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This Saturday Maple Road This Saturday 8/26 Zeigler Winery "Outdoor rockin' blues on Lake Winnebago @ Ziegler! We're thrilled to be playing this beautiful venue for the first time! Come enjoy some fantastic wine, (they have a great beer selection, too!) an awesome menu and a whole bunch of live music! Don't miss it! And we'll have Tim Sardina on drums." I'm looking forward to this gig. I've done acoustic stuff there before. This is the first time we're bringing the full Maple Road band. The grounds are beautiful. I'll let you guys know how it goes. Blue

Here’s my board. After much trial and error this is what I’ve decided are my core favourites that I’ll use with my new band. Really pleased with it - the board is meant to hold 7-10 pedals but they didn’t expect 4 with one underneath!

Worrying about what is and what isn't cool is defintely uncool

My philosophy in life is who cares, wear what you want. Your coolest reference point is always going to be someone's pet hate and vice versa. Life's too short. Every time I go onstage I always take the view that one member of the audience might think I'm the best thing in the band and someone else will think I am lucky to be there. Do you own thing. I didn't worry too much about what people thought when I was 14 and it concerns me even less at 50. I'm sure my world view is both a blessing and a curse to me.

After having to return my lefty VT, i've been the proud owner of this lefty Sandberg TM4 hardcore aged in roquefort blue since the weekend. With a three gig weekend on the horizon i'm looking forward to seeing how it fits in with the band 🙂

The most uncool thing possible, even if done ironically.

I am also a huge fan of Sandberg basses: L-R - VM5 ash/rosewood, VT4 alder/rosewood, classic booster 5 walnut top/mahogany/rosewood, classic special 6 cocobolo top, mahogany/rosewood.

I picked up a lovely old 1984 Westone Thunder Jet yesterday. It's in need of some tlc as it looks like it's had quite a life. None standard knobs or bridge. New, more accurate, bridge is on the way. I've got some brass Thunder I style knobs on the way, but I am watching an auction for original ones. The pots are in dire need of a clean, or replacing. The logo has gone, I'll get one made, and the truss rod cover is worn, so I'll sort that too. I'll need to investigate why one machine head is wonky, and they're quite tight to turn. Fortunately they're not branded so replacements are easy to find. I've been after a Thunder Jet for a while now and I wanted a little project to keep my occupied while some work being done to the house means my music room is out of action. Through a preamp pedal and headphones this bass sounds amazing, the pickup has a lot of output. Westone were right to name them Hard Puncher. I might give the body a light refinishing, just enough to return it to a more flat finish it came with, but not enough to look new. If anyone out there has a Thunder Jet can you tell me if the logo is white or that flat gold colour Westone used. Cheers

I don’t normally use any pedals on the gig. My amp has built in preset high and low pass filters , but I’ve been running a tube preamp through the effect return input. Bypassing the front end of my amp. so I’ll place this between the preamp and the power section. Glad to be gigging tonight , I’ll give it a twirl.

If any of you subscribe to Desmond Doom on YouTube (and you really should), you'll be familiar with this fantastic item of clothing:

That’s a nice bass. My go to bass is an Ibby SR1000. Had it for 33 years & over that time, numerous basses have came & went. It’s just such a comfortable bass to play & since changing the pickups & pre, it sounds even better.

The keyboardist can also conceal their uncoolness under their cape.

I suspect that's survivorship bias. Doesn't matter how good you are, if you don't turn up to rehearsals sober and ready to play or even not turn up at all, you'll lose the gig. Even the most patient of bandmates realise this eventually. No one is going to continue to pay out for rehearsal rooms that are abandoned 30mins into a session because of a no show. I've played with some guitarists who were very limited in musical knowledge and ability, but they practiced and they turned up and I knew they'd be able to reproduce that at gigs.

Just some bad a++ playing from all of these guys. Especially Jim Mullen and Francis Hylton. Jim Mullen used to play Guitar for the Average White Band in case anyone wondered who he was.

Way back in my youth I left a band by climbing out of the toilet window and running away. I know it sounds odd, pathetic or both, but that's what happened. I'd formed the band with a guitarist "friend" and we recruited a drummer and bass player / singer (well, he was a guitarist but everyone knows that if you can play guitar you can play bass, right?) and got some songs together, played some gigs, recorded some material etc etc. It was all good fun and I really enjoyed it. Then the "friend" began touting us to labels and one or two of them showed some interest, albeit in a very initial sense. That was it - the flavour of the band changed and the "friend" and the bass player started demanding that we wrote more commercial songs and that each song we wrote had to be a potential single etc etc. It went from a fun band playing some cool alternative rock to a job playing horrid, anodyne, radio-friendly dreck, and despite my protests they were firm that this is what we were doing, and that was that. So, I ran away after climbing through the bog window, and when I left I took all my gear (not only my guitars, but the bass and amp that the singer used, the PA etc etc) and that was the end of my time in that band. They continued for about another year with a few line-up changes but didn't get anywhere. The real kicker for me was that we'd recorded an EP of four songs, three of which I'd written, and when it was released, post-bog window, the only credit I got on it was "additional studio guitars", and they'd turned my guitar parts down anyway, the buggers. The "friend" ended up buggering off back to Canada after having stolen, embezzled, defrauded and unpaid a small fortune.

I loved him in Deep Purple.

Uncool / Cool... such a crock of cack. There is no law. Forget what anyone else says, it's just opinion. It means sweet FA.

I recently bought an active bass which was working fine. I checked the battery and it was dated 2016 (I thought I might as well replace it). Batteries in my various active basses live at least 5 years so I just carry on using alkalis.

I think we need more context. Covers band wearing same colour polo-shirts or tshirts with logo on breast? Definitely not cool. I was in a band in the early 2000s who did this. I had agreed to wear them to turn up and set up in as it identified us as 'the band', but once on stage I thought we should wear proper clothes depending on gig - I was overruled (not outvoted, you do what the band leader asks)... Originals band with different printed t-shirts as has been shown quite a bit since far looks great. In fact I'd go as far as to say if you all have different styles of print and they're available to buy - it's a great advertising spin. Slightly cool depending on execution.

Yep, totally uncool, no respectable artist would ever do that...

I'm playing (mainly) rhythm guitar with excellent Bowie tribute Rebel Heroes at the Old Court in Windsor on 9th September - tickets still available here.

That’s a great idea. I should get a t-shirt with the band name, date, venue and time I need to be there for each gig 😂

Duckie Simpson wearing the band T shirt here, so it’s definitely not uncool

Yes, I wear one. I am a fat, ugly, elderly twit for whom the pursuance of 'cool' long ago lost its appeal. Helps to remind me of the band's name, tbh.

I’m aware that it’s meant to be very uncool, especially for originals bands, but in lieu of a backdrop or bass drum skin (on multi band lineups) then at least it’s some publicity for what band the audience are watching.

Being a parent to a small child, this is immediately where I went when I saw Bluey...

Dave, What a coincidence. I put up room darkening panels today. I don't think they're the answer. I should have gotten black out panels Daryl

I started out with an Ibanez SR300 and after going through Fender, Epiphone, Squier, Peavey and Musicman, I'm back at Ibanez again. This time it's an SRMS805. I'm really liking it. It plays beautifully and I'm getting some evil distorted sounds out of it.

A mate of mine worked with them a couple times. Apparently they hate each other. Arrive at the venue separately, separate dressing rooms, don't speak to each other and leave separately.

I just posted something on another thread about a certain track being a means of time travel. Then I realised that most music does this for me. Songs that I haven't heard for a while will take me back to certain times and places which nothing else does - with the possible exception of smells and food. I'm sure that there's a scientific reason for this, which TBH I'm not really bothered about. Amazing though, don't you think? Examples of tracks and where/ when they take you back to...

We do. Here's the singer wearing a t-shirt with the singer's face on it.

They also did a limited edition DarkRay in a cool white sparkle finish with black hardware and an ebony fingerboard. I used to own one.

If you want total darkness blackout curtains might be the better way to go. I don't mind a little bit of light at the edges but when the cat pushes the vertical slats aside in the middle of the window and the sun directly hits your face its a bit of a nuisance to say the least. Dave

I don't see what's uncool about it. If you're in a cheesy function band (and I'm not knocking cheesy function bands here!!) All wearing the same band t shirt is probably the way to go, nobody would think you're cool trend setters anyway. I don't have one, but if I did I'd wear a t shirt with my bands logo on it for gigs. We have a great logo. I am not cool anyway, not even in a so-not-cool-its-actually-cool way. I drive a Volvo estate. I have a mirror pickguard on my bass with the band logo on. Does this make me uncool?

Oh yes. I'm same although with my cheap ibanez and yamaha. Ridiculous basses for the price.

Great score bartelby 👍 - as for the TRC I guess you can carefully touch up the logo; if not, these guys will make one for you: https://reproguitarparts.com/#!/Electra-Westone/c/1385115 They custom made a creme version of the TRC for my Thunder II, which is now also part of their catalogue.

Ah yes. That's a much better description than resonance!

I love to feel the bass resonating against me. I have sold basses which sound fantastic plugged in but have not resonated against me. Proper, proper high end stuff. It is part of the whole thing as far as I am concerned. Each to their own.

I have never posted before but felt I had to chip in. I am a proud owner of the Series-23 # 37, picked it up last week from Status. Although I never played a Status with a graphite neck I have to say my bass looks, sounds and plays fantastic. I am over the moon with it. I had a nice chat with Dawn while I was there, she is a lovely lady, and I was so pleased to hear that Rob is doing well. BTW I did see a couple of headless models while I was there.

@Linus27 he just sounds like typical selfish person who realised his free ride was over. A similar thing happened to a friend of mine who suddenly realised he was a partner in a firm, bringing in all the business and doing all the work, staying late while the other partner, wandered in whenever he fancied, and then was out on "business lunches" or the golf course all day. It didn't go down well when he left, with all sorts of legal threats from the other partner.

Bedford Bandstand

First time playing in Ely Saturday night, I was unsure how it would go as having recently joined this band a couple of members aren't that confident. Couldn't have asked for a better reaction, the crowd were into it from the very beginning and gave us more and more confidence as the night went on. Yesterday's gig was a little different, different band (only play with these guys as they are friends and a bit of fun) starting at 1pm, first set went ok apart from having to transpose everything up a tone on the fly in the first number.. Second set not so much, couple of the older guys play keys with some automated one key trigger stuff (don't ask) and the guitarist has never grasped unity gain on his assortment of pedals, add to that drinking a fair bit because they don't play out much. I just sat back and locked in with the drummer..