WalMan

A quiet one minus drummer as he had to take his dog to the vet for its final trip today 😢 So a quiet one to run through couple of new songs for key, one tweaked slightly from that originally planned - it may have been due to not pushing so vox hard on the night but it felt better changed. Took the Hard Puncher I picked up from Dood recently into the studio Hartke/Ampeg rig and it was sounding great. Nice clank even with me rolling more bass and less and less top - whoever used the amp last had treble full up and bass rolled way back 😳 Now I like top end bite but that was crazy. Good session working through arrangements and bv’s with loads of too and fro to sort things out. Our drummer has said in the past he’s not been used to how we sometimes work on stuff that in early days of a new song can be a chunk of time concentrating on finding an ending that works running different ideas to refine rather than necessarily just go route one slow down and final splat. That works sure but sometimes it’s good to try other ways, or how to get to the final slow and splat 🙂

Went through my leads bag to get out the Bass Revolt, power supply for that and lead to sit on the sofa and noodle on the Thunderpuncher 😳 while the F1 was on. Guess what…there was the Palmer power supply 🤦🏼‍♂️

Not a bad night last night and local to me, though sadly a bit quiet with an Oasis tribute a couple of hundred yards one way and another band down the road the other. Landlady apologetic but happy as she said she still took plenty of money over the bar. “We love having you here, you’re so professional” So we were playing to a small select bunch, but they were all enjoying themselves and singing along. Band was tight and the sound really good. Loads of compliments from those that were there which was nice. Used the usual rig of: FrankenJazz, Helix Effects, Darkglass Microtubes, BF BigBaby2. Shoes comfortable barefoot. As there was potentially a bit more space than usual I took the bigger pedalboard but the Palmer wall wart that I had at rehearsal on Monday wasn’t in my leads bag so reverted to the Helix. 😡 Must have a search for that or order a spare.

Office conference and we had Supershakers. Apologies if it was you and you had to suffer a bunch of pished tax accountants 🤣🍾🥂🎉

Hope you're feeling better soon! I was testing positive for a fortnight but no gigs as our vocalist was away on hols, and I missed one rehearsal for new stuff. Bad at the beginning with a bad headache, cough, catarrh & blocked sinuses and general meh. Finally tested negative on Saturday morning, which was just as well as I had a call for a last minute dep in the evening

18:40 tonight sat on the sofa wondering whether to get on with some private work while wifey watched the football or some cr@p horror movie on Amazon. 18:44 Facebook message “are you free tonight our bass player just cried off sick?” 19:15 car loaded and on the road to the gig which was thankfully only a few miles down the road. I depped with the band last probably 8-10 years ago so there were some standards in the set and a few I had heard but not played. I took my iPad and found a few on iReal, the rest it was watching the guitarist or keyboard players left hand and busk it. No major clangers and a good drummer (also a dep but has been doing a few with them so he was up to speed) who was easy to lock in with. The keyboard player chucked in a final one not discussed but I sort of knew it and it was pretty straightforward so got through ok. We talked through the set before each one, did a quick yes/no/swap out and call keys during and “no one died” 😁 Only a smallish crowd but they were enjoying themselves and dancing so all in all what was going to be a quiet night in became an unexpected night out playing a load of songs I’d not done in a while, or ever. FrankenJazz, Helix Effects, Aguilar Tonehammer 350 and BF BigBaby2

Ooooh had another thought... somewhere here I have a Kent Armstrong pup in a Wal pup cover 🤔

Looking good 😍. Not long now 😁

Wired is less hassle but another lead to trip over (unless the playing area is so small you can’t move) IMO. It has taken me a while but having bit the bullet and got moulded plugs and a better wireless system I really don’t like to be without them now. The initial outlay is more but averaged out over four years is really not so bad

Saw Nik Kershaw on the first night of his Lyrics & Musings tour. Great night and shows the songs well in a very stripped back largely acoustic show with some light looping and tracks flown in from a laptop (I think though it was also running the screen behind. Tickets were a Christmas present including meet and greet. Unfortunately we didn’t get information on that and missed it, which was a shame but sounds like we weren’t the only ones. That said it may have been as well as I started feeling fluey Thursday, got worse Friday and “oh joy” did a test and have C19 🤧🤢😷

Very nice. Perhaps you can subcontract with Paul to help out with his waiting list!!

At least it wasn't the Park Avenue split with only half the lines from Don't Go Breaking My Heart 🤣 - sadly I can't find the video. I am still mates will all former bandmates, indeed the drummer comes back and sits in with the band (that has been going yonkers) on occasion.. We even get together with the original guitarist from years ago and have a session banging out the old tunes. Still tight with all of them and able to catch changes/mistakes on the fly with a quick look or nod Back in the day said guitarist and original vocalist could clash at times, eventually guitar went, we kept going with a couple of other guitarists, then vocals guitars left and we carried on for a bit with another guitar & vocals, but eventually drums had had enough and went & I followed. Roll on some years and drums vocals & I got together for a showcase with the guitarist from the band the drummer had ended up with and that continued for many years 'til the vocalist emigrated and we enrolled the vocals from the band drummer & guitarist had been in during the interim before the showcase gig. Drums has moved on but we still all get together for parties, Christmas, and sadly most recently funerals Pretty much all splits were amicable though I have memories of difficult moments with the original lot as guitar & vox clashed heads. Did a gig around Easter time. Guitarist thought it would be a good idea to give the audience eggs and got some bags of the candy coated eggs for the vocalist to hand out. Vocalist just hurled handfuls towards the bemused crowd. Guitarist had a hissy and walked off. Thankfully I think it was pretty much the end of the night. Girlfriends throwing their 6p in and screams of "Kev's the worst one" ... a phrase that still gets bandied about on occasion 40 years later 😄 Also had a difficult one with the guitarist in a club band I played with. He was in a bad place and had started drinking...a lot. Driving him and the drummer home from a gig one night he got us to stop by a club so he could go in and get some ciggies. Gone for ages to the point where I was about to say "**** it" leave him to it and tell the doorman to let him know he could find his own way home. But even with him, now he's settled down many years later, I do the occasional dep.

😍 I love a bit of graphite weave 🥰

Don't say that!! I'm just about to try to sell mine with flight case as it sits on the floor in the study/studio and I have other options to use for recording (also I quite fancy, and selling might go a way towards funding, a Darkglass Anagram)

A Barefaced 1x12 however... I have two (and should sell one!). I have only ever used both cabs in anger once and more often than not am being asked to rein it in by the rest of the band

Welcome If you're using a BF BigBaby cab I would suspect it's more down to the amp than the cab

Our singer has for years had a splitter from his mic receiver going to his IEM transmitter and the desk and relied on bleed for everything else. Having got a better Sennheiser system myself, read the manual, checked which system he has and checked its manual I’m suggesting he take his own aux feed and run a mix of the bits he wants (no bv’s) in low focus mode. Got my new moulded plugs but for some reason I can’t get the cable to stay fixed so went back to my old set that have lasted 4 years and will do as spares in future. The new moulds have a bit more mould on them that should keep them in place better. They were a bit more expensive but spreading the cost over 4+ years is worth it IMO. The annoying part is fitting the cables to stay connected. Last set once fixed were good until I needed to replace the cable, then I couldn’t remove them 🤦🏼‍♂️ EDIT: Cable now fixed but it doesn't seem to work. Nothing coming out but checking the new plugs with the lead from the old set they work fine so it seems to be the lead 🤬

Forgot photos. Anyway not a bad night at a venue that is normally busy but slightly less so. Another band on the same circuit as us that generally seem to have a big pull were down the road a couple of miles, though apparently someone went and came back and said it was also quiet there so 🤷‍♂️ I had some major brain fade moments towards the end. Read the set. Saw the song. Thought it was a completely different song and was expecting something different to start which confused the 🤬out of everyone while they started and I caught up. As anticipated from the rehearsal thread putting a new song as the closer for its first outing whilst a bold move was not the best plan. It sort of worked but fell apart at the end and was a close run thing. IEMs worked well though the leads would not stay attached to the new moulds so I had to revert to the old set. Gear was: FrankenJazz Helix effects Darkglass Microtubes Barefaced BigBaby 2 shoes…comfy barefoot Took the Hardpuncher as a spare tonight as it had sounded nice at rehearsal but not so good against the Jazz so that needs some more thought.

Phew... I had a sudden worry having said 21 when what I have is 20, so it'll fit a 20 pocket with an overhang

Not a bad night. Worked through arrangements for two new numbers, one new, the other just as a change of style. The new one took a while but it was all good stuff to sort the ending and work through arrangement of links between verse, chorus, etc.. Then we were looking for a different way of finishing the set for the next gig - landlord (who plays) has the occasional sideways comment of 'always the same songs'. There are certain standards, but we do change the set around and regularly add in new stuff, added to which the guitarist writes the sets and keeps track of what we play and where so things change around. We have, however, been running through variations of: Don't Stop Believing, Don't Stop Me Now, Final Countdown, Living on a Prayer for a while now. Works well, and all bangers for a crowd up for a dance and a sing but it's good to mix it up sometimes. Difficulty is shifting stuff around the set like that in 1) finding equivalents to replace them with, 2) adding some intros; and 3) if they are being moved back in the set not peaking too soon...sticking them into encore options seems a waste. So decisions, decisions that ended up with a suggestion of finishing with the newest song we'd been working on near the end of the evening and quickly sorting tweaks for intros. Runs the risk of falling apart putting it there as its first outing or just being met with blank looks and a killed evening, so fingers crossed!! Good news was that the Tokai Hardpuncher that I acquired recently was bang on it. Sounded great through the studio's Ashdown head / Eden cab combo. Great solid fundamental tone with lovely zing and bite on top of that. It's slightly strange that after years of active 5's I have come back to loving my first J (albeit a FrankenJ with an active pre) and now a P copy with noiseless EMG's. Hipshot d-Tuner/Extender now added to both as I love those.

…and done 😁

The FrankenJazz - Geddy Lee Jazz body, Status neck, Audere Jazz pre, Hipshot d-tuner/extender Line6 HX Effects - I was going to sell this but have started using instead of the bigger pedalboard where space is limited. Rochester compressor always on, a couple of synthy patches, flanger, chorus and a switch for a 6db boost that I managed too step on instead of the chorus at one point 🤦‍♂️ Darkglass Microtubes 500 Barefaced BB2 with the horn at about 50% and stood on the amp case Most of it hiding behind me and our youngest ‘fan’, one of our drummer’s granddaughters

Outside under a gazebo & windy. Down one guitarist - not a problem as we have managed as guitar bass & drums plenty of times before, and evolved out of a band yonks ago that was just that - but guitar was having problems with his TwoNotes pedal switching that gave him a load of alien abduction moments in the first couple of numbers, but we soldiered through and all in all a good afternoon. No IEM's for me but you work with what you have for those gigs. Back to full strength and the usual PA next week. Reasonale crowd up dancing and singing by the end which is always nice. Vocalist again said to me "Your rig was sounding awesome tonight" ... and I have to agree. Had to push it a bit more as no PA support, but a nice twangy growl.