Norris

Ash has a very pronounced, textured grain, so looks good as a single colour or with a grain filler and translucent top coat. Walnut has a much smoother grain and you might struggle to see it.

Our last gig before Christmas was at the Stockingford Allotment Association Pavilion - or the "Piv" for short. We love playing there because it's always a great atmosphere. The place was rammed for our Sunday afternoon 4-6 spot. Stingish bass into GT-6B multi-fx and thence into the trusty Rumble v3 500 combo. Black DMs. I managed to get home in time for an early Christmas dinner in honour of a couple of family members that were passing through - one of them has been working in Australia for ages.

If you follow Martin Turner's Menagerie - that photo was taken by Misha 😁

The basses I use for gigs are under £500. Not that I wouldn't gig an expensive bass, but the two 5-stringers that I own and play pretty much exclusively now were not expensive. In fact I'm starting to consider moving on some 4-stringers to make way for a new build (it's been a while and I'm itching!)

The Plough in Ashby is a tiny pub so we do it "acoustically" to have a smaller footprint. It's also rather fun playing songs a bit differently on the "Rocket Music by Stagg" EUB. A few random requests, a few Christmas songs and lots of happy people in the crowd drinking & dancing. In fact it was the busiest we've seen it. One more tomorrow, before Xmas Edit to add this photo - AI has turned us into elves 😂

We've done more than our fair share of clubs over the years. Now we only do them now when they virtually beg us to, and only on the proviso that they get what they just saw us do in the pub. At those clubs we go down well. We can't be doing with the old club "cheesiness".

This is generally known as "faux binding" and there are several techniques (do a search). Easiest may be to find some thin self-adhesive vinyl. If you want to paint, it will need to be compatible with the existing finish. Disclaimer: I've only ever done real binding.

Great: we had a fabulous time at the White Hart in Melton, rocked the place out, hot & sweaty. Sad: it's our last gig at the venue because the landlord and landlady are leaving. They can't make the place pay for itself. Sunday evenings always draw a crowd for the entertainment, but they have struggled to get people in on other nights of the week. Anyway we gave them a good send off. I took the smoke machine for a change, which made all the lights look even better. We didn't even keep track of how long we played. The only thing I forgot to do was to take a photo.

Any song is open to rearrangement.

The Old Inn in Littlethorpe is tiny. We're used to squeezing in there so have learnt to travel as light as possible. The Stingish bass was back out. I think I prefer the simplicity of a 2-band EQ. As you can see it was a bit cramped. The night started a little bit quiet but soon got much busier. In this place we nearly always have people encroaching or knocking the mic stands as they pass by. However I can heartily recommend the fluorescent pink duck tape! It kept everyone at bay. I don't think most people consciously noticed it but it was quite amusing to see the effect.

Slade was our opener for our final set and did the job of getting them on the floor. It was the only Xmas song we played though as we just gave them a segued onslaught of dancing tunes to keep them on the floor. Most of our Xmassy songs are done tongue in cheek and they were not really the sort of crowd for that. Tonight should be better suited.

It's nice money but there's a reason that we don't do corporate gigs often. The first reason was getting in early and then sitting around for a couple of hours. The next reason is it can be darned hard work getting them partying. Anyway we'll chalk that one up as another success and we were well received, if a little unfulfilled personally. Kirby Muxloe golf club has a short stage and ceiling tiles that seemed to suck all of the top end out of the room and I had to back off my bottom end too to avoid stage boom. A bit of a shame as I took the Sire P7-5 out for a bit of an airing but it couldn't really sing. We were dressed fairly smartly. Shiny black DMs FTW Tomorrow's gig is probably the smallest pub we play in...

+1 I've used them for years. EPS165-5 to be specific.

Funnily enough I was looking at the Kala 5-string the other night and wondered what they were like... Maybe an alt-bass forum? Anything not a "normal" bass guitar or double bass/EUB

You can't go wrong with a set of SDQPs. Everything else is for the eyes, those are for the ears. They transformed my Squier P-bass Special, which is still my favourite 4-string

We love playing at the Crew in Nuneaton (downstairs from Queen's Hall if you're familiar). It's a rock bar and they like it loud, so we properly rocked out. It's a great atmosphere with guitars and posters on the walls and ceiling. Hot again too. It took the Stingish bass again, but have a hankering to fetch out my Sire P7-5 next weekend for a bit of P-bass goodness. It's been a while. A couple of malfunctions: my amp overdrive footswitch needs rewiring, and a riff run that I've messed up two gigs in a row needs practice!

The kits you linked look quite affordable. It looks like the tricky bits have already been done for you: the neck is fretted and the body routed. I guess you really just need to finish the body (oil finishes are easier to apply and are a bit more forgiving than paint/lacquer) and then screw it together. In other words it looks like a relatively easy job to end up with a working guitar at the end of it.

Our first time playing at the Gate in Hugglescote. It looks like they have entertainment fairly regularly, but not with bands with a drum kit. It was a bit tight, so much so that the drummer sat on the bench instead of his stool and had no room for a floor tom. That made for a few chuckles on the occasions he forgot and hit on thin air 😂 I never find it fun having to move every piece of kit six times while setting up, like a sliding tile puzzle. A bit unusually for a Saturday night pub gig they wanted us to start at 7pm. As we expected it was a little thin on the ground when we started but soon got busier. The Rumble had to go on the bench. I don't normally have it up high like that, so it made for a different experience and I tried not to be too self-conscious being able to hear every little thing. A good night was had. Some dancing. A lot of compliments, and it turns out there were quite a few musos there too. Most importantly my black DMs looked great, having polished them this morning 😂

Which ones are not t**ts, you can get on with, and can play the songs? Keep them, sack the rest. If none of the above find another band

Or at least tune up before you start playing 😂

It's up to you really. I only took grade 5 theory because I had to in order to progress onto higher level practical exams. I didn't take any other theory exams. There again I did do music at A level so wasn't exactly lacking in the theory side either.

Well done for passing! Maybe it's time to learn something for pleasure? It doesn't need to be difficult, just something you enjoy. You can always learn your grade 3 pieces at the same time. It's important to keep it fun.

We don't play at The Thornton (club) very often but it's always a nice friendly place. We managed to pull a few in, so it made for a good time. Lots of dancing. Lots of compliments. Although we were totally upstaged by one of the guitarist's young grandchildren who stood on stage dancing while we played the last set. The heat combined with a very busy weekend meant that I was pretty tuckered out by the end of it. I have next weekend off so hopefully can crack on with a bit of spannering on my old VW camper.

Thanks. I'm still the third best singer in a trio though 😂

After 24 hours of continuous rain we were not surprised that turnout was a little low at the Bricklayers in Sharnford last night. Especially given that the pub is next to the river. In fact as we left the landlord came out to fix the last few sections of the flood barrier in place! As usual it was a tight squeeze in the corner. It was great to play at a lower volume though as we could hear everything and had no sacrifice of tone. The guitarist took his Mesa Boogie but had a tiny little Vox amp plugged into the speakers rather than using the Mesa amp - much easier to get a decent tone without volume. Well it sounded good to all of us anyway. As I said, a selective audience but some of them had travelled quite a distance, which was appreciated by us. We even got some up dancing (ok, it was the WAGS 😂) I don't often do vids but this one isn't too bad, even if it is me singing!