Stylon Pilson

Last night I started re-watching Stop Making Sense. My 12-year old son was absolutely enthralled, and didn't want to go to bed.

I think that "the kids" would enjoy rock music, it's just not marketed to them any more, so they don't really know it exists. I wonder if it's about the industry reducing costs - if the music is all made on computers, then the only performer you need to pay for is the vocalist, and if you auto-tune them, then they don't even need to be a competent one.

S.P.

Wasn't Richard Dawkins the one who sang "I Believe In A Thing Called Love"?

S.P.

I think that you should just fire the guitarist. They're ten a penny anyway.

S.P.

This sounds like a fine candidate for the Auditions In Hell thread.

S.P.

36 minutes ago, yorks5stringer said:

Naw, they ain't worf it, leave it art.🤐

They deprived you of the satisfaction of quitting, by firing you first. I think that that's unacceptable.

Oooh, ooh, unless you actually said "you can't fire me, because I QUIT!" - pleeeeeease tell me you said that.

S.P.

4 minutes ago, Monkey Steve said:

Rock n roll is alive and well and charging people £120 a ticket and £30 for a t-shirt.  Quite who's to blame for that is another matter, and on a more serious note, the internet and kids growing up knowing that music is something that can be obtained for free, there's plenty of it to choose from so they don't even need to buy anything, they can subscribe to a streaming service that will play whatever they want whenever they want to listen to it, and pay the artists a pittance for the pleasure.

Well, the two points you've made here are related. In a world where data duplication is trivial, there's no money to be made from selling copies of a physical sound recording, and so the only way for musicians to make money is to sell an experience, or to auction off their reputation to the highest bidder (see earlier remarks about Iggy Pop).

Ticket prices will come down when people stop buying them at that price.

S.P.

I think it's just a natural cycle. Kids don't want to listen to the music that their parents and grandparents listened to, they want to listen to something that makes their elders exclaim "well it all just sounds like a bunch of noise to me!"

And then the kids can roll their eyes and say "duh, you just don't get it. You're so embarrassing."

The solution to this is simple - parents need to stop allowing their children to listen to music.

S.P.

On 19/09/2018 at 18:18, Frank Blank said:

Updated Raffle List...

1. EHX Mini QTron - Walman

2. Set of strings - Silverfoxnik

3. Couple of Bass tuition books - Silverfoxnik

4. Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler with power supply but no box - Frank Blank

5. Behringer BD121 Amp Modeller (boxed) - TheGreek

6. A big bundle of roots, blues, Americana ex-review CDs - TrevorR

7. Alesis SR18 drum machine, no box or power supply - Frank Blank

8. Boss BF3 Flanger, boxed, no power supply - Frank Blank

9. Korg Pandora PX4D, boxed, with instructions - OutSpoon

10. 3D guitar puzzle. - TheGreek

11. A couple of sets of 5 String Dean Markley Helix strings, never opened - NickD

12. Hard Rock Cafe suede clutch bag - TheGreek.

13. A combo/cab steel backline stand - bassace

14. Standing in the Shadows of Mowtown book and CDs - ezbass

15. Korg Pitchblack Pro tuner, no box, with power supply, Velcro on underside - Frank Blank.

I'm also donating an LD Systems 2U rack bag. @musicbassman will be bringing it on my behalf.

S.P.

This weekend we played at a local community centre. Our drummer played here last week with his other band, and he warned us that the crowd was small, albeit energetic. The turnout ended up being better than expected, but the enthusiasm of the crowd was disappointing. The boxing match being shown on the television may have had something to do with that - for a lot of time our "audience" was actually turned side-on to us. Hmmmmm. On the plus side, it's nice to only have a 20 minute drive home.

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8 hours ago, stewblack said:

I have tried a TC Electronics 250w combo in rehearsal and it couldn't quite keep up.

I think that the limiting factor there was probably the speakers in the TC, not the amplifier section. I've used a BH250 through a Barefaced Compact and there's more than enough oomph to keep up with an average 4-piece.

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If this had come up a week earlier, I would have had this off of you in a jiffy! Unfortunate timing.

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8 minutes ago, lowlandtrees said:

Two different things. I was trying out my new gear and found two duff leads. Additionally my new set up just does not seem to ‘work’. Just got myself a Greenboy F112 and a tonebone. I thought that I would just plug and play but that is not gonna happen. Need to experiment or get an amp more suited to the Fearless. I don’t really have anywhere that I can turn up the volume.

Just make sure you know how everything works before you get to the audition. If you turn up and clearly don't know your way around your gear, then that will be a huge red flag against you.

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1 hour ago, pineweasel said:

Another thing to enjoy is that there's no bass in the first verse, so you get to come in for the chorus with a neat fill.

I love songs where the bass doesn't come in straight away. Partly because I'm very lazy, but also because sometimes you have to take the bass away so that people appreciate it when it's back.

S.P.

Is it just me who is finding that red/black/white "finish" strangely appealling?

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1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

For me the enigma of covers bands is what makes them better than a playlist of the original recordings?

Surely you could ask the same question about originals bands, and the answer would be applicable to both scenarios?

S.P.

Hartke LH500 amplifier head

An amplifier head that you may already be familiar with, it's not swimming in features but it does have volume, and plenty of it.

Last night was my final gig with the covers band that I've been playing with for the last year. Obviously there are various reasons for me leaving, but last night was as good a send-off as any. We were playing a private party on a boat, so space was fairly limited. Performing while pootling up the Thames, exposed to the elements, is a new experience for me! A hornet did make an appearance at a few points, but did not sting anyone. The audience size was fairly limited throughout most of the evening, with most people apparently preferring to be downstairs in the bar area, but they all came upstairs for the last half hour or so, and we've had lots of very positive feedback.

Last week I was looking for a small backup amp for my TC RH450, and rubis sold me his TC BH250 so I used that as my main amp last night, with the RH450 acting as backup - seemed like the best way to determine its suitability. It did the job very nicely - thanks rubis!

Next weekend will be my second gig with the 80s covers band that I joined a few months ago. I'm looking forward to being able to focus my attention on them now, and not having to try to juggle 5 hours worth of basslines in my head.

S.P.

10 minutes ago, BreadBin said:

Could be a Washburn maybe?

That looks like a promising lead. I've done a little snouting around and while I can't find an exact match, I can certainly see some of their 1980s basses that have very similar features.

S.P.

It looks a bit like a Fender Aerodyne, with the slab body and binding, but this video is from 1984, and the Aerodyne didn't come out until 2003. That also doesn't look like a Fender logo on the headstock.

The bass player's name is Graham McGregor.

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I've just bought a BH250 amp from Harry. An excellent guy to deal with, I would have no hesitation in transacting with him again, nor recommending him to friends and family.

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3 minutes ago, jazzmanb said:

As you say they could have handled it better but the fact is a lot of the time you can get by without Bass.You're spreading yourself out across bands so its a two way street.If the work isn't enough put it down to experience and move on

Well if that post isn't a bannable offence, I don't know what is.

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Playing bass is probably in a similar position, priorities-wise, to where it was when I was 20. But lots of other stuff has moved around it. I think I probably listen to less music in general than I used to - these days I tend to only listen to music in the car. But that's because I've now got so much other stuff to pack into my evenings and weekends.

I think that for someone in their teens or early twenties, the music you associate with is a big part of your identity, so you spend a lot of time trying to seek out that identity and the communities around it.

S.P.

11 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

I'm too busy watching my fingers and thinking , this little piggy goes there, that little piggy goes there.......

Holy shirtballs you play bass with your TOES‽

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13 minutes ago, mic mac moe said:

Getting folk to be available to practice is all down to work commitments (not me, I don't have a proper job) but you're right about the booking gigs side of it..... Dreading that

I think there's two tricks to making the booking of gigs easier:

1. Have some sort of calendar that lists the dates that people are definitely not available. You can do this either as a shared calendar that everyone can update themselves, or send it round once a month and ask people to confirm that everything is correct.
2. Be able to get a fast confirmation from people. When a date presents itself, you want to be able to send out a "everyone still okay for this date?" and get a reply from everyone within an hour. So you need (a) a method of communication that works for everyone, and (b) an agreement from everyone that this is the expectation, and anyone who takes 3 days to get round to replying is a custardweasel of the greatest proportions.

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I feel like ergonomics are likely to be a much bigger influence than 0.3lb of mass (which is about the same weight as a smartphone). Your posture, the tension in your left arm/wrist/hand, the way it hangs on the strap are all things that could be affected by the switch from one instrument to another.

S.P.