WalMan

Not a bad one for the final before one guitarist and vocalist jet off to sunnier climes. New bar opening down the road and a big puller just out of town so I held out little hope for the usual noisy night for our venue, but it was reasonably busy and they were up for it…so go in glass half empty and be pleased by half full worked. A couple of us suffering from the start of this *****y cold doing the rounds but didn’t affect us too much. The odd fluff, but “no one died” and I doubt the crowd noticed. next up for me a couple of deps at the end of January and rehearsal/get together to make some noise pre-Christmas for my first band from 45 years ago (unless any more deps come in the meantime)

Lazuli at Trading Boundaries tomorrow night

Odd one yesterday. Not sure what it was exactly possibly three of us tired from the previous nights travels to see Barock Project & Tiger Moth Tails @ Trading Boundaries (both great but I digress). Early evening gig (16:30-19:00) at a venue that has had some difficulties in recent months with management changes & the regulars falling out with one of the interim managers, but hopefully that is starting to be behind them now. For our part a lot of silly mistakes, cues missed wrong songs started, but it ended up a good early evening gig despite it all. Sound wise (and I suppose don't trust sound quality of punters phone videos!) I was told "don't get any louder after the break as it's right on the verge". Sound from a punter video in front of me was OK. The bass sounded nice but was getting marginal for level against guitars & vox - my excuse being I have IEM's so have to trust the sound guy & others to let me know. Then again from a different punter the other side of the bar everything sounded a bit indistinct, and I am trusting that that was down to a phone's mic shutting everything down. Band Christmas dinner this week then one more before the vocalist disappears to sunnier climes over the holidays.

Indeed…and first ticket out of the bucket having said I never win 🤩 Only had a quick noodle on the LFSys cabs at the end of the but look and sound good, so more choices for cabs.

Destination sent to the car and part loaded just need to plug in for a little top up…see you tomorrow 🤪

I have a couple of unused NY 130 gauge B-strings (one tapered, one not) that I can add to this as I’ll not use them

I remember being put in charge of the footswitch for the smoke machine but not being told it only needed a short press to get a reasonable spread. Cue me standing on it for far too long as nothing appeared to be happening, and the pub being completely filled and resembling a scene from The Fog 🤣 On another occasion my bandmates previous band that carried a big stage show of props and costumes (think The Tubes or Alice Cooper) had an idea to create a dry ice waterfall from over the lights behind the drummer (old PARcans that created a lot of heat in pre LED days). Rigged a tube from the machine to the light bar. Came to use the effect during the set but by the time the cloud got to the end of the tube it had largely condensed so instead of a nice cloud effect the drummer was sat under a cold shower 🤦‍♂️🤣

That set up was just messing about in the studio and I can't remember which amp went into which bit, but probably the Streamliner to the BB2 and Boogie to the One10's For gigs I use either the One10’s or one or two (though not often) of the BB2’s. If I'm feeling up to it for the proggy gigs I might use one BB2 for bass and the other for basspedals (McMillen 12Step into either a soft synth on the iPad or a DSI MoPho) The Boogie has gone now. I tend to use a Darkglass Microtubes 500 sat atop the Streamliner as a spare or for smaller venues an Aguilar Tonehammer 350 on either the One10's or a BB2. There's also an LH500 knocking around in a flight case though that's getting less use at the moment.

Sadly no. Not pictured was the Super12t since sold and replaced with another BB2 🙄😁

Definitely the S2. No idea about the S1, it’s red everywhere except the front of the neck, but I think so

Not a bad night. Last gig at the pub for the landlord & landlady (though we’ve since heard that the new licensees intend to carry on having bands so we’ll see. TV on for the rugby and prior to that p155ed punters doing karaoke while we set up (oh joy). Then one of said punters decided they could play ‘guitar’ (I think you mean bass dear but let’s let that pass) so could they have a go to show their prowess? Not on that bass you can’t (Status S1) but knock yourself out with this one (beaten up FPPR S1 that SEBB attendees from years ago will remember Barney had for sale for years, plays and sounds great but looks in a state and one for the tightest of gigs where I don’t want to worry about knocks). So she strummed aimlessly for a while til I got bored and stood on the Microtubes mute footswitch and said “Oh no! You’ve broken it”. Otherwise the gig went well despite mullered punters spilling drinks everywhere, but all singing along and no major foul ups by the band so not so bad. Slightly marred by landlord getting into a domestic over how he’d dealt with a punter that rumbled on while we packed up and tried not to get drawn in. 🫣

I can bring my lined G&L L2500

I think I left it with Hamster last year, 😁 don’t think it went back in the raffle 🤞

Going to see The Flower Kings in Southampton next Thursday, then a couple of nights of Barock Project in November & Lazuli in December

It's always thundered on, though there was one night when it blew a fuse that got replaced temporarily with one from a mates Moggie Minor to finish the night 😳 We were young and lived through it, thought as he is/was an electrician & now teaches young sparks he should probably have known better!!

Good fun last minute dep with Imposter Syndrome last night. Booked for it Wednesday evening. Worked through the proposed set Thursday evening. Flew by the seat of my pants Friday. Got through relatively unscathed with plenty of eye contact and knowing nods. Crowd were happy so any fluffs passed them by😁 A load of songs that’ll be standards for others, but I don’t listen to as a matter of course or have ever really played (Ruby, Dakota, I Predict a Riot, etc.,) but survived. First gig with the new car and its voluminous boot which was nice. Took the small rig (two BF One10’s and Tonehammer 350 with a couple of spare amps) and they disappeared into the recesses with room to spare. The band all use IEM’s so ran a line to mine through the Behringer PM1 and mixed with Mixing Station on my iPad

Talking to someone recently who is/was all for the B-word but, isn’t that lucky, qualifies for an Irish passport through his mother 🤬

Giving Lifesigns - Live in The Netherlands another blast after seeing them at Trading Boundaries again a couple of weeks ago. Great bass sound from Jon Poole

Had a through the for a Heath Robinson method for cheaper stereo IEM using the Aviom kit I think our sound guy still has, but would it work / be worth the effort. - Aviom submixer stereo out into a splitter - two Xvive U4 transmitters running different channels - two Xvive U4 receivers into a stereo y cable - y cable into Behringer P2 I suppose it should work but there’s a lot of potential breaks in the chain Edit: probably easier and cheaper to use a Sennheiser XSW 🤦‍♂️

I’ve done a few deps in recent months so have been learning quite a few bits and bobs. So many are 4 chord wonders I keep finding myself thinking I need to sit down and learn these songs, sit down with a Spotify playlist, and get bored after the first verse. Years ago an earlier band, who I’m still working with on various recording projects and the occasional gig, used to spice things up at gigs where we were playing originals on occasion by having a quick run through of a new cover in the break and playing it in the encore. Can’t say we actually learnt then it was just our memory of the song and busk it 🤣

…and there’s a raffle but mostly it’s a lot of fun chatting about basses, gigging, gear, and trying stuff you might not otherwise get a chance to try. The only downside to a bass bash (or being a member on BC) is the inherent risk of serious GAS 🤣 I went years happy with one bass and one amp…now don’t ask 🤪😳🫣🤣

Read the book 🤣