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Some Latin loveliness from Ruben Blades and the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra featuring the bass player Carlos Henriquez. The tune is 'Pedro Navaja' which is essentially Kurt Weill's 'Mac The Knife' with new lyrics. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/pedro-navaja-mac-the-knife-ruben-blades-w-lincoln-centre-jazz-orchestra/

FTFY As for drugs and creativity. Maybe very creative people are frequently struggling with various demons that drive their creativity and make them more susceptible to self medication? Being very organised with a good routine, fitness schedule, healthy lifestyle with a good diet and early nights I am sure helps with mental health and physical well being. It might not lead to a life filled with experiences and song writing opportunities.

Matching headstock looks so good!

I agree. The irony is though that most of the gigs I’ve ever done have been funded by the sale of alcohol. Without people paying for booze I probably would have followed a different career path. I’ve seen many colleagues fail, and lost a couple of friends due to it too and yet somehow managed to stay mainly on the straight and narrow myself. Had a few times when I’ve deviated but nothing serious, and I know I can’t play well when I’ve had more than a couple of drinks.

I use one of these https://uk.fender.com/products/truss-rod-adjustment-wrench-t-style-3-16-red Alternatively any 3/16” allen key would work

Born To Be Alive - Patrick Hernadez

Thanks Bill, you make a point that is very true. We all think you must have mids boosted in your EQ to be heard in a band mix but this is mostly for those playing finger style. Playing with a pick ( my preference) changes the note attack, increases mids by a huge amount and makes the tone less full. Reducing the mids ie Pre Shape seems to suit pick players as it drops mids, boosts bass too. As I prefer playing with a pick I try to get a full tone as close to finger tone as I can get ( near impossible) but with the benefit of note attack and speed plus palm muting etc etc

this a tune I wrote that has been sent to an arty film guy the trumpet player on this track is very good EQUUS - 03 There Is Something We Can Share.mp3

I'm thinking Fretless 5 string - hopefully a Stingray continue my seemingly lifelong quest of blues in any key , minor blues in any key , rhythm changes in any key etc Piano Practice Ear Training Transcribing (dedicated listening) get a couple of promo videos done and get my music online

If I have time: 1) Learn how to use all the gear I have including the Polyend Mess and the Akai MPC1 that has been sitting on my desk unused for the last 2.5 years. 2) Get the fingerboard replaced on the Vigier 3) Finish building the strat that was tone chasing Phil Collen's rather more exotic and expensive Jacksons. 4) If economic conditions pick up, sell more stuff. 5) Set up the bass pedalboard for the arpeggiation and manual bass synth lines...I will need a second bass synth pedal for that. I have BC, Aurok, study for a PGCE and a social media channel to take care of plus a day job...

Hey bro, thank you for providing this video. I’d been told this many times, but never believed it. Now I see the science, and application, I’m all on board going forward.

That M6-5 in black swirl will be very tempting.

Several things. Obviously the features that really matter are: Its stereo. Yes, I keep banging on about that but if you have used stereo IEMs, you wouldn't want to go back to mono. Sound quality is better - no noise, no hiss, sound seems fuller, but maybe that is the stereo, although note that on my main band I haven't really explored the stereo too much, other than having the guitarist on one side, keys on the other, singer on the side of the keys, other backing singer on the other side (mostly - vocals are more centred). In general I get more clarity of sound through this than the U4, when using with the same IEMs. Mechanical. Its one self contained box which contains everything. Yes, I know, you can get a box for the XVive (I have one, although it was an extra), but this is how it comes. Its also cheaper. Connectivity - no contest here. I know, it may not matter to some because you are normally going to connect it one way, but I have two bands and I connect it different ways with both, one with a TRS and one with the 1/8th". The XLR is stereo, and also TRS in the centre, then there is a mono TS (probably less useful as you could presumably use the stereo TRS with a TS), and an 1/8th inch stereo jack which can come from an line aux source or a headphone socket. There is also a USB-C rather than stupid USB-micro socket, and it is one USB-C lead not having to remember where you have put your USB to dual USB-Micro lead. The transmitter charges the receiver. Then when you open it, there is the receiver, sitting in the case, charging. The case is also the transmitter. Handy mono / level switches and a max volume knob so you can set up the type of input nicely - hmm.. a bit susceptible to fingerprints, but I didn't actually notice that. Then you lift the transmitter up, press and hold its screen, and it gives you a mute switch (double press) or a volume (even if it takes a while) on a big metal spinny knob that isn't going to be knocked by your strap like almost every single gig with the U4 halfway through the gig, and if it did, you wouldn't be having to dive for it trying to remember which one is the volume because its the huge knob on the front! Its also very solid and metal and it has nothing fiddly on it at all, unlike those terrible buttons on the front of the U4. There is a pretty solid clamp on the back, and also a USB-C socket - I assume if you wanted to charge two receivers for one transmitter. It also shows the level coming through the IEM, so you can see if it is actually working without listening to it. I loved the U4 when I got it, even though I had to move everything else way from 2.4GHz as it splatted all across the X18s connection, but this is just another step for me, even if the sound wasn't better (and it is), and it wasn't for the stereo thing, it is just a nicer device to use, it feels more sturdy. the big caveat in all of this is that I have had it just over a week, I have used it in one practice and one gig, so who knows how it will get on in future. I had stopped using my U4s, in place of the MS-1s, as the stereo was compelling, but the MS-1s were just so cheaply built and the power switch was more than a little flakey, and the quality wasn't all that great but I still carried around the U4s charged and ready, as frankly I didn't trust the MS-1s, but I think I can probably stop doing that now with these. But maybe after a couple more gigs.

My main aim for this year is to get a decent number of gigs done with the new line-up of the band. We have a month off in February when our guitarist expands his family and I intend to have an album of my own either ready to go on CD at that point, or to get an amount of it recorded in our down time (more likely). Whether it sells any copies or not..... I'm not deadly bothered about that. I also want to get a bunch of instruments sold off that aren't getting used. I have published part one of our Slade discography book just before Christmas. Part two is out in February and we have another book due in April which I need to get back into working on - lots of tedious image restoration work is involved. And a publisher has asked us to do a Slade book for them and I need to read the contract and map that out. Busy busy.

Over the weekend, I had a deeper dive and the unit is really easy to understand. It can also do not only a melodic arpeggiated sequenced line BUT...it can do one sequenced line for each of four tracks and each track can be assigned a different time signature and a different speed (as a multiple of the tempo). Doing a patch for I Feel Love could potentially include both sequenced basslines (one I/I/-IV/-VII and the other i/I/+V/+VII) and a manually played bassline for accents. I would also like to see if there is a way to use two tracks, one 4/4 and the other 12/8 to get some rhythmic accents and feels that aren't quantised to regular 1/16 notes. With the two remaing tracks, it's possible to assign effects such as a slapback delay or modulation for further complexity. So that completely blows my world of rhythmic opportunities wide open in ways I never expected but it does require knowing the unit quite well. There's plenty of user patch slots (literally thousands) but not much in the factory presets that showcase the arp abilities. However. It turns out I've discovered a bug. While it's possible to assign a pitch interval to each individual step, it turns out that when I try to assign an interval above 0 to a step, it transposes the entire track. So that's been logged and may well end up being addressed in the first firmware update. Other users are report other bugs as well so it seems like the firmware is more like a beta version. It would also be nice to have access to a minor third interval so I can sequence within a key. Once I've explored the possibilities more fully and if they release a firmware update soonish, I'll post a video showing the upper limits of what it can do.

I need to practice more - that’s all it is. I should also stop identifying as a bass player with a guitar; I’ve actually played guitar in some form or other as long as I’ve played bass…but now I’ve taken on the guitarist role. I need to practice or write down what works for solos. To inspire me further…I did this

Yup, I reckon this is your problem - stick to Duracell Ultra batteries - they’ll last a lot longer. Does your preamp have the passive mode switch? Ok, you lose a lot of output and tone etc, but at least it keeps you playing.

Hey Andy, have you found a particularly good way to motivate yourself? I dunno, maybe by setting some specific targets like: "I will be able to play these particular songs in six months, and these others by year end" or doing grade X of a guitar course exam? For me, I always find having a general goal like "being better" ends up in the "must try harder" bucket, which inevitably gets kicked down the line! But I appreciate there's not one right answer or magic bullet here!

Priorities, for heaven's sake.

F10 headless looks ugly as a singlecut, couldn't they have done a doublecut as well (and preferably 34" scale)? And the M6 is only available as multiscale. Not for me.

A quick audio clip, I realised after that the battery in my bass was pretty low and breaking up a little.

Place(nta) Your Hands - Reef