darkandrew

Ultravox were a huge influence on me and true pioneers when it came to combining electronic instruments into rock and pop - they took the avant-garde electronica of Eno and Kraftwerk (even working with Brian Eno at one point), and mixing it with more traditional "rock" instrumentation (and even a bit of classical viola) they sign-posted the way for music to move out of the 70s and into the 80s and beyond. Whether it was electric bass or synth bass (can you even imagine Vienna without *that* synth bassline?), it was always under-stated and never flashy but always exactly the right thing for the song.

I'm sitting in a park where they are currently setting up for a mini-festival and just noticed that they appear to be playing Tears for Fears' Songs from the Big Chair through the PA to check it. This reminded me of an interview that I saw on MTV once with Andrew Eldritch (Sisters of Mercy) where he mentioned that they used to play Talk Talk's Colour of Spring through the PA for this purpose, and wondered what songs / albums other people have used as a reference either while setting up for a live show or mixing in the studio?

I'll just leave this abomination here ...

I'm soon going to hit 50 and I'd say that probably 75% of music I buy is by older bands from the 80s and 90s - either new releases or re-releases but that does mean that about 25% of what i buy is by more current bands. I'm a secondary school teacher and a lot of new stuff is recommended to me by the students but something I've found surprising over the years is how many kids listen to older music these days - when I was their age there was no way that I'd listen to something that my parents might have listened to but a lot of today's kids love it, one artist that was really popular with them before lockdown was Neil Diamond (?!)

I could get some stick for this but although I really love the music of Magazine, I really can't stand Howard Devoto's voice.

"These are the days of our lives" by Queen

"Duran Duran social channels"? - Does this mean YouTube?

A teacher at a mixed comprehensive secondary school. Main subject is Computing / ICT and I also used to teach music as well. 

Not sure if it's a repeat and been on before but BBC 4 are showing "Tina Weymouth on Bass" tonight at 10:30 if you're in to that sort of thing (which I guess one or two of you might be).

I'm going to go against the flow here I'm afraid. I had an encore guitar (not a bass) in the late 80s and it was almost entirely unplayable.

6 hours ago, Hellzero said:

Listen to this, Dan :

 

And especially this :

 

Sorry, I know it's infantile and I should be able to ignore it but all those "jazz faces" just put me right off. Sorry ...

This was shared by Martin Ware on his Facebook page and although I've never heard of the band, I'm loving this cover.

On 04/10/2019 at 08:57, BigRedX said:

Also bear in mind that locking off the vibrato system so that it can't move will change the sound of the guitar.

This happened to my Fender Showmaster. I fitted a Tremelno system into it and it absolutely killed the tone - it became boomy and sounded awful, and so was removed pretty swiftly. These days I just use it with the arm removed and have all but forgotten that it's actually got a working trem.

On 12/12/2019 at 18:07, Aero71 said:

Thanks! 

The nut width is 40mm and string spacing 18.5mm. 

Just backing up what you posted at the top - I had a re-issue with the Gotoh bridge and that definitely had wider spacing (it also had a separate battery compartment on the back) - so looks like you've got an interesting one there. The only reason I let my one go was because my other bass was a 5 string Spector Euro with fairly narrow string spacing and I found the difference between the two a bit of a pain - so I've got to admit, I'm liking your one!

7 hours ago, Kiwi said:

The tele tends to be fat and sweet with both pickups on and it carries a nice bite.  Prince used one as a main guitar for this reason.  But the strat gets a look in as well, with Nile Rodgers and pretty much anyone playing in the 4th position (Cory Wong, I'm looking at you).

BUT...don't write the LP off.  I'm not a fan of the LP body shape so I have a couple of Yammie MSG's instead and in one I replaced the stock pickups with jazzier/archtop type PAF by Aaron Armstrong.  So on the neck pickup I can get some mellow stuff and on the bridge pickup I can still get some decent chunk with distortion on. 

For clean LP - Long Train Running, Play That Funky Music,  most of the Brothers Johnson stuff, Brick House, a lot of Bobby Womack stuff, Tower of Power stuff, one of James Brown's guitarists used an LP...even the intro to the Theme from Shaft.

You could even swap out the humbuckers for P90's for a fat sound with more single coil bite and be set up for the solo to Another Brick In The Wall (Gilmour played it on a LP with P90's)
 

Do you know, I've never ever looked at the MSG line. Having looked now though, they look really good - and just when I thought I was going to have a GAS free 2020 - Damn you!

9 hours ago, BreadBin said:

Duncan Designed are the Korean-made budget range, they aren't worth a huge amount.

I thought that even with that in mind, after taking into acount selling and delivery fees, etc, I'd probably still end up with a similar amount if I just stuck them on eBay on a £1 deal or on here for free (being less than £50) than if I tried to sell and post the bass. It all depends what the bass is worth I guess.

8 minutes ago, skankdelvar said:

* £7.00 for a one-off ad or...
* £20.00 subscription for unlimited ads for a year.

Set up and pay via the 'Shop' tab under the BassChat logo at the top of the page. Any probs, buzz a mod and someone will sort you out 

Cheers

16 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

The later IGB basses have that nice carve, I think it's more pronounced on the newer (guessing Chinese?) ones. The older Korean ones were flat with a different logo and pup arrangement (either P/J or J/J). Then there are some early oddities made in Korea with the older style Japanese body with Integra writing (like MIJ Billy Gould's basses), stubby headstock shape and the proper MIJ classic Aria bridge found on the more desirable basses.

 

All this with basically no model numbers on the basses save for the odd one with it on the truss rod cover. Not sure how enthusiastic collectors are regarding the serial number identification of Korean Arias (I'm guessing not very much) but it might be worth a shot. Looks to be from May '03 going off the serial anyway. 

You've got me digging around the internet now - yes, the serial number (S030510207) does seem to indicate that it was made in the Korean Samick factory in May 2003 which would tie in with when I bought it and my recollection of where I thought it was made.

How much is it to put a bass up for sale here - I should know but it's usually me doing the buying!

11 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

The discussion here plus my negligible detective skills have led me to speculate it might be an IGB-65 - is this it?

https://www.andertons.co.uk/bass-dept/bass-guitars/modern-bass-guitars/second-hand-aria-igb-65-in-natural

 

Again similar but mine is in MM/J configuration.

5 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

The 4 string versions came with a different brushed metal bridge and knobs, I've had Integras from the 90s and 2000s with it on. Like this:

 

Never not liked an Integra, I had the passive version of the bass above which cost me £55 and I gigged it all over. All except the very early Korean one I still have were crazy light too. Never seen them with Duncan Designed pickups though, are these original?

Yes, bought it new from Sharron Music (long since gone out of business) in Hythe. Can I PM you a photo to see if you think it's worth putting it up for sale?

18 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

 

That looks very similar, although mine's a 4 stringer with a different bridge (Hipshot style, finished in satin to match the tuners and knobs), a lighter (natural ash?) body finish and "Duncan Designed" branding on the pickups. I really don't want to post any pictures, etc, for the reasons given earlier, ie. I don't want anyone to think I'm trying to sell it without paying my subscription but then I really have no idea if it's worth trying to sell it? What do you think - worth buying a subscription and giving it a go?

6 minutes ago, Mykesbass said:

Aria resale values are terrible sadly. Which model is it? Some great basses in the IGB series.

Oddly enough, that's exactly what it is. I'm not sure of the model, I've never seen or found another with the same MM/J configuration and Duncan Designed pickups.

49 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

Aside from the 70s & 80s MIJ Arias and a few recent exceptions, there's usually not a lot of value to them.

That's what I was thinking. New, I think it was about £400-£500 about 15 or so years ago but I think I'd probably be lucky to get £150 for it despite it being a lot better than most budget basses you can buy today. By the way, what's the threshold for paying for ads on here?

I have an early 2000's Aria bass guitar that I used to keep as a spare, a surprisingly good bass actually but probably not worth very much (I don't want to go into too much detail about the bass in case it looks like I'm trying sell it through the back door). Taking into consideration the cost and hassle of shipping a bass, would I be better off selling it as a whole or stripping it and selling it for parts instead (Duncan Designed MM and J pickups, 3 band active eq etc)?

34 minutes ago, dave moffat said:

Adagio for Strings - Samuel Barber, soothing after the rush of the previous few days.

Time -Hans Zimmer

I'm in a contemplative frame of mind today

I love Barber's Adagio for Strings. Strangely, my introduction to it was via a computer game called Homeworld where it was used as the background music for the game. The game also featured a theme song called The Ladder which was written and performed by Yes - and the game itself was pretty good as well.