casapete

29 minutes ago, Owen said:

You know what, I fancy these! PM'd you have been. 

And replied!

1 hour ago, Lozz196 said:

If portability is a factor then a Fender Rumble combo - either the 500 or 800 - would work. They’re plenty loud, lightweight to carry and can be picked up used for good prices.

Absolutely this. I’d also suggest the Rumble 100v3 if you’re not thinking of any larger gigs

for the time being. They sound great and surprisingly loud, and weigh only 22lbs. I’ve used

mine (with a quiet drummer) for small gigs and it’s fantastic.
(Also the 200 version would probably cover all your needs in the longer term.)

This was supposed to be my rig at a gig last night, but unfortunately it developed a fault

during soundcheck that meant me having to use my normal GK set up. Shame, as whilst

it was working it sounded marvellous, and took me back to when I had a great vintage

SVT rig 25 years ago. 
 

BBC2 this evening - 10.10pm : Van Morrison ‘Up on Cyprus Avenue’ 

                                   11.10pm : Phil Lynott ‘ Songs for while I’m away’

We did a Butlins 70’s weekender at Minehead last night. 
We nearly didn’t due to our singer all but losing his voice, but the gig was saved by bringing

along a possible future replacement for him. He did very well considering the circumstances

and at such short notice, so they shared the vocal duties along with me doing a bit too.

Had the use of an SVT rig which I’d been looking forward to.  Unfortunately it seemed to

have a problem during soundcheck so ended up using my GK set up. We got through the

gig okay - great audience of around 2000 mostly in 70’s themed fancy dress and up for

 a good time. After we’d finished some of us caught Bootleg Blondie on another stage

who were really good. Plenty of beers afterwards and a good night’s kip in surprisingly nice

lakeside accommodation.  Dreadful journey home today though due to an accident on the 

main road in and out of Minehead, necessitating a massive diversion using very narrow 

roads into Devon! Took us over 5 hours to get home so absolutely knackered now, looking

forward to a night in etc. 

( Got a break of 3 weeks now before our next gig in Milton Keynes, one of the 5 left before

I leave the band. )

Very sad news, one of our BC stalwarts.

RIP Nick. 

Selling one full set of brand new / unused & unopened Aquila Thundergut strings for bass ukuleles.

Generally considered to be the best strings for uke bass, only selling as no longer have mine!

Aquila ThunderGut 4 String Bass Ukulele Strings – 68U, Full Set
Aquila Bass Ukulele Strings were Developed by Aquila in Italy, these unique Bass Ukulele strings will not stretch like normal strings. They offer an uncommon blend for strings making tuning easy and quick along with better intonation.

Overall length: 32 inches
Designed for a maximum scale length of 20 inches.

Note Gauge (mm)
G       2,40
D       3,00
A       4,20
E       5,00

Price online varies from around £22 + postage to £35/£40 plus postage,

so priced these to sell at £15 including UK postage.

Cheers.

26 minutes ago, barkin said:

I'm not in the market for an amp head, but if I were, I'd be all over the Ashdown Mag400 in the for sale section. 

Good call, although the OP is situated in Georgia USA so I thought Peavey heads may be more easily

available there. 

38 minutes ago, Cheeto726 said:

What kind of bass head would you recommend? I consider myself in the early stages of being an intermediate player. I'd like something that wouldn't break the bank as well. 

Older Peavey bass amp heads often come up for sale quite reasonably and would go well with the Peavey 410

speaker cabinet. Look at something around 200 watts + and you won’t go far wrong. 

8 hours ago, martthebass said:

Not great is it mate, there’s been a few centre venues looking for acts - must be having an effect. We tend to stay out of city centre now - particularly Bradford 🤬

Problem with doing theatre gigs Mart is that most of them are in city centres, so no way to avoid it.

4 hours ago, martthebass said:

Same happened in Sheffield Dave, we’ve now crossed city centre off our gig area list - the parking costs were bad enough and venues can’t afford the price hike if we pass it on.

Yup, we got clobbered recently when we did Sheffield City Hall. If I’m not mistaken, you can’t check

anywhere as to what you owe either, you just pay it or risk a fine when you haven’t paid it. 🤨

1 hour ago, bassbiscuits said:

Just back from an Elton John tribute gig at Butlin’s in Skegness. 
 

Simple joy of playing a vintage P bass thru an SVT rig for about 1,000+ people (and a blow up dog) enjoying a 70s weekender. 

An ace day out!

Sounds like a belting gig.
 

We are at Minehead next week, looking forward to reacquainting myself with an SVT rig! 

4 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Our band is same, all from different areas so a single vehicle just doesn't work for us. If we need a van for our larger PA we hire one as a band but its only myself as the nominated driver and the drummer who lives 30mins drive from me. I ended up the nominated van getter and driver because i was retired and not working so pick up and drop off was easier for me.

Obviously you guys have a lot more gear for the size of the venues you play.

I know a few tribute bands that just turn up with their own backline and hire a PA and lighting either thru the theatres or a local reputable company. 

Dave

We occasionally use local ( to the venue) PA hire companies Dave - recently Dundee for instance (although

they came from Glasgow!) but generally we prefer to use our own Lighting & PA people. 

Lighting comes from Lincolnshire, PA from Derbyshire, sound engineer from West Yorkshire. The band

come from East, West, South and North Yorkshire as well as Nottingham! It’s amazing we all manage

to get to the venue every time really, does take some organising. 
Occasionally we will use a theatre’s PA if it’s up to the job, but doesn’t happen that often. Next week we 

are at Butlins in Minehead doing a 70’s weekender, and will use the house system there ( and the house

SVT rig too 😊). 

6 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

You could add it to the fee i guess but pretty sure the venues wouldn't be too pleased.

What you guys need is a single 7.5t truck. All the gear in one vehicle.

Dave

Would be a plan Dave, but our guys all have different needs outside of working with 

us. PA in one van, lighting in another, backline in another and then the band in our

Merc splitter bus. Also just to make things worse we all come from different areas! 

1 hour ago, Franticsmurf said:

It's a lovely old building. Glad it was a good gig and gutted I couldn't make it. But... we got part payment for our gig in bacon. You can't beat that! 😃

Bacon, mmmm. Just wondering what the Bacon / £ Conversion rate would be? 😋

23 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

We've given up on Glasgow centre. Too difficult getting to venues and parking is a joke plus the ULEZ zone doesn't help for some of the band.

Our band is considering the same Dave. Four LWB vans really cane the ULEZ fines, and some of

our tech guys work that area more than once a year so theirs gets doubled every time. Crazy.

Our second gig this week tonight at The Grand Theatre in Swansea. 
A magnificent late Victorian theatre with a seating capacity of just over 1000. Nice combination

of old impressive architecture with modern facilities backstage. We’ve played here many times

now and always get a great enthusiastic crowd in. Tonight was no exception, good natured 

heckling and enthusiastic applause after every number, with plenty of communal singing.

A really enjoyable gig.
( I now have only six gigs left with the band before my departure at the end of next month.) 🙁

20 minutes ago, nilorius said:

Nice cellists !

Easy tiger……

22 minutes ago, Franticsmurf said:

I'd try to get to that gig but I'm playing elsewhere tonight. It's windy but sunny here this morning. Have a good one. 😃

If anything changes give me a shout and can probably get you a couple of tickets if there’s some left. 🙂

In Tewkesbury last night at The Roses theatre. Capacity audience of just under 400 in this arts centre

probably dating back to the 70’s. Easy load in and set up, then a great Thai meal just round the corner

at the historic Black Bear Inn. Superb Pad Thai for a tenner, and some marvellous ales too. 
Oh yeh, the gig - it went well, no problems, well received and that’s it really! Just about to set off

to Swansea now for our gig there tonight at The Grand Theatre. 
 

2 hours ago, Huge Hands said:

It's been over 20 years since I stopped working at Butlins, but in my day that would have been the house bass player's own supplied rig, and not necessarily available for free use by anyone.   However, as they play almost every night of the week, they get to leave their stuff set up.  

 

I guess it depends on the player - when I was there we had two house drummers - one in each of the two main venues.   One would leave his kick and toms out for all and sundry to use, the other would get VERY angry if anyone so much as breathed on his stuff.

Just got some more details of our Butlins gig at Minehead 70’s weekender next Friday, and I have a choice

of two Ampeg rigs!  😊

I’ve fallen victim to ‘want’ over ‘need’ for many years now, and yes it’s a curse!
I’ll soon be leaving my main band and think it will be the right time to start selling

stuff that is no longer relevant to my needs. After years playing my Precision Lyte

I think that one is a keeper, although it’s identical twin ( originally bought

as a back up but never used) will be going. As will the lightweight Jazz bitsa and

some others as well as my main GK amp/cab.

I’ve recently sold my Washburn AB20 ( after owning it for 30 years) because it

just wasn’t getting used so that’s a start. I’m looking at settling on two acoustic

basses for my duo, one short scale and one medium so will need to decide on

those in the near future. 
( Then there’s only the guitars to consider, which will be much more difficult as

I rarely play any of ‘em). 🥴

4 minutes ago, thodrik said:

I played a punch of gigs at Drummonds from 2008-2011. We generally parked at the rear of the building located off Denburn Road. At my first time playing I then had lug my Trace Elliot 1x15 combo up three flights of stairs only to find that the house bass amp was a...4x10 Trace Elliot combo with the same amp!

 

I think that we had to shift the van after loading. It was fine but this was 2008 so that traffic issues wouldn't have been as bad as they are now.

I did that a year or two ago playing at a 70’s weekend bash at Butlins. We hauled my GK rig up a long flight

of stairs, set it up and then I pulled a curtain to one side and behind it was a proper Ampeg SVT

amp / 8x10 set up! My favourite rig, and nobody thought to tell me there was a house amp.

We have another gig there soon so will make sure I check to see if it’s available this time. 
 

19 hours ago, taunton-hobbit said:

Back in the day I used to gig at RAOC Bicester (munitions & other stuff that goes bang) - we were shadowed by Paras with large guns who always drafted in a few squaddies to help load in & out. Those were the days...

 

😎

In my old function band we used to do a fair few military bases, and ( apart from the hassle of getting through

the guards on the main gates understandably searching the van)  we used to get help unloading and

then loading again at the end of the night. Always well looked after as well, with excellent food, drinks and

dressing rooms etc. 

Played some of the US bases in Suffolk / Eastern England and they were amazingly helpful, plenty of

guys to haul the equipment. Very enthusiastic audiences too, did some great gigs with a country band

in the early 80’s - you only had to ask if there was anyone from any particular US state and 

a tray of drinks would appear on the front of the stage. Happy days. 

33 minutes ago, dclaassen said:

Is it too much to ask that people who work in these types of businesses at least know a little bit about the products they’re selling?

Which leads me back to Curry’s.

I found a NAD CD player online that I was after, only problem was it was at a Curry’s branch 50

miles away. Eventually found a number for the branch and they said they’d keep it for me so 

I drove over to pick it up. It became obvious that they’d not put it aside for me, and as it was 

the last one I was lucky it was still in stock, according to the assistant who checked it on 

their system. Anyway told her I’d take it, and she went to get it from the shop floor, returning

5 minutes later empty handed. She then asked me what a CD player looked like! Bearing in mind

this was some years ago when CD players were not exactly rare. Anyway, I went and got it myself, and

she found the box and I paid and drove home with it.

On unpacking it I noticed it was the wrong remote control ( for a large NAD amp I think), so rang them

to arrange posting me the correct remote for my CD player, presumably in the wrong box. Said they’d send 

it to me once I’d returned theirs, which I told them was not going to happen. About a week later I

received the correct unit, but looking like a 5 year old had wrapped it up! One layer of brown paper and

my address scrawled on. Amazingly it survived the journey intact. 
I returned their remote a week later wrapped up in the same manner. Never been in their shops since.