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I've been on the other end of that - a friend's wedding, her Dad was paying, so it was a big country house hotel, verrrr posh, but he'd also booked a Jazz band, because he liked jazz. We all buggered off outside (some of us even crashed the wedding in the other wing, because it looked great) and stayed there, while her Dad, her Mum and a couple of their friends stayed in the room and tapped their feet.

We are not a wedding band either, but we have done a load of weddings and none of them have been bad, the last one was a bit faffy, but most of them have been really good. I guess we have just been lucky, the people who have hired us had seen us before and were happy with what they got.

I have a similar story. I played in an ‘80s cover band and we did a wedding. Fortunately for us, it was the bride and groom who picked us. However, the bride’s father, who I guess was paying our fee, was not so impressed. He plainly wanted the usual wedding fare, whilst we played things like Owner of a Lonely Heart. His face was not a picture. That said, I played in a band that did classic wedding stuff and we played one gig to a few small kids doing the sliding across the floor thing that they always do, the ‘grown ups’ (italics explained shortly) all stayed in the other room, where the food and booze were. They did eventually move into the ballroom, but only to have a punch up. One assumes that staying in the room with the booze for hours finally had an effect. Always hated playing weddings. If you play a pub or club, it’s more than likely that folk have come to see you, or are hanging around because they like what they hear. Weddings, on the other hand, is where you are the hired help and are often treated as such.

I felt sorry for one couple whose wedding reception we played. We were a pretty authentic Chicago blues band and they said we've got a gig, a wedding!!! Me, alarm bells ringing, "A wedding? We can't do weddings, we're not a wedding band!!" They said, Yeah it'll be great. The bride's father is a big fan of the band. We set up in a big barn in mid Surrey and played the whole night to an empty room. As far as I could see, the reception took place in the car park!!

Waterfront by Simple Minds is all one note (IIRC). Derek Forbes with that one note rhythm, played with a pick (sounds like it anyway), clear and defined for 4 bars, setting up the big chord crash.

HEADPHONES ESSENTIAL) I have a thing that I have been carrying around for decades whereby I find examples of bass playing where just ONE NOTE makes you go 'wow'. The two that come to mind immediately for me are Jimmy Johnson's Ab (0.21) from Flim And The BBs 'Tricycle'.... https://youtu.be/B0DTMMXYbvU?si=vOd2J5ckRdQqY41t and the Eb slide Tony Levin does at the one minute mark on this video of Peter Gabriel's 'Solsbury Hill' (don't cheat - you have to listen to the whole thing ON HEADPHONES for the note to do it's thing) https://youtu.be/WeYqJxlSv-Y?si=Uy0MMTEDIBmpTLBx Anyone got any other examples of a single note that gives you chills?

Relax. It could've been worse. You might have typed pickplate.

This correct, and Standard Procedure for tracking down and rubbing out all the traces and debris left behind. CCleaner helps with these chores, but chores they remain. Some considerable precious time spent trying to profit from the offer, and almost as much precious time ridding one of the consequences. There are other culprits, so these measures becomes routine, after a while. My IT career gave me enough knowledge to survive these installations, but not enough to get the Vst on offer..! :-)

Excellent, that suits me as though I use rounds I'm a very reluctant string changer! I was concerned that fast mode might use more of the overtones to make a guess at the note and old strings can be a bit dicey there. Thanks as always for the sage advice and keeping us in the loop. Looking forward to the new update!

Nice idea, not seen that one before. That pearl looks amazing too.

Thanks Chris . It's reassuring to know that there are thoughtful Bass chatter's out there , willing to help out when needed !😉

Badly attended gigs are just part of life. No point in worrying about it. There could be a thousand reasons why few turn up, ranging from something good on telly to a major international incident. Just play the best you can for those who are there and move on. I've had people ask for our card at poorly attended gigs, leading to another booking, so it's not all doom and gloom. The thing to bear in mind at functions is that the band is not the main attraction. People have come to see the couple get married, to celebrate Fred's 50th, etc, etc. The band is just another part of the picture, along with the catering, flowers, photgrapher and so on. Tomorrow's another day.

That’s getting to the size where you’d fit it on my Boss BCB1000 😇 and I say this for no reason at all 😅

Yeah, I missed that, but in my defence the site is currently a mess. The ABM page and UK ABM page make no mention of those, and the dropdown of the "ABM Series" only contains EVO-IV.

It'll be interesting to see how that cleans up.

Ohhhh, bad weddings...I'd forgotten about them. The absolute worst, because you feel for the couple, even though there's always a back story to a very bad one. We played one once where the couple and their immediate families (about a dozen of them) had gone to get married in NY's Central Park, then hired a real hole of a place for the cheapest evening reception they could. Terrible food, but big B&W pictures around the place of The Chosen Few all looking delighted in the US for the actual wedding. You could taste the resentment in the room. The 50 or so people other than the immediates were all on their phones the entire first set, then when the rubbish food came out, they all buggered off, leaving about 15 people. We were paid off and never did the second set. Still, it was full money and a very early finish, and luckily quite local...

It also functions as a hub on my pedalboard, as it has an FX loop. I run that to a GigRig switcher which switches/bypasses various other pedals.