Leaderboard

Second two gigs out of 4 for me this week. Saturday night the duo played for a small birthday party in York city centre. The venue was an upmarket restaurant’s first floor function room. Combined with restricted vehicle access, no lift in the venue and the area teaming with people out for the evening , this made for quite a challenging load in and out. Still, we got set up early and then had a drink or two sitting outside watching the endless amount of people going by, including many hen parties in various states of intoxication. Fortunately we had a bar tab ( and a meal )supplied by the booker, as the prices were quite hefty. The gig went well, played a number of requests and even had a guest clarinetist! The grandson of the birthday boy asked if he could play ‘Stranger on the shore’, so we backed him. He was only around 9 years old, and played well. Of course he went down better than us…. 😆 Used my little Ibanez short scale electro acoustic, perfect for the job. Home by around 1 am, absolutely knackered. Sunday night was our regular monthly gig at The Sun Inn, Beverley. Pretty full for most of the gig, and some great requests including ‘I guess that’s why they call it the blues’ and ‘Friday I’m in love’. We drew the line at doing a Beautiful South song though, as one of the band’s original singers was in the audience! I used a Sire U5 short scale into my Rumble 500, and was happy with how it fared. A guy came up and gave us each a decent tip at the end too, really unexpected. Next gig this coming Wednesday, and then a week or so off.

After having a brain-bleed stroke at the beginning of Feb, followed by 5 weeks in hospital and 7 weeks recuperating at home, I actually managed to get out and play half a gig last Sunday. I'd stepped back from my band ('Mustang Sally') simply cos I couldn't drive nor stand up for very long. They replaced me on bass for the time being by a guy with 5 years more experience than me (he's 80!) but as the gig was actually an outdoor mini-festival in West Bay Dorset where I live they invited me to play the 30 minute sax set with them that I used to do. I have to say it was very nice to get up on a stage and belt out One Step Beyond, Geno and some rock'n'roll without falling over, running out of breath or having another Julius (Seizure!) It was also interesting to compare the new guy's bass sound (vintage Vox Phantom long scale and TC Helicon gear) with my Mustang and AG700/Darkglass set up - his sound throughout was a band-leading Jean-Jacques Burnel Stranglers clang while mine is mostly much a more nuanced thump with the occasional clang where needed... Let's hope a few 100% gigs come along before Christmas!

My long scale Wilcock

I finally picked up my first BB!! A matte black 734A. It was a bit of a train wreck when I got it, but after a seriously lengthy fretboard cleaning and a much needed setup, it’s absolutely fantastic. It’s really quite the player!!

Weekend report time! On Friday night, playing with Nine Lives at O'Donoghues in Aberdeen. A late one - 11pm-2am, and just as well because it was dead when we arrived to set up, not a soul in the place. Ooft. First half had quite the "paid rehearsal" feel about it, but it did start to fill up towards the end of the first half and into the second it was a damn sight better. Curiously, at the break, this lassie came up to us, told us that she was on a work's night out, complimented us as a band (thanks!) then asked for our autographs! Only the drummer and I were around at that time, but we played along and briefly felt more important than we actually are, lol. Gear was Sire D5, then Squier Jag H (with Ibanez CAP double humbucker) into the usual Markbass ISO Standard bass player's rig... But soft! There's more! This afternoon, we played outside on the back of a lorry at the Ellon Gala. Second year we've done it, nice to be asked back. It's a freebie - for the community, innit? Makes me feel a little less mercenary. Supposed to be playing at 4pm, well did a monsoon not chuck itself at the earth around 2pm? We had to close the side tarp of the trailer, and feared the worst for the gig from a health and safety perspective. Thankfully it rained itself out and the sun eventually burned through the clouds. By the time we started, it was glorious again - god bless the Scottish weather, schizo as it is! As you can see, gear was a delectable G&L Tribute SB-2 into the most boring bass rig in human history. Noise making evidence...

Well I've been putting off drilling the tuning machine holes .... it's basically a horrible job ... I used a 14mm twist drill bit in a variable speed power drill ... going as slow as I could, and eyeballing the correct 90 degree angle of drilling. Easy to go wrong, so slow but sure was the way. Well after a grimly intense 20 minutes I had the holes drilled and the tuners trial fitted ... only to discover a problem ... the rollers were WAY too long for the width of the pegbox. Not only would the holes for the steel rollers have had to go all the way through both sides of the box, but even then the tips would have fouled the brass plate on the other side! This is galling as the neck and tuners were supplied as a unit and clearly supposed to be fitted together. See image below ... the plate furthest away was stood off about 1/4 of an inch with the 'bearing hole' drilled as deep as I dare. I did however still have the set of tuners I replaced on my Stentor bass stashed away ... which, while individual on the Stentor as opposed to set and 'all on a plate' with this set ... the rollers were also 14mm diameter and fitted a pegbox the same width as the one on this Chinese neck. As luck would have it the tuners were identical except for the Stentor ones rollers being brass and actually fitting properly. RESULT!!! So I swapped the rollers over between sets and everything fitted perfectly! I could of course have used my bench grinder to shorten the steel rollers ... but who wants to work that hard? I think keeping the brass theme is nice too. I trial fitted the nut as well and was toying with the idea of gluing it in place as an 'end stop' to make the positioning the fingerboard for gluing a bit easier and faster. Still not decided on that one. The end of the fingerboard has been cut slightly out of the 90 degrees so I'll have to address that first - whichever order I fit nut and fingerboard and nut. busy busy busy 😁

Two mighty fine basses on the loggia settee: Serek Midwestern and Wilcock Mullarkey.

Only one more day until I'll be in possession of my new (used) Euro 4 LX. A particularly lovely looking red one from Eldon Tyrell (top bloke). My P bass may become neglected.

My daughter was two years old when I joined Basschat, played her first gig last night at sixteen. She hasn't been playing long, but has picked it up remarkably quickly. Must be in the blood. Proud Dad moment.

Really great clinic IMO, they’re kinda the bass duo that I didn’t know I needed, polar opposites in some respects and that plays off against one another very well. They’re also very similar in many respects, so it was interesting to see that come out. I’m glad that it didn’t just turn into a HX Stomp ‘how to’, it was essentially one big Q&A from the start, and there were some great conversation and playing as a result. It was a little over 2 hours, but could quite easily have been longer….but a big band needed the room to sound check haha. 10/10 would watch again! Si

In some cases, it's definitely not in the blood. My daughter is an awesome bassist. If I try really hard, I could almost be described as someone who can wear a bass. It's great watching your kids gigging. My daughter is always out gigging now. It's a very proud parent moment seeing a venue packed with people there to be entertained by your offspring and them having the best time absolutely smashing it. Keep encouraging them and supporting them. Here's XFR Jr playing at The Cheese And Grain in Frome with her band, Butane Skies. You can tell they're used to a smaller stage

Took my 15 year old daughter to a gig at rock city Nottingham last weekend. She suffers from Cystic Fibrosis so as a treat id arranges with their manager for her to go to soundcheck and meet the band. they were great. Friendly and chatty with her. She’s made each of them a bracelet and they wore them for the actual gig. Then after they were meeting fans, signing stuff, and recognised and said hi to my daughter. I find it rare that bands are that accessible to fans. It really made her day.

I'm out! Succumbed to a Helix LT. I thought I would have cracked it this year but a quick play through our guitarists LT told me all I needed to know. Fantastic bit of kit and no regrets. Be gentle with me.

Back at the Cow & Telescope last night, one of our favourite haunts. Bit of a mixed one. I had developed a cold with a cough a day or so before and had a weak voice before playing. It was totally shot by the time we finished - good job I was only singing backing vocals. We really struggled with sound as well. We pulled up the the previously saved mix and it sounded muddy, a dull - like blanket over the speakers. And the bass drum mic was ringing badly. I couldn't work out what had changed. So during soundcheck, I ended up pulling a load of ≈100hz out of the bass drum mic, pulling low mids out of the mix and adding a bit of presence. It sounded better and good enough to get through the gig. But it wasn't until we got to the second or third song in the first set that I realised the frequencies around F# were getting rather excited, but it was too late by then and just had to muddle through until the break when I could look up the exact problem frequencies, (92.5hz and 185hz) and notch them out. Started out second set and the problem was still there but not as bad. No-one in the audience seemed to be bothered, but it was bugging the hell out of me. Just as we started the the third song in our second set I noticed the hpf switch on the DXR12 in front of me was set to off i.e. full range. I should be set at 100hz, so I quickly flicked it over and the problem disappeared! Oh well, lesson learned. I usually check the volume setting on the speakers as these usually move during packing and setting up, but I never thought to check the switches. I quickly checked the other one and that as 120hz. So both of them were wrong. Annoyingly, I remembered this morning that our mixer has a feedback filter that we've not tried using yet - we've barely scratched the surface of what it can do. So we really need to investigate this feature and learn how to use it properly. I probably would have cured this issue instantly. Otherwise, it was a good night. Some of the regulars, some friends, some who had come especially too see us and a big birthday party who wanted to have a good old boogie, which always livens up the atmosphere. I was done by the end of the night though. Not feeling 100% took it out of me. But I was glad I packed some vocal zones and a hip flask of single malt.

That's cool Pete. That's a nice schedule.You have a lot of work. I hope we have more bookings in June than May. Daryl

Just bought it, thanks for the heads up!

Of course it failed, babies don't have the strength to cope with Thunderbird neck dive. If you'd used a Jazz bass back then, at the end of this month you'd be stood at the side of the stage watching them headline Glastonbury.

Got my 2021 Chowney swb1 couple of weeks ago. Real pleased till I found tge neck had crack that the previous owner did not tell me about🙁 Anyway managed to glue it up, looks great now with a set of Labelka tapes on. looking forward to learning to play it now.

I think you’re having what’s termed an ‘active retirement’ , Pete 😆

No.

I’d look to buy one from someone on Basschat or through an experienced dealer. A new bridge, set of strings and a set up can easily set you back £500 or more. Double basses look like they’re tough to play, and they are if you try and apply electric basses technique. If you learn the right technique and have a bass that’s well set up, you shouldn’t experience any pain.

On the other hand, there's always an antidote:

Only when they’ve had to hand over their clothes, boots and motorcycles will they learn.

With the best will in the world MDF probably isn't going to be the best product to build from if you want something robust. End of the day it's just wood dust and glue/resin; it won't hold screws well and glue penetration isn't great. Honestly, treat yourself to a sheet of 1/2 birch plywood and joint/mitre the edges. Any decent wood merchant should be able to mill/cut sheets to whatever size you need and a good sized sheet will probably only be £30.00.

We donated a load of art (paintings and limited edition prints) which didn't fit the decor any more and which we didn't have room to store, to a local charity shop. The following week a couple of them turned up on the site of the local auction house and subsequently sold for a few hundred pounds each. I sometimes feel a bit guilty about some of the stuff we off-load on the charity shops, so I'm glad they were able to make some decent money this time.

In my quest for an ever more thuddy sound from my Harley Benton violin bass, I have just invented (maybe!) the Patent McCartneyizer mute: Both halves of a strip of velcro, sandwiching the strings at the bridge, superglued together at one end to prevent the two halves from fully separating. Adjust muting strength for each string by trimming the width with scissors. Works really well Total cost: about 20p-worth of velcro?

The Borzoi Back In Town - Thin Lizzy

A method I find useful is to listen to the tracks without a bass in hand and once familiar to what's going on in the tune, "sing" or scat along a bass part. It's more freeing, intuitive and rarely wrong. When you feel like you're finding you're way, record yourself doing this along with the track, then learn what you've sung. If you can sing it you can play it.

I tried but failed... Must have been the '76 T Bird.

Another top night of Ska classics in a little boozer in Bromsgrove. This is just so much fun. Crap clip but you get the idea ScreenRecording_06-01-2025 10-01-51_1.mov

I haven’t posted in this thread in a while! Played a local bar on Saturday night. First time for the American Jazz and first time trying to play the set live with a pick! loads of compliments afterwards. Burned 600 cals according to my watch haha! Managed to keep ahold of the pick until the last song, have a gnarly bruise on my middle finger now. only issue was that my ACS in-ears are away getting repaired again so was using KZs from Amazon. Didn’t hear things quite as well as I’d liked! Got some pics and a video, it was live streamed but we haven’t got that yet. cfc5ed86-8502-438b-a48b-12c3ef413f55.mov

Gig #2 of the weekend was a hot sweaty punk rock all-dayer in Cambridge with Youths. Great venue, loads of bands, lovely promoter and a brilliant sound engineer all made it a joy. We played well I think, had a laugh and lots about half our body weight in sweat. Bass was my first ever bass (Vester jazz) direct into the PA via my Laney Digbeth pre. Sounded ace from where I was. Shoes were some tired black Etnies which are super comfy but maybe a bit heavy for such a hot day - lesson learnt 😄

No reply from my WhatsApp group message to the band, which suits me just fine. I banged out a "bassist available" ad on one of the Facebook musos groups and I got this reply: "Hi there, Firstly it’s great to know that there is a Soul, Funk & Groove style bassist in the area, Most are Rock or blues influenced. I, and many of my musician friends have been looking to get a really good funky soul Band together for a while, without much success as decent bass players are very rare, And finding a soul/funk/groove influenced bassist has been like searching for the holy Grail. We are all knocking on a bit (60-63), and have had lots of experience in various bands Playing various types of music, but we all like soul, funk, jazz, groove influenced music Where bass and drums are the driving force, the engine room of the band, so to speak And everything else fits in around that groove! I hope that this could be something that you might find interesting, and maybe consider getting involved in." We're going to meet up for a chat. One door shuts and.....

Beautiful Bass. You should really be wearing a Wilcox tee shirt though...rather than another 'W' Luthier!

It was quite flash Dave, and the prices reflected it too! Staff were great though, couldn’t do enough to help. I do love the variety of our gigs - Saturday night posh city restaurant, Sunday great local music pub etc.

Thanks, Steve. However, we better don't jinx it. Let's first hope that UPS collects it today and delivers it safely tomorrow! 🤞

I agree. There is something about the bass where it sometimes works really well when you can't hear it as much as 'sense' it.

LOVE the personalised pedalboard!

I'm finding more recently people are having problems directly talking to people face to face and discussing their problems and feelings openly. Resorting to messenger, WhatsApp, emails etc, where all meaning gets lost. I have recently fallen foul of someone who has been saying things like "Some people might feel..", unfortunately unless those people actually say they don't want to... directly to me, then it's a hypothetical "some people.". Now, that 'someone' has thrown their toys out of the pram, said they're not being listened to, and walked. If they'd said in the first place: "I'm sorry but I don’t want to...", we could have sorted it all out a lot soon.

Last year we lost an institution in our local blues scene , Barry Cook. Piano player , had been dealing with various health issues , the doctors had described his heart as a time bomb , and home after a great gig , it gave out. We did a memorial gig for him Friday night in the old blues dive downtown. The core band was mostly bandmates , unfortunately a featured guitar player was unable to attend because of previous commitment , a replacement was quickly secured. There were a good number of people that played with Barry in various projects that were up to play and sing. The night went quickly. Nice appreciative crowd. Great playing. Wonderful to see some great singers and players. Everything unfolded as we had hoped , I hope we’ll do it again next year. Nice to feel the sense of community.

Not a last night, an afternoon, multi band event. House FOH and backline. On stage volume absolutely, way too loud, painful at times. I wore the same hearing protection as last week, which was fine then, but felt like it was doing nothing today 😖. Couldn’t go anywhere near my mic, because of the monitor volume coming back and the guitarist’s amp behind me (he turned it down twice, but was battling with the monitors). I hid adjacent to the guitar amp, just in front of the bass rig, which I had already turned down, but sadly right I. The firing line for the snare and crash cymbal. Lots of compliments from other bands, which was really nice. Best thing was I only needed my bass and pedalboard.

I haven't yet been removed from the band's WhatsApp group. I've just posted this on it: "[Drummer] has informed me that I'm no longer in the band. I'm gobsmacked, and I'd like to fully understand what's happened. [Drummer] and I set up the band with a particular vibe/sound in mind - soul/funk/groove-driven tasteful songs, not rock. Songs were chosen, band name chosen and [singer] recruited on this premise. [Drummer] tells me the band has now decided to go down a different musical path. How come? Is everybody on board with this? What is this new musical direction that the band has adopted that [drummer] tells me I won't like? Who decided that I wouldn't like it? Was this a unanimous decision? Why wasn't I asked? [Drummer] tells me that a new bassist has been recruited behind my back, while I was on holiday. Is this true? Again - was this a unanimous decision? I'm struggling to believe that everybody agreed this was a proper way to behave. I'm not here to argue - rather, I'm trying to get a full understanding of what's happened, and why a group of people seems to have decided to act in such a discourteous and underhand manner. Anybody can ring me to explain further, although probably no need for [drummer] to ring since he's already spoken to me."