Leaderboard

I've been a little neglectful of this thread whilst being away this summer... but the project is complete! Here's a few progress shots... Body stripped and prepared: Primed! Looking waaaay too blue! Ready for go faster stripes Stripes done Big chunk out of the fretboard... Seamlessly repaired... i can't even find it in person. New frets whilst we're at it. And here we go... she's done! Here she is with my other recent acquisition... a 1967 Hofner! I couldn't be happier... she sounds stunning and plays so well. The one I've been looking for for a long time! Going out for our first festival outing together tomorrow (Monday), if anyone is at Twinwood this weekend! https://www.eternal-guitars.com/... I can't recommend Dave highly enough. We've had so many geeky chats about the minor details on this, and it's turned out better than i hoped. His own instruments are stunning too.

Hi there, Thanks for your messages, Nick's memorial gig was phenomenal, grateful for Grainger guitars and all there support for our family. The weather held out and the everyone rocked there hardest for our big bro 💚🤟🎸 I dropped a couple of notes but managed to get to the end of my song!

Not till this Sunday when I pick it up but just got the pics from Alan of my newly built RSK 5/35 and the weekend now can't come quick enough!!

I've had worse weekends

A trip from Tyneside across the other side to Liverpool for another Eagles tribute gig. Big brewery / shed type venue - lovely room, lovely staff, top-drawer PA & techs. No monitors, so had to grin and bear IEMs. Still don't love them. New MIJ Jazz - with new pickups - continues to be my friend.

Just a bit of an update, and a huge thank you to everyone who commented or reacted. With just one gig in the diary and with a regular venue switching to an agent, we have called time on the band. The singer started off a little defensive (as you would expect) but did see that it was right in the end. He admitted that some gigs completely wipe him out and he has good and bad days more generally. We all wish that it was not so, but to carry on (in front of 'strange' crowds) would expose him to criticism (and possibly even ridicule) and that would be far worse. We will bow out on 7th October. More importantly, we are parting as chums. Thanks again for the support people have given. This is a remarkable place - and this is demonstrated so often here.

So, Bought this on a well known selling platform a few days ago. It was a warehouse find, and was reasonably priced. Received a call from the seller after order placement to tell me the neck was unserviceable. Just happens that I've a spare Fender 70s neck here, so I gave an offer for everything, thinking I'd fit my own neck. Well, it's arrived in 1/2 hour ago with the original neck. It's fine. Like, it plays lovely. The electrics are pretty crackily, but I'll fit solderless controls / pots that I have lying around. So I really don't know what the craic is with the supposed knackered neck, but I've scored this for a very, very good price. Feeling lucky today, as I've always been after a Fender with block inlays. Cheers

This afternoon.. a bit of a special one for me - I gigged with my son for the first time ever. He's 13, the rest of the band are 15/16, but they're pretty accomplished for their age. An afternoon stuffed with proud Dad moments.

Hey everyone! I’ve followed Bass Chat for a number of years but only just joined the community properly. My name’s Dan, and I’ve been playing bass for around 20 years. I’m lucky enough to work in the music industry through my own music studio and events company, and I also play in a few different bands. Earlier this year, I was fortunate to join the artist rosters for both Blackstar and Alpher Instruments, which has been a real highlight for me. Over the years I’ve owned more basses than I can count, but lately I’ve found myself gravitating more and more toward short scales. My JMJ Mustang has actually stuck with me longer than most others, which says a lot! I’m a huge advocate for short scales—not just for their mojo and unique vibe, but also for how playable they are. One thing worth mentioning is that I developed a tendon issue in my right hand about 3–4 years ago (likely from overplaying). Because of that, longer-scale instruments aren’t always an option for me, but the lower tension of short scales means I can still play comfortably for much longer. So, I’m partly here to say hi, and partly to share my appreciation for short scales. Really looking forward to being part of the conversation!

Saturday night was a trip to London to play the legendary What's Cookin', for my friend Rich Davies and his band The Dissidents. I've been part of the band since 2016 and we have kept the same lineup throughout. They are all insanely good players and I like the fact that this keeps me on my toes. We had one rehearsal and I spent the week going through the set at home as we don't play live often and Rich had changed some keys of songs. I'd initally thought of bringing my Rickenbacker but midweek decided to change to my long scale Hofner Verythin bass. Rich wanted me to bring my Blackstar rig but I hate London load ins so when I found out there was a house rig, I was happy to use that. Having travelled up with the keyboard player, we arrived in good time, only to find out our drummer was not so fortunate. We wound up sound checking without him whilst a kit sharing support band quietly twitched! Thankfully he arrived and we got all set up. The nice thing was I had a bunch of old mates show up, including a singer I worked with for 10yrs, a roadie from a previous band and the guy who does the videos in my main band. We went on and just killed it. Due to the tube strike, the venue was quieter than usual but respectably half full and all eyes were on the band. Props to the support act who danced at the back throughout our set. The downside was that an accident on the M25 meant I got in at 3.15am but it was a superb evening.

The strap button, presumably.

Just got in from a Knock Off gig, supporting Therapy? at 229 Club London. Journey up not too bad, and managed to get parking right outside the door - result. Great backstage area where we could chill before and after the gig. Signal chain was Fender US Precision, via BOSS WL20L into my Sansamp, with my RM500 as a power amp. Therapy? kindly allowed us to use their cabs so I went into an Eden 810, so with that and monitors no trouble hearing myself. Therapy?s monitor mix was perfect for us too so soundcheck was one song and sorted. On at 7:45, for a 45min set, venue holds 600, probably 500 watched us. Being a streetpunk/Oi band we’re not really on the same scene but we went down very well, many people coming up to us afterwards saying how much they liked us and how well we complimented Therapy?, being not just a clone but offering something different. Footwear was my Vans trainers.

Think it's my first post of a gig, so here goes! Overview: I was asked to dep Friday afternoon for 2 gigs at the weekend, by a band a mate is in, but I'd never rehearsed with them. 30+ songs in the set, most were familiar too me as a listener, but I'd not played 80% of them before. Charts of a sort** were provided as PDFs. Tablets fine on stage. I'm not a fluent notation reader. Many non-original keys and arrangements. Cue, intensive learning over 24 hours. It was a very challenging couple of gigs, lots of things that could go wrong, did go wrong with songs, gear, tech, etc. Learnt again to hang in there, trust my ears, play for the band and get through it. Overall a great experience. VID20250824205002.mp4 Venue: A big bar in Skegness Band: an 8-piece Soul & Motown covers band Structure: 2 Sets of 15 songs each, plus encores. 9pm start. Pay: not enough 🤣 Gear: 5-string Jazz (Lakland Skyline JO5) wireless to my pedalboard, out to my amp (Ampeg BA-210v2) and DI to the band mixer for IEMs. ** Mostly lyrics with chords, tab or notation snippets of key riffs, a few songs only with full notation, some without any, some with a fingered key (say A), but drop Eb, so output key is really Ab so necessary to transpose on the fly, silent parts not consistently shown, key changes, etc..

Today I made a 440 mile round trip to collect a bass that has just been completed by Mr.Jon Shuker. It's a bit too late to take any photos, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. It's similar to the one below, but the neck is narrower and more figured, it has different knobs, is #8 of 10 and is signed by JJ. Pick-up's are in house built, as are JJ's now. After years, probably more like decades, of avoiding Precisions because I found the necks a bit chunky, in 2021 I decided to order a JJ Sig with a J neck (build thread here). I have since used this exclusively in my main band and Queen tribute and it's been absolutely faultless. The Zenith promises to be equally as good and almost unbelievably, it seems to be lighter than my first one. Thanks once again to @Dood for turning my gaze towards Jon's basses in the first place (I'm sure Jon is a member here, but I can't remember his tag). Whilst at Shuker HQ, I also saw the two pieces of spalted maple which will form the top of my next Precision build and they look stunning too. If any of you are looking for a quality hand built Precision (other models are available) that won't require a second mortgage, give Jon a look at Shuker Guitars.

Back with an enhanced version of Deadlight Dance yesterday, and once again we were joined by our drummer from our Sixth Form band, Mike. This was for a street party in the road my band mate lives in. I had my trusty long scale Hofner Verythin bass but was mixing it up with several on the Gold Tone (AKA Goth Tone) Mandocello and even a couple on guitar and a couple on mandolin. I was going through my Boss BCB60 with the Boss IR2 at the end of the chain. I was telling the story of how we filmed our zombie apocalypse video in this very road, in a very light hearted way - see Infectious for details - when that Government text alert went off! You couldn’t make it up and it was a genuine comedy moment. We played well. We picked up some travelling fans from the last gig and even sold a few CDs. It was also an absolute pleasure to hang out with two of my oldest friends.

Hi everyone. Got together with @warwickhunt, @cd_david and Tim yesterday for a bit of a plunk and natter. Here's some pics.

Look Morrissey you’ve asked once and the answer is still no 😝

Three (!) gigs this weekend Friday was the Cantina Band at the Vaults in Knowle for guitarist Steve's 50th. A good laugh, a decent turnout, Steve insisted nobody drive so we could all have a few drinks and who am I to argue? One of his daughters (14? or 15?) joined us on drums for 5 or 6 songs, she's really good! She made the mistake of knowing the songs and playing them properly, which really threw the rest of us. His other daugter (11? or 12?) joined us to sing A-P-T, which was great, she gave it loads! We also had a friend of the band on additional guitar so Steve could go and have a few (more) drinks. Mrs StingRayBoy came, she loved it which is always nice... I joined her on the "dancefloor" for the last song, first time I've ever smooched someone while playing. Played the Sterling -> small board -> Amp board -> Mark CMD 121p, Silver/Gold glittery Converse. Saturday was Azura (3 piece) at O'Neill's Leicester. Dep drummer (Little Nige) who's been gigging since I was a glint in the Milkman's eye, lovely bloke, great drummer. Good gig, bit seat of the pants, usual drunken rabble... one bloke thought we were Grandad, Father and Son (The ages are about right, to be fair), we played Happy Birthday to three people (all at the same time (Alison and two others whose names escape me)), we did 'I'm a hog for you baby' which Little Nige sang - great song and a ton of fun to play. First outing for my (Basschat purchased) LD IEMs which worked flawlessly - happily, the band use the same system so I didn't even have to set up the transmitter. Went for a wireless wander for the encore (Don't look back in anger (Don't judge me, it's a Saturday night pub gig)) which was an absolute hoot. Same setup (and footwear) as Friday. A good night, except I didn't get home until gone 3 o'clock. Sunday Afternoon was the Sax Pistols at the King's Arms in Cleeve Prior. How the BL finds these gigs, I'll never know... tiny little village with about four houses (and the King's Arms) It was a 'reopening under new ownership' type affair, a good few people there, we went down well, we played OK, we sounded pretty good. The whole band (apart from the drummer) use wireless mics, so there was plenty of strolling about, especially for 'Tequila' and 'Minnie the Moocher' which is always fun and goes down well. There was a Delorean there! (Weirdly, Mrs StingRayBoy had seen a different Delorean on the M5 about two weeks ago) Oh, and two blokes dressed as Spiderman (He's a web designer... he sorts out the bugs) and Superman for some reason. I went off charts for the first time, not entirely unsuccessfully. Played the Sousaphone, wore the same Converse. A good weekend!

A multi-band charity fund raiser for Dorothy House hospice, for us today. We planned to play an originals only set of Gothic rock with me dusting down my USA 2008 Jazz bass. I have been struggling with the lack of bottom end from J-basses but the addition of the Boss GE-7 to my board was hopefully going to fix this. I also added the Boss IR-2 as I often go ampless. First band on really struggled against a rogue sub-woofer and we immediately started to twitch about our set. Thankfully the second band sounded much better. We took our time setting up on the back of the truck. We’ve added little bits of finesse like roses around the mic stands and burning incense onstage (typing that, I realise it sounds pretentious but it does make a difference to the presentation and it was remarked afterwards that we are very professional in our approach). I thought we played well. The sound was fairly reasonable and my bass sounded immense. My wife said my vocal was getting stronger and we had a fair few compliments - comparisons to Joy Division and Bauhaus, without being derivative - which I will gladly take! One member of the audience hadn’t seen us since school and was very complimentary. A great day and a solid show.

Played a Wedding gig in the beautiful Surrey Hills yesterday. Packed with beautiful, horsey ladies in flowing summer dresses and, doh, their dumb other halves in polo shirts and tight trousers ending mid calf with NO socks and loafers... 🤦‍♂️ Played my Betsy with the GK Legacy and LFSys Monaco so sounded fab as usual.👍😎 Spent most of the night fending off huge hornets that liked the lights above our heads, which kinda ruined our performance vibe a little though.....!! 🐝🐝🐝🐝

Well, this is a NBD thread I honestly didn't expect to make. Some of you might know that back in September 2024, I set myself a challenge - to achieve a "giggable" bass in a £150 budget - new parts only, ignoring postage costs. The core component of this challenge was a bass I spied and really liked the look of - the Fazley Hot Rod - a no-nonsense, pickguardless FSO, reverse P, volume only. Bax are the only vendors of these as far as I could see so even though they were out of stock and on back order, I laid down £84 for the bass. Yes. £84. Unfortunately, most people know the story now - Bax went bankrupt in early 2025. Womp womp. And you know how it is with companies going bust - the customers are at the back of the queue when it comes to making things right, so honestly I had written it off. But, Bax coughed back into life after being bought over. Then I started getting emails suggesting that they would be honouring past orders. I was sceptical, but I played along, answered any questions I was asked (confirming the order details, and a bit later on asking if I still wanted to wait, or take store credit). I opted to wait and have the order fulfilled as originally intended. Well, would you believe it? Look what arrived this morning... I tell you something for nothing - there's a lot of bass here for £84 (well back in September last year they were, they're £94 now - oh no!). It's the neck which surprised me the most - absolutely no raggedy fret ends, and even a very slight attempt to roll the edges of the fretboard. No swarf in the nut. Tuners are serviceable - not the smoothest turning but no play in the gears. Bridge is a BBOT - it works, nothng more. The only places I could see where money had been saved are in the finish - it's a bit uneven in places (but you have to look closely in the light to see the unevenness) and then the pickup. The stock pickup is comically low in output - I was giving it a test in my Tascam Bass Trainer and with the input level set to 10 (the maximum) the Fazley was barely getting to half way on the input monitor! Of course, the stock strings are hot garbage, thin, rougher than Rotos and went straight in the bin. In probably the quickest time from receiving a bass to replacing the pickup (about an hour and a half) I had the stock strings in the bin, the fretboard oiled (because it looked as dry as a camel's hoof) and the stock pickup out and a Tonerider Duke in there. What a difference! Much better output. The stock strings weren't giving the truss rod much to do - after I put my beloved D'addario XL nickel rounds on it, the neck was a banana and I had to tighten the truss rod three quarter turns! Further tweaking may be required, but I gave it a quick and dirty setup and now it's playing great. So that means so far I've spent £119 (£84 bass and £35 pickup), leaving £31 in the budget. I was expecting to have to change the bridge and/or the tuners, but in all honesty they have been unobtrusive and perfectly serviceable. Which leaves more room in the budget for some silliness/extra credit. I think I will fit one of my preferred Sire/Reverend style 3 string retainers, and I will fit a silly knob - which was the plan originally, but I stole the one I ordered and put it on the Epiphone Em-bassy (which I got when I was sure that this one would never materialise). EDIT - because people like to know - this particular bass weighs 3.6kg - or a smidge under 8lbs.

BLOCKBUSTARZ at Lilliardsedge Caravan Park for the Hot Rods in the Borders weekend. Another great night was had. 3 yrs in a row we've been asked back by the Hot Rods guys which is nice. 2 x 45min sets that ended up a bit longer 9 - 10pm and then 10:15 - 11:30pm. Very warm on stage, sound wasn't quite perfect but sounded ok out front. We had problems with the drum channels on the desk and decided to just leave them out and play raw along with bass and guitar backline only. Only vocals thru our desk and the venues PA which is always a risky business but it works. Very busy night, all seats taken with every table full and standing at the back of the hall. Its actually a permanent marquee tent they have. Nice set up but stage is hollow and does create a boom so used my Gramma board last night. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. There is some doubt about whether the Hot Rods will run the event next year but organiser for the Park who books us said she would be happy to have us back next year same time provided the event goes ahead. Decided to give the Godin bass a run out and it has a wonderfully deep warm P type tone that i have to admit was very nice IMO. It was in PJ mode all night, both pick ups selected. Godin bass, Shure wireless, Keeley Bassist comp, Mesa TT800 Boogie channel, Mesa SW210/115 cabs. Sandberg VM4 as back up. Really quite liked that Godin tone tho and its a really nice bass to play with a narrow neck very similar to the VM4 but having that typical old Fender-ish tone it kinda suits the music more than the VM4 which has a modern tone in comparison. I believe Godin had Seymour Duncan produce the pick ups for them. 1.5hrs drive home along quiet country roads made for an easy drive home but my eyes were starting to get tired. Home for 2:30am by the time i unloaded the car, quick coffee and a bit of TV before bed at 3am, back up at 6am with a cat bumping heads with me to get fed. Today will be a quiet sleepy day. Dave

We opened the Swindon Shuffle’s Friday Night at The Castle in Old Town last night. Arriving in good time to see the headliner’s soundcheck, I was immediately taken by the bassists sound. Very dubby. He had his back to me and when he turned around, he was playing with a pick, right up by the bridge! It was a Genz Benz amp and every time I hear one of those, they sound fantastic. We were the first of five bands and I think were given this slot as we’re just a duo. I would be too polite to argue but a few people suggested we should have been higher up the bill. In many respects though, it was one of the better slots. I had my 2008 USA Fender Jazz that was going through my board. Doing as the soundman wanted, he had me go through the Genz Benz amp and it sounded great. We did an all original set with the keys / drums on the iPad. Some soundmen struggle, with this set up but the guy last night clearly knew his way around the desk and the sound both on and off stage was glorious. We let the music do the talking but still had a bit of banter with the audience. We held the audience throughout our 30 minute set, something some of the other acts didn’t manage. Introducing two new songs and a few favourites, the time flew. At the end, I thanked everyone, only for the track to loop and start up again. I quickly stopped it and said “So sorry, you didn’t ask for an encore!” which I think endeared us further. I thought we played well. My lead vocals (I am not the main singer) are definitely gaining confidence and I am falling in love with my Jazz bass all over. A great night.

Depping gig at Ashby Road Sports Club in Hinckley last night. Was particularly pleased to try out the bitsa P bass I’ve been working on for the last few weeks - from what I can tell it’s at least partly an oldish Squier Affinity. It sounded great. Not “vintage P bass” great but much in the same ball park and very usable indeed. I was planning to upgrade the pickups but tbh it sounds fine as it is. Weirdly my IEM sound was terrible - everything was just distortion which was so distracting I took them out after a couple of songs. Half time I swapped the lead, the batteries and the headphone amp itself, and reduced the volume of the mix coming into my monitor channel. But it still sounded awful - I suspect I may have blown something in my IEMs! So ended up playing without any monitors and just using the onstage sound, just like the old days. Good gig tho.

Last night was a gig with a difference, I knew almost everyone in the audience, it being one of the local walking football clubs I used to play at. The event was their annual summer dinner dance, but there's usually double the number of folks and tables. Because of the personal connection, I especially wanted the band to do a good job and for me to play well. Whether it was because of the extra banter and focus on me by the band and crowd, I was distracted and definitely didn't play as well as usual. Had a good laugh though! The venue is good, acoustics not bad and looking out into its golf course. Bit of a walk to get our gear round to the back door. The band wanted more folks there too obviously but the atmosphere was friendly and fun. All the gents had a lady with them. Small gear error. Left home in a rush and forgot the fly lead for my bass so, the wireless dongle went direct in the jack socket. We got to the venue at 7, played for nearly 3 sets with short breaks over 3 hours and away by half past midnight.

So I’ve been looking at vintage fender basses as I’m hankering after one and this which isn’t vintage came up and was too good to pass up. Its a 2013 Fender American Jazz Bass in beautiful nick, lovely weight and sounds brilliant. I wasn’t looking for a Jazz but oh well 😂 The serial number amused me too, it ends in 6666. Had to include it in a photo with my AV60 Precision too!

Fight all of them in a massive brawl, use as many weapons as is possible, I'd suggest swinging a ship's anchor around your head for maximum damage. Once everyone is sufficiently subdued tell them all it's their fault and that you're now going to take all their belongings and burn them in a giant fire followed by creating a commune where you are the leader and their families now live under your leadership. Or... just tell them honestly how you feel!

Private party in Southend on Sunday evening. It was for friends of one of our singers throwing a party before emigrating to Australia, so lots of Australian theme decorations, hats and inflatables in the venue. The venue itself is called ‘The Lounge Club’, a beautiful jazz bar with a decent well equipped stage area (including hidden power outlets), great lighting and green room - we were truly spoiled. The club has a mix of jazz and soul acts usually, with a number of tribute acts, so it quite fun to bring some heavier rock to the place. We brought our own PA, but the club owner said we could go through their house system, so we just run a couple of xlr leads out of our mixer direct to their patch bay and let them control the volume. Said system consisted of two huge subs either side of the stage and a couple of large tops flown from the ceiling. Quite a bit pokier than our megreat 12” tops and single 12” sub. Personally, I feel it needed a centre fill, but apparently it sounded great further away from the stage. I think they were calibrated a bit on the bossier side (as proven when the DJ played music when we took a break and finished - almost painfully loud and you could feel the bass in you stomach), I had to run the hpf on our mixer up to 90hz to stop it overwhelming the mix - it could possibly have gone even higher. As such I was worried that my IEM mix would be lacking, but it sounded fine with the subs filling in the low end. First set was a little lacking in audience participation, but by the time we kicked off the second set set everyone was sufficiently fuelled for a proper party. Really enjoyed this one. Just looking out to see a large club full of dancers throwing balloon and inflatables around was a sight to behold. It reminded my of the good old Top of the Pops days in the 70s and 80s. We had some lovely comments and gave our plenty of business cards, including the couple who booked us who said we were better than the £5k band they booked for their wedding. We really ought to be charging more for these events. Hopefully the venue will be able to recommend us to anyone else who wants to book a rock, pop and party band! Next stop, this Thursday at the Cricketers in Southend. A double header with another local covers band, in aid of the RNLI. Should be an interesting night.

Busy day yesterday so just sitting down to report on Friday night's gig for my covers band In Like Flynn. It's a new start-up by 4 experienced musicians and our gig count hasn't reached double figures yet. We were playing in the beer garden of the White Hart in Castle Cary for the second time in our short career. Nice venue recently taken over by proper people who you really hope will make a go of it. By the advertised start time of 7.30pm, the garden was full with a crowd spanning 3 generations (come to think of it, I span 3 generations on my own 🙂). Despite a few mistakes - annoying to us but probably not noticed by the punters - it was one of those gigs where we felt we'd reached that kind of comfortable plateau where the enjoyment of playing finally overcomes the anxiety of not being totally familiar with what you're doing. It was the first outing of my active Sandy s-s TM with its Aguilar upgrade through my Ampeg SVT 7 PRO + LFSys Monaco + Barefaced SC3. Absolutely amazing sounds with more than enough tonal flexibility to cover the wide range of stuff we do!! So that put a smile on my face from the sound-check to the final encore. The icing on the cake was that we got a booking for a private function. Life's good!! If you get a minute, visit https://www.inlikeflynnband.com/home and have a look at our show reel.

Second gig in a fortnight at a WMC near Bradford last night. We've played there before and went down well, so there was no reason to think last night would be any different, and so it proved to be. Our new songs are bedding in well, and the onstage sound was vastly improved over the previous gig so we could all hear each other and ourselves. Not a large venue so I went with the Elf as amp this time, and it sounded great, the first time I think I've used it for a gig since having the Sadowsky preamp in the Sire, and I'm definitely looking forward to doing that again. An appreciative but not lively crowd, apart from a hardy half dozen or so who were enthusiastically dancing at various points, with the other thirty-odd punters remaining resolutely glued to their chairs all night when they weren't at the bar. We lost a few towards the end but went down very well and have already been booked again for next July. A few minor mistakes, but we've become quite good at styling them out now so nobody noticed, it if they did they didn't mind. Back home to the joyous sound of our neighbours having a domestic. Which was nice. Obligatory "last night's office" photos below. I don't know why our guitarist insists on using that stand at every gig. Last night she was complaining that it was just firing at her arse all night so I don't know why she didn't just put the Katana on the stage like I did with my rig and save herself a foot of floor space.

The first photo was around 1983 when I was posing for a photo student friend, trying to copy a Stanley clarke album cover pose. I've never been a smoker and didn't enjoy puffing that cigar. In recent years I found that same bass listed on a French web site and resisting buying it. I was a guitarist back then, the bass was really an impulse swap when I tried to sell my Laney Klipp guitar head to a small second hand guitar shop. The more recent was taken at a gig where i was depping for a Bob Marley Tribute band.

I've been more than a bit smitten with my '95 Aguilar equipped Stingray, so you might say this is a natural addition... After selling off a few instruments over the last few weeks, I picked up this 2023 Stingray Special 5 in 'Smoked Chrome' yesterday. I first saw it when @lowregisterhead had it up for sale on here. I knew where it went, and traded a couple of instruments along with quite a few pictures of the Queen in order to acquire it yesterday. The setup was very good and curved accurately to the fingerboard as was, but I put 40-125 Elixirs on it last night, and today made some small adjustments, including raising the humbucker according to MM specifications. The Neodymium pickup still has the typical 'MM chewy sizzle' (yes, that's a technical term!) and looking over it, you can sort of see where the money has gone. I think MM are going the premium route these days, making less instruments, but really concentrating on top quality (and raising the prices considerably too!). The Special's new titanium tuners are much thicker and feel great in the hand, and the border between the glossed headstock & the oiled neck is utterly perfect. I've always liked basses with ebony fingerboards, too. Consider me suitably impressed!

https://www.leics.police.uk/news/leicestershire/news/2025/september/man-charged-with-fraud-offences-to-appear-in-court/?fbclid=IwdGRzaAMr9bNjbGNrAyv1TWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEe9KOKyYzb75zVeG1K57SVi-Nvq63U1Cw7mnABJETMLSDQPCJSCovaWHT1FfI_aem_eUKPZo5af_A8f6Jh7NfVtA

Not last night, but Friday night, played a rare live outing with The Inevitable Teaspoons at Krakatoa in Aberdeen. We played last ("headlining") and were treated to some fine acts first - Kaleidoscope and then Autohuman. No pics, it was a bit of a rushed changeover because as usual things ran on a bit. We played pretty well and went down favourably, heard someone describe us as "entertaining", and was speaking to the guitarist from Autohuman after and he was keen to do gigs with us again. It wasn't super busy, but there was an enthusiastic gathering of about 20 folk up front and probably 10-20 more skulking at the back, so eh, as long as it wasn't empty! Gear was the Greco LGB-700 three pickup bass into my pedalboard then out into Krakatoa's FOH, using a Markbass Little Mark Black Line 250W into an Ampeg fridge for monitoring. Because why not?

Just back from Stourbridge town hall where I played with the Phil Collins tribute, lovely old place and the audience and atmosphere were brilliant, decided on the GB Spitfire tonight, put lighter gauge strings on as a bit of an experiment. Had to push the low mids on the Tecamp puma and dial off a bit of the bottom end as it was sounding a bit ‘flubby’ , not tight and punchy how i like it, but after a good sound check everything was fine and nicely cut through as the show went along. My LFSYS Monza was fab as usual. Not very rock’n roll but enjoying a nice cuppa and a couple of bits of toast after a long drive back to West Sussex.

Well, better than last night, very little of the same problems of yesterday, but god was it hot! Luckily the club had some fans, but even so it was like a sauna. Not as well attended as some have been there, but for some reason the setup was easier, and I think we seemed to play much better. There were a couple of songs, Learn to fly, the singer decided to do the end part before the end which caused us an issue, and a few other fluffs, but nothing as major as that. At half time we found the guitarist that we had last year came to see us which was good to see him. I played the ric tonight, as I did last night, I really do like that bass live, apart from seven nation army, that is a bit shit for. Everything else it is great. Certainly going to feel it tomorrow though. And black Solovair boots, the broken ones. Oh I took the <£10 laser too..

A few photos of the actual bass. This one weighs just 6.7lbs! My other one feels like it's made of lead in comparison weighing in at 8.2lbs 😂.

Wet. Up early to drive to Lancashire from Surrey to play the Wafsville Country Music Festival. Traffic meant we arrived with 25 minutes to spare before going onstage, which was great in terms of not hanging around in a soggy field to be fair but we were slightly on edge… The rain set in as our set progressed so the crowd noticeably thinned as they sought the cover of the bar area at the back of the field. Onstage sound was very boomy, as it was out front apparently, so we came away feeling like we hadn’t quite played our best. But on the whole it was fun, the first full-band Katy Hurt gig since mid-July and we have another (much closer to home thankfully) in 2 weeks. Bass was of course the ACG, amp was the provided Ampeg SVT3 into a knackered 4x10 cab. Shoes were my brown suede Chelsea boots which now need a good drying 🤓

Friday was a local trio gig outdoors, which was an opportunity to stretch the legs of the Status Stealth 2 for a change. It's a little bit darker sounding than my main S2-Classic ['the wife'], but definitely has the required punch and snarl. Lovely crowd of mainly friends, but we did a lot of off the cuff audience requests, including a lot of songs we'd never played before. It all adds more material to the 35 year old evolving set, I guess. Saturday, just home from the Lark Hill Retirement Village (very posh place) in Clifton, near East Midlands Airport with the Everlys and Friends Live Tribute Show, so back to the staple Jazz Basses. Nice job, with the dance floor full all evening, so good result. Just home and heading for bed now. After two nice local jobs this weekend, next weekend is going to be full on globe trotting mode again. Starting in Birmingham on Friday, Gt.Yarmouth on Saturday, Yeadon in Leeds on Sunday afternoon, and Peterborough on Sunday evening. Phew! 🤪

Played to a packed out crowd at Didmarton Bluegrass festival. Lovely gig and people.

I've moved a couple of redundant basses over the last month and took a punt on this gorgeous Lakland 44-60. Cracking bass, first outing is rehearsal on Thursday 😊.

A while back, I found a hodgepodge with a Fender Roger Waters Precision Bass neck ‘deep in Wallonia’ for a véry good price, and I was already toying with the idea of adding a second P for a while. After some very intense searching, I stumbled on a dusty Italian webshop, where I found an Allparts PBF-CAR body (a colour that has been out of the range for a while). Then I started gathering some parts left & right, with the aim of creating a '64-'66 hybrid without breaking the back. A day with an assortment of screwdrivers, measuring devices and a soldering iron later, this is what came out. It's quite a fierce one. Where my white one with flatwounds sounds very warm and fat, this one sounds diametrically opposite: angry, fierce, raunchy and punchy. I'm happy with it... although I'm still itching for a neck with a veneer rosewood fingerboard, and that neck on a Slab66 body. With flatwounds on this one, and rounds on the '66. - Neck: Fender Roger Waters (44.5mm nut width, maple cap, vintage frets) - Tuners: Gotoh FB-30-LP (the full-size tuners with the large mounting plate) - Body: Allparts PBF-CAR (Alder. CAR with a silver-coloured undercoat) - Pickguard: Fender '62RI (stark white, not mint green) - Pickup: Fender Vintera II '60 (I was very surprised at how good those Vintera '60 P-basses sounded. The intention is to bake in a greybobbin in the future, but this pickup is also extremely good, much better than the Vintera '50) - Covers: Fender ‘Pure Vintage’ (I wouldn't be me if I didn't install measures to restrict playing freedom on my instrument, I just removed them for the photo-opp) - Bridge: Fender ‘Pure Vintage’ - Wiring: Homemade with CTS, clothwire, Orangedrop,...

Nice wee afternoon gig for us with the Glam band at Polmont Bowling Club. Sold Out too. To be fair it only holds 65 seated. 😂 Organiser was telling us they had a band in last night Sat and it was free entry but only 18 people turned up yet a Sun afternoon ticketed show and it sold out fast with many folks still asking for tickets after selling out. We have played it 3x before to be fair and it was full. Audience up for it from first song so that was great to see. Even the songs with no dancers we got a lot of applause and cheers at the end like Ziggy Stardust. Was very hot and sweaty even with my large fan. Left the house at 10:45am arriving 12 noon. Start time 3pm - 4pm then 4:30 to 5:45pm. Greggs sandwiches supplied too. All went well and home by 8pm via chippie. Used the Sandberg VM4 into Shure wireless and Keeley Comp then Handbox WB-100 and Barefaced 212 cab. Sounded very nice. Dave

The Zep tribute played at the Nightrain in Bradford on Friday night, a hometown gig for 60% of the band these days and the only one we're playing anywhere near locally all year. We hadn't played (or rehearsed) together for a month, so it a bit rusty but a pretty good performance overall. A few people reckoned it was a bit loud at the start of the set, although a muso mate of mine who was near the back reckoned it sounded awesome! First gig since the drummer got his driving ban, so the logistics were a bit of a challenge! I think the reality of the situation has started to affect him and he even managed to forget his bass drum pedal! Fortunately, there was one there we could borrow, so no harm done. Same rig as normal (Fender Jazz / Handbox amp / Berg cab) and the new Vans pigskin hitops got an outing! Before and after show pics:

Garden Party for us.

My dep last night went well. Hardest thing was many songs in different keys. Busy, noisy pub with dancing from the start. Plenty of room. A lot of songs I haven't done live before, a couple of older Beatles numbers for example, and Mama Mia. Cold as Ice by Foreigner and No Matter What by Badfinger are great songs I hadn't heard for ages I really enjoyed. Apparently I was a bit loud in the first half but corrected that in the second. Managed a few backing vocals. Had a message from the band saying I was 'brill' so that's nice.