Green Alsatian

[quote name='Delberthot' timestamp='1316872415' post='1383925'] Something like this? [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogmVmRkgURA&feature=fvst[/media] [/quote] He looks like Doctor Octopus with that!

It started me thinking about unwieldy instruments in general - imagine one for the ambidextrous, in which the guitar is right-handed, but the bass, left handed with the necks on the same plane, but naturally pointing in opposite directions. Guaranteed crab-walk down corridors and through doors.

I don't often see double-necks on Ebay, least of all [i]new[/i] ones. The bass half looks like one of the recent Shine copies [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Double-Neck-12-String-and-4-String-black-Bass-Guitar-/330617823988?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item4cfa5ba2f4#ht_500wt_1156"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Double-Neck-12-String-and-4-String-black-Bass-Guitar-/330617823988?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item4cfa5ba2f4#ht_500wt_1156[/url]

[quote name='Muzz' timestamp='1316770035' post='1382535'] No question about it, nothing to touch this one [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si2kis6lWRg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si2kis6lWRg[/media] [/quote] Beat me to it! I'll go with another favourite tone of mine - Norman Watt-Roy on his P-bass: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT1Gl1172s8[/media]

I've had the DiMarzio model P/J set, which I put in a Peavey Zodiac BXP and was very pleased with the results. Soloing the bridge pickup, no hum (being a side-by-side split coil) and provided the sounds I associate with the Jazz bridge pickup, only with a more output. It did the smooth roll-off-the-tone sound and the burpy bridge pickup sounds very well. As a bonus, I also think that the Model P/J is the best looking pickup, with its black hex poles. As someone else mentioned, try adjusting your pickups closer to the strings (although it won't eliminate the hum). It's always the first thing I try, if I think a pickup is a bit tame-sounding.

Half Man Half Biscuit's 'Achtung Bono'.

Aye, I remember Raw Power - do you remember it when it was The Power Hour, with Zoidzilla on the opening titles? Ah memories - I'd get in between 1-2am from my glass-collecting job, catch the end of the James Whale Radio Show, whatever Sci-fi series was on (Friday The 13th, Twilight Zone etc.) and then wait up for the Power Hour/Raw Power. I had a proper crush on Nikki Groocock back then! Back to the article, It seems he's trying hard to provoke a reaction from Nirvana fans, more than anything. I do agree that Nevermind was a polished album, but what the hell's wrong with making a great-sounding album? You see a band live if you want the rawness and energy. I thought Nirvana were alright, and Nevermind is a good album with some great songs on it. I'd started listening to punk & new wave bands from the late 70s around that time, so I didn't pay much attention to them. The metal club I used to frequent started playing Smells Like Teen Spirit, but it didn't get anywhere near the reaction as Metallica's Enter Sandman, which had not long come out. Over that year, a lot of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden (who I thought were the better of these bands) was played there and it became part of the 'audio furniture' - I certainly don't remember grunge 'coming in and taking over' as some folk who weren't old enough to be going out back then make out. (I've ended up in many an argument with 'enthusiastic' Nirvana fans). I've heard folk saying that grunge killed metal, but I don't think it's true - shook things up a bit, as punk did in the 70s, perhaps. One thing I'm grateful to Nirvana for, is that I might not have discovered The Meat Puppets - I've got most of their albums and you can definitely hear the influence they had over Nirvana. I also agree that Dave Grohl was the best thing to come from it - I've seen the Foo Fighters a couple of times and they're a fun band to listen to and great performers live. His drumming on Queens of the Stone Age's Songs For The Deaf was fantastic! Award yourself five points if you're still awake!

I'd wait for the proper scale length - you'll be turning actual string around the tuners, which isn't good. As they're often out of stock, I buy mine from this fellow on eBay - he's in the US, but has always shipped 'em quickly. Here's a set of regular guage from said seller (I'm not the seller!) [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BELLA-DEEP-TALKIN-FLATWOUND-BASS-STRINGS-760FL-/120720674889?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item1c1b835049#ht_1000wt_952"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BELLA-DEEP-TALKIN-FLATWOUND-BASS-STRINGS-760FL-/120720674889?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item1c1b835049#ht_1000wt_952[/url] I've got a set of 'Original 1954s' on a cheap CMI P-bass and they are excellent strings - feel and sound great. Even though they are a heavy guage (52-110), they are comfortable to play. I had their Hofner set on my Ignition and they were excellent!

I approve of this vision of the future. Good work, folks - it looks really nice.

Some lovely ladies fronting your bands, folks! Here's our man in action.

I also had a Hohner Jack and regret letting it go. The bridge pickup was great for digging in - nice growly sound but I also liked the neck pickup, which had a bit of a throaty character to it. Not as burly as a P, but nice-sounding all the same. Like Moonbase mentioned, I initally used to get lost on the neck, hitting the 9th fret instead of the 7th. This happened spectacularly when I gigged it and got lost for a bar or two!

I use drum machines regularly, mainly for recording. Probably the best bang-for-buck is the Alesis SR-16 (I've had three in the past, along with its successor, the improved SR-18). The best one I've owned was the Boss DR-880, which featured an input for guitar/bass and a stack of Boss FX/amp models in there, but it was the drum machine interface and programming options where it excelled. I only have a Roland TR-505 at the moment, but have owned the following over the years, most of which can be had cheaply! Boss DR-550MKII Boss DR-660 Roland TR-626 Korg Electribe ER-1 MKI

This one's from two years ago - it was bloody hot that night! The bass is my home-made P, which I no longer have - served me well, that did.

F# on the E string, usually hammered-on from an open E.

An awesome bass sound - it's like a bad-tempered old dog growling behind the couch. I love this performance of it, particularly Hugh's comments before and after. This is another of my fave JJ lines - the intro and outro on this are fantastic!

I've had great service from both Thomann and Musik Produktiv, both in Germany - their sites indicate stock and both offer swift shipping to the UK. I've had all orders within a week on standard delivery. Musik Produktiv even take Paypal. [url="http://www.musik-produktiv.co.uk"]http://www.musik-produktiv.co.uk[/url] [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/index.html"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/index.html[/url]

Simply stunning!

I'd leave it - if you prick it, the hole will widen through playing and the blister skin will tear off, leaving the unhealed (and tender) area exposed. I remember playing one gig and felt a sharp pain in my middle finger which then it felt wet. I assumed I'd popped a blister and carried on until it started getting more painful. It turned out that the sharp edge of a pickup pole piece, coupled with playing had lopped the skin off the tip of my finger, leaving a thick flap of skin loose and there was blood all over the strings, pickup and body of the bass. It wasn't hurting as there was wet blood on the string (good job they were flats!), but where it had dried, was scraping the wound! Bloody stung like hell and my whole finger started aching through it. I carried on with my first and third fingers, but nobody had noticed until I showed my bandmates afterwards. I couldn't use that finger for a couple of weeks until it healed!

We've played plenty of times when we've nearly outnumbered the audience when we've been told to go on at 7pm, when the main act is on around 9pm. I'd rather play sooner, rather than later. I remember one gig (an all-dayer) where we were told that we were due on at 10pm. We ended up on at 12:30am and by that time, everyone (including our mates who turned up) were absolutely bladdered. Some loved us, some booed us, all fuelled by a solid night's drinking. What made it worse for me, was that I was in work the next morning. I was goosed.

The Solid 4 looks majestic. I do like the controls at the bridge - keeps the rest of the body looking clean. Not on my wages, sadly - wish I hadn't looked at it now!

Happy birthday! Mine's in a couple of weeks, reckon if I drop enough hints, I could have one too?

That was ace! Great playing and the fact that she can sing while doing it (and sing well at that!). I liked her bass tone - seemed to be the neck pickup favoured. I think I have a Fender barrel knob for her tone control if she wants it.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1353085' date='Aug 26 2011, 09:43 PM']Yeah I can imagine someone in flares wheeling into the park with loads of old Vinyl records stored inside it like a massive ipod of the possible future, "Look at its portability and effortless storage of over 100 tracks".[/quote] John Lennon invented it in the 1960s.

I remember the words to one of our songs completely exiting my head at one gig, after the first line. I stayed at the mic and said (in character for the song) "You know, I do believe I've forgotten what I was going to say. I blame all these dashed pretty girls putting me off". The other two chaps carried on for an extra verse and we recovered. Being in a comedy band, people usually think cock ups are part of the act, but we're pretty quick at ad-libbing when stuff does go awry! I remember another one, where the bassline to the chorus of one of the songs just deserted me for the whole song I skipped the bass for each chorus and added backing vocals, to make it at least sound intentional, rather than risking hacking my way through it. I wouldn't mind, but I wrote the chorus for the song! An earlier time, with the same song, something went wrong and the chap on keys (and drums - one of those cheap Yamaha Portatones) and the bassman (I was on keys in this version of the lineup) stopped - I think the adapter got knocked out of his keyboard, so the guitarist and I repeated the chorus with myself on keys and him carrying on singing the audience just thought it was part of the song. You know when you have a 'great minds' moment with one of your bandmates and it works out better? It was definitely one of those, as we started incorporating that bit in the song! A general rule of thumb for us, is that if someone gets lost, we repeat the current verse/chorus to cover. I do pull a 'just watched someone getting kicked in the balls' face when I hit a bum note sometimes!