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Sarum’s Lot played at Qudos Bar in Salisbury last night, quiet-ish when we got there, but filled up to the gun holes as we set up, played okay, a few minor screw ups from all of us (which is unusual) but the crowd were very kind to us, partaking in lots of singing and dancing.😎 We must have done alright because the land lady booked us for NYE 2026, so that’s a right result, Qudos is our favourite venue to play in Salisbury. Next up we are at The Bull Hotel in Downton on the 31st for a Halloween party, fancy dress is the order of the day, our guitarist is taking things very seriously:

Wedding gig at the Mythe Barn near Atherstone on the Warwickshire/ Leicestershire border. After a few weeks of modding and gigging with my Squier P + flatwounds, I grabbed two active Yamahas + round wounds for tonight’s gig. No doubt it was a wider, more complex and detailed bass sound, but I missed hearing the way that the burpy, woody P + flats sat in the overall mix at previous gigs. Was glad of the Yamahas for the few songs that needed slap bass etc though. Cool venue, lovely catering courtesy of a pizza oven in the beautifully illuminated courtyard just outside, plenty of people up dancing and a very decent gig all in. Rig was a single Markbass STD102HF cab, Little Mark lll head and my usual pedal board (Boss chorus and octave, a Korg tuner, Vintage Microtubes overdrive and a Cali76 compressor).

Back at the Old Fox, in Felling, a small town just south of Newcastle upon Tyne. This is one of those gigs you look forward to, a live music pub with an audience who appreciates your efforts. We’re all using IEMs now and that’s been an absolute game changer for us, and as one well respected local live music aficionado has just posted on FaceAche “Southern Incorporated were tighter than a nuns chuff”. Loads of folk we know out supporting us too, and a very happy landlady who stuck an extra £30 in the pay packet at the end of the night. Job done!

Rumour has it that only by reaching the final rank on Basschat can a bassist reach their true potential. It is said that until they reached rank 14, Victor Wooten couldn’t slap and Bootsy had no idea what funk was. It is said that until they reached the rank of Grand Master on Basschat, Justin Chancellor couldn’t play in 7/4 and Flea was merely a Bell Pepper. Since April 22, 2009, I have dreamt of this moment. Finally, it is my time to ascend to the ranks of bass greatness. I’ll see you on the other side… It is time to play the bass and stop spending so much time on an internet forum

Not a bad night last night and local to me, though sadly a bit quiet with an Oasis tribute a couple of hundred yards one way and another band down the road the other. Landlady apologetic but happy as she said she still took plenty of money over the bar. “We love having you here, you’re so professional” So we were playing to a small select bunch, but they were all enjoying themselves and singing along. Band was tight and the sound really good. Loads of compliments from those that were there which was nice. Used the usual rig of: FrankenJazz, Helix Effects, Darkglass Microtubes, BF BigBaby2. Shoes comfortable barefoot. As there was potentially a bit more space than usual I took the bigger pedalboard but the Palmer wall wart that I had at rehearsal on Monday wasn’t in my leads bag so reverted to the Helix. 😡 Must have a search for that or order a spare.

I'm in contact with Colin, been trying to get him in for the 2025 SE Bass Basheroonie. He's declined - which is a huge shame - and I get the distinct feeling he finds the adoration a bit uncomfortable and bothersome. XTC are a weird one for me. I loved the singles back in the day, but they were more a guilty pleasure as musically my head was elsewhere. Sadly it was only after they called time that I really got into them; I suppose it was great to just go through the entire catalogue over a short period of time and appreciate how they evolved. It kind of saddens to read a comment like @Dad3353 giving the four minutes. While people obviously cite The Beatles as being the quintessential British band, XTC should also be seen as a national treasure, there's so much depth in the writing and arrangements, from the quirky angular punk/pop of White Music and Go 2 through to the majesty of Apple Venus and Wasp Star. The band were lyrically and musically smart. Andy Partridge once remarked something along the lines of the band being 'clever and from Swindon' which aptly characterised the struggle they were always going to face for exposure. Had it been New York, another story. The whole backstory is fascinating (try an watch the This Is Pop documentary for a quick deep dive to the withdrawal from touring, which just adds to the enigma). @Dad3353The whole catalogue is on Spotify; get yourself a coffee and listen to the Fossil Fuel collection; it's a decent entry point. Identify the tracks that light your candle and do an album - I'm not going to say you won't be disappointed (even though I just did), because you possibly will. Each to their own. They really were (and still are) a fantastic, fantastic band.

Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever had a better sound than this combination gives me. I’m a huge fan of gentle compression when playing live and the Empress just gets the job done. The nerve centre of tone is the Jad Freer Capo which is just lush to play through, and then the Phil Mann with bass in mind version of the SushiboxFX Finally DI pushes out a lovely fat warm valve DI to FoH. The Thumpinator is there to protect my amp (I love this little box of tricks) but as I’m now almost always using IEM’s the amp is almost becoming redundant.

We had a very enjoyable night at the Cow & Telescope on Friday. Due to temporary management shenanigans we haven’t got a gig booked there next year, so we felt we had a point to prove to the new management team, who were very impressed with us. So fingers crossed well be a go to reserve next year if they get any cancellations. I was still on holiday in Majorca with the wife in the morning with the wife and got home around 3pm. So had a couple of hours or so for a quick practice of several songs I hadn’t played for a while, and nap. The nap didn’t help much, I was knackered all evening and flagging towards the end, but adrenaline got me through. We were joined by the lovely Hazel, dipping for Jenny again who wasn’t available. Hence the handful of songs I hadn’t played for ages (and one, we’d never even played as a band before), but it kept us on our toes and gave the set list a good shake up. We had great comments from regulars and people who hadn’t seen us before, including a couple of people asking about merchandise. We have a fairly strong brand identity, so it’s something worth considering. I’ve been thinking about setting up an amazon print on demand store for a while. Next one, Halloween at The Cricketers in Westcliff, with another dep singer. Clip of ‘What’s up’ that we’d never played or even rehearsed before, let alone with a dep. Judging by the crowd reaction, it’s a keeper. IIRC, this is the only song I pulled and IEM out to hear the crowd signing along to. https://fb.watch/CQZJVVKUbR/?

Very definitely a parson's egg of an evening. Jack's Entertainment Centre in Bedworth - we've played there once before, in the front room. This time we were in the back room, using the house PA. We only used it for vocals and the sound man also set up an ambient mic for the drumkit. Nice big stage, pretty good sound, and a good audience. Managed to get quite a few of them up for Time Warp which is by no means a given. Afterwards, one middle-aged man came up to three of us individually to tell us that when we played Dakota (opening number), his dad who had dementia told him he recognised it - it was one of his favourite songs and the pair of them had a great night. Always good to get some positive feedback. Now the not so good bit. The car park also services some flats, and it turned out I'd parked in a bit for residents (I didn't realise). Some complete bastard parked blocking me (and two other cars belonging to residents) in. Mrs Zero and I had to get an Uber home and come back the next day, when the complete bastard had moved, to retrieve my car. No, I didn't key his car. That would have been too obvious. After all, we'll be going back there. As usual, Sei Flamboyant 5 headless -> M-Vave wireless -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> Tecamp Puma 900 -> GR Bass AT212 and Caravelle memory foam trainers, with socks.

This thread feels like it started drinking in the afternoon, and really needs to go home now.

Anybody listening to music in the 80's will remember the loudness control on their cheap hi-fi. The magic button that made our music come to life, they are still around often with exotic names like Psycho Acoustic boost. The loudness control worked because it exploited a couple of simple bits of human biology. The same bits of biology that make any bass amp or speaker with a mid scoop fly out of the sales room. It's the sound we all love practicing at home but which sounds s**t when we take it to a gig. So to understand it on the graph a couple of simple bits of physics and then some biology which will hopefully help people with their eq. So Physics first: sound pressure levels are measured in decibels and are a measure of the sound's energy, how much the air is moving, kind of. It's what is measured by a sound meter and we use it as a measure of sound volume but it isn't reall a measure of how loud something is. Loudness is measured in Phons. The Phons are only the same as the decibels at one frequency 1,000Hz which is right in the middle of the mid range, sort of. Sounds at low frequencies or very high frequencies just aren't as loud for us as at 1,000Hz but at 3,000Hz they sound even louder. If you want hou can play with this online Here To understand the graph look at the 80Phon line; at 1000Hz it is 80db. Run left to 100Hz and it is 90db. To sound the same volume you need an extra 10db which is 10x the power from your amp/speaker run up to 7kHz and it is again 90db to get the same volume. The graph kind of shows how you would have to set the graphic to get the same perceived volume at 80 phons. As a bassist though the thing to notice is that the settings at low sound levels are different to those at the highest levels. At the quietest you'd need 70db of boost to hear any 20Hz sound at all. At 100phon you'd hear it easily and only need 30db boost for it to be as loud as it is at 100hz. This is where biology comes in, our ears and brain work together to give the most useful sounds. it's a really clever and subtle system of signal enhancement with genuine survival value. There are lots of quiet bass sounds our body makes, the rumbling of our gut and the grinding of our bones as we move. Imagine moving around the savannah's with the sound of our last meal drowning out the sound of something that want's us to be it's next meal The sounds we hear best are the dip in the curve 2-5kHz which is vital for understanding speech and screams and cries. Loud bass we need, it means something exciting and dangerous is about to happen, a large animal, falling rocks or something powerful and dangerous. The reason we like a mid scoop becomes apparent. by having the mids lower it sounds like the bass and treble are louder and you get the illusion of your bass coming from a much louder amp. When you turn the amp up to gig volumes you need a lot less boost to bass and treble to get the sound you crave. Loud bass is exciting, an adrenaline rush. So finally we get to bass guitar. Average gig levels are around 100db (as measured on-stage at Glastonbury a few years ago). 80phon is more like pretty loud music in a domestic setting and for sake of argument I'll say close to practice levels. From the graph you'd need around 15db boost to get 100phon at 50Hz and at 80phon you'd need 20db of boost for the same effect. That's 5db difference in the bass between gig and practice levels compared to the mids. So to take your carefully set up tone for the gig you need to turn your bass down 5db at 50hz or the mids up by the same amount to maintain your tone. Given that the mid scoop is often around 5-6db you've pretty much always got to lose it before you play at gig levels. This isn't the only thing you have to contend with at gigs, room acoustics and the other band members come into the equation too but you have to expect to re-eq when you turn up the volume for a gig to balance your bass and midrange. You'd have to do it for the highs as well except that there is very little hf coming out of your pickups. Cymbals through a powerful PA though......definitely the wrong sort of adrenaline!

Oh my…weird few months. As my old band Fiasco Jam was causing me issues - detailed elsewhere… I agreed to help a mates band out - they’re well known in Manchester and have a really decent following… They’ve been on hiatus for a while and their old bass player moved back home to Italy so they were stuck. I wanted an “out” from FJ so I wrote 4 songs for them and agreed to join. Fiasco Jam folded and the singer and Drummer asked me to carry on. ”this is great, I can do both” I thought… Things have changed - work gave me a promotion, which is good…but is chewing time. The build is ongoing and costing…and stressful. My dad’s been in hospital, mum not doing great… mother in law seems to be in rapid decline. I have just “quit” the new band - no big show, but I’ve prioritised myself; I’ve spent a day learning their setlist for a gig next month. reassuringly 3 of the tunes I wrote are on the list - but I must say the old stuff isn’t really my cup of tea. I’ve sent the message, the rehearsal will be awkward tomorrow but they’ve got 5 weeks if they’re not ok with me helping out to find someone else. That’s fine by me if they do. I’ve offered to transcribe and video any lines I’ve done to help and record the EP for them if they want me to. But I think I feel reassured that it’s the right shout.

Mark King at Fairfield Hall last night. Mark bass all the way. Little Mark Vintage 1000 head, Standard 104HR cabs, and a small unobtrusive pedal board 😜

Picked up a Fender Rumble 500 (2x10) last week. Had it out on a gig last night and really pleased with it. My other stuff is heads and cabinets and whilst it's mostly light and manageable it's a bit of a faff carrying it all in and then hooking it all up, so I wanted something dead easy and the Rumble hits the spot. Used it last night with no effects board just to see how it sounded and it was fine. I'll probably use the board in future for the convenience of a tuner/mute and the Thumpinator which tightens up the low end. Would have gone for an 800 but this thing is plenty loud for pub gigs so that would have been overkill. All in all, couldn't be happier since it's also like new and I got it for £450.

Traditionally, Woking, I believe

@Chiliwailer Great the way this evolves. Good solid sound too. @Baloney Balderdash Intense and unique. Masterful stuff. @Leonard Smalls Huge dreamy funky sound, and cool vocal track. @Jean-Luc Pickguard Effortlessly flows though an uplifting journey. @lurksalot Vibes like a live performance. Great energy. Cool track.

Doubtful, it seems pretty far fetched. 🤭 It might even have been an attempt at humour. 🙄

Colin Moulding? Where do you want to start! What a brilliant musician, bass player, songwriter, you name it. If he weren't such a self-effacing chap he would have a very different profile. I honestly believe he could have had a career as a top session musician if he had wanted. I cannot think of a better bassist that any record producer or artist could hire to interpret and compliment their music in a novel and interesting way. Colin's such a creative bass player without ever conspicuously drawing attention to himself. He could have done the same job Pino Palladino has done for so many artists, albeit in his own inimitable way. The way he plays the bass is so exciting and quite fascinating. XTC were just breaking through around the time I started playing and Colin Moulding has always been a major role model for me. It seems like such a waste he's not out there making music much anymore because he's a unique talent.

OK kids. I've uploaded the 'This Is Pop' documentary to my Google Drive. It's 2GB, MP4 format and a joy to watch. I'll leave the link active until I need the space. Obviously files are prone to have download issues, if the link is on the wonk, let me know. You should just be able to click and download. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1__xzmx6z_hz4sSVieht-5NQVLRkImfgN/view?usp=sharing

OK , I asked for it ! This is a story of how some things don't always work out, all singing and dancing , promises, promises and then the shine comes off and it all becomes a let down ... Love story Technical.. EZ dummer pounds the skins , Gordon smith clanks through the low end , Ibby 6er thrashes about most of the way through it , UJam provides a little rhythm structure and the piece de resistance is the stunning vocal over the top of it all. Turd polishing care of Ozone 8

My third foray into the Cort Space Bass world was guaranteed to happen. These compact basses punch well above their diminutive weight and I never sold one because I didn't like it - more because pupils always seem to want to buy them from me! So to get this nearly new model for a bargain price was too good to turn down. Back to the 5-string this time, I've added my usual Elixir 40-125 set and it plays really slickly. Perfect for teaching duties, or as that spare bass that you keep in the car boot, it can always hold it's own with it's clean, hifi sound. What's not to like..?

No one is putting a tattoo gun anywhere near my Basingstoke!

A mate of mine used a playing card on one of mine - very decently used the Ace of Spades ♠️ 🤘

Those pink JayDees came out in about early 1987 and along with other pastel shade pearlescent finishes like blue and yellow. My dad warned me at the time that if I bought an expensive bass in a colour like that I wouln never be able to sell it again. I heeded his warning and got a cherry red custom-made JD Mk3 MK. It was mega, much better than the production models in the shops at the time. John Diggins himself made it for me, and he was a superb craftsman, and a very nice chap too in all my dealings with him. I was very sad to hear that he had died. Regarding Mark King's sound, without wishing to court controversy, I have long been of the conviction that his tone is seriously compromised by the super light gauge strings he uses. It's just a case of how much each bass compensates for the lack of body in those thin strings. Whatever bass he uses he sounds remarkably similar to me. Don't get me wrong, I really admire Mark King and enjoy lots of things about his playing even though Level 42 aren't really my cup of tea, but his whole style and sound is defined by those strings.

You can buy full pocket angled (different angled available) shim veneers. These are fine to use and won't case any trouble.

Pink!!!

Other customers wanting to talk to me when I'm in a guitar store trying out basses I'm not going to buy 🙃

Small pedalboard. I’m disappointed… the guy calls himself a pro and he has a pedalboard that can still be carried by one person. Pathetic!

Backm from hols and I attend a workshop yesterday run by a local music charity (Drum and Brass) aimed at getting more people of all ages involved in music making. We were asked to bring instruments along (I took a tenor sax) and the session was about conducting. Groups and ensembles of all kinds need conductors and without them groups either don't happen or fold... so this is aimed at getting people started on that road. I have ended up having to conduct at times, e.g. the conductor is stuck in traffic, or is ill. Some of the session was about organisation/admin such as rehearsal room layout, repertoire selection, rehearsal planning, etc. I think following yesterday I am going to be asked to help out with one group... I will report more in due course.

If anyone wants to read further, here's a copy of Complicated Game - Inside The Songs of XTC by Andy Partridge and Todd Bernhardt. This came to me from a music writer pre-publication. It's in ePub format, so you'll need to download an ePub reader (Microsoft Store etc.). Obviously, it goes without saying, the book is still in print. Complicated Game - Inside The Songs Of XTC.epub

Sounds like a good decision. You’ve got a lot going on there, and well done for realising the need to take care of yourself in the mix. You can’t help other people if you’re already burnt out yourself etc. I hope things improve and get back on track. We are all replaceable in bands/gigs etc but not replaceable in our own families and lives.

They probably mean it actually is Squier, not Squire.

Crispy Fried Air is based around a simple | Am | / | G | / | F | G | C | / | chord sequence and features Drums from Logic's Scientific Method+ set, My Bitza Precision using Logic's SVT emulation, Logic's B3 organ, and Logic's Studio Grand Piano. There was originally also a guitar track, however it cluttered up the mix so I took it out.

Someone didn't read the T&Cs

Shouldn't we have a standard one? Like the Iron Man calf tattoo. Back of the *left hand maybe? *right if you're from the dark side.

I used 12mm for my build, Faital pro pr12 300 driver in this case. Still going strong, probably cost 175 quid max for absolutely everything when I built it.

This might win the award for least helpful reply in a thread resurrection 😂 7 months later and this is what he got.

I find that no matter how much time I spend on nailing a bassline, run fill etc at home, it takes two or three (or sometimes more) run throughs with the band before I can play it as well as I could in personal practice.

Blimey, he needs those big boots to find his way around that big pedal board...

If you’re practicing to improve it’s not always going to be fun. If it’s a tricky passage then playing it slowly and repeating while speeding up can be tedious. Learning theory and practicing scales up and down the neck isn’t always musical. Sight reading practice can be fun if you get a good tune but to be effective it should be something you wouldn’t listen to or from an exercise book. The point being, practice inherently won’t always be fun if you’re doing it right, but when you get it all together and your performances improve, it is worthwhile.

Okay, so a long time has passed, but I had an email from Blue Aran to say that the Lavoce speakers mentioned above by @Bill Fitzmaurice were finally in stock, so I've just ordered two. This cab, which was rated at 125w, is on the way to becoming an 800w monster! When the speakers arrive I'll make any modifications needed to fit them and then repaint the white on the inside of the enclosure. I'm hoping to have some fun with this cabinet and my TE Elf, as well as my Ampeg PF500.

If I can't hear myself play, I struggle make loads of mistakes (or think I do) and tend to revert to the simple stuff. Sounds like you may be in a vicious circle. Rehearsals are where you make mistakes because you're trying stuff, hearing what works well and what doesn't. Do you respect them as musicians and do you think there is any reason why they would mislead you? Ask your band mates for constructive criticism rather than just 'that was great'. Maybe that's because you've already turned down and they're used to the low volume, or the overall mix is wrong (usually the geetard has the bass control on his amp too high or the keys player is venturing into forbidden areas on the keyboard). I hope the above doesn't come across as harsh - I've been where you are and I've worked with musicians who have a similar outlook. For the rehearsals with the band, go back to the bassics (pun intended 🙂) and slowly build up your part according to what the song needs. Turn up the volume so you can hear yourself. Separate your home practices into 'for the band' and 'technique/technical' and once the latter gets frustrating, stop and jam some simple blues to remind yourself why you play. I had a dep job in September and I had two weeks to learn about 30 songs. More than half I didn't actually know and during the first week I was getting so frustrated at not being able to play along to them that my confidence took a big hit. I almost backed out of the gig. But then something clicked, I dialed back the emphasis on the technical stuff and remembered that I was standing in at short notice and thereby took some pressure off myself. What I found was that in week 2, I was able to get more of the songs nailed and towards the end of the week, as my confidence grew again, I fund adding the fills and polish became easier. The gig was a success; I made some mistakes but they've asked me to dep again for them.