Stub Mandrel

Alas, Spondon is no longer a hop, skip and a thirty-minute drive from my abode.

Band have to live with what I decide to bring along on the day! Turned up for a dep with my Hohner B2 once, and they loved it.

The Box speakers are decent but some are heavy. I gave away two 2x15 + tweeter cabs, they were just totally impractical, but I know a rehearsal studio that uses them and they sound great.

Two of my irrational prejudices right there...

Jazz is the other band's, not mine.

The Small Feces. (American spelling 😁)

Is it a Himmernezz? No it's a Yamaha.

RAY CHARLES on what does it take to be a good Blues singer : Oh, well, that’s a great question, because you know, you can’t just say any one particular thing. First of all, let’s be honest about it, it’s important that one have a little talent, I mean, that, that would help, let’s face it. But I think that to have to be any kind of singer I think you have to have feeling there, and feeling cannot be taught. You can teach a person notes, you know, just like in music, you know, you can teach a person to play the piano, play an instrument or you can teach a person… they can go to voice school and you can teach him how to sing. But the one thing you can’t teach is you can’t teach feeling, you see and that is the key I think to any kind of singing… can the person, and what feeling is to make that they’re saying so real that you believe whatever they’re singing about must have happened to them because they’ve got so much feeling in their voice. The same as an actress who plays a part on the screen is so real you forget that’s it’s just a play, but you become so involved… to me that’s what feeling is all about, is to make yourself, whatever you’re singing about believable and of course I don’t think you can teach that. I think the person either has to have it or they don’t have it.

May I make a plea for a south of Brum venue as many Welsh basschatters would join in.

American dates...

Not long got back. Played a local venue for the second sunday in a row, this time with the Fortunate Sons. Unexpected gorgeous sunny day meant a packed audience and plenty of dancing. Again played best part of 2 hours and 35 songs(!) We were much tighter than our previous gig. I'm getting more comfortable on bvs, so joining in on more songs. The singer caught me out by shoving his mic in my face during Moni Moni... Went for a sunday lunch with my partner beforehand. A pint of coke, pint of Guinness and a bottle of becks zero on top, with two hours of bouncing around and I have a fine stomach ache. Lots of people I know there which was nice. I loaded in from the front. The other guys were less lucky. The route to the back is like a scene from the evil dead...

Bit like the sickparrots but more predatory...

The water filter in my fishtank 🤣

The smaller Altos are another 'affordable' brand. Our club uses bigger Alto powered speakers andcthey sound find and have proven vastly more reliable than HH. Last night we had a drum machine and then a guitar through them without backline no problems (except the guitar turned up far too loud).

Well... First, the chaos of setting up three bands well (solo singer plus band) using the same mixer with two guitars using the desk, a drum machine and an electronic kit. Somehow it worked, but the second band's guitarists did the "crank after soundcheck" thing which scared off a few punters and did their sound no favours. Their bass player (also the organiser) used my kit. Our set was as interesting as promised, despite Fritz doing his back in which made it a little tamer. In my labcoat I wheeled in the patient (we skipped the straitjacket). He shambled to the mic as Nigel the specialist delivered the narration. I handed Fritz an acoustic guitar so he could start his 'creative therapy'. He played the Fractured Persona song with us backing quietly. The first four songs I went fretless Maya P. As it cranked up the fourth song was pretty punky so over to fretted P and plectrum. Then back to fingers except for Kill the Klown, which featured a sledgehammer clown attack on our singer who reponded by chainsawing the clowns head off. The prop chainsaw was wirelessly miked up too We ended up doing our encore, largely without our rhythm guitarist who truned the volume down on his guitar and forgot. We knew some of the songs were memorable and it was surprising to see people joining in some of the choruses, so comfortable we weren't just a novelty show. Lots of decent feedback despite obvious first gig hiccups. Memorable for us and the audience.

Spival tap Private Walker's band

A bit of a bugger to get right.

Surely.

Spinal Tad (Very small band in proportion to an 18" Stonehenge).

Not at all... photoflame doesn't change when you move the bass in the light. It's not AAAAA on the Harley but definitely real flamed maple.

Not all of us can afford or justify expensive PA speakers/monitors, so I thought I'd share my experience of the cheap Thomann 'Fun Generation' powered speakers and invite anyone else to share info on other low-cost options. This is the 15" option, they also do 12" and passive versions of both. https://www.thomann.co.uk/fun_generation_pl_115_a.htm With refreshing honesty they rate them 600W peak/140W rms. I bought two 15" powered ones as cheap monitors. I regularly use one as a monitor and aside from not being suitable for putting my foot on, it's always delivered without fuss in many different situations. Thrre are two 'mic' channels with xlr and jack inputs. Annoyingly, line in uses phono sockets, but I just use the mic channels with the gain down (never had distortion issues). There's basic bass/treble eq, 90% of the time I leave these at 12 o'clock. I discovered the back plates with the amp, inputs and bt functionality are interchangeable between 15 and 12, passive and active. Just rewire the connections to the crossover. I swapped one over to make a 15 active and a 12 passive. That gives me the flexibility to use 2x12, 2x15, or one or two 12+15 pairs. I have used an active/passive 12" pair as PA for lectures with ease, and once or twice as a small pub-size vocal PA when our vocalist's Mackie powered speakers weren't available. It's not clear what the real world power of a single cab is - do you need the extension cab to achieve 140W or does that deliver a bit more? They are loud enough and the audio quality is good enough to be usable in everyday applications. I think the audio is at least as good as my 8" HH monitor. I would invest more if looking fo a small full-time PA, however. Despite the 'fun generation' name they are a different league to the cheap but similar looking 'party speakers'. I suspect they are sold with other name badges. Importantly they are robust, reasonably light and easy to use. Two powered 12s or even one powered, one passive would meet the basic monitoring needs of many bands for under £200, and they could save a small gig if your main pa goes down.

I'd say that one is bookmatched... it's just the peculiarities of how the wood has taken stain/reflects the light. But I agree, if you can get a bookmatch on a Sire or even a sub-£200 Harley Benton, PRS should be able to manage it.

A friend recorded what was more or less a solo album 20 years ago, with a stong mental health theme. Under the name Fractured Persona several gigs were one to promote it, and it got a decent reception, if not huge sales. The band has been completely 'rebuilt' around Fritz, who started writing new songs with a guitarist, drum machine and bandcamp. There's now six of us and we've got nine songs ready for a first gig today, three from the album. Lots of creative freedom. The gig will include some 'interesting' theatrics! Vety different from my other bands!

Those look good.

No different from seeing yourself in a photo, rather than a mirror, all the asymmetries are exaggerated as you see them doubled.