casapete

Vox AC30 combos normally featured 4 x EL84 valves in their power section. Marshall 100 amps sported 4 x EL34 valves, completely different.

Sorry you’ve had a rough Xmas, and hope things go well for you Mart.

Ah, sorry. 🤐

Not sure I get your drift on this. Used my Rumble 500 2x10 combo for many very loud gigs, and sounds great. In the 1980’s I was lucky enough to own an Ampeg SVT rig with 8x10 cabinet. An industry standard for the last 5+ decades, I’ve never heard anyone say they were lacking in bottom end either. How many people these days use 2x15 or 2x18 cabinets I wonder? 😯

Played at our monthly residency with the acoustic duo in Beverley again today, The Sun Inn. Horrible weather when we arrived at 4.30pm, and not very busy. However,by the time we started at 5.30pm it was getting comfortably full, and we started our first of three sets with a good handful of requests. These included ‘Piano man’, ‘Substitute’, ‘Love the one you’re with’ and unusually ‘anything by Boz Scaggs’ so we did ‘We’re all alone’ which I’ve never played before but is a great song. Had a few friends in, including one of The Beautiful South - fortunately no requests for any of their stuff from the audience as could have been rather embarrassing. Finished the last set off with Albert Lee’s ‘Country Boy’ at breakneck speed - don’t know how my guitarist mate can play it like that. Packed down and still heavy rain outside so got wet loading the van, but overall a very pleasant gig ( after our last one there being rather mad just before Christmas.) Nothing now till next weekend in Scarborough, when the bad weather will hopefully have subsided.

Sounds good Dave, just try it for a while and it will be evident which way is forward for you. Regarding rehearsals, you’re right about frequency. In my old theatre band we rehearsed once a year, when we selected new songs and perhaps changed one or two arrangements to make them work better. For me, having to rehearse often would drain the fun out of gigging - maybe that’s why our duo is still going strong after over 30 years without one rehearsal? 😂

Sorry to hear this Dave but you may find the gaps are actually good for you, time to reassess whether you want to fill them with another band or not. Whatever, hope you find a gigging schedule that suits, all the best.

Whenever ‘Alright Now’ gets played on the radio they always seem to use the Clearmountain remix version. As you say the original mix was so much better in all respects - I find the remix really annoying and disrespectful to how it once sounded.

Looks like a standard Mexican Jazz going for slightly less than normal s/h price to me. Maybe the seller maxed his credit card over Xmas and needs a quick sale?

Thanks Dave. Most of our gigs are quite the opposite really, I’m not great at ‘formal’ ( until I see the money of course!) Done lots of them though, and they’ve been my ‘day job’ for a long time. The duo has plenty of regular gigs lined up for 2025, so if you’re ever down this way then give me a shout. Also playing with the blues band too, so my diary is so far looking healthy. 😀

Played at The Palm Court Hotel in Scarborough last night for a NYE dinner dance. Despite horrendous weather warnings we made it there okay, the 50 mile journey affected mainly by high winds. Got set up in the hotel lounge whilst the guests were dining - took my usual Rumble 100 combo to use with a Squier SS Jag bass which has been given to me on permanent loan by a friend. Sounded fine and easy to play for the three long sets we did, starting around 8pm through to 12.30am. We were well looked after by the hotel manager - we took our partners and they were given lots of bubbly and stuff, and we had a few drinks too although as I was driving I stuck to water and coffee. 🙁 Playing wise it went okay. Had a keyboard player with us ( old mate Steve ) as well as singer guitarist Doug who is well known in the Scarborough area. Songs requested and played were the usual dance standards ( Sinatra etc) right through to slightly more recent stuff. I got a request to sing ‘Dead Flowers’ by the Stones - slightly unusual choice for a NYE do - so duly obliged , along with some other 60’s and 70’s stuff and of course ‘Auld Lang Syne’ at midnight. Got packed very quickly and then had a dreadful journey home - roads were virtually rivers in places, with biblical amounts of rainfall. My trusty Skoda didn’t miss a beat though, so back around 2.30am, absolutely knackered! Not the best of gigs I’ve done recently, (made worse by wearing dinner suit and bow tie which I despise!) but a lovely venue and being well paid made up for it. Mrs CP had great fun too, and after the terrible few years she’s endured health wise it felt like we were celebrating the start of better times. Here’s hoping. 😃 A very Happy New Year to all BC people, may 2025 be a great one for you.

You don’t specify what sort of small gig set up you need it for ( venue / music / drummer? etc ) but I recommend Fender Rumble V3 combos. I have two - a 100 for duo / quiet-ish gigs and also a 500 for anything else. Both are great sounding plus very lightweight & portable, and can be found s/h for around £200 and £350 respectively. If you don’t need the 500’s power, the 100 has virtually no background noise for home practice too.

Sounds like a plan. Don’t forget ( assuming you’re using rubber/ plastic strings like Aquila ) to allow for plenty of ‘settling in’ - they take ages before they stabilise IME.

Sold Jono a Squier bass after seeing his wanted advert on here. The whole transaction was a pleasure, even though we had to juggle around with the delivery options. All in all a great guy to deal with, highly recommended.

Seeing Paul McCartney in Manchester a couple of weeks ago. In over 50 years of going to gigs, this was up there with the best of them. An amazing evening of wonderful songs, played brilliantly by a superb band with fantastic stage production. Still buzzing from it.

Good advice. My amp tech taught me the same thing, maybe 30 years ago. In my last band, if I wasn’t quick at getting back to the stage after the final song the theatre stage crew would have ( very helpfully )started packing stuff down. They always coiled the cables correctly but secured them with tape which sometimes made them sticky. A few years ago I bought a pack of 10 D’Addario cable ties which I still use - they are brilliant and keep them tidy with no mess.

Thanks Daryl, hope you make your gig and back safely. For me here it’s looking like high winds and torrential rain with the potential for snow too. My route is also back country roads with some steep hills, so snow / ice is the worst scenario. Only around 50 miles each way but will be setting off in good time.

Having seen the forecast just now for our region, I’m a bit concerned our journey up to Scarborough on NYE may end up a bit ‘difficult’ - fingers crossed.

Me too, never done a bash before!

In the blues band I play in then I’m easily replaceable. In fact when I joined I did say to them that my acoustic duo needs to be my first priority, and in the event of dates clashing would they mind me putting a dep in. They were happy with this, and I have a couple of friends who have each depped once with them in the past 6 months so all good. Should I decide to leave then either of them would be a good replacement for me. With the duo then I’m not so easily replaced. We’ve been doing it for nearly 30 years, and although my playing is nothing special, it’s the singing aspect that makes me more difficult to cover - mainly harmonies with the occasional lead vocal. I doubt my guitarist mate would continue without me for this reason, despite him regularly working with some of the best bassists in the region. Singing confident BV’s has been my main USP for most of my pro career, often getting me gigs over far better players along with being a ‘band’ player and the ability to get along with people. ( My replacement in my last band was a far better player AND singer than me though, so I know I’m not unique! )

A nice hotel in Scarborough, same venue I did with our duo on Christmas Eve. NYE we will be supplemented by a keyboard player and some programmed percussion, to enable us do a wider variety of stuff to cater for all the resident’s likes. Hopefully we will be finished soon after midnight so not too late home - weather report looking good. 🤞

Also the clip on tuner helps with my balance….😆

We played at The Palm Court Hotel in Scarborough last night - Milestone duo. It’s a lovely hotel with great staff, and load in is very easy. We set up in the lounge whilst the customers were having their dinner in the restaurant, which made things easy. Used two JBL powered PA speakers which run on batteries! Sounded good too, although I took my Rumble 100 combo so I could monitor my Ibanez acoustic/ electric without overpowering the system and it worked fine. Did our requests thing, and had plenty of the usual tunes asked for, along with some rock stuff - did ‘Stairway…’ ‘Layla’ and ‘Dakota’!! Despite being a more mature audience, they wanted a wide range of songs, including the inevitable ‘Driving home for Christmas’. All in all an easy and relaxed evening. Played 3x40 min sets, and done by 10.30pm. We took our ladies with us, and they got free bubbly, whilst I availed myself of the excellent ‘Neck Oil’ IPA on draught as my buddy was driving. Some nice comments from the punters ( including cricket umpire Dickie Bird ), so hopefully will get the gig next year. Home by midnight which was fine by me as still fighting the tail end of manflu. We’re back there for NYE which is my next gig, so a week to rest up Seasons greetings to everyone on here, and all the best for 2025. Pete. ( Clip on tuner / music stand haters look away now….😆 )

Merry Christmas and all the best for 2025 to everyone connected with this wonderful place. Long may it continue.

Bit of an institution now in the USA, Darlene sings this every year on chat shows, recently on Jimmy Fallon. She is 83 now, and this is still one of my favourite Christmas songs of all time, especially this year with Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul as well.