Maude

A weekend of two halves for me. Friday night my Mod band played a pub in Plymouth's Barbican. While putting the lights up, our guitarist left the stands at half mast until all connections had been made. Two girls were sat at a table just in front of the lights and one of them complained to him as they were blocking her view and she had only come to see the bass player. So people do notice us! We had a good gig, packed the place out and plenty of dancing. Saturday my other band had a wedding booked. We got to the venue to find we were in one room with the bar, seating and buffet next door. There were double bi-fold doors opened between the two which let enough noise through that very few left the bar area, it was also very hot so a lot were sat outside. Nevermind, the few that did come through for a dance enjoyed it and we were paid handsomely.

Poke the string down the bloody hole first. I'm mixing up the two stroke as we speak! 😄

That's just the ultimate in roadworn. "Hey man, look at my guitar, over all the years of playing my forearm has worn the paint down to the wood". "Pah, I've been playing so long I've worn the wood away as well!"

I'm generally a fairly placid chap but stringing like that does bring out the psychopathic masked chainsaw murderer in me.

Apologies if this something you are genuinely trying to get started but that page you link to screams to me 'click here for a free virus'. 'The ultimate bass players toolkit'? You'll need more than three popular riffs to get me to click on that.

I like that the amp is too big, it's very Spinal Tap 👍

Wait wait wait! Yeah yeah, we have band logo shirts, Mod band so Fred Perry type polo's with small band logo, no I won't wear one. Anyway @Happy Jack, @Silvia Bluejay, is that a printed amp on a roll down banner thingy?😎 Cool!

I don't know but now I fancy some coconut ice.

I did the same to take a photo but when packing them away in their cases there was a knock at the door. I answered it and it was my neighbour, I had taken delivery of a parcel for him earlier, anyway I invited him in while I fetched the parcel from the dining room, it was quite big so I stored it in there out the way. On my return he was in a right state as he'd only gone and sat on the sofa and sat right on the one bass left there after the photoshoot. He was so apologetic and it really wasn't his fault so said not to worry and reassured him I could fix it. I couldn't, the bloody body had a dirty great crack right through the control cavity. Luckily the neck was fine so having always secretly lusted after a flying V (it's all about the looks with me) I had a new body made for it. And what a body it is, such beautiful craftsmanship and it's so lightweight it's unreal, that coupled with what was probably my favourite neck and I have my dream airbass, so much so that the others rarely get played now. Here's an arty little shot of Vee (short for Vera which I named her) reclining in a Chesterfield, I think you'll agree she's a beauty. Now every time my neighbour pops in he does a little jokey feel around of the chair or sofa before he sits down and says "No basses here today then?", and we both roar with laughter.

Yup, I just knew that clip had to be in here, and there it was. 😄

This is another benefit, they soon forget the shouts of "one more" and have a little boogie.

I can understand the jukebox thing but if you don't expect the crowd to like your music choice what hope have you got when you start playing?

No you don't want to be playing the originals of the songs you're going play later.

Oh yes why do wedding DJs do that? And they've usually got a lower quality PA than the band which they push beyond its limits. My other band has a wedding to do next Saturday with a DJ so we'll see how that goes. 😀

Much as @Silvia Bluejay, I have no idea. I've never been asked for a list for PRS in all the time I've been gigging. It does seem to be a free for all.

This is another very good reason. I had actually forgotten about the usual shouting at bar staff to turn the pubs music off, which they usually only managed by the second or third song.

@gary macWhen I joined the band I was really surprised by the scene, you don't really see it normally then at a gig I was like "Is Shane Meadows filming another 'This Is England' or something?" We're on the Cornwall/Devon border, two members from Liskeard and two from Plymouth. It's all largely based around the scooter scene which encompasses those genres mentioned earlier but there is a large amount of activity. Out of all of the sub genres N.S. is probably the smallest scene, Mod and Skinhead being the largest, but proper Skins into it for the music and clothing, not the racist (swear filter would break if I said what I thought) thugs. There's a complete cross appreciation across the whole spectrum of those genres but we mainly put on NS music pre and mid gig as the people that aren't there especially to see us will like it as well, we put in some classic Trojan and Motown as well. We've done a few scooter rallies and they are always really well attended. There's a couple from Torquay who DJ (Vinyl Avengers) with vinyl and play similar stuff to us but edge more towards Northern Soul, Motown, Stax and Trojan and not so much the Mod (60s and revival) stuff and they are well in demand and always pack venues.

Just to add to the above post, nothing clears/confuses a bunch of Ed Sheeran fans quicker than floor full of Skinheads dancing to 54-46 Was My Number 😂

This is the main reason we do it. We have a bit of a following and they're all of a certain type, although this 'scene' encompasses many genres, there's nothing that will clear Mods, Skins, Rude Boys/Girls, Soulboys/girls etc quicker than some pumping dance beats or some Ed Sheeran type stuff.

Just wondering really as I think it really helps get people in the mood but I've noticed a lot of bands don't. The Mod/Northern Soul/Ska band I'm in always get the PA up and running first and we have an mp3 player with a setlist of Northern Soul classics on that we play at decent volume while we're setting up. It gets people up dancing and sets the scene for when the band starts, a bit like a support band would do. Then in the break, we always do two sets, we put it on again (not the same songs) to keep folks interested, and again at the end until the PA gets taken down last. It doesn't take any effort once a setlist has been put together, it's not like DJ-ing, and means we are supplying music for a good four hours which the pubs love, and the main thing for us is that it gets people up dancing before we even start and they don't drift away in the break. I can see it would probably work best for a band like ours with a theme as it can become as big a part of the night as the band but I'd have thought any band would benefit from tailoring an mp3 set to their band for the reasons above. Yet I don't think many do. Even if using an installed PA with resident soundman there's no reason it couldn't be done. Personally I love seeing Northern Soul dancers enjoying themselves while we're setting up and it makes a tedious part of gigging enjoyable. So I was just wondering if we're in a minority doing this.

The tips thing doesn't really exist over here @Bluewine, not down in the Southwest anyway. An extra hundred bucks or so at each gig is a healthy boost 👍

How well can bassists read? Me? Not at all.

Gotcha 🙂 I took the 'resist' to mean a coating to resist tarnishing ie chrome, rather than something to mask/resist the chroming process. Making the whole post back to front. 🙂 Firstly any kind of chrome paint won't work, it's just paint and no matter how good it is the action of fitting strings and tensioning them will chip it off. In a similar way any oil, grease or other coating will just make your strings, and then your bass, messy. As far as I'm aware you won't be able to mask the bridge and only chrome the holes, but if it is possible to coat the bridge in something to stop the chrome salts being attracted to it then I'd guess it'll just be prohibitively expensive. Also a copper coat is often first applied before chrome (and nickel but that's standard so irrelevant), I think for better adhesion to certain metals, maybe to do with conductivity, and if this needs to be done then even more fiddly and time consuming. I would guess it's cheaper to just rechrome the whole thing which I'm sure can be done over the old chrome, but will need dipping to key it for the nickel and chrome plating. Hopefully someone who works with the stuff can confirm, or just ring your local platers and explain what you want and they'll advise you.

I'm confused 🤔 From your post I gather that you are going to drill 4 (or 5) holes through your bridge for the strings to pass through. Then radius, do you mean countersinking the hole, ie putting a bevelled edge around it so there's no sharp edge to damage the string. That all seems quite normal but then you want to strip the whole bridge and re-coat it but not get any in the new hole? Why re-coat at all if you don't want the new bare metal coated? Or is the original coating tatty? Rechroming is expensive BTW. 🙂