Gasman

To Mere in Wiltshire for Mustang Sally's final gig of '23 - the rest of the band live very close to the town but I had a 50-mile journey through some very heavy rain and minor flooding; still, say what you like against 4x4s, but when it comes to this kind of journey the Jeep Cherokee just lapped it up! The George pub has three large-ish bars - we were set up in the front one with all tables taken and a lot of punters eager for the gig to start at 10pm. Due to lack of space in the band area and the low ceiling I decided to use the HB shorty rather than the Bongo but made a mistake in not putting a booster pedal in the chain thinking it wouldn't be needed - but it would definitely have been handy. Although the bass was going through my Ag700+Darkglass 212 rig as well as the PA, volume levels on the PA couldn't be maximised due to the room acoustics giving incipient mic, sax and acoustic guitar feedback, so I was left with the only option of cranking the amp up to 11 just to be heard... recordings I made revealed later that this was not excessive! Pix below show cramped 'stage' area. We had a great time, with the place rammed until we finished at 00:50 - 20 minutes extra so the landlord paid us extra too after a very busy night for him, saying that last year there were only half a dozen punters at 11pm so he'd paid the band off and closed early (wrong band maybe?!) and watched Jools Holland instead! Old Lang Syne was successfully tackled, our lady singer climbed on a table to deliver the last few numbers, the drunks managed not to collapse into the band gear, and we were able to introduce a couple of new numbers. 'Brown Sugar' may not be quite PC nowadays but the audience loved it; 'Hotel California' is an interesting thing to play on bass (I realise now why the Eagles dubbed the number 'Mexican Reggae') but it needs polishing before we resume gigging in March. It was really nice that Mrs G agreed to come to the gig and enjoyed herself - she has developing Parkinson's and has lost so much confidence in communicating and being in new places with strangers over the last year, but all the folk at the gig were so friendly and inclusive - surely the best kind of therapy! It was another wet 50 mile drive home, arriving at 02:30, asleep by 03:15, feeling whacked out today!

Interesting, it doesn't seem to matter that the OP set out the situation very clearly on page 1, there’s still a tendency to jump in with inapposite comments... (not @Neepheid) Regarding working with a close relative or partner in a business environment (which a gigging band actually is) it’s a quick way to generate tension - Oasis, the kinks, fleetwood Mac for example plus in the office in a day job. My worst experience was as a singleton in a five piece where the others were two married couples... I was so glad to quit re letting her play bass, unless there’s an added value musical reason (as in my band where our guitarist plays bass on a short set allowing me to play sax) don’t agree to it, unless you want to find yourself leaving!

Tsk Tsk, read before posting!

Buying 2 new shorty basses (a 4 and a 5) for our guitarist to play on three numbers so I can play sax...

Phew, that was hard work...

I’ve bought from and sold to Andy, he’s a fair guy running a bassists’ wet dream emporium, highly recommended!

...with ‘any money’ following close behind...

Another North Dorset gig for Mustang Sally, this time at Rocky’s bar in Gillingham. It’s a very well updated sports pub, but at first sight not an obvious venue for our melange of classic rock, country, soul and pop - but why? Well, the age profile was 18-35 for a start, and the hoooge flat-screen TVs stayed on all night showing (without sound, TG) Man-U losing to Newcastle. Add to this the arrival of an already-merry rugby team, rather ‘happy’ after a win, and this could have gone one of two ways... fortunately, after a slow start it got better and better, with table dancing, singalongs and many encores. Ok, it was a near midnight finish instead of 11:30 but no-one minded, it’s what good gigs are made of! Back home at 1:30am to a censorious glare from our cat. He was bought off with two very early breakfasts...

Duplicate post, sorry!

Times have changed re cash vs card or Paypal. Some years back Mrs G owned a cafe business which was 90% cash takings. She needed a new (to her) car so we swapped £9k cash in £10 notes (thus avoiding bank paying-in charges) from the business for her annual dividend and presented an M&S bag to the dealer full of tenners. He was shell-shocked but carefully counted the first £4k then said OK, awarding himself the CBA (Can't Be A*rsed medal) of the day. I think he thought we were suburban drug-dealers... well, coffee, innit? More recently we had a conservatory added to the place, amazingly the builders wanted card not cash - 3 x £9.9k payments over 3 days accepted without any problem by the card company, who nonetheless still hassle me for phone verification over £5 buys on eBay. Paypal? Biggest musical payment to a total stranger was for a King tenor sax (£5.5k) bought from a guy in the States, who said he could deliver it in Europe while on business. I met him in the arrivals lounge at Gatwick, we found a corner with seat, I played the thing with a mouthpiece I'd brought along to check it out, to the alarm and despondency of the security folk who thought I was setting up to busk, shook hands and did a Paypal transfer on the iPad I'd also brought along. I did have to answer one security question, but luckily I could remember my mother's maiden name... So all methods are available - least bothersome was the sale of my Fender Bassman 135 cab to a fellow basschatter - price was paid exactly in cash in a local carpark - £1.00!

What would be your 'normal' set-up to compare with this?

Buy a Fender Jazz Plus, the fourth click on the pickup selector is ‘None’ and kills any output, allowing wanton jack ripping without ear-busting noises. But then, I think the OP has left the room...

Any bass you caught could be stored in there with your bass too...

A bit late reporting on Mustang Sally's weekend, due to me being a bit cream-crackered yesterday! Friday was a private party in Beaminster in the Fleet Club, a few miles up the road from me - it's the only upstairs load-in we play at the moment, but with our roadie and some punters we got the gear in and set up, squeezed into a diagonal on the route to the loos and opposite a long table ominously placarded with various curry names! First gig with the 2-Notes bass boost pedal, worked very well with the HB shorty (no room for the Bongo without braining the drummer anyway). No crowd surfing but a very happy crowd, good pay, table-dancing from our singiste and a fairly early finish and a lovely 20 minute drive home instead of the hour-plus from our more usual North Dorset venues. Saturday morning I couldn't find any of the band clothes that I'd left hung-up on the floor - Mrs G pointed to the washing machine: "They stunk of curry, and so do you!" she trilled gaily "so get under that shower or you can go in the next wash too..." Yes, the half-time free food had been a Smorgasbord of nothing but curries, and the jeep and instruments inside it were well-Madrassed too. Saturday's gig was at the Coronation club in Gillingham - it's been recently refurbished quite nicely but there are now 'banquettes' around all the walls, so the amps and speakers had to be sat on top of them in the corner next to the bar through lack of floor-space. Using the same setup as Friday, I soon realised something was very wrong with the bass sound - hardly audible, very woolly. Changed everything I could between numbers, eventually mostly solved it by removing the 2-Notes booster from the signal chain, taking the cab off the padded seat and squeezing it onto the floor, and changing to the Bongo. A forensic investigation today revealed that I'd used the wrong AC adapter in the 2-Notes (9v 0.25amp) instead of the 12v 1.0amp that came with it. Stupid mistake, but in the semi darkness of the corner of the room when setting up and a bagful of cables and adapters to choose from, I'd f**ked up - lesson learned! Not proud of my performance that night, too much self-induced stress, but the punters all loved the band and most importantly everyone but me had a good evening!

"Final price drop!" (Bet it isn't!)

Just listened to it - nothing very hard here, Georgia, probably not worth the trouble of tabbing for anyone who really wants to play it. Pick up your bass and play along!

That fits the bill nicely, 😊 thank you! It’s on its way from Uncle Thomann, will report its arrival on NBD

I’ve been toting a long scale Bongo (for me) and a shortie HB (for our guitarist) to gigs for the past few months, ‘cos when I play sax he plays bass, but he finds that the shortie is kinder to his fretting hand. So at the rehearsal last night we tried out H&O’s ‘Maneater’ finding that in the key our singer wanted the HB ran out of notes low down. This may well happen again for either of us, so the search is on for a reasonably (say under £500) priced 5 string shortie. What would you recommend please?

Original NYE gig seemed too good to be true from the word go, 180 mile round trip to the north Devon coast, but a four figure fee, cabins to sleep over in, food & drink free. Over a month or two the offer of goodies faded away, the fee went down, then our gig was cancelled in favour of a disco - c’est la vie... Desperate to avoid a gigless NYE watching Jules do his boogie piano thing on TV we tapped up every pub and club In the area, doing a Dutch auction until we eventually got a local pub on the hook for our normal fee plus food and drink. Pathetic? Letting the muso side down? Maybe, but it’s a sign of the times, and we do love playing!

Not working harder on my lead vocals, just being content with doing BVs...

It was 1969. Lovely to see a lot of bands performing there that featured regularly in the Melody Maker ‘What’s on’ listings in that era of happy memory. The inclusion of jazz polar opposites of Chris Barber and John Surman is wonderful! btw, 15/- = 75p

Please Santa, I’d like a mega-pack of Duracell PP3s....

Yes indeed it is much better than TV, but my cat also gets the grumps about my unexplained absences, especially when I roll in past midnight without any shopping bags full of fresh cat food!

Our guitarist goes for the full Mark Knopfler look including headband - I favour black boots, jeans and one of my many logo-ed up black T shirts from Red Molotov - amazing range from this supplier! I fantasise that dressing in black makes me look slimmer...

Quite often it’s out of my control - the acoustics of the venue, what the sound engineer’s been taking to get him through the event, whether there’s a big crowd or not, these factors all contribute.