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I've been very quiet on here recently, for various reasons, but the main one is that I've been building, and learning to run a music venue! I run a recording studio, and my mate runs rehearsal rooms, all from one building in Stoke. We've built up a decent reputation over the years. There was one bit of the building we didn't have, and that was a garage, but last year the mechanic upped and left, and the landlord offered it to us. We spent countless hours turning a dirty old garage into a spanking new venue and I'm super proud of it. Please check it out if you're looking for live music in Stoke or The Midlands, and obviously get in touch if you'd like to play! www.rifffactory.co.uk https://www.instagram.com/rifffactoryuk/ The bar: Opening week: The garage:

Just back home from the annual Christmas guitar club concert in my local village hall. Two concerts - one for the younger learners and one for the older more proficient kids. Amazing to see them progress over the years in confidence and musical skills. I bring the PA, the lights and an extra pair of hands to help with setting up and sorting/tuning etc between performers, as well as donating my bass rig for the evening, being their soundman and guesting on the odd song. Proper Christmas thing. Excuse the dull pic but it’s all I managed.

We played a club near Bolton for the fourth time. The Concert Sec there lives in the 1960's and puts some real clunge on. He's been ignoring my whatsapp messages about next year. He came up to me before went on and tauntingly reminded me that I had gone up to him and shown him a fake Rickenbacker the last time we played. I had two with me that night, plus a P Bass. He wouldn't have it that the Ric I brought last time was real. It was a 2002 4003FG and it was on my stand. He very grudgingly admitted it was real. We always get told what a breath of fresh air we are when we play there. We went on played our two spots, went down like heroes with a 1.05 second spot with dancers throughout. When he came to pay us at the end, I reminded him that he hadn't responded to my Whatsapp messages and laughingly said that I thought he'd died. He told us that though he really likes us we aren't right for the club. Some people left. Like they do when it's cold and dark out and not far off Christmas, etc.. I remined polite and cheerful, as we aren't short of work. Instead of losing my sheet, I just said, we will go down far better than some of the acts you've booked up to June next year. You should've seen his face. Permanent worry-lines forming. He was beyond horrified and demanded to know which ones would frighten their punters and clear the place. I was too much of a gentleman to tell him.

Great: we had a fabulous time at the White Hart in Melton, rocked the place out, hot & sweaty. Sad: it's our last gig at the venue because the landlord and landlady are leaving. They can't make the place pay for itself. Sunday evenings always draw a crowd for the entertainment, but they have struggled to get people in on other nights of the week. Anyway we gave them a good send off. I took the smoke machine for a change, which made all the lights look even better. We didn't even keep track of how long we played. The only thing I forgot to do was to take a photo.

I'd recommend listening to the following as well as Bob Marley & the Wailers. The Wailers albums Catch A Fire, Burnin'. Bunny Wailer - Blackheart Man, Struggle Peter Tosh Legalize it, Equal Rights, Mystic Man, Bush Doctor. Burning Spear - Especially the Marcus Garvey and Hail HIM albums. Toots & The Maytals, Third World - 96 degrees in the shade. Any albums by Ijaman Levi, Lee Scratch Perry Keith Hudson, Big Youth, Early Aswad before they became more commercial, Matumbi, Steel Pulse (Handsworth Revolution) first. Ras Michael & the Sons of Negus. Sly & Robbie. There's enough to start you off there.

I've just managed to snag one of these for a decent price used. I've had plenty of synth pedals come and go over the years but this one suits me very well as it's compact and easy to adjust on the fly (I hated the C4's app). I have one patch dedicated to a clean signal with chorus which is handy. Tracking isn't perfect (or quite as good as in IMA's demos) but it's good enough for what I need in function bands. I've gigged it a couple of times as part of my big pedal board and will be using it in a new compact board (tuner>comp>mxr bass synth>tap pedal to change preset). I'll be doing Ain't Nobody with it live soon so I'll see how that goes - it seems decent enough at home...

I had a Vester Clipper that had been defretted - the Warwick copy (not exactly a faithful reproduction).

OK, this is about as non-rock'n'roll as you can get... I've been trying a new instrument of a type I have never played before. As you know, I play cello as my main instrument and I also play sax (mostly tenor and baritone). Well, I've never played a brass instrument... I started looking because of my challenge in trying to find groups where I could play sax. After a certain amount of looking around and assorted e-mail trails, I landed at Kirkby Stephen's beginners' group with their brass band... The culture of brass bands is interesting. They are very keen to recruit people of all ages from young children to much older people. They will lend you instruments. They have stocks of good quality - but older - instruments to lend. The provide free tuition. There is a strong focus on community. So, I end up with a 1970s Boosey & Hawkes Imperial silver euphonium. My recent Fridays has been a 6pm session with the beginners' group in a back rom whilst the 'training band' rehearses in the next room. On Friday, the main band gave its community Christmas concert. The training band plus beginner me played three items as part of the concert. I have the advantage of being able to read music and I've played in groups before. Just the slight matter of getting the right note out when you blow... Someone caught me not doing much... And yes, GAS attack, I've bought a second-hand Besson Sovereign (B&H were bought out). In case you're wondering - the range of a euphonium is similar to cello and baritone sax.

To clarify, I mostly handled international acts on the “Americas” side of the pond, both touring but later as the A1 (lead audio) in several “higher end” venues. The only UK tour I did was in the 1980’s with Taj Mahal, and I never encountered any issues. I stopped working dive type venues in the early 1980’s, realized early on that it would be impossible to make a living and raise a family. I mostly worked venues in the 1000-2500 cap range, in part because there’s respect built into that type of venue, but also because they tended to be union or union friendly facilities with clearly defined work (and safety) rules. My crew made it ~40 years without a reportable accident or injury. During this entire time, I designed pro audio and bass/guitar gear for some of the largest names in the industry during my downtime. Now that I’m retired from pro audio events, I design full time for Mesa Boogie and Gibson, It all goes hand in hand, I met others who had design “side hustles” while touring as well. The touring experience helps make good, real world, player friendly solutions for players.

And don't forget the Medeski Martin Wood band, with some albums with John Scofield too. Chris Wood is an amazing bass player, saw them live and it was fantastic:

Brian Setzer recorded a full album with Christmas tunes revisited like this one:

I can thoroughly recommend listening Red by Black Uhuru. Every track is a banger, and it features Sly and Robbie (and the rest of the Compass Point AllStars) at their very best. I've been listening to that album since it came out in 1981 and I never get tired of it. The first few UB40 albums a great, too. Good songs, good playing. The early 1970's to the mid-1980's was, for my taste, the Golden Age of Reggae. Check out anything on Studio 1 Records from that era.

Re Hartwood Delta arriving tomorrow.

I just thought I'd write a quick first-impressions review here, as I can't see any other threads in the BC archives on this system. The basics first. The Distiller is an active resonant-filter tone circuit, like what you'd find on an Alembic or a Wal. It consists of a low-pass filter whose resonant frequency is swept up and down using the potentiometer. Everything above the frequency gets cut, everything below stays unchanged. You can also switch in two levels of boost at the resonant frequency. Before I go on to the review bit, I should say that I didn't buy a filter preamp because I want to sound like Justin Chancellor. This is an unusual situation in the filter-preamp market, which I've done my best to illustrate with the venn diagram below. I mention this because a lot of the existing discussions on these sorts of devices seem to judge them mostly on the metric of "how cool does it sound when I play the riff from Schism?". I, on the other hand, have no strong opinions about Tool, and just wanted something that gave me a wide range of tones without covering my bass in knobs. By that measure, I think this does a great job. The best part for me is the regular low-pass filter (with no resonant frequency boost), which is a very effective but surprisingly unobtrusive thing. With a gentle turn of the Distiller, you can roll off just that annoying clicky highest of high end without muddying the musical treble you want to keep. Go beyond that, and you have effectively a very precise and controllable version of a passive tone control. It goes from "normal but with the edge taken off" to "reggae through the wall from a house party down the street". The two boost modes are, in my opinion, very usable at the top and bottom end of the range, but perhaps not so much in the middle. At the top end with both the low and high boost modes, you get some great aggressive sounds while maintaining the option of cutting out the clicky noises. There are some good sounds there – particularly in the lower mids, and particularly with the low-boost mode – but a lot of them feel a bit too nasal and odd sounding to be useful. As you get towards the low end, the low-boost mode gives you some great dub-like sounds while the high-boost makes your bass sound a lot like a synth bass. I can see myself playing around with those a lot. So yeah. Two thumbs up from me. Oh. Also, here are some very quickly recorded and very rough samples of the three modes. Each one starts with the frequency sweep all the way up, and then goes down through the range step by step. I apologise for both the quality of the recording (just straight into Audacity) and my playing (best described as repetitive, tuneless noodling). No boost. (I checked this against old recordings, and I can confirm that the starting point sounds indistinguishable from the bass when it was wired passive). Distiller_no-boost.mp3 Low Boost Distiller_lo-Boost.mp3 High Boost (might be clipping the interface a bit here and there). Distiller_hi-boost.mp3

Here's the grille I've got - perforated aluminium sheet, 10mm holes, with the speaker on top to give a good idea of scale.

Buy yourself some of these. It is the same thread on the bolt - this accross multiple makes and ages. I did 10 mic stands at church this morning. Everything is now super easy. Obv the stands have not been used properly, but then, as soon as any member of the public get their hands on mic stands, we know that boom arm tightening doobrie is the first thing to go if they are not dog bone tighteners. £2.55 each and they now support themselves like those pricier K&Ms that I should have bought in the first place. Happy days. https://www.thomann.co.uk/km_knebel_komplett_schwarz.htm

There is a thread on here somewhere referencing solo bass albums and I checked a load of them out. This album was the first time I have knowingly heard this guy (although, looking at his CV, I have probably heard him somewhere along the way). The tune is by Cuban folk artist Silvio Rodriguez and this is the complete transcription of the solo bass of Anders Jormin. The whole thing is a weird out of time vibe about it and you can take real liberties with the tempo throughout and it was all sound great. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/oleo-de-mujer-con-sombrero-anders-jormin/

Apart from all the usual suspects mentioned, there is Joey Defranceso, who unfortunately passed away a couple of years back aged 51. A multi instrumentalist and superb musician. His Hammond playing is terrific with amazing Bass pedal playing. There is plenty on YouTube and definitely worthy of a mention on the OP's list:

I was raised in a household where The Peddlers were played a lot. Not funky, but quite soulful at times.

As you may notice I'm a big fan of the Hammond B3, so you can also listen to the late Lucky Peterson, fantastic guitarist and gifted B3 organist, and I saw him live so many times...

There's also the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio. This KEXP live set is a fine thing.

I can't remember the exact story but I'm pretty sure Mohini Dey's dad was a pro musician and she started learning music and theory very young. There's no doubt she's a top tier player, one of those you could drop in any situation from a pub level covers band to an all star jazz ensemble and she'd be completely comfortable. She does have a tendency to post short clips of very fast highly technical solos up on her social media which can sound pretty unmusical to the casual listener (and I count myself in that group) especially out of context of the rest of the song, which I guess makes her an easy target for 'She's talented but would you want to listen to it' type criticism.

Battery drain in passive mode: Some East UK preamps draw power from the battery even in passive mode. This is a design feature to avoid loud thumps when switching between modes, but it means the battery will drain regardless of the selected mode. Make sure the black battery lead terminal has only one wire connected. Always remove the jack plug from the instrument when not in use, as inserting the jack activates the battery connection. Use a new, high-quality battery for best performance. Check that the jack socket is not touching any wiring outside of the preamp circuit, as this can cause unnecessary power drain.

16 hours worth culled from the Bass chat thread. Couldn't keep up with it in the end 😲 https://open.spotify.com/playlist/59RhYT5dLPwboS9u3njL4S?si=eqXaQgxpTV-nCwXW18bOxg&pi=AYELaBxHRR6-T

Really good to hear this Linus, once you start exploring and listening to the different types and styles you’ll probably find what artists appeal to you, sly and Robbie have some wonderful songs , they did an album the best of 1978-1985 which is worth a listen, I guarantee you won’t be able to resist picking up your bass to some of Robbie’s basslines, I’d also recommend checking out Flabba Holt who is the bass player with Roots Radics , different style of playing to Robbie, they backed Gregory Isaac’s for years and many other artists, and as some have mentioned There’s plenty of listening on the reggae thread,

That looks great! We need more venues, so it's great to hear of one opening!

Though probably more ska, Jackie Mittoo is also well worth checking out. He was the keyboard player in the original line up of the Skatalites. As well as having their own career, they were also the house band at Studio One…

Bass Police are coming for you.

I met one of Free's roadies, just after a tour of the USA (1971 or 1972?). He was bemoaning the fact that they insisted on using their Marshall stacks rather than lightweight Fender combos. At that time, I was an amateur guitarist and studying Electronics at college and in the in-house training school at EMI. I tried to explain that they could not sound like Free through Fender Combos, but he rolled his eyes and moved on to the next victim. At that time there was no PA support apart from vocals.

They do!!

There's a proper groove going on here... With no excess widdleywoo (well, just a touch but if you've got it etc!) And remarkably restrained here - love Greg Howe's guitar playing!

Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence. (I enjoyed looking up Hanlon's Razor, some variations can be quite rude ) These venues are probably barely breaking even and are giving a chance to musicians who can't organise their own gigs or get their own gear to a venue. A few turn up with no instrument. Some of the musicians will show litle respect to the gear provided. The 'roadie' doing the sound may have had little or no training and not be the person who set the gear up. They won't want to unplug anything because they won't know how to reconnect it for the next act. They may be there because they are the only person available and not because of any skill they have. The logistics of running a multi band event with people you've never met are overwhelming at times and with little or no funding the options of buying in or hiring equipment out of the question. The best thing you can do is look after yourself at these events. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Take your own gear and have it set up so you can do a quick change. Take your own DI and ask them if they want to plug into yours or where you can plug into theirs. If they don't put the bass through PA be prepared for that. If possible just set your stuff up next to or in front of their bass amp and do it quickly. Arrange a signal so you can turn up or down if they need you to. Give them confidence that you know what your are doing and that they can trust you to be helpful. Arguing with someone who is already anxious and under time pressure is never going to come out well so avoid giving them a decision to make.

Here you go: I Believe In Father Christmas by In Isolation: We also got Matt Pop to do a banging dance mix: Both are available on Spotify: My current band have also released an original Christmas song called December Snow: Which is also on Spotify:

https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/395084-the-reggae-thread/

A long time ago I used to work for a business making t-shirts and selling them on eBay - the problem was that while we would pay our VAT and taxes and national insurance and run everything above board we were constantly being undercut by companies that would fire up, copy all our designs, flog them cheaper and then disappear - the only way you could do this is either slave labour, or avoid VAT by legal and non-legal means. Cracking down on this, and the likes small parcels of Chinese fast fashion avoiding taxes/import etc is really important unless we want to see a massive hollowing out of our society... So there is the likelyhood this might be rubbish for some hobbiests who flip lots of high value gear and don't keep receipts - but I kinda think the long term this is a good thing. It will protect jobs. Plus it's the data the HMRC are after for trends, going after Beedster who sold two Bitsas, or Dawn who chucked her cheating husband out and sold off all his precious fishing rods is hardly going to be cost effective... the guy flipping 4 cars a month, or the t shirt business turning over £1M+ a year and avoiding all taxes might be worthwhile their time...

Unless the low pass inductor is seriously undersized, resulting in high DCR and potentially going into saturation, a low pass filter won't cause clipping of the low notes. That's usually the result of inadequate driver xMax/Vd, sometimes by the cab size and tuning. If you went with the WinISD default of 41 L per driver with 58Hz tuning you'd run out of excursion at only 80 watts per driver at 50Hz and lower. Without knowing the cab specs that's all I can offer. If I was using that driver I'd ignore the WinISD default and go with 30L per driver and 45Hz tuning. If you did use the WinISD default making the port(s) long enough to get to 45Hz tuning would be better, and since the net box volume should be smaller as well you've got the room for it.

We also share the luxury of having our own dedicated sound & lights guy. Daryl

Really enjoyed listening to this last night by The Mighty Threes, I believe they were only around for a few years 78-79 ish and were a trio of Bernard Brown, Carlton Gregory, and Noel “Bunny” Brown from the Chosen Few, they had an album called Africa Shall Stretch Forth Her Hand which is on YouTube and well worth a listen, after a bit of digging it looks like the bass player they used was ,Clinton "Bubbles" Rowe, who I don’t know much about, nice heavy Bassline .

Agreed. Full tax scavenging mode. Just picking the meat from the bones rather than the fat. The real question being why do so many people need a side hustle just to get by?

This is HMRC's sudden obsession with "side hustles", as they want to scrape a bit more income from the average person on the street/Clapham omnibus rather than Reeves introduce a wealth tax or bring CGT in line with income tax or do anything significant to get more money from the very rich.

So true. . . .