bassbiscuits

Nice pic from last weekend’s Brew Beat festival in Leicester city centre with the Andy Wales Band.

Been using these for years with both guitar and bass. Firm enough to have an attack but enough give in them to be comfortable. I usually have a handful stashed in my wallet and a couple readily available at gigs (often tucked into my cabinet between the grill and the cloth).

Played the BrewBeat festival in Leicester city centre on Saturday afternoon. V interesting band on the bill before us called NFQ - sort of mix of jazz and breakbeats etc with some tasty upright and fretless bass playing too. We (the Andy Wales Band) were on mid afternoon - decent sized crowd, lots of people saying nice things afterwards. I took my Ashdown ABM, my two Markbass 2x10 cabs and my Yamaha BB604. Had it properly cranked too and it sounded good. Managed to dodge the rain too. ps I nicked the pic below off social media - no idea who originally took it but it’s a good shot!

I missed out on Oasis in their heyday (I was around, just not listening to them) so unfortunately my connection with Oasis songs is second-rate pub bands in any town centre on a weekend evening mashing out Wonderwall and Don’t Look Back in Anger for drunk punters to sway along to. It’s a “no thanks” from me. Though I appreciate if they meant something to you back in the day then this reunion is exciting news.

Whatever

Likewise! An 850, a 940, a V40 and currently borrowing the mother in laws V70.

Labella flats = the Volvo 940 of bass strings.

I get really stressed out by having gear I don’t use. I’ve got the amount I need plus one for spare. That’s it. Not wealthy enough to be a collector unfortunately, so unless it’s getting used it goes up for sale.

I bought a Darkglass microtubes to add some vintage grit/drive to my tone. I don’t think I’ve ever used it. My band no longer does the one song it would have been good on….

Likewise. I like the valve character of it but it doesn’t really do a raspy gritty drive for me. Warm and organic yes, but not overdriven. That’s what my Microtubes pedal is for.

I’m always the guy bringing spares, and often the only one. 9v batteries are my bugbear - they’re about £5 for a decent one, but if someone needs a spare it then feels a bit mean asking for it back at the end of a gig. Gets expensive quickly tho. I’ve got a sports bag with all my leads, mics, plugs, adaptors, tools etc which just tracks between gigs. I try not to take much out of it for home use cos it upsets my slightly anal system!

I wanted to hate Axl/DC but it sounded great to me. If anything I struggle to listen to long periods of Brian’s voice, however much I love the band. Steven Tyler’s voice has always been ace though. There probably are other singers who could replace him live but it wouldn’t be the same - he’s such a visual part of the band (then again who’d have imagined Adam Lambert covering for Freddie would work?).

Can we add Walk of Life to that hall of shame? Ghastly song on an otherwise sublime album.

A pair of 2003 Yamaha BB604 basses. If I’ve understood the serial numbers correctly they were made within the same month of each other at the same factory in Taiwan, but found themselves 20 years later together in my ownership. They are identical, apart from one having strap locks and a lot more wear and tear, while the newer one to me has had the machine heads swapped to Gotoh’s by a previous owner. They sound identical, play identically and weigh exactly the same amount. I’m putting them to good use don’t worry.

In my view, definitely. I thought Crue were quite cool when they signed those contracts a few years ago to prevent them from working together again - they could have gone out on a high and in quite a quirky way if they’d stuck to that. I’ve never seen Crue live, but the recent stuff I’ve seen online doesn’t show them at their best. I appreciate it’s their livelihood, people will still pay to see them and it’s probably hard to just stop anyway, but I think it’s time for them to call it a day. I totally appreciate that other people might think differently though and that’s ok. I’m not in charge of anything!

Agree 100% @Cato Permanent Vacation and Pump were a quality 1-2 pair of albums, right up there with Get Your Wings, Toys in the Attic and Rocks from their 1970s heyday. They were newly clean and still young enough to be fiery and energetic. More ballads started creeping in after that, along with more outside writers and much longer between albums. But yeah under the current circumstances it’s the right choice I think.

So Aerosmith have officially announced they are retiring from touring as Steven Tyler’s throat problems are more serious than thought and he’s unlikely to fully recover. Such a bummer. An absolutely awesome band, one of my favourite lead singers ever alongside Freddie and Bon, but entirely understandable. I’d hate to see a band limping on despite being below par (as sadly so many older performers persist in doing). I don’t imagine for a second young Steven Tyler imagined he’d still be performing in his 70s anyway, so he’s had a hell of a run. The only time I got to see them was at Download in 2010 when they blew me away. Absolute legends.

Headlined the Friday night of the Summer Sounds festival in Guisborough with the Elton tribute. Quite a hike from Leicestershire (not helped by closure of section of the M1 due to an accident plus general Friday afternoon traffic). Good gig tho, and a proper summer’s evening there. Decent sized crowd, friendly chilled atmosphere and a good blast to play. Dug out my P bass with flats which I haven’t used for a while and really enjoyed playing.

Along the way I’ve played Alexandra Palace Great Hall, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Edinburgh Queens Hall, Hall for Cornwall in Truro, a couple of big summer festivals in the UK and Europe. The Princess Charlotte in Leicester several times along with Leicester De Montfort Hall with various different bands. I love venues which look great from the stage, so on that alone I’d love to play the Albert Hall and Glastonbury.

My cheap and cheerful Yamaha FG512J acoustic guitar. It lives in the stand next to my bass and is the one I wander around the house playing.

I use them all the time - one each side of my cabs. They are meant to go around horizontal handles on cabs, but will just as easily Velcro onto to the side of any furry cab. I do a lot of dep work and never sure how much space onstage I’ll get so they’re handy to create a self contained little corner for me and my basses. As mentioned above, basses don’t get chipped as they naturally sit on the strap pin so unless the stage is made from particularly craggy rock you’ll be ok.

A few I’d like to have back if I could, but no massive regrets. Fortunately I’ve sold only the basses/guitars that I don’t strictly need - cool things which were ultimately not very versatile or weren’t getting used for whatever reason. If I had more money I’d have kept my Epi Jack Casady, my MIJ Mustang bass, a cream Sandberg TT4 that I’ve seen back in Basschat since, along with guitars including a peachy SG Junior and an Epi Casino, plus some old bombproof Peavey amps I had. But yeah I can live without them.

I wasn’t thinking so much of places being unsafe - I was thinking more like festivals and multi-band gigs where half the time my kit is chucked in some compound while waiting for our slot etc.