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Ray of Light - Madonna

Have we been playing for the same bands Anyway my experience at last rehearsal was that the band were playing through the set just to avoid the rust, we had half a dozen new songs which we spent time on but we regularly play around a third of our set when we have a longish gap between gigs. The band were playing all our usual songs maybe 5bpm fater than the originals not absurd but fast enough to be a little frantic. We're meant to be a dance band and I know that any band who plays faster 'for excitement' kills the dancers who can't move that quickly. It was late though and I guess they wanted to go home but I said at the end something along the lines of great but we don't want to play that fast at a gig. They, unusually, got really cross with me I didn't apparently know what I was talking about. The thing is that my practice always contains a major part where i just play along with the originals I absolutely feel any change in tempo from that original. I know the singer and drumer never listen to the originals because if there's an error in the lyrics anywhere or a version by another singer she'll find them, sing them and swear they were in the original song. The drummer is in two bands and only learns the drums properly once the song is established and the guitarist bless him listens to every version he can find then solves the intellectual puzzle of playing two guitar parts, keys and brass section all at the same time by coming round to mine and methodically going through everything. I think it proves one of the earlier posts that talked about the fallibility of memory and what we really remember is how it was the last time we played it through in our heads. My other band play with a click track, it is bliss

As promised, a few rough FM clips (please forgive the crappy playing). @Al Krow, the last one is especially for you. 😉 QM Bass 01.mp3 QM Bass 02.mp3 QM Bass 03.mp3 QM Bass 10.mp3 QM Bass 14.mp3 QM Bass 18.mp3 QM Bass 19.mp3 QM Bass 21.mp3 QM Bass 23.mp3 QM Bass 24.mp3 QM Bass 25.mp3 QM Bass 28.mp3 QM Bass 29.mp3 QM Bass 33.mp3

So I seem to be settled on these two boards, that do everything I need. Top board is the electric bass board, and the bottom one is the double bass/EUB board.

First gig of this year for Blues Delux at a regular local bar in Stirling. Sunday afternoon set finishing at 7pm, very chilled out as we were again playing to diners and people out for a quiet drink, so it's more or less a usual Sunday crowd. The gig started off quite ropey. First song it was obvious the levels were all a bit askew. Second song we had recovered the levels but for unknown reasons our guitarist played the song in the wrong key before stopping midway through to tune his guitar and joining in for the last verse chorus almost in tune. Then the bar staff came up to us as we were about to start the third tune and said there had been a complaint from a customer about the loudness of the band, and would we mind turning everything up!? So we did, and the rest of the gig was rock and roll. We stopped briefly to do a short acoustic set in the middle of the gig with our singer and guitar player on acoustic. Also got complimentary beer from the pub for the first time ever. Not sure what that was all about. Rig wise I'm in a really happy place at present. Silverstone II and a TE AH250 GP12 SMX almost sound as if they were made for each other. The dual band comp is I think the secret sauce that makes it all sound so good. Back up amp was a GK 400RB IV and used it on the second set just for the hell of it. Playing my Sadowsky a lot more recently and it also adds something new and good to the sound. To sum up, ropey start, but a rock n roll finish with free beer, and an early night. ☺️

Last night I was back in covers band action with Nine Lives at Wilsons in Aberdeen. Night got off to an odd start, when some people noticed me and the drummer getting stuff out of the car and asked "who's playing tonight". I replied "Nine Lives" and they replied "Excellent!" Had a joke with the bouncer that they must have us mixed up with another band. Anyway, the gig went well - it was a bit of an awkward setup because some people were in the bit where we usually put our stuff, playing darts. How very dare they! So there was a lot of shuffling stuff around while we set up. Still, we got set up and ready to go at the billed time. Gig went pretty well, had some very enthusiastic dancing in the first half. Second half dwindled down a bit towards the end, but we did a thing we've done on and off and played a softer song as the second last one and we had a couple of lovebirds up dancing to that, so it worked. Then blew the place to bits with Whole Lotta Rosie, along with my usual wireless walkabout. Never ceases to amuse and entertain people, and as long as people still get a laugh out of it, I'll keep on doing it, lol. Gear was the Epiphone Les Paul (not so) Standard, followed by the Fazley Hot Rod (the "Ratlet") with a Lace Aluma P in there because it was lying around and I was bored. Usual yellow and black amplification. Footwear was pink suede Vans slipons.

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Just my Markbass 2x10 and my Mesa Subway 800. The foldback was very good.

Nobody cares….

When I was on the circuit touting my new music band, we regularly opened to an empty room in small venues across the UK. We had some amazing moments without all that crowd participation/interference. edit 😀

trust me, no one will ask. They just wont. No one cares enough or notices stuff like this

Thank You. So my memory is not that Bad.

I wanted a better Midi footpedal than the M-Vave Chocolate so was looking around and stumbled over the PedalinoMini range of DIY pedals. You can see them here https://github.com/alf45tar/PedalinoMini The designer uses a small 32bit System on a Board, so similar to an Arduino, has done some very good software and it looked like it was well supported. If it's GitHub check how many recent releases it has, check the issues and see if the person responds and he does. So I ordered the parts from AliExpress for the 8 foot switch version and they turned up in less than a week. The LilyGo SoC is pretty good, a decent 1.9" display, wifi, bluetooth, what's not to like. I paid for the STL files ($14), downloaded them, printed them out on my 3d printer and immediately thought, I can do better than this. Simple things like he uses screws straight into plastic, this will last five or six fixings and then the plastic will shred and you have a case that has no means of attaching to the base. I also beefed up some of the supports, but to be fair, it was a pretty good design to start with. The instructions are very good, though the wiring diagram requires you to switch your brain around as you wire it from below, but the wiring diagrams are from above and below. Every single step needed to be tripled checked. The only major issues is that the shield you wire into is a point to point, so you then have to bridge the connections to the sockets. It's also very, very fiddly. However apart from one bit of wiring that’s almost impossible to see which joins two LED strips together, its pretty straightforward, but there's a lot of it and it has to fit into a small case. I printed off a mule to wire it into. As I got further and further into the wiring it got tighter and tighter. I then moved the mostly finished wiring into the new case I designed and printed in a rather nice Galaxy Black, basically black with tiny sparkles, who said glam rock was dead The purple tape is simple to hold the LED strips in place whilst I check everything is working. Once I'm happy, the wires and LED strips will be given a good seeing to with a hot glue gun. Somewhat suprising (as I'm a crap solderer), it worked almost first time. Only every second footswitch worked which seemed odd and not a soldering issue. It turns out I'd loaded the wrong firmware in and I think it defaulted to four footswitches rather than eight. Downloading the right firmware sorted that problem out. You need a Windows laptop to really get the initial setup done, but once you have the wifi connected, it works from a Mac and can be configured from there as it's on the wifi. The software seems very good, but I'm still trying to understand what it all does. I still have to put the battery and switch in, otherwise it is powered from the USB-C connector. A 18650 battery will apparently power it for 12 hours. It has wifi, bluetooth, MIDI over USB-C so lets see if I can make it all work with my ToneX and Mod Dwarf. You seem to be able to control a lot of things with it. For the cost of about £40 and one evening and one afternoon of soldering, it seems good value to me. I can't say much more until I've got it properly working. Rob

this is why I have a HW 4003. Half the price and twice as good as a Ric (IMO). I've played some nice Rics but I don't need to pay silly money these days

Exactly. I play DB and EUB in jazz groups from trios to big band and I also play in a bluegrass band and my 200W Traynor SB112 handles gigs with ease and has a DI out so it can be put into a PA at festivals or large venues and it is on stage as a monitor. It has served me well for several years, I guess if I played some other types of music (ie louder) I would use other equipment but my amp can be used at home and at gigs and rehearsals so is perfect for me, small light and a reasonable price...and it's made in Canada too.

Hmmmmmmmmm….. I mean, it’s an interesting idea but I’m going to reach out to Dingwall before making any purchases. Though to be honest, I only noticed the issue when I used a noise gate so is it worth attaching something like that to my headstock. Cheers though!