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I was just strolling down the high street off to see my next client when a yellow fronted shop that I was familiar with suggested I go in and have a look if there are any bargain phones to replace my old smashed one. I'm not sure if they had any phones, but they did have a Spector bass guitar, and it was making sad eyes at me and looked hungry, but healthy. The helpful and friendly assistant was decorated quite heavily in steel, nickel, and iron face studs and piercings. I sought prior permission to try the bass to show manners and reduce any risk of injury once the magnetic coils are activated. I have a Harley Benton TB-70 that ambushed me last time I got trapped in this same shop, and the first thing I noticed was the Spector felt small and light. Second thing I noticed was the action was high for my taste, then I notice the strings seemed slack, but it made a good sound and was playable. I'll sort the action soon. I don't know which one it is but it says it was made in China, so quite exotic. It has for variable controls that are entirely unintuitive and make unpredictable and quite drastic changes. Unfortunately the manual has been lost. All rolled fully clockwise is a good sound so sticking with that for now. It has EMG-SSD pickups. I'll go and look all this up soon and find out what I've bought. The tuners are good. The wood grain pattern on the body refracts and changes pattern changing viewing angle. Might be real, but the finish coating is that nasty warm plastic feeling polythene wrap. I have a rotary sander that could fix that. Day one today so we're still a bit nervous of touching each other but we seem to have found some common ground that might lead to a beautiful crescendo. It's all in the fingers.

Interesting conversion of a combo head. I particularly like the apparently redundant addition of the UV lamp grill underneath the stainless steel front panel. I wonder what the cable ties are securing on the rear panel?

It does give you the option of using AES50 for a digital split if the FOH is also using an x32 product.

Yup I just shrugged indicated the blue sparkly IEM plug and mouthed “I can’t hear you” 🤷🏼‍♂️🤣

The messages coming through to me from the band are that we'll be buying the X32 Rack.

That’s a curse, and why I eventually bit the bullet and got a sennheiser system…better sound to my ears and no problem with dropouts I had with xvive (which I must sell BTW 😁)

I use Band Mule for two bands and it has been fine overall. I had one issue setting up the second band and sent them an email. They replied promptly for a free app and sorted the problem out with no hassles. The main problem is the same as any other method( getting people to keep it updated). With both bands I sat down with everyone, got them to download and install it and then showed them how to use it. Every one feels the same pain with the alternatives of WhatsApp and message trails and this has taken a lot of that pain away but it does depend on the number of adults in the band so I guess I’ve been lucky🫣

Someone advised me to watch the turnstile set. Future of metal apparently. All excited I put it on expecting some aggressive guitars, heavy drumming and angry vocals. What I heard is what I would imagine the elevator music at the Kerrang offices sounds like.

I'm loving this unique looking amp! Cheap too... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/236174527854?itmmeta=01JZ0J4B7Q7NHJTC8QJZ0ZT3QY&hash=item36fd194d6e:g:zwgAAeSwfw9oYm00

First proposition for sure.

Black Uhuru are my favourite band and I play a lot of their basslines but there’s quite a few that trip me up if I haven’t played them in a while, Robbie Shakespeare had a wonderful way of slightly changing things around part way through, darkness is one

Played a gig at a classic car show yesterday afternoon with the covers/originals band. The venue was a farm/caravan site in Nelson’s birthplace. We were playing in the doorway of a barn which had been converted into the amenities block for the caravan site, so not as bad as it might originally sound: it even had coir carpeting in the band area. This faced across the main entry road to a courtyard/stable block which had been converted into a cafe, bar and shop. The classic car display was in a field to the right of this area. All a bit odd in terms of our audience but on the other hand, the owner was extremely welcoming, told us to get whatever we wanted from the catering for free and paid slightly more than the usual local pub rate👍. It turned out that kit messages were somewhat confused prior to the gig, such that I arrived with my EV active 12” PA speakers, as did the keyboard player with his Yamaha equivalents, the drummer also brought an active sub. Given the distance from our location to the punters, we opted to use all of it and DI everything. That made my two LFSys Monzas somewhat overkill for “onstage” and consequently I didn’t get my chance to open them up. The gig itself went OK but seemed a bit of a paid rehearsal as most of the punters were a long way away. It was like a sauna in the barn entrance but fortunately I had brought a towel and a change of shirt. I got somewhat irritated with the lead guitarist who was constantly turning round, urging us to speed up. I agree that we took a few numbers at a leisurely place but given the lack of A/C, or fans, I thought our drummer was heroic. Everything has to be taken at breakneck speed, or the lead is not happy. IMO some stuff just doesn’t work fast: I Can See Clearly now at almost 150 BPM; nah! It’s also pretty tiring over a 2 to 3 hour set. Anyway, we got a lot of compliments from punters; even some we couldn’t actually see during the set but evidently they had no issues hearing us given our double PA 😀. More importantly we have got a follow on booking from the venue.👍🤟

He made a lovely little gesture after one of his songs, made him seem one of the audience rather than the star 👍

I think it's impossible not to like him. My wife watched a documentary about him while I was (pretending) to read a book. He and his family seemed lovely people.

I did see the Lewis Capaldi set. I don't like or dislike his material, but he always seems a decent sort. I saw it the last time he played Glastonbury, when he had problems. Excellent that he's back and great to see the crowd get behind him. Being a bit soppy, it rather lovely all said.

It wasn’t very nice in a stew