Gig Report! Admiral Akbar with Red Panda 8/8/20

Hello fellow Brethren and Sisters of the Low Frequencies!

I present my first gig report - a gig report from Long Island, NY, which You may recall was once a hotbed of the Coronavirus pandemic. But — due to the perseverance of NY’ers during a prolonged government-issued lockdown, restaurants are re-opened with outdoor seating, limited indoor seating and... live music is slowly creeping back on the scene!

Last evening I had the pleasure to play with my band, Red Panda at Big Daddy’s Bar and Grill in Massapequa, LI. For anyone not in the know, Big Daddy’s is a renowned local spot for Cajun food and live Americana music (re: Blues, early rock and roll).

while this report will lack the car packing and drive, and the female fan contingent that one expects to find at places like Gilley’s in California where BassCliff’s bands play, I hope you enjoy these few pics and I hope that we all get back to regularly gigging in a safe environment!

this is our lead vocalist and guitarist extraordinaire, Jim. Jimmy is in full pandemic compliance with his face mask.


Here we have, Joanna a great musician who covered violin, backing vocals, percussion, and piano - J happens to be Jim’s lovely wife. Both Jim and J are my next door neighbors as fate would have it!

Here is Dan, our drummer. Dan, who is a great player with a nice feel, is also super picky about his and our performance. I love having Dan in the band because he keeps everyone honest and on our toes. Dan and I love to discuss jazz during breaks.

finally, here’s the bald bass player in the white Johnny Cash shirt. Also in full compliance with Covid 19, but as we played that mask came off. (We were outdoors with plenty of distance from each other and the audience.)

So - we played on the corner of the street, facing the restaurant, and our audience filled out two legs on either side of the restaurant as you can see here:

Here are some shots of my rig. I used my 2017 Sadowsky single cutaway 5 string, which is an absolute joy to play and a very versatile tone machine. This bass features the Sadowsky innovative bridge pickup, which allows the player to switch between 60’s and 70’s bridge pickup position. Very cool, and really highlights the tonal difference pickup position makes between 60’s and 70’s Fender jazz Basses.
I also used a Jerry Jones 1988 Bass 6, which is his version of the Danelectro “longhorn” Bass 6 used on so many country records back in the day. My longhorn is strung with labella flats and provides the best of two worlds: meat and potatoes vintage bass sound and upper register guitar-like chords and soloing. The Bass 6 is great in a smaller band setting, such Red Panda.
For amplification, I used a Noble preamp into Bergantino B|Amp into Bergantino HT and HD112. Here’s a pic of my pedalboard, which made its gigging debut last night:

Finally, here are some random pics of the setup dance and a band shot:
Thanks for reading and hope to post more and hope to read more gig posts from you guys! (Hint, hint @BassCliff

 

Ah ha - yes a few cars did stop and snap pictures and honk. It was cool.

 

Thank you - we are doing it again this Wednesday but on a real stage!

 

Yes - the parking lot is an atypical place to play, but we made it work. We had a great time performing - it’s been since March, so I think we would’ve performed in the middle of Beirut if we could!

 

Yeah - cool vibe at a Big Daddy’s, right? Nice to see Big Daddy’s returning strong post-COVID. As far as our precarious location, we managed to avoid any incoming traffic!

 

It is interesting - I wouldn’t call it the sexiest bass Id ever seen, but man it plays great and sounds fantastic! It is super comfortable and tonalky is a Swiss Army knife of an instrument. Roger Sadowsky knows how to make tone happen so consistently.

 

Thank you, nixdad—we had a great time for sure!

as far the longhorn - it’s technically a “bass”, as it is strung in the same octave as a regular 4 string bass, but with the extra B and E on top (same as guitar but an octave lower.)

I used on tunes like Velvet Underground’s Rock an Roll, reggae tunes, even funk. It seems to excel when used with a pick - it gets Avery aggressive tone. Really cool. Effects: usually just Cali76 compressor, but also I will use traditional guitar effects like chorus, overdrive, reverb. Speaking of chorus, I cracked the circuit board tony beloved 80’s Ibanez CS9 after the gig, sigh. But I love the instrument and it allows me to “wear a different hat” at the gig. Still very much a “traditional” bass, but it opens up a lot of areas to be creative and contribute to the music!

 

Yes! The Chase Bliss is a fascinating reverb with lots of delicious options to consider - I love it for regular reverb and for more creative stuff as well. The fact your son has this and is going to grow with it is even more exciting!

you are quite right about The bass 6. Early on, the 2 most popular were the Danelectro and the Fender Bass VI (there was a Gibson earlier, but it failed to catch on compared to the Dano and Fender). To my ears, The Fender is more twangy and the Dano is more “bassy”. Both were used in lots of country sessions to double the upright bass (tick-tack bass) to help the bassline pop out more in a track. But they were also used on Beach Boys, Beatles, the Cure, and many other applications.

I think the reason both the Longhorn and Fender are still niche instruments is because most traditional electric bassists aren’t into the short scale and tight string spacing and don’t want to make adjustments to the bass 6, and guitarists who could play a bass 6 do not necessarily want to play bass!

 

Hey Chris!

I have not tried the hyper luminal at all. Actually in full disclosure, what brought me to the Cali 76 was Talkbass. It seemed nearly every other picture of a pedal board had a Cali76 somewhere on it. In the case of “praise and worship” pedal boards, nearly everyone had a Cali76, lol.. so I figured why not I’ll give it a shot! ... I’m glad I did. The Cali very gently “evens out” the bass tone, and presents your bass as it you would imagine it would sound on a studio recording. Basically, I leave the Cali on the entire time I’m playing, it’s a very musical and sensitive pedal that you don’t notice it’s there... prior to the Cali, i haven’t used much compression at all, but when I would, it would be an old Boss CS-2. Do you play the hyper luminal?

 

Wow - I would LOVE to hear a Ric with flats and a pick. Altho I play fingerstyle 85% of the time, I love the sound of bass played with a plectrum... especially on flats!