Happy Jack

Incidentally, this is what we're talking about:

The Question I'm Asked Most Often Is ... "Is that a cello?" BUT The question I'm asked most often by other musicians is, "How do you do those harmony vocals?". There doesn't seem to be a thread anywhere about BVs, so I thought I'd stick this here. At every live gig with my two main bands, I bring That's a Pedaltrain Nano (plus an extra pedal off to the left) fitted on top with a Diago mains power distribution and underneath with a battery pack that can deliver up to 1A - note the label on the Harmoniser pedal. The bread and butter end of the board is I still rate the red Mic Mechanic as one of the most useful things any vocalist can carry, a genuine Swiss Army Knife of a vocal pedal. https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0DDW The green Duplicator is, essentially, a Mic Mechanic with the Echo function replaced by live ADT, really useful if you need a voice 'thickened up' on stage. https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0DDX In The Junkyard Dogs I route lead singer Rick through the Mic Mechanic and drummer/BVs Paul through the Duplicator. In Damo & The Dynamites I route lead singer Damo through the Duplicator and I put my own voice through the Mic Mechanic solely for some subtle pitch correction ... essential (IMHO) if you're going to use a harmoniser of any kind. Ah yes, the harmoniser. For that we need the other end of the board. Since The Junkyard Dogs routinely sing in 3-part harmony there's no call for a harmoniser pedal. For those gigs, I swop out the harmoniser for the TC Helicon Voicetone X1 (on the left there). I've always sung and I carry a tune well, but my voice is a muddy baritone which simply does not cut through in a pub rock setting. The X1 is frankly a bit of a novelty act thing; it has eight settings, of which just one I find useful but thats OK, I only need that one setting! https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0DE4 With Damo & The Dynamites it's a whole nother thang. The drummer doesn't sing so all the BVs are me, and we do a lot of stuff where the song is 'made' by the harmony BVs ... think how lame a lot of early Elvis would have sounded without The Jordanaires. To achieve that I use the TC Helicon Voicetone H1, and that's the pedal that gets noticed; used wrong it's the most complete train wreck you can imagine, but used right it can really deliver. This pedal has the facility to run your guitar/bass through it which will automatically set the correct key, which is cool but of surprisingly limited use. Firstly, if you operate it like a pedal (i.e. with your foot) then you are either restricted to a single set of harmonies or you have to kneel down and fiddle with it between songs. Secondly, if you play a fretless bass or a double bass then the smallest error in your intonation can have catastrophic impact. 😂 I keep the whole board at waist height beside me and operate it manually. Note the Tippex marks at E and A for easy location on a dark stage. As an aside, on one occasion I used this pedal to tune my bass at a gig ... I sang each note (EADG) with the pedal correcting my pitch, and tuned to it. https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0DE1 When multiple harmonies are not needed but I still want it to sound as if more than one person is supplying BVs I switch to the TC Helicon Critical Mass. This is something of a halfway house between the Duplicator and the Voicetone H1; it can be used in quite a subtle way but it certainly beefs up the sound of a stripped-down 3-piece. https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0CGT I should probably state for the record that I am NOT sponsored by or affiliated to TC Helicon ... I just like their pedals. All five of these were bought by me, with my own money. Speaking of which, all these pedals have increased in price substantially since I bought them, by well over 50% in a couple of cases. On the other hand, we now have blue passports. For context, in the unlikely event that someone wanted to duplicate precisely my vocal pedal board today, and bought new all the way (I always buy pre-owned if I can), they would still have change from a grand. That's including the Nano and both power supplies. If my board got nicked and I needed to replace it, I would expect to spend half that figure. Now ask yourself how much a half-decent bass guitar costs ...

Did you know you've fitted your tuners upside down? 😉

1972 2022

He could tell you, but then he'd have to kill you.

What about the other two? 😉

Lucky Lucky Lucky ...

Sometimes the bassist has to provide support activities for the audience, too.

Bring back the newsagent's window, I say!

6lbs 7ozs? Absolutely outrageous! 😂😎

Charts? At a jam? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!

Clingfilm.

Absolutely gob-smacked by this craftsmanship, Andy.

Bizarrely enough, I lived in a big shared house on Mortlake Road in Kew in the mid-70s with a bunch of school friends who were wannabee rockstars and were obsessed with AC/DC. One night they had a particularly heavy session on the indulgences. The next morning I got up and looked out of my window at the South Circular, to find that they had spray-painted their new band name in six-foot letters across the entire road. That name? Well of course it was TNT.

When choosing a mic for a female singer, the most important thing is to avoid giant teddy bears.

Most jam nights have a core of regulars, at least some of whom will play the same (bloody) songs every (bloody) week. It's well worth a couple of scouting missions to check out the vibe, the repertoire, and what you're up against, before announcing loudly "I play bass". 🤨 Those musicians who always play Alright Now or The Thrill Is Gone or Rocking In The Free World or whatever are not necessarily a bad thing, because at least you can prep those specific songs and then drop a few hints. More broadly, at a well-attended jam night each combination of players that gets up will very likely be unique, never played together before in that line-up. That puts a premium on calling songs that any competent musician should know, the sort of pop/rock hits that turn up on every covers band's set list. If you (as a bassist) want to call any songs at all, then you'd better be able to take lead vocals.

In 2016, the aircon unit cost £800 plus £200 for necessary bits to install it plus £350 for the actual installation, so £1350 overall plus VAT to take it to £1620. I don't imagine it's got any cheaper since then. This is an aircon rated for a small industrial unit, maybe 1500SF, installed in a space that's well below 500SF, so it's quite deliberate overkill. In six years it has never missed a beat, never misbehaved, and given how much time I've spent in there I'm happy with the decision I made at the time. To the very best of my knowledge, basses and amplification have no need for climate control. The only thing they respond really badly to is rapid change (in temperature or humidity or both), especially if that can lead to condensation. I, on the other hand, am a far more delicate petal ...

Since 2005, and listing only the bands that actually gigged: Squishy Fish - rock covers [formed in The Horniman pub and originally named The Horny Men, the rest of the band changed the name at a drinking session without teling me. I left after the first gig] The Fields - dreadful functions band [originally formed by parents of children at Fieldings Primary School] Bang To Rights - pop/rock covers Brentford Nylons - loose covers Junkyard Dogs - pop/rock covers [this was Bang To Rights but without a keys player] King Ralph - steampunk originals [most people assumed that the 'King was an abbreviation] Rocky Elvis - 6'5" Elvis impersonator with a scractch TCB band, dep gig Soul Disciples - Northern Soul, dep gig Dani Molino - Spanish singer/songwriter Karena K - English singer/songwriter Mick's Lawmen - power trio with an identity crisis [the drummer really was called Mick Law, so the name was a no-brainer] Sapphire Grooves - hip, laidback covers Long String Hawkers - ramshackle semi-acoustic Depression-era (1930s, not 1980s) songs Hinterland - English singer/songwriter, dep gig Westbound Piccadilly - country/folk originals, dep gig Red Herring - stupidly STUPIDLY LOUD rock trio, dep gigs Resonance - functions band, dep gigs Chiltern Hillbillies - country band [supposedly, not so much on close inspection] Fat Walters Band - Southern rock, wandering into country Raw Delia - blues rock Damo & The Dynamites - old school rock'n'roll and rockabilly Broken Spoke - country band [an attempt to do it right after leaving the Chiltern Hillbillies] Harmonica Lewinsky - cheeky cockney rave-up [I'm not making this up], dep gig Streamline 55s - rockabilly Soul Seniors - classic soul RAMcache - original pop Across those 26 bands I've played about 500 gigs, but about 400 of those were with just three bands.

There's a lot of 'em about. https://www.andertons.co.uk/guitar-dept/guitar-pedals/pedal-power-supplies

And ain't that the truth? These days I am increasingly playing in one successful band (the rock'n'roll outfit, which could easily play a hundred gigs a year if there were enough weekends) and a bunch of side projects which maybe play a couple of dozen gigs between them. The side projects will take what gigs they can get, and in most cases "how much are we getting?" is the last question anyone asks. Meanwhile, the talent around which the rock'n'roll band is built has daddy/daughter issues and needs to spend more Saturdays with her next year. No problem. I've put our rates up by roughly 20%. Having been a Finance Director for most of my career has its uses, such as knowing about Price Inelasticity Of Demand. Yes, you read that right. If demand for your product (in this case, a band) is very strong, then demand will go down by less than you put the rates up. Translation: Put your price (gig fee) up by 20% and demand (number of bookings) goes down by 10%, for example. What does that look like in the real world? If a band plays 20 gigs in 2022 and charges £300 for each gig, then they generate 20 x £300 = £6000 in revenue. If the same band charges £360 for each gig in 2023 and loses 10% of its bookings as a result (two gigs), then they generate 18 x £360 = £6480 in revenue. They do 10% fewer gigs but earn 8% more money overall. And that, ladies and gentlemen, I see as a Win/Win. 😎

Listed: 2 years ago Condition: Good (Used) Good condition items function properly but may exhibit some wear and tear. I may need to update my definitions of 'good', 'function', 'properly, 'wear and tear'.

At last! Someone has actually posted about a SMALL valve amp!

Loving this to bits, Andy. That's a very sleek, elegant design you have there.

Rather unfairly, Charlie Dore is remembered by many as a One Hit Wonder. She's had rather more of a career than that suggests!