Leaderboard

18:40 tonight sat on the sofa wondering whether to get on with some private work while wifey watched the football or some cr@p horror movie on Amazon. 18:44 Facebook message “are you free tonight our bass player just cried off sick?” 19:15 car loaded and on the road to the gig which was thankfully only a few miles down the road. I depped with the band last probably 8-10 years ago so there were some standards in the set and a few I had heard but not played. I took my iPad and found a few on iReal, the rest it was watching the guitarist or keyboard players left hand and busk it. No major clangers and a good drummer (also a dep but has been doing a few with them so he was up to speed) who was easy to lock in with. The keyboard player chucked in a final one not discussed but I sort of knew it and it was pretty straightforward so got through ok. We talked through the set before each one, did a quick yes/no/swap out and call keys during and “no one died” 😁 Only a smallish crowd but they were enjoying themselves and dancing so all in all what was going to be a quiet night in became an unexpected night out playing a load of songs I’d not done in a while, or ever. FrankenJazz, Helix Effects, Aguilar Tonehammer 350 and BF BigBaby2

1st actual gig with the 'A little more Gilmour' band https://alittlemoregilmour.com went well, I think....

At the Royal Mail Cart in Spalding. Smallish room, but jammed from the start. Great gig with loads of energy from the crowd. Decided to bring the Pedulla and it sounded great through the TE head. Justin boots as standard country band fare.

Back at the Exchange with Bendricks this time. Still tough to get the sound right in there, and rhythm guitarist said I was too loud, vocalist that I was too quiet... I struggled to hear myself well. First set was very poorly lit and I could barely see my neck dots... that caused a few minor bloopers, especially compounded with mushy sound due to all the hard surfaces. Second set we got the lights over us switched back on. Audience modest, probably because of storm Amy. In the second set drummer ran for the loo! Lead guitarist started jamming Parisienne walkways (which we haven't ever played together) and I joined in and vocalist jumped on the drums. Audience loved it. Drummer recovered and we got on with it. Had a couple of encores which I played with a pick for an experiment , Rock and Roll and War Pig.

The Crook Hotel for us last night in County Durham. It's a great bar venue, small raised area in a window which normally has dining tables during the day becomes the stage area on a night. We put the black backdrops up and front lights truss to create the illusion of a bigger stage. Always a fantastic and very appreciative crowd in here, and we finally got offstage at 11.45 😳 Finally got my voice back after 4 weeks, now thinking I've been victim of the latest Covid variant with a cough that's lasted four weeks coupled with laryngitis symptoms, not exactly ideal 😖 New strings on the Vigier sounded nice though 👌🏼

Back at The Burton in Brixham last night. Our guitarist daughter and BF, along with his family travelled down from Macclesfield to see us. The first set was a bit loose in places, but we got through ok. Our drummer was using his new Mapex kit with an 18" kick drum for theses small pubs. Last time it was fine, but this time the kick drum was moving so I spent the second set with my left foot on on of the legs. I adjusted my mic stand and had to stand fairly still. Overall a good night, and our next gig there has been moved to NYE. My usual rig and Skechers.

Played in Maidstone at the weekend. Venue was pretty busy and all there seemed to enjoy it. We normally play as a 4 piece but were a guitarist down last night and played as a 3 piece. Gave my new Markbass combo a run out and I was impressed with the sound & volume it gave out. i am trying to gig with the least & lightest amount of gear possible, and this is definitely helping with that!

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.

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.

Starr Sports, Canvey Island, on Saturday evening. Decent night with a good crowd reaction. A few issues during soundcheck with feedback and a resonant node that seemed to appear in the second set that I wasn’t able to resolve whilst playing. Oh well, it didn’t seem to detract from the performance too much. I think we’re going to have to dial in a ‘gain safety net’ for the vocalists, their mics are just way too sensitive, and complain they can’t hear themselves during soundcheck, then they're too loud during the actual performance. Typical lead singer thing! Second gig with the Anagram pedal and I feel I had the EQ dialled in much better this time, punchy and articulate, and the drives sounded much better. I also set MIDI control up with BandHelper to save double footswitch pressing to switch presets. I need to spend a little more time with this. PC changes were fine, but CC changes are hit or miss. Next stop, Cow & Telescope in Southend in two weeks' time (with a much-needed holiday in between).

My username started out as a stage name. I was once described as "the type of scum who would happily eat roadkill", and I decided to own that. My brother pointed out that "Owen Roadkill" didn't really have the edge it should have, so the Jack part was made up to fit. Of course, this is when I was a twentysomething snake-hipped rock god and the lack of irony wasn't a problem. Now I'm older, tubbier and greyer I look more like the actual roadkill itself.

Eden Glowplug Tube Warmer - bass distortion pedal. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/116789082040 Description: "The Eden Glowplug Tube Warmer Pedal is a processor designed to keep music producers and beat makers warm during long studio sessions. This innovative device, created by the brand Eden, features a Glowplug model that efficiently emits heat, ensuring users stay comfortable while working tirelessly on their music projects. The pedal design allows for easy control of the temperature, providing a convenient solution for maintaining a comfortable environment in the studio."

We, Siren, played at The Constitutional Club in Chippenham Saturday night, crowd was a little on the small side but they responded well and made it a good night. Used my TT800 and BF big twin II, chose to use my surf green MIM P Bass which sat very nicely in the mix - bloody hot in there!

Yup. To avoid identity theft. But also Macdaddy sounds more showbiz than my real name which is Brett Starshine.

What is this 'audience' of which you speak..? ...

You mean you’re not really Dan Dare? 🚀😮

I've mentioned this before. When I first joined the MU, you could join using your stage name. This was in the late 70's, and they also produced a local directory, listing the various members by instrument and stage name. The Portsmouth directory of the time listed the bass playing occupant of 14 Highfield Avenue, Waterlooville as Jaco Pastorius. I cannot understand how I managed to join with that name, but there it was.

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

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.

A new band means a new bass. I usually build them myself but that's been on the backburner since my son came along so this will have to do! One of my favourite things about building my own basses is coming up with new body shapes, so I'm perversely intrigued by the fact that Spector have felt no such urge since the 70s! I must say, they did rather nail it, it's very comfortable. Bought as new from Bass Direct, but it's a slightly older one with the Tonepump preamp in it - a curious little thing that is unusably hot until you get in there with a screwdriver and turn it down to half-way. It's still nothing special, but my addiction to tinkering means it'll be getting swapped out anyway. But what a lovely bass it is. Sounds fantastic through my Darkglass pedal (but then I think pretty much any bass would). It's booked in for a pro set-up to see just how lovely I can get it, but in the meantime it'll be put through its paces at band practice on Thursday. Oh and it's my first 5 string - I play metal in B standard so wanted the 35 inch scale. Not a lot of 4 strings out there that fit the bill (with a handful of notable exceptions, of course). Spector do a multiscale 4 that goes down to 36", but I wanted a Euro so here we are. After a few minutes of panic and buyers remorse, I got used to it! Can't fault it really (apart from that preamp). The CST series has an ebony board, which was tempting, but there isn't a finish/hardware combo that I like. The rosewood on this one is nice and dark, so I'm more than happy with it. If I was building it, I would have recessed the control plate, but that really is my only gripe so far!

I did a session where I took my passive bass loaded with my finest Fralin J pickups and it went through my Jule Monique pre. It sounded glorious as I put it down. In the final mix it sounded like a bass. Producers do not want the sound in our heads. They want the sound in their heads. That will be a sound they have been listening to for years. Not our fanciest, shiny basses. Also, they will not have time (or sadly, the interest) to audition several different flavours of bass.

We all adopted stage names for the punk band - Annie Hilation, Jude Struction, Laura van Detta and Sara Macarra ('macarra' is a Spanish word for a thug). Fitted the vibe very nicely.

I now aspire to Lickey Hills.

Birken Head?

Been there a few times myself . Sacked / replaced from bands . ( too old , too bald ) Watched bands slowly implode. Crazy dictators , deluded musicians . This is when I pack the bass away , blow the dust off my Classical guitar , as long as there is some element of music going on , I live to fight another day .

Congrats on your new bass I hope you, have many happy years with it they are great basses. I had a 1992 Fireglo 4003 for £650 which I slightly modified, totally gutted when I had to let it go instant regret. Fast forward to this February I too had a Ric itch but I honestly couldn't justify the prices secondhand, so I looked for a good copy of the 4001/4003. I found a 1990 Greco RB-85 for roughly what I paid for the 4003. The strap buttons & the control knobs from my 4003, are now on the Greco.

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

Have you ever been in a band with someone so publicity-shy they don’t even want to be introduced to the audience? Asking for an anonymous friend…😁

Added the Dirt Mixer, still not decided on which drives I want but for not I’ve opted for the Venus, Dagger and Halberd for a pretty wide range of options. Recording in a couple of weeks so still time to change things around. Still patiently waiting for a smaller version of the Bass Driver from EAE so I can go back to a more compact board 🤞

I'm sure i had it month or so ago too but when i tested it showed negative. Took me ages for the cough to go and it left me with a lot of mucus for a while too. Probably why i had the cough. On another note my first holiday romance was from Crook and i can still remember her address too from back in 70's when i was a youngster. I remember the address as we used to write each other back in the dark ages. Oh happy days and what a memory i have 😂 Dave

Very few session players at our level are being hired for their sound. We are being hired because they like how we play. A studio will have more EQ and "features" than the rest of us put together, so you start with a Precision bass and let the studio sort the rest out. In interviews I've read, A List session guys usually turn up with 5 or 6 basses, Precisions, with flats and with rounds, a Jazz, a Hofner style semi acoustic and maybe a couple of modern basses. The general feed back is, 99% of the time they are asked to play the Precision with flats. Your own band recordings are different. You get to use everything you bought, but sessions want meat and potatoes players, like Sean Hurley, Nathan East and Lee Sklar etc.

Follow up YT post by Lasse Vuorsola dealing with several queries about the pedal he received from TB'ers:

After being christened such by a mate at school, I went under the name Ivan Schmuffigan for a very long time.

I had to sign up to Facebook for band reasons and didn't want to use my real name as I hate all that previous acquaintance 'wants to add you as a friend' shite (if I haven't stayed in touch there's a reason). It's not really a 'stage name' but I signed up as Lowdown Al (Allan being my real name) and it's kind of stuck as a stage name now as obviously that's what it says when I'm tagged in stuff. If/when I'm introduced on stage it's usually "On bass, Lowdown Al, lowering the tone since '73". My username is another story, which I probably should've used as a stage name looking back. 😁

Chris P Trousers!

I wish I had kept the directory but it's long gone. They didn't let my mate join as Gabriel F*ck (without the asterisk!!).

It's not yours by any chance is it?

Problem solved. I’ve decided to put the bass for sale and I was about to bring it to a tech to see what’s going on. However I tried pluggin it into a different amp (a friend’s Trace Elliot Elf) and to my surprise it was totally quiet. So I tought it should be something into my amp system. My cab, an Accugroove Tri112L, has two tweeters: both were set at 100%… as I dimed those to 50% the noise was gone, even if I stand in front of the amp!

I honestly think the Neve is the most usable preamp I’ve ever had. Brilliant thing.

I think the Neve on the John Taylor 5 sounds absolutely brilliant especially with the master tone control there to tailor (taylor🤪) the overall tone further. Preamp sounds strong/full bodied with no unusable extremes. Dont know the frequencies but wouldn't be surprised if these were kept secret. Unfortunately I haven't owned a Dingwall NG or Combustion to compare it to but Waynesworld on here lives local to me and he has just bought an NG3 five string so I will hopefully be doing a comparison over the coming days. I feel I have been very late to Dingwall but better late than never as these basses are sooooo good!!

A good bass is a good bass, expensive or not so expensive. It's just that if a brand loses it's aspirational dimension then it has no direction. It becomes like trying to sell replica kits for a mid-table Sunday League football team. Why would people want them? G&L is such a loss to the market because they have unique features and sounds that no one else has to offer. The L1000 and L2000 are inimitable, nothing else sounds like them.

Back in the 80’s and 90’s when I used to sign the receipt for the gig money at the end of the night, I used a different stage name for every signature 🤔

So it isn't the bass player?

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