casapete

You sound like you couldn’t have been more reasonable to me. Like some others though, I wouldn’t have set up on a wet field in the first place, and think the organisers didn’t appreciate the risks and cost that could ensue. Years ago I did a festival in the north east, and the weather wasn’t looking great. The ‘stage’ ( back of an an artic lorry trailer) was barely covered against the elements, and as I watched a couple of bands before us I rapidly came to the conclusion that I wasn’t happy going on. Rest of our band soon agreed, and our BL went to discuss options. The organiser just didn’t want to see the problem, and thought we were being too precious. By this time it was pouring down with a very strong wind blowing. We eventually agreed to go home for half our fee. As we left we heard the band performing after us on the bill start playing in the beer tent, as the stage covering had apparently blown away. I’d suggested this as an option earlier on, but was told it wouldn’t be possible. Think we dodged a bullet TBH.

Just weighed my 63 - exactly 3.5 kg. Done many long gigs in the 30+ years I’ve owned it.

Sadly we did - our regular singer was ill on the day of the gig, and the dep was supposed to be okay and we didn’t have any other options. Needless to say we never used him again.

Always remember the time we had a dep singer in my old function band. Gig was a flash wedding in a big marquee somewhere. Dep singer turned up late by which time we’d unloaded the van and set up all the backline and PA. I asked him what sort of mic he’d brought, and he replied that he didn’t have one because he’d left it in the glovebox of his girlfriends’ car! I somehow managed to remain calm, and dug out an old Peavey mic that we used for giving to people to make speeches etc. We started the first set, and the singer had lost his voice after about half a dozen songs - said he couldn’t hear himself despite having a 200 watt personal monitor provided, and wasn’t used to singing with a live band! I ended up singing for the rest of the night. Utter tw*t!

A wonderful bit of bass too IMO. I remember trying to learn it when I was a teenager, and struggling to get the same loose feel. I play it still with my acoustic duo, but we have to change the key to ‘A’ down from ‘D’ with the guitar capoed to try and keep the same feel. Such a radical key change ( for the vocal obvs) makes playing it more of an homage….😄 Classic bit of TOTP footage. Bit like the time Ronnie Lane couldn’t make it so they had a cardboard cutout of him. I remember on the album sleeve Rod Stewart didn’t even give the mandolin player a proper credit, just referring to Ray Jackson as ‘the mandolin player in Lindisfarne, the name slips my mind’. Ray was only paid £15 for the session , but in later years he tried to get a writing credit after contributing a lot to the song , including the classic intro.

After checking it out, I’ve just had an email from eBay saying the seller is now accepting offers. I bet they are….😄

OK, here are mine. 3 basses, all Precisions. 1) 1977 USA (in sunburst). My first bass - I thought that if I was going to take this bass lark seriously then I'd better get a proper instrument. Bought it for £200 in Leeds around the early / mid 80's. I didn't bond with it ever, not really knowing that Fender made some right dogs as well as decent basses. After a while it dawned on me that this was the case and I sold it for £200 so could have been worse. What made me sell it was this -> 2) Squier JV 57 (in black). Everything the USA one wasn't - lighter, vibrant, sounded like a P-bass should and far better made. Kept this for a while and gigged it a lot, and knew I'd regret selling it but this came along -> 3) 1963 (stripped to natural). Previously owned by a late friend, and in a bit of a state when I acquired it. A horrible yellow refin was stripped and refinished by Paulman (Paul McNab in Huddersfield). All original otherwise, and my forever bass. Still gig it when I can. Apart from the above I've had many Musicman / Danelectro / Japanese P-Lytes that I've loved, but the first three basses above were arguably the most important in helping me get started on playing bass for a living.

I’ve been using a Taylor GS Mini and also an Ibanez PNB14E, both of which are around the scale length of yours by the sound of it. Loved them both, and the string choice you have is probably either the D’Addario XTB3790GS set ( designed for the Taylor ) or maybe the Martin M4750 set. I use the D’Addarios and they are fine, lasting quite a long time and intonate pretty well. Haven’t tried the Martins yet. From my experience basses this short a scale can be a slight compromise in terms of playing comfort and intonation, but are much better than bass ukes with their rubbery strings. They are best not set with too low an action, and likewise sound better when not played too hard - I’ve found a softer approach ( I play finger style ) gives best results. Making sure you can hear what you’re doing is also important to stop you doing this, just like an upright really. I use mine with a Fender Rumble 100 combo which I find ideal for the small gigs I play with an acoustic duo.

The timing of this thread coincides with recent changes in my gigging schedule. Have spent 15 years on the road doing theatres and the odd festival, during which I always had a spare of EVERYTHING other than a speaker cab. My spare bass was always within reach of me onstage, and it was reassuring to know it’s there. Nowadays most of my gigs are in pubs, and I’m currently only taking one bass and rig with me. Been wrestling with carrying spares but then using a Rumble combo would mean taking another combo as back up - whereas if it was an amp and cab situation then a small amp (TE Elf etc) would be easy to manage. Reading @chris_b’s comments does make me realise how all gigs matter though, so I’ll be taking a spare bass with me from now on and possibly having a rethink about my amp needs too.

Wow, that’s really bad luck. In my many years of playing Stingrays the only problem I ever had with the battery side of things was when I ( once! ) forgot to replace it. Always thought the battery compartments seemed fine, although preferred the earlier ‘steel plate with two screws’ design to the later plastic ones.

Played with blues band ‘The Alligators’ last night at a seaside boozer in East Yorkshire. I say ‘seaside’ as the venue in question ( The Sellwood Arms ) is getting closer to the sea at a perilously alarming rate due to coastal erosion. Talking to the landlady, she says it probably has another 20 years left, which they knew when taking it on. Last night the waves sounded quite near though! Anyway, the gig went well although first impressions were a bit doubtful - small playing area in one large room, one mains socket for the band and some err… colourful locals already well oiled. Quite a few ‘Satan’s Slaves’ members in ( a motorcycle club ) and turned out the landlord is a member too. We did two sets of around 50 minutes, and got some dancers up which helped us out a bit. Played two encores , one of which was me doing ‘You never can tell’ which got some interesting shapes being thrown by the punters. Used my Precision Lyte into a Rumble 500 combo, perfect for the job. The landlord asked if we would do New Years Eve , but I’m already booked - for a gig in Scarborough with my acoustic duo playing dinner / lounge music, which despite only being up the coast in Scarborough couldn’t be musically much further away. 😅

During my Musicman phase I owned a couple of these and (like another person above) shouldn’t have sold them. Actually preferred the sound of the Subs over my other 2 band and 3 band Rays. Only issue I had was their weight, both being quite chunky ( no body contours ) but that may have just me being unlucky. Never felt the need to mess with the EQ, the standard set up worked so well. I didn’t mind the painted neck either. All they needed was a different scratchplate and then were good to go. Like all MM stuff, their prices do seem to have rocketed, but still a great buy compared to a regular US Ray.

Of the 7 venues in Hull listed on the MVT website, I believe 6 of them are independents which will hopefully benefit a great deal from Coldplay’s gesture. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they chose Hull for their two gigs knowing that it’s a part of the UK that is often overlooked and in need of some help.

Apparently the two Hull gigs will have tickets priced between £70 and £100. There will also be some limited tickets available for £20, as well as 50% of all Hull tickets available only being sold to people in nearby postcode regions ( HU, YO, DN and LN). I guess they are trying to avoid the recent Oasis ticket fiasco, and although not my cup of tea think they are to be applauded for taking this stance, along with the 10% donation to the Music Venue Trust. Good on ‘em.

You can find a tidy s/h Fender Rumble 15 watt combo for your £50 budget. They are fine for home use, and when you come to upgrade you’ll probably get your £50 back too.

I’m playing with blues band The Alligators this coming Saturday 21st at The Sellwood Arms in Aldbrough on the East Yorkshire coast. We start at 9pm.

Barefaced cabs are the most likely answer to your predicament. However, whichever brand you end up with then having two light 1x10 or 1x12 cabs makes the most sense for you. No point in carrying more weight in one go than the 10kg limit you specified. For example the BF 2x10 cabs start at 13 kg, whereas the very capable Super Mini and Super Compact 1x12 models are 8.5kgs and 10kgs respectively. You may be able to use just one depending on your gigs. Also the even lighter One10 range start at 7kgs, but am guessing you’d probably need two of these.

Cheers Dave - it’s mainly smoke and mirrors though! My guitarist buddy is truly amazing - he can play anything from 30’s swing/jazz to heavy rock and everything in between and does lead vocals too, all to a very high standard. I just keep the bottom end nailed down and sing harmonies wherever I think appropriate- ‘Don’t fear the reaper’ was interesting, especially without laughing! The audience love us having a go at some stuff that is challenging - if we manage it then great, if we don’t then they laugh along with us. The main thing is to be creative with song keys - for example we did ‘Maggie May’ in ‘A’, ( with the guitar capoed up to play in a D shape) as my mate’s vocal range is nowhere near Rod Stewart’s!

Be good to see you Mart, our next gig there is Sunday 13th October - we play from around 5pm to approx 8pm. It’s a great pub! Sorry I missed your band again at Withernsea this weekend - I was just up the coast in Scarborough so couldn’t make it. Will hopefully get to see you soon though.

https://www.facebook.com/MilestoneDuo

But is it? Waiting online for tickets originally advertised at £135 to find they’ve risen to a massive £355 or more by the time they got to the front of the queue can’t be right, even if it’s still technically supply and demand. Imagine seeing a bass advertised for say £500, then going to the shop to find they are now £1200 because a few more people have bought one too.

We returned to our favourite gig at The Sun Inn Beverley with our acoustic duo ‘Milestone’. Just for a change I thought I’d try using an electric bass instead of an electro acoustic, and was very pleased with the results. Took along my Precision-a-like ( no name replica with Japanese Fender pickup) into my Rumble 100 combo with a touch of level into the PA too via the DI on the amp. Sounded massive, with a few regulars commenting on it. As usual we took requests for the whole 3 sets, and did some great tunes - ‘Don’t fear the reaper’ ‘Whole lotta Rosie’ and ‘Stayin alive’ ( yes really!) amongst many others. The pub was rammed, and we did a couple of encores too. Next gig there is October 13th, so can’t wait! ( Pic below shows we have finally made it into the pub’s ‘window of fame’. ) 😆

To be fair, I thought the weakest vocalist was the first guy on, in the red jacket ( sorry, didn’t catch his name) - sounded a bit too musical theatre for me, and as you say a bit pitchy. The others were good to amazing, especially the lady who sang at the Northern Soul Orchestrated Prom last year. The backing vocalists were okay, but had one or two moments where it sounded like one of them was actually singing some wrong notes. Overall though, I really enjoyed it and just love hearing a big band / orchestra doing such great stuff.

Played on the same bill as them in the 80’s, very cabaret!