spinynorman

Does anybody do a black stained/translucent mahogany body? I'm just thinking that the Japanese Epi EB3 I had was opaque black on mahogany, whereas the cherry ones are translucent. So maybe black stain on mahogany doesn't look good.

[quote name='budget bassist' post='490537' date='May 17 2009, 02:07 PM']no basses in my loft i'm sad to say! Just my sister's bedroom and some old tvs![/quote] Those old queens are harder to shift than copulating squirrels.

[quote name='Linus27' post='486871' date='May 13 2009, 12:59 PM']I really do not think you are alone on those thoughts.[/quote] My thoughts are a bit different. A Fender makes me think "this guy is a musician who just wants something that works". That accounts for about 80% of the people I see playing, whether live or on TV. For almost anything else, there's an underlying statement about personality or lifestyle. Sometimes it's hard to see, others are more obvious. For example, if you play a Gibson TBird, you must be on heroin - or, if not, you'd like to be. That kind of thing.

Have you got a white Thunderbird? The paint makes a huge difference.

I would like to meet the designer who thought covering cabs in carpet would be a good idea. Preferably when I'm carrying a bucket of tar and a large bag of feathers (or dog fur).

Depends what you're comparing it with. I put some Basslines in an MIM Jazz and was disappointed with the output, they didn't seem much better than the stock pickups. So I got some thicker, denser foam and mounted them a bit higher. That made a big difference to the volume and the tone. So it could be you've just got them set too low.

Talking of ego massaging horseshit, try this while drinking 5 pints of lager.

[quote name='BassMunkee' post='482677' date='May 8 2009, 08:05 AM']It's not so much the smell, it's the taste that puts me off...[/quote] Go on, someone tell us what percentage of the population can taste the difference in their urine after eating asparagus.

He nicked those flute riffs from Ian Anderson.

The rise and fall of jazz in three paragraphs. Before 1900 you had two streams of music in the west, the formal classical tradition, funded by the Church and blokes in wigs with country estates, and popular/folk music fueled by beer. Both relied heavily on melody, rather than rhythm, and co-existed quite happily for centuries, because everyone knew their place. If you wanted to dance with a duke's daughter you went for a waltz in a big house, and if you wanted to dance with a milk maid, you went to the local inn for a knees up. Then comes the 20th C and WWI, Americans are everywhere and the popular/folk music gets all mixed up with some African influences with hot rhythms. So all the milkmaids rush off to buy jazz records and learn to dance the jitterbug. Trouble is, the dukes' daughters think Americans are cool and don't see why they should miss out, so they start jitterbugging too. Now no one knows where they are. Worse, the classical composers try to absorb jazz into their compositions, but still nobody wants to dance to it, so they think, why should we bother writing tunes? This creates the conditions for Schoenberg and all the dismal honking and squeaking that followed. Now, here's the real problem. Because "serious" classical music has gone all avant garde, a few jazz musicians think they will be taken more seriously if they start honking and squeaking too. So they invent bebop and realise that, with saxophones, which the classical guys turned their noses up at, they can honk and squeak better than anyone. Soon there's wopbop, aloobop and heaven knows what other kinds of bop, and the milkmaids, who all now work in factories, are crying "We can't dance to this." And as they look up through tear-streaked eyes and smudged mascara, there stands Elvis.

[quote name='Earbrass' post='481677' date='May 7 2009, 10:13 AM']unlike the pap that passes for rock these days, which is of course, saving the world. This reminds me of an interview with Louis Armstrong from the 60's. He was asked what he'd be doing if he was a young man now. He replied "I guess I'd be playing guitar like that cat Hendrix". The interviewer, surprised, asked "Do you call that jazz?", to which he replied "Hell, man, if that ain't jazz, what is?".[/quote] And a large number of Hendrix's contemporaries in rock were ex-jazz players anyway. Dick Heckstall-Smith's autobiography [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blowing-Blues-Personal-History-British/dp/1904555047/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241689011&sr=8-1"]"Blowing the British Blues"[/url] is interesting on the 60s migration of young musicians from jazz to R&B, and the problems that caused for jazz.

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='473493' date='Apr 27 2009, 04:54 PM']hmmm, its like a normal guitar but bigger, 4 strings instead of 6, and it plays lower notes than other guitars? How strange. I'm starting to think it may not be a "normal" guitar after all!!![/quote] "Q: Is there a discount available for this guitar as it will only be possible to play 66.6% of notes normally available on a 6 string guitar? "

Best Practice has a "karaoke" mode where you can filter out either bass or treble, so you can accentuate the bass to some extent. + it's very easy to set up loops. I'd say it was a better option than Audacity. I looked at Transcribe, but it seemed to be offering a lot of things I wasn't sure what to do with.

Sold my Bass Tab White Pages to Martin. Quick and easy, none better.

[quote name='allighatt0r' post='466569' date='Apr 19 2009, 10:24 AM']Kidney/spleen also offered for fair price. Why do the beautiful ones come around when i am completely out of pocket....[/quote] A few years ago I lost an auction for one of those. I don't think it went for anything like £750 ... should have put in a higher bid.

[quote name='JPAC' post='462366' date='Apr 14 2009, 06:31 PM']Well if anyone is still following this saga, I got a call today from the shop, Soundslive in Newcastle ......[/quote] Ah, their pre-sales service is good, not so sure about their post-sales support. I sent an amp back to them (out of warranty). They didn't listen to a word I said on the phone, or read the note enclosed with the amp, mis-diagnosed the problem and tried to charge me to fit a new power supply that wasn't needed, then sent the amp back to the manufacturer, again with a completely wrong description of the problem. Took ages to get it sorted, by which time I'd bought a new head and lost interest.

Thanks for the advice, though I didn't see the paint recommendation until after I'd ordered a sheet of sticky copper. So I've just done the control cavity with copper and, hey presto, no hum. Knowing my track record with paint that was probably the safest option.

[quote name='Stu-khag' post='463135' date='Apr 15 2009, 04:28 PM']I'd love an EB2 or epiphone/ tokai/ jap equivalent. There's something so cool about them... I couldn't justify buying an old one but I wish epiphone would bring out some budget versions- any suggestions much appreciated![/quote] Depends what you mean by budget. There's the Epi Jack Casady which at least looks similar, but is £550 new ... [url="http://www.dv247.com/invt/52537/"]http://www.dv247.com/invt/52537/[/url] [url="http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/epiphone-jack-casady/472"]http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/epiphone-jack-casady/472[/url] There was also a Rivoli reissue in the 1990s, which should be cheaper than the 1960s original, though this one is heading for £500 + whatever the correct shipping is ... search for ebay.co.uk Item # 150338094262 (can't get the eBay links to work) There was also an Epi EA260 which was long scale and not that well liked. so might be cheap if you can find one and don't mind. If you search on eBay for semi* you'll turn up Jay Turser JTB-134 which looks nice, but US import. Or there's an Ibanez Artcore for £300 ish ebay.co.uk Item # 270364554818

Very nice - I think the 4+1 headstock with "proper" tuners looks much better than the 5-inline minis.

[quote name='wombatboter' post='463784' date='Apr 16 2009, 11:30 AM']I used to hear the music I liked on the radio and I saw it appear in the hitparades.. When I was in a shopping mall I heard music I liked. Not everything but still. Robert Palmer, The Police, Joe Jackson, etc cool ![/quote] Yeah, you see, here's the problem. While you were grooving around the mall snapping your fingers, I was gnashing my teeth and wondering when someone would please invent Queens of the Stone Age. Or Deerhoof. Or anything else really. Our local Somerfield plays quite an interesting selection of music across the ages, even Dylan and Buffalo Springfield. Almost makes Saturday morning pleasant.

Well, I remember the [s]good[/s] old days, listening to Radio Caroline, with endless repeats of Herman's Bloody Hermits and Roger Whittaker. And The Beatles, who sounded quite good at the time, but now make me want to gnaw my own leg off. A couple of years ago we played on the same bill as Herman's Hermits and there they were, still with their sharp suits and their fixed smiles. Herman, to his credit, seems to have disowned them. I think, you kids nowadays, you don't know how lucky you are.

More white tbird madness - how to spend $400 on "after-market accessories" and take, what, probably $400 off the value? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Gibson-Thunderbird-Bass-Badass-II-Bridge-EMG-35DC-35P4_W0QQitemZ170321548449QQihZ007QQcategoryZ64402QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Gibson-Thunderbird-B...1QQcmdZViewItem[/url]

Manuals are now bagged. Unfortunately the foot switch was a figment of my imagination, what I remembered seeing was the empty box. Didn't really expect it to raise any interest, so apologies to those disappointed.

Panda bought a MIM Fender Jazz V from me. He was a pleasure to deal with and I would recommend him to anyone selling through Basschat.