Muzz

Yep, genius; 'Hang gliding; it's the latest craze sweeping the Pennines, and right now I'd rather be sweeping the Pennines...' 😃

Two on the trot here, first one was the regular at Mulligans in Manchester city centre...busy as always, singing the roof off (to Oasis...sue me), then last night's was a new venue above a Bangin Bar in Monton...just awful. A 40th where nobody really cared, the music downstairs was so loud we didn't even bother with any acoustic numbers, it was full of yapping Hooker Barbie types and fully sniffed-up tattoed lads in polo shirts. Three songs into the second set some hero insists, with the misplaced confidence and persistence that only over-imbibing on the sniff can provide, that he's gonna sing. Backed up by his similarly-wired mates, an altercation just short of fisticuffs ensued,. The BL pulled it, we packed up and were in the cars by 9:45. Got paid in full, tho, so there's that...ahhhh, gigging, I've missed it... 😕🙂

I've got pretty much the same box I use for my Walkabout, from the sadly-now-defunct Maplins...it's great...

Old! Ish...it was in the middle of a very busy year with lots and lots of functions and weddings, and I just got bored trundling it all backwards and forwards to the car every time, usually through throngs of drunken punters at 1am...oh, and the back stairs of stately homes weren't made for easy hauling...and there never seemed to be a lift... 😕🙂

I had a M-Pulse 360 for a good while - great amp, never wanted for power with it, either...it outstayed a lot of other amps (I went through most of the Class D amps of the time), and IIRC (it's all a bit hazy), I only sold it for the Walkabout...

So I should probably update this with the gig experience from Satdy...took the 414 and one of my Shukers as backup. The Shuker stayed in its case...tho that was partly due to the, ummmm, liveliness of the venue (yeah, one of those gigs...), but I was very, very pleased with the results of a low-cost pimping. That bridge is super-comfy under the heel of the right hand, and the sound was bob on...the weight was fine, too...

This, above...I have some tweaked versions of presets on my Stomp sounds for the rare occasions I use a passive bass, the others all work with any bass because all my basses have split-P pickups and John East EQs, and sound broadly similar. The advantage is I can use the Stomp direct in, or into any of the combinations of amp I have, from 112 100w Combo to Stoopid Stack, and I'm at least ballpark all the time...

Oh, that's very sad news. Martin brought a lot to this community, and was a very very nice guy, gone way too soon. RIP indeed.

Edit: I am ummming and aaahing about taking her to my local luthier and getting a brass nut and a fret dress done, but I'm gonna gig her with the pub band on Satdy night, so we'll see how that goes before I spend any more money...

Pimping my 414... OK, after giving up on finding a VW BB3000A for less than a king's ransom anywhere, and realising that the majority of BB necks are a bit too chunky for me (1024, 424, 1100, etc), I've decided to stick with the VW 414 I picked up a while back... It's a specific bass for a specific band, and we've a few reunion-type gigs coming up, so a VW BB is a must. So far, so meh, on to the interesting stuff...I love the pickups; the neck, while not exactly my broom-handle ideal, is close enough, and it plays pretty well. The weight's borderline, but doable. The only things I really considered changing were the tuners and the bridge; tuners for weight, and I play with the heel of my hand on the bridge a lot, so the BBOT is literally a pain, especially if the grub screws are protruding. So I lashed out £30 on a Fender bridge and £17 apiece on Hipshot Ultralites, and the bass feels a lot better. The whole quality of the thing has gone up a notch, and I'm very happy with it. Aaaaand this is nowt without pics, so here they are: Yeah, I know it says 'Fender', but I don't care; it's a fantastic bridge for £30, and verrry smooth under the heel of my hand. The whole 'more sustain/more tone' thing is very contentious and very relative, but I do like it. I'd put one on anything for that money... And the new tuners; the screws fit into the original holes, and they tighten up nicely from the front. Good solid tuning. I also kinda like the tan lines... Total screwdriver/fitting time was under half an hour, total cost £98, and for that money, it's a big improvement... 😃

Funnily enough, the BL suggested this as a cover a couple of months back (he seems to have forgotten about it for now, tho), and I immediately suggested we could stick a bit of SOF in the middle. It'd go down well with the pub crowd, anyway...

A busy Oirish Bar in Manchester last night (short notice gig...as in 'Can you do tomorrow night?'), great to be out again, even unrehearsed and frankly winging it...it all came back to me; muscle memory's a wonderful thing... 😃

Actually, when I said 'I'd expect...', I should really have said 'I'd hope...', because that'd indicate I was playing with some very good musicians... We had a guitarist dep for a couple of wedding gigs a while ago who was a session player for some big names - he was in between jobs and wanted some quick cash (and he wasn't cheap, either), but maaaaan, he was a revelation; no rehearsal - we did offer, but he said he didn't need it, and he was right - absolutely fantastic. It was a pleasure and an education playing with him...you know that thing they say about 'Don't be the smartest person in the room, or you'll never learn'? That. Quick example; we do/did Jump for weddings, and I jokingly said 'You been practicing the solo?' and he said 'Yeah, I had a quick look at it last night...I've heard the song' (he'd had three days' notice for the gig) and we all sideyed each other a bit*, but...nailed, note for note... * That Jump solo usually sorts the Dep Men from the Boys... 🙂

I'm lucky to have been playing for ten years with the same two blokes - the singer/guitarist/keys-when-he-has-to is the band leader, the drummer reads (and is the best I've ever played with, he spent years on the cruise circuit)...we're at the point where, for instance, the BL has just sent us four new covers for our first gig back a week Saturday, and we won't bother rehearsing them...when we go out as a four-piece (usually for weddings and functions), we use good deps, so we don't rehearse with them, either... On the other hand, I was in a Rock covers band a while back, and despite the two guitarists (one was the singer) being technically very, very good, it just seemed to be endless bi-weekly rehearsals, and live we weren't half as good. The drummist was the forgetful one...the band didn't last all that long... Funnily enough, we also have an originals band, we've recruited one of the Rock band guitarists into it, and he's had a real culture shock - the BL is the same, and he chops and changes stuff all the time e.g. 'Can you put some slide guitar over the intro? OK, 2-3-4...', so your improv chops have to be pretty good. After the first rehearsal the new guy came over to me and said 'Is he always like that?' As I say, he's a great guitarist in a learned-it, note-for-note way, but for the first time in a long time he's out of his comfort zone...and he's enjoying it... 🙂 If I joined a new band, I'd expect to have three or four songs a rehearsal done and dusted, then, once gigging, we'd only rehearse for new stuff...

Our drummist (who's very, very good) has a portable kit (one of those that all fits into the kick, kinda thing...look, I'm not up to speed on drum technicalities, OK? 😕) and can hoick the whole thing in one go on a folding trolley - he's also a drum teacher, but doesn't drive, and in the past has gone to teaching appointments on the bus... Anyhoo, he's also a great sound engineer/producer, and has it all wired up via triggers and Mac-based jiggery-pokery (yeah, I'm not very hot on that stuff, either 😕) - I was a little sceptical at first, till he went 'Do you want John Bonham's snare...like this? (poinks Mac) Or Alex Van Halen's snare...like this? (poinks Mac again)... It's not often I goggle these days, but goggle I did... The sounds were fantastic... And best of all (and here's where this nonsense references the actual thread), there's a volume knob for the whole thing... 😃 It's such a small kit, tho, that we do get people saying 'How big is that drummer? And how far away is he?'

That sounds more like a cry for help than an actual cover... 😕🙂

I was just gonna say they certainly know how to photograph a bass...shame they didn't pay the same attention to the E string... 😕

Yep, I did this, too...fantastic sound, it was only when I realised I was hoicking 90+lbs of speaker around (albeit in smaller lumps) that I looked for an alternative...

9lbs is my Thanks But No limit...everything I have is under that, down to a 7lb 8oz Dingwall (which is the most resonant, 'alive' bass I own) - the last one I moved on was a BB1024 because it was pushing 10lbs...the BB414 I replaced it with is my heaviest at juuuust a smidge over 9lbs...but I only play that in one band, and that rarely...

I've had intrusive tinnitus for about a decade (it started properly after an evening with a dep guitarist putting his 112 combo on a bar stool pointing directly at my head), and when we're not using IEMs, I have the ACS attenuators in...I also wear them for gigs I'm in the audience for; it doesn't half show up any bad sound production... It's never to early to start with the attenuation; once tinnitus starts, you're stuck with it...I wince these days when I'm watching a film and the producer decides to put that whine in after an explosion...I hate that...

For onstage monitoring, anything that brings the speakers nearer to your ears is a good thing...didn't TC have a thing where the 210 would stack on the 212 slightly further back to increase the effect? IIRC they did the same thing with the 210 on the 112, too... I had the opposite issue with a BF Big Baby, which comfortably filled an aircraft hangar (literally - it was an RAF gig), for everyone but me, as most of the output shot past my knees...

Exhibit A: the two verrrry small items on the left are my rig when we're (the pub/function band) gigging in-ears only. The rest of the stuff is for easy setup/small bar stuff (Stomp and customised Rumble) and full-on Rawk band (Stomp and Walkabout and Super Twin)...I've only ever used the full stack once at a big stage gig...and that was just for show, really... 😃

If you really, really want to nail it...buy a van 😃

I joined my main originals band following another bassist's departure, and started by playing the songs as they were. Over time, and as the band gelled, the bass lines gradually became my own, other than a few fills which had really stood out as important parts of the songs. Same with the bass sound; the original chap was a fingers player, I'm almost always pick, but I started with a more finger-oriented sound (tho not actually with fingers) and progressed towards my own sound. No-one complained (I'd have listened if they did), and now my sound and lines are part of the band. We were all old friends (including the original bassist), so no-one was going to compare/judge us directly, and given it's been thirteen years or so, they've probably got used it me by now... 😁

Fantastic, really enjoyed that...