peteb

Danny is definitely northern...! He has a pretty strong Bradford accent that he does exaggerate a bit on YouTube for effect.

I've always get two boxes of Duracell Procells from eBay, one goes in my gigbag and the other on my desk at home. They're pretty cheap and I have given a fair few to bandmates, which makes up for all the times people have given me 9v batteries (and other spares) in the past. It all evens out in the end...

Anyway, here's Danny with his view on other social media musicians... https://www.youtube.com/shorts/t_T9Mk7wwUc

I know Danny a bit - he's a nice guy, a lot less annoying down the pub than he is on YouTube! I think that Danny is like Charles whatisname in many ways and, to my mind, is part of the problem these days! He can certainly play, but he earns a living by exaggerating his Yorkshire accent, doing showboating solo spots at trade shows and reviewing mediocre gear on YT. I don't know if he has gigged with a proper band for any period of time, although he does do occasional projects, such as rehearsing up a Thin Lizzy tribute to play a one-off gig in a city centre bar (bear in mind that I cut my teeth with Lizzy in their pomp when I was a kid and I am at least thirty years older than Danny)! He's a very decent player and one of the good guys, but I would much rather see him in a decent band than just on YT. But he's got a living to make and the chances of getting the big gig for a kid from Bradford these days is too remote, so the only real options are either slogging around the circuit with one of the surviving members of some heritage band or getting a YouTube presence and demonstrating gear at trade shows.

I would also throw Xotic into the ring. For example this one at Bass Direct (You could probably pick up a second hand one for nearly a grand less) https://www.bassdirect.co.uk/product/xotic-xj-1t-5-sonic-blue/

I reckon that I've got three rigs these days: 1) Mesa mpulse amp (in a 4u rack with a power conditioner) into a Berg HS410 cab with ceramic speakers - great sounding rig, as good as it gets for me 2) Handbox R400 into a Berg CN212 (neo speakers) - a great sounding rig that goes out for pretty much every gig these days and is just a little bit easier to get back in the house at the end of the nigh, as well as taking up a little less room when packing in the car (that means me and the singer can travel in the same car to gigs as we can fit his IEM / radio mic rack with my rig in the back and still have room for two passengers if the WAGs want to come) 3) I've got a Markbass LM3 as a spare amp that I use for rehearsals thru a cheap Ashdown 210 cab that I picked up for £50 (the cab stays in a rehearsal room) I've also got a PJB Double Four that lives on my desk that I use as a practice amp, but I haven't counted that as a proper rig!

I've kinda got mixed feelings about that. We were all pretty heavy drinkers back in the 80s and we had a lot of fun, as well as creating some pretty good bands that did quite well. I know a few people that had problems with booze, but funnily enough, the ones who did actually drink themselves to death were generally non musos. A couple of friends did have drug issues, but fortunately I never had an addictive personality, so it was never a problem for me. I stopped smoking 20 years ago and started drinking a bit less a few years later, when a doctor told me if I started drinking in moderation then I wouldn't need to quit completely. I have a few friends from the old days who still drink too much. To be frank, drinking like you did when you were 25 when you're 60 isn't a great look, even if they are still in reasonable health. Once you get older, good health is something that you can no longer take for granted.

Just to note that we have a Freddie Washington thread that was started just a few days ago. Probably a good idea to merge the two threads.

When I was a teenager, I worked in a professional theatre as a stagehand for a panto season. The bass player in the pit had a beautiful olympic white precision, which increased my resolve to buy one as soon as possible (I actually bought my first P bass while I was working there)! The pit guys were great, but I remember that they all drank like fishes! Whenever they had a break in the show, they would quickly decamp to the pub across the road for a swift half then sprint back to take their places seconds before their next cue! They would have a few more during the intermission, then be back in the pub as soon as the curtain went down. No one said a word - I think that in the late 70s, playing and drinking was very much an expected thing for pro musos...

If you're amp is working a little more efficiently and you are not getting issues with low frequencies in larger rooms with dodgy acoustics.

Yes, they do and when I bought a bass off them before it had a very good setup (they asked me exactly how I wanted it setup, what strings I wanted, etc). The trouble this time was I was very non-committal about buying the bass until I had actually played it (70s Fender and all that) and I was principally going down to get them to sell a Warwick Streamer for me on commission (or to part-ex if I bought the Fender). I was happy with the bass as soon as I picked it up, so part-ex'd the Streamer. I did consider asking Will to set-up the Fender with the new bridge, but it was a bit of a faff to get him to send it to me and it's rather a long trip for me to pick it up, so I decided to do it myself. I've been mucking around with it and I've got it more or less about right, although it might go to Jon Shuker at some point when I've got a bit more time. But you are right, Bassbros do normally include a setup with each purchase.

Thanks. Personally, I could never justify dropping more than a couple of grand on a Fender (this one was a bit less than that), but I still like the feel and sound of old Precisions. I've never had a Fender that I haven't modded myself (one exception - a 2015 Am Std Jazz in sunburst that I currently use for a Led Zep tribute and probably won't keep once that band finishes), so I've been keeping an eye out for a non all original 70s P bass that isn't too expensive. Hopefully when I get this set up properly, it should be a nice bass and get a fair bit of use.

So I popped down to Bass Bros yesterday and came away with a 79 Fender P bass. It's a bit of a mutt, with a non-original scratchplate and a nice Lindy Fralin pickup. In addition, I've swapped out the bridge for an old Badass 2 and put on heavier gauge strings. As you can see, it has been stripped, but thankfully they did a much better job than I did when I stripped a 77 P bass years ago! It plays nicely, but I think that it could do with a touch more relief in the neck, which I hate doing myself on old Fenders so it might be going to a tech for a pro setup as soon as I get a chance. Not exactly one for the purists, but it has the feel and vibe of an old Fender, sounds great and as a bonus is reasonably light compared to my old 78 Precision.

But he is also somewhat of a contrarian (to put it mildly)! I believe that Alex from Barefaced also has an engineering background (in addition to very successfully building high-end, high-tech musical equipment beloved by many on this forum), but Dad is quick to dismiss his views.

Absolutely, although on the tonewood does not matter video he is basically saying the same thing with a different slant. On both videos he says that wood does make a difference, but it doesn't matter how rare / exotic / expensive the wood is, as long as it is stiff enough and resonates well.

And you can't get a higher seal of approval than that...

I will just leave this here:

But are they really getting £1.5k for most gigs? As you say, musicians have a tendency to exaggerate. They may earn that for some gigs, but the chances are they are doing plenty of $500 gigs. You have to be realistic if you want to work regularly. It has to be financially worthwhile for the the venue / bar / promoter otherwise they won't put the gig on. They won't be paying big fees for bands that obliterates any additional profit that they can potentially make over the bar.

You could always do what we do at those type of gigs if you don't fancy the late night drive home - pitch a tent, stay the night, have a few beers and drive home about noon the next day...

I used to have one of them in bright red (I got it in the early 90s). Really nice bass...

To be fair, in my world anyone who is any good is likely to have more than one project on the go. You just have to learn to manage everyone's' diaries and dep gigs out when necessary! Of course, everyone has to be upfront about what gigs they have taken on. A bit ago, we had to lose a keys player because he was so busy and just couldn't commit to the gigs we had coming in. It worked out well, as we got a new guy in who is excellent and who's availability is better these days. We're still mates with the other guy and use him for deps for other related projects when he is around.

That's because you eat your porridge oats every morning...!

That's a great photo! You couldn't get any more American than that - from the cut-off flannel shirt to the hat, not to mention the Fender bass / Mesa rig! But it does look cool...!

Jon Shuker is just over the border in Derbyshire (not far from Sheffield).

The room is a bit beyond your, or the luthier's control. Remember that in Roger Sadowsky's case, he made his name by modding Fenders for top NYC bass players. When the particular type of Fenders he recommended started getting in short supply / too expensive, he started making what were meant to be superior quality Fender type basses, with the improvements that he had installed in the instruments for his clients. It was the very opposite of 'exotic', just a basic 'Fender on steroids'. He didn't have to make up anything about the woods he used, he could have just said it was because of his electronics, fretwork, etc. I'm quite happy to accept that he believes that the quality of the 'non exotic' woods he uses is important. Bits of wood can just be different. I've owned a number Fender America Standard Jazz basses. The one that I have on a stand beside my desk is one that I played when I was picking up a couple of secondhand cabs from Bass Direct. As soon as I picked it up I thought that it was just more resonant and lively than the other Fender jazzes I had owned. I had no intention of buying a bass that day, but I was thinking about it on the drive home and when I got back home, I rang Mark and bought the bass that I had been playing earlier. As I say, all the components on that bass are the same as the other Am Std jazzes I had owned, so I can only put it down to the wood!