Rayman

I did a cartoon of him a while back…. Fantastic bass player.

Khruangbin last night in Manchester. A bit of an odd one…. IMO, the Apollo is not the right venue for this. The band were fabulous of course, but the lighting was abysmal, and the sound questionable. I’d much prefer seeing them at an outdoor festival, in the sun for the chilled vibes they present. I was delighted to have Row A in the circle, thinking I was literally on the front row with a great view and sound. Wrong…. my seat was a ways off to the right with a very restricted view (couldn’t see the drummer) and a bunch of rows in front of me, which seemed to be occupied by the local basketball team. Not the venues fault, but disappointing for me. Also it was freezing! I’m usually too hot at gigs, but I had a zipped up leather jacket on throughout. They’re an amazing band, such fantastic musicians, and if you’re in the mood for chilled grooves they’re the band for you.

I wish I knew? Dave Green has just serviced it literally a couple of months ago. This was the first moment I turned it on since getting it back. It flashed, and tripped half the board in the venue. So, there’s something not right in there somewhere.

The Rigger in Newcastle under Lyme. Great little venue, always fun to play there. My bad luck with amps continues though…. the Ashdown ABM500 head went pop on me, again, so thankfully my trusty little TC BQ500 stepped in. A great sound all around in the end.

Jah Wobble. Absolute legend.

A hot one….. absolutely great crowd too.

Best: Fender Meteora. It took the place of the Thunderbirds for live stuff. Worst: Vox Pathfinder 10 practice amp. Absolutely rubbish.

I know right?

Seeing Jah Wobble on Saturday, Kruangbin in a couple of weeks, then Anthrax a couple of days later

My black ones are too heavy too, although the more battered one sounds fantastic. Weirdly the white one and the red one are lighter and much more gig friendly.

Pahahaha……. I had one of the Squier ones a while back….. I thought it was ok once I’d upgraded almost everything on it! 😆 It can’t be that long ago since Charvel brought out their latest version? You can still buy them, although I really didn’t like the look of them at all. You can also still get the LTD version I think…. I Have to say, for me, I don’t like this new shape either. It’s not the model he’s been playing live? I’m seeing Anthrax in a couple of weeks, it’ll be interesting to see.

Is there a manufacturer that hasn’t made a Frank Bello signature bass?

Pino

Yeah, it’s 5yrs old, and it’s basically silver now. The weird thing is that it’s constantly silver all over, back to front, except where it was covered. Suggests that the clear lacquer is not particularly UV resistant. I love the colour now. The company I work for have a pigment restorer designed to revive the colour, but I decided not to use it.

Well I bought this as my next project. The description on the ad included that the neck had been glued on, probably because the neck screws had stripped the holes in the neck wood. So I expected to find a clumsy looking botch job, but for the price it was worth the risk. Check out the original Lake Placid Blue colour where the pick guard was! Anyway, it turns out the glue was a very nice clean job, the screws are fine, the neck is absolutely solid. You’d never know there was any issue previously. Hated the black aftermarket guard, so off that came. Electrics are all perfect, so just a clean and an inspection, no problems. Absolutely beautiful fretboard, but the frets needed a bit of crowning/filing/polishing…. Next an absolutely fabulous white pearl pick guard from Tim at Scratch It, perfect fit, beautifully made and highly recommended. Brand new EB Slinkys and a full set up, and honestly, this is an absolute stunner of a bass. It looks amazing, plays beautifully and sounds absolutely killer. Sire…… how do they do it?

My milestone bass will be the one I keep for more than 6 months.

It’s a very ethereal moment, the choir, and the perfect way to close the experience. Oh, and thanks, I’ll let Mrs Rayman know 👍🏻

And I admire her even more for it.

This

BBC Philharmonic last night, playing Holsts Planets Suite. What an amazing orchestra. The layers of sound were absolutely mesmerising, and you can’t go wrong with 8 Double Basses. The Bridgewater Hall is the perfect venue, and for once, Mrs Rayman and I felt like youngsters

As above. I ended up putting a 500K volume pot, 250K tone pot and .33 cap, for a kind of all round tone. CTS all the way for me.

Yeah I had one. Good basses. My only criticism was the Epiphone logo on the headstock. I just wish they’d be a little bit more subtle about it. The bass though, was great.

Absolutely

Nah. 40+ years of turnover, three figures in terms of numbers….. I wouldn’t know where to start. There’s pictures of a lot of them in my Dropbox, but there’s so many I’ve long since forgotten about. I remember the first though, a Columbus Jazz, late 70s (it was new then), but between then and now is a blur. I’d probably get very depressed if I started thinking about all the amazing basses I’ve let go.