Leaderboard

I so much agree with this observation that I wish I could lay claim to its genesis. In the fullness of time, perhaps I will. Moreover, I would contend that the pasteurisation of rock music has been one of a number of factors which have contributed to its decline in popularity. Let us consider the two most currently dominant genres: rap (in all its forms) and pop R&B. Are the pre-eminent practitioners of these styles "over the top, flamboyant, tastelessly rich and contentious"? Why, yes, indeedy. These people are - to coin a phrase - absolutely fabulous. They exude excess, reek of sex and they are coining it in. Contrast the rappers and the pop-stars with their po-faced, middle-class pygmy cousins in Rock, weeping their bitter tears of empathy, flaunting their jejune isshoos and their terribly-worthy-but-oh-so-dull causes. In particular the British end of Rock reminds one of the sort of vicarage tea-parties one attended in one's youth where disapproving drabsters sat around in a circle, sporting faces like a cat's bottom and droning on about the fragmentation of society and how simply awful everything is and patting themselves on the back about knitting socks for the poor black babies in Africa. Of course, Metal's different but then it always is and always has been. Thankfully there exists still in Metal a spark of free-booting rebellion and roaring non-conformity. Metal fans are rather like Millwall supporters, I suppose; everyone hates them but they don't care. I digress. What it really comes down to is that by embracing the mimsy-ish, pursed-lipped sort of attitudes that would have met with the nodding approval of my Great Grandmother the rockers of today have utterly p1ssed on their own chips. At some point in the 1990's Rock (and its audience) turned its nose up at strong liquor, recreational narcotics, indiscriminate fornication and public urination; perhaps it's what genres do when they enter middle age. Rock entered a spiritual winter from which it is yet to emerge; as Mr David Coverdale once remarked: 'Dark days for a cocksman; dark days indeed'. With fun out of the window, Rock needed to find another driver; sadly, it alighted upon 'hope'. Brandishing a rag-bag of causes such as sub-Saharan drought, gender oppression and that awful woman in Burma who turned out to be a wrong 'un (told ya) the prosing rock bores and their ghastly celebrity chums ultimately laid the foundations for the anodyne little squirts who currently prance around rock, tearfully unburdening themselves of matters of conscience while studiously avoiding giving offence or frightening the horses. Commercially, around about 1996 rock cut off its own balls and it's been on the slide ever since, and no wonder. For while today's young people may very audibly bang on about their 21st century snowflake concerns I suspect that behind their masks of passive conformity they secretly yearn to lay beside a sun-drenched pool, counting their millions while an exotically tattoo'd midget shovels the purest cocaine up their surgically enlarged nostrils, this even as a giggling bevy of naked beauties of the opposite (or same) sex disport themselves in the jacuzzi, every one of them off their shining, youthful little faces on Kristal and ketamine, and frankly gagging for it. And that's why Rap and R&B sell and Rock doesn't. Rock doesn't seem to realise there's no money in being a boring prude. So f**k Rock; Gene Simmons can try to keep the fire alive but the faux-rockers have taken over. There are filthier, more sporting musical genres out there if one knows where to look. I leave the last word to Mr Richard (Little Richard) Penniman. In his autobiography he describes a post-gig dressing-room encounter with Mr Buddy Holly. Does Little Richard expiate upon Mr Holly's social views or his politics or his privilege? Not at all. For while Mr Holly engages in athletic coition with a proto-groupie upon the dressing-room couch Mr Penniman observes that Buddy has 'the biggest c0ck I ever saw on a white boy'. That, my dears, is Rock (and Roll).

I remember a few year's ago we auditioned a singer, we gave him two weeks to learn six very well known songs, anyway, when he turned up, he had his girlfriend with him who sat in the corner of the rehearsal room, we asked him which of the songs he wanted to start with, he hesitated and after a long pause, he finally suggested one but then said he would have to have listen to it on his phone first to remind him how the song went, obviously we all looked each other fearing the worst, and sure enough, he didn't have a clue how the song went, so we then suggested trying one of the other songs and exactly the same thing happened, luckily for us, his girlfriend stood up and said to him, "come on, let's go, you haven't even learn't the songs, have you? you are wasting these guy's time", she then apologised to us all and proceeded to march him out of the room, I don't think I would have wanted to be him on the way home.

So I finally got my Elwood custom! It was a long 16 weeks but wow is it worth it - everything about it exactly as I wanted! Some specs 32"Medium Scale Haussel pickups Series/parallel switch Seafoam green with matching headstock And of course, here's a picture

Bought the acg-eq-01. Spent an evening fiddling around trying to fit it inside the bass; completely changed my mind the next day and in a couple of hours, with a little bass surgery (dremel, sanding disk, lots of Padouk dust) IT'S IN!! Now have a bass with EIGHT KNOBS (and three switches which do nothing but fill holes). The suprising thing is the bass frequencies - I'd expected clearer high frequencies (passive setups load the pickups' inductance and lose high frequency content) but what really stands out is the extra and clearer bass, and the control of it via the filter gain adjustment. Also, even if you go for a lot of bass and high frequency cut, then high frequency pass-through allows harmonics and "pick attack" to come through. I honestly reckon that the acg-eq-01 is better than the much fabled electronics in my Wal .. and would love to hear what a Wal would sound like with East tronics in it ... not that I'm about to vandalise my own one to find out!

I am so lucky right now. After years of really quite deeply unpleasant personalities I've found a keeper. I turned up at the audition and she met me at the car and started to help carry my gear into the rehearsal. Brought me drinks, paid for food and drives the band to gigs, has zero ego I can detect and rehearses every bit as hard as any musician I've ever known and considerably harder than most. Buys lots of expensive equipment, organises rehearsals, books gigs, helps pack down, works really hard on stage. Despite having the vocal ability to be the absolute focal point of any band she sees herself as the equal of us all. Even the drummer which I think is being unnecessarily hard on herself.

An empty guitar case will often get you into a gig for free.

I don't know if this has been posted before, but I found it interesting. Yes, I'm sure that there are other basses that could've (should've?) been included, but it does what it says on the tin. For my part, I thought the P was the best all rounder, YMMV.

Those Wilsons don't sound any better than many speakers at 5% of that price, if not less. They're not marketed to people who know what good sound is, they're marketed to people who equate quality with price and don't know that the one doesn't necessarily give you the other.

You may jest but I expect that Mr Jeff Bezos is even now contemplating opening a distribution warehouse somewhere in South America, this to be staffed by indigenous Amazonian headhunters. He will doubtless pay them with cheap trinkets and gew-gaws as did the colonials of old; the natives in turn will fête Bezos as a God and erect fetishes in his honour. It will all go swimmingly until Bezos one day oversteps some arcane, unspoken religious rule or observance; then - sickened of their labour and his exploitation - Amazon's Amazon Indians will rise up as one and hunt Bezos down, tearing him to bloody rags with their spears and their sharpened, pointed teeth. Capitalism's not all beer and skittles, you know.

I don't play guitar either, but I suspect that I'm just weird anyway.

Great donner and chips from Peter Pans and a great gig at Wangies pretty much next door to each other in the parish of Eccles has restored order to the universe. A dead light and a speaker handle needing repair couldn't dampen our spirits with not having to go to McDonalds for apres gig feasting.

What I do is find notes in the phrase where the vocals and the bass match up (timing wise). Then practice the bass line whilst hitting those vocal notes. Then fill in the gaps. But yes, lots of practice as well.

for a start, he opens with "respectfully", so he's not being as much of an chocolate starfish as people are making out. It's just his opinion based on his (no small) experience. I like Kiss, as they're a band with a mid-level talent, but great showmanship who have undoubtedly left their mark. I wonder if the Kiss naysayers are a touch jealous a la Adam Clayton.

I think you would be better served with a pre-owned Ibanez or Yamaha

I was at my daughters house the other day and asked her for a newspaper. ' Blimey get with the times Dad' she said as she passed me her iPad thing..... .....I'll tell you what, that bluebottle didn't know what the **** had hit it

People using band rehearsal to learn the songs

Important to note two specifics here. Guitar case and guitarist. Not bass case or bassist. 😜 Which leads me nicely to another tip; An empty banjo case will often get you into a gig for free - as long you inform the bouncer that the case is actually empty.

If you have to hide bass purchases from your significant other, walk out with an empty case saying you're taking a bass to the tech to look at. Come home with that new bass you wanted that she who must be obeyed had denied you

He always struck me as a colossal bell end.

I have fallen into one of those traps, where you see people making guitars and think, 'well, how hard can it be'. Luckily I am not stupid enough to actually believe that and assume it is harder than the talent I have, but regardless, I have decided to give it a try. So I am going to build what I want, and what I can't get, which is the shape of an Ibanez Fireman, which is an Ibanez iceman turned upside down, with a bit of a cutaway for the high frets. Also a narrow string spacing, 10mm at the sharp end and 15mm at the blunt end. No-one makes any of this (the Ibanez fireman is a Paul Gilbert signature guitar with no bass option), so my only option is doing it myself. Obviously I have to build the body myself as there aren't any (actually there are some on eBay but a lot of money and the wrong pickups), but I am not building a neck as that sounds like the step that I haven't got near yet, so I bought a neck off eBay with a paddle headstock so I can cut it like an iceman (for some reason the fireman has the iceman headstock, i.e., upside down), and luckily Ibanez did make a 5 string iceman so I know how they did that. And I have an iceman so I can measure it! Here is the neck Not the highest quality but it is straight and does have a truss rod, so that is a start. I have a cad program too, so I have drawn out the shape I want: And cut it out on plywood as a template to see how it works out sidewise. The only slight problem there is I don't know about the neck join, because turning the iceman upside down you have to cut a shape out to get the high fret access, but obviously the iceman has the cutaway on what is now the top side, whereas I need it at the bottom. Wing it I guess. I also have 2 matched bits of poplar of the right size coming from eBay, and a router from basschat. Tools wise I have a drill, jigsaw, workbench, sander, files, chisels and a few other bits and pieces. And no talent at woodworking that has ever surfaced. So, because I am one for starting something and not finishing, I thought I would put it on basschat so that a) you get to laugh at my incompetence, b) people can suggest when I am doing something really stupid and c) I can be hassled into doing something. So what could possible go wrong?.....

Just got one of the above second hand. Bought it out of curiosity as I once had a Chibson 335 that was a beast of a guitar. I quite like this LP. Plays and feels well but could do with a tweak here and there. Sounds good but will take some getting used to as it just sounds and feels so different to the Fenders I'm used to. The E string sounds mellower than the others but may be the strings (the E looks a bit different than the rest). I'll change them and see what happens. The string spacing is great for me and and as a result it's really easy to play. The only real problem is that it's gold! I don't do gold The guitarist has a Gold Top too! The thought of two gold guitars on the same stage makes me cringe! I'm sure that if it was put next to a real Gibby there would be a vast difference but on it's own merit, it's a decent bass. It could be a keeper but the gold would have to go! Anybody else found a decent Chibson? Low light pics. Will get some more detailed ones up in better light.

If you don`t need really sharp highs then those 7250Ms should work fine, they give a real good Precision sound. I love them but they`re just not sharp enough for what I do in my band, but for the traditional Precision sound, well you can see why Fender ship their basses with them on, great sounding strings.

Absolutely, couldn't agree more. And so much kinder to frets too.....

That's great! Cheers bud

OK, I'll play too.

Hi Having borrowed Pete's piccolo bass for the SW Bass Bash and having not yet delivered the 6-string electric I've just finished for my sister-in-law, I had a once-off opportunity to photo the three related lightweight builds together. Here they are: Left to right: The piccolo bass designed and built for our band's bassist Pete. Tuned to guitar pitch but sounds much more like a bass. Multi scale from 25" to 26" Total playing weight 5 1/2lb The 6-string electric built for me. The piccolo was so comfortable to play and sounded so good, I thought I'd try a 6-string version for my own use. 25" scale Total playing weight just under 6lb The 6 string electric just finished for my sister in law. Slightly slimmer (they are all around 1" thick) and designed for full fret access and thumb anchor up to the 24th fret for playing lead. 25" scale Total playing weight 5 1/4lb They are all through neck and feature a convex top and concave back: Those who tried the piccolo at the bash will know that, although it is at guitar pitch, it doesn't sound at all like the bottom 4 strings of a 6-string...it very much has it's very own bassy sound. For the electric 6 strings, I was curious whether 'lightweight and thin' would affect tone at all so I lent the middle one to a number of regular giggers I know. The general consensus is that it cuts through just as well as any of the strats and Les Pauls they would usually be using. Not at all scientific, of course, but there is no apparent loss of clarity or gravitas. The new one on the right hand side of the pic sounds brighter acoustically, but exactly the same through an amp. They are, of course, much lighter on the neck strap than most electrics and when the guinea-pigs later strapped their normal guitars back on, they all reported thinking various combinations of 'WHAT THE ****??' And they were trying out the heavier one of the three It's been a great experiment that may well continue to evolve Andy

A friend of mine in Seattle owns several WAL basses. He loves them but he has 2 other brands that he also favours, for tone early 90s G&L but for tone and lightness - MIKE LULL. I own a LULL PJ and it would probably deliver what you are looking for.

Quite so. In interviews in the past, he's been quite proud of the fact that his fugly 'Punisher' basses cost $250 to build and that there is no shortage of mug punters willing to pay him $2500 for them. Anyone who will so brazenly rip off his own fans and be proud of the fact that he's doing it is just worthy of contempt IMO. As for 'jealousy'... Do I wish I had his wealth? Yes of course. Do I wish my band was as successful as his? Yes. Do I wish I was him? Not in a million years.

This has got me thinking a bit... a dangerous thing on Sunday morning... Apologies to any decent vocalists who take their craft very seriously, but I wonder if the problem with some of these people is, 1. They regard singing as an easy option, maybe granny has always told them they could sing well 2. They secretly feel guilty because they are in a band with real musicians who have spent thousands of hours learning to play real instruments. They overcompensate for an inferiority complex by acting like a-holes 3. A bit of both In the past I have even thought about volunteering to sing myself, because I can get the right note 9 times out of 10, but I really wouldn't want to while playing bass, and I absolutely couldn't do frontman duties.

One more clip - you can kinda see me in this one :-D

What a fuss. It's just American Abba innit?

I have a Perspex strat that had already been altered to take a different tremolo before it was given to me. At the time I was young and did not appreciate such things, so put a different scratch plate on, drilling new holes. There is no give in acrylic! All the new holes have halo-eff up surrounds! Never mind, it’s only a guitar. Now if that had been a bass...

My epiphone pro-v went totaly dead a couple of weeks ago after I tightened up one of the pots. I initialy wondered whether there was a problem with the active circuit but it turned out that the pot had rotated so one of the terminals was touching the shielding paint. Once it was straightened out it was fine, so check that nothing is shorting out. Also when the socket was replaced was it replaced with a switchcraft one? I've found that the cheapo (eg from maplins) can lose their springiness after a while & often start to crackle & lose contact before too long.

I have never played guitar. My fingers just aren't long enough. Only occasionally found it to be a problem, usually when a guitarist tries to show me chords at a jam. I always reply, just tell me the chords. Interesting thing is that sometimes they don't know what they are called.

I think you've saved yourself a lot of pain. I first picked up a guitar nearly half a century ago and I'm still no better at it. I discovered I was much better playing one note at a time and picked up bass after a decades-long sojourn on sax. Some things just suit you more than others. In my last band I used to catch the rhythm guitarist squinting at the notes I was playing... he squinted a lot as I usually played fretless.

...Sniff... So many great memories. Glad it went to a good home!

Gene Simmons seems like a nice guy?? Which universe have I woken up in today!

Any Crap Reggae Or Numetal You Meet ...