casapete

You’re right, all those mentioned will meet the brief. However, I do recommend the Fender Rumble range, great sounding compact lightweight combos, and when he comes to upgrading will get a fair return on the outlay.

Think you’re on the right track with the idea of six or eight tens. Barefaced and Markbass do some which aren’t crazy weight wise amongst others. My old SVT 810 rig was the punchiest rig I’ve ever used, been chasing that sound with smaller stuff for years but to no avail. 😕

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According to Wiki it was Larry Johnson. (Must admit to not knowing anything about him though.)

I’d add Alan Gorrie to the list as well - loved the AWB when he and Hamish swapped lead vocals and bass duties.

Couldn’t agree more. I had a guy in a pub audience (at a gig with my country band) come and ask me after the first set why on earth I wanted to play ‘a cheap Danelecto’ and why I wasn’t playing ‘the best bass ever made, a Gibson Thunderbird’. After a couple of minutes trying to get through to him I gave up and told him to eff off.

Just booked tickets to see Jimmy Webb on his UK tour in May. One of my favourite writers, looking forward to hearing his songs and stories.

I used to play a lunchtime set at a cafe in a shopping centre, and remember a fella representing PRS coming in and asking for a set list a couple of times. IIRC he was a musician who worked for them part time. As far as I know we didn’t get hit for any payment, although the cafe owner maybe did. In my current band we play theatres who always ask for set lists, and we have to pay PRS on every gig.

We played our monthly gig at The Lookout in Scarborough. Another full house of lovely people in the audience, it's my favourite current gig. First time I've used my Ibanez PNB14E short scale electro acoustic, and was well pleased with the result into my Fender Rumble 100.

Think I’m probably guilty of inverted snobbery to some extent, as I usually seem to enjoy basses that haven’t cost the earth. My main bass is a Fender Precision Lyte, which I’ve used for over 10 years now. I’d be gutted if it got stolen, despite having an identical back up. Other regular gigged basses include a Dano Longhorn, Jazz bitsa and an Ibanez short scale electro acoustic, all of which have been sub £300 IIRC. I’d just feel wrong playing a Fodera or anything boutiquey, don’t know why but probably do think I wouldn’t do it justice doing what I do. To use the car analogy, the same reason I wouldn't pay a small fortune for a Ferrari etc, although I’m a better driver than bass player....😆

I’ve used a leather strap secured by either Grolsch washers or Dunlop plastic Lok strap retainers for decades without any damage to my basses. ( Never once had the strap come loose either in case you’re wondering....) I know a lot of folk like the Dunlop Strap Locks but I’ve never liked them due to having to alter each bass and strap. Also I avoid any metal parts on straps generally as it’s just a recipe for a bass scratching disaster. 🤣

I’m my old 8 piece function band, we used to do a trad jazz style walkabout set to welcome people arriving at the venue. At a large hotel in Hull we were playing at a wedding, and had been booked as a surprise for the happy couple. The instructions were to wait for them to arrive from the church inside the hotel entrance, and then play them into the foyer to start the festivities. We saw the bride and groom arriving ( strangely without an entourage) so all positioned ourselves on the hotel steps and played ‘Congratulations’. The usual response when we did this was great, a nice ice breaker for the reception. However this time the couple dashed straight by us and straight into the lift in the foyer, after less than 30 secs of us playing for them. We stopped and hung around waiting to strike up for the rest of their guests, but nobody else arrived. It was then that we realised we’d heralded the arrival of the wrong couple - nobody had told us there were two weddings going on that day in the hotel. Sure enough, a few minutes later our wedding couple and guests arrived and we started again, this time to a better response. ( I found out later that the first couple we played for had planned to sneak up to their hotel room for a quickie before their guests arrived 😂 )

I always judge a guitarist by how he can play with the rest of the band rather than widdly solos. In fact I generally detest widdly solos, much preferring those that serve the song ( same as the bassline really ). The epitome of this for me would be Mike Campbell ( ex Tom Petty and now with Fleetwood Mac), a genius guitarist who can solo and play the right chords / inversions to make the song unforgettable.

Agreed - I was always drawn to rhythm guitar more than endless soloing. My main influences in this respect have been Chuck Berry, Keith Richards, Motown, Pete Townshend, Steve Cropper etc. Even these days the art of great rhythm playing seems to often go unnoticed.

Guitars for me - never been a great player but always loved them. Vintage stuff would be my downfall if I had unlimited finances - have a 59 Les Paul Junior which I’ve owned for 30 odd years. Also got a nice 57 Strat reissue, a Baja Tele and a cherry 335 Fat Neck. Like old amps too, although recently sold my late 60’s Marshall 18 watt combo when someone made me an offer I couldn’t refuse - damn you Covid.

Only thing I can think of is a case I had, made by Protection Racket. It was for an electro acoustic bass I owned at the time, a Fender Kingman, and was massive! Maybe worth a look.

I always play sitting down for my acoustic duo gigs, just seems right somehow. I also play seated on hotel dinner dance stuff like I did over Christmas / NYE. Older crowd, long sets and music for formal dancing so apart from being less tiring it also looks quieter! For all the other gigs I stand, do find it hard to play uptempo / loud stuff when seated. When I broke my shoulder and played keyboard bass for a few months I still played standing up, just seemed right somehow.

I’m sure they did, and rearranged the gig too IIRC. We always got well looked after by them, hotels, drink and food etc. Reminds me of another Aberdeen gig too. Large oil company do at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre. We arrived early and got set up, then most of the band availed themselves of the hospitality until we were due to go on after the official business, which included a film presentation. We got the nod it was time to go on, and started off the set with ‘Relight my fire’, to very little response. Picked up a few dancers towards the end of the set, but it was only when we came off stage that someone mentioned that a few minutes before we started playing there had been a filmed tribute to a recent oil rig fire tragedy in the North Sea. Amazingly they didn’t hold it against us and realised it was just a very unfortunate choice of song, and we did work for them again.

I’ve read good things about these for a while, although I believe they’re now discontinued? Did you get yours new for £250 in some sort of close out deal?

You’re right with the snow thing, rarely a problem these last few years. In the early 2000’s the 8 piece function band I was in used to get a fair few gigs up in the Aberdeen area ( we were from Yorkshire). These were corporate gigs, usually for oil companies and paid very well, making the journey worthwhile for us. On one occasion snow was potentially a problem so we contacted the booker who confirmed the gig was still on and then set off on the 8 hour journey, me driving our LWB Transit with the keys player and all our gear in and the rest of the band in a hired MPV. There was a hold up with the MPV being picked up, but I still left early just in case of weather problems. It started snowing quite a lot the further north we got, and once past Dundee on the A90 it was coming down very heavily. About 10 miles from Aberdeen, the phone rang and the keys player answered it - the gig was cancelled as Aberdeen airport had shut and the punters were mainly flying in, so I just turned round and drove home, a round trip of roughly 900 miles! ( The band MPV hadn’t got so far as us, so they got off more lightly ).

A friend of mine used to do her sound, and always had nothing but good things to say about her and the band. Hope you enjoy the gig!

It was, and made worse by diversions and closures on the M1 and M18. 🤬

Played at The Tivoli Theatre in Wimborne Minster on Friday night. It's a great venue, one of our favourites. A full house too. It's a long journey from Yorkshire for us and we usually do it alongside other venues in the south west, but due to blo*dy Covid and reorganizing dates constantly, we had to do this as a stand-alone. Still, worth the hassle. 😊

Really enjoyed this, thanks for posting.

Great stuff, love Freddie King. Even now still often overlooked, and a major influence on many players. I’m well jealous if you’re doing gigs playing stuff like this! Thanks for posting.