other posts) get someone in who knows their shizz and will go, 'Nice bass, man,' but beyond that, nada. The crowd watch the singer, lesser so the guitarist. Incidentally, years ago I did a gig somewhere in Kent @Wolverinebass was at that one. I took a Hamer (current worth, c.£3.5k), I overheard a conversation from the coked-up soundguy and someone else: 'What bass is that bloke (me) using?' 'Some cheap Thunderbird copy.' Half right, I suppose.

He looks nothing like Billy Connolly!😉

Wot! No kilt?😈

Origin did say in a recent Facebook story that they have a few bass-related products in their future; hoping they’ve started doing this.

Cheers Pete Always good to see you still playing out. Puts me in mind of Pinetop Perkins, the great American blues pianist, who died suddenly at age 99 of a heart attack, with a diary full of gigs booked for the coming year...!

I bought a bass off him a few months ago, at the last minute I needed a specific bass type in the next few days for a first rehearsal with a new band and he had one. In stock new was £1700, he had one for £1300, went down to £1200. Bass Direct had the same bass for £1200 used but in a colour I really dislike otherwise I would have bought theirs. So I bought his...was it overpriced for a bass from a private sale? Probably, but it was there, 45 minutes drive away, exactly the bass/colour I wanted and in mint condition. A month or two later one was on ebay for about £1000, but was 2 months too late for me 🙂 So very happy with my purchase, the bass is great and he seems a nice guy, let me have all the time I wanted to play and check the bass and went off to make me a cup of tea.

I found a clip from Sunday's gig at The Twisted Pair. It's nothing special pretty bare bones and you'll hear more than a few mistakes. Daryl https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1WdhHWJLv2/

Yes, Mick, and a genuine one-hand lift. Even for old codgers. 🤣

Absolutely, probably my favourite lyricist. I’ve been singing ‘You never can tell’ for so long ( even before Pulp Fiction was released!) and it always goes down well - a great song. Wow, that’s a Chuck deep cut! Don’t think I’ve ever heard it played, well done. 😀

All points well made. The other benefit of buying a more expensive bass is the build quality, reliability of components and confidence that provides you. Nobody cares what you play, that’s true, but they will notice if your pots are crackly, your bass slips in and out of tune or your tone is weak.

I’ve had hundreds of basses from your entry level HBs and Squiers to a £10k vintage Fender and, while anecdote isn’t evidence, I’ve found a direct correlation between quality and cost (up to about £1500, after which you enter into boutique territory where cost and value start to mean different things). All cheap basses are built to a cost price and that means compromises. That’s not to say they can’t be improved - they can - but I don’t see the point. My point about gigging was that you’re being paid to do a job. I’ve worked with far too many musicians who cut corners with cheap(er) gear and it can cause problems. I am 100% not a great snob and I totally get why people love Squiers, but I never understand why people would invest a fortune in loads of average gear when you could buy one or two real quality pieces that will last you. Guess in our culture of acquisition and ownership that’s old fashioned.

Nice rig! I use it for everything from an active Sandberg to a bass uke.

They have done 18mm before - I have the 2405W & it’s a fantastic 5er. Better looking than the newer one too!

I tried a £25,000 tubbs cello bow this year. It spoke to me. It said: "so much for your prejudice against fancy antique bows eh? ... I'm beautiful aren't I, and you'll never own anything as good. Now piss off you rank amateur you".

Oh, and while it’s probably true you’d get more value buying used, I love a new bass. The smell, the feel of it and the fact that every dent and piece of damage is your fault! Recently bought a brand new Jack Cassidy. Sure I could have saved £200 buying used, but I didn’t want to.

If you want to buy lots of cheap basses, if you don't see any difference between cheap and not so cheap, then go for it. Personally I'd take that £1500 and get the best used bass I can find. That budget can get you into a different league of basses.

Copycat!

Being fed up with carting my Headrush 112 around, I treated myself to a new lightweight cab a couple of weeks ago as a birthday present to myself. After a couple of weeks of hell (I went away for my birthday the day after getting it, which was fine, but then lost my dad a couple of days later), I finally got the chance to test it out at a band rehearsal yesterday. Suffice it to say I'm very happy with it. My bandmates were astonished at the weight (or lack thereof) of this cab. I was slightly apprehensive about whether I made the right choice going for the cheaper 350w version, but I needn't have worried. I had calculated that it should be enough for my needs and was relieved when it blasted out a room-filling tone without even pushing it. I had pre-centered the bass and treble trim pots and was pleased to hear a smooth, full-range tone come out of this, with real depth but without the boominess that the headrush sometimes produced. Indeed, I was able to bypass the global EQ in my helix that I had dialled in for the headrush, and it sounded great. Is it actually FRFR? I can't say, but it certainly reproduces the tones I had dialled in with accuracy and sounds like the tone that comes out of the PA. I don't actually gig with backline in my band anymore, but the headrush is just too heavy a lump for lugging to band rehearsals. I had considered getting a smaller powered PA speaker such as a Yamaha DXR10, but I still wanted something that could handle a gig if I needed it to. I think this fits the bill just fine and will hopefully be the last speaker I'll ever need.

This any good ? https://guitarsandwoods.com/Tool/Type-of-Tools/Truss-Rod-Tools/spoke-wheel-for-truss-rod-1940991554.html

Wicked tune from Omar Perry, I’ll be playing this bassline later

It's been on the bench this morning to steam out a couple of "soft dents" and to put more Monty's Instrument Food on it. I've left the saddles in this tilted up configuration. I've never seen them set up like that before but the action and intonation only needed a couple of small tweaks, so I went with it. It's an instrument that has been used for 20 years but it's been looked after nicely. There are a couple of spots that need a little colour rubbing in from where hands/forearms have put wear on it (advice welcome on products to use) The "forearm wing" area has a slightly ribbed texture that follows the flame grain pattern, mainly above the bridge pickup, which must be down to sweat/skin reacting with the softer parts of the wood grain over 20 years. It's very slight and only perceptible by touch. These are techy-geek observations rather than whinges, instrument patina can be fascinating to understand. This was a bargain in anyone's book. It has real history, feel and vibe in a way that my virgin (never-played case queen) 2018 Euro LX 4 just hasn't; that bass is effectively NOS (new old stock).

I know the feeling. I'm getting to that stage too. Have to admit it does change your image. I'm that used to seeing you with long hair and cowboy style hat or as Gene Simmons. I guess we all have to grow up at some point in our lives. Dave

Dean Markley bronze 11s or even 10s.

One of the most comprehensive descriptions of a bass I've seen on Ebay - in fact probably the most comprehensive.

Where can these be had? Asking for a guitarist....

As MattP said, Newtone Heritage strings. Your search is over.