EliasMooseblaster

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1475097766' post='3143116'] Did you move it on because the cat sprayed it? [/quote] Let's just say I'm glad Wunjo's only did a visual inspection and not a sniff test...

Off to see Joanne Shaw Taylor this very evening. Got a tip-off from a friend that she's doing an album launch at the HMV on Oxford Street. (One of those "the gig is free entry, as long as you buy a copy of the album from us" arrangements - but I figured if I was going to buy the album anyway then I may as well get the gig and an autograph out of it as well.)

Does it count if I took said "selfie" using a webcam rather than a mobile phone? [attachment=228840:felineVsFretless.jpg] (And does it still count if I know longer own the featured bass?)

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1474927258' post='3141638'] The noodle bar has struggled of late for entries so it would be great to get another entry in [/quote] Happy to oblige: https://soundcloud.com/cherrywhitemusic/funky-appendage/s-RxpFB

[quote name='Kevin Glasgow' timestamp='1473347615' post='3129393'] Hi folks, here's another solo video. This time it's John Coltrane's minor blues Equinox. Hope you enjoy it! ... Cheers, Kev [/quote] Cracking stuff, Kev! I used to love playing this song with my old jazz band - though I was certainly never doing anything that impressive with the bass part!

[attachment=228725:onstageProud.jpg] (Excuse the slightly narcissistic pic, it was the best one I had to hand!) This bitsa was cobbled together when I spotted a mahogany body going for a reasonable price on fleabay and thought, "ooh, that looks nice." It gathered dust for a long time until I had enough disposable to buy the other components. I got a luthier friend to widen the neck pocket, and spent most of the project trying to combat the fact that the body was almost certainly intended for a short-scale bass! French-polishing it was quite relaxing though. (Full build diary at https://thecrowfrombelow.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/the-birth-of-aradia-part-i/ ) And does this one count? [attachment=228726:brenda.jpg] "Brenda" was originally built from a Brandoni Guitars kit, but underwent a refurbishment a couple of years ago. The main focus was to redo the French-polished finish, but I decided to treat her to a nicer scratchplate, some new pots and a fancy Fender '62 RI pickup.

You can do a surprising amount of Creedence Clearwater Revival with just one guitar. You may have to make the bassline a little busier during guitar solos, but otherwise most audiences tend not to notice the absence of a second guitar part.

I call plagiarism - it looks suspiciously like my Frankenbass with an extra pickup (below centre)! [attachment=228724:bass_trio.jpg]

[quote name='PaulGibsonBass' timestamp='1474888127' post='3141220'] I've never encountered a hostile stage invader (yet) but we had a guy get up on on to our little foot high 'stage' at a recent pub gig who started to try to talk to our frontman mid song. My initial thought was that he must be drunk and was going to try and grab the mic. No, he was totally sober and was in fact try to ask if he could book us to play at a party. He obviously didn't want to wait until the break. [/quote] This, much like Dave's story above about a guy wanting to buy the band a round of drinks, are the most baffling ones. I've encountered heavily refreshed gentlemen who've wanted to get at the mic (and in my younger and angrier days I did shove at least one such punter off the stage into a crowd who were a bit fed up with his antics and told him to give it a rest), but why would you try and talk to a band member mid-song? If you saw someone was on the phone you wouldn't walk up and just talk at them, so why would you approach a band member when they're clearly in the middle of something and the stage volume is going to make it difficult for you to be heard? Mighty strange.

You'd think for three grand they could have at least come up with a slightly less godawful headstock! I didn't mind the look of the semi-hollow fretless which appears to have been made by the same people ([url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ATLANSIA-VICTORIA-ARC-FL-Fretless-Bass-Free-Shipping/222237718389?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3D202e0ccbcc5f44658446b103171a9602%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D222224221003"]this one[/url]), though similarly I don't know whether I'd stump up four grand for it...

I know it's not the guitar's tone [i]per se, [/i]but several guitarists I know have argued that thicker necks give better sustain - supposedly Paul Gilbert's most recent signature model has quite a deep neck profile for this very reason. None of them have been able to provide a physical explanation for this (ofr course), and unfortunately, among my basses no two are sufficiently similar for me to conduct any meaningful investigation, so I'll have to put myself in the "Don't Know" camp for now.

They're probably best described as "an acquired taste." I have acquired said taste, but I can appreciate they're not for everybody. Tonally, they're good for classic rock and blues (and, perhaps surprisingly, older sub-genres of jazz such as swing and bop) but they're pretty lousy for funk. I don't really play slap, but if I did I probably wouldn't use my Thunderbird for it. They certainly suit the taller lady or gentleman, given the way both the 'bird and my Epi EB-3/SG sit on a strap, but I have been blessed with long arms so this hasn't been an issue. Yes, the neck dive is a bit ridiculous on the SG, but the way my right arm sits counteracts this quite effectively. I'd argue the 'bird isn't as badly balanced as some have suggested, though I don't know whether the Hipshot bridge on mine is adding significantly more weight at the back than the original bridge (which, I agree, is a bit of a silly design!) For me, the greatest attraction is how articulate they are in the upper registers. The dusty end sings in a way that I just haven't found with many other basses - listen to [i]The Real Me [/i]by The Who for an example of the kind of sound that I'm referring to, and which sparked my initial interest in Gibson-style basses. It's probably also fortunate coincidence that their typical tone sits quite comfortably into my band's sound (thick Les Paul guitar sound, strong female vocal, chuffing loud drummer).

[quote name='guildb30179' timestamp='1473370556' post='3129641'] Ahem, I have to mention the same joke for bassists, "How do you know when there's a bassist at the door? He's late and he's got the wrong key" [/quote] In a slightly crueller vein: Q What does a bass player use for contraception? A His personality! (boom boom)

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1473349320' post='3129410'] [b]Often 1 or 2 at a time for some bizarre reason.[/b] [/quote] Presumably they're leftovers from a certain chap who shall not be named but converts 7-string guitars to 6-strings for "players with bigger hands"...

[quote name='Funky Dunky' timestamp='1473325130' post='3129026'] Aha! That is quite telling. £35 for that pickup is a damn bargain. They do a really nice, authentic-sounding Precision tone - some will question the balance etc but for £35 it wipes out a few competitors at double the price imo. [/quote] If it's any reassurance, I put a Tonerider Jazz pickup in one of my own projects and was amazed by how good it sounded for just thirty bob!

[quote name='HazBeen' timestamp='1473171009' post='3127631'] Who's this Rick you keep going on about? Loud, rowdy, punk a little dirty.... Rick Mayall? [/quote] Honestly, you'd think [i]Devil Woman [/i]had never been written!

Join Cherry White as they celebrate their 200th show with an appearance at the world famous 100 Club on Oxford Street: [b]Tuesday 25th October -- doors open 7.15pm -- tickets £11 adv or £13 on the door[/b] Solid Entertainments presents Cherry White, Linda Em and the Tom Ivey Band. Linda Em: [url="http://lindaem.co.uk/"]http://lindaem.co.uk/[/url] "Folk with a spoonful of Blues and a dollop of Celtic storytelling" Tom Ivey Band: [url="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftomivey.com%2F&h=EAQFOvWVt&enc=AZOCbVuu9bhJTV4ImUnzOZsVpldShY9YYvHPMmauOT3s8hFbER_Ke6aA9QmKHbUWy10&s=1"]http://tomivey.com/[/url] "Influenced by a diverse range of music that includes Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Little Feat, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin - Tom blends together his own eclectic brand of electric funk and blues." Cherry White: [url="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fcherrywhitemusic.com%2F&h=8AQELxR7W&enc=AZMLIA60BTRW0COwP9yxE5qUDRnv94K4Fzc1w2LY4zYR-lJn6NSBht-lRP13zs0dxE8&s=1"]http://cherrywhitemusic.com/[/url] "The elegant sound of contemporary rock, steeped in the blues and fed on humanity's ills." Tickets are available from our website, at [url="https://cherrywhite.bandcamp.com/merch/tickets-the-100-club-25th-october-2016"]https://cherrywhite....th-october-2016[/url] And any Facebook types can keep track of the event at [url="https://www.facebook.com/events/1051814594910059/"]https://www.facebook...51814594910059/[/url]

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1473161942' post='3127493'] Certainly. However, people come to see a band, not necessarily to listen to a band. [/quote] Absolutely - at the risk of being a little [i]too[/i] reductionist about it: why book a covers band when you could just let punter cue the music they want to hear on the jukebox all night? Simple answer is that a covers band worth their salt will create an atmosphere that piped music demonstrably can't. Even with an original artist playing something incredibly twiddly and technical, there will be some innate fascination in watching them execute these feats of noodly technicality, and so if you have to choose between two such groups, then the group who can apply a little more showmanship to their technoodlesome execution is more likely to be the one that gets your ticket money. (Though conversely, I often wonder if the one thing worse than a shy band is a band that's too arrogant and just gets on the crowd's nerves. Is a hostile atmosphere worse than no atmosphere?)

Currently my amp setup is entirely made up of second-hand stuff from this very parish! These days I drive Chris B's old Bergantino 2x12 with (one of) Merton's old Ashdown CTM-100s (I believe he's acquired at least one more since...) - the only thing I bought new was the speaker cable! The pedals I bought new - partly because Ibanez Bass Tubescreamers and the Korg Pitchblack+ don't crop up very often secondhand. I also received a Bass Big Muff as a very generous gift from a very kind friend, which confused the security staff no end at Berlin Schonefeld until I remembered how to say "ja, ich spiele gitarre." The Korg PB+ is the combined tuner and A/B switch, which I bought because most Cherry White gigs these days require me to alternate between 4-string and 8-string.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1473082271' post='3126677'] No no no, he wants to know how tall they all were ... [/quote] Can we keep the poll open until I've booked an in-store gig in a Dutch branch of [i]High and Mighty[/i]?

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1473012343' post='3126047'] The neck pickup on a Rickenbacker is in basically the same location as that of a Gibson EB-0 - EB-3 bass. The classic Rickenbacker tone (Squire [i]et al[/i]) comes from having a reasonably low output single coil pickup in that location and another in the same position as a P bass pickup, as per the picture above. [/quote] Another thanks for that one - very interesting, and I'd often wondered whether the Ric "bridge" pickup was in roughly the same position as the pickup on a Precision, so thanks for confirming that! Does make me wonder why more people haven't built Precision-style basses with an extra pickup next to the neck.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1473076893' post='3126590'] As I said in my very brief previous post I think a lot of the "blame" unfortunately lies with the attitude of Leicester audiences towards out of town bands. ... So sorry Leicester, but on the strength of my experiences you are a sh*t audience for lesser-known bands. [/quote] Thanks for elaborating on that one. I'd been hoping to drag Cherry White back up to the East Mids in the near future, but based on your experience I might give Leicester a miss and focus our efforts more on Derby and Notts. Useful to be able to find these things out in advance!

In terms of audience size and amount of publicity, then the Planet Rockstock set last year was probably my peak with Cherry White. I've checked the second option as I reckon there were over 100 people in the room that Sunday morning, but probably no more than 150. For sheer audience size I reckon it's vying with Togfest 2014 and however many people were trying to cram into the Red Lion in Dereham earlier this year...and then possibly beaten by the short sets we played at the Covent Garden Arts Theatre, which book-ended a comedy night.

From a public point of view, I don't know if there's ever been one - your average punter is oblivious to "the guy/gal playing that other guitar." But from our own strange, insular point of view, I'm inclined to agree with those who say we're living through it now. I'm not sure when it began, but I certainly think it's still ongoing - there are some people out there doing fantastic things with bass guitars (and indeed upright basses), whether it's straightforward virtuosos spanning the spectrum from Wooten to Sheehan, or people like Steve Lawson combining their bass with electronic trickery to create vast, colourful soundscapes by themselves. We also have growing numbers of companies who make basses, bass amplication or bass effects almost exclusively, and examples like Ashdown demonstrate that this isn't restricted to the top-end, boutique corner of the market. Plus, modern bass luthiers are arguably quite a bit a more adventurous with their designs that modern guitar luthiers - sure, extended-range, active, headless, fretless, and other exotic guitars exist, but I feel like their uptake hasn't been as widespread as the variants on a "standard" bass guitar design. It's increasingly hard for your lead guitarist to dismiss the bass as "the easy guitar with four strings" when you can now quite easily buy a bass that has more strings than his Strat or Les Paul! It's a good time to be a bassist.

Yep, colour me interested as well!