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I heard that in the 70s when Cliff Richard was in the studio one of his session guitarists had a Big Muffin pedal and Cliff said "that'd be a great name for the alubm" and someone had to expliain to him, quietly, at the back of the studio what it meant and he went a bit quiet.

Gutter Cat vs. The Jets - Alice Cooper

Some better pictures. Perhaps one day I'll re-do the chemical blacking on the metal hardware. I probably could get the finish a bit shiner and less scuffed looking, but I've been working on this thing for about two months, and there comes a point where you just don't want to sand things anymore. I feel good for having revived this bass and, if I may say so myself, made it probably a bit nicer than it was when it left the factory when I was about 2 years old. I think, all told, this project has cost me something like £250-300, so not a sensible financial decision but still not a huge outlay for a very nice instrument.

As mentioned in my 1 Sept post above, I had problems with my Lekato WS90 wireless system for the bass at a rehearsal. As a result, I went and replaced the unit with a JOYO JW02S in a hurry as I had a gig the following week. It worked fine last Wednesday and last Saturday for the gig. At last night's rehearsal there was nothing - no sound at all. I checked everything in the chain and ended up using a lead, which worked fine. When I got home, I tried the JOYO and it worked, with no problems. Curious and suspecting an issue in the rehearsal venue, I tried the Lekato kit - it worked fine too. More frustrating than a worry. My current theory is that the WiFi kit in the rehearsal venue is interfering with the wireless systems as I've eliminated the bass (I used two different ones) and the channel pairing (I went through them all and the pairing indicator was confirming a link). I have a gig next week at the rehearsal venue (a village hall) and I'll take both systems to try again. I always have a spare lead just in case. The rehearsal itself was ok - we went through the first half of next Saturday's set as they are the newer songs and we needed to polish them off a bit. My fingertips were sore after an bust week of rehearsing new songs for last Saturdays gig (different band) and playing the gig itself so I used a pick for all the songs. I'm used to playing with a pick and it works for the rockier/punkier stuff anyway but it's definitely not for the soul/funk stuff we do. Still, a useful exercise to rty out new sounds and experiment. Sometimes it's easier to stick to what you've always done, but for me a rehearsal is a place to try out different things even if I don't end up using them.

I need to look into better footwear for gigs for similar reasons. My right foot rolls inward after rolling my ankle badly some years ago. Often, gigging makes my ankle ache for ages afterwards. Strapping it up helps, but it's not comfortable. My go-to trainers are a pair of Camper Beetles as they're so comfy, but obviously not giving enough support for lengthy standing stints. Having a high instep also limits my choices somewhat - typically, trainers that fit my footshape are too loose around the heel, which starts to slide inward.