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BLOCKBUSTARZ at Lilliardsedge Caravan Park for the Hot Rods in the Borders weekend. Another great night was had. 3 yrs in a row we've been asked back by the Hot Rods guys which is nice. 2 x 45min sets that ended up a bit longer 9 - 10pm and then 10:15 - 11:30pm. Very warm on stage, sound wasn't quite perfect but sounded ok out front. We had problems with the drum channels on the desk and decided to just leave them out and play raw along with bass and guitar backline only. Only vocals thru our desk and the venues PA which is always a risky business but it works. Very busy night, all seats taken with every table full and standing at the back of the hall. Its actually a permanent marquee tent they have. Nice set up but stage is hollow and does create a boom so used my Gramma board last night. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. There is some doubt about whether the Hot Rods will run the event next year but organiser for the Park who books us said she would be happy to have us back next year same time provided the event goes ahead. Decided to give the Godin bass a run out and it has a wonderfully deep warm P type tone that i have to admit was very nice IMO. It was in PJ mode all night, both pick ups selected. Godin bass, Shure wireless, Keeley Bassist comp, Mesa TT800 Boogie channel, Mesa SW210/115 cabs. Sandberg VM4 as back up. Really quite liked that Godin tone tho and its a really nice bass to play with a narrow neck very similar to the VM4 but having that typical old Fender-ish tone it kinda suits the music more than the VM4 which has a modern tone in comparison. I believe Godin had Seymour Duncan produce the pick ups for them. 1.5hrs drive home along quiet country roads made for an easy drive home but my eyes were starting to get tired. Home for 2:30am by the time i unloaded the car, quick coffee and a bit of TV before bed at 3am, back up at 6am with a cat bumping heads with me to get fed. Today will be a quiet sleepy day. Dave

My dep last night went well. Hardest thing was many songs in different keys. Busy, noisy pub with dancing from the start. Plenty of room. A lot of songs I haven't done live before, a couple of older Beatles numbers for example, and Mama Mia. Cold as Ice by Foreigner and No Matter What by Badfinger are great songs I hadn't heard for ages I really enjoyed. Apparently I was a bit loud in the first half but corrected that in the second. Managed a few backing vocals. Had a message from the band saying I was 'brill' so that's nice.

Some photos from Thursday's "Twister Firestarter" gig:

The covers band, Top Deck, played The General Havelock pub in Ilkeston, Derbyshire. A good gig; ‘ilson’ people can be a bit wary of outsiders, but if they take to you they love you. We never had to buy our own drinks all night. We played in an outdoor, roofed, area. Showtime was 7.30 until 9.30 as it’s in a residential area. The pub seems to be managing its relationship with the locals well. Home by 10.30 to some cans in the fridge.

We played Capones last night. 7-11. A little long and late for me. BL called out songs we haven't performed in years. It's a good exercise, keeps you on your toes. I'd say it was an okay gig. I'm ok if we never go back. Daryl

Not a bad night at this evening’s gig. Reasonable crowd. Sound was good. IEM’s set nicely and the ambient mic I put under the kit between hi hat and bass drum worked well for all the cues I needed. Bass was sounding great and everything seemed to be going smoothly until midway through the second set one of our guitarists felt unwell and left the stage to sit outside for fresh air, though he was still not 100% when we finished so vocalist who had travelled with him drove him home. I used the DAddario mic mute I picked up last week and it seemed to work well, though I do go a little boss eyed watching the infrared light go on and off. I had the proximity set quickly and as well as moving back out of range it was easy to move just off axis and for it to cut the mic. Sound guy said it worked well and was watching how it muted my mic when not in use. May have to invest in a couple more for the other two BV mics 🙂

Here's a little blast of us being all punky at Rebellion recently...

Played with Nine Lives last night at the Balaclava in Fraserburgh. Pretty good night, was a bit quiet at the start but it filled up during the first half and was nice and busy in the second half. Saturday night is the night to play in Fraserburgh, by my experience, should you ever find yourself playing there. We had a hen party (I think) and a divorce party all in one night. The divorcee in question was well oiled by the time she arrived though - spent half the time on the floor, she'll feel that today! Also in a new first for my gigging career, I got my bottom spanked by a lady with a miniature tambourine - a new peril when going for a wireless wander! Spanked all the way back to my amp so I was and to give credit where credit is due, her timing was not awful - kept me right anyhow! I took a highly unprofessional course of action and brought two basses I had been modding and mucking about with this fortnight - the Jet Star with the added Peavey T-40 pickup and the Fazley Hot Rod which recently arrived at Neep HQ and got a pickup change (Tonerider Duke) within an hour and a half of arrival, and copper shielded the night before. What could possibly go wrong? Well, nothing, as it happens. Maybe I'm lucky, or - whisper it - maybe I'm getting half decent at modding basses... The Fazley Hot Rod in the first half was a joy to play. With no controls to eff around with I could honestly sense the freedom from thinking about it and just enjoyed playing. The Tonerider pickup is a great sounding pickup - lots of output but more than enough low mids to really punch through with quite an aggressive sound. Really happy with it. As for the Jet Star, being wary of a boomy sound from the T-40 pickup neckwards, I hedged my bets at the start of the second half - both pickups on, T-40 in single coil. And it was... OK. Compared to the Fazley in the first half I was having a less good time. Part way through the set, I switched to T-40 pickup only, in series and wow, what a difference. I needn't have worried - the sound was much more satisfying, heavy but not boomy, lots of low end substance but never muddy. Much bettah! You know what my rig is by now! Which again only needed to be up about a quarter on the master to easily fill the pub with bass.

Go on then, I'll play. Two of the 100 NAMM Stingray Specials with Status Graphite necks.

I would strongly recommend trying to go for a used, slightly higher-end starter bass rather than a brand new Squier Sonic, Markbass, or Harley Benton. Yes, those new starters are so much better than they used to be, but that quality has also trickled up to the lower end of the mid-quality basses. If you find a good used mid-range bass, especially one that's been a little abused, you could end up with a life-long bass instead of something you'll outgrow. Seriously, look at a used Sire or a Squier Classic Vibe. There's one in the classifieds right now for £250—which is "good Harley Benton" money. I recently had to grab a cheap bass for a wedding gig in Latvia. Flying with my expensive instruments is always risky and a pain, and hey, it was my wedding, I could do what I wanted! So instead of renting one for a week, which would have cost me about 300 Euros, I decided to just buy a bass in that price range. What followed was a great adventure, I went to every music shop in Riga to try out everything around that price. I'd tell the staff what I was up to, and they often gave me free rein, hooking me up with the same amp i use at home , some even offered to buy the bass back from me at a reduced rate afterwards. I went into it expecting to walk out with a Sire, a Markbass P , ibanez or maybe a used Harley Benton. What I ended up doing was falling completely in love with a fantastic Squier Classic Vibe P-bass. I took the neck off wrapped it all up in my clothes and paid for checked luggage to bring it home and i'm going to be rehearsing with it tomorrow, It has no business being as good as it is— My Stingray is sitting unloved in its case.

I got a message on Thursday asking if I could cover a gig tonight. I was away in the Western Lake District and only got home last night. First time playing with these people, and hadn't met two of them before today. All I had was message with a set list and keys, plus a bit of back and forth on whatsapp about which versions etc. The gig went down really well, nice place, nice people, and lots of positive feedback. Bluesy covers, but very few 12 bars, even a Christina Aguilera tune, which I never thought I'd be doing at the age of 60! Two singers, male and female, guitar, cajon, and me on bass Travelled light, BF One10, GK Legacy 800, '73 P bass. One trip load in. Oh, and I got paid in cash! Rob

This afternoon.. a bit of a special one for me - I gigged with my son for the first time ever. He's 13, the rest of the band are 15/16, but they're pretty accomplished for their age. An afternoon stuffed with proud Dad moments.

Gruv Gear Fret Wrap. After many years of playing rock music and succesfully using my right palm to mute notes or even lightly touching string next to fretted notes on the very odd and rare occassion, I suddenly decided that I really OUGHT to get a fret wrap because... well I had seen the actual cool people on Basschat and Youtube etc using them and I needed to try and be a cool guy too. I fell in love with the naturally more expensive cool Dekade version as it looked the coolest thing I had seen that week so promptly ordered. After using it for about 2 mins, I realised what an utter waste of time it was, and I would never really be one of the actual cool people, and maybe I should just carry on using the techniques I had already been using for years. What a Tw@t. Anyway if anyone wants it I'll gladly post it to you as Im sick and tired of seeing the damn thing. In fact I feel rage just thinking about it. I hope this counts as an "ought to get" thing.

I know the average age in basschat is 103, but I didn’t know you were old enough to remember the Spanish Inquisition. Having you considered running for US president?

No longer with me but these were two rather lovely, if rather different pairs.....

I spent the day turning this piece of Sapele; into this Precision Bass body; It will be for sale soon on BC probably with EMG pickups and preamp and Wenge neck??? The body finish will be hand sanded finishing oil to as much of a gloss as I can get. I think it’s going to be a beauty.

I did a 7 day toilet venue tour with a very loud band & on the final date the sound guy had big issues with my signal dipping out. The poor guy was stressing behind-the-desk the-whole-show, but not hearing myself was business as normal. A couple of weeks later I realised I was trying to power my 18V 1A in power brick with a 18V 150mA out adapter… the whole tour… this still haunts me And my farewell gig with the same band I had the genius idea of simplifying a weird stereo setup by using both outputs of the Boss TUx tuner instead… bypass AND output, genius… why didn’t I do that sooner? As I found out after the first song, and as any normal person would expect, everyone can hear you tuning when you use the “bypass” output, I hated myself so much

Next up for me is another Knock Off gig, supporting Therapy? at The 229 Club, London.

Time for an updated family photo shoot All present and correct minus my 75 Musicmaster which is on the workbench Had to do it in 2 pics as not enough floorspace 🤣🤣 Top Pic is everything Fender (P's and J's, vintage and newer). Second Pic is everyrhing else - weirdly all humbuckers too, lol.

Hey all, Recently got one of these before the prices shot up! Great sounds can be had, would have preferred a higher level of QC but all works so overall okay. Now to see if I can transfer the lines I can play on my basses to this ha ha 😁!

I have a black alembic europa 5 stringer, bought online & unseen from Germany. Firstly i couldn't get used to the narrow string spacing, i didn't really take to the black colour, and it was always way too bright, even with the filters closed. I put it up for sale a short time after buying and got a lot of interest but no buyer. So kept it, worked on the eq on both the bass and rig and now it's my first call bass. In recent years i had some plug and play electronics upgrades from alembic so that it operates like my series bass. What was I thinking.? Confession is good for the soul...... alledgedly🧐🎶

Oh yes you did.

I've got a 1962 Precision, it's definitely authentic but it's had quite a bit of work done over the years including several neck replacements, various different bodies and a range of different electronics. For a while it was most of a 1969 Jazz, then later an excellent 1980 Stingray, and I believe it spent some time in the late 90s as a genuine Gibson Les Paul guitar, having had the neck, body and pickups replaced. As you can imagine, with that heritage it's extremely valuable.

I have both HB and Sonic basses. From a purely practical point of view they are both very similar in terms of quality, playability etc and I couldn't recommend one over the other. My HB is heavier, both were a similar new price (within £20-£30 as I recall). But when it comes to resale or part exchange, I think the one with the Fender logo will retain a bit more value. I used to have an Ibanez GSR200 and that was better (IMO) than either the Sonic or the HB. It was lighter than both and I preferred the neck but I sold it during an enforced break in gigging. I have recently ordered a new SR300EB (and while looking I saw a second hand older SR300 for £180 and a new GSR200 for £220 and aused GSR200 for £100). Personally I would go for one of these over the two mentioned by the OP. I've owned a Sire and the quality on that was superb, but the asking price was slightly higher than the Sonic/HB range.

I dated your nan for a while too and always made her dress up as Liberace.

I dated my nan for a while and always made her dress as Charlize Theron. Just sayin'.

Glad the Jet Star delivered. Those folded towel heads are a bit muffled imho...

I am his target audience, far fingered and mature, though normally only a certain select set of websites refer to me being "mature"... And those are now only available through a VPN. I recognise the signature touches here, the wonky tuners, the nut that's been cut with a bread knife and then recessed with his teeth, the partial scalloping of the neck edge. Every master has their little expressions that make the design unmistakably their own and he's hit the jackpot again. I can only sit back and look in wonder at what he has done. Truly we are mere mortals in the presence of a master. Rob

We do Mamma Mia in the Glam band and its a nice wee song. No Matter What by Badfinger is an absolutely cracking song. Enough so that when i first heard it a few yrs back i bought the album based on that song and was not disappointed by them. Dave

Next gig for me is a rare live outing with The Inevitable Teaspoons on Friday 5th September at Krakatoa in Aberdeen. Please come - the original headliner bowed out and we could do with some more bodies in the kirk, if you know what I mean. https://www.facebook.com/events/1246508667088048

It's actually a final chorus, after 3 verse and chorus combos before. It's a semi-respectable 1'54", so not really Napalm Death length!

Today's transcription is Duran Duran's "Ordinary World" with John Taylor

Nope, but have considered hobbling for it.

I made a rookie error on my last gig, towards the end of the gig we got the ok from the venue for one more song, at the end of the song thinking that was the end of the set I took the cable out of the amp input, unexpectedly we then got the ok for another song. The rest of the band started playing,I start playing and there is nothing coming out of my amp, I glance at my pedal board as that is the usual suspect for most issues and then realise I haven't plugged my bass back in.

Props to Nile and Jerry for realising that it's pointless to try to make CHIC v2 sound exactly the same as v1. Jerry playing CHIC lines his own way was always going to be the best solution.

The tee shirt from Primark with all the bass combos on it.

Mine have been aged naturally and were probably worked on by Leo himself. All joking aside if anyone wants one, let me know and I’ll chuck it in the post.

Ibanez SR300, or a GSR200 if money is really tight. I've used both my SR200 and 300 series and they're both great.

Personally I’d be looking at a Sire. Absolutely stellar basses at any price.

no, there will be no discussion. There will be no indoor gigs (with me anyway) no one cares I'll do the outdoor gig on bank holiday monday and then I'm done

I picked up a DAddario mic mute last week out of interest and used it for the first time last night. It seemed to work well and was easy to set up. Phantom power to my BV mic and a quick tweak of the proximity sensor wheel and my mic automatically muted when I moved back so my head was more than about 9 inches away on direct line of sight, or if I moved off axis to the mic. I suppose you could probably achieve similar by setting a gate but this seemed a good and not hugely expensive option at between £80 & £90 on most sites. I did go slightly boss eyed watching the sensor light go on and off 🤪 Sound guy seemed to like it and said he’d watched my channel mute/unmute on its own so maybe we need to invest in a couple more for the other BV mics. It wouldn’t work with a radio mic or entirely as intended for a vocalist holding the mic and moving

Ooh, Chorus Pedal? Best used with your dual single coil bass - solo the bridge pickup and turn the tone down to 50% and hey presto, you magically embody the ghost of Jaco Pastorius. Anyway, just off to buy a sunburst fretless Jazz... (Only joking!) A thick wha..? I don't recognize this word. Plectrum? (Oh, is that the device for people who don't know what their fingers are for, who love to make those horrid clacky clanking noises?)

The bridge is part of the vibrating structures of the instrument, tansmitting and receiving vibrations and resonances between the strings and the body which contribute to the overall sound which will be detected by the pickup. So it is in the path betwen the player's fingers and the listeners' ears and replacing a non-failing bridge on a bass ought to be a T1 fail. On a guitar it's T2 as is the whole instrument. Well that's my view anyway.

Just because… 😆 Need to tidy up the wiring but just wanted to be sure it all sounded good. My standard set up remains much the same. I tap the sound from the Simone DI as below: TU3>4OTF>BSComp>Simone DI>CabM+ all goes to FOH/desk The full board goes to the amp via Simone 1/4” out: TU3>4OTF>BSComp>Simone1/4”>MB Comp>P&P>Funk> Thumpinator >amp 4OTF just as an always on low gain thing taking advantage of the filters. The MB is just acting as a valve stage and not doing any compression worth writing home about (I mean it can but not on this gig iteration). Getting a bit more juice from the 4OTF. P&P doubles as either drive or fuzz depending on the tune and set low gain gets a nice bump from the 4OTF too. Nice to have different drives available to layer. Funkulator just does its thing and adds a nice scoop to the drive sound for added sculpting.

Sunburst on modern basses. It looks fine on instruments designed in the 50s/60s, but not on sleek instruments like Ibanez SRs for instance. Painting a Dingwall in sunburst is like dating Charlize Theron but making her dress in your nan’s clothes.

Not as hard as you might think, certainly no harder than classical guitar. It was always an ambition of mine as I love both the instrument and that era of music. When I happened to see an old 7-course tenor lute at a local instrument dealers stall at Pontardawe Festival one summer I had to have it (turned out to be a nice one; a 1966 Harwood & Isaacs), and I just worked through Diana Poulton's "Tutor for the Renaissance lute" which is excellent, and there must be so much more teaching available on the internet these days. Good thing is most lute music is written in tablature form, and many of the loveliest pieces are very simple ones; Renaissance music was in many ways just an evolution of folk dances and songs. You should try again! The Early Music Shop does self-build lute kits. Mandolin is lovely too, mind - I have far too many of those as well.......