BigRedX

Next gig for Hurtsfall will be on 14th October at the Malt Shovel, Beeston, as part of Beeston Oxjam Despite it being only a week and half away no bands or times have been officially announced by the festival organisation. We've been given a starting time of 5.00pm but both this and the venue itself are still only provisional. Should either change I'll update the details.

And the anime Macros Plus with it's "AI" virtual pop star Sharon Apple predates Idoru by a couple of years. One of the main plot points in the movie is that Sharon Apple isn't as AI as her developers would like the audience to believe, and that she still requires a human component to function. Of course it all goes wrong in the most spectacular way.

Personally I find the vast majority of lyrics including those for songs I really like, trite and cringeworthy. Even those writers who are good with their word play can't sustain it for a whole album's worth of songs. For me AI composed lyrics are no better or worse then any other method of writing.

A more serious answer than my original one... In the pre-internet days your string choices were pretty much limited to whatever you could buy in your local musical instrument shop(s). When I bought my first bass in 1981, if you wanted round wound strings like I did there was no alternative to Rotosound. Even when I was playing guitar the only choice was Rotosound or Ernie Ball. By the early 90s when I was playing 5-string basses things had improved a bit there was the choice of Rotosound and Elites. Rotosound proved to be incapable of making a 36" scale low B and Elites while not having any obviously duff strings in their sets were always very ordinary, I discovered Newtone who at the time had to be ordered by phone followed by sending a cheque in the post. However they were able to make perfect strings for both my 36" 5-string and my 30" scale 4-string basses. TBH compared with what I had before they were a complete revelation, and if at the time they hadn't been so complicated to order I might never have tried anything else. At the end of the 90s I then had a break where a played mostly guitar for the next 4 years, and when I bought my next bass I had it fitted with D'Addarios because I liked the guitar strings which was a poor choice, as I really didn't like them, and went back to Elites simply because they were less hassle to buy than Newtones. Then I discovered on-line bass forums and internet string sellers and went mad trying pretty much anything that was recommended: DR - tried 4 or 5 different types and hated them all. SIT - I liked these a lot but was never 100% happy with the low B and they were quite difficult to get hold of. TI Flats - If I was going to play a bass that required flats again this is what I would fit despite the ridiculous price. Pedulla - worked great on my Buzz bass but not on anything else I tried. LaBella - I'd still be using their Hard Rocking Steel strings if they hadn't changed the design, weren't so stupidly expensive and difficult to get hold of in the UK, they also completely discontinued the heavier set that I was using on my passive Gus G3. While they were still good and relatively easy to get hold of they did show me that I preferred a taper-wound low B. I used used their round wound Bass VI strings for a while until I discovered the cheaper, better and easier to get hold of Newtone Axions. Warwick - I'd be using their Red Label strings if it wasn't for the fact that the taper-wound B sets are seemingly impossible to get hold of. However the appropriate Black Label sets are available (though more expensive, but still only half the price of the LaBellas) so that's what I use on some basses. So currently I'm using: Gus G3 5-string passive - Warwick Black Label 45-135. Gus G3 5-string active - Warwick Black Label 40-130 (for some reason the heavier string work better on the passive bass despite the fact that apart from the electronics the instruments are identical. Eastwood Hooky 6-string Bass - GHS Hooky set 30-105. These are the strings that are supplied with the bass and so far I've been happy enough with them not to want to try the Newtone Axions on it. However I'm starting to think the highest two strings are a bit heavy for how I play so when I've used up the sets I have, I may order a custom set from Newtone. Burns Barracuda 6-string Bass - Newtone Axion 24-100, far better than the LaBella round wound Bass VI set for a fraction of the price. For my guitars I've stuck with D'Addario since I discovered them in the early 90s. They have been great so I've seen no need to experiment with alternatives. Currently I have light top, heavy bottom sets (10-52) on both guitars with the 52 replaced by a 56 on the one I have permanently tuned to drop D.

Having dipped into about half the tracks on the album I suspect that there is some deliberate mangling of the original songs going on, because even 25 years ago Recycle! would have done a better job of dissecting the drum machine intro from "In The Air Tonight" than has been displayed by ORGANVM PERCEPTVS. Also I think that knowing what the original should sound like is influencing at least some of the musicians as the dynamics of "Born To Run" have been pretty much preserved even if all the notes haven't.

That's because you are organised, and is what I would do. However no every musician displays the same level of organisation as us, and unfortunately I have learned from experience that these people can't be told, and don't get that quite often you need to be able to set up and be ready to play in under 15 minutes. You either have to live with it or replace them with someone who is properly organised.

Any further details like how it was made? Possibly a link to wherever you found this?

But so long as you have a guitar that's hard or uncomfortable to play, there's always a sneaking suspicion that your instrument is holding you back. I'm a very ordinary bassist and guitarist but I have very nice basses and guitars so I know for sure that I'm the limiting factor.

On the whole, as has been said, Telecasters tend to have fairly chunky necks, but there are always exceptions. Personally I find the typical Telecaster a bit limiting, and you'll get a lot more tones out of something like a Stratocaster with HSS or HSH pickup configurations, and if you go for one with a locking vibrato they nearly always come with shallow depth necks.

When you the neck is thick do you mean across the strings (width) or the distance between the top of the fingerboard to the back of the neck (depth)? Or both? The answer will have implications for the suggestions of what kinds of guitars suit, although TBH is either of these measurements is critical for your playing enjoyment and comfort, the only real solution will be to go and try some actual instruments.

It probably is. The distance between the top and bottom strap anchoring points is over 600mm on the bass version of this bag. I suspect that the bag is like many items designed primarily for the guitar and repurposed for larger instruments that repurposing doesn't always turn out to be very successful. It would be trivial to move the top anchor points lower down which would eliminate the leg slapping on shorter people and also allow the anchor points to more widely spaced which would also help with the comfort. However that would mean when worn, the top of the bag would be about another 200mm higher which will have implications for getting through doorways without taking the bag off your back.

That's a nicer looking burst than most Fender basses, and I particularly like the matching burst on the back of the neck, which IMO is far more classy than a mis-matched natural neck. However the shape of the black in the body burst would suggest a fancy veneer over a plywood or butcher block body core - not that there's anything wrong with that. You'll need to neck and/or pick guard off to check the actual construction.

I've played in a couple of bands whose drummers have used electronic kits. Depending on how organised they are it isn't always quicker to set up. The last one, although he had all the pads on a "scaffolding" stand still had to wire everything up and ended up taking about the same length of time to set up as he had when he was still using a conventional kit.

Hurtsfall last night at Underworld at Via Fossa in Nottingham opening for Medea Project and Chaos Bleak. Quieter in audience terms than the last few gigs, but for some strange reason from a technical PoV we played one of our best yet. There was a party going on in the room upstairs playing banging dance pop tunes all night which was somewhat disconcerting to be able to hear very clearly in-between songs, and on a couple numbers we had to listen very carefully for the count-in click. Just as well we had decided to drop one of our songs with a very quiet intro for this gig, as it may have proved to be unplayable... Obligatory gig photo:

How good new year's gigs are depends very much on what sort of band you are playing. I can imaging that for a typical pub covers band with their typical audience turned up past 11, it has the possibility of being pretty horrendous. I've done one new year's gig. The line up was a goth band, The Terrortones, and Vince Ripper & The Rodent Show who do weird psychobilly-ish sci-fi/horror music complete with back projections some of which are in 3D for which they hand out those old-school red and green glasses. As you can imagine this is about as far from churning out standard covers to out of control drunks as you can get. The gig was absolutely fantastic even if some of more serious goths in the audience were a little taken aback by Mr Venom's antics. Given a similar opportunity I wouldn't hesitate to do NYE again.

I believe there is some reorganisation going on that will save the company so probably no bargains to be had.

It actually looks as though the temporary closure of Sheffield O2 Academy is real. It's a pity it's taken the venue almost 24 hours to put this information on their web site. the HRH Goth festival has been rescheduled for 16 and 17 February 2024. Hopefully they will still want us to play.

If you haven't already check out the Vintage Hofner website. Numerous solid bodied guitars and basses on there and not all Fender copies.

And just to show that there are two sides to every company I have had very poor service from both Ashdown and Warwick. As a result of my customer interactions with Ashdown I would never use another of their products ever again.

My string choices are directly linked to the basses I am using at any given time. I'm not using the same strings that I was when I bought my first bass in 1981 because I'm now playing completely different basses.

Register the songs as soon as you preform them in public. If the open mic venue is PRS licensed (it should be) then you'll be able to claim some royalties for your own performances too. You need to fill in a pubs and clubs set list for all the songs you preform including any covers. I believe the money available for this scheme is currently £10 per event divided between all the songs performed and submitted. The submission of the set lists is the important bit, because those performers who don't submit one don't get paid and money gets divided between those that do. 10 years ago, I found that despite the fact my band were playing gigs with 2-4 others on the same bill, often we would be the only band to submit a set list and consequently we got all the available performance royalties.

If you're already a PRS member registering any music your write that is "performed" in public whether that be at a gig or a video on-line should be a no-brainer. Especially since it only involves entering the title of the piece, the writers and details of any known public performance(s). Be thankful that you no longer have to provide written musical notation of main musical themes (essentially the vocal tune and any other important melodic parts) and all the lyrics, as I had to do in the early 80s when I was first registering songs. Technically the act of performing the song is enough to establish copyright (especially in the UK), but having a verifiable on-line source like a video uploaded to YouTube definitely helps. PRS will want some evidence of the song actually being performed, so if you're not playing it at gigs, wait until the video is ready to upload and then register the song with the PRS at the same time, using the YouTube source as your evidence of public performance.

Since all the synth models are virtual and in theory you can load the Jupiter 8 model into the Juno X, sound-wise there should be no difference. However the user interface of the Jupiter X is better since it already has all the controls for the extra oscillators and envelope generators, while on the Juno X they'll be hidden away on "shift" or "page 2" buttons. Also you'll have to pay extra for the Jupiter 8 model. The Jupiter X also has a semi-weighted keyboard which may or may not be a selling point depending on your playing technique. I'm not a fan of the Juno at all. Back in the 80s no-one I knew bought any of the Juno models out of choice, they bought them because they were the cheapest polyphonic synths available. The only good thing about the Juno synth was the chorus which was a absolute necessity as the sounds were thin and weedy without it. What we all wanted was a decent polyphonic synth with 2 oscillations and at least 2 envelope generators per voice. However they were all at least twice the price of the Juno hence its popularity. To me £1400 sounds like a lot of money to pay for a single oscillator and envelope generator per voice synth, especially and virtual one, and if you can get a mint second hand Jupiter X for only £50 more it should be a no-brianer.

If it's simply for on-stage monitoring, IMO your current FRFR cabs are fine. When I ditched my traditional bass rig and went for a Helix and FRFR I bought the RCF745 as it was being recommended as the best VfM and would also be suitable to use for the bass without PA support. In retrospect it is overkill for my needs - one band has ditched on-stage amplification completely and in the other it gets used for rehearsals and as a personal monitor on smaller stages where the quality of the in-house foldback is unknown. In the 5 years I've been using it, I only need to use it twice as a conventional bass rig so the audience could hear me, and it coped brilliantly. In fact the improved dispersion over my previous rigs meant that I only needed to be slightly louder than normal on stage as opposed to being so loud I could barely hear the rest of the band. What I am trying to say is if I needed to replace the 745, I would do so with something smaller, lighter and cheaper (like the cab you have) and it would still be perfectly adequate for me.

Hurtsfall have just been told that tonight's gig at the O2 Academy in Sheffield has been cancelled. The explanation we have been given is supposedly due to RAAC Concrete at the venue and all gigs have been postponed while investigations are carried out. However there is nothing on the venue's website about this. I smell BS from the promotor (HRH). Anyone have any definite info about the situation?