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I'm sure I'm not the only one....

Last gig of 2022 for us was a Xmas Glamtastic night at The Dreadnought in Bathgate. Place was full with dancers from the word go. Very pleased with the band and the gig was just great fun. Guy that reviews the bands in this venue (Alex Hastings) posted a nice review this morning so i'll leave it at that. The weekend before Christmas in the Dreadnought, Bathgate needed a Christmassy themed band, and it got one in the guise of Blockbustarz, a tremendous in your face Glam Rock classic covers band. From the off you couldn't get moving for big hair, big platforms, sparkly tops and tinsel! We had Sweet, T Rex and The Rollers to get things moving... Before you knew it we had Cats Creeping In , Cans Canning , Little Willies, (oo er missus) and people Getting it On... Let It Snow (the theme song from Die Hard) had me on the lookout for a white vested Bruce Willis lookalike... Mama We're All Crazy Now had the punters bouncing....Alvin Stardust had us Coo ca chooing, and Dynamite from Mud nearly blew the roof off the Dread! Rebel Rebel and Schools Out took us to the last two songs of the first set, The magnificent Crazy Horses from the Osmonds (tune!) and the mighty Hellraiser from Sweet...! As the band, Mike Michaels (singer/guitar/big hair), Colin Whittit (lead guitar/bigger hair), David McCombe (bass/even bigger hair!), Barry Haywood (drums/ no hair comment/very glittering pork pie hat though) and Lynn Ainslie (singer/ her own long hair) took a well earned rest it was good to look around and see an almost full Dreadnought. Waterloo from Abba (sung expertly by Lynn) got set 2 underway.. Next we had Teenagers Rampaging, and my favourite from back in the day Tell Him by Hello which led us into I Love Rock and Roll (who doesn't?). More T-Rex in the form of Children of the Revolution, the terrific Rocket from Mud and the Jean Genie from Bowie kept the 'doon the front' dancers happy. Next up was I Love to Boogie (and most people agreed as they all indeed did boogie!).. The all time classic of all time I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday had the audience in full on singing mode. This magnificent song was followed by Suzi Quatros Devil Gate Drive, T Rexs Hot Love, Spirit in the Sky from Norman Greenbaum and the Time Warp (Where's Brian Chizzmeister Chisholm when you need him?) We now had the last four songs and everyone was a cracker... Tiger Feet had everybody practicing their 'That's Neat ' fancy footwork moves, Blockbuster had us 'not having a clue what to do'.. Merry Christmas Everybody from the magnificent Slade brought the biggest sing along of the night (as you'd expect!) and the tartan was out for the last song of the night, Shang a lang from The Bay City Rollers... A fantastic night of over 30 songs and 2 hours of energy from the tremendous band was at an end... What an effort lads (and lass), take a bow and a well deserved lie down.. Once again it had been great to see so many people in attendance and to personally see some 'well kent' faces... Top marks to everyone involved in putting on such a great night.. Big Hastie over and out from the House of Glam for the night , the Dready...

The BlondiPop was packed last night. Allot of engaged young folks which was great. The 21 year olds are not usually into live blues / rock. We even played " Rockin Around The Christmas Tree" completely off the cuff. Fun night. Next gig is New Years Eve at The Barley Pop in Germantown. Happy Holidays guys. Blue

Final gig of the year for us and could have been a wipeout due to technical issues with the mixer, which meant the band started very stripped back and, in particular, without any bass - as we've always played this small, somewhat cramped, venue without backline putting everything through the PA. But we managed to fix the problem and my bandmates were then very much more appreciative of having a bass in the mix, after experiencing the sound of a full band without one for the first time! https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmTuWIlDjvN/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link We got a couple of birthday party invitations off the back of the gig, so I guess all's well that ends well! Happy Christmas all!

In the salubrious surrounds of Birkenshaw Liberal Club. Set 1 wasn't great, but Set 2 was killer. Got to try out my new (to me) Barefaced Two10S and it's looooovely.

True, financially, but spiritually rich beyond belief. I read somewhere recently about a guy complaining to his mentor or mate that he wasn't very good at his hobbies/pastimes. Playing an instrument, art, sport etc. His mate countered "You dont need to be great at something you love, the fact you do these things, and the experiences they have given you, make you rounder as a human and make you more interesting." I will settle for that.

Double header , Friday and Saturday night at Trading boundaries in East Sussex with No jacket required Phil Collins tribute. Great venue and atmosphere.we do these every year about this time, punters have a sit down meal etc and we come on after the food is done, generally about 9.30pm. Played both my WAL 5,s different one per evening. Really enjoyable. Happy Christmas everyone xx🥰

Yeah welcome. It’s a broad church here. There are those who play Precisions and then there are the non bass players..all welcome.

Yep I’ve made no serious money from music but the experiences I’ve had through learning how to play a musical instrument are invaluable, wouldn’t trade them at all.

I recently picked up a Prunes and Custard pedal. It's fantastic for synth sounds but does a lot more besides. Here it is mixed with some clean bass. I love how pops and harder notes come through more cleanly so you can really have fun with little fills that 'poke through' the synth, even if you do balls them up. The track is 'Mile High' by Raquel Rodriguez, very nice groove I'll probably make a new topic about this but any tips on syncing video and audio in iMovie? I tend to take the video on my phone and record in Garageband then import both. It takes a lot of shuffling about and sometimes like in this video it goes out of sync at the end?!

Fun evening playing at one of our regular village hall haunts for somebody's 70th birthday party on Saturday. After the usual rigmarole getting our frontman's crappy pedalboard / mixer thing working properly (one of these days, it *will* be getting accidentally run over in the car park... ), we finally finished soundchecking just in time before folks started to arrive. The onstage sound left a bit to be desired with every B and C seeming to boom out, but this wasn't replicated in the FOH sound so shouldn't really grumble too much. Anyway, the original plan was for us to do 45 minutes after the buffet, then another 45 minutes after the cake-cutting, but we were asked if we could do a few tunes before the buffet as the chips were still cooking, so we ended up doing our first three songs then taking a break while the buffet was served. Post-buffet (and very nice it was too... 😋 ) we picked up where we left off, adding an unplanned song plus the first song from the second set to fill the time until the cake-cutting. Once the cake was cut and the speeches had been made, we then unleashed the rest of the second set and got a few folks up and dancing. Mr Singer went slightly off-piste with one arrangement, while Mr Lead Guitar came up with a couple of *interesting* solos as he was apparently struggling to hear what he was doing, but apart from one table who were giving us snarky looks all night (while still tapping their feet... 🤨 ) everybody seemed to enjoy the evening. Next gig is a wedding bash on Wednesday evening - apparently the groom likes what we do, hence booking us, but quite how a bunch of country-rock songs mostly based around failed love affairs will go down at a wedding remains to be seen. We have already taken the precaution of dropping "Dead Flowers" and "It's All Over Now" from the set... 😁

Last gig of the year last night in the Rusty Nail in Aberdeen. There was a 60th birthday party in and they were very musically open minded, up for dancing to most things and singing along if they were sitting it out. A joy to play for. Cake at half time too which they shared with us - bonus! Had a blast, not one but two "one more tunes" (quick look over at the landlord for the second one, and he nodded his assent), very warm feedback at the end. An excellent end to the year. Home for a dram before bed. Tidy!

Medium sized music pub in Essex last night for us. It used to be a bit hit or miss there - we've built up a following now so it's been a better turn out in recent years but we weren't sure how the weather would affect it last night. It's still about minus 5 here and plenty of icy roads. Our guitarist was away, our regular dep decided to go to Vietnam on a break at fairly short notice and we ended up with one of our other dep pool guys on guitar. He's awesome and I always enjoy it when he's onboard - a total pro and it showed on the night. We had sent him some video of a recent gig and he nailed all the links and little personal bits we do in the set. You could see he had been woodshedding for us and he's a really lovely humble guy with a great presence on stage too. Here's a link to his page if anyone wanted to throw some work his way https://simonjpinto.com/ Anyway, how did the gig go? Looked worryingly quiet at about 9pm, filled up a bit by 9.30, we started at 9.45 and it was absolutely rammed by 10pm. Everyone was up for it and dancing from the start but you know when you get a feeling that it could get a bit lairy? There were a bunch of young lads showing off for the girls in the crowd with all the spider dancing and drink spilling shenanigans in the second set and we had to stop mid song about 20 mins from the end of the set to ask them to calm it down a bit as we could see it was intimidating the rest of the crowd (They have security at the venue and always used to put someone inside near the band on busier nights but for some reason it didn't happen last night) Anyway, we restarted and the youngsters had been respectful and slowed up a bit. All good. Then one song later something kicked off in the middle of the crowd further back - I could see people getting shoved around and called a halt to it all again hoping security would hear us stop and come in for a look. They did but by the time they had sourced, calmed and ejected the culprits 10 minutes later we had decided to call it a day. The way our set is structured means it really picks up momentum and we needed to bring everyone down a bit rather than build them up (Drunk chavs showing off and Killing in the Name of/Enter Sandman was going to cause more problems). We only missed the last couple of songs anyway and thought it was safer for everyone - the floor was a sea of beer and someone was going to get hurt. Having said all that we totally enjoyed the gig, played really well, sound was great allegedly, dep worked out really well, the crowd really enjoyed it (and stayed safe) and I was home by about 1.30. A good night.....

This is my Guild Byrds Starfire - I took recording last weekend and it ended up on 7 out of 8 live recorded tracks - I was expecting to be using the P mostly but the Starfire sounded so good. I absolutely love it. Smooth and deep but cuts through nicely

I use my thumb to cover my eyes when certain people post on here. "Boredom, boredom, be 'dumb, be 'dumb" Boredom by Buzzcocks, for those that like a quote.

All of the above plus the fact that while you might check the RRP with an online retailer, these days there’s a good chance that they don’t have it in stock. There’s been a huge impact of the economic situation on the used market, in some places invigorating it, in others killing it completely. It’ll no doubt revert in time. Personally I buy used whenever possible because I prefer dealing with people to dealing with businesses/organisations. Ebay protect the buyer very well, while the retail sector doesn’t always do so, despite its legal obligations. This week I bought a very expensive unit (new) only to find it has a fault. The hassle involved in sending it back along with the implicit suggestion from the business that I’m being difficult/unreasonable is frankly at a level that makes me think it would be easier to keep it and fix it.

It's not hoarding if you remember their names and their favourite strings.

To the OP How dare you come on here with your radical Talkbass refugee views and extra strings. We have our own problems you know and we don't need any more, don't you know it's illegal to come here anyway? 😏

Rabbit - Chas and Dave

Relax, lads.

Tonight's practice rig

For some reason that single pick up version works much better than the PJ ones aesthetically for me. Looks less like a Mustang knock off gone wrong.

Woof

Suggestion to the OP to what they should do? "Not as advertised" and seek a refund?

I've noticed that too Paul. Its like i'm hidden in a disguise. Its funny because a lot of people dont recognise me when i re-enter the hall with my jeans and t shirt. LOL The Glam thing does make for a good party fun atmosphere. Really enjoyed last nights gig. Singer had a throat infection and was struggling a bit but Lynn our other singer stepped up to the plate and took on the higher end stuff for him. I love it when a band gels so much that we can do that. All great people in the band too. Dave

Liar ～ The Damned

with me it has always been a search for the one, so all my basses and guitars are all in a long term audition to impress me and at some point (hopefully before i die) I'm kicking them all out except for the winners...the creme de la creme.

Here are my two from 1989 (the only electric basses I own). Very effective as a G.A.S remedy (although I still get the odd attack)

A few small updates to my board...h9 has made a reappearance to keep it fairly compact on a pt2, gone with a smaller dedicated tuner, added two dedicated outs on the side and added a riser for the Volante to make tap and hold accessible. Really impressed with it.....considering it's just a bit of metal. May be one small change coming but this set up works really well for me.

Just because someone is a tutor, even one accredited to something or other, does not mean they're any cop at it. Even if they are superb, they aren't god, they don't get to say what is correct, and any that are bold enough to say so are likely of a closed mindset and will be slow to progress themselves, if at all. The mass produced electric bass is a relatively recent innovation. That being the case, who is anyone to say what is right or wrong? Not me. Not Geddy Lee. Not Derek from the small ads who is advertising his bass lessons. I've had formal musical training - not on the bass - and without being immodest I can truthfully say that I progressed (before smashing my elbow) far beyond the abilities of my guitar tutor, and despite that still wouldn't deign to tell even the newest guitarist what is correct or otherwise. I might say, "give this a try", or "have you thought about doing it that way, see if it works for you?", but I am in no moral position to tell anyone that is the correct method and thus the only one worthy of consideration. I'm just not that arrogant. Watch, listen, learn, try it, practice it, critique it against that which you're trying to achieve, and then either adopt it, modify it, or discard it. None of us should be blind to progressing our playing by learning, and none of us should rigidly accept convention either. None of us should suppose that just because we favour a certain way of playing that it is "correct". If it gives you the sound you're after, if you can do it and make it work, if it doesnt hinder some other aspect of your playing, and if it doesn't give you an RSI, then it's correct. Simple as that.

Small beach gig last night, that quickly grew too large for the venue. Lots of people. Partied till 3am. Just now waking up to go do it again tonight at a larger venue. Been there before and we are well known. Crazy nights. I'll try to take some pics.

Just bought this from Will @ BassBros… It really is perfect in every way♥️

I've just seen a lovely looking shell pink shortscale on the @Ashdown Engineeringfacebook page. I'm assuming 30" but it could be 32". Also a sage green one which looks great too. Hopefully they'll/he'll (does Mark Gooday himself post?) be along shortly with some more info.

Can you not feel that rhythm hidden in the the bass line with the drums already hinting at it? ba ba ba ba ba bo bom bo bom bom bom sorry best I can do. Cant read and write notation. But if they like it and we are there to lead them into his presence what do we care? Job Done.

So here's a nice announcement: shortly after New Year's (hurray for mail not working after Christmas) this gorgeous machine is going to come my way:

Road to Hull - Chris Rea

Thanks for the Info re. NOVA parts, I've already got the guyker bits ordered and en-route so will use them in this instance, but as I mentioned, I've got a fancy for maybe doing another headless if this experiment goes well and will certainly look at the Nova kit in that case. I had another twisted idea that a headless Stingray might be an interesting thing!

I think for the sake of peace we need to drop the car analogies.

Standard wmc Christmas party for me last night, we play it every year, pleasant enough night, I was just glad to be somewhere warm tbh! I played my incredible SR1200 all night and my shoulder was killing by the end of a 2.5 hour set with no breaks, even though it’s super light compared to something like a fender. Im vaguely considering selling it and putting the ££ towards an ehb1000.

It’s measured in smiles.

This Saturday Night 12/17 Maple Road @The BlondiPop 8:30 West Bend WI I'll let you guys know how it goes. Only a 5 minute commute. We're all set up and we did our sound check early.The BlondiPop is an old very small Church converted into a club. Blue