
Misdee
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Everything posted by Misdee
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So if you're British, buy yourself a proper USA-made Bongo and cheer up, things could be worse!🙂
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Most British people don't realise things like that if you call an ambulance in the USA, it can cost thousands of dollars. Most Americans wouldn't call an ambulance unless someone was literally dying in front of them, no exaggeration. Plenty of people die for exactly that reason. And as for prescribed drugs, describe to the average American the system we have here with NHS prescription charges and exemptions ect and they literally won't believe you. For lots of my friends over there who are about the same age as me, helping their elderly parents pay for medicines is an ongoing expense and major worry. By way of contrast,here in the UK the NHS will send an ambulance with a lovely helpful crew to pick up your elderly and frail parent and take them to a hospital appointment if necessary. That's unthinkable in America unless you're rich. In the U.K doctors will prescribe whatever is appropriate and even have it delivered to the elderly patients home free of charge. In America pensioners go on bus trips to Canada and Mexico to buy cheaper drugs and bring them back across the border because of the inflated prices of most medications in the USA.
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This all relates to buying bass equipment, because in America the sticker price may be less on some gear, but you have to factor in the wider lifestyle you would be living in a completely different society. Would you be reckless enough to spend a substantial portion of your savings on bass-related purchases if you and your family didn't have the kind of safety net we enjoy in the U.K? Would you be able to enjoy what you bought? When I first moved to the States and got my own place to live I was having the time of my life. The only problem was I kept getting charged for everything by everybody at every opportunity. Phone company, utilities, building maintenance, college tuition, medical, dental ect. And if you don't pay them they don't deal with excuses, they just cut you off and /or sue you for payment. America hadn't got the memo that I was only there to enjoy myself. They treated me like a regular person, not the carefree celebrity I really was . It was one of the most salutary lessons of my adult life. I still find it hard to forgive them.
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Medical costs in the USA are the most frightening thing to me, and many/most Americans.. Unless you are properly rich, you can easily reach the limitations of even the most comprehensive medical insurance, as I'm sure you're well aware, Russ. Brits have never heard the term "co-pay" when they go to the doctors, but every American has. That's all money that won't be available for buying basses ect. We've been spoiled in the U.K by the NHS and the welfare state ect and we take it all for granted. In America it's a much harsher reality for most people. The high cost of living in the States nowadays is hard for me to get my head around, because in the 1980's when I first went it was shocking how much cheaper everyday items were. Groceries, eating out, CDs, clothes ect were much less expensive than in Britain. It was El Dorado. Now they want to charge you just for entering the country and everyone is obsessed with the price of eggs. I remember when if you were British they wanted to give you stuff for free. Life in America seems to have got meaner, in every sense.
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Take it from me, we have it easy in the U.K compared to the U.S.A ( for now, anyway...). Relative prices is a very complex equation, of which the exchange rate is only one factor. Let me put it this way, if you are living in the U.K and struggling to afford a bass, chances are if you had the equivalent life in America you would struggle even more. It's an unforgiving place with some very harsh realities when it comes to money, especially if you don't have much.
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That's a stunning bass. I bet it sounds as good as it looks, too I've wanted one of these Roscoe basses since I first saw them in the mid-1990's. Such an elegant design with an unapologetically modern tone. Regarding the string spacing, I've got 18 mm and 19 mm spacing examples and I can't get used to either. If it's not like a Fender 4 string it feels wrong to me, so subsequently I can live with either spacing, if that makes sense. It's a five string, it's meant to feel weird.
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Regarding the pricing if USA EBMM basses v the import ranges ect, it's a complicated situation. So much is about marketing rather than what you are actually getting for your money. Manufacturers are becoming more aware that part of what gives their instruments value in the minds of their potential customers is charging a high price for them. Putting up the price can actually attract punters to buy your goods because of the new way they perceive them. It's all about how you present the package. EBMM tweaked the Stingray into being the Stingray Special and simultaneously put about another 30-odd percent on the price. They wanted to start putting their USA-made instruments in a different marketplace and the redesign gave them the perfect excuse.
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Fair enough. All I can say is that ceramic magnets certainly wouldn't put me off any bass in any price range. The think about ceramic pickups, like any other pickup, is the magnet is only part of the equation. The wire, bobbins and shielding can also influence the tone. I've got an EBMM Reflex bass that has ceramic magnets like a USA Sterling with Stingray wire wound on Bongo bobbins going into a tweaked Bongo preamp that's switchable between series/ parallel and active/passive. Not surprisingly, it sounds unique.
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There's nothing at all wrong with ceramic pickups, but in this instance the point is that neodymium pickups are the essence of the Bongo's unique tone. It was the first EBMM bass to feature those magnets, and was probably one of the first basses anywhere with that type of pickup. Allied to that four band preamp, those pickups give the Bongo it's incredibly powerful output and tone. Without that formula you are may well be left with just a funny-shaped bass that ain't that cheap. I love the Bongo, always have done. At these prices, like others have suggested, I'd look out for a used USA one.
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NBD: Rare MIJ Late 60s Traditional II Jazz w/ Matching Headstock
Misdee replied to wateroftyne's topic in Bass Guitars
It's the custom order business why so few examples exist. You had to physically go to your local guitar shop, order the bass from a paper catalogue, then wait forever with no news of when it was arriving. The old days, before the internet. Funnily enough, I saw some archive footage from the late 1960's on t.v recently, Johnny Cash or someone of that ilk, can't remember who, and the bass player had exactly this bass. It was colour footage from American t.v and the bass looked brand new and stunning. I noticed it because I've got a similar- looking black Fender 74 AVRI Jazz Bass but without the matching headstock. -
NBD: Rare MIJ Late 60s Traditional II Jazz w/ Matching Headstock
Misdee replied to wateroftyne's topic in Bass Guitars
What a lovely bass. In the late 1960's black was a custom order colour option for Fenders, as was the matching headstock. The original bass that inspired this reissue would have been a spare-no-expense flagship example at the time. -
That's a truly stunning-looking bass, and I'm glad to hear the sound does it justice.
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Rob Mullarkey - my absolute favourite bass player ever.
Misdee replied to musicbassman's topic in General Discussion
Rob's playing on that track is what in the world of fashion would be called "bang on trend", i.e he's epitomising everything that is considered necessary, appropriate and desirable according to current tastes in bass guitar. And of course, he's using an old P Bass with flats. Nothing wrong with any of that, and he does it all so well. Surely one of the best bass players in Britain nowadays. I think he's great. -
Did you get a tax-free export price from the Japanese retailer, may I ask? I'd be very interested to hear your opinion of how good the new HAZ- inspired Legacy preamp is, as well as your impressions of the bass overall. For if there's someone qualified to give an informed opinion on Spector basses, it is you!🙂
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I think all of the Black Sabbath members have had something of a reinvention in recent times. If the stark reality of their hedonistic exploits in their heyday was laid bare and judged by the morality of the present day, I think they wouldn't be so accepted by the mainstream. I've said this before but it's a bit surreal to me as someone who's been a Sabbath fan since the 1970's to see how they've become part of the establishment and are now (rightly) seen as one of Britain's greatest cultural exports. It was unthinkable forty years ago that Ozzy's eventual death would garner such blanket media coverage and widespread public displays of grief. Sabbath used to be wild, inaccessible and mysterious. I preferred it that way. It's all getting a bit much. I suppose that in later life Ozzy was as much a raconteur as he was a musician and that's what people will miss.
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Ernie Ball Pino Palladino flatwounds - £90 a set
Misdee replied to kevin_lindsay's topic in General Discussion
l cannot help but think that PIno might have done some endorsements at this late stage in his career because he has one eye on retirement, or at least cutting back a bit. He's never really put his name to anything much before, and he could have done deals with any company in the world. It's the same with Geddy Lee and Geezer Butler. They never did endorsements until the later stages of their career. It's not just a coincidence. Getting paid a percentage on sales of your signature models can be a nice little earner that requires relatively little effort on the part of the artist. I think they call it "passive income". -
Ernie Ball Pino Palladino flatwounds - £90 a set
Misdee replied to kevin_lindsay's topic in General Discussion
He used Thomastik and La Bella. I've listened to a few demos of these strings on YouTube now that they are in the hands of mere mortals. They sound really good, a lot closer to the sound of Thomastiks than the more muted traditional La Bella tone. The Pino strings seem to have a nice meaty sound, for sure, but on what I've heard so far I can't say they sound any better than TI's or La Bella, both of which cost significantly less. FWIW, just about the best flats I've tried at any price are the Dunlops. In terms of tone, they're the perfect blend of the thump of La Bella's and the articulate sound of the TI's. Not cheap at £80 for a four string set but definitely worth investigating if you're in the market for these EB PIno strings. -
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Back in his heyday Ozzy would have got up to some kind of dubious shenanigans with those chimpanzees. It would have been too good and opportunity to miss.They should count themselves very lucky.
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In terms of the music, my favourite Sabbath was definitely the Dio era too, saw them live ect, but Ozzy was a personality cult all of his own, even back then. I agree that if Sabbath had changed their name at that point then maybe people would have more readily acknowledged what great music they were turning out in their own right. I saw Ozzy with Randy Rhodes on the first Blizzard Of Oz tour in 1980. It was pretty good but not great, just another routine gig on a Monday night in the provinces for Ozzy. I waited at the stage door afterwards to get my programme signed but Ozzy looking a bit dazed and glazed-over, wasn't very approachable. Sharon accompanied him straight across the car park to the hotel next door. A few minutes later you could see him through the window having a drink in the bar with Budgie, the support band. Probably just a quick nightcap and then straight to bed.
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Rick Parfitt is looking a bit peaky at the back there. Who the chap throwing up the devils horns is I have no idea, but he looks more like our old milkman Dave than he does Ronnie Dio, that's for sure Can't see Ozzy being that enthusiastic about an embrace with Freddie Mercury either, but that's another story ...
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For me the standout Ozzy performance is War Pigs on the Paranoid album. I can still remember the first time I ever heard that song on my record player when I was ten years old. My nephew bought that album on vinyl recently and he's thirteen. That's a time gap of going on for fifty years and he's into Sabbath just like I was. Black Sabbath are still the best to ever do that style of music. No one can get near them, even after all that time. Ozzy might (quite understandably) have been a bit shaky at the final gig but the rest of them were still a formidable unit. As far as I'm concerned they are one of Britain's greatest ever exports and something to be proud of.
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As so often happens with high-profile people perceived by the wider public as hedonists, effectively Ozzy became a stuntman for excess and intoxication. I think a lot of the shock about his passing is based on the common assumption that, despite his obvious frailty, he was more robust than ordinary mortal men. By the time of his death Ozzy and Sabbath were household names and fully embraced by the mainstream media, but I remember when Ozzy and Sabbath were a cult band and hardly ever featured on TV ect in Britain. That was the real Black Sabbath and the source of their legend. In an age where rock stars could get away with behaving badly, Sabbath were a bit more dangerous than most, albeit that they were mostly dangerous to themselves. Never mind The Osbournes, I wish someone had made a reality show about Ozzy's life back in those days. It would've been the most interesting documentary ever.
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Wow, only just seen this on the news. I'm shocked and I don't know why because he's obviously been very unwell for some time. Puts a different perspective on things if he knew he was getting close to the end. No exaggeration to say that Ozzy and Sabbath were a big part of my life and my imagination going back to when I was a kid in the 1970's. Ozzy was a cult icon even back then, before the rest of the world joined in. It's the end of an era, but his legend will only grow. Sabbath's music has already stood the test of time, and I have no doubt people will still be listening to them a hundred years from now. A one-off original, the genuine article. Rest in peace Ozzy.
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I would have to say accordion, on the basis that to my ears any accordion is too much so a lot of accordion is unspeakable.