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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.

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.

Got myself a flyrig from here in fantastic condition. Initially was going to plug into my amps return, unfortunately my amp has the return after the amp modelling, so it colours the sound. So ive bought a crown xls1502 power amp. Only weighs 4kg and puts out over 1000w rms at 8ohm in bridge mode. The flyrig when used this way puts out some awesome sounds. Really rich and the drive is very realistic. Through the barefaced super compact it sounds really smooth and punchy. On initial play in house this should easily be loud enough. Im taking this to tonights gig so will soon find out. If it works well i'll sort a shorter rackcase as the amp will fit in a short rack.

The parts on this are worth more than the selling price (with 20 hours to go) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dean-Edge-6-String-Bass-With-Aguilar-OBP-1-18v-Preamp-Mod/173262152455?hash=item28573aa307:g:SDEAAOSw5T9ay4kn

Its probably for the best, im meant to be selling basses at the moment but buying them.

I previously posted a picture of my Promethean amp on top of the Trace. Here is another.

The best line in that review is "add $10,000 for the speaker cables ..."

Thanks for a lovely day folks, the bash really couldn't have been more enjoyable. I'm not sure about the mystical powers Roger, I just happened upon a great venue. The great atmosphere was all thanks to the excellent company - and of course all the gorgeous basses, amps and other gadgetry, especially Roger's Kolstein . The GAS is strong with that one... Thanks as well to Nick and Roger for showing me the potential of the laminate bass I have on loan. Having thought it would be traveling home to Kent, I made its owner the offer you suggested Roger. And so we have a deal, and I have a new bass! Fantastic photo Silvia - thanks for all your hard work as basschat archivist! Looking forward to seeing more...

Not helped by a current ultra-PC attitude (in my view...) increasingly prevalent in bass fora of precluding any and all even faintly political mention, stifling any potentially 'offensive' posts, leaving only a 'good for metal' retort or another recommendation to use flats on a Pee bass. Oh, well; at least the cats and dogs are fed.

I see it was me who started this thread nearly 8 years ago, and jeez if I haven't gone and bought ANOTHER Wal off John - a fretted one this time. As last time, he facilitated the deal big time by meeting me in a surprisingly quiet Cribbs Causeway, where I had the novel experience of noodling on the Wal on an impressive Roland micro-amp in Johns very snazzy motor home. Thanks mate - maybe another deal on 8 years time?

We do that one too. Always goes down well!

Tricky song to start on! The bass is dead easy, but constant in the verses and there are lots of words! Good luck! Maybe try some exercises like singing scales or a few songs where you can chug root notes.

Got some more done over the weekend Belly carve, control cavity and headstock sanded all done now, sanded the whole body down to 240 grit ready from the poly finish which I’ll start tomorrow after I’ve drilled the controls out I was going to change all the hardware to black but with starting a new job funds are a bit tight so I’m going to reuse the chrome but I might change it a later date......

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Thanks Roger! and Thanks Bro M and everybody, it was great to see you all, catch up, meet new faces, and be able to talk DBs and other stuff in a lovely, friendly environment. I'm working on the photos and the accompanying blog.

Although Lee Sklar was on the album as well, I think 'Scott Edwards' might have played Bass on 'Sara Smile'. Edit: It seems that it is him - 'Sara Smile' credited in the article below. Scott Edwards was a very busy studio player back then. The full interview here (including some interesting stuff that he played on). http://www.songfacts.com/blog/writing/bass_player_scott_edwards/

Reading the article linked above he says that user toneprints are the most popular so it implies they’ll be making them shareable.

Bouncer: Sorry sir, you can't come in with that violin case Me: But I have a machine gun in there, I swear it's not a violin Bouncer: In that case, enter

You 're lucky, it could have been only 2 speakers !

Paul and Fiona have spoken and sung at our church several times. Lovely couple and a great evening of music and testimony. First time they came we backed them for the worship session so they came along to the rehearsal/soundcheck on the Sunday afternoon. That whizzed through no problems so when our regular Worship Leader said, “All done” there was plenty of time left. Paul looked round at the rest of the band, drew a harmonica from his back pocket and said, “Well, anyone fancy a little blues in G then?” Etched in my memory as one of my best ever playing experiences!!!!

Thanks guys, I am looking forward to it, we will meet him before for a sound check and other things. I followed the Manfreds in the early 60's, I loved those old songs and he is a great blues singer and harmonica player. I didn't realise he was retiring from the blues show, heck he's only 77! Just a youth really... He'll be there singing 'The Lord's my shepherd' (newer version) so we will have played with him if you squint a little

Well it’s about bloody time. Looks like someone at TC woke up and realised they were way behind Source Audio in terms of mobile preset editing

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

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.

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

He Always Struck Me As A Colossal Bell End - The second of today's entries on my list of potential autobiography titles.

Not necessarily! Decent active monitors have the advantage of having a channel of amplification per driver, with optimised protection circuitry for each, and the amplifier is optimised for the driver rather than 1 channel having to drive everything through a crossover. So a fully active speaker , with no passive crossovers and lossy stuff like that is usually better sound quality than a similar passive. However, a cheap active won't necessarily have any of those benefits - a cheap and probably coloured home hifi speaker is likely to be better. But you (mostly) gets what you pays for...

I use a compressor to make my bass tighter, and to keep the level even so if I try a little tapping I don't have a massive drop in volume, and if i beat the hell out of the B string I don't blow everyone off the stage 5im0n's response pretty much answers your question perfectly