casapete

I’ve played Fenders for over 40 years, and they remain my favourite electric basses. Ibanez stuff rarely appeals to me for some reason - probably due to their aesthetics as I’m sure they make fine instruments. Quite like the retro Talman electrics, but can’t see me deviating from Fender. However! I really love my little Ibanez short scale acoustic electric. It’s the PNB14E model, and is a superb little bass, especially for the price. I tend to use it for most of my acoustic duo stuff now, which puts my big old Washburn AB20 out to grass for the foreseeable I think.

Just in from my monthly acoustic duo gig at a pub in West Hull. Due to illness we couldn’t do our November gig, so this was our first one for a while. It was absolutely slinging it down when I was going out, and thought the lousy weather would impact upon the number of punters. Got there at 7.30pm to find the room full, with booked tables and some people willing to stand all night too. Am guessing that a lot of folk just wanted to get out after a couple of days of family stuff over Christmas. The evening is based on requests, and we’ve never had so many. Managed most of them, although despite trying to get my head around ‘Ghost Town’ in the car on my way there, thankfully nobody actually requested it. Plenty of other good song requests though, including an older lady who loves Toto, so we attempted ‘Africa’ for her and she didn’t leave so think we got away with it. Had a couple of enquiries for private gigs during the evening too, so all in all a good night. Next one is on Friday at a nice pub just outside Sheffield, so if it goes pretty much like tonight we’ll be well happy.

Nowt in or out this year - first for a long while. Must try harder. (Largely down to recovering from a drop in earnings due to Covid methinks.) 🙁

In my acoustic duo we use it for all the parts, be it lyrics and / or chord sheets etc. As a lot of the gigs we do are based on audience requests - we have a lot of stuff on there, I reckon in the 1000’s. We can usually remember the song’s formats, but the lyrics are usually where we need help so have an iPad each and use a pedal to scroll through them both simultaneously. ( We keep the iPads fairly low down so as not to be obtrusive, and nobody has ever complained. Works really well!)

I have a Rumble 100 too, and absolutely love it. As you say though, loud drummers are just a bit too much for it, but I’m guessing the 200 or definitely the 500 versions would do the job.

I’m in Scarborough at a hotel, as part of a 4 piece band. Not the same one we’ve done for the last few years, so will be good to have a change of venue and audience. Arrive 7.30pm, finish around 12.30am then hopefully home by 2am. Always worked NYE for many years with no problems, and means I can watch Hootenanny the next day - I’m one of the few people on here who actually enjoy it. Happy New Year everyone! 😊

I should have said that we use it for set lists and also parts/words for hundreds of songs. With my main band I find that a paper set list is best for me - these days written using a black Sharpie and with the keys on each song, as some days I can’t remember them to save my life.

We use forScore with no problems in my acoustic duo.

I’ve been good this year, so Santa can bring me that stunning red 66 Precision please.

The Specials IOW gig was on before the Police doc. I think it’s also being shown on Boxing Day, but at 4.35 A.M. !!

Reminds me of a keyboard player I know who used to play for strict tempo dance classes. Tired of being admonished by the participants, he introduced a waltz and asked - ''How do want this one then, too fast or too slow?'' 😅

PM sent.

And that is just one of the reasons I dislike ‘silent stages’ / bands using IEM’s !

Reasons I prefer a Precision - They sound just ‘right’ in most group environments. They rarely get interference from the split coil pickup. The body shape means they are easy to put on a stand. Simplicity is a large part of their appeal - one vol / one tone control. Still one of the coolest basses ever. Reasons I have a Jazz - Slimmer neck gives an alternative / at times easier feel for some gigs. Two pickups allow for more variety of sounds if required. Reasons I use a Precision Lyte PJ for my main gigs - Weight, or rather the lack of it. Variety of sound - although with the blend control set flat the P pickup generally dominates the mix, it’s nice to add a bit of J pickup occasionally for some songs where a bit of ‘honk’ is needed.

But what a marvellous wall of sound it is, my favourite of all the main festive tunes despite it having a kids choir going on towards the end. Saw Roy Wood do it live a few years ago with his rock n roll band and he made it sound just as fresh as when he first recorded it.

We found doing one in each set did the trick. ( Usually did 2x60 min sets.) Rest of our stuff was well known mix of tunes so people would be dancing most of the time.

When I was in a function band, we’d trot out the Wizzard and Slade offerings at all our Christmas bookings. As most of them were corporate parties I’m pretty sure we’d not have got rebooked for the following year if we didn’t do something festive. Left it to the DJ to do any more if they wanted them - we sadly never attempted ‘Fairytale of NY’ due to not having a female vocalist, although I’m sure it can be got round.

Yup, me too. After being nearly a lifelong fan of Bruce Springsteen, I’m disgusted with tickets for his UK dates next year being sold via Ticketmaster using their ‘Dynamic pricing’ system. He’s getting flak from fans in other countries too, but as long as the faithful don’t mind paying upwards of £500 a ticket then it will no doubt continue. Sheer madness. Good on Paul Heaton and Jackie Abbot who pegged the prices on their tour dates to £35, and Peter Kay who I believe is doing something similar.

Totally agree regarding seeing bands in smaller more local venues rather than massive stadiums (stadia?!) you have to travel a long way to. But what really brasses me off is that the ticket price doesn’t reflect this - you would think that playing to say 10,000 people at a time the price would be less than to the people in 5 x 2000 seater venues spread out over the country. I know I’d feel more inclined to pay more for the smaller gigs than getting ripped off in a large gig where you can be miles from the stage and have to watch the gig on big screens to see anything. So long as people are prepared to see their idols in this environment then crazy ticket prices will remain. I refuse to buy into this now, and am disgusted by the way some bands treat their fans. (Apologies, my grumpy old man hat is now off too.) 😁

Interesting article in the ipaper yesterday by Grace Causden all about money earned from writing and/or recording Christmas tunes. Mariah Carey has reportedly earned more than £60m from ‘All I want for Christmas is you’ since it’s release in 1994, more than £2m a year. Other honourable mentions - Slade’s ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ - about £1m royalties a year Pogues hit with Kirsty McColl ‘Fairytale of New York’ - circa £400,000 a year Bing Crosby, ‘White Christmas’ - £328,000 a year Wham! ‘Last Christmas’ £300,000 a year Sir Paul McCartney - ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ £260,000 a year Jona Lewie ‘Stop the cavalry’ - £120,000 a year East 17 ‘Stay another day’ - £97,000 Time to get writing that everlasting Xmas belter eh?

My least favourite Christmas song, and video 😆 In my old band we often used to do Wizzard’s ‘I wish it could be Christmas every day’ and always enjoyed playing it. Great song for drunken folk to dance to as well.

Pretty handy on most American cars too.

The other two gigs this week were a Golden Wedding do at a local pub. Only about 30 guests, managed to get some up dancing to 50's / 60's stuff though, and home by 11.30pm so not too bad. Last night was the final gig of the year with The ELO Experience at The Corn Exchange in Stamford. Sell out crowd of 400 people, a lovely venue but a basta*d of a get in - everything into a tiny lift, then up to the top floor where it's then rolled down the steep centre aisle of the theatre and up onto the stage. Band played well, and our new sound engineer (and bassist!) Paul is fitting in well, with drums and bass sounding great in the room. ( Enclose a picture which shows my lovely bald spot which is increasing at a frightening rate - may soon be time for a new look I think.)

Done 3 gigs this week. Sunday was my favourite venue for our acoustic duo at The Lookout on the Pier in Scarborough. Usual brilliant audience, with some great requests which we managed to fulfill. Forgot to take pics but this was the view as I was loading out.

I started out playing Fenders over 40 years ago, and have never been without one. The only brand I used instead for some periods has been Musicman, which I’ve always considered to be the way Fender basses evolved. Had to sell my last MM fairly recently mainly down to the weight issue, not being able to find one that was under 8lbs. Currently still have my original 63 Precision, which would be my go to for everything if I could. My main bass is a Fender P-Lyte, which weighs 7lbs and I don’t have to worry about leaving it on theatre stages unattended. I have an identical spare too. Know its not a regular P-bass, but I can still get some authentic sounds from it, the build quality is superb and it has enabled me to carry on gigging into my 60’s with no shoulder fatigue on long gigs. Still dig the 63 out when I can though, it’s a killer! There’s just something about a proper P-bass that is so right, and it’s worth taking some time to find one that feels / sounds exactly how you would expect. Nothing against other brands, but if I want a Fender then I don’t want one that looks like one, I want the real deal. If I was looking for my first Fender I’d probably go for a tidy s/h Mexican P-bass and then play it for a while before deciding if it needed anything upgrading. In my case I’d be happy with it stock, but another great thing about Fenders is they are easy to modify if you want. (Possibly pick up and controls if you feel the need, but don’t bother with changing the bridge as the benefits are IMO never worth it.)