tony_m

As I mentioned on the "How was your gig last night?" thread, at the wedding anniversary gig we did back in September at a local village hall, we were asked if we'd do NYE for them. Having verbally agreed on the night with couple of the chaps off the hall committee that we'd do it for twice our usual rate, we then got word a week later via our drummer that the hall committee had now had a vote, and decided they were going to have a karaoke and disco instead! One of the local musos who lives in the village then mischieviously posted "Would like to see a band at the village hall on New Year's Eve, is there one on?" on the hall FB page, sparking a rather heated (and very entertaining) discussion between the hall chairman and various folks who regularly come to see us, which only ended when the thread got pulled by the hall chairman. 😂 Given the atmosphere which seems to have developed over the whole affair, suspect we'll not be playing there ever again, which is a shame as it's a nice enough hall, and only 15 minutes drive away for me. On the plus side, at least we won't need to worry about the dodgy hall electrics!

I used to run an EHX Bass Soul Food as an always-on tone-thickener, but was never entirely happy as it always seemed to teeter on the edge of being a bit too shrill. Replaced it with an Ampeg Scrambler, which seems far warmer overall (subject to the position of the Treble control) and is definitely more what I was after.

In one of my previous bands, I was most definitely the third "best" bass player out of the five of us, the guitarist and drummist both being way ahead of me in terms of competence and experience! Since then, though, my confidence in my own ability has grown, especially since I joined my current band. OK, my technique is still pretty limited compared to some (many / most?), but as long as I strike the right balance between speed and complexity, I know I can keep things nice and solid - it helps that Mr Drums is so good (absolutely metronomic, counts literally everything from the first beat of the intro to the last of the outro, and the words "that'll do" simply don't exist in his vocabulary), that as long as I lock in with him, everything will be just fine.

Just bought Ben's NUX Flow tuner. Simple, straightforward transaction, great comms, pedal in perfect condition, sent very quickly, and very neatly packed. Not a lot more to be said really, another fine Ambassador for the BC community. Deal with confidence. 👍

We do Tom Petty's "Learning To Fry", aka The Chip Shop Song.

And they're gone (again)... 🫣

Not a live album as such, but a live videotape (remember them?). Think I've told this story before on here, but for anyone who's not heard it, in January 1983 myself and couple of mates from the Saxon Militia Guard fanclub made the trek down from Blackpool to Nott'num in a pale yellow Mini Metro (remember them?) hire car - very metal, eh? - for the recording of Saxon's Live video at the Royal Court Theatre. No sooner had we picked up our Guest passes and settled in for a few hours ligging before the show than one of the roadies grabbed us and said "Hi lads, have you come in a car? Great, we need someone to drive over to Leicester and pick up a guitar for Graham. We'll pay for the petrol." So, me and one of my mates, plus the aforementioned roadie, fire up the Mighty Metro, and head off to Carlsbro Music, from where we collect a sunburst Squier Strat before heading back to the Royal Court via a petrol station for a fill-up (on expenses, of course). Fast forward to showtime, and we watch with anticipation from the balcony at the side of the stage, waiting for "Our Guitar" to make an appearance. Eventually out it comes for "And The Bands Played On", at the end of which Graham Oliver throws the thing into the air, drops it on the floor, sprays it with lighter fuel, and sets fire to it. Doesn't he know / care about all the effort we put into fetching it for him?!?!?!? 🤨 Obviously, our other contribution to what was a great show (and a great video IMHO, particularly Dobby Dawson's tone throughout, not to mention his bass pedal "demo" at 11:11 in), was adding our voices to the massed "Wheels Of Steel" sing-back and the "Whoa-oh-oh"s in "And The Bands Played On", despite us being on the guest list, and thus too-cool-for-school. A grand day out. 😎

Fortunately looks like only the Dakota Red version, otherwise I would have been a bit annoyed having picked up a blonde one elsewhere, at a higher price... 😂

Looks like they're back in stock (now at £262), let the frenzy recommence... 🙃 https://www.thomann.de/gb/fender_squier_40th_anni._p_bass_dr.htm

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (otherwise known as A1 Music in Preston), I spied hanging on the wall a newly-released Fender Classic '50s Precision in Honey Blonde with a gold anodized scratchplate and maple neck, and fell in love with the look. At the time, it was way too spendy for me, plus I didn't think my small hands and stumpy fingers would be able to cope with the 44.45mm nut width anyway, so I left it where it was, but never forgot that look. Fast forward to September 2023, and *that* thread about Thomann and the Squier 40th Anniversary P's. The Vintage Blonde version obviously caught my eye, but after umming and aahing for a while, I decided to hold off ordering one until after we'd got back from our week away in Norfolk. Of course, they'd all gone by then, but a quick bit of online research revealed one in stock at GAK - more expensive than Thomann, but available - so I bunged my order in immediately. Then of course, I came across all the horror stories (mainly over on The Other Place) about dodgy QC on some of these, so was equally excited and worried about what might actually turn up. Turns out I needn't have worried - the body is decent enough (there are slight differences in colour / graining visible through the finish, but this is mainly on the back, and more apparent in photos than it is to the naked eye), the nut and fretwork is all neat and tidy, no loose / stripped screws, the pots are smooth (as has been noted elsewhere, the tone control is way more progressive than that on any of my other basses), the neck joint is tight, weight is nice at exactly 8lbs, setup was spot-on from the factory (though I have raised the action a bit to taste), the satin neck is a delight, she really rings out acoustically, and sustains for days (almost). I had originally intended going for the full '57 vintage look with threaded saddles, bridge cover and G-side tugbar, but I think I'm going to leave her as she is, a lean, mean, rockin' machine (or whatever the Kewl Kidz say these days) - all I've done is swap the strings for my preferred TI Jazz Flats. Unfortunately as the band is currently taking a complete break for four weeks, I'll not have chance to give her a full workout just yet, but she's definitely a keeper. And so, onto the obligatory pictures...

Friday night saw Rascallion providing the entertainment at a 30th Anniversary party for one of the committee members and his wife at a local village hall we've played a few times before. The evening didn't get off to a particularly good start when my trusty Ashdown Five Fifteen minirig started buzzing horribly, and nothing we tried would get rid of it completely. When I realised it was at its worst and most obvious when I rolled the tone above about 20% (or added treble on the Ampeg Scrambler), we decided to just crack on, and I'd keep the tone rolled back. Then we realised it wasn't just my amp that was buzzing, Mr Lead Guitar's was too, particularly when he kicked in his boost pedal. We've had buzzing amp issues at this venue before, but we always just put it down to Mr Singer's crappy old amp playing up as that seemed to be the only one affected. Long story slightly shorter, another local muso who runs an open mic at the same hall and was attending the event confirmed that he had the same problem here all the time, so we came to the conclusion it must be an issue with the mains - oddly, neither Mr Singer's nor Mr Rhythm Guitar's amps seemed to be affected on this occasion, nor were Mr Drums's electronic kit or the powered main PA speakers, so... 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, we fired up at 8pm, trying to forget about the odd buzz here and there. First set went well, and neatly on the dot of 45 minutes (with four tunes still left to do - we really must sort our set timings out!), Mr Anniversary came up to say the buffet was now being served, so we took a break for food (very nice it was too). Once everyone had finished troughing, we kicked off again at 9:30pm, running through the remaining four numbers from the first set, then continuing through the second, dropping a couple of numbers here and there. Think we may have inadvertently hit upon a new closing number for the first set / opening four numbers for the second set going forward, as it seemed to work really well this way! After we reached the end of the planned set, we got Mr Anniversary up to join us on the Kenny Rogers cover he'd requested (well, sort of - he'd wanted to do "Lady", but we'd decided it was too orchestrated for our meagre talents so opted for "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town" instead), which went OK apart from Mr Singer (and thus also Mr Anniversary who was following him) getting the phrasing wrong in verse 3 (yet again). Mr Anniversary then treated us all to an a capella, solo version of "Lady", despite the fact his beloved lady had already gone home as she wasn't feeling well (nothing to do with us, apparently). After we'd churned out "Bad Moon Rising" in response to loud requests for one more song, Mr Anniversary then came forward again, this time asking for just one more, possibly romantic number - I'd already suggested we should perhaps play "You Do Something To Me" given the nature of the event, so despite not having played it for months (even in rehearsal) we did something to them, and then rounded things off with a final "Stand By Me" to send everybody singing and swaying into the night. After a near-as-dammit faultless first set, there were few miscues in the second set (my major flamingo-up being total brain- and finger-freeze on the opening run in "Long Train Running", though I did nail it the second time round!), but on the plus side, the two numbers getting their first public airings ("Peaceful Easy Feeling" and "Listen To The Music") both went well and were well-received. We only had a couple of our regular friends from another village hall up and dancing, but then we didn't really think it was likely to be that sort of a do anyway given our previous experiences at this hall, with this crowd. So, that was that. Our final planned gig for this year, the intention being to now take four weeks off completely (mainly to prevent Mr Drums properly losing his temper with Mr Lead Guitar during yet another disagreement about timings, particularly on intros - Mr Drums can actually count well, Mr Lead Guitar apparently less so... ), then spend the rest of the year re-jigging the sets and nailing down a few new numbers, plus some we've dabbled with in the past, but which have never made it to gig-ready. At least, that was the plan. Then last night's parting shot from Mr Anniversary and his colleague on the hall committee was...... could we do New Year's Eve at the hall? And would twice our usual rate be OK? Well, it's sort of next year really, isn't it... 🙃

I'd probably have been listening to "Crusader" and "Innocence Is No Excuse", while dreaming wistfully of a return to the glory days of "Wheels of Steel", "Strong Arm of the Law" and "Denim And Leather"... 🤨

Now The Beeb are on the case... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66700300

Hopefully M3 is the correct size for the Hosco saddles - I did have a look to see if the specs said anything different, but they didn't so fingers crossed they're the same size as the Wilkinsons!

Obviously I don't know whether this sort of thing is important to you or not, but when I replaced the original brass saddles on my Wilkinson bridge with the threaded vintage-style jobbies as mentioned on your other thread, I also replaced the saddle screws so they didn't protrude quite as much, if at all. The grub screws I used came from Model Fixings https://www.modelfixings.co.uk/cup_point_grub_screws.htm#M3 cup but I note yours have got slotted rather than hex heads, which isn't an option from Model Fixings - however, Spalding Fasteners do offer slot-heads https://www.spaldingfasteners.co.uk/m3-metric-a2-grade-stainless-steel-slotted-grub-screws/. Can't remember what lengths I used now, but think it may have been 10mm for the A and D saddles, and slightly shorter (looking at them in situ, possibly 8mm) for the E and G saddles. Definitely looks neater without bits sticking out, and avoids the possibility of any annoying scratches and scrapes if you go in for palm-muting - I don't, so it's just for looks in my case. Gear Tart? Moi? 😁

When I was after some threaded saddles for my 60s Reissue Jazz, I couldn't find any individual items anywhere so ended up getting a complete Wilkinson bridge off the Bay of e, and swopped the saddles from that onto my existing bridge (coincidentally also a Wilkinson). The threaded saddles are brass, not chrome, but are significantly paler / less brass-coloured than the slotted brass saddles they replaced. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/392704245582

Sunday saw us (Rascallion) making a return visit to a local pub we've played at twice before. When the date was originally booked back in January, it appeared to be just an ordinary beer garden gig (albeit on a Bank Holiday Sunday), but earlier this week we found out it coincided with a charity tractor run and fun day in aid of the local hospice, raising expectations that we might have a decent sized crowd, a lot of whom probably hadn't seen us before. Sure enough, the parade of 35 vintage and modern tractors attracted a decent number of folks who all seemed keen to make the most of the day, despite the occasional heavy showers - at least the beer garden now has full marquee coverage so everybody (including us and our gear) stayed dry through the downpours. The first set wasn't too bad - Mr Singer threw us a curveball by forgetting half of the second verse of "Guitar Town" and jumping straight into the bridge far too early, but we scuffled our way through it. There then followed an unexpectedly long break while the organisers held the auction and raffle. On the plus side, I came away with a canister of automotive cleaning wipes and a £20 meat voucher from a local butcher, but it would have been nice not to have to hang around for a whole hour before we fired up again. Quite a few of the tractor folks left as soon as the raffle had finished, so the first couple of numbers in the second set were punctuated by tractors grumbling past just behind us, but on the whole the set felt a lot better than the first - whether it's down to the choice of material or a confidence thing I don't know, but it usually seems to be that way. The folks who did stay on to watch us were very complimentary at the end, the onstage sound was good (despite Mr Singer draping his coat over half of the drum monitor... 🙄 ), and for once I could actually hear myself properly, and my tone was exactly how I always want it to be! Next gig is a birthday bash at a local village hall towards the end of September, for which we've been asked to play a / any song by Kenny Rodgers, as he's Birthday Boy's favourite singer. After giving it a whole 30 seconds thought, we've chosen "Ruby" - hope he likes it!

Inspired by this thread (and a similar discussion over on The Other Place), I've just invested some of my recent gig money in a K&M Memphis Pro stand. Very smart bit of kit it is too, and works perfectly for both my Precision and my Jazz. Reckon I'll still be using my Amperstand leany-up / neck-cradle thing in the spacious, nicely-carpeted, less-than-dynamic environment of our rehearsal studio, but the K&M should be be just the thing on the cramped, less plush stages we regularly find ourselves on, and which are already cluttered with four guitars and a mandolin all on A-frame stands. 🫣 https://www.k-m.de/en/products/stands-and-accessories-for-instruments/fretted-instruments/17670-guitar-stand-memphis-pro-black?c=156

Have to confess, I've not given it any thought whatsoever, but a mate of mine who died last year was a massive fan of Elvis and rock / blues music in general, so for his service the family chose the following: Music on Entrance: Live Intro Into His Shows & CC Rider (Elvis Presley) Moment of Reflection: Hallelujah (Jeff Buckley) Closing Music: Simple Man (Lynyrd Skynyrd) Music on Leaving: Elvis Has Left The Building (Frank Zappa) Definitely hit the right sort of vibe.

After last weekend's care home and army barracks weirdness, Saturday night saw a wlecome return to normality for Rascallion with a gig at one of our regular village hall venues. As we soundchecked in front of the folks running the bar and the kitchen, we did wonder how many people might actually turn up as there were a couple of multi-band events plus a 1940's Weekend (a major attraction in these parts) taking place no more than 20 miles away, but fortunately folks started arriving at about 7pm to partake of the food, then stayed on to listen to us when we fired up at 8pm. The first set saw possibly the best onstage sound we've ever had, which was a great confidence booster, and everything went swimmingly. Oddly, it seemed to go to pot two numbers in to the second set, despite nothing being changed on the desk (at least not by human hands... 👻 ), but we muddled through, and overall it turned into probably our best (and definitely sweatiest) show so far. The new numbers getting their first public airing (nothing too adventurous, just Before You Accuse Me, Tush and Sharp Dressed Man) went down well, while the only major off-piste moment was Mr Singer forgetting the second half of verse two in Mary Jane's Last Dance and jumping straight into the chorus, but we all somehow caught up with him before it all went too horribly wrong. Next up in two weeks (August Bank Holiday Sunday) is another return visit, this time outdoors at a local pub we've played at twice before. Apparently they've now got full marquee coverage over the beer garden, so hopefully we'll avoid the weather-driven ebbing and flowing crowd we experienced the last time we played there should it be at all iffy on the day. 🤞

The most-thumbed book on my shelves (I love early Precisions), with "The Illustrated History" and Geddy Lee's book not far behind. This is also an interesting collection of bits and bobs... https://www.musicroom.com/tom-wheeler-the-fender-archives-hl00103138

Yeah, it was a really odd day all round! And the '51 is my #1 bass - I do occasionally take my 60s Jazz Re-issue out for a change, but always go back to the '51, it just works for me.

And so, onto Saturday, which saw me travelling the hour or so across to the Prince William of Gloucester barracks in Grantham where we'd been booked to provide some entertainment / background music at the Army Training Regiment's Pass Off Parade event. Nothing much in the way of details had been forthcoming since we originally took the date, but the general idea seemed to we'd do two, maybe three, 45-minute sets some time between 4pm and 8pm while folks were partying. We then got a message last week saying they were bringing the event forward due to the weather forecast, so wanted us there at 10:30am, with a view to starting at 1:00pm or thereabouts. No worries, an earlier start should mean an earlier finish,which was fine by us. As forecast, the weather on Saturday was pretty foul, so when the two Corporals who'd been tasked with arranging things gave us a choice between a small, rather wet, open-sided stage with a canvas canopy, or a large, mostly dry, solidly-canopied decking area outside the bar opposite (where the audience were originally going to be while we played on the small stage), we obviously opted for the latter. After helping the two Corporals move half a dozen heavy stone benches out of the way, we got everything set up and ready to go, accompanied by the distant sound of the band on the parade ground doing their stuff as the successful recruits paraded, and their families watched on and got wet. This is when things started to get interesting... 12:30pm The parade finishes, the various service personnel and much-smaller-than-expected crowd of guests wander back from the parade ground, and mostly disappear into the bar in search of food and drink. Corporal #1 informs us that they'd like us to go on at 2:00pm, after a performance by a troupe of African dancers (whose presence had never been mentioned until now). Oh, and could the dancers put their music through our PA? Fine, says we, and the Corporal disappears in search of a suitable connector so he could attach his sooper-dooper new iPhone containing said music to our desk via our drummer's not-at-all-compatible-with-a-sooper-dooper-new-iPhone lead. 2:00pm Corporal #1 returns clutching the necessary connector, the very funky tribal music erupts from our PA, and the African dancers (four very smiley ladies) start shaking and shimmying their stuff on the now *very* wet small stage. 2:20pm The dancers finish their performance (very enjoyable it was too, a definite burst of sunshine on an otherwise miserable grey day), and we finally launch into our opening number in front of the small number of people who'd gathered on the decking with us to watch the dancers. 2:45pm After we've played our first five numbers to a smattering of applause, Corporal #1 intervenes and says they want to do the raffle now, so we stand down and let them get on with it (using our mic and PA, obvs). 3:15pm Raffling finally finishes and we strike up again, totally ignoring the setlist now and just cherry-picking from our more upbeat numbers in an attempt to engage with the few remaining spectators. 3:25pm Two numbers in, and Corporal #1 asks us to pause so the African dancers can do their second peformance, which is just as entertaining and sunshiney as the first. 3:35pm The dancers finish their performance, and on we go again. This time we manage a whole two and a half numbers before Corporal #1 approaches me (fortunately during Roadhouse Blues, so nothing too complex) and asks would we be able to move into the bar, and carry on in there? By now, all the guests who'd attended the event were long-gone, and the only people left in the bar appear to be regulars ftom the camp, including umpteen small children racing around. We finish Roadhouse, break down all the gear, cart it into the smaller room off the side of the bar (carefully avoiding the aforementioned small children in the process), set it all up again, then sit around noodling while waiting for somebody to come and tell us when, and for how long, they want us to play. 4:55pm The two Corporals reappear, and ask if we could start playing now and see if anybody comes in from the bar to watch. We play another three numbers, to an audience composed of the two Corporals and the odd small child running in and out. Nobody else in the building shows the slightest bit of interest. 5:20pm Commonsense finally prevails, and we're dismissed. As we broke down the gear for the second, and last, time, our two new best friends were very apologetic about how things had panned out, and also very grateful to us for just going with the flow. To be fair, they had no control over the weather, and we'd already been paid twice our usual rate so couldn't be too bolshy! Might things have worked out better if they'd put us (and the dancers?) in the small room off the bar right from the start? Maybe, but ultimately they were just following orders... As an aside, I suppose it was inevitable that I'd get gear-stalked for the first time ever on such a strange day! While we were still standing around waiting to be told when to start, surrounded by folks eating. drinking, and generally milling about, one of the guests came over and commented how nice my '51 Precision Reissue looked. In the course of a brief natter, it turned out he had an old (1980's?) Ibanez Blazer and a Yamaha something-or-other himself, but in the general confusion I never did think to ask whereabouts he was from, who he played with, and whether he was a BC member! 🤦‍♂️

This weekend saw two rather odd outings for Rascallion, I'll split the saga over two posts! First up, on Friday afternoon we'd been asked to provide the entertainment for a "Family BBQ" at the care home where Mr Lead Guitar's mother resides. Given the poor weather forecast all week, we half-expected the event to be cancelled, but after a decent morning's weather they decided to go ahead with it. The original idea was for us to play under a canopy in the back garden, but by the time we were ready to set up it was looking a bit black over Bill's mother's (literally) and then the heaven's opened, so Plan B was rapidly invoked. After the half-dozen residents who were sitting comfortably in the front lounge had been moved out, we set up in there with me and Mr Drums tucked in the window bay (Trace AH200 + BLX-110 cab for me, cut-down electronic kit with just a kick, snare, hi-hat and single crash for Mr Drums) and the other three across the middle of the room, and proceeded to knock out a few of our gentler numbers (e.g. a somewhat ironic Sunny Afternoon, Have You Ever Seen The Rain?, and Handle With Care, while carefully avoiding the likes of Knockin' On Heaven's Door) to an appreciative audience composed of Mr Lead Guitar's mother, and a few members of staff who watched through the door from the corridor. After a short break for food (during which a few other relatives popped by to express their appreciation having listened to us from various other rooms), we did a couple more tunes but then had to draw things rapidly to a close when an undertaker turned up to...... umm...... make a collection. Anyway, the home have asked if we'd go back again and do an outdoor show for them some time as they'd enjoyed it so much, and we've also had an enquiry from someone wanting to book us for a local village fete! How rock 'n' roll is that, eh?