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Well, no pictures (was I even there?) - we played in a local pub last night, it wasn't our gig, it was the drummers other bands gig, but their singer got a cold and she didn't want to sing - there maybe more to it then that, but not my issue. Anyway we could all do it so we took it over to not leave the pub without a band (and it is the pub we practice at). Easy enough setup, cramped but we have done it before so know our place, would be easier if the rest of the band didn't stand in the way chatting while I was setting up I thought I would mix things up - so I took the new rickenbacker, which shockingly only has 4 strings (at the moment), the XVive A58 and the XS-1 octave pedal, so testing everything I got recently. The XVive, perfect, no noise, no having to work around the noise the lekato that I had, absolute winner. The ric. Well, its ok, it wasn't cutting through that much, and obviously thee is the lack of string thing. I didn't realise how much I relied on the 5th string, so a few mistakes were made, quite a few on one song, but at least with brick in the wall, I played the whole thing an octave up with the XS-1 an octave down and it sounded pretty spot on. Some of the rest of the gig I played with an octave up, and mix down to give a bit of bite and it worked well. The second hand I went back to the Maruszczyk and it felt more comfortable and easier to get a good sound, I think maybe because the output is higher everything is set up for that, so the ric wasn't cutting it much. Still, it was nice to play, but I may leave it for the other group, where i can use it as a drop D bass, I think the loss of the 5th string is something that adds a complication gigging. Anyway, second half there were more people, more dancing, and everything went more or less ok, so pretty good, and actually ran out of time without realising it. Not a bad night, and we have another gig tonight, might try the same things, and see if I get the same result - maybe increase the input gain of the pedal.

It looks good, I do like the muted sound especially on my P basses, unless I’m not seeing something, how does it mute the G string if it goes under it

maybe if i just cut so there is a small amount of silk just to hold it together ..?

I think its great, if money was no object I would get one. Maybe they will do a cut down version at some point

Well, the reason I didn't get one was that I almost did from bass direct when it was £1350, but when I contacted them they said it was an old price and it was £1450, which was more than I wanted. Then Thomann had a reduced one for £1300 and I missed it, then finally there was a second hand one for £1100 which I would have gone for, but I had just bough a ric. So yes, I would expect them to be over £1000 second hand. Whether it is a good deal depends on your opinion, not anyone elses, it is a bass, ultimately it isn't going to be that much different to other basses, but if you like it and can afford it its a good deal. I would certainly get one if I didn't have so many at the moment.

I had six years forced on me whilst I turned our house into a home. I used the time re-writing other people’s lines that I heard in my head, and thinking about what I was bad at before when I finally got my bass corner, I was objectively better at playing bass

It's now available in the UK, and from the demo's I've seen, it does an excellent job of muting without muting too much. That, and it's less than a tenner, so it's much better priced than the Nordymute.

We went to the Wheatsheaf in Ingleton, a little bit smaller than the Barbican. Two Hoots were playing with @vsmith1 doing an excellent job on his rather nice Marcus Miller bass. A lot of fun with 60's, 70's and 80's covers. The only table available was right next to the ProSonus PA speaker. I can assure people that the PA does an excellent job and is very, very loud. Thankfully we brought ear plugs which made it all rather bearable. They played from 20:30 to nearly 23:00 with a short break. A good time was had by one and all. Well worth the free gig Rob

In the mid 2000s I remember standing on the stage of a club in one of the Welsh valleys with the band I was in at the time and thinking 'I'm so bored with this set, I need a change'. We hadn't changed the set for more than a year and we seemed (to me) to be playing the same venues over and over (a lot of the clubs looked the same and had the same characters running them and booking the bands). I quit the band on friendly terms and as I used to share bass and rhythm guitar duties with the other rhythm guitarist/bassist in an attempt to make things a bit more interesting, they were able to carry on without me. I took about 3 years off and initially I had no plans to return to bass, so I sold almost all my gear. I was tempted back by an offer of an Eagles tribute act (which didn't fully materialise) and ended up with the same guitarist/vocalist as before in a trio/quartet (depending on who was available). It was good for a while and I stuck to bass but the same stagnation crept in again (the BL's argument was that we were gigging so often that we didn't need to rehearse, which was true of the current materiel but meant we weren't getting new stuff in) so once again I took a break. This time it was for the best part of 5 years. In 2018 I retired and with time on my hands I helped the previously mentioned BL with his rockschool (a summer school for his music students). At the end of the rockschool week, he organised a gig for the bands that the students had formed and somehow, I ended up in a scratch band with him that finished the night off. And stayed in that scratch band until 2022 when I left to join my current band. Both times I left for the right reason, at about the right time and it did me no end of good. I stayed friends with the band members and didn't burn bridges (that's not who I am). I think I came back a better musician both times an this was as a result of taking the pressure off and allowing myself to enjoy playing music rather than it becoming a job.