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Eagles tribute show in Newcastle... a great venue, but a big space with a very high domed ceiling. A great house PA, engineer and lots of punters mitigated any issues. Lots more shows coming up with these chaps. I absolutely love it.

Maple Road will be performing at The Big Gig, Summerfest the worlds largest music festival this Saturday. Set time is 1:45-2:30 and then 3:30-4:15. We're on The Johnsonville Stage. "We received 3 digital parking passes for Lot E today. Max and Rory, I will send you each one later today, Daryl will ride with us, and we need to be to the Lot by 11:45am on Sat." We only got in because the band originally booked canceled. Daryl

I was discussing this with my partner yesterday - we're both in our fifties and the point has come where regular exercise is compulsory not optional if we want to continue doing the things we enjoy for a decent amount of time. I personally intend to continue to enjoy the pleasures of an active life well into my eighties so I'm trying hard to eat well and do daily exercise that includes cardio, strength, mobility and flexibility over the course of each week. I personally find that exercise is as important for my mental health as for my physical health, or perhaps that mental and physical health are really just aspects of the same thing.

Sharing my current rig. Just got the Anagram today which I intend to use as flyrig. It’s as big as my Nintendo Switch I love it! Small board is still my meat and potatoes so it stays.

My Sandberg Family. SL TT, Electra VS4 (with Aguilar 60s and German tuners), TM4 Electra (Thomann Special) and the magnificent Lionel. I've become a fan boy!

Here's a montage from the Hertford gig last Saturday by U2 Tribe

Bought this corvette as a back up ….just couldn’t fall for the post box red so I was going to move it on ..it did play and sound awesome ..so I spent Sunday morning stripping it back and waxing it Jacobean oak ..literally cost me my time and that’s it ..looks like it was originally antique tobacco it’s as ash wood and think I’ve been quite lucky with the grain ..🤟

Hobgoblin is more your folk music shop - they do have acoustic basses (4 string, fretless and even a 5 string which they made for me). But they specialise in stuff that other shops don't stock: accordions, thumb pianos, erhu (Chinese violin), Indian lap-harmoniums, fretless banjos, marimba, chambord, bagpipes, and a couple of zebra-hides worth of African drums. If you haven't heard of it, can't play it, and don't need it, Hobgoblin stock it.

I think the best sale I've ever had was meeting @Happy Jack for a pub lunch (which he paid for!) and nearly getting thrown out by the non-bass loving landlord. Music is all about relationships.

This just arrived! Bought the only stock in GuitarGuitar yesterday. Still keeping my analog board though.

So this arrived yesterday. Haven’t had chance to try it out yet, but if it’s half as good as my internet research suggests, then I think I’ll be happy. All part of my master plan of splitting my acoustic/double bass board from my electric board, as both of my bands move towards silent stages.

Part of this comes down to how you view relationships online and with Basschat members. As part of a community here I’d consider people to be friends and expect them to treat me that way. (I remember when my band started. York5stringer gave me a £500 PA and told me to send him the money when I had it. That’s from a person I’d never met and had only ever interacted with virtually.) If you consider us all as individuals with a virtual relationship and no moral responsibilities to one another, then it’s fair game. Each opinion is valid. I subscribe to the former if I’m honest, but I’m knowingly quite naive.

I joined my local gym. Not something I EVER thought I'd do, but my doc gave me a choice of meds or NHS part-funded gym membership. The strange thing was after a few weeks I started to really enjoy it and missed it if I couldn't work out for a few days. Nothing too strenuous - treadmill, cycle machine, and some weights and there's big TVs to watch so the time goes quickly. My formal exercise goals include "carrying my bass amp" The NHS bit was quite important for me - I have a special coach who went through my medical history and designed a suitable programme and keeps tabs on my progress.

Just about to light a barbie, so I'll put some sausage and burger music on. Which, today, is:

One of the chaps there (John, who has since left) told me how Paul McCartney was a regular visitor to the shop, and he sold him a Hathway mandolin. Paul McCartney asked for a discount, and after a few minutes of negotiation, John said "in the time that we have been talking, you have earned enough in royalties to buy it!". All in good humour, and Paul McCartney paid full price. John also taught Paul McCartney a few chords, which he used in a song that he later released - Dance Tonight.

Just as @Belka said raising the thickness of the string is absolutely not the solution, except if you only play an opened B and nothing else. The thicker the string, the worse the intonation is, so with a B string, never go thicker than 0.135 gauge. The clarity and definition (and more important intonation) can be improved by the string construction, not by its thickness, which will do the opposite. Guess why piano strings are exposed core for most of them, especially in low end part...

I am exactly the same. With one notable exception, I think of everyone here as a chum and hope I treat everyone accordingly. I'm reminded of a local store that was offered a wonderful old Hiwatt stack, by a widow, at a silly price but insisted on paying a fair one instead. I have PM'd sellers in the past to suggest their price is possibly low. As stated, we all have our own (valid) view.

Not posted on here for a wee while now but i've been using my WB-100 for best part of this year so far and i'm loving the tone with my Sandberg VM4 thru both my Mesa SW210/115 rig and now with the Barefaced 212 cab i bought few mths back. It was originally bought as a stop gap until i managed to get my Mesa TT800 amp but tried the WB-100 again early this year and realised i just love a full valve amp. One of the reasons i stopped using it was that i was getting a bit more distortion than expected and found the overall volume was limited because of it. What i found was that it was my pick up height that was the issue on the VM4. I dropped it a touch and the level of distortion appears to have almost gone completely except when really digging in. This allowed me to get the WB-100 gain up at a bit more and the overall volume is now more than adequate even for larger 200 seat capacity venues with no PA support. At the moment with the BF 212 my settings are :- Gain @ 11-1 depending on how i feel on the night. Bass @ 11 Mid @ 2-3 Treble @ 11-1 Master @ 11 - 1 Dave

All Out Of Love - Air Supply well, that didn't last very long ...

I've started swimming. after a 30 year break.

Originals band up to 9 songs now, plus we added a lead guitarist tonight. First gig booked. Finished by jamming a few songs including Sweet Transvestite 😁

Singer wanted to rest her voice so we went through the set for Friday without her...turned out to be one our best/tightest practices 😎

Pretty good night last night after a few weeks off. One new song in the set that went ok for a first outing, though I mucked up the ending. Nice venue that’s almost always a good night and last night didn’t disappoint. Plenty of singing andan assortment of dancing girls. Plenty of nice comments after at the gig and on social media which always raises the spirits. Sound in my IEM’s was good with the repaired custom plugs and the new Sennheiser unit which is definitely better than hardwired with the Behringer, or the xVive that I have had problems with bleeding over the Wi-Fi link from phone to mixer for my aux. It did feel as if the other side of my plugs had failed, but that might just be that ear being more deaf so possibly need to tweak the balance. The boundary mic I chuck under the kit for a bit of ambient wasn’t working for some reason, probably the step down cable to the mic so I ended up coming home and ordering another before heading to my pit. Couple of videos from the evening… bass a bit low and rumbling but hopefully just the phone as general consensus seemed to be the sound was good at the venue - sounded great in my IEM’s 😁 Spot the cheats 🙄 VIDEO-2025-06-15-17-05-36.mp4 VIDEO-2025-06-15-17-05-36.mp4

Does this make sense?

Thanks Dave, It should be good. We've been playing Summerfest every year since 2009. However for the last 3 years we were relegated to what I call low profile kiddie stages. This is the first time in 3 years where we're back on a respectable and proper stage. Daryl

Dave, Not rock & roll ? When I fell and broke my ankle a few weeks back a tube of Preparation H ( hemorrhoid cream ) fell out of my front pocket. Daryl

Pete, Take a close look at the Summerfest 1970 line up. Much more diverse than what we have now. And just think we're an hour north of Chicago the blues capital of the world and no more blues headliners at Summerfest. Daryl

That looks cool Daryl...! I'm playing a big bike rally with the 'occasional' blues band this weekend. It's a big event, but not anywhere as near as big as that!

Buy lots of individual pedals. ....then realise it's a bit unwieldy, costly, and difficult to do complex changes live quickly. Sell individual pedals and buy a multi fx. ......then realise that it isn't as 'hands/stomp on' and not as 'what you see is what you get' and some sounds (like envelope filter) aren't as good as individual pedals. Sell multi fx and buy individual pedals. Repeat.

I bet he dines out on that! I really like Hobgoblin, but I have also been a bit disappointed the last couple of times I've been in one. I just felt a bit unwelcome. Massive shout out to Foulds in Derby. Great shop.

You're not comparing like with like. I would always expect a Monaco to exceed the performance of several One10's.

I doubt anybody is actually getting upset about it. We're most likely to laugh if off and look elsewhere. That's what I do anyway.

I don't do owt specifically to be gig-fit... However, in order not to be completely broken when I reach my late 60s (not too long now!) - also having two herniated discs - I do a morning routine of exercises involving crunchies, press-ups, Pilates stuff, Yoga stuff, Mars Bars and a Flake plus squats, some weights etc. And about 5 times a week I walk up our local hill, which is about 1000' climb. And when I can be bothered I go out on the mountain bike, and go climbing and/or mountain walking. Bass wise, I do various hand and wrists stretches as part of my routine, as well as doing an hour or so practice every couple of days.

Johnny come lately... the new kid in town!

I have the same experience, upgraded from 2x110 bf cabs to one Monaco. Because the 110’s struggled outdoors in the way the Monaco doesn’t

This is pretty much me too. I walk every day, although not as much as I used to when I didn't work from home. The band has ditched all our backline but we still have a couple of weighty items notably the flightcase that holds the gear which replaces having a drummer, and the synth player's 2-tier stand. Our rehearsal space is a fair walk from where it is possible to park the car for unloading and involves a flight of stairs if the lift isn't working, so carrying the gear for that and for gigs tends to be a decent work-out. I used to be a member of a gym but once the novelty wore off I found it pretty boring and after Covid I didn't bother re-joining. Despite being the oldest in the band by about 15 years I'm probably the fittest and most healthy. Musically I play 3 times a week once for writing, once for a rehearsal with my band and once for a gig. If I have a week when we're not rehearsing and/or gigging I'll get extra writing or recording sessions in. I've never practiced for the sake of it, it's always been because I have something specific that I need to play and my fingers aren't up to speed.

Agree that you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a good one. Years ago I was certain that I wanted to add a 5 string Fender P, went and played it and was let down. The B string was not great. Fender 5 ztrings in general have not done it for me, but in the case of the Pbass, it's difficult to make that barky pickup sound right on a low B. That said, the Moollon 5 string P classic is apparently incredible. I have never played one, but I find it interesting that a builder who strives to make the most authentic old school P's and J's out there, went in a different direction with the pickup for this model. I did own his J Classic 5, and thats an amazing 5 string bass if you want the feel and vibe of a mid 60's fender with a low B. So I have to imagine his 5 string P may be worth looking into, if you can track one down.

My last (unbeknownst at the time) visit to PMT was in the Cambridge branch earlier in the year. I was a bit concerned when the sales staff tried to tune the 5 string bass before handing it to me and gave up admitting he didn't know what he was doing. He was using a clip on tuner and it took me seconds to remedy it after he gave it to me.

I run marathons - but don't like to talk about it... I'd suggest getting into kettlebells. You only need one to start with and there are loads of routines on YouTube. Something with a deadlift, a swing, and a clean and press. Those 4 movements will build core strength and give you a good cardio workout at the same time. Throw in a suitcase carry and at least a 20minute walk a day (although I appreciate you have breathing issues). We all need to have functional strength to carry gear, load in and out and stand for a few hours.

By any chance do you like white basses with tort pickguards and rosewood boards? Nice collection mate I'm just being silly 😂

Try a set of LaBella Super Stetps SS45-CB, exposed core strings, which is the same as a piano string. You won't find a better definition on all notes and a better intonation. They need a new setup because of their conception, but that's all. These strings are also made by Rotosound as PSD (Piano String Design), F-Bass (rebadged LaBella Super Steps), Galli with stainless steel (MSB) or nickel options (RSB), Fodera (Anthony Jackson set) and I think that's it. Don't mismatch the exposed core with tapered core...

I've just bought an ABM 500W Evo iii - wow, it sounds amazing, why have I waited all these years. I see I now have to wade through 46 pages of this thread to get up to speed....

First two gigs last weekend with the new band I'd been helping out and have now joined. Saturday evening in Newbury and Sunday afternoon at a beer fest near Andover. Really enjoyed both, 2 x 1hr sets in Newbury, good crowd but not packed. I played pretty well and could hear everything. Played when required at the beer fest as it was a multi band thing where the players mixed about...loved my first attempt at "hey Jude" with most of us playing together and I tried some Overton Berry Trio lines. Thumpinator, comp, bass rig black panel, Barefaced 2x One10 stack for both.

Got some good pics from Fuel on Saturday!

It's the Les Paul junior double cut that's his. Very light too, African khaya wood, ebony fretboard, Irongear P90s