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Wiltshire's darkest boy band Deadlight Dance played what was easily the best open mic that I have done in a LONG time. We thought it would be fun to mix it up and both play acoustic guitars so I dusted down my Gretsch Rancher and spent the last few days practicing. As it's 35yrs ago this month that Nick and I made our live debut (in a Sixth Form production of Cinderella, she lost her shoe at the ball to the soundtrack of us stumbling through Bauhaus' "Bela Lugosi's Dead), we thought it would be fun to open with that very song. We also did versions of three originals from our latest release, "Chapter & Verse". I thought it was the best we'd played in a while. Directly in front of us was the legendary Nick Harper (son of Roy) and he seemed really into it. His friends all were too. What I liked was that every act, bar just a couple, watched and supported each other. The standard was exceptionally high and I felt confident enough to flyer the pub, which in turn boosted our likes / followers online. I have to say that Nick Harper's set was hands down the most impressive musical performance I have ever seen. He was down tuning notes with the tuning pegs as he played and it was an absolute masterclass in guitar virtuosity. Still the overriding take home for me was good musicians, all supporting each other.

I depped with the Spandau Ballet/Duran Duran tribute show 'From Gold To Rio' at Eastleigh Concorde Club last night! Great gig and best bass sound I've had in my KZ IEMs thanks to my Spectors, HAZardlAMPs pedal, GK Legacy800 and a cracking sound team the band use... @casapete - the keyboard player was Chris, your old bandmate in ELO Experience!

Last Friday saw us back at The Speakeasy Bar in Hinckley. Cracking gig, with many of the crowd saying they'd come to see us play before, which was great. We rattled out our set of good 'ole Country choons, with a sprinkling of Chrimbo songs for good measure. Finished the set with Islands in the Stream followed by MIFLAW. Cheesy I know, but fun to play and lapped up by everyone throwing shapes in front of us. 2nd encore ....Sweet Home Alabama (well you have to really). We did throw in 2 or 3 originals into the set which were very well received. Mike Lull P4 through a Handbox R400 with matching cab, with just a graphics eq and a thumpinator in the effects loop The band is called Southern Frontier Country Band...check us out on Farcebook and give us a like 🤠 Obligatory gig pics some of the excellent crowd

Bass...the final frontier...

My Christmas present arrived, a Reverend Mercalli fiver in wine red flamed maple, with a roasted maple fretboard and neck. The neck is wide but shallow (47mm at the nut and the string spacing is 19mm at the bridge, apparently). It needed a little tweak of the truss rod and the usual new bass set up stuff but after doing all that, I've had about 30 minutes on it. I am impressed. It weighs under 4kg, there is no neck dive, the neck feels lovely, though the width threw me off at first (my only other fiver has a narrower neck). The B string is much better than my other fiver (a Charvel Pro Mod JJ) and the weight and absence of neck dive means I think this will be my go to fiver. I'm guessing the 6 bolts connecting the neck to the body and the string through option are the reason for the improved B string, I'm not sure but the B string it came with is a 125, and it doesn't feel loose or sound flubby. I love Reverends! This is my third.

I have some friends that I met through open mic that asked me to play with them. They got excited when I suggest I use my upright bass. I like the singer's voice and they people involved but it's not strictly 'my sort of thing' musically. Still, it gets me out the house and I like playing with different people and learning new stuff. I just need to get some experience playing venues with higher ceilings!

Me thinks someone's autocorrect has been conditioned by their frequent searches!

Only because this time I remembered I could lower the endpin! 🙀

Snagged one! It's a Thunderbird, it does Thunderbird-y things (except neck dive, which is apparently a Thunderbird-y thing). Only had a quick razz in the headphones but it sounds good to me! It's a hard so-and-so to photograph for the camera in my mobile, it only shows the true sparkle when it's pulling focus and I catch it in the act thus: Sod it, have a video. 07_thunderbird 64 purple moving.mp4

J'arrive! Does look a lot like the 'Guyatone' (dunno what it is really, it's not an EB4 though), and the 'Teisco' isn't a Teisco - Reverb/Ebay rule no. 1 - every weird-looking 60s/70s guitar or bass is a Teisco, regardless of what the headstock may say. This rule has no exceptions. Teisco did make basses that looked a lot like this, though - the EB18, 3rd row: Although you can just about see this has edge block position markers (which seem to be a Teisco thing) rather than dots. Currently flicking through Frank Meyers' 60s MIJ Bible (an actual book, so frustratingly, no useable search/image search function) and it actually looks like these may be eariy Fujigen Gakki. Will come back with more boring stuff if I find any!

I didn't realise that hipshot made replacements for the Gotoh GB1 tuners that come on Japanese and some MiM Fender Mustangs, but I saw this new set of HB-10 with lollipops on ebay and I couldn't resist. This type of tuner has a narrower string post than most Fender-type tuners so the HB-10s are the only replacement set for basses using GB1s that don't require any modification to the wood. They came from a dealer in the US so they weren't cheap. The total cost inc shipping & taxes was £12, but there were no nasty surprises as the taxes etc were paid up front with ebay shipping. I have just fitted them to my Siennaburst Player Mustang and they feel lovely & smooth like the hipshots on my JMJs and the lollipops look the biz.

Update - we have a serial number! 6862. Apparently it's marked as "in production" Not sure what that means in terms of timelines but it's something!!!

Dropzone played the Purple Turtle in Reading last night. Much bigger crowd than I was expecting for a cold Monday night in December. Lots of cheering and dancing, and good feedback afterwards. Hopefully will get some more gigs there soon. ( We've played in the rather dingy basement before, but this was our first on the main stage ) I used their house Blackstar bass combo, I managed to make it sound like I wanted fairly quickly, but I'm pretty undemanding in this regard.

That is hideous. I love it.

It’s wrong, but what’s going on here? These ‘AI’ images create some things so well, but drop the ball on what should be simple.

🤪

I've got my oxygen tank and my listen/translate app ready!

Will you be ok? You might get a nosebleed going that far north!

Roy Harper was a fantastic songwriter. Heard one of his albums back in late 70's and it was so good. The song i remember most and was touched by the emotion of it was "When an old Cricketer Leaves the Crease". I'm not a cricket fan but this was such a fantastic song back in the day. Dave

My advice if using mid priced gear is Bass Combo with 115 or 2x10 500w If head then 500w minimum with a 210 or 212 cab For high end cabs like LFSYS or Barefaced the cab could ve a 112 or 110 cab but depends on if a loud drummer My personal fav rig ( but heavy ) was an Ampeg SVT212AV cab and that with a good 500w head or 100w tube amp would do any pub gig going For your musical styles a clean sounding amp would be better such as Ashdown RM500 or RM800 An old second hand Ampeg PF800 would also work well or Ashdown ABM600 too All comes down to weight I guess and tone you want

Squirt by Gender? Strange instruction!

Well, I had a wee razz through the amp tonight, and even at levels which won't incur the wrath of neighbours it sounds punchy and solid. Felt like a complete and utter rock god even without an audience, but any T-bird will do that to you I reiterate - NO NECK DIVE (caveat this by saying I use a Neotech Mega strap - but it isn't pulling at the shoulder of my jumper either). It will hold a 40-ish degree angle up from the horizontal, and is quite happy at 20 also, I kid you not. There are a couple of things I might change though. The electronics mostly - I don't like the taper on the pots - it's a bit all or nothing in the final quarter turn. Tone pot does very little also, so I think an experiment with different caps may be in order. Also, I'm not convinced by the stock choice of knobs - there's no context for them to be gold, they're the only gold coloured thing on the entire bass, save for the Epiphone logo on the TRC. I think I'd prefer black and silver top hats instead.

Ok, New Bass Day! That last pic I posted was of this bass. I picked it up yesterday for evaluation, and I've done the deal today. I'm pretty excited about this one, it's quite special. 1973 Fender Jazz Bass in original factory black with white guard. Neck, pickup and pots all date to '73. The wiring appears untouched, as do the pickups. I've spent the last hour restringing it, and giving it a setup and intonation. It plays like a dream and sounds fabulous. It is entirely original, but missing the covers and case, hey ho. Needless to say, one went out of the door too today, and I'm quite a bit lighter in cash than I was yesterday, but I think it was worth it. Thanks, Rob

Back at the Monarch Bar in Dunfermline with Temptation Waits on Saturday night. Good gig, not much of a crowd for the first set, but got a bit busier and rowdier for the second set when some merry punters arrived. Bar owner had forgotten to order enough stock for the weekend though, so there wasn't much bevvy to go around! We added six new songs for this one, which we got through okay apart from me during Welcome To The Jungle where I went a bar too early to a different section near the end. Oops. From what I can gather, only me and one of the guitarists noticed. Annoyed with myself though. Gear was my Fender Jazz into HX Stomp board, Aguilar Tonehammer 350 head and 2 Markbass NY121 cabs.

it’s been a big week!!! And to be clear jhs were awesome enough to send me the Legend of fuzz pedals

If you want to do a deep dive: check out Riddimguide.com.

Before loading and firing the parts cannon, take it to a tech' for diagnosis. It's easy to spend a lot of money - more than you'd spend on a tech' - on replacing parts by guesswork.

Yep, I've read it. Really enjoyed it. It's very much more about the culture/time/situations that led to the electric bass being what it is, rather than it is about bass guitars as objects of desire. If you're a Spotify user someone has created a playlist of all the songs mentioned in the book, in order. Just search as per the book title

I gave up for nearly 10 years as I just didn't find playing music fun or interesting anymore. World kept turning and now I enjoy it again. Invest your time and energy in things you love and your life will be worth it. (And don't spend too much time at work!) Best of luck for the future.

We Are The Road Crew - Motörhead

People don't believe me when I tell them I've got a favourite Spandau Ballet song, but it's True.

Acquired through getting it wrong plenty of times on the long road to occasionally getting it right 🤣 Interesting to hear they're still having big problems with feedback when running a silent stage with IEM. What I'd be looking at is: How loud are they trying to run their PA How big a space are they trying to fill Where is the PA positioned relative to the mics Where are the mics positioned relative to the PA and to any acoustically reflective surfaces in the room Although their stage volume isn't an issue in terms of backline levels, if they're trying to play a "loud" show, they could still be getting in their own way with the mix. The Alto speakers are definitely at the cheap and cheerful end of the PA world, and whilst I'd imagine they'd do ok as purely vocal amplification over a band playing through backline at a sensible gig level, they're being asked to do a lot of work in carrying the whole band on a silent stage and probably being pushed beyond what they're really capable of. That's a lot of dynamic information and transients, and a much more constant load on the amps and drivers than purely pushing vocal, so they'll likely be running at their limits. As you mention, mic choice could help too, and the trusty old 58 isn't the mainstay it once was. There's plenty of options out there with a tighter pickup pattern. There's also the usual things about vocal performance to consider - is the singer projecting and giving out a reasonable volume, or are they whisper quiet? Are they on top of the mic or backing off/singing at a distance from it? EDIT: Just to add - I've just taken a look at the Zoom L12, as it's not a desk I'm familiar with. I see there's a one-knob compressor on each channel. Not sure how much of that they're using on the vocal, but if they are doing, that could also do more harm than good in this situation with regards to achievable level before feedback. If they're using it on the vocals, I'd suggest dialling it back or fully bypassing it and seeing if that helps them out. Usual vocal mixing tips apply too - making sure the high pass filter (labelled "Low Cut" on the Zoom) is engaged on the vocal mics, and making judicious and careful use of the channel EQ.

Absolutely, I'd definitely suggest try-before-you-buy, though in the UK for example, its actually quite difficult to audition even just a few heads together up at a comparable volume in any shop. I agree with you that Watts is not a measure of SPL and I've said that many times, however, when we are limited to what "specifications" manufacturers give us, a rough ball-park figure is better than nothing at all. Or, to put it another way, using reasoning, a ≤ pub-band novice is more likely* to find something suitable if we start with "500W RMS and a 2x12" from nearly all of the current well known brands.

Coincidence; I posted a Roy Harper video here just the other day..! Time for a resurgence of the style..?

I think we have a winner here. 🤮

I haven't got any decent pictures of it, but surely someone's going to post the original cut-down homemade bass that Bill Wyman made (Dallas-Arbiter with the frets pulled out?) in the early 60's that had a hilariously bad DIY pickguard. Same goes for some of the early (late 50's / early 60's UK made basses. And some late 60's or early 70's plywood MIJ basses too. The pre-lawsuit "we're not really sure what we're doing but we're doing it anyway" ones. Teisco were repeat offenders. Italian company Meazzi also made some pretty wild looking basses, the Jupiter models in particular. I sort of admire their Italian bonkers-ness in a way.

I wondered when someone would mention this. Say what you like about Behringer, but the Veyron 1001M comfortably competes with the heads from the usual suspects and sells for much less. It has more power than most, looks great, and has well-chosen eq frequencies.

In Norfolk it’s any make of car, tractor, van, lorry, or other self-powered farm machinery regardless of country of origin. There is obviously a special spec list for cars bought here: most drivers save money by not specifying indicators. If they do use indicators, it normally means they are trying to trick you and will actually be turning in the opposite direction to that indicated. They will wait at a junction until there is a car coming and then pull out very slowly and drive at a steady 38 MPH in the middle of the road, regardless of the speed limit, whether it be a 20 limit in front of a school, or a 60 on what passes for an open road (there are no motorways in Norfolk and few dual carriageways).

Or a Vox AC-30. 😉

For anyone curious, remizik is a classy cat and makes a great repro knob 😁 Very pleased with how mine turned out!

That straight line below the neck pickup. Ugh. Everything else flows beautifully, then it was 5 o'clock and the ruler came out.

I have made the decision to focus solely on playing bass in church and, to step back from playing acoustic guitar, and singing. Bass is my passion, it's my forte and I know it's where I can best serve the Lord and my church. I only ever played guitar and sang in my last church because the Worship Leader left and I fell into the position, I did it for 3-4 years but never really enjoyed it. I know that I've made the right decision because I genuinely feel like a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

Hi Luiz! Well, there's so many variables involved from the size or amount of speakers you are using, the type of amplifier, even down to how 'honest' the manufacturer is with their ratings. I'd suggest, as a sort of 'capture all' that 300W RMS is a minimum with 500W RMS being a good place to head for. I also suggest that in most cases adding more speakers (e.g an extra matching cabinet) to be more effective than going from say, 500W to 600W output power. My favourite set up for most gigs is a high quality 2x12 with a 500W RMS+ amplifier on top and this seems to be a good match for the bands I am currently playing with, as anything larger, I'd run my bass in to the PA as well. (Then there's the IEM discussion to be had.. lol)

I’m def in the backing vocals only camp. I’ve done lead vox but my voice doesn’t have enough to it for that role, whereas I can tailor my backing vox to suit most lead singers, and harmonies are something that for some reason I get quite easily.