Leaderboard

This is my 1980 Wal Pro 2E, it had been sat in its case for the last god knows how many years in need of a good going over. The pots were knackered, the jack socket was shot to bits, it was basically unusable but I had other working basses and so it wasn't a priority. Eventually I came to my senses and gave it to Paul at Electric Wood to do his magic. I was expecting it to take ages, which I was fine with, but he turned it around in only a couple of months and then apologised for taking so long . He ended up doing a whole list of other stuff that I hadn't realised needed doing, but to his credit he stuck to his original quote. And oh my god, it sounds incredible -- I'd forgotten just how good. It'll be coming with me to the various Bashes this year, so you can see for yourself. And it'll be getting its first gig for at least 20 years at the end of this month, at a dementia research benefit with the ska band.

If was after something to double on gigs with my upright bass. In order to quickly put down the upright and pick up the electric bass it needed to be lightweight and shortscale. The band is all acoustic (through PA) so I wanted it to look right as well. I saw Eastwood selling Rivolta guitars on their website and they were making twelve of these Duocata basses and it ticked all the boxes. I do like the look of Rickenbackers and love a florentine cut. These basses have checkerboard binding and more than a hint of Rickenbacker about them, the soundclips were good so I ordered one. It was a gamble as I'd never heard of Rivolta before but it paid off, this little bass is fantastic. So well made, so playable and sounds great. Simple, single PU, volume and tone but there's so much variation in tone with playing position. I'm really fussy but I really can't fault this bass, well I can but it's three really minor things that most people would never notice, or let bother them. The volume control is a touch on the on/off side, there is a tiny bit of plastic swarf on the inner lower edge of the 'f' hole binding, and the biggest bug is that the scratchplate isn't perfectly aligned to the strings. Told you I was fussy. All easily sorted though. The woods, the grain and the colour is lovely. The neck is a three piece with two more strips on the headstock, like a Rickenbacker albeit they're all the same wood. I don't know what tuners they are but they feel solid and stable. Nor do I know what pickup it is but it sounds great. The binding everywhere is perfect, you cannot feel any edges, the frets are nicely finished, paint is perfect, just a really well made bass. They're made in Indonesia then sent to Rivolta in Nashville where they set them up and QC them, it arrive still in tune really nicely set up. Anyway, enough waffle, pictures 😁.

New experience for me last night. Depped for a Showaddywaddy tribute act, performing at one of those big retirement complex places. Not quite fully booked but a very decent crowd and we got them on the dance floor. I've always gravitate towards rock/pop/soul/funk so Showaddywaddy was a bit of a tangent. I enjoyed the challenge of learning 34 songs in a couple of weeks and the lads did a good show. Pleased they had a spare Teddy boy frock coat for me to wear so I looked the part 😎. Deceptively difficult, those Showaddywaddy tunes with all the stop-starts, stabs, false endings etc. I used my 2003 Japanese Fender Jazz, markbass LM4 head and energy 2x12 cab. No food or drink provided for the band other than water and coffee 😞

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

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

We supported the band Space last night at The Station in Cannock. The sound engineer was a great kid, didn't roll his eyes at volume levels or anything, he just worked around everything; the footage I heard sounded a good mix. Space are a nice bunch of people, not sure how many are from the '90s lineup as it's not my forte, good players though and people with music taste that was broad. They went down very well, their audience were pretty receptive to our set also. Still enjoying the 8x10 fridge and LaBella flats. Freezing cold load out last night! No gigs for a few months now. I may try and make a case for click track syncing up the samples and whatnot from seeing Space last night. Our drummer would be fine I'm sure. Will see what the others think.

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

Fantastic evening at the pasadero lounge in Redhill last night. Funk/soul covers, but we do have a 3 piece brass section that really adds some power! Not done many gigs together yet so there are certain bits that need tightening up a bit, but hey! the audience loved it and were up from the word go . Used my smithy 5 through my trusty puma 900 and a single LFsys Monza and it ate it! Very confidence inspiring little rig. Bar manager seemed well happy and wants us back . Job done! X😊 Also included, a nice picture of our drummers crouch ! 🤣

Birthday party function gig with my brother’s band - his first gig since finishing chemotherapy last week. None of us were quite match fit, having not played together since before Christmas, and the first half of the gig started very early (7.45pm) to a modest audience. After a very long interval and buffet, the second half started around 10.30pm but the audience were much more up for it - dancefloor was full and it all went well. I’d taken my big rig - Markbass STD102HF cab and Traveller 2x10 stacked, my old precision bass and a Yamaha. I’d really wanted to use my brother’s old red Squier P Bass project bass that I’m slowly working on, but there’s some earth buzz I didn’t have time to sort. Footwear was some sort of Ben Sherman Chelsea boot I bought 10 years ago. Beer by Peroni 0.0%. An hour’s drive home with light snowfall swirling about on the motorway. Bed o’ clock now tho.

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

It was our first time at the 1912 in Sileby and what a great sounding room, with a nice vibe too. They had a low stage in the corner with plenty of room to fit a band on, and more importantly plenty of power sockets in good working order (which makes a change!). The venue also put some effort into advertising the event. We had a room full, but probably 90% were our regular followers. I'd have hoped for a few more locals. With the room sounding so good it probably lifted our performance a little more than normal too. We started off with a bit of rock and prog, but for the last set got much more dancy and filled the floor. We had a great night and lots of compliments. Oh, I nearly forgot to mention. The guitarist brought along his old 70s strat which was his sole guitar when we were all poor in the 80s and only had one guitar each. We played together for about 10 years, him on his strat and me on my Aria SB-1000. Well tonight, after much anticipation, he said it left him cold. He struggled to get it to sing and ended up playing the Vintage (brand) thinline tele he'd brought as a spare. He thinks maybe he's just no longer a strat guy, although I did mention he hadn't got the old Marshall combo he used to lug around. At least he still loves the guitar I built for him - a super-lightweight LP Junior double cut copy with twin P90s 😁 And look, the lights change colour 😂

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:

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….

What a sequence of events, but to cut it all short played Three Compasses in Clydach with just one, dep, guitarist. He'd done a lot of prep so only two big cockups... used a capo on the wrong song (I eventually figured out my bass hadn't gone flat and played up a semitone), and left out the key changes in one song where we play a different version. Great pub venue with playable(apparently!) Instruments on the walls, nice stage area, lights and excellent house pa so ours stayed in the van. My rig boomed a lot (near a corner plus hollow wooden stage) until I cut bass and boosted top and middle. Appreciative audience with some dancing, all a bit chaotic but great fun.

A new venue for us last night, Ruskins Bar in Kendal. A nice music bar in the heart of town, eerily quite at 9pm, but we waited until 9.30pm to start and the place filled up nicely, with lots of people dancing by the end. We used the house PA, which apparently isn't considered to be all that great, but we made it work pretty well for us. They want us back later in the year, and the fee will go up too! I really could have used the 3x10 last night, but I was travelling with the drummer and compromised because of space in the car. It was nice to meet Ian ( @Pirellithecat ) who travelled an hour down from Ulpha to see us. Cheers! Rob

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 - EDIT: From what I've found on this bassist, his board has a Micro POG on it and I wonder if that's what's in use - I've been chasing the right Octave pedal for ages and have a separate thread on that but the EHX was never on my list...mmmm

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.

Playing ten miles out of Bournemouth in Ringwood. We (Otis Jay BluesBand) are beginning to hit our stride now with our new girl, and the social media reviews have been kind. Played my Sandberg VM4 through Galien Krueger MB200 and Barefaced One10. Perfectly adequate for the acoustics, though I did need active bass boost for a couple of numbers. Notable milestone - played our first band original last night, which was happily video’d by an audience member. Slight gripe - 34 paying punters is probably our lowest attendance at the venue (we split ticket money 50-50). Are people finding the new year hangover is now lasting through February? Three gigs in March, so here’s hoping things pick up a bit. The band are now ignoring my request to wear dark colours (like proper blues people) so I’m retaliating with the b/w pic!

Great venue for us last night with BLOCKBUSTARZ at The Ferry in Glasgow. Our first time there. The original band that was booked had to cancel and asked if we could fill in for them. Initially said no as they get paid half off what we normally charge. Venue got in touch and we settled on a compromise of a decent fee plus free food and first drink. Venue set aside a table for 6 just off the bar area which was the highlight for me. It was good sitting down for a meal and a blether with my bandmates. All very civilised. Food was excellent too. Anyways back to the gig. Load in 3pm sound check to be completed for 5pm to allow the support band time to do theirs. We set up and finished sound check by 4:30pm. Have to say the SE Stewart from Greenroom Studios in Glasgow was exceptionally good and even told the drummer to retune his snare and how to set the snare for optimum effect as drums sit in an alcove type thing below the upper deck of what was the old Renfrew Ferry. He really was top notch and sound both on stage and off was probably the best i've ever had. I could hear everything clearly across the stage and thru monitors. A perfect balance. Support band was GlasQuo who were all good guys too and easy to work with. Nice listening to a bit of Quo. Bass player was using my rig altho the bass was DI'd to desk and split to my amp as a stage monitor only. Normally i wouldn't do that but the guy replicated my on stage sound to FOH so all good. We don't normally play with support acts because of our costumes and getting ready for the show takes 30mins. Again SE sorted out the full stage when they finished. Two drum kits on stage so that meant dismantle one and pull our drummers kit forward to the front. Fair bit of work but he did a fantastic seemless change-over for us. This guy really knows what he's doing. He literally made our life so easy on the night. Huge respect where deserved. Gig went exceptionally well only a few mistooks (not by me of course 😉) Originally asked to do 2x45min sets or extend it if we need to depending on how change-over went. We opted to play right thru rather than take a break for a costume change from 10:15pm to 11:45pm but we had to cut a few songs out to fit it all in. SE told us we were first class and that the owners were very impressed by us and expect to ask us back. He said even the staff thought it was a great night and apparently they mentioned that the band were all very nice, pleasant and helpful with them. Fun taking the gear out at night as tide was out a bit and ramp was quite steep. Big downside was the parking in Glasgow. We could park on the esplanade area at The Ferry only to unload for approx 20-30 mins however on street parking only allows for max 2hrs stay then you need to move outside that zone so we stretched the venue parking to 4pm and then parked across from the venue on a side street. On street parking was £1:80 /15mins so we found a car park that was only £3/hr so £6 for 2hrs then free street parking after 6pm. Its only £10/day in the private car park so that's not too bad and that's what i'll do next time. Come April this year on street parking restriction will change from 6pm to 10pm so street parking won't be an option if we return as we would need to move the cars every 2 hrs until 10pm. Its a bit of a joke and not good for the staff that work there. The council are also planning to double the fee for parking. This could kill off the many city centre venues that host live music. Nice we 1hr drive home with clear motorways and very little traffic. Usual gear :- Sandberg VM4 with MarloweDK back up. Shure wireless, Keeley Bassist comp, Handbox WB-100, BF 212 cab, Platform boots being the footwear for the night. SE sent me some pics he took. Dave

You know it's going to be a good gig when you can walk up to the bar with your bass and order a beer... The Plough, Newport Pagnell, last Friday night. Pub reopening! Went with the stingray. Cozy setup.... <squeeeze>

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

Birthday, plus massive work promotion haul. The Asheville Music Tools stuff are basically Moogerfoogers on crack… and OMG they are phenomenal.

I was away immediately afterwards and so didn't get chance to post at the time, but there was a Mingus Tree gig in The Shed in Charlbury on the 14th. This style of music always seems to go down well with the local audience. There's one tune where the guitarist changed the intro, and I keep missing my cue. I paid particular attention this time and was bang on with the intro, then cocked up in the second bar once the tune got going. Oh, well. There was also a request from the band for bass guitar for a particular song, played in a particular way. Normally, if I noodled away on an altered scale throughout a tune it might be considered a bit dodgy, but this was exactly what they wanted. We even got a star turn from the BL's ventriloquist's dummy for one song...

I'm actually nervous about today's gig! Had a freaky lucid dream last night... woke up and remembered it in detail: Parked up in a shabby demolished building type car park off an unusual street I hadn't seen before. Walked to nearby venue. Wandered into my brother's gig (today) as they were settng up. Big empty bar, try were out on the floor instead of in a 'stage area'. Chris (bassist) was playing noodly guitar so I joined in on bass. Worked out they were playing Grapevine, but in C#. Oddly I remember in detail that I was fingering Eb... but I was convinced the key was C#. Then looked at my watch. The face was scrolling images and web pages about tanks - my internet history? Suddenly I remembered I should be at my own gig for 3pm (actually 4) for 6pm start and it was 5pm. Rushed to front bar. Found the bag I keep my swimming stuff in(?) Took a while to find my jacket, hidden under another coat on a hatstand (like my metal one, but wooden) positioned on or through the bench seat in the bay window. Got phone from my jacket pocket. Discovered the stuff on my watch was actually loads of phone notifications. Discovered continuous flow of messages from the band taking the piss out of me being late after telling them to be early. Headed out, rang band said 5pm I will be tere in twenty minutes and set up in ten... In street passed a traffic warden in hi-vis taking notes. In car park (I hadn't bought a ticket) noticed all signs were so old and faded there was no way thry were valid and nowhere to buy a ticket. Panicked and ran back to car, found only very old house keys in my hand (a memory of finding some in a drawer a few days ago?) Got in car but couldn't start it... handcrwaching in passenger window offering me keys. Turned out to be evil woman trying to steal car or the old keys or even kill me. Couldn't understand what she was on about. Fought her off by biting her finger then repeatedly pressing the up button for the electric window to trap her arm. Started reversing backwards, dragging her along as I tried to escape. Traumatised, I woke up and focused on committing everything to memory. I hope the actual gig is not quite as eventful.

Thursday night at The Fox Town Annex in Mequon. I thought we were sloppy. It hasn't been announced but I think our drummer dumped us. He's turned down 8 summer bookings. Great drummer and singer but apparently isn't into us. I was really good about chatting at tables with the punters. I had put a few scripts together that worked very well. Good crowd and a lot of dancing. I guess people are easy to please. I'm starting to question the direction of the band. But where could I find another money making band at 72 years old? Daryl

Well, it’s here… came home this lunch time and discovered that they’d delivered it early - fortunately they’d stashed it behind our bins - not taken it back to the depot. Phew. I have to say that I love it. It looks and sounds great and, of course, the feel of the neck is wonderful. It’s the all-paulownia version but none the worse for that. The sound is in just the Jazz territory that I like with bounce and spring in all the right frequency ranges. Lovely. I’ll be using it at church tomorrow evening and then again at the Weekly Monday Jam on Monday so I will report back on the sound… but I do not expect to be disappointed. Oh yeah… and the number you all want to know… 2.8kg / 6.2lbs which is daft but it still feels great on a suede backed leather strap. No neck dive discernible at all. Love it so far!

Barry Morris posted some excellent pics of Sunday's gig on Facebook 😎

50 years old

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

Oh but the inclusion of the No Parking sign in the shot, while a car is clearly parked there, aims to signify the rebellious attitude of The Real 1950s Rock 'n' Roll as embodied by the young artists of the time and ... [cont'd on p.97]

Following on from Thursday night's open mic, Mein Host had asked me if I'd like to play bass for his duo at a local pub, the Market Vaults, on Friday (last night). I said yes, and a set list arrived on Friday lunchtime. A few of the songs I knew, most of them I'd at least heard a few times before, and one or two I wasn't at all familiar with, so spent a while copying chord sheets from Ultimate Guitar and having a quick play through some of the songs. Headed into town on the evening and all the car parks were rammed - managed to park a few minutes walk away. Fortunately I was only carrying the 6" cab, TC BAM200 amp, gigbag, and Sei headless fretless, so I coped. The Market Vaults is a long thin pub, and we were at the back. Immediately to the right of the stovepipe PA is the passageway to the toilets, so the photo shows the entire available performance area - I sit to play, so I was sitting on the bench on the left with my amp just by me and the monitor right behind me, and just enough space between tables to put my tablet stand in. The gig itself went well. A couple of fluffs (not all by me) and I hadn't got the chords written down right for Crazy, plus for some reason I hadn't got the final draft of my chordsheets on the tablet so I had to remember a couple of the songs. And afterwards I was asked if I'd like to do more gigs with them (I said yes). Edit: Using Sei Original 5 headless fretless -> Lekato WS-90 -> Zoom MS-70CDR+ -> TC BAM200 -> BC house jam micro cab. Footwear - the usual Caravelle memory foam trainers, which was a bit of a risk with snow forecast.

Well - this is interesting. Firstly, 'Custom' was a Netherlands importer brand, I think for a specific retailer - somebody on one of the Facebook MIJ guitars groups found the name but it's slipped my mind, annoyingly. They sourced from a number of different manufacturers including Moridaira, Matsumoku & Chushin - so they probably just bought in whatever their supplier had, rather than contracting to specific manufacturers. Customs turn up in the UK pretty regularly, very often in Scotland, which has led to some speculation a Scottish retailer was bringing excess stock over from the Netherlands - no evidence as yet but no-one would be surprised if it turned out to be the very entrepreneurial Jimmy Grant, who had Glasgow & Edinburgh Grant Music shops, his own range of Grant guitars (with UK distribution) & was also UK importer/distributor for Canadian hand-made Odyssey guitars & basses in the 70s & 80s. As for the bass itself - that's really interesting - and this is why: Had this back in 2011, and I could never pin down what it was. This had a plain, oddly home-made looking neckplate & the body was a not-quite right P shape. Came with no hardware, and I pretty much concluded it was likely European, not MIJ, based on the Eko-esque inlay patterns. I have never seen the same neck before today. I think the finish had been stripped under the rattlecan black & it had no hardware or electronics to help ID it - but seeing @Shabbs's pics I'm confident it's the same bass. No logo on mine, the head having been stripped & re-finished, probably with Ronseal! I'll speculate & say this might have come from an organisation called Matsumoto Gakki Seizou Kumiai, the Matsumoto City instrument manufacturers' co-operative. They bought in bodies, necks, electronics & parts from various small manufacturers & assembled instruments from an order-book system, where a customer would choose necks, bodies & parts, and instruments would be built up & branded to their specifications.

Right then @Machines, I've compiled the results, and it's a majority 8-2 ruling for... NOT GUILTY In my closing notes I will say that you had a close brush with failure and you would be well advised to steer clear of guitar shops going forward, but the court will not go as far as issuing a restraining order. Be good. Case closed.

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

Welcome to the thread, and well done for spotting that it is about encouraging us to improve musical skills. I was impressed at how quickly you went from buying "a keyboard stand this year so I can learn to use the keyboard I bought years ago" to "new digital piano, synth and guitar incoming!" - both posts are timestamped "8 hours ago" on my system! It is always good to see that sort of reckless abandon from new players, because it distracts Chief Referee @neepheid from any infractions that I and others might be about to commit.... Keep it up, @brickers!

You could say it's rare, very few Mustangs have been used as a shovel on a building site. I can see why it may not have been played for 10-15 years, the site foreman still used it. Would love to see the routing under the second control panel.

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

Fast paced, fun video reviewing why the 80's were so special for bass players. The gear, the players, the innovations and SO MUCH more! This video provides a wide overview of the experience in the U.S. with LOTS of U.K. crossover - Mark King, Pino Palladino, Wal, Status, Trace Elliot, The Bass Centre, etc. Enjoy the memories!

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.