Confessions of a Bass Wanker

Smashed it up at Grand Central, Manchester last night, that was a wicked gig!! My bass & Mike’s guitar sounded sick, Jim’s guitar lacked definition & punch but no change there, eh?

The crowd was good aswell, alot og friendly faces & people getting into the music!!

Now, the important bit, what was I running? Well, my rig’ had a couple of recent changes, I was running my Demonator into a Korg Pitchblack tuner, Octaver, Ashdown Hyperdrive, Bass Big Muff, USA Big Muff, Sansamp into my Hartke head & Marshall cab… really sounded angry & cut through well, enough low end to hold it all down, but enough mids & top for clarity & punch!!

Can’t wait to tear it up on Tuesday!!

Well, well, well, look who’s got a couple of blog update for ya!!

Friiiiiday, not only was it my 20th, BUT we also got to tear it up at Scrufft Murphys in Birmingham!! Was a pretty epic gig tbh, got to run through a Marshall 810 cab, much like a certain Mr Shaw’s cab, now I’ve used one before when gigging with S2O at the Rigger, so, I knew it’d sound good!! Now, the one & only Jenny Tate was in the audience, so we thought we’d give her a taste of some new material, we’d only just written “Godless” the other week & we busted it out & it sounded fuckin’ ace live!!

Onto Saturday, well, it was pretty wicked, I actually got complimented by a sound guy for once XD (the rather awesome Pat Bonner!), well, this gig went down a storm, & it was being filmed, & recorded, soooo, expect something in the near future!! We even got to play Children of the Revolution, wich IMO, we make sound epic & fuckin’ mega!!

Last night we played at Dantes in Crewe, with the one & only, Fury UK, we played a good set, the bass cabs I was using sounded pretty good, even though I don’t like Ashdown stuff, I got a pretty damn good sound out of my rig. The sound guy was sick!! Seriously, awesome to work with!!

Performance & crowd wise? Well, we played well, & the crowd dug us wich was awesome. But, we did kinda get blown outta the water by Fury UK IMO, shit me those guys are good!! Even did a great cover of Heaven & Hell!!

Next stop, Brum, April 8th, should be a good night!

Not been home long from playing the King Billy in Northampton, wicked venue!! Gotta run through an Ampeg 810 aswell… I sounded phat!! Really like that cab, hopefully I can find one that’s pretty battered goin’ cheap.

Other thoughts on the gig? Well, we played well, & the crowd just fuckin’ rocked!!

Anywho, I’m propper fucked, so I’ll pros hit the sack & text someone awesome (Y) hopefully should have some gear pictures up soon aswell (we all know that’s what you wanna see).

Well, hello there!! This weekend we had a couple of gigs lined up, one at the Fiddlers Elbow, in London, & one at Watercress Harry’s in Kettering.

So, got a lift to Nick’s place for like, 9 on saturday morning, as I was waiting for Jim & Tom to get there, started getting in abit of practice doing 16th notes etc with one finger… fuck is it hard!!! A dead cool technique, but hard to get the up/down strokes right when going across all the strings, it’s abit like getting alternate picking down again, but with a finger.

Anywho, epic drive down to London, with much dicking about, we stopped off in Northampton for a bite… That place has great burgers!!

We got into London at about 4ish, I think, one of the bands playing had already got there, & they seemed like pretty decent blokes, brought a bass amp with them, put I’d brought my head & cab, so there’s no way in hell I wouldn’t be using them. Soundcheck was abit strange, but cool, & I actually got told to turn up!!

Then, it came to show time (we where second on, after the band that had gotten to the venue before us), on goes the Big Muff & the overdrive. C#, C#, little pentatonic run, we’re all working. Then we kick into Freek, wich went down a storm!! After that, well, the rest of the set was great, sounded tight like a virgin’s fanny! The bass, drums, guitars & vocals all had a great space in the mix. All the rest of the guys really played well un’all & the crowd was awesome!!

Mostly everyone seemed to enjoy the set, espesh when we kicked into Highway Star… Wich is always fun anyway. After that, we had a beer or two, loaded out our gear & I completely failed! (Y)

So, from London we drove North, up the M1 to Northampton, so we could crash on Nick’s cousin Ty’s sofa, we had an epic night of mocking, joking, & sleeping followed by a morning of chilling & eating bacon & sausage butties (cooked by our awesomly awesome manager Kev!), wich as then followed by walking around Northampton, trying to find something to do, as all the guitar shops  where shut, yes, you guessed it, we ended up in the pub!

Afew beers laters Paul (Nick’s wicked dad) rolled up & offered up buy us all some food before the gig (due to him being a total & very very generous legend). After eating, we headed for Kettering, loaded in & set up, sound checked & got ready to play… We played two 45 minute sets, wich really does take it out of you! After getting all nice & sweaty, we packed all our kit away for the epic drive home.

Me, Jim & Mike all piled into the Clio, & went in search for petrol, we managed to find the Shell Garage & fill up, before wacking on some lovely pop punk & heading for home, afew texts, album, & one piss stop later, we where all back in Stoke… pretty much ready to pass out, get some sleep, & head out on the road again at the next possible chance!!

Well, was gigging on friday & sunday, friday was alright, got abit pissed at the sound guy, fucking asking me to turn down the mids, lost a shitload of growl & punch, then he tried to dick about with my pedals… wich AIN’T happening!!

Was an alright gig apart from that, we played well & shizz.

Sunday was mega, gigged with a couple of awesome bands, the first one was Revelation, this guys kick serious ass, the guitarist reminded me of a combination of Mark Morton & Guthrie Govan… yes, he was THAT good, & the bass player reminded me alot of Arif from Protest, the singer was awesome, bloody gorgeous voice, cute as fuck too, so that’s all good.

Got practice later, gonna throw a TS onto my board & swapout my phaser for a flanger, hopefully get some cool dirt on the go, & do something cool with the flanger in Children of the Revolution… Still want a fuckin’ ring mod & some mega gain though.

Well, today I scored a Tele body, made from god knows what, but it’s got some fair weight to it, thanks to Rich “The Guitar Doctor”, & an old BC Rich neck (25.5” scale, so it should intonate propper) & it fits!! So that’s the body & neck/nut/tuners sorted, now just the rest of the hardware & electronics.

Thinking something like a single ‘bucker, or a bucker & a single running with one volume pot, into a Big Muff built into the guitar (bathtub route, so it should fit with a little luck) & a mini toggle switch for turning the fuzz on/off (Y)

Although, this does look pretty cool, & might sound good: http://www.guitarfetish.com/assets/images/thumbs/gfsprlihupic.jpg