tony_m

That's what I use, run through either a Trace AH200 head with the pre-shape and EQ both disengaged on the amp (sacrilege, I know... 🤨 ), or into one of my Ashdowns, again with the EQ disengaged or set flat, and a DI run from the pedal to the desk for FOH. Have to confess, I tend not to touch the 12-band graphic, just dial in an appropriate amount of pre-shape to get the sound I want - this seems to work well enough for the band I'm in, but guess I really must have a proper "Mess Around With The Graphic" session sometime to see if it could be improved any.

Rascallion - country-rock / Americana with the odd bit of blues-rock thrown in is probably the best description. Mix of CCR, Eagles, Petty, Earle, Stones, plus random others, some of which we're gradually trying to phase out 'cos they don't really fit! Played our first gig as The Old Rascals, as this was the name the front three had been using when they went out as an electro-acoustic trio plus drum machine. A change of name was mooted as people were taking the proverbial out of us, especially the "Old" bit (OK, we are all gentlemen of a certain age, but that's beside the point) - Mr Drums suggested Rascallion (the archaic form of rapscallion), and in the absence of anything better, we went with that. Needless to say, certain other local bands do apparently refer to us as Crapscallion, but then again we have our own pet names for them too, so fair's fair I guess... 🤷‍♂️

Been and gone: Kustom keyboard combo (30W?) Marshall BassState B30 Laney Linebacker 30 Bass Trace Elliot BLX-80 Now: Ashdown Perfect10 30W (just gathering dust!) Ashdown MAG300-C210T combo Ashdown Five Fifteen mini rig Trace Elliot AH200 + Ashdown MAG210 Deep or Trace Elliot BLX-110

Our drummer always has a bottle of tonic water to hand during gigs, and after my fretting hand cramped up at our last gig I reckon I'm going to be joining him.

Haha, thank you for that vote of confidence, but we're all struggling with it so far! That said, I'm sure we'll come up with a reasonable stab at it and hopefully surprise a few people - it's definitely not a tune that gets trotted out regularly round here. 👍

Latest two we started on last week are End of The Line (Travelling Wilburys), and the single version of Don't Fear The Reaper - think it's fair to say the latter is going to be a much-simplified version, but we'll see how we get on! Other than that, we've also got a few numbers (including Life In The Fast Lane, Heartache Tonight, How Long, and Rocky Mountain Way) which myself, Mr Drums and Mr Lead Guitar have got sorted, but which Mr Rhythm Guitar and Mr Singer / Acoustic Guitar seem to have forgotten all about / lost interest in... 🤨

So, after Saturday's 70th birthday gig, onto last night's wedding gig. Nice pub venue, but an interesting load-in through a rabbit warren of passages (Hello Cleveland) and up two flights of stairs, with the added complication that Mr Drums is currently suffering from a severe case of L5 nerve root compression, so a) can't walk far, and b) can't lift anything. Fortunately he lives about halfway between my place and the venue, so it was easy enough for me to stop off en route and help him load his gear, then we all mucked in the other end to unload and get him set up. The room we were in is normally used as a restaurant, and while there was plenty of width, there wasn't a whole lot of depth, so the "dancefloor" occupied about the same amount of space as we did. As it was, most people at the event only seemed to be interested in pouring booze down their necks and shouting at each other, so the area available was just big enough for the few people who did actually want to do a bit of dancing. Onstage sound was a constant battle between the monitors and the cackling crowd, but out front it apparently sounded good, as did my "Baby Trace" setup of AH200 head + BLX-110 cab. As nobody seemed to be in charge of proceedings, we just made it up as we went along, kicking off at 8pm and doing an hour, then resuming at 9:45pm and doing another hour. We dropped one longish, very wordy, song towards the end of the second set as Mr Singer was flagging a bit, but apart from that and a handful of off-piste moments, everything mostly went to plan. One moment in particular stands out - as we launched into our traditional second set opener "Call Me The Breeze", the front three all stopped playing when Mr Singer realised he'd forgotten to switch his new-fangled radio mic back on, but me and Mr Drums just kept the groove going until switches were switched and normal service was resumed, amazingly at the right point! All part of the act, obvs... 😉 We also managed to get the Happy Couple onto the dancefloor for our rendition of "You Do Something To Me" which went down well, and then the night ended with the pub manager joining us to do harmonies on "Stand By Me" - very good she was too. As the pub owner has invited us back to do one of their Sunday afternoon beer garden gigs next Summer, she may well get to sing with us again. Obviously, the most fun we had all evening was loading-out through a slightly diminished crowd of folks who seemingly had no homes to go to, but everybody was very polite, and also very complimentary. Quick stop on the way home to help Mr Drums unload his gear, and that was that. Mr Drums has been told by his physio to take at least two weeks off even touching his drums, so we're now on an enforced break from rehearsing and working up a number of new songs, but I guess it couldn't have come at a better time as we don't have any more gigs currently lined up. Onwards and upwards next year then, L5 compressions permitting. Postscript: Just had the following message from Mr Rhythm Guitar:- "Out of the gigs we've done, I've never had so many people come up to me and say what a brilliant band we are, and quite a few said how refreshing it was to hear songs that other bands don't play, and we play and sing them so well." Case in point - the number which got the most people up and grooving, and got the biggest reaction at the end, was Mr Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance". So, we must be doing summat right... ☺️

Couple of Jazzes always appealed to me, Berry Oakley's much-modified "Tractor" and Les Pattinson's blue Bunnymen bass (with very worn inlays).

Slight change of tack(le) for the last couple of rehearsals and this weekend's gig. Rather than the usual MAG300 combo or Trace AH200 + BLX-110 cab, thought I'd give my old Five Fifteen mini rig a run out as it stands a chance of being heard (at least onstage) against our electronic drumkit. Unfortunately it doesn't have a Line Out or DI, and I don't possess a mic to stick in front of the cab, so I ran the DI out to the desk from the Ashdown Graphic EQ / DI pedal instead, and just used the mini rig for personal monitoring in addition to the floor monitor. Worked well in rehearsal and at Saturday's gig without having to be pushed too hard, though I'll probably be using the Trace setup for our next gig as it's a bit smaller and I find it easier to carry upstairs (yes, really! 💪 ). Bonus mention for the recently-acquired Lekato WS-80 wireless thingies - worked perfectly for strolling round the hall while soundchecking, and I'm sure would have worked just as well during the gig, but the Luddite in me couldn't bring himself to abandon his tweed lead just yet... 🙄

Fun evening playing at one of our regular village hall haunts for somebody's 70th birthday party on Saturday. After the usual rigmarole getting our frontman's crappy pedalboard / mixer thing working properly (one of these days, it *will* be getting accidentally run over in the car park... ), we finally finished soundchecking just in time before folks started to arrive. The onstage sound left a bit to be desired with every B and C seeming to boom out, but this wasn't replicated in the FOH sound so shouldn't really grumble too much. Anyway, the original plan was for us to do 45 minutes after the buffet, then another 45 minutes after the cake-cutting, but we were asked if we could do a few tunes before the buffet as the chips were still cooking, so we ended up doing our first three songs then taking a break while the buffet was served. Post-buffet (and very nice it was too... 😋 ) we picked up where we left off, adding an unplanned song plus the first song from the second set to fill the time until the cake-cutting. Once the cake was cut and the speeches had been made, we then unleashed the rest of the second set and got a few folks up and dancing. Mr Singer went slightly off-piste with one arrangement, while Mr Lead Guitar came up with a couple of *interesting* solos as he was apparently struggling to hear what he was doing, but apart from one table who were giving us snarky looks all night (while still tapping their feet... 🤨 ) everybody seemed to enjoy the evening. Next gig is a wedding bash on Wednesday evening - apparently the groom likes what we do, hence booking us, but quite how a bunch of country-rock songs mostly based around failed love affairs will go down at a wedding remains to be seen. We have already taken the precaution of dropping "Dead Flowers" and "It's All Over Now" from the set... 😁

Think my technique's a movable / floating hybrid - a) thumb anchored on the pickup cover or resting against the body (depending on which bass I'm using, and where I'm plucking) while playing the E, b) anchored on the E while playing the A, c) anchored on the A while playing the D, with the rest of the thumb resting against the E, d) anchored on the D while playing the G, with the rest of the thumb resting against the A and E.

And the results are in. The "Rumours" Alembic went for $100,000, while Mick Fleetwood's wooden balls apparently fetched $128,000. Suspect we'll not be seeing *them* on the BC Marketplace in a few days... 😉 https://www.julienslive.com/auctions/catalog/id/443?page=1&catm=any&order=order_num&xclosed=no&featured=no&key=bass&items=100 https://www.julienslive.com/lot-details/index/catalog/443/lot/196381?url=%2Fauctions%2Fcatalog%2Fid%2F443%3Fpage%3D1%26items%3D100%26catm%3Dany%26order%3Dorder_num%26xclosed%3Dno%26featured%3Dno%26key%3Dmick%2Bfleetwood%2Bballs

Similar here @Sparky Mark - the EQ section is nice to have in case I feel the need for a bit of extra tweakage, but generally I just run the pre-shape on its own. I've also just started using the DI on the pedal to go into the PA - I previously used the DI on either my MAG300 combo or TE AH200 head, but as an experiment am giving my old Five Fifteen mini rig (which doesn't have a Line Out, never mind a DI) a go for onstage monitoring.

Hmm, given it's in the "Studio" range, wonder if it's a Class-D reincarnation of the old 100W Five Fifteen Mini Rig I've got? 🤔

633 (Squadron)

With apologies for inflicting them on people again, may I present Evil Blizzard. Line-up used to be four bass players, a singing drummer, and a dancing pig, now it's three bass players (one of whom usually plays baritone guitar), a guitarist who used to play bass, a singing drummer, and a synth-playing pig.

Blimey, sounds like we got off lightly then! As it is, it's a shame the way things seem to have gone. We actually played our second-ever gig at the hall in question as a freebie, mainly as a showcase for us, but also partly as a favour to them when they were looking to establish a regular monthly "Band Night" - our drummer and his wife were regular attendees at events at the hall even though they live in another village, and we got the gig through them being known. Off the back of that first gig, we got paid bookings for the committee chairman's birthday bash, someone else's birthday (the one coming up in December), and for last week's band night, but in the meantime the hall have apparently managed to alienate a large number of people by restricting places at the Platty Joobs party earlier this year to village residents only - anybody who lived elsewhere (like our drummer) was excluded, and now a lot of folks who were previously regulars simply won't go back, hence the poor audience numbers. Welcome to village politics in Lincolnshire! 😆

Well, Friday wasn't the finest evening in our gigging career! We had a feeling it was going to be a bit iffy when we noticed on Thursday that the "Band Night" event posts on the FB page for the village hall we were playing at had all disappeared. After a quick message to the chairman of the committee, the event appeared again, but without anything much in the way of interest being shown. Anyway, after the usual rigmarole of tracing and eliminating various odd hums and buzzes (which invariably seem to emanate from Mr Singer's crappy acoustic amp and pedalboard... 🙄 ), we managed to get a decent sound, though unusually I had to ask to be turned up quite a lot in the mix - looks like our resident poultrygeist (don't ask... ) has been fiddling with the desk again. So, there we are, all set to kick off, when the hall folks announce they're going to start serving food now, so could we hang on? We do, and eventually launch into the first set half an hour later than planned, to a rather disinterested (but well-fed) audience of thirty or so people. On the plus side, that was more than the eight who turned up for the last band who played there, and the two new numbers we'd thrown together at rehearsal on Thursday went well, so we'll be treating them to a bit more polish before the next gig. Other than that, the first set felt a bit like hard work - they're all songs we (mostly) like individually, and they do usually seem to go down well, but there's a growing feeling that they just don't work as a set, so we're going to rip up the list and do a bit of set-bashing in the next couple of weeks. After a short break, the second set was, as ever, an absolute delight to bash through, though the delayed start meant we had to drop a couple of songs (in addition to the one I'd inadvertantly managed to leave off the list for the first set - oops!). The audience response remained muted, though at least they did applaud after each number rather than just carry on talking, and we got several compliments at the end so it would appear they were actually listening after all. Honourable mention goes to the two people who I noticed were actually watching us and tapping their feet all night! From a personal point of view, the onstage sound was great as was the FoH, and it was one of those nights where everything just seemed to flow without really thinking about it - in fact, the couple of times I did think about it was when the minor flubs occurred. We've another gig booked at the same hall in December for a birthday event, but after that I suspect we'll not be playing there again - apparently there have been several changes on the committee, and it looks like live music isn't particularly part of the scene there any longer. Oh well, plus ça change an' all that...

Well... I picked up the OptoComp on here to try out as a replacement for the Trace SMX Dual Band compressor I had been using, and to be perfectly honest, I'd be hard-pressed to say exactly what it's doing! The LED which is supposed to get brighter as gain reduction increases never actually seems to light up under normal use (I've got it set to what the manual describes as "Easy Compression", so about 2:1 compression and a quick release time), though I can get it to illuminate if I wind the compression rate up and play really hard (which I normally don't) so it does appear to be working, just not so's you can tell! All that said, there's a pleasantly smooth warmth (or maybe a warm smoothness) which disappears if I turn it off, so I'm happy to just let it do whatever it is it's doing. As for the preamp, it's not actually a preamp, it's an old Ashdown 12-band Graphic EQ / DI pedal. I dial in a small amount of the adjustable mid-scoop pre-shape (about 1/3) which seems to fatten up the single coils nicely, but rarely switch the EQ in unless the room dictates a bit more tweakage, and leave the EQ on the amp switched out. All the gear and no idea? Yeah, probably, but I (and the band) like the sound I get, so... 🤷‍♂️ 😂

Friday evening's gig, decided to give the MAG300 a run out, and also used the Jazz instead of the '51 P. Delighted on both counts, will definitely be using the same setup again this coming Friday.

Following a break in rehearsals due to Messrs Drums, Rhythm Guitar, and Lead Guitar all going down with the 'Rona, our occasional tour of local village halls resumed last night. After a less than stellar rehearsal on Thursday, we were all a bit unsure how things would go, but it turned out to be possibly our best gig yet! Certainly sounded and felt like it from where I was stood, think our uncertainty sparked a useful degree of "What the heck, just go for it!" in everybody instead of the usual fretting about trying to get everything Just So. Only a couple of minor whoopsies, including Mr Drums throwing in an extra flourish in the intro to a number which doesn't have any such flourishes in it at all - fortunately everybody rode it out nicely while me and him exchanged "Oops, what was that all about then?" looks and tried not to laugh too much. Great response from the small but perfectly formed crowd, got paid more than we were expecting, and didn't get too wet loading in or out. One nice fella insisted on buying us all a drink afterwards (think he was a bit surprised at the request for four J2O's and a lemonade), while another nice fella told us (and his wife) that we were "Ten times better than [A N Other local band who seem to think they're God's Gift]" - reckon may just have to get some t-shirts printed up... 🤭 Roll on next Friday when the tour continues at another hall we've played at before, so hoping for another good crowd (as long as the hall in question have sorted out their finances and paid their electricity bill by then anyhow!) 😬

Sparking lots of memories, this thread! Doctor Doctor and Lights Out were integral parts of the soundtrack to our regular Friday night post-pub cards sessions 30 or more years ago. Happy / hazy days...

Likewise, though in my case I use the Shape knob on an Ashdown 12-band Graphic EQ/DI pedal which applies a variable amount of mid-scoop similar to the TE pre-shape 1 (+8db @ 50Hz & 4khz, -8db @ 400hz). Seems to work well within our country-rock band setup (electro-acoustic 6/12 string, mandolin, Strat rhythm, Tele lead, electronic drums, single-coil P bass).

Good luck, hope all goes well! 👍

Dirty Water by The Standells, with some mates at an open mic / jam night thing.