tony_m

Our next gigs aren't until late October, but this Saturday we're shooting some clips for a promo / showreel video in our / the drummer's rehearsal studio. We've had a couple of practices this week to polish the nine snippets of tunes we're doing - all sounding really good this afto, fingers crossed it'll be the same at the weekend. And yes, we are going to tidy up / hide the wiring a bit...

Oh, go on then, if you insist... 😬 https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/7919-how-was-your-gig-last-night/?do=findComment&comment=4696183

We've done a couple of birthday bashes, one a 70th in a local village hall, and the other an 80th in a trying-slightly-too-hard "gin bar". Both were well-attended, but the former was definitely the more successful of the two - most of the folks there were actually interested in what we were doing, and a small amount of dancing even broke out during the second set (admittedly initiated by Mr Rhythm Guitar's wife and friends, but hey-ho... ). The other was our worst gig ever (so far!), so we'll draw a veil over that one! Funnily enough, we've got another 70th bash coming up in December, which we were asked to do on the strength of the first, and is being held in the same village hall, so it'll be interesting to see how we (and the new material we've added since then) go down this time. Just for the record, we're all in our 60s, so not too disimilar in age to the audiences at each. And yes, we got paid for both and fed nicely at the first, so can't really complain. 😀

Just bought Paul's Ampeg Opto Comp. Lovely easy transaction, great comms, rapid dispatch / delivery, and pedal in perfect condition - another fine ambassador for the BC community.

Bass > Tascam MP-BT1 loaded with mp3s of all the songs we do (in set order, plus a few random ones I'd like us to do!) > headphones. Spend most of my practice time playing along with the mp3s, though I do also occasionally work on scales or noodle etc. without any backing tracks.

Saturday saw another first in the short gigging career of the now-not-so-new band - our first outdoor gig at a charity fest raising funds for the local air ambulance. As first band on, we got the benefit of a decent soundcheck and it sounded superb, with the old Ashdown MAG300 combo I got off @karlfer donkey's years ago still delivering heaps of warm, punchy goodness. Things went slightly awry two songs in to our nine-song set with intermittent dropouts and odd noises coming through the monitors (plus Mr Lead Guitar forgetting to turn his chorus off because he couldn't see the LED glowing in the sunlight), but apparently nobody out front noticed the occasional off-piste moments and various people told us it all sounded OK, so happy days! We had been told that someone was going to be filming all the bands and if we took a pen drive along we could take a copy on the day, but unfortunately it didn't happen so all we've got to show for our efforts is a very short clip on FB. Still had fun though, and hopefully we'll get another, higher up the bill, crack at next year's event. https://fb.watch/ejF2BlydJF/

Looks similar to the Levy's "Right Height" and Right On "F.L.A.S.H" systems, must be a call for it I guess! https://www.levysleathers.com/right-height/ https://www.rightonstraps.com/en/STRAP-Fast-Length-Adjustment-System-Harness.html

Sotally tober here... 🤪 Seriously, living in the sticks as we do, playing anywhere inevitably involves driving , so no alcohol. That said, the venues we've played so far this year (a local village hall twice and a couple of pubs) have all had an alcohol-free beer of some sort on offer, either bottled or on draught, which suits me just fine. Cheers!

Always fancied one of these after seeing Rick Price playing one with the good ol' Georgia Satellites back in the day. Rick Richards occasionally played a DA plexi guitar too, both on view here... 😎

Same here, though as I'm highly unlikely to ever qualify for an official signature model, reckon I'll just have to stick with my MIJ '51 P Reissue (with Evan Webb / Webbteca phenolic saddles for that extra retro touch).

First "pub gig" for the new band last night, at a drinking establishment frequented by Mr Drums - the newish owners are looking to put bands on regularly, so this was a bit of a tester. After a late afternoon domestic crisis (dripping heating oil tank = large bill incoming... 🙄 ) I finally arrived 40 minutes before showtime, and managed to a) get parked right outside, and b) squeeze myself into the little remaining space in the small area they'd set aside for us. Quick soundcheck, and blimey - everything sounds absolutely spot-on! First four numbers went brilliantly, if I say so myself. Then the landlord approached - uh-oh, what's wrong? "Can you turn it up, the folks at the back can't hear!" he says. Turn it UP???!!! Eh? OK, so we do pride ourselves on being just loud enough, but this is a first in our short, five-gig career. So, up goes the volume in the mains, and...... everything starts to fall apart. Monitors peaking and crackling, singer's electro-acoustic booming (which of course everybody thinks is down to me... 🤨 ), generally just horrible. We make it through to the end of the set, which amazingly closes to loud applause and many complimentary comments. Really? Are your ears painted on? 😆 After much head-scratching and tweaks to the desk during the break (over the course of which I was totally absolved from being the cause of any issues, obvs... 😇), the second set went a lot better, apart from the number where Mr Lead Guitar tunes to drop-D (Steve Earle's "Guitar Town") - normally this makes his Tele sound amazing, but last night it sounded like a herd of trumpeting elephants! We made it through to the end of the song, at which point we all looked at each other and just cracked up - fortunately the audience seemed less nonplussed than us, so it can't have been too bad out front after all. Second set ended to more loud appplause from the admittedly smaller audience than was there at the start, but I suspect that's just the way the pub works with people wandering in and out all evening. We even treated them to a quick encore of a song we worked up at rehearsal last week (Tom Petty's "Yer So Bad"), which ended the night on a high for us at least. So, seems we really do still need to get to grips with our new desk (Yamaha MG16XU), and especially why a monitor mix carefully crafted in the rehearsal shed suddenly falls apart. It'll be interesting to see how things go at our next two gigs (a charity event in June, using our PA but the venue's in-house soundman, and an outdoor charity festival in July where PA and soundman are both provided). Onwards and upwards!

And they definitely find their way into our rehearsal shed and fiddle with the settings on the desk, as they never seem to be how we left them... 🤔

Similar here. I seem to have found a tone which sits nicely with our two guitarists and the drums, but our frontman also swaps between two different electro-acoustics (a 12-string and a 6-string) and a mandolin - everything's fine with the 12-string and the mandolin, but as soon as he picks up the 6-string, it all goes to pot. 🤦‍♂️

Now that's a darn fine idea, especially as the pedals in question have a nice flat section in the middle for the brackets to bear down on. I had contemplated tapping suitable holes in the bottom plates, but long screws could be the way to go - they don't need to be that tight, just enough to stop the velcro peeling away. Might not be very elegant, but hey-ho... 👍

From FB post dated 9th April... "While we slept in our hotel after our blistering gig in Bristol last night, some scumbag (or scumbags) broke into the interior of the UK Subs' tour van and stole my basses - a white Fender Jazz bass with maple neck and a white Squire Jazz bass with rosewood neck, as pictured. Please could you share this post in the hope that someone might recognise these instruments if they try to offload them. It could of been worse, the equipment in the back was untouched and it was just these two basses they made off with. Thanks A X" https://www.facebook.com/alvin.gibbs.52

Just for the record, the "brackets" I got from Spared Parts work nicely with my Thumpinator and Bass Soul Food, but not with my Ashdown pedals as the bottom panel of these also forms the sides of the pedal before joining the top panel along the top edge - I should obviously have realised this, doh!!! As it happens, I've stuck (haha) with velcro for the Ashdowns as the latest strips I've acquired seem to be tackier than the previous lot, and they're feeling rock-solid so far. 🤞

Inspired by this thread, and because velcro doesn't do a very good job of securing my chunky Ashdown tuner, compressor and Graphic EQ pedals to my carpet-covered board, I've just acquired some of the Spared Part brackets (the silver variety) as linked to by @tauzero above. Surprise, surprise, they are in fact FSC IG51 Narrow bicycle chain links, individually wrapped and oil-free. Saves me degreasing any of the umpteen bits of unused bike chain I've got in the shed I guess... 😂

Welcome aboard / back! I'm 61, and am happily gigging a Trace GP7 200 head + separate BLX-110 cab - I find it easier to manhandle two smaller heavy boxes than one big heavy one like my Ashdown MAG300-210 combo so @Woodwind's suggestion above makes a lot of sense. Sounds great, though I will confess to using an Ashdown 12-band graphic EQ pedal instead of the Trace EQ (heresy, I know), and also go through the PA so it's really only used for onstage monitoring rather than blowing the back wall out of the venue (plus we're not really That Type Of Band anyway!). Have fun! 👍

Our drummer currently uses a click on his electronic kit to make sure we (especially Mr Guitar) start a particular couple of songs at the correct slow tempo. Unfortunately, in the chaos of last night's Bad Monitor Fest, and under pressure to get the next song started, while selecting the correct click he also managed to select the wrong drumkit (one of the factory presets instead of the self-programmed one he wanted for the song in question) - as this was significantly louder than the correct one, it just added to the chaos and his general feeling of discomfort, though at least the tempo was correct...

Just relieved Gerry of his 1 Spot combo pack. Nice easy transaction with spot-on comms throughout, item in perfect condition and received the day after posting. Another excellent BC deal, thanks Gerry! 👍

Warning: Long post! TL;DR It was an interesting night... So, a friend of Mr Rhythm Guitar had decided that our Country-fried Rock & Blues combo would be the ideal entertainment for a relatives' 80th birthday bash, to be held at a small "Gin Bar & Cocktail House" in Louth where they describe themselves as "Curators of Good Times". Okaaayyyyy... 5:30pm We all arrive, and are informed by the Friendly Lass In Charge that we can park in the large side entry outside the fire door, and load-in through there. Awesome. 6:00pm Friendly Lass In Charge returns while we're setting up, and informs us that she's had it in the neck from the landlord (who's not actually on-site) and he won't let us park in the side entry after all, so we need to move our vehicles to the public car park 200yds down the road, the wrong way round the one-way system. 6:15pm We finish setting up, and all do a lap of the one-way system to the approved car park, with vehicles full of empty guitar and drum cases etc. as there's nowhere to store them at the venue. 6:45pm Friendly Lass In Charge returns again just as we're about to soundcheck, and asks how long we'll be playing for - apparently the landlord now has concerns about noise and wants us to finish at 9pm, despite us being quieter than the piped music blaring out around the place. We explain that we normally do two sets, one 45m and the other 1hr 15m, which isn't really going to meet his 9pm deadline as the bash doesn't officially start until 7:30pm. We soundcheck, and prove to FLIC that we're not really Metallica in disguise. FLIC goes away seemingly satisfied. I am slightly less satisfied, as every time I play a C, it booms out far louder than any other notes, and no amount of EQ tweaking will cure it. I resolve to pluck any C's more gently, and see how we get on. Why do so many of our tunes have so many C's in them? 7:45pm We launch into "Green River" to a few interested folks, a few more less-interested folks, and a number of small kiddiewonks running around with balloons. 8:10pm My monitor (which worked perfectly at rehearsal on Thursday) starts crackling horribly. Hitting it doesn't help, so we turn it off and me and Mr Drums both work off his. 8:30pm Set 1 ends to applause and more than a few complimentary comments from those who've stayed in the function room with us. Meanwhile, the rest of the party is going on loudly in the front room of the venue. 9:00pm As nobody has come to tell us we can't, we launch into "Call Me The Breeze", to the same interested folks as before plus a few new ones. 9:15pm Mr Drums' monitor (which worked perfectly at rehearsal on Thursday) starts crackling horribly and peaking out. We turn it down, which seems to cure the crackling, but Mr Drums can now no longer hear his electronic kit properly so plays the rest of the night by feel (aka "Hit And Hope"). 10:00pm As "King of the New York Streets" reaches its climactic ending, Grumpy Bloke who has seemingly replaced Friendly Lass In Charge taps Mr Rhythm Guitar on the shoulder and tells him we need to wrap things up. We launch into "Bad Moon Rising" by way of wrapping things up. 30 seconds later, Grumpy Bloke reappears and through the medium of mime informs us we need to wrap things up NOW or else!!! 10:03pm We do indeed wrap things up, to the apparent disappointment of the folks watching. 10:20pm We start breaking down, only to discover that the miserable beggars have closed and locked the barrier into the side entry, so having retrieved our vehicles and cases etc. we end up trying not to block the narrow street outside while loading-out, surrounded by inebriated Louthians, and accompanied by the sound of breaking bottles. 11:45pm Home! On the plus side, we had a good number of folks dancing through our Mary Jane's Last Dance / Roadhouse Blues / Walking By Myself section, and I enjoyed an odd feeling of detachment throughout the gig as though someone else was doing the playing while I was just watching on, and apart from a couple of small glitches when my mind drifted a bit too far off course, everything just seemed to flow beautifully. Oh, and we did get paid... 😃

If I'm listening to music, then I do tend to pay equal attention to the words and the music, but if I'm playing then normally I'm just following the rhythm of the vocal (treating it as another instrument, I guess) and listening out for the occasional stand-out phrase which signifies something's about to happen / change.