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A couple of months ago, my eldest son was just starting his BTEC music course at high school, but didn't at that point play an instrument, so he needed to choose something..... Being a super cool kid, he obviously chose bass! 😅👌🥳❤️ He's just turned 15, what a great age to start! (I was 14) I was going to sell this cool little Ibanez GAXB150, but I gifted it to him instead. 😉 Some of his best pals are on the course too, and they've got a band going already, and have been super committed, and working hard to get where they want to be. They've even got their first performance at school next week! He's loving old school thrash metal, so we're off to see Anthrax this week too! 🤘😎 Happy times!

We were at the soon to close York Vaults last night for a couple of hours of Nirvana anthems and deep cuts. A proper little dive bar, full house at about 130 people. It was loud, hot and sweaty. Absolute perfection 👌 Weapons of choice, ‘97 Tbird, ‘74 Ripper, Hiwatt and Barefaced 610.

The new bands first outing from the rehearsal studio was this Tuesday just gone. I'm still very much a novice bassist, this beng my second attempt at playing live. Played four songs at an open mic session at the Junction in Rainford, just north of St Helens, Merseyside. You Really Got Me, Fortunate Son, Black Night, and Paranoid on my trusty 5 string Harley Benton. Great live music pub. Allows us to slowly get used to the transition from Rehearsal to Live!

Our keyboard player who had joined us this year go himself a girlfriend and a new house, so found he didn't have the time to keyboard anymore, so we are back to a 4 piece. Tonights was the first night after he had gone, although in fairness, a couple of gigs back he wasn't available and we did that one too, so we had to drop some of the new songs and bring back some of the old songs. TBF, we brought back way too many, we had 42 on the set list and ran out of time in the low 30s! This was a private 50th birthday in a hall, which was for a friend of someone we did a 50th birthday for a few years back, and on the strength of that. For the sake of irony, I doubt we have had a bigger stage for years, so plenty of room for a keyboard player! Easy and quick setup, car park straight outside and noone was getting in anyones way setting up, the crowd started dancing from the first song pretty well all the way through, was a joy to play. Luckily to coincide with the keyboard player leaving, Bass direct finally after 33 weeks sent my mod dwarf back to me, which is how I do the keyboards in Brick in the wall with the footpedals, so I was a little nervous about that (and remembering the keys) and bring back the sample pad for "in the end', but it all went flawlessly I almost took my bongo, as a few months back when I went to take my bongo somewhere, the strings were all rattling and it was basically unplayable. I decided on friday to look at it and reset it up, and it was absolutely perfect. But then I remembered it doesn't really fit in my new Thomman gig bag, its too long - need a new gig bag for that! Anyway, all went down well, after half time the singer anounced we had been asked to play a local festival that I had wanted to play before, so that was good, and we had been asked about other parties, which is also nice, especially as this one paid almost double the charge of a pub and was in fairness a lot easier. Great night. Tonight we are off to play a free gig for the dad of the drummer, more of a jam thing as the singer can't be there so we will sing some and we have some guest people doing turns. The drummers parents have been to 95% of all of our gigs in the last decade, including the ones where they were a large part of the audience, so happy to do that.

I was away with Mrs Norris last week visiting her brother before he retires from foreign parts. I don't know if I picked up something on the plane back, but have had a worsening cold ever since we set foot back in Blighty. So Saturday I felt like death warmed up. Not quite bad enough to call the gig off, but definitely lacking in energy. It was actually a pretty decent gig. We got them up dancing, which hasn't happened there before. The landlord was very pleased. I had put a new set of D'Addario Pro Steels on my Sire P7-5 for the first time in two years. It sounded great (Boss GT-6B into my Fender Rumble v3 500 combo) - nice to have a bit of twang again. No photos because I felt like cr*p and couldn't wait to get home to bed. So then I woke up this morning feeling a little bit better, but couldn't speak! The cold, phlegm, etc. has moved onto my vocal chords, so all I could do was whisper and squeak. This afternoon was planned to be an "acoustic" gig, as it's a small pub and could easily be far too loud otherwise. With my vocals not working it was an extra stripped-down gig - literally just my Stagg EUB straight into the Rumble and a clip-on tuner. It was actually great fun and we tackled a lot of random requests from the crowd (Hotel California, Ziggy Stardust to name a couple). The EUB is fun to play - lots of silly phrases and slides to put off the guitar/vocalist. Oh, and the landlady booked us because it was her one year anniversary of taking over the pub, even though we only played there a few weeks ago and have another in the book for next month. It's always nice to be the landlady's favourite band 😁

I played a short solo spot in a relaxed multi-act gig to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the RNLI. I've never performed on my own before and to say I was nervous would be an understatement. I was joined for one number by the guitarist from the band I'm in - fair play to him he was there just to watch and I asked him to join me on the spot. Most of the rest of the band were there, either as punters or doing short spots of their own. I find it much harder to play in front of people I know so that didn't help the nerves. My guitar performance was not as good as I would have liked but I was happy with my vocals and even happier when people joined in, laughed at my attempts at humour and gave me a rousing cheer at the end! I was told it was strictly acoustic and yet everyone else there had little amps. I managed to borrow one from one of the other acts as the on-stage microphones ("they'll pick up everything on stage so you won't need an amp") weren't working and, in any case, I wasn't on the stage as it was being prepared for the choir coming on after me. No photos, probably for the good. I was using my Crafter semi-acoustic 6 string plugged into a small Fender acoustic amp. Edit: Photos have emerged!

LAST NIGHT! The Cantina Band at The Vaults (Real Ale Bar (dog friendly)) Knowle. AGAIN. Great load in, park up next to the door behind the stage [sic], set up all good, I got to tell a new joke to the lads (too rude to repeat on a family forum such as what this one is), dep drummer (chap from my other band), singer and guitarists WAGs were in attendance, all good. The guitarist had also brought his two young daughters (last time they came, the landlady asked him to kind of keep them out of sight as they're probably too young to be in a pub, she then proceeded to get them dancing on a table, filmed it and shared it on the pub's social media. She's bonkers, but in a good way). After the unscheduled fun of two weeks ago, I was expecting the usual ambivalent punters and dispiriting reception and sure enough there weren't many there, but for some reason we all *really* enjoyed ourselves. Possibly because we were playing to a handful of friends and family so there was lots of audience interaction (basically good-natured heckling) so we ended up having a right laugh. It was the drummers birthday (28! My StingRay is older than him!) so he was presented with a cake and a rendition of Happy Birthday which he wasn't expecting and totally blew him away. Very heartwarming. The guitarist's youngest joined us to sing the last song, which was lovely - she's a budding guitarist so I hope we haven't put her off being in a band. I joined the landlady at the bar for Sex on Fire (the song!) which went down a treat, we got three encores (I think the WAGs enjoyed watching us sweat). Used the StringRay for a change (I usually use the Sterling with this lot - I definitely noticed the 'Ray sounds a lot smoother than the Sterling, especially through the many distortions) -> small board (now with pedal toppers! (which obscure the LEDs on some of the pedals 🤨)) -> amp board (Thumpinator -> VTDI (set to ROCK)) -> MB CMD121. Still getting used to using a pleccy but it does sound good on the punk numbers, especially through the Bass Soul Food. Paid, packed up, home about 1 for a pint of Aldi vintage cider. A good night!

Just back in from a Queenage gig. Barring a couple of little niggles that I'm sure the majority would not even have noticed, it went very well indeed. We're still trying to find the right balance in older material which we like doing and the most popular stuff, but given it was only our third gig, things are looking great. There was a lady there who is a member of the Queen fan club. She said that she has seen A LOT of Queen tributes and thought we were excellent. The venue also gave us a cash bonus as we had such a great turnout. Hopefully a return booking will be had next year. All in all, a great night.

After being unceremoniously fired from my nascent pop rock band it was nice to play a no-pressure, little gig for an old friend. Slightly awkward as the rhythm guitarist from this band is still in the pop rock band that fired me, but there's not too many hard feelings between us as it's the singer who's the problem. Well, he'll tell you that I'm the problem, so fair enough. The guitarist in my old hard rock band (that still gigs very occasionally) was turning 50 and he had assembled pretty much every musician he'd ever been in a band with to play a couple of songs each at his birthday party. Guitarists, eh? "What should I do for may party? Make everybody watch me play, because I'm GREAT!" The hard rock band did 5 or 6 numbers, but we were joined by said birthday boy's 15 year old son on drums as our old drummer is incommunicado these days. I also played with another band of his where the singer couldn't make it so the bass player stepped on to lead vocals, only to find that some songs were tricky to play and sing at the same time, so I filled in on bass for 3 songs there too. Good fun, nice to play a show again as I currently don't have a band, although one is in the works. Rig was a Warwick Thumb, into my HX Stomp and we used my QSC wedge as backline as it was also the keys and edrums 'amp' for stage volume. Weird to play a gig where not everyone has in ears these days, but the keyboardist hadn't played in 20 years and the drummer is a literal child, so I guess sometimes you have to do things the old fashioned way! Videos from soundcheck/messing around. I don't know why they're so bad, my wife has a great phone and does social media for a living, but it really struggled with the lights for some reason.

Sunday at Shrewsbury Abbey. Getting something approaching a good sound was a challenge, a negative reverb feature would have helped considerably. Apart from my cables, the kit is all BC supplies (SG bass, Ashdown EVO combo), no effects just as it is. Hands got cold in the first set despite the heating (hmm) being on, being gentlemen of age we all found the temperature challenging. Aptly started with "Burning Hell" and ended with "John the Revelator" into "Let the good times roll". Pretty well filled the Abbey so a good result. Playing pic to follow.

Private party at a local rugby club with the Andy Wales Band last night. We swapped out some of our “deeper cuts” for some more dancefloor-friendly stuff to keep up the party spirit. We’re reaching that level of being comfortable enough with our material to relax into it now, leaving a bit more space and letting it groove a bit more, which feels great. Back home by midnight. The usual Markbass rig, Yamaha bass and this time also my Mackie PA and modest selection of stage lights from Cash Converters. Sadly no pics of us actually playing - just the stage before proceedings began.

Had a great gig with STRAY at The Stables in Milton Keynes. We put ourselves under a bit of pressure with four numbers we’d hardly ever played or hadn’t played at all. I used my new BF Supertwin (thanks @JGSpector and GK MB500 plus a full in ear mix - the back line was for my other band members! Was the best gig we’ve played there and the second set in particular was smoking’! (IMHO!) A couple of acousticcy numbers gave me the rare chance to air my Epiphone Rumblekat which was nice. All filmed for posterity as well!

I’ll be gigging my Larry tomorrow too! I put a clear scratchplate on cos that grain is too pretty to hide and popped in a EMG GZR too …

Just acquired this lovely Sandberg California V Short Scale.

First post, but I've been enjoying vicariously living through your gig reports for a while now so thought I'd start to contribute. We played the Old Market Tavern in Altrincham last Friday. We were down to one singer due to a fixture clash and had been asked to go as light as possible as Saturdays are the heavier night there. This led to less metal and more grunge and hard rock going in the setlist, although we did save Toxicity and Bodies for the encore. Got a pretty good response, a few dancers and great feedback from the landlady so we're booked in again for next year. We're all on IEM so the soundcheck invoked making sure our mixes worked as well as the PA, after last gig where a change in PA position meant the IEM sounded awful. My basd sounded rumbly through the PA but also didn't cut through at all. A few mix tweaks did nothing until we moved the sub off the wooden floor onto the carpet, then it all sounded good. Fine margins etc. Rig was my usual Dingwall NG3-5 and D-Roc-4 bases into a knock-off Harmonic Booster, Zoom B1X4 and Darkglass Infinity board straight DI to the mixer. I didn't make too many mistakes, but being a local non-driving gig the freedom to have a few beers did mean I felt a little uncoordinated later in set 2! Added a few clips for context but I had a good time and looking forward to our next gig in December. VID-20241116-WA0046.mp4 VID-20241116-WA0029.mp4

So about a month ago - I decided to sell my Gibson Ripper to fund some house work for my little girl who needs a wet room… you have most likely seen the thread…no further comment…(love you guys). Ive been swapping between the Ripper and My Jack Casady… Both absolutely heroic in their own right. I’ve a potted history with Casady’s - I adore them and with a few minor tweaks, they’re ideal for me. So, resigned to the fact I’d be Gibson-less, I sold some bits and bobs I had in storage and a lovely little peavey bass to buy a gold Casady like my old one - to sit next to my blue one (one flats, one rounds…) But then I spotted an Anniversary model on a facebook marketplace listing which I’ve always loved (although I hated the white pickguard). The seller would not ship - and no matter how I wanted it…I agreed it was a stupid move in a gigbag. My loverboy @walshy stepped in and took the Casady under his wing. After a few weeks of trying to figure out when I could get to Hexham or he could get to Manchester. We managed it. By this point - the wonderful folk of BC had negated the sale of the Gibson by raising funds to help with the project for Iris. So I’ve now got 2 Casady’s and a ripper. Weirdly, the neck profiles are totally different - the blue one has a flatter profile, the Anniversary has a deeper shape. Needs a clean and a set up. The wonderful Earlpilanz on eBay has done me a black pickguard which is in the post. Actually really cheap (£20 all in, mental) At some point, I’ll have to sort some longer straps; the casady sits higher than I have the ripper even on the same straps because of the button position/body depth. but that’s me and gear done - for the next few years while we upgrade the house… Anyhow…fat bottomed girls…you make the rocking world go round…

Hercules with the neck grab.

A couple of months ago, I was in Promenade Music, buying a nylon string guitar and spotted a rather lovely, short scale Sandberg bass. It's matt redburst finish, ebony fingerboard and black hardware, really impressed me. So, after 2 months of trying not to think about it, I went over to Morecambe, to check it out. I have owned a number of Sandbergs over the years, including a Lionel Short Scale, and they have never disappointed. It's a simple P-style bass but oozes quality. The split-coil pickup is clear, punchy and full of character, with a lovely harmonic range. The neck, like every Sandberg I have owned plays just right, with a solidity and high quality that matches or surpasses anything else in this style. Yes, this is a serious bass, that looks very cool, to my eyes and really performs through my bass set-up (Galien-Kruger/Mark Bass).

Why does the drummer have more gear than us???????

My original “twins” - Ash body, maple cap, ebony boards…21 frets (or 21 positions on fretless), Seymour Duncan classic stacks and VVTT controls. Epiphone Jack Casady basses - 20th Anniversary and Ltd Pelham.

This is quite a long post, so do feel free to skip to the pictures below… So, as I’m sure we often tell ourselves, I really didn’t mean to buy this. No, really. But I’m very pleased I did. I was on the Ishibashi Music website (looking for something completely different) and this presented itself at a very reasonable price. I’ve never bought an instrument from so far flung a seller (I’m in Ireland), so was a bit trepidatious. But I knew many on here had been down this route before, so I pressed ahead and of course it wasn’t really any more complicated than buying from a local seller. A couple of days later I got a shipping notification, and a couple of days after that a text message from An Post asking me to pay the import duty (really just 23% VAT plus a small processing fee). So I paid that and sat back to wait for delivery. And then An Post did a strange thing - they sent the bass back to Japan. We still don’t know why they did that. The best explanation I have had from them is that there must have been something wrong with the import paperwork (in which case, why ask me for the import duties?), but they haven’t said what that was, and neither Ishibashi nor Japan Post (who did investigate on Ishibashi’s behalf) have been able to get to the bottom of it. To their credit, Ishibashi were wonderful, and readily agreed to try sending the bass again (they could just have refunded me and left it at that). They were understandably reluctant to re-send the bass via Japan Post/An Post when we were no wiser about why it had been returned, so this time they sent it by DHL, a more expensive option for them, at no extra charge to me over what I’d already paid. This time it got through (albeit I had to pay a second set of import duties, though I’m still hopeful of getting the first lot back), and it turned up yesterday. And what a great instrument it is. Ishibashi reckon it’s a 2003 model. I know the early Excesses had a pick guard, which obviously this doesn’t, but it does have the single 9v preamp, so I’m wondering if it’s some sort of transition model between the first Excesses and the later 18v models. It’s got some light scratches as you’d expect on a bass of its age, the recess round the jack socket is a bit of a mess (which I guess is just inherent in the design and the result of years of trying to locate the socket with a jack plug) and some of the chrome is looking a bit tired, but no major dings and from a few feet away it looks mint. There was an odd buzz (really more of a ‘zinging’) on the open E and G strings when I first tuned it up which caused a few nervous moments (have I bought a lemon? Is it going back to Japan - again?). I eventually traced it to these strings sitting too high in the nut/string guide and buzzing gently against the zero fret - a couple of minutes work with a file on the slots sorted it out. Never come across that before, and Ishibashi say they put EXL165s on it, which aren’t madly heavy strings, so all a bit odd. All of the grub screws which lock in the intonation on the bridge were also completely backed off, so I guess maybe there was a bit of a rattle from them too. Anyway, all quiet now! I’m not convinced the preamp is the original (I’ll do a thread in technical to ask about that), but the sounds that come out of it are fantastic in their range and quality, and the playability is, of course excellent. The neck is noticeably chunkier than that on my Passion III (to be fair, every other bass I have has a chunkier neck than the Passion…), but very easy to get around. I’d like the action a little lower but the A saddle is bottomed out, so will look at shimming at some point I expect. When I find the luggage scales I’ll tell you what it weighs - somewhere just north of 4kg I’d guess. Anyway, I’m delighted. Some pictures:

This arrived about an hour ago. Keeper. Just put flats on it. Amazing tone, sustain, intonation, playability- yep 👍 well done Yamaha taking it to studio tomorrow- first gig Saturday

0750 this morning in my garden... Just stopped now.

The Abbey regularly run music events, usually of a classical bent but also pop, poetry, bugles of The Rifles, etc. etc.. Our drummer (who lives near Shrewsbury) negotiated and persuaded the Abbey to try our Blues show. The business manager who is into music had seen us in another Shrewsbury venue so knew what they were getting. The money side was a complex arrangement of costs, equal shares and then door split, about 290 tickets sold, we organised the online tickets. The sound was challenging. Usually we are playing to about 100+ audiences, pa takes vocals only, we play to the volume of the sax and trumpet, i.e. deliberately lowish volume. The PA was at its limit in the Abbey, they also took feeds off vocals, guitar and the horns which went into small satellite speakers throughout the building. The delays due to the speaker separation and the reverb from the roof and altar behind us were very noticeable. Really tight stops in numbers ended up being `blurred`. If we did it again, we would hire in a sound engineer who knows the venue and has the kit to manage delays. We chose no to at the time since the whole venture was a bit of a financial unknown. The Abbey were more than happy with the number of tickets sold, significantly more than the target. We now have the (nice) problem of choosing RCF 945s or 932s since the `war chest` has been topped up. On a personal note, it was the largest audience I have played to since 1982. I only dropped two noticeable clangers and played my way out of them. In another number some solid bass playing dug our irons out of the fire. Live music, stuff happens or doesn't . A good night at the office.

Slightly cheating but within the spirit I feel:

Sorry to hear! Yep! As a full time lead singer/bass player. I can’t tell you how much of my energy is used/wasted worrying about getting ill/trying to stay healthy. Inevitably though, when the lurge strikes hard, there’s not much that can be done. Having a decent dep network/ backup network is about as much as we can do and then making sure the couple (as we primarily perform at weddings) aren’t let down. Funnily enough, yesterday’s gig was one that I crawled through with the beginnings of a cold. All day package so 5 sets in total throughout the day. Fortunately, we’ve now got 3 weeks off so I can be suitably ill for a change which makes a change from the busy summer weeks… There’s actually a really good chapter in Geddy Lee’s newest book which talks about the pressure/worries of being the one relying on a larynx, which I found relatable.. Anyway, my gig went well and I got through it fairly unscathed thanks to a side of stage portable steamer 😂

Hey Yahs back up and running after a month. Retirement do at a working man’s club type affair, no horns so tracks used. We fire up the desk and the intermittent fault we’ve been having rears its ugly head at a gig- 7 channels have this weird distorted clock running through them. No clue from the X32 community why it happens. There is a plan be in we could repatch the routing and use spare DIs etc but it’s hassle we don’t need. Fortunately the usual turn it off, unplug, leave it off and hope the best play works. 😅 After that, nice crowd, all into it and our favourite dep keys player is getting more and more comfortable, really good player and locking in nicely.

They are awesome. I’ll be gigging my gold one tomorrow.

Hit me up if you're playing in London and we might work something out 😃 FWIW this is the kind of thing I do when I have a 'proper' camera with me

The only correct way to do a medley:

This is my daughters band (she plays bass) playing one of their original songs at a young bands competition they played last year. There's no single winner in this event but a group of promoters pick their favourite band in the finals to play their festival. They ended up getting three gigs out of it.

I helped my dad’s friend out and he gave me his old amp as a thank you! It’s a beaut! Unfortunately I don’t have room at my place but my folks have it at theirs for when I come over. Very happy chappy!

Last night's set-up. Same as it's been for years.

I'm sad to hear this news. Dave was very generous to me at a time when I was low. In addition he was an understanding soul who made me feel that I was not alone. My sympathy goes to his family and close friends. Rest in peace Dave.

So after years of EUB ownership, becoming empty nesters this year has opened the space opportunity to owning a real doghouse. As mentioned in my other thread requesting advice, I have had this lovely Boosey Hawkes Excelsior 50/2 on loan for a little while and today I have bought her. Previously owned and used by @Blartfactor10 she’s an honest workhorse bass with a great dark tone - perfect for my blue grass / country / Americana acoustic trio 😎