MiltyG565

[quote name='Leonard Smalls' timestamp='1357635970' post='1925559'] You should get pretty reasonable sound from £35 headphones by a reputable manufacturer (i.e. one who makes headphones). Frinstance, the Sennheiser PX 'phones at £25ish will beat the crap out of £100 Skullcandys. And £45 iGrados are a lot more real than £300 Dr dre beats! [/quote] Well, they were Sennheiser earphones. Wasn't much pleased with them. My previous Philips sports earphones beat the crap out of the sennheisers by a long way, and they were only £20.

Kind of too slow and light for my liking, but alright i suppose.

[quote name='Leonard Smalls' timestamp='1357635136' post='1925546'] Aye! I played the Kraftwerk "Minimum Maximum" live DVD to a youth t'other day. Previously he'd been going on about the ultimate sound quality of his Beats 'phones/iPod and the "awesome bass" of his Logitech 5.1 computer audio system. He's now going to go and buy a proper stereo like this one! [/quote] I automatically avoid headphones that say bass on them, because i know they are trying to appeal to the ravers when they write that, not the bassists, who know the difference between a bass frequency, and a bass guitar.

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1357634921' post='1925542'] I guess the implication of the OP is that older music fans are much more concerned about quality of sound that younger people who've grown up with mp3s? Of the young music fans I know, most have spent way more than I ever would on a pair of headphones - misguided maybe, but it certainly shows concern for the quality of sound. I don't know if this is indicative of a common trend though Are you saying that everything recorded before 1953 sounded better than anything recorded after?!?!? Nuts!!!! [/quote] I spent £35 on earphones, and i still think they are crap.

This has just flared up on my radar, and there is quite a bit of hype around it already. I'll listen later, but it better be good! Or, i'll just listen to the bowie song by FOTC.

[quote name='alexpea' timestamp='1357471400' post='1922943'] Hi everyone, looks like you've got a nice forum here. I've been playing bass for around 8 years. I now mainly play double bass in a few bands. Bit of Klezmer, Folk and Americana. Cheers. [/quote] Hello and good morning. Welcome!

[quote name='great harry' timestamp='1357514345' post='1924000'] As a teenager I used to play bass in a punk folk band. " A WHAT???" I am glad you asked and you are right, such a thing should never have existed. Two very respectable genres that dont mix very well. Call it experimental. It was 1976, Punk was new and well someone had to try. My first bass was bought for £17.00 from a junk shop in 1973. It was a Hofner 500/3. To me it was a tired old dinosaur from a bygone age that I had nothing in common with. Imagine my shock when I googled it recently and saw an identical one up for £950.00. I swapped it in 1975 for a rather neat looking Welson Violin Bass. It was a nice guitar and played well, but it wasnt the precision or rickenbacker 4001 that I hankered after. I flogged that in 76 for £ 40.00 (wayhay £23.00 profit :-)), in order to go on holiday, thinking, oh well I will just buy another one when I get back. Oh the folly of youth. [b]Fast forward to December 2012.[/b] I find I am listening and humming along to the bassline of every tune I listen to and am looking at bass guitar adverts online. 2nd January 2013 and I walk into my local music store pick up an SX FP62 Precision and am amazed how comfortable it feels in my hands. The shopkeeper plugs it into an amp and says have a go. "I dont know anything I say". [b]Fast forward 5 seconds [/b] And I am running through a 12 bar blues without having any idea what notes I am playing or what is actually controlling my actions. It was the first time I had picked up a bass guitar in 36 years! I have some questions 1. Is this form of madness curable? 2. I thought not. Where can I get an SX precision where I can buy it on hp (spent too much at Christmas)? It came across as a very good bit of kit and at £ 189.00 seems like a bargain. None of the online stores in the uk seem to stock it. In fact, my local shop is the only place I have come across it over here. In the US it is extremely popular according to the forums over there. Alder body, great finish, no belmishes wonky screws or filled gaps. Looked as good as a real Fender he had in the shop and sounded great. 3. Is the Squier Affinity P bass as good (budget up to £200.00 if I am lucky)? 4. What about the Epiphone Thunderbird IV or EB-3 ( I understand they are both poorly balanced guitars)? 5. Is the Laney RB1 15 Watt practice amp as good as I think it is (Which is good enough)? 6. Does this age regression thing mean that someone will be changing my nappy in 15 years? I want to play Punk Folk (joking), 60's and 70's rock from the Beatles and Kinks through to the Stranglers and just about anything in between. I might try some of that new fangled Oasis, REM and Pulp type stuff from the 90's as well. Gigging if it ever happens will probably be restricted to playinjg the bottom end of an, English music only, Ceilidh band (all of my brothers and my neice are in it so at 54 I should be thinking of toeing the family line), Unless I can find some other old gits to form a retro band with. Thank you for reading that. I hope you don't resent me for wasting 5 minutes of your time. Cheers Damon [/quote] Dude, if you want teenage pretensions, just do what i do... nothing. OH f***! why do i keep forgetting i'm not a teenager anymore? It still doesn't stop me from doing nothing. In fact, i just had a bacon and philadelphia sandwich, and i'm considering a second round of coke (the drink, not the illegal substance). might go to sleep soon too. Maybe i'll ask mum too bring me back some cider from the shop later too. f***, i love my life Anyway, welcome! Get a bass!

I was born 90% deaf in my right ear, which was corrected, but i have always had tinnitus, and i assumed most people had tinnitus, but then i found it some people were foolish enough to bring it on to themselves voluntarily. Best advice i could give is to never go to band practice or even a gig without hearing protection. Never listen to your music louder than it needs to be. if you're on a bus, you'll never drown out all the noise, so don't even try. I got my hearing checked by a hearing specialist in the hospital, and he said my hearing fall just in the bounds of normal. I can hear alright, there's just a lot of fuzz, like my ears have a constant mild overdrive effect. The doctor said that most people will get tinnitus with age, so as you get older, you will just find it getting more noticeable, and along with that, every 10 years, you lose about 1000hz of range off the top, i believe. So if you started at 20Khz, by the time you are 80, you are only hearing about 12khz, couple that with the tinnitus, and you are deaf. If you aren't deaf, chances are you don't hear all the high frequency sounds that make up out language, like the 'S' sounds, and 'K' sounds, nearly everything but a guttural sound. Those are a couple of facts about hearing i have picked up over the past couple of years, and if any of you are gigging and practicing regularly, i advise you use hearing protection at each and every gig (playing or just attending for fun), because once the hearing goes, that is it amigo. At the very least, your hearing should last you until you retire, 65/70ish.

I'll down a pint in their name. I'll start off a good steady pace, then speed up around the middle, then slow down again near the end Just joking, some of my best friends are drummers. TO DRUMMERS!

My bass teacher was just telling me tonight how their system works in the church he plays in. It's more like a theatre, capable of holding around 1000 people (and regularly does), and all the guys show up 2 hours before service and get a good run through the songs. They all have in ear monitors, and top notch gear provided. He even gets a mic so he can shout at the drummer when they are changing from chorus to verse (the mic gets sent to all the in ear monitors, but not the FOH PA. He said "If you believe in a God, and you are willing to do this, you are striving for excellence in his name, so many churches do it half assed". I didn't really agree with that, but then, i don't agree with his views on religion in general, so i kept quiet. Well no, i actually said "God probably doesn't mind how well you do it, as long as you are doing it for the cause". I would love to play for the Westboro Baptist Church though, but apparently God hates me, and i'm going to hell... aw

[quote name='paulpirie8' timestamp='1357559102' post='1924333'] This came up in discussion the other day when one of my friends argued that my Hi-Fi took up too much space in my room. He claimed that all you need is a "Micro Hi-Fi" which you can pick up for pennies. I can remember even when I was a kid that every house would have (or seemed to have, IME) a big, proper Hi-Fi with seperates for CD, cassette and vinyl as well as a decent amp and speakers. Now though people seem to just have an All-in-one stereo with tiny speakers that sound pretty terrible. I could probably count the people I know with a proper Hi-Fi on both my hands. I'm no audiophile but I love having one place I can listen to music as it should sound; good. So I suppose my question is: Has the quality of sound become less important when buying a new stereo than size/cost etc? Cheers, Paul [/quote] To me, it would be ideal, but in practice, it wouldn't really work, because their is the expense of getting the gear to have it sound like it should, then finding a safe and comfortable place to keep it, then actually remembering to make use of it, and make time to actually purposely sit down and listen to an album. Would it be a bad idea to listen to albums and such through studio monitors?

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1357608634' post='1925424'] [media]http://youtu.be/OWoQpzdB5gs[/media] [/quote] I have to manage all that WHILE trying to sing. Maybe i'll stop singing.

[quote name='aende' timestamp='1357575956' post='1924736'] I'd also like to point out that bass players have a longer scale-length - it's important......! [/quote] Yes, this is true, but how big is the car you drive? cause if it's not a fiesta or a micra, you should probably keep it to yourself Me? i drive a ford galaxy.... oh... stop laughing, please?

[quote name='Les' timestamp='1357401157' post='1922135'] Just been thinking about a photo our singer put on facebook saying roughly "Why will people pay £3.50 for a coffee that costs pennies is gone in a few minute etc. etc. but won't pay 99p for a song ?". Some of you may have seen it doing the rounds. I have no problem buying my music but I have to admit if I have to learn a cover song, for my band, that there is no way in the world I would want to buy it for my own listening pleasure I generally download it for nothing, learn it then forget about it, and it just sits on my laptop forever and never gets played again. What's everyone else's take on this ? Should I buy it ? Can't really make my mind up on this. [/quote] I buy all my music, and what i don't want to, or can't afford to buy, i listen to on spotify. It's simple really. Support musicians and artists, and if you don't want to, but need to listen to their music, just find some way of hearing it for free, without actually doing them out of anything. YouTube is good too for that.

[quote name='Jack Cahalane' timestamp='1357526419' post='1924082'] I know, a green scratch plate, how tacky. [/quote] Pickup at the neck, and a thumb rest between the mid and bridge pups... crazy!

[quote name='Jack Cahalane' timestamp='1357524164' post='1924079'] This one's almost right [url="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3200/2797708672_b404929f0e.jpg"]http://farm4.staticf..._b404929f0e.jpg[/url] [/quote] Nearly right, but also, very wrong.

[quote name='Jack Cahalane' timestamp='1357522374' post='1924074'] Hopefully, got a two week wait though before I find out. Your idea sounds interesting, I wonder if it's been done before? [/quote] Probably... i can't be the first to think of it, can i?

[quote name='Jack Cahalane' timestamp='1357521125' post='1924067'] £50 for the pickup, £106 for the routing, wiring and the new concentric knobs [/quote] Ah, that makes more sense now! 'twill sound good!

[quote name='Jack Cahalane' timestamp='1357518283' post='1924058'] Then you'd better start saving up, I'm having a jazz pickup installed on my precision which is costing me £156 [/quote] eh... why is it costing that much? i thought market price for a decent one would be around £50, and a pretty good one about £70...

Down-side though, they are £30! (Yikes!) I think i might cover knights of cydonia tomorrow with them. Which also got me thinking... what if i made a jazz bass with a MM style humbucker in between the 2 jazz pickups?

[quote name='Roc' timestamp='1357513889' post='1923987'] They sound good on the vid, good stuff, I'm defo gonna try them. [/quote] They really do sound fantastic. I'm fresh into the entire "Not a round-wound" market, and i love them!

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1357391811' post='1921970'] If you play and jam for years with the same people, you build up a lot of melodies and rhythms together, and it can seem prearranged, because you are able to play the same or a similar melody today and a few months from now without any further rehearsing or anything. [/quote] Ok, what about their very slick changes during this entirely spontaneous jam? There's never somebody on stage going "Oh f***, we aren't playing in E-minor at 120bpm anymore?". It's just too clean to ever make me think that it's anything other than pre-arranged.

[quote name='Highfox' timestamp='1357379783' post='1921749'] Confusing yes! I was talking about flats lol- [/quote] So was Roland...

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1357378402' post='1921726'] Smoothness/slidiness/silkiness are what good flats do best. Much more so than rounds or half rounds. Or am I misinterpreting what you mean by 'easy to slide'? [/quote] No, you've just confused me, because HighFox has said that good flats aren't easy to do a slide on, and you have said they are. So... there are some conflicting ideas here on what makes a good flattie!

[quote name='lojo' timestamp='1357378281' post='1921724'] Wasn't knocking it, just saying that one approach won't give most people all round abilities [/quote] I know you weren't, i wasn't having a go at you over it