casapete

Guilty as charged m’lud! 😆 I think it’s more a case of knowing that ‘famous’ people will generally be guaranteed to do a great job and not make your band seem incompetent. Having said that, over the years we’ve had one or two names (who were probably a little bit ‘tired and emotional’ ) get up to play who on reflection maybe shouldn’t have! All good fun though.

With our duo we have a policy of never letting people get up at all - once you do then you’re forever getting people wanting to have a go. In the blues band I play with, it’s a touch more relaxed - had a couple of drummers get up with us at the weekend ( see previous post above) , one who was pretty grim and the other bloody amazing - ex Status Quo drummer Jeff Rich. Lovely bloke too.

Ah, the trick is not to tell them you’ve bought a job lot, just have one or two handy for yourself if you need them, and then keep your used ones to give out to the unprepared ones ( okay, guitarist) 😆

Not my favourite Springsteen album by a long way, but still has some gems - My hometown, Cover me, I’m on fire and even Dancing in the dark which I didn’t like on first hearing but grew into doing so after it being everywhere.

I suffered the same situation in a previous band, where people knew I’d always have some new spares. Incidentally though mine worked out around only a quid each - Duracell Procells via eBay if buying a box of 10. Made the loss a bit easier to bear!

Played our monthly Sunday late afternoon gig at The Sun Inn in Beverley. Very quiet when we arrived so we were worried the great weather had kept people at home having BBQs in their gardens. However around 4.30pm people started to come in so by the time we kicked off at 5pm it was getting full. Plenty of requests, ranging from Tony Bennett through to Del Amitri and George Ezra. Some old friends in too so great to have a catch up in the breaks. Fortunately I also remembered to take my big electric fan otherwise the heat would have been a problem- as it was I’d just restrung my Ibanez bass and had to tune every couple of songs. Ended up doing a couple of encores before finishing around 8.30pm. Really enjoyable gig.

Wonderful amps. Had a lot of GK stuff over the years, my favourite being my 800RB which I must have now owned for maybe 20 years (pic below).The 400RB in the same series sound very close to this one and as you say, are loud things. The later models such as the 700RB and 1001RB are also brilliant amps, just not quite the same as the earlier ones though IMHO. I used the 1001RB for over 10 years touring and it never missed a beat. When you can get quality class AB amps like this that weigh around 22lbs, it does narrow the advantage class D lightweight amps usually have. I had the MB800 and MB500 and liked both, but the RB models are still my favourites.

I’m generally not a fan of shouty / football crowd types of songs, so glad I managed to avoid doing it. In one of my old bands we did ‘Chelsea Dagger’ which I absolutely hated, but to be fair always went down well towards the end of the evening.

Of course, that’s the chap! Remember seeing him doing ‘Swords of a thousand men’ on TOTP. Quite pleased he wasn’t in the pub as well last night though, don’t think I could have busked that one from memory. 😆

I was playing with blues band The Alligators in Bridlington last night at The Stirling Castle in the town centre. Nice pub that puts regular live music on, with great staff and manager. I love it when you are greeted with a smile and offer of a beer! Used my passive Precision Lyte into a Rumble 500 watt 2x10 combo raised off the floor due to no space - actually quite liked it a bit higher. Also utilised ear plugs as didn’t want my ears ringing - even though it’s only a 3 piece with a 15 watt Vox and a small PA the levels can be deceptively high. Playing area was quite small, even for a 3 pc band like ours. After an initial problem with the mains supply we got set up and started around 9pm to a reasonable sized crowd. During the break ( 2x45 min sets) our guitarist Tony was chatting with an old band mate of his, who it turned out is getting married today so was out with some friends for a few beers. As he is a drummer, inevitably he got up to play a song with us which was okay although he was a tad inebriated. Told us his best man today is Tenpole Tudor, who we are old enough to remember! Another of his pals we got chatting to was Jeff Rich, another drummer who was with Status Quo for over 15 years. A lovely bloke, who we got up to play as well - he wanted to do a blues shuffle sort of thing, so I sang ‘Farther up the Road’, made famous by Bobby Bland and later Eric Clapton. Jeff was an absolutely amazing player, so strong yet subtle and groovy as. Really enjoyed playing with him, and so nice to meet someone with no edge or ego, just a fabulous musician. May be some pics with him kicking around that I’ll add later. (now added!) Got home around 1am, bit knackered today though.

Ha ha, know what you mean. I quite like the neck pickup on a Tele, and also the struggle of setting up an amp to cope between the massive difference in tone they offer on neck and bridge pickups! Great guitars once you can get that sweet spot though. If your Tele front pick up is as bad as you describe, maybe it needs some attention? I have a Baja model Tele and it is fairly lively on all settings.

Agreed, down to the OP to decide the cost of his nostalgic refurb. When I was at school in the early 70’s, Eko guitars were often the first ‘reasonable’ guitar people had. I had an Eros jumbo which was quite similar - bolt on neck and very overbuilt but at least they stood a lot of rough use (without luxuries like hard cases to carry them around in) and played okay as well. Think the Eko brand has recently made a resurgence with some reissues too.

I’m playing with a blues band soon at a wedding! Both bride and groom have seen & enjoyed the band at many gigs, but I have a feeling their family and friends might not be so keen. Same as tribute bands doing weddings / family celebrations really - you probably have very little chance of entertaining all ages and tastes unless it’s a wide ranging genre such as soul / glam / disco etc.

Have a look at www.projectguitarparts.co.uk They have listed a set of 6 Eko Ranger machine heads for £34. From the picture of them they seem to have the same screw configuration as yours. 🙂

Another seaside jaunt for us this Friday.

Old Peaveys are legendary for their survival! My old Mk4 bass head from the 80’s is still in use and has never missed a beat, besides being used as a hire rig. The amp tech guy I use always swore by their build quality and design too. Unfortunately ( as with many manufacturers ) things seemed to start to slide downhill during the late 90’s.

Thanks Dave. The guitarist uses a vintage Vox AC15 amp, which sounds wonderful but is quite loud! I couldn’t believe the PA set up too - a pair of Nova 10inch speakers ( made many years ago by my good friend Lynn Blakeston, a local legend), and they are powered by a truly ancient / vintage ( depending on your viewpoint) Peavey mixer amp, probably a PA-300. It doesn’t have XLR mic connections, just good old jacks. Incredibly, it doesn’t sound half bad either. Somehow matches the band’s ’old school’ vibe!

Sky Arts tonight (Sunday) have two Jeff Beck programmes - Live at Ronnie Scott’s at 7pm, followed by Jeff Beck Story at 9pm.

White spirit to clean them and Vaseline for lubrication ( never thought I’d be writing that here…) Avoid WD40 and light oils as they can make a mess and drip everywhere.

Pub gig last night with blues band The Alligators. Venue was The Queens in Bridlington old town. Strange layout with a high stage somehow reminiscent of an old galleon! Lively sounding room so was pleased my Fender Rumble 500 combo coped with it okay. Used my Precision Lyte, which did the job rather well. One of those gigs where there was a constantly changing audience, probably due to a few other boozers nearby with other entertainment going on, so got used to seeing new faces all night. Only my 3rd gig with the band ( and just the 2nd time on bass! ) but it went pretty well - I didn’t drop any huge clangers and managed to style out the rest ( I think! ). Will need to be digging out some ear protection from now on though, am just not used to pub band levels. Next gig is this Friday, also in Bridlington town at The Stirling Castle. Apologies for the rather ordinary photos, it was better than it looked, honest!

Big rig - GK 800RB into BF Compact ( or occasionally my Loud 4x10 ) Not so big - Fender Rumble 500 combo Even smaller rig - Fender Rumble 100 combo. Just started playing with a blues band and wondering whether it’s a good excuse to change things around a bit though. 😊

I’d be up for it 👍

I'm back with blues band 'The Alligators' this Saturday 3rd August at The Queens Hotel on the High Street in Bridlington's Old Town. After my last outing with them on guitar I am fortunately back on bass 😆 Looking forward to it.

I've just found out that we need to play 'Tempted' by Squeeze at our pub gig tonight with the acoustic duo. I absolutely love this song but strangely enough have never played it. The original is in 'B' I believe, but due to vocal constraints we are doing it in 'A'. Just had a listen and glad I have time to run through it - one of those songs that sounds simple enough but (like a lot of Difford&Tilbrook songs) has some interesting chord progressions. Great bassline too by local lad Jon Bentley. Hopefully it should be okay - if it goes down well then we can do it more regularly.