Wulf's Webden

The Webden on WordPress

5 June 2026
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Weathered Black

It has been a while since I bought a new bass – almost five years in fact (Squier Affinity Jaguar in August 2021). For various reasons, I’ve been thinking about getting myself a five string and today I decided to take a trip to The Music Inn in Nottingham. They have a pretty decent selection for an independent UK retailer but only 3 right-handed five strings so I had a go on all three.

The least expensive was an Ibanez GSR205 – not a bad instrument but not quite as many frets as I wanted and in a shiny, black finish that would quickly pick up fingerprints. At the other end of the scale was a beautiful sounding Yamaha BB 435 but not only was it more than I was ready to pay but it also had not enough frets and a shiny, black finish, albeit with white pickguard. That left an Ibanez SR305EB, also black but with a matt effect called “weathered black” that lets some of the wood grain be seen.

That was actually the instrument I was most interested to try after my researches. Other finishes may have swayed me if they had been in stock but it was a decent sound at a reasonable price and so that is the one I came away with:

Ibanez SR305EB

I’ll be spending some time playing it over the next few days and plan to give it a first outing as soon as possible.

4 June 2026
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Honeyberry Harvest

At the end of the summer in 2023 I purchased a couple of Honeyberry plants (variety ‘Aurora) – or Lonicera caerulea edulis if you want the horticultural Latin. Over the next couple of years I had a grand harvest of about 30g of the dark blue berries in total, which was a bit disappointing. I’m not sure if birds took a fancy or the fruit dropped of its own accord in periods I wasn’t paying enough attention. However, I’ve had about 300g off it this year – not the most abundant fruit bushes on my plot but enough to do something with.

Some sites describe it as having sweet berries with a honey aftertaste. Perhaps that is from a different variety? Mine are quite sour although, after something sour, the brain often creates an illusion of sweetness. I think the RHS is more correct, describing it as having ‘edible’ berries. I’ve largely been washing them and then freezing them in batches on a baking sheet – individually frozen fruits don’t clump together like a tub frozen together would. I think I’ll probably aim to make a jar of jam out of these – if I can balance the tartness with sugar, I think it should be delicious. Perhaps I’ll reserve a few to steep in gin or vodka though to make an experimental liqueur. Next year, assuming the yield goes up as the bushes increase in size (one is still smaller and lower yielding than the one that has come into its own), I should be able to do both.

3 June 2026
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Park Part II

I’m playing in a park (again) this evening. I’ll be back in Hathern for the “Praise in the Park” event happening as part of the villages “Big Week”. This comes out of a monthly event hosted by the parish church and normally that clashes with other events and rehearsals I have on. However, I know some of the people involved and, when the regular bassist realised they couldn’t make it, I got an invitation to join in.

There won’t be a lot of rehearsal time for this one but I’ve had the full set of music for a few days and most of them are songs I know very well so it should be (for want of a better phrase) a walk in the park!

2 June 2026
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Don’t Rush

Getting plants into the ground at the right time is quite a challenge. Often I end up leaving them in pots too long, so they get root-bound, and they don’t always recover fully from the experience. However, I wonder if I put my squash and courgette plants out at the allotment a bit early?

I put two varieties of squash and one type of courgette up there a couple of weeks ago. The courgettes were pretty weedy and only one seems to have survived although it has put on a bit of bulk. One variety of squash was fairly robust and is beginning to grow and the other was also fairly fragile – I even managed to snap one of the necks when planting out although it has survived having things tied round with some string and it might make it.

What made me ponder on this was that I had another plant of that latter, “Friulano”, squash that was late to germinate. I didn’t plant that at the same time but kept it growing on in the polytunnel and then, for the last few days after being potted up, on a shelf in the back garden. It is now by far and away the biggest of that variety and I planted it out at the allotment this morning. It wouldn’t surprise me if it turns out to be the best yielding of that bunch.

So, the lesson I think I need to learn is not only not to leave plants potted for too long but, with the ones grown from seed, not to rush them out too early.

1 June 2026
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Hathern Youth Bands

This evening we went to see the Hathern Youth Bands as part of Hathern Big week. They have about 50 children and young people regularly taking part and, although the very youngest (4-5 years old) have got a way to go, you can clearly see the progression in skill as they go up in age.

31 May 2026
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Efficient packing

I was pleased to be able to get the equipment I needed for each of today’s park gigs down a single load (thanks to my sack trolley and the cooler box I picked up last year).

One of the tricks was knowing what I could do without. For example, for this afternoon’s CSWO gig, I didn’t need a lot of effects, so I set up a few patches on my Zoom B3. That is a lot smaller than my Helix LT but, although it has a maximum of 3 effects at any one time, I could get everything I needed. Most of the gig was with an amp model and a touch of reverb. On one song (Birdland) I could enhance that with chorus and, on the most FX-heavy (a medley of 80’s tunes), I had one patch with a couple of blocks used to build a synth sound and another that let me add chorus and / or distortion to my basic modelled amp sound.

A little 3D printing also helped – rather than needing to lug a guitar stand, I have one I designed and printed last year that fits onto the sack trolley and holds my bass securely. It’s nice having more gear on hand sometimes but also great when things can be compressed down to a neat, portable package.

30 May 2026
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Park Life

Tomorrow, you will mainly find me playing live music in parks.

In the morning, I’m part of Hathern Baptist Church’s band for their service – held in the big marquee down at Hathern Park as part of the village’s “Big Week” events. That starts at 10:15am with pastries and light refreshments.

I would have liked to have stayed around for the open mic event in the afternoon but I need to make my way down to Queen’s Park in Loughborough, where the Charnwood Symphonic Wind Orchestra are performing from 2pm until a little after 3pm. There should be some excellent music although we will be a bit squeezed onto the bandstand – the band has grown a bit over the last year so, even though I’m on electric bass, I might need to hold it in quite an upright position!

29 May 2026
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String ’em up

Over the last couple of days, I’ve been getting tied up in knots. My mission has been to make use of the anchors I installed in the soil before planting out tomatoes in the polytunnel and running strings up to the support bar. At the moment, the plants are small and don’t need much support but they are putting on rapid growth. Coming out of the pot and into the soil will do that for many plants and tomatoes are particularly vigorous. Last year I injured my arm in mid-May and didn’t get the plants properly tied up; a decent amount of fruit but it would have been easier to tend to and harvest the plants if it hadn’t been such a jungle.

At the bottom, I’ve got an eyelet to tie through and I’ve opted for a bowline. It is a fairly simple knot (although I’ve had to spend some time revising it). It holds firm under load and should be possible to untie at the end of the season.

At the top, I need to fasten round a horizontal bar and add that load. For this one, I’m using an adjustable grip hitch. I don’t think I’ve mastered the tying of it and I’m not sure it is the best choice for some of the string I am using but (with the help of some hand drawn diagrams) I’ve made a reasonable job of it so far and it should improve as I practise with the remaining plants.

28 May 2026
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Gathered to Go

The Gathered to Go album I joined the choir for back in January got released this week. Officially it came out yesterday but it is propagating round various online platforms more slowly – the YouTube version came out today:

Every online play provides a fraction of a cent and sometime next spring I’ll be totting up all the plays of all the Jubilate and Resound Songs and using that to figure out how to split up what was actually received in the account so that artists get the right royalty payment. Online streams are good because they make it more likely that other people will also discover the songs but, having been behind the scenes for the first time, it is very clear that direct purchases support the charity and the artists much more. For that, see the Jubilate website.

One caveat – I think this is a great project with some fantastic songs but don’t expect to be able to pick out my voice in the choir parts (or perhaps that is a bonus!).

27 May 2026
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Southern Folk Rhapsody

Yesterday I pressed the button on a new piece of music for the concert band:

It combines a bunch of tunes I know fairly well but I suspect some of them (except Swing Low, Sweet Chariot) will be new to some of the my fellow players. What particularly attracted me though was that there is nothing particularly difficult about any individual part but there are some wonderful bits of orchestration as Michael Sweeney takes us from one piece to another. I think we can make a good job of it but I don’t think we’ll nail it on the first couple of tries… which is ideal for a piece that will make us work and get us to a worthwhile result.