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Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/11/19 in all areas

  1. I've never really got into the self-titled Jaco CD, but I do like his playing on Joni Mitchell's albums
    10 points
  2. We have in our neighbourhood these shared spaces for hobbies, a gym, garage, etc things that typically you do not have in multi-family housing. For a small fee, you get access. One of these spaces is for handcrafts, mainly to do with wood. I had no specific idea what I'm going to do there, just enrolled out of curiosity. I've been somewhat good with my hands all my life, so I thought I'll eventually come up with interesting projects. Some weeks go by and I start to notice these piles of misc wood pieces. Mostly scrap wood, knotty pine, the usual stuff. Then I notice this interesting piece of some hardwood with the words "free to use" written on it. I ask around and seems like no one is missing it so I just take it and immediatelty notice some potential for a bass guitar body. I measure, look at the grains and start to feel all warm and giddly inside. Yes yes yessssss.. It barely has enough dimensions for a body blank, but it's doable. I cut it in two pieces and found this nice alignment with the grains to get a kind of bookmatched vibe going on. At that time (it was like one year ago) I was super psyched about MM basses, so I then order a Stingray template set. While I wait for the templates to arrive, I use my SUB to get some rough idea of the body area and start to work on the glue joint. I clean the glue joint with some sanding blocks and razor blades, to get it to fit and not to have any gaps. Time for some Tite-Bond. The templates arrive, I make "backups" since the template material is kinda weak feeling. I use the "backups" to start the quality time with a router. After some passes with the straight router bit and a curved bit for the edges. Quite some time passes between the fotos, wasn't really thinking about documentation. This block is HEAVY, therefore I decided to make it ligher by making a generous space for all kinds of potential electronics setups. Also decided to go without the plate in the front and do everything from behind. The straight line was done using a guide, the rest is basically freehand. I also made a test cover from some other wood that was similar, but it actually came out so nice that I'll actually use it. I'm thinking of doing the attachment with some magnets, so that I can replace for example a battery without screws. Oh, also worked on the belly cut and the cutaway in the front. So here we are now, from this point forwards it gets expensive. I have always wanted to have one bass with a Status graphite neck, this most probably will be that one. Also, I'm really going back & forth with finishing, hardware color, etc overall look & feel. Suggestions welcome This list looks most probable at the moment: - Status neck - Chrome machine heads - Black bridge - Black pickguard or see-through or wood with hard finish - Electronics cover black with grains a bit visible - Soapbar style pickup (no magnets visible) - The body will definetly be done so that grains are clearly visible, looks really nice
    7 points
  3. Never been a fan of the Chilli Peppers, always seemed like macho American cow poop but this considered interview has changed my view on that a little bit. Book sounds interesting... https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/nov/04/flea-red-hot-chili-peppers-interview-memoir
    6 points
  4. This: And this: But also this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDrYgT_RzI8 And this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boNCY0Ai44M Some of his playing is over indulgent and repetitive, some just not to my taste but there's no doubt he was capable of some of the most jaw dropping grooves and exquisite phrasing, especially considering he was essentially treading new ground. Bass playing would be massively different today without his influence.
    6 points
  5. PRICE REDUCED TO £1450.00 I bought this some time ago from bass-chatter Grantd. I love this bass and am reluctant to let it go. However something needs to go to raise some money for another project. The Spector Shorty was originally designed for Garry Tallent of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. These are among the nicest short scale basses you can buy. And this one is especially so with the dark quilted maple body. The bass has a special neck design by bassist Doug Wimbish using a narrower nut than the original. This gives it even better playability. This is also in line with most other short scale basses I have owned. The bass is in as-new condition having never been gigged. Original Spector NS curved body style Quilted maple with satin finish 30 3/8" scale, 22 frets, Deep Socket Neck Insert for maximum sustain and stability Graphite Reinforced 3pc Bolt on Rock Maple Neck Pau Ferro Fingerboard, 16" radius Brass nut width 1.5" Black Hardware, Custom Hipshot A style Brass Bridge Gotoh GB70 Tuners Dunlop Straplocks. Body: Lightweight Swamp ash Satin finish Aguilar PJ pickups Aquilar OBP3 active preamp Controls: bass, treble, mid (with push/pull frequency select), volume, volume Weight - 3.7kg Comes with robust Fusion gig bag. Can be picked up from Farnham, or I can ship with full insurance for another £70.00. Since Evil-bay are currently offering a £1 final value fee, I’ve put on it on there too.
    5 points
  6. macho American BS is quite far from how I see them... but if you haven't really spent much time listening to them I can see how they would not necessarily appeal. I didn't like them, for years and years. Then I ended up in a RHCP tribute band and started to pay attention, and my view on them changed entirely. You don't need to like them, of course, but the macho american tag is pretty far off the mark, I think (now, if you were talking about Lynyrd Skynyrd... )
    5 points
  7. 4 points
  8. How many people read Kiedis' book and felt like slapping him at least on ten separate occasions The guy has been very lucky to make it this far.
    4 points
  9. I managed to get a signed copy from Waterstones for £20, early Xmas present
    4 points
  10. Thanks for this, definitely one for the reading list. BTW, Anthony Keidis' book is also well worth a read 👍🏻
    4 points
  11. Public Service Announcement Please note that the preceding post was uploaded at around 09:47 local time in China where the poster would almost certainly have been on his seventh can of Special Brew since breakfast. That is all. Carry on.
    4 points
  12. I don't know much about music, I just want something to Dad dance to. Actually there's also the factor of IP lawsuits, economic efficiency and levels of accessibility to music making technology. Lots more people are able to make music. There is less demand for recordings from record companies as more routes to publishing have become available. Record companies have streamlined their economic interests to reflect the reduction in demand for their product. Record companies also have better information on who is buying what and when. Where before everyone worshipped at the altar of creativity and novelty as being the key to success, now it's looks a song that is crafted within certain parameters, a certain look to the lead singer, and a whole load of slick and persistent marketing. Creativity doesn't matter that much to the record company's target demographic (which seems to have been tweenies for quite some time)...so one could argue why even consider record companies as part of the creative side of things any more? Then add onto all of that the fact that song writers/artists are constantly under threat of being sued by anyone with a back catalogue and the remotest hope of establishing they had a significant influence over that song writer's process...which, arguably is impossible to avoid given the amount of back catalogue out there these days. Sure, these factors aren't going to stymie the most dedicated and persistent artist in itself but the business isn't as romantic and glamorous as it used to be. It's a bit of a wet blanket. Anyway, music today is shit. It all went to pot in the mid 90's.
    4 points
  13. *Price now reduced, TH350 - SOLD! - £320 for the GS212 My gigging days are over for the foreseeable future and I have an old Ashdown combo at home for practice, so the Aguilar rig needs to go unfortunately. This is the Tonehammer 350 and Aguilar GS212 600w 4ohm cabinet. I have been using this set up for a couple of years now and it has done me really well, very portable and loud as your using the full power of the head with the 4ohm cab. I mostly played pop/soul and this had ample power to keep up with my old 11 piece soul band, so don’t be worried about volume. The head is in excellent condition having only seen a dozen gigs and never used it at home as I have a small combo. I bought it new and it has always been stored in its original plastic bag and then in a purpose bought padded gig-bag for added protection. Comes with power cable, manual and in original packaging. The cab is in really good condition, a few scuffs to the plastic corners, a little bobbling etc but all perfectly normal for carpet covered cabs, I always find carpet covering hard wearing but tricky to keep looking mint. It has been used but cared for and always stored in the cover and again hardly used since I have owned it other than a handful of gigs. It has four detachable castors for moving it around but its not a heavy cab. It will come with a Roqsolid custom made padded cover which it is always stored in. The Tonehammer is £499 new, I’d like £350 and I’d like £365 for the cab (with cover) so £715 in total. If it goes as a complete rig I will also throw in an expensive heavy duty Speakon to Speakon cable. Any questions please get in touch, I should have some positive feedback on here somewhere as well. (edit to try and sort text formatting)
    3 points
  14. Thanks to my new GK endorsement I've just received one of the first GK Legacy800's to hit the UK! Can't wait to give this amp a good workout thru my 2x12. It sounded great when I demo'd it a few weeks back.... 😉 Also picked up an SKB 12x12 soft case to carry it in 🙂
    3 points
  15. Last picture (promise!) - got the grille on, and now I am thinking I might put side legs on it as well!
    3 points
  16. "You'll never play a guitar the same way again.." or words to that effect. The new range is going to be entirely left handed with just one shitty bottom of the range right hander in black only with no options. A small recompense from years of neglecting left handers. That's it, if you want one you have to play it upside down.
    3 points
  17. You might not like Jaco's music directly but you will listen to and love some bass players who have been influenced by him. He has that broad an influence.
    3 points
  18. Aye and a lot of them urinate all over their Fender counterparts.
    3 points
  19. The behaviour @MoJo describes is all part of the GAS. I know my favourite bass is my Aria. It's the first one I fell for, had it for years will never part with it. So why would I buy anything else? So that for a brief time I can kid myself that the new bass is 'the one'. Which in turn justifies the purchase. Self feeding addictive behaviour. Not dangerous unless you plunge yourself and anyone depending upon you into debt. I see it as harmless fun. A voyage of discovery. After all even explorers love their home, doesn't stop them travelling.
    3 points
  20. Made a fair bit of progress this weekend. The line on the fretboard is from where I realised I'd made a slot in slightly the wrong place. I filled it with a piece of veneer and recut it. The fret itself will cover the off-colour veneer so it should look fine. Though as I write this I'm realising it will be visible from the side 🤣 You'd have to really be looking for it to notice though.
    3 points
  21. Mr DoubleOhStephen places his finger very much upon the core of the matter. Back in the 70's when sundry outraged Dads exclaimed 'That's not music and what does he look like!' they were simply reacting to the fact that the music they were hearing was not the same as that which they believed to be music, i.e. the music of their youth, namely Big Band music like - I don't know, Pennsylvania 6-5000 or Moonlight Becomes You. The impelling factor in our Dads' minds was the shocking difference between their music and ours. The impelling factor in ours is the shocking similarity. Fast-forward 40 years and one beholds a popular music scene which resembles one of those re-enactment things where people dress up as Roundheads and Cavaliers. Or a Living History Museum where you give a big old copper penny to someone pretending to be a Victorian shopkeeper and they give you a quarter-pound of licorice. Put it like this. If we'd been doing back in the 70's what they're doing now we'd all have been playing trombones and dressing in tuxedos like the f**king Glenn Miller Orchestra. That this situation pertains is testament to an utter failure of imagination and proof - were it needed - of the creative bankruptcy of contemporary popular music. I don't blame the young people, of course. It's entirely the fault of: * Record companies and their craven fear of financial loss, ditto media companies hawking shows like 'Later' * A dilution of music criticism away from the underground and onto the Lifestyle pages of The Guardian * Hand-wringing pinkos who have brought about a widespread cultural rejection of substance and alcohol abuse * Helicopter parents who fear to point out their offsprings' abject shortcomings for fear of causing 'anxiety' If the music scene is to revive itself its youthful practitioners must first learn to tell their elders to f**k off. Their next move should be to indulge in bacchanalian orgies of drink and drugs. Only then should they pick up an instrument and start composing. The rest of us have our part to play too. Rather than continue to venerate the artists of our youth we should jeer them in the street and lob rotten eggs at them. Dibs on Paul Weller, the sad, irrelevant old codger.
    3 points
  22. There's a cats thread?? How does that work? "Weight 4kg, furry neck, fights like buggery if you try to put a strap on it but has a tonal range from purrr to screech?" Welcome to the forums - but don't get distracted from actually practicing. Like I am at the moment. 😉
    3 points
  23. No long shaft 500k pots to hand so a mock up while I wait on them. Scratchplate is just paper but I do think it needs one,also help get position for the knobs. Pots will be rear mounted,chrome control plate is optional.
    3 points
  24. I've been playing a lot of reggae lately. I would use whatever bass, typically the Stingray or a Sandberg VM4 (P/MM)... but I'm coming to love this "JJ" bass for that. It's got a pair of Area J pickups (humbucking) in parallel with each other, with a blend and a passive tone. I've also been enjoying the sounds of a Gibson EB0 type bass I've seen around. Thumpy, but it retains enough definition, and it's a great sound to have too. I am considering getting a Mudbucker to add to this bass. I realise that due to the much larger impedance of the mudbuckers (around 30 Kohm!) blending them with the Jazz pickups would not be straight forward... But I don't even want to do that. I think I would want a shared volume/tone control, and a switch between the mudbucker or the JJ pickups (in whatever state the blend control puts them). That should be easy, right? Or would the mudbuckers prefer a different value for tone caps or tone/control potentiometers?
    2 points
  25. I'd like to play in a Hawkwind tribute...
    2 points
  26. Hearing that record prompted me to quit the band I was in and get lessons. It had a profound effect on me. For me, there is electric bass pre-Jaco and electric bass post-Jaco. And I love Bright Size Life with Pat Methany too. Mental to think Methany was only 21 at the time that was recorded.
    2 points
  27. The 2014 will also have rolled edges on the fingerboard, graphite-reinforced neck plus string-through body (high mass bridge can accommodate both conventional back-of-bridge stringing and through body). Probably a technically better bass, but if you’re into the vintage vibe, you’re into the vintage vibe... A worn sunburst nitrocellulose vintage P is a thing of beauty.
    2 points
  28. Seriously, you can see his impact through pop music and beyond. Pino’s bass dominated the 80s airwaves and it was all inspired by Jaco. The sound of Graceland was Kumalo, a man who revered Jaco but took fretless licks mainstream in an album loved by millions. I could go on, but I’d get bored. Game changer? Yup.
    2 points
  29. You could do it with Snapshots. At least I can on my Stomp. Pretty sure you can as well. You can set the on/off function for any block to any foot switch, but Im not sure how you would do 3 setting. For example, I have a BDDI set to on, with little drive, and another block with the same BDDI but a much higher drive (and slightly lower level). I have both set to one foot switch. The patch is saved with the low drive on and the high drive off. Using just one foot switch alternates between the two. Pretty cool feature.
    2 points
  30. Lots of fun to be had! I'm happy just to be able to do the 'chorus'!
    2 points
  31. I've never understood the claimed great divide between 'covers' and 'originals' (many of which are heavily derivative, anyway - there's nothing, or little at any rate, new under the sun). It's simple enough to do both. Just play in a covers band and an originals band. I've done it for years. Make a bit of lolly in one and satisfy your craving to play stuff nobody likes in the other. Job done.
    2 points
  32. I don't disagree, more that I can see how the casual listener can get the impression that the music is pretty macho b/s
    2 points
  33. Ooooh, a bass from the future. You're not Micheal j fox are you? 😉
    2 points
  34. He's in my all-time top 5, maybe top 3. But I'd be first to say some of his stuff is hard to listen to or downright enjoy. So why do I rate him so highly? Some, even a lot of what he played is a real joy to me and I agree with Jean-Luc that his work with Joni M stands out and is an easy listen compared to some of the his other music. I'd highly recommend Weather Report, and Heavy Weather in particular. At least take a few minutes to listen to 'A Remark You Made' (and check one or 2 of the live recordings of that track as well). That is one of my lifetunes, I mean an everlasting fine thing. He definitely pushed the envelope, very hard. I'm not sure he always played for the audience, or at least didn't make it easy for them. I think there are easier ways in than his solo album you got - his whole punk jazz thing is generally bloody hard to get inside. Then he has moments of amazing beauty. In my own little bass world he's right there with Jamerson, and Bach. 👍
    2 points
  35. I love Jaco for what he did for the instrument, but I always tend towards his big-band stuff. If you're not a fan of the solo bass stuff or 'fusion' stuff, try the Word Of Mouth album. Si
    2 points
  36. Special brew is for pussies. Baiju at 70% by vol is the nations choice of poison for formal occasions. It tastes like the angels' share from a homemade vodka experiment mixed with sake. Initially sweet and enticing but with a brutal, steel toe capped DM to the soft palette and a distinct after taste of scorched Nankang streetsteel radial. And the after taste hangs around like that lonely drunk bloke you met in Whetherspoons one evening, the one who decided that a jovial exchange of three sentences in the gents as you were both reaching for the paper towels at the same time meant you were going to be best mates forever in the bar.
    2 points
  37. @odysseus Succinctly put. I guess its the attitude I was commenting on, its a horses/courses deal. I am doing the covers band things and a separate originals/rock stretch to play project as well. So covering the bases (basses...). Was nice to play to a packed pub.
    2 points
  38. Kinga Glyk’s new album: https://open.spotify.com/album/2EY3Ryehg5MxkFJ59xkgLO?si=DSrJXs4nRmCN3bMXwYRvHg
    2 points
  39. Is this the bloke that everyone says didn't need 5/6/7 strings 🙂
    2 points
  40. Three tone knobs I see, because Yngwie has more tone than anybody on the planet.
    2 points
  41. Well, its a NBD for me, despite throwing you all off the scent with the above post (in case you all told me it was a dog and not worth it!) I bought the bass. Put it on the scales and it comes in at just under 10lbs. The hardcase that came with it has seen better days but the bass itself is very clean, nice example and sounds huge! Thanks for your input and reading suggestions, its sad to see that the company is no more and the company that one of the sons started has also closed down now due to his retirement.
    2 points
  42. Apparently the book only goes up to him starting the RHCP. I’m sure the first 16 odd years of his life are interesting but I’m not sure a whole book on it gets me that excited. I would like to know about the later years as well. I completely agree, Anthony Keidis’ book is good read.
    2 points
  43. So a month later, three gigs under my belt and some lessons learned. A lot of pub and local jams involve older people who don't leap around a lot - or at all. Neither does the lighting. So choose and test exposure, ISO and focusing method carefully and then forget about them and concentrate on the subject. I tried Aperture and Shutter priority, and Auto ISO, but in the end found manual everything gave me best control. If the musicians aren't doing much, concentrate on capturing expressions and interaction between them to pump some life into the shot. VR or other movement reduction is great for helping you shoot handheld. But in dim light, with a slow lens and therefore a slow shutter speed, VR will do nothing to stop subject movement blurring. A monopod is a good if slightly awkward alternative if you haven't got VR. The latest fast zooms are really useful, but very expensive - a new Nikon 70-200 2.8 VR will cost near two grand. Ditto the 24-70. But you can get a 20 year old 80-200 2.8 and a 35-70 2.8 for a couple of hundred off eBay, and Tokina do a great fast 11-16 ultrawide which again is reasonably cheap on fleabay. However - big however, be aware that the autofocus can drift out over time so you may need to fork out a ton for a service. My ancient 80-200 2.8 bought off eBay turned out to have an AF error of over 20cm... kinda important if you're hoping you've captured a crisp shot of someone's face and your depth of field is less than 20cm. So I'd suggest buying from a shop with a warranty or some sort of comeback. But good fun... and more to come.
    2 points
  44. I rather think you'll find that Dec 19th 1993 is the generally agreed date when popular music went completely to sh*t, this being the day when Mr Blobby went to #1 in the UK charts and stayed there for three weeks (leans over and pukes into wastebasket). Were such a disaster not enough, the nails were driven remorselessly into pop's coffin when on May 29th of that year the single Love is All Around by Wet Wet Wet commenced a 15-week run at the top of the charts. There was no coming back from this. The End of Pop Music - Oil on canvas by Morgana Del Var R.A. (1935-2008)
    2 points
  45. These are great basses. I’m not a five player but every few years I get the urge and last time it was one of these that I bought (for the wider string spacing). I’m sure the next time I get the urge to give fives another go, it’ll be one of these I seek out.
    2 points
  46. You do know he plays bass on most of his recordings. I do like the bass very much.
    2 points
  47. I find the GAS monster usually rears it's ugly head and goes berserk when I'm not playing so much. If I'm busy and happy my SX P bass is just fab.
    2 points
  48. A vajazzle would be a hidden gem? I don't have one.
    2 points
  49. My Squier VM P5. Admittedly took a few modifications to the electronics to get the sound where I wanted it but it just has the most comfortable, playable neck of any bass I've owned (which has included enough basses that cost several thousand pounds to make that an impressive statement for a sub £300 instrument). I've also been able to get it to take a far lower action than any other bass I've owned.
    2 points
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