Misdee

Okay, thanks for putting me straight. I'll submit to your jurisdiction in future, then.

So what?

This is exactly the kind of self-righteous indignation I'm talking about. So now the benchmark of racism is non-adherence to the doctrine of the Guardian newspaper.. It's not within your gift to decide on my behalf what is and what isn't racist. I'll make my own mind up, thank you very much. I'm perfectly capable of doing so. And if I did enjoy the company of people who didn't fulfil your expectations of what's acceptable, it really wouldnt be any of your business. Moreover, you do me a great disservice in implying that by associating with people who have whatever opinions that I would be endorsing those views or be susceptible to them.

I've got a Stingray Special four string and it's by far the best Stingray I've had the good fortune to have known. The Specials have their own flavour of Stingray tone and I really like it. The new neodymium pickups and redesigned preamp are incredibly punchy. The whole package is well thought-out and ergonomic. Nicely built, too. Enjoy your new bass.👍🙂

Yes they did.

You are, apparently, unable to differentiate between irony,satire and sarcasm. You need to go back and read the thread. Other posters referenced shouting at asylum hotels ect. as a benchmark of the unacceptable.That's why I mentioned it. FWIW, I'm not having a go at you. I don't know why you would think I was. I think you are posing a very interesting question. I'm trying to give you a nuanced answer, i.e it's not someone's opinions so much as how stupid or smart, charmless or charming the person expressing them is whether I could play in a band with them. So if it was Morrissey I could put up with a lot. If it was Jim Davidson, less so.

You can post whatever you like. Others can respond. Have a lot of people out there had a problem with band mates joining the throng outside asylum hotels with the aim of intimidating the residents? Has anyone, and what if they did? But at least now we know we have a prescribed position on this matter.

The point is that certain issues have a profile in certain people's imagination that is disproportionate to their actual incidence.

Is musicians shouting abuse at asylum hotels a thing nowadays? Is it a problem many of you are actually encountering? I expect not. But at least now we know that you're against that kind of thing. Were I a recently-arrived Albanian or Afghan youth anxious to be granted Leave To Remain just knowing that the amateur bass players of Britain were,by and large, on my side would,no doubt, be a source of great comfort. Maybe someone on Basschat could come up with a funky little ditty, preferably without any slapping in it though,(too aggressive, might trigger PTSD ect) we could somehow send to these poor souls. They could listen to it to drown out the sound of the lynch mob outside.

There's a certain conceit in those who want to decide on everyone's behalf what is acceptable and what isn't. (Guardian readers take note). I'd find it hard to spend a lot of time playing music with people who weren't able to tolerate my intolerance. What I find more disturbing than anyone's supposedly extreme views is the assumption by many people that benevolence and being "open-minded" is synonymous with permissiveness, letting people say, do and act as they want uncontested. Extremism and "bigotry" is then defined as anyone who doesn't concur with certain groups of people in society's idea of themselves, or anything that challenges and questions those ideas.

I don't think it's someone's views so much as how well they are able to express those views and explain them. I wouldn't dismiss someone for having opinions and a view of the world radically different to my own if they had a persuasive or coherent explanation of why they were that way. It just depends what they have to say and how convincingly they say it. That's what you'll be stuck in a transit van with. The bigger question is who gets to arbitrate which views are extreme? We live in a world full of extremities, and all too often the most powerful get to define their opponents as extremists as a way of undermining the truth. Besides which, are extreme views necessarily wrong? Your liberal views on certain subjects are considered extreme by a lot of people. It's all about context. Beyond all of that though, the older I get the more reluctant I am to condemn people for what they believe. I've come to realise that we all believe all sorts of crap at one time or another, mainly as a way of getting through life's difficulties. People who believe in the most unpalatable ideas are often the most vulnerable or most damaged in one way or another. If you like and/,or respect someone, you can easily be in a band with them even if you have differing views on things. If you don't like or tespect them, it doesn't really matter if they agree with you on everything

I've got a USA Lakland passive PJ with a Jazz Bass neck on it and it's a superb instrument in every way. Sounds great, plays great, feels great. The neck profile is sublime. If you trawl the internet you might find a used one within your budget.

I remember when no one used flats, back in the '80's and early '90's. At that time flatwound bass strings were something they had in the old days, like rickets and diphtheria. Definitely to be avoided. It all changed with PIno and that Voodoo album. Nowadays everybody has to have a Precision with flats on. It's become yet another bass playing tyranny. When I finally got some TI flats about ten years ago it was a revelation how much fun they were to play and how I could now accurately emulate bass parts I'd been playing right but that didn't sound like the original. More than anything, the different attack and decay you get on flats compared to roundwounds made all the difference.

I can't entertain the idea of buying a bass with blocks but without binding. It aught to be illegal.

You've also got to bear in mind, modern amps and cabs can make any bass with flats sound different to the olden days when valves and boomy cabs were the only option. There's an awful lot of hi-fi bass rigs about nowadays that can give a much more precise and detailed version of the flatwounds sound. That clarity, power and punch can negate some of the reasons why bassists ditched those strings in favour of roundwounds.

I've got a Fender AVRI 74 Jazz Bass with TI flats on and it's a lot of fun. Great for reggae and also '70's funk stuff. Also a great combination for using a pick with to get that clicky old-school sound. I actually prefer that bass to a Jazz with roundwounds nowadays.

It's quite a while since I was last in Nashville but I remember talking to a bass player who told me was getting 20 dollars a set on Broadway, three sets a day. The bandleader kept the tips. He asked me if he'd do better in London. I told him yes and no; you'll get more than that for a set but you won't play three sets a day.

Could have been worse. At least you didn't nearly drive off with Kiera Kenworthy. Kidnapping is a serious offence which people generally take a pretty dim view of nowadays

Never underestimate the power of suggestion. It's known as positive association advertising. It really works. I strongly suspect that what PIno is looking for from these strings is not so much a new sound but more a financially-secure future. That's not to say that they aren't a really great set of strings- I'm gonna buy a set to see what they're like now I've read a few user reviews- but if they didn't exist we wouldn't be missing them, if you see what I mean. There was already enough strings like these Any signature models I've ever owned were incidental to their artist. I used to have a custom Jaydee Mark King and the last thing I wanted was to sound like Mark King. I wanted to sound like Alembic-era John Entwistle but I couldn't afford an Alembic. However, if there was a signature bass for an artist that really didn't appeal to me and was cognitively dissonant to my own self-image for whatever reason I might well not buy it even if the instrument suited me.

My brother likes his Italian food and he says it was a different class, especially compared to the previous works outing they had at one of Jamie Oliver's establishments, where they overpaid for small portions of very mediocre food and most folks stopped off for chips on the way home because they were still hungry.

For me, Thin Lizzy were one of the best bands of all-time. Phil Lynott was an extroadinary talent; singer, songwriter,frontman and teriffic bass player. The complete package.

My brother used to work in Whitchurch, round the corner from that restaurant. Apparently it's got a really excellent reputation in Cardiff.

Folks on Basschat seem to be baulking at the prospect of paying ninety quid for a set of Pino's signature strings, let alone a few grand for the bass. Like I said a while ago, three and a half grand for the standard version actually seems pretty reasonable to me considering what other EBMM basses cost nowadays. My concern would be how many enthusiastic amateurs with a few quid in their pockets are going to get carried away listening to vintage Pino from back in the '80's and buy the unlined fretless and then have it dawn on them how hard it is to actually play it in tune convincingly. It's easy to watch PIno play the bass be so beguiled by his effortless brilliance that you start to think it's achievable for mere mortals. Buying one of these basses could give some folks a rude awakening especially if they try it out on a gig. Back at the height of the fretless fad in the ,1980's I remember witnessing some shocking live performances from bass players who's enthusiasm outstripped their ability to play in tune.

It's a big bad world out there. Let the buyer beware.