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We've had reports in about an individual using multiple accounts approaching buyers in the market place after they've made an enquiry on a thread. The scammer's method is to reach out via PM with some information about the seller (who it's likely he has no actual connection with) then invite further conversations with that friend via email off site. Then, while impersonating the seller via fake email, offer to take a deposit which is never seen again. He seems friendly and has certainly posted on here to give off a friendly and laid back vibe but he is exploiting the trust and goodwill on here. We can't emphasise strongly enough that you don't reply to anyone claiming to know a seller, don't email any email address they provide and for anyone who is thinking about putting deposit down on any item in the market place, please use a form of payment that can be easily reversed. A reminder is below to advice already offered by members 15 years ago to avoid being ripped off. Also, if you are contacted by anyone else in the future with an invitation to continue the conversation via email, please flag it immediately with either myself or woodinblack. Thanks in advance for your help.

This one is primarily, but not exclusively, aimed at those of us who are in the mellow autumn of our years. The partner of our vocalist and band leader had a stroke last week. She’s likely to be in hospital for another few weeks and is likely to need lots of support when she gets home. Consequently, and rightly, we’ve cancelled everything band-wise for the rest of the year. Onwards, we’ll have to see how things go. So, while you are able, do that gig, join that band, buy that bass, climb that mountain. Whatever you want to do, while you can. And, prompted by a recent thread, don’t stick around in that dysfunctional band hoping things will improve.

Here is my new part bass I finished recently and which make me proud of: Warmoth body, Musikraft neck, nitro paint, Fralin splitcoil. The design, paintwork and the printing I made with the help of my wife. Enjoy it!

Had a very busy weekend and a break from the norm with some great dep gigs. Fri night & Sat morning depped in a production of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, a very professional show and a chance to flex my reading chops, I then went straight from that gig on Saturday 120 miles down to a Holiday Park near Scarborough to dep for a band playing at an end of season party to finish off a very busy Saturday. Quite a contrast but some fun tunes to play. The theatre show was in a really nice old Theatre in Newcastle city centre, I took a few photos from the pit where I was sitting, it really gives the place a proper old timey feel rather than some of the sterile newer places.

Just come off stage with Stray at Strings on The Isle of Wight. We’re supporting British Lion. It’s the fourth night of the tour - we had a rest day yesterday. Last week we played Bradford, Manchester and Nuneaton. To aid quick changeovers I’d decided to di straight from my Stomp XL and Junction DI into the desk, use in ears and rely on monitors for the rest of the guys. The rest of the band hated it, I wasn’t keen either, despite decent monitors (BL travel with their own monitors.) So on Thursday I asked Harry if I could use a couple of his cabs. He was fine with that so today we were in our bloody element. I only used one side - two Orange 4x12s - what a glorious sound. And to top it off The Man let me have a noodle on his new signature bass! Anyway we had a fabulous gig - waiting for them to finish now so we can load out!

Just got myself this little beauty today. Had been looking for a 7-pounder (or under) and this came up at exactly 7lbs. Although it’s heavier than my Superlight TT I’m finding that playing full scale basses standing up is becoming a bit of a stretch hence my search. Got it from Guitar Village, my first time of dealing with them which I have to say was excellent. Sounds and plays beautifully, as I’d expect. I’m not really into fake relicing or blocks but somehow these just seem to really suit this bass.

Last night we had our first stadium gig. 80,00 screaming fans, helicopter in and out, 50kw PA, individual dressing rooms. Then I woke up from my pre-gig nap. It's true we were in a stadium - the Swansea.com stadium - but sadly all the rest of it was fanciful daydreaming. Last night the Hull band played in support of the annual 'Big Sleep Out' event, raising money for the local homeless charity drop in centre, Matthews House. We've been raising money for them for years and we regularly play with their choir so they asked up to do a short set at the event, in which folks get sponsored to spend a night sleeping out in the open. We were due to play in the stand overlooking the pitch (the pitch itself was strictly off limits to all) but Storm Claudia put paid to any open air performance, and instead we played in the main concourse under one of the stands. The audience was limited to the people who were volunteering to sleep out, the choirs and the staff and volunteers who were helping out on the night - about 200 in total. Swansea City football club were sponsoring the whole event, hence the venue. We were due to play for about 30 minutes; the choir kicked off the entertainment and we joined them for three songs before carrying on. We ended up playing on longer than expected as the audience kept asking for one more song. Well, you can't say no to the punters. Eventually, the stadium's own noise curfew brought us to a stop. Great atmosphere, dancing, singing along etc and more than £42,000 raised by the time we'd finished playing. And no, that wasn't money paid to get us to stop. We used the stadium's events PA but our own desk as we are a 13 piece and we brought our own sound engineer. My kit for the night was my Squier PJ into a Behringer pedal tuner (I just can't get on with clip-on tuners) which also acts as a mute and my Ampeg SCR DI. Straight into the desk as usual. Outfit was geared towards remaining warm and black boots completed the look. Highlights for me included dedicating and playing the song 'Heroes' (already a favourite) to the folks staying out overnight and dancing with the choir leader at the back for our encore of 'Hey Jude'. The Matthews House choir The stadium. Ready to soundcheck Mid gig

So after 3 months of waiting it’s arrived, I custom ordered a Precision Bass by Luca at Alnus Basses. (Insert joke about name here) There wasn’t an awful lot of information about them on the web, so set about tracking down owners across social media outlets, general consensus was he made lovely basses. I’ve always wanted a lime green metallic P Bass but Fender custom shop prices were out of reach for me especially when buying blind. I contacted Luca and gave him the specs I wanted and went through step by step with him in regard to colour shades/pickguard colours etc. I liked the fact he made the necks and bodies out of raw materials rather than pre made husks of the shelf, all paint/relicing and pickups were done in house and I liked the thought of a bass being built in a lovely Italian village (My family originates from Italy so this was a little piece of Italy). So for the result, it’s beautifully made and very resonant! The colour may not be to everyone’s tastes but I’m really happy with it, it needed a little setup to get it how I wanted it and it’s lovely. Just waiting for amp to warm up before plugging it in, if the pickup isn’t my bag I have a couple laying around including a Fender PV60 and Seymour Duncan Quarterpound. I will more than likely fit a badass 2 bridge to it aswell which I have spare.

Here's me (and the lovely Di) when I paid the swag over this morning! Thanks to everyone!

Eagles tribute gigs for the last couple of nights. First, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh. It's a gorgeous hall with a lot of history. House PA, extremely good engineer, great lights Best of all, though: 800 people in... on a Thursday night! Hats off to the promoter. Last night was a lovely theatre outside of Whitehaven. A little more cramped, but another very enjoyable night. I used my new (but not new) 1996 MIA Jazz RI, and it's a Bobby Dazzler. Love it. The only downside was the van breaking down as we left Whitehaven. I finally got home just before 5am 😅 💤

Fantastic night last night at Edinburgh's Wee Red Bar with the 80s covers band. We were doing a two-hander with a 90s band and the place was packed - we came within 27 tickets of selling out! No, the venue, not the band 😉 People were dancing from the first song, which is always good to see and loudly singing along to the last few numbers. We hadn't gigged since June, because reasons, so it was great to blow away the cobwebs. Bass was my Sterling Stingray V into the venue's Peavey amp - I still don't know the model number. Maybe I'll look when I'm back there next week, if I remember. In the meantime, here's me grinning like a gargoyle while belting out Love Shack:

I managed after a long time of being skint to get my old Suhr Jazz bass back. There is a BC member that offered to buy this bass for me and he offered that I could pay him back which was such a lovely EPIC gesture!! It really was and it blew me away tbh. But the time wasn't right. His BC name is three and his name is Loz bless him. I don't want to bore anyone as I'm aware everyone is struggling but it's been brutal financially and we struggled to get to the next mortgage/council tax payment for a long long time. But we're now mortgage free so me got some basses a comin.!!. Debora doesn't know this yet.. 😆 Suhr Custom Classic J4 Swamp ash body. Maple neck. Suhr 2 band pre. Aguilar single coils.

So I have umming and arring for a while between one of these and a Sadowsky MetroExpress Modern 5 for some time now, watching prices and seeing if any offers popped up. The GB5 Modern was listed at around £1200... pricey but I was tempted. GuitarGuitar then had them for £999 - oooh, that seems a good deal but a Sadowsky is only a little bit more... Hang fast Carl... you never know what will pop up on the Black Friday deals... So, I keep looking, thinking something might pop up. I think I prefer the Sadowsky but the spec and hardware is better on the Cort. Then on Thomann, Cort GB5 Modern at £666 - pull that trigger Carl! Arrived Friday but have only just had the chance to unpack and play as I was away over the weekend. What a great bass and for the money - hipshot ultralites, Nordstrand big singles, Babicz bridge and Mark Bass preamp, it's amazing spec for that money. Add in a lovely loooking thing and a good quality gig bag to boot and it was an amazing deal - A very happy punter! I had read about some QC issues with these but this one is all good, no blemishes or marks and compared to some other basses I have had, it's light as a feather. I can see this as a mainstay for future gigs! Anyway... enough gloating... here's some pics...

Hey gang For a while now I've been on the hunt for a J to use on my Eagles tribute gig. I picked this up a few days ago, and - ever-wary that you don't quite know what a bass really sounds like until you've gigged it - after a couple of shows I've happily torn the plastic film off the pickguard. It's absolutely lovely. Light, resonant, even across the neck, and sits perfectly in the mix. A nice smooth top, with a lovely growl when you slide and dig in. Happy days.

This afternoons gig with BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam covers band was a charity event in Boness that was sold out. We've played this venue many times for charity events, retirements, birthdays and are back again Feb 2026 for a 60th. The guy was at the gig today. Start time was 2pm and we literally had dancers on the floor for the first song and that lasted all the way thru the afternoon. Couldn't have asked for a better audience. When you get a lot of women out for a Saturday afternoon Xmas party they just wanna have fun and they did. The few males that were present also up dancing with everyone on the floor for the last few songs. The new Xmas songs went down a treat and we played well. Had a few hiccups with the PA where it cut out on occasion. Looked like he was running the powered cabs too hard. He decided to leave the subs in the van and just go with his JBL full range cabs. In future we'll always use the subs with them. He notched down the bass and kick drum volumes and i boosted my amp volume to compensate. Still sounded great tho but that solved the issue for the 2nd set. Decided to use my Sandberg MarloweDK for this one as the event was billed as a Xmas event so we went with the tinsel and a more Xmas look. Marlowe sounded excellent thru the Handbox WB-100 and BF212 cab. First time i've used this combination in the Glam band and i was very pleased. Sound guy also commented that it sounded superb out front. Some older ladies wanted to book us for 2027 for a triple birthday party but its a bit too far away to be taking bookings so we asked that they get in touch middle 2026. All in all a good day and home for 7:30pm via the Indian takeaway. Few pics of the stage etc appeared so that's all i have for time being. Dave

We played the Wheatsheaf in Calne last night with the drummer from our first band, 35yrs back. We’ve reunited a handful of times in recent years and it’s both nice to have a real drum beat & good to have 60% of my Sixth Form band back together. We’re just so comfortable in each other’s skin. I thought we played well. I was on my mandocello for 90% of the show and there were flashes of us all being really on it at times. The two bands who were on after us both came up after and said “how are we supposed to follow that?”, which was typical of the ego free and friendly nature of this multi band gig, raising money for Bristol Children’s Hospital. For the record, music has never been about competition and both bands did their thing well. I was particularly impressed with some of the earlier bands who were so young. I was talking to some 17yr old bassist who really impressed me and it’s so good to see that generation getting out there and doing it. A great day.

The Horse and Trumpet in Wigston has a really low ceiling. That makes it seem really loud. I had to back off the lows a bit, but once more the Rumble and Stingish bass sounded great. It was hot! I've put my fan up in the loft for the winter but might have to fetch it back down if it's going to be like that. We had people up dancing from the first song which was great. Lots of great comments too, my favourite being someone who told us that they keep coming to see us because we don't play Oasis, Dakota, Brightside, etc. Hooray!

I'm in one of those dep musicians groups on FB. About a week ago and for the first time ever, I responded to a post asking for a bass player for very local gig at a venue I know. The guitarist sent me a list of 80 songs and I picked about 40 that I knew I could play without having to learn anything new. I turned up at the gig and we rattled through them like we'd played together for years. A not massive, but pleasantly entertaining pub crowd and we went down well. A weirdly liberating experience. Hopefully a gig or two more will come my way as a result. There was a really drunk guy in the audience who kept singing Naive by The Kooks at the top of his voice. It's not a bad song actually. Might have to learn that one.

A double report, because I was lazy last weekend. Last Saturday, played with Nine Lives at the Grampian Bar in Torry, Aberdeen. First time playing there. It wasn't very busy - maybe 15 folk in at any one time. Thankfully there was a table of folk who stayed for most of the gig and were well into it, plus my best mate came down for the first half and Mrs. Neepheid joined us later on after an earlier social engagement. Still, it was one of those when you wonder if the pub made any money at all. Gear for that one was Yamaha night - the SB500S (even in its unfinished state having only a bridge pickup) followed by the BB1200 (which I forgot to photograph, oops). Amplification by Mark Bass as per usual. Fast forward to last night, Nine Lives again and back to a favourite haunt, the Balaclava in Fraserburgh. Gig didn't get off to the best of starts - while the drummer and I were loading our gear into the pub he suddenly realised that he'd left the mixing desk at home - he had changed cars in order to service the brakes on his usual motor and left it in there by mistake. Thankfully he only lives half an hour away from the venue, and we were mercifully early, so he bombed it home while we set up everything around the missing mixing desk so it would just be plug in and go, debagged his drums to save a bit of time there etc. Despite all that hoohah, we still somehow managed to be ready 10 mins before kick off. And it was a cracking night! Maybe because it was a pay weekend, the pub was busy and we had plenty of dancers and singers enjoying the tunes. Much better night than last weekend, that's for sure. Played well, some bloops but easily recovered and acknowledged with winks, smiles and funny faces. I played my Epiphone Mike Dirnt signature G-3 the whole night - sorry, backup bass, but I was just having too much fun with my new toy. It's a bloody terrific bass, a joy to play and sounded immense - cut through the mix like a knife in all pickup settings. Had a whale of a time playing it. Usual amplification.

Around 15 years ago, I did a stupid thing. I sold my 1978 Gibson G-3. In the intervening years, the prices of second hand Gibson G-3s have gone through the roof, beyond where I was willing to go. So, thank you, Epiphone, for issuing this and helping me right a wrong in a more financially palatable way! You can imagine the smile on my face. It is, quite simply, amazing. It is a tastefully modernised G-3 - it frankly speaking feels better put together than my old Gibson G-3. The same oddly twangy but thick at the same time tone is still there, I reckon these pickups are on the level as far as recreations go. I do low level wish they had done clear covers like the 1975-78 G-3s, but these sound as good as I remember the originals sounding. The pickguard? Don't care, mate - the silverburst disguises it as far as I'm concerned. Because Andertons did individual photographs for most of their stock of these, I deliberately picked one where the burst lined up with the bottom edge of the pickguard, giving it context instead of just floating in mid air. I can't wait to take this to band rehearsals this week. Tonight I have mostly been playing songs I played 15 years ago with my first originals band - well, the ones I remember anyway!

On Saturday we played at Gagarin205 in Athens - the venue looked fantastic lit up at night. Sadly I only have a daytime pic: and an aerial view of the soundcheck in moody black and white: and a view of the audience from the stage: We sold 1200 tickets. The venue was full. Punters were being turned away! We had a few technical gremlins but overall it was a successful (and profitable) adventure. My kit for the night: EBMM Sterling 4HH> Shure GLXD16+ wireless> Empress compressor> Cog CE-2B clone(some songs)> DHA EQ >DI Box (split off to PA) > locally Ampeg B5R > Ampeg 4x10 PS - Athens was full of Scotsmen attending the football:

Last night with Blockbustarz Glam covers band in Eastmuir Masonic Club, Glasgow. From the word go the organiser was brilliant, then the other staff came in as we were setting up and once again they couldn't have been more helpful. Venue was a good size with quite a high stage and just big enough to fit all 5 of us. Quite long with a tall curve ceiling which allowed for amazing acoustics. Sound wise stage was hollow wooden and created quite a boom on stage and i forgot my Gramma pad. Meant i couldn't really hear the definition from the bass and it sounded like more of a drone. Ramped up the mids and dropped the bass EQ slightly and that helped without affecting FOH. (bass and guitars don't go thru PA). Guitarist was having same issue. Playing wise we were good with very few minor things that only the band would notice. Not as busy as they expected but enough to make it a great night with many dressing for the 70's Glam night. Apparently a group of 40 that had said they would be going never showed and the organiser wasn't happy about that. From what we were told they went to another Masonic in Glasgow all dressed for a Glam night and were wondering why no one else was dressed up. So that made us laugh. Everyone was happy with the show with so many great comments afterwards. Have to mention this one because it was so sweet. One "mature" guy of 80 yrs old with his wife of 86 who were both dancing on quite a few songs caught up with us as we were loading the cars and laughing he told us that when Mikey our singer encouraged the dancers he was thinking and i quote "all very well for you youngsters but i was 30 when those songs came out and i was dancing back then but at 80 and 86 i struggle just to walk so dancing isn't as easy as it used to be but we loved it" and thanked us so much for a great night of memories. We all thought that was so nice and very touching. Usual gear Sandberg VM4, Shure wireless, Keeley comp, Handbox WB-100 into BF 212 cab. Something i've not mentioned in my gear because i forgot was the sound effects we use :- Jamman sampler into a GK MB200 just for the pre-amp and DI'd to PA. 40 min drive for me and mostly motorway so that was brilliant. They have told us we will be back but just need to confirm it with a few others. There is a possibility that a few other Masonic's in Glasgow will also be interested too. All good news. Few vids have appeared on FB Dave http://www.facebook.com/alan.duthie.3/videos/1347271517121402?idorvanity=559305587911326 http://www.facebook.com/alan.duthie.3/videos/1896444287937931?idorvanity=559305587911326

Friday lunchtime in a central Bournemouth church. We do it twice a year and share the retiring collection with the venue. Church has a regular audience for the music and we add to it - have had 100 folk before but 65 was just fine given the season. The promoter got up to sing on Mojo Workin’ and we played two encores. One of which debuted Time Is Tight. Love a bit of Booker T… Gear: Flea Jazz (currently in ‘for sale’ section), GK MB200 through Barefaced Two10.

Just got in from my last Spacewasters gig as a full band member (I will be depping for them next year for one gig). Was at The Milton Arms, Southsea, Portsmouth, supporting The Witchdoktors (great band btw). The Witchdoktors provided the backline which was very decent of them, we only had to provide cymbal stands, so made for an easy gig, our drummer drove so all good there. We played well and went down well, though it wasn’t as large an audience as when we’d previously played there, even on pay day, maybe people holding onto cash for Xmas. I played my JMJ Mustang through an Orange Crush (I think) combo, which sounded very nice. Footwear was DM Chelsea/Dealer boots. And now back indoors, well I hurt all over, really reinforcing that my leaving is the right decision, a real shame but I’ve had 4 great years with the band, am so glad I joined them for those years.

A week ago now but I played my first overseas gig in Germany at a small doom festival in Leonberg, with Gévaudan. Really really cool vibe, promoters really looked after all the bands and the crowd were ace both whilst on stage and hanging out during the before and after. we played pretty well and the sound was clear and mainly on point on stage. Good times and lots learned. Felt like a very different approach to live music on the continent.

I’m amazed Scott’s bass lessons hasn’t covered this.

Back at it after a weekend off, with Nine Lives at The Railway Club in Keith. A weird one - I wasn't feeling 100%, had been fighting a lurgy for the past few days but had got myself to the "you'd be well enough to go to work" type state so I decided to go for it. Unfortunately, it wasn't very busy - probably an effect of the Greece vs. Scotland game being live on the Beeb. Things got a bit better in the second half, we had people sporadically come through from the bar area to see us for a few songs then bog off back to the bar. Yet we were still treated to some chair dancing and acrobatics/tumbling. How odd! It was more interesting from the gear point of view, as this was the first time I had taken my Jack Casady out to a gig since I finally got a replacement coil and fitted it. Happy to report that it is back to its normal self - capable of generating feedback, but in a controlled way (instead of reacting simply to being in the same room as a not very loud amp, as was when the dodgy coil was in there). There was a sustained note for 4 bars during one song during which the JC did a lovely slow feedback buildup - became noticeable around bar 2 and built up gracefully (and quite musically) but never to annoying levels. Chopped it dead at the next bar. Loved it. My JC is back doing its JC thing. Gear was the Epiphone gang (Jack Casady then Thunderbird) into the cubist wasps.

It was my second gig of the double header weekend last night. A dep spot with a band I've played with before. Great bunch, very relaxed and very welcoming of the 'new guy' when I first played with them. Last night they also had a dep singer so I wasn't the newbie anymore. It was a golf club Christmas dinner, so quite formal and posh but we were looked after by the club - a tab behind the bar (being gig teetotal, I was gutted but ultimately it's the thought that counts). I decided to use my ungigged Ibanez SR300 and my ungigged Valeton GP5 into the FX return on my well gigged Peavey Minimax 600 and the pair of TE 1x10 cabs. Also present - Sine effect H24 HPF and Joyo wireless transmitter/receiver. At the last minute I was offered a lift by the guitarist and had to leave my spare bass (Ibanez EHB1000s) behind as it wouldn't fit into his car with all the other kit. I expect you can see where this is leading. In my defence, your honour, although half the kit was ungigged, I'd been practicing with it at home a for about two weeks so it was all tested. The singer turned up late and although he seemed a decent chap, he had been expressing concerns about half the setlist ('I haven't sung that one', 'I don't know the words to that one' etc) to the band in the days leading up to the gig. So in the soundcheck before he arrived, I had a go at singing 'Sultans of Swing', only the second time I'd sung it in front of a band. I remembered 80% of the words and was about 80% in tune that was deemed good enough in the cirumstances.😂 Three songs into the set, with the audience up and dancing, I started to notice that the volume from the amp was fading slowly up and down from the full gig volume to about half over about 10 seconds. My first thought was that I'd hit an unexpected patch on the GP5 ('Slow, Annoying Trem' or similar) but the GP5 was set on the Ampeg patch I'd set up for the night. Then I started to smell something burning. The Minimax is on it's way out, I thought. No problem, I can DI. But someone in the audience had knocked over a candle and it had smouldered on one of the napkins for a bit. Meanwhile the slow tremolo was now speeding up a bit and my bass was spending more time quiet than at gig volume. I reasoned that the battery on the bass was going and as I was due to start 'Keep On Running' with the bass riff, I called a time out. While the rest of the band played a longer intro with the guitarist covering the riff, I changed the battery. I managed to get through the song but the problem was still there. I didn't have any time to do a 'one thing at a time' test of the signal chain so between songs, I got rid of everything between bass and amp, plugged into the amp's 'proper' input with a cable and to my great relief, finished the set without any problems from my side. There were a few dodgy moments with the singer not knowing/forgetting/making up lyrics but nothing that couldn't be dealt with. 'Sultans' went well (by now I'd remembered 95% of the lyrics and scored 90% on the 'in-tune-o-meter') and got a good response from the audience. I even got a bonus on top of my fee from the band - presumably for stepping up to sing, or perhaps entertaining them with the harried, rabbit-in-the-headlights look I had as I tried to sort my problems out. This morning will be taken up with identifying the culprit, taking it into the garden, beating it with a baseball bat and burying it. My suspicion is that the Valeton was playing up, as apart from it and the Ibanez all the other components of the chain have been played 'live'. I was using the wireless transmitters at the previous night's gig with no problems. Another option is that there is some strange interaction between the Valeton and the H24 or the H24 and the FX in on the Minimax. Although the bass wasn't the issue, as the problem developed it would have been reassuring to have the spare just in case. As an advocate of bringing a spare to gigs, I hang my head in shame at the lapse. Ironically, the SR300 was purchased with a view to it being a light weight spare itself. You will be relieved to hear that my footwear of choice - black Skechers - performed admirably throughout the night. EDIT: In testing this morning, I was unable to recreate the problem but suddenly the sound cut out completely. Replacing the cable from H24 to the FX Return on the Minimax with the one I used to plug directly into the amp last night fixed it. I suspect I have my culprit. Found 'Not Guilty'.

First gig of a double header for me this weekend was the annual Crown Court Christmas Party with the Hulla band. Our singer is a barrister and so we get the Court gig every year - they actually ask for us! You could say we are called to the bar. But you probably wouldn't. It was a new venue for us at the Bay View hotel on the Swansea seafront. With the wind and rain last night, the view of the bay was mostly large waves and spray. We're a 13 piece so the set up was quite tight but we're used to it. After the soundcheck there was time for a swift ice cream at the nearby Joe's Ice cream parlour (given the weather, the staff were surprised out our late evening arrival). The venue was an odd shape - the building has been a pub and hotel since the mid 1800s and occupies the end of a street that joins the main road at an angle. At the junction end it is very narrow but it expands in a wedge back away from the main road. Inside there are pillars and several areas divided by bits of wall and single or double steps. From a sound perspective, it seemed as if it would be a nightmare with the pillars getting in the way of the throw of the PA tops and the 'dance area' in front of the band was about the size of a couple of commemorative postage stamps. In actual fact, the sound was very good and there wasn't the nightmare sound reflections that we anticipated. Instead, the nightmare reflections came from a big mirror behind the bar in which I was able to watch myself in all my performing glory during the soundcheck. I stepped to one side for the actual gig as it was very off-putting. The place was closed for the private party so our audience was around 60-70 people. Most started off in the little area in which the food was being served but as we started to play the dance floor filled up (3 people) and the dancing spilled over into every available space, included that reserved for the neck and headstock of the bassist (I was on the far left of the band line up). What looked like a lively and dancing bassist was actually me trying not to batter members of the legal profession as they laid their moves down. 30 songs and 2.5 hours later we finished with Hey Jude. I think the singer would have gone on and on but his voice was decidedly croaky and much to the relief of the rest of us (and perhaps the remaining audience) we came to a halt. It was a very local venue for me so I was home 10 minutes after I left. Kit for the night was my Sterling 34HH through a board - MS60b for tuner and noisegate > NUX Sculpture compressor > NUX Voodoo Vibe (only for the end of Hey Jude) > Ampeg SCRDI and into the desk. Monitoring for me was via a Behringer P16m fed from the X32 desk and into a Gear4Music wireless system with KS Z10 earphones. Footwear were slightly damp (from our visit to the ice cream parlour) black Skechers.

Warmoth custom neck baseball bat rpofile, ebony board and bound, Allparts bound body curiously relic'd by previous owner.... Dimarzio PAFs, Gotoh Lollipops, Kiogon circuit, LaBella DTs. It sings, first rehearsal in anger tomorrow evening 👍

Hometown gig in a converted church that I've played before, nicer onstage sound than previous times. A few mistakes but a well received generally enjoyable gig. I've used a Peavey vb2 810 fridge for my last 3 gigs, this one and the 2 previous tour supports we did. The fridge was purchased for the usual blue book £100 for a non Ampeg 810: it's the 3rd 8x10 I've owned and I maintain that despite science going in the opposite direction they can be a good, cheap viable solution for certain situations. Obviously it wouldn't have worked when I was doing pub / club covers and probably not ideal for everyone. When I found out the bookings we had this year I either had to get an additional 2x12 neo GK cab or go on a different tangent. I flogged the GK and bought the fridge for half of what I got for it...I can rethink things in the future if needed. Fair to say that the 810 with the GK head is like a 3.5 litre v8 ticking over and never gets shouty; the volume is at the volume of the drumkit ( I'm enjoying playing with a more energetic drummer after playing with a sedate one for a few years) and one guitarist plays big chords while the other plays a bass 6. So I need to really ground the music, giving an illusion of being an octave below the bass 6. The tilt and roll drill with the fridge is pretty workable too, I struggle more with 4x10s tbh. My first gig with LaBella flats. Not wild about them on their own but great in the band mix, really full and consistent. The higher tension seems to work well too, nice to play.

We took our southern rock covers band to Trillians, a small independent venue in the centre of Newcastle. This venue has in-house PA and engineer. We took our Behringer XR18 to run our IEMs using a passive split. Gearwise, I used my Overwater 5 string jazz, Shure GLXD16+, Empress compressor, Jad Freer Capo, and SushiboxFx Finally DI. I did have my Ashdown ABM 500W 1x15 combo on stage but that was more for show due to the aforementioned in-house PA and our IEMs. Despite being down a fiddle player, we still had a great night and the punters seemed to enjoy themselves with the venue full from the get go. One of those gigs you wish you could play every week 😎

My final show of 2025 was also a debut at Devizes’ White Bear, a famously haunted 15th century coach house. Dubbed as “The White Bear before Christmas”, our visuals guy had declined doing a Jack Skellington type poster design due to copyright. I admire his principles. Having lost our other regular payer, I had high hopes to make this a good show. The vibe was very friendly and our hard push across all of our social media platforms paid off. Loads of familiar faces showed up. I did a walk around prior to going on, giving out band badges. I was playing mandocello, my Precision bass, mandolin and guitar. We decided to dress extra smart to make it more of an event. Nick’s legendary 86yr old mum came down to support us (again) and told me afterwards that we just get better. The landlady was extremely happy and said the whole pub was blown away, even the people in the back bar that I wasn’t convinced we’d win over. We have a couple of super fans who have been to the last few shows who showed up. It looks like we’re back for our 2026 album launch in the spring. A definite success.

In the past I've found it useful to play along to drum rudiments. I also trg to vary my rhythm when playing certain songs. Perhaps most of us don't think about naming rhythms or consciously learning them, perhaps shuffles and bo diddley... or just play along to different drum machine rhythms without actually breakingthem down. I was listening to 'Add to Playlist' earlier and they mentioned Samba rhythm. It made me think 'how is a samba constructed?' I found this short video interesting: Spoiler: it does not mention samba...

Our first time playing at the Gate in Hugglescote. It looks like they have entertainment fairly regularly, but not with bands with a drum kit. It was a bit tight, so much so that the drummer sat on the bench instead of his stool and had no room for a floor tom. That made for a few chuckles on the occasions he forgot and hit on thin air 😂 I never find it fun having to move every piece of kit six times while setting up, like a sliding tile puzzle. A bit unusually for a Saturday night pub gig they wanted us to start at 7pm. As we expected it was a little thin on the ground when we started but soon got busier. The Rumble had to go on the bench. I don't normally have it up high like that, so it made for a different experience and I tried not to be too self-conscious being able to hear every little thing. A good night was had. Some dancing. A lot of compliments, and it turns out there were quite a few musos there too. Most importantly my black DMs looked great, having polished them this morning 😂

Just got back in from depping on a gig as part of a big fundraising evening for a blood cancer charity in Leicester’s Winstanley House. Lovely venue, huge room. Pretty late gig, starting at 10pm, but people were still up for a dance and it was pretty lively. Got completely lost in the dark trying to get out (I’ve only lived in Leicester for 20 years….) and was gonna find a McDonald’s on way home but it was super late and I couldn’t be bothered. Gear was my old vintage P bass with its new Labella DTB flats, thru the usual Markbass traveller rig and pedal board. Flatwounds have been the sound in my head for a while for this sort of material and tho I took a BB bass with me I only used it for the final song. Footwear was by Clarks. Black jeans by M&S.

Just got myself this little beauty today. Had been looking for a 7-pounder (or under) and this came up at exactly 7lbs. Although it’s heavier than my Superlight TT I’m finding that playing full scale basses standing up is becoming a bit of a stretch hence my search. Got it from Guitar Village, my first time of dealing with them which I have to say was excellent. Sounds and plays beautifully, as I’d expect. I’m not really into fake relicing or blocks but somehow these just seem to really suit this bass.

Played a private members club last night, didn’t know what to expect as they normally have old school R&B and classic rock type acts. Still they seemed to enjoy it and got another booking for next year so all’s good. Had a major faux pas just before soundcheck when I discovered I’d packed the wrong strap, the one without strap locks, had to do a quick dash home (fortunately only 5 miles on this occasion)…..I found out how nippy the go kart mode was on the Mini Cooper S. Starry night shorty stingray and the normal silver converse. Banana between the 2 sets and a post gig Glen Morangie.

Had a fantastic gig last night. Small social club but it was packed. First set went well but no one dancing. Plenty of clapping though. 3 songs in to the second set, we played Valerie. Suddenly about 30 people started dancing, and they were up for the rest of the night. A good vibe on and off stage. Now the issue i had. We use an XR18 with an external 5Ghz router. It’s been fine up until the last two gigs. Mixing station on the iPad keeps freezing up, or rather lagging, and it’s hit or miss if we can trust it. The iPad isn’t losing connection, and there wasn’t many WiFi connections showing up at this venue to be causing an obvious issue. My Drummer couldn’t even connect to the XR18 from his phone. The plan is now to use Ethernet from the iPad to the router. We will keep the WiFi going but i feel safer with a wired connection. The XR18 itself was fine, no drop outs etc. I’m tempted to also get a new router but I’ll try the cable first.

We had a crowd, however it was awkward.Nice room, nice stage and sound. We bought our own lighting. Like I said this place is more for the Saturday night party bands. There were a few "screw ups" musically . Good paying gig and some nice tips. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BTJQAGVN2/ https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17qH8nAp5f/ Daryl

Just back from a 70th birthday gig at a local rugby club with the Andy Wales Band. We’d played for the same chap’s birthday last year so knew the venue etc (seemed to be dark, wet and windy last time we were loading in too come to think of it). I was feeling pretty ropey from my flu jab two days ago, and have also managed to do something to my lower back which made lifting and turning impossible but luckily the other two fellas helped me unload and set up the PA etc. I wasn’t able to move much during the gig due to the back problem but musically it went pretty well. Swapped out some of the slower stuff for more upbeat tunes to keep the dance floor busy. Drove home v slowly in very thick freezing fog which was nice. But I came home to the jackpot - leftover Chinese food from my missus’ meal which I’d missed earlier in the night, and Dire Straits Live Alchemy on Sky Arts. All is well once again. Gear: the usual. Yamaha BB604, Little Mark head and two traveller cabs, pedal board and my Mackie / Allen and Heath PA. PS I’m in no hurry to go to bed as I suspect my back is not going to be happy once it’s cooled down and had eight hours of inactivity to stiffen up.

We played a new venue last night, the Palace Place social club in Paignton. They have a PA, but the monitors were elsewhere so we took our desk and monitors and plugged into their amp. The room was quite tall and we needed to dial back on the higher frequencies to control the sound. My bass rig was filling the room nicely and didn't need much FOH, but the guitar did. A decent FOH and stage sound sorted and we blasted through our 2 sets. This club is near an old favourite pub which has changed landlord and direction, so we are not playing there anymore. We will secure more gigs here so that keeps us busy enough. They were pleased to have us and suggested coming down when it is quieter and setting up with their system and digital desk and monitors so we can just plug and play for the next gig. We didn't have a lot of time last night for that. Quite a few people who used to see us in Paignton came last night now we are back in town. My usual rig of StingRay, RM500 evo II & BF 210. Shoes were my new Skechers slip on' which are super comfy.

I have officially joined the club. Here's my new (to me) 1985 BB1100S. My first Yamaha, first vintage bass and my first Japanese made bass and its really very nice. This is the one @Burns-bass shared the link for.

Thanks Stub. Herea link to us performing Ohio last year.

I played out at a local pub called the primrose in Leeds last night. It's a night where they put on five bands and so we got a 35 minute set and feels like a Leeds rite of passage . There was an old Peavey bass amp provided but I took along my rumble 500 and I was glad because the sound from the peavey was pretty mushy and muffled. I took my sire V7 because I find that it gives me a nice crisp tone without being quite as in your face as a stingray. The music in our band is funk rock so I need something that this going to sound nice when slapped. I also just got a boss me 90 b on Thursday and so I had set up a load of patches because on one of the songs I switch between a clean sound and an octave pedal and then distortion and then octave and distortion. I had foolishly added a bit of envelope filter to the clean octave sound and when I played it at gig volume it was definitely a bit too much top end. Oops, I'll join the me90b discussion later on the appropriate thread... The first band on were a very tight rock band with a female singer, bassist playing a p with flats very nicely. Our set went pretty well with the usual issues with speeding up when we get excited and the guitarist struggled a bit with his guitar dropping out of tune all the time I think next time we need to get the guitar out of the case in advance so it can get used to the temperature in the room. The PA was a bit muffled though which doesn't really work for the hip hoppy lyrical delivery and my partner said that when I spoke through the microphone she couldn't make out what I was saying so definitely the PA was just not quite right. Shame because we have been practicing three part harmonies for a while and I think they probably got lost in the mush. I also tried a Bluetooth wireless set up my dad lent me and it worked great. The band after us were a four-piece metal act called 6 foot under with a fantastic front man and really talented musicians, in particular the guitarist who had that trait of sounding amazing but looking like he was barely moving his hands. I'm not really into metal at all anymore but I appreciated their musicianship and the show. They even gave out Yorkshire tea bags with their qr code on it! All in all a fun night out, just a shame there weren't that many people out to listen.. I wore my altra lone peak trainers as always.