tony_m

As I mentioned in the "Show us your rig for the weekend" thread a couple or three weeks back, we recently did a shoot for a promo / showreel video, and here's the result (aka "Five Grumpy Old Blokes Messing About In a Former Chicken Shed"). There are a couple of versions, this is the full one... There's also a shorter version here with a few different camera angles / cuts... As usual, sounds best over headphones or decent speakers.

I wonder who the "6 other people have this in their carts" are? I can confirm I'm not one of them... 🙃

Hey @Oddly, I seem to have ended up with two entries as well (1665 and 1666)! Feel free to delete one of me... 🥴

Done mine, just waiting for it to be approved / show up.

Our next gigs aren't until late October, but this Saturday we're shooting some clips for a promo / showreel video in our / the drummer's rehearsal studio. We've had a couple of practices this week to polish the nine snippets of tunes we're doing - all sounding really good this afto, fingers crossed it'll be the same at the weekend. And yes, we are going to tidy up / hide the wiring a bit...

Oh, go on then, if you insist... 😬 https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/7919-how-was-your-gig-last-night/?do=findComment&comment=4696183

We've done a couple of birthday bashes, one a 70th in a local village hall, and the other an 80th in a trying-slightly-too-hard "gin bar". Both were well-attended, but the former was definitely the more successful of the two - most of the folks there were actually interested in what we were doing, and a small amount of dancing even broke out during the second set (admittedly initiated by Mr Rhythm Guitar's wife and friends, but hey-ho... ). The other was our worst gig ever (so far!), so we'll draw a veil over that one! Funnily enough, we've got another 70th bash coming up in December, which we were asked to do on the strength of the first, and is being held in the same village hall, so it'll be interesting to see how we (and the new material we've added since then) go down this time. Just for the record, we're all in our 60s, so not too disimilar in age to the audiences at each. And yes, we got paid for both and fed nicely at the first, so can't really complain. 😀

Just bought Paul's Ampeg Opto Comp. Lovely easy transaction, great comms, rapid dispatch / delivery, and pedal in perfect condition - another fine ambassador for the BC community.

Bass > Tascam MP-BT1 loaded with mp3s of all the songs we do (in set order, plus a few random ones I'd like us to do!) > headphones. Spend most of my practice time playing along with the mp3s, though I do also occasionally work on scales or noodle etc. without any backing tracks.

Saturday saw another first in the short gigging career of the now-not-so-new band - our first outdoor gig at a charity fest raising funds for the local air ambulance. As first band on, we got the benefit of a decent soundcheck and it sounded superb, with the old Ashdown MAG300 combo I got off @karlfer donkey's years ago still delivering heaps of warm, punchy goodness. Things went slightly awry two songs in to our nine-song set with intermittent dropouts and odd noises coming through the monitors (plus Mr Lead Guitar forgetting to turn his chorus off because he couldn't see the LED glowing in the sunlight), but apparently nobody out front noticed the occasional off-piste moments and various people told us it all sounded OK, so happy days! We had been told that someone was going to be filming all the bands and if we took a pen drive along we could take a copy on the day, but unfortunately it didn't happen so all we've got to show for our efforts is a very short clip on FB. Still had fun though, and hopefully we'll get another, higher up the bill, crack at next year's event. https://fb.watch/ejF2BlydJF/

Looks similar to the Levy's "Right Height" and Right On "F.L.A.S.H" systems, must be a call for it I guess! https://www.levysleathers.com/right-height/ https://www.rightonstraps.com/en/STRAP-Fast-Length-Adjustment-System-Harness.html

Sotally tober here... 🤪 Seriously, living in the sticks as we do, playing anywhere inevitably involves driving , so no alcohol. That said, the venues we've played so far this year (a local village hall twice and a couple of pubs) have all had an alcohol-free beer of some sort on offer, either bottled or on draught, which suits me just fine. Cheers!

Always fancied one of these after seeing Rick Price playing one with the good ol' Georgia Satellites back in the day. Rick Richards occasionally played a DA plexi guitar too, both on view here... 😎

Same here, though as I'm highly unlikely to ever qualify for an official signature model, reckon I'll just have to stick with my MIJ '51 P Reissue (with Evan Webb / Webbteca phenolic saddles for that extra retro touch).

First "pub gig" for the new band last night, at a drinking establishment frequented by Mr Drums - the newish owners are looking to put bands on regularly, so this was a bit of a tester. After a late afternoon domestic crisis (dripping heating oil tank = large bill incoming... 🙄 ) I finally arrived 40 minutes before showtime, and managed to a) get parked right outside, and b) squeeze myself into the little remaining space in the small area they'd set aside for us. Quick soundcheck, and blimey - everything sounds absolutely spot-on! First four numbers went brilliantly, if I say so myself. Then the landlord approached - uh-oh, what's wrong? "Can you turn it up, the folks at the back can't hear!" he says. Turn it UP???!!! Eh? OK, so we do pride ourselves on being just loud enough, but this is a first in our short, five-gig career. So, up goes the volume in the mains, and...... everything starts to fall apart. Monitors peaking and crackling, singer's electro-acoustic booming (which of course everybody thinks is down to me... 🤨 ), generally just horrible. We make it through to the end of the set, which amazingly closes to loud applause and many complimentary comments. Really? Are your ears painted on? 😆 After much head-scratching and tweaks to the desk during the break (over the course of which I was totally absolved from being the cause of any issues, obvs... 😇), the second set went a lot better, apart from the number where Mr Lead Guitar tunes to drop-D (Steve Earle's "Guitar Town") - normally this makes his Tele sound amazing, but last night it sounded like a herd of trumpeting elephants! We made it through to the end of the song, at which point we all looked at each other and just cracked up - fortunately the audience seemed less nonplussed than us, so it can't have been too bad out front after all. Second set ended to more loud appplause from the admittedly smaller audience than was there at the start, but I suspect that's just the way the pub works with people wandering in and out all evening. We even treated them to a quick encore of a song we worked up at rehearsal last week (Tom Petty's "Yer So Bad"), which ended the night on a high for us at least. So, seems we really do still need to get to grips with our new desk (Yamaha MG16XU), and especially why a monitor mix carefully crafted in the rehearsal shed suddenly falls apart. It'll be interesting to see how things go at our next two gigs (a charity event in June, using our PA but the venue's in-house soundman, and an outdoor charity festival in July where PA and soundman are both provided). Onwards and upwards!

And they definitely find their way into our rehearsal shed and fiddle with the settings on the desk, as they never seem to be how we left them... 🤔

Similar here. I seem to have found a tone which sits nicely with our two guitarists and the drums, but our frontman also swaps between two different electro-acoustics (a 12-string and a 6-string) and a mandolin - everything's fine with the 12-string and the mandolin, but as soon as he picks up the 6-string, it all goes to pot. 🤦‍♂️

Now that's a darn fine idea, especially as the pedals in question have a nice flat section in the middle for the brackets to bear down on. I had contemplated tapping suitable holes in the bottom plates, but long screws could be the way to go - they don't need to be that tight, just enough to stop the velcro peeling away. Might not be very elegant, but hey-ho... 👍

From FB post dated 9th April... "While we slept in our hotel after our blistering gig in Bristol last night, some scumbag (or scumbags) broke into the interior of the UK Subs' tour van and stole my basses - a white Fender Jazz bass with maple neck and a white Squire Jazz bass with rosewood neck, as pictured. Please could you share this post in the hope that someone might recognise these instruments if they try to offload them. It could of been worse, the equipment in the back was untouched and it was just these two basses they made off with. Thanks A X" https://www.facebook.com/alvin.gibbs.52

Just for the record, the "brackets" I got from Spared Parts work nicely with my Thumpinator and Bass Soul Food, but not with my Ashdown pedals as the bottom panel of these also forms the sides of the pedal before joining the top panel along the top edge - I should obviously have realised this, doh!!! As it happens, I've stuck (haha) with velcro for the Ashdowns as the latest strips I've acquired seem to be tackier than the previous lot, and they're feeling rock-solid so far. 🤞

Inspired by this thread, and because velcro doesn't do a very good job of securing my chunky Ashdown tuner, compressor and Graphic EQ pedals to my carpet-covered board, I've just acquired some of the Spared Part brackets (the silver variety) as linked to by @tauzero above. Surprise, surprise, they are in fact FSC IG51 Narrow bicycle chain links, individually wrapped and oil-free. Saves me degreasing any of the umpteen bits of unused bike chain I've got in the shed I guess... 😂

Welcome aboard / back! I'm 61, and am happily gigging a Trace GP7 200 head + separate BLX-110 cab - I find it easier to manhandle two smaller heavy boxes than one big heavy one like my Ashdown MAG300-210 combo so @Woodwind's suggestion above makes a lot of sense. Sounds great, though I will confess to using an Ashdown 12-band graphic EQ pedal instead of the Trace EQ (heresy, I know), and also go through the PA so it's really only used for onstage monitoring rather than blowing the back wall out of the venue (plus we're not really That Type Of Band anyway!). Have fun! 👍

Our drummer currently uses a click on his electronic kit to make sure we (especially Mr Guitar) start a particular couple of songs at the correct slow tempo. Unfortunately, in the chaos of last night's Bad Monitor Fest, and under pressure to get the next song started, while selecting the correct click he also managed to select the wrong drumkit (one of the factory presets instead of the self-programmed one he wanted for the song in question) - as this was significantly louder than the correct one, it just added to the chaos and his general feeling of discomfort, though at least the tempo was correct...