icastle

[quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1331601290' post='1575804'] I had a massive 2x18" Vox cab that ran to 100w. I kind of wish I still had it because it looked cool. Though I'm glad I never had to try to transport it in a small car, especially with all the metal work and huge wheels bolted onto the outside of it. [/quote] You know what - I'm surprised that we ever found room to be able to play with all that kit piled up everywhere. If technology hadn't downsized and increased in power, I reckon bass players would have evolved into being no higher than 4' 6" and weigh no more than 6 stone by now...

First band I played with used to use one of these: Very sophisticated at the time. Two 8x 8" speaker columns with a 60W power amp built into the base of them. Seems a world away from the 2000W JBL\Yamaha rig we use nowadays and takes up less space.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1331595874' post='1575729'] Reminds me of that joke, 'what d'you call a dog with wings?'... [/quote] Down?

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1331596847' post='1575749'] You [i]are[/i] very old! As am I. Aren't these new 5p pieces fiddly? Now... what did I come in here for again? [/quote] I dunno but that's a pot plant not a toilet...

[quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1331591791' post='1575636'] The elastic in your trouser waist? [/quote] You're just jealous that I can still bend that far...

[quote name='deepbass5' timestamp='1331592829' post='1575665'] still, it stopped the locals burning his holiday home. [/quote] You mean Cornwall?

[quote name='4-string-thing' timestamp='1331589584' post='1575582'] I am massivley overrated.... A very good drummer friend once described me as "a solid player" Complete tosh, coz I am total crap! Incidentally, an ex girlfriend once described me as "adequate" I think she overrated me too [/quote] Ah but it's always so much easier to rate other people than it is to have them rate you.

[quote name='4-string-thing' timestamp='1331586872' post='1575503'] I remember the name Roost, and RSC had a shop on High St in Leicester, I bought a 50w 12" driver from them. They used to have a catalogue a bit like Andertons and it was mostly mail order.... [/quote] I'm pretty sure I can remember RSC having full page adverts in Everyday Electronics or Practical Electronics magazine and that really is stretching my memory back to the point where something is going to go snap...

[quote name='Big_Stu' timestamp='1331588393' post='1575546'] You don't need to go that far to ease any EKO GAS. IIRC the story is that when EKO folded Brandoni bought all their unmade parts. [url="http://www.brandoniguitars.co.uk/ekogtr.asp"]http://www.brandonig...o.uk/ekogtr.asp[/url] [/quote] God yes! I'd forgotten all about Brandoni. This thread is starting to make me feel very old...

[quote name='leftyhook' timestamp='1331588409' post='1575548'] Sorry sorry sorry - but....... Tony Franklin..........................being granted a signature model by no less than Fender. [/quote] So by my reckoning that just leaves.... you and me that haven't got Fender Signature models immortalising us...

[quote name='4000' timestamp='1331583659' post='1575409'] Most of the stuff was Rutger Gunnarsson. Fab player, one of my faves. As for screeching birds though, how very dare you! I challenge you to star-shaped, glitter-covered handbags at dawn! [/quote] Well, one of them looked like she was about to burst into tears all the while and the other one was just blimmin' scary. [quote name='4000' timestamp='1331583659' post='1575409'] What I don't get is that so many people seem to only like one type of player. Rutger Gunnarson is great. Flea is great. I like supportive, outlandish and everything inbetween. Except Marcus Miller. [/quote] Maybe because they may be good at what they do but for those outside of the genre it does nothing? I chose ABBA as an example because I had no starting point to find something outside my genre (So yes, I started at 'A' ) I had to go and find out what 'Flea' was all about and didn't like his performance, on any level, one little bit. Is he a sh*t bass player? No, what he's doing matches what's going on. Would I want to listen to it? No, to my ear it sounds like everything I hate all rolled into one. Can anyone persuade me otherwise? No, it's a personal thing. That's where the real differences lie here, personal taste clouding unemotive judgment on both sides.

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1331587810' post='1575529'] Talking of influences - I always remember a quote from Billy Sheehan talking about influences in the way you play where he said that "influences are not just the things you love, they are also the things you reject", which I thought was absolutely spot on. [/quote] I have absolutely no idea who Billy Sheehan is, but that is a remarkably astute way of describing influences.

[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1331587569' post='1575522'] I can't help but notice that nobody's mentioned Suzi Quattro. [/quote] That'd be because leather jumpsuits take precedence over notes.

[quote name='Jerry_B' timestamp='1331582874' post='1575389'] But the asking price for some basses is on the same par, relatively speaking. Fender, etc are guilty of this, despite the fact that there seems to be no real reason for it. Even if we consider more 'normal' prices, is a new Fender bass (for example) really worth £800-1000+? Seems unlikely. [/quote] Fender is a bit of an oddity, their QC is somewhat suspect (and has been for a while) and they have devalued their US range with MIM, MIJ and Squier models. I'm really not too sure 'where' they are going but I somehow think that our great grandchildren will be talking about Fender in purely historical terms if they don't sort their act out. Are they worth £800 - £1000+ now? Probably not. As to what does make an instrument worth more than another, it's a combination of materials and the care with which it has been assembled - that's what I'd always pay the extra for.

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' timestamp='1331584362' post='1575429'] This isn't an episode of Mr. Benn, you know! [/quote] Whaddyamean? I've been sat here dressed up as a Turkish rug seller for the last two days.. !

[quote name='BRANCINI' timestamp='1331577545' post='1575214'] I still have a Lorenzo acoustic, A lot like an EKO ( were they italian as well ? I - think so) I used to repair a lot of Bontempi organs and keyboards for Woolies and mail order catalogue firms in the 70s and 80s. Real quality kit they were. [/quote] EKO were Italian, and they're back! (albeit made in Czech or China these days). [url="http://www.ekoguitars.it/viewdoc.asp?co_id=79840"]http://www.ekoguitars.it/viewdoc.asp?co_id=79840[/url] Just before they disappeared from the UK last time, they brought out two solid body instruments - a 4 string bass and a strat copy. They were absolutely astounding at the time and looked like the Ibanez SR505 does today. I thought Lorenzo was a Japanese make but I could be way off the mark there. I do remember that they were imported by Fletcher Coppock & Newman who were also importers of Hagstrom and Westone.

[quote name='bassman2790' timestamp='1331579498' post='1575273'] Me too .... there, the cat's out of the bag [/quote] We shall be forever remembered in legend and song as the Three Bassketeers...

[quote name='Big_Stu' timestamp='1331579291' post='1575266'] That's usually my fave kind of player of any description, the ones that appear to be sitting back doing nothing - but when they stop you wonder where that bloody big hole came from. [/quote] Yeah. It's about contributing to the 'whole', not leaping about on stage playing distorted bass solos wearing a leotard. Just as an example, and to be proveI have no axe to grind, I've intentionally chosen an example totally outside of my genre, that bass player who was with ABBA. I have no idea what his name is, I have no idea what gear he used and I have no idea of what he looked like or if he has worked with anyone else, but take him out of ABBA and you're left with an adequate guitarist, a pretty good keyboard player and two screeching birds.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1331570338' post='1575024'] I don't think I'm that interested in bass players so I don't know who is rated highly and who isn't. I generally like bass players who play interesting parts in good bands, and dislike bass players who play at trade shows. [/quote] That pretty much sums up my attitude as well. I feel very uncomfortable with the motivations of those who insist that I should in some way pay homage to their bass gods. To be really brutal about it, I'd say that most of these 'gods' were\are just one trick ponies who managed to pass the finishing line first a long time ago when the rest of the contestants in the race were sat back doing nothing.

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1331547840' post='1574373'] It's hard innit. How the f*** do violinists manage! [/quote] They don't fret. I'll get me coat...

[quote name='Jerry_B' timestamp='1331574132' post='1575121'] Ever been in a TVR or some other performance cars? Money doesn't always buy quality or reliability [/quote] I did say 'sensibly specified' - things like diamond encrusted coffee perculators, solid gold bathtaps and sports cars don't really fall into that category in my world...

[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1331575470' post='1575157'] I'll bet the OP didn't anticipate the way this has developed! [/quote] I'll bet the OP has already left the country and set up a new life in Brazil.

[quote name='razze06' timestamp='1331568420' post='1574968'] My earliest memories of kit are full of old italian names, none of which would anything to anyone. Davoli? FBT? [/quote] Not come across those two. But, back in the early 70's most cars on the road in the UK were manufactured here and Italian food was only just starting to appear on supermarket shelves.

[quote name='BRANCINI' timestamp='1331567072' post='1574934'] There were a few odd ideas like that at the time. There was definitely a cab that had 2 'skins' of plywood with a cavity full of sand between them, and I know of at least one Bass Player who had pieces of paving slab inside his cab. one of the sales guys in a shop I worked at was running a mobile disco using a 100W marshall and a 1X18 that was literally full of old carpet offcuts. weighed a ton and sounded rubbish. [/quote] The two skins and sand trick was a Wharfedale thing to reduce cabinet resonance but I can vaguely remember people filling speaker cabinets with all sorts of rubble.

How is it possible to overate bass players of any description? It's all just a load of 'donk, thud, twangk, ping' when all is said and done...