Gasman

Andy Baxter Bass sells on commission - he's sold three items for me - Ricky 4004, Fender Jazz 60 anniversary bass 5 and a Takamine Santa Fe special 'Gecko' electro-acoustic. Reasonable commission, handles all the sale details, insulated me from tyre-kickers and paid out in good time - I would recommend. I sent my items by Parcelforce, picked up from my house, no problems.

Shame that Moldova's Sunstroke Project didn't win their national vote this time and won't be at the final - I'll miss Sergey Stepanov, the Epic Sax Guy! Eurovision 2010: www.youtube.com > watch?v=Jh-cSidGovk

On a positive note, there are some nice guitarists personality- and work-ethic-wise out there if you can find them. I have to say that of all the guitarists I've played alongside, the guy in my current band is the most talented, humorous, dedicated and together chap I've had the pleasure to know - such a change from the widdlers, soi-disant six-string gods, slackers and knobs that I've endured in the past. Of course, to be fair maybe my past bandmates had me marked down as one of the above, except that us bass players don't widdle, do we? Oh, and our guy is a very good bass-player too - handy for my short set on sax...

Judging by the map on the wall behind him, he must be silent busking 'Going Underground'...

Playing WiTH themselves at home, surely?

Saturday night gig at the George Hotel in Castle Cary for Mustang Sally, a warren of a place with lots of side rooms for eating, drinking, carousing etc. We got the bonus of a party of very happy young ladies on a birthday party bash who joined in with tamborines, vocals and jumping about. Georgie our lead vocalist did her standing singing on the tables thing towards the end - a very cheerful and rewarding (in all senses) gig. We tried out some new numbers, no disasters , including 'Geno' in my sax set - must get the harmoniser sorted for next time for the full effect! The Bongo is a beast of a machine - just getting used to it now after four gigs tone & volume-wise.

Best wishes for a great session! I’ve found that as time goes by there’s far too much DIY of all types needed, so get out there and make that stage yours!

The good Captain Beefheart must surely lead the way in this, the Trout Mask Replica album has some epic tracks such as ‘Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish’, ‘Old Fart at Play’, with a few more beefheartfelt protest numbers dropped in like ‘Veterans Day Poppy’. I still listen to the album when I need cheering up, or softly tripping out with minimal artificial assistance! I wonder where the Mascara Snake is now?

Going back to 1971, my Oxford group 'Ravin' Mick and Hiz Band' was breaking up as we'd all done our Finals and had gone home to sort out the rest of our lives (ha!) We agreed to record a few of our original numbers as a souvenir so I booked a one-day session at a 2-track (yes) studio near Tower Bridge (Tower Studios?) I played bass and sax and did loony vocals, my brother was on trumpet, Mike Unwin on piano, Don Hedges on drums (killed in a car crash shortly after alas), Andy Brown on guitar, with production help and keys from Dave Jarrett (Quiet Sun progger). Having only two tracks meant a lot of bouncing down - the track named 'The Saxophone Snork' that's challenging for first prize in idiotic words in the link below was er, 'composed' by me and was done in one backing band take, bounced onto track one, then sax and my vocals dropped in onto track 2, also in one take. Be kind if you can re the quality of the sound - this MP3 was re-recorded from an acetate disk master 50 years after the disk was cut. https://www.dropbox.com/s/0ghi4xv1pvf0nxs/Rmick_Saxophone_Snork.mp3?dl=0 The words: Chorus 1: 'Come, down to my little cabin in the woods Said my old Grandfather to me, When I was just ninety-four...' Chorus 2: 'Come, and I'll show you the goods, So I rolled off my six-jointed knee, And took off the floor!' I'm still rather pleased with my sax solo in the middle - it's been a downward spiral for 50 years ever since! How nice to be 21 with everything still in front of you...

Yes, a very good promo point...

Totally agree, BigRedX! In my case, a big factor in getting gigs for our band is that our lady frontperson has been living and gigging in the north dorset area for decades, is well-known and loved and is the reason why (despite many lineup changes over that period) the band is a go-to choice for venues and events in a 30 mile radius. Word of mouth, personal recommendations and pleasing the punters at every gig are all ingredients of the magic fairy-dust you need. However, I’ve been in the OP’s position before with startup bands, where getting a first gig at a venue even 10 years ago could seem to be soul-destroyingly impossible, even worse now, but you have to just keep trying!

Another tool that does this is 'Jack the Gripper' - as described in the Haynes Fender bass maintenance manual

The band on before mine at the gillingham dorset festival yesterday was Black Sheep, a barn dance/ hoedown outfit with just drums, fiddle and bass. Johno the bassist was leading the band, huge sound, combining melodies, chords, harmonies with the violin and thumping bass at a relentless speed. Not my favourite musical style perhaps, but full respect!

Mustang Sally (yes, I know!) played our two gigs at the gillingham dorset show on sat/sun, straight 2 hour sets both days in a huge beer tent. Weather on sat was awful, punters mostly absent, mud everywhere so a paid rehearsal, I guess. Sunday much better with sunshine and a lot more watching, enjoyable day and over the weekend 4x one hour sets to get used to my new MM Bongo - love it! Major mud removal task from cases and boots today, then off to a rehearsal at 7...

Thank you, mystery solved!

TH 700 vs AG700 - same but different, or not?

I would invest in a nice long neck strap...

Glad you like it, guys - those three Bongos have activated my GAS gland again - a fiver HH would go nicely with my new one, which is going to get two outings this weekend at the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Spring Show - my band Mustang Sally (sorry!) is playing 4pm Sat and 3.30pm Sunday. Looking forward to it!

No, but I wish the price of the one I’ve bought had been £1250! I paid £1800, and that is a good £200 less than anything else I looked at...

Poppity poppity poppity pop, went the motor-sickle (hittin' on one!), Poppity poppity poppity pop, went the motor-sickle (hittin' on two!) Dizzy Gillespie needed his carb cleaned out?

I had no money so I thought I might as well spend it. So I went for something a bit different (via Reverb) and splashed out on this Anthracite 4H Bongo, something I'd always wanted to try. First impressions: great finish, super-low action, everything works as it should and the sound, admittedly only through my Vox headphone amp, is satisfyingly different to any other bass I've got. Looking forward to gigging it next weekend and will report back.

Sometimes it's an absolute necessity! I was playing bass in a pickup band booked to play on the back of a truck for the Dorchester carnival parade a few years ago. One week before the event our vocalist/rhythm guitarist decided to go on holiday instead, leaving us with guitar, bass and drums only. So, as we would be moving through the town all the time and our audience was constantly changing, we decided to reduce the setlist to a few numbers that I could sing on autopilot (Knocking on Heaven's door, Valerie, Route 66, Rockin' all over the World, plus a couple of others but we dropped Bohemian Rhapsody). I did the singing after one rehearsal, and it turned out OK (well, no-one threw bottles of p*ss at me, at any rate...) Funny thing, I found that singing lead while spanking the bass was much easier than singing harmony, but I wouldn't want to do it again; another reason for saying no to that kind of gig is that playing on an open truck which is constantly starting and stopping you can end up with the mic smacking into your teeth, or the amps sliding around, or the band falling about like ninepins especially if the driver is cr*p - the only answer is to adopt a low, crouching posture aligned and braced with legs fore and aft like a wannabe rock guitarist - now as responsible bass-players we don't want THAT going up on YouTube, now do we?

McArthur Park...

My 400* penn’orth, it was love at first sight when I saw the Cheyenne in that ‘50 years at rock’s bottom’ Ricky book, tracked a new trans blue one down in a German dealership when we were still in the EU and imported it. Struggled to get a sound and action that I liked out of it for three years even after pro luthiers had a go at improving it, so I then moved it on at a loss. Very disappointing but it did have the advantage of curing me of any lingering Ricky-oriented GAS...

Bessie Banks - 'The best is yet to come' - great soul number...