Muzz

Outdoor festival on Sunday (7000 or so in attendance), I turned up without backline, to find there was no backline. A slight surprise, but no drama; Bass -> Helix -> DI. Huge sound out of the monitors. At no point did I miss a big stack...especially as roadies were as rare as rainbow unicorns around the place...OK, my trousers weren't flapping behind me, but my eyebrows were hoisted a treat by the monitor mix, which was much, much better... TL:DR - how much room was there for groupies again?

Never mind at the break - nip that nonsense in the bud immediately...a Basil Fawlty surreptitious cuff on the back of the head isn't the way to go these days (sadly), but an immediate announcement from the singer that injured toddlers aren't your responsibility, and Band Only On The Stage is the rule...

Rival Sons (and Dirty Honey) in Blackburn...it's a huge building (old theatre with verrrrry high ceilings), the support were really good (tho a smaller club would've suited them better), RS were sublime as always. No cannon kick, either (that's twice in a row now, I've been lucky), and a reasonably defined bass sound...

Played a festival Bury way yesterday, couple of thousand people there, we were on just before the headliners. Took bass(es) and Helix, to get there and find there was no backline. No problem, straight into the PA, the monitors were good, onstage engineer about three feet to my right. A 45 minute set with a dep drummer (tho he's the drummer from our old originals band, the guitarist/singer and I have been playing with him for decades, on and off), went down well, but it was a bit chilly onstage (the wind was blowing right into the stage) and my hands were cold and slow for much of it. All good, tho, and the easiest of load-in/outs and setup.

Just a quick note: went to see Rival Sons over the weekend, and the bassist used a Mustang and a (probably) P34, and the top rear had worn off the black to what looked suspiciously like a sunburst underneath...it also had (again, what looked like) a Darkstar pickup in the bridge position. In a big hall through a line array PA, they sounded much the same...

Two pickups, so not strictly OT, but on the pickup choice thing, mine's got Dingwall pickups underneath those chrome covers (I know, odd one, but (long story, involving enormous goodwill and credit to Sheldon Dingwall), I had two Dingwall pickups spare), and one of them (the neck) is even a split-coil P-Tone, sooooo, with a bit of faffing, anything's possible...no laughing at the upper fret access, I knowwwww... Oh, and I never use the bridge pickup...

Actually, thinking about this, I'll do you a deal, Lozz; I'll have Mark Evans' gigs, you can take over Cliff's...as long as I can guest spot at the River Plate Stadium... 🙂

Ohhh, it's a great amp, but only if I had the money for it to be a home/studio based luxury...

It's gonna be a nervous night down the Dog And Duck with those tubes hanging out there... 😕🙂

A daft body shape, double-Ps and waaaayyyy too many knobs and switches? What's not to love? 😀 Tho for the money (which I'm sure is eye-watering) they could've lined those knobs up better...Matron...

That'd be a BC Rich...a Wave, apparently...

I'm currently on the lookout for a new band (we lost 35+ gigs for the year a month or so back (long story), and the BL/Singer/Geetarist has gone solo (I can't blame him, he can make twice the money going out on his own with a couple of very small PA speakers, his acoustic and a mic)), and even though I have a decent day job, the loss of the gig money has been noticeable. Unfortunately, most of the contacts I've made so far (admittedly through the Secure Unit-Level Delusional places like bandmix and joinmyband) are nowhere near as focused on getting out there to gig for decent money as I am. This new band will probably not be with old friends, etc, and while I'm no misanthrope, and can get on with almost anybody, it won't (at least to start, hopefully) be the main focus of the band. I could have joined a couple of bands (in fact I did join one that fizzled out two rehearsals in), but the 'Yeah, we'll get out gigging at some point' attitude isn't what I'm looking for, and seems to be the norm...one of the questions I now ask is 'Have you guys got a PA?', and again, 'Erm, not yet, but we're thinking about it' is a very common answer. That does save time going to auditions, tho... On Topic, tho, I'll gig more or less anything I'm capable of in a band that's focused on gigging, it just seems to be hard to find one like that right now. Oh, and Blue? You might want a look at a Helix Stomp as an alternative to a Kemper - I've been using one a while now, and when I can (at shared gigs with PA for example) I just show up with the Helix and my bass, and still sound like me...they're a shedload cheaper than a Kemper, and with a bit of work and compromise, you could replace your pedal board with it, too...

The Apollo in Manchester to see Greta Van Fleet, supported by the Marcus King Band. A very, very good gig all round - MK and his 7-piece band were outstanding, a band with lots of gears, like a cross between Grand Funk Railroad, Skynyrd and a Baptist Revival meeting at Muscle Shoals...top points to the two-man horn section, who multitasked with aplomb (trumpet with one hand and tambo in the other?)...and that Greta Van Fleet...maaaaannnn, that's one of the best voices I've ever heard in there - it soars like very little else...there was the feel of an event, a theatre to it (a white stage, with 10ft side spots) which lifted the place, I've seldom heard an audience singing like that...oh, and the overall sound was pretty good, too; not quite so much for MK, but I suppose a 7-piece support band aren't gonna get more attention than the 4-piece (singer/bass/guitar/drums) headliners from the desk...at least the Cannon Kick was absent...

Chambered by worms, according to the maker...ohhhh nooooo, now we have Toneworms?

So everything else is small except the headstock? Makes sense... 😀

Is it just me, or is the headstock on the first bass monumentally huge?

That's gonna raise some eyebrows with the 5-0, tho, surely? 'Yes Boss, bloke shot through the head, no obvious motives...tho he's left his bass in his will to someone he met on the internet...' 'Oh, really? Fire up the Quattro...'

I can +1 the Babicz bridge (albeit on a Thunderbird(ish)) - I'm not bothered about hiding its modernity, and the flexibility of adjustment is more than worth it. I've always like EBs, but that neck-adjacent mudbucker position has always put me off - that one with the pup nearer the bridge looks a lot more like my thing...

You mean his Spotify Playlist Shuffle? They don't half put a shift in these days, DJs... 😕🙂

Have you ever been to a big festival? The last thing you want on a sunny Sunday afternoon when your energy levels have kinda dipped, that hangover-burger hasn't settled right and the khazis all look like the Somme is to be shouted at by some edgy fecker under flashing lights...possibly later on, once it's gone dark and you've come round a bit...

Ohhh, audience, schmaudience...99% of the time the bass could be a bucket with a stick in it*, despite what we like to tell ourselves... 😁 * A maple stick and a galvanised bucket, obv, before anyone comes at me with any Tonestick schtick...

On that 'experience' thing, I watched the Elbow set and have come to the conclusion that, like them or not, they're the perfect sunny Glasto late afternoon act...

Not while John Halls' company is still in business... 😀

Weddings, usually...especially when you give the DJ your setlist and ask him not to overlap...and then the last three songs he plays before you go on are in your first set...pfffffttt...

Those new Fender bridges are really, really good, even better for £35. I put one on my BB414 and I love it, it'd be my go-to for any bridge replacement these days...even if it does say 'FENDER' on it in rather large letters...I almost phoned Jon Shuker and asked him to put one on my incoming JJB P, but then I thought that might be pushing things a bit too far... 😕 🙂