12stringbassist

I watched Supergrass do a really good set and struggle for any reaction.

What appears to be wrong with festivals like this now is that there is a mad scramble for tickets months and months before the acts are announced, because there is this huge things about being seen there and saying you've been. It's hardly about the actual music anymore and fans of the bands concerned rarely get tickets to see them.

The only bands guaranteed to go down well are 'the legends' and any with suitable hype behind them.
 

Chase have still got the HiWatts in stock.

Sparks.

Full report and videos at http://www.crazeeworld.plus.com/ian/reviews/2025.06.22.sparks.htm

17 hours ago, chris_b said:

 

Deps are not a negative scenario. Deps make gigging more flexible. Pick the right deps and you can have a lot of fun.

 

You don't give your band members much credit for their ability to learn sets for 2 bands.

 

You don't want band members to be in multiple bands, I get it, but your whole outlook on the subject is very negative.

Just my experience - as valid as any other. I've said how it CAN work and what the drawbacks are.

It only works when the people who run two bands can pull the others in when required and those other people are doing nothing else.

As a person who prefers to have one band and nothing else, I have always found that if someone is in two bands, their availability is compromised and so is their attention span and ability to absorb and devote time to learning new material. It very rarely works and there is always going to be conflicts over which band gets first dibs on dates. It's just a nightmare.

The people who elect to be in two bands (but don't run diaries) always think they can make it work. They of course, are not the ones tearing their hair out over broken gig schedules and aren't the ones going back to venues saying 'oh I'm sorry, x is suddenly not available'.

At best, they are a matter of personal taste and merely something to skim over and not take seriously.
They also suffer from the critics trying to be pseudo-intellectual and nominating unlistenable obscure people to show off how hip they are in choosing these people.

If I listed my top 5 guitarists, people would disagree. I rarely bite when topics about 'best' players come up.
Favourites maybe... best what's the point?

The walls of Gibson and Fenders with no price tags (for legitimate price shift reasons) were off-putting to a small degree.
Of course you have to have the stuff in to sell it, but then again the store has to pay for it to stock it. The major companies insistence on stores stocking whole ranges in the past has led to stores dropping the make.

Going in to drool over and Elite / Deluxe megabucks P bass is all very well, but the shop had to shift them, otherwise it was just all debt and dusting. The 'starter range' gear is useful to a limited number of people and as some say, it's seemingly a decreasing market. There was so much stock that never shifted.

The rise of online shopping is disappointing because there's nothing better than trying stuff then buying it.
The loss of PMT means Manchester doesn't have a lot of options left for buyers.

We auditioned our new guitarist on the 2nd (playing 4 songs).
Got another 6 off at the next jam night on the 9th.
Rehearsed two sets worth of songs last night. Yes, we are having to go for some 'quick wins', but we are out again in July.
This is one of them.
 

We've found our man.

My footage...
 

Zak says:
"I was fired two weeks after reinstatement and asked to make a statement saying I had quit the who to pursue my other musical endevours this would be a lie. I love the who and would never had quit. So I didn’t make the statement ….quitting the who would also have let down the countless amazing people who stood up for me (thank you all a million times over and more) thru the weeks of mayhem of me going ‘in an out an in an out an in an out like a bleedin squeezebox x To clarify ‘other projects’ yes I do have other projects and always have. The Who have been sporadic or minimalist in touring most years apart from a two extensive tours in 2000 and 2006/7
 

To be precise while I was in the who 1996-1999 I had other projects with Johnny Marr, Lightning Seeds and Mike Scott.

2000-2003 Johnny Marr and The Healers opening for oasis in Europe releasing album and 6 month world tour 2004-2008 Oasis 2 studio albums and 120live shows. 2006-2017 Pengu!Ns , Sshh touring internationally. Releasing 3 singles, Kasabian bbc proms 2007 Weller Coxon Starkey Mani.
 

2015 Hollywood Vampires Roxy LA shows and rock in Rio 2017-2020 Trojan Jamaica record label releasing three albums and winning Grammy for best reggae album 2020
 

2020 Peter Green Tribute Concert . As u see there has always been time for other projects … 2022-2025/now mantra of the cosmos with Shaun Ryder Bez Andy Bell and NG. Releasing singles but not touring cos members are so busy. None of this has ever interfered with The Who and was never a problem for them . The lie is or would have been that I quit the who- i didn’t. I love the who and everyone in it."

On 12/05/2025 at 08:47, triplebass said:

So facts... it was a custom build, but still there's a bit of weirdness... it turns out the pickup maker did not know his product would end up in a 5 string bass.

Why would the luthier of the bass knowingly install something that is not going to do the job??

 

If i were in your situation, I would just be asking the maker nicely if they could offer help to get the right 5 string pickup to put into your bass. It's satisfied the original buyer, so they did their job. It'snot the maker's fault that you are unhappy with the bass (though it may indeed be an error on their part that makes it sound wrong to you).

12 is the limit for me.
The neck tension would be incredible on a bass with 3 courses of strings.

I'd normally say option 2 (the full soundcheck) is the way forward.
However, with my lot, we found that we just set our levels like we do normally and just tweak vocal levels slightly to get it right.
This normally works fine until Charlie Rock Star decides to turn his guitar up to 12.
... then he would come out with 'I can't hear myself sing.'
I wonder why.

My band's CD is about to break even on pressing costs. It's not been a worthwhile exercise for me in that the stress involved in getting it finally recorded and ready to go, due to the disinterest of (and problems with) one member, made it an absolute chore and I ended up recording all of the guitars as well as bass on 5 of the songs that are on it in my home studio or it wouldn't have ever been finished. The band hasn't been able to play most of the songs on it because one person was totally disinterested in the project and we've only had three songs appear in our live set since it was released. It's put me right off it as a result. And I should be fiercely proud of it.

I'm being careful not to get us into a 'he said, she said' situation.

Our recent gigs were afflicted by some really strange playing and singing errors. There were discussions after the Sunday night gig and I sent a message about the situation on Monday morning, to which our guitarist replied, telling us he'd left the band.

We are currently in the process of seeking a replacement.

GUITARIST REQUIRED FOR WORKING BAND.

It is with deep regret that we have to announce that our guitarist has left The Three after 9 years.

As a result, we're not in a position to play all of our gigs, so we are reluctantly obliged to cancel some bookings in May and June. We will look at bookings further into the band diary as we go along and will keep you informed.

Our Sunday jam nights will NOT be affected.

So... The Three seek a reliable, enthusiastic and dynamic all-round rhythm-lead-capable guitarist with some decent vocals, who's got the availability to play with us on the dates on the front page of www.the3.co.uk - including regular Sunday jam nights.

Our age range is what we'd politely call 'mature' (meaning we are at the older end of the scale). As far as band bookings go, 2026 will be run at a slightly more relaxed pace than this year. 

Our set list and video is on the www.the3.co.uk website, and the set includes some original songs from our CD album. We are open to some changes to the set list and look forward to hearing from some good players.  Message me.

Ugly and old
Wreckless Eric

This sea refuses no river (Pete Townshend)

The whole band..

Which one's the muppet?

Out for a gig last week....