How was your gig last night?

[dmccombe7]

9 hours ago, tauzero said:

Boxing Day gig for The Bonnevilles at the Anker Inn in Weddington, on the borders of Nuneaton. Rather empty when we started - and it was an early start, at 6pm. We had a guest singer to do the inter-set break - she's become a regular fixture at our gigs, through doing open mics that our BL runs. She used backing tracks off her phone until the last song, when we accompanied her for "Creep". The second set had rather more of an audience, with a few of them dancing. Our guest singer came back on towards the end of our set to do "Sweet Child O' Mine". It was during that that I noticed that my wireless was showing battery low, so while she was getting back off the stage (it might only be 15cm high but it's a real stage) I switched wirelesses. Then we had a couple more songs, and into the final one, "Tulane". We were about 3/4 of the way through when the guitar cut out. The drummer and I carried on playing, singer carried on singing, guitarist was going over his pedalboard and amp trying to find the problem, singer did the band introduction for all of us, and then, just after he'd introduced the guitarist, the guitar suddenly burst back into life (guitarist told me afterwards he had no idea what had happened, it just started working again) and we finished off.

 

 

Antoniotsai dragon 5-string -> Lekato and M-Vave wirelesses -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> Tecamp Puma 900 -> GR Bass AT212. The usual Caravelle memory foam trainers.

Just curious but do you all ride Bonnies ?

Dave

[ezbass]

38 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Gorgeous looking bass.

Dave

Thank you. It is my original, Maruszczyk, custom build (33" scale, passive). It fell out of favour for about the last 3 or 4 years, as I was not digging fretless (except upright) at all, especially that MM fretless tone. However, I took it to rehearsal as I was feeling a bit sorry for it and, in a band mix, with some drive, it sounded awesome, bordering on Ric like. Since then I've used nothing else live. It's the easiest neck to play of all my basses and with the drive always on, I just ride the tone control for different tunes for everything from reggae and Motown, to full on The Jam, treble heavy, aggressive tones. I'm (currently) a very happy bass player.

[Obrienp]

3 hours ago, ezbass said:

Thank you. It is my original, Maruszczyk, custom build (33" scale, passive). It fell out of favour for about the last 3 or 4 years, as I was not digging fretless (except upright) at all, especially that MM fretless tone. However, I took it to rehearsal as I was feeling a bit sorry for it and, in a band mix, with some drive, it sounded awesome, bordering on Ric like. Since then I've used nothing else live. It's the easiest neck to play of all my basses and with the drive always on, I just ride the tone control for different tunes for everything from reggae and Motown, to full on The Jam, treble heavy, aggressive tones. I'm (currently) a very happy bass player.

I’m a Maruszczyk fan boy too. My Elwood 4a 32” is the nicest instrument I have ever owned and the neck is amazing. If money wasn’t an issue, I would have a Jake 32” in a flash. A Mensinger with a MM style pick up would be next. Just great gigging basses.

[tauzero]

4 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Just curious but do you all ride Bonnies ?

Dave

 

Just me, the BL has downsized to a Speed 400 from a T120, the guitarist is a former biker but I think it was mainly two-strokes. In the other band, Dirty Roses, two of us have Triumphs - it was three but the guitarist sold his T595. Still, I've got two Bonnies and have had four previous ones so the average Bonnie ownership across the two bands is 0.75.

[Leonard Smalls]

1 minute ago, tauzero said:

Bonnie ownership

But is it Real Bonnie Ownership?

I mean the sort that had chocolate electrics and leaked oil all over the garage floor, none of that It Just Works rubbish!

😁

I speak as owner of a bike that desn't leak, but had chocolate electrics until I changed 'em... Though I did become an expert in roadside carb-dismantling!

[tauzero]

Just now, Leonard Smalls said:

But is it Real Bonnie Ownership?

I mean the sort that had chocolate electrics and leaked oil all over the garage floor, none of that It Just Works rubbish!

😁

I speak as owner of a bike that desn't leak, but had chocolate electrics until I changed 'em... Though I did become an expert in roadside carb-dismantling!

 

The first three were Meriden Bonnies, the last three were Hinckleys (plus a Scrambler 900 which is part of the Bonnie family). I improved the electrics on the old ones by putting silicon bridge rectifiers in to replace the dodgy originals, and once I seated the pushrod tube seal properly there were no leaks.

[dmccombe7]

23 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

The first three were Meriden Bonnies, the last three were Hinckleys (plus a Scrambler 900 which is part of the Bonnie family). I improved the electrics on the old ones by putting silicon bridge rectifiers in to replace the dodgy originals, and once I seated the pushrod tube seal properly there were no leaks.

Side-tracking the thread here but one last quickie question. Are modern Bonnies ok. Gonna sell the Harley next year for something a bit smaller and Bonnie was on my list.

Dave

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, Obrienp said:

I’m a Maruszczyk fan boy too. My Elwood 4a 32” is the nicest instrument I have ever owned and the neck is amazing. If money wasn’t an issue, I would have a Jake 32” in a flash. A Mensinger with a MM style pick up would be next. Just great gigging basses.

This is one i quite fancy but new car has put a hold on any new basses for a bit altho i'm about to sell off some of mine.

[ezbass]

3 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

This is one i quite fancy but new car has put a hold on any new basses for a bit altho i'm about to sell off some of mine.

Mmm, a Waluszyczk.

[tauzero]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

Side-tracking the thread here but one last quickie question. Are modern Bonnies ok. Gonna sell the Harley next year for something a bit smaller and Bonnie was on my list.

Dave

 

Yes - try before you buy though, there's quite a few variants and you might find a Speedmaster or Bobber suits you better than a T120 or Speed Twin. The 1200 engine has plenty of torque.

[Greg Edwards69]

The Cricketers in Westcliff last night. Not a bad night at all considering it’s the Saturday after Christmas, the weekend before payday, and miserable weather. It would have been nice if it had been busier, but we had a decent enough, appreciated crowd (including my mum who’s flown over from Spain to stay with us over Christmas who rarely get’s to see us play).

 

The lovely Hazel was stepping in Jenny’s shoes with co-lead vocal and did a great job as ever. It was also my first one since Halloween due to afore mentioned shenanigans. I was a little apprehensive at first, and indeed a leading up to the gig and whether I should do it or not, as I need to avoid getting ill, considering I start radiotherapy in a week's time. But I've felt a little niggle in my throat like something's brewing for a few days, so doing this gig wasn't going to change anything. If I get a cold, it won't be from the gig. Besides, I'm being mindful of who I mix with and obsessive with hand sanitizer! It was a good job I didn't do last week's gig, as half the band had the lurgy at the time!

 

Set up and soundcheck was painless and we played well - I was quite chuffed with myself considering I haven't played in earnest for a couple of months. The end of the night after our planned set had finished got interesting. People wanted a Xmas one, so muscle memory got me through Slade that I hadn't played for 12 months. Then improvised our with through 'My Girl' and 'Don't look back in anger' that we'd never played before. You'll be plaased to know I turned and faced the corner in shame during the latter whilst playing it. 

 

The next gig is at the same venue in a month's time. I'm still aiming to do it if I'm well enough, but after that, it's in the lap of the gods.

[Woodinblack]

Quite local pub last night for an early evening gig (or 7-10). Setup and found I forgot the iPad so dashed home to get it, seeing as I had already setup everything. Looked like it was going to be a quiet night, there were actually 2 people in the room when we started!

Luckily after a song, another group of 6 people came in and then some more afterwards. By song 5 it was actually pretty busy, although it is a fairly small room. 

The drum kit lights had broken so I put my aliexpress bar light across the front and it worked really well.

 

All in all a good gig and the last we need to do christmas songs for!