pete.young

[Fly a kite] ObShaggy: It wasn't me. Does anyone over 8 years old really find that offensive? I've had enough. I'm off to watch Bill Oddie and some stunning footage of some great tits.

Some lovely contributions here particularly from Argh, who has definitely missed his vocation as a writer. Beedster, the more I think about it the more I think I'm going to have to kill you for letting that Black Rose go! I started on upright bass, which was so totally uncool that I dreamed and schemed at every opportunity until I finally persuaded my old man to buy me a bass guitar, a Hofner Senator. Violin Basses being the first choice but an unfeasible 25 quid. Then, it cost 15 quid and all worked, despite some rather dodgy-looking cracks in the finish around the (achilles) heel of the neck join. Now, probably worth 4-500 quid on Ebay. Then, sold to a school chum for 15 quid, to be replaced by ... A Vox Wyman. Possibly the worst heap of [Fly a Kite] masquerading as a bass guitar that has ever been produced. Why it had both Vox and Wyman on the headstock I cannot imagine. Short scale, neck width that makes a Jazz neck look like Beth Ditto, weighed more than my mate's marble-bodied special due to the 3mm chrome steel pickguard. Now probably worth a minimum of £750 on ebay - it was immaculate. Sold for £15 quid and good riddance to bad rubbish. Replaced by: A Futurama (Hagspiel) Coronado IV . Fiesta red, all rocker switches and chrome finger rests. Played like a dream. Amps of the time prevent me from knowing what it really sounded like, but I wish with all my heart that I still had it. Probably the only instrument I've ever parted with that I wish I still had. Oh well. Back to the upright bass until: A Columbus Jazz Copy. Ho hum. Replaced by: An almost new Yamaha BB800 . This was the early 80's when Yamaha were really trying to make their mark and it showed. A totally quality piece of kit which I still have and use, my go-to bass, the one I fall back on when the going gets tough. New amp technology allows this one to really shine through. I can't imagine being without this bass and it will be the last one to go. The case deserves a mention too, it was across the back seats of my car when i got T-boned. The car folded up around the bass case and was written off. The bass was still in tune when i took it out of the case, fearing the worst. Augmented by: an Aria Pro II RSB Special fretless. What to do: the neck is so flawless, the body so light, the completely un-choppable pickup so naff and gutless. I still have this, but a decent fretless is next on the list. And then a lull of several years, while I indulged myself in all means of other bizarre instruments with 6, 8, 12 strings, reeds, the whole bit. and then: Fender CIJ not-for-export precision, from Far East Guitars. Natural finish, with a maple board and a jazz neck. The "I always wanted one of these, and now I'm going to have one" bass. It is flawless, sounds wonderful, and is so shiny that I can't imagine gigging it, but a delight to play. Shine 6-string. A failed experiment. ERB is not for me and playing it as a normal bass but across-not-down didn't work either. Replaced by: OLP MM3 . The famous Mother of Toilet Seat otherwise all Black, owned by several bassworlders before it came my way. Smashing bass but I can't really get on with 5 strings, so make me an offer. Jim Reed jazz. Bought cheap from a guy in Ipswich via the bay. The gap between the neck and the neck pocket is one of the three man-made items visible from space, along with the Great Wall of China and the panel fit on a Range Rover Classic. Despite that surprisingly OK to play and good growly Kent Armstrongs. The kids have this so that they dont' have to upset me by asking to borrow the Precision. And, a continually growing heap of Jazz bits which may one day form project Swirly and allow me to get that "must build a bass" vibe out of my system. Watch this space, or maybe the 'build' forum. Wanted: a Black Rose. Waaaah!!!

I've just bought an amp from Ari and he was a pleasure to deal with. Good communications and when the item arrived it was professionally packaged. I recommend him highly too.

This weekend's weather caused me to dig out 'I can't stand the rain' by Ann Peebles. I'd forgotten just what a superb bassline that song has, and I realised that I had no idea who'd played it. Step forward Leroy Hodges for your moment in the basschat spotlight! We hear a lot of respect in this forum for the great James Jamerson, and quite right too. I think Leroy is right up there with him. Maybe this should have gone in the 'underrated heroes' thread, but hey!

[quote name='phatmonkey' post='20642' date='Jun 20 2007, 10:51 AM']Look at the bottom of your posts, it already exists![/quote] By jove, so it does! Must be about time for another eye test!

[quote name='Oxblood' post='18207' date='Jun 15 2007, 12:29 PM']I'm in full accord with you, Pete, and you've provided some very enlightening info on the way that workplace control-freak systems operate.[/quote] Aw shucks. Some more enlightened places, including the place where I work, is now switching off and unblocking many categories that were previously filtered. This is being done on the grounds that it's not the job of equipment provided to enforce a security policy to also enforce various acceptable-use and working policies on behalf of Human Resources or whatever they are called these days. There's also a lot of time wasted over false positives. My favourite was the for-sale section of the Mini owners club website, which got flagged under 'Criminal Skills' . Someone had seen the Italian Job too many times I think. A serious suggestion for the mods to consider: lots of forums and blogs have a button at the bottom of posts to report anything that you consider offensive. This to my mind will be a better way of alerting the moderators to real problem areas or users, though it will probably make more work. Whaddyathink?

So to summarise, we have three different reasons why people use compressors: 1) As an effect in it's own right 2) At the end of the signal chain, in order to protect the head from moments of ham-fistedness ;-) 3) To smooth out the lows and highs in the dynamic range. Yes? I have a Tech 21 Compactor which I tend to use in the 3rd category. Currently it's at the start of my signal chain, after the tuner and before octaver and chorus. Is this the right place for it, or should I stick it at the end of the signal chain? I also find that when I'm using a valve head the effect of compression is a lot less noticeable/useful than when I was using a borrowed transister head. Hm.

[quote name='Mrs Tinman' post='17258' date='Jun 13 2007, 10:43 PM']You have a trolley darling, but you are quite clearly off it [/quote] ROFL. Someone please put this in the classic quotes thread!

[quote name='slaphappygarry' post='17208' date='Jun 13 2007, 09:07 PM']Do you not see the funny side of this?![/quote] I think it's hysterically funny that someone thinks it's a good idea to filter the substring 'ass' in a forum called basschat. [quote name='dood']Thats interesting, it hadn't occurred to me that if we have a site full of foul language it can be picked up by 'parental control' type software and web surfing URL blacklisters.[/quote] There's no doubt that it will get onto the blacklists though. The most obvious reason will be the 'chat' in 'basschat' , which will get flagged as a chat forum. The second reason will be that most sites which allow messages to be sent and recieved are blocked because they circumvent corporate email policies. The effect of the odd expletive is neither here nor there. Like other posters, I'm not in favour of the smartarse replacement strings. As Joe so elegantly pointed out, this has the potential to give more offence than the offending bon mot. If this filter has to stay, the censoring mechanism needs to make it absolutely plain that the changes were made by a filter.

[quote name='slaphappygarry' post='16577' date='Jun 12 2007, 10:42 PM']We are helping a user out (i suspect a handful actually) so i dont see why its got such a bad reaction...[/quote] Leaving aside the fact that I don't regard it as a 'bad' reaction, I'll give the following reasons: 1) It won't fix the problem. Virtually all web content filtering systems do not work the way that your anonymous correspondent thinks they work. I'm prepared to be corrected, but all the systems I'm familiar with do not do any intelligent filtering or decision making. They work on blacklists of URLs, which are compiled and placed into categories by people surfing the web in dark rooms. Some companies modify these based on observing the traffic flow from their systems, and some companies monitor outgoing search strings, but they don't normally have the resources to read content on individual pages. So the decision whether to tag 'basschat' as a forum isn't based on dynamic profane content. 2) I would have preferred the moderators to take the approach of discussing the problem and filtering as a possible solution on the forum, before introducing filtering. This might have helped avoid some of the problems with false positives. 3) There are still going to be loads of false positives which get in the way of communication and cause other problems. When the filter mangled my posting in the 'Wanted' forum, changing 'bass' to 'be*ss' , I shut down my system and changed my keyboard, thinking mine had somehow developed a fault. Call me selfish, but this is at least as inconvenient to me as someone else being denied access at work.

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='16664' date='Jun 13 2007, 08:24 AM']However... had you considered sizing it up a bit on the small side, and practising on some old off-cut of MDF? Then offer up the pick-up cover, and see if it fits. If it does, great. If it doesn't, enlarge your template and have another bash.[/quote] Good suggestion. I'm certainly going to practise on an old plank or two before tackling the real thing!

Mine arrived today. Excellent value for money, surprisingly loud too. Thanks for the heads up MB1.

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='16283' date='Jun 12 2007, 03:08 PM']No Pete, I don't want to do that. We'll deal with subjects concerning moderation offline thank you, as per the guidelines.[/quote] I'm not sure what you've got to hide here, but it looks bad. This subject concerns more than just moderation. This is a discussion about censorship. It's also a discussion about not presenting the right terms and conditions at sign-up. I contend that if you're going to introduce a profanitiy filter you need add it to the terms and conditions, you need to require everyone to re-subscribe, and you need to describe an acceptable use policy for people who circumvent the filter. Personally I would prefer to see the existing conditions for acceptable use being enforced by the moderators, as they volunteered to do when they signed up to be moderators. I think that a few warnings to people that they need to be civil and respectful, and the eviction of persistent offenders should be the way that the problem should be handled.

And it's spelt 'Tijuana'. Unbelievable.

[quote name='pete.young' post='16264' date='Jun 12 2007, 02:49 PM']Post the list of offending words. Do you really think that anyone on a UK list is going to be offended by the use of '[Myleen Klass]' ?[/quote] Good Ghod. I thought people were having a laugh, I didn't realise that the software was doing this. I hope the appeal is going well, because when Myleen's lawyers find out that her name is being used as a synonym for "[Tiajuana brass]" they will have a field day.

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='16095' date='Jun 12 2007, 10:56 AM']Ken I'm happy to discuss this in further detail via PM.[/quote] No, lets have that discussion in the open where we can all see it. Post the list of offending words. Do you really think that anyone on a UK list is going to be offended by the use of '[Myleen Klass]' ? I'm in full agreement with Oxblood, and until I stumbled across this thread I couldn't understand why 'bass' in one of my postings was being scrambled into something else. The sad fact, as someone employed to evaluate and write profanity and porn filters at one point in my career is that they can't be guaranteed to work and can always be circumvented. There is nothing to be gained from going down this route, and much to be lost. It also seems odd that none of you appear to know any 12-year-olds, or know what kind of vocabulary they are able to routinely deploy.

I have a jazz body bought from someone on bassworld which is an OK plank but the pickup routing is abysmal. The neck pu will be OK because I can fit a scratchplate, but the bridge one is horrendous, the bumps are in the wrong place and the slot isn't wide enough. If I fit a Seymour Duncan MM pickup or a Wizard combo set I reckon that will give me a way to use the body, but it'll mean re-routing the cavity and making a template. I've got loads of 5mm acrylic and reasonable fitting skills so I'm reasonably confident that I can make a decent set of templates up. Question is, how much space do I need to leave around the outline of the pickup cover to make sure that the hole is the right size? It's quite critical for the bridge pickup. I was thinking along the lines of the pickup plus the thickness of the router guide sleeve. Someone must have done this. What are the pitfalls? How much clearance do I need?

Quick heads up for our Middlesbrough members and anyone else who can get to the north-east tomorrow. Lithgows Auctions [url="http://www.lithgowsauctions.com/Lithgow.htm"]http://www.lithgowsauctions.com/Lithgow.htm[/url] have a liquidation sale tomorrow , Weds June 13th including loads of Fender and Yamaha basses, Korg DT10s, a Hartke cab and various other interesting stuff. According to the website it's on behalf of the liquidators acting for piedog.com , who went bottomsup.com a few months ago apparently.

Just been watching some IOW festival stuff on the TV and it appears that the bassist from Kasabian is using a capo. What's all that about, then? I thought it was only our skinny string brethren who needed stuff like that.

[quote name='tylerlangan' post='14579' date='Jun 9 2007, 12:00 PM']... and I was just wondering how many of us have actually FULLY succumbed to G.A.S and just leapt in and bought our dream instrument perhaps before we've 'earned' it? (I'm not sure I put any stock in the concept of 'I'm not good enough to play this/that yet)[/quote] I have. When I was 19 years old, on a very low wage, I went to a guitar shop to buy a £50 guitar. This after much thought, premeditation, etc - at the time I couldn't play guitar, but I wanted to learn. Too late: they sold the last one, but allowed me to console myself by playing some of the more expensive stock. A few hours later I walked out of the shop with a £200 second-hand Fylde, and a 2-year finance deal for £10 a month. At the time this was about 10% of my wages. 30 years later, I've still got that guitar. It's one of my prized possessions and I still play it every week, if not every day. In fact I think I'll go and have a burst on it now. It's a very different world now though. I can't believe the amount of debt that today's students are taking on. If it had been like that I'd certainly never have gone to university, and i guess neither would warwickhunt! The shop BTW was Sounds Acoustic in Chester Rd Manchester, next door to Muir Music. Some of the old-timers from the North-West might remember. Muir Music was the Burman stockist, but that's another story for another day!

[quote name='Hamster' post='14192' date='Jun 8 2007, 01:52 PM']That's an average of 48 hrs/pw over a 17 week period (or the period of employment if less than 17 weeks) Which is something you can opt out of if you want.[/quote] I stand corrected. Thank you. Not sure why I thought it was 4 weeks, maybe I was talking to someone who had negotiated a different reference period. However, if he's 16 years old he can't work more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week. I don't understand why so many people don't seem to be able to grasp this basic fact!

[quote name='anti-barbie' post='14035' date='Jun 8 2007, 09:51 AM']Sorry to be a killjoy but i'm just wondering if it is legal for a 16 year old to work 9 hrs a day 6 days a week?[/quote] You're right. According to [url="http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/YoungPeople/Workandcareers/Yourrightsandresponsibilitiesatwork/DG_066272"]http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/YoungPeople/Wo...twork/DG_066272[/url] assuming that the OP has left school, at 16 he's limited to working 8 hours a day, max 40 hours a week. It's also in breach of the European Directive on Working Time, which limits you to an average 48 hour week over a period of 4 weeks. GreeneKing, how come you're being paid less than 5 quid an hour when the UK minimum wage for workers over 22 is £5.35 ?