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It lives!

Not a bad show that, if lacking in bottom end generally - thanks for showing your wares, quality over quantity! And yes, one hell of a bassist you had hanging around the stand - definitely hankering for a mustang now…

I have Kay basses and a Kay guitar. Curiously they are all cheap construction but sound great!

Depping and jamming are excellent ways to improve confidence and ability. Deps force you to learn new stuff. I'm sure this insanely busy summer has made me 'level up'.

If its good enough for Steve Harris..... https://www.thomann.co.uk/tech_21_sh1.htm?srsltid=AfmBOoq6G8Gw2qdTyexCgK7B8neKOQorH7cBLPsq0PwU2n4yXAyOD88ddVU

Saturday: Fortunate Sons (not a tribute) at Barry Football club. Someone asked me 'where are you from?' I said over there... I was born a stone's throw from the far end of the stadium. First half I was a bit rough... still recovering from a brief visual migraine, no headache but leaves me washed out. By the second set I felt better. Stuck in a few little fills of my own, some of which madevthd guitatist crack up. Keyboardist is a lapsed bass player (😯) which meansvhe doesn't compete with mycfound so the mix was excellent. Monitor with my own mini mixer worked well. Good numbers, lots of dancing, lots of handshakes afterwards. Sunday: My first Bluesfire gig for months and the setlist had evolved a bit. New songs but not complex, three or four we hadn't played begore, but I had gone through earlier. A few key changes but only one that I didn't get tipped off about! I know blues isn't everyone's cup of tea but we have very wide idea of what goes and on many songs there's space for improvisation. I found being away from the band playing other stuff gave me some interesting/unusual ideas. We felt the break got us out of a rut and we were paying more attention to each other rather than playing from habit/memory. Had chances to get up the dusty end too. An encore was demanded so we did a randomly arranged Superstition about 30% faster than normal. At one point I was slapping the riff from Play that Funk Music... strangely it all came over as pretty tight. Audience was a bit thin due to torrential rain, but all three of us were on fire and we played a good two hours. Felt shattered afterwards but in a good way. Same gear for both gigs. Unashamed Fender lover. Sound was great IMHO. My udual cheap quecha trainers as they are the best thing for my dodgy ankle (podiatrist and physiotherapist approved!)

If they could just replace those switches with reasonably sturdy pushbuttons (and add a mute switch) that'd be half the battle won, right there.

Very misleading, as the dropdown says it's quantity.

New venue for us at The Winged Horse in Basildon. Pretty much your usual community pub in a busy resential estate, with an array of lively, colourful characters. We were also joined once again by one of our dep singers, Hazel, who did a fantastic job once again. Initially they wanted us to set up in the main bar area, but there's barely space for a duo, let alone a 6 peice band, so we set up in the secondary room. It did however mean we had to compete with the football on the screen in hte main bar. Nevertheless, we played well and had a decent crowd who came through to watch, sing and dance. Only real downside is no body told us it's payment via "Just Pay", not cash. So that's that's going to take a while to come through. Oh well. Next stop, The Sarah Moore in Leigh-on-Sea.- about 15mins walk from my front door.

It's good, it's fun, it's worth a punt. The McCartney cameo is odd, but doesn't spoil it. More constant smiles than big quotable jokes, but came out happier than when I went in. Count the number of Derek Small's ( identical ) basses. And the new drummer is great.

I used to use TI jazz flats on my first mustang. When my mustang collection expanded I tried various outher strings and found that I preferred d'addario chromes. I didn't rate the LaBella MUS set as the set I bought had so little top to them straight out of the pack that the tone control on the bass had hardly any effect.

I'm after something that will be easy to take on public transport to rehearsals and gigs, type of music is a mix from metal so Iron Maiden etc down to Luther Van Dross lol And going into a supplied PA

Another bit of the Bach Cello Suites, this is the Gigue (the last bit) from Cello Suite No. 5 in Eb major. There are a few big jumps to negotiate if you are out of your comfort zone but that was practicing is, isn't it? If you are in your comfort zone, you can't be learning very much, can you? https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/gigue-from-bach-cello-suite-no-5-eb-major-j-s-bach/

That’s where mine are at with the output pushed above half way. But I don’t feel I’ve mastered the in and out gain of this. I found I must have dropped the volume of one block (massively) recently and then compensated with the mixer on the output. Also sorry not trying to teach you to suck eggs on the cab sim, just we often add all the things we think we need and then start listening to how it sounds. I started off with my eq curve, a preamp, my preferred ir and what was working on my pedalboard was too much on the Anagram. I’m always trying to get what I feel is the perfect cab sim is, where you clean signal sounds the same regardless of it, but fuzz’s sound perfect. I’m back in Istanbul now with my big board and the anagram so can finally a/b stuff, do some captures, tone match with what’s already available and finally balance all my levels against a solid reference point. Anyway, blah blah, I’ve a better form opinion of this by the end of the week.

I do have a further question, where are you guys aiming for on the input and output meters? A the moment mine are hitting abut halfway on each. But I’m thinking I maybe should push them a bit hotter.

`yes, I’m quite aware how cab blocks work. I didn’t use them for years with the Helix, largely, because I don’t have great knowledge of different mic types and mic’ing techniques. But I started using them within the last couple of years once I got to grips with them - whilst I realised they are largely a complex eq curve, I find a nicely dialled in cab blocks bring a certain “something” to the mix that I can’t dial in with eq alone - almost as if there’s subtle compression in the right areas. Anyway, I think I’ve sorted it now, by simply changing the default mic selection and a tiny about of eq. Still, I think the Anagram cab blocks have more high end cut than the revised helix cab blocks introduced a couple of years ago - the helix one usually need taming with further high and low cuts, whereas the Anagram feels like they need opening up.

I had a few hours to myself today so managed to knock this up, we've got visitors and I'm away for a couple of days so I just about managed to get something done. pretty simple, guitar, bass , EZ drummer a few FX and the dulcet tones of an angel , wrapped in Ozone and oozing gently onto your favourite personal playlist for years of appreciation.

Jings it looks so simple when i see it written out but i'm gonna have fun running thru it this week Rob. Dave

Cheers Rob i've been playing the Live in Berlin album all afternoon while working in the big shed. Will have a wee look now. Dave

Yes it has Tone Rider The Duke pickups now.