Leaderboard

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!

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.

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...

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.

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...

Just back from our gig at The Stables, Milton Keynes. We always sell out, such a special venue, wonderful staff (mostly volunteers) and such an appreciative audience. Took the Smithy up for a blast as I’ve been reacquainting myself with her lately. Fantastic! A guy last year unbelievably donated £1000 to our homeless charity we collect for, and blow me he done exactly the same last night!! Incredibly humbling peoples generosity, it really is! Great night as usual up there x 😊

We had a really good night last night, with lots of friends there, at a venue not far from me where we have celebrated various milestones with my bands over the years. Just what we needed really. This year's been really difficult for the band with a change of guitarist and all the things that led up to it, plus our drummer's serious illness and us running with a replacement. The band as it is now is really enjoying itself.

Christmas gig with BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam at Longstone Hearts club in Edinburgh. Its a small intimate club and only holds up to 80 with only a few unsold tickets for the night. We know they're struggling to get money in for the club and we've deliberately kept our price same since we first played there about 3 yrs ago to try and help keep them going. Was a bit of an odd one as we had dancers from the first song but our Xmas songs had none ? Never seen that before even tho we played well. Only Xmas song they were up for was the Wizard one "I Wish It Could Be Xmas" and even then it was only 7 or 8 people. Last song (encore) dance floor was crammed full and they were all shouting for more but we had a time limit from the organiser. Plenty of pics / vids being taken tho so that's always good. As a band we thoroughly enjoyed the gig and were having a great laugh on stage. No major mistakes with just a few wee mishaps that only we noticed. 4 Xmas songs in the set for the next few gigs. Usual gear Sandberg MarloweDK because its Xmasy looking in red and white - Shure GXLD wireless - Keeley Bassist comp - Handbox WB-100 - Barefaced 212 cab. Quite enjoying the Marlowe at the last couple of gigs. It has a nice growl thru the WB-100. Easy drive home with hardly another car on the country roads on way home which was a nice relaxing drive and home by 2am for my ritual coffee and tea biccie before beddy by bo time. Dave

Second time we've played at the Crown in Rugeley. Parking is a bit dodgy, and our singer had to get from Worcester up the M6 on a Friday evening so he was a bit late. It's rather cramped there but we squeezed in a bit better than last time. That's just before we started, when the singer broke his first string of the night (final score: three). Audience reaction was the same as the first time we played here - we'd be playing a song, there would be quite a few people reacting to it or singing along, then at the end of the song absolutely no applause (apart from drummer's wife and guitarist's girlfriend). And no calls for more at the end, and we're not one of those bands who insist on playing the encores, so we didn't. Everyone was very friendly though, and one of the bouncers was very complimentary. A little incident did occur - towards the end of the second set, nearing the end of a song, I noticed a woman at the back of the room (which wasn't very far away) in some sort of physical distress, and the man she was with got an inhaler out for her. Our guitarist's girlfriend is a nurse and I was going to point her at the woman, but she noticed her just as we reached the end of the song and went over to check on her. Apparently she reeked of fags and had had a fair bit to drink, so she rather brought it on herself (I think it's reasonably clear which "she" is which). Edit to add: Sei Flamboyant 5 -> M-Vave wireless -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> Tecamp Puma 900 -> GR Bass AT212, Caravelle memory foam trainers (and thermal non-slip socks).

Last night (just), played with Nine Lives at the Pittendrum Bar in Sandhaven - a wee villiage near Fraserburgh. Unfortunately, it wasn't very busy, maybe 15 folk in at the peak. The apologetic barmaid told us later on that since they had booked us, a bunch of stuff got organised in the "big smoke" of Fraserburgh which may have contributed to the lack of bodies. It was probably for the best, because I was far from my best. Having had only 4 hours sleep and basically waking up to go to the gig (work's Christmas do the night before - don't ask), I was so tired that as well as making a few pretty horrible flubs, I forgot to hook up my extension cab - did the whole gig with just the 250W combo and single speaker. Didn't even notice until packing up time when I couldn't figure out where my speakon>speakon cable had gone. Bloody hell. This dopey so-and-so played the Neep One followed by the DeArmond Jetstar (the wonky boi) into a single Markbass CMD combo sitting on top of a completely ornamental New York 121 cab. FFS.

Local venue with my regular gig, SlowJin. Lakland 55-02 via Shure GLX wireless into EBS Microbass. DI to desk, line in to Genz Benz Shuttle 9.0 power amp section and Vanderkley 2x10. Long term IEM user. Big Martin house PA Rig. We came, we saw, we Rock’n’Roll’d.

Last night we played in Heath Charnock between Bolton and Chorley. A brilliant landlady and nice crowd. One of the punters gave us a £30 tip and the landlady did too. We gave this song a second outing. Played for the first time on Friday...

Very sad news. I was fortunate enough to meet him, and spend a memorable few days on the road with him, sharing dressing rooms. The first gig was in Paris, and from the outset he was the most friendly and generous guy you could meet, always chatting and telling us tales of his life and the music industry. We did drink quite a bit of wine together over the course of the next week and a half, and I got in trouble with the promoter once for going out wine shopping for him the night we played Islington Assembly Hall. I fixed his amp in Milton Keynes before the gig, it was just a bad valve, but he said "Rob, you're the man!", and my heart swelled with pride. RIP Cropp.

A cynical money grab that has nothing to do with Steve Harris in colour, pickups or hardware appointments. It's just a standard P Bass with a silver/mirror scratchplate.

The Old Inn in Littlethorpe is tiny. We're used to squeezing in there so have learnt to travel as light as possible. The Stingish bass was back out. I think I prefer the simplicity of a 2-band EQ. As you can see it was a bit cramped. The night started a little bit quiet but soon got much busier. In this place we nearly always have people encroaching or knocking the mic stands as they pass by. However I can heartily recommend the fluorescent pink duck tape! It kept everyone at bay. I don't think most people consciously noticed it but it was quite amusing to see the effect.

First Christmas show with Glam Viva! last night, awesome live music venue on the outskirts of Chesterfield. We hadn’t played this venue before but it had been advertised well and we hadn’t played a rammed pub for most of the night. Dancing from song one..like @dmccombe7 the Christmas songs were less appreciated than the normal songs but we normally stick to just 2 for this reason. Sandberg Lionel into my normal Boss pedals using my aging Smoothound wireless. Normal Markbass mini rig of doom. End of gig celebration with 4 jammy doughnuts - I did share! Crap drive back home as, as per normal on a Saturday night after midnight, plod had set the variable speed limit on the M1 at 50. Purely a revenue job as there was no roadworks or poor visibility. Cruise control is your friend.

It's nice money but there's a reason that we don't do corporate gigs often. The first reason was getting in early and then sitting around for a couple of hours. The next reason is it can be darned hard work getting them partying. Anyway we'll chalk that one up as another success and we were well received, if a little unfulfilled personally. Kirby Muxloe golf club has a short stage and ceiling tiles that seemed to suck all of the top end out of the room and I had to back off my bottom end too to avoid stage boom. A bit of a shame as I took the Sire P7-5 out for a bit of an airing but it couldn't really sing. We were dressed fairly smartly. Shiny black DMs FTW Tomorrow's gig is probably the smallest pub we play in...

Played with our 9 piece 60's band SHOUT! Last night in a pub called The Spateston Inn in Johnston just outside Glasgow. Busy night with punters and a Christmas night out from a local supermarket! The guitarist thought it was very funny seeing them in their ''civies'' and was tempted to go up and ask where the bacon was....We just about fitted in and lucky for us our keyboard lad was given the night of to see Madness (The band not the illness!!) So....8 band members stuck in a corner whilst the resident DJ had much more room and plenty of tables! He played for about and hour,we did an hour then were off for another hour! Far too long a break and we had to endure ear shattering techno (down with the kids man!) music! Good night had by all,nice buffet I recommend the egg sarnies! SHOUT! Higher and Higher..mp4

The 7-10 gig at Rockfield Music & Media went pretty fast. The place was packed. I don't know where all these people come from considering the place sits out in the middle of nowhere. Our performance was just ok. We had some good moments along with a few sloppy ones. I got lost in "Jolene". The dep drummer showed some improvement. The provided rig was fine. However the XRL out was not functioning so we miced the cabs. I wasn't able to get any decent pictures. Daryl

The bass just came in and its a total Time Capsule! It has the original Eveready battery in it from the early 80s...like the Bunny...still going! Union Carbide, Cleveland Ohio. They sold the brand in 1986. The battery compartment and screws appeared to be untouched. The original foam was covering the battery. The battery measured at 5.4 volts. Not bad for 43 years old! The action on the bass is very high. It has round wounds. All of the screws appear to be untouched. The active output was very weak and the tone controls did not work. They do work on the passive side and it sounds good. I am going to continue to look in to that and gently examine the electronics. Here are photos of the unboxing. This bass has not been played much and probably was in someones closet for many years. It could use maybe a bit of polishing. Frets are close to perfect. No marks or gashes on it anywhere.

No photos but the seven piece "little big band" packed the hall last night with over 100 people and very few seats left empty. We have had very few rehearsals and only a couple of gigs in a store and a museum where we just played as folks walked by and I was expecting a pretty ragged show but the band came together really well and we even had to play an encore which is very unusual at this venue. We had two vocalists with us last night for the first time and both did a fine job on some Christmas tunes and classic jazz vocals and they also did a couple of duets and the audience loved them. Usual rig, Shen SB100 and Realist Life Line pickup with NuX wireless into a music stand mounted Schatten Design preamp that only has a volume control into a Bose PA and I had some good comments from a double bass player about my sound and playing. I love having that preamp right on the music stand, I can easily adjust my volume to fit the song. The band played well and the crowd was really with us, all in all a very good night.

U OK hun?

My gig was slightly overshaddowed by some medical even that I won't go into here. We were playing at a very local to me pub, that we used to play at a lot and hadn't played at this year, ever since they booked us for new year a few years ago and then promptly forgot about. Anyway, management changed so played there on saturday night. I got there later than I would normally, normally get there an hour and half early to setup, but I was later than that, so when I turned up, the others were on hand to unload my car which was nice. For some reason it seemed a mostly quick setup (maybe because I had less time), and apart from finding a plug, that they had moved all of, a pretty easy one. Did a sound check, remember one feature of that pub is that it has shiney walls, shiney floor, shiney ceiling (a long way up) and shiney beams everywhere so remembered to turn all the reverb on the desk down (which you do and the band still say 'can you back the reverb off a bit' - 'its completely dry'). Bass and guitar sounded good and the sax projected - the sax player found an issue with his new nux sax sender, the unit charges in the case, the case was fully charged, but when you put the unit in the box, you have to press a button to tell it to charge, and he hadn't, so it was dead, but he got 40 minutes of charge before and charged at half time and no issues, seems a bit of a stupid design. I played the ric, but for some reason the output seemed a bit down. Gig mostly went ok, my dwarf crashed at one point when I was changing things, which leads to its most annoying feature, crashed it carries on as before but you can't change anything (its like the front end crashes), but unplugging it and plugging it in takes about 30 seconds to boot up and be ready, and the band picked that moment to not have much of a break between songs! I also for the second time ever (the first time being my first time with the previous band) forgot to do the 3rd verse of 7 nation army. As we didn't have any rehursal time we decided to just do the one of our christmas songs we remembered, the easy one, and still messed that up a little in the middle, but I dont' think anyone noticed that. anyway, crowd were unusually (for that venue) enthusiastic, and it was a good night from a gig point of view. Due to aformentioned medical issues, I had to rush out but not before hearing the singer talking to a woman who was trying to outbid another pub on us playing next new years eve!

Here is a fancy series IV Jaydee:

Last gig of the year with the Andy Wales Band at Bar Dos Hermanos in Leicester. Busiest I’ve seen it in all the times we’ve played there, tho thankfully a massive crowd of really rowdy chanting lads moved on elsewhere before we started yay. Good few friends and family of various members were there which is often the kiss of death in my experience but not so. Went with Elton’s Step Into Christmas which mostly worked (complete with surprisingly fiddly bass part) and also chucked in Green Onions and I Am The Resurrection in tribute to Steve Cropper and Mani respectively. I was wedged against a pillar unfortunately so tried to lean on it nonchalantly from time to time and attempted to look cool. I wasn’t having a great day up to then and was a bit narky so it was nice to have two hours of leathering my bass onstage to get it all out of my system. Cheaper than therapy. Gear was the usual Markbass Traveller cabs and LM3 head; pair of Yamaha basses, various pedals, Mackie powered cabs and Allen and Heath desk. Footwear by Converse. Tea by Twinings.

Well, it's finally finished. In the end I went in a completely different direction with the colour - a subtle pearl white (my first bass hero was Duff from Guns 'n' Roses). The guy who painted it did the neck as well - it now looks less like an original '70s Precision and more like one that was refinished by a hair metaller in the '80s. It sounds amazing too - it's a heavy beast but the ash/maple really gives it some snap, which is exactly what I wanted. The normal deadspot you get on 34" basses is barely there either, which is a bonus. Nice low action too.

Recently joined a band (second rehearsal tomorrow) and it's looking like they might want to take on a few pub gigs to just hone the set and performance so,.. Bought a pub cheapy for the usual reasons. I picked up a Classic Vibe Jazz 5 locally. The guy had bought it 6 months previous so I wasn't expecting much with him moving it on that quickly but it still had all the plastic on it. I've also got the original packaging with his name and address on. It stands me in £175 + new strings. Wow, that neck and fret board. Frets perfectly finished, no sharp edges, love the gloss feel, in fact, it reminds me of the 5 string Elite I sold here a couple of years ago. Great sound through my Shuttle 6.0. Plays like a dream with the LaBella low tension flats on. The only down side is, it's on the heavy side but as their set list appears to be just 20 numbers, I won't be standing on a stage for 3 hours. I think these things are only about £300 or so new. Can't believe it for the money.

Thought I'd found my board's final form, but then the Bassrig Fifteen dropped, I realised I have no need for two drives, and I decided I preferred the Julia over the Analog.Man (probably going to sell it if anyone's interested). It does leave one loop empty, but it'll be a guest loop or.... something.

I’ll jump in on this too. I’m 61, and I’m still fronting an original heavy rock band, the same band I joined in 1982. Were recording a new album and it’s sounding absolutely awesome, very pleased with it, and live were better than ever. My voice is still holding up, and young people who come to see us love the stuff, it’s old school, like their dads listen to, and it goes down pretty well. THAT SAID…….. a month ago, my best pal lost his battle with cancer. He was 59 and an amazing metal guitarist. I helped lower him into the ground to the sound of “Where were you?” By Jeff Beck. In January, my mum died. No great surprise, but still, you know. In February our drummers wife had a heart attack and died for 10 minutes. Somehow, they revived her and she survived, but unfortunately with severe brain damage, so he has his hands full looking after her. The band, keeps him sane. My point. If you’re young and you’re reading this, be all you can be. Take nothing for granted, don’t waste time being miserable, do the things that make you happy, with the people that make you happy, play music, love music, all music, and most of all, KICK ASS. If you’re old and reading this, all of the above also applies to you, x2. F*** getting old.

Played the singer's local. Was a weird setup. Lead guitarist's pedalboard was very noisy Went down well, helped by various friends of the band. Manager kept videoing us and was right up vlose and trying to get us to look into the lens which was pretty distracting at times. Just rehearsals now until mid-january.

Ooh, tricky, I play in several bands - but the main one I suppose is the one I'm most invested in which is our Renaissance-Folk band 'Minstrels Guild'. We play a mix of authentic renaissance ballads and dance music, as well as Blackmore's Night covers, and ballads written ourselves in the style of renaissance music. Sadly, we have our last UK gig on the 19th December and quite what the future holds musically is unknown as we're moving to the Republic of Ireland next year. It might be that we keep going via a YouTube channel and Bandcamp. Or we might hook up with local musicians and go in a new direction.

He can play slap but chooses not to and for that reason alone, he's alright.

Im touring in a band currently supporting British Lion - not long come off stage in Manchester. I asked Steve tonight why his new signature bass was black. He explained it was actually white when he got it and immediately had it sprayed Matt Black. I’m guessing it never had the BA bridge on to start with but I’ll ask him if I get the opportunity. He’s got one with him on the tour but it’s unlikely he’ll use it as it’s strung with rounds but I might get the chance to have a go!

… so had a break from putting boards together (as they take so long and I keep on changing them, I’m sure that’s never happened before on here 🤣🤣). The plan is to have a modular Pedaltrain Nano system, so everything ends up going through the utility board (Red Panda Mixer - Polytune 3 Mini - Lusithand Alma Mk 3 - Sfx Microthumpinator V2 - Franklin Audio Passive DI): The instrument boards are for a Fretless (Cali 76 Bass - DCX Bass - MXR Bass Chorus Deluxe - MXR Carbon Copy): Fretted (G-Lab BC 1 Comp - Creation Audio Grizzly Bass - Creation Audio Funkulator): and lastly the modulation board for Key Bass (Empress Effects Tremolo 2 - Vein Tap Dark Arts (Phaser) - EHX Eddy (Chorus) - MXR Carbon Copy Delay Mini): The idea is to be able to be more discerning with pedal choices for different instruments. I play at church and sometimes want to use all three instruments (no, not at the same time 🤣), sometimes only two and other occasions fretted only. This should make things more simple and easier to move about, rather than having a monster board where most of the pedals aren’t used! I’ll post pics when it’s all tested and built up, but you hopefully get the idea of my thinking. Peace.

I've not had a pedal board for sometime but after buying the Origin Effects BR15 a few weeks ago I thought it rude not to build one around my new di / preamp. A simple board comprising an analog chorus into a compressor and then straight into the preamp / Di.

Thanks Gareth, the tour is going well so far. Yeah I have to pinch myself at times, it’s very cool. Steve is a big fan of our band, they even used one of our songs as a B side. He’s a very down to earth bloke whovabsolutely lives for his music. Nice guy!