Leaderboard

I did a little jam session thing yesterday, second gig in three years and I had no amp so went through the pa and sounded dreadful. There were poets and the usual string of lunatics but watching the tiny crowd watching enjoying themselves was life affirming and I realised that life is not about how I experience things but how WE do so. For that reason, it was a triumph. One lady who was celebrating her 70th birthday yesterday sidled up to me and said she had been volunteering at Rock Festivals for decades and had never heard anyone play bass like I did. She said, '...but I got it. I really did'. Made my little day. 😊

A bass t shirt. Apparently.

Sunday evening gig in a local, with a new guitarist and new drummer. Slimmed down setlist, of which we’d only run through half together on Wednesday afternoon. Vocalist/guitarist and I have gigged together for the last eight years, so fit well together. Drummer and I gigged together for 12 years in the late 80’/90’s, he dep’d with us for one gig in 2022, so I trust him and he’s brilliant. New lead guitarist has some brilliant vocals, especially with the couple of Cult songs he’s brought, gigs with another Band and does his one man show too, so he’s fitted in well. New line up gives us four ( well three and me ) lead vocals and an awful lot of gigging experience. Cant help but think this might be the start of a good thing.

SATURDAY NIGHT! (I know that's not last night) Depping with Manchester Ska Foundation at The Empire in Rochdale. I play with them about once or twice a year, but hadn't for a while so I was looking forward to it. I love playing with these guys as the gigs are always good and they're all cracking musicicans - I really have to raise my game! Early get there (6:45), I had to drive down actual cobbled streets to get to the venue which my crappy Hyundai i10 wasn't happy about! Bit of waiting around as the sound engineers were covering for the usual guy, so there was some confusement about channels, stage boxes, phantom power and such and such... All setup evetually, soundcheck all normal then lots more waiting round as we weren't on until 9:30. (I popped over the road to see the Town Hall, which is "widely recognised as being one of the finest municipal buildings in the country" apparently. It is rather grand.) The place was pretty full when we went on for the first set - a decent mix of people who'd come to see us and random Rochdalians (Rochdalers?) who were in there anyway. We cracked through the first set and sounded great. Highlights were 'My Girl Lollipop' which I absolutely LOVE playing and 'Ghost Town' (one of my favourite songs EVER), especially the trombone solo... Goodness Gracious, that girl can play! Oh, and 'Nite Klub' (Bass Solo!) which I did well on - I got a 👌 from the Sax player after my solo, which I was happy about! 'Hands Off, She's Mine' (The Beat) was a new one for me but I did pretty well (It's pretty straightforward to be fair) I'd done my homework so I was happy with my playing, right up until I completely (and I mean COMPLETELY) buggered up the 'coming back into the slow bit' bit in 'Special Brew'... I wanted the stage to open and swallow me up. I apologised profusely to the band at half time, they laughed and said "You did it better than Al (the usual Bass player) normally does" and blamed the drummer, so no harm done. Quick Lime & Soda and (Strawberry Jam Firerose) vape break and back on for the second set. The place had filled up nicely and the crowd were loving it. Second set highlights were 'House of Fun' (RELENTLESS Bassline! Lots of fun!), 'Too Much Too Young' which is a blast to play, 'Message to Rudy' (there's about four notes in it, so I just went on autopilot and enjoyed myself), 'Our House/Wings of a Dove' Mashup which is pretty complicated (all modesty aside... I'd put a lot of work into that, so I smashed it) and 'One Step Beyond' which always goes down a treat (except I forgot about the 'Swan Lake' keyboard solo in the middle and had to busk it (badly)... cue more laughter from the rest of the band and an amused 'Gotcha!' look from the keys player). We end with 'Night Boat to Cairo' and everyone gets a solo... my solo was... perfunctory at best... (It's over F and Eb minor... can't get my head round it!) but it went down well enough. The band were grateful for me stepping in and I feel lucky to play with them, so everyone was happy. Decent payer, quick packup as we didn't have to take down the PA, twenty minutes back to my dear old Ma's place for a bottle of Henry Weston's Signature Vintage (6.8% ABV). Played the StingRay (I'd taken the P as well, but... couldn't resist the 'Ray) -> Small board (I only used the chorus for the 'Nite Klub' solo) -> 'secret weapons' board (Thumpinator -> VTDI) -> MarkBass 802 -> PA. Shoes were the Black and white leopard print Converse (Peach Pink sparkle don't really go with the whole 'Two Tone' vibe...). An absolutely fantastic night all round. Apart from 'Special Brew'.

I think today’s the logical day for showing this one. May the 4th be with you, and all that! I’ve added a delay since last year and a more fully-featured drive pedal. The drone, a multi-chorus and a fuzz have made way. I’m happy with the functionality of what is essentially a novelty board though. In particular, the bass chorus and reverb both sound right up there with some of the best of that type of pedal.

The Hulla band played a 50th birthday party last night in what is becoming a regular venue for us in Port Eynon on Gower. We've played inside and outside the hall, in teepees and marquees there and, for the first gig I played with them, open air outside the fish and chip shop on the sea front back in 2022. That day we were paid in food. 😀 The stage was cramped but I wanted to play my new 5 string Ibanez. I was aware that it might not be possible without repeatedly stroking the guitarist's lower back with my headstock (not a euphemism) and took my headless shortscale Ibanez as an option. But I managed to find a little spot between drums, keys and guitarist that I was able to make my own. I had planned on using the onstage monitors rather than my in ears but the cramped conditions and proximity to the drums and the guitarist's amp meant that I ended up with the IEM. Our sound man had brought the PA subs and during the soundcheck my bass was booming away but once the hall filled up and he'd EQ'd properly, the sound was good. I kept the board to a minimum - Zoom MS60b giving me a noise gate, compressor and tuner and my Ampeg Classic preamp going into a DI box and into the desk. IEMs were through my Behringer P16 via Ultranet from the desk and a pair of KZ ZS10s earphones on which I've replaced the silicon buds with foam ones for much better isolation. Footwear of choice was the lace up black Skechers which have become an intergal part of my sound. This was my first gig playing a 5 string for several years and there were a few string faux pas but nothing the derailed the night and overall I was happy with my performance, and with the 5 string. I love the narrow string spacing and neck, which suits my hands perfectly. As usual, we had a lot of fun on stage and the audience were up and dancing from the first number. Hiding behind the guitarist.

What a cracking gig last night. Played with Nine Lives in a wee pub in a wee village (specifcally the Pittendrum Bar in Sandhaven - a small village just along the North Sea coast from Fraserburgh). Funnily enough, we had played in this village a few years back, in their village hall on Hogmanay just before the COVID hit (so 2019, I guess? The "before times"). One of the advantages of playing a small place is that you don't need many folk as long as they're up for a dance or a singalong. There were 20ish folk in but they were a musically omnivorous bunch and seemed to be up for just about anything, which makes our job a bit easier. Anyway, long story short, we had folk up dancing to most of the songs, and a few head bobbers at the bar, so can't really ask for more than that. The pub said that they want to book us again, so that's what you want to hear. Easy load in/out - side door onto the street right next to where we're playing. Really was a fantastic wee gig. Gear was my "cheap night out" basses - Gear4Music bass with Lace Aluma-P then Epiphone Em-bassy with Entwistle PBXN Neodymium, into the usual Markbass modular nonsense. Also because yesterday was May 4th, I geeked out a little. R2-Neep2?

A bit late posting but we played another fund raiser last Sunday at the cathedral in North Bay where we played in February of 2024 to help raise money for roof repairs and this time they even paid us for our efforts. Probably at least 200 in the audience, a bit lower than we hoped but it was a beautiful spring day and I think some folks decided to enjoy the good weather. We had a vocalist with us this time and she was great as usual and really knows how to work those old jazz tunes. We did a swing set and then I switched to tenor banjo and one sax player used a bari sax to play a bass line and we played a shorter Dixieland/trad set. Good fun and the church and the band both made money. Shen SB 100 into the Bose PA and Baldwin Ode banjo. The word on the cross above the bass sums up how I feel playing some of the songs. 😊 Edit: Keyboard player is there but hidden behind the alto sax player.

One trip to Edinburgh later... Okay, I'm still on my way back! Gotta love Competition Burgundy. Thanks Dave!

Saturday night was a wedding at a new venue for us in Lincoln. Long old day with travel included. We performed the ceremony, drinks and evening + DJ which is fairly regular package for us. But when we have a few hours travel on these as well they are killer days. Woke at 6am… Left the house at 7.30am and got home at 3.20am. Worked out at around 20hr day (ish). Still, just the one gig this week so not too bad. This can get relatively regular in the Summer so taking it as a nice easy week. All round a really good day. Lovely couple and group of people which were well up for it in the evening and a good sound with no limiter! Good first dance too. ‘Silver’ by The DMA’s which we smashed (if I do say so) Although, we are going through a few weeks of technical frustrations. Struggling quite a bit with something causing an intermittent cut out/ crackle in our IEMs. Thought we’d cracked it but it appeared again for a couple of songs... Sometimes wonder whether we’d be better with corded IEMs but with only 1 aux feed sending to 2 IEMs I don’t know whether this is achievable…? More investigation needed Also struggled with a horrible grounding type issue on my bass in soundcheck. Noise gate and reducing the gain on my pedal seemed to fix it but strange it’s never been an issue before. I’ve gone back to the Zoom B3 after having a few gigs using my new Laney Digbeth pedal. But, I really missed the cab sim within the SVT patch so not sure whether I’ll just stick with the B3 or try and find a way to make the Digbeth work as it does sound great. Anyway, the important bit… Brown Asda boots that I picked up on the way to a gig a few months ago after the guitarist let my Dr Martens fall out of the van on his drive without realising.

Played at the North Bar in Peterhead last night with Nine Lives. Bit of a weird one. A venue we've never played before. An area so wide, but with paths customers will take across where the cables to the PA speakers have to go, so I spent most of my time sticking cables down with gaffer tape. Really going to have to investigate using wireless bugs to get the signal from the desk to the PA speakers for places like this in future. Rushed setup as a result, and we were a bit late starting. And after all that effort, it was pretty sparsely attended - in the first half we ended up playing to 4 (four) folk plus the bar staff. "Paid rehearsal" came to mind, but thankfully some people came in later on and it was better in the second half. On the plus side, the sound was good, and the SB-2 performed admirably, with the Wunkay seeing out the second half. I do love my G&Ls. MFD FTW. Gear was the fantastic MFD brothers (G&L Tribute SB-2 then Wunkay) into the usual Markbass cubes of low frequency. Please excuse the terrible photos, my phone was having a 'mare focussing, it would seem.

This ^^^ 100% ! We had a similar gig yesterday, our regular slot at The Sun Inn, Beverley. It was pretty full by the time we arrived at 4.30pm, then absolutely rammed by the time we kicked off at 5.30pm. Obviously the bank holiday had a fair part to play in the amount of people coming in, but we managed to keep them from moving on to other local drinking places. We did our usual request thing, and probably the most we’ve ever had. ‘Dad rock’ was the main theme on a lot of them , so we hit them up with ‘’Smoke on the water’, ‘Highway to Hell’ and ‘Stairway…’. These were intertwined with ‘Copacabana’ , ‘Don’t dream it’s over’ and the awful ‘Hi Ho Silver lining’ Drink does appear to affect a lot of people’s preferences it would seem. Funniest thing was when a group of young lads came in, with a trophy held high as they’d just won it at a local football tournament. As they were about to be served one of the bar staff asked what the team was called, to be told it was a village under 18 side!! A swift exit followed ….. No pics taken, except for the lovely Beverley Minster as we were loading out.

A rugby club up in the valleys on Sunday early evening. Modest attendance but enthusiastic reception for Bendricks Rock. I'd driven to London at 1:30 am, got four hours of non-sleep from 5-9 then drove back for 1pm. About 20 minutes of fitful nap, eat, shower lots of tea, then picked up by vocalist for 50 minute drive. I was amazed that not only did I not eff-up, I had a good gig. Nearly dropped off in the car back. Now I'm going to sleep early, goodnight.

Good fun last night in Nottingham at the Tap and tumbler. Wasn't sure how we'd go down but seemed to be really well received. I had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction....accidentally wore a random black shirt somehow....I won't go onto detail. Anyway, sound was great and and a good night all round....

It has taken me some time - quite some time - but I’ve finally got my hands on one of these. It’s about as close as I’m likely to get to an actual Status T-Bass. This was the bass that first brought me to BassChat as a longtime lurker, before a registered member. I never actually thought I’d get a T-Bass, despite coming very close a couple of years ago, there was one on Fb marketplace, but the seller was very cagey with his answers to my questions, and he just didn’t inspire any buying confidence in me at all, so that one passed. (A decision I’ve regretted for letting the bass go, but I always felt it was the right decision due to bad vibes from the seller.). And here I am today, making this post. I've the bass exactly a week now. Pros : It’s a T-Bass! That headstock (you can’t really want a T-Bass if you don’t like the headstock). The colour (I'm not sure if it's faded white or supposed to be this off-white shade). Cons : It’s a TE, not Status. It’s the 3-piece neck. Just before PoiDH, a super-massive shoutout to @NigeJ and @HeadlessBassist , who both took time out of their lives to go and meet the seller and check/inspect the bass for me. Just prior to Nigel’s viewing it developed an electrical fault - seller said it was due to a battery leakage and provided pic of removed battery box with green residue on it - which is why I needed Richard to go and check it out after the issue was fixed, which he did, tested the signal and all OK. Without these two, I wouldn't have this bass now, so thank you very much gents, your time was very much appreciated. The bass isn't perfect, there's some dings in the finish and a couple of splits in the finish as well, the black marks you see in some of the images in the Flickr album may just buff out, I've got some polish to try and remove those. I've got some Rotosound flats on order as well as some strap lock buttons. I'll revisit this thread once the above have been put on and I've had a go at giving it a cleanup. Enough words, PoiDH below … Plenty more images in this Flickr album. Mark

A few days late and no pictures (so no incriminating evidence), but I had fun gigs on Friday and Saturday. Friday was with The Underbites, loosely a punk band playing originals. The venue was Arlene’s Grocery in lower Manhattan. Arlene’s is a fixture in the rock scene in NYC. Good backline, good PA, good house engineer and, overall, just a great place to play. We had a modest crowd but they were enthusiastic. We played a fast, tight set that was well received. The high point for me was that the young crowd that had come to see the earlier (and much younger) band stayed to hear us as well (not always a given in NYC) and they were VERY complimentary. I don’t think they were expecting the old guys to be a much better band - but we were! Saturday was another punk band; Bedpan Fight. An absolutely hilarious group with ridiculous original songs. I’m a recent member of the band but I’ve known them for years. The (excellent ) drummer, my old friend Vic, is even newer to the band but we’ve played together many times and we’re a formidable rhythm section. The venue was Mr. Beery’s, a dive bar about an hour outside the city on Long Island and the lineup was four female-fronted punk bands. All the bands were great, the atmosphere was very collegial, the local crowd was very welcoming and it was a really fun time. The high point of that one was the bassist from one of the other bands, a very lovely young lady who was easily six feet tall ( and a very good bassist) , coming up to me to tell me how much she loved our set, loved my playing and thought my Rickenbacker was beautiful! It takes one to know one. That ended up being a very late night for me; by the time I dropped the drummer off at his apartment in Queens and then drove home to Brooklyn it was past 2:30 but it wrapped up two fun nights of gigs.

Last night was a joint 60th and 40th birthday, but in an open pub. This is about the smallest place we play, crammed into the corner. I always prefer to have my amp on the floor, but had to put it up on the seat for this one. Our regular drummer is still down with bronchitis, so the seat was filled by Rob Hewins, a musician I really admire - he did a great job drumming, filling in harmonies and taking the lead vox in a couple of songs. He's a pretty mean guitarist too! As usual the place was rammed, so I hovered in that thin line between having my teeth knocked out by the crowd knocking my mic stand and being stung in the back by a cymbal crash 😂 Sire P7-5, GT-6B, Rumble 500, burgundy suede Vans

My old band Knock Off have decided to part ways with their bassist so have asked me to help them out until they get a permanent replacement. Am looking forward to it, though coaxing that old aggressive sound out is a challenge as now playing Fender JMJ Mustangs rather than Precisions for my backs sake, plus my hands can’t take that battering playing style anymore, am sure I’ll find a way though. Some good gigs lined up (Cocksparrer on May 31st in Islington being the first one up) and will be nice to catch up with a lot of people I’ve not seen since I left at end of 2019.

In fairness, it's not a proper bass as it has 5 strings. 😀

Well I did it. After watching this one for over 2years online with the local agent, I pulled the trigger and bought myself the one bass I will never put down. I have promised both myself, my long-suffering better half and most of my mates that this is genuinely the last bass I ever buy. Feel free to screenshot this postand remind me if you see me lurking 🤣🤣🤣 But anyway, here she is: One N.O.S. 2021 Amerocan Pro 2 Jazz bass 75rh Anniversary FSR Dark Night woth Rosewood board. Genuinely cannot describe how beautiful this thing is, all around. It feels amazing in the hand, sounds exactly like a Jazz should and it has the most beautiful rosewood I have ever seen on any neck! This is a pretty good place to end my GAS Odyessy 😎

Our first time back at the Black Horse in Whitwick since just before Christmas. It was a quiet compared to normal - it's usually rammed. A good, enthusiastic crowd though and much dancing took place. It's a bit of a strange weekend, what with a public holiday last Monday and the VE80 stuff going on. Our little drummer boy is still riddled with bronchitis, so Rob was kind enough to step in again and did a great job. It's so nice to be able to lock in with a good drummer, even if we threw a couple of songs at him out of the blue. We had a great night. Footwear were purple suede Gazelles - they don't come out often. I took the Sire P, going into the usual GT-6B and Rumble 500 combo. My favourite patch at the moment is the Octa-Fuzz which got quite a feature in Born to be Wild amongst others. Only the one photo of the compact stage, dimly lit after we'd finished playing

Oh my…

This is why we do it! I played a gig at a marina bar. Blues and funk covers and was going through the motions really (as double bass is my favourite instrument to play) and I looked over a guy in a Led Zepplin T-shirt rocking out like it was the best gig ever. All packed up and home by 10pm and he told us we were brilliant, etc. Some of the gigs we play I wonder why I bother, then you do one like this and it becomes a bit clearer. Doing a run of 4 next weekend (is that a tour?). Hope they’ll be as good

Acoustic gig. We played a Community Service Award Event tonight. Strictly background stuff. We played a 45 minute set and " walk on" music for the award winners. Nothing to share, other than it was an easy gig. A 5 minute commute for me. I think we probably sounded pretty good in the house . The full Maple Road band plays Saturday night. Were going back in time a doing a late night bar gig. We haven't done a bar gig in years. Daryl

Had a shift in focus for the bigger board. New band requires more heavy tones, so tweaked to add more drive.

Well, had my fretless debut on an all-nighter BBC session las week that's broadcast tonight!

VID-20250503-WA0001.mp4 Played a Salisbury Live gig on Friday at the same venue as @Cat Burrito played last weekend. The room is quite big with a dancefloor in front of a low stage and there are tables and chairs on a gallery area up some steps (this is on the same level as the rest of the club). There were three bands and we were headliners. Our drummer was drumming in the first band and singing in the second band so it was a little weird but we got to see another side of him and both bands were good. There wasn't a lot of audience throughout the evening but enough for it not to be embarrassing and consider it a 'paid rehearsal'. I'd say the fact that there seemed to be very little promotion apart from what the bands put in themselves, the venue is out of town and there's loads going on in Salisbury this weekend contributed to a low turnout. Having said that, the evening was great fun and we got another gig out of it later this year...with a guaranteed audience 👍🏻 Back to my Airwalk Ones (worn out soles but comfy!) Spoke to the other bands' bassist and we had a connection to a local band from the early 90s so that was cool. Short video from the outro to Butterflies (slightly cut short 😬)

Membership revoked!!

2 gigs today with Stevie Daniels. First one was an afternoon noon car show somewhere deep in the fens. (Why do all those fenland towns look the same?). We were placed on a flatbed stage across the entry road from the bar and the crowd. As a result, very little crowd interaction and lots a dust every time a new vehicle came through. And, we were facing the sun…hot!. Second gig at the Burleigh Club in Peterborough. Nice pub and small but enthusiastic crowd. Used the Dynabass, trace head, and GB 1 12’s. Footwear was Justin western boots. No gigs now until the end of June.

HEY FOND DU LAC AREA FRIENDS! Maple Road Blues Band is coming to your neighborhood THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! Join the party at Capones! www.mapleroadbluesband.com My concerns. We've never played there before, It's a late night bar gig and I'm 71. At my age I'm just not comfortable being out at night in a bar even though I'm technically working there. I'm not sure if this place is known for having live music. I'm sure I'll have stories tomorrow. Daryl

Not a bad night in Portsmouth but quiet at the venue which was a shame. We were pretty tight having thrown in a few we’ve not played in a while but they went ok despite having played them on the 5 previously and have been using the FrankenJazz with a Hipshot so I was still experimenting with different positions and flipping between E and D to fit which led to a few errors in position when dropped. Worst for me was the end of Rollin’ In The Deep when I got songs muddled and was playing (in our tuning) D-E-F#-E-D instead of F#-E-D-E-F#. Guitarist said after “I thought you were going for different inversions but actually it ended up as the “jazz” version. Sound was good from where I was and at one point vox came over to me, nodded at my rig and said “oooo that sounds awesome” … he was right, it did 😁 Annoyingly I’m still waiting both for my new IEM’s with a new mold for a hopefully better fit, and the old ones repaired after one side stopped working ☹️ Meant I had to use the KZ’s I picked up as spares. I haven’t managed to get a good fit so the sound from them is never as good as the molded set, but it was better than nowt. I ended up one in / one out which was ok. On stage the sound seemed well balanced. Hopefully out front was the same!

Like this: Thanks @AndyTravis for facilitating.

I can go for the shortest. A squire strat from next door neighbour. It took all of 20 seconds

This is sublime

I just flew from Istanbul to Houston to get a birth year Rickenbacker. I tell myself I did it to see family but that’s a lie.

Quite excited ... a big package arrived from China 8.00 this evening. ... neck, fingerboard, bridge, end spike, tuners, the whole lot to do the bass all in one. What was I expecting? Well £200 spent on the whole shebang - what was advertised as 'ebony fingerboard' and 'nice maple neck'. I was dubious. What did I get ... well amazingly ... a bloody great chunk of what appears to be rather nice ebony. Sure there are some slightly lighter streaks - but really, barely visible. The neck is indeed maple, and even has very faint flaming. Sure it's fairly roughly finished and needs a fair bit of sanding all over, but it's really not bad at all. They have left so much spare wood on the neck heel that it's going to be a fair old job trimming it all down accurately - but better too much than too little I suppose Photos tomorrow.

I bought one of the 3D printed kits from Ebay. It just needs some 25mm x 25mm stripwood and eight woodscrews. I carefully cut the stripwood, 4 pieces, to the length I wanted. All good and I used some dark mahogany wood stain I had in the garage. There was a little bit of a wobble so I unscrewed the screws slightly and pressed on two corners to try to straighten it out. CRACK! B*gger. After calming down, I used the remainder of the wood to replace the broken brackets. I also added some feet to give an angle and some small blocks to add strength. Adding the new side pieces adds 50mm to the width, and it is now bigger than the padded bag I keep my pedal board in! Here it is with the wood colour on again:

I bought this because I wanted something that will handle two ohms, I've been using a Mesa D800 up to this point but it's started to get unreliable, I've also got a trace Elliot AH300SMX, which I love but I can only use it with one cab. I wanted something old school, I know I'll probably start an argument now, I don't mean to, but I don't really like class D, preferring old school solid state, I'm convinced I can hear a difference. Anyway, I read loads of reviews on the Fafner and they were all pretty good. It's of a size, not being overly big and heavy, that means I can take it to smaller venues with just the super compact, , but it'll pack some punch through both cabs at larger venues. Pretty excited to try it out at it's first gig tomorrow night...with both cabs!

This is what it boils down to. If you like the sound of 15s (and don't mind carrying them), the technical arguments are irrelevant, even if they are true. If you are happy with the sound you make, you will be more relaxed and confident and play better.

A few changes. Does everything I want it to do (famous last words...)

Long overdue update. Waiting on body being finished before hardware upgrades and re-assembly. Mirrored scratchplate not shown should complete the build. Impatiently waiting but happy with how the checked finish looks on the upper body.

I played a really good gig at Bar Silo in Golant in Cornwall. Crowd was amazing and the venue was absolutely wonderful. We even got free food which was delicious.