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Great local gig at dorking halls tonight (ok last night!) very enthusiastic audience , it wasn’t a sell out but not too many empty seats I think! . Hadn’t used the Wal for a while and it was great to ‘re connect’ with her. They really are amazing instruments. Pissing down on the load out and got a good soaking but it was worth it! X

Last night I played Drummonds in Aberdeen with The Inevitable Teaspoons. It was a good gig, not super busy but busy enough not to feel empty - Drummonds is a tough room if it's dead. We played well, and big props to the sound engineer, John - super smooth soundcheck, great FOH sound. After we finished, we got lots of nice comments, saying that we're tight and played well. A guy came up to me after we finished playing and he said (roughly paraphrasing) "You're a wizard on bass, mate, I play bass too, and you've inspired me". I was floored, that's one of the nicest things anyone's ever said to me after a gig. Gear was the Greco LGB-700 and the venue's Trace Elliot backline.

Three gigs this week for me. Tuesday saw the duo at our monthly residency at The Anlaby Park hotel. A full house, lots of requests and generally a good one for us. There’s a family with late teenage kids who often come in, and the daughter always asks us to play something by Ariana Grande so we will have to see what we can manage - we’ve done the odd Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga tune so challenge accepted! Got a few requests for ‘new’ country stuff too, so we did ‘Tennessee Whiskey’ by Chris Stapleton which went down well. Used my Squier Jag SS with the Rumble 500. Wednesday I was playing at the local rock n roll club night in Hessle. 3 piece band with two friends on guitar and drums. Not quite as busy as usual, so I hope it’s not starting to slide down as we get paid according to how many we get in. Still, plenty of dancers who get up for pretty much any songs we do, whether fast, mid tempo or slow. My usual P-Lyte into a Hartke 3500 and Loud 4x10 cab. Despite being heavy I do like the Hartke, but it helps being able to leave the gear at the club. Then Thursday the duo was at my local village pub, 200 yds from my front door. Possibly the last time we might play there as it’s currently up for sale, so it may have explained why it was rammed with people when we arrived. We had so many requests we had to play longer sets to try and make sure we didn’t leave anyone out. Along with the more regular stuff we did ‘Streets of London’, ‘Bat out of hell’ ‘Leaving on a jet plane’ ( for a lady who was emigrating this weekend ) and finished with ‘Another brick in the wall’. My guitarist partner was absolutely on fire on this, so we had to do a couple of encores after it. Great to see so many locals and friends in, including my daughter and her in-laws who are over from Australia. Used my Kingman electro acoustic with the Rumble 500, but TBH wish I’d just stuck with an electric as it got a bit loud towards the end. A great night, made even better by the short journey home. A bit knackered after 3 gigs on the trot, so nice to have Friday and today off. Next gig for us is tomorrow at our favourite venue The Sun Inn, Beverley, starting around 5pm. Hopefully the storm will have died down by then, as it’s a lousy get in if the weather is bad - fingers crossed.

Pub beer garden solo gig - yes it was outdoors - for a local Oktoberfest in the village. Despite the best efforts of Storm Amy all day the rain stayed away although the high winds didn’t do any favours to my sound and I was playing in the dark by the end. It was also a test of my lyrics knowledge as any paper cheat sheets blew off the stand within the first song and I had to step on them until the tune finished to save them ending up in the stream behind. Seemed to go down really well to be honest. I was set up a bit away from the main crowd who were busy with German sausages and proper German beer so I can’t fault them for staying where they were. But a few collared me afterwards to say how good they thought it was etc also that’s a bit of a result. The landlord has assured me I will progress next time to the hallowed ground of “indoors.” Gear was my Simon and Patrick with the Seymour Duncan woody, my A&H desk, Shure SM58 and a pair of Mackie SRM350s. Effects were a tuner, a compressor and a Boss EQ pedal. Earl Grey Tea was by Twinings.

The annual Ride to the Wall happens today, and as the Wall in question is about 15 miles from Tamworth, some people ride up the day before and stay in hotels. One of those hotels was the Liberal House, where one of my bands (appropriately, The Bonnevilles) finished up playing. I started to set up and realised that I'd managed to forget my amp - I'm used to getting all of the gear out of the garage and as I don't do the PA for The Bonnevilles, I'd got distracted by moving the bits I didn't need out of the way. Still, it was only a 15 minute round trip to pick it up. We had to fit into an alcove so tiny that the guitarist finished up outside it, and the drummer was sitting on the bench seat in the alcove, as was my cab (on its side). I'd brought a headed bass - rather stupidly, I didn't think to pick up a headless when I went back for the amp. Audience was mainly bikers ("They like both kinds of music - rhythm AND blues"), a large proportion of whom were wearing fleeces/trackies with RCT RIDERS emblazoned on them - Royal Corps of Transport. Mrs Zero sat and talked with some of them - it was the first time she'd seen me with The Bonnevilles, her hip replacement had rather interfered with coming to see us before. All went well, though because the bikers had to get up early, a lot of them buggered off to bed before we finished at spot on 11. Gear: Antoniotsai 5-string dragon bass -> Lekato WS-90 -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> Tecamp Puma 900 -> supine GR Bass AT212. Footwear as usual but damper than normal.

The Chequers in Marlow tonight and a complete change. Mesa Walkabout. This'll be the first time I've gigged it in a few years and the first time running without a GK in a while too. It's just come back from The Amp Hospital in Guildford and it's all working beautifully again. It's a very different beast to any of the GKs and it gives the Spectors a slightly different voice. I dialled out the low end from about 50hz on the parametric EQ and we were happy with that. You can see it's right in a corner and it's elevated on a pew. It's a very cramped venue, so much so I kept bashing my right elbow on the crash cymbal. Crystal clear sparkly grit/clank all night long and the LFSys Monaco was fab. I'll be bringing this head to the SW Bash a week Sunday if anyone would like to try it. They're amazing and so classic the Mesa based the WD-800 on them. This is one of those amps where it's best to ignore the numbers. It does 165w through 8 ohm and for this gig the Master was between 3-4 out of 10 with the gain at 12 O'clock. Through the Monaco this was plenty for a large pub with PA support. Lots of very fuelled-up posh punters in this venue, who'd obviously been "playing in the snow (hey ho)" before coming out! Next gig is in two weeks and we're going for something completely different. If I've got the strength to lift a near-40kg box of bottles💪 😉

My lad's not coming now, so if you take a sharpie and write on the bottom of one of the strips "Sponsored by David R, who would rather stay in bed", you can keep the door fee I paid for him 😉

And the necks are done but I still need to eyeball them for QC.

Playing bass for me has never been about being in a band. Obviously, playing with other people/live etc is the goal and I've been lucky in that regards..... but I'm also more than happy playing by myself, learning classic basslines from legendary artists and noodling around/creating for my own pleasure. That, for me, is foremost...... the pleasure of playing the instrument itself.... anything more is a bonus. This was particularly pertinent during Covid lockdown when I developed an even closer bond with my instrument and took the time to develop my playing...

I've wanted one of these since they first appeared so seeing a used one at Guitar Guitar the other day I had to have it. Anyway the bass arrived at tea time and I took it straight to band rehearsal and unsurprisingly it acquitted itself brilliantly. What a bass - tonally its right up my street and the Neve 2EQ sounds terrific - though GG shipped it with a couple of dud batteries so I noodled around on it in passive mode till I could put 2 x9v in there. Love the magnetic battery cover btw! Love the neck too - and the fit and finish is top drawer. Whats not to like?

So @Dankologyand I have been working on something together. Owing to the demise of my previous band (there’s a post on the acrimonious band split thread)… We’ve been sharing ideas and today we recorded our first single… This is ”Letters He Left” And we’ll be sharing bass/guitar/baritone/Bass Vi duties https://www.facebook.com/share/1BY5pGLUQR/?mibextid=wwXIfr https://www.instagram.com/lettersheleft?igsh=MXZwY2diNXNja3l4cg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Self built bluey goodness

There's a big difference between the two hypotheses "How many basses is too many ?" and "How many basses do you need?" How many basses is too many depends on your personal circumstances. If you're John Entwistle or Geddy Lee then in excess of 250 basses is perfectly okay. If you're living in a bedsit and struggling to make ends meet you can probably manage with less than that. How many basses you need depends on your musical circumstances and is related to the question "Which bass do I need?" In other words, you might need to be judicious in your choice of basses, considering your needs and preferences and bearing in mind the limits on how many you can have at one time. As for myself, I can be perfectly happy playing just one bass, probably a Jazz Bass, if I've got a P Bass as well then there's not much else I really need or want on a regular basis. Add a fretless and a decent five string and I can amuse myself for any foreseeable future. Any additions beyond those are really just icing on the cake. Anything more than that and you're into having a "collection", and a collection is more often than not, an entity in itself that can become burdensome.

I'm pretty sure that I've mentioned this, in decades past, but... There was a time, not so long ago, when roller skating was popular; so popular the roller rinks were established in every major, then minor, town and city, across much of the Western World. It had become an enormous industry, with its own galaxies of stars, local, national and international competitions. Times passes, and the roller rinks lose their popularity in favour of the novelty of Cinema, heightened when 'talkies' came about. This, too, had its day; many cinemas became Bingo halls, then carpet or furniture warehouse shops; there was a short period when slot-racing clubs sprang up, had their moment of glory, then faded away. Pubs and bars have evolved over the decades, too, with the piano in the corner, then pool tables, juke-boxes, 'live' music, karaoke... each making a bid for custom. It all changes, from generation to generation, and will continue to do so. What will the next 'fashion' be..? When will it come..? How long can the 'old' ways continue..? Some will not die out so easily (there are still folk hunting with kestrels for pleasure, and roller skates can still be bought...), but these, and all the others, become progressively more and more 'niche', and hold little interest for modern commercially-motivated organisations. It's nothing to fear, and is perfectly normal; each generation has its day, then its twilight. For rock'n'roll, it's getting pretty dark.

Some of the best instruments I've played were US G&Ls. Sad day if Fender are closing US production.

I've never had a problem with either Royal Mail or ParcelForce. I find DHL are the ones who tend to @rse about, especially with deliveries. I bought a P Bass from Andertons, DHL brought it as far as Bristol, where they let it sit at their depot for three days, then they returned it to Andertons. I've just recently bought another P Bass, this time from Glasgow, again DHL, it took them 9 days to get it here. I phoned them after 5 days and asked them if it was being delivered by pedal bike.

I enjoy the BTW You Tube channel and can understand this desire to work with a manufacturer to produce a signature model, but raise the question as to why they feel it's necessary to bring another Jazz styled bass into a marketplace that's already full of them. Players here will make all the usual points about the hardware, the weight, the electrics, the nut width and (ooh) the tonewoods, but let's face it 99.9% of guys here (me included) couldn't recognise ash from alder or Wilkinson tuners from Gotoh unless they could read the name stamped on them.

I've just realised we're now just over 3/4 of the way through the year. Well done to all those still in, and a scornful, finger wagging, shame on you to all those that have caved in to the shiny temptation of new gear. I'm currently being tempted by another bass that I don't need, or really want. A fairly hideous Kay rickenbacker faker with the wrong pickup and pickguard... But it is only £5!

I wouldn't feel right if anybody else took the financial risk of buying them, so I'm happy to lead and buy the first 50 or so. Once we've lowered the price, by all means lean in. Rob

I think you're right. The cost of new basses these days has pulled the vintage market with it. Look at this brand new Fender custom shop Precision for sale at Peach for £4600, and it becomes harder to say that a nice condition, all original sunburst/tort/rosewood '70-'73 P bass is worth less. https://www.peachguitars.com/fender-custom-shop-2023-collection-64-precision-bass-relic-bleached-3-colour-sun.htm

Have never owned a gold bass before… saw this for sale and just had to have it. Not at all what I expected, full of modern and classic tones and the neck is so so fast

In 60 years of playing I never had an amp failure, so it wasn't worth it to me to carry another piece of the heavy iron that ruled for the first 40 years or so. But given how small good amps can be had today if I was to keep a spare it would be one of those midget amps rather than a pedal.

Wouldn't surprise me. The prices steadily rising is a signal these things are rising and investable commodities and that the demand is healthy. I question both assertions. But I’m old and cynical

Great feedback @neepheid, I bet you were very pleased with that

Nothing wrong with either approach but don't think that an all-pa setup won't work in small venues. This place held fewer than 100 people.

I wouldn't put any value whatsoever in the bass being signed by "serious legends." If you are seriously interested in this bass I would do a bit (a lot) of due-diligence on Alembic Persuader basses, specifically the five string version. I remember the 4 string Persuader was a 32 inch scale, and that scale might not work so well on a five. Check the specs regarding that and also the weight of the bass. A five string Alembic could well be pretty heavy. Alembics basses are notoriously idiosyncratic, and though they sound wonderful are not always particularly user-friendly so if you've got that kind of money to spend proceed carefully. There's a lot of nice basses out there for that kind of cash.

decent review here...

I've had extreme experiences with Royal Mail/Parcel force in September. I have a lot of rare plants in my garden. When I say rare, I mean some are growing nowhere else within these isles. I collect the seed, give it to a lady who runs a nursery and she then lets me have the pick of her stock for my garden. A nice arrangement. I posted off all this year's seed and, after one failed attempt at delivery, Royal Mail say they have lost it. I posted something to Texas, it arrived inside of a week.

Two things and this isn’t gospel… 1. It’s as ‘plug and play’ as this type of unit can be in it’ll work for almost everyones playing style but you may need to make very minor adaptations to your playing style - it’s as good a synth pedal as any bassist wanting to do the synth thing will find out the box. 2. It’s the closest and easiest ‘out of the box’ in terms of its actual sounds and in that regard it’s as ‘plug and play’ sound wise as you might want with enough scope to refine or edit to taste. In the same way something like a classic OC2 octave pedal has to be ‘played’ due to its quirkiness/glitch related behaviours there are little changes we might need to make with some gear to make it work.

"Beware the man who only has one gun. He probably knows how to use it!" I currently own no firearms, but have many basses. Make of that what you will.

I live in Chorley so more than happy to help if I can.

Would you agree that it depends on the type of originals band and the location? In my neck of the woods there's practically no originals scene. And what there is would come under the " not being sufficiently entertaining " category. Daryl

Also, my 50s inspired but not really that 50s Partscaster. Mark Jenny ice blue metallic, light aged body. Shuker neck, gotoh and EMG hardware.

The rules are: 1. Say a pedal is great while you own it (knowing you might someday want to sell it) 2. Continue to say it is great while you try to sell it (say something like 'best pedal ever, but doesn't fit with my current projects') 3. Out of politeness to the new buyer don't publicly disrespect the pedal for a while. 4. Move on to hype of a shiny new thing being announced, openly criticise the old pedal. I think we're still only up to stage 3!

I gave it up for best part of 10 years. When the fun stops, stop.

A break can be good for you. I took a break years ago and it worked wonders. I came back refreshed and a became a better player. It also meant I continued to enjoy playing rather than getting jaded and put off by the exasperation I was feeling. Don't make the mistake I did of selling almost everything, though.

Love the idea of supporting a British manufacturer (hell my first proper bass amp was an Ohm GB60 combo back in the day), but no website and just a facebook page leaves me cold. The subs placement thing is a real thing. Of all the venues we play, there is only one where I can put the subs side-by-side in the centre in front of the stage and yes they sound measurably better when arranged like this. For the majority of our gigs, space dictates that we go one sub per side with a pole mounted top. I’m serious tempted by a pair of the RCF NLX24’s and single 905 sub as this will comfortably cover all of our gigs, and being a registered gear slut, I’d probably add a second 905 down the line just because I love chest thumping kick drum mixes.

I always use tracked 24 and collected from my house, that way I know it's gone.... and I'm 95% sure it won't sit in a hub/store for days. I also never send at the end of the week to avoid weekend immobilisation...

ALL of this. I teach this bass line every time someone wants to learn slap bass. It's the perfect antidote to over playing, which oft ends up sounding like building a shed with drum kit. And a two chord song! Em - EAug

Our first gig for the duo ( since our annual break ) was yesterday afternoon at a local vineyard, playing for a 60th birthday party. Great venue set on the edge of the wolds, overlooking the Humber estuary. Only about 40 guests, and a surprise do for the birthday lady so we played ‘Happy Birthday’ as she walked into the room. Not many requests, but the family were big Fleetwood Mac fans so it gave us a challenge to sort some keys out for a few of the female led vocal tunes, some of which worked and the odd one didn’t! Still, some dancers towards the end of the afternoon so we just kept the well known material flowing, along with the sparkling wine which was delicious! Used the Fender Kingman into my Rumble 100v3 combo, more than adequate in rather lively room - barn like with bare wood everywhere. Home by 6pm, well paid / fed / watered etc. We have 3 more gigs this week, so back with a vengeance!