BassMunkee

[quote]you could try red onion...lovely people and excellent units[/quote] +1 I've bought a couple of things from them and they are brilliant. As it happens I recently purchased a loop switch off of them, first class and TOTALLY silent. They'll customise things pretty much anyway you want too.

I use an RC20XL and it's great, I looked into loads, and IMO this one is the best, for bang for your buck, and functionality - again in my opinion. If I had but one criticism of it it would be that I wish it had a better way of dialling in the tempo, but that really is clutching at straws to be honest, and it's never been a problem for me.

Right then, if you need anything from a really dimple switch to a hugely complicated - well - anything, go to these guys. I've bought a loop bypass switch off of them and a remote control reverse + patch select from my Boss rc-20xl and they are brilliant. The bypass is utterly silent and both pedals are built like tanks. Service is excellent, and the price is incredible given what you get - you can fully customize your stuff. Excellent company. Use 'em - you won't regret it, seriously!

Being of a fairly "Shoegazey" disposition it's very unlikely that I would move at all to be honest - maybe the odd bit of rocking back and forth to the beat but otherwise it's heads down people.

[quote]Those Velcro strips are great for coiling cables up.[/quote] Actually they aren't - but they are good for keeping coiled cables coiled though. Always remember that cables have a memory and will always coil in one direction. Never Eat Shredded Wheat.

That is one classy piece of kit, and no mistake. It reminds me of a car bra - lovely. Personally I don't even take my pedals out of their boxes, I just cut little holes for the wires and such. Keeps 'em nice.

One thing I have really found with using Synth Pedals is that you do have to spend some time twiddling with them in order to get worthwhile output - which is no bad thing. They aren't as "plug and play" as some other pedals maybe are, but having saod that, it does mean that you have to have a bit more consideration for what you're attempting to achieve, as opposed to just (for example) whacking your Kruncherizor on maximum gain and blowing out your cones...

I've got a Boss Synth pedal and I have to say I've had no problems with it - very happy...

Jamie Stewart. Simon Gallup.

Brilliant. Thank you for this.

Zoom RT223 - that'll do you.

Anything by Godflesh. Put it this way - I don't play it in the car!

I read the first 3 pages yesterday and posted some rubbish off the top of my head at some point, and then read page 6 this morning. Evidently someone got "annoyed" with someone else and then it all kind plateaud (plateau'd?) a bit as these things do. The interesting thing about discussions of this nature is their circularity, there is no wrong answer and no right answer, the only answer is the one that works for you - if that wasn't the case there would not be a 6 page thread about it, but having said even the most staunch "no-theory-er" would have have to accept that they have gained at the very least the fundamentals with realising it, I know I have - it's just that I don't understand what they are from a technical point of view, I just know that it sounds good. Somebody might come and tell me that it would sound better if I played the dimished 5th of the root after the octave and I would look blankly at them, someone else might come in and say "put your finger on the 5th fret of the D string after playing that last note" and I would know exactly what they meant. If all the musicians in a band all speak the same language, then that removes an obstacle to their joint creativity. If you do things solo, I guess it's not as much of a problem, I haven't found it to be so tho' I will freely admit that I have copied the tuition and theory links off of this thread and I look forward to reading them, if only for my own edification, and because, even though I tend to just go with what I like, I do have some diagrams on my wall that I like to refer to!! Oh yeah, and having a keyboard definately helps because now I have to transpose the notes from one instrument onto the other and actually think about what goes with what - so it does force me to look closer at what I'm doing, which is good. Anyway this post is so long I'm losing the will to live. So I'm gonna stop. If any of you lot are still awake: A: Congratulations. B: Can you tell me what I just said?!

AARGH! MY EYES!

[quote]QUOTE (BassMunkee @ Jul 24 2008, 02:00 PM) The 3rd what? The 3rd degree of the scale, the major 3rd of G is B natural, the minor 3rd is Bb. They're only a semitone, or one fret apart, and sound dissonant when played together.[/quote] Ah see, I know what you mean when you say that, it sounds wrong - I didn't what it was called I just knew it sounded gash. So in fact I have learnt something. Thanks.

[quote]But it still sounded crap Like I said, both the major and minor thirds sounded crap at that point so ultimately his lack of knowledge vs that of the rest of the band both would have come up with solutions which sounded crap. My solution would've been to avoid the 3rd of any colour/description/type all together. And it may still have sounded crap![/quote] The 3rd what?

Quality.

[quote]QUOTE (Merton @ Jul 24 2008, 12:13 PM) I have a friend who is adamant he doesn't need music theory, to the extent he was riffing under a G major chord with B flats all over the shop. It sounded "dark" to him. It sounded wrong to everyone else!! He wouldn't listen to the guys in his band so they asked me to tell him after a soundcheck once. Sure enough from that night on he switched to B naturals. The music didn't clash anymore but it still didn't sound right either - I think ideally the 3rd shouldn't have been in his riff at all under the music the guitarists were playing. Make of that what you will in the theory/no theory debate... I'm sorry, if he can't hear that it sounds "wrong" then he's f***ed and will only be an instrument operator, not a musician. Theory in this case may help him be a better operator.[/quote] LOL True though - I don't know theory but i know what sounds right, and I don't need to know theory to know what I should play next, it would be what sounds right, it might take me a little bit longer to get there in theory terms, but in practice I will still get there.

Thing is, I don't actually play in a band, with anyone else - so the only person I have to make understand, is me. That doesn't mean that I don't have moments of epiphany, since having said all that before, once I invested in a keyboard I realise that what I thought I knew wasn't quite what I actually knew, so it is a learning experience, which is a good thing, but I still stand by what I said - however that shouldn't preclude the fact that you should judge yourself and learn from your mistakes and try and make it better. I'm very proud of the things I've written, but I'm not necessarily happy with them, because with hindsight and based upon what I know now I know they could have been (much) better. That's got nothing to do with me learning scales or theory tho - at least not explicitly anyway - for me, my experience of learning is more fulfilling, but it would be frustrating if I was in a band with people who were theorists because we probably would not be able to communicate with one another properly. (I guess I should have put that in my first post)!!

[quote]Too many people who say that play the same mediocre predictable rubbish over and over again. At the opposite end of the spectrum I've yet to hear a band from our local 'modern music' academy that sounds even vaguely meaningful - great technique, little art.[/quote] That is a good point - it can be an excuse for "I've got no talent, but I cover it up by just playing from the soul, man.", and it goes without saying that you can go too far either way, I just think that it's more fun to play around and work out stuff for yourself, but that works for me - (although that isn't everyone's opinion)! - I guess if you were gonna start playing Jazz or improvising over someone's arrangement or something, then you might need a touch more knowledge about the technical aspects of playing - it's certainly not something I would be able to do, I don't think, at least not without a bit of a crash course!!

Learning scales is gash, imho. Music should be about playing what you feel, how you feel. If it sounds good then cool, you could waste hours learning how to play a 4th-minor-diatonic-pentateuch, when you could in fact be zapping out a killer riff through a couple of pedals, to a cracking rythm. Which would you rather do?

[quote]My favourate Jeff Berlin moment was in that bass clinic argument he had with Steve Bailey, Steve was criticising him on not being able to play 6 string or fretless (I think Jeff had said something that that made that point seem less pointless that it does in this context) and Jeff said "pass me your fretless", he did.. Berlin played 3 notes or something, realised he was hopeless and that it was a lost cause, made some excuses and meekly passed it back .[/quote] Actually that says more about Steve bailey than it does about Jeff berlin, and not in a good way.

[quote]I Had a Washburn Bantam headless from Steve Dawson, ex Saxon and inspiration for Spinal Tap.[/quote] Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!!!

Belkin do some really good surge protectors which also won't work without a decent electricity supply. £9.99 for a single plug, and £19.99 for a 4 gang extension, worth the money, IMHO, AND you insurance against breakage of plugged in stuff, which can't be bad.