Kiwi

She's a bit like Meshell Ndegeocello so when her playing sits back in the mix its nice. But it comes across as a little egotistical when the whole band is used as a vehicle for the bass, which is whats going on in the intro in the first link.

[quote name='dan670844' post='1080597' date='Jan 6 2011, 11:43 PM']Yep Leo Fender was a genius he did the SE-5 tone stack and deluxe when in the 50's?[/quote] Leo Fender didn't design amps

I think different players look for different things in a valve head. I would be looking for something very clean and sweet sounding but loud. Mating an Avalon VT-737 mic preamp to a LED biasing valve power stage which can deliver into 2-8ohm loads and adding a 4 band para eq, for example. No point in asking for something lightweight, I don't believe the technology can accommodate that to a significant degree without making a lot of compromises in terms of build quality or sending the price sky rocketing.

[quote name='paul h' post='1079229' date='Jan 5 2011, 10:55 PM']TIM does the same. But that is a rather more complicated story.[/quote] and part of Basschat folklore.

My wireless transmitter packed up on me mid gig. That's how I learned that rechargable batteries are not a good idea in wireless transmitters because when they go, they go very suddenly. Turned up to a gig in anticipation of trying my Shuttle amp (after it was delivered to the drummers place while I was away) only to find that the speakon cable hadn't been included with the package. Had to play the entire gig through a 30w Roland keyboard combo. Turned up to a gig once and discovered I was missing the preEB stingray. Turned out it had been left on the pavement outside my house by my gf. I had assumed she'd put it in the car with the rest of the gear. Luckily a kind neighbour nabbed two gyppos walking off with it, thinking it was put out for the rubbish. We started half an hour late and I was soaked with sweat but I still had the stingray.

[quote name='MattCvijan' post='1075261' date='Jan 2 2011, 02:18 PM']Thank you for this post. In my dissertation im looking at the link between musical identity and racial/cultural identity, using Neo Soul as a case study. Neo Soul music appeals to people from all walks of life, racial groups, and cultures, yet it seems that the leading artists in this genre are almost exclusively African Americans... art, you wont fit in to the market?[/quote] Not at all. The point of my original post was that I think you're focusing on the racial dimension at the expense of a deeper understanding about the genre.

[url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/sandberg_basic_ken_taylor_5_imbuia_nt.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/sandberg_basic_ke...5_imbuia_nt.htm[/url] They're definitely not 1500 quid new from Thomann.

I used to be in a neo soul band, we did Annie Lennox, Alicia Keys, Angie Stone and a host of other pop choonz. I don't agree at all that the genre is black-american. Using race or culture to identify this very contemporary genre complete disregards one of its great strengths - cross cultural appeal. Last Meshell Ndegeocello gig I went to was distinctive precisely because the audience was so varied and diverse from middle aged, middle class jazz fans to white student lesbians to black urban professionals. I think the boundaries are blurred but the one thing that tends to define its appeal is the sensitivity and intelligence in both the song writing and the delivery. So I'd suggest the music tends to appeal across social divides to individuals who value those qualities.

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1072765' date='Dec 30 2010, 02:35 PM']The quality of George Michael's vocal talent became known to me when he appeared on that Freddie Mercury tribute Queen did in 1992 singing Somebody to Love, 39 and These Are The Days Of Our Lives. He was head and shoulders above the rest of the singers (even Annie Lennox) and I remember there was talk of him joining Queen. Great singer.[/quote] I heard his vocal track on the demo for Careless Whispers and it was stunning. Very hard to believe such seasoned vocals were coming from a 19 year old.

I suspect he put too many zeros in, but you'd imagine he'd have noticed after the confirmation screens and monitoring the auction.

Watch for the bridge too, kept catching me out a few times

[quote name='Vibrating G String' post='1070735' date='Dec 28 2010, 07:47 AM']Bubinga is very hard. My favs would be maple neck, pau ferro fingerboard and poplar body.[/quote] poplar, ash and alder were used interchangably on Stingrays in the 80s

Go to 1:30 for his views on bass guitar and guitarists.

[quote name='Chris2112' post='1067791' date='Dec 23 2010, 02:10 PM']It reminds me of that awesome Devin Townsend video where he plays some really complicated lick with some tapping and sweeping or whatever, before turning to the camera and going "woah...lame!".[/quote] He gets a bit more extreme than that too...

Graphite neck, soft but rigid body wood (not sure of the wood yet, could be mahogany, bubinga, ovangkol or soft maple), fingerboard material would depend on the body wood but should be something warm sounding like rosewood.

The biggest issue for rack based effects is the user interface. Lots of scrolling through screens and you need to have an idea in your own mind about how the screens are all linked. This can take a while and some patience to learn. Also, it can give you too many options, which again can be confusing. Also you need to pre-programme every song before you get to the gig although the MPXG2 and the TC Electronics G Major (amongst others) do give you the option of switching individual effects in and out within a patch on the fly using the dedicated remote foot controller. So you can use a patch either for a single sound and switch between patches or you can programme it as an effects pedal bank, depending on how much tap dancing you feel like doing. The other thing worth noting is that some of these units (like the MPXG2) can run out of processing power if you are using a number of intense effects together (like, for example, an Akai Unibass type effect with added delays on the shifted part of the signal). To get more processing power, the other option is to use a laptop along with a package like Native Instruments Guitar Rig Kontrol. I've done some insanely complicated set ups with wet and dry splits and then a pitch shifted split on the wet side with phaser, delay, overdrive, and some of the whackier envelope filters. Much more than the MPXG2 could have ever achieved. However you do need to have a hardware profile or even a separate version of windows that is stripped of everything apart from the Guitar rig software. The last thing you need is for a Norton Antivirus notification sound to go out over the PA in the middle of an intense rock ballad.

An interview with the man himself. His solo on the extended version of I'm Your Man is brilliant (and I don't generally like solos)

I use an MPXG2 and its superb. The MX200 uses the same engine. You can't go wrong if you are looking for a hifi response.

They're idiosyncratic instruments, because they were originally designed with some specific [u]studio based[/u] criteria in mind. The intention was to isolate the vibration of the string as much from the wood as possible to enhance sustain. At the time, a dramatic departure from the other manufacturers. So they're distinctive and ground breaking in their own way. Weight does tend to be an issue in the instruments apart from the Series 1 and 2 lines. Some will probably point to the shifting of wood laminates in the headstock joint in a few basses as evidence that they're not all they're supposed to be but this was never a structural issue. Apart from moving exclusively to maple and purpleheart necks, the basic design hasn't changed a whole lot in 30 years so it could be argued that they got it good enough first time around. But they'll still be a bit marmite depending on whether the vision behind the design of the instrument fits with the expectations of the player. But the important thing is that they're hand crafted with a vision and pride by a long standing team of professionals who have been doing the same job for decades. Whether thats worth the new asking price? No idea and its not important if they're available second hand for the same price as other high end brands.

Great link - nice to see someone developing such a detailed knowledge and going to all that trouble, especially with testing and measuring. However...considering that he started out with he intention to develop a 'super growler' I don't think the end result was very impressive with the mutes on. I wish there was a clip without the mutes.