cheddatom

The Old Cold Store in Nottingham on Thursday night supporting UK Subs. Great gig despite terrible on stage sound, just a positive attitude from everyone and super tight Our bassist and front man both tested positive for Covid the next morning so our final gig of the year on Saturday was cancelled. The guitarist and I are both fine (negative PCR tests), it's just such a shame to miss the big tour finale I do have one more gig this year, this time on guitar for Julia Mosely, hopefully that'll be good

Thanks! Like any bass drum you can tune it and dampen it, so there's not one sound. It's difficult to get any real subs out of it without a PA, but that's not really necessary on this sort of gig. I had it tuned fairly high with some foam inside touching both heads and I get a nice punch. It sounds very "slappy" if I'm on my own, but in the context of a band mix it cuts through just right. This is the first time I've actually gigged it but I'd use it for a funk jam or something like that. I bought the shell for £35 on Ebay and nicked the hardware off another bass drum I never use. I'll definitely be using if for our acoustic set at Rebellion festival. I think if we were to start doing acoustic sets at bigger venues with proper PAs I'd just take my full kit

Do you know the difference between a Lentil and a Chickpea?

I just asked him. It's a Michael Kelly Dragonfly like this but with a different finish: https://www.musicroom.com/michael-kelly-michael-kelly-dragonfly-5-electro-acoustic-bass-mkd5ssbsfr?glid=gb&CAWELAID=120075890000619509&CATARGETID=120075890000864999&CADevice=c&gclid=CjwKCAiAp8iMBhAqEiwAJb94zxubZ9u5wRxigEhvJa_9G6j2FXHqLc8XD3OgzfeOcb1KSSUQd3Dz_xoC4dMQAvD_BwE

Exactly

Compass Cafe in Blackpool on Saturday. It's a nice size for a cafe, but a very small venue for a full band. I was told I'd need to strip down the drum kit due to lack of space. I took my tiny bass drum and no toms. As it turned out, a floor tom would have fit, so that was frustrating but never mind. We did an all acoustic set which is unusual for us as the guitarist usually switches between electric and acoustic. Our bassist brought his very fancy 5 string acoustic bass. I can't remember the name of the maker but I think it's a small custom builder... should have taken a closer photo for Basschat, sorry. You can just about see it here Ace night anyway

Yeh that works if the engineer is actually at the desk

There are loads of things we can complain about after playing a set. Bad sound, faulty equipment, out of tune singing, drunken guitarists... sh*t happens, and it can make for a sh*t gig. It's worth talking about this stuff after the set, or better yet, at the next rehearsal, but one way to guarantee I have a bad night is to complain while we're still on stage. I'm busy trying to perform to the audience and look like I'm enjoying myself, like the whole band should be, and that's pretty difficult if you're b*tching loud enough to hear you over the monitors. Hopefully no-one on basschat is guilty of this, but if you are, give it a rest ay?

The Salty Dog in Northwich on Friday. I always look forward to playing here. A very cool bar with brilliant beers, I made sure I didn't have to drive home. It was a good night, and we played well, but the sound was terrible. Loads of feedback, and the soundguy kept disappearing. The first time our guitarist switched from electric to acoustic, we found he'd muted the acoustic channel on the desk. There's no need for this because it's muted on stage, which we explained, but he'd done it anyway and buggered off somewhere. The crowd all start shouting his name to get him back to the desk to un-mute it. When he did there was instant feedback, growling acoustic guitar strings, groans from the crowd. Finally under control, you'd expect him to stay behind the desk now right? Especially as we'd told him we were having a guest singer up for one song, for which he'd actually prepared! Carole Hodge (excellent singer songwriter and pianist) got up to sing vocals for one song as she did on the recording, however, when she plugged her mic in, the soundguy was nowhere to be seen. Once again the crowd shout his name for a solid minute until he appears. This time he shouts "what've you broken now?", clearly exasperated at having to do his job. We explain that the guest vocalist is up, he turns up her channel to the point of feedback, then turns it down to a reasonable level, we kick in the song and he disappears again!! I should have got the message at the soundcheck. We were stood around ready to check for 40 minutes while the soundguy played with his lighting rig that didn't work. When he finally checked us it was terrible and rushed.

I've been a bit busy in the studio this week... anyway, Saturday night we played The Boulevard in Wigan. Ace venue, great sound, strangely early start, but plenty in by the time we went on. Nick's new bass rig is still making me grin. I'm sure we're tighter

I missed some of these replies sorry. I'm not sure how it helped the singers, but they both preferred it My -30db plugs are ACS I think the wearable subs and in-ears thing misses the point of the room. I've tried the P&D drum throne with built in sub. It's pretty cool but it's not the same. I think there's something happening in the time domain but it's very difficult to define

IMO fretting a barre chord is very different to fretting a single note. It's worth persevering with acoustic as it'll build up that strength, but electric would be much easier

Howden Live in Howden on Saturday. We knew ticket sales had been slow but the promoter insisted we crack on. He even paid us in advance! News that morning that the local support had pulled out... a sombre 2 hour drive up from my house fearing the worst. When we arrived, the venue looked pretty cool, probably 400 capacity, nice big stage, but there were several guys huddled around a rack of PA gear and a fuse box. There was some talk of an hour round trip to get a small PA that might do the job considering the low ticket sales. Somehow they managed to cobble together a working PA from what was there, but they skipped close mics on the drums, and the drum wedge was out. So was any chance of a meal before our set as it had taken quite a while. Anyway, we played 1hr 45 to about 40 people in a 400 capacity room and it was awesome. So much fun, and occasionally very funny. You can see the stage invader here

I'd set the amp first with the EQ on the bass flat, purely because I'd use the EQ on the bass to make changes while moving around on stage

I'm wearing custom moulded ear plugs with -30db filters in them. It's more about "feel" than sound. There's a connection between the low end coming out of the bass rig, and the bass drum, and it's just not there otherwise

Just a few experiences in favour of amps and volume... I'm playing drums in a 2 piece band. The guitarist uses a submarine pickup through an octaver for the bass sound. He always struggles to hear his own vocals, so I set us up a "silent" rehearsal rig. Both of us used in-ears for vocals, bass and guitar, with only the drums making any real noise. We thought it was brilliant. One day, when setting up a big rig to record his guitars for the album (stereo guitar rig, full stack for the bass sound), we thought it'd be good to have a jam with it. The vocals went back through the PA, our ear plugs went back in, and F*&K ME we both said, this is awesome. We've not gone back to the in-ears My main band have an Xair-18 which we bought to record our album in a bigger, more covid-secure room. Our guitarist has always used his POD and recently bought a fancy new modelling pedal. He's really into the idea of a quiet stage. Again, the singer struggles to hear himself on stage sometimes. The bassist always used a small TC combo. He's been talking about getting a new amp all year, and at first I was trying to convince him to go ampless, but there was no way. We played a festival where they had an Ashdown Rootmaster into an 8x10 on stage, and it had us grinning at each other the whole set. So, he bought a Rootmaster, and a Barefaced 4 x 10. We had our first rehearsal with it last night and F&(K ME we both said. Maybe this is just the drummer's point of view, but with a great big bass sound, everything is grooving better

One of the most common problems in my recording sessions is tuning. It seems to me, people don't know how to use their tuners properly. They keep hitting the note, not giving the tuner time to settle, and obviously getting frustrated, meaning they hit harder, making the note sharper On bass, just play the harmonic at the 12th fret once, and wait for the tuner to settle to see if you need to adjust up or down (or at all)

Star & Garter in Manchester on Friday night. We went down well, won new fans, and had a great night, but there were more flip-ups than ever! Probably due to the guitarist having to be on the wrong side of the stage, meaning his deaf side was facing the drums. We just about held it together anyway

Wroot Rocks on Saturday, packed hall, absolutely drenched with sweat by the end of the set, played well, sounded ace Northern Kin festival on Sunday, we were first on but still plenty in the big top, so cool to play on such a big stage with a big PA. They had an ampeg SVT and fridge for our bassist, sounded cool. I don't have a pic from the audience perspective. This is just after sound check

Wigan Diggers Festival last night. Brilliant big stage and sound system. Great crowd. The only negative was the shared drum kit. In hindsight I should have insisted I use my own but I don't like to rock the boat. It looks like an adult brought breakables to a kids drum kit! And there was no rug so the bass drum was wandering around

I really doubt we'll do a CD but will sort you a download when it's finished

This site: https://decibelhearing.com/high-frequency-hearing-loss/ Says "17,400 Hz is a frequency that only teenagers can hear. Most people over the age of 18 cannot hear this tone " Having said that, I'm 36 and I just played the example there and could hear it on my headphones

If you're over 30 and can hear 20Khz I'd be very surprised indeed! EDIT: when I used to gig on bass I'd be taking at least 5 dirty pedals with me, so we're definitely in agreement there!

I'm just recovering from an infection in my right ear. For the first few days everything on that side sounded like there was a ring modulator on it. I found it very disorientating, especially in situations with a lot of background noise. You have my sympathy! 3 weeks on and it's almost back to normal, which is a massive releif, as I make a chunk of my living as a producer The bassist in my band admits he can't hear any treble, pretty much nothing over 10Khz, so when he tries to disparage my choice of cymbals, I rightly disparage his hearing

Thanks! We'll have an album out soon, just a couple of tweaks to go