Simon C

A bit late, but Thursday's Jam Night was good. We were on shortly after 9 followed by the band I depped for the previous Saturday (Matt Guntrip and the Roadsters). Matt and said Roadsters hadn't heard us play before. A few of my mates also came down, some of them for the 1st time The pub manager told the guitarist he'd had a few people asking about us and offered us a Friday slot if we want one. So I guess we either played well, or played songs people liked, or both. My 1st Granddaughter (and also the neice of the drummer), was born on 4th May. Hence I managed to get this one on the set list. Intro to the song was along the lines of "Can you guess her name. No. No. No. Well there's a clue in this song". violet

I depped for “Matt Guntrip and the Roadsters” at the inaugural “Epsom Square Festival”. We did 10 or so songs: 8 OGs and a couple of covers. I played 2 of the songs a couple of weeks ago, so it was only 8 to learn 😀. I really enjoyed the gig. A few highlights / lowlights: 2 of the band couldn’t find the car park they’d parked in, so we were without the stage piano. I (the Epsom local in the band) eventually worked out which one it was (almost directly underneath us) and showed them how to get there. When we got to the car we couldn’t get stuff out of the boot. Then we couldn’t work out how to turn on the ignition or where the handbrake was, or maybe wasn’t (it was another band members car).😂 We were sat at the stage we we were going to play on, then saw my mates band go on who were on a different stage to us. Quick panic to find the organiser and then our stage.🤔 One of guitarists snapped a string in the 1st song and couldn’t see to get a new one on.🤷‍♂️ A gig of 3 halves. Ist half we had a good number watching, who all left after about 3 songs that we’d played well (broken string faff not withstanding); we later found out it was at least 2 groups leaving for restaurant bookings. 2nd half playing to 2 tables who looked like they’d just stopped for a beer. 3rd half a load of people piled out of the indoor stage for the last 4 songs or so. I used my wireless system for the 1st time at a gig. I went for the odd wander in the 1st and 3rd halves (I.e. the ones for which we had an audience). I think it helped engage the audience. Saw a few people I hadn’t seen for a while, so good to catch up with them. Chatting to one of them was responsible for me leaving my wireless stuff on top of a wall. Luckily I realised before I drove off and they were recovered successfully. Bass G&L L2000 Outfit: Hawaian shirt, shorts, cap (for reasons of sun and bald patch), neon blue trainers. And glasses, which I thought were so I could see, but I’ve found they also help guitarists change strings on the fly 🤣.

I’m sure you will have responded to this question previously, but what’s the reason for 2 preamps on the board (I think the Sadowsky and the VT re both preamps)

I bought mine 2nd hand from GG in Epsom. After a little while I realised that either the neck was twisted or the E string nut was cut too shallow (this is documented on one of the other Ric threads). There was a 1 year shop warranty on the bass. They cut the nut properly and set the action up as I requested. It plays really well now. Based on a later warranty fix on my electric 6 string, I suspect they put new strings on at the time. So my experience: Original set-up / QC may be a little wanting, but they sort stuff out - or at least in Epsom they do. I’ll continue to buy stuff from them.

I did an acoustic open mic with a band I’ve said I’ll dep for. I’ve practiced with them 3 or 4 times, but last night was the 1st performance. As it was an acoustic night, I took the fretless - still electric but maybe more the vibe than the Rick, G&L L2000, or headless would have been. It went pretty well. The BL (Matt Guntrip) has several albums out. We did a couple of his newest songs. I couldn’t hear myself singing so have no idea if I was in tune , but I could hear the bass (it was in tune 😁). I’ve another gig with them in June at a local festival.

The Jam Night I usually go to has moved back to its original venue (McCafferty’s in Epsom). We weren’t really able to attract a following at what was the new venue - various reasons I guess. Certainly there was never much of an atmosphere there. I think the original venue probably saw their takings drop by more than they were paying the band and certainly by more than the £50 pay cut they were trying to get the band to take. I’m pleased we’ve moved back as McCafferty’s is a much better music venue (and it’s walking distance from my house 😀). It’s a while since we’ve had anyone take any video of us. My daughter who was the main videographer has moved to Derby. My wife didn’t attend the new venue as often. Anyway back to the old venue so my wife came, and a mate and his wife came for the 1st time. They both took some video. We played ok, without nailing any of the songs. As it’s the 1st one back at McCafferty’s I decided on a compilation video.

I went for a jam at an ex bandmates a few days ago. He was the bass player in the band (I played keys). I took my EHB1000S. He loved it - said it was the best bass he’d played.

I have the Super Vintage (the SVT one). I’ve only used it outside my house to FOH once. That was with guitar and we were short of XLR cables, so I didn’t use the cab sim. I have some recordings (via a DAW) where I use the cab sim , but I’m not sure which (if any) effects I had with it in most cases . I do have a couple of guitar recordings where I used the cab sim and know what effects I was using (you have to listen to my dodgy guitar playing and singing though). If you want me to share any videos (bass or guitar) let me know.

Friday was our (In Progress) 1st gig outside of Jam Night. So 17 songs rather than 4. We weren’t as tight over the 17 as we are for 4, and the error to song ratio probably went up a bit. It was my company’s Christmas Party and I’d agreed to pick up and drop off the hired PA gear (a faff). We had 2 hours to set up and soundcheck and took 1h52mins of it 😀. The high / lowlight was finding out that the only monitor we’d managed to position an hour into set-up to be feedback free (space restriction in the restaurant), didn’t have the jack plugged in properly and was indeed feeding back😖. So we had no foldback. The singer couldn’t hear herself. Luckily a couple of us had in ears with us and a long connector that reached the desk so we sorted her out ok. People seemed to enjoy it, some dancing and plenty of singing. Overall we enjoyed ourselves and were reasonably pleased with how it went.

We’ve a gig in early December for which I am going to have be the sound tech (me as roadie was already baked in for it). I figured being able to hear the FoH sound, at least during soundcheck, is probably going to give the audience a better experience. I’d been thinking about wireless for a while, so being the sound tech was the required push. After reading through this thread (thanks to everyone who responded) and a bit of YouTube research I went for the NuX C- 5RC. The main things for me were: 5.8GHz, easy to charge and not too expensive. I checked them out at home today- they seem to work well.

My 2023 strategy was similar, though bike and ski stuff for me. Bass gas was held of by doing “research” - I.e. have no fixed idea about which bass I wanted to buy with 2023s work bonus, but look at what was on the market place here and in some of the physical music shops. The SE Bass Bash also helped. The research was fun and all was resolved with a scouting visit to GuitarGuitar on New Year’s Eve , then down on again in Jan 2nd to pay for the 2nd hand Rick 4003W that was hanging on the wall but didn’t get as far as their web site.

Very disconcerting. I comfort myself with the thought that The Undertones (minus Feargal Sharkey) are still touring and one would feel short changed if they didn’t perform Teenage Kicks.

I think I have the definitive answer Dave @dmccombe7. Fretless active jazz with flats 🤣:

I was brave enough, or maybe daft enough, to give the fretless a run out. Due to the dep guitarist being unavailable we switched songs to make it easier for others to join us. So the pub was treated to punk on a fretless. The host band even had the good grace to have my vocal mic low in the mix at the start which gave a me a bar or 2 to (almost) find the pitch 😀. 3 bands didn't turn up which meant a runaround for the organiser to fill those slots. It became a Blues Jam - which was fun.