bassbiscuits

Er….. Song: Don’t Stop Me Now, by Queen Band: Superbad Venue: The Piv, Nuneaton Bass: Yamaha BB604

Went to Music Barn festival in Kettering this weekend. Band there called Dub Catalyst whose bassist had a righteous deep fat sound. He had a five string jazz and a Barefaced Big Twin I think but I couldn’t get a good look at his amp. I did wonder if he was someone off Basschat. Good band - 10 piece, with horn section, DJ scratching etc in addition to the usual instruments. Nice vibe for a summer afternoon in a big tent.

Thought Dua Lipa was excellent. Sugababes surprisingly good too. Most of their singing was really good but a couple of songs seemed too low for them to sing.

As said elsewhere you can get a whole lot more for £350. Well into the realms of secondhand Yamaha, Squier, Sire, Ibanez, even nudging secondhand Mexican standard Fenders. Good luck on your mission!

Oh very good Monsieur Tricolour.

I’d say this comes firmly under the “chase is better than the catch,” category of thinking. It’s basses. It’s harmless. Go ahead and enjoy yourself.

We went to Montalivet on the west coast of France last year the standard of bands we saw out and about was very high - Latin sort of dance stuff, gentle background jazz outdoors, some rock and roll. All very decent. Not a rendition of Wonderwall among them thankfully.

Yup. After about 5-10 mins you might notice frothy gunk collecting on the water surface in the middle of the pan. Scoop it off with a spoon and keep going until it stops happening. Take them out, rinse and let them dry out. *Add salt and pepper to taste obviously…”

Of course. I’ve done it loads of times. The idea being that boiling them gets rid of all the gunk caught in the windings and freshens them up. Certainly done it to good effect in the past. In recent years I’ve been using flats and or NYXLs, neither of which seem to need changing.

This summer with my Yamaha and earlier this year with my recently-departed MIJ Mustang bass.

I’ve got an Ashdown head too - a big wide ABM500 - which I prefer the sound quality of in some ways. But it’s twice the size and four times the weight of my MB heads, so I tend to take them to gigs every time instead. There’s lots of other stuff I fancy but I keep coming back to my tried and trusted MB stuff which just sounds right to me.

I’ve been gigging regularly with MB stuff since 2011, during which time I’ve ended up with a LM2 and LM3 heads paired with various combinations of a TRV102 cab, TRV121 cab and a pair of STD102HF cabs. Touch wood they’ve been super reliable the entire time (they’ve done a lot of gigs with me in that time). For a long time I used the LM2 and LM3 heads into an Aguilar cab and a Schroeder cab, and when I wanted something smaller and lighter I initially resisted MB cabs. However, I went in quick succession through a Genz Benz 2x12 and a Barefaced Big Twin 2 and have to say I much preferred the MB stuff; punchy, compact, and sounded like proper bass cabs to me rather than the super-transparent Barefaced sound which wasn’t for me at all. So no I don’t think MB look very cool, they don’t really excite me much and the sound by themselves is a bit unremarkable. However cranked up live on stage (where it matters) they’ve always sounded fantastic, dead reliable and the whole lot fits in a ford fiesta.

Sterling effort with the Andy Wales Blues Band at the Diggle Band Club as part of the Diggle Blues Festival last night. A home town gig for the band leader who is from the neighbouring village. I don’t think we strictly met the criteria of “blues,” but it was entertaining and went down well to a good sized audience. Even managed to get to the local pub afterwards for last orders. We had to travel light to fit the PA, bass gear and guitar gear and two people all in my car, so ended up using my Markbass traveller rig and Yamaha BB604. I’d swapped one of the Yamaha’s to flats, but the one with rounds sounded way better (suited the natural sound of that bass more) so the flats are coming off as soon as I get a chance.

A charity fundraiser for a local brain tumour charity at Southwold Arts Centre in Suffolk, with Elton Joel. First theatre show in a while after a string of festival dates. Not a huge stage so I opted for my Markbass traveller rig - LM3, 2x10 and 1x12 cabs. After a series of shows using just my Yamaha BB604 I used my 1970 P bass for most of this one and it sounded lovely. I’ve missed that sound! Lovely audience, cool venue and a really enjoyable evening. Three hour drive home aided by late night McDonald’s coffee stop and loud banging house music on Radio 1 to keep me awake.

Played with my blues power trio The Andy Wales Blues Band at Leicester’s Riverside Festival on Sunday. Two-day festival but we lucked out by getting the hot sunny day yay. Took my Markbass LM2, 1x12 and 2x10 traveller cabs and my number one Yamaha BB604 which was punchy and growly. No pics yet as I lost track of everyone who I knew in the audience immediately afterwards so I couldn’t ask. Thankfully one kind soul sent me this which gives a rough idea.

One good bass for me. I’ve done it before for years at a time and it was fine.

Ah that rings a bell actually. That’s a lot of quite challenging material to cover too! Good on him.

Aha! Sorry that took me a moment. It’s not Elton and Billy Joel. It’s a chap called Joel, who does Elton John. We did have to make it a pretty short whistlestop tour of the greatest hits to squeeze it into 45 mins all the same. You’re right tho - I think there is a show that combines both EJ and BJ, in a manner of speaking.

Just back from the Wannasee Festival in Hertfordshire, playing with tribute act Elton Joel. Frankly enormous crowd - cool view from the stage! The rain held off and we blasted thru a windy 45-min set wedged between Elvis and the Bon Jovi Experience. Back of the net 👌. Enjoyed that.

Quite a boring choice for me I’m afraid - based on the ones I can take everywhere easily, which are affordable, sound great and haven’t once let me down in 15 years of gigging - it’s a Markbass LM3. I’m digging my big wide-version Ashdown ABM500 head - however it is much larger and heavier than the MB and so for purely practical reasons has only made it to one gig with me so far. In terms of amps I don’t have to move by myself, Ampeg SVT every time.

I use IEMs for some gigs, particularly where there are a few of us singing specific backing vocals which I want to be able to hear as part of my own little mix. But I wouldn't dream of not taking my amp too - I like the feel of bass through my feet and my internal organs. That's why i play bass after all.

A Markbass Std104hf standing on its end would do it…?

I’ve got a run of various summer festivals with two bands over the next few weeks so I’ve been carrying this around. It’s my smallest Markbass rig (LM3 head, Traveller 1x12 and 2x10 cab) but easy to get on and off stage quickly and to carry across all sorts of terrain between car park and stage (and small enough to stash if there’s good back line provided.) Also taking my cheap and cheerful Yamaha BB604 basses along for the ride. Sounded perfectly decent on the weekend.