tony_m

Similar story here. It's taken our drummer ages and lots of swearing, fiddling with settings, and swapping leads etc. but he's finally happy (well, as happy as he ever gets anyway... ) with his V-drums. He's got a "basic" kit stored which suits most of what we do, plus a couple of others which he switches to for the odd song here and there (slightly different snare sound on one, slightly different kick drum on the other), and has even managed to get the cymbals sounding like proper cymbals. The final key component for our guy (and me tbh) was the addition of an Alesis Strike 12 drum amp which we set up on the far side of the kit from me - suddenly he and I can both hear the drums clearly but at a sensible volume, and the whole thing just sounds and feels right.

Which to be fair, is better than "Play something you know!" as we used to shout at a mates' band... 😁

My first decent amp was a BLX-80, bought new in 1996. Wish I still had it, as it would have been just perfect for leaving in our drummer's reharsal studio, but when we moved to the other side of the country in 2016, I donated it to the guitarist of my old band rather than lug it all the way over here with us (and risk shifting the Earth's axis by a degree or two). 🙄

As I mentioned on the "How was your gig last night?" thread, at the wedding anniversary gig we did back in September at a local village hall, we were asked if we'd do NYE for them. Having verbally agreed on the night with couple of the chaps off the hall committee that we'd do it for twice our usual rate, we then got word a week later via our drummer that the hall committee had now had a vote, and decided they were going to have a karaoke and disco instead! One of the local musos who lives in the village then mischieviously posted "Would like to see a band at the village hall on New Year's Eve, is there one on?" on the hall FB page, sparking a rather heated (and very entertaining) discussion between the hall chairman and various folks who regularly come to see us, which only ended when the thread got pulled by the hall chairman. 😂 Given the atmosphere which seems to have developed over the whole affair, suspect we'll not be playing there ever again, which is a shame as it's a nice enough hall, and only 15 minutes drive away for me. On the plus side, at least we won't need to worry about the dodgy hall electrics!

I used to run an EHX Bass Soul Food as an always-on tone-thickener, but was never entirely happy as it always seemed to teeter on the edge of being a bit too shrill. Replaced it with an Ampeg Scrambler, which seems far warmer overall (subject to the position of the Treble control) and is definitely more what I was after.

In one of my previous bands, I was most definitely the third "best" bass player out of the five of us, the guitarist and drummist both being way ahead of me in terms of competence and experience! Since then, though, my confidence in my own ability has grown, especially since I joined my current band. OK, my technique is still pretty limited compared to some (many / most?), but as long as I strike the right balance between speed and complexity, I know I can keep things nice and solid - it helps that Mr Drums is so good (absolutely metronomic, counts literally everything from the first beat of the intro to the last of the outro, and the words "that'll do" simply don't exist in his vocabulary), that as long as I lock in with him, everything will be just fine.

Just bought Ben's NUX Flow tuner. Simple, straightforward transaction, great comms, pedal in perfect condition, sent very quickly, and very neatly packed. Not a lot more to be said really, another fine Ambassador for the BC community. Deal with confidence. 👍

We do Tom Petty's "Learning To Fry", aka The Chip Shop Song.

And they're gone (again)... 🫣

Not a live album as such, but a live videotape (remember them?). Think I've told this story before on here, but for anyone who's not heard it, in January 1983 myself and couple of mates from the Saxon Militia Guard fanclub made the trek down from Blackpool to Nott'num in a pale yellow Mini Metro (remember them?) hire car - very metal, eh? - for the recording of Saxon's Live video at the Royal Court Theatre. No sooner had we picked up our Guest passes and settled in for a few hours ligging before the show than one of the roadies grabbed us and said "Hi lads, have you come in a car? Great, we need someone to drive over to Leicester and pick up a guitar for Graham. We'll pay for the petrol." So, me and one of my mates, plus the aforementioned roadie, fire up the Mighty Metro, and head off to Carlsbro Music, from where we collect a sunburst Squier Strat before heading back to the Royal Court via a petrol station for a fill-up (on expenses, of course). Fast forward to showtime, and we watch with anticipation from the balcony at the side of the stage, waiting for "Our Guitar" to make an appearance. Eventually out it comes for "And The Bands Played On", at the end of which Graham Oliver throws the thing into the air, drops it on the floor, sprays it with lighter fuel, and sets fire to it. Doesn't he know / care about all the effort we put into fetching it for him?!?!?!? 🤨 Obviously, our other contribution to what was a great show (and a great video IMHO, particularly Dobby Dawson's tone throughout, not to mention his bass pedal "demo" at 11:11 in), was adding our voices to the massed "Wheels Of Steel" sing-back and the "Whoa-oh-oh"s in "And The Bands Played On", despite us being on the guest list, and thus too-cool-for-school. A grand day out. 😎

Fortunately looks like only the Dakota Red version, otherwise I would have been a bit annoyed having picked up a blonde one elsewhere, at a higher price... 😂

Looks like they're back in stock (now at £262), let the frenzy recommence... 🙃 https://www.thomann.de/gb/fender_squier_40th_anni._p_bass_dr.htm

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (otherwise known as A1 Music in Preston), I spied hanging on the wall a newly-released Fender Classic '50s Precision in Honey Blonde with a gold anodized scratchplate and maple neck, and fell in love with the look. At the time, it was way too spendy for me, plus I didn't think my small hands and stumpy fingers would be able to cope with the 44.45mm nut width anyway, so I left it where it was, but never forgot that look. Fast forward to September 2023, and *that* thread about Thomann and the Squier 40th Anniversary P's. The Vintage Blonde version obviously caught my eye, but after umming and aahing for a while, I decided to hold off ordering one until after we'd got back from our week away in Norfolk. Of course, they'd all gone by then, but a quick bit of online research revealed one in stock at GAK - more expensive than Thomann, but available - so I bunged my order in immediately. Then of course, I came across all the horror stories (mainly over on The Other Place) about dodgy QC on some of these, so was equally excited and worried about what might actually turn up. Turns out I needn't have worried - the body is decent enough (there are slight differences in colour / graining visible through the finish, but this is mainly on the back, and more apparent in photos than it is to the naked eye), the nut and fretwork is all neat and tidy, no loose / stripped screws, the pots are smooth (as has been noted elsewhere, the tone control is way more progressive than that on any of my other basses), the neck joint is tight, weight is nice at exactly 8lbs, setup was spot-on from the factory (though I have raised the action a bit to taste), the satin neck is a delight, she really rings out acoustically, and sustains for days (almost). I had originally intended going for the full '57 vintage look with threaded saddles, bridge cover and G-side tugbar, but I think I'm going to leave her as she is, a lean, mean, rockin' machine (or whatever the Kewl Kidz say these days) - all I've done is swap the strings for my preferred TI Jazz Flats. Unfortunately as the band is currently taking a complete break for four weeks, I'll not have chance to give her a full workout just yet, but she's definitely a keeper. And so, onto the obligatory pictures...

Friday night saw Rascallion providing the entertainment at a 30th Anniversary party for one of the committee members and his wife at a local village hall we've played a few times before. The evening didn't get off to a particularly good start when my trusty Ashdown Five Fifteen minirig started buzzing horribly, and nothing we tried would get rid of it completely. When I realised it was at its worst and most obvious when I rolled the tone above about 20% (or added treble on the Ampeg Scrambler), we decided to just crack on, and I'd keep the tone rolled back. Then we realised it wasn't just my amp that was buzzing, Mr Lead Guitar's was too, particularly when he kicked in his boost pedal. We've had buzzing amp issues at this venue before, but we always just put it down to Mr Singer's crappy old amp playing up as that seemed to be the only one affected. Long story slightly shorter, another local muso who runs an open mic at the same hall and was attending the event confirmed that he had the same problem here all the time, so we came to the conclusion it must be an issue with the mains - oddly, neither Mr Singer's nor Mr Rhythm Guitar's amps seemed to be affected on this occasion, nor were Mr Drums's electronic kit or the powered main PA speakers, so... 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, we fired up at 8pm, trying to forget about the odd buzz here and there. First set went well, and neatly on the dot of 45 minutes (with four tunes still left to do - we really must sort our set timings out!), Mr Anniversary came up to say the buffet was now being served, so we took a break for food (very nice it was too). Once everyone had finished troughing, we kicked off again at 9:30pm, running through the remaining four numbers from the first set, then continuing through the second, dropping a couple of numbers here and there. Think we may have inadvertently hit upon a new closing number for the first set / opening four numbers for the second set going forward, as it seemed to work really well this way! After we reached the end of the planned set, we got Mr Anniversary up to join us on the Kenny Rogers cover he'd requested (well, sort of - he'd wanted to do "Lady", but we'd decided it was too orchestrated for our meagre talents so opted for "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town" instead), which went OK apart from Mr Singer (and thus also Mr Anniversary who was following him) getting the phrasing wrong in verse 3 (yet again). Mr Anniversary then treated us all to an a capella, solo version of "Lady", despite the fact his beloved lady had already gone home as she wasn't feeling well (nothing to do with us, apparently). After we'd churned out "Bad Moon Rising" in response to loud requests for one more song, Mr Anniversary then came forward again, this time asking for just one more, possibly romantic number - I'd already suggested we should perhaps play "You Do Something To Me" given the nature of the event, so despite not having played it for months (even in rehearsal) we did something to them, and then rounded things off with a final "Stand By Me" to send everybody singing and swaying into the night. After a near-as-dammit faultless first set, there were few miscues in the second set (my major flamingo-up being total brain- and finger-freeze on the opening run in "Long Train Running", though I did nail it the second time round!), but on the plus side, the two numbers getting their first public airings ("Peaceful Easy Feeling" and "Listen To The Music") both went well and were well-received. We only had a couple of our regular friends from another village hall up and dancing, but then we didn't really think it was likely to be that sort of a do anyway given our previous experiences at this hall, with this crowd. So, that was that. Our final planned gig for this year, the intention being to now take four weeks off completely (mainly to prevent Mr Drums properly losing his temper with Mr Lead Guitar during yet another disagreement about timings, particularly on intros - Mr Drums can actually count well, Mr Lead Guitar apparently less so... ), then spend the rest of the year re-jigging the sets and nailing down a few new numbers, plus some we've dabbled with in the past, but which have never made it to gig-ready. At least, that was the plan. Then last night's parting shot from Mr Anniversary and his colleague on the hall committee was...... could we do New Year's Eve at the hall? And would twice our usual rate be OK? Well, it's sort of next year really, isn't it... 🙃

I'd probably have been listening to "Crusader" and "Innocence Is No Excuse", while dreaming wistfully of a return to the glory days of "Wheels of Steel", "Strong Arm of the Law" and "Denim And Leather"... 🤨

Now The Beeb are on the case... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66700300

Hopefully M3 is the correct size for the Hosco saddles - I did have a look to see if the specs said anything different, but they didn't so fingers crossed they're the same size as the Wilkinsons!

Obviously I don't know whether this sort of thing is important to you or not, but when I replaced the original brass saddles on my Wilkinson bridge with the threaded vintage-style jobbies as mentioned on your other thread, I also replaced the saddle screws so they didn't protrude quite as much, if at all. The grub screws I used came from Model Fixings https://www.modelfixings.co.uk/cup_point_grub_screws.htm#M3 cup but I note yours have got slotted rather than hex heads, which isn't an option from Model Fixings - however, Spalding Fasteners do offer slot-heads https://www.spaldingfasteners.co.uk/m3-metric-a2-grade-stainless-steel-slotted-grub-screws/. Can't remember what lengths I used now, but think it may have been 10mm for the A and D saddles, and slightly shorter (looking at them in situ, possibly 8mm) for the E and G saddles. Definitely looks neater without bits sticking out, and avoids the possibility of any annoying scratches and scrapes if you go in for palm-muting - I don't, so it's just for looks in my case. Gear Tart? Moi? 😁

When I was after some threaded saddles for my 60s Reissue Jazz, I couldn't find any individual items anywhere so ended up getting a complete Wilkinson bridge off the Bay of e, and swopped the saddles from that onto my existing bridge (coincidentally also a Wilkinson). The threaded saddles are brass, not chrome, but are significantly paler / less brass-coloured than the slotted brass saddles they replaced. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/392704245582

Sunday saw us (Rascallion) making a return visit to a local pub we've played at twice before. When the date was originally booked back in January, it appeared to be just an ordinary beer garden gig (albeit on a Bank Holiday Sunday), but earlier this week we found out it coincided with a charity tractor run and fun day in aid of the local hospice, raising expectations that we might have a decent sized crowd, a lot of whom probably hadn't seen us before. Sure enough, the parade of 35 vintage and modern tractors attracted a decent number of folks who all seemed keen to make the most of the day, despite the occasional heavy showers - at least the beer garden now has full marquee coverage so everybody (including us and our gear) stayed dry through the downpours. The first set wasn't too bad - Mr Singer threw us a curveball by forgetting half of the second verse of "Guitar Town" and jumping straight into the bridge far too early, but we scuffled our way through it. There then followed an unexpectedly long break while the organisers held the auction and raffle. On the plus side, I came away with a canister of automotive cleaning wipes and a £20 meat voucher from a local butcher, but it would have been nice not to have to hang around for a whole hour before we fired up again. Quite a few of the tractor folks left as soon as the raffle had finished, so the first couple of numbers in the second set were punctuated by tractors grumbling past just behind us, but on the whole the set felt a lot better than the first - whether it's down to the choice of material or a confidence thing I don't know, but it usually seems to be that way. The folks who did stay on to watch us were very complimentary at the end, the onstage sound was good (despite Mr Singer draping his coat over half of the drum monitor... 🙄 ), and for once I could actually hear myself properly, and my tone was exactly how I always want it to be! Next gig is a birthday bash at a local village hall towards the end of September, for which we've been asked to play a / any song by Kenny Rodgers, as he's Birthday Boy's favourite singer. After giving it a whole 30 seconds thought, we've chosen "Ruby" - hope he likes it!

Inspired by this thread (and a similar discussion over on The Other Place), I've just invested some of my recent gig money in a K&M Memphis Pro stand. Very smart bit of kit it is too, and works perfectly for both my Precision and my Jazz. Reckon I'll still be using my Amperstand leany-up / neck-cradle thing in the spacious, nicely-carpeted, less-than-dynamic environment of our rehearsal studio, but the K&M should be be just the thing on the cramped, less plush stages we regularly find ourselves on, and which are already cluttered with four guitars and a mandolin all on A-frame stands. 🫣 https://www.k-m.de/en/products/stands-and-accessories-for-instruments/fretted-instruments/17670-guitar-stand-memphis-pro-black?c=156

Have to confess, I've not given it any thought whatsoever, but a mate of mine who died last year was a massive fan of Elvis and rock / blues music in general, so for his service the family chose the following: Music on Entrance: Live Intro Into His Shows & CC Rider (Elvis Presley) Moment of Reflection: Hallelujah (Jeff Buckley) Closing Music: Simple Man (Lynyrd Skynyrd) Music on Leaving: Elvis Has Left The Building (Frank Zappa) Definitely hit the right sort of vibe.

After last weekend's care home and army barracks weirdness, Saturday night saw a wlecome return to normality for Rascallion with a gig at one of our regular village hall venues. As we soundchecked in front of the folks running the bar and the kitchen, we did wonder how many people might actually turn up as there were a couple of multi-band events plus a 1940's Weekend (a major attraction in these parts) taking place no more than 20 miles away, but fortunately folks started arriving at about 7pm to partake of the food, then stayed on to listen to us when we fired up at 8pm. The first set saw possibly the best onstage sound we've ever had, which was a great confidence booster, and everything went swimmingly. Oddly, it seemed to go to pot two numbers in to the second set, despite nothing being changed on the desk (at least not by human hands... 👻 ), but we muddled through, and overall it turned into probably our best (and definitely sweatiest) show so far. The new numbers getting their first public airing (nothing too adventurous, just Before You Accuse Me, Tush and Sharp Dressed Man) went down well, while the only major off-piste moment was Mr Singer forgetting the second half of verse two in Mary Jane's Last Dance and jumping straight into the chorus, but we all somehow caught up with him before it all went too horribly wrong. Next up in two weeks (August Bank Holiday Sunday) is another return visit, this time outdoors at a local pub we've played at twice before. Apparently they've now got full marquee coverage over the beer garden, so hopefully we'll avoid the weather-driven ebbing and flowing crowd we experienced the last time we played there should it be at all iffy on the day. 🤞