tvickey

No... I leave some of the 'vampire' stuff on... I just don't use lights, oven, bass amp.

You really made me smile... I just watched that recently (but obviously NOT during the saving session!).

Good point! Yes, I do occasionally grab my bass and noodle around unplugged (usually when there is an idea in my head that I want to try out quickly).

I'm effectively being paid to NOT play my bass. No, I'm not so terrible at bass playing that folks are paying me to put my instrument down (put perhaps that day is not too far off!). We have Octopus as an energy supplier and have been joining their winter "saving sessions" where we're paid to NOT use electricity (e.g., between the hours of 17:30 and 18:30 on a given day, announced in advance). So, when I would normally come home from work, fire up the amp and start jamming away... I just keep everything turned off. So far I've been paid a whopping £1.09.

Update on the crowd surfer: Broken left hip, and he'll have surgery this morning. Poor guy, we're sending him a free 'Shreds.' t-shirt.

My band 'Shreds.' played in Boston, UK at The Carpenter's Arms ("The Carps") on Saturday. It was a great show with a number of excellent bands and one solo act, but had one unfortunate incident. An audience member was crowd-surfing and fell, landing on his hip (not during our set). He was screaming in pain and yelling for someone to take him to the hospital. The bar staff called for an ambulance straight away, but it was taking too long to arrive and ultimately one of the other musicians drove him to the hospital. Fractured hip apparently, with a few days in hospital. Otherwise it really was a great show. We played well, although the sound guy was all but absent. While this seems really bad, the lack of his attention actually made our show easier since we always record our set live using our mics, preamps and a laptop. He was visibly drunk by the time we arrived, and at some point handed me a broken SM-58 to use but when I turned it over to plug in the XLR cable I found a vacant cavity missing any pins! Our show recording turned out great. Perhaps the best yet. I gigged the Rickenbacker, and used Ric-o-Sound... I sent the bridge pick-up through some distortion and into my bass amp during the show, and sent the neck pick-up directly to our recording gear (it was a small venue, so only vocals were going through the PA). Once back at home, I re-amped the clean neck pick-up and mixed it in with the recording of the amplified bridge. This turned out really well! At the end of the year, we're going to take our 2023 gig recordings and make a live album.

We play Sheffield on Friday November 10th at S3 7AW (exact location has not been announced... look for Sickbucket Promotions on Facebook). Flyer for that show is attached:

We're playing at the Sumac Centre in Nottingham tomorrow!

And the music video for our song 'Micromanager' has now been released! You can see some up-close shots of the Ric, but the audio is from a Warwick Thumb NT4. Enjoy! 🤣😎🇬🇧

Our new music video has just been released! Check out Shreds 'Micromanager':

My band Shreds. will be playing in Nottingham on Saturday October 28th at the Sumac Centre. Be sure to drop by and check us out!

BTW: My action is way lower than what is advertised in this photo on the string pack!

Interesting. Thanks for this comment. The strings that I would normally put on are DR Lo-rider mediums with the gauges 45 65 85 105.

That's great! The factory strings seem decent... I'm leaving them on until they wear out! Normally I would remove factory strings and put DRs on...

We filmed a music video last weekend, so I brought the Rickenbacker along... I'm not really playing... and the studio audio track was done using a Warwick Thumb 🤣

Yeah, I did the same with mine... bezel installed after a couple of days, and the strings also had a single wrap around the pegs from the factory. I'm leaving the manufacturer strings on for now, but will do more than a single wrap when I change them out.

Hi Ian, Those all look great! Yeah, I remember you showing me one of them (perhaps the FireGlo?) when I dropped by your place a few years ago... I'm still interested in that ChromeTone Warwick... one day!

My band Shreds. are playing at the Bank Top Tavern in Oldham tomorrow. Entry is free so come check us out!

Oh wow, what finishes are the 8 that you have?? Photos? I've definitely looked around for some others... sadly, my GAS acts up most when something is particularly rare and/or difficult to find (e.g., I'm sure I could do with a nice late 70's early 80's Burgundy-Glo 4001... or a Noir with an ebony fretboard).

What year is this one? That looks like the new bridge, and a still with a glossy fretboard?