tony_m

I've got a K & M Memphis, similar style to the Hercules and very solid... https://www.londonguitarstudio.com/p/k-m-memphis-pro-deluxe-guitar-stand

From our current setlist, I always particularly enjoy playing the two Creedence "Rain" numbers (Have You Ever Seen The Rain & Who'll Stop The Rain) when me and Mr Drums really lock together.

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Hope all goes well, and a speedy recovery has you back to giving the Poppydog cause for concern asap! 😉

Same here, even with TI Jazz Flats, and particularly around the 12th fret. Luckily I'm only ever up that way a couple of times during our set... 😃

Mine's a 1994 MIJ '51 reissue, custom pickguard is homemade - self-adhesive vinyl (AKA "sticky-backed plastic" to Brits of a certain age) stuck onto a single-ply white aftermarket pickguard. The other bit of customisation you can't see is a set of Webbteca phenolic saddles - old school dodgy intonation ahoy! 😄

They're great, aren't they! 😎

Now that we've all finally got rid of (though not yet fully recovered from) the Covid which scuppered our birthday gig at the end of July, we (Rascallion) reconvened on Thursday afternoon to bang out a few tunes for the "Family Day" event at the care home where Mr Lead Guitar's mother had resided happily for the last few years of her life. Same as last year's event, the weather forecast wasn't looking too hopeful, but we set up as best we could in the shelter provided by the small wooden gazebo in the garden, which had been extended forwards with a pop-up gazebo (thank you Lily's Boutique of Woodhall Spa!). Mr Drums was using a reduced kit of just snare, kick, hi-hat, and a couple of cymbals, so a few tunes didn't sound quite right, and for once I struggled to get a decent onstage sound out of my trusty Trace Elliot mini-rig (AH200 head + BLX-110 cab). In desperation I did something I've not done in ages, punched in pre-shape 1 plus a less-than-carefully-sculpted gullwing shape on the EQ, and was rewarded with a lovely deep, rich tone which fitted in beautifully without booming - must try this more often! Luckily the overall sound out front seemed to be good right from the start. First set was rather soulless / soul-destroying as we played to a small number of folks loitering in the summer house to the right of us plus an equally small number dotted around the garden under various umbrellas, and got pretty much zero reaction until we finished the set to a smattering of applause. We had originally intended to take a 20 minute break, but as the rain had now set in (along with a distinct "let's-get-the-heck-out-of-Dodge" feeling), we gave it 10 minutes then cracked on. For whatever reason, the second set felt much more satisfying, and by the time we hit Roadhouse Blues, a few folks were actually up and showing an interest, and even applauding loudly. Our final run of Walking By Myself, Long Train Runnin', Gimme Some Lovin', Whiskey In The Jar and Bad Moon Rising went down a storm, and we even had to pull Old Time Rock & Roll out of our back pockets as an encore. Totally different to the first set! As we were packing up, half a dozen folks wandered in from the small "Garden of Tranquility" where they'd been hidden from view round the corner from us, and said how much they'd enjoyed it and had been bopping along (embarrassingly so in one case apparently!), which made it all worthwhile. We also got a couple of enquiries from folks about booking us at a later date, though to be honest the same happened last year without anything coming of it, so we're not counting our chickens just yet. That's it for now as we've nothing else in the diary for this year, so it's back to the workhouse next week to work on a few more new songs, and see what might come up. Definitely one of the more interesting setups we've had, but happily, despite the rain dripping in through the small gap between the two gazebos, all the gear stayed dry (with the help of several carrier bags and amp covers) apart from one DI box which somehow got overlooked.

Have to confess it's not ours either, but they're very good, and very passionate about what they do. They're playing at a festival in France (Bluegrass in La Roche) this weekend for the second year running, seems to be quite a thriving scene.

That's the system my Better Half's banjoist daughter's band (Blue Lass) use, seems to work well for them. 😀

Oooh... 🤩

Cheers, on the plus side I'm feeling better now than I was first thing this morning! As it is, we've all decided not to do anything for a couple of weeks until everybody is (hopefully) well clear of it. 🤞

I had been hoping to post a report tomorrow of Rascallion's latest outing at a birthday party this evening, but unfortunately after we rehearsed on Wednesday, Mr Rhythm Guitar tested positive for Covid on Thursday, and I tested positive this morning! Possibly all for the best as our frontman still hasn't got his voice back properly since he had Covid two weeks ago... 🙄

I'm not a guitarist (or a bass player, some might say... ), but if I were, it would have to be a butterscotch blonde / black guard Tele (or even better, an Esquire) or a TV yellow Les Paul Junior. Just love those simple planks.

Country-rock / blues (CCR, Doobies, Eagles, Petty + assorted randoms) here. We started off with 2 x 45, but these have now grown to 2 x 60 due to an inability to decide which songs to drop whenever we've added new ones. We're making an effort (or at least, I am as Keeper of the Setlists) to be more ruthless for our upcoming birthday party gig and cut them back down to 2 x 45 as it's their party, not our show, but after that... 🤷‍♂️

Interesting placement for the portaloos! 🫢

Our drummer went to see a new-to-us local cover band the other week, and thought they were very good indeed. Something he did note was they did several medleys which kept people dancing, but the key to each medley was that they switched songs whenever there was a tricky bit coming up, which is either very clever or a bit sneaky depending on your point of view!

Indeed, it's a great little festival, and that's only the front half of the site. This is the whole site from a year or two back...

Yeah, when I was in NO with some mates we saw a band - can't remember their name, but the venue was the "Funky Pirate" - and the tip jar came round *very* regularly, accompanied by a fair amount of encouragement / haranguing from the stage!

Saturday saw our (Rascallion's) third appearance at our local charity outdoor festival, Anderby Rocks. Shan't bore you with the details of why the first two bands who were due to appear had to be replaced by a solo acoustic singer and an acoustic duo, but the upshot was that after the acoustic duo who were scheduled to appear before us had finished, we ended up being the first full band on, which actually worked in our favour in terms of setting up, though it still didn't mean we got anything more than a basic line check - luckily the regular sound crew working the festival know their stuff, and after one minor burst of feedback early on, quickly gave us a superb onstage sound and, as confirmed by my Better Half who's fussy about volume in particular, the sound out front was equally good, balanced, and just-loud-enough. Just to add to the fun, we'd not managed a full rehearsal this week after our frontman went down with the lurgy on Monday. It had been touch-and-go until Friday morning whether he'd be fit enough to handle the vocals and harmonica, but luckily he'd recovered enough to do so, and apart from a couple of minor on-the-hoof rearrangements which we managed to catch and cover hopefully without anyone noticing, everything went well. Not much in the way of dancing to report, though a few folks did stand up from their camping chairs and jig around a bit towards the end of the set, which to be fair is all we ever tend to get anyway. At least the weather, which had started off alternating between drizzle and light rain, finally got its act together and it stayed dry throughout our set, not so much of a concern to us due to the solid tentage covering the stage, but great for the hardy souls in the audience, bless 'em. In the rush to set up, play, then get off, I didn't manage to grab any rig photos, but I used my trusty MIJ '51 Precision Reissue --> Thumpinator --> NUX tuner --> Ampeg OptoComp --> Ampeg Scrambler --> Ampeg Liquifier --> Ashdown 12-band EQ (pre-shape only engaged) --> Trace Elliot AH200 + BLX-110 cab --> DI'd into PA. Couple of photos from the event FB page...

As an alternative to rubber washers, I can recommend the D'Addario Dual-Lock jobbies I've been using for a while now. Can't vouch for how secure they might be if one is a Hyperactive Flea rather than an Entwistle Statue like me, but they work well and are easy to click on and off. They've also got a channel which holds your cable securely - this grips the cable pretty tightly, so I leave mine attached to my cable at the appropriate point, then it's just a case of plug the jack into the socket, clip the lock onto the strap button, and I'm good to go. https://www.daddario.com/products/accessories/strap-accessories/strap-locks/dual-lock/

Just bought Paul's JH Voodoo Chile Coiled Lead. Lead in perfect condition exactly as described, sent and received very quickly, great comms, altogether a lovely straightforward transaction. Deal with confidence!

"Do your research please." 🤦‍♂️ 🤣

Mr Lead Guitar turned up at rehearsal yesterday accompanied by his 13 year-old grandson and his grandson's Squier Mini P, which he's had for a few months but has never heard through a "proper" amp (assuming my Ashdown Five Fifteen minirig counts as a "proper" amp!). Anyway, I gave it a quick check over, and the setup seemed to be pretty good even though it's apparently not been tweaked since the day he got it, with no rattles anywhere, nice smooth fret ends, and quiet pots. It sounded suprisingly meaty when we ran it through the Ashdown (even on the stock strings), which will hopefully inspire him to get stuck into learning to play. Also gave him a quick go on my '51 P reissue by way of comparison - think the weight came as a bit of a shock! 😃