casapete

Another Sunday night acoustic duo gig at one of my favourite venues, The Lookout Cafe in Scarborough. We were the first to use their new PA set up, which consists of a pair Turbosound Milan powered cabs. A definite improvement on their previous Alto cabs, with a crisper high end. Sound man Bob was well pleased with them, and one or two customers noticed the difference too. Anyway, a busy night with requests, including quite a few we’ve rarely or never done before - ‘Summertime’, ‘Blackbird’, ‘New York state of mind’ and ‘Downtown’. ( Some of these made even more difficult for me due to a very attractive & slightly inebriated lady dancing nearby ). We are next there at the end of November, and then also at their Christmas party in December. and here for @Mickeyboro Milestone Acoustic Duo Ibanez PCBE12MH bass into Fender Rumble 100 combo / DI into house PA. The Lookout on The Pier, 18, West Pier Scarborough.

I've been reading up on Quincy following his death and plenty of stuff I didn't realise about him. For example, never knew he produced these two pop belters for Lesley Gore in the early 60's -

For anyone interested, here’s a picture of my 63 Precision in the hands of its previous owner! Jeff Ramsdale was originally in Hull band ‘Roger Bloom’s Hammer’, who had a good go at breaking into the big time. They were signed to CBS and supported quite a few famous bands in the late 60’s including T.Rex. When Roger departed they carried on as ‘The Hammer’, and as well as Jeff they had Rod Temperton in the band of Heatwave / Quincy Jones /Michael Jackson fame. When The Hammer broke up, Jeff carried on playing, and the picture below is him with my bass playing at The Hofbrauhouse in Hull, probably in the late 70’s. By then someone had made a strange scratchplate for the bass which you can see. I played in a couple of bands with Jeff after this and the bass was refinished in a sort of mustard yellow by Rokas in London. Sadly Jeff died in a tragic car accident, and I was contacted by his family a year or two later to see if I wanted to buy his bass . When I went round to see it, it wasn’t in a good state after being kept in a loft for a while. After acquiring it I had it refinished to natural, and Paul did a great job of making the horrible holes from the previous scratchplate look like knots in the wood. Fortunately the original plate was still intact, and that’s how it’s remained for nearly 40 years. It’s a lovely bass, not heavy and sounds like a good P.bass should - will remain with me till I’ve departed.

Here’s my Precision , 61 years old and mine for nearly the last 40. Refinished in the late 80’s by Paul McNab (Paulman guitars of Huddersfield).

I have a Rumble 500 combo, and it’s great! Use it in a blues rock 3 piece with a loud guitarist and it doesn’t struggle at all. Easy lift, compact and sounds ace. Many people who bought the 2x10 extension that goes with these have never needed to use them, the combo being enough on it’s own.

Went to see ‘Fire and Rain’ last night at Howden’s Shire Hall. Second time seeing this band who play James Taylor and Carole King stuff. Couple of friends play with them, and it was a fabulous night. Probably around 100 people in this great venue, and the sound using the house PA and engineer was knockout. Tom Townsend in particular was outstanding on guitar and vocals, but the whole band were exemplary.

Reckon it’s that or the teeth then…. Seriously, get a pack of 5 for around a fiver off eBay and see if he can adjust.

Some interesting old stuff on BBC4 tonight, including Santana in concert from 1976 at 10.55, and an OGWT special featuring the Average White Band at 12.05am in a concert from 1975.

On a maple board that has a finish applied then just a damp cloth does the job. For unfinished boards I think Ernie Ball does a product that is suitable ( for Stingrays etc), but never used it on mine.

A true legend, always the number one hired gun if you wanted that fast picking style he became famous for. Seen Albert many times and met him too, he’s a lovely humble man who is just so talented. I actually prefer his playing when it’s not all 100mph solos, and as ezbass says, he also plays wonderful piano as well as having a great voice - he toured with Don Everly during the years the brothers split, and covered Phil’s parts. Albert kindly arranged for us to meet Don and Phil in Lincoln after a gig when they were touring over here together, which was terrific. Albert is 81 this December and still doing it, long may he continue. 😊

Great venue - unfortunately I’m working or else I would have been there. Hope you have a good one.

Played at our monthly local pub residency last night with the acoustic duo. By the time we’d got set up it was rammed, standing room only etc. Plenty of requests as a result with many of a Halloween nature, including ‘Don’t fear the reaper’, ‘Spooky’, ‘Bad moon rising’, and ‘Highway to hell’. Finished off with the inevitable ‘Bat out of hell’ which we managed without laughing too. Took my usual Ibanez electro acoustic and also a Squier SS Jaguar that a mate of mine wanted me to try. Plugged it straight into our Yamaha powered mixer and it sounded fine so ended up using that just for a change. Nice not having to worry about feedback for once, found it quite liberating! Not sure about how it fits in with the ‘acoustic duo’ image though, so don’t think it will become a regular thing.

Amen to that! 😆

I think Bob was replaced by Annie Nightingale, and then Mark Ellen and David Hepworth after her. Richard Skinner also presented OGWT, not sure when though - possibly towards the end of it’s run.

Johnnie certainly had a colourful career - from Radio Caroline (somewhat ironically) to BBC Radio 1, then leaving for California when he was told not to play any album tracks on his show, only to return years later to the BBC subsequently getting temporarily suspended over a cocaine scandal in 1999. 😧

A friend of mine plays there occasionally and has nothing but good things to say about it. Northern Guitars has been there for 25, maybe 30 years and used to be run by a guy called Dusty who was a top bloke and quite a character. I’ve bought and traded a few instruments from there over the years. One time I was looking at a Yamaha bass which was in a case on the floor, apparently they had just bought it in. Felt a firm hand on my shoulder and a big feller telling me not to move as it was his guitar that had been stolen a couple of nights ago, and he thought I was the culprit! He apologised when the staff told him I was just browsing, and I left them to sort it out. 😆

I’m guessing you’re referring to Rich Tone Music in Sheffield? If so, I’d agree with you - they appear to be doing well with the s/h market, and seem like good people to deal with too. I went in earlier this year and was impressed with both the stock and also the friendliness/knowledge of the staff.

I remember listening to the Tuesday chart rundown at school in the lunch hour! Johnnie was all about the music ( no gimmicks etc) right through his 58 years of broadcasting.

Johnnie Walker is bowing out from his long radio career today on Radio 2, from 3 - 5pm. For people of a certain age (like me) Johnnie has been one of THE definitive broadcasters , and introduced me to so many bands over the last half century on his shows, including 'The Rock Show' and 'Sounds of the 70s' along with many others. Always lots of great musical knowledge and stories about musicians, as well as having that great voice. He's retiring due to ill health, and I hope he manages to enjoy many more years to come.

I was trying to think which shop with a cafe we'd been to in your area, and that's it! Nice shop, always used to be a lot of younger musos in the cafe, waiting for lessons maybe? Shame it's closed that part of the business. Used to be a great cafe in a music shop in Halifax which we always visited when playing there, think it was called Guitar Zone? Also Woods Music on Manningham Lane in Bradford had a decent small cafe, sadly now gone completely. Going back in time even further, I seem to remember going in what I think was the Fender Soundhouse on London's Tottenham Court Road and seeing a cafe in there?

In my last band we toured throughout the UK, and me and the guitarist would often seek out music shops if we had the time. Been in many where we’ve bought something just because we liked the shop - from a guitar tuner in a great shop in Truro and a gig bag in Epsom to a Strat in Barrow in Furness and a Fender Kingman bass in Guildford! There’s a shop I sometimes visit in Saltburn (Steven James Guitar and Amp Centre) which is next on my list. Great shop, won’t be able to go in again without buying something!

I’ve just ordered a set of D’Addario EXL170S short scale stings on Amazon, for the bargain price of £12.95. From the D’Addario store on Amazon so should be kosher. Get in quick if you’re interested , 49% off their usual price and looks like 10 sets left. 😊

Formal -Mr Wyatt, my old choirmaster at our village church. Taught me all about intervals, key signatures etc. I sang all different parts in the ten years I was in the choir ( from the age of 8 to 18) starting off with treble, then alto, tenor and occasionally bass (due to a lack of enough male voices.) From there I lost my soul to rock n roll, but it stood me in good stead throughout. I’ve had many gigs where I got the job because I could harmonise all thanks to Mr Wyatt. Informal - my partner in my acoustic duo, Gary Gillyett. The most amazing musician I’ve had the pleasure of working with. We met some 40 years ago, and he immediately blew me away with his knowledge of theory and old school music, and is 8 years younger than me! Previously I’d learned a lot from older players, but Gary has been an inspiration and informal teacher ever since we have worked together. Every gig is a school day for me, ( after 30 years together ) and also an absolute blast. I look forward to every gig too, wherever / whatever it is, so I feel truly blessed. (Below is a recent pic of Gary at a jazz gig)

I encountered something similar a number of years ago. New singer in our function band came onboard, promising all sorts of things he could do to increase our presence and reputation, which to be fair was already quite strong. All good to begin with, but after the band didn’t see eye to eye with some of his ideas ( including ‘cheap’ gigs for agents and some of his acquaintances) we discovered he was giving out his personal business cards on our gigs when we thought he was distributing ours. Soon after we gave him the boot, but the damage was already done - he started a new band doing similar stuff to our band and boosting his reputation by quoting his time with us as a reference. Soon many of the gigs we had always done regularly dried up, as he quoted less than our usual fees and was very good with crawling around people, gift of the gab etc. We carried on doing what we could, and managed to keep things going with a new frontman for a few years. However, as money got tight and people started cutting budgets on weddings and corporate events, inevitably there were only so many gigs to go round and we struggled. I had to leave eventually, which turned out okay for me but the band never fully recovered from things and eventually folded. Whilst this may have been the case anyway, I’ve always thought that this guy was largely to blame. ( He now goes out as a solo vocalist with backing tracks….)

I know what you mean, I’ve done the same thing. Had many Rays over the years, from a pre EB to a recent 3eq job, and loved them all. Possibly my favourite was a USA Sub, which only needed a proper scratchplate and was good to go. I can’t think of any other manufacturer who has maintained such a high level of quality and consistency - as others have said, it’s really hard to find a bad one. What finished my using them was the old BC thing - weight. Most were on the cusp of being too heavy for my damaged shoulder, being in the 9lbs zone. Seen a Sub advertised recently that was 10.5lbs! A mate of mine has a fairly recent Ray that comes in at 8.3lbs but from my experience that is a rarity. I did try the US Sterling - had a couple but didn’t seem any weight difference despite the smaller body. Narrower neck was nice though, more jazz like. The other thing that may take some getting used to is the position of the pickup if you play like me and rest your thumb on it - I’m used to a Precision so the change wasn’t an easy one. Still, wonderful basses and still wish I could find one light enough, would definitely have another.