Muzz

It wasn't particularly the jazz itself (tho Lord knows it was the wrong crowd for that), it was the condescension and 'judge-y' attitude of the players that rankled...perhaps just a pair of up-themselves musos, but they were a thankfully rare exception. There was a bloke that came in with a fantastic rock voice who always cranked the volume to painful levels (he didn't last long after having had the volume turned down on him a few times), and another old Blues guitarist who got up with myself and the drummer, called a 12-bar that turned out to be (when he started playing) a 14-bar (in a different key) and stopped playing half way through the song to tell me I was 'crap' before walking off. Not needed, not the spirit of a jam. He didn't come back, either. Other than that, everyone got the vibe of the place and it rolled along a treat. The three/four lads who'd never played before were objectively awful (on a fairly regular basis), but had such a good time playing and were so thrilled to do it that everyone loved them. The landlord got a bit sniffy at one point about 'standards' being kept up, but all the regular musicians pointed out we'd all been there at some point, and he relented.

Yeah, that rings a bell: I used my Stomp in the jam night setup, but I'd just tell the punters 'That switch is the tuner, don't frig with anything else, ditto the amp settings because it's going through the house PA, too.' 99% of bassists just used the tone control on the bass and it never sounded anything less than good, but one night a pair of Jazzers turned up; they 'Didn't like' any of the drummers they'd heard (despite our drummer having played residencies in jazz clubs in London, in between his pro career on cruises and in hotels) because 'Nobody in here can swing' so decided to just do a bass and guitar 'set'. The bassist insisted I take the Stomp out of the loop (buggering up the gain/level stage) and proceeded to take five minutes farting around with the combo settings before playing. No hint of thanks after they'd bored everyone with what was 15 minutes of presumably one of Spinal Tap's Jazz Odysseys, and received the sort of applause where you can identify exactly which 3 people are clapping. They left straight after, and didn't come back. They weren't missed.

There's always one: when I've gigged my Shuker Fenderbird I've had similar 'experts': 'Why don't you play a Fender?' 'That's got the wrong neck on it' followed by (after I'd mentioned Entwistle and Wilkeson) 'Yeah, but it's still the wrong neck'... And the general comment, spoken like it's the Last Word/Checkmate in the conversation 'I used to have a proper Fender.' My (very, very good w/mods) El Cheapo Squier Sonic P hasn't had any comments yet, but I'm ready for 'em...

I was in the house band for a jam night for about a year, literally 200 yards down the road from 12-String's place (funny town Tyldesley, it's full of live music), and I always took a cheap bass along to lend out, and my small combo through the house PA. The players ranged from pro (No.1 Album) musicians to some lads who were just starting out (the first time they played live was at the jam night), full bands, pairs and threes ('Can you play bass for us?') to solo acoustic singers. Everyone got 'up to three' songs, depending how much they had prepared (or not, in some cases), and while there were a lot of regulars (see 'Tyldesley's full of music'), there would often be a mix of regulars doing different stuff, even on different instruments*. No hard rules**, no cliquey stuff, the audience was less than 50% musos, so the emphasis was on entertaining punters. Some nights I'd do the first two/three songs, and be sat down watching until we got up to do the last one of the night. I'd say that's pretty much how it should be. * The chap that used to do my head in (in a good way) was a great left-handed guitarist who'd get up on my bass, flip it over and play it upside-down (very well)... ** Anyone taking the mick (and I'm thinking about cranking volume, 5-minute guitar solos, etc) just didn't get called the next week...

I'm another borderline-obsessed with weight: I won't buy a bass over 7 1/2lbs again, and the ones I have which are more than 8lbs or so just don't get used. I gig a lot, and no matter how you spread the weight it's still there (tho I have a 4-inch wide strap on my main gigging bass), very luckily I bought a cheap, very giggable P-bass that's Poplar and weighs 7lbs 9 after some Ultralights (I have them on everything...why wouldn't you?), and sounds exactly like a P-Bass in my hands. Other than the aforementioned Ultralights, the best way to get a light bass is to try a lot of light basses and find one that sounds the way you want it to; if you want to mod with routers, be aware it'll probably reduce the value of the instrument, so start with a cheap one you won't mind losing a bit of money on. Although the other substitutions mentioned can have a cumulative effect, it's down to how much tinkering you want to do.

On the subject of JJ's live tone, last time I went to see them (tour before last, IIRC) they'd switched to inears/no backline, and it was dreadful; that indistinct, scooped sub-bass rumble you get at 90% of big venues. I dragged my other half all round the Apollo trying to find somewhere I could hear properly, but to no avail. It really pisht me off, we left early. When I go to see JJ, I'd like the bass (on the earlier songs, at least) to take the top of my head off, please... I mentioned this to Jon Shuker when i was picking up my JJ Sig from him, he said he'd chatted with JJ (I wasn't the only bassist to mention it) and they were 'still working through some issues'. Apparently it got better last time out, but I didn't go. The JJ Sig is based largely on the legendary Green P, I can confirm it's a very angry P, so it's not the bass.

Just to throw something else out there, and as detailed elsewhere on here, last year I picked up a Squier Sonic P new for £145 on the basis of 'How bad could it actually be?' (oh, and the fact it's very, very light (well under 8lbs)...yeah, I'm a glass-backed owd codger masquerading as a rock star) and it's a very good bass. Some tweaks to make it align more with my requirements (including a DiMarzio pup and one of Fender's own (much better) £35 bridges), and it's my main gigging bass. Now I know at the very bottom end of the model range I may have lucked out with a particularly good one (QC-wise), but it really is a good bass, and a great platform if you, like me, are an inveterate tinkerer, and are old enough not to get hung up on what it says on the headstock...

Thing is, you can get a custom made bass built for you by a luthier that IS objectively better for half that £4k, which these days is in the territory of a lot of higher-end US mass-manufactured stuff...

Jacob Alon at the Deaf Institute in Manchester. Good gravy, that boy can sing. Had very much the same almost magical vibes of 'this kid's the real deal' as when we accidentally caught a young bloke with an acoustic for about £10 in Hebden Bridge years ago (the wonderful Trades Club, about 50 people in), and driving home I said to my other half (who'd booked it on a whim) 'He'll go far, that lad; what was his name again?' She looked at the ticket 'George something...here it is: George Ezra'. The Deaf was sold out, but you could have heard a pin drop in the quieter moments (plus I didn't need my attenuators at any point, which was great) - it's a fantastic venue, and suited him down to the ground. It was £12 with two supports, I don't think that'll happen again...

Fourth gig of January so far Satdy night, pretty busy pub (thank Buddha that virtue-signalling nonsense Dry January has faded away; all it does is shut pubs), the punters enjoyed it and danced in between the tables, and I got to watch the American Football on a big screen right in my eyeline over the bar (we really must change the setlist up a bit; I play it 90% on muscle memory these days). No nutters, for a nice change...sorry... On the point earlier, we've put the money up to £300 for 2 x 45s for a trio, no-one's complaining and the diary's filling up... As always, cheapo lightweight P, Stomp, inears. Still unidentified trainers (I'll look at them properly for next time, promise..)

That whole 'we're on the same level, I'm free to walk into the band space' thing has been made worse these days with inears replacing floor monitors which, although a pain to schlep, at least reinforced the edge of the 'stage' - a couple of mike stands and a pedal board don't really delineate much to the pisht and terminally entitled...it's like the last ten minutes of Zulu some evenings...

OK, a catchup from before Xmas; a mix of the good, the bad and the indifferent...lots to cover, but I'll keep it brief(ish)... First off the Bad; a Black/Mad Friday gig before Xmas at the Weasel Dust Palace up in Burnley; packed out when we walked in at eight (he really didn't need a band on), we play on the dance floor, so early drunks had to be forcibly removed (some several times) so we could set up. We went on early (for this place) at 9, and from the off there were drunks falling all over. We asked for some security, nothing happened until a pair of 20+ stone blokes hugging each other fell into the band area (I stepped back so they didn't hit me) and just lay there like stunned elephant seals until they were hauled up by their mates. Broken rotating spotlight (£350), broken mic stand (mine), broken iPad screen and stand (singers), they just stumbled off. Then a 60-ish pisht woman (I'd been keeping an eye on her swaying dancing) just fell backwards and deposited her drink through the air about three inches from my Stomp; again, she just stumbled off. Mic stands getting knocked into singers teeth, people stepping int the band area to walk onto the stage to demand songs (one woman three times for the same song; in the end I just physically barred her way; she still tried to push past me), the whole nine yards. We stopped till they brought a bouncer to stand by the stage. Then the AC unit about three feet to the side of the band (not my side) started pishing water, again the staff did nothing till we stopped, then some half-hearted mopping commenced. At the end I saw the guitarist's pedal board (and the case on which the mixer stood) was in a puddle about an inch deep. Half the drum carpet was soaked, if I'd seen it I'd have pulled the gig, but the guitarist likes the place and didn't. I've told him I'm not playing there again, it's always awful. Better gig on the 27th, but that's no fun to report, it was all just OK (tho we got overpaid because the landlord liked what he heard), and no NYE gig (because the guitarist wanted to go out on the lash). First time in 16 years I've been at home for NYE, my other half was working but the Boy was back from Uni so we hung out and had a good night in. Since then another three gigs and one to come this weekend, only high/lowlight of which was playing the night the snow came down (4th?) up in the wilds Chorley way. Quietish pub, we played the first 45, and then in the break I noticed the snow getting serious outside, and given I had 30-odd miles to drive home back into the hills, we went back on quickly and played the second 45 and then just the one encore. I apologised to the landlady, she was happy and understood. As we were packing down, I saw a bloke talking to the singer. I'd clocked this bloke in the second set standing off to one side of the dancers, standing there with his arms folded. We've all had one of them at least once; they're always on their own, they're never well dressed, and they just stare without clapping. Anyway, I was over that side, and I overheard 'You lot are stealing a living; that wasn't 45 minutes.' Now I might have mentioned before, but the older I get the less patience I have with drunks or opinionated arses, so I stepped in and said 'Are you paying us, you personally? No? You got 30 miles to drive home in this? No? We've played 50 minutes, so you can...' Yeah, to prevent pinging the sweary filter I'm sure you can fill the rest in yourself. It takes a very sad mindset to think you can personally give a band the TripAdvisor critique to their faces and imagine you're not gonna get some pushback. Next time I looked up from packing he'd left. Anyhoo, another one at the weekend, and possibly another the last weekend in the month, so a 5-gig January will do me...I think we've a weekend off in Feb, but the calendar's very busy (apparently we're booked 28 weekends so far this year), so I'll put up with the idiots a while longer...

I guess it should really be a compulsory header form for 'Which amp/cab?' threads: Age: Back Condition: Dead Lift Limit (lbs/kg): General Enthusiasm For Hoicking Gear (1-10):

What are these 'rehearsals' you speak of? Not had one of those in a few years...pretty much after a project band who looooved to rehearse (and we sounded very good in rehearsals), but when it came to live gigs...not so much in either quantity or quality... Having said that, I've got one on Wednesday for a new band lineup, I'm not expecting too many more before we get out gigging.

Even though I don't use backline any more, my rule of thumb was always 'If the kick's going into the PA, so am I'. For unamplified drums, a 500w Class D head and a decent 212 (or less watts into a more efficient cab: my 300w Walkabout into either my BF 212 or 115 (or both) will decimate any drummer) will do it.