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mentalextra

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Posts posted by mentalextra

    Any hotspots in Canterbury?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Many, many, many years ago I had a mother in law that lived near Sturry. We often ended up dragging ourselves into a pub called The George and Dragon next to the river. It can get busy and there was entertainment to be had watching idiots in boats, plus being eaten alive by bugs in the evening, a good time was had by all!!

    It's probably been rebuilt as flats now.

    GCSE RM primary research

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 13 June 2019 at 10:51, Teebs said:

     

    A)Led fretboard or not

    No LED

    B)Maple or Wengé fretboard

    Maple fretboard

    C)Single headless pieces or whole bridge

    Whole bridge

    D)Brass or steel string clamp at headstock

    Brass string clamp

    E)Active or passive

    Passive

    F)3 band or 3 band parametric

    3 Band

    G)Oil finish or polyurethane

    Poly finish

    H)Scale length- 25 or 28 inch

    28” minimum

    I)Bolt on or neck through

    Either (neck thru for prestige bass, bolt on for workhorse)

    J)Truss rod or just carbon support rods

    Truss rod

    K)Out jack on top or side

    Side jack (not fussy tho)

    L)Extended fretboard to act as ramp or not

    No ramp

    :)

    +1 but must be bolt on neck for me. Be wary of set necks. There be dragons! Lol 

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1

    Demise of the town music store.

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    13 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

    Well, guitar shops paid my mortgage for a number of years.

    From my perspective a few things.

    Yes, the internet is the big issue.

    1. A warehouse with boxes guitars/amps etc is vastly cheaper to run from a website than a chain or even singular shop.

    2. Big chain guitar shops need to shift units so the service suffers hugely (the chain I worked for now no longer offer a repair/restring service) which means people aren’t interested in going.

    3. The big brands need to shift units...so go with the big chains with ridiculous dealership demands. I think the last buy in for a Gibson dealership was £35k. Small chains cannot do this.

    4. The markup/margin/breadwinner is accessories - see point 1. A website for accessories once set up will run itself. 40-50% margin on branded strings and accessories, own brand/Chinese import accessories 60-75% - again, smaller stores haven’t got that buying power. You don’t need to ‘try out’ regular slinkies, so you don’t need the experience - you just buy them 15% cheaper online...

    5. Second hand...a shop will buy a £200 retail bass for £100 as a part ex. Why would you part ex for £100 when you can sell it yourself for £180/£200 on eBay/Shpock/Gumtree/Facebook/Basschat. So the shops used to be more varied, and interesting - now they’re not.

    6. Trend. It’s actually not that cool to be a muso at the minute. In the 80’s/90’s music was a bigger deal. Kids now don’t want it like we did.

    7. Money. I haven’t bought a new (from a shop) bass in the 5 years I’ve not worked in a music shop. See point 5 - why buy new when there’s a glut of cheap second hand gear online...see point six...less buyers, more gear...

    I could go on...think that covers most of it.

     

    You've nailed it!

    I feel that the only way high street music shops can survive is by providing genuine customer service and/or by obtaining unique/vintage used stock. The big online box shifters cannot compete. That said, online shopping is changing the high street whether we like it or not.

    Why is online shopping always seen as 'bad/evil' and local high street shops seen as good, honest and wholesome?

    Dodgy YouTube bass covers or "lessons" !

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    7 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

    The other YT vid's I enjoy are those where A N Other "reviews" an amp or an instrument. Typically, the "review" will be conducted in A N's living room, which is strewn with old socks and empty pizza boxes. A N usually begins with the words "What's up, guys" and delivers the entire thing in a hyper, over-excited manner, whilst attempting to slap the bass to within an inch of its life. All you can hear, because A N has dropped the action to nothing, is fret rattle and tuneless twanging. Hilarious. I won't be mean to anyone by posting links here, but you can find plenty of examples on YT if you fancy a few minutes amusement.

    You forgot the 'unboxing' part!:D

    • Haha 3

    Do Bass DIrect not answer emails?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    1 hour ago, ead said:

    Hopefully sorted now.  The manufacturer, who are renowned for their legendary levels of customare care, have put me in direct contact with their international sales team manager.

    .... and in the morning Human Resources will call you in to discuss 'certain emails'xD

    Playing covers - how accurate do you need to be?

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by mentalextra

    3 minutes ago, chris_b said:

    If you are watching a semi pro cover band why do you care about caring for the songs?

    I don't go to see bands who don't play well. It's not an enjoyable experience, but they are not playing for me, so as long as the intended audience is enjoying themselves all is good.

    I'm just giving a different perspective. Just because you maybe don't think its important doesn't mean the audience feels the same. Sadly, 'near enough is good enough' seems to be the mantra here.

    Playing covers - how accurate do you need to be?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Just now, nightsun said:

    I've always argued that we are a covers band, not a copies band.  I like to put my own spin on things, as long as it isn't to the detriment of the song and I'm not being paid the big bucks (I'm not being paid the big bucks) then I don't see it as a problem.  Also being strictly in the 'amateur' camp, slavishly copying songs would soon get boring and it would turn into yet another job,at which point you'll find my gear on the market place.  Saying that I do agree on the 'know' bassline argument, for example I do try to get Cream/Who/Beatles etc stuff as right as I can while adding a little of myself to the sauce.

    I don't think the average non muso audience would notice that you weren't trying to do a note for note copy, but would assume you weren't capable of it?lol

    Playing covers - how accurate do you need to be?

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by mentalextra

    3 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

    Just a philosophical thought.

    Someone made a good distinction between tributes and cover bands.

    A tribute is like an impersonator or an impressionist  -and those two different words imply different things.

    Outside 'popular music' it is the norm for the performer to put their personal stamp on a performance.

    In classical music, orchestras vary in their composition and conductors vary in their styles. An classical soloists have their signature styles. Bach's Tocatta and Fugue sounds very different on depending on the organist and organ.

    Jazz is all about improvisation developing the themes in a piece.

    Folk music is all about a huge canon of music that gets continually reinterpreted.

    Perhaps the question should be 'why do covers bands try so hard to sound like the originals'?

    Or how little of the original performance do they need to class as a cover? half assed is a cover, totally half assed, a tribute! lol

    • Haha 1
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