NancyJohnson

Despite the fact that the band are all in isolation at the moment (we're only about a mile apart), our guitarist/erstwhile producer has taken it to throw out some new stuff, albeit cobbled together from bass stuff I'd recorded yonks ago (he always asks me to just record stuff and will start a drum loop and I'll just noodle away). He put this up this morning. Never heard it until about 20 minutes ago although I do kind of remember recording parts of it. It's a little different from our usual stuff.

At Christmastime, I installed a John East Uni Pre 3 knob into one of my Lulls. To be honest, what with what's been going on in the outside world, I've not been doing that much playing, but a couple of weeks back I picked up the bass and was noodling. During my little session, I noticed that while the neck pickup was fine, the bridge pickup was very buzzy when you touched it, although it was silent otherwise. I popped John a quick email - to his credit he's been great - and the determination seems to be an earth/ground fault with the pickup. I've problem-solved at length here, run the pickups in isolation, swapped the pickups around etc. every conceivable combinations and the evidence leads to the pickup, although the pickup was fine pre-installation. Now then, does anyone know how to solve buzzy? Can I run a bit of wire from anywhere to anywhere?

I remember going into Kingfisher Music in Fleet one time to ogle the basses and there was a guitarist playing Queen stuff. He was amazing, tonally it was very close to Brian May but just using whatever was to hand. It was quite a surprise to hear people showboating something different.

Today it's all about Stone Temple Pilots. I've maintained for some time that if I'd been born about ten years earlier, my big band would have been Pearl Jam, but I feel STP are less copyist and just a little more clever; Dean DeLeo is an exceptionally good (and underrated) guitarist, he plays some weird shapes.

Well, it turned out OK...from a distance, the body carving didn't really seem that visible from a distance, but even so, it seemed so unnecessary.

Just watched the current one (4/5)...now I know Ben is more than adept at instrument building, but I just lost interest when he started carving out the body. It really was a, 'Why is he doing that?' moment. The body looked fine and this step seemed really unnecessary.

A girlie I used to work with saw them supporting Interpol at MSG last year, she remarked how good they were live. Interestingly, also on the bill were a band called Car Set Headrest who have also popped up in despatches recently. Might give them a spin later as well. Currently I'm spinning Sugar.

I'm really hoping that everyone who reads this thread at least gives a few of their seconds to having a listen to what other people are listening to. It's 8.55am. I've just fired everything up in the home office (aka the dining room), so it's time to decide what I need to listen to. Today, well this morning at least, it's going to be Lindsey Jordan, aka Snail Mail. It's a delightful mix of lo-fi with a Pavement/The Cure style bent.

The Alto is proving perfectly fit for purpose, so much so that I think once things get back to normal I may pack the big stuff away and just use this for home use.

When I was a kid, my mum and dad bought me Sweet's Sweet craddock Adams on cassette and a year or so later my then teenage girlfriend (aah, Tracey), bought me Desolation Boulevard. I'll profess to this day that I often think about those photos of Steve Priest with that Rickenbacker 4001 and believe this was the catalyst that led me to where I am today.

They didn't really find their way until Get Your Goat. PXR is great, in my top five, I think the addition of Nathan Larson was a godsend, just gave them a different dynamic. I have a brace of other stuff.

I bloody love Shudder. Which album?

Today is all about Sleep by Max Richter. Just need some very quiet/chill stuff while I'm working. It's eight and a half hours long. If anyone is remotely interested, Max Richter recomposed/reinterpreted Vivaldi's Four Seasons in 2012 and it's quite brilliant.

We always had music on in the house when I was growing up. My late mum was a huge fan of The Beatles, Kinks, Rolling Stones and also gave me an appreciation of big band stuff and Frank/Dean etc. What did I give her back? She loved Cheap Trick and Kiss. My dad loved Doris and also loved Hall & Oates and The Carpenters. The Doris Day Christmas Album is essential listening any time of year too. Her voice is velvet.

Doris Day. Seriously.

Consider it done.

I fell into Credit Management at an early age (supply of medical products and then retail jewellery supply) and also did a six year stint in project finance (telecoms sector) that ended about 18 months ago. It's certainly not something I wanted to do by any stretch...had I been a little more astute in the early 80s and had more supportive parents (who were more concerned about me paying my keep that finding a career I was genuinely interested in), I lived a cycle-ride from Shepperton Studios and a bus ride from Pinewood Studios, so would loved to have gotten into there and just found my way once in. If I had my time again, I would have loved to have studied Astronomy and found a career through that.

Lovely. Just the job.

I know we have the notable deaths thread, but Rolling Stone magazine just posted Adam Schlesinger, Fountains of Wayne bassist, has died following contracting the virus. I'm gutted. Absolutely gutted. Stay at home.

For some reason, UK resurfaced in my conscious earlier today. My brother had the first LP and I bought the original Night After Night in 1979/80. I did a little digging and found out Eddie Jobson had overseen a 16-disc box set, which included the whole NAN show. Hunt on.

Has anyone here got the 2CD version of this album? I remember having the vinyl in the 1980s...four years too late I saw it was reissued.

Weird week. Kiss, NIN. Wednesday is all about Counting Crows.