Deep Thought

Line 6 G30. Had it for must be knocking on ten years, apart from replacing the cable a couple of times, never had a problem.

Grant Hart of Husker du. The first member of one of my favourite bands of my youth to die. Brought me up short for a while.

JJ Burnel often does lead vocals. I’m the lead singer in our lot too. Some songs take more work than others to learn, and I often find it easier to sing over fast, busy bass lines than slow ones which require more attention to timing-‘Human ‘ by Rag and Bone Man being an example, although I’m getting the hang of it now it was a struggle to start with. Some songs I don’t think I will ever be able to sing and play-REM ‘s ‘Losing my Religion ‘ for instance. We’re currently re-introducing ‘No one knows ‘ by Queens of the Stone Age, which takes some doing.

Looks like a bloody strawberry!

When I was trying out an Ibanez Artcore years ago, the chap in my local shop said ‘don’t hear many Stranglers basslines these days’, as I was playing ‘Nice’n’sleazy’ as I often do, probably the intro to ‘5 minutes’ as well, amongst others.

He’s not sounding too bad these days! I’d love one of the Carbonlites he plays now, but I don’t have that kind of money, or indeed the need for it. Mine does me fine for what I do.

No, apparently not.

This is the exercise my physio gave me (I was told in the early stages to ‘help’ lift the weight with the other hand, and to lower it slowly on its own, until I had built up muscle strength). This, and forearm tendon stretching sorted my tennis elbow out, I had several months off work with it, but I found if I did this exercise first thing, it made a huge difference. It never bothers me now, but if I get a twinge some stretching does the trick.

Blimey my original post isn’t far short of ten years old now! I’ve now seen the Stranglers 21 times, and I did in fact buy a Shuker JJ mk.1 (no. 006) in 2009 which I still have. Still love seeing them live, will be seeing them in Bristol again next month. Although it’s a shame Jet isn’t with them live any more, I think Jim McCauley does a superb job. The green 60’s P bass wasn’t nicked, it got smashed in Sweden, but Jon Shuker repaired it and JJ still has it. In fact it was the black one which was the heaviest, but it had the better sound-the green one was lighter but lacking in the sound department-JJ’s Shuker signature model is meant to be an amalgam of both basses.

This hits hard for me, first Grant Hart and now Mark E Smith. The bands I loved in my younger days are starting to die off. Granted, the last time I saw them he was a shambling mess, like an old man with dementia let loose on stage, but when I saw them when he was in his prime, they were unstoppable. Unique.

I’ve had one for years and been very happy with it. True, the battery door is hard to latch, but I’ve always managed it. I saw somewhere that somebody put a cable tie around the transmitter and slid it on and off to open and close the door, but I’ve never felt the need for that. It seems easier now I’ve had it a while. I made my own leather pocket for mine so have never really used the clip. I bought a longer, better quality cable for mine off Ebay. It doesn’t like cheap batteries, but Duracells from the pound shop have significantly greater longevity. All this being said, everyone seems very happy with their Smoothhounds, and I would probably replace mine with one of those if mine died.

This probably my favourite ‘On the whole I’d rather be in Philadelphia’ TOTP moment. https://youtu.be/otZ8Bq7lXag

Yep, Dunlop Max-grips are my favourites too, although any of the Dunlop nylon jobs work well. I can’t remember the last time I dropped a pick either.

Well our toilet went crazy yesterday afternoon The plumber he said ‘never flush a tampon’ This great information cost me half a week’s pay And the toilet blew up later on the next day Frank Zappa

I had the metal box version, a second hand, scratched copy bought off a mate, it was a sod to get the discs out to play them! Picked up an old PIL best of album a while back, forgot what fantastic stuff they did, especially the mid/late 80’s stuff like ‘Home’ and ‘Seattle ‘.

Our set has evolved over the years, we started off with a female singer and hence did a lot of happy-clappy stuff she liked (Pink and the like), she left and we tried to be a blues band for a while, but gradually more modern stuff and rock crept in. Now I’m noticing that the rock is gradually being edged out by stuff like Killers, Muse, Foos etc. which I do listen to, but the stuff I was brought up on, and listen to most, Stranglers, Husker du, Sisters of Mercy, Pixies etc. would clear a dance floor in seconds.

[quote name='ribbetingfrog' timestamp='1508756873' post='3394153'] got mine for a pound in a charity shop [/quote] Mine was £2. It’s a beauty.

Saw Killing Joke twice during the 'Night time' era. Awesome album, and they were storming live, although the first time, Exeter somewhere, Jazz had his boiler suit on and warpaint, and really looked intimidating. Second time, Elephant Fayre in Cornwall, he was wearing a leather jacket, long hair and looked like Kevin Keegan! Paul Raven did a fine job on both occasions. At Exeter, as they were going offstage, some kid got onstage and was posing triumphantly. Raven came up behind him and shoved him unceremoniously back into the crowd! I think it's got a lot to do with his basslines that that album sounds as good as it does-especially on 'love like blood ', which let's face it, is all about that bass line.

Saw ‘em more than once in their heyday, loved ‘em. Considering they evolved from a bunch of punks bashing out the Lord’s Prayer they came a long way, as did quite a few of the original punk bands. They soon grew out of the three chord thrash and became quite accomplished musicians-the Damned come to mind in a similar vein. Arabian Nights and Israel are two of my favourites.

+1 on the J-bass, I’ve had two, an Aerodyne and a Squier 5-string, it’s mainly the offset body that bugs me, although the thinner neck (on the 4) doesn’t suit me either. I’m definitely a Precision man. Also had an Ibanez ATB200 semi acoustic job, looked gorgeous, could not set it up to suit me no matter what I did. Didn’t last a fortnight.

One of my favorite guitar players is Neil Young-love his tone. Also fully agree re Bob Mould, his solo on Sugar's 'Hoover Dam' is one of my favourite ever. Also honourable mention for Hugh Cornwell of the Stranglers, and for Baz Warne, his successor.

At my first ever gig I was told to turn the bass down by a bloke who I later found out was an ex-soundman for the Who. We recorded an EP at Sawmills Studios near Fowey, where Muse and Oasis have recorded amongst many others, so I have almost certainly pissed in the same bog and eaten at the same table as Chris Wolstenholm/Matt Bellamy et al, and the Gallagher brothers. A chap I used to work with was the drummer for Sutherland Brothers and Quiver ('Lying in the arms of Mary'), and he was part of the touring band for Pink Floyd with The Wall. Nick Mason is a mate of his.

I've been a 'singer' for 20+ years, and for the past year I've been taking lessons, and it has certainly made me able to sing things I could never sing before. There are still songs I could never sing, I'm just not physically capable of it. My teacher, a professional singer with an extremely impressive CV, can't sing stuff that I can, because it's too deep for her. A singer who can't sing any song, in any key, is not crap or lazy.

I think mine was the Elephant Fayre, St. Germans, Cornwall, in 1983. The Cure were headlining. I see Wilko Johnson was also on the bill, but Only many years later did I come to appreciate him-I remember not being too keen on him at the time. It was a decent festival, I went again subsequently, and saw New Model Army and Killing Joke, but a lot of trouble with traveller types eventually brought about the festival's demise. I was at Reading in 1990. My mate and I suddenly decided the night before to drive up from Cornwall to see the Pixies. We apparently, unbeknown to us, arrived during the one hour that day that they were selling day tickets, bought ours and walked straight in. It was meant to be, and we bloody loved it.