neepheid

A new venue for us on Saturday - Nine Lives at The Railway Club in Keith, Aberdeenshire

I use the same strings on everything. I don't give a toot what the bass in question has to say about it. What next, give them the vote? It's a slipperly slope...

Final piece of the puzzle should be arriving tomorrow... Pointless update I know but I'm excited

The only magic I've ever heard someone tell me about PJs is them both on full whack does something interesting. I use blend pots like switches anyway - I honestly have never seen (or heard for that matter) the point in blend controls. I'm a simple soul.

It's not a "reissue" and was never billed as such. Its official moniker is Gibson Grabber 3 '70s Tribute A "tribute". Weasel words maybe, but you can throw all your expectations out the window - it was never meant to be a slavish reissue of the original. I briefly owned two - both had issues of one kind or another and I wasn't that keen on them anyway having owned an original G-3, so as long as you accept that the only thing this has in common with a G-3 is the body shape and that it has three pickups and the same controls, then you'll be fine.

If I was BB2000-ing my BB1200, I'd have fitted a switch in the jack socket hole and moved the jack to the side. Just like a BB2000 then. Although this entire thing pains me and I think I'd sooner just procure a BB2000 if I was so inclined.

The only person who needs to be happy with your string choice is... you.

What's with the extra knob placement? They're almost meshed together like gears!

The whole source of the dilemma. Bass won't arrive this year. Cheap bass, no idea what size of tuners I might need. Standards may be out the window! I'm doing my best - will be buying a pickup ahead of time...

Right, need an early adjudication for next year, as I intend to go again. Am in the process of getting my final purchases worked out and done before the end of 2024. Hit a snag. I have already paid for a bass but it has a very long lead time on its arrival and while it was supposed to arrive in late December the ETA has slipped into next year. This in and of itself is not a problem with regard to the rules - the money's already out of the account in this calendar year. The problem lies in the fact that it was supposed to be a mod project - a challenge to myself to see if I can cruft together a NEW bass for £150 and it be giggable. This was inspired by my G4M "rat" bass which started as a "how bad can a £150 bass be?" question and ended up as a very decent £300 bass. So I decided if I could do it again but in half the budget Now I fully expect the pickup to be utter bollox, so before the end of the year I'll score something cheap that gets good reviews (probably a Tonerider), but who knows how ropey the tuners and electronics will be? It's kinda chicken and egg - I won't know until I get the bass. But if I buy gear early next year (bass is slated to arrive in January) then I'll fall at the first hurdle. TL:DR would the body of the kirk be willing to grant me an exemption to be able to buy replacement tuners next year should the stock ones turn out to be utter garbage? I tried so hard to get the bass to arrive this year (I ordered it on 18th September FFS!) but due to factors beyond my control that isn't going to happen (unless something magical happens). If you wanna be meanies and make me gamble I guess my spares box won't grumble, but I thought I'd ask before going down the route of buying stuff I might not need (or need but might not fit!) Thank you for reading my shaggy dog story, and I await your adjudication...

No time to say hi first?

Yes, they still have the fridge! Only the cab though, they're feeding it with a Markbass head (Little Mark 250 Black line) these days.

Well, that was fun last night. Played Krakatoa in Aberdeen with The Inevitable Teaspoons. We had a good time, but I thought I could have played better. Sound engineer forgot to switch back on the drummer and I's monitor because the previous drummer was using cans. So the first two songs (which we play back to back) were well ropey as we were completely detached (sonically) from the rest of the band. We were also plagued with onstage feedback - again, not our fault, sound engineer had got the monitor mixes a bit wrong. So our set was curtailed a little, had to jump to the last song and skip a couple, but folk were dancing around to our stuff, and the horn section were wireless so they jumped down onto the dance floor and got people excited by that. Got a lot of nice comments afterwards. Other bands were good too. Also a good night for equality - three bands played, one was 100% female, one band was 50/50 female/male and then the sausagefest that is The Inevitable Teaspoons! The only pic I have is of our sax player's drinks... Gear was the Sire Z7, into Krakatoa's house backline (a Markbass head of some sort into an Ampeg fridge (8x10))

A bit of cable tidy up, only a couple of bulky connectors to go... also got some of those footswitch topper things - makes pressing those upper two way easier!

Paid rehearsal last night at the Balaclava in Fraserburgh. Too many trick or treat sweeties consumed perhaps - I know I feel pretty peculiar these days if I consume too many Tangfastics in one sitting... Anyway, despite there being no more than a dozen folk in the bar at any one time, we cracked on regardless - if only for the lovely older couple who stayed the whole night and seemed to enjoy it in their own, quiet way. Later on we had an enthusiastic gentleman who was enjoying the heavier stuff in the second set. Both he and a lassie at the bar clearly knew their Iron Maiden so we gave them two Maiden numbers - Wasted Years (which we usually play after Teenage Dirtbag - duh!) and because they were digging it we did Hallowed Be Thy Name too. A quiet one, but it doesn't take much audience interaction to still make these nights fun. The worst is when you play to a bunch of indifferent so-and-sos who, all things being equal, would rather you weren't there in the first place. Gear: Epiphone Les Paul Standard (revision 3) then Reverend Triad into the usual yellow and black boxes

I think they still have the fridge. If I remember, I will confirm tomorrow!

See you in 4 years - my oldest bass is my 1978 Yamaha BB1200...

Aye, I wouldn't record with it, but in a live mix, it's useable enough. Even so, I wouldn't dare go lower than -3. Up the way isn't so bad - I sometimes use mine as an octave up to fill out the sound because we only have 1 guitarist. Because it has independent dry/wet levels, I don't drown it with the upper octave, just a sprinkle.

"Can we drop this song a couple of semitones?" "2 secs" OK, go! (other pitch shifter pedals are available - Digitech Drop, EHX Pitchfork, EHX Intelligent Harmony Machine etc. but none of these are less than £50 new)

Being in Aberdeen, I think this is more a case of "look, I'm doing official stuff" more than anything else, but here goes: Tonight - Nine Lives at the Balaclava in Fraserburgh Tomorrow night - The Inevitable Teaspoons at Krakatoa in Aberdeen

We make an addition or two a month on average. Some then go in the spares box, and some disappear, if audiences have been indifferent.

I hear what you're saying, and I must confess I found it unusual at first. But it's no different to a '51/'54 P - they're also uncovered pickups so your thumb rests on the bobbin/flatwork of the pickup, it's just that the pickups on the Triad present a flat edge rather than the curve of the single coil P pickup. I ended up really liking it - I moved away from feeling like my thumb was resting on a tightrope and it grew into a quite positive feel for me. Just might take a bit of getting used to. I don't even notice it now.

A couple of additions necessitated a wee rearrange of things on my wee pedalboard. Please excuse the massive interconnects, they're the only ones I could find right now - will replace with wee pancake ones when I get them... Path is TU-2 > Hotone Harmony > Bass Sweeper > Bass Synth Wah > comp > Monomyth