Merton

When they opened up I put them in touch with Ashdown to kit out the rooms with ABM heads and cabs. Mark Gooday did a fantastic upsell and they ended up with this as well 😆 Thesedays they have a mix of old heads people have donated them alongside the Ashdown heads. About a month ago one of the donated Markbass heads was nicked by some bastard. I told them to get rid of the light stuff and stick more ABMs back in…

My local studio has an original Ashdown King Combo - the ABM900 with an 8x10 cab as an all in one, heavier than the sun, back-breaking monster in a flightcase (ish). Sounds pretty good too.

I had that model amp 20 years ago, and the Electroluminescent panels were notoriously unreliable. I had mine fixed once, then completely replaced with an NOS panel the repair guy (a former Trace employee) had available. If the panel itself has gone then you may just have to put up with it never working, but it might possibly be the control circuit. Good luck

That’s lovely! Pretty much my ideal Lionel spec 🙂

Lovely! How are you getting on with the early Christmas present from Alan?

The Handbox WB100 is superb, I bet the R400 is too!

Have a good one y’all - in lieu of me being present I require many photos!

Argh. I also have to drop out 😭 Hope everyone has a great day, apologies to those wanting to see the Super Twin 😢

Depends on your budget but if Serek is on the list then ACG absolutely should be too.

I can bring my Super Twin 🙂

If you’re bringing a TE1200 I shall not bring mine - gives people more chance to try the one which is actually for sale! I’ll bring an ACG (or 3) and a Conway probably, and maybe my Handbox WB100? Cabs - Barefaced Super Twin or Two10S can be brought if anyone wants to hear cabs they’ve probably heard at all previous bashes 🤓

I should update my collection on here. Since getting my dream RetroB 5er, I decided I wanted a 4 string almost-identical sibling. Almost identical in terms of shape and pickups combo, but almost a bit yin to the 5ers yang. My other ACG is my gorgeous TKO Custom - I suspect one of very few white finishes Alan has (and will?) do. Certainly one of one in terms of body binding 🤓

Gorgeous!

Any way you can keep playing in a more low key environment?

Katy Hurt was booked to play a private event last night, run by the same people who run the Buck and Bull pop up saloon club nights we’ve played before. Big marquee at Tweseldown Racecourse near Fleet, 200 guests, line dancing, DJ, bucking bronco… standard UK “country” themed night. Since this was essentially a private version of the Buck and Bull event, no expense was spared. Pro PA and lighting rigs and engineers made for a wonderful experience, plenty of soundcheck time so the onstage sound was crystal clear and devoid of all the issues from the previous week. The only real downer was the marquee had no heating so it needed the bodies in there to make it warm, it was very chilly in the run up to there being a party in full swing. Our normal drumming options were all unavailable so I pinched the drummer (and my brother in law) from my pub rock band, and he stepped in brilliantly. Being a private party, the crowd weren’t quite the same as the Buck and Bull clientele, and never really fully got going (vs them being totally up for it from the second we walk onstage at a real club night), but we had moments of fun watching some of the better line dancers try not to trip over the less good as we ripped through our two sets of covers and originals. So yes, in some respects a mixed bag but I was home and in bed by 00.30 and throughly enjoyed the playing bit. Basses were my trust ACG RetroBs, via Laney Digbeth pre, Trace TE1200 and Barefaced Two10. Shoes were DC hi tops Hat was Cavender’s of Texas 🤠

It was a bit odd! I think the idea was to get people line dancing in the space but that only really happened when the dancing girls were on before us!

PS - the bassist for the Shania Twain UK tribute act which played after us had a 5 string Wal, sounded ace. If he be on here, say hello! Would be interested in your thoughts on the organisational side of things 😆

Loud. A bit too loud tbh. Katy Hurt was booked to play the Country Roads festival in Southampton; a bit odd for a festival at the end of October but thankfully we were under a massive marquee just outside the Southampton Guildhall so the cold and wet weather didn’t dampen the mood too much. Organisation was pretty … lacking. In the 48 hours preceding the event we had 3 different arrival times/stage times/set lengths, and when we arrived for our soundcheck at 3.30 were told in no uncertain terms that soundchecks were not on the cards at all because no-one had told or prepped the crew for anything 😕 The “green room” was a tiny tent outside the main marquee, hemmed in by a giant concrete bench, and the “backstage area” also doubled as the fire escape, except the marquee flaps were tied together and they led to metal fencing which was all bolted together. This “backstage” area became a nightmare as we finished and the next band were prepping; it was carnage trying to get off stage with our gear as they were setting up theirs in this tiny space and also trying to get onstage whilst our guitarist was still packing down (always a bugbear - f**king WAIT for us to be completely clear). Plus the floor was soaking wet so we didn’t really want to put our gear directly on it. Anyway, organisational issues aside, we managed a loud, raucous 45 minute set (which we’d been told by the organisers as we arrived was 60 minutes…) and, on the whole, had fun. Katy’s acoustic kept feeding back and the onstage volume was blisteringly loud but overall actually I had a good balance of all the instruments. We sang, rocked out and enjoyed ourselves, then ate our token free hot dog and left 😃 Photo to show the daft “VIP” area directly in front of the band which meant all the crowd behind the barriers were miles from us and a bit annoyed they couldn’t be closer…

Still doesn’t answer my specific question, which @lowdown kindly has. Thanks all

I’m with @binky_bass on this - how does what @Prog shared tell us it’s Crown Court? Genuinely interested to understand