Leaderboard

SO Many of you may have seen me bang on about the Sunn bass. However last night I rehearsed it, with the pictured setup. I can't tell you how absolutely fantastic this setup sounded last night. Volume, punch, clarity and the bass plays itself. The only upgrade on the bass was the @KiOgon loom. The rest was a few odd parts, a fret dress and a setup. The bass was £50, the loom was £34. The amp was £40 from the bay, admittedly tatty, it functions perfectly. The Zoom B1on was £20. Having previously had Overwater, Roscoe etc, through a Markbass or Ashdown rig many years ago, I know what's decent and what sucks. Honestly, for around £150, this setup plays and sounds awesome. Just saying..... it IS possible to rig up on a budget, it's not all about expensive gear. 🙂

Pencil - check Digital rule - check Wire clippers - check Dog paw - er… check Whatever you used, quality result.

I was in a local music shop this morning – a really nice place, with a friendly and knowledgeable owner. His wife runs a lovely cafe at the back of the premises. It’s not a bass heavy shop, though occasionally there’s some really nice stuff in there. There are two black ‘70s Precisions and a late ‘70s or early 80s Jazz available at the moment. There’s a ‘77-‘78 P that’s had an ebony fretless slab board fitted (very impressive job), and a ‘75 fretted with a rosewood board (in extremely good condition). Both need a set-up tweak but play very nicely. The fretless is around £1700, and fretted is around £2100. I think the jazz is up for £2250. Just a heads-up but worth a visit if you’re in the area: Gibson Music Ashton under Lyne - I’m not affiliated in any way.

We've done some gigs in Scotland this week. First one at the wonderful Caird Hall in Dundee (pics 1&2), a favourite of mine. Great crowd and a good sounding room. Gig made even better by some of the best pizza we've had at the wonderful Mozza restaurant near the theatre. Second one was at The Edinburgh Playhouse (pic 3). It's massive, seats something like 3060 people, unfortunately not when we were there though. One of the biggest seated theatres in Europe apparently. Gig slightly marred by a group of pis*sed people near the front kicking off through the first set, but the excellent security staff had them sorted for the 2nd. I love Edinburgh, and had time pre gig to walk around this wonderful city.

If your not aware of the original bass line, Julia's bass cover is better. Her improv is really cool.

Tonight is one of the 50th year celebration gigs for Fynnius Fogg https://www.facebook.com/groups/156699317688562

First one in 2 years last night - a support slot with some friends of ours. Excellent night and great to be back. Freezing my t!ts off to start with, but by the end of our set I wish I hadn't worn the hoodie as I was sweating like a glass-blower's bumbum...

Marshall DBS 7200 😍 Really would like a DBS cab for it, but this old Q- Max cab sounds the business for now.

I once got offered a place in a band solely on the strength of my air bass. Easiest audition I've ever had.

There's humour in life, so there should be humour in Music too.

I remember an audition from many many moons ago, myself and another bassist turned up and we both did two songs each. I'd done my homework but the other guy very obviously hadn't, he was all over the shop. It also became apparent that the band were playing a bit fast & loose with it too. They called me next day and said they were going with the other guy because he lived a bit closer to them. 🤦🏻‍♂️

There is photographic evidence that the moon landings were faked:

An evening with Peter Hook and The Light in April. They're doing their own support by playing a set of New Order tracks, then playing Unknown Pleasures and Closer in full along with other Joy Division favourites. First gig for a few years and I'm really looking forward to it.

They guy just wanted rid. His cat had attacked the tolex, and he'd just bought an Orange rig. I offered 40, he took it, I was a surprised as anyone.

Finally found a BBPH... ...so the 734a is now for sale.

If you wouldbe prepared to stretch to a modern Japanese reissue, there is this beauty (Jazz not P bass, but your items wanted ad said either) https://reverb.com/uk/item/50005762-fender-jazz-bass-rare-custom-order-ltd-edition-78-ri-antigua-finish-2019-mij-japan

Great quality vs value setup! Although based on the title I thought this was going to be about musician's fees based on some dep offers I've got recently where they've asked me make sure I know their core 45+ song repertoire and travel 2hrs each way 😂

Used them live and in the studio, pretty much always to sync the drummer into pre-recorded tracks or MIDI arrangements. I've found that some drummer will prefer to work with a percussion loop rather than a cowbell or woodblock banging away in their headphones, and I've often programmed dynamic clicks that are extracted from the drummers natural performances using Beat Detective or the like, these work really well for studio recordings as the retain the natural pushing and pulling that a drummer will impart to a performance, but keep the synths in time. The main advantage in the studio is locking the drums to the audio timeline for editing later, if the timeline moves with the performance, all the better. You can do it the other way round and extract the timeline sync from a performance, which works just as well. It takes practice and determination for a drummer to work well with a click I think, it's not a instant thing for most players.

HNY...Our band Fynnius Fogg is 50 years old (same members) how did that happen? ...the secret is lots of basses & gear keeps you young!

Warning: Long post! TL;DR It was an interesting night... So, a friend of Mr Rhythm Guitar had decided that our Country-fried Rock & Blues combo would be the ideal entertainment for a relatives' 80th birthday bash, to be held at a small "Gin Bar & Cocktail House" in Louth where they describe themselves as "Curators of Good Times". Okaaayyyyy... 5:30pm We all arrive, and are informed by the Friendly Lass In Charge that we can park in the large side entry outside the fire door, and load-in through there. Awesome. 6:00pm Friendly Lass In Charge returns while we're setting up, and informs us that she's had it in the neck from the landlord (who's not actually on-site) and he won't let us park in the side entry after all, so we need to move our vehicles to the public car park 200yds down the road, the wrong way round the one-way system. 6:15pm We finish setting up, and all do a lap of the one-way system to the approved car park, with vehicles full of empty guitar and drum cases etc. as there's nowhere to store them at the venue. 6:45pm Friendly Lass In Charge returns again just as we're about to soundcheck, and asks how long we'll be playing for - apparently the landlord now has concerns about noise and wants us to finish at 9pm, despite us being quieter than the piped music blaring out around the place. We explain that we normally do two sets, one 45m and the other 1hr 15m, which isn't really going to meet his 9pm deadline as the bash doesn't officially start until 7:30pm. We soundcheck, and prove to FLIC that we're not really Metallica in disguise. FLIC goes away seemingly satisfied. I am slightly less satisfied, as every time I play a C, it booms out far louder than any other notes, and no amount of EQ tweaking will cure it. I resolve to pluck any C's more gently, and see how we get on. Why do so many of our tunes have so many C's in them? 7:45pm We launch into "Green River" to a few interested folks, a few more less-interested folks, and a number of small kiddiewonks running around with balloons. 8:10pm My monitor (which worked perfectly at rehearsal on Thursday) starts crackling horribly. Hitting it doesn't help, so we turn it off and me and Mr Drums both work off his. 8:30pm Set 1 ends to applause and more than a few complimentary comments from those who've stayed in the function room with us. Meanwhile, the rest of the party is going on loudly in the front room of the venue. 9:00pm As nobody has come to tell us we can't, we launch into "Call Me The Breeze", to the same interested folks as before plus a few new ones. 9:15pm Mr Drums' monitor (which worked perfectly at rehearsal on Thursday) starts crackling horribly and peaking out. We turn it down, which seems to cure the crackling, but Mr Drums can now no longer hear his electronic kit properly so plays the rest of the night by feel (aka "Hit And Hope"). 10:00pm As "King of the New York Streets" reaches its climactic ending, Grumpy Bloke who has seemingly replaced Friendly Lass In Charge taps Mr Rhythm Guitar on the shoulder and tells him we need to wrap things up. We launch into "Bad Moon Rising" by way of wrapping things up. 30 seconds later, Grumpy Bloke reappears and through the medium of mime informs us we need to wrap things up NOW or else!!! 10:03pm We do indeed wrap things up, to the apparent disappointment of the folks watching. 10:20pm We start breaking down, only to discover that the miserable beggars have closed and locked the barrier into the side entry, so having retrieved our vehicles and cases etc. we end up trying not to block the narrow street outside while loading-out, surrounded by inebriated Louthians, and accompanied by the sound of breaking bottles. 11:45pm Home! On the plus side, we had a good number of folks dancing through our Mary Jane's Last Dance / Roadhouse Blues / Walking By Myself section, and I enjoyed an odd feeling of detachment throughout the gig as though someone else was doing the playing while I was just watching on, and apart from a couple of small glitches when my mind drifted a bit too far off course, everything just seemed to flow beautifully. Oh, and we did get paid... 😃

I've played in bands that had a lot of electronics, with drummers using clicks and the rest of us synching with said drummers. It feels entirely natural, and keeps everything tight. I've also played with quite inexperienced drummers and had to be the lead with regards to tempo, this is much harder work!

I've long maintained that Leonard was a p*ss-t*k*ng m*th*rf*ck*r who laughed heartily at the human condition and benefitted greatly from it. Sadly missed.

https://m.soundcloud.com/alu-folie-361410504/experimentpostambient?ref=clipboard&p=i&c=1&si=6179896A6CC2494CAF9F823DD2C0F61D&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Marusczcyk is also something to look at. I am loving my 30" Jake P from Marusczcyk

Ever wished you could practice at home with the kind of sound you might expect from an SVT but at a volume level calculated not to destroy the furniture nor incense the landlady? This little chap, in its Trace Elliot style livery, is physically tiny, but sounds, at neighbour friendly levels, absolutely amazing. 50 watts is plenty for home use, I'm pairing it with a single 10" 8ohm speaker, but I'd be interested to hear it slaved up through a power amp at a gig. I stole, sorry, bought this, at an extremely good second hand price, and apart from one outing for a YouTube review, it's as it was when it left the shop. It comes with a foot switch for the compression which I shan't use, compression being, for me, an always on effect. And has built in Bluetooth which is not just great for practicing but for amplification of YouTube videos, audiobooks, playlists etc as well. Highly recommended.

I turned 21 in 2005. I had a mortgage, was living with the mother of my first child… when I turned 21, my mum and dad - who I’ve battled with, but have been incredibly supportive of my musical endeavours asked me what I wanted. ”Musicman Bongo” And they gave me £800. So I put the rest to it and I got one of the early bongos. They didn’t come with a case originally. i took a case…but was later informed it was a £120 optional extra 😕 Returned it. Anyhow, 4 years later - my partner wrote her car off and quit her job on the same day when we had a brand new baby…so a massive bass sale began. @LukeFRCand @Etienne got some basses… the Bongo went, at a huge loss… they weren’t popular at all at the time. now I’m 37, the “brand new baby” is a 13 year old bass playing emo. Its time found the same age, spec, colour… It’s in Northern Ireland. i debate a flight. And then I remember my good mate @briansbrewis in Derry. and here’s where a person shows their worth. A message last night to Bri. “Yeah it’s near me, I know him - let me work on it” and nothing…for a bit. this afternoon “I’ve gone out for a drive…here it is…got £150 knocked off and I’ll get it ready to ship…” it’s in his lounge. He’s bought the bloody bass! What an absolute hero - Bri is no middleman…he is the man. I never in a million years expected him to do this - I thought he was going to talk the guy into shipping the bass (listing was collection only) I cannot express my thanks enough (I’ve paid him back - financially at least.) A depressing thing is that I don’t have any pictures of me with my original bongo. Anyhow - Publicly, thank you Brian.

Last night's gig was at one of our favourite venues. Great crowd and we tried a couple of off the wall new songs out which worked out really well. We've invested in a DMX foot controller that muggins has been tasked with operating and I spent a week programming it and the whole gig tap dancing on it. But it worked pretty well. Here's some pics that someone in the crowd took...

Nazi Punks F@*k Off - Dead Kennedys

I've never had fun with waves, I've ditched the bundle I used and I have literally 2 plug-ins now, the Abbey Road Plates and an analog EQ model thats very funky, I bought perpetual licenses for both so I don't have to deal with the subscription service... If they're hooky, you're going to have even more problems, I've had to strip whole systems down to get rid of pirated Waves plug-ins. There are better sounding plug-ins by the bucketload, Sound Toys, UAD2, Sonnox etc.

Looks nice with the black though - I need to do up my TMB35, its a great bass.

It is, and I've done it. For quite a few years in fact

Version final.1... Changed out the TC HOF2 for the MERIS mercury 7. The HOF was really great and I enjoyed it more than my h9, walrus audio etc but the MERIS imo is just another level. I don't really stack much, but order is: Origin effects Cali76 bass Compressor always on into the G3 Korg pitchblack Tuner Dunwich Wizard fuzz Does it Doom Walpurgis Parapedal Parachute wah Strymon volante MERIS mercury 7 Dunlop volume pedal (after G3 ATM)

Only problem with that is I tried two sets of similar machineheads and 2 out of 4 screwholes were always just 1mm away from where they should be. So seems like Ibanez went for something non-standard there. Ultimately just used some bamboo, wood glue to plug in old holes and then drilled new ones for the black Schaller machine heads.

If it means more Quicksand then I heartily support this development.

We have a bit of "humour" in our act. Our singer has a great singing tone, but a slightly limited range. About halfway through he'll apologise to the audience, saying his voice is a bit tired. I'll pipe up on my mic, tell him to stop moaning because he has it easy. We'll then have a pretend argument which ends with me saying "right, if you think you can do better then be my guest", and I hand him the bass. He's not a bassist at all but I've taught him to play House of the Rising Sun, so I'll blast through the vocals and he does bass for that one song. We then shake hands and swap back to normality. Invariably earns much-O applause from the audience.

You are the living proof that auditions cut both ways.

Congo Natty (Rebel MC) played that into this at carnival one particularly hot year, it was lively!

D class can be seen reliable because if two things: there are very few solutions available (lots of testing), and they are built in pretty big numbers. This means that the amps can be seen built under only few power sections and few amp sections. Big amounts of stuff equals testing and reliability. It is easy to understand that there may have been first batches of amps that were not so reliable. On the other hand the repairability is the result of making the units small and light. (I've seen a switching power changing from a powerful box to smoke. The components were practically turned to dust. Most of the PCBA and the components just vanished. Yes, it was a tad too small.)

I had far more issues with valve amps than I've had with SS and D class put together. D class is a mature technology. You haven't heard a major touring band that hasn't been running D class powered FOH in 15 years. If D class didn't hit the spot in every category those PA guys wouldn't be using it. D class amps are the new standard for bass for a reason, they are reliable and sound good.

It happens. I'm like you I suspect, not the greatest but work hard and take it seriously. The trouble is that you don't always know the whole story with a band. They may be a start up band or one that hasn't gigged for a couple of years (especially now). There may be some churn with new people coming in who aren't up to speed or people who have promised lots but won't deliver. I did one audition where they had five guitarists andfive bassists and they auditioned us in pairs! Bad luck if your guitarist was poor. I've had auditions where one of the band members had decided to leave but the departure of another member let them off the hook of telling the band leader they'd had enough, When the new bassist comes along they just aren't committed and leave as soon as you are recruited. I learned that bands whole set after the audition and never met with them again as the drummer left. I've also been band leader and let down by people in my own band not taking auditions seriously. Auditions where I've turned up and they've played in keys other than the one they told me or where they've all learned different songs from the list I was sent. I hate being 'between' bands. There are so many musicians who are deluded dreamers or just plain lazy. Bands where one person has all the energy and the rest are just passengers. The trick I've learned is to research bands before I audition. If they are a working band or even working musicians they leave a trace all over the internet. If there is no video or sound recordings then you can pretty much assume they aren't serious. If they say busy or gigging bands you should be able to find some publicity stuff for at least some of the gigs. I used to undervalue myself a little, grateful for anyone who would look at me as a bassist but 'reliable', 'organised' and 'hard working' are in short supply so add those to 'steady and reliable'. Really target what you want in a band and do some research before wasting your time on someone else's dream. I'm not one of life's pessimists, I've met some great people as well as some of the examples above but there is a world of difference between the genuine semi-pro gigging band and the bedroom dreamers and you need to spot the signs. Good Luck

The thing is that I’ve been gigging for more than 40 years and played in a lot of bands, most of which have been pretty good and quite often gigged all over the country (I’m currently in a tribute band that is based all over Yorkshire & Lancashire and plays all over the place). In every band there has been an element of taking the p*ss out of each. It can be quite brutal occasionally, but is generally better natured and not as bad as the ‘banter’ that you get in football teams and on building sites, etc. If you can’t hack it then it doesn’t matter how good a player you might potentially be, you are not going to last in a working band.

After the gig donate your sweaty clothes to a charity shop. You can buy them back on Monday for 50p, all clean and crisply ironed. If you have a band member called Steven you can ssve time by calling him Steve. Take pork pies as a mid gig snack. The excess jelly can be used as a string lube. Wear a miners helmet. No only will you be able to see if there should be a power cut, but it will protect your head from items thrown at the stage.

Tip from the past, always use big valve amps and keep your pie/pasty/fish & chips on top, over the vents - for after the gig 😜

I've a special place in my head for the disco/soul sounds of the 80s, e.g. The Whispers, Shalamar etc. Here's a trio of massive faves I used to have on 12" before the great flood of my south London basement flat in 1997 mullered my entire vinyl collection. It was more than just these 12" though! Anyway here are the 7" versions..