casapete

Really feel for you Andy, and hope that you can make some progress following your appointment in June. Take care, all the best.

Just got an email offering 10% discount on orders before June 4th 2018. Code to use at the checkout is GDPBLAH Cheers.

Great tunes, all of 'em. KC and the Sunshine Band did some great stuff and pioneered 'disco' styles before everyone else jumped onboard, as well as masterminding the sublime 'Rock your baby' by George McCrae.

I suspect I'm not really the ideal demographic for such an event, but when I looked at the list below there seemed to be plenty of newer type acts appearing alongside the more established bands? https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/efj3v2/artists/by/a-z

I knew a guy like that. He used to (annoyingly) put his cases behind him on stage for easy access too. Whilst I'm all for a reasonably smartish get out of a gig, I really don't get what the rush is to save a few minutes afterwards, and it can give the wrong impression to bookers if the band are rushing around as soon as the last note has died away. Our band used to call them 'Doris Day' gigs ( quick pack away, quick pack away etc.... apologies to younger BC ers.)

When I was in function world, we often couldn't pack down until the end of the gig so inevitably 'mingling' occurred before that. Some members of the band could mingle so much they were useless at the pack down anyway.....

Amazing line up, but I didn’t manage to watch all of it so will try and see more on catch up. Of the stuff I did see - Florence and the Machine - just don’t get it at all. Dodgy vocal and dreary songs. Squeeze - excellent , with Yolanda Charles on bass sounding fab too. Liam G - okay but the vocal gets in the way for me after a while. Noel G - enjoyed it, and nice encore of the Beatles ‘All you need is love’ Sam Smith - another artist I don’t get. His voice is just a succession of vowel sounds... Billy Ocean - lots of great tunes, bass and drums sounded excellent too. Christine and the Queens - wasn’t sure if she was miming in places? Ed Sheeran - good performance as usual. Paloma Faith - enjoyed her set, band sounded excellent.

+1 for a s/h Fender Rumble 500 V3. You may just get lucky in your price range, but they don't come up that often (for good reason!). If you do decide to go heavy, there are some great Trace Elliot bargains to be had if you do a bit of digging. For example these two heads - https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-bass-amplifiers/trace-elliot-ah250/1299245893 https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-bass-amplifiers/trace-elliot-ah350x-350w-bass-amp-head.-used-and-in-good-cosmetic-and-working-order./1294505807 Would leave a fair amount of your budget for a suitable cab too

I used to be a bit like that, till I had issues with my shoulder and hand that makes a high action too much. When playing guitar I still prefer the action a bit higher than most I think, can't be doing with stupidly low sets ups that rattle and choke etc. Mind you, I also prefer big round necks too, so must be a bit of a masochist

One of the first 45's I ever bought was 'I'm a man' by Chicago, on the old orange CBS label. It had this amazing song on the B side, which blew my 11 year old mind at the time. Didn't get the first 1.15 of piano TBH, but then when the full thing kicks in, wow! Swings like crazy, and started me off in my appreciation of great brass sections.

Dep bass player and hire the PA to them.

One of the few brands that I’ve never played a bad example of is Musicman. Sure, there’s been ones I’ve preferred over others, but their excellent quality has always been pretty consistent to me. Maybe the one you tried had been messed with or something? Agree with you about Yamaha too - never tried a duffer, even the cheaper ranges.

Shouldn't that just read '....was cheap' ?!!

+1 to both posts above. As Lozz said, Fender Rumble range all punch above their weight in volume and tones available, are lightweight and priced fairly IMO. Great amps - the 200 or 500 combos will see you well through most gig scenarios.

That's what I thought when I first saw it TBH. My mate who sent it said there are others on YouTube nearly as bad though, so am guessing it's for real.

I’ve tried a couple of Taylor GS Mini basses and loved them! One man’s meat etc.....

Did a gig in central Paris with my band. Took a Transit and a car, and didn’t have any problems - no worse than any other major city anyway. Agree with the comment above regarding bump parking though - saw evidence of it a lot. Check that you have what you need for driving in France now -spare bulbs, reflective jackets, warning triangle etc. Also an updated sat nav, and check if you need the recently introduced ‘Clean Air’ stickers for your vehicle.

Someone brought a Taylor AB2 acoustic electric in to my weekly pub gig for me to try. Really expensive when new, but it completely underwhelmed me. Maybe due to a poor setup and old strings, but I just couldn’t see the attraction at all, despite usually liking Taylor stuff. My Washburn AB20 played and sounded so much better, to me anyway. Tried a friend’s vintage 1960’s Epiphone Rivoli a while ago, which he’d just acquired. Couldn’t believe how it played and sounded - muddy doesn’t even begin to describe it, and then there was a bass boost switch too which made it more or less unusable to these ears. Add in some serious neck dive and dodgy intonation and you have an expensive ornament really - it did look the business though in faded tobacco sunburst.

Apparently he sang the choruses on the original recording, with David Paich handling the verses. So you would think the choruses at least would be okay?!!

Anybody seen this? Looks amazing. ATB Guitars in Cheltenham do sell some choice vintage stuff. They also have a mint 1980 MM Stingray in at the moment. https://www.atbguitars.com/store/product/1965-fender-jazz-bass-sonic-blue-ohsc-nr-mint-1965fjbsb/

Friend of mine sent me this - thought it was a spoof at first, but not so sure now. Anyone else seen it? Bobby Kimball, formerly of Toto. Was never a fan of the song, but this takes it to a new level! Bass player's face says it all I think.