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Showing content with the highest reputation on 19/03/24 in all areas

  1. uk_lefty
    Played the crooked crow bar in Leighton Buzzard on Saturday night. It's a funny venue, it used to be a Blockbuster video rental shop but now it's a live music venue. The boss, the staff, the sound people, each time we've played there they've just been so good to us. Not in the way of loads of free drinks or whatever but just in the sense that they really want you there and want to make sure you've got everything you need for a decent gig. I'd highly recommend anyone in this area to look them up. Anyhows, we are doing another specialist 00's gig on Friday so we trialled about five new songs and they went down very well, so we were pleased with that. Best part of the night: an artsy bloke in the crowd who fancies himself as a poet started peeling and eating an orange while doing some strange crouched down dance. Band's the Desert Penguins. Gear: Ashdown ABM600 with 2x15" cabs Bass: Stingray
    19 points
  2. DaleASmith
    Bought on looks alone 😂
    12 points
  3. TheGreek
    8 points
  4. lidl e
    This needs to be shared because it is so far above and beyond what any other company would do i honestly cant believe it. My buddy left his keeley el rey dorado on top of his car and drove off. He went back to try and find it but no luck. It was in the box, but he didnt have a good picture of the box to put up a lost ad. He sent a mail to Robert Keeley asking if he might have a good pic of the box that he could use. Within 24 hours, he had a brand new el rey dorado in his hands sent from the US to ireland via fedex. Your man wouldnt even take money for the shipping. I've never heard of a company going so far to sort a customer out. Really exemplary conduct.
    6 points
  5. chriswareham
    Some people think the scams are deliberately bad - using poor grammar in phishing emails or technobabble in call scripts for example - because it means only the most likely marks will engage with the scammer. Personally I think it's just a reflection of the kind of people involved in these scams being unable to find anything more lucrative to do legally. I did have a more professional sounding than normal scam call last week though. It was from a "personal investment company", on behalf of a "hedge fund in Mayfair, London". The quality of the spoken English was a cut above average, and the script was quite well put together. I was on my lunch break, so happily wasted half an hour of the caller's time when they could be scamming someone more gullible. When asked if I made investments, I said I work in importation and put some of my money back into stocks and shares. As the call went on I started dropping more and more obvious hints that my importation involved chemicals of a "recreational pharmaceutical" nature, and that I had to be careful how I "washed, sorry invested" my profits. The penny finally dropped when I asked the caller if he was based in northern India, and if so whether he wanted to make some extra income bringing certain items from Myanmar into the UK via his back passage.
    6 points
  6. Leonard Smalls
    In a degrees of separation brush with greatness, my mother is a piano teacher... Her first teacher was the German pianist Emil von Sauer, who had been a pupil of Franz Liszt!
    6 points
  7. Downunderwonder
    Once you get over that it's all fun. Play along with the TV adverts at home. Most have a readily catchonable bass riff. If you don't get it first time you get another crack in 12 minutes.
    6 points
  8. MiltyG565
    In this video, David breaks down the theoretical concepts which make the iconic Creep chord progression work. The lesser educated among us (i.e. me) would play Creep and think "That's weird that it does that, but it sounds cool" and just forget about it, but learning about the technical and theoretical concepts behind it really is very interesting to me, and I truly wish I possessed this in-depth understanding of music theory. Same goes for Jacob Collier; as unique an individual as he is, I wish I possessed his truly frightening understanding of what makes music, music. Some day I will get around to actually learning theory. I also was not aware of how many different places the chord progression was used - I thought it was almost unique to Creep.
    5 points
  9. LukeFRC
    2023 was the year I put together my first ever pedal board… 2024 update… Gone: barbershop clone tube preamp (in for repairs) Barber Linden (not yet made it on board! ) Bass boost chorus(sold) Pitchblack tuner (sold) vong (sold) miniXO (traded) Added: providence Anadime bass chorus - utterly lush the iron man - my homage to the ss/bs mini Aion L4 preamp - Moog designed two channel thing, the green channel is what became the pierce preamp. zoom ms70cdr - the most cost effective way to get reverb and delay - mainly for the c4 sounds need to see how much use it gets looper - because the zoom has a bit of tone suck
    5 points
  10. Geek99
    I’ve been back there since, ran into guitarist and apologised for the train wreck. The compère had asked a local dep to give me some tips (they both think I just lack confidence though I’d add “talent”) and I asked my drummer buddy to spend five minutes drumming for me so I can get used to it without a noisy guitarist top guys
    5 points
  11. Cosmo Valdemar
    I bought this a few months ago and it is absolutely fantastic, I've never played a 5 string with such a defined B string - and that growl! However I don't have much need for a 5 string so can't see it being played as much as I'd like. The bass is in superb condition. There is some very light rash/swirling to the rear of the body but hardly noticeable - in the picture the sunlight is shining directly on it and makes it look a lot worse than it is 😄 The neck is spotless as far as I can see. The only issues of note are some slight tarnishing to the bridge, tuners and knobs, but they function perfectly well. The bass has recently been set up with a low action and new Sadowsky strings. Serial number: K ****** 96 Article number: 1275080000GDBUBWWW produced: 01.10.1996 Description: Thumb Bass NT, 5 string, Wenge Neck, Bubinga Body, Oil Finish, MEC 3 Band Electronics, Gold Hardware Made in Germany Collection from Dartford or local meet up preferred.
    4 points
  12. casapete
    I've had this great Jazz nearly 4 years now, and I originally bought it from @discreet on here. I've posted a link to the original listing below, ( hope that's okay Mark!) - think it describes it better than I could so please have a good look through it. This is a belting bass, not 'just for the price' either! Plays and sounds great, and the light weight really is a bonus for those who tire easily of 9/10lb basses. I've used it just occasionally since owning it, mainly when depping with my mate's dad rock band when it's performed brilliantly. I'm only selling it as am semi-retiring from my band next month, and subsequently will be selling this and a few other basses / amps etc. I'm in East Yorkshire and cash on collection is preferable. However my last few gigs in April take me to the following places - Milton Keynes, Redditch, Shrewsbury, Ipswich and Birmingham. I can bring the Jazz to any of these places (all central theatres) where you can pick it up anytime between say 4pm and 7pm or after my gig ends around 10pm. I'm also happy to meet up somewhere so long as it's not the other end of the country - think Yorkshire / Lincolnshire etc. Postage is my last resort but obviously will offer this to ensure a sale. ( Would probably need to factor in the price of a used case though to ensure it's safe delivery.) Original listing here - https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/431462-sold-the-amazing-seven-pound-7lb-jazz/#comment-4136734 Thanks for looking, cheers. Pete. PS - Please note this is NOT a Fender bass, but a great instrument put together in that style.
    4 points
  13. chriswareham
    What I value about the local music shop (Kingfisher Music, Fleet, Hants) of my youth is that the World Wide Web killed them off. No more having to put up with the smug, sneering staff who would belittle me every time I went there to buy something. Regardless of whether it was picks, strings or an actual big ticket item like a bass cabinet they'd always find some way to have a dig, such as: "Oh, you play with a pick, so you're not a real bass player then". "I wondered who was still using crap like Rotosound strings". "Well it's not much of a bass cabinet, doesn't even have a Speakon connector". That last one about a behemoth Peavey 1820 cabinet I had special ordered from the US, which I then "accidentally" dropped on the twerp of a shop assistant's foot.
    4 points
  14. Chiliwailer
    The Gr’80s
    4 points
  15. MartinB
    Spandex Belly Agadon't
    4 points
  16. Crusoe
    Sam x is a great name for a band. 😁
    4 points
  17. tegs07
    I suggest that you google DHCP and IP leases. At best you put a sticking plaster on the situation for a short period. At worst you may have lost a bunch of customers. Unless you are dealing with a seriously clueless scammer that lives in a single occupancy dwelling, pays for a dedicated fixed public IP and has never heard about VPN you are not likely to achieve much by IP blocking a suspect scammer. For persistent offenders (usually mass distribution of spam or malware) companies do take action but it’s a game of cat and mouse. Not sure what is wrong with WFH? My current company has over 40 sites, a datacenter and various cloud based tenancies. My previous company had contracts all over the world. I would frequently find myself in the early hours connecting to resources in New York, London or Budapest. My home office was as adequate as anywhere else (though I do wish that they would let me do the work from somewhere warm and cheap.
    4 points
  18. chriswareham
    Well a couple of years industry experience might educate you on why IP blocking is a bloody stupid idea. Even more so "many years ago" when you were a forum mod, if it was in the dial up era. Most people are on residential broadband, which means they get assigned an IP address for a certain period and when that period expires - or they reconnect - they get a different one. That period may be as long as a couple of weeks, but is often as short as one day. Then there's the issue that a lot of people on business connections are sharing one or a handful of IP addresses with the rest of the people at the same site via Network Address Translation. So blocking an IP will block multiple users (and these days, even a residential user will typically have a bunch of devices with multiple users connected to the Internet via their router). (I have worked at places where entire ranges of IP addresses are blocked, based on the geographic assignment of those ranges. It's an imperfect means of blocking all traffic from Russia or China for example, but in my experience the people implementing that policy are at least aware it's a blunt instrument and often have to whitelist addresses as the demand arises).
    4 points
  19. franzbassist
    I was playing at a wedding in Middlesborough many years ago when who should join us on stage but ex-Whitesnake slide guitarist extraordinaire Micky Moody. Despite being a disco tribute act, we charged through a more than decent version of "Fool for your Loving" with him, followed by a lengthy blues jam. Tremendous fun, and he was a lovely guy too. Bruce Foxton bought my band a round when we were playing at a pub in Guildford one time. He sat and chatted with us for the whole of the mid-gig break: also a lovely guy.
    4 points
  20. Wotcher2
    Detorri of the blues. Wah!
    4 points
  21. MacDaddy
    When I was at college, I had a music teacher who was taught by Bela Bartok.
    4 points
  22. ped
    Rehearsed for an upcoming gig but sans keyboard as his son has been in hospital in Brisbane so he’s flown out to be with him. I’m not sure he’ll be back in time for the gig and half of us aren’t up for doing the show without keys because it’s quite important for our sound and ties many of the songs together. it’s quite a small room and I couldn’t hear myself so well this time because I moved nearer the monitors which were carrying one of the guitars because the lockup where he keeps his gear was inaccessible last night. Luckily he had his pedalboard and a guitar handy but all in all it felt a bit of a bodge and I’m not sure what’ll happen next week - best case scenario the keys player is back the day before the gig, so no full rehearsal either way. Bit of a tricky one because we don’t want him to feel bad or feel like he has to rush back.
    4 points
  23. peteb
    I think that you are overthinking it. The point of a jam session is to play with different people, take a few chances and take yourself out of your comfort zone. Sometimes it will be quite magical and sometimes the wheels will come off. Inevitably you will make mistakes, but the idea is that you learn from those mistakes. It's not a bad idea to just watch a couple of times to get the feel of it and get comfortable with the people there. But don't let it put you off getting up again when you're ready. I've been in the house band for lots of jam sessions over the years, playing with everyone from Texan blues semi-legends whose albums I had bought (scary, but fun) to guys who have never played on stage before. For the smaller ones, part of the fun is to get guys without much experience and see their confidence grow as they get better each time they get up.
    4 points
  24. Quatschmacher
    I’ve been home for an hour or two now. Woozy and hurts like hell but seems the op went as smoothly as could be expected.
    4 points
  25. MattParkerBass
    I think the time has come to sell my 1985/6 Steinberger XM2. Built in the original NYC Steinberger facility, it features a one piece graphite neck, maple body and the original EMG HBs, originally designed for this very bass I believe. It's in good condition for its age, but has some swirling and minor scratches to the finish. When I got it, the bridge pickup preamp had died inside the casing and EMG couldn't/wouldn't try to repair it and I couldn't find anyone else wanting to do so, so I had replaced it with a new EMG HB. It's the exact same spec but is obviously unoriginal. Had a fret polish, new strings and a setup this evening and it feels and sounds incredible, the neck is super resonant and responsive. Comes with the original gigbag, which is a bit worn but still functional and even some old 80s packaging Steinberger strings which are past their best but a cool bit of memorabilia. Seen these listed for 2400 online but due to the changed pickup ( original broken one included) I'm listing it a bit cheaper.
    3 points
  26. Burns-bass
    i'm getting to the end of my clearout now, but this is still here. It's an excellent condition Squier FSR esquire in seafoam green. These stripped down guitars were released in limited numbers and are really wonderful. This one has had limited lpay which means it's all in perfect condition. There is some discolouration on the scratchplate screws (I had considered replacing these, but thought better of it). The action is low, it sounds amazing and looks great. I had sole this on eBay but the buyer was rude, which upset me a little bit so I cancelled his bid and will sell here. I can provide a POD acoustic guitar case to ship this in (free, naturally).
    3 points
  27. 2elliot
    Neon Yuppie Coke Machine.
    3 points
  28. tauzero
    Wow. Someone with leet haxor skillz. It's nice to see the script kiddies at play.
    3 points
  29. tegs07
    Sadly apart from a DDOS attack every major IT outage or incident in my career has involved email and a click happy user giving away financial data, credit card details, passwords etc despite constant training and the fact that 2 minutes of thought would have prevented an obvious spoof/phish.
    3 points
  30. Geek99
    Softer cell?
    3 points
  31. TheGreek
    Trail of the lonesome Spine - Laurel and Hardy
    3 points
  32. chriswareham
    Studio related "brush with greatness": A band I briefly played in were recording at Assault & Battery Studios (now just Battery Studios) in Willesden. The guitarist's friend was an engineer there, and we got to use the studio dirt cheap when no one had booked a graveyard slot. First off was the mixing desk, which had belonged to Trent Reznor, although I think we only used a a few channels on it as a preamp and to monitor mixes in Pro Tools. Then one evening I was in the kitchen and had a brief chat with a guy who was working in the programming suite, which was stuffed full with cool synths and samplers. I mentioned this on returning to the studio we were in, only to be told it was one of the owners. A chap called Mark Ellis, or more widely known as mega producer Flood.
    3 points
  33. MacDaddy
    It was a duo with Brahms. Traditional Cockney sing-alongs.
    3 points
  34. Lozz196
    I think you`re right, that I`m sure does apply to many (probably the majority) of the instrument/amp making companies, aside from the company I was speaking with. Not sure about how true it is now but a mate used to work for Marshall and apparently they never gave stuff away, figuring that the more they gave away to rich professional musicians the more they`d have to charge not so rich non-professional musicians in order to remain a viable profit making company.
    3 points
  35. Mark W
    I've had a couple of questions on fret wear, neck condition, and that scratched out serial number. Attached are some photos of the frets and neck as best I can. I really don't know about the serial number, I hadn't even noticed it until I was asked, so to try and alleviate any concerns I'm adding a photo of me today, and me 30 years ago to show that I have actually owned this for all that time. You should be able to identify the worn paint where the thumb rests in both photos. Don't judge me on 90s fashion.
    3 points
  36. bassbiscuits
    Not sure if this is genuine, but I used to do solo acoustic guitar / vocals gigs at a city centre pub, which had double booked acts on a couple of occasions. This time I arrived to set up and found an older guy with a guitar also expecting to play. We tried to establish what was going on and he proudly told me he was called “Guitar George” - as in the guy referred to in Sultans Of Swing. Apparently he’d been working on a visiting market that day nearby, and the landlord had suggested he played. In the end he didn’t take up my invite to both share the gig as he didn’t want to take any of my money. So I never found out if he indeed did know all the chords.
    3 points
  37. Wolverinebass
    @Baloney Balderdash, I'm not jealous at all. Wooten is the only high profile bass player I could think of on the spur of the moment that does that and that's why I mentioned him. There will be others of course, it was just the first name that came to mind. It's a fairly well known thing that Hartke pay him and have done for years. I had heard that in quite a few threads, but actually it was Mark Gooday at Ashdown who told me that at the Bass Guitar Show a few years ago. Apparently, they wanted him on the roster, but he wanted about 30 grand a year to do so. So they declined. However, I wasn't making a judgement on Wooten or saying he was an awful person for doing that. He seems like a nice guy and is incredibly talented. My point however was that since the Megadrive is now sounding really bad, do we think Lomenzo will even use it without a skip full of cash? I suppose a better question is, would you feel okay about having your name on something which sounded really awful?
    3 points
  38. Owen
    I think we can lock the thread now.
    3 points
  39. jimmyb625
    I've not seen this thread before and it's been quite an interesting read. My own tale goes back to 2012, at Forsyth's in Manchester. My partner and I had an agreement where we bought each other something significant to mark the birth of our children (in 2007 it was a 5 string Bongo for me) and this time, I was thinking about a nice acoustic. At the time, my eldest (5 years) had started to take piano lessons, so we took her along with us, so she could look at the selection they had (they specialise in pianos). The staff in the guitar department couldn't have been more helpful, bringing a selection along to me to try out and at no point pressured me with anything. I was pretty much left to my own devices with a brilliant collection of high end guitars, although it only took 5 seconds on the second guitar to decide. Whilst I was ham-fistedly banging away on these, my daughter took it upon herself to go and "try" some of the pianos they had in stock. For a good half hour, she played a range of acoustic pianos going from "cheap" uprights to some top of the range Schimmels. The staff in the piano department never once told her she couldn't touch them, or tried to move her on and encouraged her to continue. That's what I value about a good music shop. As a footnote, we didn't buy either a guitar, or a grand piano that day, but a few weeks later on Christmas day, the guitar I'd fallen in love with was presented to me.
    3 points
  40. scalpy
    Those are my babies, one of the best purchases I’ve made for gigging. Apesticks by ApeLabs. I got a tour pack of 10 from Thomann, which means you can charge them in their flightcase, plus you get 20 small metal panels you can attach to anything suitable (I got a load of cheap photography stands off amazon) so the lights magnets can clamp on. You can operate them with a remote but I forked out for the wireless Bluetooth controller, which means you can control them via an app. The app will run 4 groups, you can assign the lights to any, and you can create your own colours and programs, then design a scene for each song. You can set the sensitivity to sound or speed a cycle runs in seconds. I’ve had a ball coming up with different set ups using the stands then having different moods for different songs, plus the controller will send DMX to other devices, so all our old up lighters match the scene as well. Here’s a few set ups I’ve used over the past year.
    3 points
  41. Woodinblack
    Its not a reverb / ebay thing, its a paypal thing so it works on any transfer
    2 points
  42. funkgod
    ahhh yea that migh help,,,, cheers 80s band 1, Gold..................... Spandau, Live version * 2, dont look down........... go west * Live version Glasgow 3, A little respect ........ erasure.* 4, The Riddle............... Nick Kershaw * 5, Reo...................... duran * 6, Everybody wants to rule.. tears for fears * 7, Ashes to Ashes........... Dave bowie, Live version bbc, 8, Dont you Forget.......... Simple Minds * 9, dignity.................. deacon blue.* 11, dancing with tears....... ultravox * 10, together in electric dreams... phil oak 12, China Girl............... dave bow 13, wont let sun go down..... nick kershaw * Live version to introduce band 14, first picture of you.......... lotus eaters. 15, Real gone kid............ deacon blue. 16, two tribes............... frankie 17, im still standing........ ej D 18, take on me............... Ah ha 19, cudly toy................ roachford 20. Hold Me Now........Thompson Twins 21,Head over heels/ Alive and kicking.......Tears for fears 22, Look of Love.........ABC 23, Calling all the Heroes..... it bites 24, Planet Earth...................Duran Done and left out........ Blancmange: Living on the Ceiling Chesney Hawkes: The One & Only ....1992 though Aztec Camera: Somewhere in my Heart Blow Monkeys: Digging Your Scene New sensation.... inxs......aussy the teardrop explodes.... reward U2... pride a new flame ... simply red Wake me up ..... wham Club trop......... Wham
    2 points
  43. dmccombe7
    Wisnae me. Have to say we were well looked after and we left our gear in the venue until following morning and several folks that were at the gig came down to say hello, gave us a hand loading the gear and wished us all well when we actually left. If memory serves me right i think it was a bit of a bikers pub. Dave
    2 points
  44. nilorius
    Yeah...it proves that there exist a lot of things and situations more important than rehearsals and gigs.
    2 points
  45. bassace
    We had a half decent trad band in Cheltenham in the sixties. It wasn’t really our thing but it was commercial. We organised a tour of Cornwall in 63: RN Culdrose, Newlyn Fishmarket, that sort of thing. Our final gig was at the Flamingo Ballroom at Redruth. When we arrived we were met by the owner, Joy Hone, who told us that Georgie Fame was staying at her adjoining hotel recovering from sunburn. As we were setting up he came up on the stage, sat at the piano and played Dat Dere with me on bass and our alto sax player. Not many trad bands would play that. We returned the compliment by booking him and the Blue Flames into Cheltenham a few weeks later. For £50, as I recall. Happy days.
    2 points
  46. Lozz196
    I’ve heard of similar instances @Wolverinebass, with artists calling up companies saying hey, a great business opportunity is coming your way, pay me to take away loads of your amps.
    2 points
  47. Crusoe
    One of the shops local to me, Matchetts, is actually quite competitive with the other online retailers when it comes to price (they do have online shopping too, which can be handy for click and collect). but they do offer a lot of other services too. They have instructional sessions, where you can book in and they will show you basic set-up techniques, for example; how to change strings, tune up, check the action and so on. They had a guy in from D'Addario a while back to demonstrate the new Xpand pedal board. I got a free t-shirt and won a tuning pedal. I had a guitar lesson last week and my tutor had bought a new PRS guitar and asked if I wanted to try it. I gave him my Ibanez and he was raving about the set up on it. I'd done nothing to the set-up; that was all down to the guys in the shop. He liked it so much that he wants to borrow it to make some videos for his business social media accounts.
    2 points
  48. neepheid
    Yas, Moffat crew - reassembling...
    2 points
  49. 0175westwood29
    kemper rig made its live debut at the weekend I still have a board so it’s more of a hybrid rig and it’s a powered rack so I can use a cab on stage
    2 points
  50. Dad3353
    2 points
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