ubit

13 minutes ago, Coilte said:

To my ears, it sounds as turgid and boring today as when I first placed the LP on the turntable back in '69. 😎

There, I fixed that for you. 😉

10 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

No such thing as "music that doesn't date". Everything is of its time. However, that and whether or not it continues to be liked are separate issues. I like Bach, but I certainly can't and wouldn't claim his music hasn't "dated".

This! Music does date for the reason you provided. Production and recording techniques give a good idea of when a song was brought out. Its all down to whether people still listen to it and like it. 

Personally I like new music but I also like old music, so I am keeping some old music current.

I don't know but I have commented that the old folks homes soon will be filled with people who like to listen to Slipknot or Lamb of God, Seems quite strange. Most punks who were pogo'ing back in '77 will be well into their sixties now!

13 hours ago, uk_lefty said:

It's nice to collect stuff but it's also fairly pointless.

Thats too sensible. I know I don't NEED the extra basses but I want them!

I would totally buy that and own it. You gotta just own it!

8 minutes ago, 4000 said:

As usual, there seems to be a lot of not understanding that people play for different reasons going on here.

It's not just for different reasons. Its down to geographical areas too. Up here there isn't the amount of people to form a scene where bands could get a following doing originals. It's not like in cities where there is a scene for that kind of thing. You have bands that throw in a couple of their own but they usually get told to "play something we know".

If you want to be in a band where I come from you are more or less forced into the cover band area. I wish I had the talent to write decent original music but I don't. I also don't jam with people who come up with decent original material. If our guitarist was able to write superb original music I would be delighted to do it. These days with social media you can showcase your own music so at least reach people that way.

As I say, the flavour at the moment is this Scottish trad. with a rock edge. The kids love it up here. I detest it but had to play it  if I wanted to be in a gigging band.

1 minute ago, Grassie said:

Watched this the other night, really enjoyed it. One thing that struck me though was Eddie Vedder's interview where he says part of the reason he felt guilty about Pearl Jam's success was that there were many other bands from Seattle that should've had the same amount of exposure as his band.

Having watched the film I feel that the reason PJ, Soundgarden, Nirvana, and AIC were massive was because they were great bands with great songs. A lot of the bands featured in the documentary were actually pretty uninteresting and not that great.

I agree, take the Melvins for instance. I think they suck and I love the bands you listed.

2 minutes ago, Paul S said:

In a covers band I'll play songs I am ambivalent about, will play songs I don't like but refuse to play songs I hate - that crosses a line as far as I am concerned.  Don't care if the rest of the band, the punters, the Queen or the Pope love it - if I hate it I won't play it.  I play for fun, because I enjoy it, and for me it isn't fun to play a song I loathe with a passion.  There are quite literally thousands of songs to choose from and it seems completely unreasonable for a band to try to pressurise a member into doing something they hate when there is so much choice.  It is something I feel pretty strongly about, actually.

I find this quite a strange attitude, certainly up this way the young ones who go out drinking all seem to like this traditional Scottish music but rocked up. I hate this kind of music but we had to play it because that's what got people in and dancing. If we played music I liked the pub would empty.

I hated most of our set but loved to see and hear people enjoying themselves. If we got a massive cheer at the end it was a great buzz.

I was told when we first started that you have to play what the public wants. We said nah, we will play what we want. We didn't get many gigs until we changed and played music that got people dancing. Certainly up this way you have to be a musical prostitute.

I realise that  Rickenbacker selling  is banned but I wondered does anyone know of any decent copies? I find them on Youtube but no one says what make they are or where they get them.

I quite fancy one but there is no way I am paying two and a half grand for the privilege.

Are the fakes any good? Most budget guitars these days are so much better than they used to be.

To be fair I have only briefly dabbled into research on this subject and maybe there is a wealth of information. I just don't know where to look.

8 minutes ago, TimR said:

a crowded pub has emptied when the band started*. That's a very long night.

We played in a bar on the Island of Mull. We had been booked for a bunch of students who were on the island for some reason or other. The owner put on a huge pot of chilli for them. The pub was heaving and we struggled to set up in the throng. We got set up and with five minutes until we started they all flipped off!

Ungrateful twatts left and went somewhere else. We played the whole night to 5 or 6 people.

I hated plenty of our set but it was decided on what the punters liked. If we loved a song and played it a number of times and it was met with a wall of silence we would drop it.

What used to annoy me was the fact that I seemed to be better than the rest at knowing which songs would go down well and so if I suggested something and the guitarist didn't like it we wouldn't do it. It was a democracy up until he didn't want to do something. We would all agree and then next week at rehearsal we would ask did everyone learn it? He would often say no but I learned this and launch into something he had fancied. It was total passive aggression.

33 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

Is it expensive to get a bass repainted?

I got a few quotes for a full body strip down and re paint and they were all around £300

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

So you didn't measure nut height at the same time?

It was  all done in the best possible taste.

51 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

'm hoping you measured your own 

They were plucked and then presented for measurement. Definitely not done in situ.

16 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

With regards the neck relief my quick way of setting it is when changing the strings i look down the neck without strings and adjust neck to be perfectly straight. When strings are added it draws the neck slightly concave. That would be my approx guide and from there i would then tweak it

I'm the same with the neck. No fancy tools for neck just hold the guitar and look down the neck to see if it needs a tweak. Ive never had a fear of turning truss rods, Maybe it's because of my mechanical background but I know to turn in increments and that it needs time to settle. Some folks keep turning because they don't see instant results.

42 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

Gnats ball hairs are 0.000001 , which are very useful for fine tuning 😁

Years ago for a laugh at work a bunch of us got the digital micrometer and measured our ball hairs. It was amazing the difference in some!

I must be the only one who doesn't give a hoot about measurements. I do it by feel. Take it down until I get fret buzz then take it back up. Play hard and hear if I get clicking and if so back it off a bit more.

I don't have a clue what height in mm or thou or gnats ball hairs it is!

Who would pay that? There are so many quality instruments out there for 3/400 quid and this guy wants £1000 for this?

16 hours ago, bassman7755 said:

Yeah I tried boiling and it works but it stresses and corrodes the strings, only time Ive ever had a bass string breakage was with strings boiled multiple times.

Yeah, as I say, I only boiled the strings more than once on a couple of occasions as I found the second boiling didn't bring out the newness as much.

I did start buying strings from Amazon or Ebay that were cheap stainless and were pretty good. not quite as bright as Rotosounds or Elites but they did the job for a fraction of the price. If you are a prolific changer like me it works out cheaper.

My brother in law is a fantastic guitar player and a while back he asked me if he could borrow my American P for some recording he was doing. I reluctantly agreed as I had only just restrung it with brand new Rotosound steels. He gave it back to me a few weeks later and the strings were dead. I couldn't believe it. Not happy!

34 minutes ago, bassman7755 said:

I have two bases I for which I keep 4 sets of strings in rotation - 2 on the basses and 2 soaking in a methylated spirit bath. Swap out a set with the freshly cleaned set about once every 2 weeks, the 4 sets last almost indefinitely and I get a very consistent bright sound, the meths doesn't bring them back to absolute new but its good enough. Using headless bases with double ball end strings makes the constant swapping very easy and doesn't stress the strings.

I found boiling got more crud out than meths but to be fair I didn't leave them soaking for days. Ive heard people saying that boiling rusts the core but I never noticed any difference in sound plus I didn't boil them more than twice. Second time never had as good results.

22 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

I suppose it depends on what you play, I don’t like new strings, most of the strings on my basses are between 5 and 15 years old ,and if I need more I usually advertise for used flats, but they obviously wouldn’t be any good if you wanted that nice bright tone for slapping or funk 

Definitely mate. You play reggae and dub so old strings would suit this more. I like rounds with the new ring for rock and indie. We did cover Iron Lion Zion right enough and I pushed the bass for this. Turned down the tone and gave my bass dial a wee tweak. It worked ok for me even with new rounds but I'm sure aficionados of this genre like your good self would consider this wrong.

52 minutes ago, borntohang said:

I set the relief till it's choking around the 9th to 12th frets and then dial it back a bit so I can dig in and get a little rattle but not when I play softly. Action gets set the same - down until it's rattling and then back off a touch. It's not an exact science for me. 

Same. I take it until I get buzz and then back off.

Clearly everyone has a different idea of what a bright sounding string sounds like. Granted I sweat a lot when playing under lights and in busy bars but I find strings less bright after one gig. I used to wipe my strings with a beer mat after every song but still found them going too dull for my liking. I have found no strings stay bright for more than three gigs tops. As I say, if I could afford it I would change strings every gig.

20 hours ago, BassAdder27 said:

Just put a set of Dunlop Super Bright nickel roundwounds on my PBass and it’s funny how you forget that great zingy tone that slowly dies off after playing. 
 

Also trying Prosteels ( stainless) on my Yamaha to see how they last or eat frets.

 

Both now very zingy and clear bottom end when played fingers. No need for pick to get that clarity now

 

If only you could have this consistent tone from a set of strings more than a few weeks !

A like minded soul. I just love the sound of brand new rounds. I use stainless (mainly because I am allergic to nickel and when I sweat it irritates my fingers) but I also love the brightness of stainless. I tried Elixirs as their coated guitar strings are great but I found them dull sounding. I used to change my strings after three gigs and that was because I couldn't afford to change them every gig. I boiled them up to get another couple of gigs out of them.

I just hate the sound of dull strings.

I started buying cheap packs of ten stainless online which made it slightly cheaper.

I have always thought of action as something you do by preference. Many years ago I tried to have really low action because I thought that would make me faster and smoother. I ended up with clicking coming out of my speaker. It was only when someone said you can hear that out front that I realised how bad it was and so  I raised the action and it disappeared.

Whatever is comfortable for you would be my answer. Some people prefer low, some high.