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Just a quick 'Thumb's Up' and 'Hat's Off' to the Mod and Admin team for their too-often thankless and never-ending 'swatting' of all the Spam shït stuff that gets thrown at the BC wall, all too often. Good Job, folk. We (the BC Hive...) are grateful.

I don’t buy a lot of basses. In fact, I bought a CS Jazz some years back and haven’t bought a single thing since then. Mostly I’m happy with my lot. The Shuker gets a lot of play time - I mean, we’ve bonded me and that bass what with truss rod explosions and it being away at the hospital for a year… Anyway, I digress. I find myself in need of a bass with some flexibility. I need tonal variety, and I decided I needed 5 strings. I mean, nobody needs 5 strings, but still.. Then I found this bass. And I bought it. Like with my money. And it wasn’t cheap either! It’s a Mayones Custom 5 eye top walnut thing with too many knobs, and pickups the size of a small country. But I flippin’ love it. It’s got a 43mm nut and is a nice flat C profile. It’s light (for a 5’er) at 8lb 12oz. It has active/passive which means I can have a nice good old fashioned passive P, or a passive Stingray, or active versions and combinations of the above. The preamp is USB-C charged or 9v battery. The USB-C job is for a headphone amp built in. It’s got one of those bumpy resin-filled tops and a not smooth back, but the neck is rather smooth and lovely. I’ve stuck some Chromes on it and tweaked the setup and I have to say it’s one of the nicest playing or sounding fretted basses I’ve tried (can’t be upsetting the Shuker fretless or it might explode again). Bought from Peach - because they had pretty much the exact configuration I wanted. Some of the photos are theirs - the last one is mine with it on the sofa in its new home. Fancy that. Me, and a New Bass. Crikey.

Most things are these days...

Great gig last night. A long long day and all for charity. 7 tribute artists across three back line bands. The event was sold out a couple of hours before doors. Line up was Bon Jovi (Jon Bovi), Alanis Morissette, Elton John, ABBA, Elvis, David Bowie (ChangesTwoBowie) & Queen (Queenage) - plus encores from 4 of them. I played Bowie and Queen plus the encore set. It's nice to get paid, but to have an audience go this nuts for the songs they love, I'd do it again tomorrow. A truly remarkable ensemble who I'm honoured to have as friends. Not sure what the final total is yet, but I'm expecting it to be lots of thousands.

I always suspected Julia Hofer was classically trained in some way, shape or form. Now I find out she's a Cellist like me. Interesting performance, too...

A lot of the gigs I have been playing recently are with my rick 5 string 4004, I thought about getting a 5 string 4003 made. i looked into it but ultimately you end up paying the same as a real s/h ric for the same price so I decided to just get a normal 4003 and see if I got on with it. So that turned up today, a matte 4003s - I have a practice tomorrow so I get to hear what it sounds like, but I need to go through my normal set and try and adapt to having a string missing. Traditionaly it has never worked, and I ended up ignoring the 4, but we shall see- its a bit harder to convert a 4003 to a 5 string with the bridge! First impressions are good, apart from the obvious lack of strings! Anyway, useless without pictures, so here we are

Some things in life you know are bound to happen somewhere along the road, you just don't know where, or when. Today was that day for me. By sheer luck everything aligned: the instrument itself, locally for sale, within budget, generous tax return which sweetened the already more than fair deal, and a feeling of "If I don't do this, I'm going to regret it massively later". So, since today I became the proud 2nd owner guardian of a September 1966 P-bass. Fully original, including the case, except the missing bridge cover, and some filled holes where someone installed other tuners, but the ginormous Klusons 546's cover those up very nicely. In a very, very good condition (buckle-rash the size of a coin), frets at de-facto factory condition, slightly faded red, but still plenty present,... And that patina, that's something you can't fake (nor the smell). Rather lightweight, very resonant, a bit neckheavy due to those tuners and the very light body, it has that extremely pleasant 60's C-shape (wide, but thin). It has the newest additions that were introduced in 1966: Indian Rosewood fretboard, a 45° bevelled pickguard and the wide frets. Made by the same people that made the early 60's ones, using the same methods, and virtually identical materials... just under a different contract. It has seen some action, but it was also very well babied and cared for. And given it's a '66, it's an absolute growler. There's something about '66/'67 basses that gives them more raunchy punch compared to 1965 or 1968 onwards. And if it's good enough for James Jamerson, it's good enough for me! Going to install an old set of LaBella's tomorrow, see if I can reduce the action a bit. Also: going to thin out the heard a bit. Given I've now got "the original", the "American Original '60s" may leave the premises, my Jazz Bass as well, my 500/1 that hardly saw any use, maybe the EB3, although: that's so quirky I might just keep it. But with this, I kind of arrived at the end of the line.

YEEE-HAAA!! Just bought a pre-owned Wlcock Mullarkey from Bass Direct 🙂 Same colour as the one recently sold on here by Clarky but with a scratch-plate from the red end of the tort spectrum. Will be delivered Tuesday - can't wait. Watch this space!

Friday night (Halloween), played Grays Inn in Mastrick, Aberdeen with Nine Lives. Wasn't the best of gigs, file it under "alright". Oddly, the pub didn't seem to be doing anything for Halloween, but that didn't stop a bunch of people being in fancy dress anyway. Including me - who you gonna call? Neepbusters! Anyhoo, we were late starting because one table of folk who had finished their dinner wouldn't vacate the area for ages, leaving us a lot less time to set up than we usually have. Grr! Put me in a bad mood, ngl. But we got going about 10 mins late, and managed to get an OK sound from the get-go. It was busy enough at the start, but I suspect a lot of folk had kids and once they left, the place cleared out pretty bad. There were a few stragglers, but it was mostly dead, leading to a fairly meh gig. Oh well, still get paid, I suppose. Gear was the Sire Z7 followed by the Yamaha BB1200, into the ISO Standard modular bass rig.

Rumour has it that only by reaching the final rank on Basschat can a bassist reach their true potential. It is said that until they reached rank 14, Victor Wooten couldn’t slap and Bootsy had no idea what funk was. It is said that until they reached the rank of Grand Master on Basschat, Justin Chancellor couldn’t play in 7/4 and Flea was merely a Bell Pepper. Since April 22, 2009, I have dreamt of this moment. Finally, it is my time to ascend to the ranks of bass greatness. I’ll see you on the other side… It is time to play the bass and stop spending so much time on an internet forum

We got a couple of pro shots from the night before, courtesy of Pacific Curd, so I thought I’d share one. Moving swiftly on to last night, we did a home town “Early Halloween Special” at the Cellar Bar in Devizes. Ahead of our next single, “Gloss”, coming out this Friday, we went all out on the makeup. At the risk of looking like a Temu Pennywise, I liked this pic… We were supporting the fantastic JP Oldfield who does a Johnny Cash type thing. I had my 57Ri P-bass through my board with a Boss IR2. Again, we played well and I enjoyed it. We did £70 in merch sales, which is a record for us. An hour of mostly original music, it rounded off what has been a really great weekend.

I was looking for a second PBass to use alongside my Player II Nearly went Squier but decided to try out these new Standed series It’s a nice bass and fretwork and neck is lovely to play. Noticeable difference in tone from the ceramic pickups in as much as it’s brighter and clearer sounding, less warm and vintage and more modern Set up out of the box was decent apart from pickups were not set slanted to match neck profile etc Slight tweek on truss rod and she was playing sweetly Wasn’t sure about the Olympic White colour as it’s more cream than white but it quickly grew on me. I did own a polar white and I thought it was closer to that but I would say closer to cream Tuners are good and work well as does bridge etc For a £500 bass I think it’s a nice balance of quality, tone and cost. A workhorse gigging bass

I've not been very active on here recently. We're opening a venue at Riff Factory in Stoke (adjoining my studio) so I've been putting all of my time and effort into that. Anyway, @lurksalot appeared at our gig last night and prompted me to check back in Yesterday was an early afternoon gig. Doors at 2, support from 2:30-3:15, us on at 3:30-5. All very civilised. Not particularly well attended (we've filled the same place before), but we still sold loads of merch and had a great time. Last weekend was funnier. We went to Bristol to play to about 15 people in a pub that stank of damp and mould. The stage was sagging with holes patched up. I didn't really fit on the drum riser. I had to ditch two cymbals and pull everything uncomfortably close to me. We stayed at a Premier Inn, one without a restaurant attached. Our bassist was extremely grumpy about the lack of breakfast. We walked to the pub over the road in the morning, but they didn't do veggie sausages. There was a starbucks back near the hotel but the guitarist objected to starbucks as apparently they give free coffee to the IDF. We found a Sainsbury's with a cafe. On the drive there we passed another Premier Inn, this one with a restaurant attached. On arrival at Sainsbury's, it turned out their cafe was starbucks too 😂 So about face, pretty much back to where we started, where someone found a greasy spoon. The bassist was so hangry I thought he was going to cry and I was dying of laughter Up to Guilford then for a weird punk festival in an old club in the middle of a housing estate. Great atmosphere! I was told I couldn't use my own drums as is often the case on these lineups. Seems a bit much when there were no acts after us, and the house kit was held together with gaffer tape, but I just suck it up and get on with it. Our frontman/boss had been promising a curry in Guilford, but the punk festival had a BBQ and vouchers for the bands, and he insisted it'd be rude not to. My turn to be hangry this time 😂 We made up for it last night with a banging curry in Northwich

We done a gig last Satday in Hereford... I was a bit disappointed to see that we were headlining - simply because I was still dribbling from a cold, had been at work all day and had to go in for 0900 the following day as well. And we were due to go on at 2250, which meant after a hour's drive , home by 0100 and up at 0630... After we'd soundchecked I found a lovely leather sofa next to the fire in the pub's main bar, so I sat there with a Guinness 0 and read my book, which was rather nice. I was then able to recover sufficiently to watch the other bands; Hurricane Tapes - sort of Joy Division-ish with decently played Ricky bass, A Noise, who we'd played with quite a few times before, who dress in bizarre costumes (glitterball on bass player's head - he played a fine 5 string Warwick - drummer in yellow cheese-string-tube-thing, singer in multiple teletubbie/rabbit/bear/wtf outfits). They're huge fun and play sort of rave-punk bangers - recommended! And finally, MC16 who we also know - great Clash-inspired agit-punk with reggae overtones. Always excellent value. And it appeared that 10 minutes changeover between bands wasn't enough (I told him, I did!) - we finally came on at 2310. Luckily, despite not having rehearsed for a month we played well and even managed the tricky end-on-three of Knockout for possibly the first time ever! Folks jigged about, police weren't called, no punch-ups and no vomiting in my bass case, which was also rather nice. Managed a near record 42 minutes to get home for 0100, quick Woodford Reserve and kip ready for work. Kit was ACG bass into Helix (modified Aguilar tone with a touch of envelope filter and variable drive on the pedal), into BBE/Crown amps and DBX compression into Markbass 4x10. Boots were 12 hole Martin bike boots.

I've been slacking again due to the venue we've just opened. I'll do a thread on that when I get time. On Saturday night we played the Lexington in Islington. Coming from Stoke we had to pickup a guitar that was left behind a few weeks before in Chessington. A total of 6 hours crammed into Vantanamo (named because I don't fit into the van, and so have to spend hours in twisted positions) had me pretty grumpy. Load in up a huge fire escape almost finished me off. The headliner was old friends Abdoujaparov, and I managed to relax while they sound-checked. The venue is very cool, classic old London venue. The set went very well, we won over some new fans, and I left the stage soaked in sweat. Ace gig! Then I had the pleasure of sampling the bourbon bar downstairs. Four Roses and Buffalo Trace were delicious. Here's a photo The next morning we were up bright and early to travel up to Katie Fitzgerald's in Stourbridge where we played a matinee show. Load-in time was 1pm. We arrived at 1:10pm. The owner who actually lives there let us in at 1:30pm 🤷‍♂️ The place was full of our fans singing at the top of their lungs and we loved every second of it.

We did a ticketed charity gig last night at a local music venue. It was our gig, our singer organised it all (the venue also helped masses). As we're still a newish band, this was our 6th gig, it was a bit squeaky butt timeas to how many would turn up. In the end we were absolutely chuffed to get a decent number there. And a great crowd they were as well. It was a really cracking night and we raised several hundred £s in the end. We had support from a former band mate of mine, who did a great solo set and went down a storm. We're all still buzzing I think.

A busy week so this is a bit late. Last Tuesday Simply Blu (not my idea!) played to packed house of over 120 with extra chairs crammed into the corners and we had a great night. We normally play summer bluegrass festivals that are mostly open air and this was the first time we have played in a hall. Some debate amongst the organizers if this was the biggest crowd they have had since starting monthly concerts in 2017 so we were very happy with the turnout that included some friends and family and a whole bunch of bluegrass fans and some who were just regular attendees. We were up for it and from the opening notes of Freeborn Man until the last chord of our encore we put on a good show. We played a set of about 70 minutes and took a short break before another good hour of energetic bluegrass and the crowd loved it. The band members are scattered over a large area so our only rehearsal was on the Sunday before the gig, first time together since early August but it came together fast. These guys are fantastic musicians and I am lucky to be playing with them, I joined the band almost 4 years ago when the leader saw me playing with a jazz band and asked if I had ever played bluegrass. The answer was "no but I'll give it a go" and it has turned out to be great fun and a good learning experience. Given the setting we decided to abandon the usual laid back festival approach and went with energy and entertainment in mind and it worked. Lots of amazing solos throughout the show but the only bass solo was in I Know What It Means To Be Lonesome where I tossed is nice gliss on the G string and apparently got the most applause of the night for a solo. I'm not a great bass player but sometimes a schticky lick will fool most of the people! A memorable night.😄 Not the best photo but it's all I have now...

Great dep show last night at the lovely South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell with Duran/Spandau tribute 'From Gold To Rio'. Gear was my usual (with this show) of Spector Dimension HP4, Shure wireless/tuner, Thumpinator, EHX Signal Pad, HAZardlAMPS Pre and HX Stomp (GK head/Ampeg 810 sim), straight to the desk.... then back to my KZs & Sennheiser IEM system. Back up bass was my upgraded Spector Coda 4. Apparently it sounded great out front and the audience was very receptive. A fun night!

Deadlight Dance returned to the stage last night, supporting the excellent Sun Machine at The Tree House in Frome. Prior to the show, I took my 57RI P-bass into Kempsters in Swindon, to replace some dodgy pots. Amazing service as always with 80s style pricing, although he did “have to tell me” that he didn’t like my neon green strings! 😹 I also picked up a Pennywise stage mascot at HMV. Despite the AD200 Orange bass rig, I am actually running through just a board with the Boss IR2 as my “rig”. The Orange sounded incredible when Sun Machine were on and having owned the exact same setup, I didn’t miss it during the first floor load in. In fact I had 4 separate people ask me about my bass sound! I was also compared to Peter Hook and Simon Gallup, which for an originals based set is either a massive compliment or I need to get better at stealing! The sound guy Chris was amazing, Sun Machine were fantastic and there was not one diva style ego in the house. A respectably full room and everyone showed up to watch both bands. Coupled with the age friendly 10.30pm curfew and the competitively priced Guinness 0%, a superb evening. Nice to be back “home” on the bass too 😎

As the Basschat community has always been fantastically supportive in checking out new music, we released our first brand new music in over a year. “Gloss” is out today via Ray Records and streaming on all the usual platforms. As always, we collaborated with Haunting the Atom to make this fun video. For anyone wanting a bit more background, it’s influenced by the post punk bands of our youth. I wanted a Stooges / Velvet Underground simplicity to the music (one note solo and bass line) but with an intelligent lyric. It isn’t typical of next year’s forthcoming third album and is probably the rockiest track we’ve written. Filmed in my house (which stunk of incense for several days afterwards), we had a blast doing this.

On Saturday we rocked up bright and early and set up at one of our favourite venues in Bolton. Our dep drummer walked in just after 8 with his phone to his ear and a stunned expression. He said his elderly mum had had a fall and was on the flooring her kitchen and he had to go sort her out with an ambulance. He said he'd be back asap. A bit of a shock, but we decided that our only way forward was to play the two sets acoustically, instead of the 4-5 we were going to start with. Our dep drummer didn't reappear as he was in A&E at Wythenshawe hospital and his mum was only seen at 2am. I felt so sorry for the dreadful situation with his mum. He sent us an awful photo of her bruised face. He did exactly the right thing. Fortunately it went down very well and we even threw in some songs we'd never played together before. It's such a pleasure to have my new guitarist in the band. There's enthusiasm now, as opposed to the 'getting through it' that we had before.

Stood in with a blues band for a 45-minute support slot at a blues club. I don’t normally get nervous about performing but I was conscious this would be a more discerning audience than the usual gaggle of pub punters, plus the headlining band would probably be listening from the wings. As it was, I felt I acquitted myself pretty well, and we got good feedback from the audience. It was quite amusing when one of the sound techs offered me a hand onto the stage with my Barefaced cab, and I lifted it with one finger! I was surprised how many women there were in the audience. I expected a blues club audience to consist of 98% gentlemen of a certain age, but most of them seemed to have brought along their significant others.

Katy Hurt was booked to play a private event last night, run by the same people who run the Buck and Bull pop up saloon club nights we’ve played before. Big marquee at Tweseldown Racecourse near Fleet, 200 guests, line dancing, DJ, bucking bronco… standard UK “country” themed night. Since this was essentially a private version of the Buck and Bull event, no expense was spared. Pro PA and lighting rigs and engineers made for a wonderful experience, plenty of soundcheck time so the onstage sound was crystal clear and devoid of all the issues from the previous week. The only real downer was the marquee had no heating so it needed the bodies in there to make it warm, it was very chilly in the run up to there being a party in full swing. Our normal drumming options were all unavailable so I pinched the drummer (and my brother in law) from my pub rock band, and he stepped in brilliantly. Being a private party, the crowd weren’t quite the same as the Buck and Bull clientele, and never really fully got going (vs them being totally up for it from the second we walk onstage at a real club night), but we had moments of fun watching some of the better line dancers try not to trip over the less good as we ripped through our two sets of covers and originals. So yes, in some respects a mixed bag but I was home and in bed by 00.30 and throughly enjoyed the playing bit. Basses were my trust ACG RetroBs, via Laney Digbeth pre, Trace TE1200 and Barefaced Two10. Shoes were DC hi tops Hat was Cavender’s of Texas 🤠

Good gig. Second set wasn't so great. BL called songs we haven't played in years.No complaints and I was home by 7:30. Daryl

It was ok, but a quiet night 🙁 Those that were there seemed to be enjoying themselves but mostly superglued to their seats other than a few dancing girls. One guitarist down but we’ve done it before so no problem, just tailor the set to songs that didn’t need the second guitar. Sound was ok, and fine in my IEM’s. Towards the end on the second set I had a couple of really bad attack of cramp in my fretting hand. Possibly dehydration, and maybe the fact that I have missed a load of my immune suppressant drugs because of Covid a month or so back & two courses of antibiotics so my arthritis is starting to flare up. Picked up a Darkglass Anagram during the week and set up a quick stomp box preserve with Compressor always on and then Octaver, Chorus and Flanger controlled by the buttons. Went well but will need some experimenting. Apparently it was the pubs Halloween party so face paint and dress up Gear: FrankenJazz, Anagram, Microtubes 500 and Barefaced BB2.Status S2 in reserve Shoes: Barefoot (red and silver)

Sarum’s Lot played at Qudos Bar in Salisbury last night, quiet-ish when we got there, but filled up to the gun holes as we set up, played okay, a few minor screw ups from all of us (which is unusual) but the crowd were very kind to us, partaking in lots of singing and dancing.😎 We must have done alright because the land lady booked us for NYE 2026, so that’s a right result, Qudos is our favourite venue to play in Salisbury. Next up we are at The Bull Hotel in Downton on the 31st for a Halloween party, fancy dress is the order of the day, our guitarist is taking things very seriously:

After a few weeks off while the guitarist was touring, we were back at the Railway in Countesthorpe last night. Unfortunately nobody told us about the Indian streetfood kitchen set up in the carpark, and I'd turned up with a bellyfull of Chinese takeaway. Moot point anyway because they had packed up and gone by the time we'd got the kit in. Slightly quieter night than recently, which was good because we could actually set up. Normally it's a right scrum. It was hot! It went pretty well considering I hadn't picked up a bass since the last gig. Lots of compliments on both sound and playing. Stingish bass through the GT-6B, and then via my new deluxe big muff, into the Rumble. DMs

Last night was the Victoria pub jam in Wokingham, which I think has been running on Thursdays for more than a decade. An enthusiastic group of core musicians - which is expanding - maintains house band duties and rotates, which means it feels fresh, and it's starting to attract - gasp - Gen Z (!!) - I know, I can't believe it either, until fairly recently all the jam nights I went to were pretty much my age (I can still pogo at 55!), but there's teens and twenty somethings taking the stage, and I'll tell you - some of them are excellent. Reading has a pretty active prog rock thing going on, and they're all young as anything! Anyway - I got pulled into 3 bands for the night, which is damn good, some great tracks. Highlight as ever was Let's Dance by Bowie - I LOVE the bass on that track. Bass was the Maruszczyk 5-string, and it absolutely nailed it, sounding amazing after the truss rod replacement earlier this year - this thing is now perfect! Effects was a cheap little AnnBlackBox from M-VAVE with the chocolate 4-button wireless controller - and you know what? It worked pretty well, especially as a quick setup system. Total cost of that system? A stripped down version of the Stomp HX for £75 all in including the 4-button switch, all running on batteries so no need to hunt for a PSU or use a full sized board. I'm warming to it for jam nights! Weirdest track I played was "the stealer" by free - check this bassline out, it's bonkers: The landlord has invested properly in live music - the pub's had a new PA this year, new bigger desk and speakers mounted on the walls which saves a lot of space. The venue also owns good kit for bass, guitar and drums. I think that makes a huge difference to the musicians running the event.

Well, always wanted to have a go on. Road trip to Doncaster yesterday and returned with this example. A very decent price and it sounds immense. Not everybody's cup of tea but hey ho.

Wedding gig at the Mythe Barn near Atherstone on the Warwickshire/ Leicestershire border. After a few weeks of modding and gigging with my Squier P + flatwounds, I grabbed two active Yamahas + round wounds for tonight’s gig. No doubt it was a wider, more complex and detailed bass sound, but I missed hearing the way that the burpy, woody P + flats sat in the overall mix at previous gigs. Was glad of the Yamahas for the few songs that needed slap bass etc though. Cool venue, lovely catering courtesy of a pizza oven in the beautifully illuminated courtyard just outside, plenty of people up dancing and a very decent gig all in. Rig was a single Markbass STD102HF cab, Little Mark lll head and my usual pedal board (Boss chorus and octave, a Korg tuner, Vintage Microtubes overdrive and a Cali76 compressor).

A great little gig last night for jagged little Alanis. A fan of ours wanted an extra special birthday… so we played a full gig in their kitchen! great little event. Drum kit was a scaled back cocktail one, the vibe was excellent. my gear was the usual pedalboard plus my stingray HH, which sounded great. I used a little Roland bass cube RX as a monitor at head height, worked quite well but I reckon I’ll use my own in-ears if we do this again 😂

We (Weeds) played at a small and rather intimate venue in Chester (G21)... It was our first gig as a full band for nine years so we'd spent a couple of days at my house rehearsing and drinking tequila. We don't really rely on any guitar solos - guitar is mainly rhythmic noise - and our singer uses a vocal synth to make weirdness. After being fine in rehearsal it packed up, so some improvisation was called for. So first song was a false start due to laptop sequence mismanagement, but once we got going it seemed to work reasonably well - cock ups were mainly guitar based which was good as much of the set is drum, bass sequence and vox. And vox coped very well without vocal synth, all was generally groovy and I even managed slap bass plus improvised jazz funk solo. No cans were thrown so we could take down the chicken wire after the first song, and towards the back I could see our own @lurksalot pogoing about. It's possible we may be asked back in the spring to play in a larger venue... Gear was ACG-Helix-BBE& Crown amps- Markbass 4x10 with pedal distortion and autowah. Shoes were zebra creepers.

Very good gig tonight. Very successful in every sense - 19 new followers on the Instagram, swathes of posts and stories and the owner of the bar (before we'd even finished, mind) emailing us offering us 9 dates over the next year. Crazy stuff. Rig was the new (to me) fender MIM standard P bass (I'll do a NBD on it, maybe), over Swiff Audio 5.8ghz into the TC Electronic BG250 combo. No pedals, no nothing. Simple as anything set up, and I got compliments from bar staff and audience members on how clear and punchy the bass was. *footwear were the same pair of puma suedes I always wear.

Anybody listening to music in the 80's will remember the loudness control on their cheap hi-fi. The magic button that made our music come to life, they are still around often with exotic names like Psycho Acoustic boost. The loudness control worked because it exploited a couple of simple bits of human biology. The same bits of biology that make any bass amp or speaker with a mid scoop fly out of the sales room. It's the sound we all love practicing at home but which sounds s**t when we take it to a gig. So to understand it on the graph a couple of simple bits of physics and then some biology which will hopefully help people with their eq. So Physics first: sound pressure levels are measured in decibels and are a measure of the sound's energy, how much the air is moving, kind of. It's what is measured by a sound meter and we use it as a measure of sound volume but it isn't reall a measure of how loud something is. Loudness is measured in Phons. The Phons are only the same as the decibels at one frequency 1,000Hz which is right in the middle of the mid range, sort of. Sounds at low frequencies or very high frequencies just aren't as loud for us as at 1,000Hz but at 3,000Hz they sound even louder. If you want hou can play with this online Here To understand the graph look at the 80Phon line; at 1000Hz it is 80db. Run left to 100Hz and it is 90db. To sound the same volume you need an extra 10db which is 10x the power from your amp/speaker run up to 7kHz and it is again 90db to get the same volume. The graph kind of shows how you would have to set the graphic to get the same perceived volume at 80 phons. As a bassist though the thing to notice is that the settings at low sound levels are different to those at the highest levels. At the quietest you'd need 70db of boost to hear any 20Hz sound at all. At 100phon you'd hear it easily and only need 30db boost for it to be as loud as it is at 100hz. This is where biology comes in, our ears and brain work together to give the most useful sounds. it's a really clever and subtle system of signal enhancement with genuine survival value. There are lots of quiet bass sounds our body makes, the rumbling of our gut and the grinding of our bones as we move. Imagine moving around the savannah's with the sound of our last meal drowning out the sound of something that want's us to be it's next meal The sounds we hear best are the dip in the curve 2-5kHz which is vital for understanding speech and screams and cries. Loud bass we need, it means something exciting and dangerous is about to happen, a large animal, falling rocks or something powerful and dangerous. The reason we like a mid scoop becomes apparent. by having the mids lower it sounds like the bass and treble are louder and you get the illusion of your bass coming from a much louder amp. When you turn the amp up to gig volumes you need a lot less boost to bass and treble to get the sound you crave. Loud bass is exciting, an adrenaline rush. So finally we get to bass guitar. Average gig levels are around 100db (as measured on-stage at Glastonbury a few years ago). 80phon is more like pretty loud music in a domestic setting and for sake of argument I'll say close to practice levels. From the graph you'd need around 15db boost to get 100phon at 50Hz and at 80phon you'd need 20db of boost for the same effect. That's 5db difference in the bass between gig and practice levels compared to the mids. So to take your carefully set up tone for the gig you need to turn your bass down 5db at 50hz or the mids up by the same amount to maintain your tone. Given that the mid scoop is often around 5-6db you've pretty much always got to lose it before you play at gig levels. This isn't the only thing you have to contend with at gigs, room acoustics and the other band members come into the equation too but you have to expect to re-eq when you turn up the volume for a gig to balance your bass and midrange. You'd have to do it for the highs as well except that there is very little hf coming out of your pickups. Cymbals through a powerful PA though......definitely the wrong sort of adrenaline!

I've finally accepted that the fine people at Fender are never going to call and offer me a signature model, so I've taken matters into my own hands: I've gone for a "what if Jim Root played bass?" kind of vibe. Allparts body EMG JX pickups LHZ preamp (just a fun experiment as they usually go in Spectors with PJ pickups. Sounds pretty good though. Way more natural and "woody" than I was expecting. The bass and treble controls are on the stacked pot in between the two volumes. It's in that position because I accidentally enlarged the wrong hole, but I quite like how it looks and have convinced myself that it's a logical place for it! Hipshot Kickass bridge and ultralite tuners. The neck is a Fender Player 2 neck. Lovely rolled edges, but came with lacquer all over the frets. I've done a level crown and polish, so it's all gone now. Tuned to BEAD. Discovering tapered B strings has been a revelation to me. It sounds and feels great, even at the standard 34 inch scale length. It's bothering me a bit that the pickup screws, jack nut and saddle springs are not black - might have to sort that out in due course!

Played Duff's bar in leicester last night with The Jam tribute What a great gig. Used the HW4003 thru the V4B. Mega

Bit of a late report, but I was like a burst ba' yesterday. Saturday night, played at the Balaclava in Fraserburgh with Nine Lives. We'd had a few weeks off and I was struggling to get myself in the mood, ngl. Just felt "off" - didn't help that we got set up in good time so there was about half an hour of hanging about, punctuated by people coming up to us and generally getting in the way, which was its usual irritating influence and I think I let it get to me more than usual. Thankfully, once we got going, the cobwebs were shaken off and I got right back into the actual business of performing and hopefully entertaining. Played pretty well, a few wee bloops but nothing worth anything more than pulling a funny face and having a laugh with the drummer about. Also threw a new song into the set for the first time (Foo Fighters - "The Pretender") and it went really well, both from a playing perspective and audience reaction, so looks like it's a successful addition. Gear was the Burny LSB-80 followed by the Reverend Triad into the cubes of doom. Actually, I was really pleased with my sound, especially with the Triad - just used series combinations all night and it fair punched a hole in the air!

I was immensely lucky to have met him in New York back in 2013. I was only in my early 20s and myself and my girlfriend at the time went to Blue Note to watch Hiromi, really just to catch a glimpse of my bass playing hero. Afterwards I managed to sneak upstairs by the dressing room and got talking to Simon Phillips, who I will attest to this day as one of the nicest musicians I have ever met. After chatting for 10 mins or so, I asked whether AJ was still around. SP mentioned that he was famously shy but that he’d see what he could do. SP proceeded to put his head round the dressing room and explain that he had a really good friend from the UK over that he’d love to introduce. After ushering me in (what a cool bloke for doing that, will never forget it), I got introduced to AJ, who was sitting in this old battered armchair like some demigod. I’d had several cocktails and quite a few beers by this point, but I was dumbstruck and totally lost for words. He was immensely shy, but so generous with his time. I was a young lad so he seemed genuinely enthused by me knowing virtually everything he’d played on in the late 70s and early 80s. I was so very sad to learn of my favourite bass player’s passing today but I’m quite certain his legacy will live on for many years to come. He was to my mind the greatest bass player alive, unmatched and unrivalled - subjective I know but something I really do, did believe.

Very definitely a parson's egg of an evening. Jack's Entertainment Centre in Bedworth - we've played there once before, in the front room. This time we were in the back room, using the house PA. We only used it for vocals and the sound man also set up an ambient mic for the drumkit. Nice big stage, pretty good sound, and a good audience. Managed to get quite a few of them up for Time Warp which is by no means a given. Afterwards, one middle-aged man came up to three of us individually to tell us that when we played Dakota (opening number), his dad who had dementia told him he recognised it - it was one of his favourite songs and the pair of them had a great night. Always good to get some positive feedback. Now the not so good bit. The car park also services some flats, and it turned out I'd parked in a bit for residents (I didn't realise). Some complete bastard parked blocking me (and two other cars belonging to residents) in. Mrs Zero and I had to get an Uber home and come back the next day, when the complete bastard had moved, to retrieve my car. No, I didn't key his car. That would have been too obvious. After all, we'll be going back there. As usual, Sei Flamboyant 5 headless -> M-Vave wireless -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> Tecamp Puma 900 -> GR Bass AT212 and Caravelle memory foam trainers, with socks.

Not a bad night last night and local to me, though sadly a bit quiet with an Oasis tribute a couple of hundred yards one way and another band down the road the other. Landlady apologetic but happy as she said she still took plenty of money over the bar. “We love having you here, you’re so professional” So we were playing to a small select bunch, but they were all enjoying themselves and singing along. Band was tight and the sound really good. Loads of compliments from those that were there which was nice. Used the usual rig of: FrankenJazz, Helix Effects, Darkglass Microtubes, BF BigBaby2. Shoes comfortable barefoot. As there was potentially a bit more space than usual I took the bigger pedalboard but the Palmer wall wart that I had at rehearsal on Monday wasn’t in my leads bag so reverted to the Helix. 😡 Must have a search for that or order a spare.

Back at the Old Fox, in Felling, a small town just south of Newcastle upon Tyne. This is one of those gigs you look forward to, a live music pub with an audience who appreciates your efforts. We’re all using IEMs now and that’s been an absolute game changer for us, and as one well respected local live music aficionado has just posted on FaceAche “Southern Incorporated were tighter than a nuns chuff”. Loads of folk we know out supporting us too, and a very happy landlady who stuck an extra £30 in the pay packet at the end of the night. Job done!

Last gig this year! 🙁 Booked back in May for a mate's 50th so a gig with a guaranteed crowd, two sets of mostly originals. Our few covers are from Tom Petty, Whitesnake, AC/DC (of course 😄), JJ Cale, Rory McLeod and T Rex. Chris, our guitarist, found the backdrop from the band's pre @super al era so I pinned it up on the pub window curtain rail 👍🏻 Could probably do with an iron. Great crowd, mostly people I've known for 20-30 years so there was definitely a good vibe. Great comments after, love the word to describe our sound from one mate - seventiesness 😂 (he was drunk). Airwalk trainers on my feet, they are wearing thin on the sole so may have to retire them and just go with the various colours of converse I have in the future. Have been using the ibanez 1205 lately but as this was an end of term gig I went with my PPI bass, the Lakland 55-02 (the swiss army knife of basses 😄). It's a shame there's no more gigs in the diary but we haven't recorded any new songs in almost a year so we'll use this time productively...I hope 🙂

Nice little gig at a wmc just outside Barnsley last night. Nice audience but numbers were a bit down, this was our first visit so hopefully it’ll be higher on a return next year based on the favourable comments. That’s it for 4 weeks as we always take a break at this time of year to recharge and get ready for the pre silly season stuff. Normal gear set up, Markbass with the EBMM shorty Ray which I’m now managing to tame sound wise with a few eq adjustments. Footwear - silver converse.

Good one last night. I used the TC rig rather than my usual Ashdown, and it sounded great, lots of clout via the 4x10. The P bass was magnificent as always, but it was a lot of fun using the Hohner B2 for a D tuned number. Cool venue and a very lovely audience.

On Saturday Hurtsfall played at the OxJam festival in Beeston. Over 100 acts split across multiple venues, this is the 3rd year we've been asked to play. This time we were on at 3.30pm at The Berliner, the second band of the afternoon at that venue. Not the easiest of load-ins with the venue being very busy so there was nowhere really to leave our gear where it wasn't in someone way. However it turned out that lots of the people were there specifically to see us play which was very gratifying. Just about enough time between bands to get set up and line-checked. Technical problems of the previous weekend were behind us and we played well, and even felt brave enough to open with our newest song which most of our audience wouldn't have heard before. We're taking a break from gigging until the end of November to work on new material and for recording the album.