WalMan

Last gig for the year and at a venue that has tried but just not been able to break through for a while now and is closing down - another one bites the dust. Quietish night but those that were there were enjoying themselves so that was ok. Swapping between the Status S2 5er that I have been using as go to for a few years now, and the new FrankenJazz 4 with a Status neck and Hipshot that I am currently loving. Only problem with the latter is the missing string I have been used too and getting back to the mindset of the D-tuner so there were a number of moments where I ended up in the wrong place, either because I normally play in a different position higher up the neck, or I was switched down and hadn’t rethought position 🤦‍♂️ Both basses sounded great in my IEM’s. Crowd video I saw this morning had little bass on it but I am consoling myself that it was shot the wrong side of a pillar to me and right in front of the guitars that were definitely there. First gig out of the Aircast boot since the operation on my ankle in September but I should probably still wear it to stand that long. One of the painkillers I take regularly dropped off my repeat scrip and I didn’t notice and ran out. By the end of last night I was crippled and could barely move. Managed the hour drive home but was virtually immobile by the time I got home so straight to bed with no wind down. Picked up some more this morning so hopefully they will kick in soon 😢

It was certainly my intention at the start of the year

Had I fallen? If not I fell hard in the last couple of weeks with an EBS chorus from TheDaivisch followed quickly by the Geddy/Jazz from Beedster. Oops 😬

GUN with Collateral and Kira Mac at The Brook. Good fun as always singing along though as ever the sound ther was patchy. Collateral had amps onstage so the guitar cut through but was very boomy for me, though a good show and crowd response. Kira Mac looked to be modellers/no amps and the sound tightened up but the guitar wasn’t there. Otherwise good. GUN - cabs but no obvious amps. Sound came and went a bit but I was sat at the back under the balcony (by the desk) so that probably didn’t help. Still a fun evening all in all 🙂

Had a bunch of bladdered lads at one gig who really wanted their mate who was “really good” to get up and do a Suede song in the break. Not our style, no we don’t know it, and no you can’t borrow our instruments or plug you phone into the PA 🤬Maybe you should form your own band. Best one recently was the girl who came up asking if we did any Bon Jovi (at least the right genre) just as our singist belted out “SHOT THROUGH THE HEART…” 🤣

I have a video of my son playing along to another Nik song and getting to the end shouting “stop changing key!!!” 🤣

Indeed it was 🤣🤦‍♂️

For many years before joining here I only played 4’s and having had a fretted, fretless and my original converted to 8 string for a while was down to just the one 4 (Wal) with a d-tuner. Then I joined BassChat and the first of a number of 5’s arrived. In the last 15-20 years I have pretty much exclusively used 5’s and only had the Wal, which has been used mainly for recording projects and hasn’t really come out to gigs. I love 5’s for the extended range and availability of different positions across the neck. Still enjoying 4’s and have just picked up a second to which another d-tuner was added and I used that for a few songs at the gig on Saturday. The d-tuner covers a lot of the extended range I have got used to in recent years once I got back into the swing of switching down and up during songs, and I think it will be getting more outings 🙂

Better shot from beforehand last night when I was happier. Soundcheck and slight hissy fit over FOH annoyances to come. 🙄 Having seen a crowd video today with me using the S1 5 string there seems to be a huge amount of bass through FOH, which I often feel is not the case, so I really don’t know. Felt like it may have been an outlier as I wasn’t getting the level where I was behind the PA 🤷‍♂️

A gig out in the wilds. Having been up to Victoria on Tuesday to meet Beedster and relieve him of his Geddy/Status Jazz and have a bit of a chinwag I got a Hipshot BT2 from Bassdirect on Friday - a fettle even I could manage as a straight replacement for the Hipshot already fitted - and managed to find a spar set of strap lock buttons that fit what I have on the strap at the last minute, so casting caution to the wind I took it along. I spent probably 20 years with just my Wal and a d-tuner before joining here and getting my first 5. Since then I have pretty much exclusively used 5ers live so much the same as that first night all those years ago when I got the 5 and took it to a gig that night despite the muscle memory of the 4 and d-tuner there were some lost moments tonight but no one except the rest of the band noticed I should think. The Frankenjazz sounds great 🥰 Gigwise it went ok. Crowd were good as was the sound generally I think after a shaky start at soundcheck when there was booming and feedback. I am getting a bit peed off that this is a regular occurrence that is embarrassing. 🤬 Still otherwise all went well. New songs came and went well. Crowd singing and dancing so I shouldn’t complain. New bass sounded lovely so there’s a silver lining 😁

Had a meet up with Chris on the concourse at Victoria to finally conclude the saga of the Status/Geddy Jazz. And to be clear it was only a saga as the the listing started while I was laid up with a leg in plaster for 6 weeks after an operation so couldn't travel. Anyway after some tooing & froing I was mobile again in an Aircast and we managed to complete the deal yesterday. A train journey up to Victoria to meet Chris, collect the bass, have a chat and then head back to our respective trains. All easy with good comms. Thanks to Chris for a lovely bass and for travelling down to meet roughly in the middle.

...and I used to read Excise Duty cases, mainly to laugh at the dreadful excuses put forward by people bringing a Transit full of assorted fags and booze saying it was for 'personal use' when it could be easily shown that they would need to be drinking a gallon of spirits and smoking a kilo of rolling tobacco a day to do so. People have done it and got away with it. but they are not fools at points of entry and you run the risk of having your purchase confiscated and losing everything. Similar to trying to get the seller to under declare on the import declaration, or just doing it thinking they are 'helping' you. Parcel gets pulled & Customs see your '63 Precision declared as a £150 Squier. Bye bye Precision & outlay

Not that that makes any difference other than the courier cost, except 🤦🏼‍♂️