grumpyguts

14, but four of those were in December. I think I have about 6 booked for this year so far.

Played in a large pub near Crawley, done this one a couple of times before this year and its a bit useless as a music venue. First set 9.30 to 10.30 - a relatively indifferent reception but we played well. Second set much more like it. went on at 11 played till just before 12.00 did the countdown to 2020 and launched straight into....Sex on Fire (yes I know) but people love it, finished with Simply the Best. Got home a 2.00. Looking forward to the first practice with my other band on Sunday 5th - first activity with this lot since a gig in Sept - due to guitarist difficulties.

There was no problem with external sound interfering with the Bass workshop room - but that's just my view - I was actually there for quite a while. Particularly not an issue with Paul Geary and his son making a rather lovely noise in a small room.

I didn't think it was that noisy; It was a lot less of a slapfest than I thought it would be. It was my first visit so can't compare to past events. I spent a lot of time in the bass workshop room and didn't find noise from the hall was a problem - the lack of space and no air-con was. I would go again, the cost of the ticket got me a decent amount of time listening to and learning from four top pros - this was the main reason for going. I'm never likely to turn up and walk out with a £2k bass, maybe a set of stings..

This was the first time I have been. I was expecting a bit more stuff on show - maybe a few more stands. There wasn't a lot of space so the opportunity to try stuff was a bit limited. I don't spend big money on my basses so the high end stuff was wasted on me. Maybe I should have had a closer look at the Chowny stand - I like the look SWB and the semi acoustic stuff but it seemed quite busy so I didn't - my fault. I sat in with four of the Saturday bass workshops, all were interesting. Dave Marks was entertaining and talked about things probably more relevant to me. Paul Geary was good with his son on the drums. The problem was the room was too small and too hot. I had a wander around looking for a Basschat stand, even an antisocial grump like me may have said hello.

Did a wedding gig at Chawton Hampshire - just 10 mins down the road for me. We got booked via contact on our Facebook page - was a bit of a surprise cos we don't do many gigs and it was quite short notice for a wedding. Our previous gig in June was at a pub in Alton; we did fine job but played to a relatively disinterested and sparse crowd, found out last night that it was the reason we got booked for the wedding, just goes to show that a disappointing gig can lead to better things. Back to the gig..Lovely informal and relaxed vibe - gig was at a farm in a marquee set up in a field. From the first song folks were up dancing and singing. At the end of the first set we had lots of positive feedback, this is great and gets us all well up for set two. Some tunes got extended as peeps are clearly having fun - a particularly lengthy version of Monkey Man due to bride and groom madly dancing etc. At the end a chap introduced himself as a fellow bass player and said some lovely stuff about the band - what a fab evening!

What is Hip....I have a go at it fairly regularly, don't appear to be making much progress.

Ok so that's a lot of suggestions - thank you. Maybe I'll just play the bassline to Walk on the wild side and get the Vox to sing Can I Dig it? Yes you Can.

We are doing a wedding gig for a couple of gardeners, they have told us they aren't doing a first dance but will be doing a first dig... gonna be in a marquee in a garden. The question is are there any tunes that would be good to add to the set that make any reference to gardening or gardens? But not.. I Never Promised you a Rose Garden or Flowers in the Rain. Whole Lotta Rosie - probably not!

Wot about these? I have been thinking about a 5 string MM type bass but prefer the look of the four string body. https://www.andertons.co.uk/bass-dept/bass-guitars/5-string-basses/sterling-stingray5-classic-in-butterscotch-5-string

I was also there; a really enjoyable evening - Marcus seems a decent bloke and had some good things to say. Pity about the sound, I was about 3/4 of the way back - maybe it was better down the front. Got a free set of strings - marvellous.

Drum - David Garibaldi Bass - Marcus Miller Rhythm - Nile Rodgers Lead - Prince Key - Stevie Wonder Vox - Tina Turner or Drum - Dave Grohl Bass - Cliff Williams Rhythm - Malcolm Young Lead - Angus Young Vox - Bon Scott

All those blokes on stage playing bass...not one P bass to be seen 😂

The kid is at uni, she may be starving but that's her problem!

I did loads of overtime last month.... so you know the story. Andertons have some Sterling Stingray Classic 5's available for £494 - sunburst and butterscotch. I don't like sunburst and the butterscotch looks a bit pants. Do I need another bass? Probably not - I have a modded 4 string OLP that I don't use. Do I need that Stingray sound? I don't know. Does my Sire jazz do all the stuff I need? Probably. If I buy the Sterling (and like it) that means the Sire is redundant and hence was a waste of money - Ahhhhhh. Is that how it goes? I'm doing this gas thing all wrong. So common sense has prevailed - I haven't taken that short trip down the A31 to Guildford.

I like it cos it's a chance to make a bit of noise - the band tends to let go a bit, probably sounds a bit loose but hopefully fun. We were doing a rather sparsely attended gig at a bar in Windsor; about 1/3 of the way through set two we stumble into Proud Mary - doing the quiet start etc.. Unknown to us there was a PA speaker outside the bar, a passing hen party heard the noise and rushed in all doing the associated dance moves - it was quite a sight. They stayed till the end of the gig and appeared to have a great time.

I enjoy most of the stuff we do, but the following in particular.. Proud Mary, Signed Sealed, Shake your Tail Feather. I do a few dep gig's for another band - some of the stuff they do I wouldn't choose but One Way or Another is laugh as the drummer goes a bit manic.

Rather like an abandoned case in a US airport with your name on it containing mega dosh. Who falls for this stuff?

Guitarist....."we should do Africa - Toto"

Great, I was looking at these; good to know they are ok - thank you. I'll get one. 😀

I have a Sue Ryder P bass with a PJ setup, I took the frets out of the neck a few years ago and sprayed it Rover Flame Red. The body looks great; after much polishing the finish came up surprisingly well. The defret was probably a mistake , however the headstock is a horrible shape (even worse than my Sire..) so I wasn't that worried about butchering it. I'm thinking I should return it to a useable condition as a result a new neck is required. I rather like Jazz profile with a maple fretboard. There are various options on Amazon and Ebay - are these any good?

It's a pity that the bass episode was as much about the bass as a frequency as it was about the bass guitar and its contribution to music. The drums and git episodes were focused on the instrument, I found this more entertaining.

It was interesting but not as much fun as the joyous exploration of drums that we got last week. We didn't even get to see Lemmys "I sound quite different" clip which is always a bit of a laugh.

Thank you for that, I'll be buying a set.

The only odd thing about these cabs is the lack of feet. Plus as it's new I probably should get a cover for it.