spinynorman

I've got a standard UBass, and the only thing that puts me off playing it more is the Pahoehoe strings, but I wasn't convinced enough about the Thunderguts to sport £25 on a set. They've got the Rumbler strings on Southern Ukelele, sounds like a set of those would be a good investment.

I've got an Epi Jack Casady sig, which is one of the few I can see the point of, as he had a lot of input and he does use them himself. It would have made more sense to have Gibson on the headstock, but then they wouldn't have sold them for £500.

I've tried a lot of other basses, but I always come back to my old standard MIJ Precision. I'm now waiting for a CIJ 62 Reissue to arrive, so I'll have two, and then I expect the rest can go.

If you're gigging, you really need an in-line tuner with a clear, bright LED display, like the Korg Pitchblack or the Boss one, so you can tune between songs in the dark. If you're not gigging, a phone app would do. If you're playing along to tracks on a PC or Youtube, you may find the pitch is slightly different from the standard pitch on a standalone tuner, and it's enough to sound bad. In that case, tune to something like http://www.tunemybass.com/.

I still play rock at 61, and most of it isn't classic 60s/70s stuff either. The playing is ok, but carting the gear about is starting to get me down.

[quote name='spacey' timestamp='1388927746' post='2327656'] I would rather see Fender take the brand back in house and only put the name Fender on it's best USA range. The squire brand is established enough to cover the Chinese. Japanese, mexican stuff. But churning ot basses from China with Fender on has devalued the brand. [/quote] On the other hand, Gibson preserved the value of their brand by only putting it on US-made instruments. Whether or not you like Gibson guitars and basses, it would be hard to argue it's had a positive effect on their sales, and it hasn't done much for Epiphone either.

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1388679065' post='2324724'] Yup, if you follow James May's channel on Youtube (HeadSqueeze) he did a video on it once. Apparently any material that we would normally use for something like a lift would just snap under it's own weight beyond a certain distance, so it's actually a very difficult thing to achieve. I imagine that the lead of a guitar or bass would be much the same - if you were able to make on long enough, it would probably just snap in 2 at some point between space and earth. I wonder how long you can make a fibre optic lead? [/quote] But I'm thinking that, supported by the nanotube core, a normal guitar lead would be fine.

[quote name='Phil Starr' timestamp='1385487545' post='2288882'] My point is simply that a, there is some good stuff there but more cr** than good, unless you like Jim Reeves b. yes I listened to Caroline too but a casual listener to mainstream stations wouldn't have known of say, John Mayall just as I suspect those bemoaning the current state of music don;t really know what the kids are listening to. I'm also a little wary of becoming something I despised when I was at school [b] “Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”[/b] Socrates [/quote] I wonder what the teenage Socrates thought about his parents' generation. I was 12 by the time that chart came out in 1964. What's interesting about it, I think, is the range of artists represented, there's very clearly a part of that chart that appealed to "teenagers", and a part that appealed more to their parents. There's 50's style balladeers, 60s pop singers, pop groups that went on to define rock, and even Bo Diddley. That makes it dangerous to pick out things as crap or pot boilers. You'd be safe with Val Doonican probably, but Jim Reeves? I didn't like him either, but he's still respected in country music circles and did what he did well. Out of the 39 artists (Del Shannon appears twice), I think more than half could claim to have contributed something positive to the development of popular music.

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1388425341' post='2321858'] That's a good point actually. Is it possible to amplify a sound in space? Of course, you still wouldn't hear it, but in theory, would it work? Would everything work the same except not being able to hear it? Could I play in space and throw a lead down to earth and play with a band (very badly out of time) that's on earth? [/quote] I saw something on TV about nanotubes, and how they think those could be used to create a space elevator - basically a long cable from earth up to a space station. So if the nanotube cable incorporated some wire, you could presumably plug into an amplifier on the ground and play from space. Though the latency would be awful, like playing through ASIO4ALL on a Windows 7 laptop.

Congratulations on the award. Seems like the price has gone up as a result. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B00DI2QHTA/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

We used to have a keys player in our band. At the start, none of us had played in bands before, or at least not for some time. He was a good pub pianist and very self confident, so he could shine over everyone else. After some time the band got stronger as a unit and the guitarist started to assert himself a bit more, which led to conflicts. Eventually the keys player left and started a new band, with a very weak guitarist and a bass player you can never hear. I came to the conclusion he only likes to play with people who aren't as good as him.

[quote]Applicants are assessed on whether they order Guinness before their other drinks, can demonstrate awareness of how long others have been waiting and are able to carry three drinks without a tray.[/quote] Woah! I'm a pro!

If it's any consolation, I had a similar experience with a large UK online retailer, though in that case the amp eventually ended up back at the manufacturer with a completely wrong description of the problem. Contrast service from Thomann under their universal 3 year warranty, amp picked up by courier, repaired and returned in 2 weeks, at no cost to me.

There isn't anything stopping people trying to start clubs if they want, is there? I assumed the reason there aren't any is not many people would bother to join. As has been said already, I can't see much difference between clubs and the Gear Porn section, except there's no numbers. If anyone wants information, it's far easier to start a thread and ask, rather than trawl through 40 pages of people asking for a number.

I never set out to be a great musician, just to be good enough to hold down a place in a band. I'm happy with that.

This looks serious, but I'm thinking, tuned up an octave with thin strings, doesn't that make it a 4-string guitar? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301038676253 Although, 4 strings, so that makes it really simple to play, just like a bass. Maybe I'm tempted.

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1386755507' post='2303968'] I met Roy Wood in the 90's. I believe he had a place in Derbyshire at the time and would occasionally just turn up, on his own, unannounced and not remotely doing any 'look at me' stuff at the Sat night rock nights at Rock City. I'm not one for pestering people but having heard his stuff over the years and couldn't help but thank him for all the great music through the years and he should let me know next time he wanted a drink as it was on me. He didn't take me up on the offer but seemed genuinely touched that his music was still loved and was a very down to earth humble character. I'm not getting into a 'Roy v Jeff' thing, been done to death. I think if you listen to Jeff's pre-ELO band 'The Idle Race' you can definitely hear things that sound similar to what ended up on early ELO albums so they were both bringing ideas to the table. I really like the second album, some gloriously dark stuff compared to the later commercial work but I like other later material in its own way too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6afzcy6zlhs [/quote] We did a charity gig in Derbyshire where the headline was Roy Wood. The promoter appeared to be utterly terrified of him and spent a lot of the time looking worried and saying "Mr Wood wouldn't like that". The bands at the bottom of the bill weren't even allowed to use the same stage. I didn't meet him, in fact I left before he played, but I've assumed since that he must be a bit of a jerk. In view of your experience, maybe I should revise that. Perhaps it was just the promoter.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1386249716' post='2297674'] I was a big fan when I was about 12 (I had all of their LPs (on vinyl) and remember listening to them in my school uniform). Then I discovered Yes and that was the end of ELO [/quote] In honour of Spike Milligan I have to ask - what were ELO doing in your school uniform?

I don't really know, but maybe a Fairport related site would at least be populated by people who understand what you're looking for. For example [url="http://www.talkawhile.co.uk/yabbse/index.php"]Talkawhile[/url]. Can't see any musicians wanted ads on there, but there might be if you were registered.

I was a bit sceptical about the article when I saw it was in the Huff, and it came across to me as a thinly disguised plug for the author's band. It all seems a bit trivial compared to some of the things my wife's had since she went blind - probably the worst being - when she had a corneal ulcer and was acutely sensitive to light - "If you took the shades off, you'd be able to see better".

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1382364540' post='2251198'] I don't see how kicking and throwing items about saves time or money? [/quote] No, nor do I. It's more likely down to management, supervision and training (though money comes into that). Parcelforce is part of Royal Mail Group, and RM senior management is a case study in how not to run a service organisation.

If I'd known about the tour I'd probably have booked for Wolverhampton, but as it happens I wouldn't have been able to go, so just as well. I rediscovered them a few months back while sorting out old vinyl, and the music still stands up. Saw them at The Odeon in Birmingham in 1976.

The only thing that really stops me is me.

Whenever I see shipping charges quoted that look horribly expensive, it usually turns out they're planning to use Parcelforce. The only courier I trust less is Yodel. But I've shipped basses, cabs and other things within the UK and various parts of Europe with UPS, and never had any problem. I can't explain why anyone would have the opposite experience, maybe it's something about the local depots. The only problem I've had with USPS is they use Parcelforce at this end.