Davy

Was just about to say the same thing. I use a wireless in-ear set up but this has got me thinking about a wireless mic set up...

Played a gig last night at my local squash club with a band that I haven't played with since before lockdown. It was arranged fairly last minute as fundraiser for Ukrainian families who've ended up here in the north east. It didn't look like it was going to be well attended due to the early tickets sales numbers but we were pleasantly surprised that the place was almost full on the night with a great friendly/family atmosphere. We played 2 sets of Brit Pop covers with me also singing lead vocals all night. I normally play in a classic rock covers band sharing a quarter of the lead vocals so I woke up this morning feeling a little bit hoarse. The drummer's son has been learning the guitar so we got him up for a few songs which made his parents and grandparent's very proud! The drummer played an electric kit which, although I'm not a massive fan of electric kits, made for a much more manageable backline sound. The only negative thing about the night was that the room was really warm as we couldn't open the windows while we were playing due to the nearby houses, one of which was the guitarist's parent's house which was literally across the street! I'm not normally a sweater but it was running down my forehead in buckets last night! That could also have been due to the fact that I was flying by the seat of my pants on a few of the newer songs that we threw in at the last minute as I was reading the lyrics from my phone, whilst also controlling the mixing desk from a tablet(not normally my job in my regular band). We made it through the night without too many mistakes, the audience went home happy and we raised some money for a worthy cause.

I know where you're coming from with the comment about the older covers not going down that well. Back in the 90s my band used to play Clapton, Stones, Eagles, ZZ top, Stevie Ray Vaughan etc which was probably before our time back then. This wasn't a problem as our target audience were people in their 40s, 50s and 60s and we always went down really well. As the years have passed, our original audience has either died or just stopped going to pubs because they are too old! (Sad fact of life). That said, my band played a gig at the weekend and I was talking to a member of the audience after the gig and he said that remembered me from my first band back in the early 90s so maybe there's a few of them left hanging on after all!

Great gig at the Moorcock in Peterlee last night. We played a good first set but the backline volume levels went a bit crazy in the second half (typical twin guitarists)! Nice to be back in a busy venue again after a few poorly attended gigs recently.

I've never really used pedals before apart from a Zoom B4, which I used to replace my backline with an in-ear setup and it sounded great but it had way more effects and settings than I ever needed so I ended up selling it on. I've been using my backline(TC BH500 head and TC RS212 cab) ever since but now I'm thinking about buying a very simple preamp pedal to use direct into the mixing desk with my in-ears for monitoring for certain venues. I'm thinking about buying an Ampeg classic analog bass preamp pedal as I've tried an Ampeg SCR-DI pedal before and really liked it(headphone use only). My main question is, has anyone tried one of these before direct into the desk and if so, how did it sound through the PA? I appreciate that it only has a jack output rather than an XLR but the Zoom B4 was jack only and I never found that a problem.

So after the terrible gig on Friday night, we played a mini festival gig at the Rose Inn in Wallsend on Saturday night. Not a huge crowd but they were friendly and appreciative and I only needed to turn up with my bass, as the PA and backline were provided. Left my house for the gig at 8pm, on stage at 9pm, finished by 10pm and home by 11pm after watching some of the last band's set. What a difference a day makes...

You should buy a sports car while you have the chance!🤣

Sadly not. The highlight of the evening was the McDonald's on the journey back and the Dairy Milk waiting for me in the freezer when I got home! 🤣 Onwards and upwards though, we've got a small festival gig tomorrow night with actual paying punters so that's something to look forward to.

The Victoria in Sunderland. Give it a wide berth.

Worst gig of the year so far tonight! 3 people in, terrible acoustics and just when I thought it couldn't get any worse they told us it was too loud! Oh yes and I'm writing this in the break so I've got to go back on in 5 mins! Short second set I think...

First gig in 3 weeks last night with my classic rock covers band "Fossil". A new venue for us(The Benton Ale House in North Tyneside) and a new start time of 8pm rather than the usual 9-9.30pm start. I was pleasantly surprised by the turn out and everyone stuck around even after we started playing! 😁 Got a lot of positive feedback and were asked to come back again. It was also nice to get back in the house an hour earlier than normal! 😊 We're off again next weekend but then back into the usual 2 gigs a weekend after that.

Totally with you on that front, it's great flying by the seat of your pants sometimes. I hate it when songs take weeks and weeks to get right in rehearsals. On another note, I've been off the road for three weeks now due to band member holidays and these posts are keeping me going. Keep it up everyone!

I recently bought a Cort B5 which I'm loving but I don't like the look of the control knobs. I quite like the domed knobs that are fitted to the Ibanez SR basses but not sure if they'd fit the Cort. Has anyone ever exchanged knobs before and are they all standard opening sizes?