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Thekla in Bristol on Saturday night supporting The Men They Couldn't Hang. The venue is a boat which is very weird. Loads of steps to load down. They shared their drum shells, but I still had to carry my hardware box down. Sweating before soundcheck! A long way to drive from Stoke for a 30 minute set but it felt worth it. Amazing reception from a crowd that don't know us, although we didn't sell much merch. Hopefully some of them will come to our headline show in Bristol later in the year. No photos from the gig but this is us waiting to soundcheck

Bit random. There was a bunch of Americans and an old guy getting into us. Halfway through the old guy steps up and thrusts a number into my hand and says, “You’re incredible, the best bass player I’ve ever seen, I want you on my new album, call me.” It was the guitarist from Mott the Hoople. random

Played a pretty wicked venue in Southampton yesterday - Papillon. All day doom festival Abyssal fest, hosting some awesome bands and a great vibe all day. Performance was really enjoyable and seemed to go down pretty well. 10/10 fun.

Mustang Sally were booked in the George pub, Mere in Wiltshire again (well, three of the band do live there) and it was Carnival night once more on the Saturday just gone. The roads through the centre are closed at 18:00 to protect the crowds on the street and let the floats lumber their way through to the parade starting-point. Very sensible of course, but for me living nearly 50 miles away it meant leaving home at 16:45 and even then only just getting through the barricades with two minutes to spare. Setting up in the pub was very relaxed as our first set was only due to start at the end of the parade (about 20:30), so sound-checks were actually possible. Unfortunately those checks were early doors in a quiet corner of the main bar that later filled to bursting point with a crazy scrum of singing, dancing and somewhat leathered punters, so my sax set ended up with my lungs turned up to 11 even with the radio mic - see video... Time went quickly, we managed to finish at exactly 23:00 as per the pub’s licence, the landlord immediately booked us for the same gig next year and I was actually home by 00:30, happy to slurp a post-match cup of tea, but not so impressed with the sturdy welcome-home present my cat had left for me in his litter box… WhatsApp Video 2024-09-15 at 18.22.44_ff42baf4.mp4

Oddish one this weekend; a 3:30pm start yesterday at a Bowling Club in Burnley...yeah, sounds like a recipe for disaster all round, but it was OK. In fact it was better than of late because we had the #2 drummer who I know of old, so we got to entertain ourselves during the more boring numbers (Sit Down, Sweet Home Alabama*) by playing off each other around and about the song. Audience were another 60+ lot; age, not numbers, sadly, despite the landlady saying 'It'll get really busy later'; I can only presume she meant after we'd left, because there was no evidence of 'busy' anywhere; maybe 25 people all afternoon. 2 x 45, encore not requested, so they didn't get one. We had more room than we've had in a while, which was OK, and I was home for half six, which will do, I suppose. Under-8lb Cheapo P, Stomp, inears. * Revived on the spot for the set (I pulled my face a bit) because they weren't an indie crowd, so we'd shelved several songs, SoF being one of them, so I guess swings/roundabouts...

First one in a while! 4 Play (still funny? 😳) at the riverside in Sutton bridge. 4 - 7pm so a nice time slot. Actually played well until the getard swapped axes… to one which WASN’T tuned down 1/2 step 😝. Thankfully I play five so I just shifted but what a nob! Good crowd, singing and dancing, landlord happy (pissed, but they normally are in the Fens). Home in time for antiques Roadshow!! As always, Fender Dimension USA V Into GK Rb700 and barefaced BB2. The amp is like “I know the output from your humbuckers is too hot and things are distorting but it sounds so damn nice please can I have some more of that?”. So I obliged. I’m dimly aware that there are “not humbuckers” available… meh. Not for me ta.

Strictly NAW (week) as I picked this up from @essexbasscat the previous weekend. It has also belonged to @krispn - not the first time I have owned stuff after him, the guy obviously has great taste! The amp in question is a Fender TB600 head, which combines a valve preamp and overdrive stage with a chunky Class AB output section in a 2U rack format. I have had a hankering for one of these on-and-off for a while, so when the stars aligned I went for it. My first go with it through my BF Super Twin was not very auspicious as there was a bit of a crackle and when I switched it on the second time it went dead. This last was user error - on close inspection, the amp has a rated power consumption of 900W, which at 240V mains equates to a current draw of nearly 4A. A toroidal transformer (which this amp has) also draws a high inrush current, so no wonder! As well as fitting a higher rated fuse in the mains lead in place of the 3A, I decided to give the amp a quick service. The innards are easily accessible once the top cover is removed, allowing me to remove and test both 12AX7 valves (Groove Tubes badged, Russian made, original fitment and still good) and treat all the pots, sockets and switches with switch cleaner. No more crackle after that! I also spotted an intact 10A fuse on the power inlet board which reassured me that there wasn't likely to be a troublesome short circuit somewhere. I also replaced the bolts securing one of the front grab handles as it had taken a knock at some time and they had been bent. None of this should be taken as criticism of the seller - it's an 18-year-old amp and some maintenance is inevitably going to be required. The preamp tone controls are passive, so they have enough range to set your desired sound but not enough to create unusable extremes. The Vari-Q will notch out a narrow band of frequencies or add a subtle hump of mid boost; the Room control is a tilt EQ. It's all very well thought out. In the living room all my basses sound great, with plenty of top end when required, even through my tweeterless cab. Down to business with the first of 2 rock'n'roll gigs this weekend gone. My weapon of choice was an AVRI '63 Precision. You know when you're just enjoying listening to the sound that you're making? It was one of those. Afterwards Mrs Axe said to me, 'Your bass was quite loud tonight you know.' Yes. Yes it was. I had a strong impression of power being delivered effortlessly on demand. The core tone is solid, fat and round, just as I like - there's definitely some heft going on! On the second gig I hd an issue with booming, but it was the PA, not my bass rig. Once sorted it was again a pleasure to play. Pic below is from the sale ad but I'll try to furnish some Fender/BF combo p0rn in due course.

New to me, picked up second hand, gotoh equipped jazz bass. This is now strung with some flats and I am blown away with how nice it is / plays. Previous owner had upgraded jack and installed a series / parallel push pull pot. It's lighter than I expected, certainly less weighty then my atk 400. Might have gotten lucky but I'd recommend this

@W1_Pro, I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner but I recently bought a Hondo II Precision as a bit of a project. I think I just got distracted by comparing yours to my SD Curlee. Anyway I bought this old Hondo bass which the seller claimed had a DiMarzio PU (he was lenient with the truth in other aspects so I wasn't sure). The cover had been pretty crudely glued back on so I've just picked it apart to solve my, and hopefully your, query. The basses are roughly the same era and the pickup looks just like yours (you can see where the glue would've been at the other end) so I'd assume it's the same pickup.

Time for an update to this great thread These are my basses on the settee: Sterling by Musicman Ray34 (most likely be sold next week). Spector Rebop 5 Lakland Skyline 44-02 (most recent addition) Hamer Chaparral Squier James Johnston Signature Jazz Bass Blade B3 (restored after being broken to bits) Tokai Hardpuncher VSB40 ltd. Ed.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1045764070225703 Nice innit?

Played some punky ska at some seaside pub in Dawlish for a music festival. Went down really well. Backline was interesting, Orange guitar valve head into some Ashdown combo speaker and 2 x10”, actually worked well and sounded quite nice. Also the first outing for my 6.4lb Spector…no back ache today, hoorah!

In case anyone hasn;t posted this already - well worth the watch.

I don't think we've played Shine Jesus Shine in the last decade. Which is kind of a shame - I'm running through it in my head and you could do it with a real rock drummer, a muscle-bound bass line and a couple of horns - it could be a cracker. Better than most CCW.

This Saturday, 21st September, I'll be mullering classic rock tunes with Nine Lives at O'Donoghues in Aberdeen. First time playing here. Late start, I believe, possibly 11pm.

I’m playing with blues band The Alligators this coming Saturday 21st at The Sellwood Arms in Aldbrough on the East Yorkshire coast. We start at 9pm.

Dunno about that, but a great band back in their day!

If I had been in charge of that scrip, I might have suggested a few changes but then he is fecking right. I should add that I spent almost 50 years in various roles in TV as well as a short stint in pro audio. So it is like hearing nails down a blackboard recorded at 96KHz though a megawatt PA system to me. Just pedanting saying 😠

Nice! So there is a second GK Fusion/Barefaced 12" rig in Barnet! Below is my practice set up.

If you're near Cardiff or can travel I'd get this: And this: Cheaper than those combos only smaller, lighter and much more useful if he wants to rehearse with other musicians or gig later on. Just add a 1/4" jack to Speakon cable.

It is rare to find a classic song - one that is loved by congregation and musicians alike. Shine Jesus Shine - do your lot do that handclap thing after "Shine on me, clapclap clapclap ..."? Gratifyingly, my current pastor appears to dislike Shine Jesus Shine - but the last time it was listed for a service, the congregation were all loving it like "Agadoo" at a Saga Holidays disco... I think that, for every time the congregation sing it once, the band will have played and heard it 4 or 5 times in practice and rehearsal. So, we are fed up with it, but they are not.

Just chime in after some great suggestions. Well all have different needs and wants, preferences and things we see as pro’s or cons. As @Osiris says if it’s overly noticeable you either want that effect or you’ve set it ‘wrong’. I currently have three comps on my boards and it’s an overindulgence but… Hyper Luminal sitting right after my preamp and before the DI signal for the FOH output. BUS setting with very little compression but just enough to catch anything overly unruly. I think I have reasonable control of my right hand technique and this still allows my dynamics etc. Nice thing about the HL is the onboard control with three types of comp and deeper setting to tailor the unit for each ‘type of comp’ so three setting (pre sets?) in the one unit. Markbass Compressor- recently acquired and I love it. It’s equally effective as a characterful tube stage as it is a wonderful easily tweak-able comp. I have it set up to barely grab peaks but just find the whole signal chain sounds better with it in line. It’s now first thing on the board. If you want tube character it sounds as good and better than almost any ‘tube drive’ units I’ve tried or those amps with the tube pre which doesn’t really do much. Honestly I feel this is a sleeper pedal for folks wanting tube character without fizzy drive, thickness with out loss of top end and a wonderful actual tube doing the work compression. It’s a big unit and needs 12v 600 mA power but if you have space and the right power it’s a winner. Basswitch Dual band comp - @Osiris has had a play on this and finds it similar to the Boss LMB but with a slightly different flavour. Very punchy and simple to dial in - some pre set things going on under the hood so the four controls make it really simple to set up quickly. Again I’ve it set up to be not so grabby and much like gain staging drive units I can have all three compressors on without tone suck and all just adding in a wee touch of ‘more’.

Thanks, even deeper on this! 🙂 Especially for Daryl! Saturday Night-1.mp4

The gig with dep drummer went ok. Interesting using house pa but Nick used his desk to eq it out with white noise which was impressive. Often the Ex's doesn't start to fill up until 9 (the Alley being a rather sterile box with the lights on), but we had punters arriving from 8 which was a good sign. In the end it was rammed and our second set got much dancing. We used their lights plus ours so although pretty basic stuff it looked good in a Christmas Tree sort of way! Obviously a few Interesting endings etc with a dep, but aside from almost everything being a bit fast to groove well, it went really well. The band WhatsApp is buzzing after two really good gigs 😎 feels like we've caught our stride now. 20240914_204823.mp4

Did a cool gig in Chelmsford town (city?) centre last night as part of their Sounds Good festival. A real eclectic line up of acts - we were closing our stage and preceded by a singer/cellist with guitar accompaniment which was ace. Their cover of Smooth Operator was v cool, as was their original work. Katy Hurt and band hadn’t even seen each other properly since August because of various things so it was a bit under rehearsed but we had great fun. Stage was great, sound guys were lovely, sound on stage was awesome (and oh my god the Handbox WB-100 is a SUPERB amp, sounded ace on stage and sound men loved its DI). TBH I feel I played pretty average at best, but I got through it and just simplified some things I’d normally actually over do… I was channelling my inner Negan with my clothing choice so everyone was lucky I wasn’t brandishing my bass line a baseball bat covered in barbed wire* 🤣 *Walking Dead reference for anyone going 🤷🏼‍♂️

Ampeg SVT and 8x10 cab, mate.

Hello Maude, Thats absolute genius. I did exactly what you did, took the pickups apart, and lo and behold, Dimarzio's! Many thanks for the help and for taking the trouble. The pickup seems to be OK too, so thats going back in. Best Stuart

On the way to a gig...'did i leave the gas on? was there something in the oven???....oh shiiiii..."

We used to make the Landmark 300-600 heads which were the RBI/RPM in a single 300-600 watt head. You could alternate between the two channels or combine them. For some reason the bass community is all about feather weight class D heads now but to me a 23lb/10.4kg 300 watt head that is as loud as an Ampeg SVT was a no brainer.

Reading this thread I’m starting to feel rather grateful that we mostly do more recent stuff, y’know like “make room”, “holy forever”, “he lives” etc… 😇 (although I luckily get to do the old hymns when I playing the organ for the local Anglican once a month) - the best of both worlds !!

They're touring at the moment and we have a few of the support slots

Those are DiMarzio pups and the addition of the DiMarzio pots seems to confirm that. I love those cream pickups.

Farrell might not be on junk any more, but he’s a certified p!sshead. I’ve seen Jane’s a bunch of times, and he always comes out with a big bottle of wine, that’s usually all gone by the third or fourth song. You can tell - he’s in key for the first few tunes, then it gets wobblier and wobblier as the night goes on. His excuse of not being able to hear himself is ⚽🔒🔒. He wears IEMs and could have had the person doing the sound turn him up. He’s just frustrated that his vocal chops aren’t nearly what they once were, and was taking it out on Navarro. Apparently they’ve only cancelled one more show in the wake of this - what are they going to do? They have another 14 dates to do. I’m guessing Dave’s going to quit and drop off the tour, they’ll bring in Josh Klinghoffer or Troy Van Leeuwen to finish the tour (they covered for Navarro while he was out with long COVID), then, after the tour, Jane’s will go back on the shelf. Hoping Navarro and Avery get together once the dust has settled and write another Deconstruction album (fantastic but little-known project they did together right after Jane’s split up the first time).

Try my main band’s drummer. Superb Taylor / Bonham style, great fills, lovely big rock animal kit and sound. Perfect for what we do. But after EVERY guitar (not keyboard, weirdly) solo he adds c. 3-4bpm. And given that JR Guitar IS Mr Solo, that’s many BPMs by the end 🤓

So, *not* been caught stealing then?

Last nights gig with Emergency Exit punk covers was at The Riverside in Dumfries. The band has been playing this venue for 7yrs now (3yrs with me) but unfortunately due to noise complaints from locals that moved in recently the venue has suffered from noise complaints and the owner Ann has finally had enough and has decided to retire so i think that will be the end of live bands in this venue. She retires next week so we were privileged to be asked to play for her. Sad moment but she had been to court so many times in past 2 yrs with it and won because she was putting live music on before these people moved in. Decent turn out and very enthusiastic dancing around the bar and conservatory areas. 1hr drive home so that was easy too. Guitarist had a senior moment when he started Teenage Kicks in Db instead of D and he just couldn't get out of it and it was a disaster moment but we just made a joke of it and the audience appreciated its live music and sometimes we have senior moments. We did cut it short tho. Band has a meeting this Thursday to see if we want to continue doing the punk covers band as venues that will accept punk are becoming less and less and the audiences are dwindling from 3 yrs ago. Its odd because any time we play we get a great response from all generations and age groups. Original member from 78 is doing a Ramones tribute too and is thinking its maybe time to call it a day. I'm 50/50 on it mainly because i like the people in the band and i really quite enjoy playing the songs. They have a lot of energy especially the SLF songs which have become my fav songs in the set. Will see how it goes. Dave

Snap! If he drives a car like he drives a mixer he would be banned! On to Friday's Gig. Annual Bowls Club Supper Dance. The less said about the supper the better. The audience were not the youngest we have played to as you can imagine but they were up and dancing from the start. The main lights in the hall were on all night so it was a bit more like a rehersal than a gig but we mostly had fun. Usual set up for me Fender Aerodyne Bass, Bugera Veyron amp, Zoom B2 Four plus Cand Heat Cables made by my very own hand🤩

Nice fairly local gig for the glam lads last night. Wasn’t expecting much as it was an early start (7:45) and the pub was fairly empty when we went to the change room (read kitchen….that’s why all my stage wear smells of chip fat) however we came on to a full pub of enthusiastic punters. Had a great night and it was a fairly early finish, I was home and feeding the dog bits of my cheese sandwich before 12. First proper gig with the new to me Sterling Stingray shortscale; struggled a bit with the sound (couldn’t get that nice ‘fullness’ for some reason) which I never do with my Sandberg Lionel’s. Still, there’s always room for improvement on the eq.

Just back home from playing a great gig at the Anchor in Burbage, Leicestershire, depping with function band Superbad. Looked like a regular village pub, but it seemed to be THE place to go on a Saturday night round these parts. Place was rammed, with a wide range of ages too. Travelled light, using just one bass (Yamaha BB604), a Markbass head and two MB traveller cabs (tho it occurred to me afterwards that my Ashdown head is the exact same size as my pedal board, so I could have taken that and plonked the pedals on top.) Next time maybe. Resisted the urge to stop off for a McDonalds on the way home. Got home to find leftovers of a Chinese takeaway in the fridge instead - jackpot!

Long day doing a fundraiser for a theatre company I’ve played loads with. It was a pick up band, so one rehearsal on the day, matinee gig and then evening. It was a community do so the musical calibre was of variable calibre and the inexperienced md, despite working very hard on the charts doesn’t have the technical chops to write with the correct musical grammar, which is a proper headache when songs in Bb minor are written in A# for example. The occasion was a 60s singalong- let’s see if any takers can recognise these two groovy classics. Anyways, lots of discussion and teamwork and we managed to put a show together, did about as well as I could do gluing tempos together between a lower section brass band drummer and an enthusiast dancer with a tambourine, off for a lie down and looking forward to a regular gig next weekend.