jonsmith

[quote name='peted' post='690478' date='Dec 21 2009, 11:11 AM']All these positive comments are doing nothing for my GAS![/quote] Nor mine. Spotted Nick Beggs using a TC Electronics setup at a recent Steve Hackett gig and that made me curious about these. Like what I've heard on the web so I hope to be checking them out for myself in person soon. I've certainly got to the point in life where I'm fed up lugging a huge rig around, certainly for smaller gigs anyway. Anybody know anywhere that's doing these cheap(er)?

If this was in Kent, I'd be up for it. Horsham's just a bit too far away. Good luck with your search.

I went to Hammersmith on Tuesday and I'm glad that I did as I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have to be honest though, it was the sloppiest performance I've ever seen from Yes, even compared to the days when they actually used to take risks. Lots of timing errors and people getting a bit lost in places (and not the new boys either). Benoit David got a bit lost in the mix sometimes and the keys weren't exactly massively loud at any point besides the solos (for which Mr Wakeman Jr seemed to have an unpleasantly harsh sound). Both new boys did well for most of the night, although Yes without JA does seem a bit odd. Chris Squire was on good form and seemed extremely happy. SPOILER ALERT: I've tried to hide this, but can't quite get text to match background. Highlight area below if you want to see the setlist. [color="#FFFFFF"]Setlist as I remember it (Not in running order): Siberian Khatru And You & I Roundabout South Side of the Sky Heart of the Sunrise Yours is No Disgrace Your Move/All Good People Starship Trooper Astral Traveller Tempus Fugit Machine Messiah Owner of a Lonely Heart Steve Howe Acoustic Slot (Corkskrew + one other)[/color] As I say, despite all the negatives I've mentioned, I thoroughly enjoyed it (Yes not quite firing on all cylinders is still Yes after all). Great to hear some Drama too (always particularly enjoyed Chris & Alan's work on that album). Have to admit, Awaken is top of my list of songs to be played at my funeral...

Normally I susbscribe to the Rickenbacker philosophy that when properly set up, the strings and the truss rods are in opposition and therefore removing the tension of one of them is going to play havoc with the neck (leading to 'spongy' necks if done frequently). So my answer would be 'almost never'. I've gone with 'depends', because if I know it's not going to get used for a long time I'd remove strings and slacken the truss rods.

[quote name='Bay Splayer' post='643476' date='Nov 2 2009, 03:25 PM']perhaps he just fancied you and used that line as an [i]ice breaker[/i] [/quote] Yep, I've always found Geddy Lee and Rush to be great icebreakers in any chat up situation... ...actually, to be honest, it hasn't really worked with any woman I've met. I'm going to go against the grain of recent posts and say the mid 70s - mid 80s is the place to start. I find that Geddy's bass sound is less distinct/pleasing on the more recent recordings, although they're still worth checking out eventually. Any of these will do: [b]A Farewell to Kings[/b] [b]Different Stages (Disk 3)[/b] Hemispheres Permanent waves [b]Moving Pictures[/b] [b]Exit...Stage Left[/b] [b]Signals[/b] Grace Under Pressure [b]Power Windows[/b] Hold Your Fire The ones in bold are probably the most interesting for me from a bass playing perspective, but all are excellent.

Over the history of the show, it's certainly seemed at times as if contestants couldn't hear themselves properly, in that their relative pitch to their starting note might be quite good, but not actually at the same pitch as the backing (if you know what I'm trying to say). I don't know about 'favourites', but it's quite noticeable that some people have their best bits included in the recap and some people have their worst moments. I couldn't say whether it's the same people every time though - haven't been paying enough attention.

I use the AKG bug, as do the two guitarists in Dire Fakes. I started using one when I was doing the Rush tribute and it was one less lead to get caught up in the bass pedals. I found it so liberating that I'll only use cable in an emergency (like forgetting batteries for the bug), even though I barely use the midi pedals in DF. If we're playing on a big stage it's great to be able to move about - sometimes you need to fill that stage. The shock prevention aspect is definitely a bonus too. The output is definitely lower than running straight cable, but 'my tone' remains more or less intact. In all honesty, I make my patches using the wireless, meaning that I don't need to worry about this anyway. Collectively, we've had two problems: 1) At the end of a rehearsal, when I switched my bug off, the guitarist in the room next door came through my amp (must have been on same frequency), 2) One guitarist who uses several guitars left a few of his bugs switched on one night (gets a bit screechy when you do that). Besides that, I've had over 5 years of trouble-free operation and I get no clipping (not even on my Wal)

Played The Sands in Gainsborough on Saturday with our old drummer as current drummer couldn't make it (it was a fairly short notice gig). Really smart venue, staffed by really nice people who actually genuinely seemed to want to make sure we were looked after. Even better, despite it being an 'all tables' affair, the audience were great, with quite a few up dancing in available floorspace towards the end. 'Old' drummer played as if he was still in the band and we left with a good feeling about everything. That's four in a row where I've just had a fantastic time, which makes it all worthwhile.

Recent postings lead me to believe that many consider tribute bands to be the spawn of satan himself. However, for those of you who might enjoy some old Dire Straits songs (mainly ones that MK no longer plays), played by musicians with a love of the music, we have the following August shows: Thursday 20 August - Beaverwood Club, Beaverwood Road, Chislehurst, Kent Friday 21 August - The Robin 2, Bilston, nr Wolverhampton (with ZZ Top tribute, ZZsTop) More details at [url="http://www.direfakes.com/livedates.html"]Dire Fakes Live Dates[/url] Hope some of you can make it. Please come and say hello if you do.

[quote name='SS73' post='561053' date='Aug 5 2009, 12:04 PM']Funny really that Fender have been happy with the tuners for all these years.[/quote] I'm not convinced they're as good quality as even 'bog-standard' Fender tuners. [quote name='SS73' post='561053' date='Aug 5 2009, 12:04 PM']:wacko: Just noticed your bass collection, WOW all my fav stuff...[/quote] I had more money than sense at one point & actually believed that I might need them all.

I cannot recommend this site enough for anyone doing any maintenance on Rickenbackers: [url="http://www.joeysbassnotes.com/"]Joey's Bass Notes[/url] (In the maintenance section under Rickenbackers.) It's got all the information you need and it's correct.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='565266' date='Aug 10 2009, 07:03 PM']f*** me, Chris Griffen has dyed his hair.[/quote] hehe... To be fair, the interviewer is pretty dreadful too.

Geddy wasn't impressed with the tuners on his signature model apparently and there has been talk of them changing for a few years. I've had two GL basses and they had identical looking tuners but one set behaved a bit better than the other set. Funnily enough, I kept the bass with the iffy set and they're absolutely fine now. I think they were talking about a 'satin' finish on the new production necks, rather than completely open, but I haven't seen any with this yet. Seems that's the feel Geddy prefers these days.

I'm surprised that you could get enough tension in TI strings to snap them (unless you were tuning up a few tones). Is there any gnarled metal on the bridge in the area of the strings that could explain why you're getting string breakages?

[quote name='ezbass' post='555216' date='Jul 29 2009, 03:34 PM']+1 Definitely worth checking out, I saved a fortune by just adding "outside the home" to my contents insurance.[/quote] But do you earn money from playing? If you do, then you're most likely not covered.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='228551' date='Jun 28 2008, 01:26 PM']If you have home contents insurance check your policy, mine covers me for £5k for stuff i take out of the house and covers everything inside my house.[/quote] I'd be very careful with that. On many home contents policies, musical equipment is not covered if it is being used in a professional capacity (i.e. you are being paid for your performance).

It's horrifiying and wrong that the owner of a lighting pole can be sued because someone not even authorised to touch, never mind mess around on the pole, caused injury to another person. Surely the 'swinger' is the responsible party. Yes, we have £5million cover and I wouldn't risk playing without PLI in this day and age. No one takes responsibilty for their own actions and there's always someone else to blame.

[quote name='Hamster' post='553812' date='Jul 28 2009, 12:25 PM'] Is there a market for a drummer's metronome do you think?[/quote] There ought to be!

[quote name='allighatt0r' post='552827' date='Jul 27 2009, 04:30 PM']Beyond brilliant. Local music festival called Brandon Buzz... ...The audience were excellent and we were very well received. They all sang along and danced and jumped around when asked to! It's a night i will never forget.[/quote] I played in Brandon a couple of years ago at The Great Eastern Hotel, unfortunately now gone I believe. Had an unbelievable night where we debuted our new drummer, who had his own fanclub by the end. The place was absolutely rammed - barely had room to move my arms - and the audience were incredible. Such a shame it's gone, we were really looking forward to going back. They obviously enjoy their music there...

A small theatre in leafy Surrey. Nice venue, although quite hot on stage. A few monitoring gremlins onstage, but FOH fared better and our rhythm guitarist's son did a great job as a stand-in. Local parties and stuff meant numbers were apparently a bit down, but this was hardly noticeable as the very warm & enthusiastic audience really made the gig for us.

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='536354' date='Jul 9 2009, 12:28 PM']You've avoided brick walls and railway tracks. Good work[/quote] Not that using either of those harmed The Clash [quote name='Mr Fudge' post='536346' date='Jul 9 2009, 12:25 PM']You are a prog rock band.[/quote] Nah. No doublenecks...

[quote name='Shaggy' post='531707' date='Jul 3 2009, 02:17 PM']For Floyd I'd have said "Run like hell" rather than "Money"; just a noodle on open "A" that again totally makes the song[/quote] Dropped D surely?

Hello Tony! Surprised you'd never posted here before...

I considered buying that very same fretless bass that's in the photograph a couple of years ago when it came up for sale. It had a Hipshot bridge in it at one point and appeared in Hipshot photographs. Unfortunately a recent GAS attack had left me with insufficient funds to do it. The Pickguardian solution fits easily on the Rickenbacker, using existing screw holes and pickup height is still adjustable with the large screws, providing the rest of the pickup mounting (springs etc.) is retained. Not sure how those screw holes would line up on a faker - although I'm sure Bassassin could confirm. I'm sure Pickguardian would do one with the screwholes in custom positions if needed.

Try contacting Rickenbacker's UK distributor, Rosetti, for spares: [url="http://www.rosetti.co.uk/spares.html"]spares - rosetti.co.uk [/url] I've not had much dealings with them, but they've been very helpful when I have. I know they've been helpful (and reasonably priced) with spares for someone else recently.