Happy Jack

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1428665040' post='2743526'] ... but since I can make a case for needing them, that isn't GAS. [/quote] Bwahahahahahahahahaha!!! I'm making a note of that line. I may be using it ...

Do both?

I thought I had GAS but it turned out to be photo-chemical smog.

[quote name='tom1946' timestamp='1428472479' post='2741513'] I think you've said this before young man and my reply is the same. I have a condition that no amount of exercise or books is going to fix so a light bass is the only way that I can carry on playing. I appreciate you are all trying to help but for reasons that I'm not going into on a public forum what you suggest won't hack it for me. thanks and no offence meant [/quote] [/Evangelical]

All agreed and understood, but why buy a diamond ring when most people will be fooled by cubic zirconium? Why wear a silk tie when polyester looks just as good? If you do what you do in order to satisfy / impress / fool other people, then that's one thing. If you do what you do because you are you and you know the difference it makes, then that's a very different thing. I like nice cars but I don't like wasting money, so I buy pre-loved high-mileage BMW 5-series. I know plenty of people who will happily spend £50k on (more or less) the same car that cost me £5k. They don't see that as "wasting money" ... that's [u][b]my [/b][/u]view. Those of them who know what it has cost me to amass my collection of basses find my behaviour simply extraordinary. That's [u][b]their [/b][/u]view. Incidentally, it has cost me less to amass that collection than people like that spend on a single car. Which of course they sell after three years. There is no value judgment here. That's the whole point. People do what people do.

Glad to hear that you have your GAS sorted, but what about your back? Sounds to me like you would benefit from doing something about your back problem rather than simply buying a lighter bass. Just saying ...

Hmmmm ... perhaps if I added a rectifier ... [URL=http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/media/Just%20Stuff/Sundry/Valve_zps329a2c58.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/h4ppyjack/Just%20Stuff/Sundry/Valve_zps329a2c58.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1428415633' post='2741061'] That's good to know because I like the look of 'em! Any further comments, Jack? [/quote] Hmmmm ... tricky. Those four photos show me playing roughly £10k-worth of basses, so we're into pretty rarified atmosphere. None of them were ever going to be less than excellent. There's no point in me banging on about build quality (all excellent) or choice of materials (all excellent) or ... etc. etc. etc. With the two Precisions, we're getting dangerously close to: "[i]So which of these two vanilla flavours did you prefer? And why?[/i]" They both felt exactly as a P should feel. The LaBella (not actually made by them, as I understand it) looks absolutely gorgeous, a brand-new and shiny version of my '66 Fender, but then I'm a sucker for CAR and I've never been that big on LPB or whatever that Lakin is. The LaBella was noticeably heavier, which of course I really don't like, but we're still talking in the region of 9-10lbs so hardly a real back-breaker. Mark tends to keep all his basses with a "medium" set-up. I prefer a high action because I like to dig in when I get excited ([i]trans. I'm a clumsy player[/i]) but since both the P's in these photos were the same that hardly makes a difference. Ultimately it came down to the sound. The LaBella was seriously in your face, sounding (to my ears) very harsh and trebly, the rounds being very raspy under the fingers, and the frets clanking at the slightest provocation; it was all just too damned bright, and bringing out a pick only made it much worse of course. The Lakin simply nailed the sound in my head. I still don't tend to like rounds on a P but the sound was more mellow, perhaps more 'vintage'. The tone pot also seemed to respond better, allowing a more nuanced roll-off. Reading that back it does sound precious verging on pretentious, but then I'm now dancing about architecture.

[quote name='Machines' timestamp='1428410349' post='2740994'] Great pics, I just happened to be there on the day as the others and recognised Bluejay . [/quote] It's alright Matt, you're amongst friends here ... Biggest surprise for me was playing the LaBella and the Lakin back-to-back. In the photos they're both Precisions, and a Precision is a Precision, right? Not a bit of it. I mean, not even slightly . I expected to love the LaBella (I really love LaBella FL strings and have them on several basses) but I really hated it. The Lakin on the other hand just effortlessly pushed all the right buttons. Mark reckoned that my bull-in-a-china-shop approach to playing* meant that I had a complete mis-match with the Aquilar pickups on the LaBella, and I reckon he was spot on with that. * [i]Mark was slightly more polite than this. But only slightly. [/i]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]"[i]The twisty-fanned-fretty wotsity thingummy[/i]" was in fact a [b]Torzal Twist[/b] by Little Guitar Works.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]As you'd expect with something so bizarre-looking, you can in fact play it without hesitation so long as you don't keep looking for it to be 'weird'. If you simply pick it up and play it as a bass, it works just fine.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]The ergonomic thang is definitely there and you can feel how it reduces the twisting in your fretting hand when you play it.[/font][/color]

Yesterday afternoon I was A/B-ing a Matamp GT100 head (old school, all valve, 100W) against a Demeter VTBP-201S preamp into a big (1000W) Digam Powersoft unit. Same bass, same cab, same fingers, everything set more-or-less flat. As you'd expect, both rigs sounded great. But the Matamp sounded indefinably better, it filled the room better with lush bass, my ears (and not just mine) felt better for it. Was it warm? Did it have heft? Dunno. But I know which rig I take to gigs ...

Yeh, noticed the load-in. You should have seen the drummer's traps case. A large open wooden box (no lid) which must have weighed 20lbs on its own! Manoeuvring that through the strange double-doorway thing must have been a nightmare.

I find myself wondering how much Fodera would have had to pay in advertising and PR to attract this amount of coverage, discussion, and controversy. So by making a 'special' version of one of their standard basses and putting a slightly silly pricetag on it, they've managed to hook a well-known bass mag plus the largest bass-related website outside America. And for no money at all. These guys aren't stupid, y'know. As to the high cost of their New York operation, their workshop is in the equivalent of a run-down part of London's Docklands. We're not talking Manhattan here, and the place itself is absolutely not glitz & glamour ... check out Bluejay's blog from last year. Compared to a cup of coffee, an entry-level Chinese-made bass, or a carbon-fibre bicycle, that Fodera pricetag is huge. Compared to a university education, a high-end car, or a flat in London, that Fodera pricetag is trivial. Which end of the telescope do you want to look through?

http://www.diago.co.uk/pedal-power/diago-powerstation.html I know you've already pulled the trigger, but this Diago unit is probably the best I've used yet. Apart from the quality & functionality of their kit, Diago are a British outfit (so they're easy to reach) and they remember what 'customer service' means (so you can actually sort stuff out when it goes wrong or bits go missing).

[quote name='police squad' timestamp='1428305135' post='2739972'] had I seen this before easter I could have offered The Arches venue in Coventry on good Friday followed by the Marrs bar in Worcester on Saturday but I've only just seen it [/quote] Bloody wish you had mate! I have to say that we were taken by surprise by just how little was going on near Birmingham over the BH weekend. From what we could see, Coventry had a reasonable amount of activity, maybe some in Rugby, but that was about it. Obviously this may reflect our search pattern, but we're pretty good at this stuff and I don't think we missed some sort of treasure trove. The highlight was finding a local band playing at the Brasenose Arms in Cropredy, letting the SatNav route us over the country parks and moorlands to get there, talking to the band while they were setting up, and discovering that they were based in Acton (erm ... where my studio is) while their rhythm section came from Brighton. OK, scratch "local" then.

If I'd seen these when I was just starting, I'd have had a set. Looks like a very good idea for a new starter.

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1427803055' post='2734373'] I can often find it hard to distinguish conversational speech if there's significant (not necessarily loud) background noise. [/quote] +1 I hate going to parties for this reason, and I'll only go into noisy pubs if I'm there to listen to a band.

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1427802659' post='2734365'] No, riding a bike for years with no earplugs did. [/quote] +1 Bloody Vance & Hines system ...

Playing a 5kg bass will definitely do damage to your body over time, and it may take years for that damage to surface. The stresses created by slinging a heavy bass over one shoulder and then twisting your upper body to play it are entirely assymetric, and damage not only the obvious places but also - through your body compensating for that - a load of other places too. If you know that in advance, then it's possible to take preventive action to protect your neck, shoulders and lower back. Going to the gym to build up strength won't hurt, but it won't deal with the damage caused by that lack of symmetry. It's like getting tinnitus from too much exposure to loud music. If you wait for that tinnitus to appear before you start using decent earplugs then - frankly - you've left it a bit late. The time to start doing something about tinnitus is [i][b]before [/b][/i]you suffer from it!

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1427893755' post='2735524'] Another small point: musicians are obsessed with what their playing is not. Audiences are more concerned with what it is. [/quote] Well if you're going to go there, then covers bands definitely have a huge advantage. The audience don't actually hear us play. Most of the time they're listening to the music in their heads. They hear what they remember the song sounding like; if we sound vaguely similar then all is well. FACT!

Most of the time I am pretty reluctant to 'let something go', and I have irritated any number of band mates by insisting that we/they get things right, rather than merely close enough. On the other hand, and partly to rein myself in a bit, I deliberately remain in one band where the word "loose" doesn't even begin to describe it. Every song is chaos, every set is complete anarchy, you never know what the leader is going to do next ... he routinely starts songs in the wrong key, or the wrong speed, or even the wrong rhythm, he changes the structure as he goes along, forgets the words and makes up new ones, you name it, he does it. It's a great way to put my other bands/projects in perspective, and to remind me not to get too anal about all this.

Does he own a time machine?

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1427581510' post='2732060'] Even wrong on most album sleeves! [/quote] Yes, that really has astonished me. If you've gone to the trouble of writing the lyrics and recording the song, is it really too much trouble to check the sleeve before it goes for publication? I had exactly this conversation with Bluejay recently, about [i][b]How Deep Is Your Love[/b][/i] by the BeeGees. The first line is "[i]I've seen your eyes in the morning sun[/i]" which, in the context of what follows, makes sense. The album sleeve has "[i]And when you rise in the morning sun[/i]" which, again in context, makes no sense whatsoever.

[quote name='gelfin' timestamp='1427814304' post='2734555'] Sounds good to me. [/quote] The shrubbery?

Can I just mention that, before each gig we play, our drummer builds his own kit?