T-Bay

Played a new pub for us in Lichfield, very nice but tiny space to set up in. Small but keen crowd. I just took the supercompact due to space but it sounded good on its own.

I have a supercompact and midget set up and it sounds amazing, would recommend to anyone. Very handy combination as well, played a (mostly) acoustic night yesterday and just took the midget which worked brilliantly.

Look on here at the reviews for Warwick Reds, stupidly cheap and good strings. Not the best, but very good and reliable. I tried them after a recommendation on here and now they are all I use.

You mean you haven’t yet? I assume you bought it yesterday? Being a serial car fettler, with a best mate equally afflicted, our one and only experience of the ‘quality’ of a jag was littered with horrendous stories, and that was one that had been looked after at great expense prior to our time with it. A friend has an XF and apart from being the ugliest car ever to wear the badge, it has spent nearly as much time at the dealer as on his drive. The weird thing is that I would still buy an XJS, but my logic now is to buy the worst, not the best, I can afford. That way it will still be broken most of the time but my bank balance will be considerably healthier.

A bandmate of mine has been playing 20 years, I taught him to change strings last year. I asked him what he did if he broke a string mid gig or rehearsal - he brings a spare guitar in case of that happening! Whilst I wouldn’t stop a set to swap a string, I would do it at the break. I don’t think I need to say that he had no idea regarding truss rods etc.

Just Burnel - why? One word - Peaches

Thanks guys, I will have a nose around for the best place to get a hiscox.......

Bananas really do work but you need to eat them more regularly than just at a gig, I used to target shoot competitively and you would be out in all weathers and couldn’t wear anything on the trigger finger. Bananas never failed me and became a bit of a joke with some fellow competitors. I always take a couple of bananas to gigs, much to the amusement of my band mates, the rhythm guitarist isn’t laughing when my arthritic fingers are still going when his are giving him serious pain. I eat at least two every day and it also helped my overnight toe cramps ( horrendous things) due to arthritis meds.

City powder coasters in Birmingham have done alloy wheels and motorbike frames for me, good prices, good turnaround time, reliable. Quality is good but not perhaps the best of the best (price more than reflects this and unless it was for a £how much! Ferrari it would be fine).

My orange terror has the perfect tone for me, we play a lot of grunge/ punk and it fits in very well. Mine is the 1000w variant but your budget would get you the 500w version which is more than enough for almost anywhere you would play.

Nothing like that buzz (well nothing legal) of that moment when everything is working well, the crowd love it, you are on fire and it’s what life is about. I wouldn’t bother with all the other crap otherwise. If it wasn’t for gigs I would probably noodle a bit now and again and then do something else.

Third year on the trot at a local school leavers event, odd really as we play 80s-90s mostly rock covers but always seem to go down well. Another fun event with about 100 plus of the 200 there dancing for last few numbers and about 80 odd up for every song. We did it as a favour the first time but really enjoy it, been asked back next year.

Any suggestions for decent hardcases for a Fender Jazz? Gator? Fender? Fender deluxe? What are people using and would you recommend/ avoid them? Thanks

I love the gigs, it’s the band politics that are a pain, the ‘yeah we are 100% going to do this this and this, then come rehearsal time they haven’t learnt any of them but suggest some crap that doesn’t fit in at all but they happen to like, claiming it fits perfectly (last time it was a 70s funk disco song in a band that plays 80s-00s alternative/ rock). Yes that will fit well..........

I had an issue with them prior to this and they were fine with me as well, however that was for a small value item and the seller was happy to refund. They could not have been more different, and it wasn’t just one person, We dealt with a wide range (you try speaking to the same person twice ever!), many of whom promised it would be sorted, it never was, they didn’t give a sh1te who had purchased the item or the impact of their actions. For the amount of they made on one item I know of at least two hundred staff, parents, friends, relatives etc etc who will not touch them with a barge pole.This occurred before the various revelations about their dealings so I wouldn’t use them now anyway, but they must have lost a couple of thousand in sales from myself alone.

Just booked to see the Cult, one of my favourite bands and one I have somehow managed to miss repeatedly.

Sadly the likes of Amazon are so big that in our unfortunate case even trading standards didn’t want to know.

It’s all covers, so I try to get close, but not obsessively so. Some of the board is only used for practice such as a looper so I can hear how a section sounds, and a pitch shift pedal so I can drop a semi tone without retuning. Then I have a compressor (always on), chorus and three overdrives which are set from very subtle to full on fuzz and I often combine them in different ways. Then a tuner and a mute. I also have a separate wah but often don’t take that.

I am sure this has come up before but I can’t find a thread about it, so maybe it has but in a slightly different way, anyway............ Last night our new band was first on the bill at a small local ‘festival’ (or outside gig in a field with a beer tent as they used to be known). Due to the layout of power my pedal board had to live in front of my rig rather than right at the front. No problem thinks me as I am organised and put which effects I need for each song in code on the set list (I know, sad isn’t it). It only takes a couple of seconds to turn around and switch them on and off. So first song starts and we get into the swing of things and with the board not being at my feet I just don’t bother. Apart from one song where I normally switch heavy overdrive on for one section, I didn’t miss them at all. A mates band were on after us and their bass player said my tone was fantastic, so much so that he asked to use my rig (he sounded stunning). The 1000w terror amp with a cleaner revolve and barefaced cabs are a killer combination imho. Sooooooo the end point of this long ramble, is do I continue to use my not insignificant pedal board which I have spent many many hours perfecting? or was last night an indication that I can leave it at home? Has anyone else gone from fairly pedal heavy to none at all?

Email them to point out the error of their ways and explain you accept a brand new one with them the RIGHT way around or else? or just swap the stuff over, I would do the board not the pedals.

Where’s the south? Is it the same place as the Sarff?

First time out with the new band last night and it went very well indeed. Couple of minor mistakes but nothing major. As is often the case we were really getting going when it was time to stop. We were on before a band who we know very well (I work with their lead singer/ guitarist) so were able to get some accurate feedback which was all very positive. A great night all round, sadly our drummer goes to Australia for five weeks soon so our next gig is the end of August. Our lead guitarist has a busy weekend, he is doing three gigs today with two different bands.

We bought a motor controller for a go kart the kids had built. It was dead when it arrived and obviously used (components were burnt out and screws damaged). The company claimed we had done it, Amazon sided with the company despite the claim being put in within an hour of delivery. Three months or arguing and broken promises came to nothing. Even the local paper were scared to take the story on fear of being sued. When you watch an 11 year old with Downs cry for over an hour after putting their heart and soul into fundraising it stays with you a long time.They are utter scum in my opinion. The opposite end of the spectrum is a tiny company called Stanelco who supplied one free of charge when they heard what happened.

Got our first gig with the new band tomorrow. Six months of work to get to this point. Kit sorted and ready to go already. Can’t wait.