"Now, where's the Bass?"

I decided to help out the Country Club at a gig they had won at the Heyfield Show, more accurately: The Great Victorian Camp Oven Festival. We had to fill the time from Midday to 4:00 pm.

As is usual on Saturday, I rose late and just packed what I needed and headed off at 11:00 arriving at 12:00. The first question I'm asked is "Where's the Bass?". A really fine question which left me rather wanting, I'd forgotten to bring it along!

Ever the trouper, I set up my gear and just played the low strings on the Stratocaster with a bit of bass boost. Pretty ordinary really. A few songs later I found the solution. I used the 'Octave Dropper section on the ME-50 effects unit and voila, a real Bass. The only thing I had to be careful of was to only play a single string at a time otherwise the sound scrambled, a clear case of too much information.

We had to take a few breaks, as Channel 8 was filming and we were making too much noise! They were filming the 'Fastest Billy Boiling Competition'.

I did two solo sets and played 'Bass' for the remainder of the time.

We had plenty of room performing and the back of a semitrailer out of the sun and with a bit of a cool breeze every now and then. The only catch was that the stage was two semi-trailers deep with a cavernous drop between the two for those anyway enough not to look where they were going. A gap of about 30 centimetres.

As I was packing up, I heard the first of the ute's performing the 'Loudest Ute Competition'. Where's the EPA when you need them?

The most enjoyable part of the afternoon, technically speaking, was the husband and wife team running the P.A. system. Very professional and a joy to work with. They had their 'finger on the pulse' all the time and always helped anyone who wasn't quite sure what was going on. Owen was the man and he was commissioned to do the sound for the John Lawrence Band which were performing that night. Lucky for us he was there. The band showed up while we were there but we weren't introduced.

A most pleasant afternoon.