Leaderboard

I really needed this one. Great gig. We were clicking on all 6 cylinders from the first couple bars of the first song. We played from 3-5 with a 20 minute break. Stage volume was great. The crowd loved us. Daryl

Bendricks Rock played Edmondes in Cowbridge. Originally meant to start at 8:30 there was virtually no-one so we started at 9 when we had a bit of an audience. It rapidly filled up although it was a bit tidal with people moving around thd pub coming in to dance to songs they liked. There was an engagement party in the pub. Their friends wanted us to spoof them so we got them up for a slow dance and played War Pigs 😂 Our original singer (didn't get as far as gigging) came to see us and said we were good. I took an anti-nausea pill again as squatting and standing to set up the gear set me off again. After tgat I was fine and managed to join in on backing vocals but was pretty shattered by the end of the night. Worst thing is the nausea means I can't drink... so had three pints of alcohol free - then spent the night waking up to pee.

Reformed the function band after a 3yr break, albeit with a fresh lead guitarist. We had four rehearsals to get up to speed for the local pub festival / charity event. It was a great success, sounded fantastic and had 'em up dancing from the off of the 90 min set. Good to be on the trailer with the guys and gal again. I do ache a bit today though 😄

I bought this bass on Ebay recently and am totally blown away. I've owned loads of basses, USA Precisions, Road Worn series, Fender Japan but this trumps them all in my opinion. To me it feels like the perfect bass. I may be being hysterical but I literally can't put it down and have had it for a month now. Wow!!

First combined outing for my new Bareface 3*10 (no Tweeter) and my Mesa TT800 (with a D800+ as back up). Played two thirds of the gig with my Musicman, with both tones backed off to take away the scoop). When I plugged my Jazz in at gig levels of sound I was blown away by the growl from the combination of the Boogie setting turned up and the neck pick up of the jazz just backed off. It was nothing short of a stunning difference. Nothing in the signal chain, but the cable. Oh and I wore my Guy West pointy rock star boots:

First ever wedding dep gig. It was well paid but what an odd existence it must be to play these week in and week out. Finally paid the last instalment on my summer holiday which has 100% been paid with gig fees. Room just boomed and boomed.

Last night was a frustrating one. All day wedding so we did the ceremony and then I hit my cajon for an hour during the drinks. The evening was okay. Very receptive audience! But, possibly the highest ceiling we’ve ever encountered made the low end so boomy. First set sounded terrible in my ears but apparently wasn’t that bad out front. Spent the break tweaking the eq on my B6 and our Bass drum pedals’ module. And, the second set was a lot better. The frustration with of weddings of course is the quick evening turnaround not allowing a fantastic soundcheck & the fact that it’s just the two of us. It’s hard to tweak on the fly when we have issues. That paired with the fact that I’m still recovering from a pretty bad fall a few weeks ago which blew my knee up like a balloon, thus making it hard to kick my bass drum pedals for 1.5 hours made it one of those gigs where I was in my head a lot and not really as present as I would of liked… Oh well, still a great night enjoyed by all it seems. 4 weddings coming up this week starting tomorrow so on to the next 🙏

Rare outing as a 4-piece last night, as one of our guitarists is taking some time away to savour the constant wailing of his new baby. We were supporting another local band's album launch and a decent number of people turned up, which is always nice. Very warm on stage, and as the headliners got rain-soaked during load-in the whole venue was at rainforest-level humidity. Still, I thought we played well and there were some nice comments from random people afterwards. First time out with my latest stage bass (a white RB Streamer 5 LX to match the black one I already had) and I'm really pleased with it - it looks/feels/sounds just right. Thickened up the bass tone a little with just a hint of octave-up to suggest more guitar than we actually had, and from what I could tell it seemed to work acceptably. For the tech-inclined: RB Streamer 5 LX -> G30 Wireless -> TU-3 Tuner -> Thumpinator HPF -> BC-1X Comp -> VT Bass v2 OD -> Sub-n-Up Oct -> BDDI v2 Pre (-> FoH) -> Markbass Nano 2 -> Blackstar 115

Went well , the bass player was awesome 😁

Last night we were back at The Burton in Brixham. We were offered tge gig with a weeks notice and took it, as we owed them a gig during to a cancelation earlier this year. Our last gig was 2 months ago and we didn't hsve time for a rehearsal, so just a bit od personal practice. The gig went really well. There were plenty of people, including a party group. We played well and gave a good show. I chatted to a couple who were visiting and came along with some local friends. She said we made her night playing songs from her youth, and he said War Pigs was the song of the night. A guy was videoing is on his phone and we caught up with him afterwards. Hopefully we'll get some of the footage soon. He lives upstairs from the pub and was drawn down by the band and my bass sound. The best gig we've had there, and we were payed a bit extra too. My usual rig, Stingray into RM500 and BF210. One of my photos of the stage.

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!

I played my two gigs this weekend with a Jazzn because it's my easy-playing comfort zone instrument. On friday I used my pedal board for colour, but we were short of space last night so went direct - choose one: mike, effects, jumping around. It was sounding good, switching between both pups on full and neck with about 20% bridge. When we did Uprising I boosted bass on my head as no octaver and it was ok. We encored with Saturday Night's Alright and I played right over the neck pickup really hitting down on the strings Entwistle style. Pushed the Orange Terror well into overdrive and it felt awesome hearing the roar.

Great question. It’s basically a pre defined eq cut at 800Hz which simultaneously maintains bass and treble at a consistent volume as the cut gets more pronounced across the sweep of the knob. Imagine a bass and treble boost only eq on an active bass which also adds that 800Hz mid cut too for slap tone but all mapped to one knob. At lower levels the cut is less evident but can liven up the tone. It’s looks a bit one dimensional on the surface but in conjunction with a drive pedal you can think of it as adding a second eq voicing. I can have a nice drive tone and then engage the Funkulator and immediately get a more scooped voicing which might be preferable on some tunes. I’ve said in a post about the Funkulator in another thread it’s really quite useful and can enhance a jazz bass’ natural voice, add a new voicing to a drive pedals as well as tighten up finger style at lower settings.

Better than not waking up for a pee. 😬

My preamp appeared to stop working ahead of Friday nights gig but my trusty old basswitch has came to the rescue. I must have this pedal for 11yrs or more. Quick rewire this morning and the board sounds great for both IEM/FOH testing with headphones and into the amp. Added a Genzler 4OTF Classic bass for an always on sound to warm up the clean preamp which hits my two LBA 2020s transformers hidden underneath before the input stage on the Basswitch. The Dual Band comp is in the always on serial loop of the Basswitch before DI’ing this combined drive and comp sound out to the Cab M+. Sound great! The line out hits the remaining pedals before running into a Thumpinator hidden underneath the other side of the board before going to the amp. Pork and Pickle is more recent anddition and gain staging with the 4OTF just to the amp does exactly what I enjoy and wanted them to do. Adding a nice oomph on stage for me and the drummer but the FOH/IEM remains ‘clean’ and punchy. I’ve gotten compliments by sound techs before running this combination as it doesn’t mess with the FOH sound they’re trying to get right and they can give me a sign if I need to turn down the amp to get the balance right out front.

Just a fun anecdote from last night. Valerie came on the jukebox and a bit later as we were setting up the rhythm guitarist started playing it very quietly. The started singing it and I started singing the bass riff scat style then the others started singing and we even harmonised some bits. We impressed ourselves but sadly the pub was still virtually empty! If only our proper BVs were that good 🤣🤣

Have you got Divine Brown on standby?

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.

Here is my doom machine I built a year ago. It's a Squier Sonic Bronco in Tahitian Coral, heavily modified and personalized, strung with Ernie Ball Bass Flats 2801. Such a fun instrument, easy to play and great sounding. And I think the customising work I've done made it quite a looker, too. Work done: - Swaps: Pickup to Seymour Duncan SCPB-3 "Quarter Pounder" (I had to attach an additional ply of MDF with threads to the bottom and add springs to make it adjustable) Tuners to Gotoh GB11W Nut to Tusq XL Bridge saddles to 3-slotted vintage ones I had laying around (don't know the make) string tree to Gotoh TB54 string retainer knobs to Hosco HK-MKF - Add-ons and personalisation: Fender Vintage Jazz Bass pickup cover in chrome custom order vinyl wrap on pickguard and headstock custom 12th fret "marker" done with ultra-thin vinyl wrap and GitD tape Fender Strap Blocks in Daphne Blue

It’s not really drumming. Just a bass drum pedal. So I’m only half as hard 😅

Then you try something non Fender and that becomes the best.

changing the singer or guitarist can have the same affect without medication 😆

Thanks for all the feedback and advice. We’ve had a luthier look at it and taken on board lots of advice. It’s a serious project and one my husband is going to slowly renovate with support from a luthier. He has lots of experience with other instruments and woodwork in general so with support we feel this will be a nice long term project.

The worst thing for doing in your ears imo are cymbals, so if on a cramped stage there’s nowhere to get away from them. And the worst cymbal of all for me is the ride, I try to keep well clear.

That’s a great looking setup.

Cut the face plate holes and fitted the rear panel hardware. ALL BUILD PICS NOW IN POST DATE 01/11/2025

The reissue Ampeg V4B models run a quartet of 6L6GC rather than the lesser spotted 7027.. Ashdown went the other way and did it with a pair of '88s..

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'.

Simply Blu Trio, three members of our 5 piece bluegrass band playing at The Block bistro in North Bay Ontario last night. We have played here before and do a mix of standard bluegrass songs and a few others including some Gordon Lightfoot and keep it light and friendly, it's not a show as such just background music for the diners and it went over well with some nice comments afterwards. We had a request for Ian Tyson's Four Strong Winds from a lady celebrating her birthday and although we had never played it together we picked a key and ended up surprising ourselves with a very nice version of it with three part harmony! Smallish crowd but early gig (6-8:30, two sets) and we will be back next week for something new, a lunch time gig. 😊

Gigged this over the weekend - my trick is to have a boss GEB-7 EQ pedal to boost mid frequenceies for the fretless mwah sound.

Year started playing: 1975 Number of basses: 11 Music theory: 4/10 Technique: 5/10 Groove: 6/10 Great topic btw @Chiliwailer... To add some context to the numbers above .. I started playing regularly and with some purpose in my first band in 1976. Playing bass in a band was also my introduction to songwriting; it seemed pointless to do one without the other.. Doing O-Level Music at school was a great help actually, but I'd say my understanding of proper, classically based music theory is pretty low. I played in a lot of different bands and musical projects trying to 'make it' in the music biz over the next 20 years and then took 11 years out. Joined my first ever covers band in 2006 and haven't looked back since. Other than matters of the heart, kids and some extra-special career highlights, I've had more joy, fun and pleasure from playing music/ making music than just about anything else... I have six 4-string basses that I use regularly, depending on the musical situation and my mood. Plus two 5-string basses that I use less often. Upstairs in the loft is a mid '70s Hondo Ricky copy my mum bought me, and a short scale Encore bass I bought for my son when he was you which I just can't seem to part with (sentimental fool that I am!). Oh, and there's a lovely Maya Fretless that I cant play that still needs to find a new home. 🤷 Trying to be as objective as possible, based on 50 years of seeing some truly gifted bass players and some truly awful ones over that time... .. I know my technique is fairly average and my ability to really 'groove' or 'rock out' is passable for a grey-haired old duffer playing in covers bands. But my thinking is that there's still plenty of time to improve and get better. So that - plus realising most audiences I play in front of have absolutely no f@#king idea what the bass is doing most of the time - means I can keep getting away with it for a while longer yet. 😁

You can do the same as this with an Allen wrench of 1.5mm (or whatever reference string height you use). Simply put the Allen wrench under the highest pitched (G or C) string of your bass and raise or lower the saddle until the action is at the desired height. Repeat this for all other strings and set the intonation. And then simply add a fourth of turn to each of the two height saddle screws on the next lower string, then half turn for the next one, then 3/4th of turn on the following one, then a full turn for the other and a full and a fourth turn for the B if you own a sixer bass: This will make exactly the same as this radius gauge at a deliriously low cost... I've been setting up all my basses this way since more than 3 decades. Adding 1/4th turn more than the previous ones simply perfectly raises the height according to the exact radius of your instrument's neck.

Wow! What a rig! Having a Messa as a standby for a Messa is pretty amazing. I aspire to own one.

I bought one with a Rosewood board in 1983, it cost me £249 inc a case, it relegated my 78 Fender to back up. Sadly life got in the way in 1990 and I had to sell it, along with the rest of my gear. The best Bass I've ever owned!

I don't think I posted this one yesterday even though I finished it - what a plonker. Dave's request for the Kenny Gradney bass part to 'Let It Roll' from Little Feat's 1988 album of the same name. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/let-it-roll-little-feat/

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!

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

Two wonderfully talented musicians performing the same song. The first amazing original penned by a phenomenally talented musician; the second a cover - not better, but also beautiful. RIP both x