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It's been a while since I've been able to post in this topic, as our old guitarist opted out at the beginning of May. It's been cancellations, auditions and just a couple of rehearsals since then. I think we've got the right new guy. I was slightly nervous in the run up to last night's first gig, as we didn't manage to rehearse this week as our drummer has been taken into hospital for urgent surgery. He's going to be out of the game for a while. A good friend of ours is going to sit in on drums for a while when he can and I am meeting another drummer this evening, when we play another gig (and he's on drums). We're deviating from usual set to a degree, as our new guitarist has some songs he's pretty good at, so to get a set together, and to change things a bit (the old band was a bit of a museum, as we couldn't add new songs without a distinct lack of enthusiasm from one corner of the room). We've pulled the best set together of crowd pleasers that we can . There were a couple of hairy moments, but the punters didn't notice. The good news for us is that we are back doing it and enjoying it.

Weird one last night; A prize giving evening for Dominos players at a hotel in Derby (the table-top game, not the pizzas!) Our newly jigged Duo set got a surprise early outing. Pity about the 30 degree heat. You could have wrung my shirt out into a bucket afterwards! Out tonight with the Everly's & Friends live tribute show at the Alvaston Hall Warners near Crewe. Just need to remember all of the Everlys/Buddy Holly/Jerry Lee Lewis numbers that I haven't played for two months! Perfect weather for a three-piece suit. Obvs.

I'm out at last. Mri was clear but still unsteady and probably will take a weekor two to recover. Had to bow out of three gigs with three bands this weekend but they have all been great about it. Gutted as was really looking forward to it

Sounds…. Just like a Stingray. For a lot lot lot lot lot less money. Aguilar pickup, OBP-2, 18volts. nice.

Did a 2-hour set last night with Ministry of Mojo as part of the Dereham Blues Festival. Really nice venue but very small and dwindling audience, which we just about outnumbered by the end. Unfortunately the venue is out of the town centre and blues fans clearly didn't fancy making the trip out to the suburbs. The office:

Just played to 400 or so Swedish Bluegrass fanatics at a festival by a lake. I’m taking the photo, not in it!

In Chipping Norton there's a "community piano" provided by the town council for the use of the general public. They even tune it from time to time and most of the keys work! This afternoon we used it to do a bit of busking as a means to promote the local jam session. A recording of Blue Bossa (a well-known jazz standard often used at jams) can be heard here. The public passing by seemed to like it; a few compliments were received and around £19 and four cans of beer were dropped into one of the drummer's cases. A nearby bakery offered free pies/cakes which the pianist was pleased to accept. The only passer-by who appeared less than fully pleased was one who commented that we needed a guitar in the band (we don't agree).

Yesterday was an exciting one: a pedal I've been waiting for for a couple of years arrived. The backstory is a bit convoluted but I ended up with a 3 Leaf Audio Chromatron that was a little battered and losing its graphics. I reached out to Zac Sweeney at Malaise Forever and asked if he would be willing to finish it however he liked because I love his designs. That was in May 2023. A lot has happened with Malaise Forever shutting down and then reopening in a different form; there were times I wasn't sure I would see the pedal again so it made opening the box yesterday very sweet. I've posted some photos of the finished article below (and, as a bonus, I now have a box for the pedal!).

Took this bad boy out for its first ever rehearsal last night. It’s absolutely the best bass I’ve ever played and I OWN IT!!!

Some video that surfaced after our gig last week, courtesy of Eilihd our talented videograher on the night. The emphasis as always was on keeping it laid back. Our version of the Sonny Boy Williamson classic "Help Me". It's a bit grainy, and sounds better with decent monitors. HelpMe.mov

When I'm bored, I do a new build. This is my latest. Poplar P-Bass body (i was inspired to use Poplar when I found out that the new Pino Stingrays would use this wood) Rothko and Frost Paisley Paper (over £33 for each sheet for the front and rear!!! Aaaagh!!) Custom wound pickup CTS pots Roasted flamed maple neck - i used white mother of pearl side dots to make them easier to see against the darkened maple when gigging. Nitrocellulose lacquer used on the body and the neck Lollipop tuners I aged the body except for under the pickguard, to mimic the way older basses look when the clear guard protects the topcoat from UV ageing.

Built this last night and slept late just playing it. Sounds glorious! MXR bass synth in the fx loop. Using a Mono Lite Pedal board

Paul Young was just on BBC2 on the Live Aid gig, Pino laying it down on the ‘Ray, nicely high in the mix - a perfectly timed advert.

Home build, home sprayed, home assembled and setup. TV has nothing decent to watch, so this is how I keep myself amused.

Got the Sandy back yesterday with the AG 4M/J-HC set fitted. Based on a quick noodle at home, definitely worth all the cost and hassle. Will post the full story after tonight's gig.

They are great basses, I had a combustion for years and deciced to upgrade to this - it's a bit of a sleeper. Canadian ABZ but with a plain finish so it doesn't look like a custom from a distance. The rehearsal was good fun. The drummer is good but very inexperienced so trying out ALL of his chops in the numbers and practising fills and rolls whenever we stop. And is VERY LOUD. But that's all fine. I have earplugs and the enthusiasm is great. What I'm having to put my foot down on though is the speeding up. Once last night the tune was racing away so I tried to pull back, and pull back until I was completely out of time and neither of them noticed. They didn't even notice when I stopped playing and stood there waiting for them to finish the tune... which they did very quicklyt the speed they were going! I asked the, politely, to listen a bit more intently and to be fair they did after that. The beers and the chat in the pub afterwards was also the hightlight of the week.

https://fixr.co/event/the-notion-tickets-852950390?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwLe4pNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHrlLE6qjjBweFvp-8C79mULPUtmIuuO6ZnPUj3z-Jv2VyLqOShOkn2MtlT2p_aem_y_t_gM0_8PY7_Be0LR3vhQ Think this is sold out/close to being… The Notion are local indie stalwarts and we used to share our room with them - this is their farewell show.

Nano pedals on a nano board

First Otis Jay BluesBand show with our new singer Cecilia. Also my first show as a main singer, having taken on the ‘male’ songs in our repertoire. Video shows me giving C some space as she emerges from behind the keyboards. She’s only on loan to us, but if we come back without her I think we might be lynched! Played Flea Jazz through a just visible Barefaced One10 and a very efficient Warwick Gnome that arrived in the post that very morning courtesy of @spyder 87527738-02ab-49e9-9f7f-662474ad080d.mp4

I could probably clamp a couple to my back using the strap for the bass. I wonder where the ones we had for camping are?

Band practice at church last night. Too hot, nobody could concentrate, the drummer and I could barely keep in time with each other and the trumpeters were dying of thirst. Should be fine on Sunday! 😅

The end of 1965 for Jazz basses, the very beginning of 1968 for P basses.

And a good tip - one which we’ve had to ram home a few times - is don’t stop recording at the end of the song, keep recording to capture the applause/audience reaction.

I always find it incomprehensible that folk form a loving bond with a wholly inanimate, impersonal object like, say, a car or a house, and yet here I am genuinely bereft at the passing of a loudspeaker. Strange chaps us humans. I just plugged into my hefty old 15" Trace Elliot cab and annoyed the neighbours one last time. Dreamed of owning this when I was a callow bass player with a Woolworths guitar and a head full of dreams. Now I'm at the far end of that road, grizzled, cynical, ancient beyond counting, and I can neither afford a vehicle that can carry it nor lift the damn thing. I put a solid old fashioned amp into it and cranked it beyond any level of neighborhood decency. Still sounds as amazing today as I dreamed it would way back when. It's going to a new home, for a new lease of life. I hope it will still bring joy long after I'm returned to dust. Adieu old friend, you were such a heavy ba$tard.

I remember her voice being described as having warm chocolate poured over you. Wonderful description.

Mine... I hope this helps. It looks like the shielding on your white core wire needs to be exposed a bit more. That'll be your third wire. @Andyjr1515 replaced the jack socket for me some time back. I didn't want to put a strain on the preamp harness and end up like you seem to have but the order of the wire colours is just visible.

Good to hear you’re out & about

A lot of EQ options here - trying this FKT Audio pedal with different basses

Shows they're only interested in getting money out of their fans - c.f Black Sabbath gig where proceeds went to charity! Never liked the arrogant and whiny Beatles impersonators...

100% agree. That annoys the heck outa me. Also those phones that only take 30 secs of a song and always miss the bass solo. 😂 Dave

Had the issue with the Mesa cabs but since changing to a Barefaced 212 cab its amazing the difference. Its wide dispersion angle means i can stand right in front of the cab and still hear it clearly. Dave

Typical - these appear when I'm skint !!! Time for me to sell some of my existing surplus basses. Here's what Pino's original bass looks like these days (pic taken by Pino's wife, Maz)

The only difference between these basses and a standard 2 band Stingray of that era ordered in any one of those three colours (candy apple red, metallic blue and white) was the lack of a hard case and substitution of an EBMM gig bag instead. They were certainly sold cheaper at the time (£995 IIRC) but that was because Strings and Things had a bulk order for them and used the slightly cheaper gig bag (nevertheless the gig bags are reasonably expensive - I bought one for a used Stingray which came in a very cheap cover). They are red, white and blue as they also celebrated an anniversary of Strings and Things, the U.K. Distributor. So don’t feel you’ve been done - it’s a standard full fat Stingray. This is rather similar to the fact that certain finishes (such as natural and sunburst) had a higher new price than say, a solid colour - despite this they often don’t seem to command commensurately higher used prices….. Poplar was used on most solid colour basses made up until the Stingray Specials in 2018, which all had ash bodies for the first couple of years. Poplar was also used on the late 80s/early 90s blueburst basses (as well as the US Sub basses made in the early 2000s). Alder was used on most translucent red basses. Ash was used on most natural finishes and original sunburst/ honeyburst basses.

....and we will have the opportunity to win the bass Here!!

Ingenious!

20th century Trace Elliot equipment was built for real men!

And here is the preamp diagram/wiring:

Yeah, it should be god damned good instrument, but still, i think my Yamaha trb 5pII is better - sorry. 😄

this needs a tidy up but sort of getting there the Vitoos PSU was a great buy , the Walrus Tuner is good and the Free The Tone pedals really are the business

That’s kinda what I was interested in finding out, Len. Ta for asking! As far as I can tell, there’s really not a great deal of difference. Maybe it’s not as compressed as the Elf, but certainly loud enough for the room. The Fleas pickups drive it quite hard. What I like about the Warwick is the clearly visible controls - many’s the time the Elf’s volume has somehow turned itself down or off! Curiously, on the evidence of live recordings, the sound I like best for blues at the moment is my Sandberg VM4 with the GK MB200 through my Barefaced Two10. None of which I was using here🤔

Exactly my relationship with wives!

Rise ... if s/he still can with a triple hernia and some broken vertebrae... 🤔🤪😂