martthebass

I consider myself mediocre but some of that is because I know my musical theory is pretty pants. I’ve occasionally got good comments and I take it as a positive that I get asked to jam and dep so I try to focus on the positives. I’ll never be Entwistle or Pino but I intend to be a weekend warrior till I drop.

Sad that mate. We usually insist the background crap goes off while we sound check, if this doesn’t happen we crank the volume until it does…

Well unfortunately after all the learning the vocalist suffered an injury and had to cancel all gigs until the new year. Still, as they say no practice is ever wasted

Don't do many rehearsals with my band (70s Glam Rock) as we are normally gigging plenty and only really need to get together to pull in a new choon or pre-test new PA etc. However our autumnal break left me with 2 weekends free and a local band with a bassist deficit (due to illness) asked if I'd step in on 3 gigs booked on these 2 weekends. So cue frantic learning of 37 rock n roll standards and a rehearsal last night with 3 musicians I hadn't played with before. Bit of a challenge as RnR isn't really my forte and I refuse to use a music stand with chord charts.......glutton for punishment. as they say in Yorkshire, 'It'll be reeet'.

I know what you mean, I’m one of those who prefers the Sterling to the Ray but explaining to the uninitiated what it is…. Still looking for an illusive Starry Night finish 4H Sterling

It’s a big hike. I think if you pick up one of the later make original MEs you’d have a lot left over to do whatever upgrade you wanted.

Nice tone on that one Dave.

No worries Pete, I think we’ll be back there next year. We don’t do many out that way, we were asked to do some holiday camp work out Hornsea/Skipsea way but we were booked all the dates they wanted. Hope everything is ok with you and yours mate.

Played a smallish venue at Withernsea last night...pain in the derrière to get to as you can’t avoid going through Hull and the never ending roadworks are, well, never ending. Strange layout, long and thin with rooms off to the side. Couldn’t crank it up too loud as you’d deafen the punters at the front which meant the back of the place was a bit quiet. Despite it being ‘off season’ the place was packed and up and dancing from the off. The Landy was well chuffed and even made between spot sarnies. It’s a bit of a trek but worth it with this kind of reaction so hopefully we’ll be back there sometime in the new year. One thing, another one of them small stages which was a challenge but apparently the previous week’s band had been a 5pc with keys...god knows how they managed it 🤪......smallness demonstrated with pre first spot pic of drummer waiting out the ubiquitous bingo.

And there’s me thinking it was your own hair 😂 That reminds me, it’s time to wash me hair…..

Another nice local gig in Rotherham last night. A well run and packed social club with a verrry compact stage. The audience were up for it from the start, I was just about sat on the drummers lap 😂 The club was full by the time we’d got the gear in which compromised the sound check somewhat but we managed. It was a 3 spot gig which is unusual for us but it made the night go quickly. That’s the last local one for a while, next week it’s the seaside - Withernsea.

Strangely I get goaded at jamnights around my parts because I'm one of the few bassists who's mainly finger style. I feel compelled to get a pick out and show them the middle (unplaying) finger.

It just goes to show that we all have different ears/expectations. I've been using MB (LM3/MM500 with 2 NY121s) for a good few years and get a great rock tone not just to my ears but also fellow musos.

A local one for us last night, literally a 5 minute drive from home. A well stocked club and remained that way to the end. Fortunately no major technical issues on this one as we just used the tops as the venue was doable without big subs so the drummer was acoustic rather than electronic. Gave the little MW sig Mustang a run as it’s been a while since I’d used it, I’d forgotten how easy this thing was to play. We’re playing this one next on NYE so hoping for a repeat crowd as experience has taught me not to expect too much of NYE.

I think I caught something on the local evening news on this…. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-66963409.amp

My favourite JD song, always brings a tear to me eye.

Ditto, not one I’ve really played much but I was asked to play it at a jam a few weeks back. Drop D on a Mustang - not the most effective combo 😂

Into the valley?

The one I’m looking at does and I think that might be the easiest solution. I’d probably opt for a single active sub taking the mixer feed and use the internal crossover feeding the tops. Just trying to convince the band after the first failure….

The Xovers have been returned but we still need to resolve the passive subs which we can't now employ.

Can you give some examples of suitable products. I've got a 600W power amp lying around that could be used for the tops.