Norris

Just back from Thurmaston Conny Club (it's more like a big social club than anything political). Good gig, although the git/vox was very croaky. That meant more singing for me and the drummer - I actually quite enjoy singing now. Nice and busy. A few dancers, but most people just appreciating the music. I took my Sire and was going to swap over to it later on, but had so much fun with my Sterling Sub Ray5 (upgraded with Retrovibe Stinger '77 preamp) that it stayed out all night. The 2-band preamp is great and a lot easier to tweak than the Sire's 3-band with swept mid. The usual Fender Rumble v3 500 combo goodness. Feet were rock steady in the Solovair boots. I forgot to take any photos though. Naughty McDonalds on the way home because Mrs Norris and younger Norrisson were feeling hungry (you can't beat a quarter pounder imho) Best compliment was from a chap in the loo, swaying rather a lot at the urinal next to me... "great hair" 😂

If you can, have a try of a Hofner violin bass. Ok, it won't sound like a P bass, but it's small, light and loud enough for noodling on the sofa. Plus they are great fun to play and the cheap ones are only about £300. You may not like it, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was when I bought one for my lad. (And I'm used to "proper" basses 😂) Shame he took it with him when he went off to university - I miss it

Try singing yourselves = no frontman issues + more money each

Very few "2" films are as good as the "1", and most are completely dreadful. I just hope it's a bit more Airplane and less Highlander in that respect. I do have a horrible feeling it's going to blight my favourite ever film though

Well done for having the same number of closing brackets as opening ones (even though they did get a bit (actually quite a lot) nested) in your update 👍

Great bass! Great shoes! 😂

The BL (keys) has been dead for many years now. His other half (vocals) is probably in her 90s by now. We had a bit of a falling out with the drummer in the 90s (we chat amicably when our paths cross, but wouldn't want to play with him again!). Last but not least I still play with the guitarist in my current band - it will be 40 years playing together in March next year

I bought a Retrovibe Stinger '77 preamp that transformed my Sterling Sub Ray5. That's the only bass-related gear I bought this year apart from a new set of strings. I've been pretty much GAS free for the last 2 years since I bought my Sire

😂

Don't cut the red wire!

Nope, that's exactly what it does. There's no clever circuitry or batteries in there

I had a play around with it at home but not live. Yes, you'll need a lead with a stereo jack plug one end, that splits into two mono cables to go to the two amps. You've basically then got two signal chains, one from each pickup, so could run whatever effects you want on each. I think most people don't bother because it's a lot of extra kit to carry around for little benefit tbh. It's a novelty that didn't really catch on. The vintage tone circuit is something completely different. That switches in a different value capacitor to make it sound like the early 4001/4002 basses did - less bottom end, more glorious clank. Modern basses have a deeper bottom end but with the loss of the clankiness. My 4003 is a fairly early one and didn't have the vintage tone circuit from the factory, so I retro-fitted one myself

My guitarist is pro and makes mistakes all the time. I don't often make mistakes, which is why he makes a big deal of it when I do - all good natured though. Anyone watching the band would know when someone has made a mistake because of the faces the others pull 😂 It happens. Try your best but don't beat yourself up if it's not perfect. I managed to play a phrase on the wrong string tonight - it sounded like a car crash. Back in on the right note on the 1 of the next bar, and no-one noticed apart from me 🤷‍♂️

Given the state of the weather it's surprising that anyone turned out, but turn out they did. A bit of a slow start at the Black Horse Whitwick, but it soon ramped up into a great evening Nice and Chrismassy and very hot indoors. We did our usual lot of Xmas songs plus a busked version of Mary's Boy Child which was rather fun and silly. Audience: Lots of drinking, lots of dancing, lots of jollity. Rig: The usual Sire P7-5 and Fender Rumble. Elf hat Footwear: Black DMs again

I use a Fender Rumble v3 500 combo as my normal bass guitar amp. On a few occasions in smaller pubs we go "acoustic" to keep the volume down a bit, and I then use my cheapo Stagg EUB (actually a "Rockett by Stagg") and back off the gain to clean the amp up a bit. It sounds pretty decent to me, and I've certainly not had the crowd rolling around the floor in laughter at the sound. Given the Stagg is not going to sound like a proper DB, but the amp makes a decent job of it - 2x 10", with horn switched off.

I can't help feeling that I need some midi foot pedals to control my Novation Bass Station 2, even though I really don't need them Stylophone theremin. Must have one I'm actually ok for basses. I'd rather get back to building them rather than buying

I don't mind the odd drift off topic. This is one of the better long running threads on the site imho. No "handbags" 😂

Maybe you need to start one for footwear for the discerning bassist too 😂

There really needs to be a device that you can fit to your sound engineer to give them a good slap with every canon-blast kick of the bass drum. It's ruined so many gigs imho

There were lots of people taking photos and videos of our gig this evening, but unfortunately I wasn't one of them, so you'll have to make do with a brief description. We were at a very small pub that we've played many times before, but this year the dates just haven't aligned to get any in the book. So it was nice to revisit and kick off the Christmas season (it's ok, it's December now). As it's a tiny pub we decided to "go acoustic" again. We've done a couple of those recently and thoroughly enjoyed them. Tonight was fabulous. The crowd really enjoyed something slightly different and the place was rocking - especially when we got them to sing Since You've Been Gone. Playing the EUB was a challenge, from the sublime (White Christmas, Moon Dance, Stuck In The Middle) to the ridiculous (War Pigs, Witch Queen, Crossroads) Rig: Stagg EUB, Fender Rumble v3 500 combo, tinsel Footwear: black 8 hole DMs Edit: I must give a special mention to the guitarist for playing the guitar solo in Whiskey In The Jar... on a kazoo! 😂

Love the personalised pedal board

After all these years I'm not sure which "gig" was the first for "Finster Blitz" (our poorly translated German for "black lightning"). It's either... a) The De Montfort Hall in Leicester (Leicester’s biggest venue!). Erm... backing an assembled children choir of primary school kids. So the first song could have been a hymn 🤷‍♂️ The most memorable thing was that we couldn't get the drummer's shirt to stay tucked into his trousers b) Our European Tour Well actually our school choir exchange visit to a school in Munster, Germany. We dragged our single amplifier through customs (yes, they took a look inside) so that we could plug the lead singer, 2 guitars and bass (me!) into it. The singer's microphone was actually something you'd plug into a tape recorder, so had a lead about 1m long meaning he had to sit on top of the amplifier so it could reach. The song would have been an original "Force Ten Joan" - a 12-bar, and I can say that with confidence because it was the only song we had! The first song I played in a semi-professional way was UB40's Red Red Wine. I say semi-professional as I didn't actually get paid for that performance, but did a couple of weeks later when I took over from the bass player that was leaving the band. I've always hated that song - such a dirge 😂

Yesterday the drummer messaged us. His car is in for repair but the sole mechanic has gone down with norovirus! He'd borrowed his daughter's car - a Fiat 500! So the first stop was at his house to collect the kit he couldn't fit in, and then onto the gig in Melton Mowbray (and anyone from Leicester can sympathise with what a tedious drive that can be when you're stuck on the A607 behind a slow driver!) We'd not played the White Hart on a Saturday before. Melton was quite busy, all of the parking near the pub was taken, so I had to double-park and quickly chuck the kit in the pub. The place filled up nicely just before we went on. It got quite warm, which I don't mind at all when you're playing well and it sounds great. It did thin out a little after 11pm but still had quite a few to see us finish just after midnight. I do like playing there - the landlord has built a great sounding stage that's also a decent size. It really did sound great and we had lots of compliments. We had a lot of musos came to see us, which is always nice. I really enjoyed my strings being still quite fresh and twangy (D'Addario pro steel), and was told my bass sounded awesome by a good friend drummer. More importantly the landlord loved it. Kit: Sire P7-5, Roland Boss GT-6B, Fender Rumble v3 500 Footwear: Solovair burgundy rub-off 8 hole zipped derby boots They are nearly broken in now, especially with the "bass stances" being thrown quite liberally tonight, but I was rather pleased to get them off my feet at home afterwards!

Some cheaper, no-name "bass" amps will sound horrible. These will sound good even at low volume. Plus these have probably got headphone sockets too if you want to do silent practice, and likely also a line input if you want to play along to some music

If you are happy with headphones you can buy little battery powered bass headphone amps that plug straight into your bass for very little money e.g. Vox ones are cheap, other brands are available. Personally I have an Ampeg BA-108 for general noodling and noisy practice (there's one for sale on here), or will plug into my Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 interface for recording