oggiesnr

What are you intending to run on them? What's the rating of your circuit? Do a bit of maths first. After that I just wandered along to B&Q and picked out likely looking leads. Decided the time spent trying to knock a few pounds off the bill wasn't worth the effort. Steve

[quote name='leschirons' timestamp='1390949445' post='2351740'] The first actual protest singer. A great talent. [/quote] He would argue with that (and did). He would point to the long tradition of unknown singers who left us great songs and then point to Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. Steve

Clubs need to get more imaginative (and clean up their act), promoters ditto, bands ditto. All the parties are in this together and if one of them is making out like a bandit and the others are losing then eventually they all lose. A quick example of imaginative. A folk promoter who promotes out in the sticks put on a Sunday afternoon show. Name headliner and up and coming support so serious money on the line and proper ticket prices. Result was an almost full house, people coming from up to an hour and a half's drive away (us included), the club made bar money in a dead time and everyone came out on top. The promoter is now seriously looking at doing a Sunday afternoon series next winter. OK you can argue it's only folk but I imagine that it could work across a number of genres. Steve

One of the greats of music. He helped keep alive a strand of music and provided a link and source to the past. He added to it and nurtured new talent. He left a huge body of work (over 100 albums). An enviromentalist before it was fashionable and activist right up until his death. One of the most charismatic performers I ever saw live (back in the 1970s) he also proved that you don't need a huge sound system and set and theatrics to keep an audience engaged. If you've got it you just need the material, a five string banjo and be prepared to give of yourself. Steve Fixed typo

Have you had a look at the cost of a set of fifths strings? Not nice! Steve

As a piece of music my favorite was Bilbo's which interpreted one of the pictures beautifully (and I want to hear live by a string quartet). The issue was that I felt it ignored the other picture and for that reason my vote went elsewhere. Sorry By the same token I felt a couple of the others were to Burt centric which left a choice of two (and I'm not telling) Overall, even with only five entries I thought it was a good quality month. Steve PS Had one of Bilbo's violins been a banjo it would have fitted perfectly

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1390775171' post='2349452'] They are the same band with name changed in mid 1970s but I agree the earlier stuff is excellent. [/quote] Most of the personnel are the same but the whole outlook was different. You can't imagine Dr Hook recording "Roland the Roadie" Steve ... or Penicillin Penny

This is a bit like saying recommend me some rock acts, the field is vast and the variety huge. So you like a modern country/rock album, so Band Perry, earlier Shania Twain would be jumping off points. Female vocals then Emmylou, Gillian Welch, Alison Krauss. Don't like some of it but love some of the songs? Check out who wrote them and follow them down. It's a big new world for you to explore, have a lot of fun Steve PS Don't right off Dolly Parton, she's one of the best songwriters out there and for a totally left field suggestion "Dr Hook and the Medicine Show" Please note this is NOT the same band as Dr Hook, much more interesting, Shel Silverstein was their songwriter (Boy named Sue) and they did the first version of "Queen of the Silver Dollar" (eventually covered by Emmylou, Dolly Etc etc).

[quote name='Norris' timestamp='1390481089' post='2345836'] Export your midi file in Musescore, pull it straight into Reaper and Bob's your auntie. It will even split the conductor score into separate midi tracks for each instrument. [/quote] Thanks for that, will give it a try. Steve

Quick up date. My left hand is back functioning so long as I take it steady (simple bass lines R us). My right cannot hold a bow for any serious length of time without a lot of pain so I'm not doing arco at all. Playing fewer notes does have a spin off as you have to think what notes you're going to play for maximum effect and you also have a fraction longer to think about it Steve

I have to confess that I've never understood 6 (or more) string basses. I can understand going lower but as soon as you go higher you start hitting the guitars, keyboards etc. For an extra two and a half tones of already crowded soundspace I've never seen the point in the money it costs to get a decent one. Steve

The Y Street Band in York play pop covers and use a double bass exclusively. DB, cajon and three guitars, helps that they can all sing as well. Their set includes Come and See Me, Another Brick in the Wall, Kiss and Down Under. Very good they are too Steve

If you want six strings then get a six string, in my case I just wanted the low B so five was what I got and I have no desire or use for extra strings. Steve

I think it's horses for courses. I use Musescore as an occasional user to write and annotate music that I play on other instruments and for this is works fine (for sharing tunes amongst the folk community I actually use ABC Notation but that's a whole different can of worms). It only uses the standard midi sounds but for me it doesn't matter. Were I wanting to publish in audio form then it would be Sibelius every time. Steve

Am I the only person who seems to have a pick gremlin whose sole purpose in life is to make sure that I never have a pick when I want one? Steve

[quote name='CHW' timestamp='1390416951' post='2345276'] Given away by your location a bit, but I did a bit of melodeoning for your team at a festival in Lincoln a couple of years ago, I'm guessing you may know my batty parents. [/quote] Quite possibly There seems to be a hell of a lot of melodeon players round here! Steve

Dunlop .73 here as well. Also used on a host of other instruments and seems to work fine all round. Steve

Interesting experience tonight. Had a morris dance practice and usually I play quite melodic lines. As I have left hand issues at the moment I had to dial that right back and played simple root/fifths and simpler progressions, concentrating on the dancers rather than trying to be clever. The result was that it was commented on how much stronger the bass was tonight and how much more lift it provided. There in lies a lesson for me. Steve

[quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1390332291' post='2344190'] I did buy a [i]Hohner Preciosa and got it retuned to G/D[/i], but that has sat in its case for a few years now. The tone and and punch were great, but didn't really get on with the compressed keyboard, and the novelty of its size soon wears off! [/quote] If you ever want to move it on let me know I currently play a G/C/accs Loffet (great for French music and blues) and a couple of C/F Hohners (one clubbed, the other de-clubbed) but I don't have a D/G (a Dino Baffetti Black Pearl was one of the boxes that went) Steve

[quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1390311478' post='2343850'] Don't just taunt us!! As a melodeon man myself I need details. [/quote] Gaillard D/G/accs, two year build time. Gorgeous box but not right for me. Steve

[quote name='shizznit' timestamp='1390319543' post='2344001'] A trap that a lot of 5 string players fall into is only using the notes Eb and below. Thats fine by all means if thats what you want, but one of the other reasons why I use a 5 string 90% of the time is so that I can extend my scales from the B string and back higher up the neck without running my fretting hand frantically up and down to play root notes. As soon as you get to a G on the B the tone tends to mud up a bit when you play sustained notes, but you don't really notice it if that much you play staccato style licks and runs. That can sometimes be remedied with a tapered string, but depending on how flat or saturated your overall tone is it might not make much difference. When you play even higher towards a D note and beyond the intonation can drop off a little too. So, there are pro's and con's to playing a 5 string. [/quote] Agreed, G is usually as high as I go on the B string but it does give you a really nice fingering for the E scales. Steve

I use the bottom B but I'm a folkie so I play a lot of stuff in G and D so having that low D on the B string gives me another set of options especially if I'm playing a melody line. Steve

Not just with basses. I finally got to buy the melodeon of my dreams (£3,500), sold a pile of stuff (including a couple of boxes, a bass and some other gear) to get it and it lasted 3 months. Fortunately I was able to pass it on to someone else at the same price BUT what I can't get back is one of the boxes I sold to make it happen, which in fact this one was a replacement for, and that is what really gets to me. Steve

I can't do half the stuff I'd like to do on a bass, I have small hands and hand damage but I've got past the point of caring. What I can and do do I do as well as I can and I try to make it as musical as possible. The rest of it I leave to other people, they're welcome to it. On a more serious I also play double bass (again as my hand allows) and I've found that the 1st, 2nd, 4th finger usage also works a lot better for me on a bass guitar than trying to stretch too far. Steve PS one of the best bass players I've seen had one arm, another had only two fingers on his fretting hand, you adapt to what you can do, limitations are there to be used to to be limiting.

The trial questions are getting seriously hard but very interesting, it's a whole different way of listening to sounds, trying to identify which frequency has been filtered out is not easy.