EliasMooseblaster

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1424267740' post='2694536'] Far canal, Ralph, you play like that and you're doing it the wrong way round too? Respect! [/quote] [quote name='KevB' timestamp='1424269335' post='2694550'] There was a poll a year or two back, there's actually a decent number of us on the forum that are naturally left handed but play right handed (including me). [/quote] Having given this one quite a bit of thought over the years - and discussed it with BlueJay, who of course does left-handedness 'properly' - I almost wonder whether it makes more sense: by playing a right-handed bass, my (dominant) left hand is in charge of the fingerboard, where I'd argue most of the complicated stuff takes place! The catch - and there's always one, isn't there? - is that you might well want your dominant hand fingering/picking the strings, for its greater sensitivity. I suspect learning keys for a couple of years before I started the bass was probably crucial in building up the dexterity in my right hand.

Hope you're feeling alright post-hospital; I'm sure it will be good to catch up on that sleep over the next three weeks! Still, oddly enough, I'm going in the opposite direction to you! I'd got to the stage where, having got most of the albums I wanted on CD (including using trips to Brussels as a chance to track down Hooverphonic albums), I was going to have to accept downloaded .mp3s as my future medium of choice, as most of the new artists I was discovering were small, independent and often in different countries. All well and good...until a good friend told me he was looking to flog his amp/speaker system, and Ms Mooseblaster bought me a vinyl LP for my last birthday. So very soon, I'll be moving (partially) onto a nice amp/speaker system, with a nice CD player (I've had to play my CDs on the computer for the last few years) and a turntable. In anticipation of this, I've gathered a few LPs that I'm looking forward to playing. Will I be able to hear and appreciate the difference (especially after years of abusing my ears in loud bands)? Watch this space and I shall report back as soon everything has come together!

One day, when I was about 13, maybe 14, it just seemed like there had been some overnight transformation, and all the other boys at my school suddenly owned and could play electric guitars. I had obviously missed the memo about this during my keyboard lessons. Like many boys of that age, I was partial to a bit of Rock and/or Roll, and so naturally thought that playing the electric guitar might[s] make girls notice me [/s]be a sensible choice. I tried my friend's guitar and - curse my clumsy, elephantine hands! - everything was too small, cramped and fiddly. I would never be able to play the electric guitar. I retreated to my dark cave and pondered my response to this devastating setback. [i]Wait! [/i]I thought, [i]They make these guitars in a bass variety as well, in which everything is bigger and further apart, and there are only four strings to worry about! Better still, if all the other lads are playing guitar, I shall stand out by being one of the few bass players in this small and limited community.[/i] Truth be told, I didn't even understand what bassists really "did" with their instrument. My hero at the time was Ray Manzarek. Undeterred, I found the best value bass I could find in the local music shops (a Squier Bronco), promptly forgetting that I was left-handed, and resolved that I would master this mysterious instrument. I was so serious I even bought a book about it. Then I started listening to The Who. Suddenly my goal was obvious.

Last I heard, Ricky was having to make some extra money on the side providing a voice for those in-car Sat-navs... [size=2](..."I predict a right, I predict a right.")...[/size] [size=2].../gets coat[/size]

[quote name='anaxcrosswords' timestamp='1423921509' post='2690384'] That has to be one of the universal pet hates of musicians, when someone comes up to you (often while you’re playing – even worse) to ask if you can play a particular song. As if you have the world's entire back catalogue of music to pick from, unrehearsed. The ‘people coming up to you onstage’ thing just reminded me of a cracker from late last year when we did a 70s theme night. We included an ABBA number – at the end of it a woman came up to our vocalist and shouted “I hate ABBA!!” [/quote] What can you say to that, apart from "Good for you."?

I've just bought Martin's CTM-100, and may I just say, what a gentleman. Let me come down to his place to try the amp, and then not only arranged for it to be couriered to our studio, but then gave Nightfreight an earful for me when they ballsed up the delivery. A pleasure to do business with.

A little bootleg footage has emerged from the Derby gig on the 6th Feb - anyone else remember this '90s classic? http://youtu.be/PmviL-l6aYo

As somebody who finished a similar eBay Bitsa project last year, I say: good on you, and good luck! Looking forward to seeing the results.

Cheers, Lozz, we're definitely looking forward to it! And, as timmo has just pointed it out to me, it is, in fact, the night before LBGS. So I presume a lot of you will be in the area...if you're at a loose end the night before then come and enjoy some live music!

Cherry White's first London date of the year: we'll be playing up in Islington with touring Italian Desert Grunge band V-Device, and London-based power trio The Cortege. Come and watch us try to crowbar our blues-rock into that mix! [url="http://www.v-device.com/"]www.v-device.com[/url] [url="http://www.thecortege.com/"]www.thecortege.com[/url] [url="http://www.cherrywhitemusic.com/"]www.cherrywhitemusic.com[/url] The Hope & Anchor, Friday 6th March Doors at 8, entry £5.

Perhaps the best course of action for all concerned in this sorry debacle is for them all to sit down and re-watch the South Park episode "Fishsticks."

The first image to emerge of Cherry White MkIII on stage: [b]Feb 6th 2015 at the Victoria Inn, Derby.[/b] This photo was taken by one of the members of Parasight, with whom we shared the bill, along with Grawl!x and Thunderous Jones. A bloody cold venue, but some really excellent music. [attachment=183141:courtesyParasight.jpg]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1423129203' post='2681014'] But this still has the potential for good to come out of bad. GC will fail, drag down Fender, who will be sold, re emerging [b]without Bono [/b][s] with new owners, minus the debt, with a greatly reduced catalogue, realistic sales totals (no one can sell 3 to 4 hundred thousand instruments a year any more) and a focus on the customer and quality.[/s] [/quote] (...unless, of course, he's planning to stage some enormous charity benefit with Bob Geldof to help keep Fender afloat.)

Part of me thinks I'd probably change them more regularly if I could afford to (it is widely said that The Ox used to change them daily when touring, and he is my main source of inspiration, after all), and I've got a few packs of Roto Swing Bass Nickels waiting for when we go into the studio next month. I've stopped bothering so much for gigs, partly for expense, partly because the only person that really notices the difference is me, and partly because I normally play a T-bird or an EB3 with Cherry White, and the darker, thicker sound of those big humbuckers tends to cover up the loss of "sproing" quite well. This is especially true when I'm playing through a shared bass amp that I'm not familiar with anyway! My main conundrum is whether to get yet another fresh 8-string set for the studio, having only put new ones on last week. They ain't cheap, or easy to come by, and the 8-string's only going to be used on one song...but then we will be rehearsing quite a lot between now and mid-March, and I would rather like to give the little bugger a bit of a setup in the meantime.

Thank you very kindly Jack! One last bump to bring this to the attention of anybody who's looking for something to do in Derbyshire tonight...

Funny you should mention the MIM / MIA comparison, as I bought a Schecter Model T (also Diamond Series) after trying one and deciding it was a good step between the two. Of course I'm talking about a passive, slab-bodied 4, and you're after an active 5, but I'm sure if you try one you'll find they're excellent instruments and a joy to play.

Sorry to keep you waiting, folks - I think I am now finally up-to-date. The new job doesn't like me spending a lot of time on FB, so I've finally had a chance today whilst at home malingering! Thank you all very kindly for the influx of "likes" so far! https://www.facebook.com/cherrywhitemusic

Just a quick [i]bump [/i]as it's this Friday!

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1422860111' post='2677540'] 'You aren't tall enough to play bass.' [/quote] It wasn't at a gig, but a similar one I once had was [b]"You can't be the bassist, you aren't fat."[/b] (I seem to remember that this was during that brief period when "Nu" Metal was popular, and the bassists in many such bands seemed to be the more corpulent ones with terrible neckbeards...)

[quote name='Moos3h' timestamp='1422788201' post='2676688'] I call shill bidding. Those things sell day-in, day-out for around £100-150 max. [b]Either that, or when the buyer sobers up, they are in for a shock![/b] [/quote] I do know a young gentleman who spent a not-inconsiderable sum of money on Bruce Springsteen tickets while Brahms & Lizst. To make matters worse, he'd booked them for a gig on the opposite side of the Atlantic. So I could believe that some of these bids were made by a person whose levels of nostalgia were similar to those of AM, but whose blood-alcohol was considerably higher!

Smile politely. I'm very much in the John Entwistle school of stage presence (which, I hasten to add, is subtly different from the Bill Wyman school)

[quote name='rOB' timestamp='1422390154' post='2672148'] Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed that. [/quote] My pleasure - glad you enjoyed it!

Hi Adrian, thanks for replying - I've been asked to keep the info fairly quiet, so I'll send you the details in a PM!

Certailnly wouldn't say no to a few more people following [b]Cherry White's [/b]page, which you can find here: https://www.facebook.com/cherrywhitemusic I shall try and work my way down the list very shortly!