King Tut

Just checked the Thunderbird over and there are a couple of dings, but nothing major. It now has history!

We played a private party yesterday evening with The Verity Bromham band. Well organized and looked after. I took my Thunderbird but realised Del hadn’t bought his usual ‘guitar garage’ for me to stand it in. He kindly offered to let me use a double hanging stand he had for his guitars. I set up and wandered offstage only to watch Del grab his Les Paul from the stand, which promptly toppled over along with my Thunderbird. It all happened in slo mo - me having visions of a trip to our local luthier for a headstock refit. But no, a stage light broke its fall and it fell on carpet. Not only was the headstock still intact but there wasn’t a mark on the bass . . . . . Phew! Had a good evening, ext stop Cambridge Rock Festival on Friday and Saturday week.

I bought a compressor from Dan yesterday. I picked it up from his house not much to report but good clear and prompt comms so all good! 😎

Easy peasey eh? Shame you were busy but I guess some of us have to work!

Tunes . . . . help you breath more easily!

Played on Friday night with Stray and Saturday night with Verity Bromham at Alfold Rock and Blues Festival. I went down on the Thursday and camped for the first time in many many years. Sadly the weather wasn't kind and the camping part was an uncomfortable experience, mainly because the camp bed my drummer promised to lend me didn't fit in the tent! We played two really enjoyable sets. Organisation was fantastic and despite the rain all went well. I played my 64 AVRI Jazz into an MB500 via a small board consisting of a Zoom B3n, a Donner Compressor and a Joyo Orange Crush. I've changed my philosophy a bit on my sound recently and rather than getting a core tone from my amp, I'm now getting it from my board and using the amp's eq just to shape the sound for the room. I'm then giving the FOH a pre eq Di and using in ears just for the bass using the tuner out from the amp. This seems to be working well and I had some nice compliments on my tone from some other musos. We had a couple of issues yesterday. On load in our drummer's snare stand went over and a foot of the stand went through the bottom skin of the snare. Brave Rival's drummer bailed us out with another snare. I went to get my bass out of it's bag and the zip was buggered and I couldn't get it out, so had to sacrifice the zip (and the bag) - dang! Highlight of the weekend for me in terms of other bands was the Zac Schultz band. Great entertainers and a phenomenal bass player - Ant Greenwell - who was very nimble and had a lovely tone - Looked like a P Bass but through a Fender Rumble Combo - but it cut through like a Stingray - really nice - I wonder if Ant uses this Forum? Anyway, I was gonna stay til monday morning but missed my creature comforts so pitched down yesterday afternoon and drove home after our set. Happy Daze!

Rock and Roll (Zep) The Verity Bromham Band Alfold Rock and Blues Frstival 1964 AVRI Jazz into GK MB500 and Barefaced Big Baby 2

Just a bit of fun. What was the last song you played live, which band, what was the venue and what bass did you play it on? Heres mine: Love Machine (Girls Aloud), The Band Isabelle, Bunkers Barn Wedding Venue, Stanbridge on an Inca Silver Classic Vibe Squier Jazz Bass.

Stunner!

There’s a 1970 4000 bass in our local music shop. Must resist!

Bought a set of strings from Ian. Posted next day and arrived the day after - top deal buy with confidence!

Speaking generally I believe there are both for export and non export models of Japanese Fender with the non export being of better quality with Ash or Alder bodies as opposed to Basswood. I thing the non export ones have the grooved bridge saddles as opposed to smooth, the large vintage style tuners and the hootenanny button on the back of the headstock. The export models are generally still decent basses but the non export ones are the special ones.