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Depping gig tonight at a golf club function. Less than a week's notice and one short rehearsal (boo) which was very professional (yaay) but there are songs I haven't done before (boo). Most of the set is familiar (yaay) but some of them have different arrangements (boo). The rest of the band seem cool and laid back (yaay) but they sprung one song on me at the rehearsal (boo). Really looking forward to it and to using backline for the first time in ages. 😀

So I simply HAD to pick a 31 degree Centigrade day to strip the front and back of the bass ... doh! I used the shadiest corner of my workshop yard ... but it was still stifling and VERY acetony! It was so hot the acetone was evaporating and solidifying with the lacquer almost as soon as it was tipped on ... but I persevered. Compared to the woodworking part this is a hard, unpleasant and gruelling grind. Front and back done ... only the sides to do. And stripping the back revealed some past repaired damage down at the end pin block ... it's well enough done to be left alone. I gave the front and back a light hand sand - but I think I will have to get an electric sander onto them to take away the last of the sanding sealer and remove the blotchy look prior to staining. The issue is that I don't have a sander in the workshop (hand is usually good enough for what I do day to day) ... so more tool buying required. How much easier it is to work on a bolt on neck bass ... the way forward I think.

From my experience, the bigger the band then the bigger the problems. If you’re in say a 6 piece and everyone of them are in other bands, then the chances of everyone being able to make all your gigs are significantly reduced - and then you end up with one of more deps which is hardly ideal. With my recent situation with a touring theatre band it was made clear that depping gigs out was not going to happen, and I did every gig with them that they performed in 15 years. I was fine with that to be honest. I had to turn gigs down with my duo as a result, but as my duo mate was a lot busier than me it wasn’t an issue. Since leaving the band, I’m now in a position for the duo to be my first call, and we’re getting plenty of gigs - we can book them further into the future with confidence, knowing we’ll both be there! I’m reminded of that famous Duke Ellington quote - “ There is nothing to keeping a band together - you simply have to have a gimmick, and the gimmick I use is to pay them money! “ 😄

Youre clearly a football fan - unless Jim Rodford was handy with a dead ball! 😂 ⚽️ Bloody good track too…

Nailed it.

How about these?

Best thing to do is (wait for it) talk to them. (Ideally without alcohol involved.)

I'd always thought he was cool AF seeing him on TOTP in the 70s - sunglasses, holey guitar, shirt undone to the naval. It is a pleasing thing to now dive a bit deeper and find he was perhaps the creative drive of the band. Their song 'Tragedy' rarely gets airplay anywhere but is most likely my favourite Argent tune. Certainly has some of my favourite rhythm guitar work on it in the breakdown. You can barely see Jim Rodwell from behind that twin neck!

I think you could be right.... I have been tweaking my setup today and I'm a lot happier with how everything is sounding, particularly through a dirt pedal.

It really is in how tough your hands are and how tough you want to make it on yourself. Ideally everybody would be like Lee Rocker - and have a ridiculously high pain threshold and a devil may care attitude to the quantity of minced finger and claret spread all over their bass. Because if you were like him - then you'd use steel strings and amplification without feedback would be so much easier - as magnetic pickups (the less feedbacky option) only work on steel and steel core strings. For us mere mortals the options are down to some combination of nylon or nylon and a wrap. I have tried Weedwhackers ... which to my ears sound okay on G and D strings - but have too subdued a note on the A and E - They do a Weedwhacker Pro set which have an extra thick Kevlar core - but I haven't tried those. I took a friend's advice and bought a set of Rotosound 4000 strings and aside from bumping the set (A becomes the E string all the syrings move down one and a C for a 5 string is added as the G). To me this combo is ideal. Quiet for at home practise unamplified, and loud and rounded with a beautiful woody slap when amplified (I use a Shadow Rockabilly Pro preamp and pickups bridge mounted. It's an utter game changer. I have a set of Superior Bassworks 'Dirty Gut' synthetic gut strings I'm going to try on the bass I'm rebuilding ... I will let you know when I try them - but I suspect I will simply end up taking them off and put a set of bumped Rotosound 4000s on that bass too!

A fair while until this one, but that allows folk to make a space in their diaries Great venue.

I’d say @brule_lentement has landed on his feet 👍

Good shoot actually. In central London. Not many music stores are around anymore. Guitar guitar in Camden, the bass gallery, wunjos guitars in Denmark street. That all I can think about regarding cabs. bass direct would be great if I was closer

Mine has a bit of a quirk where upon powering it up I have to pull the power out then plug it back in and it works perfectly. I think I’d sent it back to DG to have the pedal looked at due to an issue which turned intro be the power input connector. I wonder if it’s just a fault on these.

What if you like playing more than one type of music?!

Thanks mate. Ive started the search for a used one10. Would love to try one but I doubt anyone is near me with one. From what I’ve heard on barefaced YouTube channel it sounds warm yet articulate.

I find it hard to believe that anyone's *so* busy they can't find an hour somewhere to look over some stuff they'll be playing live! Unless their other bands are Dragonforce/Dream Theater tributes, in which case, I'd probably believe them!

You are trying to tick the boxes and are only considering the positives. Look at it from the other angle, what can go wrong, and what will you do when it does! Tick all the negative boxes and then decide if you want to risk your cash.

No. In general that's not an issue with modern digital units, even the cheaper ones. You may notice it sounding very sligthtly brighter, if you're used to long cable runs, but for the most part is not significantly different from using a cable.

They’re all so busy with their other bands😬