Leaderboard

Back in at the deep end. Bendricks Rock just played the resurrected Barry Bier Keller. Felt a bit light headed and queasy setting up with all the squatting and standing so I took an anti-nausea pill. It worked. I decided to avoid the complexity of backing bocals by forgetting my mike stand. 8:30 start but they said they would be happy with 2x45 minutes. Warned us fridays can be a bit quiet... Our first set was just over the 45 then we went back on at 9:45. Finally got finished about ten past 11. Fortunately we had a full complement so had plenty of material to do and finished with a few songs in hand. First half not too busy, we got up to about 35-40 people, with sporadic dancing but it's a big place. Halftime some of our followers arrived then the dance floor got busy early in our second set (war pigs gets people dancing around here!) and by the end it was packed. We ended up calling all the songs on the fly to keep it up. I even managed to do a bit of dancing with some friends in one song! Bar staff delighted and want us back. Got some good sounds out of my effects and Flea Jazz. I had to cut the bass and boost mids on my Orange Terror as my rear ported cab got a huge bottom end boost from the gard wall behind it. Think I'll sleep tonight... and now I have to repeat it all again tomor... later today! Not photos of us... lots of people filming us so hopefully something willpop up on Facebook.

Another totter along the pathway to full-on gigging on Friday, but (spoiler) alas not on bass. Leader of my former band couldn't find a dep guitar player for the 5-7pm slot she had been given at a mini-festival in Shaftesbury. Dep number 3 in her little black book could do the first set, so I got the call to do the second set on sax. It felt like a good idea as up til then the furthest I'd driven post my stroke op and recovery had been a 30 mile round trip, so the chance of doing a 90 miler in daylight and getting some pay for it was nice. Mrs G came along too... The traffic was very bad most of the way (it's getting to peak holiday time down here in Dorset) so we were a bit late arriving at the venue, which was a de-frocked church converted into a social event centre. The stage was set up amongst the gravestones, (in the dead centre of town?) and was rather impressive, being an inflatable shell over a proper raised playing area, with a pro sound guy and a full PA with massive speakers and foldback monitors - top marks! We sat and listened to my old bandmates doing their first set,after which the guitarist packed up rapidly and exited to get to his next gig. With just my tenor sax to set up and radio mic to plug in we were ready to continue after a few minutes with set 2. If you're a sax or brass player you'll be familiar with the need to transpose chords and melodies when playing with keys and guitars; I'd been used to playing most of the numbers in set 2 on bass without this embuggerance, but this time I was busking 9 out of 12 for the first time, which was a bit of a challenge especially with 'Sweet Caroline' and 'Country Roads' both played in B concert = C# on the tenor, with 7 accidentals to manage in the root key, and no chance of cheating with a capo... Anyway, it went OK 95% of the time and the punters seemed to appreciate the different sound of a sax-led band for a change, so I was able to successfully chalk up gig 3 after my 5 month medical lay-off - however, I was cream-crackered today!

We were in Worcester last night supporting Old Skool Punx The Samples at The Marrs Bar. We were somewhat under rehearsed - drummer played the 2 songs he started at far too low a tempo. The fastfunkypunky one still worked mostly OK, but the straightahead 3 chord punk thing became something completely different - like a stoner-doomfest where we all had to improvise to make it work and surprisingly, it did! Might play it that way again - left loads of room for me to do ringing arpeggios'n'stuff. And at one point I completely lost sound - rather than stop I reasoned that it was just my onstage monitoring and all was fine out front. Turned out that because I was cramped in front of my amp which was on the floor I'd stepped on the lead., FOH was all there and no-one had noticed apart from me and guitarman next to me! We had a reasonable crowd - maybe 60-70 which wasn't bad considering it was a late replacement for GBH who were meant to be playing... And rather than the pitchforks and flaming firebrands the crowd normally chase us out with we even gathered some more followers and a bloke said I played like Phil Lynott (??last time someone said I played like that geezer from Mudvayne so who knows??) Gear was Sandberg Basic-Helix-BBEpre-Crown Power-2x10 Markbass with lovely new Pinegrove strap who I've just discovered are only a few hundred metres from my work! Shoes were TUK creepers, trews were snakeskin jeans.

All of them.

Not sure if it's Trevor Horn who wrote the part, but Mark O'Toole does a great job of playing it here, and that's a fantastic tone. It doesn't hurt that it's given pride of place in the mix here. One for the good headphones / speakers.

[b]first bass[/b] . Woolworths 4 string, no idea of brand. -Your [b]go-to bass[/b] 5 string Alembic Europa -And [b]'Your' / signature bass[/b] Alembic Series II 5 string You can only put ONE bass for each category, no matter how much it might pain you! [b] First Bass Owned: 'Go To' Bass: 'Your' Bass: [/b]

Thirteen years later I’ve started getting reply notifications all of a sudden! When I created this thread in 2011 I didn’t expect it to still be alive in 2025.

Harp players never know when to stop blowing. Guitarists never have control of their volume. Neither do drummers. Drummer are always putting in fills that don't fit. Keyboard players don't understand that 2 bass lines don't work. . . . in any song. . . . ever!! Last week, I saw a quote from an engineer; "The best engineers have the simplest solutions". You could say the same about musicians, and definitely about bass players. The simplest lines are always the best. The spaces say more about your ability than the notes. Overplaying is a curse and the only way to fix it is to play with guys who don't.

and so I guess I should give this an update some years later!: First: Well, that one hasn’t changed Go To: Sandberg VM4 Your: Also, Sandberg VM4 (14 years later, I only own two basses. The Shine for nostalgia purposes, and the VM4!)

Same amp & cab as forever. New bass, tho!

Nano board, main bass and micro board. This is my 2025 core setup for live, recording and tone exploration. Also sharing some of the tracks I’ve recorded: Cheers, Chad

This is interesting, and reasonably priced too...

Was it one of these @Gasman? I'm guessing if you were that local to me it might've been an old band mate's company All The Kit. I've never had the pleasure of playing under the half 'igloo'.

At an open mic night in France, our visiting daughter decided to get up and sing At last, Etta James' classic. I was on acoustic bass, drummer on brushes, mate on keys. However the self appointed house harp player assumed he was included in the line up. After him playing continuously over the vocals for the first two minutes, I thought I'd really overstepped the mark when I screamed over mic "Shut the f*k up" but then, a big cheer and applause from every other muso in the place. These people have to be told.😆

I had another look at my Little Board, after my previous post here, and basically redid it entirely. I wasn't quite happy with the Harley Benton PowerPlant Tuner before I managed to damage it, and it wasn't quite right afterwards. So I got a better PSU with all-isolated outputs and tried again: Peterson StroboStomp Mini tuner - still the best tuner I've ever owned Orange KongPressor is back, because I had the space, and with a doubler cable it's getting 18V. Boss OC-5. I still have the MXR Bass Octave Deluxe, on my big board this time. The OC-5 is here because I'm experimenting with octave up for a pseudo 8-string tone, with some nice results so far. It's not a "hi-fi" octave up in isolation, but it blends well with direct tone. Mosky Silver Horse dual mode "Klone": the effect I want from it seems to change every time I use it, which is not the pedal's fault. It can give just a clean boost, a little more hair, or quite a bit of grind with the treble down to tame the fizz. JHS 3 Series Phaser: I had a problem with the switch last year that mysteriously fixed itself: if it goes again, I have a couple of dead pedals that can donate a switch. It's definitely a keeper for the sound quality. Ly-Rock "Simplifier" clone. I know, should have gotten the original DSM&H Simplifier, and I am considering the new Sub-Atomic pedal version. The cab sim is subtle but with some careful listening it does make a difference. The PSU is a mains-powered Harley Benton PowerPlant Junior, on sale at a very nice price. It has 5 isolated outputs, but you can see six pedals and the KongPressor is using two outputs for 18V. So I did have to use a splitter, which is not ideal. I got a little hum when using that with the Phaser, so the splitter now powers the tuner, the Klone and the preamp. There's still a very slight hum with the tuner in tuner/mute mode, but none in normal operation.

If you think you never overplay, it might be you.

Drink plenty of spirits, tune by ear, and be as loud as possible.

Doing that BOC transcription reminded me that I have never tried this. A ten-minute transcription of Kasim Sulton's bass part for the track, 'Bat Out Of Hell' from the 1977 Meatloaf album of the same name. Sometimes, the motivation to try transcribing something is because it is there! https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/bat-out-of-hell-meatloaf/

V sad. Many years ago my eldest son worked as a Saturday boy for a local company who did pa and lighting hire and sales. When he left to go to uni the owner gave him as a gift a paid overnight trip for two to the JHS trade show (up north!) and a couple of hundred to spend at trade prices. I couldn’t go so he took his grandad, they both had a brilliant time and son returned with a lovely Vintage j- bass and some other bits and pieces.

I would have to say accordion, on the basis that to my ears any accordion is too much so a lot of accordion is unspeakable.

I have got a wireless doofer, but never use it as it's another thing to worry about! May try again in the future... The actual problem was that I had the amp on the floor in order to lift the cab, and I'd moved my pedalboard so far back so guitarman had room that I literally had only a foots-length to stand in. Which meant hte slightest wrong move or attempted jig would cause me to kick the cable out. Next time I shall carve out my space a bit more!

My 44 year old Peterson looks pretty damn good in the living room.

If folks want a pickup winding article ... of course I can oblige ... I've done a pine of historic pickup rewind photo articles over on the Fretboard Forum over the years ... and a good number of them were for bass ... so if I get anything juicy I'll post here for certain. Also if folks want to have a crack at building magnetic pickups for their steel string double basses I'm happy to come up with a design I could help those interested make 🙂

Jeff Genzler makes some great bass gear.

Thanks for that - used the five string for three (out of five) songs during a pre-Sunday practice last night and was getting the hang of it by following the tip of always hitting the E on the fifth fret. Just going to bring the five string and the fretless on Sunday morning which will hopefully stop me chickening out this week!

I already teach pickup winding at my workshop fairly regularly - a few more folks through our hallowed portals won't cause an issue 🙂

I'm also done, I was reminded of the whirling dervishes and the noises I produced seem to be consistent with that EZ drummer , Fleabass, guitar and keys all through waves gtr3 and messed about with , splash of ozone 8 and there we go !

We're a heavy metal band. Our original singer was very much in the mould of Bruce Dickinson. When he left we tried out numerous male singers, none of whom worked out. We now have a female singer with really strong blues influences and we've never sounded better. Writing and arranging material to suit her voice means we're avoiding some of the musical clichés we'd encounter with a standard rock/metal singer. So, embrace the change. The unfortunate reality with music is that people don't evaluate things rationally. Hence you get nonsensical statements like 'I preferred your blokey image'

It was Bluesfire, but now Al the guitarist's other venture has become a charting indie band, Bendricks Rock is the main one. Long term I have about the same number of FS gigs in the diary. Joined Bluesfire 4 years ago alongside a band who only managed three gigs in 18 months, so I left that one and started Bendricks Rock about 6 months later. Just joined Fortunate Sons. Fractured Persona is more of a recording project with a limited lifespan, probably will do a handful of gigs. I had 7 gigs across these bands this month, but due to illness have missed three Ideal for me is three or four gigs a month. Maybe more.

Change of plan. Who TF glues in a bolt on neck? Decided to detach the neck, mostly in a fit of pique. I'm knackered. 2 hours of... persuasion using a Japanese saw, a chisel, a Stanley knife, a blow torch (to heat up the Japanese saw once I sawed as deep as I could) and raw brute force and ignorance. What a fscking mess Gonna have to clean that neck pocket out with the router, then probably build it back with veneer. Also, I think the neck's had it - it's too springy - the string change pitch if it leans on something under its own weight. This does not bode well for future tuning stability. On the plus side, I managed not to damage the top wood of the body

I would suggest, from long experience, that this is patently untrue. Not to decry the benefits of reading, but the Knowledge can, and is, put to Good Use by thousands of musicians, all over the Planet, every day, with nothing written at all, nor understood even if it were. Ears, on the other hand, can be useful. Knowing, from experience, how chords are constructed, and why, rhythmic notions to recognise different styles, and play to adapt to them, improvising over a piece never before heard... All of this, and more, much more, can, and is, achieved with no idea of notation, of any sort. Reading is Good, but it is only a part of Music Theory, and maybe not the most important part.

It's just arrived... Of all the places something like this could have come from, it came from Cash Converters. Yup. Good old Cash Converters. I took a huge punt on it when I noticed Alice Cooper's autograph. Certainly wasn't anywhere near convinced it was legitimate when I bought it. But... having spent most of last night trying to find any information, I managed to find the 4 photos of Alice, Steven, Francis, Rick and Ian. All holding this guitar, and all with signature markings on the guitar they are holding that match exactly the position of the signatures on this one I now have in hand. I reached out to Warwick Stone (anyone that watches Pawn Stars would know him as the British chap that values all of their Rock memorabilia). He responsed by email yesterday evening after having seen the guitar and the photos I posted here and confirmed it was legitimate. I've also reached out directly to Ian Hunter and Jeff Wayne (as I found their email addresses) as well as Gibson's current CEO, Cesar. Hopefully one of those will respond and be able to give me some more clues as to some of the other signatures! Identified signatures so far: Alice Cooper (Alice Cooper) Geezer Butler (Black Sabbath) Duff McKagan (Guns n Roses) Francis Rossi (Status Quo) Rick Parfitt (Status Quo) Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) Kerry King (Slayer) Meat Loaf (Meat Loaf) Pearl Aday (Meat Loaf's Daughter) Mick Ralph (Mott The Hoople/Bad Company) Ian Hunter (Mott The Hoople) Jeff Wayne (War Of The Worlds etc.) Ian Paice (Deep Purple) Jacky Paice (Ian's Wife) Joe Elliot (Def Leopard) Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) Vinnie Appice (Dio/Black Sabbath) Richard Barbieri (Japan/Porcupine Tree) Chris Robertson (Black Stone Cherry) Ben Wells (Black Stone Cherry) John Fred Young (Black Stone Cherry) Steve Jewell (Black Stone Cherry) Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree) Scott Ian (Anthrax) Scott Rowley (Classic Rock Editor & Chief) Suzi Ronson (Mick Ronson's Wife) The below were also at the event this guitar was signed (2007 3rd Annual Classic Rock Roll Of Honour) but I can't match signatures... Jeff Beck Nick Mason Lemmy Joan Jett Jimmy Page A hell of a find...

I did two gigs this weekend, and they couldn’t have been much more different. Saturday night I was playing at Burton Agnes Jazz and Blues Festival with blues trio The Alligators. It was actually my final gig with them, as I’ve started a local weekly residency at a rock n roll club and it was getting a bit much - I’m supposed to be semi retired for gawds sake! Anyway the gig was okay - some great bands on before us including sax player Tom Waters (son of pianist Ben Waters). A friend of mine was on directly before us doing some of his original stuff, and then I joined him for a few covers to get the crowd dancing. Then our band got started at 11pm, to play for around an hour. Onstage sound was really loud, so was glad I’d taken my old Barefaced Compact to use in addition to my Fender Rumble 500. Played my sunburst P Lyte and it sounded good, just about keeping up with the guitar. As is customary, we were joined by a couple of sax players towards the end, and it was in danger of getting out of control. Managed to steer it to a conclusion, and I was quite relieved it was all over. A really steamy gig, drove 50 miles home with the sunroof open. Sunday evening I was back in the familiar ‘Lookout on the Pier’ in Scarborough with our acoustic duo. Really busy along the beach, blisteringly hot weather so parking wasn’t easy due to the crowds but we got set up and ready to play by 6pm. Loads of requests, with some good ones including ‘Out of reach’, ‘Tears in heaven’ ‘Human’ (Rag and Boneman!) and ‘Iris’. Fender Kingman bass into Rumble 100 combo - nice and quiet after the previous night’s gig. Couple of days off now - next gig Wednesday so will give my fingers a rest.

If you print out set lists then do it in Black Ink on white paper only. If you play anywhere with any coloured lights, even just pub ambience then if you have used the same colour for text it will disappear on the page! Plan the set list carefully. A group of amazing songs can lose impact if the pacing of the show doesn't work. First and last 3 should be high energy. The middle is for a ballad or two (if you want) and other mid paced stuff. If this is your first band, then you are probably rehearsing mostly facing each other. That's fine to working on songs but it is not an act. Rehearse as if you are in front of an audience. You might feel silly, but this is where you remove any cringy stuff. Actually work on banter for between songs - especially until you get experienced. Segue the first 3 songs into each other. Don't give the audience a break - they WILL enjoy you! then say hello, but only briefly then get stuck in again. Then after another 2 or three thank the bar staff and the punters for being there. Always have an encore number in the back pocket. Make it something that all ages could sing along with. When I started Teenage Kicks was a good choice but I suspect it's not as well known these days! Take spares. Equipment failure happens. But being prepared to continue with the show is vital, especially when you start getting paid. Some people only take spare strings - but a 5 min string change in the relaxed environment at home can turn into 10 mins of dead space under the pressure of the gaze of the audience. And the singer will end up telling Knock Knock jokes. I always take a spare instrument, and a spare amp head. If the cab dies then either of my heads can be used DI straight into the PA. Not perfect but I can finish the gig. If you can get someone to film the show - that is such a great learning tool for seeing what worked and didn't. Now - get out there and have fun! If you look like you are having fun, then the audience will have fun. Even if you are only doing Morrissey covers, leave the Morrissey glumness at home. Smile, eye contact etc. The audience needs to know it's not just a rehearsal. Finally... If there is 1 person in the audience or 500 - give it full beans. That 1 person who came along deserves the same effort as a full room. I hate people who view low attendance numbers as just a rehearsal. It isn't: someone pitched up to see a show. Do it right and that word of mouth is worth so much. That solitary punter could end up being the best advertising you ever get.

Mainly, don't spend half your life rehearsing. Make sure everyone has independently done their homework and learned the material, then have a couple of run throughs together and gig it asap. Endless rehearsals don't achieve a lot generally. Your arrangements of songs will develop with your own style the more you gig them. Also, always get to the venue at least an hour (or more if you can) before soundcheck. That way you have time to set up and relax and have a tea/coffee before you're needed to play. And the last and perhaps most important one - Don't drink alcohol on a gig. Afterwards, fair enough. But drinking alcohol before or during playing is seen as seriously unprofessional these days.

If you are intimidated by looking at the audience (if you can see them with the lighting), look out over the back row's heads. No one will know you're not looking at them and it looks like you're really confident. That's when your eyes aren't glued to the neck trying to work out where you are!

Allow plenty of time to set up so you can chill for a bit before you start, or help out a bandmate who's having issues. Nothing worse than rushing to set up and then having to launch straight into your set without being happy. Nerves are good but don't let them get the better of you, it's supposed to be fun. If you find it particularly difficult then take on the role of a character, then it's your character up there doing it, not you. Play the rock star (to a degree), look confident, have a bit of swagger. Move more than you think you should, movement needs to be exaggerated to be noticed on stage, (a video of you will prove this). If you mess up, keep going. People really don't notice as long as things keep flowing. Try to relax and make a conscious effort to keep to rehearsed tempos. Once the adrenaline kicks in your 45-50 minutes of material will end up as 30-35 minutes. Keep any messing about between songs to a minimum. If the singer is good working a crowd then fair play but band members looking at each other, constantly asking "are you ready?" looks bad. Agree that you will launch into the next song unless someone says they have a problem. Above all, enjoy it. Energy flows both ways. If you (the band) look like you're having fun then so will the audience. If the audience look like they're having fun then that will feed your confidence and make you perform better. The energy continues its circular flow.