dmccombe7

Always liked the Staccato bass ever since seeing Parker doing Black Dog in 1986. Also saw Tony Reeves from Greenslade using one of these Burns basses at a local demo he did back in early 80's

Cant quite tell from the angle but is that a Shergold 6 string bass. ? Dave

Wife's Xmas has left me skint Dave

I was thinking the very same thing. Would look good in both my Glam and punk bands. One of those basses that looks and sounds the part in almost any style of band. Its definitely put me in the mood for a Ric bass again. I now blame @Cat Burrito for Ric GAS. Dave

I remember seeing Journey do a live concert on TV. I recorded it on video tape at the time back in 80's probably at their peak era and the bassist was using the graphic EQ version Ovation and the tone was amazing. It had a nice mid growl and i always fancied one but they are very rare. Dave

Slade song on Sat night we were drowned out by the audience singing the chorus. Wizzard song also went down really well Sweet Xmas song had a lot of people singing the chorus but it was early on in the night so probably most were still sober 😆

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Love that Ric bass, very eye-catching. Dave

I've noticed that too Paul. Its like i'm hidden in a disguise. Its funny because a lot of people dont recognise me when i re-enter the hall with my jeans and t shirt. LOL The Glam thing does make for a good party fun atmosphere. Really enjoyed last nights gig. Singer had a throat infection and was struggling a bit but Lynn our other singer stepped up to the plate and took on the higher end stuff for him. I love it when a band gels so much that we can do that. All great people in the band too. Dave

Love it when that happens. You know you are doing the right thing when a venue gets too small for you. Nice one. Dave

Last gig of 2022 for us was a Xmas Glamtastic night at The Dreadnought in Bathgate. Place was full with dancers from the word go. Very pleased with the band and the gig was just great fun. Guy that reviews the bands in this venue (Alex Hastings) posted a nice review this morning so i'll leave it at that. The weekend before Christmas in the Dreadnought, Bathgate needed a Christmassy themed band, and it got one in the guise of Blockbustarz, a tremendous in your face Glam Rock classic covers band. From the off you couldn't get moving for big hair, big platforms, sparkly tops and tinsel! We had Sweet, T Rex and The Rollers to get things moving... Before you knew it we had Cats Creeping In , Cans Canning , Little Willies, (oo er missus) and people Getting it On... Let It Snow (the theme song from Die Hard) had me on the lookout for a white vested Bruce Willis lookalike... Mama We're All Crazy Now had the punters bouncing....Alvin Stardust had us Coo ca chooing, and Dynamite from Mud nearly blew the roof off the Dread! Rebel Rebel and Schools Out took us to the last two songs of the first set, The magnificent Crazy Horses from the Osmonds (tune!) and the mighty Hellraiser from Sweet...! As the band, Mike Michaels (singer/guitar/big hair), Colin Whittit (lead guitar/bigger hair), David McCombe (bass/even bigger hair!), Barry Haywood (drums/ no hair comment/very glittering pork pie hat though) and Lynn Ainslie (singer/ her own long hair) took a well earned rest it was good to look around and see an almost full Dreadnought. Waterloo from Abba (sung expertly by Lynn) got set 2 underway.. Next we had Teenagers Rampaging, and my favourite from back in the day Tell Him by Hello which led us into I Love Rock and Roll (who doesn't?). More T-Rex in the form of Children of the Revolution, the terrific Rocket from Mud and the Jean Genie from Bowie kept the 'doon the front' dancers happy. Next up was I Love to Boogie (and most people agreed as they all indeed did boogie!).. The all time classic of all time I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday had the audience in full on singing mode. This magnificent song was followed by Suzi Quatros Devil Gate Drive, T Rexs Hot Love, Spirit in the Sky from Norman Greenbaum and the Time Warp (Where's Brian Chizzmeister Chisholm when you need him?) We now had the last four songs and everyone was a cracker... Tiger Feet had everybody practicing their 'That's Neat ' fancy footwork moves, Blockbuster had us 'not having a clue what to do'.. Merry Christmas Everybody from the magnificent Slade brought the biggest sing along of the night (as you'd expect!) and the tartan was out for the last song of the night, Shang a lang from The Bay City Rollers... A fantastic night of over 30 songs and 2 hours of energy from the tremendous band was at an end... What an effort lads (and lass), take a bow and a well deserved lie down.. Once again it had been great to see so many people in attendance and to personally see some 'well kent' faces... Top marks to everyone involved in putting on such a great night.. Big Hastie over and out from the House of Glam for the night , the Dready...

Just a great classic song. Well done. I love playing that song altho my own band doesn't play it. Not a bad jam night there i reckon. Well done. Dave

Stick with it..........the geddy bass will eventually release its awesome power and allow you to play better, faster and with more precision. Be patient my young student. Dave

I've got a throat bug and can hardly speak at times but i aint missing our last gig of the year in one of our fav venues, The Dreadnoght in Bathgate. Virtually sold out with only a handful of tickets that will get sold on the night. We've all been looking forward to this gig for many months. Last time we played it our female singer had ffod poisonng and was very unwell but she soldiered on thru both sets. She has set the bar very high for the rest of us. Luckily with a bit of salt water gargling and a spoonful of honey every few hrs its easing of now. Last night i could hardly speak. Good job i dont sing. Dave

I found Jimmy Lea tends to keep his left hand in same position a lot and just moves it up and down the fretboard. He's an amazing player and so fluent in his playing. Dave

Says it all for me. 👍 Dave

Last gig of the year for punk covers band last night. After 4" snow in morning and the prospect of snow on way home after midnight i wasn't looking forward to the drive across country to Dumfries. Turned out roads were clear except for my own village road and another 2" snow on my driveway when i got home. Gig started of quiet with more people watching the footie than us. I could see the large screen in the other room where i was standing and oddly enough there was no reaction either way from the punters in the pub when a goal was had which surprised me in a Scottish pub. 😁 Was a bit busy playing to really watch the game tho so missed all the good bits. Anyways back to the gig. Started off with approx 20 people in the bar where we were set up but it grew once the footie stopped and we had another great wee night in Dumfries. Just took one of my Mesa cabs the SW115 and what a tone i was getting from it. Depth but quite clanky top end and that was with the horn OFF. Using the Handbox WB-100 and my new Keeley compressor with the Sandberg MarloweDK which took me a few songs to get the compressor set just right where it was just clipping the top end volumes. Dave

I've moved on to the DR Black Beauties and they sound and feel very much like the standard D'addario EXL's i used. Being coated they feel nice but have that twang in the tone which i'm hoping these strings will last a decent length of time. I really do like the feel of them. Definitely a WOW moment when i plugged the bass in after tuning. All going well and they last more than 6mths i will definitely be putting these on my other basses. To be honest if they can last 3-4mths i'll be chuffed to bits. Dave

If just using at home i'd get 3 mths from most sets of strings as i dont sweat at home. When doing the Glam Rock thing the outfits and wigs cause considerable sweat and i've killed a new set of EXL's in 2 gigs. Completely dead. That's my worst case scenario on very hot nights and i forgot my stage fan. They normally last approx 2mths. Dave

I always have a back up bass too but its more in case electronics or something like that causes a problem. Its easier to switch basses than change a string or try and repair an issue. Dave

Have you actually broken strings while playing @40hz ? I play very hard finger style over 45yrs and can only remember breaking one string back in early 80's. It was a Rotosound and the core broke inside the wrapping. Whether that was down to my playing or a faulty string i dont really know. Dave

Did try them but they died around the same amount of time as my standard EXL's and grudged the extra cost for no gains. Dave

Yep we throw in 3 Xmas songs in the Glam band. 1st one Let It Snow by Sweet in first set we had singalongs but no dancers but the 2 in the 2nd set by Slade and Wizzard had a lot of energetic dancers on the floor and went down really well. Punk covers band dont do any tho which has surprised me a bit but i just do what i'm told. LOL Dave

Wee update on the D'addario XT's. They lasted approx 2mths and i can hear the tone changing now altho i could probably get about another month before i would normally change. Have a good gig coming up so i've changed them today to a set of DR 40-100 Black Beauties and WOW, just WOW. The Black Beauties sound almost exactly like my EXL's do but smoother on the fingers and for them being coated they have a decent low tension compared to other coated strings i've tried. Tone wise at home i'm overwhelmed to say the least. Its not often i put a new set / type of string on my bass and it WOW's me right away. Playing for 30mins at home they stayed in tune from original fitting and tune. aT £30 FREE p&p from US thru Amazon i'm so far very pleased with them but proof of the pudding will be at a rehearsal next Monday night and if all good i'll use them at the important Xmas gig on 17th. I've got a set of XT's as a back up at the moment just in case i'm not happy with them at rehearsal. I'll update after the 6hr rehearsal next week. Plus they are black on my Polar white Sandberg VM4. Another thing is they sound amazing with just the humbucker selected and bass knob boosted a bit. Very mid sounding almost like a warm jazz on its bridge pick up. Liked that but its not a usable tone in my current bands but nice to doodle around with at home. These have put me in a very happy Xmas mood now. Dave

Its amazing how a new member can uplift and invigorate a band. Well done. Dave