Cato

Just out of curiosity I googled bass guitar double neck & found this page. [url="http://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-double-neck-bass.html"]http://www.aliexpres...-neck-bass.html[/url] No idea what what the import costs/duties are but the basic retail prices seems pretty astonishing. Wonder what the quality is like?

[quote name='Jenny_Innie' timestamp='1437918911' post='2829959'] Rock and roll is virtually dead. Young people don't want it any more. [/quote] I think it depends on the definition of 'Rock n Roll'. If you include more recent guitar bands like Arctic Monkeys they seem to be doing very nicely. I try to listen to Annie Mac's 7-9pm show on Radio 1 a couple of times a week (although I'm some way outside of their target demographic of 16-24). Its gotten a bit more electronic oriented since Zane Lowe left but there still always seems to be a handful of new bands who I think could fit the description of Rock n' Roll. Tastes seem to evolve & revolve over time, give it a few more years & there'll be another band putting their own twist on the Rock'n'Roll genre & storming the charts all over again.

The cover that most impressed me I saw done at a beer festival a few years back - a full on funk version of Bobby Gentry's Ode To Bille Joe complete with horns section. Completely filled the dance floor even though I'm not sure how many people would have known the original. I think it must have been the band's own arrangement because I've never been able to find a recording of the song being done that way.

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1437511814' post='2826738'] I thought this thread was about the Groundhogs... I briefly considered auditioning for a wedding band gig, but those identi-knit set lists put me off. On top of that, I've only ever heard people covering Mustang Sally. I've only heard the original on the two occasions or so that I've decided to listen to it. I never hear it when I'm out and about. Is it a myth propagated by cover bands? Is it really such an in demand song? [/quote] I don't think Mustang Sally was that famous in this country until it featured in the film The Commitments. When I was at uni in the early 90s & for a good few years afterwards if you saw a band in a pub or club the chances are that at least a part of their set would be dedicated to playing soul classics from the soundtrack of that film. My theory is that whilst you don't hear most of those songs as much these days, somehow,at some point Mustang Sally passed into the national subconsciousness as a song you expect to hear if you go to see a pub/club/functions band & stayed there.

I went to two weddings last year. The first had a little form on the back of the RSVP where the invitee could suggest three songs for the band to play.(Annoyingly my suggestion of Gil Scot Heron's 'Whitey on the Moon' was ignored) The second invitation had no such feature. Both the band who's set was based on attendee requests & the band who presumably were just doing their standard wedding set ended up playing pretty much identical sets. So based on that ridiculously small sample & depressing as it is, it would seem that all these bands belting out 'Sex on Fire', 'Mustang Sally' & 'Mr Brightside' are indeed giving the audience what they want.

Two fairly recent ones. I suppose what they've got in common is that the artists never followed them up with anything half as good (IMO of course) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHuebHTD-lY

Two things. Bass frequencies travel. If you play amplified in a terrace,semi-detached house or a flat at anything other than very low volumes then everybody you share a wall, floor or ceiling with will hear you. (and by low volumes I mean so low that its barely worth plugging the bass in). Either make sure the neighbours are out before you play at any kind of volume, or stick to headphones. In today's world of technological marvels there must be a way you & your girlfriend can jam together through headphones. Second thing - if your neighbour didn't tell you there was a problem before whinging about it on Facebook how on earth were you supposed to know? A few months ago I was chatting to my neighbor & she told me that she goes to bed around 9pm to get up for an early shift & that my habit of whistling for the cat to come in before I went to bed between 1-2am was waking her up. Obvious in hindsight, but until she told me I had absolutely no idea about my anti-social behaviour. I've now stopped whistling, the neighbor's told me she's now sleeping straight through & it turns out the cat turns up at the front door at the same time every night whether I whistle or not. Everybody's happy & all it took were two people talking like adults rather than storing up their frustrations & bitching about it on social media.

[quote name='mr zed' timestamp='1436983667' post='2822591'] Where are you based? I have a Music Man 25th Anniversary 4 string (the same as the reflex but with the a fancy finish limited to 2009 production that later became the Reflex). I'm in Bolton so if you're close you're more than welcome to come and have a play. If not, maybe another owner closer to you could accommodate? It's always worth trying before you buy. I also have a stingray & the necks are completely different to the reflex. I'd say the reflex neck is very similar to a bongo. It may be easier to try one of these as there are more of them about. [/quote] Cheers for the offer but I'm on the outskirts of Birmingham (on the Warwickshire side). That's very useful info about the Bongo neck being similar to the Reflex. I'm only about 1/2 an hour away from Bass Direct (who I'm probably going to order the Reflex through) so I'm just going to check their website to see if they have any Bongos in. If they do then I know what I'm doing this Saturday. Thanks again.

[quote name='Subbeh' timestamp='1436910765' post='2822067'] A week sounds about right, that's roughly how long it took me to get comfortable going from a Jazz to a Stingray. [/quote] That's actually quite reassuring to me cheers. I've just about made up my mind to order a Music Man Reflex Bass at some point in the next 12 months (when my finances should be able to cover it if I keep my belt tight) & the only slight niggle of doubt in my mind is that I probably won't be able able to test drive one before I order as they seem to be super rare in the UK & the necks on the Music Man Stingrays I've played are a fair bit chunkier than anything I've owned in recent years.

I had a similar thing many years ago when i switched from my first bass (an 'Axe' with a proper baseball bat neck) to my first 'proper' bass - a much slinkier Washburn Status. As I recall I got over it within a few weeks. I think its just a case of your fretting hand being in a slightly different position which you're not used to yet.

I'm with the majority - your'e 22 its the perfect age to give something like this a go. The worst thing that's going to happen is you'll end up broke & having to go back to an office job a couple of years down the line. One note of caution there will be a gap between leaving your job & the point where the music stuff starts paying where you have to support yourself so ideally try & make that gap as short as possible. ie. Don't leave the day job until the music stuff takes off. I would add that in later life you tend to regret the stuff you didn't do more than the stuff you did, but in my case that isn't strictly true.

On bass I'm completely self taught. Never had a book or a video (this was in the pre-internet days of the early 90s) I learnt by playing along to my favourite records or just by turning the radio on & playing along to whatever happened to be on. The closest thing to a lesson I've had was when when a middle aged Jamaican guy was so offended by my attempts at playing slap bass one Saturday afternoon on a BC Rich Warlock bass in Musical Exchanges in Brum that he took a hour & half of his own time for free to teach me the fundamentals of how to do it properly. Its a kindness I've never forgotten & something I've tried to do myself for other people from time to time. If by some chance he's a member on here & remembers me then Thank You. Suprisingly my bass playing is pretty orthodox, which is more than can be said for my guitaring - I learnt chords from books that I'm pretty sure were transcribed by piano players who had little to no understanding of the fundamental differences between guitar & piano chords - to this day I can play most of the Beatles back catalogue - just not how they were played by the Beatles, or anyone else I've ever met for that matter.

My Washburn Status has a graphite layer wrapped around a wooden core (I used to think it was solid graphite but then a tiny piece chipped off at the top corner of the neck, revealing the wood bit). Its the only graphite necked bass I've ever played & it has a lot more zing than my other basses - but then just to muddy the waters it it also has a zero fret & one of the heaviest bridge assemblies ever bolted onto a plank of wood, so I've never been totally sure whether the zing & the clear ringing tone is down to the graphite neck or other factors.

[quote name='steantval' timestamp='1435818433' post='2812618'] Do you actually play an instrument or are on on here just to wind musicians up? [/quote] That's a bit harsh, she's as entitled to her opinion as anyone else. I've been playing bass & guitar (in that order) for a little over 25 years & I quite enjoyed parts of his set, a lot of it didn't work for me (especially the autotune stuff) but I didn't find it as dreadful as a lot of people seemed to. [quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1435833850' post='2812814'] I've seen lots of Kayne West interviews, and i honestly think he has mental issues.. [/quote] I have a theory about Kanye West (just a theory). If you've ever spent time talking to someone who's coked off their nipples then elements of Kanye's interviews & his on stage rants start to sound strangely familiar. Maybe he just has naturally very high endorphin levels..

It depends on context, If you're covering Sweet Child O Mine or Jimi Hendrix's 'All Along the Watchtower' and he messes up the solos people are definitely going to notice. If you are doing original material then who's to say what's right or wrong. If you play with him again maybe subtly suggest that he works on his string bending technique. A quick bend of a semi-tone or two can cover a multitude of sins (assuming he knows he';s hit a bum note in the first place).

[quote name='steve-soar' timestamp='1435612576' post='2810706'] It all started when Robbie Williams played, but he did have a great band and some catchy songs written by Guy Chambers. I suspect hippy Mike and his little girl saw the pound signs appear in their kitchen and thought "f*** milking cows, let's milk the public" [/quote] As to Glastonbury being a cash cow for the Eavis family I refer you to my previous post. I don't know whether Ms Eavis pays herself a wage for organising the festival but other than that the Eavis' receive a surprisingly small amount of cash for organising & hosting the festival.

[quote name='ezbass' timestamp='1435610402' post='2810651'] Perhaps we run it (yes I think we should do it despite the low take up so far) like the Oscars: best player in a supporting role; best lead player; etc. So, rock, prog, pop, funk, icon, etc. That way apples and oranges don't get mixed up, but can feature in more than one category. Waddya think? [/quote] If your'e willing & able to take the time to set it up, I'm more than willing to vote. I suspect many other people will be too.

Lists can be fun, but at some point you always end up trying to compare apples & oranges. eg. How do you decide whether Les Claypool should be ranked higher than John Deacon? Les is an avant-garde genius who plays the instrument like just about no one else, whilst Mr Deacon is absolutely solid as a rock, has written many classic lines & songs & is pretty much everything a traditional rock bass player is supposed to be. They both undoubtedly (imo) deserve to be on a list of the top 50 bass players but as to where abouts on that list in relation to each other I have absolutely no idea where to even start.

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1435598543' post='2810440'] Sorry about that. Ok, I think go to edit, then at the bottom next to '[i]save changes[/i]', click on use '[i]full editor[/i]', then you can edit your opening title as well as your post. [/quote] Thank you so much for that. You've saved me a lot angst from my mild OCD.

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1435597677' post='2810428'] Side dish or main course? [/quote] Aaargh. I've got no idea how to edit a title, dammit.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1435587864' post='2810300'] Very entertaining. To be honest Glastonbury is too big now to be all about new music. A massive festival costs masses of money which means people want to see big names for their money, the big names want the big money and the price rises accordingly [/quote] Glastonbury isn't really run like that. It is & always has been a fundraiser for various environmental charities. Headliners get a flat fee of £200,000 whether they are the Rolling Stones, Kanye West or Florence & the machine. Okay £200,000 isn't bad for a couple of hours work, but its absolute buttons on the European festival circuit. AC/DC were rumoured to have received £4,000,000 for their last Donnington set & I'm sure there are other commercially run festivals which pay more than that. At Glastonbury the bands pay for peanuts, the Eavis family takes a token lump sum (it was £20,000 in the 90s, no idea what it is now) & the rest of the profits go to the aforementioned charities.

I was quite impressed by this. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4qaihcb4a8[/media]

Okay, after careful thought & an inability to sleep I've come up with Chris Martin (No, I don't really think of him as a 'rock star' either but he is globally famous and mainly associated with guitar based music) and Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys. I realise these choices may not be accepted as fitting the description of 'Rock Star' by everyone (or even most), but they're pretty much all I've got in the under 40 category.

If you stick with the traditional definition of 'rock star' which would loosely be someone with global recognition who is associated with guitar based music & also stipulate that they have to be under 40 I really think you're going to struggle to find anyone - & you probably wont like or agree with anyone who does manage to fit into the criteria. If I really strain those criteria the only one I can think of is Taylor Swift who at least plays guitar & is , apparently, according to a review I once read (somewhere) 'rockier' live. There are a fair few globally recognised music stars who can sell out a tour in seconds,but I doubt many here would be happy adding the 'rock' title to their status.

Slightly annoyed that the beeb didn't show the whole set (I'm assuming that they'll have played for more than slightly over an hour). Although I suppose that it is possible that the Who, for whatever reason, didn't want the whole thing broadcast. I seem to recall that's what Mick & Keef stipulated when the Rolling Stones headlined.