casapete

17 minutes ago, SH73 said:

The type of music I like mate, and the time they start is mostly at 9pm. There are occasions bands play afternoon gigs at festivals etc and being home at 7pm would be ideal. Probably more opportunities over the pond.

They are a few venues in my area who have started putting on gigs on Sunday afternoons, say 4pm

to around 7 or 8pm. I’ve done a few and it seems to work well, often in pubs where they serve Sunday

lunch and then put music on to keep people in afterwards. Home by 9pm does make a change! 

4 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

 

 

Ok, it's official.  I'm the only bass player here that's " hard up" for money. Lol

 

Daryl

Well if that’s the case Daryl, you’ll soon be joined by me - I’m retiring from my main band end of April.

I’ll still be playing in my acoustic duo, and maybe the odd dep here and there, but my pension 

kicks in this week so I’ll no doubt be in a similar position to yourself! 😆

Oh, and a belated happy birthday too Daryl. 🎂🍾🎊

3 hours ago, Paul S said:

 

Sounds totally fab!  Do you play closer to home - I still visit my friends in Cottingham occasionally but I think Scarborough would be a bit far to drag them.  That said, they are probably going to move to Spital soon, which is defo too far from Scarborough!

We do regular-ish gigs at The Sun Inn in Beverley, and monthly gigs in Anlaby on the outskirts of Hull.

Both only 20 mins from Cottingham so would be great to see you again Paul. If you’re ever planning 

a trip up north then give me a shout. 

4 minutes ago, TimR said:

 

Thanks. I'm not sure I've used the date part either other than when I've been struggling with my tone and checked the date and realised they really could do with changing. 

I do the same, keep a list of string and battery changes on all my basses and guitars. 
It’s amazing how often I think they’ve recently been changed when in fact it was years ago, not months. 😆

8 minutes ago, Paul S said:

 

I love the sound of these gigs, Pete!    From a punter's perspective, do your regulars ask for the same songs each time?  And how many requests would each get?  

Thanks Paul! We’ve done the requests thing for a while now. We put out request forms on the tables (say one

per person) and then go through them to see what’s been asked for and if we can do them! If not then we try

to maybe do another by the artist requested. We use iPads linked together which have literally thousands of

songs my mate Gary has written out. We do a fair bit of material without using them, but it’s often more for lyrics

than the music that we need them, especially for anything we’ve never or rarely done before. Of course there

are some we don’t attempt, but because Gary is an amazing player of many styles as well as a great singer,

we get away with most of them! We try to make sure most people / couples get at least one tune they request,

out of a choice of 3 tunes per request form. 
Last night we probably had a 90% success rate - ones we couldn’t manage were ‘Boys of Summer’, something

by Supertramp and ‘God only knows’! Our audience tend to be around our own demographic which makes 

things a bit easier- most popular stuff requested is anything by Simon and Garfunkel & The Eagles etc, but

we try to mix it up as much as possible. Louis Armstrong into Miley Cyrus isn’t unheard of. 🤣

8 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

What’s that you’re playing?

It’s an Ibanez PNB14E Mick. Parlour sized body, 24” scale and uses D’Addario strings designed for the 

Taylor GS Mini bass. Cheap little thing but I love it, used on hundreds of gigs either direct into the PA

or via my Fender Rumble 100v3 combo. 😊

Fabulous bass, am giving it serious thought……

I have an Ibanez PNB14E which is a small (parlour sized)  body, 24” scale and uses the special

nylon core round wounds originally designed for the Taylor GS Mini bass. It’s an amazing little

thing, used it on hundreds of gigs and new are only around £240. The Taylors are great things

but expensive IMHO (£750 +), as are the Martin DJR range.

For a more traditional sized bass the Ibanez PCBE14MH are nice instruments, again around £240

new. I’ve also tried the Guilds like the B240E which seem really nice medium scale basses. 
As ever, it’s probably a question of trying a few out to find your fit, although not many shops

seem to carry many in stock. 
 

I’ve used my Washburn AB20 on gigs for 30 years and loved it, but since getting the short 

scale Ibanez it’s unfortunately become redundant. May be selling it on here soon. 😉

Played in Scarborough this evening, a return to ‘The Lookout on the Pier’ cafe restaurant which

we do quite regularly. Always a great gig with a truly appreciative audience made up of many

regulars. As usual we did the set list from written audience requests, and managed most of 

them including ‘This Masquerade’, ‘Make you feel my love’ and finishing the second set with

a very extended version of ‘Another brick in the wall’. My guitarist partner Gary had a bad 

cold but still managed to sing all night, albeit more raspy than usual. We’re back there again

in three weeks time.

One at a time usually, and then every 3 or 4 restrings it’s  all off and clean fretboard / check the

intonation etc. My P Lyte is the easiest bass to restring I’ve had, can do it easily in 10 mins. 😊

Having the busiest week for a while (5 gigs) including these 3 with The ELO Experience.

Started off with a 6 hour trek up to Dundee on Thursday to play at the magnificent Caird Hall.

Not the easiest for sound, plenty of natural reverb! Our engineer managed to tame it though

and the gig went well with a lively audience of around 800 all in good voice. I love playing 

in Scotland, always great audiences. The gig was to replace one booked late last year which

was cancelled due to storm warnings. We had really high winds this time on both the journey

up and back down which made the drive even more arduous, but still,worthwhile.

Friday it was a drive back down to Darlington for a gig at The Hippodrome. Another great

old theatre with a near capacity audience. Just a 2 hour drive home afterwards, again in

high winds.

Last night we played at Sheffield City Hall, a favourite venue for the band. Had around 1200

punters in, great crowd up for it right from the off. Had to use a flown PA so our guys had 

a job on but they got it nailed. Home by midnight, absolutely knackered.  Am playing in 

Scarborough later today with the acoustic duo, so hope it’s an easy one! 
 

1 minute ago, Jolltax said:

hello @Greenguitarman

 

I am a relative newbie (been learning bass almost 3 years).  I wanted a bass combo (amp with built in amp) to use for practice and also to take to places and play with others, so enough guts to play along with a drummer in a small venue but I can carry with one hand.  My budget is £300.

 

I just pushed the button and blind-purchased on a Fender rumble 100 from Scan Computers . Might seem an unusual choice of vendor, I chose Scan because I use them a lot for IT equipment and they have always given me fantastic customer service.

 

I decided against second hand as wanted something with a warranty and these Rumble amps seem to be universally loved and have overwhelming positive feedback generally on the internet and fits my budget.

 

Most others on this thread have far more experience than me, but it feels like the 'safe' option based on what I have seen.  I am waiting for it to be delivered and I will let you know!

 

J

I’m sure you’ve made a good choice, enjoy! 

3 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

I realised I had a label maker, so when I change the battery I put a label with the date on it - its easy to forget otherwise.

I just write on mine with a Sharpie. Always change them well before they should need it just in case.

First ( and only!) time I was ever caught out was at a flash wedding gig and my P- Lyte distorted for a few

seconds and then died. I’m sure most folk with active basses have had this happen at some point, so

treat it as a learning curve. 

16 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

For me Glam was more T.Rex, Bowie, Sweet and Slade. They were the classic ones but that's just my own view on it. 

That’s my perception too Dave. The Rollers and the others you mention were around at the same period

but not ‘glam’ bands IMO. Mott the Hoople, Wizzard & Roxy Music were sometimes also lumped in to the genre.

Its obviously a very broad church. 😊

1 hour ago, martthebass said:

Didn’t realise you had a ‘Glam’ side Pete 😂

58 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

We all have a secret Glam side Mart.

Some of us are happy to admit it and others are still struggling to come out of the Glam closet.

Its a hard world we live in. 🤩🤩🤩

Dave 

We weren’t sure if the request for some Bay City Rollers stuff was a Mickey take or not TBH, but

decided to give it a shot anyway! Were the BCR glam though? 😆

1 minute ago, moley6knipe said:

Sunday afternoons are great! Sounds like a nice gig…

Yeh, it’s a great one. Not massive but a very old place with coal fires etc. They put on loads of music

and have recently started doing gigs where they have an admission charge.  Coming up soon are Tom Robinson,

John Verity and ex Beautiful South singer Briana Corrigan. 
 

http://www.suninnbeverley.co.uk

Played at The Sun Inn in Beverley this afternoon with our acoustic duo. We do it every couple of months

and it’s a cracking music pub. Loads of familiar faces and plenty of requests, mainly dad rock

stuff but also a few we haven’t done in ages including  ‘Harvest Moon’, ‘Bartender’s Blues’ and

someone wanting some Bay City Rollers stuff. Of course we obliged with ‘Shang a lang’ resulting

in mass audience sing a long. Finished by 8pm, just as well as I was knackered after 3x45 min sets 

and some fingers on my right hand were complaining. A good gig though, really enjoyable. 

10 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

I reckon a drummer would have to be fair smashing his kit to drown out a late model Rumble 100. So it's a bit more than a practice amp.

Agreed, hence my recommendation. The OP is looking for - 

20 hours ago, Greenguitarman said:

Or a small portable amp (for small venues) with the ability to carry around ( that also doesn't take much space in the room ).

9 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

When anyone posts along the lines of "Newbie here. Please recommend a small combo for practice, etc that sounds good", many recommend kit costing between £500 and a grand (Barefaced, Markbass, PJB and similar). Yes, they may be of good quality, but a lot of beginners don't have anything like that kind of budget. I'd go used and get something like the 100w Rumble combo mentioned above. They work well and are easy to sell on when/if you wish to upgrade.

 

 

Exactly this ^^^^

Can’t see the need to spend any more for a starter / practice amp.

Fender Rumble 100v3 combo. Fabulous sounding amp for home or small gigs, and light as

a feather (OK - 22lbs). Has a good XLR DI output too. New currently around £330, s/h

circa £200. Had mine a couple of years and love it! 

We currently have two original pieces of music for each set's walk on. Our ex-keyboard player composed them

to fit the style and keys of the set opening songs.

In my last band we would often walk on to this which I thought was great.

8 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

I must admit that I wouldn't enjoy gigging if I had to do as much travelling as a lot of people here. we do about 25 gigs a year but there are probably only 5 or so that are more than half an hour drive from here, and most gigs we do I could walk to if I didn't have a PA and amps to carry.

I'm retiring from my band in April, and must admit that although I still enjoy travelling as much as ever, it is the driving that I won't miss. Traffic / diversions / reduced speed limits for no apparent reason / roadworks / lack of parking / idiotic lunatics driving at speed etc have all contributed to making our gigs all over the UK a massive chore. Definitely all of these 

factors have increased in the last 4 or 5 years, and I won't miss that aspect of my life one bit.

I eventually had to resign myself to end playing MM Stingrays due to their weight. Lightest one

I found still caused me some back problems and I reluctantly gave up on them. This led me to

using Fender Precision Lytes, which I’ve done for many years. The one I currently use in ‘The ELO

Experience’ weighs 7lbs, and after 3 or 4 consecutive two hour long gigs I don’t feel any shoulder

fatigue ( despite badly damaging my left shoulder years ago in an accident ). Once I discovered

this I bought a few of them, and still have a couple. Using this model of bass has enabled me to

carry on working with no issues, and I will definitely keep one when I retire from the band in April.

I’ve also owned a Danelectro Longhorn (or two!) for many years. Weighing just 6lbs they are a joy

to play although not everyone’s cup of tea. 

5 hours ago, MothMan said:

Rosanne Cash when I go visit some family next month.

I saw her in a small local theatre a few years ago, where she had just her husband John Leventhal

accompanying her. Absolutely wonderful stuff, enjoy!