tauzero

It's quite a while ago that I had an XT25. I think the XT25 was slightly slimmer. It also felt really, really rigid.

As four-string necks go, the B2 is quite skinny. As five-string necks go, the Jack is quite chubby. If you find an equivalently skinny 5-string neck, you'll be happier. I have a B2AV, same neck profile as the Jack 4, and while it's perfectly usable, I only have it as a very compact back-up bass.

It's about making some more money for Kevin Rowland.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/mar/27/jocky-wilson-other-rock-myths

You need one if you're playing below bottom E and don't want to tune to other than EADG or use octavers/pitch shifters. You use one if your bass is equipped with one and you use it. I use it on trad music for ceilidhs, reggae, rock, pop, and jazz.

At the complete opposite end of the scale, why is it that people have a problem with instruments being refinished?

Just popped in there. The layout seems oddly familiar.

And that's unlikely to change 😁

It seems a lot of us have played there - I played a ceilidh there about ten years ago.

Hit things at the right speed and stay at the right speed. Get the right feel for the basic beat. Put in fills as appropriate and come back out of them in the right place. Creativity is going to depend on the situation - I'd like to play with the drummer that I play with in the Marillion tribute band in a more flexible situation (covers or originals), but we're trying to be faithful to the original. Almost all the drummers I've played with have been good. Currently I'm with the above tribute, an originals band whose drummer was originally the slide guitarist but finished up drumming after the previous drummer threw his toys out of the pram, and an eclectic covers band with a cajon player. Although they're wildly differing, I haven't got any problems playing with any of them - see sentences one to three in my first paragraph. A couple of years ago, the covers band I was in underwent a series of drummer changes. All other personnel remained the same. It was interesting playing with three different drummers over three or four years, the first being a rock drummer, the second with more of a soul background, and the third being rock and prog. All three adapted well to the music (rock and power pop with the odd bit of soul) and did the speed right, got the right feel, and put in appropriate fills, but were by no means clones of each other. I could definitely tell them apart, but I really couldn't rank them in order of preference. Other things which drummers should do - when rehearsing, don't keep bloody hitting things between songs. Get to gigs nice and early to set up.

Headless 5-strings are the way to go.

'Relax' went through three phases - first as a somewhat lyrically ambiguous song, then it got banned for being about sex, then Holly Johnson revealed it was about gay sex.

You lose out on 90% of the benefits of a 5-string though. The ability to go below bottom E is as nothing compared to the power of the Force ability to play in a greater selection of neck positions. Still, as long as people keep buying 5-strings, misunderstanding them, and selling them on, I'll have a plentiful supply of little-used 5-strings to buy.

IANAL, but the invitation to treat etc still applies. It is, however, inadvisable to attempt to haggle over the price of items bought from a supermarket. There are a couple of exemptions - antiques, good sold at auction, products provided as part of a service. Having done literally minutes of research into this, there doesn't seem to be any way that it's legal not to price up instruments in PMT, either individually or with a price list (although they might be getting round this by having prices available online - the requirement seems to be that you can find the price without asking a member of staff). https://www.lawdonut.co.uk/business/marketing-and-selling/consumer-protection/unfair-trading-trade-descriptions-and-pricing-faqs#UTTDP12 says, in part: "More generally, failing to display prices could constitute unfair trading if the omission is likely to affect how customers behave. For example, customers might not choose to use your service if they knew in advance how much it would cost."

The first few I learnt weren't with the assistance of the records, it was just the guitarist saying what the chords were and me making something up. Back in the USSR, All Right Now (and I played in the verse), Sweet Jane, and some originals that we wrote spring to mind (it was 1976 so details are a bit hazy).

All the time, except when I'm playing a 4-string (TBH I'd rather play Marillion songs on a 5 but Pete Trewavas plays them on a 4 so to be a proper tribute, except fatter and balder, I have to too).

Pah! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigger_(guitar)

Was that Interparcel's terms or the terms of that specific courier?

Ah, the Lightglass. I'd like to say that I am paid by neither every other bass manufacturer than Fender, or, as part of a double bluff, by Fender. I am, however, currently sponsored by the DWP.

But... but... it causes offence! And causing offence is an enormous offence! I have a right to be offended, you know, and it causes me enormous stress.

I think relicked is probably more correct than reliced, which sounds as if you're putting parasites back on that you took off during the process of abusing the instrument. I bought a very tatty P decades ago - a sunburst with the lacquer seriously chipped and knackered. I took the lacquer off and stained it consistently dark. I suppose that now I'd be considered a criminal in the BC Fender purists' eyes.

Maybe that's the sound they all want?

I am evidently unreasonable and also consider Prince to be vastly overrated. House of the Rising Sun has already been mentioned, not sure if Hey Joe has yet.

That's surely like saying Nothing Compares 2 U or All the Young Dudes. Springsteen wrote it but it was never a single for him, like Prince wrote Nothing Compares 2 U and Bowie wrote All the Young Dudes. Because the Night by Patti Smith wasn't a cover, it was a recording of a song written by Springsteen.

7/8 bit kicks in at 0:52. Not as complex as most of those already cited, but I used to play this in a club band and one of the clubs we played at had line dancers. That gave us considerable entertainment. Others - Times Like These - Foo Fighters, main theme to Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield.