King Tut

So on to day four. We've just left Southampton and heading on to Tavistock for a gig at The Wharf tonight. Had a good gig last night and was great to meet @Mickeyboro Nice venue although a bit odd as the stage is really high and halfway between the lower and upper viewing areas. The sound engineer here also knew his onions and we had a cracking sound onstage. The Groundhogs were on fire. Very loud and a really nice out front sound. We usually have three roadies, one of whom drives but due to an unusual set of circumstances we've got none for last night and the next two. Really missed them as the load in wasn't great! We're all fed courtesy of Sainsburys but I'm suffering from sleep deprivation and feeling pretty knackered to be honest. Our keys player has bought his meth lab with him aka a mocha pot and stove and decent coffee to keep us going! Looking forward to meeting up with Ethyrfield tonight who are supporting. Onward and hopefully upward!

Hey thank you buddy - been a great tour so far and last night was no different. Had a really good sound. Lovely venue. Thanks for your support!

Second night - Chislehirst - was another cracker. The only drama was when Chris - The Groundhog's singer took a jolt off the mic during soundcheck that launched him back towards the drum kit - something definitely wasn't right there but he was ok and they managed to sort it. There was a proper comedy moment when we were sound checking when Del's guitar was coming out of Pete's rig and they all got a bit fingers and thumbs trying to sort it. All good sound wise with me so I'll keep on doing what I'm doing. We encored with 'Hallelujah' which was the first time i've played it live but its a pretty straightforward rock n roll tune - so that's all three new ones done now. Just waiting for the bus to head off to Southampton for a show at The Brook. Here's a clip from Tuesday's gig at The Boom Boom - the guy who posted it also has a 45 min clip from the gig on his feed if anyone's interested.

I might do a daily entry for this as a little diary! So last night was the first night at The Boom Boom Club in Sutton which is located in Sutton Utd FC. Nice stage and sound and regular sound and lighting engineers for the venue (and tonight's at Chislehirst). They know their onions so that's half the battle. We had a great crowd and it went swimmingly well - a good turnout and good performances from both bands - nice smooth changeover too. I was using a Trace AH300 SM GP7. Ive had it for a while but been nervous about using it due to intel on the power side of the amp indicating that it's likely to go DC and take your speakers out. I found the official Trace Elliot solution thanks to this site and Facebook and got a mate who amp engineers to implement the mod. Anyway - matched up with a Tech 21 VTBass I got a passable approximation of an overdriven valve amp which i was pretty pleased with. On one song I needed the pedal off and I'm finding that the pedal adds an awful lot of top to the sound which i consequently backed off on the pedal. I understand later versions have a switch to turn off the speaker emulation which tames the top a bit. Generally happy with my sound but tonight I'm gonna edit my fuzz patch to add just a smidge of high mids and might try to add a bit of bottom around 100hz to see if i can get just a touch more meat without it getting boomy. I'm getting picked up in about 20 minutes then heading back up the M1 and M25 to tonight's Shenanigans at The Beaverwood in Chislehirst - nice venue. back to my own bed tonight before two nights away for Southampton (Thursday), Tavistock (Friday) where we have Ethyrfield supporting and Swansea Sin City on Saturday.

Ha ha I'll try to remember. I'm using a patch called Red Headed Bastard that I beamed in via my phone!

I'm using the spectracomp at the moment. Mostly because I occasionally use different basses with differing outputs. I only have to adjust one pedal rather than all my patches. Also I sometimes use an amp with a built in comp that I might use.

The official name of the band we're touring with is 'Ken Pustelnik's Groundhogs'. Ken was the original drummer. They're a great band and lovely fellas. Couldn't have asked for a better opening night - packed house, seamless changeover and nice performances all round. Chislehirst tomorrow (Wednesday)!

I've got about five or six patches set up - a standard patch with just volume pedal and noise reduction, then the same with a chorus and High Pass Filter. I've got another patch set up using a muff for fuzz, then one for the intro for 'all in your mind'. That was an awkward one because I have to keep switching between clean, intro and fuzz throughout the song so I've set up a chain of patches with some duplicated so I can just shift up sequentially thru the chain. I use the unibass in a couple of places dependent on which songs we're playing and the chorus on one or two songs set up on a fairly extreme setting. Comp is always on unless there's a comp on the amp. See you at The Garage!! Just on our way to Sutton for the first date!

This'll be my pedalboard set up. Black Ric 4003, an old Trace AH300 GP7 SM and an Eden Nemesis 4 x 10.

Yeah the Eden is coming with me. I prefer a taller rig - 2 12" cabs stacked vertically but it's gonna spend a lot of its time in a van so vulnerable to theft. I'd sooner leave the Eden in the van than a Barefaced for that reason.

I finished my shift today to greet five weeks off work - that's four weeks on tour with STRAY and a week Rest and Recuperation. This will be by far my most consuming musical exploit so far - we'll be playing 16 dates over four weeks travelling the length and breadth of England and Wales co-headlining with Ken Pustelnik 's Groundhogs. If you live along the road we'll be taking it would be fab to see you on the way. Feeling very lucky to have been given the opportunity to do this stuff with Del and the other Stray fellas - came a bit late in my musical career - but better late than never and I'm loving every minute of it!

Del (Bromham) who owns it is well known for his use of Firebirds - that's what the case foam was cut for. Not had a chance to try it yet - it's still with Del. We start a tour on Tuesday so there's a good chance I'll be trying it soon!

Zombie thread resurrection - our guitarist is moving house and just found this that he'd forgotten about!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trace-Elliot-GP-11/184173068045?hash=item2ae191ff0d:g:pMIAAOSw6VteSToP Looks pretty old - anyone know what Mark this head is?

Following!

I've been looking for some caps for the graphic on my old Trace head for a while. @Deedee turned me on to some but they were a bit pricey. I found the same component at RS Components much cheaper. They need a slight trim but cut easily with a craft knife - and cheap as chips! Fill ya boots! https://uk.rs-online.com/mobile/p/toggle-switch-caps/1253514/ Fitted -

Recommending what I'm currently using - Bugera Veyron 1001T. Nice and warm, powerful, built in compressor (more of a limited but nice) and cheap as chips.