Doctor J

I have a Noll TCM3, on my old ESP, with three stacks. - Vol and Blend with push-pull Vol to engage passive mode - Bass and Treble cut/boost - Mid cut/boost and passive tone cut Flexible 🙂

The last band I was in was in 2016, last gig was then, too. Every now and then I feel a flicker of interest to get back into that side of things but, when I'm honest with myself, I've little interest in going through the ballache which comes with being in a band and absolutely zero desire to spend any more of my life on motorways driving to rehearsals and gigs. Young me would just get back on the horse and start again, older me is a little wiser, perhaps a little more cynical too, but sees less validity in wasting time on people who don't really share the vision and repeating the process. I could probably find a cover band closer to home but it's a scene I've never been into, it holds no interest for me at all. I never want to play covers just for the sake of gigging. Instead, I've busied myself with writing and recording. I still love trying to come up with new music and I've got plenty of half-written songs which I was always waiting on bandmates to contribute to in order to finish, which I have taken it upon myself to record and finish. This means recording on instruments I'm not exactly proficient on, having to work to get to an acceptable standard on them, writing lyrics, singing (which I'm still massively uncomfortable doing), sound engineering and producing. I want it to sound good, not just crudely put together for the sake of it. As pretentious as it sounds, I'm seeing myself less as a bass player but more of a musician. It's all on me, though. There's no more getting frustrated with anyone else's lack of commitment or skill, songs only get finished if I have the requisite work ethic. The finished piece of music being the reward at the end of it all instead of the feeling of being let-down by others again. The monthly comp was what got me started thinking I could do it myself, provided I was prepared to learn new skills outside the realm of bass playing and really challenge myself. Have a think about what you want to do. If you love music, and I think you must do to be in the position you are, then maybe you don't just get back on the horse and do the same thing you've always done. Maybe you need a different approach how you satisfy your musical urges?

A dab of threadlock?

"Original guitar with no modification" Those two extra screws in the bridge to stop the tail-lift are stock?

It can be a truly beautiful thing. The greatest example being, in my humble opinion, when Metallica took all the cocaine and averaged about 20-25bpm faster for every song 😂 Just fantastic.

In the airport waiting to fly back after attending Keep It True in Wurzburg. Flotsam & Jetsam were the band of the night on Friday. Last night, Watchtower showed that time still hasn't caught up with them yet, their music still belongs to the future. Mind blowing stuff from ridiculously skilled musicians who really give it all and look like they're having a blast too. Doff of the cap to Doug Keyser and his SS2. Delighted to have finally see the dude play after 34 years of waiting.

I'm tired of shouty words in text. I blame the popularity of the TV show Friends and the Chandler character, in particular. That patronising over-emphasis of particular words, frequently multiple times per sentence, is the hallmark of a wrong 'un.

If you're going to make a demo, make it something in the musical style you want to play with the group. If I was looking for a bass player for an indie band, for example, some lad noodling with a looper wouldn't be high on my list of people to call. You could do a playalong video of a song you like in that style and put it on youtube. Don't be put off by the look-at-me technical gymnasts unless that's what you're trying to be, show what you do and how you do it. It's about showing you can play that style of music, not that you can play 10,000 notes per second.

The tuning is valid but you need the right string for what you tune to and how hard you play. Have a look at the size of the string you have, it's probably a .125 or .130 which, in my opinion, are not fit for purpose when it comes to playing metal down in A, most likely aggressively. The tension just isn't there. I have a 4 string tuned that way and I'm using a .147 for dropped A. The standard 5 string sets tend to go in jumps of .20 per string but, in my experience, the lower you go on a bass where the scale is the same for all 4 strings, the more you need to exaggerate the size of the lower strings.

Who cares what other guitar players say or what's in Hello magazine? Why not just listen to music without the baggage?

The phones would irritate me more than U2. Any chance of really losing yourself in the moment and getting lost in the experience would die in the cold glow of thousands of tiny screens held aloft in the way.

Old musician shares honest personal opinion. Outrage ensues. Clicks = Cash Money.

The blocks are so far off centre you'd have to think they're stickers. Not even on Fender's darkest days did they get it so badly wrong.

Buying the right aftermarket pickup for punk is a detailed and time-consuming process, if you wish to be authentic to the spirit of punk and truly seek to honour the forefathers of the genre. Much chin-stroking consideration lies in your path, as it did theirs.

Bandcamp have been taken over by Songtradr. Can't say I've ever heard of the latter, but I hope it's not the start of a disintegration of the great service they provided. Songtradr, a music licensing platform and marketplace company supporting artists, labels and publishers, and Epic Games, a leading interactive entertainment company and provider of 3D engine technology, announced today that Songtradr is acquiring Bandcamp. Songtradr will continue to operate Bandcamp as a marketplace and music community with an artist-first revenue share. Bandcamp is an online music store and community with over five million artists and labels where fans can discover, connect with, and directly support the artists they love. This acquisition will help Bandcamp continue to grow within a music-first company and enable Songtradr to expand its capabilities to support the artist community. Songtradr will also offer Bandcampartists the ability and choice to have their music licensed to all forms of media including content creators, game and app developers and brands. This will enable artists to continue to own and control their music rights, and increase their earning capacity from Songtradr's global licensing network. Epic is exploring ways to partner with Songtradr to build an inventory of music where artists can opt in to have their music licensed for use in Epic's ecosystem. Epic will continue to collaborate with Bandcamp on projects like Fortnite Radio and is investing in Songtradr to support Bandcamp's successful integration into Songtradr. "The acquisition of Bandcamp will help Songtradr continue to grow its suite of services for artists. I'm a passionate musician myself, and artistry and creativity have always been at the heart of Songtradr. Bandcamp will join a team of music industry veterans and artists who have deep expertise in music licensing, composition, rights management, and distribution," said Paul Wiltshire, CEO of Songtradr. "Songtradr shares Epic and Bandcamp's values around ensuring artists are fairly compensated for their work," said Steve Allison, vice president and general manager, store at Epic Games. "Bringing Bandcamp to Songtradr will make it easier for independent artists to connect with creators and developers looking to license their music and enable Epic to focus on its core metaverse, games, and tools efforts."

Indeed. Bring it on 😁

I had hoped to get something done quickly but failed, and have been away for the last couple of weeks getting married to she who is the Doctress. Great selection as usual, peeps 👍🏻

Is this the mid-90's one where the lugs of the jack are soldered directly onto the circuit board and one of the lugs is diagonal to the others? There's a lot more to it than simply being a plastic box. There are very few jacks which fit that without some substantial messing around. WD used to do them but postage was an abomination. I'd try to buy the correct one from EBMM and be spending my time looking at mail forwarding services from the US.

That you were spoiling his view when you held your bright phone screen between his eyes and the stage, perhaps? You make the point that he could have moved to accomodate you and had a perfect view, so surely you accepted you were actually interfering with his concert experience in some way, but you don't seem to think you should have accomodated him and the rest of the people behind him? It sounds like it was a small enough venue, could you have moved to the side or the back to take the video without getting in anyone's way or compromising your video?

Were you holding the phone in front of your face, compromising your view, or up high in the air, compromising the view of all the people behind you?

I need to set up a band called ADULT BEVERAGES

An occasional swoosh across the crowd from a giant blade like the one at the end of Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade should keep the phone-holding hands down.

When I was young I briefly joined a band who were trying to "make it". They had management and label interest and all that crap and I despised every second of it. That scene was not for me. I love music but loathe the business.

Petar is a beast of a drummer and funky as hell when he wants to be.

Even if you could buy it, it wouldn't be cheap. They'd want a big fee. They'd want a biiiiig fee.