Leaderboard

We're doing an outside 12:00-2:30 full Maple Road gig this Saturday at The Harley Motor. We'll be leaving at 9:00. That's very early for me. This one will be a little different Usually we do our acoustic offering inside 5:00-7:30. I'm hoping there's some type of special event to ensure a decent crowd. I hope we can keep our streak going. We've had 3 really good gigs in a row. Daryl

Here's all the bits on a untidy bed Control panel all wired, pickups recased, pickguard printed, bridge holder and neck holder all printed and checked for fit. Next steps are drilling, filing, shaping, polishing the aluminium into shape. I may not get the chance to finish the body to the level I wanted to. Its a choice between this and the six string. Decisions, decisions, decisions....

Update on RRP prices for these basses, which should be available within the next 4-8 weeks: Icon 4 Black or White gloss £819 Icon 4 Black Stain or Black Cherry £849 Icon 5 Black or White Gloss £839 Icon 5 Black Stain or Black Cherry £869 So you can expect to see them in the shops in the high £700's...... fantastic value!

I remember seeing Kenickie, fronted by Lauren Laverne, at a festival waay back in the '90s. It stuck in my memory purely because Lauren's between song banter was so brilliant, it was really disappointing every time they interrupted it with one of their awful songs.

Bently Heath charge £180 for a full day 9:30am-6:00pm and seem to have availability in April and June. I shall start a new thread, see what dates suit people, and then - as there will be no consensus - just book a weekend anyway!

Speak softly... and carry a big stick. In other words, be approachable and genial and make light friendly conversation on arrival...... but know your worth and don't feel intimidated. You are auditioning them as much as they are auditioning you. Chat with the drummer and keep eye contact with him. You will be seen to be locking in, he will appreciate it.... and his could be the vote you need if it comes down to you and one other. Let them know what other skills/useful things you bring to the table. e.g. are you great at listings, social media, have a following of your own, do you own a PA/van etc.... Good luck!

New pickup day - is there such a thing? I’m slowly doing up a bitsa P which used to belong to my brother. It’s mostly a pretty ancient Squier Affinity P with a few upgrades and changes over the years. Bit the bullet and bought some Tonerider Classic P pickups for it which i installed today. Wow. Absolutely chalk and cheese compared to the cheap nasty pickups that were in there (somewhere amid the grime and rust.). In fairness I’ve been gigging it with the original pickups over the last few weeks: it’s sounded thumpy and thick but hey it’s a P with flats. But suddenly yeah it’s like a blanket has been taken off it. Suddenly loud, bright, articulate, punchy. All the good things you’d want. And didn’t burn myself on the soldering iron, which itself is progress. Top marks. Best £35 I’ve spent in a while. Gigging it tomorrow so I can’t wait to hear it. Here’s a pic of the finished work, which admittedly just shows a bass with some pickups in it…..

I love his playing so much. Was as big a shock as hearing Jimi Hendrix had died. He always added so much but never got in the way of the song. Thank you Danny.

Toneriders make PUPs that should make us all realise we’re being fed a load of shit by some of the better known and more expensive manufacturers 😡

They really are good pickups, imo very similar to Fender Custom Shop 62s which are pretty much £100 more.

Here you go, just received a M6-5 stringer. Pre amp is the heritage model pretty much one everything they make except the Z3. Bass response is huge, possibly down to the pickup pairing, lots of headroom. 18V Knobs are the ones that appeared when the Z series was launched. Better than pure plastic ones i guess. String spacing is 17 to 17.5mm (best i could measure and guess...dont judge) Stanless steel frets. Three switches. Admittedly I havent looked too hard yet to find out what they do. One is pre amp on/off Other two? series/parallel/single per pickup (three way) as far as i can tell. Info is that readily available except AI generated boll0cks. Scale lengths are: B 35 1/4 E 34 3/4 A 34 1/2 D 33 3/4 G 33 String are ball end at the bridge and clamped by two quite small allen s at the 'stump' (unlike my Cort space 5 which has one larger allen bolt and one smaller per string.) 5 piece neck. Finish feels almost plastic like. not bad, but different.

Because they've been around for about 2/3 of the history of the modern electric bass?

Who wrote the script... 'comfortability'...? It's not even a word. Come on, marketing department at Korg.... that's just Buzzword Bingo.

I've had the (mis)fortune to experience a wide spectrum of stage patter over my gigging career. I started off in an originals band where the aim was to play a set through with little or no interaction with the audience - we played a Hawkwind influenced 'show' with linking music of sound effects between the actual songs so there was little scope for it. As the audience were there to see us, it didn't matter too much and worked in the context of what we were doing. That was a good thing because we were all so new to it all that we wouldn't really have been able to handle a difficult audience. Later I was very fortunate to work with a guy in a covers band who was a very good front man. He was able to gauge an audience and interact with them very well. His patter would be different according to the circumstances, ranging from next to nothing if the crowd were dancing (we once played an hour of the set back to back with no gaps as the punters were filling the dance floor) to gentle jokes at the band's expense if he needed to inject some humour. He had spontaneity and wit and the wisdom to know how and when to use it. There were never any controversial topics, inappropriate language or picking on audience members. I think these two examples show the difference between the stage patter required for an audience who is there for the band or music and one that is there anyway and for whom the band is incidental. I played in a trio where the frontwoman was a good singer but had no self confidence away from singing. Between songs was an awkward silence. Standing on the stage while we lined up the next song (we were using backing tracks) or tuned up was excruciating and made me realise that regardless of the circumstances, it may be necessary to engage with the audience if there's an unexpected delay. In this case I was forced into it with mixed results; I'm not very good with spontaneous witty banter. I played in a duo with a front man who decided he was a comedian and significant amounts of gig time were given over to his comedy script. There was occasional polite laughter but for people who had come to see and dance to music, it was totally inappropriate and went on far too long between songs. I didn't stick with that duo for long. For me and in my experience stage patter is important and the ability to deploy it appropriately and skillfully is essential. Knowing when to shut up is equally important. People pay to see a band primarily for the music and dancing and while for me it should be a performance, that doesn't mean scripted jokes or long song introductions. Personally, I make a few notes; for example at the recent festival gig where I played in a support band before my main band, I made sure that as the front man I could thank the previous act, introduce the act on after us and talk about the charities that were being supported by the event. I thanked the volunteers helping and our sound man. I had to say some words between songs as we had instrument swaps and I made a point of getting the audience to acknowledge a particularly good performance by our sax player. Most of that was prompted by words or phrases scribbled on my set list and it was spread across the 45 minutes of our set.

Just echoing what most other people have said: how lame can you get Rickenbacker? They had an opportunity to come up with something that would tick all the short scale boxes: less reach, smaller lighter body (important for Rickies), pickups in the sweet spot (but still different fundamentals from the scale), etc. it could have been a Rickenbacker for players who hanker after one but can’t handle the size and weight of the standard offerings. They could even have taken the opportunity to fix some of the other shortcomings like the bridge/intonation and the sharp edges! Opportunity lost IMO!

A typical band PA in a pub/club is usually set up to deal with loud rock music, not a guy trying to engage in witty banter, so his mumbling will be largely inaudible anyway. Given that one man's "witty banter" is another's "who the hell is this dickhead?" you're set up to fail if you do much of this stuff. It gets worse. Very few people are natural entertainers, still less spontaneous ones. A line gets a few laughs at a gig and instantly becomes part of a fixed script, to be repeated at each and every bloody gig at exactly the same point, until everyone is sick to death of it. Sometimes you reach the Seventh Level Of Hell, where there's only one singer but everyone in the band has a mic so that they can all take part in the stale, pre-prepared banter. A bit like a badly-read radio script. The audience is there for the booze and the women. Your music is pretty much incidental. No one gives a tinker's cuss that the drummer's name is Dave or that the band comes from Slough, no one is interested in being thanked for coming to their local. Just play the bloody songs.

Two of us share lead vocal duties in my band, and the band leader sings backing. We have sort of settled on whichever of us is singing the next tune, then it's up to them to talk if they feel like it. We don't have a hard and fast rule, we keep it low key, brief, and appropriate to the audience. Some rooms are bouncing and they love the recognition that we, as a band, are loving their appreciation. I suppose it's like having a conversation with your audience. We now have the added problem of merchandise. So a couple of times last night, I did mention that "this next song is the title track of our album, etc", come and see us after the set and grab a copy etc. We did sell A LOT of merch last night! Rob

IME it very much depends on the band and how good the person doing the stage patter is. In many ways I'm with @Lozz196 in that most of time I want the talking between the songs to be kept to minimum. Announce who you are before or after the first song, if you have a new single out mention that before you play it (or album before you play the title/lead track from it). Announce who you are again at the end and thank the audience for coming. And that's all most bands need. However the singer from my current band is very good at communicating with the audience between songs we let him even though the default setting for most Goth bands is to say nothing and "let the music do the talking". I think because of this having a talkative front person sets us apart from lots of the bands that we play with and has definitely worked to our advantage. Having said that, IMO if you are going to say something on stage make sure that the audience can understand you. In The Terrortones, Mr Venom who was very good with words used to do quite a lot of talking between songs. Unfortunately most of this sounded like Elvis through a 70s British Rail Tannoy system so almost everything he said was completely incomprehensible to the vast majority of the audience. Also remember that if you are engaging in banter with audience members most of the other people in attendance will only be able to hear half the conversation which doesn't make it very interesting for them. The worst band for this I have seen were Fleet Foxes who engaged in endless banter between themselves and with members of the audience at the front much of which was off mic. I'm sure it would have worked fine for an acoustic set in an intimate venue with an audience of 50-75, but in a big 500+ capacity hall most of us had no idea what was going on. And when some of these inter-song interludes were almost as long as the songs themselves it didn't make for a very entertaining gig.

I bagged the last one from Thomann - ordered early hours of Saturday morning - and it arrives tomorrow, just in time for the weekend's shows. I'm trying to be cool about it but, well, y'know...

The finish looks cheap.

I didn't think they could make them any uglier

It's an art form in itself if it can be tailored to the crowd and event. The worse on stage patter though is in-band jokes that noone else gets.

I'm sure there are endless views on this, but all I know is I'd much rather someone said something - anything - between songs rather than the stony silence you get from some bands. If you can be witty with it, all the better, but perhaps draw the line at a full comedy routine. That said, read the room. Bill Bailey tells a tale of going to a Whitney Houston gig. She kept the audience waiting for an hour, then came onstage and gushed "I just wanna say, I love each and every one of you!" at which point a big black guy standing beside him shouted "Sing, b*tch!!". Tough crowd.

They don't work for me; ugly & stupid IMHO. I don't see the point of having a short scale full-sized instrument with the bridge half-way up the body.

Apparently there have been limited production runs of these in the past but this seems like a full roll out. Would like to see what these look like when played before judging as some shortie derivatives work better than others visually IMO. I had a Willcock Mullarkey which looked great whereas I thought a short scale Stingray looked a bit like a toy on me when I played it (TBF, the Dadbod fat stomach didn't help)

I have a Tonerider Duke in my Fazley Hot Rod (the "ratlet") and I'm very impressed. Between this and the Entwistle PBXN (neodymium) - I don't see any need to spend more on a split P pickup.

For tonight, a very 'compact' but excellent venue, the Bush in Upper Cwmbran. I do have a spare bass and a full rig. I could just go into an emulator and cabsim on the PA... The bitsa bass is neck from a Harley Benton kit, everything else is off the net, body from a blank, Strings are HB flats as they are nicer than Fender ones.

He is tough, but he gets things done right. That’s what you are paying for, not his personality! 😂

Pickups! Bought the bobbins and cases from AliExpress - dirt cheap, arrived in about 5 days so not bad time wise. Originally wound to 6500 turns per coil, reduced to 4250 as they were a bit on the dark side. Mild steel flat bar from eBay, cut to length with the angle grinder, ceramic bar magnet between the bars. I think they sound great

This is always my priority. You and the drummer are going to be the foundation of the band. Be seen to be aiming to lock in with them. The drummer and the sound man. Your two biggest friends on a stage.

I feel similar, though it's a big Quad Cortex screen I'd want with the footswitches, rather than an expression. Anagram wouldn't cut it against my QC as is, but a bigger one could pique my interest for sure.

All you have to do is turn up on time, know the songs inside out, find out what they want of you, be pleasant, efficient and to the point. I haven't done many auditions in the last 25 years but one stands out. I arrived on time, to find I was the first one there. Only half the band bothered to turn up and when we started, nearly an hour late, I discovered I was the only one who knew the songs! Even the guy who wrote the songs couldn't remember the arrangements on the record! The record company guy who was in attendance spent most of the evening apologising!! @MacDaddy is right, you are auditioning them as well. They failed!

Bit of a Spinal Tap Stonehenge moment there, from the look of it. On the original point, speaking to an audience is an art. Not everyone can do it. In my band, we leave it to the singer, who has good presence and can do it. The worst thing in the world is when everyone chimes in (especially with in-jokes, as mentioned above). So the rest of us keep quiet. Keep it simple, short and amusing and move on to the next number is a good rule to follow.

Ours is very good, my previous was a nightmare which was a key reason for me walking, way too personal about, well, himself. As I tried to point out to him many times, punters in pubs don’t want to know about his childhood or his issues….. 😡 Very fond memories of a longtime ago frontman who’d announce before each song ‘This is a song I wrote after being dumped by a girl….’ to the point that it became an audience participation game 👍

The worst things you can do? Talk yourselves down. Not telling people they are having a good time. Telling people what each song is in advance (people enjoy the buzz of recognition). Waffling or just appearing to be waiting for something to happen. Not acknowledging applause, dancing etc. but keep it proportionate. Criticising bandmates, the venue or audience members. Getting carried away and thinking upur banter is more entertaining than the music (it isn't unless you are Billy Connolly, Jasper Carrott or Ed Sheeran).

If that don't do it, you have saved yourself some money...

Oh - Ive also had anothet delivery from Overseas which I forgot to put on here. See if you can spot it?

The guitarist/singer in a former band got very sweary in his intersong patter. Not sure whether the drummer was intending to leave anyway, but he did, and the band broke up - story in the acrimonious band break-ups thread. In another former band, the singer (only a teenager) was very poor at stage patter so we wrote scripts for her. She didn't exactly deliver them fluently, but it was something. I saw another band of teenagers who also had a script. At one point, the singer said "Oh. Our guitarist has broken a string" at which point the guitarist put his still perfectly strung guitar on a stand and picked up his other guitar. Yet another former band had a Scottish guitarist/singer who would do intersong patter in an impenetrable mumble, from which the drummer and I had to try and work out what the next song was ("Hurble wurble wurble hoo hay, ha ha ha"), before the guitarist started and we joined in (no drummer count ins). At least the set list was mostly constant although songs occasionally got omitted.

I seem to have inherited the duties yet again for my most recent band (and for the previous band I set up and ran for 15 years). This was because none of the front persons felt comfortable doing it (ones a teacher so no problem speaking to large groups!) As @lowregisterhead says having some sort of interaction with the audience is part of the show however I tend to keep my waffle to a minimum because: 1) Very few people can hear what most between song chat is about. I find most people mumble into the mic as well. 2) Very few people care what most between song chat is about unless its "the buffet is open" or "last orders". 3) We are more of a party band than introverted singer songwriter that tells what has inspired them....also see 1 and 2 above 🤣 4) I try and keep any comments to be about the music / event / venue and away from politics, religion, football or any controvesy for obvious reasons. This usually reduces the chance of a dispute over things said. Our setlist is grouped into 4 or 5 songs which we play close together. A very short break between groupings is then used for changing guitars / settings etc whilst I introduce the band / thank people for coming / social media stuff / random fact about a song / thank dancers & staff etc. I have notes on my setlist for these sort of comments & the venue name etc. All very regular stuff which if you think about it and write yourself appropriate notes beforehand makes the job easier. The more you do it the more you can come off script and ad-lib / interact with the audience.

Danny has been a mentor and been a wonderful friend to me. Although most of our friendship was done from a distance, his wisdom, kindness and humour were just a text away, and that felt great. His music and personality touched so many people, such diverse people…and we all loved him. What he thought me about playing the double bass (and music…and life) can be written on the back of a stamp, yet would take a lifetime to elaborate upon. I’m certainly still working on it. Such was the depth of his magnificent character. We will all miss him very much, but we can all rejoice in the fact that his tone, that unique Danny tone, will be forever.

A standard Ric is shortscale isn't it? 😁 Seriously though, are the necks on these a standard neck but with the bridge moved up a few inches? To me, the whole point of of a short scale is to move the fretting hand towards the plucking hand, not the other way round.

I get whatever tonal changes I want with technique and occasionally the tone control on the bass. I seldom touch the amp on the fly. I do adjust the amp at sound check because close to half the result is dictated by the room. I always go out onto the dance floor to hear what it sounds like there, and if there's an FOH I check it there as well. I never trust the sound man to get it right, unless said sound man is me.