martthebass

In the interim, try and pick up an alder bodied Lionel they come in at 7.5lbs (I’ve had my hands on 4 and they’ve all been about that weight). The gloss finished and aged models are alder. The satin finished with visible grain are ash and about a pound heavier.

A twofer for the Glam Lads this week, played to a group from Mencap Gateway on Thursday night, we love doing this and the clients always love the show. We normally only do one per year but we’ve already agreed a return in December. Last night was a private party in a local WMC, we normally avoid private jobs as they rarely work for us but the couple who booked us have been to a few gigs and convinced us. Surprisingly it was a great night with enthusiastic dancers all the way through both spots. Resting these aching bones now until next Saturday for a more normal gig at the Pen Nook in Deepcar north side of Sheffield. Oh….red, white and blue sparkle Converse.

Thanks Warren. I got the DarkRay version because I was specifically looking for a lightweight Ray in Starry Night finish. There were no Specials in this colour so.... I'm hoping its a circuit swap out at the worst; the bass is lovely......to be honest I'm happy enough with the clean 2EQ but I guess if I came to sell then who'd want a DarkRay without the Dark?

So my fairly new (bought new last October) and pretty much unused (so far a bedroom noodling toy) EBMM Darkray crapped out on Sunday . It was fine on Friday but when I got it out on Sunday for a pootle the alpha and omega bits no longer worked. The clean bit still works but when the alpha or omega are engaged - no output. Blending the alpha/omega with clean just results in volume loss. Did the normal checks, batteries, output jack connection, leads etc but nothing of note. Just wondering if any fellow DarkRay owners have had any issues? The guys at Bass Direct are on the case and have referred it to Musicman so I'm hoping for a swift resolution.

We're fairly busy up until the end of May and then it goes quiet until August for some reason. We've been actively promoting to pull gigs in for June/July but not much headway as yet.

Another nice local gig at a WMC on Saturday. It was a little quiet in the first spot despite it being pretty full but it rowdied up nicely in the second spot with a filled dance floor all the way through. We had our own ‘70s Bez’ turn up who danced to just about every song and brought a load of glam wigs for the punters to wear. First proper outing for the shorty Stingray which performed nicely, deffo need to go up a gauge on the strings though…. Next week we’re back to pub work at a lively little venue called the Service Station in Hull…..we had em dancing on the bar as I recall last year.

Cheers Dave, I’ve often looked at replacing them but cant find anything as good that fit in the boot of me Mini 😂

Well I wouldn't class myself as a 'bread-head' when it comes to gigging. However, I generally look to stay 'net-zero' at least on the finance side so that expenses and gear bought to support gigs is paid for along the line. I've never really made much from the activity, being 40% tax bracket for many years put me off earning sufficient to interest the tax man. Charity gigs we nearly always do pro-bono or for minimal mileage expenses if a longer hike. For venues where they are making significantly on the exercise then I don't think it's unreasonable to expect remuneration in line with that, for venues that are more financially compromised we normally charge accordingly but don't take prisoners if they aren't active in promotion etc.

Great gig at a local WMC this last Saturday for the Glam Lads. It's one of those old school clubs that saw the likes of Bob Monkhouse et al in its heyday but fortunately is still doing well...a pretty packed house as it seems the locals were up for some 70s Glam. A prospective agent showed up to view the first spot (looking to fill a few little gaps in the gig calendar left by the previous 'booker') so we were on our game and thankful for the large and enthusiastic crowd. The agent, also a bassist, was complimentary on my sound...he said his expectations weren't high when I said I was using just a couple of MarkBass 12" but he was surprised with the clarity and punch. So all in all a cracking night and our next visit there will be NYE which should be a stormer.

Is the fingerboard on the graphite necks this composite or is it just a slab of phenolic? It's blacker than black on my CW-1 so can't tell; there dosen't seem to be any surface features so to speak.

That’s interesting. When I worked in R&D, I did a lot of work on phenol formaldehyde resin systems (aka Bakerlite - I assume the main component of ritchlite) and the levels of the catalyst, resol and novalak made a big impact on the modulus of the cured resin. I guess Rob did a lot of work getting the mix right to achieve the properties he wanted for the overall sound.

Often wondered what factors are at play. I had an early Streamline, with its basic 2 band EQ I didn’t find it brittle sounding at all and could get some quite warm tones from it. My CW1 despite it having an alder body seems far more hifi to me.

Sadly you can’t cure stupid Cat!

Quite a few have made the mistake of thinking because it looks a bit like a P it’ll sound like one. I’ve never been too keen on the P bass sound on stage and prefer a hotter set up (hence my other basses being EBMM and Status) so I appreciate the more aggressive take in the Lionel.