skankdelvar

Nice work, Sir. Most illuminating.

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1428867092' post='2745501'] contestants produce an old string and those assembled (in a circle) try to guess the makers name and for an extra point, the gauge. [/quote] That game [i]never[/i] gets old. One time at the North Oxfordshire bash we tried sitting in a [i]square[/i] formation but it just wasn't the same.

My understanding of jamming coincides with Blue's observation. Some friends would get into a room with no pre-planned song list; someone randomly starts playing a pattern, a riff or some chords and everyone else follows along. Over time the 'song' mutates, winds down, re-starts, wanders off and comes back. There may be a pause while someone puts the kettle on or - perhaps - constructs a Camberwell Carrot. Then you start playing again. Repeat until everyone's bored or the neighbours call the council. It [s]can[/s] used to go on for ages - the longest I ever jammed was about ten hours including comfort breaks. You'd come back from having a piss and they'd have moved the jam on a notch. Or not

[quote name='juliusmonk' timestamp='1428465951' post='2741505'] I agree the review isn't particularly bombastic, however it says nothing specific as regards tone or playability to help others understand. [/quote] To be fair, was there [i]ever[/i] a magazine review that was specific as regards tone and playability? 'One of the best necks we've ever played ... reassuring heft ... let's roll back the volume ... liquid jazz burp ... throaty precision growl ... convincingly solid hardware ... embarrassingly smooth knob travel ... fleck of overspray on the binding loses it a star ... one for the well-heeled semi-pro and the touring musician alike.' One might paste that tripe under a picture of almost [i]any[/i] bass and save a fortune on buying mags for their reviews.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1428489573' post='2741694'] Which kettle is best for metal? [/quote] A metal kettle. But the most metally is John Kettley. [size=3][b]Kettley[/b]: Not Bob Carolgees[/size]

Welcome Josh ... Bon ton roulet!

Ta for that, Molan. An interesting read, Sir. It rather begs the question of The Perfect Bass - a bass that might perhaps score 10/10 on every scale. A bass so universally [i]perfect[/i] that everyone who played it would love it, irrespective of their technical prowess and chosen genre. What skills might be needed to craft such a bass? How much might it cost? And would they do a £250 Chinese clone, please? [color=#ffffff].[/color]

Welcome to BassChat Luli Enjoy the forum

[quote name='KARIKAL' timestamp='1428386138' post='2740695'] You should definitely pay more attention at storing your kings' corpses. [/quote] Indeed. I don't know [i]what[/i] we were thinking. I suppose it was just something we meant to get around to and never did.

[quote name='poptart' timestamp='1428444574' post='2741417'] This is the small pleasureboard, there is a medium and large ;-) [/quote] Put me down as a 'large'.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1428443638' post='2741406'] Young bands new to booking should think hard about whether or not to take this type of booking. They can be very painful. [/quote] True, that. On the other hand, they're all good experience and part of the rich tapestry of life. They also provide a rich store of anecdotes with which to entertain one's children and their childrens' children: 'Tell us about when you lost your eye in the great punk wars of '79, Grandpa Skank!' 'Well there was just the four of us and 500 speed-crazed mohicans in kilts and leather jackets. So we played 'The Pina Colada Song' and all hell broke loose. Nobby was the first one to die, an assegai in his chest and choking on his own blood ([i]that's enough - Tedium mod[/i]) '

[quote name='Tuco' timestamp='1428442410' post='2741387'] Spot on , excpet we have no singer [/quote] There's your problem, then. If you'd had a singer - possibly a plump middle-aged lady in a cerise camisole top - they'd have loved you. Schoolboy error, that. Try advertising on bandmix or joinmyband before you go out again. No need to thank me.

TBH, I can see both sides of this debate. Once or twice over the years I've turned up to what was supposed to be an enjoyable gig for everyone, only to discover a bizarrely hostile landlord and a cast of early evening punters who look at you with murder in their eyes as you walk through the door. Determined to entertain, you ignore the scowling, muttering local Cuthberts, set up like lightning and kick off with a good 'un. You finish the song to dead silence - then a single cry of 'You're sh*t, f*ck off'. At half time the landlord slouches over. 'I don't know why I booked you. They hate bands here. I won't be able to pay you.' Then he goes off upstairs to watch TV. A hasty band conference agrees you do the second set at twice light speed with everything set to twelve. Fifteen minutes later the singer - inspired by tradition - sits down on the edge of the stage and sneers 'Ever had the feeling you've been swindled?'. It's worth it, just for the look on their neanderthal faces. The only problem now is getting out without being killed.

[quote name='jonnythenotes' timestamp='1428429147' post='2741206'] Why thank you Skank...... [/quote] You're welcome, amigo.

Hats off to Mr Jonnythenotes for introducing not one but [i]two[/i] new aspects to the eternal Fodera debate. Nice work, Sir

[quote name='KARIKAL' timestamp='1428297187' post='2739956'] It may be my lack of comfort in English or my paranoid nature but I wondered for seconds whether Mr Skankdelvar and Mr Discreet were thinking of repeating Edouard Plantagenet's exploit (straddling within panache, elan - and aplomb- the thin line bteween morons and cretins) [/quote] No need for paranoia, chum! We don't do Edouard Plantagenet anymore, not since we recently found the bones of Richard Plantagenet under a car park in Leicester. In our usual loopy British way we laid on a full funeral procession and spent crillions on a memorial for him. Even rabid republicans were heard to say 'Oh, that's quite interesting...' and the leftiest of our TV channels gave him a week's worth of programme-time. Tearful members of the public queued to pay their tributes to a king who died 500 years ago. We're odd like that and BC is a perfect example.

£11,000? Is that all? Was not the Ritter Royal Flora Aurum a princely $250,000? Diamond encrusted board and a gig-bag made from 10,000 year old mammoth's foreskin? Frankly, I think it's marvellous that people make these things and other people buy them. And it costs us [i]nothing[/i] to look at them. Even better that it pisses off those who'd have us all driving round in identical beige Trabants, the better to [s]enforce[/s] express the fraternal comradeship of the proletariat.

[quote name='Bloodaxe' timestamp='1428302526' post='2739966'] ... we definitely wouldn't have had Hendrix if it wasn't for The Animals. [/quote] Going a bit Pete Frame for a minute: Hearing about the Animals from Graham Bond, Giorgio Gomelsky (the Stones first manager) helped them out in their early days, recording some live material and getting them on a tour where they backed Sonny Boy Williamson. The London 'scene' was very incestuous in those days; everybody knew everyone else and - in some cases - were prepared to give each other a helping hand. Quite apart from covering each others' material and nicking each others' riffs, the UK muso community of 1963-67 was remarkably tightly knit. They all lived in the same village but there were only two mansions on the hill. The Beatles lived in one and The Stones in the other. Down from the hill came templates for performance and production techniques, favoured instrument brands, fashionable clothes, interview styles, politics, philosophy, band management strategies. Those who came after the Stones and the Beatles went on to develop their own voices and to enjoy their own success. But those two bands are woven into the DNA of rock in such a way that even someone who has never really listened to them might be influenced by extension and at a distance. It's just one of those truths that can't be denied.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1428271203' post='2739875'] +1 They are are fundamental force of nature, much like the weather. [/quote] Indeed. Much better put than my ramblings.

Frankly, it doesn't matter whether some people like / get / value / understand the Stones while others do not. To this day the Stones exert a gravitational effect on anyone who picks up an instrument, whether they want to sound like the Stones or want very much [i]not[/i] to sound like the Stones. 'The Stones' is a monolithic, historied entity with its roots in the earliest days of rock. As an idea 'The Stones' exists (sic) far beyond the confining boundaries of genre and musical taste. 'Liking or 'not liking' them is such an irrelevance it's probably easier just to like them and spare oneself the trouble of coming up with reasons [i]not[/i] to like them. And at a certain level the Stones don't really [i]care[/i] whether people like them - if they ever did care. Which is all part of the charm. [color=#ffffff].[/color]

Welcome to the forum Karikal! [quote name='discreet' timestamp='1428185844' post='2739012'] Yeah, we're mostly complete morons. [/quote] And the rest of us are complete cretins. It's a thin line between moron and cretin but many of us straddle it with panache and élan.

The 'Curse of Skynyrd' strikes again.

Under-rated bass players in [i]humungous[/i] bands and who rarely get mentioned on BC possibly because they're a bit unfashionable or because they eschew fretboard acrobatics, preferring instead to 'play for the song': Mike Rutherford Bill Wyman Noel Redding John McVie Dusty Hill Garry Tallent (E Street Band) Joe Bouchard (BOC) Tina Weymouth Colin Greenwood Under-rated, older British bass players of whom we rarely speak: Tony Levin Sparko (Feelgoods) Johnny Spence (Pirates, Johnny Kidd) Gerry McAvoy (Gallagher / NBZ) Henry Cluney (SLF) Tony Goggle (Wayne Fontana, Mungo Jerry, Foghat, Yngve Malmsteen, Quartet of Doom) Ronnie Lane (Faces) John Wetton (Family, Crimson, Roxy, Heep, Wishbone Ash) Johnny Gustafson (Big Three, Roxy) Barry Adamson (Magazine, Visage, The Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) Jah Wobble And Rocco Prestia.

[quote name='tranmere' timestamp='1427963295' post='2736272'] how can I make my bass part more interesting? [/quote] More interesting than [i]what[/i]? The original bass lines on the records? Than the templated trad root / 5 country bass line? If you play something 'interesting' the best you can hope for is a cold, murderous stare from the bandleader. The worst you can expect is being ripped limb from limb by enraged elderly men in cowboy boots and Hank Williams t-shirts.

The amazing thing is that the idea of 'genres' only started about thirty years ago. Before that there were just pop, progressive rock, easy listening and comedy records. How did we manage? Now there seems to be about 300 genres [i]just in the UK[/i] including one called German Show Tunes and another called Deep Neo-Folk. So many 'genres' and such a proliferation of fantastic music as a result. What a time to be alive!* [size=2]*Deep Sarcasm. Which is not a genre.[/size]