tvickey

My gig wasn't last night, but rather last weekend when on Friday we opened up for Subhumans at The Drill in Lincoln (a 550 person venue, but I heard that around 300 tickets were sold).

I'm a huge Subhumans fan, have been ever since I was about 13 or 14 years old (I'm in my late 40's now).  Fortunately I met them once before, otherwise I would have been completely geeking out.  There is a Subhumans cassette tape that I have had since the late 80's / early 90's, which I used to just leave in the tape deck of my car for a long while... I brought it on to stage with me when we opened for them.

The Drill is a really impressive venue, and the organization in advance was superb.  It was the largest stage that me or any of my bandmates had ever played on, and we felt a bit out of our league (in the same way that you might feel flying business class when you normally travel economy).  We certainly enjoyed the experience, but at the same time we were playful and laughing about how unusual certain aspects of the show were.

I had brought my Mesa 6x10" cab specifically for this show, but sadly the main sound engineer did not want to mic it (he mic-ed the Subhumans bassist's cab, and commented it's only done for the headliners).  For me he used the post-eq DI on my amp... oh well!

We had one dedicated sound engineer just for monitors.  He seemed very attentive during soundcheck, but when we played our set in front of the audience he seemed to forget my request to kill the vox in my monitor.  This threw me off a bit at the start, and our songs came fast and furious... I was only able to communicate the problem to him on the fourth song of our set, which starts with the bass and gave me the opportunity to briefly pause. 

We had a dressing room complete with mirror and large round bulbs, a couch, fridge, and the wifi password.  Beers and other drinks were provided.

My family came along, and my son ran the merch desk.  He did really well on sales!  He sold 5 tees, 6 CDs, and 3 cassette tapes during the show.

We played really well, and someone who had seen a lot of our performances commented that it was the best show yet.

Most of us stayed overnight in Lincoln, and I went around the town the the fam for some sightseeing the next morning.  We didn't stick around too long however, as we had to hit the road and head to Boston.  There we were headlining on Saturday, but given a lot more time for our set.  We played every song that we had, and I honestly think that the Boston performance was the very best show yet.  They get better and better... 

I had to take the fam to Manchester airport on Sunday afternoon, and Subhumans were playing at the Star & Garter, so I popped in for their show.  I caught the opening bands too, and between acts I went into the loo... I find Trotsky (Subhumans drummer) taking a leak next to me and he says, "Hey, what are you doing here?!?"  Funny.  I chatted with the Subhumans merch guy (he owed me a shirt from the Lincoln show, when I traded tees with Dick but they sold out of my size), as well as Phil the bassist (there are two flights of stairs at the S&G, and he said he was too lazy to carry up his bass cabs).

I'm honestly not sure that we'll ever play such a large show again... but who really knows?  Anyway, we enjoyed this weekend, which was awesome.

2 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Your band keeps coming up on my Facebook feed - looks like your sponsored posts are getting around! 

Nice one!  Thanks for letting me know and I hope that the promotion is not too annoying!  Ha!  🤣

On Saturday May 4th my band 'Shreds.' hits The Victoria Inn in Derby... if you're nearby and like punk / hardcore, you won't want to miss this show!  Tickets are only £10 !!!

Let me know if you plan to be there!  If you aren't nearby and want to catch another show, you can find other dates on Bandcamp and Songkick (https://shredshc.bandcamp.com/)

We're taking pre-orders for vinyl here (vendor is now making the master disks for our LP, with delivery of the records expected by end of June):

https://shredshc.bandcamp.com/album/step-back

Today is April 15th, so our album has been released on Bandcamp.  You can listen for free, so be sure to check it out!

https://shredshc.bandcamp.com/album/step-back

And the CDs have already come back from pressing.  These look amazing!

My band 'Shreds.' are playing at the Star & Garter in Manchester with 80's hardcore legends NEGATIVE APPROACH on May 28th.

The guitarist in my band is a huge NA fan, so this is basically a bucketlist gig for him (my bucketlist gig is our show with the Subhumans in Lincoln at the end of April).

Anyway, this is pretty awesome especially considering the recent death of the licensee at the S&G, and the fact that my band has real difficulty playing anything other than weekend shows.  We knew it was a bucketlist gig for our guitarist, and everyone went out of their way to help fulfill his wishes.

Hurry up and get your tickets though!  I heard that more than 50% of the tickets have already been sold!

Our studio work has finished, and the tracks are finally ready!

My band Shreds. (punk / hardcore) is releasing our debut album on April 15th.  You can pre-order it (digital download and vinyl) on Bandcamp here: https://shredshc.bandcamp.com/album/step-back

26 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Many years ago I bought a vintage 70's Rickenbacker 4001, cause it looked so damn cool, and I had that kind of money back then.

 

It sounded okay, but wasn't blown away by it, I still thought my Aria Pro II Laser Electric Classic (yes, made in Japan on the Matsumoku factory), sounded way better (still own that by the way), and I hated how it felt in my hands and played.

 

Most expensive piece of absolute crap I ever bought.

 

Early or late 70s Ric?

21 hours ago, Sparky Mark said:

Glad to hear that the nut is now staying glued in place. It seems that the friction between the strings and nut was high enough when tuning up, to break the nut away. The strings need to slide through the nut slots when tuning. I'd look in the nut slots for any rough bits grabbing one or more strings, then carefully smooth them away. Applying graphite dust (lead pencil) in all the slots will also reduce friction. 

All excellent comments!  I did apply some graphite, but that was not sufficient enough to prevent the glue break.  I became convinced that a small bit of glue is needed between the nut and the edge of the fretboard (and when the nut first broke off, there was evidence that Ric had put a bit of glue there too).  The nut on the Ric is very tall and narrow.  Anyway, it's holding now and the bass that we recorded for the album sounds massive.

These 2023 Ric's are really great... I have one just like this, which is now my go-to bass for most gigging and recording.  It has the improved bridge, the single truss rod, and the Schaller strap-locks.  The pickups on these also sound killer.  It looks like you have also installed the bezel.  GLWTS!

5 hours ago, geofio said:

The string pressure alone will hold a nut on so there is no need for over kill.

This is certainly true on my Warwicks, but has not been my experience at all with this recent Rickenbacker 4003.  When the nut breaks loose, the string tension tends to pull it away from the fretboard (you can see what I mean in the photo).

Update: The CA glue that I used the second time around held...

This time I did put some glue both on the nut bottom and on the side that faces the fretboard.  Perhaps that was the key... 

I took the bass into the studio this morning with strings added, but not fully tensioned.  We made sure to track guitar first today in order to give the glue as long as possible to cure.  By the early afternoon it was time for bass and I tensioned the strings up... and I managed to record the bass tracks in the studio without any problem.  Those were the last tracks for the album.  Yay, all done!

I have to confess that the A and D string gauge difference bit me the first time that I had the nut pop off.   So, it is very likely my fault and I probably precipitated this following that mistake... 

However, I widened the grooves prior to gluing the nut back on that first time.  The nut stayed on just fine, until the next time that I changed strings (same gauge).

As I wrote, I've used CA glue again but this time putting it on the bottom as well as the fretboard-facing side of the nut.  I put strings back on this morning, but have not fully tensioned them into tune... I'm trying to buy as many hours of cure time as possible before hitting the studio this morning.  Fingers crossed that the stays in place! 

The entire point of going back into the studio this morning was to re-record bass on a few tracks specifically for the Ric sound... the studio time was booked months ago.  Argh!  My GAS is saying, "You know what this means?  We have to buy another Ric... you know, to have on-hand as a back up."  🤣

I'd pay myself just for the opportunity to play with some of the headliners at the shows that we've got lined up this year...  but don't tell the promoter that!

Okay, I have a complaint about the 2023 4003 Rickenbackers (and maybe earlier versions too):  The nut keeps popping off!  This happens basically every time that I change the strings.  Is this a known issue?  Has anyone else encountered this?

The first time it popped off, I noticed some glue residue on the SIDE of the nut that faces the fretboard, in addition to the bottom of the nut that face the neck.  However, when I re-glued it I only used a small amount of CA glue on the BOTTOM of the nut.  That seemed to work well, or so I thought.  The next time I went to change the strings the nut popped off again! 

I've glued many a nut on my Warwicks (e.g., replacing plastic tedur with brass) and as far as I can recall I only had one pop off.

This evening I glued the nut back on the Ric but now with CA glue on both the BOTTOM and the SIDE.  Hopefully that does it... I also used slightly larger dabs of CA.  I'm supposed to hit the studio tomorrow with the bass(!).  Argh!

12 hours ago, Boodang said:

BTW love it that your son is selling merch! Does he also play?
 

Yeah, my son plays guitar (but not with us).  He's nearly 16 years old and is looking to form his first band... all he needs now is the ever-elusive drummer.  

My band 'Shreds.' played at The Outpost in Liverpool last night.  This was our first time playing in Liverpool, and we were headlining a show that had three other bands on the bill.  The fam came along with me to watch the show, and my son is always happy to help sell merch (he sold 4 t-shirts!).

We arrived well in advance and were greeted with an incredibly competent and friendly sound guy who said he's been working there for 14 years.  We normally play LOUD, but this was a small room and he asked both the guitarist and I to trust him and turn our amps down a bit, so we did.  We had a setlist of 20 songs, three of which were new.  During the soundcheck we managed to 'rehearse' each of the new songs.  Things sounded just fine to me during the soundcheck.

I think that about 40 people showed up and when it was our turn to play, I soon realized that I could not hear myself very well on stage.  I backed up against the bass cabinet, which helped somewhat, however it wasn't quite loud enough for me.  I usually have problems hearing our guitarist on stage, but now both guitar and vox seemed super loud through the monitors.  I probably should have commented to the sound guy, but I was afraid of losing the guitar feed in my monitor so I just carried on.

The show started 30 minutes late, there were some technical issues with vox during one of the other bands' set, and the bands before us seemed to burn a lot of time by talking to the crowd.  Once we got up on stage, we were told that we'd have to cut our set short.  So, the three songs that I worked so hard to perfect on bass this past week were tossed out!  Oh well, at least I learned them in preparation for the next show!   They did sound really good during the soundcheck, which was attended by the fam and a couple of the other bands.

Tonight!!!  My band Shreds. hit Liverpool for the first time.  If you're around and don't have much else to do, please come check us out!

My band Shreds. is opening up for the SUBHUMANS at The Drill in Lincoln, UK on Friday April 26th!  The venue has an occupancy of 550... this will be the largest venue that we've played to-date.  I hope that a lot of Basschatters come to our show... please help pack the place! 😎

Tickets are available here: https://www.lincolndrill.co.uk/whats-on/subhumans-shreds/

On 25/02/2024 at 13:13, Mr Randall said:

I'm looking for a 4003 2023 Rickenbacker - specifically in matt black - but it's proving almost impossible here in London, UK.... do they even exist?? What's the easiest way to get my hands on one? Even Rickenbacker's site seems to have been down for months and they haven't responded to my query asking the same thing....  

Yes, they exist... I have this exact bass and purchased it new from GuitarGuitar.  However, I don't believe they are in stock in the UK anymore. 

The 2023 Rics are superb!  Single truss rod, outstanding bridge, powerful pickups, Schaller strap buttons, low action, thin neck...

On 10/02/2024 at 17:42, casapete said:

My mate Jason used to do the sound at Cafe Indie - was it him there for your band? 

Holly was running the sound.  A young person, and they did a really great job!

My band 'Shreds.' played our first headliner show last night!  We were at Cafe Indie in Scunthorpe.  It was our first time playing Scunthorpe, and Cafe Indie was a really great venue.  Nice large stage decked out with a lot of new gear and lighting.  Apparently there were about 200 people that showed up!

The person running sound did an excellent job, and was even super helpful about letting us put our recording rig in-line with their setup (we have 16 transformer-isolated XLR splitters, preamps, laptop and usually record our live sets).  We arrived early and set everything up well in advance of the show start time.  The other bands were keen to be recorded live, so I hit 'record' for each of those first three sets.

When we got up on stage to play last, I tuned my bass and then focused on silently warming up during the precious few moments that I had.  Our drummer looked over and indicated "let's go" and off we went.  Unfortunately I forgot to hit 'record' for our set!  Ha!  Oh well... next time I'll be more careful!

Tonight!  Come see my band 'Shreds.' play in an 800 year old pub in Nottingham!  We hit 'Ye Olde Salutation Inn'... show starts at 7pm!

My band 'Shreds.' played ALOFT at 'The Haworth' in Hull last night... this was part of the Hull Punk Festival that is taking place this weekend.

The venue room and stage were quite nice, but the drums were situated up on risers to the far left.  We were informed ahead of time that amps and cabs would be supplied as part of the backline.  I didn't know exactly what gear this would be, so I brought my usual Mesa Strategy 888 and ultimately plugged that into the Mark Bass 4x10" cab on stage (sounded good to me!).  Our guitarist usually uses a JCM800, but decided to go with the backline amp which was a combo and seemed to have a single 12" speaker (if even that?).  The cabs were mic-ed up and fed back to us as part of the monitor mix.

However, the 'monitors' there were smaller than my home stereo speakers... and with the small on-stage guitar amp that was part of the backline I really could not hear guitar at all.   While playing we asked the sound guy to turn up guitar in the monitors... he seemed to acknowledge this, but the volume never went up.  I had to watch our guitarist and rely on some visual cues.  When we finished, our guitarist muttered to me, "Well, it's definitely not a Marshall".  

We seemed to play well despite the impairment, and even sold two t-shirts and gained a number of additional followers on Facebook.  All in all, it was a fun show.