bassbiscuits

Aha. My sense of deja vu was not entirely misplaced then.

Oh yeah I once made Neil Murray a cup of tea at Roland HQ in Swansea in the late 1990s.

I once bumped into Nicholas Parsons in a taxi queue in Birmingham. When I was a student I used to work in a shop round the corner from Swansea Grand Theatre. At various times we were visited by Alvin Stardust, Catherine Zeta Jones and the bloke who played Nasty Nick Cotton on Eastenders. Also in Swansea I once got chatting to Rod Hull in a pub toilet. Same pub as we spotted Marguerita Pracatan I believe.

Kiss foodie special: Cod of Thunder Love Bun 100,000 Pears Lard Luck Woman

Hovel California, by the Eagles Drive My Cat, by the Beatles Wind Cries Gary, by Jimi Like A Rolling Scone, by Bob Dylan

Well I enjoyed it anyway - cheers @Happy Jack

Solo acoustic guitar and vocal gig at the Organ Grinder real ale pub at Loughborough. Had some gremlins in the first half - one speaker not working and the other one buzzing annoyingly. Got it sorted at half time and the culprit seemed to be a pedal power supply! Nice crowd, some good singing along and made feel very welcome! Update - buzzing traced to the shredded cable on my Boss pedal adaptor. That’ll do it then…

I hear you Andy. I suppose it depends what else is going on in your life with other commitments, goals etc which can mean there's little time or enthusiasm for playing music sometimes. I've been playing since 1986 but not continuously - sometimes I've just gone off the boil and not really feeling it anymore, and didn't play bass for a number of years after a messy split up with a band. But things moved on and a few years later I got the itch again and got involved once more. I guess I mean it doesn't have to be a continuous thing - if it comes and goes from time to time, along with everything else in life, then that's ok too.

Thanks Phil that’s dead helpful. I used the same kit for last weekends gig and it was fine so I assume it was a weird characteristic of the venue wiring.

Yeah - I think the drummer is the only one who didn’t play lead guitar at some point! But he did a drum solo, so that made up for it. They were great tho - a good match with our little trio in terms of the sort of material and audience they attracted too so it worked out really well.

Had a great time as one-third of the Andy Wales Blues Band, opening for a band called the Cinelli Brothers at the Musician Pub in Leicester. Good crowd came to see the headliners (who were ace) and thankfully it was already pretty full when we played our 45-min support slot. We are quite a new band but seem to go down really well, mixing up some carefully chosen old blues/soul covers with our own original material, and turned up dead loud. What’s not to love?

I've bought a few things that haven't worked out, but I don't regret that. I needed to find out for myself. And it's always stuff I've been able to sell on. All part of the journey.

I think any of those Markbass amps would work fine. I've got a couple of Little Mark heads (the same amp as the combos I think) which I use with either a 102P traveller cab, a 121H cab or a STD102HF (the bigger 2x10 cab), which creates much the same set us as a combo. A cab with two speakers will sound louder than just one speaker, as it shifts more air and will have greater SPL (sound pressure level) rating usually. But any of the combos you mention would work fine, and give you the option of adding another cabinet in future if needed. Good luck, and enjoy!

Nice one that’s a nice clear explanation. I do wonder why it has suddenly happened tho and where in the system the problem might lie - plugs, cables, leads, basses, pedals, venue wiring etc?

To add to the issue of lightweight amp heads moving, I use a roll of black rubber non-slip matting from our local Wilko store (RIP) which stops anything creeping about on top of my cab mid-gig.

Did a gig last weekend and halfway through my bass amp started making a horrible humming noise (it's a Little Mark III into a couple of MB cabs). Even with the head turned off, there was a massive loud noise thru the PA every time the channel for my DI was unmuted. Eventually we flicked the Ground Lift switch on the back of the LMIII and the buzz stopped. a) What on earth might have been going on there, for it to be generating such a racket even when turned off? b) How does that ground lift thing even work? c) Could it have been something to do with the cabs (I was test driving one of them for the first time, but it seems to work ok), the amp head, the wiring at the venue, or something else? Just interested to know what was going on really! Did my head in mid-gig.

Ah cheers, I’m with you. I clearly need to get out more!

I’ve not heard of it. Where in Leicester is it?

Gave up social media in 2017, deleted my Facebook account etc. I have no idea if I've missed out on anything since, but I have a lot more time now I'm not trawling through pointless junk every evening. I should probably get on social media for promoting gigs etc, but I don't and I have enough work for my needs without doing so, so I'll stick with the old fashioned way for now.

I was playing in very decent originals bands well into my early 40s - didn’t have the aim of “making it” but they did have great songs and I did believe we might go somewhere. Alas like most bands they folded. I’ve always held down a job while playing - something I thought was holding me back from being a “proper musician.” But I now realise that I’d have to say yes to all kinds of gigs I didn’t like if I was trying to make a living from music. So I’m glad I do it for pocket money and enjoyment.

Bought Geoff’s Markbass cab off him. Had a lovely evening chatting about basses and amps too. Top man. Pleasure to deal with.

I was 11 in 1985, and I hadn't yet discovered the rock/metal that would go on to be important to me. So I'd say something like Chris De Burgh "Spanish Train" or Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms" at that stage of my life. I was still a year away from discovering the joy of Iron Maiden, Kiss or the Scorpions...