All Activity

I`ve got tickets for Volbeat at Wembley Arena in a few weeks, at £50ish a very pleasant change to pricing, as most gigs are way more expensive. Volbeat are a pretty big band and I have in the past paid more for tickets for smaller bands so it`s refreshing to see a big band not try and max out their tickets. But then Volbeat seem to be fairly old school to me, release an new album/CD every couple of years and then tour it.

Sixty-odd quid is fairly reasonable to see a "name" band these days. I don't think they make as much money from selling music these days, thanks to streaming services, so have to make it from touring, which can't be cheap to do.

Heal up first. You'll remember more than you think when you return to the bass. I didn't play bass for two years during lockdown, and nearly quit altogether but thankfully I got back on the horse and it all came flooding back. Your bass playing will be fine and it can wait. Don't compromise your recovery by trying to do physical things before you're ready. I haven't ridden a bike for years, but I'm pretty sure I won't need my stabiliser wheels put back on...

I don't need a SS4, but that pink one is nice. For the right price, I might be tempted...

Fingers crossed, there might be one added next week.

Give an example of a novel problem... perhaps a room with twelve buttons and work out how to get out.* All problem solving is on a continuum between prior knowledge or trial and error. Solving a truly novel problem (where you have no prior knowledge ofwhat actions will achieve the desired effect) starts with trial and error Intelligence includes the ability to flexibly modify future behavior in the light of learned experience; anticipating future events; interpreting the behaviour and motivations of others; mapping abstract concepts onto reality and the reverse. And much more. *To be truly novel the solution should not reflect prior experience - something as simple as pressing the right buttons wouldn't be novel. Sorry just irrelevant musing... I'll shut up.

I'm intrigued when you say more bottom end for double-thumb. How do more frets equate to less low end?

Sonata Arctica on Sunday, and Battle Beast last night - both in Manchester. Sonata were still very good but I ended up drinking my way through their support bands. Last night was, however, exceptional. If you like cheerful metal and get the opportunity, definitely go and see Majestica, Dominum and Battle Beast.

I love paulownia - I have 2 basses with that, and I have all the parts to put together a paulownia body telecaster too - when I get round to it!

Bought a Kiwami from @Lunoxx - thanks again mate, superb pedal - which needed some TLC and a pot replacement. I’m no electronics engineer, but I know enough to replace parts like for like, and I’ve fixed a few circuit boards in my time. I jumped on the chance to get one of these mad filter pedals, and the repair was interesting. I detailed some of the job on here: https://www.basexperience.co.uk/new-frontiers-pedal-repair/ anyone else repair their own electronics? I learned a lot on this job, particularly about desoldering.

Looks good, definitely a Fallout competitor.

Don't go to a lot of gigs now; ticket prices aside, I honestly abhor the inconvenience and associated costs of the journey in and back (generally Reading to Landaan), the cost of getting a pint etc. Anyhoo...on to ticket prices. Guess I'm a little behind the curve here, but interest spiked when I read the happy news that Sugar had reformed and are doing two dates in London next May. Got the mailing list presale, no prices, navigated through that, no prices, tickets in basket, no prices, get to the end £62.10 a pop, plus a ticket agency fee. (God knows how the 10p element was calculated out.). At which point, I just shut down Firefox and went and made a coffee. My head was reeling... You're probably looking at £200+ to see a band play for 75 minutes. Old enough to remember going to see Rush at Hammersmith and the ticket was under £4.00. Five bands at the Lyceum for under £5.00. These prices seemed reasonable at the time, even adjusted for inflation.

I'm not sure it's possible to change a project with a midi cc message. You can certainly change a sequence with a cc message within a project It's a workaround, but it would quickly get very messy and confusing if you had multiple songs you wanted to arrange into a set within a project

I used to have a prejudice against basses that weren't 24 frets when I was younger (like 20 years ago...) - now I can see the utility, particularly for slap and getting more bottom end into that tone when playing double-thumb. These days the thing that makes me 🙄 is stuff like Facebook groups where people humblebrag about using Squiers. I do actually have a slight prejudice against Fender, over a decade ago I popped into a bass shop on Denmark st in London and tried a back-to-back comparison of 3 jazz basses - a squire, a fender standard, and a high end custom shop, and TBH through an identical amp, with identical EQ, I really couldn't hear enough difference between them to warrant the price of even the standard. Mind you, I wasn't spending a lot of time with each bass, so it's not like I was assessing the really quality points like hardware, finish etc. Just tone. I guess I've played long enough that my irrational prejudices are all around irrational prejudices, which probably means I've lost my edge 😄

Suzanne Vega... very good but no bassist. Cellist instead.

Just noticed the pink is Fandango pink. This is all I can think of... From Toast of London

Many thanks to Wayne for a great transaction. My old Trace Elliot 122H has gone to a loving home in the North East. Have confidence and faith in this guy - he's 100%.