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thisnameistaken

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Everything posted by thisnameistaken

  1. thisnameistaken
    [quote name='bassicinstinct' post='215228' date='Jun 9 2008, 09:11 AM']Seems to me that there are many actors who seem to adopt this stance and do "bread and butter" work so that they can display their artistic inegrity in other productions (e.g. doing dross TV sitcoms to finance theatre productions - a la Robert Lindsay for example).[/quote] I think you're confusing the meaning of the word "integrity" there. By definition it's not something you can shelve when it suits you. [quote name='bassicinstinct' post='215228' date='Jun 9 2008, 09:11 AM']If your chosen craft is playing bass, I don't see a problem in marketing that craft for the best financial return.[/quote] Then you have missed the point entirely. When you decide that you're going to pick one gig over another for financial reasons, despite the other being more artistically satisfying, then you cannot claim to have artistic integrity. We may eventually reach the conclusion here that there are very few professional musicians who haven't sold their souls to be professional musicians. Certainly I think anyone who's ever appeared in a magazine holding a commercial product needs to start out on the "dubious musical character" list and earn their place on the other side.
  2. thisnameistaken
    Weekend BUMP
  3. thisnameistaken
    [quote name='steve-norris' post='214052' date='Jun 6 2008, 07:22 PM']Oh and Flea has been playing a Jazz recently, Timorous? [/quote] Flea plays straight-ahead rock music now. I still remember when RHCP records were exciting, but it was a long time ago. They need to start taking the drugs again.
  4. thisnameistaken
    Bump! Knocked a fiver off each one. Grab yer bargains.
  5. thisnameistaken
    Eww. I only ever got a blood blister the first time I realised I could play my E string with my pinky. Of course I over-did it. This was the period where I played everything over the bridge pickup, so my pinky - being the bridge-most finger - was having to work pretty hard. Straight back to three-finger picking for me and never used my pinky again.
  6. thisnameistaken
    [quote name='The Funk' post='213609' date='Jun 6 2008, 01:14 AM']The first 10 years of my bass-playing life![/quote] Mine too, brother! My worst ever was a gig where I broke my A string in the middle of a tune from picking too hard at the bridge. Naturally only the core broke so it stuck to my pickups and in doing so muted the D too. First chance I got I grabbed it in my right hand and pulled it off the bass. Switched to another bass for the next tune and noticed half-way through that it had blood all over it. When I got home at the end of the gig I pulled 13 tiny pieces of steel winding out of my pinky with a pair of tweezers. Moral: Bass strings and fingers were never intended to meet.
  7. thisnameistaken
    Try playing with your thumb over the bridge pickup with your bass too quiet to really hear properly - you'll have blisters in half an hour.
  8. thisnameistaken
    [quote name='benwhiteuk' post='213505' date='Jun 5 2008, 09:59 PM']ive never used an effects loop :wacko: is this a bad thing? I've always gone - Bass > many effects > amp > bleeding eardrums of unsuspecting band mates/crowd[/quote] Pedals don't belong in an effects loop, so that's the right thing to do. In smaller venues the only practical thing to do is use your on-stage rig to cover the whole room, but in bigger places you've got the additional headache of dealing with (often incompetent) resident sound guys to do the front-of-house mix. When you get a good one you remember and circle the venue's name in your organiser 100 times in red.
  9. thisnameistaken
    [quote name='velvetkevorkian' post='213556' date='Jun 5 2008, 11:07 PM']As far as I'm concerned, if you're paying me I'll play precisely whatever you want me to, with a smile on my face and all the passion I can muster. If you're not paying, I'll play precisely what I want.[/quote] I think I grew up listening to too much punk to be able to do that. Ian Dury was apparently Andrew Lloyd Webber's first choice to write the libretto for "Cats". It would've made Ian a veritable fortune, but he turned it down, because, in his own words: "He's a w***er, isn't he?". Professionally, I've done jobs I'd rather not have done. Not many of them, but I have done them. But they didn't involve music or anything else persuasive or creative - just normal functional jobs. I can't lend my soul to something soulless. I just can't.
  10. thisnameistaken
    I suppose it depends what you're happy playing. I've never done a function band and I would never do it, just because I don't like the majority of chart music / generic rock music and I would rather disfigure my own testicles than be a part of performing it. Yeah the audience might enjoy it but is that enough? I think if you can take pride in what you're doing then you're doing it right. Whether that involves cooking up your own tunes or bashing out AC/DC covers. But if you're doing the AC/DC covers and you [i]don't[/i] like doing it, that's where integrity becomes questionable.
  11. thisnameistaken
    Bassballs sold. The others look a bit disappointed.
  12. thisnameistaken
    [quote name='BigRedX' post='213198' date='Jun 5 2008, 01:40 PM']Import duty (as distinct from VAT) is only applied if it comes to £7 or over, which I believe means that the item plus shipping has to be over £200. I doubt most pedals are that expensive...[/quote] Sadly it'll be a parcel of two pedals, which will total over £200. Still it's the VAT that gets you, I'm not too worried about the duty I was just trying to get an idea of what it would cost.
  13. thisnameistaken
    Bump! Who will buy my lovely pedals? I'll tell your fortune if you do, and curse you if you don't. Just thought I should put that out there.
  14. thisnameistaken
    [quote name='benwhiteuk' post='212816' date='Jun 4 2008, 10:41 PM']I’ve thought about a Pickle Pie Bass maybe[/quote] There's currently a wait for them. I put my order in a week or so ago, think I'll probably be waiting another 2 weeks until it shows up.
  15. thisnameistaken
    [quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='212833' date='Jun 4 2008, 11:12 PM']I'd probably hold out for a much bigger amp.[/quote] +1 When I started gigging (years and years ago!) I thought a cheap 100W 15" combo would be enough. It wasn't.
  16. thisnameistaken
    Has that thing got witches in it?
  17. thisnameistaken
    [b]Electro-Harmonix Q-Tron (reissue) + EHX 24v power supply: £50 shipped[/b] Boxed with instruction sheet. This was my favourite filter until my new Robot Factory Meatwad arrived last week, so now it needs to go give its funky joy to someone new. Velcro hooks on the base but I will send the original rubber feet too. Few tiny marks in the paintwork on the top (visible in the photo) as is typical on these EHX "coal barge"-style enclosures, apart from that it really is in perfect condition. They go for £80 new, with another tenner for the PSU, so I think £50 shipped is a good price. Don't think I'll budge on the price but I may be interested in a trade, balanced with cash, depending on what you've got. [b]*SOLD* Line 6 Echo Park Delay incl. Line 6 9.6v power supply: £60 shipped *SOLD*[/b] Mint, boxed + instructions. Works with a 9v supply too but may be noisy depending on your supply and what you daisy-chain it with. Really handy as a stage delay, tap tempo more convenient than the "hold, then press" types, tape/analogue modes actually sound pretty good too. [b]*SOLD* MXR Bass Auto-Q: £70 shipped *SOLD*[/b] Boxed, three small marks where paint has flaked off the base, otherwise perfect condition. Don't know whether you'd call this a filter or an auto-wah or a filter + auto-wah, or an auto-wah + swept tremelo or what. Either way I've got too many filters so it's going. [b]*SOLD* EHX Bassballs (USA reissue): £25 shipped *SOLD*[/b] Very good nick. Velcro hooks. Wooden box and instructions, because you need instructions when a pedal's got one knob and a switch. [b]*SOLD* Digitech Bad Monkey overdrive: £20 shipped *SOLD*[/b] This is basically brand new, spent five minutes on my board. Velcro took the Digitech sticker off the bottom, apart from that it's spotless. Boxed + instructions.
  18. thisnameistaken
    Me me me! PM-ed!
  19. thisnameistaken
    Where are you based? I'm sort-of after a P but I don't think I'd buy a Fender without trying it (due to past experience).
  20. thisnameistaken
    [quote name='Shaggy' post='212221' date='Jun 4 2008, 12:03 AM']Damn, just bought one of those....... How much would you spend on a car? How much does that car depreciate compared to a bass? How much more pleasure do you get from playing your bass?[/quote] How much do cars cost? Could I get a car for £6-700 that would be practical? If I could, I'd probably buy it. I just don't find I need to spend any more than £6-700 on a bass, judging from experience. I also wouldn't be too comfortable with taking a £3000+ bass out to a gig, so there'd be no point in me having one.
  21. thisnameistaken
    [quote name='NAS' post='212139' date='Jun 3 2008, 10:11 PM']I've spent £600 - £700 on each of these basses (U.S.A. made) second hand and think I've got a good representation of the Fender sound.[/quote] That's my realistic limit I think. I said a grand, which is what I think my limit is, but I would crap my pants if I actually spent a grand on a bass - I've never spent more than £700 in 18 years of bass playing so I think it's reasonable to assume that that's my limit. I do need another one though. Or two.
  22. thisnameistaken
    I think a grand for a bass is about my limit. I've wanted a Wal for nearly 20 years but I know I'll never buy one, doesn't matter how good they are. I always buy used basses, and I think you can get pretty much anything for under a grand if you don't start looking at vintage instruments or boutique gazillion-string basses made out of sections of The True Cross and polished by beeswax-breasted virgins.
  23. thisnameistaken
    [quote name='Toasted' post='211569' date='Jun 3 2008, 09:10 AM']You don't. You have to pay VAT at the rate of the originating country within the EU. Import duty is 3.7% on FX. I figure add 22% and then £12 to the marked value and you'll always have a little bit of change.[/quote] Ah, brilliant, thanks. [quote name='dannybuoy' post='211625' date='Jun 3 2008, 10:42 AM']I've bought a couple of pedals from the US and have so far escaped any import duty. I have an Earthbound Supercollider coming this week, hopefully that will escape it too. Or maybe it's cos I'm getting them sent to my work address and my company is getting hammered for all the charges! [/quote]
  24. thisnameistaken
    I come up with all my best ideas in the shower, usually start singing something and then a bass idea pops into my head shortly afterwards. If I'm ever struggling to come up with an interesting bass part sometimes I'll record some ideas into a sequencer, and then shift them a fraction of a beat out of sync. That usually messes things up enough to get the creative juices flowing, and sometimes even produces a winner!
  25. thisnameistaken
    Thanks guys. It seems the duty calculation isn't precisely based on the current exchange rate anyway when the value of the goods isn't in GBP, so I can't make an entirely accurate calculation. You've got me in the right ballpark though, which will do.
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