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Friday evening was my first gig as an official member of the Bonnevilles, rather than a dep, as efforts to communicate with the previous bassist have proved fruitless. A few days on from playing inside at the Anker Inn, this was an outdoor multi-band charity fundraiser. This was for a local charity, a Nuneaton hospice. Arrived a little after it started, the band on when I arrived featured a couple of the guys who were providing the PA. The bassist was playing a 5-string Ibanez BTB, which was nice to see and hear (I've grown bored of 4-string Fenders and Squiers, almost all one sees on open mic nights with bands). Next up was a country singer and guitarist with backing tracks. He revealed partway through his set that his father had died on Tuesday, and had been cared for in the hospice. Then it was us. We were using supplied backline which was OK but the guitarist's sound was a bit indistinct. I'll use that as an excuse for missing my cue back into the "Light my fire" intro after his solo. Then we got a pissed-up woman who told us it was her birthday and wanted us to play f*cking "Wonderwall" and said she could sing it. We ignored her and continued to the end. After doing an encore, the guitarist and I had got our gear off stage when our singer picked up his acoustic and started playing f*cking "Wonderwall", and the drunken woman sang, in a variety of keys, none of which were correct. As a bit of a postscript to that, the next act on were a duo - male lead vocals and lead guitar on an SG, female rhythm guitar on a slimline semi-acoustic Tele. They were very good and managed to survive the drunken birthday woman thinking that she could make a positive contribution to "Go your own way" (before someone removed her from the mic and the stage). Gear - Antoniotsai 5-string fretted dragon bass -> Lekato WS-50 -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> Ashdown combo as on-stage monitor, Caravelle memory foam trainers. Then it was Saturday afternoon. For several years, an open mic player called Rick has hosted an event known as Rickstock in his back garden. This stopped a little while back but he decided to revive it as a charity fundraiser for the charity "I'm homeless get me out of here". Rather than his back garden, it was held at the Shirley British Legion. I had a slot mid afternoon, which I did with my usual crap vocals (Mrs Zero having gone to Bloodstock), and as I finished, Rick said to me "the next act's bassist hasn't turned up, can you do it?". I foolishly said yes (I had played with the guitarist who was on next once before and it was freeform jazz, so I expected to have my boundaries further expanded). Then David the guitarist launched into "Sunshine of your love" and I felt safer. Three more songs - "La grange" which I don't know but bluffed through, and "All right now" and "Black magic woman" which I had no problem with. The personnel were guitarist David (pronounced in a German fashion as he's German), keyboard/vox David (pronounced in an English fashion as he's English), and Phil on drums. Plus me, of course. Gear - Hohner B2AV -> Lekato WS-50 -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> Red Sub combo, unbranded velcro-fastening trainers. So then I headed off to the Dirty Roses gig in Sutton Coldfield. We were at the Sutton Park Hotel (which I think is probably no longer a hotel). Car park was rather full and I got a space about as far away from the doors as was possible. After doing my cardio for the next couple of months I got loaded in. The usual chaos of setup ensued and we started up at 9. The applause was a bit more enthusiastic than "polite" but fell a bit short of "rapturous". Things did seem to shift up a gear for the second half though - one of the songs is Time Warp and that's a bit of a barometer. There were several dancers, and the guitarist and I went walkabout to check them. Another few crowd pleasers and the usual encores. Afterwards, the manageress said she was really pleased with us, wanted us back, and then as we were about to go, one of the bar staff (who had been videoing us all evening) told us she didn't like bands but we had been really entertaining. And some bloke in the toilet asked me if we were playing anywhere else locally. Which was all very nice. Ringing the changes, gear was Sei Flamboyant 5 -> Lekato WS-90 -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> Tecamp Puma 900 -> GR Bass AT212, and footwear the same unbranded velcro-fastening trainers.

I put Ernie Ball Bass Flats 2801 (45-105) on my Bronco and they busted the E-string tuner, but I think it was less from all the tension and more from finagling (I had experienced buzz and other issues that made me constantly tune, de-tune, tension and loosen the strings, until it snapped). Anyway, they play nice, but I wouldn't recommend them to anyone in doubt since they may cause problems.

First Bass Owned: heavily modded Lotos bass from Bydgoska Fabryka Akordeonów, which - when stock - was a peak bass to get in People's Republic of Poland. My modded example I got at a sorry state - it even had a replacement pickguard made of linoelum! Eesh. 'Go To' Bass: I'm most likely to grab my Bloomin' Bronco - a Squier Bronco that has stock wood and frets - everything else is deliberately swapped. 'Your' Bass: I'm torn between my Franken-Tele (a tribute to '70s Telecaster Bass II) and my TwinSplit (Encore E83 with two split-coils). Totally different sounds, but both are MY sounds.

Two gigs on Saturday. Started with a dep at 12 just down the road from home … just as well as I pulled in and remembered I hadn’t loaded my IEM transmitter, so a quick return home to collect then set up. Early start for a festival gig and next to no one there but fun all the same. Took a little while to get the IEM mix right but the sound guy was new to the desk 24 hours previous but we got there by the end and no stress. I’d spent a while getting the dots sorted and down for Footloose then it got dropped for time and two of us depping - me and drums. Annoying but a good workout for me and I’m sure I’ll get a chance to run it at another dep so no problems 🙂 Home for a shower and a nap then out to gig two with my usual band. Small (tiny) venue and we used an electric kit for the first time. Worked great for me on full IEM’s and seemed ok in the room. Good tight night though not a lot in with the heat. Happy with the BV’s and getting properly sorted on those with some of the newer ones that are now working in nicely. Bit of a moment towards the end when guitarists were telling me I was in the wrong key - I wasn’t, sounded fine in ear - and whatever it was apparently sorted itself in the chorus, so no idea what happened there.

Dance The Night Away - Van Halen

Certainly looks it. NW bodies terrify me as you have to drill your own bridge earth to cavity hole!

So, the pocket width at the bottom of the neck is the same. Jazz neck tapers sooner. So a J neck in a P body is a tiny bit gappy (less than 1mm) but spoils the perfection! A P neck in J body us likely to split the paint on the fragile side of the body. That's my experience....

Loved tiger music, brought my Ibanez MC924 from there which I still have to this day. It was up for £450 , it had( has) a slight blemish in the wood/ varnish on the back . I genuinely only had £400 on me and left the shop with my mate feeling really dejected having played and fallen in love with it there and then. We got about 50 yds down Sydney st and the bloke came out and shouted at me to come back as he’d decided to let me have it. I was about 18 and I think he must have felt sorry for me, he obviously saw how I was smitten by it. Lovely guy he was and i think that big beaming smile on that spotty little oiks face must have made his day as much as it made mine! Happy days x

Small update for the website https://tomreadbass.co.uk with a handful of new transcriptions. Some really good stuff in there to play though: Any Other Way - William Bell https://www.tomreadbass.co.uk/_files/ugd/238d8f_acb1b84e06d54d17852d3fb594cf1732.pdf Dakota - Stereophonics https://www.tomreadbass.co.uk/_files/ugd/238d8f_7df2c00ad8f54a5e966175a2f1d30f52.pdf Headlong - Queen https://www.tomreadbass.co.uk/_files/ugd/238d8f_b01fe3b1686e43bbb8cc93ec80120650.pdf I'm Moving Out - Billy Joel https://www.tomreadbass.co.uk/_files/ugd/238d8f_08d508c5421a47eeac976e02c4d59b4f.pdf Josie - Steely Dan https://www.tomreadbass.co.uk/_files/ugd/238d8f_675dde08cf624b2f95b8fe45fcd67ffb.pdf Now up to 1611 bass transcriptions on the site. All completely free and no log-in or registration required. Just help yourself to the PDFs you want / need directly from the website. And there's another batch of new charts to be added in the next few weeks too! Please share to any bass players, online bass communities, music schools, tutors etc. The site is free and exists simply to help gigging bass players, students, and to encourage reading notation.

Hope you can acquire one Terry, they are soo good! Best £730 I ever spent!

Still got my Bells catalogue, from the early 70’s I think. Pored over it constantly, and then I discovered the ads in the back of Melody Maker for mostly London shops and that became my bible. 😁

Wow, I’d forgotten Bulmers! Bought a few things from there when it was a general s/h shop, and then later they actually had a dedicated music section, with the occasional gem or bargain to be had. Great shop.

Interesting, since my peeve is cables! High quality wireless systems are so affordable I can’t think why anyone wouldn’t have one 😆

… I was about to suggest the One 10.

Just back from Ipswich, where we played Rock Against Leukaemia - it’s ninth year now and they’re doing amazing work. It’s always a fun show, this one had us getting ‘glitter beards’ at the request of our singer’s little girl. (The things you do to keep kids laughing!) We played a truncated set well, plenty of dancers, and it was an opportunity to play a heavier than normal set, with Metallica, Fall Out Boy, Sabbath, Nirvana, Lit and a few others. Great night and can’t wait for next year’s 10th birthday for RAL! edit, I supposed I’d better show off said glitter beard, eh?

People who say "pacifically" rather than "specifically".

Why not , I’m utterly shameless at this point …

My first ever bass guitar (Ibanez GSR200B) just came in, and it came with some significant fret buzz/rattling on the top 4 frets. Possible fixes I've read go from "just give the truss rod nut a quarter turn" to "get some advanced measuring equipent and measure this and this and that" Any idea what kind of measurements these are? I assume it's related to the exact distance between strings and frets, which is specific per fret or sth? In any case, I've already found that all the frets are the same height using a credit card

Mr Potato, If you're after a list of my top 5 of everything I've owned; MusicMan Bongo 5HH (gone) Mike Lull JAXT4 (still here) Hamer Cruisebass (still here) Spector Euro-X (still here) Gibson Thunderbird (Ivory) (gone) I could likely list you another 20 basses that I'm either still in ownership of OR have sold on to fund purchases, if that lights your candle. Just because they're gone doesn't mean they weren't - for me at least - sterling instruments. Search hard enough on this site and you'll find documented proof of most of my kit, past and present.

Whilst I visited The Bass Centre when it was in Wapping, I preferred it when it moved to the site, a stone’s throw from Liverpool St. I could legitimately pop in there pretty much any day of the week, without making a special trip out to Wapping.

The Bass Centre, Birmingham circa 1997. The story: Been learning a few months on a cheap Ibanez, still pretty crap & no amp - practicing through my cheap midi hifi. Amazing talented bass player in my best mates band takes too many psychedelics at the time and takes a trip to jam with Buddah and disappears for many years to come. I have his bass for a few months and get asked to join my best mates band. Little did I know at the time was that this heavy bitch of a bass I borrowed off the first bassist was a Jaydee. Meanwhile Buddha bass get his bass returned to his parents and then loses the Jaydee, or gave it away I believe, on a pilgrimage in India. Anyhow, the bass centre - plans to buy a Squire and used Peavy TNT amp (super heavyweight), saved the money - on budget. Travel from Shropshire to Birmingham with the vocalist in his 76 bay window VW Camper and it sort of turns into a bit of a Cheech & Chong journey…smoke everywhere and not just from the VW. Anyway, arriving somewhat spiraled eyed I end up stoned beyond all comprehension and sign my first ever loan…Stingray & Trace Elliot combo…bloody skint, great times, great shop - long live listening to Funkadelic at the Birmingham Bass Centre 🤩

I drove past Bell's yesterday. It's now a Hairdressers!!

It was after about 20 or 30 mins - it wasn’t helped by the fact it was snowing outside so the customers were all outside playing snowballs. New guy just wanted to close up as only people left inside was us.

Lovely, really! 😍