EliasMooseblaster

I saw them in Hyde Park a few years ago and whilst it was a hell of a lineup that day (Motorhead, Soundgarden and Sabbath, all for the price of a pint as my friend was online when the ticketing website accidentally put the tickets up for something like a fiver), but Lemmy looked like he was on his last legs. Kudos to the man for doing his best to deliver, but I suspected it would be my last chance to see them.

The blighter's lucky I'm not in Norway! (Which does mean that very little blasting gets done these days...)

It's the ones like these that take you by surprise - they seemed to be healthy, or we got no insight into their private lives to suggest they were unwell. See also Scott Walker. I knew he was getting on a bit, but he seemed to be active and busy and working on new projects, so it rather came out of the blue.

That is a shame - didn't they make a few fretless Grabbers and Rippers back in the day? (Or did those tend to be aftermarket customisations by their owners?) You'd think it would be a market worth exploring - and they'd save on the cost of some fretwire...

Where do you play? Your fingers will meet less resistance if you strike the strings near the neck than if you strike near the bridge. If you're after an audibly overdriven tone, you may find it helps with this as well - playing nearer the bridge with a light touch is good for a tight, funky sound, but I've always found that playing nearer the neck makes the notes "sing" more. Plus, it's easier to give the string a good whack for that all-important fret clank - find some good video footage of John Entwistle's right hand and you'll see what I mean!

Casters. Sit on top, use the bass to push yourself along and you can basically punt your way to the gig.

I have often wondered whether they chose their name with a view specifically to raising some eyebrows when they tried to break into the American market...

Drumkits not propped up by a mountain of gaffer tape would also be an improvement on a lot of places I've rehearsed! Joking aside though, this does sound like a brave attempt to improve on the usual horror show. Given the only one I know of in my area is a single, mouldy room with a leaky roof and a floor largely held together by hazard tape, I might have to consider the trip down to Horley next time I need a space!

Beavertown Brewery, of Tottenham. Now, I'm already well aware of a tendency for some "craft" breweries to be a bit up their own posteriors, but Beavertown just extracted the micturate a bit too much, I felt. I understand how chaotic a busy bar can be (I've spent enough time on both sides of one), but we were a bit miffed off at being made to stand in a long queue to enter a tiny room, where you don't even get to see what's available until you're close enough to squint at a messily chalked-up blackboard just outside the bar. The long wait might have been slightly more bearable if they hadn't bookended the route with a couple of big PA speakers blasting out some generic w**ky indie-rock at a volume that made conversation all but impossible. Thanks guys, great way to welcome your customers.

Ha! Well, I can't vouch for what he does outside the house. Who knows what those cheeky blighters get up to in other people's gardens?

John Densmore, and Ray Manzarek's left hand

UPDATE: this is now gone! (How does one move these threads to Completed Items?) Two-seater cream leather sofa going free to anyone who is able to move and collect*. Around eight years old with some small surface wear and tear (see photos) but still plenty of life in it and very comfortable. Passing on as we have now got a sofa bed so not needed any more. (Smoke-free home, though we do have a cat**.) Approx measurements: 183cm W, 82cm H, 80cm D. Collection* only from KT1 area of New Malden ASAP. Will also be listing on other sites. * or arrange collection - we're equally happy for you to send a man-and-van to come and pick it up. ** he doesn't smoke either

Here we go - managed to track down the original post:

"Babooshka" came up on a thread about great fretless basslines, and one kind soul directed us to a No Treble article with a transcription of John Giblin's sublime performance, so I've been trying to get my fingers 'round that. I'll see if I can dig up the link and share it on here. Anyhoo, it's been a good challenge for my fretless intonation, as it's not often I find myself having to play up the dusty end in E-flat. Definitely a good workout for the ears!

I know MIDI guitars haven't really caught on in the same way as keyboards, but it did occur to me that keyboard players have a great boon when it comes to writing down music these days - they can play a controller keyboard into some sequencer software and, presto! the music is transcribed by the computer - albeit with all their mistakes, but much faster than clicking them onto the stave by hand. Now...on that basis, is it time that MIDI guitars were stepped up a notch? I'm sure they can transcribe the individual notes well enough, but are they capable of doing TAB? If the interface can detect the pitches played, and the strings which are sounding at any given time, surely it could infer the fingering from this information?

Just remembered, there's some very tasty-but-not-too-difficult fretless phrasing in Pink Floyd's Hey You.

Thank you - that's my evening sorted!

*head explodes*

...and don't forget, on a 'bird you'll have a second pickup to throw into the mix and try those different Tonestyler positions with. THINK OF THE COMBINATIONS.

A computer tech once advised me I could drain the (admittedly much smaller) caps in a PC by unplugging and then pushing the power buttom - if there's enough juice left in them, you may even see some of the LEDs on the casing light up briefly. Could you do the same with an amp, or would that be inadvisable?

Hi all, Been eyeing up the iRig 2 interface recently, more for better sound quality when recording/livestreaming via a phone, than for the possibility of using Amplitube. The manufacturer's site seemed to suggest this second edition of the interface is, among other advantages, compatible with Android devices (not just iOS any more). However, some customer reviews seem to suggest that this "Android compatibility" might be limited to Samsung devices...and I'm buggered if I'm going back to a Samsung phone. So: does anybody have any experience of using an iRig 2 with another Android phone or tablet? (Any Nexus 5 phones would be particularly useful to hear about...) And: if the consensus is that they're incompatible / disappointing / worse than Hitler when hooked up to a non-Samsung Android deelie, which alternatives do people like?

If Aerosmith had come not from Boston, MA, but from Leicester, UK...

Dani Alabama? It's got a ring to it...

The UK boasts some of the highest highs... ...but also some of the lowest lows.

Whilst it has been a slight inconvenience, it has given me a prompt to find a fresh moose for my own avatar. Let the blasting recommence!