Leaderboard

Hi BC-ers Firstly, Russ, thanks for your kind concern for my health. I'm glad to say that I'm very well and feeling good. Apologies for being elusive on the support side during recent months, but unfortunately, needs must, as outlined below. (I'll respond individually to those who still have outstanding enquiries) To explain briefly, what started out as a minor production blip with some custom parts further snowballed, compounding the issue to a level that required a good deal of hands-on work from me for several months to keep things rolling. Thankfully, we're through it all now, and our UK assembly supplier has bounced back. This period highlighted a weakness - support relying entirely on me. So, now there are 3 email support tiers: Info, Sales, and Technical, to facilitate sharing the load.

We were back at the Horse & Jockey in Lanark on Friday. We've had a wee glut of gigs recently but I've not really been in the zone with everything else going on in life at the moment. But I really enjoyed this one. Tiny wee performance area, but not as bad as last time as this time we played as a four piece (parted ways amicably with previous guitarist, his job and shifts meant we couldn't rehearse till after 10pm and he would have to take holidays for Friday gigs - new guitarist getting up to speed). I brought my bass cabs as have been struggling a bit to get the bass levels sorted through the PA. Made a massive difference and I felt much more connected to the band. I thought we played really well, even had dancers up in the first set, unheard of! Had to cut things a little short as our drummer was feeling very dodgy after a suspect sausage supper pre-gig, poor guy. Gear was Fender Player Jazz, HX Stomp based pedalboard, Aguilar Tonehammer and Markbass NY121 cabs. Very happy with my sound.

Last night saw my duo return to The Blue Boar in Aldbourne. What's been a good regular venue will sadly be ending soon. The current landlady / landlord are retiring and the local gossip is that they are trying to get out the contract early. Our show was moved back a week due to other music activity in the village and I think that hurt our audience as I had a lot of people who were coming who suddenly weren't. This was my local until we moved and I have been out of the loop. When we arrived the clientele seemed much younger than normal. The barman said afterwards that he thought being goth would mean we were very metal which to me summed up what an awkward fit we've always been on the local music scene. We set up and the younger crowd gradually left. Prior to going on, we had an audience of my wife, my stepson and a guy who'd added me on social media a while ago and I didn't know him! However, we were getting paid and I learned that the pub is open so sporadically at the moment that recent shows haven't been well attended across all acts. A genuine shame. The twist was that we played really well. I was on mandocello for most of the first set, finishing on the bass (my trusty long scale Hofner Verythin). The second set was three on guitar for me and the remainder all on the mandolin. My step son has Down Syndrome and stole the show by shouting "yes!" when I announced that we'd be taking a break in a moment. It was funny! He's a big supporter of the band as amongst other things, he really likes Nick (my musical other half). Thankfully it started to fill up a fair bit during the second set and a good night was had by all. Honourable mention must go to Nick's 87yr old mum, who apparently ironed our backdrop for us! I'd have done it myself, had I known it was bothering her!

Well, I bit the bullet and dipped my toe in the water of nitro spraying a body and headstock front. Previously I had only used oil finishes and wipe on polyurethane. I must admit it has been a very steep learning curve and introduced me to the world of grain fillers and sanding sealers. I used a Okoume JB body from China that was already semi-finished so was routed and sanded to an extent. I had not really heard of Okoume but I believe it is from the same family as Mahogany and is being used more often for guitar and bass builds. The neck is from China. I can honestly say the Chinese stuff is really top notch in respect of the quality and finish. The biggest issue, as I used rattle cans and sprayed in the back garden, was dealing with little pieces of crap been blown onto the finish when wet due to not having anywhere inside suitable to spray. I used Northwest Guitars paint and gloss lacquer as well as gloss lacquer from Nu-gane. I’m not sure I am in a rush to use nitro again as it is not as forgiving as finishing with Liberon Finishing Oil but certainly the clearcoat is a lot easier to rectify runs/burn through etc than using the poly. Blending in the headstock decal was nerve racking as well as the drilling holes for the pickguard, bridge, tuner screw and reaming out the tuner holes by a couple of mm as I was anxious about ruining the finish and having to go back several stages. I would also choose a 21 fret neck instead of 20 from now on as the fretboard overhang on a 21 neatens up the join where the pickguard meets the neck heel. Overall for a first spraying effort and only my 4th build, I am really pleased with how the bass has turned out……is it factory perfect?…absolutely not but for the intended sale price it is a fantastic looking and playing bass. if you’re interested in buying, it should be on the BC basses for sale thread in the next week as I am just waiting for a replacement bridge pickup as the first one was faulty, Specs are: Okoume body Roasted maple 20 fret, black block inlay neck with rolled edges Guyker tuners Gotoh bridge Wilkinson M Series pickups Bloodstone Guitarworks wiring with CTS pots and Spragg capacitor running volume/volume/tone Schaller type strap buttons I will get it weighed as soon as it’s all back together. I have and continue to learn so much with each build and my next ambition is to get to a stage with my knowledge and tools where I can turn a body blank and top into a body myself, route it out to attach a pre-made neck. My ultimate goal is to be able to make the necks as well but baby steps as they say…..

Simple rock covers band board. A pedal snake covers all connections: instrument chain to amp, send and return loop and 9v power. They all sit on a PedalTrain Nano. Right to Left: 1. SFX Microthumpinator (essential, wonderful, genius). 2. Korg Pitchblack XS Bass tuner (novelty over-priced trendy bass-specific tuner) 3. Origin Effects DCX Bass (always on posh tone enhancer/drive, sparkle box). 4. Origin Effects Cali76 Compressor (always on posh compressor) 5. TC Electronic Chorus (uses TonePrint Duff Chorus but dialled down a bit. Used for quite a lot of the set).

We thought we'd done our last gig at the Donkey back in October last year. Tonight we played there again. There was quite a lot of doubt if it would continue as a music venue, and not very good communication from the new owner at the time, which put a lot of peoples' noses out of joint. A lot of the old regulars are boycotting the place (as we found out) and a few bands too. Well we're a mercenary bunch and I'm glad to say we filled the place. I don't know what the bar staff thought of it because they didn't strike me as the most experienced. I think they were more used to a sedentary rate of service. That's the only photo I took We had a great time and hopefully showed the new owner what a music venue should be like. Certainly they enjoyed it. I took the stingish bass again and it was nice to let the Rumble sing a bit (they don't have a house PA any more). I even brought the smoke machine along. Packing up took ages because it seemed that everyone wanted to shake hands and say goodbye, blocking the exit while they did! Converse one-stars kept me upright and striking a few stances

John is okay, just heard from him. He will post in here later.

UPDADE!!!! It's arrived with Bass Direct and they're sending it out today to be with me tomorrow! To say I'm excited is an understatement... Update on the update - I have a tracking number! I may actually do an unboxing video on this one, I've never ever bought something like this before, a custom bass...

Just back to my hotel after a hot sweaty little gig in Manchester on the “Gimme A Tour”, er, tour. The band were great, I was average, the crowd were enthusiastic and the volume was a bit too much. But my bass (ACG RetroB) sounded ace through the Digbeth pre, Elf and Barefaced Two10. Shoes were brown suede Chelsea boots, I really should wear them more because they’re ace.

Finally replaced the original Sandberg strings... decided to keep the La Bella on the self for now, and strung it with D'addario black tapes - as it just looks amazing with the black hardware! Can't wait to actually listen to it tomorrow, what happens to the "modern P" tone with these weirdo strings

Yesterday's gig was a last minute booking. Rhythm guitarist couldn't make it due to dog illness... but dog turned out to be ok so managed to make it. Lovely old pub but in a small marquee outside, and a yellow weather warning. The warning was lifted and we set up to a healthy number of people. Numbers drifted up and down but it was a good gig. In our break and afterwards we could hear another band playing behind the pub opposite. Had a real 'festival' feel with people wandering between the venues and good vibes. We haven't gigged for a bit and were a touch scrappy but the punters didn't notice. Anyway, rehearsal on Tuesday as we have more gigs approaching. I had a bit of fun with effects, second encore was Superstition so I used the Joyo XVI with a bit of modulation to get a crazy synth sound. This was the tail end of the first set. I have no idea why audiences love this song, it's just three chords, repeated....

So I've made a tool to hold everything safe, secure and flat. It's now adjustable and is designed for 9.25" radius necks. Its easy enough to make it for flatter or rounder necks. I can move and adust the position of everything to keep it balanced. I've made it so it fits a guitar neck as well, so there's two clamps on the drill. This is a broken Squier neck from something. It appears that somebody drilled through the neck and out through the fretboard (wasn't me). Using this as a test to learn from. This is the 5mm drill and the laser guidance. I know the depth is 18mm as I already tested it. First 5mm dowel And all four done The lesson to learn here is don;t make the dowels too short First drills done. Drill, glued and inserted. Now we leave it for 24 hours to dry. I'll probably cut the dowels with a Dremel and then file down the tops by hand (carefully). Rob

Played at the Cart & Horses in the East End on Friday night with the Zep tribute. If you didn't know, this is the venue where Iron Maiden cut their teeth, which of course you would never guess from the complete lack of memorabilia around the place, Maiden themed beers and wine at the bar and everything in the familiar IM font...! 😉 A bit of an odd gig, as we had a dep drummer for the night, which as you might imagine is a tough gig for a drummer to dep. The guy we got in had been struggling at a couple of rehearsals we managed to get in, but he did fine. Not perfect, but not a disaster by any means! A smallish place so pretty packed, a great audience and Didge even managed to work the Eastenders theme into his keys solo! NB. the picture is of the soundcheck, not the keys solo in the gig itself...!

Played Northern Guitars in Leeds on Friday with Heisenbug. Northern Guitars is a great venue in a busy area of town so plenty of passers by stopping and coming in. Crowd seemed to appreciate our all originals set. Chasing after more bookings now... Check out the crazy drum kit! VID-20250607-WA0014.mp4 VID-20250607-WA0015.mp4

I won’t share the details (as it’s not my place to). But as my desperate sale thread a while ago lead to a (frankly overwhelming) response…There will be an update on that soon hopefully as legal teams are progressing for Iris. I’d hope we could help a good friend of Basschat @lee650 He’s gone from messaging me “that’s it Trav, I’ve got everything I need bass wise” to having to sell some/most of his collection. I’m hoping we can raise enough so he can at least keep one of the 3 basses he’s has for sale. If you know Lee, you know he’s a gorgeous human being; he’d give you his last quid for the bus home and walk himself…he’s got a heart of gold. He’s helped me through so many dark times, he’s taught me so much - a phenomenal musician. as per @Clarky’s lead for me - I want us to give it a go for Lee. https://gofund.me/d05da7af

With thanks to Steve @Steve Browning for donating the box and Dave @obbm for modifying it this is now solved, I've just run it at low volume at home and it works just fine, looking forward to running it slightly louder tomorrow in the big room 👍

Been on a bit of a run of completing DIY pedals lately. Decided to give them their own board for now, spurred on by the power supply gratefully received from @rwillett! R->L: - SHO + Switchable clipping diode 1 based on Jptr Jive circuit. - EQD Zoar clone using PCB from Five Cats - Stripboard version of Fuzzrocious Ram the Manparts, tweaked to make it more usable. - BDI with Mids Mod à la: Think I need to branch out beyond drive/distortion for my next build!

I have mentioned before that our singer and band leader is a massive Bruce Springsteen fan. Our gigs tend to follow 'the Boss' in length with 3+hour sets not uncommon. On Saturday we had the dreaded WhatsAppp message from him - 'I'm at a Springsteen gig' - which can often mean last minute set changes as new songs appear following an epiphany during The Boss' performances. Yesterday, with the BL yet to appear at the rehearsal, the sound guy and I were taking bets on which Springsteen songs would be added and, as Sir Paul was also present with Bruce in Liverpool, which Beatles tracks would also make an appearance. We both lost as the BL was very restrained and chose not to alter the set at all. Instead we ran through the first 6 songs, which run together as a solid 20 minute section kicking the set off. It's a new concept to most of the band so we've been working on the transitions and they're finally beginning to gel. The sound guy kept telling me my bass was sounding 'muddy' and I couldn't figure out why as nothing had changed from the previous rehearsal. Right at the end, as we were talking about it, his description 'all the top end disappeared from your sound' made me realise that the 'Ultra HI' button on my Ampeg SCR-DI pre-amp pedal had probably not been engaged and sure enough, that was the issue. I love that pedal but I wish it had indicator lights on the push buttons. Ibanez GSR205, Broughton HPF (set at 40hz) Zoom MS60 (for noise reduction, compressor, tuner/mute and a couple of one-off spot effects), Ampeg SCR-DI into the desk. Skechers. 😀

Not sure if of interest but the Canadian Petrucci score library has a huge amount of free double bass music. This is all content that’s legally free to download, share and distribute. Lots of things of interest (if you like the bow!) https://clara.imslp.org/?k=Bass&tab=works&ins=Double+bass|%3D%3D|1|false

Well done Nick's mum!

I should explain that most of the band (there are 13 in total) are not dedicated musicians - it's a weekend hobby for them and so anything other than 'song-stop-song-stop' is out of their comfort zone. Like you, in previous bands we've always tried to grab the attention of the audience with a few back to back before doing any audience interaction. I think it makes for a solid intro, sets the scene and lets people know that we mean business. But its new to the Hulla band and to be fair everyone has got it. I have 24 bars before I come in and then it's non-stop for the rest of the songs. The drummer, BL, guitarist and I are the core throughout and it's working well. 😀

Our rehearsal space has Ashdown Rootmaster 500 heads through ABM 8x10 cabs. It's awesome.

Thanks Don't sell yourselves short. You guys have a good thing started. You guys sound high end so I'm hoping to hear about high end gigs for you guys. Don't be afraid to say "no" if a booking seems dodgy. Daryl Daryl

"If it sounds good it is good." -Duke Ellington

Cheers. I was struggling all week to be fair, and I’d did the gig on max painkillers. 4am pain was off the scale, I was shaking with it. I cannot fault the care I’ve had today though, assessed quickly, admitted, CT scan, diagnosed and placed on a ward. The nurses are hot on my pain management, and have told me when they are going to administer stuff through the night. Hopefully it will just be a couple of nights.

Funny old thing, just a week after tentative return to gigging post-stroke with my old band (just for a short sax set at a local mini-festival) I got an urgent call from them to play a private party not far away for a full gig - their replacement bassist couldn't make it... I spent an hour the day before playing along with an Audacity recording I'd made of the band, sort-of got my fingers and brain working together again, so it was off to the gig yesterday evening, fingers crossed! It actually all worked out OK, a few dodgy moments that didn't seem to be noticed in the new numbers introduced by the band since my hospitalisation, but I managed to stay on point and upright for two one-hour sets (thank you, Red Bull!) and got nicely paid, so in all a good way to ease back into gigging, with the promise of some more to come. Must say though, I was cream-crackered today...

I bought a 2000 Warwick Thumb in 2006, surprisingly cheaply, and had the baseball-bat neck reprofiled to the same dimensions as my JD Thumb and defretted. Some years later, I had the unfretboard replaced with a slab of ebony by Jon Shuker. This is it with the initial defret:

A brace of Warwick Thumbs:

My gig last night was great, and the main reason for it, was that we played a lot quieter. My band is a great bunch of chaps, and we all get along really well. However, the drummer is/can be, one of the loudest drummers I’ve ever played with. On the last gig in a theatre, I spent a long time meticulously refining the sound during sound check, it was superb, then in the first set, adrenaline and enthusiasm got the better of the drummer and he overwhelmed the mix we’d created and we all had to up the volume to hear ourselves. We had words at half time, and the second set was better. This week at rehearsal, the band leader instigated a discussion about stage volume, and the drummer took it well. So last night, he brought different cymbals (quieter ones) and played in a much more restrained manner. I used a BF One10 and a GK class D head. It really worked, and the audience absolutely loved it. We could all hear every nuance, and our dynamics improved. The drummer did admit that the gig was better for it. So from a great gig last night, I woke at 4am this morning in a lot of abdominal pain, tried 111, which was hopeless, walked into an Urgent Treatment Centre at 8am, was examined and referred to A&E. Suspected acute appendicitis, but after scans and bloods, it turns out to be diverticulitis. They’re keeping me in for a couple days on IV antibiotics and painkillers. Marvellous! Rob

Fun morning with my buddies half remembering songs, having a chat and a laugh, and making noise. To be fair we haven’t had a get together since last November, this being a bit of fun blasting through our old new wave songs from 40+ years ago. Drummer was using a newer kit that he normally uses as a cut down set so had a chance to use the whole thing. Guitarist had a new big birthday guitar and refined pedalboard. I stuck with the FrankenJazz, usual pedalboard, and the studio’s Hartke rig. All sounded pretty good where I was stood and generally pretty tight - until it didn’t 🙄 Some songs fell apart when one or other of us forgot where we were in it, but much fun and hilarity all round which is what we’re after. Not really looking to gig, just make some different noise to what we all usually do in other bands. We were the only band in this morning and the youngster that let us in and hung around to lock up after made some nice comments (probably just humouring the old farts! 🤣)

What a cracking gig last night with Nine Lives at the Balaclava in Fraserburgh. What can I say, it was busy and loud, with an audience who were bang up for a dance and a sing along. Can't really ask for much more than that. Genuine goosebumps moment when enough folk were singing The Cranberries "Zombie" back at us such that we could hear it over ourselves. You know you've had a great gig when packing up doesn't tire you out. Can't really say much more than that. Probably pay for this with a paid rehearsal next week - karma's a b!tch Gear was the Sire Z7 then the Epiphone T-bird into the ISO standard bass rig. Shout out to the Thunderbird, it was sounding epic last night, and I felt godly playing it. Oh and I got called "the coolest MF" by a punter last night after we finished. My ego happily accepts your compliment, sir! And have a bit of bonus video...

Lovely time had by all showcasing the new project "A little more Gilmour' Dave Gilmour & Pink Floyd tribute act

Honed mine down to 7 essential pedals... Really happy with this version.... Korg pitch black mini, MXR Dyno comp bass mini, MXR vintage bass octave, Darkglass B3K, Xotic bass RC booster, EBS bass IQ envelope filter, Boss bass chorus. The MXR compressor is just lovely... Inconspicuous but tightens things up perfectly !

Gig last night, a wedding. I am not generally a great fan of weddings, but they do pay well and many of them have been great. Normally it is a pain to load in and out while they are doing speeches etc. This one we had a little flap at the back of the tent to load in, but luckily it was just me and the drummer so loading in wasn't too bad, the guitarist came later once we had everything in. Quietly got everything loaded through the various speeches. For some reason the X-Control wasn't working - I know it wasnt the X18 or the router as I had wireless, but swapping cables didn't work. In the end the singer found if he started it holding the ethernet cable up, it worked. Time for some new ethernet cables! They had changed their mind about the first dance song, and wanted something to dance with everyone with, but didn't have an opinion what, so we went for 'saw her standing there' as it is generally love based and we can't normally play it as the drummers dad always wants to sing it, and he is at all of our public gigs, it went down a storm. So everyone danced for 5 or 6 songs and then went out of the tent - it had been raining for a while and suddenly got nice. So it was largely an empty tent for most of the first half until obviously 2 songs before the half time, when everyone came back in and danced. we extended a few songs then had a break. Came back in and everyone had gone off again, half into the pub the marque was in the garden of and half outside, so we did half the set to one woman, who to be fair was enjoying it, and her other half came in later so there were two of them. Towards about half an hour before the end, a large group came in and started dancing and enjoying it and then inevitably everyone was in for the last 2 songs and after the landlord gave us a hard '1 more song' and we did that song, were all shouting for more songs. As usual. Then as we broke down, or trying to, a couple of the guys were trying to set up a silent disco, which involved lots of them standing in the way while we were trying to break down and making it really slow. It was ok but I am not a fan of weddings!

Well, I will do two, although the first one was last saturday, just hadn't got round to it. Last week was a local 'pub on a beauty spot' event - they play gigs on sunday afternoons through the summer, and they are well attended. They don't pay well, the landlord is tight and he knows that people really want that gig, they do, only certain bands are allowed in. The venue is a semi-permenant marque over a fixed shed/stage, its made at the start of the season and taken down at the end. Parking in general is a nightmare, but the band have access to an area at the back, getting to it is another issue due to the traffic trying to park, took 10 minutes to get past the car parks! This was the first of the summer gigs, so looking forward to it. Luckily got there before the guitarist so it was an easy setup, I took my BC12 speaker and a TC450 as I was a little concerned about the Evox8 not starting when we were at the last gig, and didn't want to be doing an ourdoor gig with everything through one Evox8, turned out nothing to worry about, it was fine. Busy as usual, sound was clear and good, crowd were good, although the bass (the rick) sounded lifeless. Midway through the third song realised that the compressor on the 450 was nearly flat out, which was the issue, dialed it out, all sounded good. First half went ok, but seemed a bit flat for some reason. At half time people were doing their usual complaints about the sound, although not usual, in that noone complained about the vocals, I took the mixer in during the week a few weeks back and spent some time eq'ing the vocalist from a multitrack and since then he has been gushing about how it sounds, and noone has complained. People complained the guitar was too quiet, I didn't think it was, they also complained the bass was too quiet, well, not having that, so that went up a bit. switched the Maruszczyk at half time (for no particular reason) and the second half the crowd were more into it and it went down a storm - the second half songs are more poppy than the first - also the new tracks 'A little less conversation', 'staceys mom' and 'all the small things' went down well. In the end we must have been going too fast or had too short a break as we started to get really close to the running out of 44 track setlist time! Later someone posted some grainy videos of us on facebook, the bass was pretty loud in the first half!

Played a late afternoon gig in Methil yesterday with Blockbustarz Glam band. Ticket sales not great with only 50 sold but with a few walk ins we had a decent enough audience. Not the most enthusiastic but they dance from early on and we had the dance floor filled on several occasions with the floor shouting for more songs at the end. Started 4pm and finished 6:30pm with a 20min break in middle. According to club they are seeing less custom at the moment and last week they put a free band on and the place was empty so not good news. Not sure what's going on there but hopefully they get to grips with it. When we mentioned the Xmas gig on 14the Dec the organiser said it wasn't in his diary but he'll double check and get back to us. We'll give it a week and if nothing from him we'll take another booking. We had to refuse 3 other enquiries for Dec gigs so should manage to fill it. Another club in the next village have been looking to get in on the Glam thing too so who knows. Used the Sandberg VM4, Shure wireless, Keeley Bassist comp and into Handbox WB-100 and the new Barefaced 212 cab. This was the cabs first proper trial as it was a large club with no PA support and it worked a treat. I could hear the cab no matter where i stood on the stage. Hollow stage so the bass does boom a bit even on a gramma pad. The Barefaced cab sounds very similar to my Mesa rig with the Mesa 210 giving it slightly more mid focus but not a lot in it. The tone with an all valve head is just sublime. The fact its a one hand lift with a single cab to a gig makes it worthwhile for me. The one big change to my sound has been dropping the VM4 pick up height a touch. When i was digging in i was getting more distortion than i liked and i have never really been able to nail the issue. Changed amps, cabs but wasn't sure. Using the Barefaced cab which is 1000W confirmed it was more down to the bass. The gig last night proved it has been the bass all along. I tweaked it during the week and its now perfect with some distortion when i really dig in hard. On a more personal note we decided to hit the local McD's and had a Big Mac Meal and i'm still searching for the meat. Apparently 2 burgers in it and i couldn't taste meat anywhere. The cheese slice was thicker than the burgers and the roll was twice the diameter of the burgers. Won't be buying that again. Seriously reckon the burgers were 3" diameter and about 1/8th inch thick. (That's 75mm and approx 3mm for the younger generation) Next week is a new venue for us in Camelon, Falkirk. 2 weeks later we are in Camelon again at our regular venue for a birthday party. Dave

I agree with @TimR it's a long time since I played HtoH but I'm pretty sure my bass line included a lot of what the brass section were doing. In a lot of songs over the years I've found a lot of the original bassists playing things musically wrong but those things survived the edits and are there in the original rerecording. Famously Jean Genie contains quite a 'few slips' including in the bass riff that runs through most of the song. Trevor Bolder the bassist says he can't remember what he played. The whole idea of original is quite a blurred vision of music. Is the 'original' the first take, what the bassist played or something the composer wrote down before the session man walked in? Is it the album version or the single version? Or maybe the version wher the original bassist played the wrong note? I think those of us who have played in multiple bands probably do it differently. We've often got a lot of songs to learn in a short time often in bands that prove to be unstable/short lived and with people who work full time so rehearsals are a luxury. I'd have 'learned' this as part of a batch of 30 songs and I'd probably have known 10 of the songs. I'd never heard the Black Crowes before. Learning would have been lots of listening followed by downloading the chord sheet and initially just playing the rhythm and the root notes and making notes of any fills, stops and stabs etc. The aim would be to be able to go through the first rehearsal with a firm base from the rhythm section so the rest of the band can do their stuff without any startling errors. If it worked I'd take that to the gigs. I'd also know that the band might be missing some of the instruments or that the drummer would be playing four to the floor and I might add in bits to the bass line not in the original. Each song sets up musical challenges and with limited abilities I do my best. Set lists often change and songs get dropped so with 20 songs getting things 'correct' is a waste of time, if the songs last I'll add in refinements but this is often based upon what the rest of the band are doing. Like @Al Krow I take a pragmatic approach. Go Your Own Way is a good example. There are at least three guitar parts in the intro and I've played with drummers and guitarists that struggle with the intro. I've variously started the song playing one of the rhythm guitar parts on Bass and I've also played it properly. It's got that lovely run at the end and initially I played the notes all 'wrong' but with the rhythm and feel of the original and nothing that would clash with the guitarists solo. Later I went back and learned it properly but I doubt a single band member noticed and the audience not at all. It's great to sometimes learn things note for note and you learn loads by doing it but criticising people by describing it a lazy isn't seeing the bigger picture IMO Now I must go and learn the proper ending to that Monkees song btw it's the Black Crowes in the original spelling, couldn't resist it

Per definition they are 34", but I came across at least two or three Ian Hills that were 35" Throughout the years Spector produced a few 35" Euro 4s, sometimes called Euro435 with the same PJ setup and all the other specs being exactly the same and from the outside it is almost impossible to tell a 34" from the 35" except for one telltale sign. So if you know what to look for you can spot the 35" Euros pretty easily. My Euro 4 35" pictured below and if you look at the bridge pickup it almost lines up with the balance and the treble pot, whereas on standard Euro 4s the pickups are in different locations (and relative to the pots, too. ) I had another 435, same layout and the latest 35" Ian Hill I've seen (seller confirmed the scale lenght and the IH model sign on the back of the headstock

Dave, We have very few gigs with young ladies dancing . We have pensioners that stay glued to their seats. Daryl

We canceled a few remaining bookings at Club Rossdale. Not really a place for live music. The place was not a match for us. Daryl

This is identical to my first and last Encore and first ever bass that I owned and learned on. Bought off E-Bay as part of a bundle pack. Good memories 😊

Sadly the video files we have of this bass are too large to upload but here’s a link to our Facebook page where you can see it https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CTLc7Rn87/?mibextid=wwXIfr Here’s more pics of the finished bass

But for me to play it the right way, I'd also have to train the guitarist to play it the right way. And I think it sounds fine as it is.