Leaderboard

She is currently with Fury, who supported Metallica Unloaded tribute at Torquay Arena tonight. I only caught the end of the Fury set. But I told her she's brilliant and that I play bass too. Yay!

An almighty trip to the other end of the country for an Eagles tribute show in Newbury. Beautiful venue, and an appreciative crowd. Nice to bump into BC’s very own @alant!

Quiet couple of weeks for me, our annual 2 weeks blanking the duo’s diary for holidays etc. However, I’ve had a couple of gigs this weekend with friends. First one was my favourite boozer, The Sun Inn in Beverley on Saturday evening, depping with a band of mates in their dad rock band. Absolutely torrential rain so expected it to be quiet but by 9pm we had a nearly full pub when we started. It was one of those gigs that didn’t really gel for some reason - guitarists struggled a bit, and it was a bit too loud towards the end. Still, went down well so job done I guess. Played my P-Lyte into the Rumble 500 combo. Then yesterday it was playing at a memorial gig for a good friend Lynn Blakeston ( Blako ) who died in April. This was in a local civic hall, with a big PA and backline / kit supplied. Plenty of acts / bands lined up to play, and of course we were on last ( bit annoying because we all arrived early but hey ho). I was playing with an old Hull band called ‘Uncle Sam’ who were an early country rock band in the mid to late 70’s. Four original members plus myself. John Cambridge on drums ( ex-Bowie) and Steve Lee on lead vocals ( also a writer / multi instrumentalist with a CV including Joan Armatrading, Lionel Richie, Will Young, Then Jericho). Steve came up from London for the gig, and was amazing - a pleasure to play with such a talented singer. I used my 63 Precision which had done a lot of gigs with Blako so seemed fitting. Used the house HA5000 / 410 which was fine. We did eight songs, including stuff from Poco, The Eagles and Linda Ronstadt and went down well, with a few dancers at the front and a good reception from the rest of the audience who were mainly made up of musicians. Despite the sadness of the occasion it was still good to see loads of people I’ve not seen for ages, and we all agreed we’d have to do it again in happier circumstances.

Great gig, depping with Duran/Spandau show 'From Gold To Rio' in Gainsborough on Saturday night. Almost full.... and receptive audience up and singing/dancing. Bass sounded great in my IEM's, and apparently out front too, really cutting/punching through. Gear used: Spector Dimension HP4 set flat, through dimed HAZardlAMPS preamp pedal, in to HXStomp with my own EQ'd GK800RB/Ampeg 810 setting (& chorus where needed).... and out to desk.

Friday night saw Hurtsfall's first proper headlining gig. This was at Liquid Light in Nottingham, which is first and foremost a brewery that has a bar and occasional events such as gigs and film nights. I discovered the place as it used to be home to the best vegan burgers in Nottingham. Unfortunately they seem to have moved on and there was no food on when we played. The PA is something else - it looks home-brewed but sounds great - see the photo of support band St Lucifer: There were plenty of people about while the bands were setting up and sound checking, but only a few of them opted to come inside once the actual gig started which was a bit disappointing for opener Joshua Todd, but luckily for the us and St Lucifer it filled up as the evening went on. I don't think the location helps, although it's close to the city centre, it's on an industrial estate and quite hard to find if you've not been before. With it being our first headlining set we were able to play for longer than our normal 30-35 minutes, and dusted off a couple of songs that we haven't done for a while. While it would have been nice for a few more people to have been there, once again we were competing with a goth festival in Morecambe and some of our audience were definitely in attendance there. Still it wasn't band for our first self-organised gig and we sold a decent amount of merch afterwards. Hopefully I'll be posting some more photos of us playing later in the week when they appear on social media. Next gig is also with St Lucifer in Manchester on Saturday 27th September.

Just back and having the usual tea and toast from our first ever gig at the famous wedgewood rooms in Pompey with the Phil Collins tribute. Geoff, the guy who is the main man there is such a gent! Super nice guy who has a fantastic team of people working for him. The sound lads were very friendly and professional and done a fab job for us. On stage sound was perfect and everyone said how good it was out front aswell. (11 piece outfit so not the easiest to sort out!) Got about 275 in there tonight which wasn’t bad for a first pop. Very appreciative audience and they said we are welcome to another gig there nxt year 😊. Used my GB spitfire 5 again, through my usual puma 900/ LFsys Monza rig, PA support obviously. All together a really fun experience.x

Well... First, the chaos of setting up three bands well (solo singer plus band) using the same mixer with two guitars using the desk, a drum machine and an electronic kit. Somehow it worked, but the second band's guitarists did the "crank after soundcheck" thing which scared off a few punters and did their sound no favours. Their bass player (also the organiser) used my kit. Our set was as interesting as promised, despite Fritz doing his back in which made it a little tamer. In my labcoat I wheeled in the patient (we skipped the straitjacket). He shambled to the mic as Nigel the specialist delivered the narration. I handed Fritz an acoustic guitar so he could start his 'creative therapy'. He played the Fractured Persona song with us backing quietly. The first four songs I went fretless Maya P. As it cranked up the fourth song was pretty punky so over to fretted P and plectrum. Then back to fingers except for Kill the Klown, which featured a sledgehammer clown attack on our singer who reponded by chainsawing the clowns head off. The prop chainsaw was wirelessly miked up too We ended up doing our encore, largely without our rhythm guitarist who truned the volume down on his guitar and forgot. We knew some of the songs were memorable and it was surprising to see people joining in some of the choruses, so comfortable we weren't just a novelty show. Lots of decent feedback despite obvious first gig hiccups. Memorable for us and the audience.

Both gigs were good with nice responsiveness crowds. The Ziegler Winery gig was moved inside due to the rain. The,Cedarburg Wine & Harvest Fest was another win for us. The stage and sound was very good. Daryl

Last night, played The Railway Club in Keith with Nine Lives. Drove through a one minute monsoon on the way there - rain so hard had to slow down because even with the wipers on full speed I couldn't see very well. Then it was done. What a bizarre, angry, and incredibly small pocket of weather! So we get there and get set up - it's an odd place - L shaped, so we are in the bit round the corner from the bar. It has alcohol, we don't. So, as you can imagine, we had only a trickle of folk getting off their backsides and coming round to see us, and a bunch of folk who were quite content to sit round the corner and merely listen. Are people not curious any more? Anyhoo, I frankly don't know how busy it was. We had some people come round for a dance and a singalong, so at least there's that. Got some nice comments afterwards, compliments on our playing and the sound (which surprises me because the first half was a nightmare - just couldn't get the singer loud enough. At half time we swapped out her wireless gear for a good old wired SM58 and things improved greatly - we'll need to investigate that. We played pretty well for all that, and the Neep One got its first live outing and didn't explode/collapse in half/go silent so yay for my dubious luthiery skills? Gear was G&L L-1000 then the Neep One into the cubes of doom.

Our twice yearly date at the Ringwood Meeting House. They’ve been hugely supportive of the Otis Jay Blues Band for the last three years and we have rewarded them with four different line-ups in the past four visits! Cecilia our new singer went down a storm with 53 paying customers - a reasonable haul and very appreciative. Rig: Sandberg VM4, GK MB200, BF One10, Clarks leather shoes.

A fairly long trip to Bridlington in god awful storm weather last night for Glam Viva. A great venue, the Black Lion in the old town, first visit for us. A great venue with a small theatre type arrangement. Unfortunately the weather had put off a fair few punters so it was only about half full, fortunately those that braved the onslaught were up for it and danced the night away. Only negative of the night was the outside door that let water through due the the storm and wet my clothes through in the changing room so had to drive home in 70s glam wear…… Footwear….red silver and blue sequinned converse.

Played a 60th birthday party on Saturday at the Baines Hall at Elland Cricket Club. We'd been brought in as a replacement for the band originally booked who became unavailable, and who for some time have been trying to get us to fulfil gigs they can't but this was the first time it had happened. Absolutely pissed it down all evening, so got drenched loading in and loading out. I also made the mistake of being set up first which led to other band members dumping things on the (fortunately quite well padded!) gig bag containing my spare bass! I used the Sire - Elf - Two10S setup again, but it didn't sound particularly great, probably not helped by the hardwood floor throughout making the place really boomy, or by the fact that the Sire desparately needs a string change. It didn't sound bad, especially when the full band was playing, but when I was on my own then it was definitely noticeable (by me) that it didn't sound ideal. I also had the amp cut out during the first song, but a quick reduction in gain and increase in volume, together with a conscious effort to play lighter, solved the problem and there were no further issues. I had cut the pad on my left ring finger a few days prior to the gig - not a deep cut but given the aforementioned filthy strings I didn't want to get anything nasty in it, so I had to play in a plaster. That didn't cause any issues fortunately, except when I had to slide using that finger and found myself a fret higher than I'd intended to, and towards the end when it started to come off my fingers would stick together which made me really have to concentrate. We didn't expect to have much audience interaction, and apart from a dad and his two young kids, and a young woman in very sparkly trousers, we had no dancers until about three songs from the end when there were a good twenty people up and cheering. No encore and the fastest teardown I think I've ever had, and I was home for 11. Shoes were a pair of very wet brown Clarks ones that need a bit of attention now. We've a couple of months off now until our next gig in November, so plenty of time for string changes and learning new songs.

We played at a 40th birthday party last night, held in the hall in which we rehearse, so very much a home fixture. The audience was a mix ranging in age from 5 to 65. Food and drink provided, which is always good. We had been asked to provide a 'rocky' set and I decided to give my recently acquired 5 string Ibanez GSH205 an outing. I've rehearsed with it a few times and it was my back up at the Hulla festival back in June, but this was the first time it took centre stage. I don't play 5 strings regularly enough to be able to swap between 4 and 5 easily but I'd been practicing with it and was reasonably comfortable in using it. It was an 8pm kick off and we had a great sound thanks to our regular sound engineer and, of course, it being a familiar venue. I had a few senior/jazz moments, mainly as a result of the extra string throwing me and I felt the band performance as a whole wasn't as good as it has been recently. There seemed to be a lack of energy in some of the faster songs, with our encore of Dakota being particularly bland. But we went down well with the audience, with our younger fans particularly enjoying Taylor Swift's Love Story - they all gathered around our singer and stared adoringly at him as he sang it. 😀 My kit was the aforementioned Ibanez GSH205 into the pedal board - a Sine HPF, MS60b (for noise gate and tuner only), NUX Sculpture compressor, EHX Bass Clone, NUX Voodoo Vibe and into the desk via my Ampeg SCRDI. This board hasn't changed for a couple of months now (unusual for me) and I find it works equally well into an amp and speakers (last week) or DI (this week). I was monitoring from the desk via a Behringer P16m and wireless IEMs. This gives me my own mix and some protection from excessive noise levels. Footwear was the same as last week - unbranded black boots. Kit: Love Story:

Ah, that's great to hear. Everyone was very welcoming. Up early the next morning for a rainy 7-hour drive to the Laundry Theatre in Bowness the following night. Another lovely venue. ...and then back to 'proper' work for 8am Monday morning. Even so, I'd do it again tomorrow.

Finally…… I have got my hands on the one. I was 16, when I first got into bass. A mate played me “Live Xcert” by The Stranglers…. and I was hooked. Jean Jaques Burnel playing a black/maple Fender Precision. Yes mate. 44yrs later, and 100’s of basses…. like all the basses, and finally I have the one I should have had in the first place….. I’ve owned most brands except Fodera , but one bass always eluded me, the one that started it, at least in my head. I have no idea why it took so long tbh… Anyway, there you go, better late than never eh?

Wedding party. We played pretty old songs in the beginning while the audience was relatively young. I messed many details from simple songs because I couldn't hear a thing I was playing. But: second set was much better and the third one was really good. Mercy (that 3rd degree version) was an instant floor filler, and Disco Inferno was super. Humidity was probably +90, sweat sweat sweat. Maybe we sounded like Wet wet wet. One thing was unusual: the party was in time! This was third time ever.

YouCut_20250920_002834235.mp4 Bit of a late report but I can do that can't I? We played (Felis Leo) a gig in Southampton on Sunday afternoon. The band's first gig there and my first there in 11 years! I miss playing Southampton, I have fond memories of many, many venues there 😍😄 Ages ago a mate said try Music In The City, a weekend festival in various strange venues around Southampton. We got booked as the last act on in a place called St Michael's Vault. Turns out it's like an old wine cellar/jail/bomb shelter type place in the car park behind the Titanic pub! We got there early enough to watch a couple of the bands before us, turns out this festival is quite popular and well organised so we had a chilled time enjoying the bands. The sound in the place was terrible though and the volunteers were supplying free earplugs to punters 😂 When we got on stage we didn't have the crowd the other bands did but there was a few so we were happy. Those that weren't fam n friends actually were there for the duration, unbelievable with the noise we were making! Hopefully we'll get more gigs down that way, I've always enjoyed gigging in Southampton more than Salisbury (sorry Salisbury, you need to embrace your inner rocker self more 🤔). I wore me converse and the sound guy liked my ibanez sdgr 1205 bass.

Yesterday afternoon at the "Piv" in Nuneaton. It's our only gig this month due to the guitarist being off touring elsewhere. The Piv is a great social club that belongs to the allotment society, and has survived by having regular entertainment. As we were leaving our early evening gig in the lounge, people were arriving for ballroom dancing in the big room and others were setting up a poker night in the conservatory. I should really have taken some photos while the lights were on, but was a bit out of sorts after the guitarist's Mesa Boogie combo released the magic smoke! We think it might have been a dodgy socket it was plugged into - duly "sorted" by sticking some gaffer tape over it 😂. Anyway he luckily had the foresight to carry a spare amp with - and what a fabulous little amp it was. Switchable output up to 50W and sounded great plugged into the Mesa speakers I did ask him why he was still lugging the big heavy combo around! (The tablets are Vocalzones btw) The afterthought photo just about showing my Rumble and Stingish bass... Oh and you can also see my new Gravity lighting stands - the black ones. I've been wearing shorts since the spring but went back to jeans, which felt strange. Footwear were black DMs to match the rest of the garb

Sadly, I wasn't getting on with the Stingray Special 5, especially in comparison with the 'Dreadnaught' 95 Stingray, so I spotted this in BassBros and sallied forth to do a deal with Will. I have an old association with Goodfellow/Mayflower/GB instruments - Many, many moons [read decades] ago, someone at the then Derby branch of Carlsbro took a lump out of my original Status Series II neck with a hammer while trying to reseat a fret, so I was without the bass for what turned out to be quite a few months. During this period, they loaned me one of the Goodfellow Standard originals, which I really enjoyed playing. Of course, it's faded into a distant memory now, but it was a very good long term impression of Goodfellow basses. As for the old 97-98 Spitfire, it's certainly VERY punchy and seriously fast. It was apparently at BB for quite a while, so I'm surprised no one jumped on it. Destiny, I expect. Anyway, here are the obligatory pictures...

It was Jam Night last night. My band weren’t available so I was expecting to do a slot with a couple of the host band members and a band less drummer. Then at shortly after 5pm I got a call from the host band asking if I could dep for them as their bassist was ill. So “Yes”; shower; throw some tea down (the solid variety known as “dinner” across vast swathes of the country😂) and leg it to the venue to help set up. My evening consisted of: 3 songs with the host band, all of which I know fairly well and have played recently. 2 songs in a scratch band with songs called out on stage. I’d never heard one of them before (on stage instruction: it’s in C with a Mustang Sally vibe). The other one was Route 66 which I hadn’t played for 25 years and that was on keys - oddly I could remember the key. My slot. An excellent guitarist / singer who I’ve played with a few times before joined me. And a drummer that neither of us had met before, who was expecting to play a blues set (it wasn’t). Myself and the guitarist decided on songs at 5:30 (between shower and tea), hence the hastily made band name of “5 thirty” (think “The 1975” but in a shorter time frame😊). I’d never played “Long Train Running” but checked out the chords and listened to it a few times on the walk to the venue. Closing song with the host band. “Proud Mary” which I don’t think I’d played for 2 years - so a quick reminder of the chords on my phone, then on the stage to play. I don’t think my ears have had such a work out before. I’ve been doing a fair bit of ear training in the last year or so - they did ok last night. It’s not usually a Jam Night (more bands that have practiced and book a slot), but last night was - I really enjoyed it.

Played an open mic last night in Sutton Coldfield. Just the five tunes but we were given the "feature band" slot. Felt like less of an open mic at times and more of a "battle of the bands" situation given the quality of all of the bands on. Was really fun though. Bass was my modded Squier Bronco, and that was plugged (via fancy wireless) into an Aguilar Tone Hammer 700 head and 2 112 cabs underneath (as house amps go, that was the best I've ever used for sure). Footwear was Puma Suedes.

Picked this up (literally and factually) today - but only just Trace elliot gp12 smx 410 combo What an absolute beast. I've always wanted one of these. All the bands in pubs when I first started had one. And I longed for one... Ended up with a 100w commando amp instead Its a lost art. Lost to history if we are not careful. THIS is how bass amps used to be. What has happened with today's amps????!! (I'm a tonex IEM user so take with a pinch of salt). Everything has been done with care, the best materials and purely sound based. However it's aesthetically gorgeous too. Its absolutely a work of genius and has been built with real pride. It's built like a tank. Built to last (it's 32 years old and everything still works perfectly). It has everything you need. Mute switch Gain stage and led guide to correct gain. Passive active switch Input blend dial from pure solid state to valve preamp. 12 band eq. Switchable. Switchable 3 stage pre shapes. Graphic level dial. Low compression dial High compression dial. Eq balance dial. This is the same as the supposed new angled tilt dials on amps. Effects level dial. Effects input dial Send return DI Output level Earth lift. And what a sound! In excellent condition with the originally paperwork and warranty too! Gees, this is a proper amp! Long live the old amps!

Not long got back. Played a local venue for the second sunday in a row, this time with the Fortunate Sons. Unexpected gorgeous sunny day meant a packed audience and plenty of dancing. Again played best part of 2 hours and 35 songs(!) We were much tighter than our previous gig. I'm getting more comfortable on bvs, so joining in on more songs. The singer caught me out by shoving his mic in my face during Moni Moni... Went for a sunday lunch with my partner beforehand. A pint of coke, pint of Guinness and a bottle of becks zero on top, with two hours of bouncing around and I have a fine stomach ache. Lots of people I know there which was nice. I loaded in from the front. The other guys were less lucky. The route to the back is like a scene from the evil dead...

First proper outing of my project bitsa P bass on Saturday night at a gig in the Griff and Coton Social Club in Nuneaton. First time there, small crowd but filled up as the night went on. Torrential horizontal rain and high winds during the load out at the end which was annoying. No pics unfortunately as I spent most of the time away from the stage nattering nonstop to people at the bar. Gear - the red bitsa Unfender P, Little Mark 2 and MB Traveller cabs etc.

I had a 200MB for years, the original speaker expired and I put a replacement in that wasn't as good, eventually found I could get a Pyle speaker identical to the original so got that and it was good again. I eventually found I wasn't using it any more and sold it. Now I find that a tiny combo weighing just over my 10kg limit would fill my needs for some things I'm doing, and @Thornybank pointed me at one at Fair Deal Music. Dropped in there today, gave it a quick whirl (I'd forgotten just how loud they go), and took it away with me. Jam night tonight so that'll be its first outing.

We played the 7pm slot in a new all-day power metal festival at a large social club yesterday. 6th band out of 9 on the bill, but I got there for the first band at 2 and didn't leave until midnight so it was a long enough day to be feeling it this morning. It had the usual metal-crowd friendly atmosphere, though, and the other bands were all really good with enough in common but not so much to be samey, so it was nice to make a day of it. Being a social club in Sheffield, the Stones bitter was fresh and not too expensive. Of course it had to be absolutely bucketing it down so everything got a water-tightness test on the way in, but cabs were provided so that made things easier. Said cabs were a pair of Vanderkley 1x12s that I was told were good for a thousand watts so am assuming were MNT112s. I thought we did alright, but I personally made a bit of a balls-up to begin with. I have two Warwick RB Streamers that I use for gigging - the black one was b-stock with a dead preamp so is gutted and rewired passive, while the white one is factory-spec with its preamp intact. Correct settings for the black passive is everything on 10, whilst for white active it's Bal/B/T in the middle detents and just the volume up to 10. I've been playing the passive recently, so of course picked up the active and without thinking set the balance fully forward (not a massive problem) and bass / treble boosted to max. Was a very brief line-check so it didn't really hit me how wrong it sounded until we started. Half way through the first song I twigged and had to give the sound guy a minor episode by correcting the EQ and messing up his mix, but despite that, everyone I spoke to afterwards said we sounded good. One guy commented that the vocals became much clearer from the second song... mhmm..! Streamer LX 5 (active..) -> Telepath wireless -> Fly Rig v2 -> Markbass Nano 2 -> 2x Vanderkley MNT112 (?)

Today's gig was at the street fair in Charlbury, doing the usual jazz-ish originals. A strange gig as our sets were between those of singers/acoustic guitarists doing covers in the beer garden of the pub on the other side of the street. We could hear but not see them, so we had to be ready to go at the appointed time as soon as applause was heard, just in case they slipped another song in. They were similarly ready when we were playing. A video of some of our performance is available, though the intro was missed as the person filming was trying to move out of the rain. As the video shows, some kitchen sink/shelf units were out in the yard where we were performing - apparently the venue was undergoing some refurbishment. These turned out to be a convenient place to stash my bass bag and amp cover when not playing.

Sadly not mine - just in my custody while waiting for it's new owner to pick it up, but a delightful example of a 2004 Textured Teal/Checkerplate 2EQ MusicMan SUB.

We stuck with USB-A for a reason... there are a variety of USB-A to 9V, 12V, 15V and 18V converter cords available for use with pedals, but also the USB-A to USB-C and USB-A to lightning cables are readily available and very inexpensive so you get the best of both worlds. https://lovemyswitches.com/usb-to-9vdc-power-cable/?srsltid=AfmBOopZVrbjs29mAccByIl4AMwGF66xRajKnUtln5fc-rE7Rd5RIkAR Yes, I write all the basic outline and structure of the manuals, and then I have a couple of our outside test players who help with the editing process. One is a very experienced aerospace mechanical engineer who writes operations manuals for NATO compliant equipment (the big stuff) and the other has outstanding communication skills combined with really good intuition. Both are also excellent bass players (I'm a somewhat-mediocre keyboard player), so the goal is a technically complete manual written and edited from the perspective of bass players, to be accurate, clear, concise, useful and free from the vomitous marketing babble that makes manuals virtually unreadable. Thank you for appreciating our efforts. ❤️ We figure that if you are going to pay for a premium product, you also deserve a premium manual.

First gig report: I purchased a Monaco last week and gave it its first run out at an outdoor gig yesterday. My first impressions are that this cab is superb. The sound of each note from low E to high on the G string is even and balanced and speaks clearly, just like the bass does when practicing using headphones. Setting the amp's eq to flat the speaker sounds a little bland but once eq is set to taste then the sound really comes alive, it is full, rich, clear and present. The ABM is a perfect match with its seven band eq; after a few adjustments on the fly I had a really pleasing sound, with a touch of drive and compression to complement; in melodic, sensitive passages it felt like my technique, the string and the speaker were working as one as if it was an acoustic instrument; and in fast, loud passages with the drummer moving around the low toms muddying the sound, now each note spoke clearly through the mush. My only gripe is that there aren't rubber feet on the cab - easily solved - I can see the corner protectors getting pretty scratched up quite quickly and the cab needs a mat at home to protect the wooden floor from getting marked. So overall this is a wonderful cab, yesterday was the clearest and most even sound I've ever had on stage. I'm really excited to be taking this forward with me on my musical journey as I think it will help me become a better bass player.

Need to get Danny sapko involved

I spent most of the day in a local studio recording some of my own songs. My first time doing my own material and my first time singing in a studio environment. Very exciting, and very strange to hear myself in the headphones as we layered multiple vocal tracks. I also did octave mandolin and a friend laid down some acoustic guitar. I'll be back next week to do bass, once my bass is back from the repair shop.

Hi everyone, Thanks for the kind words and great to hear from some old friends on here! Hope you're all keeping well. Glad you enjoyed the video, it took a while to film all the separate sections and glue them all together afterwards, but I'm hoping it proved useful and vaguely interesting! It's difficult sometimes to show what you're up to on a particular gig without coming across like you're just bragging about the equipment you use, so I was mindful to try to make it educational where possible. I'm playing Queen songs with the Royal Philharmonic at the Albert Hall tomorrow so I should take my little action cam along and see if I can take some footage there, and later in the year I have my usual NYE gig but this time it's going to be filmed in a TV studio so that might be a good one to do some 'behind the scenes' filming at too. I'm going to try to make my YouTube channel a mix of videos from a pro's perspective (Gigs, gear, etc) and also lessons and tutorials. My channel is iankingbass if you fancy taking a look. Anyway back to looking at Basschat Marketplace! Cheers, Ian

Sad news indeed. There’s something about G&L that just doesn’t fly with the market and it’s been that way for years. Prices of used USA basses are proportionately low compared to US Fender or US MM equivalents. Some of the US L2000 instruments that you see for sale used go for Japanese Fender prices and the Tribute line used prices are rock bottom (I’ve sold a couple in the last 2 years). I had a few of each and the quality/sound/playability is as good as anything comparable but they have remained very niche. A few times over the years I’ve had compliments on my G&L basses especially a US trans-orange L2500 I had but people said that they couldn’t get past that headstock. One person said that the G&L headstock makes it look like it’s aimed at the country music sector. I couldn’t disagree. G&L has lacked faces too, in a recent Andertons video on why Andertons is still in business, Lee Anderton says that they keep good stocks of and sell lots of instruments that customers’ favourite guitarists/bassists are playing. G&L just isn’t on the radar of many buyers in the way that Fender and MM are. There isn’t a high profile artist roster and there’s not a history of legendary stars out there playing them in the same way you see Fender and Gibson etc. G&L marketing focuses on the Leo Fender legacy and “the best instruments Leo made”. All commendable and worthy but I don’t think that figures in the buying decision of many people. The landing page of the website says “Made in Fullerton since 1980” - who cares about this except for me and few other crusties? It presumes that you know the history of Fender and significance of it, whereas most Fender owners have no idea where Fullerton is nevermind that it was where so many great Fender instruments were made. The product info is all “features”, like Saddle Lock Bridge and Dual Fulcrum Vibrato; that’s like a car manufacturer putting Fuel Injection, 16v or ABS on its products, it’s old hat, we expect all this and a lot more these days. On the homepage there’s a bloke in a G&L top and jeans sitting down playing a natural JB. Then there’s pictures of Leo and other G&L blokes in plaid shirts in the workshop, one is even holding up a competitor's guitar (it’s a Fender). That’s the shop window of G&L today. None of that helps get these amazing instruments into the hands of potential buyers. I’ve dealt with G&L customer service a couple of times in the past and it’s so far above and beyond expectation, it’s like dealing with a boutique builder that focuses on your need, they’re fantastic. I’ve had a pickup sent out FoC from California and another time they shipped me a tuner to replace one that was bit stiff. I really hope G&L comes through this in whatever way, the products are fantastic but they need a serious business rethink to get them out there selling decent numbers. Spector went through a rough patch in 2007-09 with distribution, image etc. Prices were disproportionately low but now it’s bounced back. Fender went through a rough patch in the 80s until the management buy-out. If someone like Marcus MIller can drive a new brand (Sire) to the point where it’s becoming a benchmark within its market position then surely someone can inject enough magic into G&L to make it a brand that is on a lot of people’s shortlists.

So I thought it would be interesting (decide for yourself how interesting!) to document the setup of a new band... Read on if you want to, or don't if you don't. I've always wanted to have an 80s covers band. Ideally I would be the lead singer and bassist, alas my vocal chops just aren't there. I tried once in the past to set up a band using people found on joinmyband and other sources and it wasn't a great experience but a valuable one. Earlier this year my main band, a 2000s covers band, had a hiatus and the drummer and I cooked up a scheme to do something as a side project. This is one of the big lessons I learned a few years back: work with at least one person you already know! Well, that makes bass and drums... I contacted a guitarist I was in a band with four or five years back, I love his style and attitude and we have remained friends loosely keeping in touch, he was excited to join in. In the middle of August we met up with a handful of songs to bash through. I found it a real struggle to sing and play, my voice was knackered at the end of it, but we agreed we had something that worked and if we had a singer and ideally a keys or sax player we could really have something worth progressing. I got too excited and advertised for a singer much earlier than I had wanted to. I got a handful of responses: a guy aged 28 who sings modern metal, a classic rock vocalist in a covers band id heard of, a female singer who recently left an indie band, and a lady who only wants to do backing vox as she doesn't want to fully commit. I have not yet met the singers, we want to get the songs tight first. But we have rejected two of them already! Now, the lost of songs we are working on is a handful of "male" songs and two "female" songs. The classic rock singer contacted me to say words to the effect: "you do realise that Holding Out for a Hero is written for a girl??? You know it's about a Man???" That told me all I needed to know about this person. Didn't say "hey I might tweak the words" which I'm happy with, just basically came across a bit old fashioned and hinted he could be difficult to work with. Luckily, the recordings of heard of his vocals weren't great so I was comfortable saying we had better fit singers already. Also, he didn't notice, or at least raise, that "I wanna dance with somebody" is also a female perspective song. I have no issue if a man or woman wants to change the gender perspective of a song, or keep it. But we had not at this point said we want a male singer, or we want a female singer. We just wanted a good singer and to do good songs, so we have a mix. Anyways, onwards and upwards. In the meantime we wanted to get the songs tight but also I kept hearing sax in a lot of the great songs of the decade so I advertised for a sax player. I got a great response from a guy local to where we rehearse who plays sax and keys. I sent him the long-list of possible songs and five mins later got a reply of "f me that's my childhood!" And I just knew he would do for us. This week we met up again and invited our sax and keys player. We also had a friend come along to sing so I could concentrate on bass and arrangements. Magic happened. We did two or three runs through of each song, had a ten minute break for a chat. We instantly bonded with our new multi-instrumentalist: a decent person, a proper musician, and he LOVES the genre. There are still details to work out such as better transition to solos, proper endings of all these fade out songs, but we were really solid and the keys and or sax just really added something. It felt special. We will meet again in a few weeks' time, now with a handful more songs that really prominently feature the sax. Our best candidate for singer isn't available until mid October so hopefully we can be really tight by then and ready for him. I'm getting quite excited about this side project! Playing with a drummer and guitarist I know really helps, and striking gold with a chap who plays sax and keys is just sheer good fortune. More to come soon....

I was in a prog metal band for a relatively short time. We wrote and recorded enough for a 40 minute set and then had a meeting about getting ready for gigs. At this meeting, the front man brought lists for each band member with specific items of kit each of us had to have. This wasn't little things like leads etc, my list included Ampeg SVT Classic with 410 cab, the guitarists list included a HiWatt amp and a load of pedals. After a relatively short argument, we all quit. The front man contacted me again recently claiming he's a bit more chilled out now, I told him to get stuffed.

TLDR: that isn’t equality, it’s noblesse oblige in progressive clothes. Ah, “punching down.” That ghastly little phrase, which sounds less like a moral framework and more like an instruction one might find in an IKEA manual for assembling an oddly-shaped ottoman. The idea, if you’ll allow me to paraphrase it badly, is that comedians should never make jokes at the expense of those with less power or lower status. Very noble. Very high-minded. Very - how do I put this delicately? - patronising in the extreme. We’re being told who counts as “up” and who’s stuck “down.” That isn’t equality, it’s a hierarchy disguised as virtue, and the moment you divide people like that, you’ve abandoned the very principle of treating everyone as equals. And here’s the obvious truth: people are equal regardless of job, money, or social status. A duke and a dustman may move in different worlds, but both are flawed, both ridiculous, both capable of laughter. To declare one “fair game” and the other “off limits” is to recreate the very divisions equality claims to abolish. Shielding people from humour doesn’t honour them; it quietly marks them out as lesser, as fragile, needing special treatment. I’ve met, in my time, any number of the allegedly powerless, and I’ll tell you what: many are sharper, wittier, and far more capable of puncturing pomposity than the self-appointed guardians of their honour. To exclude them from the rough-and-tumble of humour is to infantilise them. Shielding some groups from jokes doesn’t respect them, it sidelines them. It’s not kindness; it’s exclusion in a sanctimonious mask .

This weekend. Ziegler Winery! Sat, Sep 20 @ 3:00PM — 6:00PM Ziegler Winery , W3953 Winnebago Heights Rd, Malone, WI If you haven't discovered Ziegler yet, what are you waiting for?? Join us on the fabulous patio for a music and wine filled Saturday! Cedarburg Wine and Harvest Festival! Sun, Sep 21 @ 12:00PM — 2:30PM Cedarburg Wine and Harvest Festival, W63 N643 Washington Ave., Cedarburg, WI Join us for an early Sunday Funday on the MAIN STAGE at this years' Wine and Harvest Festival in Cedarburg!

For me intent is everything. To take the piss in some way - bad. To honour the song / subject - good. A few words spoken before playing it will clarify intent for the audience. "We have been asked to play this song. It is one of the greatest protest songs ever written about a subject that doesn't get enough attention and we just hope we do it justice" Something like that.

I was one of the lucky ones who got my money back, after I posted a picture of his house telling him I knew where he lived. He even pretended to get the police to phone me to ask me to stop! What a whopper. Hope he gets everything coming to him, horrible f***er!

Another good question, nothing is off the table and personally it's something that I would like to do... in part to honor my dad's memory since he started his engineering career during the (all) tube era designing servo amplifiers (which are similar to audio amplifiers). He then went on to handle spacecraft attitude control on the Mariner Mars project which allowed him to step away from strictly hardware design and into the control systems side of servo theory. My dad passed away 2 years ago at the age of 90, this model was the last amp that he provided his insight on (he remained interested in engineering and math until his death). It's also why I followed in his engineering footsteps at university. I wouldn't rule this out either, but there's nothing immediate on the table either. I'm always open to hearing what YOU PLAYERS would like to see, sometimes that's what provides the impetus for new projects.

PA subs go as much as an octave lower than bass cabs, while PA mains don't have the rising midrange typical of bass cabs. Try high passing the desk bass channel at 60 to 80Hz, if it has that capability, or cutting back on the bass EQ if it doesn't, while boosting the mids in the 2 to 2.5kHz range. If you want to be more precise get this app for your phone. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dom.audioanalyzer&hl=en_US&pli=1 You can use it to see the frequency response of your rig. Play an open A and take a picture of the result, C weighting, slow response. Save it and compare it to the same test through the PA. Comparing the two will show where the PA EQ needs to be adjusted.

Update time: Necks are built and now just waiting for the logo decals before the final coats.