Leaderboard

Redonizm were back at the Sarah Moore in Leigh-on-Sea on Saturday night. We really didn't think we'd be back here again as it was supposed to close permanently in the new year for redevelopment, but the building owner had a change of heart and let the landlord lease it for one year, with a view to a 10-year lease. A benefit of this is they are now independent and have associated themselves with local brewers and suppliers, so they have some lovely beer on tap! This was our first gig of the year after a busy Christmas period, so whilst it felt great to be out gigging again, certain muscles were out of shape, both physically and mentally! It took me a few songs to get my head into gear and stop making silly mistakes, but I was fine once I got into it. And boy did I ache the next day! A bigger turnout would have been great - quite a few of our usual followers were unable to come - but those who came and stayed, and seemed to enjoy themselves, and we had a decent crowd dancing in the latter half. Next stop, Cow & Telescope on Friday. One of our favourite music venues in Southend

TL:DR - I've bought a new bass. It's very nice. I've been hankering after a jazz for a while to fit with the vibe of my new band. Thought I wanted another Sandberg, a Vincent or really push the boat out and get a Lull. However, I fell in lust with the blonde Fender Japan Kazuki Arai signature jazz on the Bassbros website. It was 4.5kg however, so not for me. Then they got one that was listed as 3.8kg on their site. I messaged them to double check. It was actually 3.8kg. I was in trouble. Being away from Thurs to Sunday guaranteed that this would happen on Thursday afternoon (pic whatsapped to my by my delightful and not at all surprised by another big box arriving other half). Had to wait until Sunday to open it, it played nicely straight out of the box, but a swap to my preferred strings and lowering the saddles by a quarter turn really made a difference. The I plugged it in, oh my, these noiseless vintage pickups really are something. It's the sound I've been chasing for ages. The low B is fabulous. It's gorgeous and not at all 'signature-y'. An engraved neck plate is the only giveaway, and it comes with a plain one too, nice touch. I've got my first gig with my new band on Friday. Everything sensible says I should play my Sandberg as it's a known quantity. I won't though, can't wait to hear this thing in the mix. If anyone's bothered enough then I'll try to get some video and update this post at the weekend. Or, if you're near the bright lights of Chorley then pop along and check us out at The Shed and Garden.

Good gig Saturday night with the seven piece swing/Dixie band and we had our guest vocalist with us again. BL rented a small hall where we have played before and we had around 50+ that included a number of folks who had never seen us and a bunch of our regulars. We also had about six musicians in the audience that most of us had played with in the past or present in other bands, that was a bit different but they all seemed to enjoy the show. I was particularly pleased at the end when the best jazz guitarist in our area and his wife who plays bass complimented me on my playing and especially the sound of my bass. They both wanted to try the bass and checked out my pickup and we had a really nice chat. I have met both of them several times and they have seen me play but I must have been doing something right for them to spend so much time with me after the show. We did our usual three sets, two of swing/jazz and a shorter set of trad/Dixie where I switch to tenor banjo and the sax players go to clarinet and bari sax to play a bass line. The Dixie set was a bit rough with two new songs that we had only played once in rehearsal but all in all a good night. No photos but I was using my Shen SB 100 straight into the Bose PA and the banjo was acoustic, the horns aren't mic'd so I could hold my own in a room that size.

As we get older, that becomes increasingly important. I always tell myself, "Every band has at least one pain in the *rse in it. If yours doesn't.... it's probably you."

I got these. They're one louder...

I think it's pretty compact and versatile

Don‘t DO that. These days, any thread titled with someone‘s name, I take to be an obituary 😅

Ive probably spent/sold gear worth over 10K and not had a pen or sticker. Im never using BD again 😉

I’m just keeping it simple, Two Notes Le Bass (back up if my amp pops or fancy a bit more grunt) TC Corona Chorus Mini (when I need to get my Duff on) Shure GLXD16+ (best wireless I’ve owned, not a single drop out ever even on large stages) all powered by a Truetone 1 Spot CS6 ….

That's exactly what happened. I agreed to wait until after the next gig and take it from there. The band have been really understanding about it all. After the gig i realised how much i enjoyed it and decided it was better to stay with it. Band were over the moon about it and were not looking forward to searching for a replacement. As they said its not just about technical ability, its being a good fit for the band on a personal level too. I can't deny its a lot of fun, both on stage and off. Dave

Last night it was the Bendricks Rock gig at the Earl Haig. We had a good one. A venue where people know their music and expect good bands. Not quite rammed (apparentlyfor my brother's band lastweekbthey had to tske allthe rables out!... they arecrhulars though and this was our first time). Even so it was pretty full. Loads of banter, dancing and vocal appreciation. Lead guitarist switched off instead of standby on his valve amp so when he switched on for encores the fuse blew. We only realised after starting superstition so it was a bitof an improvised jam. My Joyo XVI helped thicken up the sound. We'd forgotten a vocal monitor so the rhythm guitarist's spare, a snall peavey, was used. We pressed it into service for our final song. As well as very happy punters and venue, we got some nice comments from a fellow bassist as well as a couple of local guitar legends. We left very happy that the recent sequence of gigs has done a lot to establish a fan base for us.

I'll take your moribund B2A off your hands and have it humanely destroyed...then you have yet another excuse for another NBD

For the amount of money we’re contemplating here I suspect you could make either (or both!) happen whatever the catalogues say…

Orf with his head !

Fender Bassman 135 Preamp

OK as promised a short clip of the Behringer B-Tron followed by the Red Rocket Tron lll. I thought I'd stick with the same riff used above. The first thing i noticed was the B-Tron is compressed quite significantly in comparison with the Tron lll. Just a glance at the waveforms after I recorded the clips showed way more dynamic change within the Red Rocket recording. The B-Tron was very square by comparison.

A mid 60's precision in burst/tort/rosewood and a Ampeg B15 to go with it. Im a simple man really

I have 2 Euro CST5’s and an NS dimension5. . All great basses . The CST has a thinner neck than a Euro5LX I had . Which was a better fit for me and my small fingers. I’m going to be putting one up for sale shortly if your interested

I bought a t-shirt from them at a Bass guitar show in 2016, and last month my boiler went on the blink. +1 never using them again!

Ah, glad to hear this, Dave. I always enjoy reading your gig reports.

Well sock it to me! She fits. Gluing 'er up and setting screws, off to the bench... You may notice the butt-joint at bottom-right. Somehow I made a wrong cut on the top and bottom pieces, but has enough left over so I could adjust the width (height, properly oriented) of that side. The shape is still true, it just looks wonky. Some Epoxy and Duratex'll hide that badge of shame... 🙂

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-Backdated-Melody-Maker-Seventies/dp/1915858224 Following a post by Joel McIver I bought this, and I've just finished reading it. It is comfortably the best read I've had in years ... and I read a LOT. Can't remember the last time a book had me laughing out loud (and I don't mean a bloody emoticon) so much or so often and, as a child of the 70s (I'm 68) every single bloody page meant something to me. The book is so well written that I didn't even feel jealous; I just felt like I was there with him. Trust me, you won't regret buying this.

I tried out the Cort A4 Ultra with the Fishman pickups a couple of years ago. Absolutely loved the bass itself - the neck was perfect for me (kind of jazzy width but with a flat d profile that felt sublime and instantly comfortable) the bass felt light on a strap and the body shape is really comfortable. Just didn't quite gel with the pickups/preamp though. I thought I would but they seemed to have a bit of a compressed dynamic to them. The sales guy suggested I try the next model down with Bartolinis in it (A4 Plus FMMH) and I ended up buying that one instead. It was an amazing bass and I would have another one like a shot. The sound was really alive and just worked for me - even though people slate the Barts I really liked them in that bass. They seemed to have a more open sound than the Fishmans. Here it is below in action...you'll see what I mean as the bass is quite high in the mix even though it's just camera phone footage in a pub

Congrats! I was looking at one of these at BassBros a few weeks ago when I bought my KingBass MkII from them. That must've been the heavier one you mentioned. I like the "T" tuners too - I had those on a Mexican Jazz V that I bought about 20 years ago. You're definitely preaching to the converted with me - my main bass for the live shows is an American Original 60's Jazz with a 2012 FSR Limited Edition hand-stained ash Jazz as it's backup. Congrats again - fabulous looking instrument you have there.

you're a better man than me. i wouldn't accept that and would walk away now before violence erupts Seriously tho why do they not give you a hand. I turn up early to give our drummer a hand in with his gear. Dave

Thanks Dave very kind words 👌🏼 we only play round the doors here in the Northeast, few social clubs (not many left now) few pubs. We wrapped in the same band in 2000, and reformed with four original members when two of us retired. Very lucky to have a band of 4 good mates, and me and the guitarist/sax player Pete (who you met) have played together for 46 years now 👍🏼

new breed - fear factory

Here's my first band The Midnight Circus with our only appearance on vinyl as part of the "Angst In My Pants" various artists double EP. This was recorded in 1980 at a 4-track studio behind one of the musical instrument shops in Leicester. Multiple warnings: Weedy sound, no bass guitar on the first track, dodgy lyrical subject matter (we justified it at the time by claiming to be sarcastic). However John Peel liked it enough to play on his Radio One show... And Johan Kugelberg rated the EP 34 in his Top 100 DIY Singles in Ugly Things magazine saying: "...and extremely do it yourself DIY frenzy from the Midnight Circus. Who in "Silicone Baby" and "Hedonist Jive" have out-poignanted a tow-truck full of Aimee Mann's and Michelle Shocked's edgy humanity and funny as shit to boot..." There are older recordings out there in the public domain. We were asked to contribute to Angst In My Pants as a result of our first album "The Bland Craze" which was released on free cassette (you sent us a C-60 cassette and a SAE and we returned the cassette with our album recorded on to it alone with a cover made from a folded A4 photocopy. We distributed about 150 of these so I am sure some still survive.

The sound quality isn't as bad as I was expecting. There's a lot of reverberation from the hall but otherwise reasonably clear. The bass solo isn't that bad either! I'm not sure the name of the song and band matched the music though! I'll have to dig out some old tape recordings...

Lots of progress in the last several days. The "raw" pics are after final sanding & right before prep for finish - and the "finished" pics are after the first coat of oil finish. I chose to go with a satin finish as opposed to heavy gloss. The oil finish really makes the grain in the maple and walnut pop.... The pickup pictures are the "molds" that Mark & team use for the pickup covers.

Does anyone else play this game when they're bored and fill a shopping cart on somewhere like Andertons (other retailers are available), imagining what they'd buy after a lotto win? No? ..........yeah, I don't do it either. One of the first in the basket is always the Tony Franklin fretless

If money was no object I'd like to track down and buy Pete Way's Iconic 1976 Natural finish Bicentennial Thunderbird.

2nd week in a row playing at Market House in Maidstone on Saturday (with a different band). Not quite as good as last week, it was quieter but picked up for the last hour and so ended well. Had to ditch the IEMs half way through and go back to my ear plugs. I think it was due to having to stand so near to the PA and these were drowning out the IEMs. I keep thinking about getting a Quad Cortex, but then talk myself out of it with gigs like last night with drinks getting spilt near the equipment. This venue has a good barrier between the crowd and band but still doesn’t stop the flying drinks! . I used the bare minimum equipment of bass & amp last night and I thought it sounded good. I just changed the drive setting on my amp for the heavier songs. ive next weekend off before 5 gigs in April.

Last night with BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam band in Bishopton Social Club turned out a fantastic wee night. When we arrived we were quite taken aback by the size of the venue. It was small with only 8 tables seating around 40. It apparently holds 80. Manager said things have been slow but he was surprised at ticket sales being so poor. Anyways it didn't look too empty so we just went for it and the audience were up for every bit of it. This was THE best audience interaction we've ever experienced. Enough so that when the singer was introducing the band he mentioned it was my birthday and the audience erupted into a "happy birthday" to me. When he mentioned its the drummers next week they did the same all in great humour. For a laugh he said the guitarists was in 2 weeks and off they went again and then Lynn's birthday was May and off they went and finally our singer Mikey even got a "Happy Birthday" too because they thought he was missing out. The whole night was like this. Not a lot of dancing first set but when we came back 2nd set they had obviously been lubricated at the bar and were up from first song. When we joked about what song we were doing next they responded by cheers or disappointed "awe's" when we didn't do an Osmond ballad, but just a great fun night. One of the best nights i've had as far as audience participation goes. Great positive comments at the end of the night too. Had one guy come over at the end and asked if i was the bass player and when i confirmed yes he said it was the first time he'd seen a bass player play the proper Jean Genie bassline with all the runs and fills. He was a guitarist himself. Organiser told us we were the best band they'd ever had in the club and those that never showed will regret not being there, but we have been asked to come back with date to be confirmed. We even had the honour of the amazing DJ Celebrity in Scotland Mr Tom Russell in the audience and at the end he couldn't be any more complimentary. "Band was very tight, obviously well rehearsed and compared to other Glam bands i've seen, far superior." Our Sweet covers were superb but unlike tribute bands we were covering just about every Glam band. His mate has provisionally booked us for Jan 2026. When we asked about the venue and if PA and lights etc his reply was "i want you to replicate exactly what you have tonight" so i'm guessing he liked it 1 hour drive home so not too bad. Was home for 2am. Usual gear. Sandberg VM4 into Shure wireless, Keeley comp, Mesa TT800 and Mesa SW210/115 cabs, platform boots as standard. Dave Not from last night's gig but the boots can be seen.

An example of every long scale, 4 string, 3 pickup bass ever made.

I feel it's important to ask at this point... When Charlie played the gig... did he use UK subs? I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.

Doesn't the fact you think some people's tone is awful when they are quite happy with it, prove it is subjective?

Done.