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IME for the vast majority of musicians and composers, having a full time job is completely incompatible with making music for anything other than a bit of fun. You need to be able to be flexible with your time, often with no prior notice, in order to make the most of any opportunities that come you way, and also not be so exhausted at the end of the working day that you can then spend the rest of your waking hours working on writing, rehearsing, recording or playing gigs. From personal experience I have had the most success in my musical activities when I was able to be flexible with how I spent my time, first in the 80s when I was a student and then unemployed, and more recently since I went self-employed 15 years ago where I can set my own work/music split. I tried to do the same in the 90s when I had a "proper" job and it completely and utterly wore me down to the point that when the band split I did no new music for the next 3 years. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I guarantee you that they are rare or that they had some kind of financial safety net to fall back on or an organisation with musical contacts behind them. IME every new artist who appears out of nowhere has either already spent years being ignored or has an organisation behind them with strong music business roots.

There is always THIS bass/cello hybrid?

I don’t actually think we are disagreeing- but if in your era hard work, drive and sacrifice would lead to success and being able to do something as a career in a creative field. In my post 2008 crash era and more so now hard work, drive and sacrifice would look like working the crap job to give you flexibility to pour time into your creative field, hustle to try and monitise what you do, and chasing the algorithm to market yourself.

Perhaps you were posting in stereo without realising it. 😂 Dave

I'll leave this here Suno, AI Music, and the Bad Future sorry I don't seem to be able to embed YT from Edge browser, but I am not IT literate - so much stuff now seems to be dependent on doing stuff on the phone, which I don't do

planet smasher - devin townsend

sorry trying to embed/link to YT

Quite possibly..but it does say its a 300 watt combo, so I really don't quite get why they'd either make a smaller amp, or de power their existing 350 watt amp. People like a big amp even if they never turn it up beyond ten o'clock. Its a bit of an odd choice, but then, as others have said, its a bit of an odd combo....

Sounds as good as it looks. Stunning bass, and the way that the open E rings is just vintage Jazz bass all the way. Beautiful instrument, and as to those mistakes, aren’t they just ‘features’ of your custom bass?

Yes, I remember that too, and it was part of the process for some people (including me - I was on housing benefit for just over a year after graduating). But I also remember that it was fairly common for people who were good at what they did to succeed enough to be able to afford a home and a decent quality of life directly from their creative output. The difference is that you worked part time or went on the dole BUT channelled your energy into focussing on your creative goals, and - if you were good at what you did - you could relatively quickly move on from that and make a living from your creative work. Which is what me and my 4 flatmates, and countless other gen x people did. It wasn't great by any means, but the opportunities were there if you were driven enough. I studied a creative subject and graduated in 97. There were 35 people in my year group. Out of those 35, 33 ended up working in the creative industry, and did well enough to be able to buy homes, have kids, eat, go on holidays etc. The remaining 2 were crap and not interested anyway. Compare that with current numbers - out of a group of 35 talented and driven graduates from a high profile university, maybe 3 will get properly paid work in their chosen field, another 12 will do it for pocket money while doing a 'real job', and the rest will go into minimum wage retail jobs and at best, treat the subject they studied as an expensive hobby. (Source: I work at a high profile creative university). And in the last couple of years, with AI creeping in, even those numbers are looking optimistic. Ultimately it comes down to money - if you can make money from creative work, you will invest in tools to help you do it. If you can't, then the people making those tools won't have a customer base any more. Not just NI, but also Adobe and all the other big creative software players.

Love (most) of her stuff as a listener and I've played more than a few of her songs over the years and he bass lines feel comfortable and the kind of thing that I'd improvise/write. Lots of respect from me for SC.

I knew the pedal would be great. I love my Digbeth head. Your Shuker sounded amazing too!

Maybe it was mine. I think I did an NBD thread on it a while back.

There was a discussion on here a few years back - someone posted a link to some strings that suited a Cello, being plucked and played like a bass.... I searched, but couldn't find it. I must admit, I'm tempted to try it, as a cello would be much easier to lug about. I really like the sound in that Dead South song... if the instrument in the video is what has actually been used in the song.

Yikes - I'll be spending £3k (s/h) on a power supply for my network streamer in the forseeable! https://www.naimaudio.com/products/naps-555-dr (I was going to invite you round for a listen, but maybe not! 🙂 )

Hi all, thanks for the support and kind words about the new magazine. I'm super excited about being on board as editor of The Bassist. Our sample issue, a half-size publication designed to show people what we're doing, will be available on Feb 28 at the Guitar & Bass Show in Solihull -- come and say hi 🙂 Feel free to email me with suggestions for the mag at [email protected]. Oh, and you read it here first: the cover star of Issue 1 is a big one. Let's just say his name rhymes with, er, 'Teddy Dee' 😉 Cheers Joel

Get yourself over to YouTube and look up Paul Richard’s Milehouse Studios. He’s a self-taught luthier, based in Plymouth UK, who has videos on building guitars, but also videos on setting up cheap guitars to be “worldies”. He demonstrates fret rocking and also rectification of high frets in most of these videos (the are normally titled something like “Luthier vs Harley Benton” or something like that. Then again, if you are of a delicate constitution and easily offended, ignore this post and do not look up Milehouse Studios on YouTube 😂

To me, the point of vinyl is as much the physical side as the audible side. It’s the interaction of reading and admiring the art on the sleeve, taking the record out of its sleeve and placing it on the platter, turning it on and placing the needle, then sitting and listening to the first side, then you get to do most of that again to listen to the other side. Sound quality compared to another format is irrelevant. The only other existing formats that have a similar interaction are CD & Cassette.

I’m a bit young to know if it’s true, but I’m sure when I was younger I remember lots of bands, and visual artists living on the dole while they went after their artistic vision. since that’s not an option does it matter if their full time job makes their art possible? the reality is most the money has gone out of music for the producers - unless you chase the algorithm- the fact that people are still doing their thing and making things happen as a side hustle is a good thing- not a negative.

IME the biggest improvement most HiFi enthusiasts could do would be to give their listening environment some proper acoustic treatment. You might be able to minimise surface noise with expensive playback equipment, but there is nothing you can do to eliminate pops and clicks caused by damage or defects to the actual grooves of the record or fix a pressing that is off-centre. Most of the vinyl I want to listen to is 40-50 years old and exists in runs of no more than 500 copies, so trying to find a pristine example, if one even existed in the first place is an exercise in futility. The best I can do is record it onto my computer clean up the audio the best I can by drawing out the pops and clicks in the waveform and then sell the disc on to some other sucker.

Double post!!