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Well that was bloody awesome. We got to the Earl Haig early, to find two big projector screens up for the rugby, but didn't affect us setting up. Used their (big) PA with our desk, spent a lot of time with everything miced up (me post-preamp DI'd). Sounded awesome but with the stage volume was comfortable with no earplugs. About 20- people stayed on from rugby and we had at least 120-, maybe 150 people in. It can feel a bit empty on a Sunday sometimes, even with a crowd, but not today. Lots of musicians and music lovers in, including my brother, some of my friends and members of two of my other bands. First half, mostly straight classic rock, so no dancing but rapturous reception. Brief beak, then second half, still rocky but some more danceable stuff, so dancing from about 1/3rd through. You'll get the gist if I say our encores were War Pigs and Alive, and the song that got the most comment was Devil Woman. Afterwards, people were queing up to shake hands and say how much they enjoyed it. We did get (very gently) told off for going 20 minutes past curfew 😁 Baz was taking photos, so I expect some awesome shots in due course. Devil Woman.mp4

Our gig on Friday was a road trip from Lancaster/Morecambe up to Stockton On Tees in the North East. "Blues At The Bay" blues club. On paper, it looked like a 2 hour drive when I booked the gig, but Friday had other ideas, SNOW! Lots of back and forth on group chat and we decided to leave much earlier with a plan to go via Settle/Harrogate/A1. At the last minute I checked the route (I was the last pickup in the van) and the A66 had just re-opened, so we decided to go our original route. Stopped for a brew at a farm shop halfway and still arrived early. It meant we could have a leisurely setup before going off to eat before the gig. The gig itself was super. House PA and monitors, very intimate venue with just a 40 capacity, but it was sold out. A very appreciative and respectful audience. I understand that they often film their gigs, so I'm hoping for some good footage in the near future. 2 x Barefaced One10's, GK Legacy 800, '73 Precision. Rob

Well....Back in to The Bungalow on Friday evening and first night of a Mod weekender. Great venue to play! Always a well stocked beer fridge in the green room! A couple of members down,one of the singers was on holiday and we recently lost our keyboard player and also his replacement! To lose one is careless...two is....something! We also have the drummer handing in his notice as he has changed jobs. Decent turnout for a Friday and we seemed to go over pretty well! Sound guy had issues with the bass amp,DI would not work,so he stuck a mike on the cab,then the thing cut out on a song in the second half. But we made it to the end! Jack Flash!.mp4

Audience video (James East) from Facebook, our first encore. A few fluffs but I hope it gets across sound, energy and excitement! 🙂 Baz took over the lights and got a bit over excited! Waer Pigs.mp4

Sounds like a good gig Dave. I've got my first 2026 gig Thursday night at The Fox Town in Mequon. It'll be a half hour commute. I'm not sure if I'm driving or riding in the van. It's an upscale bar / restaurant that does a fantastic job with local bands. Nice room with a very nice stage. We'll be providing our own sound. We'll bring minimal lighting and smoke. The place has a built in crowd. This is our second gig there. Last time the place was packed. Daryl

I have no doubt at all that a Serek or a Wilcock would be sublime. But having a tragic history of expensive = better, the joy of the NEWPORT is that it was as cheap as chips. It is entirely functional, the finish is exemplary and the neck pickup solo'd just delivers. All for £230 on ebay. The seller had put a deeply weird custom pickguard on it which looks like something I would have designed when I was 8. That is not a compliment. But this does not matter becaue it was cheap as chips.

Gear: Sire P10/ Fender AVII 1960 P ---> Lekato WM80 ---> main effects were SpectraComp on Captain East, Joyo XVI (for Uprising), Mojo Mojo, 80s Ibanex Chorus, LPF ---> Orange Bass Terror ---> GR Bass AT121 slim.

Friday night I had a last minute (8 hours’ notice) dep with tribute band Dire Streets, at Chipping Sodbury Town Hall. I’ve done quite a few rhythm guitar deps with them over the last few months, but I hadn’t looked at the bass parts for a year, so I took my iPad and read the dots where necessary.

You weren't far wrong 🤣 It's taking a while for me to pull myself together, not helped by having to be at work in my proper job at 8am this morning. Ouch. So.. yes. Matty Healy! Sting! Lewis Capaldi! The latter two were closely-guarded secrets, and genuinely took the audience by surprise. The bad news: they did self-contained performances that didn't need the house band, so I didn't get to play with them. The good news: they were amazing, so I didn't give it a second thought. We did two shows, each around 3.5 hours long (it isn't just music - there's comedy and that too.). We opened the show with Chris Rea's 'Let's Dance'. As well as being a bit poignant, it also captures the essence of the show and fits the band line-up perfectly. We had loads of dancers on stage, and it was a real high-energy start. From there we went into a reel called Rakish Paddy, again with the dancers aided by a quick costume change. After that, Cuddy's Cave, a beautiful musical poem... it's a love letter to the region by the wonderful Nev Clay. Over the next few hours we played songs including December 1963, I Can't Make You Love Me, Always a Woman and Hit the Road, Jack. It all went swimmingly. Of course our special guests grabbed all the headlines, but that's fine by me... the charity is going to benefit massively. Need to sleep now, 'cos we're doing it again in 2028. Here's a clip of the finale:

A new one from Don

I'm really sorry to hear this, but it's super helpful to see honest feedback, so a heartfelt thank you for posting it! Unfortunately the drawback of and being effectively a one-man business* and making everything entirely by hand is that we do need to charge a little more than some other business models do in order to cover our labour costs. Just as a bass made using hand tools will take more time and therefore cost more than one made using a CNC machine, so does a scratchplate. For anyone interested, here's a short video showing how we make each pickguard by hand As it's mostly just me here, at busy times (over xmas and new year in particular) I do have to prioritise making scratchplates over responding to emails- however, we do have a direct order form on our website now, so the old system of needing to message us directly to request a price is obsolete for all but the most awkward of jobs. (Basic modifications are free of charge when ordered via our builder) Despite setting up the order form, I still get a vast number of emails and quote requests a week, but also need to actually fulfil orders, so it can be a difficult balance to strike during busy periods! However, I do personally respond to every single email and enquiry that reaches me as soon as I am able to. The advantage of making everything by hand though, is that in addition to being able to make pretty much any shape imaginable from over a hundred materials, we also offer a 'perfect fit guarantee' and are always super keen to rectify any errors where possible. @three -If you haven't already, please do get in touch if there's anything I can do to correct the 'not perfect' bits you mentioned 🙏 For anyone else interested in giving us a go, we do offer a one-off 20% discount to BC'ers- just drop us a message via our website for a price A typical bass pickguard from us will currently set you back around £55-70 plus shipping, (pre-discount), lead time is approx 10 working days once I have both payment and your original guard/template(there are no standard guards!) Appreciate this is a bit of a long response, hope this is helpful..! Huge thanks also to @Buddster for the kind words! Cheers, Steve *just for clarity- Jack's Instrument Services and Tiny Tone are separate companies- Tiny Tone was set up in 2020 to handle all pickguard orders separately- this way Jack can focus on his luthier work at JIS, and as his sole employee at TT, I handle all pickguards, pedals and wiring here.

Yep - Our first ad was the London/Los Angeles "postcards"-type ad. Memorable indeed! The Lane Poor bass was certainly something different! But hey, it was the 80's!

First gig of 2026 with the Glam band tonight. Another 60th birthday for a guy that's seen us quite a few times in same venue. We seem to do a lot of private parties in that particular club. Birthdays, Retirements and charity events. Anyhow it was the usual birthday party audience. The birthday boy loved it and the audience who were mostly younger age group than we're used to just got pissed and then danced away most of the night. Don't think we filled the dance floor at all tonight but we had dancers up for most songs. 2 x 1hr sets. Had issues with PA sound tonight at one side of the stage. My side was relatively ok but we were getting a fair bit of feedback and then i realised the PA guy had put his bass bin and mid cab on the front of the stage and thereby causing a loud deep drone thru the first set. It was quite bad and enough to trigger feedback thru the mics. At the break i had to tell him to turn the bass bin on that side either off or down a fair bit to see if it helped. It worked a treat. Sound was excellent 2nd set with very little to zero feedback and no deep drone noise. Overall it was a good gig and a good rehearsal for next weeks gig at The Ferry in Glasgow. We've been trying to get in there for a few yrs but they wanted us to do a support first for £100 plus food supplied. We've always knocked it back. This time it was a mates band that had to cancel and they put us forward for it. We originally said no because we were offered same fee as mates band but i had no idea they worked for that little a fee. Guy from the venue called me and asked if we could come down a bit nearer to what they would pay other well known Glam acts. I agreed on a fee to get a foot in the door. Looking forward to that gig as its a good one to get on your gig list. Loading up at the end the snow came on so that was a bit scary at times over the higher ground. Strong winds meant i had to unload the car via the garage back door as front door comes down if wind catches it. No pics or vids as yet. Dave

Hey gang.. Some of the longer-term members here might remember that I play in the house band at Sunday for Sammy, a huge music & comedy show that - until 2020 - happened every couple of years at Newcastle Arena. We've had some amazing guests over the years... Mark Knopfler, Brian Johnson, Trevor Horn, The Auf Wiedersehen Pet cast, Johnny Vegas, etc. But then COVID happened. And then nothing... until now! After 18 months of planning by an amazing team, it all happens again next Sunday. Two shows in one day, with a huge cast, it's a massive logistical challenge. I've been working on the songs in my own time for the last few months, and rehearsals start in earnest tomorrow. In the meantime, the crew loaded in to the rehearsal space today, and we (the core band) popped along in the afternoon to set up and do line checks. Here's some photos - more tomorrow! Two J's at the moment - both with flats. I might switch one for a P. FOH is set up in one of the dressing rooms. Monitors. My drummer pal. Guitar village. My hangout.

On another side note i've just joined a blues rock band from Edinburgh area. They've seen me play with the Glam band so no audition required they said. They were just happy to get me the BL said. Guitarist is a mad Gary Moore fan so that should be fun. They seem to be aiming for that Eric Clapton, Cream, Gary Moore style of Blues Rock which can make for some nice interesting basslines. Dave

Some of the basses which have been considered niche designs since they were introduced post-millennium would have been accepted with open arms back in the 1980's. The MusicMan Bongo and Status Streamline, for example, would have flown out of the shops and into the hands of bass players keen to be seen embracing modernity, both in terms of sound and design.

Infection appears to have spread from bassic.de 😃

Good question. Spec sheets are simplistic guides for what an average designer might expect to achieve when designing around it, but there are a lot of specs that are not on the spec sheet because they become more application specific and depend on the skill and experience of the designer in order to exploit more performance. For example, one of ICEPower's older module families did not specify 4 ohm BTL operation and in fact warned against it, yet in spite of all the other manufacturers who had no first hand experience with the platform (and end users with even less knowledge and experience) expressing their doubt and prognosticating that it couldn't possibly work, that the amps would blow up by the thousands, I developed a pair of simultaneous technique that we at Genz Benz/KMC received a patent for that allowed this module family to work without any issues (performance or reliability) into 4 ohms BTL. I worked with the engineers at ICEPower to validate the design (so that our contract could include ICEPower's warranty of an off sheet application), and we built close to 10,000 amplifiers using this technique and have had way LESS issues than other manufacturers attempting do do this their own way once they ran into the patent. These amps are now approaching 18-20 years old, and through my factory service program I replace maybe one or two power modules a year (less than 2% of amps serviced under this program need new module). This IP transferred over to Fender when we were acquired, around the same time that Fender introduced the Rumble V3 series. This is similar to how we obtain a 2 ohm rating on all of the Subway 800 models, 2 ohms was an off-sheet application that required design validation in order for the modules to be covered. Again, well over 10,000 amps with no problems. This is not accidental success, it's the result of understanding to a very deep level the underlying technology. Making a mistake in this sort of application can be very costly, in fact it can ruin a company, that's why we analyze and test and test and test... I typically use the 10% THD threshold in most of my bass amp models because there are elements and techniques that I use in both the preamp and power amp circuits to emulate various aspects of pre and power tube performance. Since tube circuit performance generally includes the addition of harmonic components (the particular harmonic series that's generated varies depending on what's being emulated, the pre and power tube emulation is different too), these added harmonics show up in the output measurement as THD. Most players seem to prefer somewhere between 5 and 20%THD when driving their amps hard (towards rated power), so I chose a mid-point value that represents the average player's sweet spot. This agrees with the experimentation we did when using a Bass 400+ and allowing a group of players to drive the amp where they felt it was in their sweet spot, and it was all in the same 5%-20% range. This is exactly why there is a notation in the specifications that the THD number in the rated power spec includes preamp AND power amp, the rated power is with full context, it can't be separated out.

The madness keeps on going! Vigier Arpege IV, 5-string Features of Series IV: bolt on neck, single bridges, 18V-electronic, separate 3-band-EQ per(!) pickup, super thin neck

Ziricote & Sapele Stingray – Currently Behaving Itself The ziricote drop top on the sapele Musicman build is now fully routed, drilled and shaped. Yes, I did point a router at expensive, dramatic ziricote. Yes, my blood pressure went up. No, nothing exploded. Pickup cavity, control cavity, neck pocket, ferrules – all in. It behaved far better than I deserved. It’s been hand-sanded and treated to Liberon finishing oil and the grain has absolutely gone full “look at me”. The ziricote is dark and moody, all swirls and drama. The sapele back is sitting there like the sensible mate in the group chat, warm and classy. It’s now hanging up to cure properly before the next stage. Once the oil’s hardened off it’ll get shellac, then gloss nitro. Because if you’re going to do dramatic, you may as well go full theatre lighting. Neck-wise, this one’s getting a gloss yellow maple Jazz neck. Proper vintage tint. Against the dark ziricote it’s going to look like it drinks espresso and judges lesser basses. This one’s shaping up to be classy with just enough menace. No rushing it. Let it cure, build the finish properly, and avoid any “character building” mistakes. More soon once the shellac goes on and I inevitably start overthinking something.

I'm not sure if people have seen this before but I revisited this from 5 years ago and HS and his fabulous band put in a great performance and do the song justice. Along with Pino on 'Tear your playhouse down', this is my favourite bassline and I do like an octaver. The bassist gets a great bass octave sound and I believe he's Adam Prendergast -

Got a good gig coming up this weekend Daryl at The Ferry in Glasgow. Not the best paid but its a venue we've tried in the past and got offered a support slot for silly low money and we said no. This was originally a friends gig but they had to cancel and offered to put us forward for it. When we heard what they were getting paid we initially said no. The venue then called me and asked if we could compromise a bit to similar Glam bands and we decided to give it a try. Its an old ferry that used to cross the Clyde and now converted as a venue. Not been in it before but friends that have played there said its pretty well run gig plus you get free food and drinks after sound check. Only downside is we have a Status Quo support band so that'll be interesting as we don't usually have support bands because of the costume before we go on means we can't arrange the stage when they've finished. The venue have taken that into consideration so we'll see how it pans out. Dave

Interesting. I think, by the standards of this forum I've really not owned that many instruments, so I don't have the best sample size. Plus two of them are headless, so the potential for dead spots is more or less eliminated. It's entirely possible that there was a honking great dead spot on, say, my pawnbroker 1980s Yamaha fretless, but I wouldn't have noticed because that thing (and my ability to play it) was essentially one big dead spot.

Me too. Daryl

Trust me, this one isn’t! 🤣

Should we ask Bean9Seventy? (Joking)

Unisex? UNISEX???

Steinberger L2 - the only bass I have never owned that still torments me. I even had the catalogue in the mid-1980's. What I didn't have was enough money to buy one.

The guitarist in our band, who is very musical - plays keyboards and it's either flute or sax - said he tried bass once and couldn't get his head around it. I said he must be joking, it's the easiest instrument to blag you're way through. If it wasn't, I wouldn't be playing it 😄

Where exactly did the wire break? Do you have a photo? If it still visible, you can solder a new wire to it, it's an easy task.

my 90s stingray that i bought new is so solid and well made, i would pay more that 1000 for it secondhand today, it plays so nice just like when i first got it...i did swap the neck out for a graphite but that was driven by pursuit of the ultimate rather than any dissatisfaction with the original.

OK, I have been sucked in to this world. I bought an Epiphone Embassy with Roto Tru Bass strings on it. SUCH FUN!!!!!!! I need a 5 string though. I just want an Embassy with a wider neck. And I do not want to slide in to Wilcock territory. I am sure they are very fine indeed. But the Embassy is doing it for me as it is. I like the aesthetic. I am on to a complete non starter here, no? I looked at the Ibanez Talman. I am not digging the visuals like the Embassy.

when I made these in just bigger than 1590a size I had a couple of extra enclosures I used for R&D and a trial print we had done... I do wonder what the Jive pedal sounds like... it's a Super Hard on with clipping diodes, so might make one to fit in the spare ones of these enclosures... not 100% with my layout yet but getting there

Gig in a small East Yorkshire village at a smallish pub. A bit of a change for us as we’ve grown accustomed to larger venues, still it was a nice change. It was a nightmare on set up, plug points in the worst places and the unforgiving tiled floor….fortunately we displayed the Yorkshire ‘it’ll be reet’ philosophy. All went well apart from them turning the lights right down and we hadn’t put all our lights up. Cue a fair few fretting errors from me as the monitoring was pish and I was using the Sandberg Lionel that doesn’t have front dots….

Once a tiger, always a tiger.

I'll watch it this arvo after Church, but I never left the 80s. My XL2 is still my favourite bass with the Status S2000 and Kubicki not far behind - they just need more stings for what I actually do these days. An 80s Hohner B2V helps take up some of that slack. I also has a Tune Bass Manic which I think is the ergonomic spiritual successor to the Ibanez SRs which today are my main players. My main guitar is also an 80's Daion and I have another 80s one incoming which I'll post when I get it.

Cheers fella! Yep, it's been a year in the making and many auditions were had... It was tough finding the right people to cover the main Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons and Michael McDonald roles!

OK...... I'm still on a HUGE high so please bear with me if I'm little over-effusive... On Saturday night my brand new Doobie Brothers tribute show 'The Doobie Experience' played it's DEBUT show. It was at the lovely Shoreham Ropetackle Arts Centre and quite honestly we really couldn't have had a better evening, in every way! First of all, on arrival, we found out it was all but sold out (200 tickets!) with people having to stand all around the edge of the seated area! Then, we were meeting our own dedicated sound man for the first time and were thrilled at how good he made us sound, out front and in our IEMs! It turned out I'd worked with him a couple of times previously (with the Spandau/Duran show I'd depped in) so I knew he would nail it! He'll be with us now on most of our shows and has all the settings saved! Best of all though, the actual show was AMAZING - we played great (just a few tweaks will need to be made going forward), the sound was fantastic and the audience loved us! We actually had people actually queuing to shake our hands and thank us afterwards! It's those kind of nights that really make everything worthwhile. I can't wait to do more! Gear-wise I kept it more traditional (no Spectors! ) and played my Fender FSR PJ bass through my old GK400RB head and LFsys Monaco cab. Only effects were Chorus (1 song) and Phaser (1 song), both care of my Zoom B3. IEMs were KZ-ZS10's and my Sennheiser G4 system. Here are a few short phone clips from the night that show the different Doobie-styles we covered: Rockin' Down The Highway: Another Park Another Sunday: One Step Closer: China Grove: What A Fool Believes: Sweet Maxine: It Keeps You Runnin: Long Train Runnin': Takin' It To The Streets:

Last night I was back in covers band action with Nine Lives at Wilsons in Aberdeen. Night got off to an odd start, when some people noticed me and the drummer getting stuff out of the car and asked "who's playing tonight". I replied "Nine Lives" and they replied "Excellent!" Had a joke with the bouncer that they must have us mixed up with another band. Anyway, the gig went well - it was a bit of an awkward setup because some people were in the bit where we usually put our stuff, playing darts. How very dare they! So there was a lot of shuffling stuff around while we set up. Still, we got set up and ready to go at the billed time. Gig went pretty well, had some very enthusiastic dancing in the first half. Second half dwindled down a bit towards the end, but we did a thing we've done on and off and played a softer song as the second last one and we had a couple of lovebirds up dancing to that, so it worked. Then blew the place to bits with Whole Lotta Rosie, along with my usual wireless walkabout. Never ceases to amuse and entertain people, and as long as people still get a laugh out of it, I'll keep on doing it, lol. Gear was the Epiphone Les Paul (not so) Standard, followed by the Fazley Hot Rod (the "Ratlet") with a Lace Aluma P in there because it was lying around and I was bored. Usual yellow and black amplification. Footwear was pink suede Vans slipons.

Another vote for Brian Pillans - I've had a few from him and the pickguards and service have been second to none.

And here it is......