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Played Butlin’s Skegness last night - doing a Semi-regular Monday slot there with a Nile Rodgers tribute over the coming season. Decent venue & crowd especially considering the time of year! Rocking my MTD Saratoga 5 just like Bernard Edwards used to play, obviously 👀 😛

I have a couple of stories. They're not as good as those above, but here goes. Back in the 80s, some pals and I started a western swing/honkytonk band in London. Two of the band members were an established guitar and fiddle duo who knew the material, so we were off to a good start. We put together a couple of sets, sent out demos and got some gigs. All was going swimmingly until said duo got offered several months of lucrative work in Europe and announced their departure. We debated what to do. I played fiddle (it was originally my main instrument), but was playing bass in the band. Should I swap to the fiddle and look for a bass player? In the end, we decided that it was better that we had a rhythm section that knew the stuff and that we should add solo instruments (we had a competent rhythm guitar player, who also sang). We had gigs in the book and figured that a solo instrumentalist who doesn't know a number could sit out and not leave a hole, whereas a member of the rhythm section dropping clangers would not be good. We put out some wanted ad's and booked a rehearsal room for auditions. We looked for guitar players first. We did have a few interesting characters show up, saying things like "country music and swing? Yeah, no problem. Only three chords, innit?". One bloke was amusing. He produced a beautiful vintage Gretsch when he set up (to approving nods from the band. He must know his stuff if he has the right instrument, eh?). We kicked off a number and he thrashed the unfortunate guitar, pogoing around and gurning. We nodded at him to take a solo, whereupon he turned the volume up and thrashed away at the same chords, jumping about on one leg and smiling broadly at us as if to say "Great, aren't I?". We politely asked him to leave his number in the waste paper basket on the way out. All was not lost, though, because two guys showed up together next. They were long-time pals and playing partners, both had Telecasters (one with a B bender) and knew what they were doing, so problem number one solved. Rather than hire a room to audition fiddle players, I suggested that I should invite people to my house to check them out (I would play guitar to accompany them) to weed out the no-hopers/weirdos. We agreed and I placed the ad'. One guy rang the doorbell, I answered it and he fixed me with a gimlet stare and asked me, in a heavy Germanic/Scandinavian accent, whether Zis was the place for ze audition. I replied in the affirmative, led him to the lounge and offered him a cuppa, which he declined. Attempting to make small talk and break the ice, I asked if he had come far. "Vot do you mean?", came the reply. "Er, I wondered if you lived far away", I replied. "No. I do not". His manner was rather intense. Right. Okay. Let's get down to it. "Vot does the band play?", he asked. Thinking "didn't you read the ad'?" to myself, I replied "Western swing and honkytonk. That sort of thing". Another gimlet stare. "Vot is honkytonk?" I rattled off the names of some of the better known players and singers and he looked blank. I picked up my guitar and asked what he would like to start with. "I shall play you a piece that I wrote", he intoned with a fierce glare. "Do not play ze guitar, please". Um, OK. Go for it. He launched into a frenzied rendition of, er, something, sawing away furiously. It sounded vaguely like an American old time fiddle tune, The Devil's Dream, but was in some sort of free time. He finally stopped with a flourish and I said "Ah, the Devil's Dream". His eyes bored into me. "No. I wrote this tune". Have it your own way, sunshine. At this point, I was ready to throw him out, but felt I should give him one more chance. I suggested I should sing one of the songs from the band's set and he could play along. He agreed and I launched into a straightforward Hank Williams number (can't remember which. It was almost 40 years ago). Before I had got to the end of the first line, he was carving away, out of tune, out of time. He played random inappropriate nonsense over the entire thing, to the extent that it was a struggle for me to get through it. I put down the guitar, thanked him for coming and said I'd be in touch. "So I am in ze band?", he enquired. OK, you want honesty. "I'm afraid not", I told him. "Why not?". "You just aren't familiar with the idiom", I replied. He glared at me and said "I am not satisfied with your explanation". I'd had enough. I took out my fiddle and gave him a few bars of western swing legend Johnny Gimble's party trick, which was to play swing fiddle and scat sing a harmony line (a great device. I'd worked for hours to be able to do it). "Because you can't do that", I said. With a face like thunder, he put his fiddle away and left without a word. Just as well. Saved me from having to clean his blood from my carpet.

I have an audition tonight. They sent me the setlist, and said to learn three specific ones off it for the audition. I have learnt those, and am pretty comfortable with them, but Ive had a good go at learning another 17 of them just in case!

From an engineering point of view - I think multiscale headless basses make sense to me as a way of optimising string length and balance and I wanted to try a 5 string - that pretty much narrows it down to the Ibanez EHB series! My research suggested the Nordstrand pickups were the way to go hence the 1505 series. I was lucky enough to be able to try an EHB 1005 at the Guitar show in Solihull and this really gave me the confidence to place an order. After a few days of messing about with it, here are my impressions and initial thoughts : It's very comfortable, superlight and the headless system means it is very well balanced As some others have said - the way the back is profiled means that the bass naturally sits on the strap slanted slightly upwards (towards the ceiling). Its not a huge deal, but I think I would have preferred it to sit parallel to my body. I'm still getting used to the multiscale fretboard but its not as dramatic a change as I thought it would be. Scan set the bass up for me and it has very nice low action, just like the one at the Guitar show, maybe they are all like that! Loads of output and many different sounds from the pickups and pre-amp, also sounds great in passive mode, B string seems quite well defined to my ears. The bass is silent, seems to have almost no noise, nice. I find tuning on the headless bridge to actually be easier and more accurate, the knurled knobs make fine adjustment easy I think the build quality is OK, but could be better. In the pictures if you zoom in you can see the finish has a lot of wood imperfections / unfilled grain holes on the body and the neck - I am not experienced enough to know whether this was done intentionally but it is not an aesthetic I enjoy, to my eye it looks sloppy and indicates a lack of attention to detail The neck is very nice, I have very little experience on 5 strings but it seems surprisingly thin and I like the fact that there is still reasonable string spacing. I think I would have preferred Dunlop straplocks but the Shaller ones are OK if a bit fiddly After one sitting I performed the mod on the locking jack, removing the spring, suggested by @fretmeister and others on here, the jack release was way to difficult to operate without removing the bass and messing about, hated it The neck dots, as many others have mentioned are pathetic and hardly visible under subdued lighting after a few minutes So far so good, not withstanding my niggles I am still very happy with the bass, especially the weight, balance and ergonomics making it so comfortable to hold and play ..... J

So... it wasn't today, it was Friday and a joy to behold and play it is. Feels great, sounds punchy and funky (shame it doesn't have a tone control in passive mode) but overall, very pleased with the bass. I will add that I was a little disappointed in the condition it arrived in from the supplier (who I won't name but some of you may have seen the bass for sale there, in direct line of sight... ). It had an inspection sticker on it but it was filthy. There was some kind of liquid stain over the scratch plate, under the strings near the bridge was covered in grime and dirt and overall, it looks like it had come in to the shop in that state and gone straight back out again with no checks at all. I had to strip the pickguard, control plate, strings etc and give everything a thorough polish and make adjustments to the truss rod and lower the action (a bit too much turn up at the nut end for my liking). I would have thought a 30 minute check over and clean would have been a standard procedure. Oh well... it's proper sorted now, nice and clean, fresh strings and plays and sounds like a demon. Atelier Z - you have a devoted follower. One thing - the sticker is pretty tatty. Do I remove it or source a replacement? If a replacement, anyone know where?? The Atelier shop only ships within the far east as best as I can tell...

I bought this MC-924 DS Last may after having sold an MC-900 around 20 years ago and regretted it. I always had the thought to replace it and eventually got round to picking this one up from its original owner down near Tunbridge Wells. I’ve also been searching for this particular Ibanez MC980 for over 30 years after missing out on buying it by literally minutes at a local second hand guitar shop. A friend knew I was looking for one and spotted this and rang me. I rang the shop immediately and told them to hang on to it and I was on my way. Between leaving the house and arriving at the shop it had been sold by another sales person. I was gutted but knew who had bought it. I tried for a few years to try and persuade the owner to sell me it but he wasn’t interested. It was converted to a 4 string but he then sold it on. The last owner converted it back to 8 but with the drones on the underside of the main strings. Even though I’d given up on it and was searching elsewhere for one, I thought I’d try my luck and drop the last owner a message last week. Turned out he hadn’t used it in years and he was happy to sell it to me on Saturday. I’ve done a strip and deep clean, flipped saddles back to original and getting a new nut made this week. I’ve had a Ric 4003/8, a Spector Prototype 8 and a couple of budget ones over the years but they never had the draw this one had. Feels like it’s ‘come home’. First picture is uncleaned as it was when I collected it, the rest are after the cleaning process.

Blue, stop being sensible. If everyone followed your lead, there wouldn't be any great stories like the above to amuse us.

I've heard it's merciless. Chortle.

Properly harnessed racks are much more common in the pro audio side of things, we built up hundreds of racks for clients and never had any issues with servicing them. One thing about well organized (structured) wiring is that it's much easier to troubleshoot overall and it tends to be more reliable because everything is thought out in advance and executed according to the drawings.

Okay so over the weekend I decided to pass on my Harley Benton MM-84a to my son, This left me with a vacancy in my bass rack so I decided to check out some p basses. I used to have a 1982 JV Squier that I stupidly let go while my mind was in a fog after my wife passed away. While surfing the web I came across the Vintage V-4BLK with mirror guard (Phil Lynott & Steve Harris are amongst my bass idols) Out of the box she virtually perfect. Just a slight truss rod tweak and the action lowering to how I like it Paintwork & hardware fit and finish are perfect Intonation was spot on The pickup sound fantastic through my Ashdown ABM EVO III 500 Both controls are super responsive. Minor niggles Fretboard a little dry - sorted this out along with frets The frets needed a re-polish (a couple of rough spots) The bass weighs 9Lb 14ozs but is slightly neck heavy (thats what wide straps are for) Factory fitted strings are rubbish to say the least - restrung with Rotosound 77's Flatwound. I'd never tried flatwounds till now - really enjoying the change The only mods I've done are (only because I already them in my parts draw) Pure Tone 4 point jack socket 3 string tree to stop any A string buzz (though she doesn't have any at the moment) The biggest problem I now have is, I am gonna have to get the Vintage V4 in white with maple fretboard and make a Steve Harris version.

Jaco only needed 4GB of RAM

Or if you don't nail all the audition material then at least demonstrate that you're nearly there and are prepared to put in the effort. When I auditioned for my current band they just sent me a set list of 21 songs but didn't ask me to prepare any of them in particular, so I worked my arse off and made sure I was there or thereabouts with virtually all of them. Apparently it worked because I'm nearly 2 years in now.

Dragged my big board out of storage recently for a rehearsal. Ok, so it's a bit of a tiddler compared to some of the monsters on here recently. I've gone for classy and portable. Power is through a Strymon Zuma on the underside. This does everything I need, and I can pick it up in one hand at the end of the night. My first chorus was a Carl Martin, so it's nice to have one on board again even though the Corona and mxr bcd were both very good.

If you have a jacked up body you can fit bigger wheels and tires, and brakes and a new differential, and a ladder. Then you are ready to exit the supermarket carpark in any direction you please.

There's your price for fuel too. When it spiked here coincident with our recession in 2008 large SUVs were selling at 30% and better discounts, and small cars became popular. As soon as the fuel prices went down vehicle sizes went up. The rage among idiots now is pickup trucks that are sprung so high it requires a ladder to get into them. Why I don't know, ground clearance is still dictated by how far the differential sits off the ground, but I suspect it's compensation for a certain physical...shortcoming. 😲

So, as a long-overdue, and final gift to the 'Washboard' (expertly named by an old skinny-stringer friend, with whom i used to jam in my student days), i decided i should finally finish this 55+ year old 'project' by covering its modesty with something hopefully more appealing than formica I sourced a couple of sheets of 0.6mm mahogany veneer which i'd have to glue together to cover the full area of the perspex scratchplate The edges needed to be cut to fit and, while i managed to do a successful 'overlap-and-cut', i wasn't so successful at taping and folding the joint to glue it - maybe the veneer was too thin for this approach? ...maybe i'm just making excuses! Anyway i finally found a way to get glue (mostly) on one edge of a veneer sheet and press the 2 sheets together - it worked out ok A couple of coats of water-based varnish, and a bit of sanding, later, i was able to find an area which seemed to be the best match for the grain on the body of the bass, and i traced round the outline of the scratchplate and its cutouts. I cut out the outline with some mean-looking scissors and the cutouts with a craft blade. For days before, i had nightmares about possibly cracking the veneer while cutting, but the varnish was my friend After a little bit of trimming, i loaded the veneer and hardware onto the perspex and finally… took a breath The Washboard just has a few battle-scars now - but hey, after half-a-century, who hasn't? Veneer in place And, finally, sporting a 3D-printed pickup plate, kindly donated by Rob @rwillett of this parish...

A little parcel has just turned up, I may, just may, have over specified the aluminium I didn't quite realise how strong 12mm alumium is. The 6mm appears to be strong enough on it's own. Lets see how this goes. The equal length angle sections were brought to test whether simply adding in two quite thin bits of aluminium to the plywood reduces the flex enough. I suspect not, but lets see. No joy on local pillar drill, so one on order along with some cutting fluid. Rob

That's a handy approach if you want to come across as completely asocial.

The key is to have a good conversation first about what they're expecting. No point (other than personal interest) in learning 17 songs that you'll never play again if the audition turns out to be a bunch of dreamers. Especially if you have multiple auditions lined up.

We've got a run of 4 consecutive gigs coming up - Heart of Anarchy with last Tree Squad in Hereford (poster previous page) on 27th April, Guttercrush Festival 5th May in Wellington near Telford (no poster yet!), Soap Girls in Nottingham (poster above) 11th May and newly booked with OG Punks, the Samples in Malvern 20th April:

My Fender Adam Clayton Jazz bass is one I love and use regularly. His name on the back of the headstock had no bearing on the purchase but with a couple of modifications (stacked knobs, d-tuner, pick guard) I’ve got a 60s Jazz bass with a very comfy neck shape.

The deal was the door receipts would be split between the two bands and they would give us something towards petrol money. In other words, buttons! I don't do it for the money, purely for the fun of gigging (it's a hobby for me). I can only assume the Nottingham band are just trying to build a national following - they were all 50s/60s and have been gigging for decades so I guess they also like the rock and roll life!

You Are So Beautiful - Joe Cocker

My most recent update. I am not sure if I prefer the DCX before or after the Cali76. I usually have it right after the tuner. Yesterday I was trying to put it after the Cali and I am not 100% convinced. I should continue to experiment. Relay G30-->Polytune 3-->Cali76-->DCX Bass-->HX Stomp

Goth Tbird with flying skull strap

It's already the case that recorded music isn't much of a money maker and artists make most money through playing live and merchandise. My guess is AI probably won't make much difference to that other than perhaps making recorded music less valuable and the experience of seeing live bands more valuable. Interesting that Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk having spent nearly 30 years pretending to be a Robot, disbanded and said "the last thing I would want to be, in the world we live in, in 2023, is a robot." and went on to write a score by hand for a 55 piece orchestra and 20 ballet dancers.

Nice racks! Here is one from where I work... I'm actually quite tempted to get into old rack effects ATM. Midi/Quadra verbs and such.

Thanks for all the good wishes, I shall report back afterwards. Re: learning 17 extra songs, some I had already played before, some were quite straight forward and some I just fancied having a go at so it’s not been too bad. I’ve had auditions before that have not gone well before because I didn’t know anything past the handful of songs I’d been asked to learn. I’m taking inspiration from Jason Newstead learning all of Metallicas back catalogue before his audition! 🤘

Status Chris Wolstenholme S2. A very versatile bass, definitely not a one-trick pony. Bought mine as it ticked the boxes, mostly, and was available quickly just before Rob closed the production on carbon fibre basses. I'm not a big Muse fan and to be honest with the level of effects CW uses he could use any old bass and get the same sound......opinions may differ.

A bit like buying a football shirt with a player's name on it. I see blokes wearing them and snigger to myself 'blimey, Lionel Messi's let himself go, and I didn't expect to see him in Aldi'.

Probably more than the number of posthumous Dimebag guitars before his death.

Here's one of my righton straps, this one goes nicely with the squier bullet mustang guitar I bought with nectar points

I would hope so. On this side of the pond the SUV has practically replaced the sedan, even though they have the same passenger space, while pickup trucks with size inversely proportional to the owner's IQ are the norm. The dumbing down of America is officially complete.

Great gig for Red Heart rock band Saturday night although we had lighting issues !! A lot of lights and lasers etc as part of our setup but at times the lighting was hard to see fretboard !! Good crowd and we enjoyed playing Ipswich again after a two year break

The Pipeline in Brighton last night. Fun but smaller crowd than we would have ideally liked (and I felt for the main act who drove all the way from Nottingham). Guess even a rainy Sunday night doesn't pull out all the goths! Anyhow, my make-or-break test run of Rickenbacker was OK but not as comfortable as my short scale Mustang

Punk gig with Emergency Exit last night 6-9pm so able to get a kebab on way home Fairly busy but not packed. Few dancers throughout the evening. Used the Godin Shifter Classic for its first gig. Took me a while to get a sound i enjoyed altho others said it sounded deep and more full sounding than my MarloweDK. I think my problem was where i was standing directly in front of the amp it was just hard to hear an accurate sound. Some vids appeared late last night and the bass sounds really nice so i think its a keeper. Great neck and very easy to play. Pick-ups are very hot on the Godin and i had to drop the compression level and gain quite a bit to stop peaking which is always my starting point for any new bass and then i start bringing the gain back up to get that little bit of overdrive. New Pinegove strap i got from @walshy worked a treat with no shoulder aches at all. Ampeg SVT7 and Mesa cabs Great night with enthusiastic audience. Dave

I thought it was Derek Smalls. To be fair it doesnt look that bad in black and white, slightly blurred and partially hidden. Suspect my kids would say the same about me.

I like the look of the new BF 310. That could be the Goldilocks cab!

It did Jon, and not by a nose but by a country mile, a runaway winner.

I think that's the key mate - show willing. I had sort of audition for a dep job last year, rock and roll so not really my genre. I got a list of 35 songs, most in non-original keys. I worked my ass off to nail them which wasn't easy as many of the lines swam into one in my brain. Was only foxed by one song which was an odd timing/shuffle/feel type thing but it worked out ok on a second run through. Got the job but sadly the run of 4 gigs got cancelled. Still, it's all practice init.

I'm usually ok with 3 out of 4 of those Blue....

Not with there ml5 the ml10 you are able, I don’t need order switching so went with the 5.

We scale back to fit the venue. We're not going to bring our full arsenal of lighting into a small space gig. Daryl

Another one of mine. The colours don't match, as my starfire has an ebony fingerboard and saddles rather than the more usual rosewood, but that isn't an issue as its such a nice heavy quality strap with a cool embossed logo.