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Ironic, given he only seemed to be playing 4 notes. Dullest act by miles, landfill indie personified.

She used to have a band. I know her old drummer Debbie, who now plays with James and my niece's band . The all female band was drummer, electric guitarist and bass player which, visually, looked a lot better on stage. The last time I saw Charlie XCX, at Glastonbury, her stage show looked even worse, as she was on earlier in the day in daylight, so she didn't even have a light show - just her gyrating on the stage to pre-recorded tracks.

I first heard Marcus on that Dave Grusin album, 'Mountain Dance', back in 1979. About that time, I also heard him on 'Streamline' by Lenny White:

I use one of Gator's Mono knock-off Icon cases (not the bass version, but the G-ICONELECTRIC which is designed for 6-strings), which fits most of my short scales like a glove...except for the SG sad face emoji: It's very nearly a perfect fit, but the broad headstock profile on the SG coupled with the additional base support cushion in the case means the Grovers are pushing into the sides of the case ever so slightly. Without the support cushion at the bottom it's a better fit: ...but there's still a tiny bit of contact, not enough to compromise the case but it'll most likely cause the fabric to wear over time. To be honest you're going to struggle to find anything as good as the Gibson OHSC, it fits the whole body like a glove, supports and holds the neck in two places and has plenty of room to stop those daft oversize tuners getting in the way, plus is boot friendly as it's only a few inches longer / wider than the guitar itself, thanks to the form-fitting nature: Both options are relatively pricey new, the Gator goes for 120-140 and the Gibson one is 150+, but they crop up on ebay & reverb individually every so often for under 100 notes. Or - you could sacrifice the classic profile of the SG and swap out those stupid Grovers for some nice Gotoh ultralights, and not only have a bass that comfortably fits a lot of aftermarket cases but also doesn't have any neck dive. Given how long the SG has had a neck dive issue and how simple the solution is, I can only assume Gibson hold their consumer base in wilful contempt and deliberately sell them overpriced substandard gear because they despise them (see also: the insane weight profile of the Gibson Les Paul, the crime against engineering that is the Gibson three-point bass bridge, the fuggit-that'll-do attitude toward housing the mudbucker on all Gibson basses that have one, etc. etc.)

I played at our self organised Hullabaloo festival yesterday. Apart from being the assistant stage manager for our sound man, I was in a 5 piece band made up of people from our 13 piece main band. With two gigs, one of which lasted a marathon 4 hours, it was a busy day. The 5 piece played in the late afternoon and were the first of the bands that managed to get people up and dancing - seeing folks bopping along is always a moral booster. We hadn't been able to rehearse much and although everyone is a competent player, there was that 'will it all come together' feeling just before we started. Part of the reason for doing the 5 piece splinter band is to give the players a chance to expand on what they do in the main band - so each year we choose a couple of songs that will challenge us and feature the players who would normally be at the back of the stage. This year our Uke/trombone player (who is an accomplished guitarist) chose 'Sultans of Swing' on which she played the lead parts and our sax man picked 'Baker Street'. Both nailed it after shaky rehearsals and Baker Street was one of those performances that you realise early on is something special - everything just clicked - and it was amazing to be playing it. It's those moments that remind me why I love playing gigs. Of course, there were a few dodgy moments, mostly involving my singing ('Sultans' and 'I'm a Believer' and a distinctly off key element to my backing vocals on our opening number, 'Pinball Wizard'). But it was all good and there were some nice compliments for the band and my bass playing. The main band (the Hulla band) went on just after 7pm to a full village green - perhaps 700 people - and we played until just after 11. The festival is a charity event and we raise money for, amongst others, a local homeless drop-in centre. They have a choir and we had them on stage to sing with the band (they had played their own set earlier in the day). I always love the choir and band combination as the voices add an extra level to what were doing. This is the 5th years I've played this gig and it was by far the best performance we've done as a band. I was very happy with my sound - I went through the desk with no backline and using IEM and my Sterling bass was sounding so good that I decided not to swap basses half way through as I had originally planned. My kit line up for the day was a Sterling 34HH through a Sine Effects HPF (set at 40hz), MS60B for compressor, noise gate and octave/chorus (for one song) and an Ampeg SCI DI (unused back-up bass was my Ibanez 205). For the songs I played guitar on I used a Squire Telecaster that went through a Zoom MS50G+. IEMs came from a Behringer P16 personal monitor mixer fed from our Behringer X32 desk pre-fade so I had my own monitor mix which I was able to adjust (for example, when the singer decided to play his harmonica at full last through his vocal mic!) Footwear was courtesy of Skechers (if I mention them often enough I should get the sponsorship deal I'm after). As usual no photos have yet emerged of either of the bands I was playing in (as I was the principal photographer on the day). I will amend this post if/when they appear.

Walk the Line - Johnny Cash

Yeah she had a Westone Thunder, a Fender of some sort (looks kind of like a Jaguar but not sure), and another thing that I have no idea what it is!

I've never tried applying veneer with epoxy (if I was doing this, I would strip it all down to wood then use the PVA 'iron on' method I've described in a number of past threads. However, there are both advantages and disadvantages of this too so epoxy isn't such a bad thought). But, assuming this is the standard flat-topped Sire Jazz, to use epoxy, I would be tempted to use a vacuum bag (like skate-boarders use or folks who want to store quilts in their loft). - I would cut the veneer a couple of cm large all-round and use a decent medium set epoxy (I think I would probably use Z-poxy Finishing Resin). - the veneer I would use would be close-grained, non-figured (the figured will likely split in the process). - with luck, the vacuum will not only help you achieve the close, flat bonding, but also start to curve the veneer a touch round the edges - when set, the excess veneer would be cut off with a single-edged razor or scalpel (must be super-sharp) from the top laying the blade from the top and using the curve of the top to use as a 'summit' for the blade to have point-contact only - then I would sand along the line of the joint with a sanding block, starting with something like 240 grit and finishing with 320 or finer I'll try and find some old pics of some of the things I'm talking about

Love that white F Bass

Well I watched thirty minutes of Charlie XCX to see what the fuss was about. What a disgrace. Miming, no band, just nothing but a flashing screen and a recording. Shouldn’t be allowed at Glastonbury.

Tightrope- SRV

A video I've seen on Threads shows loads of Palastinian flags so you might well be onto something there

What a lovely story. I used to volunteer with a homeless charity and some of the stories are genuinely heartbreaking. Such a shame it never worked out for him, but there’s a reason why people pn the streets and it’s normally very sad. I bought a bass that it turned out had been stolen. I met and spoke with the guy whose bass it was and I hand realised just how affected he was by the theft. Was a personal and physical assault. Thankfully it was insured and he got the bass back and I got my cash back. As soon as I realised what had happened I couldn’t play the guitar with any pleasure.

Bought an SG off Paul in what was probly the easiest transaction I've had here on Basschat, fantastic comms throughout and he had it boxed up and ready for collection within a few hours, ended up taking delivery of it within 48 hours of first messaging him! Couldn't have gone smoother, cheers Paul.

Yesterday I watched using The Big Stereo at A Reasonable Volume... English teacher I found alternately excellent and deeply annoying. My Mrs likes 'em more than me, I feel! Loved Gary Numan - serious bass sounds! If only he'd played It Must Have Been Years... Enjoyed Fat Dog with their Klezmer-tinged punky stuff - singer very shouty and looks like James Acaster dressed up as the Man From Delmonte. Shame the bass level wasn't upped till halfway through. Briefly watched Haim for a look at The Bass Face but found it all rather too cheesey and wet. Liked The Ezras, though I prefer max rather than min funkin'! Unfortunately, missed Big Bad Bobs Vylan - nice to see the boys still causing trouble! I wonder if the Beeb will put his show up for our viewing pleasure? 😁

What Sandberg are you using. ? When i had a MB 112 combo with 112 ext cab i found i struggled to get a decent on stage sound or even hear myself but when i moved out front for sound check it was a great sound. That was using a Jazz bass back then. I've had that issue with other rigs while using a Jazz bass to be fair. I find my J basses have a sweet spot for their tone that just works but if i tweak the tone away from it i get lost in the mix. Dave

Do you think we go into auto-pilot and when one person starts to drift it kind of throws the rest of us because we weren't expecting it at that point in the show. ? Just a thought. Dave

Just while we're on the subject of Living Colour, are many/any of you aware about the version of Stain with the alternative guitar solos? The original US CD (catalogue# EK52780) was issued in two versions, one of which was very limited and contained totally different guitar work on Ignorance Is Bliss, Leave It Alone and Bi. There's no discernable visible difference in the CDs, just the content thereon. You got lucky or you didn't. I was a huge fan of Living Colour from the outset and bought a copy of Stain when I was in America; there was a bit of a WTAF? moment when realisation struck that the versions were different. Interesting stuff.

Ani DiFranco tonight at Cardiff New Theatre, I have been a fan since the first album over twenty five years ago. Really looking forward to it, although sad act that I am, I am going on my own as no one else I know likes her enough to come along.