StingRayBoy42

I used them YEARS ago and really liked them, when I was using Slinkys. Got to be worth a punt at £20 a set, I'm sure you could make your money back if you don't like them? I'll take a set for £20 if you don't like 'em!

I use a Lekato MW-1 for my IEMs and it works a treat. No latency, no drop outs (yet, touch wood) and it sounds good.

There's no room for anything else, unless I stick the Thumpinator underneath and have the compressor and preamp sideways along the top, which I definitely haven't thought about doing.

Here's my New Improved Enormous Pedalboard (NIEPB) The LS-2 flips between Soul Food -> Chorus and OC-2 -> C4 -> ODB-3, then TU-2 -> Thumpinator -> Comp -> Boost -> Preamp. I think. The Disaster Area controls the C4 patches, the remote is for the retina-searing LEDs, and yes there is something in the Altoids tin. Powered by a Voodoo Lab PP3+ I hope the slightly not-straight pedals don't trigger anyone's OCD. It's definitely 100% finished and I'm absolutely not going to buy anything else.

Did she pluck your G string?

Not one of us had a gig on Friday?! Bloody Labour government.

I like the Mono Betty straps.

Sounds like a D:Ream gig...

Did you announce a general election?

I insisted upon it! I hope you noticed the lights are matching pink...

Win some, lose some! Paid rehearsal, innit?

LAST NIGHT! Dance to the floor (5 piece girl-fronted pop band) at Memoirs in Walsall. Oh, the glamour! Dep singer as our usual frontgirl was otherwise engaged (again 🤨) which meant a couple of key changes, which I weirdly quite like having to do - I feel like learning the songs in a slightly different key is a useful way of getting to know them better? Somehow? It was a 30th birthday party, so we were expecting an absolute rager. By 9 o'clock (first set time), there were about 15 people in there, so we twiddled our thumbs FOR AN HOUR until the other 15 people turned up and they'd all partaken of the (very good) Indian buffet. Went on about 10 to a very small and disinterested (uniterested? I can never remember the difference) audience of older folk and vey young children. Oddly, there were very few 20-30 year olds in there. A very dispiriting set, we played pretty well considering. Dep singer did a cracking job. She's got a different voice and style to our usual, she was a bit nervous (first time gigging with a band (!) as her main thing is solo gigs with backing tracks) and she's not used to IEMs but she did a great job. Quick vape and moan about the audience break, back on for another set to even fewer people (what sort of party IS this?!) and even less response than the first. We were all pretty much phoning it in by this point. Played the StingRay 5 -> New Improved Enormous Pedalboard (NIEPB - I won't list everything that's on there as I'm going out in an hour) - MB 802 -> PA. The 5 is still a work in progress... I'm alright on the stuff I've learnt on 5, but had a few wobbles on the stuff I'm used to playing on 4. I'm going to start playing the 5er on 'normal' gigs to really get my head (and hands) round it. The highlights were 'Forget You' which I love playing, especially the tricky Bass bits in the middle 8 (I'll get them right one day) and the Indian food. Packed up, loaded out, drove home, Cider. Meh!

Was it something by Bob Mali?

Kenya dig it?

TONIGHT! Played Sousaphone with The Acid Morris for their Solstice (ish (Solstish?)) dance out under the concrete henge of Spaghetti Junction (Gravelly Hill Interchange for the pedants). The Acid Morris are like nothing you've ever seen, even in your wildest Psilocybin-fuelled fever dreams: Border Morris Dancing to techno remixes of traditional Morris tunes and tonight for the first time ever, a Sousaphone. Probably one of the weirdest things I've ever done, and possibly the world's first (?) Techno-Sousaphone-Morris Dance mashup (under Spaghetti Junction). It was a ton of fun, there were sermons (one entreated the audience (there was an audience!) to teach their tortoises to sing) , testimonies (mostly nonsensical (one about the benefits of Morris cats as opposed to Morris dogs (of which there are many))), there was a bit where we all cast soft toys into a bin bag (not sure why), a speech about how the Sousaphone is in fact the preferred instrument of the angels (followed by a short (improvised) Sousaphone solo) and several techno Morris dances. After that, it descended into a more or less full on rave (with Sousaphone accompaniment) which was ace - it was my first time jamming along to a techo DJ and it went down really well. I don't think anyone there had ever seen/heard a Sousaphone player jamming along with loud dance music under Spaghetti Junction. The ONE TIME your Sousaphone lights aren't charged up, you end up at a rave. LIVID. I was tempted to stay and have one of the funny looking peppermints that were going round, but my designated driver (who is also (sort of) the main idiot (and also my Dad)) was keen to nake a move (and I'm gigging tomorrow) so good sense prevailed and it was back home about 11:30 for a homebrew cider (ABV unknown) and a cheese and pickle roll instead. Their sound system has the potential for hooking up the SA C4 synth pedal, so there's every chance the next outing will involve Sousa -> Wireless mic -> synth pedal, which could be quite something.

There's reasonable offers and there's taking the piss. Nowt wrong with asking someone (nicely!) if they'll take £50 for something that's up for £55, or £1200 for something that's up for £1250, or "Will you include postage?" IMHO especially if it's been up for a while. I wouldn't then try and haggle further if they said yes, that's taking the piss. They can always say no! I certainly wouldn't be offended by it. If a listing says "No oferrs, the price is firm", that's different. As long as you're nice I don't see a problem.

Bought some TI flats from Ian - top comms, quick (first class!) postage. Top Basschattery, deal with confidence.

Don't tell him, Pike!

Have a look at stuff that uses 5.8GHz - I *think* it's a different frequency to wi-fi (anyone who knows about this stuff, please correct me if I'm wrong) so less chance of interference.

No, we don't have community policing south of the border... certainly not in the refined and lofty establishments I play!

So sorry for you rloss @Dad3353

And I thought I'd played some dodgy boozers! What sort of places do you play?!

TONIGHT! The Dysfunctionals 3-piece at O'Neills in Solihull. Dep drummer (our usual skin-botherer was out on the lash), lovely old geezer called Nige - 70 years old and still doing the business. It was nice to not be the oldest one in the band for a change. I was a bit trepidatious about having a dep drummer if I'm honest, but he was great. He's been playing since before I was born and I'm no spring chicken... He's probably forgotten more than I'll ever know. We've done a lot of O'Neill'ses (O'Neill'ss? whatever the plural of O'Neill's is) with a few different lineups and they're always an absolute hoot (we *still* talk about the Paddy's Day one in Nottingham) so we were looking forward to it. I had a gig cancelled last night, so I was extra looking forward to it. Load in was the usual, the place was pretty empty as everyone was outside in the sun so we thought it might be a quiet one. First set at 9 went well, enough people appeared to make it feel like a pretty decent audience and a good few dancers by the end. One woman was loving it but hiding round a corner, so I went for a wander to go and say hello. The wireless setup's working well! (Subzero bug and Lekato wireless XLR for IEMs - they've worked perfectly every time (so far (touch wood))). I sang lead on a new one, which was nice. It was too low (my fault) which was not. Half time, we went out for some air, got chatting to a young lady who turned out to be a singer (the fact that she had a wireless mic case and mic stand with her gave the game away) so I tapped her up to do some depping with us which she seemed really up for. Second set is a bit more party time and the place was rammed. Packed dancefloor, everyone loving it. Great stuff! Our singer friend from half time appeared and absolutely loved it. Three songs in, our singer reckoned his voice was going, so he suggested we invite her up to sing one. We did Summer of '69 (It's O'Neill's on a Saturday night, of course we're playing Summer of '69) and she was brilliant, absolutely smashed it. I went and joined her other half on the dancefloor for a bit of it.. did I mention I'm loving the wireless? Our singer was starting to croak a bit, so I 'helped out' with the vocals for the rest of the set (remembering lyrics isn't my strong point) and he got the audience to sing the worst bits, so it was all good. I got to sing the stupid high bit in Teenage Dirtbag (It's O'Neill's on a Saturday night, of course we're playing Teenage Dirtbag) which is always fun. It was an absolute corker by the end, I had a couple of "I can't believe I get to do this! This is ace!" moments, which don't happen at every gig. Played the StingRay (Old Faithful!) -> amp board (Thumpinator -> VTDI) -> MB802. I didn't bother with pedals, as I was inbetween the DJ and our beloved audience - visions of a punter treading on them on the way to ask the DJ for the latest smash hit record by the coolest new beat combo on the scene (?) put me off. All done, the DJ played a couple of absolute bangers before descending into thumpikrap, pack up and load out was a nightmare as there was an absolutely heaving dancefloor between us and the exits and all the cases were in the van. All evenually done, home about half twelve for a blue cheese and chorizo sandwich, an Aldi Weston's Vintage Cider (6.8% ABV) and all the tunes I wanted that the DJ didn't play (Groove is in the Heart, Loveshack, Sweet Dreams, Kickmuck etc). A good night!

Sounds a lot like my gig last weekend - glad it went well!

Ask his school if they do Rock Steady. Full disclosure: I work for them.