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Plenty of small, reliable and powerful amps around nowadays so you'll have loads of choice But I would be looking for something more powerful than 350w personally. Mainly because I would rather have the headroom and not need it than need it and not have it and especially if the band is picking up and you're getting into some bigger venues. I would be looking at 500w heads at least.

Yep. keep it short and to the point - a minute is plenty! I couldn't get to them before when I was on my phone, but here are a couple of shots from the stalls taken by the singer's husband. I'm stage left, playing the red Tele. The videographer also used a drone to get shots from angles that couldn't otherwise be achieved. The whole thing cost us about £400 at mates' rates, but if you are paying full professional price you will be lucky to get much change from a grand.

Everyone else I've seen on SBL does it by ear, as would I, I never write charts. Not saying either way is better/worse just that not everyone does it the same way. Sharon's no slouch either, she's another ex-Berkeley bassist. Back on to Danny though, this is a few months old but it popped up on my YouTube the other night. His comic timing in the first half of the video is brilliant, and then properly shows off his playing chops in the second half.

FTFY. It is very much still the same company. To be fair though, Gary Levinson operated from Switzerland but no guitars or basses were actually built there. The manufacturing was done in Japan at first, and later in Korea. The one @Brian18242 posted is the Blade Austin Classic, and is made in China.

So you want to use them in the place of centre fills but not necessarily as centre fills? Not ideal but then we've all worked with less than ideal setups before, just a part of gigging in the real world. Normally when one puts speakers there they are used to make sure that people in the very front of the audience can hear the things on stage that don't produce much volume on their own. The thinking being that if you're right at the front then the main pa is shooting over and past your ears. So it's often vocals, vocals and more vocals in centre fills as things like drums and guitars are probably making enough stage volume on their own for the first few rows. If possible I'd put the extra speakers on an aux send, that way you can do their own mix and eq. Even if they are just duplicating the main mix and being used as extra volume rather than extra coverage they're still going to sound different and the added control of being on an aux send will likely help.

Christmas open mic at the British Legion in Shirley last night. Because there's generally a full list but it's quite a big list, the number of songs here is almost always limited to two. A few Christmas songs, of course, with Mrs Zero and I doing Spaceman came travelling and Eartha Kitt's Santa Baby. The elderly sax player and his daughter were there - normally another female guitarist/singer and me accompany him but last night it was just me, on My Boy Lollipop and Blanket on the Ground, which TBH didn't sound great. Got to accompany another couple of people including the aforementioned female guitarist/singer on Merry Xmas Everyone and Last Christmas. Everybody brought food and so we got to eat plenty of mince pies, Heroes, and Celebrations.

It used to be a 'showreel' was for corporate/club type bands but I've found that to move out from your immediate circle it is useful... but be aware some folk will listen (look) at the first 30 seconds and likely as not on a phone or mobile device.

I started the year just in my one long-term band, but got asked by our lead guitarist to help his other band with a couple of private birthday party appearances while their bassist was on holiday. Over the course of the year, that turned into a couple of 'real' gigs while their bassist was tied up with work, and finally one where they and their bassist had parted ways. I'm now their new bassist. But before that happened, their drummer had also asked me to go and play some covers with another of his bands, meaning I'm finishing the year off in three. The old main band needs a bit of motivation this coming year, though. It suffers from us all having work and lives and other interests, and nobody really leading the charge so literal months can go by and nothing meaningfully progresses. Because the lead guitarist and I are now both in the aforementioned other band, and that band has a definite leader driving it, songs in progress, next album planned and recordings underway, it'd be easy for us to sit back and get a bit 'oh well' about our old faithful and that'd be a real shame. I'll give it a bit of a push in the new year and see if anyone gets enthused.

How about this banger from Timperley’s finest… Christmas is really fantastic - Frank Sidebottom

I think that is tricky to answer as no one has said 'show us your showreel to pay at out venue', but in theory we assume it'd help open new doors. We have no trouble getting local pub gigs but after a couple of years of that we're starting to feel more ambitious: proper music festivals (not just local free entry ones we do), mid sized music venues, supporting bigger bands etc.

Any Colour You Like - Cutting Crew

Stiff Little Fingers - White Christmas

Mike bought some strings from me (or off me, I can never remember which is correct) and he was a pleasure to deal with. Instant payment, great comms, a credit to Basschat. Cheers!

Live and Let Dye - Wings

The Glen Killer Band

Pop Will Beat Itself Axes, Pigs and Spacemen Death In Vegan Paging Speedhorn Babylon Poo Flagging Molly The Tragically Hit A Bribe Called Quest Public Enema Wields Of The Nephilim

What format should the finished product be in to appeal to busy pub managers?

I'm painfully stuck between one of these (or the other Bassrigs but seem to be leaning towards the fifteen with all the comments of how well it sits in the mix) and an Anagram - I know they're two totally different bits of kit, but I like shiny new stuff! I was sold on the Anagram but everyone seems to mention the "feel" element of the Origin Effects stuff and that's huge to me, I can't imagine anything digital replicating that. My two concerns though - firstly, I spend half of my set using either a solo'd octave or C4 with some gnarly synth patches and I'm concerned the cab sim will cause issues with these, but I'd be reluctant to turn it off if it adds to the feel element.. Second, Headphone practice and C4 patch creation are a big thing for me and I'd need FOH sound available for headphone use when making C4 patches - anyone doing anything similar? I know this box is ticked off easily with the Anagram.. Sorry for the lengthy post, especially on an appreciation thread! Any input would be massively helpful though as hoping to order next week...

Can’t remember exactly but I’m pretty sure I just squeezed mine flat between a couple of pieces of wood and a couple of clamps.

Santa Dog by the Residents If that isn’t unusual enough, there’s Santa Dog ‘78

Hi folks I'm learning the funk/disco aNYway by Duck Sauce and am playing a rough facsimile of the line using disco octaves and some stock funk patterns. I've reached the limit of where my ears are with fast chord changes. What I'm playing isn't really giggable at the moment. It's been requested by a punter for a function gig. I can't find a chord chart, tab or notation on line and there's a lot of quick (one beat) changes in it that I'm not sure of. If anyone has something (Ideally a chord chart), that would be fabulous and super helpful. Thanks Sean

I'm disposing of a 1960s tape recorder. Having realised that it is worth less than the genuine 1960s ECC83 valve that my Trace Elliot amp also uses, I'm going to nab that valve and dispose of the rest of the machine. So if any wants any of these valves, collect or cover the postage. The machine works so I assume they're all in more or less working condition. EF86 - audio pre-amp ECL82 - audio triode EZ80 - full wave rectifier