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Played a Studio 8 session for RTE 2fm today. Got t cplay in the legendary studio 8! Sounded unbelievable. Beautiful EBS Neogorm combo

I'm proud and excited to share that I will shortly be heading off on an extensive 22 date, 5 week, European tour, playing bass for US blues rock sensation Dudley Taft! Hugely looking forward to it... and to catching up with some of my European friends!

I have the onset of OA in the fingers of both hands and have found fingerless compression gloves help when it starts to flare up. Can still play with them on. I do find the ladle gets in the way sometimes.

That sounds like the old Tommy Cooper joke Doctor, my arm hurts in two places. Well, don't go to those places then.

If the band are good its a foot in the door for that area. "Build it and they will come". Played a gig in Methil Scotland about a 2 hr drive for me each way so nowhere near as horrendous as @cheddatom but first time was around 50-60 people in a club that holds approx 180-200. 2nd time was sold out so its all about getting in the door and showing how good you are. That was just after pandemic and that had a big effect on how many people wanted to socialise. Not so sure i'd drive 5 hrs each way tho. That's a long haul especially on way home after a gig. Dave

Played with The 77s at Market House in Maidstone last night. It was our last gig with our outgoing drummer, I thought it might be a bit awkward but it turned out fine. The place was packed, and we had a really good gig. It’s my favourite place to play locally, I have been playing at the weekly jam night that is held there, but it was nice to play a full gig there. There were a couple of the other “big” local covers bands playing at other pubs in town, but it didn’t seem to affect our attendance. we have a dep lined up for our next gig in March, and then nothing currently booked until June whilst we sort out a new drummer. The only downside was having to load out in torrential rain.

Started the first 2 gigs ( of 4 in Eastern England*) at Norwich Theatre Royal on Thursday. Due to a number of reasons we hadn’t played this wonderful venue for a number of years, so was great to return here. Lovely crew and facilities, and a great sell out crowd of 1,300. Gig went really well although I was feeling a tad under the weather - dropped a couple of silly mistakes but styled them out ( I think!). Friday saw us drive up to The Cresset Theatre in Peterborough. One of our regular gigs, about 3/4 full and a nice crowd again. Decent 2 hour drive home too, so in around 1am. * The other two gigs are this coming Friday 23rd in Newark, and Saturday 24th in Kings Lynn.

I once owned a lovely metallic purple Music Man Silhouette Special, that I unfortunately had to sell when money was short after my car needed replacing. It was a lovely workhorse with a fantastic neck and a huge range of sounds thanks to some interesting wiring on the 5-way switch, but at the time I often favoured my (much cheaper) Squier MIJ E-series Strat so it made sense to let it go. It was shipped off to Finland, never to be seen again. But a certain level of seller's remorse always lingered... 10 years went by, and then suddenly a whole collection of high end guitars appeared for sale at the same time from a single seller: PRS, Gibson, Fender, Taylor, Godin, and several Music Man guitars - including a metallic purple Silhouette Special. The asking price was quite high, so I didn't bother inquiring but I did follow the ad. All the guitars gradually got sold, except for that Silhouette Special and a modded Fender USA Strat... I have been following that ad for 1.5 years, and it remained unsold for all this time! Finally, last week, I couldn't bear it anymore and sent an inquiry. I got chatting to the seller, asked for some better pics (which showed a pretty concave neck) and made an offer - under the condition that the neck would adjust well at the turning of the truss rod - and the seller accepted. So to cut a long story short: Turned out the seller was a widow, selling off her deceased husband's collection. She'd had many lowball offers, and was happy to finally see it go to someone who appreciated it and she loved my story of The One That Got Away. It's a late 90s model, just like my old one, with the only differences being the rosewood fingerboard and hardtail bridge (my previous one had birdseye maple and a trem). The neck responded well to my adjustments (almost a full turn of the truss rod) and plays like a dream. I hope this one will be a keeper for a much longer time than the previous one!

This Saturday in Devizes, Wiltshire - our 50th show!

Ooh Aah... Just a Little Brit - Gina G

Around the turn of the millennium, I was in a 70's disco themed band. We were successful weekend warriors doing 2 to 3 gigs a month and had build up a good reputation locally. We were a 7 piece outfit with one male and two female singers. The male lead singer wanted to bring his girlfriend in on backing vocals and the band just said No - so he left. We then replaced him with a far better male vocalist who took us up by several levels. He started getting us a few more gigs - but further afield. We were doing gigs alongside fully pro show bands, and putting on better shows than them. He kept telling us that we could be fully pro and eventually it came to a band vote on whether to pursue this option. I had a good, well paid job, mortgage, kids etc and although I wanted to go for it in my heart, my head (and wife) said No. The keyboard player also had to leave. It was a real shame as we were the longest serving members of the band. It had been pointed out to us at the band meeting that we would all have to have our equipment, stage clothes etc in the backs of our cars in case we got a call saying we had a gig that night in any given part of the country. The rest of the band did try but it didn't work out. The drummer who was only in his mid 20's ended up having a nervous breakdown. He would sometimes get home at 4,00 am and be expected at his day job at 6.00 am. People seem to overlook the gap between performing one, maybe two gigs a week, and getting up to five a week, regularly. You need to maintain the day job whilst building up the reputation and demand. The band broke up shortly afterwards, and I still feel a gap as no subsequent band that I've been in has given me the buzz that this one did. Looking back, not going pro was one of the best decisions that I made.

Mr Phillips has done for luthiery what square wheels did for transportation.

Immersion in hot water helps with both my thumb ip joints to the point I can begin to bend them slightly without excruciating pain. The pills and potions haven't worked for me. Thankfully this condition hasn't affected my fingers, yet. Sorry can't be of any further help.

We drove from Stoke to Margate on Saturday. 5 hours with a couple of stops. Olby's Soul Cafe is a brilliant venue! Great PA and the engineer was brilliant too. Unfortunately the choice of some unknown band from Stoke to headline a night in Margate didn't work out so well. The old story of a local support band bringing most of the crowd, then taking them with them after the set. All that way, writing off two full days, to play to less than 50 people... still, at least we got paid and had a laugh

@SimonK I am definitely guilty of letting off steam in this thread because as church musicians, we all know that playing in church can be equally rewarding and frustrating. Yesterday I led the sung worship, I was on bass and lead vocals, we played I SPEAK JESUS and whilst we have played it countless times before, for some reason it really resonated in the hearts of the congregation. There was a huge and very vocal outpouring of love for Christ and it made the hairs on my arms stand up, it was a honor to be a part of it and it made me love what I do even more. I'm still buzzing this morning. Yes, I moan about playing in church but, I love it too 😁

I tried! I failed! But I failed well, and will try again. I managed to strum the songs at home, and plugged into an amp via a tuner and chorus pedal, to get used to the sound and work out how to set up the kit. On the day during the practice, we couldn't find a channel to plug into, and I couldn't hear myself in the foldback. Sound levels were painfully loud as the band played on, and it was easier to step down from that morning's service. However..... I learnt that I could still play guitar; that it was fun; that it was hard work and very physical - and my fingertips hurt! I will play again with the guitarist and his tame pianist and am comfortable that I will hold my own. But for now, I remain a bassist.

Now the core has replaced a number of pedals my boards looking a little lite. Probably gonna take the Ricochet off the core has pitch bend and once I get the midi adaptor from Source Audio will get the C4 on there too and need a dual foot switch for the core too

Another morning after the night before post for you My mob Yellowhouse played the Essex Riviera with a dep singer. She's done a couple of gigs with us over the last few months with us and it's getting better each time. I think this is the best bit of video I've ever seen of my lot. The sound is great and the vocals are immense. It's an old Skunk Anansie song which I've always wanted to play and Susie blows the doors off here.... (Cort A4, Orange 4 Stroke, Laney Digbeth pre on the tube setting and a couple of Barefaced Big Baby cabs for the geeks)

Try this- 😎

I played in Frome a couple of years ago, at the festival. For some festivally reason the audience was full of people dressed in strange outfits like Star Wars storm troopers and stuff. Anyway, I had a bit of stage banter about the trip to Frome being a bit of a pilgrimmage for me, as one of the main reasons I took up double bass was because of a bassist from Frome who played in an 80s psychobilly band called Frenzy. (Yeah, and the Sharks, I know...). 'Anyone heard of Steve Whitehouse?' I asked the audience, to a ripple of applause from a few people in the know. Then one of the storm troopers in the front row took his helmet off ... and there was Mr Whitehouse beaming away at me. 'Shit, there he is!' I said. It was a cool moment. I had a great chat with him afterwards. Very friendly chap. Slap bass legend.

If you don't want to use one, don't. Nobody is forcing you to. But I'm also a working bass player and gig regularly and always use one, my bass sound is more controlled and sits in the mix better because of what my compressor is doing. Plus I still have total control over my dynamics, the idea that compression destroys dynamics is a myth that refuses to die... It's worth it to me but if you see no benefit then don't bother.

Play with other people. If you know any guitarists, see if you can join them for a jam. Maybe try a jam night or an open mic night.

Insane price.

And for bands that play small venues and no sound engineer ? Again I see no evidence a compressor is needed in a typical pub band scenario!

I've now decided that after I finish my 3d printed bass ... ... I am going to give up all my worldy goods, throw away my shoes ands walk barefoot, I will give up meat, and strong alcohol (though perhaps a small cider on a Sunday), forswear strong drugs and carnal passions, wear sackcloth and rub ashes into my hair and then sit at the feet of this master luthier so I can learn the ways of guitar building. I am clearly a novice and not worthy,.

See if you can borrow a short-scale bass to see if that helps. If movement is the issue then less movement than usual might be beneficial.

Sorry to hear that. We have exactly the same problem. We can get a fairly decent crowd locally, but outside of our "area" we're pretty much unknown. Still, at least those 50 people will have enjoyed it and hopefully will get some interest coming your way in future.

I have pretty much given up bass playing after 50 plus years because of osteoarthritis in the fingers of my fretting hand. I have been (still am) taking turmeric & black pepper capsules, and calcium with vitamin D, but it is impossible to know whether it's doing any good or not. I still can't play, but it's possible that the arthritis would be worse with the capsules or not - there is no way of cloning myself and not allowing the clone to take anything for it, and see what happens. I have resigned myself to selling up all the gear and fading into the background. I hope that your situation is better than mine, life is not the same without bandmates and gigs.

Doubling the cab count gets you 6dB of additional sensitivity/maximum output, which is the equivalent of increasing power by a factor of four. The higher power output from the amp when the impedance load is halved doesn't result in the increased output, it's just a byproduct of the process. Putting the second cab atop the first makes the mids and highs more easily heard, which also increases the perceived loudness. If that's not enough then a better amp can be tried. While the 500w rating of the neo Rumble 112 is so much fluff it's loaded with a Basslite 2012, which has a real world mechanical capacity of 150w. A pair of them could handle a lot more amp than the TC the OP has.

They are in line, but you'd expect straight string pull on a 4-in-line headstock and at this price point, and it isn't there. There's a slight sideways break angle at the nut mostly in the E and A.

A little late and really first impressions but my NCD day was Tuesday when my Monza, plus cover arrived. Circumstances have conspired against me being able to put it through its paces but based on a few hours of use, I am very pleased with it. First impressions: it’s a very good looking cab IMO. The grey finish makes it a bit different without being as in your face as an Orange cab. I like the steel grill and being able to see the woofer, compression driver and port. The handle is excellently placed and comfortable in the hand. It is recessed enough to allow the bottom of most heads to clear it: e.g. my MB LMIII but not my Warwick Gnome iPro (280 watt). The cover is exactly what I expect from an aftermarket cover manufacturer: tough cloth with proper padding, nicely fitted, with exactly the right positioning of the cut-out for the handle and a discreet LFSys logo. Size wise, it’s taller and broader than some other 10s, e.g. a BF One10 but similar in depth (if I recall my One10s correctly). It’s almost as wide as my Two10 but not as tall or deep. OK; so how does it sound? Well everything others have said. You hear everything you put into it, which can be quite a shock, if like me you are used to cabs with a coloured tone. I tried it with my Warwick Gnome iPro first and thought that my basses had developed grounding issues. I also realised that the compressor in my Flyrig is quite noisy. Now the Gnome is quite an aggressive little amp and is sort of the antidote to the vintage tone of my BF Two10. I also had it EQd flat for this session. This created a rather nasty brittle top end and accentuated the high pitch buzzing. I just had time to try my LMIII next and that sounded much better. Much less high pitched hum and a quick tweak of the VLE showed that there is lots of potential to change tone characteristics. The next session was a few days later with the benefit of a quick email exchange with Stevie and some thought. I went back to the Gnome but this time used my Boss wireless system instead of a lead. This made a really big difference to what I had thought were grounding issues. Perhaps the lead I had used previously was the culprit. I also tweaked the bass up and mid and high down. This was a quite workable solution. Having sorted the noise I could start to appreciate what the cabinet has to offer. There is plenty of bottom end available and it’s distinct, not flabby. The mids and highs are very present. I then swapped to the LMIII and started to notice how every teak to the EQ settings is noticeable. You really do get out what you put in, including any fret rattle from poor technique. Last off, I decided to annoy the cabinet police and put the Monza on top of my Two10 (switched to 12 ohms). This should give a 4ohms load (according to the BF tech advice). It wasn’t very successful. The Monza gets 2/3 of the power in this set up and the Two10 couldn’t be heard. I would need an amp capable of 2ohms to make this work. That way the Two10 would get 2/3 (switched to 4 ohms) and the Monza 1/3. I think that would be very interesting: loud and full range with a big bottom end. I can’t afford an EBS Reidmar (even less a Bergantino) for the foreseeable future, so I suspect I’m not going to get the chance to test that one! Still on the messing around with different cab configurations, I tried the Monza as an auxiliary cab to my Peavey MiniMax 150 combo (12” speaker). Wow! I really didn’t expect this to work, especially as the Monza has to be alongside, as they won’t stack but it sounded really good. Very full and warm, with the Monza adding in the high mids and top end that is weak on the Peavey. I need to spend more time with the Monza but I am learning that getting the sound I want will require a little experimentation. I have the feeling that, whatever you need, it can give it. Provided you put the right source and EQ in, the Monza will deliver, whatever your tone and style. What you don’t get is a pre-determined tone. Next step is to try it at gigging volume. Early signs show it is loud and capable of taking a lot of bass without getting flustered.

MK1 , MK2 and BH2 are "fake Barts", produced by Ibanez. So as Doug from Bartolini told me. They're not produced in USA and just co-designed with Bartolini. As long as the tone is on the spot for the player it doesn't matter anyway. I don't like BH2 but I like MK1. I like high end pickups as much as the cheap DX5 on my old '99 Ibanez. No judgement here, just to share infos I got from Bartolini directly (I'm in contact with them to get Bart's for my future projects). Cool you've found the issue and fixed it.

Crossover dividers on most modeller pedals seem to make interesting design choices like why not give a full frequencies range although at least the boss one goes down to 100hz I think the line 6 one only went down at 250. Again a control of the slopes on the crossover and HP/LPF on the end would be great. This is where the 4 EQ blocks on the boss do really come into their own. I found the crossover on the divider has a steeper slope than the equivalent LPF and so ended up using them other, I have some pretty drastic eq going on lows, boosting 40hz by 20db with mid q, High passing at 80hz and cutting 20db on high q at 120 and low passing at 100hz then running into the compressor. I find that gives a good solid low end that I then combine with other side high passed at 100hz going into the drive sections, out to one of the effects loopers and then into the preamp, another EQ blocks and then hitting the IR section before it hits the mix block. I have another divide that splits off before all of that high passed at 2khz and a bit of EQ boosting 10khz for a just a little clean signal blend they then mixes back before I then have any full range effects. so far I'm pretty pleased with how it's all sounding. The amp modelling might not be the best out there but it far supersedes the Behringer BDI I was using before, I haven't given it a listen through a big PA yet but I'm confident it'll be a solid pleasing sound for live.

The trouble with the term "music theory" is that it has a lot of unfavourable connotations for many. It can conjure images of poring over dry textbooks, having no fun, being rapped over the knuckles by the teacher, etc, etc. All of that is to do with the way it is taught in some quarters, not the subject itself. The reality is a lot different. It's all about demystifying how music works and learning why some things sound good and others don't. Some knowledge of it cannot fail to improve your playing. Even if you never intend to read music off the page, it will make you a better improviser, because you will have a better idea what to play and what not to play. bass_dinger sums it up very well when he observes that his 7 year old daughter learned in 3 years what took him 30 years to learn. There's no downside. You don't have to go the whole hog and learn how to compose for a full orchestra, but it's mad not to learn anything at all about it if you're serious about playing.

A sure fire contender for my favourite venue, Bath's Chapter 22 Roots and Records was host to my humble duo of darkness, Deadlight Dance, last night. Dean and Nic always looks after us. The setting is a record shop in the city centre that also trades in plants. Playing mainly mandocello and mandolin (with a second time on guitar for a song), my basses took a break. We were a little light on audience at first but it didn't take much to fill up the shop. The performance was one of our stronger ones. Honourable mention to co-headliner Steve Mercy. I think it's our 40th show. We walk the line between taking our music very seriously whilst not taking ourselves too seriously at all! People like our onstage chat. Gothic, but more Carry on Screaming meets Hammer Horror rather than anything too po-faced and serious. And if Boss are looking at this post, yes, you should endorse us!

Hurtsfall played the O2 Academy in Leicester as part of the first night of HRH Goth 2. Both myself and our synth player were still less than 100% fit having had to cancel the gig we had on Tuesday. However this was potentially too important to miss and I suspect that only death (our own) would have stopped us playing this one. There was some weird hum/buzz problem that affected two of the bands before us and also our backing and no combination of leads and DI boxes would make it go away. In the end it was EQ'd out at the FoH desk, as there was limited time between bands to set up and to troubleshoot problems. Strangely it only appeared to affect FoH and not the monitors. Setting up the Bass VI and backing controls: And here we are playing our opening song "Lucid": Nice big stage, and by the time we were on stage there was a decent sized and vocal audience. I felt a bit sorry for the band that opened the evening who played to less than 50 people and a smattering of polite applause. I could see people dancing and singing along to our better known songs which is always gratifying. And lots of nice comments about our performance afterwards as well as plenty of people asking about when we'll have an album out - we're working on it right now! And it's always good to see your band's name on the Festival T-Shirt: There were several professional photographers in attendance so I hope to be able to post some better photos soon.

So today (yesterday) I played two gigs with two different bands. First gig was a local bar with in-house PA & engineer. You play on a small corner stage and the acoustics arn’t brilliant with the drums dominating the on stage sound. Result was we made a lot of mistakes and we were well off our best. Anyway, dashed off from that gig to my second gig 30 mins later. Threw our PA and lights into an already packed pub, quick sound check, and on we went. Great gig, great on stage sound, and the punters seemed happy with my FOH mix. Thank god for the Behringer XR18 as the ability to recall saved scenes make setting up on gigs like this a breeze. Oh and we must have done something right as the landlady gave us a little extra in the pay packet 😎

Figure it out - Royal Blood We're doing it with guitars, so a slightly different arrangement, but I've still got to learn it all.

Just a weird mish mash of style with no coherence to me. Why the pick-up cover but not a bridge one? Why the modern hi mass bridge but 60s rest? Why the lollipop tuners? Weird.

I was lucky to be one of the few who has been pro and I say lucky as for me, I was living my dream so I look back with absolutely zero regrets. It is incredibly hard work, absolutely no doubt about it and the band have all fallen out and no longer speak to each other, arguments with the record company resulting in us suing them and winning, arguments with producers, managers and A&R guys, we've had it all. Plus its incredibly tiring both mentally and physically and even go as far as stressful and a pressure cooker environment at times. However, I loved absolutely every second of it because I was living my dream. From the many years of playing hundreds of gigs, travelling up and down the country, building a buzz and a following to then get the offer of a record deal and that moment where you go into work, stick two fingers up and say to all the doubters, you've done it and you're out of here, see ya. Then putting pen to paper and actually signing your record deal. Getting an advance and heading down to the Bass Centre in Wapping, picking out your dream bass, a huge rig, a spare bass and other bits and pieces and saying, the record company will pay just felt so good. Spending 6 months living in a studio with a top producer recording the album and b-sides while having our own chef, cottage and being able to focus 100% on music and being creative was incredible. Then going on tours to promote the album with our own crew, tour bus, tour manager was to me awesome. I loved going on tour, travelling, seeing new places, staying in hotels, meeting new people, playing new venues and being fed and watered was amazing but the rest of the band didn't seem to enjoy it as much and found it tiring, boring and a bit of a slog. Plus, playing two John Peel session, a Virgin session, Radio 1 roadshows, advert music, songs on the radio, CD and records in shops, interviews, photoshoots which I did hate, and then all the fan mail, gifts, being spotted and the attention. What's not to like but as I say it was hard work. Being locked in the studio was hard as you'd have periods of doing nothing for days and its no 9 to 5 type schedule either. For example, it's 2am and we need you to lay some vocals down or let's start recording the bass for this song at 9pm and after trying lots other ideas, its 4am and you are mentally drained. You then go to bed to then get called back 2 hours later for something else. Then, being locked in a studio for weeks or months, not seeing anyone but the same few people can do things to you. Just going out to the shops feels odd and all of the band had periods of paranoia thinking people are staring at them. Plus you don't see girlfriends or family and you do kind of get used to that so it can cause tension when you do to the point of feeling like you don't want to be there and you can't wait to leave again. Then the pressure of writing new material, maintaining an image, not just from gig to gig but photo shoots, interviews, TV etc. Keeping relationships among the band and crew can also be challenging and maintaining a positive attitude to keep selling the band and yourself to fans, promoters, radio stations, pluggers etc. can also be draining. You do live in a bubble and you can be so isolated from the real world but also living in a pressure cooker and not actually realise until it explodes. However, we were pretty smart, we knew we were all young so we negotiated with the record company to not give us our advance in one hit to last us 3 years as certain band members would spunk it all on various alcohol and substances within a year but instead, pay it to us monthly. We also set a routine which was Sunday and Monday is our day off, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we'd either stay at the rehearsal studio to write songs and rehearse from 10am till 7pm and then spend the evening having dinner and then Friday and Saturday we'd gig. If we weren't at the rehearsal studio, then me and the singer would stay at mine to write songs and the other two in the band would do band admin, promotion, tax forms etc. It actually worked and we stayed on the straight and narrow and did quite well and actually became quite savvy. So as I say no regrets. This is the moment I'm actually signing the record deal with the lawyers in London 😁 My bass corner at ths rehearsal studio.