Norris

I think you need to do a YouTube video to show off your technique on this!

I guess there's also... Hang on to the people you've recruited to the band so far by keeping them interested/committed with rehearsals

There's a reason you never see Rumble 500's in the for sale forum. Just saying 😃 Yes, I have one too

Great to hear from you and thanks for your insights. I know that you know a lot more about these basses than your average owner (i.e. me) does 😂 Hope everything is OK with you and that you're well

I don't know if he's still making them, but the most authentic replacement pickups are made by Rautia Guitars - based in Finland. The Armstrong pickups only look the same Ah - I just looked and the website says he's retired http://www.rautiaguitars.net/ I wonder if Aria might start selling spares for the re-issues

Latest handy little purchase. A small USB-powered LED clock, that cost less than a fiver but will be really helpful for knowing when to finish the set. I reckon it should fit neatly on the guitarist's pedal board.

The SB-1000 has some pretty crazy tone circuitry. I don't know of any other non-Aria basses that are similar. You can buy a replacement preamp (or at least you could a few years ago) on Ebay, made by a chap that used to be on here but I've not heard from in ages (Prostheta). As for the 6-position tone switch, there are/were diagrams to be found on the Internet with the cap values. It's quite complicated if you're going to make one up yourself. I have a 1980 "batwing" SB-1000 btw Edit: this might be useful reading, on a site that is my last known hang-out of Prostheta, who is the real expert in these basses https://www.projectguitar.com/forums/topic/49256-aria-pro-2-sb1000/?page=2

Pity your audience. I wouldn't want to linger at a gig in a small venue where the drummer is deafening me by thrashing 7 shades out of the kit - no matter how "good" a drummer they are I've also been there with loud drummers that can't/won't compromise - note the past tense 😀

He played with Showaddywaddy for quite a few years and currently plays with Martin Turner ex-Wishbone Ash. I'm going to guess the later is more likely for the recognition 😁

Some photos from Sunday at the Donkey And FrankenFocus... 1000018351.mp4

Possibly our last gig at the Donkey. It was rammed with a fabulous crowd. Hot and sweaty - fantastic! It really did feel like the end of an era though. There is still a lot of confusion as to whether, what I regard as Leicester’s top live music venue, is going to continue despite the Facebook screen grab I posted the other day. Anyway, the gig. Initially we had quite a lot of boom from the kick drum mic/stage resonance. My amp was quite low level as usual, to give the sound man some headroom to work with. It was a bit of a struggle to hear what notes I was playing at times. I had a word with the sound man in the break, he tweaked some stuff, and it sounded much better on stage in the second set. Sound issues aside, it was a fabulous gig to a very receptive crowd. We don't usually do the standing around on stage the end of the performance taking the applause thing, but this time was different. It did feel a bit final. I didn't take any photos myself because there were a lot of people taking much better photos. I'll post some up when they are forwarded to me. Oh, yes the Stingray-esque Sterling Sub5 sounded great (when I could hear it) and I revelled in the growly twang. The Rumble was on form as usual. Bittersweet.

The Stinger preamp has absolutely transformed the bass. Twang, growl, heft - it's all there. Happy chap 😁

The pub we played at tonight, we were supposed to play at last night, but they asked us to move because of the football match (Leicester lost badly to Nottingham Forest). I'm not sure if we've done a Saturday there before, so whether it's the switch or if it's normally quiet on a Saturday - there were not many people there when we started. The load in is a park up with hazards on, on double yellow lines, on a hump-backed bridge and a quick chuck-in to the tiny playing area before moving the cars. All didn't bode well, especially at it is not even a cash pickup at the end of the night either - invoice and wait! However it was the first opportunity to try out my Sterling Sub5 since I fitted the new Retrovibe Stinger preamp. Wow - it's absolutely transformed the bass! What was a muddy and indistinct bass now has bite, growl, thump and (dare I say it) heft. I had a whale of a time playing it. The B string is lovely. It also is about 2/3 the weight of my usual Sire P7-5. Guess which bass I'll be playing at the Donkey tomorrow... The only slight downside is that my Boss GT-6B seemed to have difficulty tracking the note when it was quite twangy - the octaver and synth patches I use in some songs both had a bit of a funny turn until I plucked a bit nearer the neck to reduce the overtones. I'll just have to remember to do that next time. Anyway the night did seem to pick up a bit as more came in, and we kept them in the pub which is the main thing. It's not a good situation though. The pub music scene seems as fragile as I've ever known it in 40 years of playing. Anyway, obligatory rig shots... And to think I had it up for sale recently. £75 spent on a better preamp has transformed it, and it paid for itself tonight - it owes me nothing now.

Yeah, so are we. We don't yet know if he's going to honour existing bookings. It's been a bit of a surprise. Even Gaz Birtles (the usual sound guy) didn't know Maybe we'll find out some more on Sunday afternoon...

I've just seen a post from the new manager saying that he will be continuing with live entertainment. What my guitarist sent me... Hooray!

The sockets get a bit mucky over time, and the contacts that normally touch when there is no jack in the socket can stop letting the signal. A short patch lead between the two sockets means you're not relying on those contacts and instead the signal travels through the cable. A squirt of electrical contact cleaner in the sockets may be enough to clean up the contacts. The lead will still probably make a better contact though, because plugging and unplugging the lead will tend to keep the contacts clean.

They headlined the Rewind festival a couple of years ago and were really excellent. The early song that time was Being Boiled - my favourite of theirs

A couple of years ago I decided I wanted to move to 5 strings, so I bought a Sterling Sub5 from the for sale forum. However it didn't quite sit right in the band mix, and was supplanted by a new Sire PJ 5-string which suits the band better. So I had the Sub5 kicking around looking lovely but not really being played. I put it up on the forum where it got a couple of likes but no bites and I eventually withdrew it. Wondering what to do with it, I did a bit of searching into maybe getting a new pickup to try to give it a bit more punch. As luck would have it, a lot of search results were for old Basschat threads. In a couple of them I saw that some people recommended a preamp upgrade rather than the pickup. A lot of them recommend the Retrovibe Stinger preamp, being a copy of a 1977 Stingray preamp. Roll forward a couple of weeks and the new preamp arrived and I fitted it this afternoon. Wow - it's transformed the sound. So much nicer, I can't wait to try it out on a gig. I've always loved a Stingray sound but never got on with the fat neck that most of them have. Having since moved to 5 strings and hence changed my technique a bit, I'm a little less fussy about a fatter neck - although the Sub5 is actually narrower string spacing than my Sire. The Stinger preamp sounds great on a 5 stringer. Hopefully I now have more than one 5-string bass of gig-worthiness

Erm... you want to run 3x cabs in a small music room?! Wow

Squeeze on Tuesday at the De Mont

Just got back from seeing Steve Hackett. What a fabulous gig. Firth of Fifth was absolutely awesome. Jonas Reingold is such a talented bass player!

Albumental

He needs (and a drummer I play with often would never be without) this type of thing https://www.porteranddavies.co.uk/ (Think backbeat for drums)

30 down so far, another 12 to go this year. We've been taking it a bit more steady this year and enjoying the odd weekend off (or even the odd month off!)