Leaderboard

Hello BCers, I’m approaching 73, and it’s time for me to retire from gigging. This is partly due to minor health issues, but also a lot to do with having no desire to continue driving around the South East at midnight after a gig. It’s become a bit of an issue, especially in winter. After 57 years in bands I think I deserve a long service medal, but I’m not sure who awards these. I’ve been lucky and have worked with some seriously talented musicians over the years. But I’m also not forgetting those bandmates who maybe weren’t the greatest players but always did their best and were genuinely nice people to be around. I’ve written plenty of anecdotes on this forum about my various adventures and misfortunes over the years, and that’s just the stories I can remember. For the last few years I’ve been doing mainly dep work and have worked with all sorts of bands, from elite function bands to local pub rockers. Band politics never change - some bands have been super friendly and obviously really enjoyed gigging together, whereas some bands hardly spoke to each other all night. But I always tried to turn up on time, smile at everyone, and play the right notes, and that’s usually the successful formula for a dep player. I’ll still be a regular on this forum, which must be one of the most polite and friendly forums ever. But that’s what you’d expect from bass players, isn’t it? Sensible comments, witty comments, bit of banter – what’s not to like? Peace and love to you all.

Finally surrendered to the inevitable... Pink bass day! Traded a Stingray for a Sandberg Lionel. Both parties think they got the better deal! 😂

Not tending to do much home recording at the moment; got all the instruments, but guitar amp is elsewhere (and always such a faff to fire up, mic and use in the house). Never used amp-sims in my life, my only experience of anything similar is one producer insisting on recording guitars clean then adding effects in post. Armed with this, I just avoided them like the plague. Decided to spend an hour or two getting my head around amp sims. I'm running Cakewalk as my DAW, initially installed the Neural Amp Modeller (easy) and a couple .nam patches (it was harder trying to find the directory where to put these) and fired up Cakewalk. Honestly blown away. I downloaded a few more .nam files and some IRs. All free. Want to try and SVT through a Fender Tweed emulator? No problem. Want to sound like Eddie Van Halen? No problem. Within minutes I realised how unnecessary it was to have an amp set-up for home recording. I spent about four hours in all...a wonderful bank holiday diversion from the wind and rain happening outside. Only downside is my PC is woefully low on RAM so was getting some pops, so I've ordered a 16gb of (new) RAM.

First festival of the year. The rain stayed away, and good fun was had by all.

Thanks for bringing more music into the world. You summed up my 50 plus years and brought a smile to my 69 year old face. I’m dealing with the same and just don;t want to “go” quite yet. I did have started playing with a group that plays mainly nursing homes and that may be where my joy is now. My regular band is slowing down and the usual issues continue to come and go. It is harder to get gigs due to my age. When I mention it, I usually get ghosted, in spite of experience, killer gear and a good work ethic. I don’t look like Keith Richard’s, but I am showing my age and I never have looked like a rock star, whatever they look like.. I really appreciate your post and your comments. Jeff

Those Tone Wood activists just won’t Lego…

Doing a dep gig with a band run by the chap who runs an open mic night or two that I go to, and they got me in for a rehearsal. Went reasonably, most of the songs are twelve-bars of some description with a couple of oddities - Sweet Child O' Mine, Light My Fire, Gangsters (medleyed with Roxette).

Not a gig review as such, but a quick addendum to my using the QSC in a pub last week and it being completely overwhelming, I had a sit down yesterday to actually work with the thing (yeah, I've had it a year, I really should've done this before) and found it was set to No Sub i.e. it was boosting all the bass, and no HPF set, which would explain the sound. Ten minutes with the manual and some EQ curves that an enthusiastic geek in the States had recorded from the various presets, and with the preset and HPF set appropriately it's now sounding much more like a traditional backline amp. Phew.

Penesis.

I saw this pop up on FB yesterday, too, and then disappear, along with his personal account. There are a couple of threads over on Talkbass—some people think this might be an AI-generated fake/scam. But as I said on there, whether it's genuine or not, we should take it at face value—the guy might really be suffering. His words concerning his wife are particularly poignant. Also, we should not be too quick speculate. We have no idea what contracts are in place between PJB and the Chinese manufacturer. Phil or Wendong could be the one at fault; we just don't know. All we do know is that someone, somewhere, might genuinely be going through a major crisis, and they need support.

Another concert with my teacher's Young Artists Orchestra, kids from 6 to late teens and a few adults to fill out some sections since many of the kids are too small to play full size cello and bass, total about 35 musicians. The bass section was the same as our Christmas concert with my teacher's 16 year old daughter and a wonderful 9 year old girl playing a half size bass and me, at 79 I am 70 years older than the young bassist! I am so lucky to be playing with these kids, they are all students who started at age 3 or 4 with my teacher's program and are unbelievably good musicians and absolutely professional in their attitude towards playing music and have huge respect for music and their teacher. This concert was mostly movie music (Jurassic Park, Hobbit and others) with lots of dramatic bits and a lot of dynamics to deal with. There was also a string quartet selection but the highlight was the 16 year old playing the Gavotte by Lorenziti with a string quartet on the Thomas Martin bass that her father found for her. She was brilliant on a difficult piece and the audience loved it. Martin basses are rare on this side of the Atlantic but I can see why they have such a good reputation, this is a BASS that can just thunder out those low notes but sounded great when she was off the end of the fingerboard. This is my fifth concert with this group and it is so different from my jazz and bluegrass gigs and makes me practice with the bow which is real challenge. Still taking lessons and hoping for another concert with the kids.😊 Edit: The place was packed for the concert, the action photo was taken during rehearsal just before the doors opened.

more pics

I'd like to say thanks to @stevie for allowing me to try a Goodwood cab earlier this year. I'm a bit of a brother of boom and have always been a bit heavy on the bass so The Goodwood was a real eye and ear opener for me when I got a chance to try it out. The first thing I will say is that it is insanely light. The cab I tried tipped the scales at just under 8.9kg. The footprint is also small and compact, but big enough to handle a 19" rack sized amp in portrait mode. The Goodwood also benefits from a larger 5 inch port. The earlier cabs had I believe 4 inch ports, so there is some newish magic tuning sauce going on behind the scenes with this speaker box. The build quality is also as good as it gets these days and I must admit I liked the aesthetics of the cab very much. Sound wise, what really grabbed me was the clarity of sound from the cab. There is no need for exagerrated amounts of lows, low mids or highs on amp settings anymore to try and get the right tone for the situation the cab is being used in. Set flat and then minor tweaks seemd to work best for me. It also let me hear my bass in a way I hadn't previously heard( I used a bog standard Fender Player with stainless Fender flats). I believe the cab is supposed to be quite neutral sounding, but I did feel there is a degree of natural warmth from the Celestion Neo driver being used and that was consistent with various different amp heads I tested during home use, studio use, rehearshal, and a live gig. I'm not big on class-d amplification and the only unit I had of that kind available to try with the Goodwood was an Ashdown OriginAL EVO 300 watt head I keep as a standby amp. That's about 150 watts 8 ohms with a Goodwood. Sounded great, but the Ashdown seemed to be running out of steam a little when pushed hard and the Goodwood I think would have sounded even better with a bit more class-d headroom. Oddly enough, where the sound and performance of the Goodwood excelled for me was using my older lower wattage vintage amps. A Trace Elliot GP7SM 130, a Trace Elliot GP11 MK4 AH150 and a Trace Elliot GP11 MK5 AH250. All three of these amps sounded phenomenal and much clearer, punchier, and louder than the Ashdown could manage despite much lower power outputs running at 8 ohms. Anyway, its the clarity of tone at a gig level that really surprised me. It sounds like the volume is much higher than it actually is so I found myself turning the master down thinking I was too loud. The cab also throws out a quite amazing amount of low end, and it keeps things well under control. I did a three hour gig with the cab using a TE AH250 and was worried I might blow the Goodwood up, but it worked flawlessly and coped with everything I threw at it. That also included and Ashdown ABM 600 RC. The ABM probably is just a bit too much for a Goodwood, but it sounded brilliant with careful use of the master volume and also let me hear my ABM in a new light. If i was asked to say who this cab might be an ideal purchase for, it would be a player who demands super portability, high quality sound reproduction, and a very clear almost neutral tone. Ideally, it would be used with a typical modern 500 watt light weight head that will give around 250 watts of headroom at 8 ohms. I believe that would be the sweet spot for amp power with a Goodwood. A setup like that would I think handle most pub/cafe bar/small club gigs and be super portable. Thanks again to @stevie for the opportunity to trial his new cab design. It's top drawer, the best 1x10 cab i've ever used, and quite possibly the clearest tone I've heard from my bass in a live situation. Ever.

After many years of working with engineering / techy stuff / comuters / phones / music gear etc. I formulated a reminder for myself for when stuff isnt working as it should......"If all else fails.....read the manual! " lol 🤣🤣

Daft as it sounds, spontaneous dynamics when playing. Been a couple of instances in the two gigs that I've played this weekend (one with each band), where we've either dropped volume or tempo during a song, all together, before building back up again, without prior rehearsal or arrangement. Guess it's just feeding off each other, being aware of what's happening and reacting to it.

The free Neural Amp Modeller is absolutely incredible, nearly as incredible as Steve Atkinson, the designer who as far as I know is still giving away the code as "open source". Darkglass' brand new Anagram processor has the NAM player embedded and, Steve makes available the profiling side of the software for free so that you can capture your own gear!! The actually quality of the captures tested against the original is comparable if not better than some modellers out there, the internet says. I think there's a few other brands that are starting to integrate NAM in their processors too such as Valeton (GP-5) and Sonicake (Pocket Master). Its an exciting time to be alive! I do have rather too many amp sims, IR's and captures on my desktop, I can suffer from option peralysis at times but as @Beedster says, it's a whole lot easier these days - and cheaper! There's a few groups / pages I follow that offer up cheap and free plugin deals; the quality of these are just brilliant. Even the "bad ones" are still infinitely better than my old Zoom 2020, 4040, 8080 or 9050S I owned 'back in the day'! Bonkers!! Check out sites such as The Bedroom Producer's Blog, Anmer Hunter's YouTube channel, Plugin Boutique, Plugin Alliance umm... definitely United Plugins! I love United Plugins!! They have a birthday deal on, I would highly recommend anyone doing recording to buy everything by FireSonic from their deals. There's loads of resources out there. I grabbed STL's AmpHub LE the other day for free from Focusrite to try it out. I'd bought an 8 Pre interface last year. I use the Neural DSP amp plugins the most, especially the Cory Wong X. You'll hear the SSL desk emulation on pretty much everything I record, it sounds SO good! I could go on, but those at the back have fallen asleep already!

My only experience with Phil Jones was years ago I contacted him about my 6Pack bass combo had stopped working, Phil responded himself & was great about sorting the issue, we diagnosed a faulty preamp & even though my amp was out of warranty he sent me a brand new one (from the US I think) & talked me through installation which was quite straightforward & he didn’t charge me a penny ! I hope he gets through this & continues with his passion for bass & audio .. we need more people like him !

Facebook is a really bad place to air those kinds of things. Certainly if it's going to end up with the lawyers. Tronald Dump has got a lot to answer for.

Like I said Marvin Carthy

There's what looks to be a nice original '71/'72 Jazz for sale on Facebook, from a shop based in Belfast. If it checks out right, then I think the price is pretty keen too, it's less than I paid for my '73 anyway. https://www.facebook.com/JFKGuitars/ Rob

MTD means Michael Tobias Design, and my MG Genesis is actually designed by M. Tobias (that rightmost 5-string). I think this fits here, some similarities to current models may be seen.

To go with the previous porn star names from the ‘60s, Englebert Pumperdink

We are exactly the same with my main band. We even have a saying, "we are consistently inconsistent". We literally have no idea how we are going to play a song on the night because we have no idea what mood the three of us are in, the vibe of the room or the sound. We even discover how to play a new song on the night and play it differently unconsciously, despite having rehearsed it for 6 months and we then go, "ah, that's the way we should be playing it" and then play it that way onwards. It's like the song has to find itself no matter how many times we rehearse it or have played it live previously.

In Pentode mode, it's much easier to get full-on overdriven/distorted sounds at lower volumes/drive levels. So I have been generally keeping in Triode mode for cleaner/ever so slightly broken up sounds.

Busty Springfield

I did the same with my Ashdown acoustic pre-amp pedal this weekend. Think I've managed to suss out the notch filter on it now (ranges between 60 and 300Hz on a rotary control, but no graded markings around it to give a rough idea of where you are on it!). Was getting some feedback at the gig I did on Saturday evening with my Uke basses - on the subsequent recording it looked to be about 227Hz.......

Subtle but Handy Mod for Older Spectors One of today's little jobs on the bench was to address a very minor niggle that some of us have with older Spectors. I converted a Euro 4 and a Euro 5LX so that they now have captive brass ferrules and machine screws holding the rear cover on instead of the old self-tapping wood screws. I put a 3mm drill through the holes on the cover and used a sharp countersink to give the countersunk screws somewhere to sit. I drilled out the existing screw holes to 3.5mm to accommodate the ferrules and popped them in with a deadblow fretting hammer (total overkill but it's a lovely tool). All done.

It really won’t be, central London has changed immeasurably due to development. The parts that haven’t changed are mainly in The City, which wouldn’t really have featured in photos from the ‘60s. As to it ever swinging, well, I grew up in London in the ‘60s, it was fairly meh. That said, living and working there until recently, every decade was meh from a fashion and cultural perspective, just same old, same old with less flared trousers. After 30 years of working and commuting to central London from South London, I can understand that. We moved 500+ miles north in 2020, to a rural location and when we went back down to visit friends, I couldn’t wait to get back to my new home. I never had me down as a country mouse, but that’s what I am. Another thing about London and the Home Counties is that, at least from my experience, it’s rubbish for live music at the pub/club level. Getting gigs is ridiculously hard and the monetary rewards piffling. Things are much better away from that conurbation (I wonder if it’s the same for Manchester, Birmingham and the like?).

I've played those S holes too. And at 71 I love the fact that we mostly play the nicer venues. I'm talking about the upscale Winery's Brewery's and clubs. The larger festivals and fairs. It's cool when you arrive at a gig and someone from management introduces themselves, answers any questions. They understand bands and what we need for a successful evening. As opposed to arriving at a venue and the staff ignores you. And on the other side of the coin I don't like it when a band shows up acting like Prima Donna's thinking the world revolves around them. Daryl

Saturday night, playing with Nine Lives at Wilsons in Aberdeen. Some context for you non-football following types, Wilsons is a football bar. That afternoon, Aberdeen FC won the Scottish Cup for the first time in 35 years. So we were expecting busy times, and so it turned out to be - especially in the second half when people either came in from other bars or had made their way back from Glasgow (where the match was played). It was loud - in most breaks between songs an Aberdeen FC football chant would erupt - we politely let them complete the first few, then we kinda ignored them and just cracked on regardless of what they were singing, lol. So, the gig was going great but unfortunately, as is so often the case at these kind of affairs, one person (there's always one) had overindulged and had a massive navigation fail on the way to the bogs, stumbled over - past the front of me and taking out the singer (who ended up on her backside) and landing in amongst the drums! FFS! I grabbed his arm as he went past, but he was a hefty bloke and there wasn't much I could do versus the inevitablility of gravity So there was a break in the proceedings as we checked on our poor singer (who thankfully was OK, just a bit shaken up) and then the drummer rearranged his kit back into some semblance of order. The guy was steamin' - super apologetic, in that annoying, insistent drunk way - we politely but firmly instructed him to just go to the bog as originally intended. Thankfully, the rest of the gig went without a hitch, I played pretty well - couple of bloops when I was more concerned with protecting my pedalboard from being accidentally stood on, but decent all the same. Roastin' though! I was absolutely disgustingly damp by the end of it. Still managed to do a wireless walkabout during the last song, difficult at times though it was to get through folk - guitarist was soloing his fingers off and beginning to wonder if I was ever coming back! All in all, great night though. Bit of a bummer at the end though - it had been raining during the gig and while we were unloading stuff and packing cars, the singer, having already been poleaxed by a large, drunk guy missed the kerb outside and ended up falling on the pavement, skinning her knees! Talk about being in the wars! She's OK though, bit bruised and battered but unbowed! Gear was the Burny LSB-80 followed by the SGC Nanyo into the usual Markbass cubes.

Luckily enough I had more sense. Phew. Bullet dodged.

We have a saying too, " We're going to bring it way down so we can bring it way up." Daryl

1. Yes, Cat 5 from the desk (we use a PD-16) as there's two of us using P16s. And then connect your P16 puts to your IEM transmitter. 2) all channels are live unless you mite them. Switching the channel on makes that the live one you are adjusting, unless you solo you'll hear the whole mix.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) night I’ll be playing with STRAY at The Half Moon in Putney.

That sounds like FUN!

KD Wang

Threads merged. Si

A family outing to see Wet Leg at Brixton Academy on Saturday night; it's been fun watching them learning how to make a bigger show since the early days. The new album is going to be a belter - I should watch out for Davina McCall to be a single. I sold a few photos recently and spent the proceeds on a new camera that's small enough not to bother security at gigs...

In addition to the first set of keyboards not working, yesterday, the guitarist forgot his pedalboard, resulting in an hour's round trip to retrieve it. Then, halfway through the second set my strap gave out and was hanging by a single, impossibly strong, thread. What a palaver! Still, get all the niggles out of the way in one swoop. They don't make that strap design in black anymore and I really like it, so this morning was spent ransacking an identical one in red, that I don't use anymore, for parts. Good as new, even if the sewing isn't the neatest. Action pic from yesterday.

Love this thread @Bluewine, so thanks for posting it. Reading all the amazing responses it's generated have been literally life-affirming! Being able to play music, create music and make music with (and for) people is a privilege and a gift. It's communal, creative and joyful for me. And the older I get (now 64 years young), the more true this becomes. I think it was @Buddster who talked in their post about there being an extra special joy and purpose that comes from the 'visceral power of the bass', and that's definitely true for me. [As an aside - whilst I can play guitar - probably well enough to get in a gigging covers band - I'd never enjoy it like playing bass.] So, after thinking it through this morning, I'd say that music's in my DNA, but being a bass-playing musician is in my bones. And that's what keeps me in the game....

Glastonbudget for INXS (UK) yesterday; cracking gig and I'd highly recommend it. AQOzzp_MbGHfoAfMTQA1oiNsW-zwmZT5u24bHPuASSIQATZ39KIoRCU9CEJAPvAOx7yQKG27BpFrfK2z5luGATub.mp4

I'm 62 and have been playing since I was 16. The first 10 years I was playing in originals bands trying to get a record contract. That ended when I realised we just we're good enough. At that stage I fell out of love with music and I thought my time as a bassist had ended. Then, about 4 years later, my sister started dating a guy who was the singer and guitarist in a Blues band and he needed a bass player! Even better, he ended up marrying my sister and he couldn't then sack me. We played up and down the UK for the next 10 years. Then he and my sister fell out and that meant I had no choice but to leave the band. At that stage I fell out of love with music and I thought my time as a bassist had ended. But then the old drummer, from the Blues band, called me and said the new band he was in needed a bass player. I've now been in that band for 23 years, other bands, over those 23 years, have come and gone and have disappeared without leaving a trace but the Blues band keeps on going. The singer is now 66 and the guitarist and drummer are in their mid 50s. We've had to take a break from gigging, as the singer and guitarist are married and are involved in complex family matters (think of the Godfather part III) which prevents them from gigging. At this stage I think I may have fallen out of love with music and I am thinking my time as a bassist had ended. Hold on there seems to be a pattern developing....... Of course I don't want to be a old fart, in a band full of old farts, playing to old farts. But as long as we don't look too ridiculous up on stage and I can still project energy into playing, then I'll continue on until I can't. Oh by the way, my sister and my brother in law got back together and I still occasionally play in his Blues band, when his new full-time bassist has something better (or more lucrative - wedding gig?) to do.

Well, I’ll start off with a quote I first heard many years ago and still holds true. ”playing music with other people is about the best fun you can have with your clothes still on”. I’m just about to turn 67, actively gigging in two bands and getting involved with new musical ventures where I can. I don’t plan to stop until I have to.