Rich

Just got back from the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff after an evening with... James Blunt. Ok, you can point at me and laugh if you want, IDGAF He had a very able quartet backing him up comprising bass, drums, guitar and keys. All the band supplied BVs, so there some very lush 5 part vocal harmonies in places. Guitarist had a couple of Teles, bassist played a Stingray 5 with an unused spare on a stand next to him, and a bass synth on a couple of tunes. JB played either acoustic guitar or piano on every song, apart from 'Postcards' when he and the guitarist both got their ukes out (ooer). You know what? That was one of the best gigs I've seen in years. The whole band was faultless, Mr B writes a good song and can really sing, and his trademark self-depracating humour was well on show. I would quite happily go and watch it all again tomorrow. And I'd love to be in that band. However (there's always a however)... there was a problem with the sound which can basically be summed up as WHY THE FECK DOES THE FECKIN KICK DRUM HAVE TO BE SO FECKIN LOUD?? It was the loudest thing in the mix by a mile, and totally overwhelmed it at times. It's not the first gig I've been to that's been tainted by a ludicrously heavy kick either. Why? Grrr. Oh, and the support was a very talented chap called Gavin James. Super voice.

May the fleas of a thousand camels infest that venue's curtains. Wow. An enthusiastic blast on a horn will blow that limit clean out of the water - we've played gigs in the past where our two trumpets barely went through the PA at all. Add a couple of powerful voices into the mix and it'll be next to impossible to stay under that limit.

Sit Down -James

With a budget instrument, I'd sort it myself. Anything more upmarket and I would send it back. Obvs it all depends on the nature of the fault and how easy/cheap it would be to mend.

He doesn't trigger me. I just think he's a reprehensible prîck.

Nige is one of my FB friends too. We chat occasionally. I wish I lived nearer That London so I could go see his band. Another legendary name is Major Minor. He wasn't here all that long but his contribution was amazing... his awesome 'Boot Camp' series is one of the best learning resources I have ever seen.

I haven't seen any 'radical' new bridge designs that have struck me as anything other than a solution searching for a problem. The Ray Ross in particular. I've used this design of bridge on a couple of basses. It offers top-load or through-body so it's flexible, plus once it's set up you crank down those black screws and everything's locked solid in all planes. Plus it's nice and chunky. I really like it.

More than a hint of Alpher about it too. http://greatbritishbasslounge.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/01-Alpher-Mako-Elite.jpg

Is There Something I Should Know? - Duranx2

Nor I. I dressed like a complete tít, yes (it was the 80s, it was mandatory to look like a knob), but never a shell suit.

Autocorrect - Kongos

Raisin Hell - Kesha

Elastic Heart - Sia feat. The Weeknd

Tele headstock would look better. I agree that as it stands it looks like a recipe for massive neckdive.

You're Welcome - Jordan Fisher

Can anyone recommend an amp tech in the South West generally? Bristol, Swindon, Bath, Taunton, Exeter, etc

Ooh the daft quotes game. My go: "How about everybody has a nice big cup of calm the fck down and stop taking potshots at each other? This playground stuff is getting really tiresome." -- Socrates.

Oh yes, I know that one too. Many years ago when I lived in Swindon, my blues-rock trio (Hendrix, Gary Moore, ZZ Top etc, and we were really good) had a booking at the Plessey Social Club... when we walked through the door, we lowered the average age in the room by about 40 years. As we set up, I could feel the glares from the light-&-bitter brigade burning holes in the back of my head. We had backline and a vocal PA only, nothing DI'd or miked up -- Steve the drummer was first to get set up, he sat down and picked up a stick and hit his snare drum ONCE... and I heard a croaky old voice from out in the shadows say, "ooh, it's a bit loud...". Predictably the first set was horrendous, every song met with almost total silence apart from a few “turn it down!”s from some of the coffin-dodgers and one or two claps. One of them even walked up mid-song, stood right in front of me and stuck his fingers in his ears and bellowed “It's TOO LOUD”. End of the first set couldn’t have come soon enough for me. During the interval, the club MC asked if he could borrow one of our mics to do the bingo. Ye gods. Eventually we couldn’t put the second set off any longer and trudged to the stage. I was just putting my bass on when a woman approached me. I thought, if she tells me to turn it down I’m just going to pack up and sod off home. But she said cheerfully, “OK lads, all the old farts have bugggered off home, they only come for the bingo... you can turn it back up now”. So we did... needless to say, the second set was a lot better and we never set foot in there again

I Don't Know - Paul McCartney

Who Are You? - The Oo

Oh god yes, the clunks. What were they thinking? Ugh.

Similar thing happened with the drummer in my first really good band back in the 80s, at our very first gig... we were a rocky-synth-pop band, sort of A-Ha with guitars I suppose, and we had an intro tape... an ethereal synth piece with a bass drone, which gradually rose to a crescendo and then four clicks as our cue into the big opening of our first song. Unfortunately the bass on the intro tape used to cause a massive sympathetic rattle from the snares on the drummer's, errm, snare drum, so to avoid this he disengaged the snare strainer to drop them away from the head. Yes, you can see what's coming can't you... the intro rises to its crescendo, four clicks and BLAM the big dramatic intro, drummer hits his snare and instead of a gunshot "crack!" it goes "BOING!" like a timbale. Drummer realises what he's done, fumbles to re-engage the strainer and thankfully we are only treated to a couple of BOINGs before normal service is resumed. Alas the damage is done, and our big intro sounds more like "what if Duran Duran played samba?". Thankfully the rest of the gig was an absolute belter, but it took a while for the drummer to live that intro down.

Sole Man - Salmon Dave

0:15 to 0:30 of 'Give It Up' by KC and the Sunshine Band -- ugh https://youtu.be/IeqtAB1WgEw 'He Ain't Heavy' by the Hollies -- sloppy timing and out of tune https://youtu.be/z_Jx9nqnxOM 'The Boss' by James Brown -- the first 5 seconds are fine but then it all goes horribly wrong... the bass is so out of tune it makes the whole thing completely unlistenable https://youtu.be/jC2ZY2loo74