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2 of us. Beetles

Sounds like you got yourself 2 bands, one fronted by a female and one fronted by a male. And you need to be playing different gigs for each band. A nice diary filling situation.

Personally, (and this is just my own thoughts), I'd see how the new lineup works and see if the female singer wants to push forwards with the rest of you. Also, blokiness often isn't particularly popular in this woke world these days, LOL Basically, I wouldn't let one person (the promoter) put you off what could be a very positive change for the future.

I did two gigs this weekend, and they couldn’t have been much more different. Saturday night I was playing at Burton Agnes Jazz and Blues Festival with blues trio The Alligators. It was actually my final gig with them, as I’ve started a local weekly residency at a rock n roll club and it was getting a bit much - I’m supposed to be semi retired for gawds sake! Anyway the gig was okay - some great bands on before us including sax player Tom Waters (son of pianist Ben Waters). A friend of mine was on directly before us doing some of his original stuff, and then I joined him for a few covers to get the crowd dancing. Then our band got started at 11pm, to play for around an hour. Onstage sound was really loud, so was glad I’d taken my old Barefaced Compact to use in addition to my Fender Rumble 500. Played my sunburst P Lyte and it sounded good, just about keeping up with the guitar. As is customary, we were joined by a couple of sax players towards the end, and it was in danger of getting out of control. Managed to steer it to a conclusion, and I was quite relieved it was all over. A really steamy gig, drove 50 miles home with the sunroof open. Sunday evening I was back in the familiar ‘Lookout on the Pier’ in Scarborough with our acoustic duo. Really busy along the beach, blisteringly hot weather so parking wasn’t easy due to the crowds but we got set up and ready to play by 6pm. Loads of requests, with some good ones including ‘Out of reach’, ‘Tears in heaven’ ‘Human’ (Rag and Boneman!) and ‘Iris’. Fender Kingman bass into Rumble 100 combo - nice and quiet after the previous night’s gig. Couple of days off now - next gig Wednesday so will give my fingers a rest.

Wow that thing looks monstrous, I love it! I'd be interested to see the build process on that. My idea was to have the red/gold/green colour scheme on the pickup covers themselves, with the rest of the bass being that kind of military/camo green you see on reggae sound systems and things. Hopefully it looks half as good as yours! I did conider this kind of thing! But I think it's above my skill level just yet - next time? I knew I had to have it when I saw those little slanty guys. Not sure how I keep finding these weird basses in disrepair haha! Project update coming soon, night shifts for the next few days, stay tuned

Thanks, HB. The problem would be less of a problem if I had commitment from the singer… but then if we decided to revert (to a bloke) then no problem since she has her own band and is strictly speaking a dep. Stick, twist… lord knows! Is blokiness part of our USP? Thanks @casapete too!

Change of personnel is always a strange one. In the Live Tribute Show we changed our Jerry Lee Lewis / pianist a couple of years ago. The original guy was blind and obviously relying on older parents (with medical issues) to drive him all over the country for gigs. He'd lost a lot of confidence over the years apparently, so he bowed out a couple of Christmases ago. As a result, our new 'Jerry Lee' kicked the whole show into touch with not only his skill, but his enthusiasm and on stage persona. We've also gone through quite a few drummers. A large part of my job has been training new drummers on the fly during shows! But even they totally changed the feel of the overall show. Luckily, the current drummer is a top session player from Milton Keynes, so we've again landed in a good place. Mick, your situation is indeed an odd one. What sort of level/audiences do you play to? I'd say the promoter is working on their own personal taste and your wife has the right idea. Surely going more mainstream with a female vocalist (I assume she's very good?) will lead to more work and a bigger audience over time? Anyhow, I hope it all goes well in the long run for you guys

A few times Mick. My old function band went through a few personnel changes over the many years I was in it, and it was always the singers changing that people commented on. When they complained, I’d ask them how many people came and went in their office for example. For some reason people always seemed to prefer the previous singer every time though! In the main though it didn’t seem to affect bookings at all - so long as the quality of the band wasn’t compromised then agents and clients were happy. My previous band now has a new singer and despite some initial concerns, is doing a great job fronting them, with some people saying he’s as good or even better than the original guy. With your band the change is more obvious, with some preferring the ‘blokey’ line up. I’d say embrace having a female vocalist - why does that have to be seen as a sell out / commercial decision? And if it means more gigs / success then what’s not to like?

Spoke to my brother earlier. His band closed out the local free festival, Cadstock... daily attendance is about 4,000.

As the title says, whatever happened to the Music Man Stingray Through Neck models? I remember all the promotional stuff with Joe Dart etc, but never saw one for sale or can find a used one now. I guess they probably did the usual American maker tactics of pricing them crazily expensively above the standard range of Specials and no one bought them!

I use lemon oil for fretboards and polish the frets with Nail Buffer Pads. I picked up a few at a shopping centre when out with my young beauty mad daughter. They use them to polish and buff finger nails very gently! On frets they are amazing, do not damage the fretboard and make the fret wire highly polished and smooth !!

Maybe <gasp> he didn't switch in the pre-shape!

Mostly 45-105, so nothing outrageous. Somewhere, a long time ago I thought I read something about Ric recommending low tension strings (maybe even TI Jazz flats?) to avoid the tail lift. I could well be wrong, but that's probably what put the strings causing the tail lift I to my head

Me and my monkey - Robbie Williams

What gauge strings? HW will typically have used real Ric bridges, unless told otherwise; now that they are discontinued, it'll probably be Allparts. Some like the Hipshot bridges, but I've found an apt location for one of mine (and that's an Allparts on the Hondo, which now has strings and screws in the Treble pickup). ...