Leaderboard

Ey Up Mi Duck festival near Doncaster on Saturday night. We were last on and they went absolutely nuts for us, singing along so loud I could clearly hear them over the on-stage racket. This was the view while the previous band played at the other end of the tent. Sunday night at the Castle and Falcon in Birmingham supporting Theatre Of Hate. There weren't many in, and the response seemed a little lack-lustre, especially when compared to Saturday night, but we won some new fans and sold some merch so that'll do!

I will add a Midi controller and a Relay G10s very soon. But so far, this is what I am using.

Another Satdy night, another bar...this one, however, was a bit upmarket/older clientele (a new venue to us), and when a 60th birthday Do walked in (about 15 ladies, there were balloons and sashes, that kinda vibe), a hasty rearrange of the set towards the Girly Dancy Songs led to a more engaged night than it could have been... Downside, tho, was something that hasn't happened for a bit: Singist/Geetard/BL got there first, and texted 'Lads, it's up two flights of stairs', which was followed by three immediate responses of 'Oh, f**k nooooo...' Still, as I say, that's the first one this year, so can't really complain, especially as I've tweaked me back (Physio booked Weds) and was able to honestly swerve much of the heavy lifting...thank the gods for Helix and inears...

The bass I’ve had longest is this 1983 Fender Precision ( Dan Smith era ) I bought it new from Monkey Business in Romford. They were advertising the last American built Fenders, it was when the Fullerton factory was closing. I fell in love with the neck. The collection grew from this point.

With In Isolation at the Black Bull in Gateshead on Saturday. This is great gig but the last two times it's been rather poorly attended, with this time probably due to to Eurovision and several other high-profile goth gigs up north. Despite that those that did turn up seemed to enjoy it and some were even dancing all the way through the set. Sold some CDs afterwards and had several people asking when the new songs are likely to be released. Special mention to the support band Machiner who were absolutely brilliant, and by far the most interesting and enjoyable new band I've seen for some time. Go and check them out on your streaming or download service of choice. There's a good chance that we'll be sharing the bill with them again in the future. The whole gig was video'd so hopefully I'll have some visuals to post later.

So around the time of the last message in this thread I contacted Peach to see if they had more stock due. As I mentioned earlier every other stockist was more expensive and no-one seemed to have any stock anyway. Peach replied to say they did, in a week or so, and would let me know when they were in. I was away last week when they contacted me so couldn’t get to them until Friday. On Wednesday the site showed 3 in stock (at £597). By Thursday the green one went. On Friday morning, just before I boarded my flight, there was only one left. I landed at lunchtime and checked and the last one had gone. Still I thought I would go anyway as I had an appointment and thought at least id get to try one. When I arrived all was well. The chap with whom I had been communicating had actually put on order in to stop it being sold! Tried the bass and loved it so I’m now the delighted owner of one of these - at a great price - thanks to some great service from Peach guitars.

I just watched the UK entry. WTAF? It's honestly no wonder the public vote gave him zero. Some of the posts on X are priceless. One person posted something along the lines of, 'Oh, why can't we just enter a nice song, performed by someone with a decent voice, nice clothes, sparkly shoes, backing singers doo-bopping.' Got a point. I'd rather this than five blokes dressed as boxers dry-humping each other.

The gear

Drove back from seeing Phil Campbell then watching pub gig in Narberth over the weekend. Utterly knackered. Bluesfire played Cubanas in Barry, always good for us, as crowd into blues rock and guitar pyrotechnics. As I was getting ready to load (gig less than a mile away) had non-stop thunder for 5 minutes out over the channel. Managed to load as first rain came scattered big drops, but got in car and then it went biblical. Sat outside venue for 15 minutes until it stopped. Got in, to find guitarist's dad stuck in rain with pa , lights and puncture. Used venue pa and lights (as good as ours, better monitors, but vocals only). Meant a speedy knock down later. Numbers a bit low due to weather, so started 15 minutes late. Numbers picked up to be ok for venue but not as many as we expect. Familiar faces and some new ones. Alex got the crazies and did some mad solos, I played my '76 mij Maya fretless (really overdoing the slides and posing with frantic arpeggios) and Flea Jazz. Alex dropped me into a solo so I got the crazies too. On one song Alex called The Hunter. Paul started drumming Walk In My Shadow, and I started the Hunter as Alex came in with Sultans of Swing 🤣 somehow we all settled on Walk In My Shadow by the first change. Another song my high d started feeding back, in the playout solo so I had some fun with that. Felt like were were jyst having fun while people watched. Despite this, went down really well and we were bombarded with great feedback, especially for Alex. Several people promised to come and see my other, new, band on Saturday our first gig in Barry. Walked out on a high, promoter said he'll come to my gig on Saturday too. Nothing for us until July now, but got a good bucket on top of fee, so we were able to stash enough for rehearsal studion end of june and get extra each. Now radox bath...

So after some hassle with the courier delivering to the address down the road that is one word different to mine (not the first time; I have complained) I have the Three10. The true test will be on a gig (I have two in a couple of weeks), but my initial impressions are good. The tone is what I expected: overall very warm, a little less upper mids than my Compact, a touch more bass, but just the right amount of the right kind of highs (IMHO). I've played around with the tweeter and not heard a massive difference with it on or off, but I play with flats and no wild effects, so frankly I'd rather have a mellow tweeter. The wheels and handles mean its not much more awkward to move than the Compact, though I did not enjoy carrying it the hundred or so metres back to my flat! Plus it matches my office.

This is my first-ever guitar, which I bought second-hand in 1980: What might come as something of a surprise, is that it did not originally look like that. "Surely not!!!", I hear you you squeal in shocked surprise. But no - it's true. It did suffer what can best be described as a mishap, involving some superficial decaptiation, which unfortunately necessitated the mild modifications you can see, in order to rectify the matter. Originally it looked like this, so as you can see it is barely altered from its original design. The bass I've owned for longest is this, which I bought new in 1984, from Allan-Gordon Music in Wathamstow. And this is it, being used in anger by an annoyingly skinny & youthful Moi. Can't say my dress sense has improved greatly, tbh.

So. One month since we’ve finally reunited with my first (and so far the only) Serek. 10 gigs in 10 cities with an audience of roughly 4000 people in total. 10 rehearsals and a few dozen hours of practice. I think I have a proper opinion re.the bass’ durability, pros and cons. Well, the bass is durable alright. The finish albeit rather rustic (see below) is sturdy enough. The hardware works as it should. The gig-bag is not perfect (see below) but it works well. It saved the bass from the harsh loading and unloading on buses, cars, trains, hotels, station premises, lockers etc. Saved if from a few more than likely bumps and bruises. Cons. The body finish looks a bit amateurish up-close. Strong DIY vibes. The color is spot-on though. And a few feet away it looks fine. I personally don’t like the texture contrast between the stripes and the main finish: how it feels to the touch under my elbow. But it works and it’s rather durable. The neck heel plate is horrible. Just an unfinished square of sheet metal with rough edges. It will ruin the insides of the gig-bag one day. And it was hard on my clothes as well. The pickup is rocking a bit inside the pickguard. And it’s unprotected: I had to rest my finger directly on the blades. I guess one day the perspiration will get through them to the coils and kill them. Rather unsustainable. The gig-bag is nice in the pictures. Looks almost like a Mono. But in reality it’s a rather budget Chinese product: the quality of zipper seams and straps is not very high. The pocket is poorly designed and struggles to hold even the basic necessities (strap, cord, rag), the neck cushion is crooked. But again, it works. (turned out to be) not a con. The presumably silly built-in fuzz circuit is surprisingly useful. And the rather radical switching between the full tone and tone cup is amazingly practical in real life situations. I got used to it and will not change it to the stacked vol-tone (as previously planned) until it’s broken. The purchased parts are going to wait for now. Pros. The sound. It’s there. The stock rounds are fine. But I changed to Dunlop flatwounds right away and never looked back ( ). After the swap - it’s just the sound from my head. I can’t put my finger on it. It’s just right. Sits perfectly in our rather motley alt-country mix. It’s different from my preferred P-bass tone. But it works in the similar manner by being both unobtrusive but always present and fundamental, and by firmly moving the whole band in the right direction. The ergonomics. Although geometrically the shortest one from my stable, this bass doesn’t feel small. The body is shaped in such a weird off-set way that it feels like a full-size instrument. The upper frets reach is even better than on most of my “traditional” full-scale basses. And the balance is strange but somehow works properly: you may swear that you feel the neck dive but in reality there isn’t any. A rather uncanny feeling that goes away after a few hours of play. Overall, the bass feels to be meticulously designed by a rigorous engineer. A lot of thought went into this design. Heck, even the lower Dunlop strap lock once connected forms a firm standing base together with the lower bout of the bass’ body. The neck feels and looks fantastic! Now, this is probably the best part of the instrument. I like everything about this neck: back shape, radius, how it feels in the hand, how the wood looks and the shade of it. It looks tasty and feels sublime. The color scheme is beautiful. It came right from my dreams and I’m happy that I didn’t pull the trigger on the earlier batches. The quality of plastic parts is on the highest level. Conclusion. A unique instrument with rather appealing vibes despite all the quirks. I will definitely keep my eyes open for another Serek. Preferably a Midwestern with a single B-90. Thanks for reading!

Dressed and polished frets…. Lovely and smooth to the touch now, and a very attractive bit of rosewood actually… and we’re done…… An old set of Rotosound Monels fitted, very happy with the end result. Pickups?…. Mehh I’ll leave them in. Pretty low output but I do like the tone, kind of old school. So there it is.

Have to say, not many other options for something like this. Plus it looks good to boot! https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2024/05/10/eastwood-guitars-teams-with-seye-adelekan-for-the-classic-5-seye-signature-bass/

I've just returned from a session at the physiotherapist. While I was waiting, a second receptionist started work and there was a conversational handover, which was pretty much this: 'Oh hi, Sally! Good weekend?' 'Yeah, not bad, took the grandchildren to the park, then we had a Chinese and watched Eurovision.' 'Oh god, it was just awful wasn't it?' 'Yes, terrible. Why we even bother entering is beyond me. Everyone hates us.' 'I know! Jesus Christ on a bike.' So a little snapshot from middle England.

Thank you for validating my post 🙂

Send me your narcotics, please! Where to start? There is no resentment felt across Europe for Britain, particularly when it comes to the likes of music, comedy and other artistic pursuits, which are massively respected. Your view is a lie sold to you by multiple governments and media sources to make you think Europe was to blame so so many of Britain's recent and not so recent failings. Brexit's not like the brochure, eh? Ever wonder why? Your second paragraph perfectly illustrates why there should be resentment, however. The Ibiza tourist of posts. Take your head out of your arse, lad. As you say, the UK entry was rubbish. Grindr visuals with music not fit for a Wetherspoons advert. Yet you somehow think there's a larger movement at play which was behind other countries not voting for such a terrible song? Was 2022 that long ago? Show some respect, send something entertaining and you get votes. It's oh so simple.

Been interested in these for a while due to the nut width. This one popped up in conversation here and, well, one thing led to another and now it’s in my house! It came with a black scratchplate, which I thought looked ace, but the original white plate has aged to a lovely coffee-stain/cream colour, and looks absolutely effin fantastic! One surprise was the string width at the bridge - I’d just assumed it would be standard P spacing but it’s a little tighter. Nothing I won’t get used to. Changed the knobs just because.

A few months before I even flirted with playing bass, I was getting into very different music to that i'd grown up with (hard rock/grunge) and bought on recommendation 'Dream Theater - Live Scenes from New York' in ~2001/2002. On bass, was John Myung, sporting a rather immense looking 6 blue string bass. I was utterly blown away by how well he played and sounded, and am still a Dream Theater fan today. A year or so later I got into bass, and my parents gave me a very generous £500 budget for a 21st birthday present, that ended up as a Yamaha RBX775 in Flat Blue, because it looks a bit like the RBX6JM, but it was cheaper. The years went by, and I still have it - just defretted and refinished (red goat leather, yes really). Anyway - late 2020, I see an RBXJM2 in Plum Pearl appear locally on Facebook market, for a decent price. I really wanted that turquoise RBX6JM, but this was the next best thing. It was a little messy, but i've replaced the rusty pickup and it's now sounding great - it's a 6 string Stingray at heart. April 2021, I see an RBX6JM in Turquoise appear on FB market, at a good price ! Quickly I message the seller...he replies fast. It sold 30 minutes ago to someone in Europe, but they hadn't paid yet. I offered a cash deal the next day (a drive to Bristol for me), alas he honourably sold it to the first buyer, after they paid him the next day _ don't begrudge it, but I was gutted for the sake of half an hour. OK - well i'll find another one ! The Bass Gallery had 2 on their website, both at £999. This is by far the most expensive i've ever seen these basses, gave them a call and they wouldn't budge more than £100 on price, I wasn't going to be robbed, so held out. eBay alerts, daily checks of the big (and small) websites second hand sections, online pawn brokers..... nothing. *10 months of checking daily later* Friday PM, I load up eBay on the morning catch up of newly listed items, scroll... scroll... oh man. A turquoise RBX6JM, at the right price, I contacted the seller and saved a few quid buying it outside eBay, it took a little while longer than expected to arrive. But it did, along with a genuine fitted Yamaha hard case (never seen one of these before) Behold - the bucket lister.

Ha ha, there are far moore knowledgable people than me on this forum, but I've owned a few 60's Fenders, and have spent an embarrasing amount of time looking at them, trying them out, researching them, and talking about them! But to this bass; it could be 100% lewit but there are simply too many questions about the neck for me. When I saw the first photo my strong and immediate gut feel was 'Mmmm, neck's wrong'. OK, it might be a very unusual/rare board that's throwing me, although it looks rather unplayed even for a paler hardwood for a 60-year old board to my eye. But that the potentially rare board is part of a neck with at least two other potential signs of non-originality leaves me feeling suspicious. A couple of visits to dealers of vintage basses around 15 years ago made me realise that there's not only a lot of dodgy basses out there, but that the owners - not always as expert as they'd have you believe and often not as honest either - have all sorts of stories to cover for what in real terms were deal-breaking deviations from originality and even authenticity. A memorable comment from a London-based shop/dealer was something along the lines "If I took the neck off to show you the neck stamp it would devalue the instrument and i'm not prepared to do that just because you don't trust me. The person I bought it from - who I've known for years - assured me that it's a June 1964 instrument and that's good enough for me.....".

Gigged Saturday night, in stark contrast to the previous week, this social club didn't appear particularly social.. Large L shaped room, they put us at the bottom of the L with the bar at the top, we had to squeeze into the corner as we couldn't block the door to the toilets or the fire exit at the opposite end. First set was ok, few people singing along and we did get the odd bit of applause but for the second set, what there was of the audience had dwindled, so the audience was down to 4-5 plus our wives/partners. Three quarters of the way through the second set the last person walked out so we packed up, still got paid so can't complain, but very difficult to put any energy or effort in at a gig like that.. Highlight of the night was Steve the 2nd guitarist pulled out of the car park and got immeadiatly stopped and breathalyzed by the plod! Thankfully all clear..

Apart from the replacement bridge and tuners the rest of that bass looks legit to me. The tuners are obviously new - you can tell by the thread being a lot longer than on original pre-CBS tuners. The bridge is obviously a replacement as up until around '67-68 the saddles were threaded. The bridge on this bass where the saddles aren't threaded but are adjusted with a screwdriver rather than an Allen key were used from around '68-83. The only other thing is the missing decals on the neck, but it does look genuine as it has the correct round laminate fingerboard. These are hard to fake as outside of Fender from 1962-1983, nobody really made them (I have seen a couple on lawsuit era Japanese Tokais, perhaps, and Fender brought them back for the 2013-2017 AVRI line. Musikraft will still make them too). Interestingly this bass appears to have a Padauk fingerboard, which Fender used on a handful of basses in 1965 when they stopped using Brazilian rosewood but before they switched to Indian - this could make it more attractive to buyers. Electronics look correct, the sunburst looks right for the era, and the scratchplate looks fine too.

Finally, a 12 string bass pic.

Played a small festival in Wiltshire yesterday evening. Not much money but lovely to play out of doors in the sun. We bass players don't get much attention as a rule, but yesterday I had a couple of folk with kind words. The second guy was a keyboard player in awe of the sound of my bass. A Harley Benton jazz. He was quite right, it does sound awesome.

Hey gang I'm doing a couple of sold-out shows at Newcastle City Hall this weekend in the house band for the Auf Wiedersehen Pet 40th anniversary celebrations. 21 tunes, most of which I've never played before, all of which are bangers. We've been in rehearsals all week, with everything laid out as close as it will be in the night (albeit in a different venue). We're getting monitor mixes and FOH mix as close as it can be, so there shouldn't be a whole lot of work to do when we have production rehearsals in the hall tomorrow. Usually with gigs like this keys and arrangements can be rather fluid, right up to the show itself, and this one is no exception. It keeps me on my toes, especially as a non-reader. A few scribbled notes, a decent memory and a following wind will see me through. Gear-wise, I'm using what I use down the Dog and Duck... Handbox R-400 head, TKS S212 cab, and '71P with flats, and a Maruszczyk Jake with rounds (haven't decided which will get the nod yet), and an LR Baggs Venue DI (used only for silent tuning). FOH is getting the cab mic'd with a Beyer M88 and a DI from the R-400. I'm told a 50/50 mix is being used. The band are a bunch of great lads, and it's been a pleasure so far. Tomorrow, we're moving into the City Hall. I'll post updates when I can. This is Jamie. Jamie's a mixing GOD. Monitors...

EBay for £95. I already had the Hi Mass bridge and EMG pickups so I put them on it. It sounds really great. It weights a tonne

He took over from Brian Jones in The Stones. You young ‘uns can’t be expected to know I suppose…..😅

I recently built two Fenderbirds as a tribute to Peter Cook. About a year ago I was approached by a former fellow student of my brother. His passion is woodworking and in particular collecting tools, such as very exclusive planes, chisels, rasps, etc. Now he had bought a very nice CNC mill a while ago. And he was looking for a nice project to play around with. Anyway, we decided to make a complete bass guitar together with that CNC-machine. I would give him all the dimensions and specifications and he would make the 3D files. Together we went to my local wood supplier to select rough planks of mahogany and maple. I bought the hardware and electronic components. And two months ago - after countless samples of scrap wood- two bodies and two necks were ready to be processed into a bass guitar. I glued the fingerboard to the neck, tapped in frets, lacquered, sanded and polished it. Filled the pores of the body. Lacquered, sanded and polished that one. Then mounted everything. Today they were finally finished. The funny thing is that it is absolutely no less work than making it yourself by hand. Only if there is a series production, then all the efforts will be able to bear fruit. The Brooks Fenderbird (Jufferschans Edition) - Mahogany body - Brooks all maple P-bass neck - Fiesta Red finish - EY Guitar Thunderbird humbuckers - 34" scale - Bone nut - Wide travel Thunderbird bridge plus tailstop. Nickel - Black three ply pickguard - Gotoh Res-o-lite GB528 tuners - Gotoh extra large strapbuttons. Nickel - CTS potentiometers - Silver reflector cap knobs - Switchcraft output jack - Rotosound RS66LDN strings - Weight: 4.3 kg Twins!

Actually, the two stamps show the same distortion in the '7','5'and 'A'. (the one above is a bass sold on Talkbass, the lower picture is the one at Charlie Chandler's). Same month too. I'm pretty sure that neck is legit.

Sam had stage presence, charisma, talent, and, most importantly, a really good song. He deserved his spot. When the UK delivers the goods, people vote for us. Most of the time we don't! Olly's song was forgettable, had no hook or memorable chorus, and, yes, the general homo-eroticism of the performance might have turned some people off. The staging was cool though. Switzerland earned their win. It was the only song with a proper "earworm" hook, and the staging was incredibly clever. And I also liked the Croatian entry - like a more poppy Rammstein. Ireland's Bambie Thug was also a great, very original performance and a good song. They're actually pretty talented - if you look on Youtube, you'll find videos of them performing some of their songs solo on piano, and they're great.

A number of printer issues has slowed down printing the outside components but it's progressing. Big shoutout to @JohnH89 who has been exceptionally helpful as I struggle through some of the setup. He's been utterly brilliant. The neck is still being setup, am printing another neck shim to try and get things in the right place. I'm also doing the three remaining components, bottom left (control panel), top right and top middle. These aren't that important but give you somewhere to rest your hand In deference to @tauzero I have added three strap buttons to the bottom of the bass as well. One in the middle and one either side. I can easily blank any of them off. Added in two pickups, these are what I had to hand, though I can use Thunderbird pickups, jazz pickups or probably most others. Not soldered them yet as I need a control panel and thats still printing. I might just have it done for the bass bash. Rob

An oldie but goody: Peter Walker arrived at a press showing with a new set of his Quad speakers. Realizing that he forget speaker cables, and not having time to drive back to the shop to get a pair, he went around the corner to a hardware store, where he bought what he knew would work well. At the press conference later the press seemed as interested in the cables as the speakers, being captivated by the bright orange color. Prodded to reveal the brand of what they assumed were very expensive bits of wire Walker replied: 'Black and Decker!'.

Its all so serious and dull. Click on Bucks Fizz and be amazed. Bright and breezy, superbly written and just fun....Guess modern music reflects modern society .

At the moment the list is: Panda Audio Future Impact I and V4 Source Audio C4 Source Audio Lunar Source Audio Spectrum Source Audio Collider Source Audio Ventris Source Audio Atlas Source Audio Nemesis ADT Source Audio Bass ZIO MXR Bass Envelope Filter Singular Sound Beat Buddy TC Electronic June 60 Chorus Broughton Audio Fliptop MXR Phase 95 Plus something I can’t disclose yet. I’m selling the June 60 chorus. I’m fairly sure I’ll get another analogue octaver though. The one in the C4/Spectrum is very good but isn’t quite the same.

I think a lot of people are as excited about your Three10 arriving as you are! I suspect there are quite a few fingers hovering near triggers, just waiting for a positive review from you! No pressure then! I decided it was just a bit too big and heavy for me to manage in my old age and went down the LFSys route, which I don’t regret. You can’t really compare BF 10CR based cabs to the LFSys Monza. They have completely different design objectives. I’m sure the Three10 will be amazing. If I need the extra grunt of a 3 x 10, I’m going to stack my Monza on top of my BF Two10 and I now have an amp that can handle the 2.7 ohm combined load. Each cab is compact and under 13 Kg which I can manage. Not as good as having a purpose designed 3 x 10 but I think I would struggle to manage the 21/22Kg and size of a Three10 with tweeter. Great if you can handle it and I’m very interested to hear what you think of yours when it arrives.

Does it need to look like a conventional bass rig? If not any good quality FRFR powered PA speaker will do. I have an RCF745 which has proved more than adequate for the two times I have needed to use it to supply bass guitar FoH for the audience, as well as on-stage for me. Also PA speakers generally have better dispersion characteristics than a conventional bass rig which means that you can be quieter on stage and still produce plenty of volume FoH. The last time I used my conventional bass rig without PA support I had to be so loud to get the right FoH mix that I could barely hear the rest of the band.

Birthday treat to myself and the soundtrack to the sunny weekend just gone. Sublime album!

Last year I was criticised on here for saying I always thought Eurovision was a bit of light entertainment. A big spectacle of camp theatrical nonsense. Allegedly this is British arrogance and Europe takes this seriously and enters their best songs and entertainment. So I watched a bit this year and can say I feel as the French or Italians might if this was an international food festival and a chance for the nations of Europe to showcase their finest local produce and everyone turned up with processed cheese and boil in the bag fish curry.

How did I miss this topic? I absolutely adore my Lakland. It's a USA Joe Osborn from 2004. Bought it because a befriended bassist has one and I loved it so much I wanted one myself. Got this one from Andy Baxter's. It might be the best Jazz I've ever played, and I've played a LOT of fantastic Jazzes.

A bit of an unusual service for me this evening. The worship leader asked if I’d play bass in the 1st set and piano in the second one (the keys player left for the Youth Stream after the 1st set). I used to do that fairly regularly but haven’t much in the last 4 years or so. The WL also asked if I’d sing in both sets. I’m fairly sure I haven’t played both instruments in the same service and sung before. As it turned out I didn’t sing in the second set as I didn’t have enough time in the rehearsal to get sound levels sorted for the 2nd set. In the second set I couldn’t hear my voice, so left all the vocals to the WL who did a good job. We’ll get it right next time. We got some good feed back afterwards, including from some fellow musicians, so overall we were happy. i gave my Ric a runout. It’s just had the nut re-cut and a set-up, so I decided to check it out in a live situation. It worked pretty well. I think my G&L L2000 will probably remain my main worship band bass, but I enjoyed playing the Ric tonight.

Best of luck to them, so much natural talent and sense of rhythm. 👍

Forgot to add. I laughed like I haven’t laughed for ages over some puerile, schoolboy “band humour”. Whilst we were setting up, the DJ started playing “come on Eileen”. I innocently said, “Am I the only one who doesn’t dislike this song as think we could play it?” One of the guitarists, replied, “maybe, but I wouldn’t trust Liam (singer) not to change the words to make it filthy”. Long story short, we started putting the word “spaff” into song titles and lyrics (obvs not whilst actually playing them). Childish. Yes. But we found it hilarious.

Birthday party gig in the High Peak, Derbyshire, near Monsal Head. My car packed to the gunnels with all the PA and my gear etc. Went really well as the party guests were all Country music fans and knew most of the words to most of the songs. Cowboy hats n boots were the norm and there was a hog roast which was yum and a bucking bronco which was good fun to watch (none of the band took part). Used my EV subs, recently acquired to match the tops, for the first time and the sound FOH was excellent. Used my go to gig rig of Mike Lull P4 and Handbox R400 with matching HB 1x12 cab which sounded really good and I'm really gelling with now I've gigged it a few times ......and the cows enjoyed it. There were two large bovines in the pens next to the stage who were oblivious to the racket we were making and I'm sure they were nodding gently in time to the music 😊

In over 30 years of playing I’d never played a Gibson bass (but I always wanted one). I remember in 2002 finding a Gibson Grabber for £250 in Trade-It (ask your dad) but it was gone when I called. Anyway, fast forward to 2024 and this dropped onto my inbox and promptly a deal was made. Pick up this week and the bass is here and what a wonderful thing.

I built this bass as a gift for a friend when I worked at the Yamaha custom shop in LA around '94-'95. I used a Yamaha neck but it had nothing to do with the company. The black lines in the fingerboard are graphite to increase the strength of the neck and to make the strings speak better. I wound the pickups as well. The body is basswood with a maple veneer on top. It's great to see it after all these years!