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Just got back from a great gig at The Queens Arms in Brixham with a good crowd who were very appreciative. It was an 11pm finish which helps with loosing an hour too. We played well, although there were a few 'moments' but we always get through them. I had my usual rig of Stingray 2eq, RM500 evo ii and BF210. Also, wearing my usual Skechers which are very comfortable. We have recently got a new mixer, as our old started to play up so it was quick replaced, which has worked wonders with our sound. It's well organized with wall mounted speaker brackets and lights, so less gear to bring. We don't bother with the sub here either. As with all the pubs we play at we get a free drink each (JD & Coke for me)and tonight that also included a couple of free lime and sodas which is my gigging drink as I drive. Bit of a break now till the next gig, but we'll work on some new songs.

Sat in with Stevie Daniels at the White Swan near Newmarket. Great crown…lots of dancing and compliments. Debut gig for my new Elf head paired with Genz Benz 12’s. First set was with my Spectracore 5 fretless, then used the Peavey Dynabass for set two. All worked really well, and the Elf didn’t even get warm.

Private 60th birthday party last night for us with BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam. Also our drummers birthday same day. Organiser saw us 2 yrs ago and thought it would be great for his dads 60th. He had shown him vids from the gig 2 yrs ago and his Dad loved them. Was in a church hall with its own bar which was kinda strange but a well organised event. Approx 40-50 guests. We were paid while loading in so that was a 1st. Not a big fan of private parties tho as not every guest will be into Glam so it can be a bit MEH !!!. Birthday Boy had no idea what was happening and we were asked not to give it away. Covered the logo on bass drum and no band t-shirts worn also no backdrop. 1st set was a bit slow to get moving. We had some feedback "drone" issue coming and going with singers mic that we just couldn't nail it. It wasn't fine at soundcheck. Turned out it was pick up from snare drum so we managed to resolve it for 2nd set. We had a few dancers 1st set and it was turning out like many private parties ("dead") but we were getting well paid so thoughts of paid rehearsal were going thru my head. We were all invited to partake which was really nice to be asked and we didn't want to disappoint our host and be rude so we partook of a few bits and bobs and were even delivered a tray of food in our changing room which was a large room just off the main corridor. 2nd set it just all seemed to clicked, sound was perfect, dancers filled the floor and party was officially started. Decided to use my Handbox WB-100 last night for a wee change and boy was that a treat. I forgot how much i liked an all valve amp. Warm depth of tone with the mids boosted as advised by our very own WoT and the clarity was just so good. Using the Sandberg VM4 into Keeley comp, WB-100, Mesa SW210/115 cabs and the sound was amazing. I need to use that amp more often. Feedback was excellent with several folks looking to book us with one guy that manages a few other clubs being very impressed. They want us back as a proper function rather than a private event and bar manager reckoned it would sell out. She even wanted a list of where we play so she can come along. All very promising. The number of people coming up at the end complimenting us was quite touching at times but obviously a few beers had been partook by the end of the evening. Something i don't usually mention but here goes :- Arrived at venue 5pm Set up and S/C 6:30pm Doors open 7pm 1st set 8-9pm 2nd set 10-11:15pm Loaded by 12:15am Home and unloaded 1:30am Bed 2am Dave

I was out with the cello last night for an orchestral concert in Carlisle. Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev. Here's the opening page of the first piece. I think the double bass part is similar.

Last night was the first public gig with the new start-up band, In Like Flynn. We played the Globe in Somerton as a freebie for the FOC rehearsal time they've given us to get our show on the road. So pleased to see the pub full to bursting with the crowd having a ball and the real and virtual tills kerr-chinking behind the bar - a rare sight and sound anywhere these days! And what a relief to be a proper gigging musician again 😊

Outsold gig last Saturday

Ah what a miserable old git I’m becoming. it was nice to be out of the comfort zone, and in retrospect a bit of fun which people seemed to enjoy. I need to stop taking myself so seriously.

Backing tracks on a live gig? Not my cup of tea.

Hmm. i just sang and played guitar as a favour to a friend. Strangled a few indie classics and then came home. PA was woeful, couldn’t hear anything…people sang along and danced. I won’t be doing that again for a bit as I hate guitar playing, and I hate singing.

I've often said that I'd happily rock up, bass in hand and play to 2,000 people for free... I might even offer to pay but if you want me to hump £4000+ worth of my equipment to a venue/pub miles from home that I have no association with, at a time that inconveniences me, to play to a bunch of ar5eholes who have no respect for the hours/years I've put into getting to the level that I'm at... I want paying! I may have paraphrased the above on occasion!

Not a bad night at an old haunt of ours back to the 80’s in various guises. Not packed but reasonable crowd who were singing along and picked up on the dancing front in the second set to end well. I misread to set and completely missed the cue linking penultimate and final songs and said “you missed one” to drummer - he hadn’t, I can’t read 🤦‍♂️🤣 Had to use the KZ headphones for IEM’s, having at last checked the obvious and realised why I was only getting the left side in my moulded plugs after updating to the Sennheiser system and trying all different settings on the transmitter and receiver to no avail. Plugged the custom plugs into my iPad and realised that the problem was there DOH! Took a while to find the right tips to get a reasonable seal, but got there for the second set. I still need to get the main plugs sorted.

Very first gig for my new band last night at the Shed & Garden in Chorley. Great little place with a postage stamp of a stage, if you look carefully in the clips, you might just spot the keys player sat off the stage on the right behind the speaker. As first gigs go, it was absolutely excellent. Three setter 9-midnight. It's always nerve racking taking the car out of the garage for the first time. Will everything work? Will I remember the songs with all the extra distractions of a live show? Will they like the song choice (I was worried about this as the set isn't your usual weekend evening stuff, and very different from anything I've done before)? Where do I park? How many sockets are there? Will any of the others have a complete personality change when they get onstage? It was as good as first gigs get IME. Everything nice and pretty tight, no tech gremlins. We played well and the crowd got into it . Some quality dancing and an increasingly enthusiastic response. The keys player ended up with someone almost in his lap a couple of times, and the door staff went and stood in front of the singer for the last set to prevent deliberate or accidental crowd encroachment. We came off stage absolutely buzzing with lots of ideas about how to take things forward. My setup was my new Fender Japanese 5 string into a GR 350 class D head and then FOH. Wired IEMs through a Behringer P2. No cab, which was lucky as there wouldn't have been room for it anyway. The drummer took up almost all the stage, but his sparkly red kit did look lovely under the lights. If you're eagle eyed, you might spot that I've got a glove on my left hand. No, it's not an SBL tribute. This is down to pretty severe eczema which means that the skin on my fingers is paper thin and rips wide open very easily. To prevent bleeding all over my lovely new bass I took a chance on a glove from Amazon and it works pretty well. Excellent feedback from the owners, they've just taken on a new bar in South Manchester and we're looking at dates to play there. the singer is delighted, as it's walking distance form her house Right, a couple of rough phone clips: WhatsApp Video 2025-03-29 at 12.20.27.mp4 WhatsApp Video 2025-03-29 at 11.52.18.mp4

I'm generally not a fan, but can understand that situations and budget can dictate their use in some circumstances. We've certainly never considered it in our trio. I'm also not really a fan of the incognito sidemen. To show the way to do that, I saw The Darkness the other night. The shadowy guitarist/mandolinist was dragged into the spotlight several times, hugged, embraced and name-checked. The drummer came out front to sing lead on a song and the drum & bass tech stood in on drums, again with huge acknowledgement. (It was a great gig, and what a great self-effacing frontman Justin is!)

I’m using the Beta V and Diamond Comp with my passive Warwick 5 (strung with Chromes). I like it

We played The Chadwell Arms, which is becoming something of a regular joint. The landlord now greets us with handshakes and hugs, and the punters are very friendly from the moment we walk in. Last night was a mixed bag - we went down a storm, with loads of singing along, rapturous applause and a double encore. We debuted ‘free Fallin’ and I brought an old custom bass out of retirement as a one-off. The down side? Our singer has a new ladyfriend, and he was in full-on showman mode (presumably for her). He upped the rockstar act, which went down well, but the distraction caused him to miss a couple of cues, come in too early, or too late, and generally be a bit mistake-laden. I loved the positive reaction, but I’m too much of a perfectionist to overlook the errors. Must do better.

Around October last year our friend Nick Smith came to see us about having another bass made but to his design of shape which he called the “Midas” We lost Nick in January in a tragic accident before we got past the design stage of his new bass. However he had selected all of the woods and we’d gone through the detail on the spec that he wanted. Following Nicks funeral at the end of February Gav and I felt it was only right that we finish Nicks bass, and after seeking approval from Nicks family we decided that it would be fitting that once complete we would hold a raffle or auction with all proceeds going to a charity close to Nick and his families hearts. Over the last few weeks we’ve been progressing through the manufacture of Midas number 1. And over the next week or so we’ll share the photos and videos of its progress so far. This video shows the design of the bass, technical specs follow “Greenie” the Kratos he had from us a few years back which had become Nicks main gigging bass for Genesis Connected. It features a one piece ribbon sapele body with a beautiful book matched flame maple top, flamed maple one piece neck with ebony fret board, Aguilar HJ pickup and 18v preamp, led fret board side dots, Grainger bridge, hipshot tuners and Evo Gold frets! Once the details of the charity raffle are tied down we’ll post on how it’ll all work, but we should have Nicks Midas done within the next 6 weeks! Stay tuned for more updates! SOLIDWORKS Premium 2023 SP1.0 - Midas Full Assembly 2025-03-29 09-46-28.mp4

Another Eagles tribute show, this time at a theatre in Stockton. An enjoyable night. We're a few shows in now, so everything is less of a conscious effort. The vocal harmonies parts - of which there are a shedload, all of which are very high / falsetto - are coming more naturally, so I can kick back and enjoy the occasion. It's such a strong, varied set - every song is a classic (assuming you don't hate The Eagles, of course). Anyway, I had to use IEMs last night as we were using the house PA and there weren't any monitors. I doubt I'll ever love using them, but I hate them less than I used to.

Why is Japan always getting these cool special runs? Look at this beauty. That's how the CST is supposed to look like (just compare that with the amateurish bursts and washed out burls that we get to buy here, see page 3 in this thread for some examples in case you missed them):

Three-set outing at the Reivers Sports Bar in Galashiels last night. Six of us had to squeeze onto a stage that was all of three metres square and boxed in by railings. It was tight, to say the least. First time we'd played there and the punters were quite boisterous, with many of them celebrating Rangers' 4-3 win over whoever the other lot were. Dundee, maybe. Went down really well, including six new songs that were having their first outing. Plenty of happy punters dancing and singing along. On the downside, the back of the stage was in almost complete darkness so I spent a lot of time squinting at the neck trying to see the fretboard markers. Then during the second set, my strap came off. I had to perch on the edge of my cab desperately punching out root notes on the one until the song ended. I think that'll be me out of the gear abstinence thread when I get a set of Schallers. We're playing there again on the 17th May. The rig will be the same as last night - Sterling Stingray 5, Eden WTX264 atop an Eden 210 cab turned on its side (the space was that tight!). Something to cast a bit of light on the neck is on the cards - the light from my tablet helped a bit but not enough. All in all though, a great night!

Pretty sure it's this...

It's an interesting question, and possibly one of those where the answer is what you are happy with. In general, I would work on the principle that your level of pay is directl;y related to how seriously the payer takes you (taking into account market forces). Here in Pompey, the level of pay for pub gigs is pretty much what it was 40 years ago. There's something inherently wrong there. In certain circumstances I am more than happy to pay for nothing, and do regularly. A commercial enterprise should not expect me to entertain their customers for nothing.

When I play I get paid for 3 reasons. . . . This is not a hobby. If someone is making money from my playing, so am I. Most people I play with are making their living from music. So playing for free, for fun or a favour, is not an option.

You show me a band who enjoys loading in, setting up, breaking down and loading out, and I'll show you a bunch of liars The reason I say this is that it's never factored in - all people see is the performance. I've been asked before when complaining about lack of pay, "don't you enjoy playing music?" and had to be held back by band members from having a right go at the condescending biatch.

...which is an interesting point

It shouldn’t matter at all But it does

Yep, I'm sincerely hoping that my album band is going to do Rattus Norvegicus, and if so, I'm gonna play a Ric Only joking, but what I'd really hope to be able to do is to play the album in a way that the prog-esque technical and structural complexity comes through, as opposed to how I've seen Stranglers songs such as No More Heroes, Peaches etc played by many covers bands which more often than not makes them sound like Sham 69.

Well, a new venue has opened up recently in our town, it is under a resteraunt, quite low ceilings, low lighting, little groups of chairs, very tastefully decorated, the sort of place you would go to meet someone for having an affair or something - looks like a little jazz club, very cute. I can imagine a sultry singer in the corner, with a guy on a double bass and a drummer, with a bass, snare and tom playing with brushes some gentle music. Only they didn't get that, they got us! I was a bit worried about this one as it really didn't seem like a good fit, but a gig is a gig and they booked us. Turned up earlier than others, started loading in, at least there is room out the front to go straight in (can't park there, but there is a car park round the corner, but loading is fine). We had the whole of the window area, so had to wait for the drummer to set up to see how much room we had, had a couple of feet between a monstera and the cymbals, enough for me. The only hard part of the setup was getting in each others way and the fact there were already people there who wanted to chat. But the place filled up with quite a few people we knew, and some people who came specifically to hear us, including one woman who plays bowling in the room below where we practiced on thursday night so though we sounded good! Started off quite quiet and went down well. The drummer got louder and faster through the gig but not much you can do about that. After much discussion we didn't really change the set list that much, brought back some older ones, couldn't do the newer ones as a lack of practice over the last few months. But all in all, a good gig, people seemed to enjoy it, the staff liked it, and after years of declining venues in town, its nice to see one come back.

He'd thoughtfully packed his magnifying glass before setting out.

That famous tea aficianado: Brian Asams, with his famous hit: Everything I brew, I brew it for you.......

Aside from a couple of 30 minute pickup bits & pieces, last Friday was my first gig for nearly 18 months. Fully agree with you, I'd forgotten how much of a buzz it it. Congrats on the new band.

Do you remember CDs? The japaneese editions mostly had a bonus song or two, only available on that release. I see a pattern here 😄

I've done both paid (as a semi pro) and free (as an amateur) gigs, but something that always bothered me is the lack of respect you get when you're playing for free... Let me tell you this anecdote: We were asked to play for free (or close to that as we were hat paid) for an organic market during the hottest day of the year... As I'm tea total, I struggled to get something to drink, first mistake from the organisers. Second mistake was that all the market, including our PA, was electrically wired to the same plug running in two sections across a road!?! We had a Bose L1 PA system that we bought brand new with our own money (it was the first ever sold in Belgium back then and it was a fame changer for us) and that we were using flawlessly since a few gigs. Suddenly, after 2 to 3 hours of playing, the PA started to smoke and stopped working: in one word, it had burned. The first reaction from the punters was: Why are not playing anymore? The second reaction from the organisers themselves was: Do you have an insurance, because we have none?!? So we packed everything back in the cars, after emptying the almost empty hat, while my fellow guitarist/singer kept saying: The duet is over, we can't afford to buy a new PA. On the next day, which was a Monday, I called the store were we bought it explaining what happened and they called Bose directly who agreed to repair or replace it for free and even offered us to come directly at the importer place, which wasn't that far for us We came there on the next day and the guy in charge confirmed that it would be repaired or replaced for free as it was under warranty at the end of the week, because we needed it every weekend! On the Thursday afternoon I got a phone call saying that the PA was repaired and that we could come and take it back for free. On the next day, Friday, we were there and the guy in charge of the repair section explained that all power amps of the L1 had simply fried due to a huge surge and that they had never seen such a thing happening in a normal use: So, I explained why it probably happened with the "main" lead coming from a house across the street with another lead that was connected to the first in the middle of the road where a car smashed it creating a huge short cut and power surge at the same time. They laughed a bit and advised us to have our own heavy section lead extension and for our own usage only, which we did. Since then, we are ALWAYS paid to play, because if the organiser makes profit, I can't see why we couldn't be paid: After all we are not jesters or minstrels living on leftovers. Lesson learnt.

I wouldn't get my hopes up too high. It's a bitsa, constructed from a budget 1970s-era Fender Jazz bass copy, from what I can see possibly a Korean-made Hondo or Satellite, which has been mated with the neck from a Taiwan-made Kay shortscale bass. It appears to have been refinished with possibly some sort of adhesive backed checkerboard patterned paper or plastic. Anyway, this is what the body & electronics came from: And the neck came from something like this: I can see what look like the screwholes from the bridge's original position so it may be that it's been moved to compensate for replacing the original neck for a shorter one. If that's the case it should intonate correctly. If not, it's a fairly straightforward modification to reposition a bridge of this type. Edit - looking again, the bridge has definitely been moved - it's right up against the bridge pickup. It's possible that may be enough to intonate it. You can check this by measuring the distance between the zero-fret & the 12th fret, then between the 12th fret & the bridge saddles (or rather, saddle) - they should be the same.

It will soon wear off...😁😆😆

@fretmeister and @neepheid really appreciate your help - I know its probably a basic question but when you dont know you dont know. Appreciate your time in helping out. cheers

I have said many times that I tend to play for free, I'm just charging for all the other time that the gig keeps me busy and not playing: travelling, setting up, waiting around...

When it comes to charity events I've always taken a hard line with venues expecting bands to play for free (in reality, at a loss). I've asked the venue whether the bar staff are working unpaid shifts and if the venue is making a loss on the event. Then I explain that if the band takes that booking, which will be at a loss to each member, it also fills the calendar for a potential paid booking. The unpaid gigs were always the ones that divided opinion in bands and sometimes led to bitchy squabbles. Some of the bigger charity events I've played in the past like British Heart Foundation and CF Trust pay really well as they value having a quality act to give the paying punters professional level value for money.

Cello, one of the few instruments to use 3 clefs. And how many key changes‽ 😆

Sound clip update. Here's a bit of go pro footage from Friday's gig. Hopefully I'll have something a bit clearer once the keys player settles the recordings from the desk. Bass -> GR one 350 -> desk. No cab. Bass settings: bass boost about 20%, mids left at centre, treble cut 90%. Amp set flat. VID-20250329-WA0015.mp4

Even if they are, it won't change anything or see anyone in their camp imprisoned. People like to think no one is above the law, but there is a definite echelon of persons who are. No one will be held accountable, no one will 'do time', the absolute best case scenario is that in 50 years time history judges them harshly. That'll be it.

It's a fine line. One of my favourite bands in the 90s was Carter USM who I saw a few times as a duo. Their set up was live guitars and vocals everything else was pre recorded backing tracks, but they still had a great live energy in their performances. At the other end of the spectrum I saw Kiss live on the Unholy tour, which to be fair, seemed to be mostly live but when they played 'God gave Rock n Roll to you' not only were there backing tracks but I'm pretty sure there was also some miming along to perfect vocal harmonies and the whole performance had a sort of 'Top of the Pops' feel to it which stuck out like a sore thumb in the rest of the set. I couldn't really say why the Carter thing worked for me while the Kiss thing didn't.

I knew @Dood was the answer; it always is.

Started thinking after that last post. So, I got the Classic V out. Has new strings on it and is in tune out of the case. Body fits better than the KB. EQ so much better. Easier to control out of the gate. Easier on the right hand(if that makes any sense). Smooth tones. It's an affordable MTD 534. After 15 minutes of play I've already ask for it's hand in marriage. She said yes.