WalMan

Last one before Friday’s prog extravaganza. I made a load of silly mistakes so hopefully they’re out of my system.

As it’s prog I took the kitchen sink:

- two basses (Wal and FrankenJazz)

- pedalboard 

- acoustic guitar and stand up player stand 

- BB2 and power amp that was going to be for the bass pedals but in the end was an expensive, but rather nice sounding monitor for the acoustic through a TwoNotes Opus

- Alesis Strikepad loaded with two kits for the drummer, one with rototoms and a pad for the clocks at the beginning of time, and a second with two pairs of timpani, one tuned for Fanfare for the Common Man and the other for Life on Mars

- I had the McMillen 12Step and bits to connect to soft synths on my iPad for bass pedals, but that was the straw that broke the camel’s back and I shan’t use those. I can get by with the Source Audio C4 on the pedalboard.

Friday we have a non proggy support who I don’t know (our guitarist does and I found a couple of videos) but have been asked to share kit and amps.

I was going to take both BB2’s to run separate rigs for bass and basspedals/acoustic and I always carry a spare amp so I’ll probably just run up both rigs and he can tweak the spare then I’ll swap it out for the power amp.
 

Had a bizarre “cheese dream” about it last night where we soundchecked in a wooden shack scout hut then I went out to sort out sharing my gear only to come back and find the drums and bass gear stripped from the stage, taken outside and unceremoniously dumped in a deep crater. I woke up as my WTAF rant started 😳 I’m sure it’ll be fine 🤣

Used the FrankenJazz that’s my current main squeeze most of the night, but swapped to the Wal at the end of the first set and first couple of the second. Both sounded great and I’d have used the Wal more but didn’t have my Duo strap and my shoulder started complaining. I love the Wal dearly, it was my only bass for a good 20 years but damn she’s a heavy old girl.

Barock Project with support from Peter Jones at Trading Boundaries on Thursday night.

Love the venue and both artists. 
 

Peter Jones on fine, nutty form and got up to do one number he had co-written with BP just him and Luca.

The BP bass player couldn’t make it this time so they had his parts recorded - I’d have offered but it gets a bit technical at times 🤣 

Had a great night at our favourite venue with #2 son and his g/f. I’d have gone for the second night on Friday if I hadn’t been gigging myself

Not a bad night in Portsmouth but quiet at the venue which was a shame.

We were pretty tight having thrown in a few we’ve not played in a while but they went ok despite having played them on the 5 previously and have been using the FrankenJazz with a Hipshot so I was still experimenting with different positions and flipping between E and D to fit which led to a few errors in position when dropped.  Worst for me was the end of Rollin’ In The Deep when I got songs muddled and was playing (in our tuning) D-E-F#-E-D instead of F#-E-D-E-F#. Guitarist said after “I thought you were going for different inversions but actually it ended up as the “jazz” version.

Sound was good from where I was and at one point vox came over to me, nodded at my rig and said “oooo that sounds awesome” … he was right, it did 😁

Annoyingly I’m still waiting both for my new IEM’s with a new mold for a hopefully better fit, and the old ones repaired after one side stopped working ☹️ Meant I had to use the KZ’s I picked up as spares. I haven’t managed to get a good fit so the sound from them is never as good as the molded set, but it was better than nowt. I ended up one in / one out which was ok.

On stage the sound seemed well balanced. Hopefully out front was the same!

Sunday night was the prog covers. Drummer works late so only managed the last half hour but sounded good. Gave us a chance to work through stuff in readiness for his arrival which helped with the following.

Keyboard player has had ancient keys that have been disintegrating for years and showed up with two much newer instruments so there was some tweaking of sounds and arrangements that has not happened before. Gave me the chance to say "can you not play the bass bit as well as the main part in Turn It On that opened things up and stopped trampling over me 😀

Last night was my main band. Ran through some songs that haven't been in the set for a while and tidy up the new ones.

Considering some of the old ones haven't been played for a while - a couple could date back to lockdown recordings and videos - they were all still pretty tight and can be brought out for soundchecks in future. 

I’ve been looking to rearrange my pedalboard for a while and wanted one that did not require Velcro on the bottom of pedals. I had looked at the Rockboard but ended up with this from Aclam.

Arrived pretty quickly from Spain and generally seems solid construction and ok.

Pedals are held on with the blocks that screw down to a track on the top. They are a bit fiddly to start with but I got used to them. The pedal side of the locks has a slight rubberised feel and holds the pedals down with pressure on either side. It remains to be seen whether/how quickly they might work loose, but a quick check every so often will hopefully keep that sorted.

Palmer 8 outlet power supply underneath. I should have ordered the tray instead of the legs to clamp that down as I realised that they are too long and required the front legs on the board to be extended as far as possible so that the power supply clamps were not touching the floor.

The MicroThumpinator is currently held underneath with cable ties whilst I sort out final bits for the power supply.

Picked up a set of EBS solderless cables to make up the links and will put in a final one from last in the chain to the Thumpinator once I have everything else settled. The cables from the power supply to pedals are more than long enough so wound underneath and currently held with Velcro cable ties.

All in all fairly pleased with the outcome.

On 10/04/2025 at 17:36, Stub Mandrel said:

 

We do in rehearsals! But it's done in a let's get better way and we also share what we are struggling with. The drummer and I are working on Hysteria which is causing us headaches...

 

Definitely this. Much discussion around song links, endings and any bits that might have gone awry at the previous gig

On 10/04/2025 at 19:27, dmccombe7 said:

If we make a mistake whether at a gig or rehearsal we accept it if the person in question is aware of it and it was just a "mistake" rather than playing it wrong and not knowing what was wrong. No point in dwelling on genuine mistooks.

If its a recurring issue we would talk about it at a rehearsal or even on our private FB page but that's never really happened.

Dave

If we make a mistake we look and laugh at each, safe other in the knowledge that it will have gone unnoticed by 99% of punters 🤣

1 hour ago, rmorris said:

 

There will be creditors. To withdraw assets / reserves from a company in such circumstances would be illegal.

I meant in recent years leading up to the end not now

21 hours ago, rmorris said:

 

Not understanding that remark. Dividends are paid to shareholders in a company. Who may, or may not be, Directors (as in Officers of the Company).

Only that they were not taking everything out, which is of course their right in a private company, as might happen in other circumstances. That said there were no profits to take anyway, but there was a couple of mil in reserves IIRC

22 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

 

Wonder how many Directors they had?

4, and there were no dividends paid so they weren't stripping it that way

8 hours ago, mikebass456 said:

A good turnout last night for our first 'public' gig of the year. Easy load in and set-up, PA was hired in and already there waiting.

Forgot to take pics of my rig, but had my two LP DC custom basses and orange rig (Terror 500 and twin isobaric cabs), untethered thanks to my Boss wireless. 

Two sets of British '76-'82 punk covers with the crowd joining in from the word go, singing and dancing as though they were 16 again!

As it was our 10th anniversary, I caught the night on my Zoom H4n, so will be going through the results next week, once my hearing has settled down again (no IEMs unfortunately).

6 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Great to see you are getting busy gigs there Mike.

I miss the punk band a lot and a lot more than i would ever have thought coming from a Classic rock and Prog. So much energy and power in the songs i just loved playing them especially SLF.

Shame it fell thru.

Dave 

I always have a laugh depping for the Punk Pirates down here. Fast and loud being the order of the day and ignore any flubs, just go with it 🤘🤣

Trying to get some time we can all make for another noise making session with my first band from 40 years ago. Started in WMC’s with and older bandleader and then morphed into a spiky originals new wave band when he left. We get together every so often to blast through the songs and reminisce 🥰🙂

Reasonable night that ended up as a pretty good one by the end of the night.

Sound was good for the soundcheck but for some reason went off as the first set progressed. Second set felt much better and the punters were up for a good time and in good voice by the end of the night.

Sets mixed up and vocalist spent the night linking songs with a fictional tale of progress of a relationship 😁

Haven’t managed to get my IEM’s fixed yet but went with one in and the failed one out rather than the KZ10’s as I didn’t really get on with them last week, and that worked fine.

Stood at the urinals in the break waiting for my prostate to wake up and and a chap walked in and started enthusing on the set and memories of driving round in his youth playing songs from the set LOUD 🙂 Don’t think he recognised I was in the band as I was tucked round a corner not visible from the bar, so nice when he piped up with “this lot are a cut above your normal pub band…” “We try” says I 🤣

May already have been posted but looking at the accounts for 2023 it’s a tough old life as a music shop.
 

£21M turnover 

£2M Reserves 

£1.8M staff costs

£187k director fees

Profit before tax £7,347 😱

6 hours ago, MichaelDean said:

Pretty sure it's this...

Yup🤣

Not a bad night at an old haunt of ours back to the 80’s in various guises. Not packed but reasonable crowd who were singing along and picked up on the dancing front in the second set to end well.
 

I misread to set and completely missed the cue linking penultimate and final songs and said “you missed one” to drummer - he hadn’t, I can’t read 🤦‍♂️🤣

Had to use the KZ headphones for IEM’s, having at last checked the obvious and realised why I was only getting the left side in my moulded plugs after updating to the Sennheiser system and trying all different settings on the transmitter and receiver to no avail. Plugged the custom plugs into my iPad and realised that the problem was there DOH!
 

Took a while to find the right tips to get a reasonable seal, but got there for the second set. I still need to get the main plugs sorted.

Digitech Freqout

maybe something like this? Guitarist in my new wave/punky band has one and it seems to work really well. There is a version of something similar in the Helix.

Barock Project @ Trading Boundaries on 8 May. Second date added so I can make it after all 😁

Nik Kershaw- Radio Musicola

chilling on the balcony with a glass of wine on hols. All good here 😁

13 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

No problem, and good luck.  Might take a a while to adjust to them and find the right pair (i couldn’t get on at all with the KZ stuff), but once you do it’s like a lightbulb moment. 

Indeed. My first attempt some years back went badly and put me off for a while, but PA advances and getting a set of custom moulded made all the difference. I really prefer to have the IEM’s - though I do still need to resolve the issues that came with upgrading the radio system recently, but it’ll happen 

24 minutes ago, Linus27 said:

 

Ok perfect, that's making sense, thank you and to @WalMan

 

So DI from Sansamp to desk. Wireless Xvive from desk to Xvive on belt with IEM. Alternatively if large stage then wired cable from stage box to P2.

 

Of course, all redundant if venues have stage monitors.

Well yes and no to your last.  The venue may have monitors but I would still go with IEM’s if that were feasible, which is another question. If you’re using house pa how are you going to manage the aux feed and set your mix? Will you have time to set a mix with the sound guy, or ability to connect and set your own? When we did a local festival last year on a tight change over schedule it just wasn’t practical to use my IEM’s and get set, so I just went with the flow and what the monitors were giving.

Otherwise you’d probably be looking at wireless to the xvive on a large stage, and just hard wire to a P2 on a confined stage - well that’s what I do anyway. If you’re stuck in a corner with no space to move then hardwired takes potential wireless drops out of the equation. On a stage with space then hardwired is another cable to trip over - my favourite trick is to step back onto the IEM XLR

4 minutes ago, Linus27 said:

 

Thank you and some of your replies were things that I was unsure about.

 

You mention that it would be better to take the feed from the Aux on the desk to get the FOH mix or whatever mix I want which makes sense. My worry with this is it would be wireless using something like the Xvive so if connection dropped or there was interference then I'd be in trouble right as I'd lose what was in my ears?

 

When you say wired or not, do you mean from my Sansamp to the desk or from the desk to my ears?

I’ll be adding an xvive to for sale shortly having got the G4 😁.  It works fine, and others use them with no problems, but I found that it needed careful placement of the transmitter that had a tendency to wipe out the connection between my phone/ipad and the desk and I often ended up switching to hardwired with the Behringer P2.

I don’t think I have had a drop on signal

30 minutes ago, Wombat said:

I solved this on my Mackie desk by using a mono adapter (into the desk). Didn’t worry me as I wasn’t ’expecting’ stereo. Was too weird just hearing in one ear.

Do you mean one out of the aux splitting to a pair to feed L&R inputs of the G4? Like this: Splitter I think I have something like that in my IEM bits bag

Trying to work out what I am doing wrong with the new Sennheiser EW G4. 
 

I’m running a single Aux from the A&H desk to the L(mono) input and have the transmitter set to mono. Receiver only has option for stereo or focus but however I set things I only get output to my left ear and it’s starting to drive me a little mad.

I spent some time in the week running through use and setup at home and thought I was sorted but last nights dep I had the same issue from their Soundcraft desk. Nothing I tried made any difference 😢 Ended up running left plug in, right plug part out but not ideal and didn’t really get the mix properly sorted. 
 

It’s my one annoyance as otherwise with my main bands A&H desk last week it was the best and most comfortable sound I’ve had.

I have been backwards and forwards in the manual and with setup videos and cannot see what I am doing wrong 

Dep reasonably close to home. Small venue with an odd layout with us off in one room off the main bar playing through an arch. All seemed to go ok. A few flubs and nowhere to hide as the second guitar I have played with depping with them in the past was not there so just guitar, drums, Vox and bass.

All good fun and generally got through ok with a good bunch of guys that it’s easy to work with with knowing nods 🙂

Having used the old skool (and heavy) Hartke LH500 last week it was back to Class D this week and I do find that the latter always seems to start sounding great but after a prolonged group of songs they ‘go off’ and need a break between songs to get their puff back, whereas the LH500 ‘seems’ to be more consistent. Maybe that’s just my ears ‘going off’ and needing the break, but it’s odd.

Still living the FrankenJazz and the S2 didn’t get a look in.

Still working out the new IEM’s and despite working through menus and setup in the week I was still only getting signal on one plug which I don’t understand, so more to do there.

13 hours ago, WalMan said:

Last night I was engaged in a little light piracy with the Punk Pirates in Fareham. Crazy set. Crazy crowd. Many scary women. 
 

All good fun banging through a bunch of punky covers with not a great deal of concern and many Eric Morecambe moments. Loud and fast were the main objectives for the nigh. Decent wedge at the end of the night as well as only a four piece with no extra costs for pa/soundman etc.. 🙂

 

Guitarist from the main band came down for support and pointed out that the song I struggled with most we used to cover - in my defence it was in an earlier band and probably 30 years ago.

 

Took the Hartke LH500 and only one BF BB2. I had considered a second but didn’t bother in the end. The second cab wasn’t really required, as one made a righteous sound 😁. I don’t normally get to be that raucous but it was fun and solid as…
 

I am coming to the conclusion that I should probably sell the second BB2 I picked up here last year (or maybe the year before) as it only really comes out as an alternate for a run out and never as the full rig (only been done twice in all the time I’ve had it) that would free up for a Three10 🙄

Aaaaaargh Jim lad ‘tis Anchorface Al 🤣

Last night I was engaged in a little light piracy with the Punk Pirates in Fareham. Crazy set. Crazy crowd. Many scary women. 
 

All good fun banging through a bunch of punky covers with not a great deal of concern and many Eric Morecambe moments. Loud and fast were the main objectives for the nigh. Decent wedge at the end of the night as well as only a four piece with no extra costs for pa/soundman etc.. 🙂

Guitarist from the main band came down for support and pointed out that the song I struggled with most we used to cover - in my defence it was in an earlier band and probably 30 years ago.

Took the Hartke LH500 and only one BF BB2. I had considered a second but didn’t bother in the end. The second cab wasn’t really required, as one made a righteous sound 😁. I don’t normally get to be that raucous but it was fun and solid as…
 

I am coming to the conclusion that I should probably sell the second BB2 I picked up here last year (or maybe the year before) as it only really comes out as an alternate for a run out and never as the full rig (only been done twice in all the time I’ve had it) that would free up for a Three10 🙄