FinnDave

The Alembic's been blooded*, just played two Grateful Dudes gigs in Dorset over the weekend. Bandmates blinking in disbelief, "Is that an Alembic?", but the sound was spot-on, really clear without booming bass or grating highs, it did and sounded like everything I want in a bass. I can see my Fenders becoming surplus to requirements sometime! *Literally blooded! When I arrived at the venue Friday afternoon after an awkward drive (one road closed without warning, tailbacks on A303 due to a caravan shedding a tyre), I pulled the case out of the car only to catch a fingernail on my fretting hand in a catch and tear the nail. I had to play the first night with an elastoplast on my finger, with blood trickling out.

I just read this to my wife and her reply was 'how about omelettes tonight?" Obviously, if we had any bad eggs on the forum, we'd smell them a mile off.

Last band I went to see was the Cody Sisters last week, 2 very talented teenage girls playing guitars, mandolins and banjos, and singing great harmony vocals, with their dad Steve on double bass. They played an excellent couple of sets of bluegrass, folk, country, and Django gypsy jazz. I was lucky to be sat a few feet away from then when they played a small gig near Bicester, which turned out to be the last of their tour as one of the girls developed a cough which prevented them from playing their final two dates before returning to Denver. Spent quite some time talking with the family; you really couldn't find better ambassadors for the US, and for young Americans in particular. Lovely people, lovely music.

I use a 3mm pick, but prefer worn rounds, unfortunately the Alembic is wearing fresh strings today! Hopefully they'll lose their bite before Friday.

I've been trying to persuade myself that I'd never spend the sort of money an Alembic bass costs, but I managed a very good deal with a well-known midlands bass specialist that saw me spending very little actual money, and saved me the bother of continuing trying to sell a couple of Precisions I haven't been using. I am now the owner of a 20 year old Alembic Epic bass, apparently their 'entry level' model but still a big step up from my US Fenders. Hopefully I can now get somewhere near the Phil Lesh tone I need for the Grateful Dudes. I'll find out on Friday & Saturday as we have gigs in Dorset and I intend to use the new bass. Obligatory picture below, background provided by my gig shirts!

Just back in from a gig on the other side of Oxford. Private birthday party, we were constantly told we were too loud and asked to turn down until we could barely hear each other on stage. Quite a few people dancing, but also quite a few who just wanted (not unreasonably) to catch up with friends and family and didn't want music to get in the way Which is fair enough, but someone had booked us! Bandleader is a smart cookie and made sure we were paid before we started. They booked us for two hours of music, starting just after 7 pm but somehow expected us to hang around until midnight. Which we didn't. Even as we were packing up people were asking us to stay and carry on, but no more money was offered so we didn't. As we were leaving, the bar staff put the pub's 'entertainment system' on, and it was much louder than we had been playing! Stopped off at a friend's party on the way home in the hope of a jam, but the band had already packed and left. Just remembered, I used my Gibson EB4 for all three sets tonight, sounded great. It's only the second gig I've played with it since buying it last Autumn, think it deserves to be taken out more often. Felt incredibly light compared to my usual Fenders. Next gig is with the Grateful Dudes in Dorset next weekend. Playing 2 sets on Friday and 2 completely different ones on Saturday. Should be fun!

I have one set of ACS pros, and used either 17 or 20 db filters depending on how loud the band is. The feeling of detachment from whats going on soon fades, and I am shocked at how loud everything is if someone starts playing before I've got them in. The filters have been used for 4 or 5 years now, probably 200-250 gigs. They are one piece of kit I really would not like to play without.

I currently have two RM800s and three bags. One of them still has an intact zip. Good amps, though I use them only as power amp with an outboard preamp.

I didn't see that one! My pic was from last Friday's gig, but I only received the pictures last night.

2003 isn't exactly 'last night' though, is it?

Well, if we're showing photos, here is one of last Friday's gig, a young photographer caught some good moments from the side of the stage as well as more conventional shots from out front. I like the atmosphere of this shot.

If you haven't time to record the entire 4 33, you could always just have the edited highlights, lasting approx 57 seconds.

One of my bands I describe as 'funky psychedelic blues-rock" (that's what it says in our business card, and people have offered us gigs on the strength of that description. I also play in a Grateful Dead tribute band, so it's fairly obvious that we play stuff the Dead played, but for people who haven't heard the Dead (barbarians!) the best description I've heard is 'psychedelic country music'. And some blues, ballads, and other stuff. Looks like psychedelic is a common theme in all the bands I play in!

I always thought masonic ladies were known as maisonettes

Just done 180 mile or so for a rehearsal, so 60 mile is nothing. But 60 London miles, on the other hand....

Did it? I must be losing my grip. Wrong side of London for me, anyway.

Just got on from a 6 til 8 slot at another pub 'festival', a few singers in the afternoon (only caught the last one, she was very good), then us for a couple of hours, then another band who wear setting up when I left to come home for dinner. Own PA, so not such good sound as last night where there was a proper rig with plenty of monitors and a sound crew. On the other hand, we did get paid tonight. 180 mile round trip tomorrow to rehearse with Dead tribute before our 2 slots in Dorset in a couple of weeks.

Or you could buy threaded inserts and install them permanently in the neck, then neck really is a bolt-on, metal to metal rather than wood screws slowly chewing their way through the neck. I'm sure I read an article about doing that on Stew Mac's site some years ago, but can't find it there now, so I might have dreamt it!

Just back from opening the local Nor Lye (Northleigh) festival. Never a great slot if you're opening, but we played well enough, and the chap serving me at the bar afterwards asked who our bass player was (the bar had no line of sight to the stage) and complimented me on my tone when I said it was me. Obviously a fellow low end man, we had a brief but cheery talk about the legendary Phil Lesh and then moved on. not a bad evening, home in time to eat dinner. Playing a festival in Oxford with the same band tomorrow, this time a 2 hour slot.