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news of the world - the wildhearts

Read About It - Midnight Oil

Sorry, long gone now

What do BC'ers use if/when mic'ing a bass cab live? I'm not after anything overly expensive. It's for occasional use (alongside the wonderful valve DI in the TT800). I've watched a good few videos and am drawn to the Behringer C112 - alongside the DI signal. Any other ideas/thoughts?

News of the World - The Jam

It's funny how people who differ over whether 10" speakers sound better than 15's and upgrade pickups on perfectly good basses also differ over vinyl and CD's If like me you have a collection of vinyl at home and just want to play it on something that won't degrade it any faster than you have to then any of the modern £500ish turntables will do the trick. I'd probably avoid vintage decks just because these are mechanical devices with bearings that wear. I want something I can use for the next 20 years without having to source parts. Once you get into hearing the difference it depends upon the cartridge you are using and the amp and speakers. There's no point sonically spending £1500 on a turntable if the speakers aren't equally revealing. The argument for the used Linn is surely that you like the way it looks and you can get your money back if you sell it whilst the poeple who lusted for them 40 years ago are still alive and feeling stirrings (note to self: sell that old Sex Pistols single) FWIW I have a Rega Planar 2 with the better tone arm fitted, can't remember which one. I've had it for years and have only had to replace the belt and needle. You don't have to replace the whole cartridge but spare needles aren't always available for such old gear. I've gone from Thorens TD160 (rumbled like hell) to a Pioneer 12D to the Rega. I used the Technics 1200 in my disco days. A mate has the Linn with the top arm at the time and the external power supply. It did sound better than mine in the shop but not through his amp and speakers. We spent many happy hours comparing systems to find that some records sounded great on his system and others better on mine. Nowadays we do almost all of our listening via streaming but it is nice sometimes to get the vinyl out and wallow in nostalgia, definitely worth spending £500 on that. Go for a decent cartridge though, it makes more difference than the turntable and will conserve your vinyl. Then just love what you have, if you've ever played bass with a drummer I doubt your hearing is still 100% anyway.

Death Star - Sufjan Stevens

Absolutely - they're just little individualities which make it a little different and more distinct. At the end of the day, what counts is how it plays and sounds, and it plays and sounds epic.

I didn't know that they did a fretted version! .. that must be a recent thing? What gig bags/cases do people use for these? I had a rok sak bag that it just about squeezed into, but it's a pretty long bass... (I think it comes in 2 sizes? Full scale and medium...) Recently found that the Ritter Carouge Acoustic Bass Guitar Bag (RGC3-AB) is a pretty good fit!

I'm curious about that as well. Someone on a Dutch bass forum that I frequently visit has just imported one of the Indonesian SB700's from Japan in a sale and I'm looking forward to his review. He hasn't said a lot about it yet, other than it's a good and very solid bass, plays great, but the ergonomics and the way it balances require some getting used to (coming from mostly FSO's). Looks very authentic, appears to have the same barely-tapered string spacing as the original (he measured 17 mm at the bridge and it's not exactly narrow at the nut).

Got a few of her albums and she's fantastic, a great voice and a fantastic songwriter John 😎

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.