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Everything posted by NancyJohnson
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What are you listening to right now?
NancyJohnson replied to Sarah5string's topic in General Discussion
I've never seen that clip...to be honest, Fashion were never that high on my You Tube search list. This is pretty good! -
What are you listening to right now?
NancyJohnson replied to Sarah5string's topic in General Discussion
Singer at the time was Dee Harriss who was also guitarist. I don't think Martin Recchhi (bass) ever did lead vocals...they went through a few line up changes, would be interested to see this! -
Just had a perusal of the list, despite the fact I'm definitely not going to be dipping my toe back into record buying as that ship sailed decades ago. It's a shame not more of the list is being released on CD. Just by way of observation, once again I feel there's too much of an incursion onto the list by artistes that don't need to (or shouldn't) be on the list. Queen. Prince. Motley Crue. The Rolling Stones. The Cure. Fleetwood Mac. The fecking Eurythmics. RSD started off as this well intended programme to get people into record shops; now it's just a big-corp money for old rope production, ultimately lining Brian May's already brimming over pockets with more ££ from the first vinyl release of five demos recorded half a century ago (which have been in circulation for years). Surely it's time for some new RSD rules? Make it a bit more exciting. Only release new material. If you play sold out stadium gigs, RSD is not for you. If you were signed to a big label and made a career out of music 30-years ago, RSD is not for you. If you played Live Aid, RSD is not for you. Limit in store purchases to two records per person (check eBay RSD afternoon to witness what RSD means to a lot of punters).
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How was your open mic or jam night last night?
NancyJohnson replied to tauzero's topic in General Discussion
Attended a couple of open-mic things donkey's years ago, not playing, mind. Not much talent on show, quite painful, much heckling and people running to the bar. Credit to the performers and while you have to applaud their tenacity, most of it was just balls. Never been to an open jam session in my life; part of me thinks there'd be this opportunity to unearth some like-minded musicians and find a musical soul mate, but conversely there's the nightmare scenario of being stuck in a pub with a load of old hairy-biker types that took up the guitar when they retired and just want to play Wonderful Tonight. [Rapid edit] Went to a barbeque once while we were staying with some friends in Devon. Word got out that I played bass and would I like to sit in when the guitars came out. (Not really.) There really is nothing worse than being berated by some three-chord Johnny (especially when one's technical ability exceeds theirs by several country miles) for playing the wrong notes in a song that you've never heard before? "It's a standard, mate," he said. "Call yourself a bassist, everyone knows <whatever Eric Clapton song it was>." No mate. No. They don't. -
As a grown up big boy, I'm beyond the whole my little secret/guilty pleasure thing. If The Carpenters make me feel warm and fuzzy, why keep it to myself? What next for Basschat? What's your favourite colour?
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I love the use of 'stop eating crayons, <insert name here>' that pepper posts across X. It's not sweary and aptly conveys the childlike rank stupidity that people are posting pro-Trump and from a conspiracy perspective.
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I suppose the one prominent voice here over the last week or two is/was Bjork, claiming Spotify was the worst thing etc. It's worth bearing in mind that irrespective of the royal rate per play, she could potentially net $3-5k per million plays, she has one track that's off her first or second album that's on 79 million plays, so potentially $300k for one song, recorded and released 30-odd years ago. There's others over 50m plays. I've no idea what her deal with Elektra/One Little Indian is/was, so any revenue from sales is open to supposition, but let's say she's made a comfortable income from this platform and she's on Apple/Deezer/Tidal. If she hates Spotify so much, come off the platform. Don't bite the hand that feeds.
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It's interesting watching a handful of MAGA-types being quizzed about tariffs, this belief that it'll be China (etc.) who will be paying, not the importer.
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I have a reasonably decent grasp on the economics of tariffs and the protectivism this alludes to give to home market manufactured product. (In case you don't understand how tariffs work, who actually pays what and where the money goes, I've links a pair of videos below). If Trump's tariff directive pans out the way he wants this will, in all probability, lead to tit-for-tat tariffs; if the UK then imposes a tariff on US imports, everything will go up in price from your preferred bourbon to those much desired Musicman and Fender USA basses. Even if a 10% tariff is applied on a £1,500 USA bass, sure as hell this won't go up to £1,650...we've adopted (and improved) the greed model in this country, so expect a number nicely rounded up to £1,750. Well, maybe. It won't be a flat 10%. If all this pans out and everyone is paying more, will this make you look to homegrown, far-eastern or European manufacturers over US ones?
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There's a red Scarab for sale in Brighton. Gumtree (mucho £££, lots of wear).
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We've gone the Sonos route throughout the house; stereo pairs around the house and our main listening room (lounge) has a stereo pair and a mini-sub. I'd say without hesitation that tonally the lounge set up is easily on par with what it replaced (Arcam/B&W), irrespective of the source.
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I'd concur about the discovery factor. Streaming platforms are a bit divisive on several levels; people taking this stance about royalties and audio quality. On the first point of royalties, I often wonder why people feel so hard done by for artistes; I worked on projects decades ago and I know some of my work is still being used today in old employers systems. Why should I expect ongoing royalties, whereas musicians/bands still expect a cheque once in a while. Don't get it. Audio quality. Argument is subjective and let's face it, I doubt 99.9% of Spotify users would be able to tell the difference between a FLAC/MP3/whatever file format.
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Screams - Screams Charlie Sexton Sextet - Under The Wishing Tree Blue Tears - Blue Tears XTC - Instruvenus/Waspstrumental Straw - Keepsakes Green wheel - Soma Holiday Girl - Sheer Greed Fortune Drive - A Modern Question
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Wife asked, 'Why isn't everything on Spotify?' Went through a brief thing about rights issues, ownership, disputes, maybe artists just don't want their stuff on an online platform. I just mentioned there was stuff by a few bands that I'd love to hear again but because my taste is a bit eclectic and much of this saw release on small (now defunct) labels, this material is never going to resurface. So this weekend's question, what's missing for you?
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Do drugs make you a better player?
NancyJohnson replied to OliverBlackman's topic in General Discussion
Many moons ago, I witnessed a headline band in a small club drink through their rider (which, as the venue refused to provide more alcohol, resulted in me walking into town with their frontman to Oddbins for more spirits). Frontman of said band (according to another guy present in venue), did 'two massive lines of coke and slumped into a big chair, his eyes were rolling in their sockets.' He'd recovered sufficiently and was smoking a huge doobie on the way to the stage. I can testify they played an absolute blinder. They ran out of songs and played a couple twice. I would also cite the many times I saw Motley Crue early on. Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee were clearly under the influence and seemed to pull it together for showtime. Over the years I've been around an awful lot of drugs, but I've never been interested in the slightest, I've never even tried smoking, I just knew from my parents that it was just horrible. In the main, all these guys using were great players. Maybe drug usage just made things flow better. In answer to the OP, I suppose yes, sometimes. -
Cheers, bonny lad! For the record, if you need a guard cut, hit Tim up. Great comms, top work! I think he laser cuts on clear acrylic, so you can have pretty much any design you want. Top bloke!
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Aria Telecaster Bass wiring help please?
NancyJohnson replied to NickS's topic in Repairs and Technical
In answer to your last paragraph, it's going to be a little difficult to identify a bass based on a photo of the control cavity and a description that it's got two holes on the headstock fascia. There were dozens of brands coming out of Japan in the 60s/70s; more photos needed! -
Pino Palladino Signature Flatwounds
NancyJohnson replied to PaulHornBass's topic in Accessories and Misc
I'll say from the outset that I'm not a fan of PP; I can hear the talent and realise he's a bit of a journeyman player but, as a player that is fundamentally from punky and alternative background, I was certainly not a fan of the mwah that was synonymous over so many records from the early 80s. I absolutely hated that he became a member of NIN for a while. Moving along, he's had a signature Fender bass, endorsements from other bass and string manufacturers and now we're at these strings. His early signature tone was created with a stock bass, off the shelf strings and un-modded amplification; he sounded like he did largely through his technique (which he openly admitted was drawing from Percy Jones and Mick Karn - two people not mentioned on his Wiki page). So, an open question here: what do you guys think a signature set of strings is going to bring to your game? Just because they have his name on them, what are you expecting they'll do for you? -
I caught up with Barry about a month ago, he's a top bloke and it's always great to have a natter about Wapping and his trade show experiences are priceless. Ask him what SWR and Hartke stand for!
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I will cite the XTC/Tears For Fears boxes here (again), but with all these - obviously original albums aside - you do genuinely seem to get a ton of bonus audio material bundled in, in the shape of demos, unreleased, 5.1/Atmos mixes and all fairly reasonably priced. Dare I say it, I feel a bit disgusted at the route that Rush are going with their reissue program. How many times can you resell/repackage material? Most of these albums have been expanded and reissued in the last decade. Does anyone really need a comic book? Does anyone need to shell out $400 for maybe six (exclusive) recordings. Perhaps Ged needs the swag to bolster his wine collection or baseball ephemera. I'm holding out for the $1,500 wax cylinder edition in a limited edition picnic basket, with a Snow Dog action figure. Save your money. Take the missus out for a nice dinner instead.
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What are you listening to right now?
NancyJohnson replied to Sarah5string's topic in General Discussion
I've had Fabrique by Fashion on rotation yesterday and today. Fantastic early '80s electronica. At my wife's request of, 'Can you please listen something else, eh?', I'm listening to the deluxe version of Throwing Copper by Live. Handful of bonus tracks and their Woodstock '94 set. Quite maaaarvelous. -
I was firmly in the passive camp until I got my Spector Euro LX; I just found the Darkglass preamp added enough to my setup to brighten things up. On board circuitry beats all...plus (in most cases), you can turn it off. I've put John East and Darkglass preamps in pretty much everything that was originally passive, but the active circuit in my Spector Euro-X probably edges everything. This one is a Spector Tone Pump (I think).
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Don't think there was any discernable first track...in all honesty, I started playing with another couple of schoolfriends (we were 14 or 15, I guess), we didn't practice away from that environment and we just made up our own three-chord songs. I used to play along with All The World's a Stage by Rush and Sweet F*nny Adams by Sweet. That's pretty much where I started, so it would have been Bastille Day or Set Me Free.
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There's no need to wind anything in in the slightest. I'd concur with you that a lot of amps that contain some kind of drive circuitry (to my ears) just sound like there's a loose wire in the circuit that's causing the signal to break up and while these can sound quite nasty in isolation I guess that breaking-up just disappears in a full band context. Certainly, from my experience, the Tech21 heads are/were simply power amps being driven with either a dUg and (in the case of the Landmark) both an RBI and RPM as the front end. While the Darkglass AO900 didn't work for me in the slightest, it followed the same route as the Tech21 stuff; pedal and powerstage in one box. I still think it's a great pity tha @Tech21NYC have abandoned heads, but I can understand their reasoning. I loved what MarkBass did with the MoMark stuff; it would be dreamy to buy a carcass, jack in a power amp, jack in a BDDI or dUg in one tidy rack unit.
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I think (as a bit of a Tech21 whore), the Landmark and dUg heads were fantastic. I suppose you could also factor in some of the Darkglass stuff too.