Staggering on

A busy week so this is a bit late. Last Tuesday Simply Blu (not my idea!) played to packed house of over 120 with extra chairs crammed into the corners and we had a great night. We normally play summer bluegrass festivals that are mostly open air and this was the first time we have played in a hall. Some debate amongst the organizers if this was the biggest crowd they have had since starting monthly concerts in 2017 so we were very happy with the turnout that included some friends and family and a whole bunch of bluegrass fans and some who were just regular attendees. We were up for it and from the opening notes of Freeborn Man until the last chord of our encore we put on a good show. We played a set of about 70 minutes and took a short break before another good hour of energetic bluegrass and the crowd loved it. The band members are scattered over a large area so our only rehearsal was on the Sunday before the gig, first time together since early August but it came together fast. These guys are fantastic musicians and I am lucky to be playing with them, I joined the band almost 4 years ago when the leader saw me playing with a jazz band and asked if I had ever played bluegrass. The answer was "no but I'll give it a go" and it has turned out to be great fun and a good learning experience. Given the setting we decided to abandon the usual laid back festival approach and went with energy and entertainment in mind and it worked. Lots of amazing solos throughout the show but the only bass solo was in I Know What It Means To Be Lonesome where I tossed is nice gliss on the G string and apparently got the most applause of the night for a solo. I'm not a great bass player but sometimes a schticky lick will fool most of the people! A memorable night.😄 Not the best photo but it's all I have now...

Another gig with the Nu-X on Tuesday with no problems, set up as described in my earlier post. This was a bluegrass gig in a hall packed with at least 120 people, 8 mics for the other 4 members for vocals and instruments while I just had a vocal mic and the Nu-X and from comments I heard the bass sounded good.

Another idea is to rent a DB and try it out, maybe try several before you actually buy one. Good advice in the other posts, I went EUB first but looking back it would have been better if I went straight to DB. Good luck.

We had all five members of our bluegrass band together yesterday for our only rehearsal before our Tuesday show at a Legion hall in North Bay. We usually play festivals with the audience seated on the grass in front of the stage but some distance away from the band so it will be interesting to see how it goes when we are right up close to them in a long narrow hall where the bands set up against a long wall. This will not be a real bluegrass crowd so the BL decided to do a show that traces the history of the genre and we will play songs from the 1930's to more modern bluegrass and I will be explaining how the songs fit in as we go. I just got the "script" from the BL yesterday so I am working on smoothing it out and doing a little research as well as trying to memorize as much as I can. Excellent musicians and it should be fun, just hoping the sound man will get us set up so we sound our best.

Not just rock'n'roll, almost every type of live music has the same problems with attendance. Of course I am not including the huge stadium and arena concerts by the big stars, I'm referring to the smaller venues that most of us play in.

And here I was thinking I was the only one with the Schatten mini pre, I use it with my DB's and love being able to adjust volume so easily. I run the NuX from the bass to the mini pre that is mounted on my mic stand using a bracket I made and then it goes by cable to my amp or directly to the PA. Cheap, you can adjust the impedance and it's simple to use, can't get much better than that!

It should be good,I have two of the cheaper Protec cases and although they have less padding and different handles they have been very tough and I have had no issues with them. The zippers are well made but I get the edges close together before I try to zip up the case, I think when people use the zipper to pull the case together it puts too much strain on them and they fail, guess how I know.🙄

I just checked mine and the transmitter doesn't rattle and I have had no problems with the system, I have been using it for just over a year. I expect it is a one-off fault as you said, haven't seen it mentioned in any reviews. Hope it works out OK and the replacement works as it should.

Maybe not insane but definitely a bit nutty even in a big place like Canada. Of course you have to be somewhat crazy to play DB and owning two of them and an EUB might be verging on insanity, but it is soooo much fun when things are going right. Certainly agree with your last sentence, it just makes you want to play and play and play....😊

The problem was the sound post, it was way too tight and choking the bass. The bridge also had some problems but he did some creative woodworking on one leg and set it up so the adjusters work properly. I had asked him to check the bridge position and he decided to leave it in the same place. Bass plays a lot better both arco and pizz and is louder with a better sound, strings (Spiros) are roughly 5,6,7,8 mm but I may change that a bit, gotta love adjusters. All in all money well spent but a bit tired today after a 9 hour 800km round trip yesterday into the craziness of Toronto's traffic, happy to get back up north where things are much quieter.

Re NuX I use it on my Shen SB 100, my old Czech ply and my Yamaha SLB 200 and it is great. I have used it for home practice, at band rehearsals (jazz and bluegrass) and at gigs going into an amp, the jazz band's Bose or DI into a house system. You can charge the units from a wall plug or from the sturdy case that they are stored in, a handy feature. I must have had them for at least a year now and have had no problems. I don't know all the technical stuff but you can find that easily enough, I do know that the system is simple and sounds good and that it works for me.

Interested in this because I dropped my bass (Shen SB100 ply) off in Toronto for some bridge work and maybe some fingerboard dressing. The luthier thinks that the dull sound is probably due to several problems but will check the sound post first, he thinks it is too tight and won't allow the top to vibrate properly. He was a Shen dealer and was surprised at the dull sound considering that the bass was strung with 2 year old Spiro mittels, I'll report after I get it back next week.

There are many members in this club, including me.🙄

Aha, another Canadian! I am north of you near North Bay and have been enjoying the wonders of this group since 2015. Welcome, I'm sure you will love it here, great people and lots of interesting topics.

Same rule here at any Royal Canadian Legion club, you will be asked to remove your hat.

No, I hadn't heard of him but did a quick search and found some amazing playing by him and his wife. I will look for some more of his music, he is a part of the ukulele wave from the 70's and 80's started by a music teacher in Nova Scotia not the more recent Covid era uke revival. He uses electronics a bit more than I like but there is no doubt about his talent. Thanks for the suggestion, I will have fun chasing down some more of his music.😊

Two gigs yesterday, a noon hour bluegrass trio gig at a restaurant in North Bay where we have played before and then a set in the evening at a bluegrass festival with the full 5 piece band. Both went well and as a trio we are really getting tight on the vocals with traditional sounding three part harmony on a lot of the songs. Long day but a good one, I left home at 10AM returned at 11PM and drove over 300km. We will be playing two more sets at the festival on the weekend, lots of driving but great fun.😊

Clarification: I was playing the DB while standing on the sidewalk, hard to get a good sound playing the sidewalk and the concrete is hard on the fingers.🤣

Correct, we were outside beside the tables they have on their sidewalk patio, the gig next week will be inside the restaurant.

The "bluegrassy" trio did an outdoor busking gig in front of a restaurant at noon today. First time in many years where I have played on a sidewalk, we went acoustic (mandolin, guitar,DB, vocals) except for me on DB who used my Traynor amp to give just a bit more volume. We will be doing another lunch time gig next week and then have a bluegrass festival with the full 5 piece band the following weekend.

The TV show ran from '58 to '61 and as a young teenager I loved it and as a beginner guitar player I also learned the theme but was disappointed about the way it sounded on my first cheap acoustic guitar, I had no idea how they got the sound. It was a very popular show over here and I suspect that the theme had a lot to do with that, instantly identifiable and an ear worm too. Interesting to see that Blake Edwards came up with the idea for the show and wrote many of the scripts, this helps explain the Edwards/Mancini connection for the theme music, The Pink Panther came out in '63. The graphics are indeed cool and the style looks familiar to those of us who were/are Pink Panther fans.😊

Simply Blu Trio, three members of our 5 piece bluegrass band playing at The Block bistro in North Bay Ontario last night. We have played here before and do a mix of standard bluegrass songs and a few others including some Gordon Lightfoot and keep it light and friendly, it's not a show as such just background music for the diners and it went over well with some nice comments afterwards. We had a request for Ian Tyson's Four Strong Winds from a lady celebrating her birthday and although we had never played it together we picked a key and ended up surprising ourselves with a very nice version of it with three part harmony! Smallish crowd but early gig (6-8:30, two sets) and we will be back next week for something new, a lunch time gig. 😊

Absolutely, people watching a band hear with their ears and their eyes. if you are having a bad night suck it up and look like you are having fun, they are paying you to entertain them. (may vary with certain genres of course😊)

Re tauzero's post yesterday and his "moment of epicaricacy".... You found the perfect word for the situation, I hadn't seen it before and had to look it up and at some point will use it to impress/confuse/annoy/surprise someone, thanks.😊

Finished up at the bluegrass festival this afternoon in very heavy rain. Full 5 piece band and we had a good rehearsal before our set and then found out it was shortened to 30 minutes instead of the normal 45-55 minutes. Not much playing and a two hour drive each way. Yesterday we played at noon and the band was in good form and we were very tight and did a beautiful version of Seven Bridges Road, the acapella part was wonderful four part harmony, a good set and the crowd enjoyed it and our leader and lead vocal was back in good health. Usual festival set up, Czech DB with Nux wireless into Traynor amp and DI to PA, excellent sound guys and we sounded good.