Leonard Smalls

My effort... I fancied a bit of Dub, so here it is! Sounds best on big speakers with serious bass handling... For those that like that sort of thing, bass is an ACG Recurve double tracked with Bassroom and Voxengo eq. Guitar is a trusty Strat, FX and keys all IRIS 2. Drums programmed from Sample Magic dub kit, cymbals through Jabo Sparks vintage on EZ drummer. All smeared liberally with Dubstation 2, Raum and Phasis, mastered with Ozone 9. Vox by Lee (apart from BG shouts - me!), cheers m8!

Having loved the Chillis from their 1st UK show at the Clarendon in Hammersmith (RIP!), at 2 or 3 quid, all the way up to 5 or 6 paand at the Astoria with blagged after-gig party and quick puff with Flea, I'd go and see them again if tickets were reasonable. But £200ish is far too much for me, especially as it'd involve a hotel too and the fact I don't like any of their touch-feely-attempty-tuney stuff since Californication. I'd prefer to buy a concert DVD, fire up the hifi and sit there comfy with my glass of wine, pipe and slippers, all safe in the knowledge that the only things likely to bash into me are one of my dogs jumping on my head, or my Mrs' elbow objecting to a loud fart. Still very happy to watch bands in small venues though, where you can actually lick the artist's sweat off your own face!

He's known as a fine mimer... He doesn't actually play any of the stuff on the records, it's all Pino on his fretless.

Indeed! We were all rather mortified at our ineptitude...

Talking of learning songs, my band once did Stanley Clarke's School Days, which was to segue into Bootsy's I'd Rather Be With You (North Sea Jazz Version). It actually took us 2 goes to get note-for-note perfect, including both solos, using my ancient Kawai Sleekline and tape-wound strings. And funnily enough it was possible just by using the correct finger technique to reproduce all Bootsy's octave, distortion and qtron fx.

I'll have nowt said against Eydie! I finished every disco I did with this song for years:

Mine appears to be just a little bit dubwise...

Got this album on at work - I suspect not many garden centres will be playing this sort of thing!

And we're back to the Fender Turntable!

Indeed - most home folks would buy the bb5 se over the bb6 simply because it's got a nice bit of wood on the sides. But some no doubt go the whole hog; I know a bloke who has 2 sets of TAD 15" main monitors in his heavily sound-trapped "living" room!

There's 2 schools of thought - ultimate air'n'space and feeling of being there - almost unnaturally so - and reproducing the actual recording studio exprerience. The 1st lot will buy an Ongaku-on 8w SET amp with loads of colouration going into an enormous horn - Klipsch, Tannoy Westminster or bigger. The 2nd lot will but PMC BB5s and Bryston 14bsst (like me, 'cept I've got 14bsst and Leema Xaviers, which are a cheaper option but still made by an ex=BBC mate), or ATC SCM 150s. And they tend to hate each other, though secretly love each other's sound...

Indeed - Neve mic pre-amps are different to Focusrite! Klipschhorns are far more coloured than ATC speakers; Lumley valve amps less valve-y than Quad 2s, and Clearaudio TTs tend to be "more hifi sounding" than Linn LP12s... And you're right about high-end being capable of astonishing realism; Frinstance a set-up I once heard with 4 Martin Logan panels plus Genesis subs multi-amped with Mcintosh valves had far more of a sense of "being there" and slam than the Radio 1 main studio at Maida Vale - mainly because hearing everything was what the PMC Bryston set-up was designed to do, rather than creating an illusion of actually being at the gig!

Aye - my Recurve is a beautiful thing! However, as I'm a bit worried about taking the neck off (never done it before - have terrible thoughts it will be like the time I took the side off my Yammy TR1 engine and there was a wormgear and host of springs came bouncing out) and in the spirit of Shop Local I've contacted my Friendly Local Luthier - Manton Guitars...

Luminlay looks best... However, with my relatively meagre woodworking skillz I'd probably be wise not to take my powerdrill to the neck of any of my basses, specially not the Wal or ACG! Anyone got a vague idea how much a luthier would charge for side dots?

Following on from a gig where I completely messed up a bass intro due to not being able to see the dots on the side of the neck (used to playing my Wal where things are in a slightly different place), I'm thinking of getting some luminous dot things - Glowtec or similar. Anyone used 'em, or similar? How long do they glow for? Presumably they don't get in the way as they're on top of the neck? And how removeable are they? And don't suggest LEDs - I'm not tearing apart 5 bass necks!

A? We never used Dolby A after about 1991, wot with Dolby SR (not S!) being that bit better! I used to have a Revox PR99 and an SR unit - problem was that at 30ips even 10" tape reels didn't last very long...

Not bad at all! Few minor mistakes, but the good bits were actually good, as opposed to sloppy with too many notes! New guitarist and drummer have both funked and pumped us up...

I think they were one of those bands that sounded better on paper than in the actual listening! Meanwhile, early Liverpool/Wirral synth post punkers, featuring my headmaster's son! And can't remember if I've posted this already - but it's worth putting on again!

1st gig after 2 years (apart from internet ones). New drummer and guitarist too. Went reasonably well - everyone cocked up a little bit... Mine was due to not being able to see fret markers in poor lights. Must get some dayglo markers! But audience seemed very keen - 6th band out of 9 at Dollfest Abertillary....

Their website appears to be dead so not sure if they still exist... But my post above has a link to the MD Intelligent Box review by Henk and Marja at what is known as Six Loons. It's Quantum. So it's very clever!

Machina Dynamica make his tweaks look relatively sane!

To Jamaaladeen Tacuma's free download of a celebration of Coltrane: https://jamaaladeenmusic.com/album/44158/coltrane-configurations-progressions

And most important for digital playback, have the edges of the cd been highlighted green? CD also sounds appallingly unnatural unless you've put Shakti Stones on the CD player - you need to absorb that stray EMI! But the single best thing you can do to extract the most from cd playback is to buy an INTELLIGENT BOX 😎

1st actual live as opposed to streaming gig for 2 years! We're on at 7.10pm (6th on with 9 bands in total) at the Dollfest, Doll's House Abertillary. 1st time out for our new drummer and rhythm guitarist too...

Funnily enough my first taste of proper hifi was from cassette! I'd just blown my 1st term's grant in Superfi in Leeds on a Technics SU V5 amp and Kef Carina 2 loudspeakers. Got chatting to the salesman, we discovered we like similar music and both liked a little smoke (this was long ago, btw!). So I went to his house, we listened to Yello's "Claro Que Si" on cassette, and it sounded better than anything I'd ever heard before (the tootle probably helped!). However, this wasn't just a Waltham portable, twas a Nakamichi Dragon into Radford pre/power, into Tannoy 12" concentrics (Chatsworth, iirc).