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At the moment I am listening to and enjoying Butcher Brown, the new album by Monkey House called Crashbox if you like Steely Dan you will probably like them too, The Big Galoot by King Baby with Kevin Scott on bass and the fabulous Men I Trust from Canada.

We were back at the Horse & Jockey in Lanark on Friday. We've had a wee glut of gigs recently but I've not really been in the zone with everything else going on in life at the moment. But I really enjoyed this one. Tiny wee performance area, but not as bad as last time as this time we played as a four piece (parted ways amicably with previous guitarist, his job and shifts meant we couldn't rehearse till after 10pm and he would have to take holidays for Friday gigs - new guitarist getting up to speed). I brought my bass cabs as have been struggling a bit to get the bass levels sorted through the PA. Made a massive difference and I felt much more connected to the band. I thought we played really well, even had dancers up in the first set, unheard of! Had to cut things a little short as our drummer was feeling very dodgy after a suspect sausage supper pre-gig, poor guy. Gear was Fender Player Jazz, HX Stomp based pedalboard, Aguilar Tonehammer and Markbass NY121 cabs. Very happy with my sound.

I saw them years ago in Leeds with TM Stevens on bass, what a gig that was.

I had one and recently sold it but not because of any issues or complaints. As a low gain ‘fattener’ adding in harmonic content it will do what it says on the tin (box)! It won’t offer tonnes of gain and drive but it will ‘saturate’ and those descriptions should be considered as two separate sonic characteristics. I liked it but as my signal chain already has output TX’ers and tubes it wasn’t doing more or giving me a ‘better’ version of what I had. What it does do is add in that tube saturation/character which is very pleasing sonically and warms up the signal chain and can do that “sonic stock cube” thing where it just makes the tone sit well within the full band mix. Pedals like this and some lower gain/ drive units really need to be heard in that context sometimes to judge their true value IMO be that via IEM or in the room. The bass soul food springs to mind! I realise this all reads like marketing but you might find a lower gain unit like a Solid Gold FX Beta does more of what you like in a more pronounced way with more gain on tap should you need it. I know @tayste_2000 is shifting a Beta MkV which can do lovely low gain tones.

You are very welcome, TS. And thank you.

I was on a quest a few years back to get a 4 string PJ Euro with 35" for the band I played in at that time. Within a period of about two years I saw 3 for sale, 2 ended up with me. (the 3rd was in Norway and customs were complicating things a bit so I did not buy it) They are rare.

If your speaker is not working properly making a whining sound, or completely silent then first check if the cable is fine, is the volume turned up? Sometimes dust accumulates in the speaker hole, so clean it a little. If that doesn't work, try using another mobile phone. And if the internal cable is torn or something is broken, you can try using the tool called Fix My Speaker. It will work, God willing!

Just seen you're looking at something for vocals also and want to avoid gear duplication...in which case the single PA top / FRFR option may well be the better option for you if you're looking for something that covers all the bases (excuse the pun!) Do you have PA already? If not, there's a whole separate rabbit hole for you to dive into e.g. Compact budget PA set-up to put bass through (without back-line) - I ended up ditching my backline for a pair of RCF 912As, but there's plenty of other options! And many of those PA speakers have been widely used as FRFR speakers by BC'ers: the RCF 732A seems to be a popular option and would handle vox better than my 912As due to better mid range horns.

Thanks. Good to know. I checked the photos and the one on ebay was a 34'' (bridge pickup not aligned with balance and treble pots).

No, we're not. As someone who has stated above that reworking entire songs = artistic freedom, etc, you should know that. That one semitone started the discussion, but it's broadened a lot more since.

Sold a rather lovely Jazz to Tony, a very straight forward and trouble-free deal as would be expected given his feedback here. Enjoy the bass mate 👍 I've no doubt this is far from our last transaction

Yes, and the Fender Rumble 500 is also much loved by BC'ers too!

Per definition they are 34", but I came across at least two or three Ian Hills that were 35" Throughout the years Spector produced a few 35" Euro 4s, sometimes called Euro435 with the same PJ setup and all the other specs being exactly the same and from the outside it is almost impossible to tell a 34" from the 35" except for one telltale sign. So if you know what to look for you can spot the 35" Euros pretty easily. My Euro 4 35" pictured below and if you look at the bridge pickup it almost lines up with the balance and the treble pot, whereas on standard Euro 4s the pickups are in different locations (and relative to the pots, too. ) I had another 435, same layout and the latest 35" Ian Hill I've seen (seller confirmed the scale lenght and the IH model sign on the back of the headstock

Loose Fit - The Happy Mondays

I have mentioned before that our singer and band leader is a massive Bruce Springsteen fan. Our gigs tend to follow 'the Boss' in length with 3+hour sets not uncommon. On Saturday we had the dreaded WhatsAppp message from him - 'I'm at a Springsteen gig' - which can often mean last minute set changes as new songs appear following an epiphany during The Boss' performances. Yesterday, with the BL yet to appear at the rehearsal, the sound guy and I were taking bets on which Springsteen songs would be added and, as Sir Paul was also present with Bruce in Liverpool, which Beatles tracks would also make an appearance. We both lost as the BL was very restrained and chose not to alter the set at all. Instead we ran through the first 6 songs, which run together as a solid 20 minute section kicking the set off. It's a new concept to most of the band so we've been working on the transitions and they're finally beginning to gel. The sound guy kept telling me my bass was sounding 'muddy' and I couldn't figure out why as nothing had changed from the previous rehearsal. Right at the end, as we were talking about it, his description 'all the top end disappeared from your sound' made me realise that the 'Ultra HI' button on my Ampeg SCR-DI pre-amp pedal had probably not been engaged and sure enough, that was the issue. I love that pedal but I wish it had indicator lights on the push buttons. Ibanez GSR205, Broughton HPF (set at 40hz) Zoom MS60 (for noise reduction, compressor, tuner/mute and a couple of one-off spot effects), Ampeg SCR-DI into the desk. Skechers. 😀

We're discussing one semitone 🤣

We generally have a mixed age group. Lot of younger ones think the Glam band is just a great fun night and we've had hen nights, women's birthday parties etc at our gigs but always dancing. Think its the style of music. Glam is a dancing kind of music whereas blues tends to have people that enjoy the musicianship more than a dance if that makes sense, until the drink hits, then folks will dance to anything 😂 Dave

"I'm sticking it to The Man/making a stand for artistic freedom by playing a load of wrong notes". Cool.

If you don’t want it going through your personal account, set up a separate account for the band with someone like Starling and make all payments in/out of that. 10 minute job to get one up and running.

Just donated. Best wishes and hope Lee holds onto his bass.