How was your gig last night?

[Dad3353]

2 hours ago, Rodders said:

... apart from drunks knocking the boom of the mic stand into the singer/guitarist mouth and teeth several times...

 

This seems to be a recurring feature at many gigs. Any mileage to be had using short-boom mic stands, such as this one..?

 

Thomann : Mic stand ...

 

... or a goose neck instead of a boom..?

 

Thomann : Goose Neck for mic stand...

 

 

Just a thought. Any use, anyone..? 

[casapete]

Did our monthly duo gig yesterday at The Sun Inn in Beverley, usual request format.

 

Plenty of people in, including one table of folk from Ilkley and another from Sheffield.

Probably the most requests we’ve ever had, with some nice stuff we haven’t played

much, or ever! These included ‘Can’t take my eyes off you’, ‘Change the world’ ( which

I love), ‘Let it be me’ , ‘ Dakota’ ( which I’m starting to dislike a lot now…) and then for

an encore Albert Lee’s ‘Country Boy’. My guitarist partner was on fire in this, despite

us losing the delay repeats at one point, and with no drummer to blame too! 

A very jolly gig in a great venue, with a lovely audience and some dancers as well. 
Used my Sire U5 into the Rumble 500, which has more authority than the 100 combo

I’ve used before. 
Next one there is in late August, so looking forward to that already.

[Rodders]

16 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

This seems to be a recurring feature at many gigs. Any mileage to be had using short-boom mic stands, such as this one..?

 

Thomann : Mic stand ...

 

... or a goose neck instead of a boom..?

 

Thomann : Goose Neck for mic stand...

 

 

Just a thought. Any use, anyone..? 

 

I think he ended up ordering one of these, Hercules Transformer stands, seems as though it tilts from the base? 

 

 

[dave_bass5]

2 outdoor gigs in North London for me yesterday. First gigs on bass for quite a while.

First was at the Heath street festival in Hampstead. Nice stage and good sound. I had my new preamp with me but didnt use it at either gigs. First gig was with an Ampeg combo. Really nice sound. Quite tempted to get one at some point. It did rain a bit but that didnt seem to deter the crowd and we were covered.

Second was in a private estate in Highgate. We were supposed to have a proper stage but it turned out to be a Gazebo with a small raised playing area. No side protection at all. Of course, the heavens opened up as we were approaching to set up. Again, backline was supplied so this time i used MB 3x10 combo. I had planned on using a preamp with this, but looking at the extension socket, filled with rain, I decided I wasn't going anywhere near it. Again, decent sound, which did surprise me as ive never been a fan of MB cabs. Highlight was when the sound guy turned the supplied Tube driven guitar combo on and a firework display emerged out the back of it. Apparently due to the tube being hot, a tiny drop of cold rain had shattered the glass. Guitarist ended up going DI from hisHelix Stomp. We had a really good sound though.

Thoroughly enjoyed both gigs. What also struck me was how easy it was setting up. Never needed any effects, didnt even miss not using a preamp etc.

Edited yesterday at 14:58 by dave_bass5

[AlexDelores]

21 hours ago, Cat Burrito said:

We played the fabulous Richard Jefferies Museum in Swindon. A beautiful setting with what I thought was a respectable crowd. I flew back from Spain yesterday so we hadn’t really rehearsed. I think we have it in the bank though. A varied crowd from 3-87yrs old and the under 10s all helped us pack up. Luckily, the other half of my duo is a teacher so he was able to coordinate them so we had no breakages! 
 

Everyone was super friendly and it was certainly one of the more memorable gigs. 
 

Is that an 8 string bass?

[Cat Burrito]

3 hours ago, AlexDelores said:

Is that an 8 string bass?

It's a Mandocello but I do tend to play it like an 8 string bass. 

[mikebass456]

3 minutes ago, Cat Burrito said:

It's a Mandocello but I do tend to play it like an 8 string bass. 

Is it the Goldtone model? Been having a quick look on that Google thing, and that's about the only one I can find for sale here in Blighty.....🤔

[Stub Mandrel]

Late report... you'll see why. Saturday's Bendrix Rock gig at Penarth Ex's was memorable for all the right and wrong reasons.

 

I help organising/publicising gigsat the club and it was where we had our first gig so I put out a press release bigging up our dinosaur connections. It got taken up by a local paper and I heard stories it was being talked about.

 

Expectations were high but we were down to a four piece. Indeed the drummer and lead guitarist handwrote two setlists of what we could do after setting up. We also had our mascot for the first time.

 

Around this time I got really dizzy while setting up some simple lights.

 

Tried rehydrating but was so bad when we soundchecked with War Pigs I expected the rapidly expanding audience to disappear. This was unusual as people normally arrive at quarter to nine. We had lots of new faces arriving from eight.

 

I did recover a bit but wasn't 100% right through and had a nasty wobble and nearly fell backwards playing Saturday Night's all Right.

 

We went down a storm. Right through the first set we got not applause, but cheering. We played War Pigs, Paranoid and Crazy Train (we had to from our list) and this went down well, of course, but so did everything else.

 

We finished saying we literally had no more songs (our current full band list is about 10 longer). But after several minutes of chanting and roaring we gave in and our singer said what do you want us to repeat. They all shouted "Muse". Fortunately it was Uprising not Hysteria! I turned up the sub on my octaver and you could see the audience's glee when I shook the whole building. Don't say people don't notice bass.

 

It took longer to deal with all the handshakes and well wishes than to pack up. Several people said how much better we were than our first gig.

 

I've been to literally hundreds of gigs there as it's my local club and I can honestly say it was as packed as I've ever seen it and the best reception I've ever had for a gig. People spilled over from the 'Music Alley' into the lounge, but were coming in to join the dancing.

 

We all agreed this was why we gig, and we donated a modest bit of our fee to the raffle for the stroke association.

 

I packed my gear, dropped it to my partner's nearby house and walked to the pub, feeling a little wobbly.

 

I joined her and friends but managed no more than a sip of my Inches cider when the bar stated pulsating and swaying.  She walked me home (I was crashing into walls and generally swaying like a drunk). I didn't get to the loo before the first 🤮

 

I ended up on the floor for three hours, my brother came over as we were told four hours for a priority ambulance. They got me downstairs somehow and I was lying in the porch contemplating how to get to his car when the blue lights appeared after less than an hour.

 

Cutting it short, it's probably severe positional vertigo. I puked so much I had to go on a drip but thanks to the wonderful NHS and lots of pills/IV, I am recovering and hoping to go home soon. Waiting on a cat scan to be sure it's not a brain injury.

 

So good and bad!

 

I gave the Performer an outing. It sounded glorious.

 

 

 

This really doesn't give an impression of how full it was.

[Cat Burrito]

33 minutes ago, mikebass456 said:

Is it the Goldtone model? Been having a quick look on that Google thing, and that's about the only one I can find for sale here in Blighty.....🤔

Yep, it seems pretty much the only model in mainstream production. Bizarrely D'Addario seen to be the main Monticello string maker and the strings don't fit. 

[Jackroadkill]

23 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I puked so much I had to go on a drip

 

Blimey, Stub - hope you're back in action soon, old chap.

[dmccombe7]

28 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Late report... you'll see why. Saturday's Bendrix Rock gig at Penarth Ex's was memorable for all the right and wrong reasons.

 

I help organising/publicising gigsat the club and it was where we had our first gig so I put out a press release bigging up our dinosaur connections. It got taken up by a local paper and I heard stories it was being talked about.

 

Expectations were high but we were down to a four piece. Indeed the drummer and lead guitarist handwrote two setlists of what we could do after setting up. We also had our mascot for the first time.

 

Around this time I got really dizzy while setting up some simple lights.

 

Tried rehydrating but was so bad when we soundchecked with War Pigs I expected the rapidly expanding audience to disappear. This was unusual as people normally arrive at quarter to nine. We had lots of new faces arriving from eight.

 

I did recover a bit but wasn't 100% right through and had a nasty wobble and nearly fell backwards playing Saturday Night's all Right.

 

We went down a storm. Right through the first set we got not applause, but cheering. We played War Pigs, Paranoid and Crazy Train (we had to from our list) and this went down well, of course, but so did everything else.

 

We finished saying we literally had no more songs (our current full band list is about 10 longer). But after several minutes of chanting and roaring we gave in and our singer said what do you want us to repeat. They all shouted "Muse". Fortunately it was Uprising not Hysteria! I turned up the sub on my octaver and you could see the audience's glee when I shook the whole building. Don't say people don't notice bass.

 

It took longer to deal with all the handshakes and well wishes than to pack up. Several people said how much better we were than our first gig.

 

I've been to literally hundreds of gigs there as it's my local club and I can honestly say it was as packed as I've ever seen it and the best reception I've ever had for a gig. People spilled over from the 'Music Alley' into the lounge, but were coming in to join the dancing.

 

We all agreed this was why we gig, and we donated a modest bit of our fee to the raffle for the stroke association.

 

I packed my gear, dropped it to my partner's nearby house and walked to the pub, feeling a little wobbly.

 

I joined her and friends but managed no more than a sip of my Inches cider when the bar stated pulsating and swaying.  She walked me home (I was crashing into walls and generally swaying like a drunk). I didn't get to the loo before the first 🤮

 

I ended up on the floor for three hours, my brother came over as we were told four hours for a priority ambulance. They got me downstairs somehow and I was lying in the porch contemplating how to get to his car when the blue lights appeared after less than an hour.

 

Cutting it short, it's probably severe positional vertigo. I puked so much I had to go on a drip but thanks to the wonderful NHS and lots of pills/IV, I am recovering and hoping to go home soon. Waiting on a cat scan to be sure it's not a brain injury.

 

So good and bad!

 

I gave the Performer an outing. It sounded glorious.

 

 

 

This really doesn't give an impression of how full it was.

Jings that sounds scary. Hope you're now ok.

Keep us posted.

Dave

[Stub Mandrel]

On the mend. thanks for good wishes.

Edited 20 hours ago by Stub Mandrel

[Dad3353]

13 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

On the mend. thanks for good wishes.

 

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Cutting it short, it's probably severe positional vertigo. I puked so much I had to go on a drip but thanks to the wonderful NHS and lots of pills/IV, I am recovering and hoping to go home soon. Waiting on a cat scan to be sure it's not a brain injury.

 

Well, that beats most of my bad gigs!

[Bluewine]

On 05/07/2025 at 20:32, dmccombe7 said:

Blockbustarz Glam covers at The Dreadnought in Bathgate. One of my fav gigs to be honest.

Sound check went well and everything sounded great.

Then for some weird reason i started to struggle to hear the bass out front. I had deliberately kept my on stage volume low and assumed the SE was on top of FOH. 

Unfortunately i spoke with my wife at the end and she said she struggled to hear the bass at times. I'll have a word with SE next time we play. He was experienced a deep feedback ring that we couldn't identify and maybe he's dropped the bass FOH to help and possibly forgot to turn it back up. My wee fingers are aching tonight as i automatically play harder when i'm struggling to hear myself. In future i'll be setting my stage volume to suit me if FOH are just gonna turn me down. I always set my stage level to balance drum levels.

Other than that we had dancers from the get go. Only sold 40 tickets but a lot of walk-ins which the owner said was pretty normal these days.

Ended up reasonably busy when we started and the audience remained. We had folks up from Galashiels and some came over from Livingston to see us so we have a fan base out there 😂

2x1hr sets or thereabouts. 2 encores which was nice. 

Odd thing was we had a crowd of Goths in and they were loving it and dancing virtually every song. At the end while loading car I overheard one of them say he's not danced that much in ages and loved it. So that was nice.

It was an 80-20% ticket deal tonight and we did OK with that as we usually do. Back again Sat before Xmas which is always a fun party night and very busy.

Usual gear :-

Sandberg VM4

Shure GLXD+ wireless

Keeley Bassist Comp.

Handbox WB100

Barefaced 212 cab

 

Loving this bass cab. Its lightweight and easy to lift but retains so much depth and the wide angle dispersion means i can clearly hear it if standing right next to it. Only downside is i always find 12's lack the mid punch of a 10" speaker but its still a superb cab and i just need to tweak my EQ  abit more. I am loving the tone i'm getting with this rig.

No more distortion when i play slightly harder now since i dropped the P pick up a touch on the VM4. I can still trigger it if i dig in really hard but i'm trying to play a bit lighter these days to save damaging my wee fingertips on plucking hand.

 

All in all a great wee night and the Pizza from next door was pretty good too.

50min drive home on quiet roads and a nice wee toasted pancake and coffee and now time for bed.

Night night guys.

Dave 

 

Hi Dave,

 

I put a lot of effort into my stage sound. If we keep the stage volume low things always seem to go well. I don't get involved with FOH stuff. There's too many other things I'm concerned with. Mainly that the band isn't boring people. Actually that's the topic for my next thread.

 

I'm glad you had a good gig.

 

Daryl

 

 

[Franticsmurf]

11 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I puked so much I had to go on a drip

I've heard some wild excuses for playing mistakes but this has to be the best. Noted and filed for future use. 😀

 

But seriously, glad you're on the mend. Take it easy.

[Stub Mandrel]

Thanks for good wishes... I've run out of tlrts (reaction icons). 

[dmccombe7]

26 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Thanks for good wishes... I've run out of tlrts (reaction icons). 

So what was it ? 

You mentioned severe positional vertigo but i've never heard of it. What causes it. ?

I'm just a nosey old sod and curious as always. Its a bass thing........honest. 😂

Dave

 

[Stub Mandrel]

6 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

So what was it ? 

You mentioned severe positional vertigo but i've never heard of it. What causes it. ?

I'm just a nosey old sod and curious as always. Its a bass thing........honest. 😂

Dave

 

 

The little stones that tell you which way is where in your inner ear get loose and go walkies. Any movement and the world goes insane.

 

Improving with antihistamines and anti-nausea. I've just managed to go to the loo to wash and change. But little sleep in the noisy EAMU. Hope I get out today but still a bit unstable.

[dmccombe7]

6 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Hi Dave,

 

I put a lot of effort into my stage sound. If we keep the stage volume low things always seem to go well. I don't get involved with FOH stuff. There's too many other things I'm concerned with. Mainly that the band isn't boring people. Actually that's the topic for my next thread.

 

I'm glad you had a good gig.

 

Daryl

 

 

For me a good SE listens to my stage sound and recreates that FOH. He should be listening to the full band sound and adjust for that style of music. To be fair Pete normally gets it spot on and is a bass player himself and the issue may be that my stage level was lower than i normally have and i just struggled to hear it on stage.

Having listened to some phone clips from different people the bass does sound lower in the mix than i would like.

Glam rock from UK in 70's was a lot to do with drums and bass specifically low toms on the drums so it needs to have the correct balance.

I appreciate that phones don't capture bass very well so i'm assuming it was a bit louder and deeper in the venue altho my wife who attends every gig did say she struggled to hear the bass at times. She might be picking up on the specific songs where i drop the tone a bit to achieve a deeper sound as normally i like a bit of a click as i play. (think Geddy Lee or the tone you get with a pick)

Dave 

[dmccombe7]

Just now, Stub Mandrel said:

 

The little stones that tell you which way is where in your inner ear get loose and go walkies. Any movement and the world goes insane.

 

Improving with antihistamines and anti-nausea. I've just managed to go to the loo to wash and change. But little sleep in the noisy EAMU. Hope I get out today but still a bit unstable.

I had assumed you were home. 

That's where i'm quite lucky ............... there's absolutely nothing in my head 🤐

Hopefully you'll get home soon and back to normal as quick as possible.

TBH i've never actually heard of this. I've heard of people getting ear infections and losing balance and feeling sick.

Wishing you all the best @Stub Mandrel

Dave

[Stub Mandrel]

Thanks Dave

[Obrienp]

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

The little stones that tell you which way is where in your inner ear get loose and go walkies. Any movement and the world goes insane.

 

Improving with antihistamines and anti-nausea. I've just managed to go to the loo to wash and change. But little sleep in the noisy EAMU. Hope I get out today but still a bit unstable.

I’ve had this but not as acute as your episode. For what it’s worth, I eventually had to see a consultant because it kept recurring in a milder form (and still does a bit when I get run down). She gave me these exercises to do which basically  involve making yourself so dizzy that you nearly lose your breakfast. If you persevere, you eventually get your brain to compensate. It works. I could trust myself to ride a motorbike again and do all normal activities.  These days, you probably don’t need to see a consultant, you can probably find the exercises on t’internet, e.g. https://www.entuk.org/patients/conditions/93/cawthornecooksey_exercises/

 

Good luck and recover quickly!

Edited 6 hours ago by Obrienp

[Geek99]

55 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

I’ve had this but not as acute as your episode. For what it’s worth, I eventually had to see a consultant because it kept recurring in a milder form (and still does a bit when I get run down). She gave me these exercises to do which basically  involve making yourself so dizzy that you nearly lose your breakfast. If you persevere, you eventually get your brain to compensate. It works. I could trust myself to ride a motorbike again and do all normal activities.  These days, you probably don’t need to see a consultant, you can probably find the exercises on t’internet, e.g. https://www.entuk.org/patients/conditions/93/cawthornecooksey_exercises/

 

Good luck and recover quickly!

@Stub Mandrel

 

Partner had this, it’s called BPPV 

there is a reset exercise that you can do for yourself 

[Stub Mandrel]

Thanks, that's what they think it is and I will get follow up to learn the exercises. Problem is I'm consistentlt a bit sketchy on the eye follow finger tests so now waiting on mri to rule out stroke.