Rayman

Anything with “Yamaha” on it is fabulous. From my old BB3000S to an RBX175 I had, and a whole bunch of others in between, everything they make is great. One of my current favourites is an RBX A2 5, which is absolutely superb. I recorded with it last week and sounded immense, great low B.

I have one somewhere, but I upgraded the electrics to Vol/Vol/Tone CTS etc. I have a feeling that it was Volume, Blend, Tone originally. Sorry that isn’t a definitive answer.

Easily my best acquisition was this Hohner fretless jazz, used, from a BCer, I’ve upgraded the electrics to CTS etc and put a Fender high mass bridge on it, everything is as it was. The pickups are awesome, stock I presume, and the neck is lovely…. Its for a specific album track we’re recording, and I haven’t put it down since. The worst thing I bought was an Ibanez SR506 that doesn’t work, but possibly my own fault to be fair. It’ll be the first project of 2026.

A couple of decent gigs….. loving the P bass and favouring the TC BQ500 & 4x10 at the moment. One night in Leeds…. and one in Stoke…. Both fun ones, and the new songs seemed to go down well.

Glenn Hughes last night at the Ritz in Manchester. Still absolutely fabulous, I love his pick playing, and his voice…. Absolutely mesmerising, still, at 74yrs old. Amazing performance. Sophie Lloyd supported and came onto join in on Burn. She’s a decent guitarist, although her stuff wasn’t really my bag.

Absolutely my all time favourite player, and he rarely gets any credit….. the bass lines for XTC on Drums and Wires or Black Sea, are absolutely outstanding and completely original. Nobody sounds like that…. go and listen to Roads Girdle The Globe from Drums and Wires, and give your ears a treat.

I do it all for us, but unless there’s a joke to be had, usually at the expense of someone in the audience, I keep it to a minimum. I think it’s important to have a bit of chat between songs… but the big no no as far as I’m concerned, is introducing individual bands members. Literally nobody cares.

Yeah I don’t think I’ve seen a Steinberger in the flesh, it’d be interesting to try one. This Hohner sounded surprisingly big, and much darker than the P bass. It was a nice contrast.

Good one last night. I used the TC rig rather than my usual Ashdown, and it sounded great, lots of clout via the 4x10. The P bass was magnificent as always, but it was a lot of fun using the Hohner B2 for a D tuned number. Cool venue and a very lovely audience.

The Blossoms, Stockport. Great little venue. Leaf is the promoter, not the new name of the band. Our smallest setup due to the size of the place, so just the ABM500 combo, but it sounded pretty good, although I could’ve done with raising it up a bit. The P bass was great, a bit zingy with new strings, but very happy with it. Cool little gig.

Yeah I knew you were a Stranglers fan. I’m really looking forward to recording it on the new record. It should be a great partner to the Thunderbird, which is already sounding ace on the first couple of songs. Also it’s going to be fantastic live.

2004 with the S1 switch…… I’m not entirely sure where that falls in terms of models.