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Well, it’s more that he could have had the Stones gig had he decided to take it. Not sure that can be put on Vernon?

That’s how you do a bass solo, holding the groove, whilst stretching out a bit. 👏👏👏

And here I am at the church looking for a note....

Depends if its a one-off dep, or someone who is "second call" who does gigs when your main player can't play. There are plenty of musicians who are strictly too good to be playing regularly in amateur bands but are happy to stand in on occasion. I've done plenty of dep gigs at short notice. If it's get a dep in or cancel the gig, you have to weigh up the risk of another band getting their foot in the door and nicking potential gigs down the pipeline, and putting on a show that might not be to your standard but the punters won't realise.

This is the most beautiful OLP Tony Levin I've ever seen or owned. That figured maple is so gorgeous! 😍 Excellent underrated basses. Very good deal, Sir.

I have something almost exactly the same - forget the make but it is a case for a scoped rifle - that is precisely 102cm long inside that I used for my Hohners. It isn't worth posting but if you happen to be passing Benfleet, in Essex, you are welcome to it. Has nice egg-box foam lining, too.

School Prom gig last night. Mid week ones are always a bit of a challenge, what with having to leave work early etc, but at least I got home at a decent time! Second time we've played this one (our drummer works at the school and his wife is headmistress) and second time we've done it without any of our usual singers. Keen readers may recall that one of our singers dropped out of last week's gig because of his ME. He was supposed to be doing this one with a dep female singer, but he still wasn't feeling fit, so she ended up doing the whole 2 hours pretty much on her own. We had a rehearsal on Tuesday, when we found out he was still unwell, so we hastily put together a new setlist to get through the gig. I ended up singing 4 or 5 songs as well to give her a rest. Under the circumstances, it went much better than I expected it too. Typical "gymnasium sound", but it sounded decent out front. In-ears were another matter. I don't get how the in-ear mix keeps changing from gig to gig, but I was getting pummeled by bass and kick drum and hardly any guitars. We definitely need to do some work with that. Teresa, the dep singer did a fantastic job. She was in a previous band over 20 years ago with the two guitarists, and I depped with them on their last ever gig before forming this band. I quite forgot how good she is with a crowd. It helped for this one that she's also a school teacher herself. You could tell how comfortable she was interacting with the kids. The school itself is a special needs school. It was fantastic to see these children enjoying themselves in a safe, nurturing environment. I feel they wouldn't have had the same opportunity to express themselves the way they did last night in a regular school. It's humbling to see them being encouraged by the staff to be themselves without judgment. So, yes. A good night in the end. Any anxiety I had about not having our usual singers quickly disappeared once we got going. The evening finished at 9.30 and I was home a little after 10.30. More of those, please! Although I was still aching when I got up for work this morning. Next stop, The Cricketers and a wedding both in July, with yet another dep singer that we've yet to rehearse with! It seems like the years of deps!

Last weekend my bluegrass band played two outdoor sets at the Tottenham (Ontario!) bluegrass festival, the largest one in Ontario in very hot humid weather. Our Friday early evening set was made more interesting when the PA suddenly cut out part way through the third song. Since we are all playing acoustic instruments and are seasoned players we kept right on playing and singing and the crowd of about 400 loved it and cheered and clapped and we didn't miss a beat. We moved to the very edge of the stage at the end of that song to more applause and started our next song and then amazingly the PA came back so we gracefully moved back to our mics and finished our set. The Saturday morning set had a smaller crowd but we were in fine form and it went well and my twin sister was there, first time she has seen me play since the early '60's when I played guitar in a folk group in high school, yeah, I'm that old. The next day we played a concert as a trio (guitar, mando, and me) in a lovely old church and changed our set to outline a brief history of bluegrass and it was the best we have ever played. Super sound and the audience who were not very familiar with bluegrass loved it. The reason we were a trio is because one guitar player had to go home for a family event and the banjo player was suffering severe stomach pain due to a reaction to a new medication and had to leave. We have done this trio thing before and it works really well and we play some non bluegrass songs like some Eagles, Gordon Lightfoot, and even Ralph McTell's Streets Of London which always goes over well. Sorry for the late report but the area where I live, almost six hours from the gig, was hit by a severe storm Saturday night and when I got home at 11PM Sunday there was no power and it didn't come back for another two days and I am still clearing downed trees from my yard. Bass was my "70's Czech ply through Nux wireless to my Traynor SB112 and DI to PA.

Nice solo Daryl! Thought it sounded great overall. I get what you mean about the guitar sounding a bit out on occasions but probably wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t pointed it out. That’s Strats in a hot environment for you though.

Here's a BMW 330 convertible with two Monza cabs. The BMW has a 210-litre boot.

Thanks for the recommendations, guys. I can confirm that the Monaco handles a B string with ease. In fact, all the LFSys cabs do - even the modest Goodwood. Unsurprisingly, the more expensive cabinets go louder - so the Monaco would be the top choice if it fits in the boot. However, it's not simply a matter of whether it will fit; it's whether you can get it in and out. The handle on all LFSys cabs is at the top. So, if you place the cab in the boot sideways, you'll need enough space on both sides to put your hands in to lift it out (if you follow me). If the Monaco proves to be too big, the Monza is almost certainly going to fit. The MX5 has a 130-litre boot. Here's a photo of two Monzas in a Honda Jazz, with a 300-litre boot just over twice as big. As you can see, there's plenty of space left over.

Hi Thanks for the info The minimum internal length would have to be 1m 2cm so that case is slightly too short but thanks for the heads up il have a look around for anything similar regards Jay

Hello. I have been asked by a friend how to feed a low impedance (mic) output into a high impedance input (a pedal). If it was round at mine I'd just let them plug it into my mixer. But they want their own setup, and I think a line matching transformer like the Shure A85F would be more elegant. Are there any alternative products that come a bit cheaper?

Not had had a chance to do a comparison yet. Watch this space. At work the now, going to a gig tonight (as a punter), so probably won't have any answers until Saturday...

What is the difference in sound between the two birds?

Same. They/I would not be asked back unless they performed well.

Through neck, Gibson USA TB+ pickups.