Leaderboard

NBD just in time for my birthday next week. Here’s my first Fender. Got the American Vintage II 60s P. What an eye candy! Love it so much and loved it even more when I put on some La Bella 760FL. My first bass was a Squier Affinity Pbass when I started learning. Ended up going back at it. happy kid 13 yrs old me with my first bass

It finally arrived today, and I must admit that my first impressions were rather mixed. It was perhaps unfair, but I took delivery at work, which meant that the only initial go I could have on it was through an old 30W amp and not very loud - basically "is it working?". I was initially impressed with the fit and finish. The tuners are excellent - smooth, easy turning but with no play. The neck is what one expects from Sire - satin finish, lovely rolled fingerboard edges. But I have to say that I was not impressed with the knobs - they feel lightweight and cheap, and to cap it off the passive tone ring was loose and kept turning beyond its end. I wasn't sure if the knob was loose or it was a dodgy pot. The pots are all different in feel especially in the detents - the bass knob has a very severe detent that engages with an audible click, but the blend pot's detent is vague and very easy to turn past. Anyway, I got it home and things got better. Thankfully, the tone ring/knob was just loose, pot was fine. Giving it a proper blast through my pedalboard things really opened up, tone-wise. The pickups sound great to my ears. The neck pickup, despite its diminutive size compared to the bridge holds its own when soloed, but admittedly does get a little lost when blended. The preamp is OK once you get used to it. I find that the bass pot does very little. I have found that the best way to control this bass is to leave the treble and bass centred, dime the mid control then use the mid sweep as your primary tone control, using the others for seasoning. The passive tone works in both active and passive modes, which pleased me. It doesn't have a huge range, but glad it's there. The blend pot is a bit all or nothing, but that doesn't bother me as I'd be using it like a switch anyway. Little creature comforts include the passive mode working even with the batteries removed, making it a full on "get out of jail free" card in case of battery depletion. There is very little volume difference between passive and active - in fact with the preamp set flat, I'd say passive is louder. My wireless bugs get along fine with the bass regardless of it being in active or passive mode - I know some cheap wireless bugs don't like active basses, but mine is happy enough (Lekato WS-70 for reference). So my main (and to be honest only) beef is the knobs. I think they're ghastly. They'll be getting changed - replacements have already been ordered. But that's my only complaint, apart from nitpicky points about the preamp. Enough waffle, have some pics.

Did a cool gig in Chelmsford town (city?) centre last night as part of their Sounds Good festival. A real eclectic line up of acts - we were closing our stage and preceded by a singer/cellist with guitar accompaniment which was ace. Their cover of Smooth Operator was v cool, as was their original work. Katy Hurt and band hadn’t even seen each other properly since August because of various things so it was a bit under rehearsed but we had great fun. Stage was great, sound guys were lovely, sound on stage was awesome (and oh my god the Handbox WB-100 is a SUPERB amp, sounded ace on stage and sound men loved its DI). TBH I feel I played pretty average at best, but I got through it and just simplified some things I’d normally actually over do… I was channelling my inner Negan with my clothing choice so everyone was lucky I wasn’t brandishing my bass line a baseball bat covered in barbed wire* 🤣 *Walking Dead reference for anyone going 🤷🏼‍♂️

HERE

Thekla in Bristol on Saturday night supporting The Men They Couldn't Hang. The venue is a boat which is very weird. Loads of steps to load down. They shared their drum shells, but I still had to carry my hardware box down. Sweating before soundcheck! A long way to drive from Stoke for a 30 minute set but it felt worth it. Amazing reception from a crowd that don't know us, although we didn't sell much merch. Hopefully some of them will come to our headline show in Bristol later in the year. No photos from the gig but this is us waiting to soundcheck

Played a pretty wicked venue in Southampton yesterday - Papillon. All day doom festival Abyssal fest, hosting some awesome bands and a great vibe all day. Performance was really enjoyable and seemed to go down pretty well. 10/10 fun.

Woof what a looker - yeah nice bass. Can’t plug it in till Thursday but a short scale that doesn’t feel small - string spacing is key when you have King Charles sausage hands - 42mm nut width has feel of a violin bass. Also it’s light thankfully- just need some nice flats. I usually use TIs on long scale - but had the on a mustang and was too floppy - was thinking La Bella Mustangs - I’ve used them before but can’t remember if I liked them,but wondering what Pyramid golds are like and if you can string through - any recommendations? I don’t like them to stiff ..oh er.. or heavy

Just back home from playing a great gig at the Anchor in Burbage, Leicestershire, depping with function band Superbad. Looked like a regular village pub, but it seemed to be THE place to go on a Saturday night round these parts. Place was rammed, with a wide range of ages too. Travelled light, using just one bass (Yamaha BB604), a Markbass head and two MB traveller cabs (tho it occurred to me afterwards that my Ashdown head is the exact same size as my pedal board, so I could have taken that and plonked the pedals on top.) Next time maybe. Resisted the urge to stop off for a McDonalds on the way home. Got home to find leftovers of a Chinese takeaway in the fridge instead - jackpot!

Last night it was a long trek to Llandovery for a pib gig on the first day of the sheep festival. The singer was picking me up with the pa but due to a local incident we left late on the 1 ½ hour journey, this meant only 30 minutes to set up, but the three other guys were already sorted which meant ok but no soundcheck. It was a half-timbered pub with about an inch of clearance above my head! No pogoing! I bet @Bluewine doesn't play nearly 800 year old venues very often! Pub was full and the audience was mostly older people and our very rock setlist went down well. We even had people singing along to War Pigs! One oddity was What is and What Should Never Be, which fades out gently and was met with stunned silence, very disconcerting. Yet three people came up and said how much they appreciated it! My first three-set gig, we played from eight to 11 with two 20 minute breaks. The last set was more dancy with "those songs" Dakota and Sex on Fire. Superstition went down very well too. A fair few new songs for us, Motorcycle Emptiness didn't get dancing but virtually the whole pub was singing along. Finished with Everlong as encore. We got free drinks on arrival, at the end the bar manager fetched us another free round, paid us more than the agreed fee and asked us to come back. Lots of good feedback from punters (also one said he'd come after seeing our Facebook page). So we were pretty pleased with how it went. Tonight a normal 2-set gig, with the drummer from my other band standing in. 😁

A few photos form last week's Hurtsfall gig at The Bodega in Nottingham supporting Midnight Danger: And a photo of the table in our dressing room - there was also a fridge full of beer and water plus cow's milk and oat milk.

Bit random. There was a bunch of Americans and an old guy getting into us. Halfway through the old guy steps up and thrusts a number into my hand and says, “You’re incredible, the best bass player I’ve ever seen, I want you on my new album, call me.” It was the guitarist from Mott the Hoople. random

Last nights gig with Emergency Exit punk covers was at The Riverside in Dumfries. The band has been playing this venue for 7yrs now (3yrs with me) but unfortunately due to noise complaints from locals that moved in recently the venue has suffered from noise complaints and the owner Ann has finally had enough and has decided to retire so i think that will be the end of live bands in this venue. She retires next week so we were privileged to be asked to play for her. Sad moment but she had been to court so many times in past 2 yrs with it and won because she was putting live music on before these people moved in. Decent turn out and very enthusiastic dancing around the bar and conservatory areas. 1hr drive home so that was easy too. Guitarist had a senior moment when he started Teenage Kicks in Db instead of D and he just couldn't get out of it and it was a disaster moment but we just made a joke of it and the audience appreciated its live music and sometimes we have senior moments. We did cut it short tho. Band has a meeting this Thursday to see if we want to continue doing the punk covers band as venues that will accept punk are becoming less and less and the audiences are dwindling from 3 yrs ago. Its odd because any time we play we get a great response from all generations and age groups. Original member from 78 is doing a Ramones tribute too and is thinking its maybe time to call it a day. I'm 50/50 on it mainly because i like the people in the band and i really quite enjoy playing the songs. They have a lot of energy especially the SLF songs which have become my fav songs in the set. Will see how it goes. Dave

Nice gig tonight at Leamington Tennis Club for their 150th anniversary. I took my new 5 string P Bass out and it was a real joy to play, great tone. Band played well, people danced, we got paid and got another gig booked off the back of it. So a result. Downside was it was outside and it was freezing! So cold that I had to order a coffee… Rock and Roll! 😂

Long day doing a fundraiser for a theatre company I’ve played loads with. It was a pick up band, so one rehearsal on the day, matinee gig and then evening. It was a community do so the musical calibre was of variable calibre and the inexperienced md, despite working very hard on the charts doesn’t have the technical chops to write with the correct musical grammar, which is a proper headache when songs in Bb minor are written in A# for example. The occasion was a 60s singalong- let’s see if any takers can recognise these two groovy classics. Anyways, lots of discussion and teamwork and we managed to put a show together, did about as well as I could do gluing tempos together between a lower section brass band drummer and an enthusiast dancer with a tambourine, off for a lie down and looking forward to a regular gig next weekend.

Played at The Pheasant as part of Worcester Music Festival last night... We were told to bring minimum stuff as it's a long narrow venue, so I brought the ACG and Helix to go into the supplied Ashdown 600 and 2 Laney cabs. And I couldn't get any sort of clean sound! Whatever I did it was distorted, and not in a familiar Ashdown growl sort of way; with my usual BBE/Crown set up, or my Marshall Jubilee, I get an almost creamy but meaty slap sound until I hit the Helix drive button when it's growl-time. So after quite a while of fiddling with eq I discovered it sounded less-bad with Helix growl also engaged. And it sort of worked for a bit - 1st couple of songs, OK, then an old mate who'd come up from London especially to see us signalled I should be louder. I turned up a bit and it was too loud, and not only that but there was a horrible crackling every time I moved and was too loud - had to play extra-light-touch so as not to drown everyone out. So unplugged both ends while our singer did some bants, and all was absolutely fine. All sounded great - our drummer said afterwards how good the bass sound was. However, there was a decent crowd (100ish, which was pretty full - twas difficult getting our our bass player's cab out!), and I don't think any of them noticed my bass-centric woes as they stood there stroking their chins. Though my London mate jigged wildly, and there were some young folks (they exist!) also having a wiggle, which was nice. Not only that, but we were all collared individually on the way out and told never to come to Worcester again or there'd be trouble. And that they were looking forward to seeing us on 2nd November... No pix yet, but as most of the band are doing holiday stuff till then we do have our gardening leave photo.

Our annual gig for Mencap last Thursday, we always love this one. Just like a Christmas party!

The Spurs , our little mostly instrumental Mexican band did an outdoor last night on Agricola St. We set up in front of Carlo Auto Service , close to the street. They’ve been doing street gigs there for much of the summer. Perfect night , the weather cold not have been better and many of the passerby stopped to enjoy , wound up with a lovely crowd. Very strange but enjoyable night , it’s always a joy to play that material. Ended at nine pm , not late returning home. Bonus! edit to add live photo

NBD.... Following a short scale transformation with a Serek "the Grand" I just HAD to get a matching 5 string Serek....... Both are incredible basses, the build quality, workmanship and sound are just what I was looking for. The Grand is strung with LaBella low tension flats and the Midwestern 2 is strung with Newtone Shorties.

Long drive yesterday but the expense was offset by there being two gigs. First one in a 'cidery' which was basically a cider farm with a building converted into a kind of cafe bar. Lovely atmosphere, friendly folk, polite rather than enthusiastic, but they enjoyed it. Then a 45 minute drive to the second gig which was a private party somewhere near Stratford on Avon. They used a field on a caravan park and set up a marquee for us. It was in truth a little late in the year to be playing outside but we started early (7pm) so didn't lose feeling in our fingers until nearly at the end of the set. Despite the distances involved I was home before midnight, which for me is a win.

Snap! If he drives a car like he drives a mixer he would be banned! On to Friday's Gig. Annual Bowls Club Supper Dance. The less said about the supper the better. The audience were not the youngest we have played to as you can imagine but they were up and dancing from the start. The main lights in the hall were on all night so it was a bit more like a rehersal than a gig but we mostly had fun. Usual set up for me Fender Aerodyne Bass, Bugera Veyron amp, Zoom B2 Four plus Cand Heat Cables made by my very own hand🤩

Bit late on this again I'm afraid. I mentioned about my 4 gig week last week - Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And just had the Saturday and Sunday to report on. Saturdays gig was a wedding with the function band. Converted barn in thr middle of nowhere. Arrived and apparently their old 'non cut out' limiter, had been replaced that week, with one set to 95db, but right above the stage - knocking out stage sockets, if the red light was solid for 9 seconds. Utterly ridiculous. The couple who run it were lovely, and gave us a long extension lead to another room. It was put in by the owner (farmer and landowner, and a more obnoxious bloke you'd struggle to meet anywhere else). He turned up two songs in and went ballistic, pulling the power out. We were already playing really quiet, and I mean really quiet. A few , let me say discussions were had with the tw*t. We demonstrated that at the back of the venue, the smart phone apps of a few of the guests were reading mid 80's, and just outside, it was mid 60's. He wouldn't have it, as apparently he'd had an 'expert' to install it. It was eventually agreed that we'd carry on, as we'd started and a good night was had by all. He said he'd get it moved to end of the barn. Ho hum Sunday's gig was a pub with the Northern Soul band (exactly the same line up, but different drummer). This was an absolute belter of a gig. So it turned out, that out of the four gigs, the cheapest and least plush one, was the best. I've got a Ska gig tomorrow (two of the members of the function and Northern Soul bands are in that too- sort of a big family of bands really). This will now be back up to a five piece, as the sax/guitar player who's dying, has said he'd very much like to carry on and gig as long as he can. I'll be surprised if he sees Christmas really. Many thanks for the comments about this on the previous page (my last post). I'll try and get a picture of tomorrow's gig. Though any of you in East Anglia may recognise him, as he's been around for a bit. He's quite private, so he may not want anyone to know outside of our close knit group of three bands. Thanks again guys for the comments earlier - death and taxes eh?

Mustang Sally were booked in the George pub, Mere in Wiltshire again (well, three of the band do live there) and it was Carnival night once more on the Saturday just gone. The roads through the centre are closed at 18:00 to protect the crowds on the street and let the floats lumber their way through to the parade starting-point. Very sensible of course, but for me living nearly 50 miles away it meant leaving home at 16:45 and even then only just getting through the barricades with two minutes to spare. Setting up in the pub was very relaxed as our first set was only due to start at the end of the parade (about 20:30), so sound-checks were actually possible. Unfortunately those checks were early doors in a quiet corner of the main bar that later filled to bursting point with a crazy scrum of singing, dancing and somewhat leathered punters, so my sax set ended up with my lungs turned up to 11 even with the radio mic - see video... Time went quickly, we managed to finish at exactly 23:00 as per the pub’s licence, the landlord immediately booked us for the same gig next year and I was actually home by 00:30, happy to slurp a post-match cup of tea, but not so impressed with the sturdy welcome-home present my cat had left for me in his litter box… WhatsApp Video 2024-09-15 at 18.22.44_ff42baf4.mp4

First one in a while! 4 Play (still funny? 😳) at the riverside in Sutton bridge. 4 - 7pm so a nice time slot. Actually played well until the getard swapped axes… to one which WASN’T tuned down 1/2 step 😝. Thankfully I play five so I just shifted but what a nob! Good crowd, singing and dancing, landlord happy (pissed, but they normally are in the Fens). Home in time for antiques Roadshow!! As always, Fender Dimension USA V Into GK Rb700 and barefaced BB2. The amp is like “I know the output from your humbuckers is too hot and things are distorting but it sounds so damn nice please can I have some more of that?”. So I obliged. I’m dimly aware that there are “not humbuckers” available… meh. Not for me ta.

I know one of their road crew well, and he indicated - in confidence- that Navarro had hidden Farrell’s Werthers. Not the first time hence the handbags

Nice fairly local gig for the glam lads last night. Wasn’t expecting much as it was an early start (7:45) and the pub was fairly empty when we went to the change room (read kitchen….that’s why all my stage wear smells of chip fat) however we came on to a full pub of enthusiastic punters. Had a great night and it was a fairly early finish, I was home and feeding the dog bits of my cheese sandwich before 12. First proper gig with the new to me Sterling Stingray shortscale; struggled a bit with the sound (couldn’t get that nice ‘fullness’ for some reason) which I never do with my Sandberg Lionel’s. Still, there’s always room for improvement on the eq.

A quick update to this story I didn't get the gig but I did get to sing and Dance with Jay and Cheryl from Bucks Fizz (The Fizz as they are called now) I made the final 15 of which one is already a 90s boy band star (but I don't know who) I though I did ok. My vocals were spot on and the dancing passable back to normality for me now

Oddish one this weekend; a 3:30pm start yesterday at a Bowling Club in Burnley...yeah, sounds like a recipe for disaster all round, but it was OK. In fact it was better than of late because we had the #2 drummer who I know of old, so we got to entertain ourselves during the more boring numbers (Sit Down, Sweet Home Alabama*) by playing off each other around and about the song. Audience were another 60+ lot; age, not numbers, sadly, despite the landlady saying 'It'll get really busy later'; I can only presume she meant after we'd left, because there was no evidence of 'busy' anywhere; maybe 25 people all afternoon. 2 x 45, encore not requested, so they didn't get one. We had more room than we've had in a while, which was OK, and I was home for half six, which will do, I suppose. Under-8lb Cheapo P, Stomp, inears. * Revived on the spot for the set (I pulled my face a bit) because they weren't an indie crowd, so we'd shelved several songs, SoF being one of them, so I guess swings/roundabouts...

The gig with dep drummer went ok. Interesting using house pa but Nick used his desk to eq it out with white noise which was impressive. Often the Ex's doesn't start to fill up until 9 (the Alley being a rather sterile box with the lights on), but we had punters arriving from 8 which was a good sign. In the end it was rammed and our second set got much dancing. We used their lights plus ours so although pretty basic stuff it looked good in a Christmas Tree sort of way! Obviously a few Interesting endings etc with a dep, but aside from almost everything being a bit fast to groove well, it went really well. The band WhatsApp is buzzing after two really good gigs 😎 feels like we've caught our stride now. 20240914_204823.mp4

A long journey down to Fordingbridge yesterday to play the Hart of Martin mini festival thing. Had a good laugh, a couple of huge brain farts, so far from my best performance ever, but we enjoyed ourselves. Second year we’ve made the journey but probably won’t do it next year - just too much driving for the small crowd and little or no money. IMG_5332.mov

Really good night at a Supernova event at Poplar Union in London last night, we were one of four bands on, really nice vibe to the whole thing. The other bands were excellent and really friendly which made it a very cool evening. We gave really good account of ourselves and got a lot of positive comments from the crowd. The Ibanez EHB continues to wow me in terms of sound and playability - I'm really enjoying playing it, and my back loves me for it

Officially finished 👍🏻

Played some punky ska at some seaside pub in Dawlish for a music festival. Went down really well. Backline was interesting, Orange guitar valve head into some Ashdown combo speaker and 2 x10”, actually worked well and sounded quite nice. Also the first outing for my 6.4lb Spector…no back ache today, hoorah!

Decent acoustic gig. No BBQ Ribs. Bastards ! Daryl

And now….. it’s finished A lot of work went into rebuilding this bass, and I’m delighted. Absolutely brilliant instrument. The Quarterpounders sound fantastic, so it’ll slot right into our live set no problem, alongside the Thunderbirds. Turns out the tuners are absolutely great. Smooth and steady, so they stay. So, I started with basically a body and a neck. Both were good quality timber, and provided a good base to build on. The electronics were junked straight away. I’ll keep the pups, you never know, but the pots and the awful bridge went in the bin. My list of jobs on it: Fret job, ends and polish. Clean and oil the fretboard. Hi mass bridge from Bass Wielder. Strip and lube the tuners. SD QP pickups. New controls, CTS pots, jack, cap etc. Set up with new strings. Very pleased, really enjoyed working on this one, and I’m delighted with the result. This is a really fab bass now, and I’m looking forward to gigging it. Another great addition to the collection.

Doing Rock of Ages all week, on stage. Not my normal vibe and first time playing with wound rounds in about a decade. Fun though! Opening night insta.mov

My new love arrived today. Added Rotosound 77s for reggae, 60s pop & Northern Soul.

New to me, picked up second hand, gotoh equipped jazz bass. This is now strung with some flats and I am blown away with how nice it is / plays. Previous owner had upgraded jack and installed a series / parallel push pull pot. It's lighter than I expected, certainly less weighty then my atk 400. Might have gotten lucky but I'd recommend this

Thanks mate, here's a better one from a similar angle

Now a convert to Ashdown 🤟

Second night out for new amp (full NAD thread to follow) and whereas the previous gig’s sound had been great, last night’s first set was plagued by a pronounced boom on the pitch of the D string. No amount of amp tweaking fixed it so in the break I had a look at the PA. 3 of the 4 vocal mic channels had some bass boost applied. I pointed this out to the BL (nice enough bloke but a PA dunce!) and set each one flat - problem solved. Seems they had been picking up my bass guitar and amplifying it, causing that one frequency to ‘ring’. I had done a 5-hour rehearsal that afternoon so I spent the rest of the night craving my bed. Think I’ll avoid that combo in future!

Put together a bit of a fun board to use some of the older pedals that haven’t been out for a while…

Well, that's the knobs sorted. As Baga Chipz would say, "MUCH BETTAH!"

It really is a positive that BD is interacting on here.

Landed a second BBII cab today.

I have dug out the scan of my article about Basschat's collective interview. I could obviously have written dozens of pages, but I had a strict word count to adhere to. Herbie Flowers interview BGM 139 Feb 2017.pdf