tony_m

Yeah, also seems to be very crisp and clear. Might have to sharpen up my technique a tad... 😳

Cheers, it's definitely summat a bit different!

I've always played Fenders / Squiers, but equally have always had a fascination for Thunderbirds (blame it on Nigel Mogg, Pete Way and Leon Wilkeson), so when this one appeared in the pre-owned stock at @Bass Direct my interest was piqued. As we were away at the time, I decided to leave it until we got home, and see if it was still available then. It was, so... 🤷‍♂️ It actually arrived yesterday, and I spent a pleasant afternoon swapping the strings to my preferred TI flats, tweaking the setup and intonation slightly, and trying to get used to the, erm, somewhat different ergonomics... 😂 Not had chance to run it though an amp yet, but it sounds wonderful through the Tascam bass trainer + headphones, so looking forward to giving it a proper run out at rehearsal next week. Then I just need to persuade the rest of the band to adopt a new country-goth direction...... 😎

I totally get this, as we have been described in the past as "one of the best bands in the area, but not the most exciting". As it is, we're never going to be jumping around or throwing shapes, so very much rely on our frontman to banter with the audience, with myself and Mr Drums chucking occasional comments into the mix while the two guitarists just keep schtum! One thing that does seem to amuse / engage people is when our frontman introduces us to the audience, given that he and one of the guitarists are from Yorkshire, the other guitarist is from Lincolnshire, I'm from Lancashire, and our drummer is from Kent (via Orkney). Seems one can always rely on regional differences to get folks going!!!

Finally managed to salvage a video from our gig on June 22nd. There's a minor glitch in it, but not as many as there are in the other videos from the day!

Saturday evening saw Rascallion return to our spiritual home of Anderby Village Hall. The atmosphere was a bit subdued, partly due to the heat which had kept a number of regulars away and reduced the size of the audience, but also in the knowledge that the RNLI and Coastguard were engaged in searching for a teenager who was missing in the sea just a couple of miles away (sad to report, his body was located in the early hours of Sunday morning). After being fed and watered (copiously!), we launched into our usual opener of CCR's "Green River" with all due respect to John Fogerty who'd played the same tune (as well as several others of his / ours) at Glastonbury earlier in the day. Apart from a) forgetting to un-mute the amp as we kicked off (fortunately I was in the PA too, so nobody noticed the lack of bass apart from me and Mr Drums, and I managed to sort it a couple of bars in!), b) the usual couple of curveballs courtesy of Mr Singer (including an almost complete trainwreck in Steve Miller's "Rock'n' Me" which we somehow managed to salvage), and c) a few more minor incidents caused by sweaty fingers, we got through the evening OK, and even the new stuff we were debuting went acceptably well. Gear was my 1997 CIJ Jazz, Trace AH200 head (acquired from @Deedee on here) and Trace BLX-110 cab, the usual Micro Thumpinator > NUX tuner > Ampeg OptoComp > Ampeg Scrambler > Ampeg Liquifier > Ashdown 12-band Graphic EQ/DI > Behringer DI600P DI, with charcoal Converse AllStars taking care of the footwear department. Now, let's see if I can get a phone video snippet to load... AnderbyVH MJLD.mp4

Sunday afternoon saw our (Rascallion) first live performance since August last year (long story!). The event (outdoors at a local pub) had originally been billed as "Country Music Day", featuring a local female solo acoustic singer followed by us, so we'd worked up a set featuring a few of the more country-adjacent tunes we've not done for a while, and added the 6/8 at 49 BPM delights of "Tennessee Whiskey" to our usual CCR / Eagles / Petty / Stones country-rockesque fare. Sometime over the last month, the event then morphed into a combined Sausage & Cider Festival and SSAFA Fundraiser, but we decided to stick to what we'd already put together, and it mostly went OK despite rehearsals being sporadic due to various members being ill or otherwise unavailable. After Meg had entertained the crowd (and us) with two sets of country classics plus a few very good (and in one case very funny / raucous) originals, it was our turn to spoil everybody's afternoon. Apart from a number of on-the-hoof arrangement changes courtesy of Mr Singer (OK, maybe he was just testing out our recovery skills, but I suspect not... ), a couple of the carefully-crafted intros we'd worked up at rehearsal on Wednesday going to pot as various folks piled in before they should have done (think we need a few more counting lessons... ), and a few other minor moments by all of us, seems we got away with it judging by the amount of applause, outbreaks of (possibly cider-induced) dancing, and complimentary comments at the end! Used my 1997 CIJ Jazz, faithful old Ashdown MAG300-C210T combo (acquired from @karlfer of this parish about 15 years ago, and which doesn't get to see much action these days), plus the usual board of Micro Thumpinator > NUX tuner > Ampeg OptoComp > Ampeg Scrambler > Ampeg Liquifier > Ashdown 12-band Graphic EQ/DI > Behringer DI600P DI. I somehow contrived to play the whole of the first set and a chunk of the second with the sub-harmonic engaged on the amp having omitted to disengage it after our last rehearsal, but I don't think anybody noticed. 🤫 Anyway, that's hopefully got the rust knocked off prior to our next gig this coming Saturday at our spiritual home of Anderby Village Hall. Might have some videos to put up later, if I can manage to get them off Mr Rhythm Guitar's phone at rehearsal, but in the meantime here's the setup, and a combined "Post Your Pedalboard / Footwear" shot.

Having worked up Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" and Joe Walsh's "One Day at a Time" over the last couple of rehearsals, we (Rascallion) have decided to take a detour into Steve Miller Band territory, so "The Joker" and "Rock'n Me" are now installed on the faithful Tascam MP-BT1 ready to have a go at.

Yeah, I was rather afraid of that, but the others seem less bothered by the prospect! Funnily enough, "I'd Rather Go Blind" did also enter the discussion, but TW won out in the end. 🤷‍♂️

While I was away enjoying the delights of Cromer last week, the rest of the gang decided on four new numbers to add to our ever-increasing repertoire. Of these, I suspect "Freeborn Man" (The Outlaws) is probably a non-starter (even Mr Singer who suggested it seems to have lost heart!), while we managed to get a decent feel for "Tennessee Whiskey" (Chris Stapleton) at rehearsal yesterday. That leaves "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)" by The Hollies to work on before next week's rehearsal, and finally this little number which is definitely another candidate for our "Songs-Nobody-Will-Know-But-They're-Going-To-Hear-Anyway" list. I've already spent a couple of hours working out the lyrics for Mr Singer as he couldn't find them anywhwere... 🤔

I've got a K & M Memphis, similar style to the Hercules and very solid... https://www.londonguitarstudio.com/p/k-m-memphis-pro-deluxe-guitar-stand

From our current setlist, I always particularly enjoy playing the two Creedence "Rain" numbers (Have You Ever Seen The Rain & Who'll Stop The Rain) when me and Mr Drums really lock together.

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Hope all goes well, and a speedy recovery has you back to giving the Poppydog cause for concern asap! 😉

Same here, even with TI Jazz Flats, and particularly around the 12th fret. Luckily I'm only ever up that way a couple of times during our set... 😃