Nicko

Absolutely nothing to do with the thread, but can you tell me why bin collections are done at the time everyone's trying to get to work?

I don't know why you seem to be leading the cheers for Sadiq. Have you ever actually been to London? If so you would see lots of busses during the day plying for the same custom and driving around pretty much empty until rush hour when they are full but stuck in traffic. Some tube trains run every few minutes through the centre, others don't. My tube in the morning is the 7th stop (approx 20 stops to central london) and its pretty much full by stop 10. Thats at 7.15 in the morning. It runs around every 10 minutes, at least when theres not a broken down train, a signal failure or a strike. More to the point the tube only works if you are going out to in, not if you want to go 5 miles around the edge say Northolt to Hounslow or Wembley to Barnet to You're right replacing trains is a slow business - the Bakerloo line trains are nearly 50 years old. Sadiq Khan has not introduced any new rolling stock since he was in post, unless you include the Crossrail trains which were orderd before he was elected. I'm not sure theres actually any real evidence that the congestion charge has imprved air quality, given that the Euro emissions limits on new cars leads to constantly improving vehicle emissions anyway.

We are too reliant on cars because as a gigging musician there's really no viable alternative. I could get one bass and an amp to the gig, but not a spare bass, the lights, the PA etc. and much as we like to rip the fosters out of them how is a drummer supposed to get a kit there? Fine if you want to hire a 7.5Ton truck for the gig but I suspect the vast majority of us use our normal cars for gigging and cant afford the luxury of a shared vehicle for band use. My 300HP petrol car is exempt though! Yes. He could give a reasonable time after convincing people that diesel was the best option for cars before introducing a system that makes their cars worthless. He could ban HGVs at various times of the day. He could address the issue of excessive traffic calming which often causes congestion and inevitably leads to unnecessary acceleration and deceleration. He could increase capacity on the tube, oh no wait he can't - because the unions have him in their pocket. He could regulate the busses more, bacause busses are part of the problem. He could address the issue of black cabs - essentially a car driven to central London every day so that wealthy people can travel by private transport. He could support businesses in the suburbs instead of continuing to centralise business in the area east of the city- while allowing central and western business districts to flounder meaning people have to travel further. Despite its problems its the best place in the world to live. I've lost count of the number of towns, cities and countries I've visited and while I've enjoyed many of them none come close to London as a place to live. On the subject of LEZ one of my friends had an old Landrover which was classed as a truck. He replaced the diesel engine with a nice petrol V8 which avoids the charge. I'm fairly sure thats no necessarily a solution to London's pollution problem.

I have a scale book at home which includes the major modes, and the suggested use for the locrian mode is to improvise solos with it until you get sacked from the band.

I've been looking for a band opportunity for a good few months, since my last band folded due to a dispute between two of the members. I have to say that the one thing worse than no longer being in a band is trying to find a new one. I'm not fussy - I'm happy playing bass or guitar, covers or originals. I'd like to stay away from Blues, Jazz and C&W but other than that I'm fairly easy I dont want to hit the big time, or make a career out of music. I dont really want to play death metal and I'm no longer between 20 and 30. Is all hope lost?

Clearly some of it is in the fingers, but my belief is the vast majority is in the setup. As a player in a covers band I'm normally trying to emulate someone elses tone anyway, and play maybe 30-40% of my set with a pick. The pick I choose, and where I play makes a bit of difference. Does the audience notice if I back the tone off to get the sound I want. Probably not. Would they notice a difference if I play my backup bass (which incidentally is a more expensive bass but sounds worse in the mix to my ears)? No. Would they notice if I played the wrong passing note. Only if they were bass players. Would they notice if I was out of time with the drummer. Yes.

I have a little sympathy with the amp manufacturer here. Clearly they have a 250W amp and decided to bundle it as a 2 x 10 combo. They then have a choice, make the 2 x 10 an 8 Ohm unit, allowing you to use an extension cabinet in parallel to get max wattage and move more air, or making it a 4 Ohm unit and denying the possibility of pushing more air at the rated wattage. Theres a whole other debate about whether a 250W 4 Ohm combo with a 4 Ohm extension wired in series pushing out 150W sounds louder. One things for sure - it wont sound as loud as the 250W with 4 speakers.

+1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000.

After suffering GAS for some time over a semi acoustic I ended up with an epiphone 339 which is a small body version of the 335. Had it for a year or so now and its great. It really does sond different from a solid body. I'd struggle to justify spending the money on a gibbo.

I've always assumed its a scratchplate because it's there to get scratched. Its a replaceable part and when it looks shite you just get another. If its tort to begin with you don't even need to wait until its scratched. Following this logic pickguard doesn't make any sense. Pickguard doesn't roll off the tonge as easily either.

I live near Jack and can confirm that this is my experience as well.

I fail to see how practice can possibly change your natural singing voice to gritty/growly. Short of wrecking you vocal chords or smoking 60 marlboro a day, your voice is your voice. You might get grittier if you start shouting but its not sustainable in the long term and you'll lose control as well.

I saw a few in the shop when I bought my current P, and to be honest they looked so weird up close i didn't bother trying one. I think it ws the plate over the pickup and the pacement of the togge switch more than the shape.

As a latecomer to bass I really didn't want a P bass, but a technical failure on my own bass meant I borrowed one during a rehearsal. I coudn't wait to get one after that. In the same way that I don't buy s screwdriver because I like how it looks, I don't really buy guitars for their looks. Its comfortable to play and sounds great - what more could I want?

Strengths - my timing is good, my theory knowedge is good, I learn the basic patterns of the song quickly. Weaknesses - I rarely expand the basic patterns, I dont slap, I'm a bit static on stage and when I do move I dance worse than Bue.

Not dissing your opinion at all. It takes all sorts. All opinions are valid, even if they are wrong. I haven't posted a link, but I did start the thread.

As is the Biffy Clyro Unbrella cover which IIRC is on teh same CD.

In my vernacular a throne is a toilet. Seems an appropriate term for some of the stinky poo that drummers spout.

A band I really don't like doing a song by a band that I dont like. Utter purgatory. ps Nice aviodance of the profanity filter there.

Punter: Thats not how it goes Me: Its how it goes when I play it

See, thats the thing - I don't see why covers bands have to stick to the original closely. We used to play a couple of covers of covers - I guess they weren't that close to either the original or the cover that most people knew (eg Hush - Kula Shaker version but without a keyboard was probably better than the Kula vesrion simply becasue Crispin Mills wasn't in the band ).

I'm quite a fan of Natasha Bedingfield who basically does what you don't like.

I'm a big fan of covers that have been properly re-worked. Sometimes it works............. Almost everything that Jimi Henmdrix did to Bob Dylan songs was better than Dylan's original Me First and The Gimme Gimmes can take a country track and make it listenable for someone who hates country ..........sometimes it doesn't. Kirsty McColl's version of New England is absolute hell UB40s Red Red Wine And we really shouldn't mention Under the Bridge by All Saints. But, even these atrocities are better than just rehashing someone elses song in the same style.

^^this^^ The moments I remember most distinctly were Gomez and The Vaccines playing on Joolz the first time - these were probably a decade apart. The only problem with Later (and Radio 6 and the like) is that they tend to play a lot of music that I really can't stand. Whern the intro starts talking about a unique fusion of jazz and world music it's probably time to switch off. Other than that occasionally I'll see a support act that are worth checking out a bit further.

Technically, the "plectrum" (noun) is the small bit of plastic that you hold to "pick" (verb) the string. Calling the bit of plastic a "pick" is like calling a football boot a "kick". However, language is a living thing and I will continue to refer to it as a pick as its a more confortable word to pronounce and I'm essentially a lazy b*****d. Never heard anyone call it a plec.