Stylon Pilson

Yes, this has happened to me once or twice in situations where I've been overconfident. Most recently was in December - we had prepared a couple of Christmas songs, one of which was Merry Xmas Everybody by Slade. We played it one week and it all went swimmingly, so I didn't practice it at all in preparation for the next week's gig. That night I learned that there are multiple levels of "learning". There's the level where you've gigged a song half a dozen times, and you can be fairly confident that it's sufficiently well lodged in your memory that you can easily go for a few weeks without forgetting it. But if you've only gigged it once, then it's a fragile memory, and a week is long enough to forget how the chorus goes. S.P.

If you want neutrality, why do you care about the cone size? S.P.

This all raises an interesting question. If you've gone into a shop and tried a bass, and liked it, would it be preferable to: Buy the exact specimen that you played, or Ask for an "unopened" one from the warehouse The advantage to the first is that, unless the manufacturer has flawless tolerances and quality control, there's a chance that the brand new one won't actually play as well as the one you tried. The advantage to the second is you get all the "case candy" and the guarantee that it's not ex-display. It's a conundrum, and one that I don't have the answer for. I've always gone for just buying the one that I tried - it's never occurred to me to ask for a true new one. There have been a few occasions where I've tried a bass and put it back because it has sustained damage or noticeable wear during its time on the shelves. On one occasion I tried a bass and the pots were loose - I pointed this out to the shop assistant and they whipped out a screwdriver and started fixing it there and then, but by that point my interest had evaporated. My rationale was that the loose pots may be indicative of other, less immediately apparent, mistreatment. S.P.

What Is Love? In the 80s it was a rhetorical question by Howard Jones - does anybody love anybody anyway, a sage question indeed. However, in the 90s, Haddaway was far more interested in the cessation of the emotional turmoil that it was invariably having upon him. S.P.

Veneer! takes swig of drink (You might need to be a fan of Frasier to get this reference) S.P.

Okay, next challenge. Can anyone think of an A and B such that A is a song by B and B is a song by A? S.P.

I would be inclined to sit tight. I'm not sure that it would serve you well to send another message containing all the stuff you left out in the first one. If I was in the position of the person placing this ad, and I received one short message lacking in details, followed up a few days later by one spilling over with information, I'd worry that the person writing was a little unstable. If you still haven't heard from them by the end of this week, send them another message to check up, but again I would try to keep the tone consistent with what you've already established. S.P.

Oooh, I've just thought of a new one! Shout by Tears For Fears and Shout by The Isley Brothers (and then covered by many other artists including Lulu). S.P.

My gig tomorrow night is also cancelled, though not because of the snow, but rather because our singer has the flu! S.P.

Very strange issue happening here - I've been using a Korg Pitchblack Poly for many years with various basses with no problem. However, I've now discovered something very strange happening with my new Lakland 55-01, which is active. If I engage the tuner, unplug and reconnect the lead at the bass end, then I get a really loud pop each time I engage or disengage the tuner. Doesn't happen with any of my other basses, and it goes away if I disconnect and reconnect the lead at the tuner end (which has the effect of "rebooting" the pedal). I've found that the same thing happens with my original Korg Pitchblack too. It doesn't make a difference whether I'm using batteries or a power supply. What the... Anyone know what might be going on here? This is potentially quite annoying because it means I can't unplug my bass during a set without also rebooting the tuner pedal. S.P. (Edit to correct that it's not happening with any of my other active basses)

Similar to this, I've heard theories that the expensive item might actually a placeholder for some other illegal goods, and the person buying it would know (via other channels) that it's not actually what the listing says. S.P.

I'm generally a very organised person who rarely loses things. I mark my cables using electrical tape wound in a specific colour pattern so that I can recognise them as mine. However, on two occasions I have left items at gigs. The first was after a festival gig when I got home and realised I no longer had my Comfort Strapp. Not sure what happened there, I obviously took it off the bass after the set and then... I don't know. I did try chasing it up afterwards but the venue didn't have it, so I guess some аrse somewhere now has my old Comfort Strapp. Second was a summer gig in a bar, I got home and found I no longer had my jacket or my sunglasses (prescription). Called the venue, told them exactly which bench I would have left them on, and they put them somewhere safe until I could be reunited with them the next day. S.P.

Absolutely right. I am not in any way trying to make you feel like you should stop giving people feedback for fear of hurting their feelings. As you say, that does more damage in the long run. I suppose I could just imagine myself in Eddie's situation, getting dogpiled by the full weight of BC feedback, and didn't want him to lose heart. S.P.

I like your attitude, Eddie. The thing is, if the crowd are loving it, and you're getting repeat bookings at venues, then you must be doing something right. Sure, there's room for improvement. But don't be disheartened by the harshness of the feedback that other people have given above. It's very easy for someone to write something as absolute as "fire the drummer" or "you should leave your band" when they're (a) on the other side of a computer screen, (b) not in possession of all the context, and (c) having nothing personal at stake. This thread has got me thinking about how difficult it is to get good, constructive feedback as a musician. Feedback will tend to come from the following sources: audience members (many of whom, let's be honest, don't know the difference between a bass and a guitar. Their bar for "great" can often be very low) family and friends (same) your band mates (who may either be afraid to give you the blunt truth for reasons of diplomacy, or, depending upon the type of person they are, will just scream at you with nothing specific you can use) members of basschat (who I know have incredibly high standards, which is why I'm always afraid of posting videos of my bands here) The only solution is to get a tutor. But it needs to be a good tutor, who is both a good player and also good as a teacher. S.P.

I listened to a little bit, and I found the cross-fades to feel a bit clumsy, as different tempos clashed and tumbled during the transitions. Unless you're able to beatmatch them perfectly, I'd suggest fading to silence before fading the next song in. S.P.

Or with lower ceilings. S.P.

Haha, coincidentally enough, Saturday night was my band's first time playing Walk Like An Egyptian too! We didn't get anyone stood on the bar though. I'm seething with jealousy. S.P.

Last night was actually our first gig of the year, and was at one of those community centres where you still have 7 year old kids running around at half past eleven while I'm already starting to look forward to my bed. We played pretty well and the size of the crowd was decent, but they weren't really "into it" and mostly just lingered around the back of the room. I suppose sometimes you just get nights like that, though I still find myself examining ourselves to see if there's anything I think that we should be doing differently. The venue are eager to have us back but they're currently unsure whether they're going to be able to stay open - I think they're just not getting enough customers, and their future is in jeopardy. I've also been experimenting with trying to get some decent video footage - following on from my thread the other week, I bought a tripod stand for my mobile phone with flexible legs, so I could wrap it around the PA stand on my side. The angle's not really ideal though - the drummer's mainly blocked by my body, the singer's mainly blocked by my mic stand, and the view of me is slightly from behind so you can't see what my hands are doing. It might work as one of many perspectives combined in a video, but it doesn't stand alone very well. S.P.

Also an album track by Pulp in 1998. S.P.

This is a very interesting development indeed. How does the cost of the rocklite compare to "the real thing"? S.P.

As I mentioned in the previous thread, Sometimes is a song by Britney Spears and Erasure and also Ash. Moving On Up is available in both M People and Primal Scream versions. Also you can have your Crazy in various flavours: Gnarls Barkley, Willy Nelson (covered by Patsy Cline and LeAnn Rimes), Aerosmith, Seal and also Britney Spears again (if you ignore the bit in brackets at the start). S.P.

Moving On Up (M People, Primal Scream) Sometimes (Britney Spears, Erasure) Back in my student radio days, this was a "thing" I used to do. S.P.

Great story! So what happened, did you basically communicate the changes on the fly? S.P.

Surely that would be a question for your care nurse? Edit: also, never heard it called that before. S.P.

Oh, that can absolutely happen. Some people are lying cheeseweasels. But that's what the initial email conversation / phone call is for - it's the bit where you unpack each point in their ad and make sure that it matches your expectations. And also all the other stuff. S.P.