JamesBass

I have looked at the Lindy Fralins, would love to hear them some more, especially in comparison to the others I'm looking at currently. On my list so far are the Lindy's, SD Antiquities, Fender Originals (Although I could have sworn they did a 60s Custom Shop P Pickup?) and I'm now about to look in to the Aquilar! Hopefully this bass will be unrecognisable after I'm done with it, I'm gonna put a maple neck on it, new bridge and sand it down and look to get it resprayed but maybe that'll cost too much, if it does I'll nab myself a second hand P bass and change the pickups!

I'm starting a new practice schedule from Monday, the old one wasn't strict enough and lacked a challenge. My new schedule has me playing for a minimum of 3 hours a day with 1 hour on scales, arpeggios and general theory, 1 hour working on timing and playing things in different signatures and tempos, then half hour song practice/learning and half hour technique. Maybe my schedule shows just how dedicated I am to trying to make a living from playing bass, maybe it just shows how desperately unemployed I am...

Had an end of year gig last night for my HND course and it went simply abysmal. We arrived on time and began setting up, quite a few of the group were missing and late, usual sort of thing. Then the other bass player walks in with only his electric guitar which he was only playing on one song! So first thing he says to me is "I'm using your bass tonight mate" Which I did not take kindly too! He claims he tried to contact someone to give him a lift so he could take both instead of cycling, he didn't contact me otherwise I'd have picked him up! We then had a constantly changing and interrupted set as some people had only 1 song to perform due to not practicing their set fully. It all sounded rough and disjointed. I went on and played absolutely shockingly, worst I've ever played at a gig, constant mistake after mistake and just not able to hear myself or the drummer enough, was shocking! Hopefully the next one will be better!

I've currently got a Squire Afinity P bass in pieces in a hard case under my bed that I've been wanting to upgrade for ages but haven't had the time and money to do so. What replacement pick ups can people recommend, I'm looking for a nice classic P bass tone, I want some high end and mids for clarity and punch but I want it to rumble like a P should. The bass will be used as an all rounder and back up to my Ric.

Met him last year even got as far as holding and playing one of his Rics, the lighter wood of the two he usually is seen with, which was the most surreal night of my life to date! If it wasn't for the fact that I was driving I'd have been having drinks with him too, we got talking about basses well half of the stuff was about basses the other half, I'm not sure if it was even English! The man was utterly destroyed! He did sober up while on stage! In fact thinking back he looked especially rough that night, very ill and sickly looking! I hope to god he's on the mend as he's such a nice bloke as already echoed above!

What sort of things do you practice and how often do you do them? Would be interesting to see what some of the pros out there do!

A mate of mine has a 30 watt Laney guitar combo, can't remember the exact number, but he has it second hand, it's around 20 years old and until last week it had NEVER been re-valved pretty certain he had EL34s in there and a few others all of which were completely original and still working the only reason he changed the valves was because they had never been changed and he's got a busy summer of gigs and didn't want one to crap out on him! If taken care of Valves can last a long time!

Anyone know of somewhere I can get hold of decent business cards relatively cheap?

Remember EQing isn't just about getting the instrument to sound good, it's also about piecing the mix together sonically. With a kick drum the first thing I would do, is remove ALL frequencies above 6khz, you don't need them as it's dead air, think about it, it's a kick drum that has a bassy nature too it so why would you need some treble, it's just not needed for a kick but is needed for a guitar or vocals, which if you don't remove the 6khz+ sound squashed and not properly seated in the mix. For the actual kick I'd go with: some sub bass between 16hz and 60hz, that's where you will "feel" the boom from, then again in the bass frequencies only a slight boost and again slight boost around 1khz. Remember you will have the dynamics change when you get round to compressors!

I got all 3 right, found a HUGE difference between the german and cheap one compared to the strad though, that strad just had a really well rounded tone and feel, the others seemed to be very trebley, not sure if it was the recording method etc but if it's the same setup and same editing has been applied then the strad is a clear winner for me!

Talking of strange experiences on records and recording, I did a session for a friend the other day for his EP, the material was all simple stuff, nothing taxing, nice easy 4/4 I, IV, V song, I went in and set up, the engineer gave me 2 run throughs to listen to what had already been done and then went in and after 4 bars of the verse, he stopped me and said that'll do perfectly, I'll just loop that round, can you give us 1 chorus and then you're done mate, so did the chorus thinking, they might be on a tight timescale here, turns out my mate has the studio booked for another 2 weeks for another 3 songs! I came away from it thinking, what the bloody hell is going on there! Got in touch with my mate yesterday to check how it went and apparently the playing was spot on and the engineer wanted as much time as possible on vocals and acoustic guitar work, which I spose is fair enough but still seemed very odd to me! OP, just ask your mate if it's bothering you that much and there's more work and/or money riding on it, if not then it's one for the experience books!

Not married although the thought of proposing is in my mind, it has been ever since I met my current better half! But back to the story, My first girlfriend had HUGE attachment issues, I couldn't turn my phone off at practice without her going batshit crazy on me plus all the usual "You'll meet prettier girls than me, they'll get you drunk at gigs and you'll sleep with them" First off we were bloody well 16 and second my band were so bloody intermittent that it was a waste of time trying to book gigs! She got the old boot out the door! Second girlfriend I met at work and she seemed interested in the fact I played bass and did music until she learnt that it wasn't club music, what then pushed her even more was the fact that I was saving up for a new amp and a new bass and when she saw the prices you went crazy about it so she got the boot as well! Now that I'm with my current girlfriend, been two years together now, anniversary at the beginning of May, she's loved the fact I'm creative and in a band and doing something that I love and not going out down the pub all the time, luckily band practices fall on days where we both have other commitments and she loves coming to the gigs! She encourages me to buy the stuff I want as she now understands it's my way of making money where I'm unemployed and trying to push my band on to getting signed! Given time I will be marrying this one, unless some drastic things happen!

Now I'm not a fan of Oasis or either of the Gallagher bros normally, but I REALLY liked that new Beady Eye track, VERY good old school rock song, it's a classic sounding song and very catchy, liked the horns but then again I ALWAYS like horns on a track. Although it does sound like a rip off on the main progression of All Along the Watchtower?! Wasn't swayed by Miguel, good voice just boring music to me, same old same old in my books Deep Valley were, different, not sure I liked them or not might have to check them out again KT Tunstall was phenomenal as always, she's such an amazing song writer and musician!

Perhaps a mod might think this thread is worthy of a pin? Might keep interest in it and find that link you need? Anyone else agree? If the OP doesn't mind then I for one would love to be updated with how it all goes? Also if the kid is going to Download to see Maiden, then maybe a few meetings might be possible? One private and one backstage at Download? The IM boys are all lovely guys, met them once at a show, they really don't mind pics and autographs and even a nice chat or two! I seriously hope the young boys dream can be made a reality! Good luck with the search!

Have you tried going through the Iron Maiden website? I'm pretty certain something like this would get recognised by their team as being worthwhile so would get through to Steve, it's worth a shout in any respect?

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1369234986' post='2086704'] Good afternoon, James... Your opinion is worthy, although I disagree on several grounds... We'll leave the 'intellectual property' part to one side, if you permit, as it's a whole debate in it's own right. I happen to have a different moral standpoint, but I'll let it slide for now... On legal grounds, and not being a legal expert, I'm not sure that claiming exclusivity many years after the original and similar products have been made and sold, is really defensable. A bit like claiming rights on the wheelbarrow (well, someone must have invented it, and there could well be living descendants...) and barring all sales from all other sources. Not to say the designs are not worthy of protection (another subject...); just that it's too late for [i]existing [/i]products. Maybe new ones (but only maybe...). What revenue is lost when someone buys a 'knock off down the market'..? Here again, I'd differentiate between a 'copy' (purporting to be the 'real thing'...) and a badged 'clone'. Anyone considering the former, at 'market' prices, is well aware that it's not real. The harm would be if it was sold as 'real', at 'real' prices. It would have to be a darned good copy for that to be worthwhile; anyone with the dough for a 'real' one is certainly not 'down the market' looking at fakes. In the second case, there's less still defence, imho. Inspired by an original design, but maintaining one's own identity (badged with clone's label, and even with distinctive differences...) no-one (interested in such things...) would confuse one with the other. A sale of such a 'cheap copy' is, again, not a lost sale for the original manufacturer, imho. Quite the opposite; once cash is more available, many 'clone' owners would like to 'upgrade' to the real thing. Instigating legal pursuit of a schoolboy wanting to sell his '70s Shaftesbury, given to him by his uncle, does not seem right to me. Neither the uncle, nor the schoolboy have done anything wrong, at any time. Stopping the transaction seems to me to be a denial of one's right to free trade. The case could be made differently for factories blatantly selling outright imitations, and I won't go further with that line, but the hounding of private individuals going about their lawful private trade is, to me, not right. Tirade over, as you were. Respect, just the same; no malice intended. [/quote] Good Evening Dad 3353, I think all the points have picked up on are worthwhile, even if I personally disagree with them, they are all valid and all matter towards a debate, that's what's good about BassChat, no one virtual screams at each other for holding opposing views! And for that I'll tip my hat to the mods and admins as well as saying they've dealt with this issue impeccably! With regards to having a view point on the clones issue, the existing ones are done, dusted, they already exist so even despite my love for Ricks Mr Hall needs to write them off for now, at some point they'll become forgotten in a loft or lock up like most guitars and basses eventually do when not in the hands of a truly avid person, the issue is the new clones in my mind and if he has the legal paperwork to back up his wishes then so be it, if he fails to run them correctly as a business which this could well cost him to do so, then someone out there with the money and love will buy the brand, it's happened with MANY other manufactures and will happen with Rickenbacker if they aren't careful! The only way I personally see people getting round selling their existing copies is if they list it as a deal to be down through mediation of mods or PM if that is possible here? I know it takes away from the For Sale section however it would potentially keep Mr Hall away, what he doesn't know won't hurt him and all that stuff! I think if people are posting a Rickenbacker for sale then where possible, it needs to have a certificate of authenticity, if that's not available then it should be listed as "Iconic bass, PM for more details" Or some such thing? I'd like to clarify that those people who own an existing clone should in my opinion be absolutely fine, Mr Hall should only target the new clones appearing, that should be his perogative as well as some homegrown innovation with the brand perhaps, maybe a MIM esque series, market price of say £500-£750? But we will have to wait and see how this whole debacle plays out, I for one DO NOT want Rickenbacker to go out of business but I would like to see them protect their name and exclusiveness! [quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1369236042' post='2086716'] Into covers bands being banned then? [/quote] Now that's a whole different kettle of fish! And in my limited experience all set lists of gigs I've been involved with are submitted to PRS and the like, however I am well aware that others don't do that, but that's their choice. Saying that, I can certainly think of a few cover bands that I'd love to see banned

Personally I agree with JH and Rickenbacker, so long as all the relevant legal stuff is on their side, anything that isn't and well they are in breach of the law, defamatory comments about other people and their products or some such thing I'd imagine! I can see how getting rid of all copies and having a unique instrument for Rickenbacker is desirable, it creates exclusivity and in a time where you can pick up a knock off down the market it's nice to see that someone is sticking up for the true version, we'd all moan if our music was and our intellectual property was stolen as it can amount to a loss of earnings. Personally I love my Ric, the tone is perfect for me, it cuts and is infinitely more versatile than people seem to think, I'd say to people who can't make it versatile that maybe they might want to look at themselves first. A bad workman blames his tools and all that...

I think the issue here is the low end Ashdown stuff, which as anyone would expect, isn't the best equipment as it is cost effective, which is the same for EVERY brand out there, I think the reason Ashdown get the bad press is because of the amount of people who use their stuff, having said that though, from what I've read and heard about their ABM series, it's all supposed to be good gear, even more so that CTM 300 head, I've heard lots of positives about it, just wish I could afford one right now (Casual hint to Ashdown if they are reading this thread still)

Perhaps Rock Opera isn't the optimum term for this, maybe concept album with a strong narrative is perhaps better! Have come up with the idea of using one of Einsteins anecdotes about what he used to day dream about as a boy, riding on a light wave, as well as a strong narrative of time travel perhaps. What I envisage while writing for this is actually pictures in my mind, building up a visual picture and then thinking about the music that would lay over the top of that, such as I've ALWAYS dreamed and pontificated about the Big Bang, that moment of huge force and creation, what would that sound like if in musical terms?! This is the sort of thing I've started on. I have many more ideas such as the light waves anecdote and many other day dream elements. This will however be an extensive work in progress that is going to take many years I think, just trying to find musicians I am comfortable having play on this is hard enough for the time being!

I think he used to play a musician stingray a lot live, as well as a jazz, which always gave the tones I liked for this style of music, however this song and the rest of their new album are in my opinion rather weak compared to what their previous albums were like, if you like this then check out their first album called All We Know is falling, Hayley's vocals were much rawer and have a nice character to them, it's not over produced which is how the new stuff sounds to me.

Did not know Dolphin had moved to solely online! Shame as it was a shop I was planning on visiting in the not too distant future, that'll teach me for not doing research! I don't know anywhere else in Liverpool other than Dawsons, but good luck in finding one!

Sent you a PM Col

Been looking for a new amp recently and have been interested in checking these out, but before I do has anyone used one or own one? Brief review would be welcomed Cheers

Monckyman, that's fair enough, not gonna ever force you to listen to it, and I spose Rock Opera may not be the right term for it but it's the easiest way to describe it for now but, I'll see how it turns out! Apa now I never thought about War of the Worlds, but what a fantastic soundtrack it is! Well the original anyway! And to answer your question, No I don't, I think and KNOW I am James Fox No not of Fame Academy, rather fortunately! Cheers for the well wishes though!

[quote name='Monckyman' timestamp='1368966428' post='2083439'] Why not just write a decent LP instead? Then people might listen to it. [/quote] Already got an EP written with my band, we are just about to start recording, this is a work in progress, a continuous project I've started to push, develop and test myself, this is by no means something I'm undertaking for a laugh, this is going to be a long term project