Burns-bass

Exceptional basses. This is Fender finding their mojo all over again.

12 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

You are perfectly right. I'm probably being a bitter old man, but:

 

Personally I think there is too much music available nowadays. The figure being headlined is 60,000 new tracks being uploaded to Spotify every day. Various attempts to to debunk this have resulted in revisions down to between 5000 and 40,000 track daily. However, just 5,000 tracks a day is staggering, considering that in the days of vinyl there were probably significantly less than 1000 new singles and albums each week (That's just a guesstimate - I have been unable to find any serious stats on this if anyone has them please post). This combined with the dwindling number of listeners prepared to buy recorded music, means that there is an ever growing number of songs vying for an ever shrinking audience's attention. When anyone with a computer, an internet connection and $50 can produce and album and upload it to all the download and streaming sites, it's not surprising at lots more people are doing it. Unfortunately all that "background noise" makes it much harder for listeners to find new music that they like.

 

And as a listener in the 70s when I started getting into music beyond what was on TotP, my sources were John Peel and Alan Freeman on Radio 1. I'd probably hate at least half of what they were playing and be indifferent to a lot of the rest, but there would be a handful of new records played every week (out of the 120 or so I'd heard) that I would like enough to consider buying. By contrast last week I listened to a 500 track modern post-punk/goth playlist on Spotify. That's 500 songs in specific genres that I really like. However I found less than 10 new bands that I enjoyed enough to warrant further listening. What particularly struck me was how derivative and how poorly recorded much of it was. I've always been worried that my band's home-produced recordings weren't up to scratch, and while so far we've not managed to emulate Trevor Horn or Martin Rushent, by comparison with most of what I heard we are doing pretty well. When someone like myself is struggling to find interesting new music from curated playlists what chance do most casual listeners have?

 

Also when you consider that if my band puts out a single we are in effect competing with every other song ever released for listeners. In the days of releases on vinyl and CD a single (unless it was very popular) had a life of no more than 3-4 months, so it was only ever competing with a few thousand other songs at any one time. These days Spotify and other on-line sources have to apply negative weighting to streams of "back catalogue" tracks otherwise hardly any new music would make the current charts.

 

It's not the cost of living that is crushing new music. It is the sheer amount of music available

Yes, this all makes sense. I also really value the time you’ve taken to spell this out as it’s not something that I’d considered in this level of detail. 
 

Some years ago I read a great book called “the paradox of choice” about this. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice)

I guess new music also has to directly compete with music from heritage acts (endless reissues etc).

Lot to think about!

6 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

I concur with @tauzero, not bass specific gear, so I reckon you're still in the main challenge, you can't go for extra credit now though.

I didn’t know there were caveats to this! I’m still in but I did buy a replacement switch tip for a guitar.

22 minutes ago, la bam said:

 

I guess that's one of the things I'm getting at. I'm not bothered whether or not I like something, but pop music used to be week in week out a mixture of pop, disco, rock, metal, reggae, love songs, party songs, dance, indie, world music, novelty, and new styles breaking through, a whole plethora of music. 

 

I genuinely haven't looked at the charts, but I'd bet they were nowhere near as diverse as a 70s 80s 90s chart. 

 

People's creativity and output has been stifled, even suppressed. Mainly because it's not financially viable to practice, gig, perform, tour, get your voice heard and make an income off the back of it, when starting from scratch. 

 

Therefore I believe it's becoming more and more of the same old boys club, producers, artistes and performers, controlling what music is out there, and financial restraints make it hard to break that chain. 

 

Unfortunately as its been like this for so long it's become the norm and people have just accepted it. 

I’m 100% with you. I was actually responding to RedX who said he wanted old man indie bands and middle aged rockers to get out of the way. I felt that wasn’t fair. 

The Bass Bros website was down for 24-48 hours over the weekend. This would have disrupted emails and could explain why they’ve been missed or ignored. 
 

If it was an intermittent issue then it could have been affecting their emails for a while.

Ive had contact form issues before and there’s no way to test for it in some cases.

I fear it was my post that brought property values into it (and for that I apologise).

The broader point I was making was that we need to create the social conditions where creativity (in music, art, acting, etc) can be enjoyed by everyone.

The alternative is that culture becomes the preserve of the upper classes. Evidence is everywhere. Most of our actors are upper class privately educated, as are our musicians, writers and journalists.

As a society we should invest in and support arts at every level. I bang on about working with old people, but seeing how music can transform people is incredible - and we should all be able to enjoy that.

32 minutes ago, Downunderwonder said:

Probably stolen @85 quid.

Nah. It was a young guy who didn’t play anymore. Happy to share details with anyone who wants it. 

21 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

For those people who absolutely HAVE to create music (or anything else) will always find ways of avoiding the obstacles in their way. IMO anything that discourages the casual dabbler who has heard a Coldplay or Sleaford Mods album and decides to have a go, is a good thing. There are far too many musicians playing in uninspiring bands, and if they want to have a bit of fun in the privacy of a rehearsal room that's fine, but lets not have them clogging up venues, Bandcamp and Spotify.

 

I think that too many posters on here appear to have forgotten what it was like to be in their first originals band. You don't need half the stuff that older musicians seem to to think is absolutely necessary, and many other things are far cheaper in real terms than they were in the 60s, 70s and 80s. If you want to do something badly enough you will work out ways of doing it within your financial constraints.

 

Firstly almost no originals band needs the hassle and expense of PA ownership. All the venues worth playing on the originals circuit have in-house PA systems and if you want to play somewhere different that doesn't it is still possible to hire a system for the gig. In 50 years of playing in originals bands I been two that had their own PA and in both cases that is because we had our own dedicated rehearsal space. The PA was primarily rehearsals and only used for gigs on a handful of occasions.

 

These days everyone thinks they need personal transport but actually you can get a long way (pun intended) without car ownership. In my first few bands hardly anyone could actually drive and if they did, only a couple of them owned cars which were invariable tiny and unreliable. For local gigs we walked or used public transport. For out of town gigs we would hire a car or a van and if none of the band could actually drive we'd have at a least one fan who could and would be happy to drive for us. Remember that all the decent out of town gigs your band would most likely be supporting so all you'd need to take would be instruments amp heads and drum breakables. A four-piece band plus that fits into a typical car. It might not be comfortable but it gets you to the gig and back. If you put on a decent show you'll soon get better gigs with better pay and be able to think about buying a cheap van. I still go to local gigs by taxi. It's cheaper than the running and parking costs for the evening (especially if the gig goes on past midnight) and taxi drivers have no problem stopping in the middle of the street directly outside the venue while I load in/out.

 

As has been said plenty of other aspects of being in a band are much cheaper in real terms than they used to be. Instruments and equipment are a fraction of the price for the same level of quality. In fact unless you buy something dodgy direct from China you are very unlikely to be saddled with the sort of unplayable crap that was all most musicians could afford when starting out right up to the end of the 80s. And recording (if you're not doing it yourself) is ridiculously cheap these days. For my first 3 forays into proper recording studios, we had to watch every minute on the clock otherwise we might not be able to settle the bill at the end, and there were always "hidden extras" like the cost of the tape, both master and multi-track, that you used.

 

Back when I started gigging there were all sorts of free or cheap resources available to those of us who were prepared to put the effort in tracking them down. And they still exist if you can put in the time networking to find them. Four out of the first 5 recording sessions for The Terrortones were absolutely free because they were either part of some training initiative, the studio owner liked us enough to offer us a couple of free sessions when the studio would otherwise be empty, or paid for by the record label who were putting out a compilation album with the band on.

 

Maybe the challenges that face originals bands these days are different to those when I was first recording and gigging, but anyone really committed to getting their music heard will find ways around them. You do have to be living and breathing and dreaming about music 24 hours a day 7 days a week if you want to treat it as anything other than a hobby, but IME that has aways been the case.

 

I’d politely ask who decides what’s good music and who decides what’s derivative rubbish that should be avoided? 
 

All individual artistic expression should be encouraged, even if you don’t like the output. The music you make I simply have no feeling for, but I’d damn near fight anyone for your right to make it and share it. Why deny that to someone else?

It’s a half hour drive and I’m not sure I can be bothered. Still tempted but it’s something I won’t use, so better let someone else have it.

3 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

Ooh, what turned your head?  Do tell!

I found a Squier Dimension bass nearby for £85. They’re quite rare and it looked great. But I resisted, as I don’t need it.

Instead, I set up my existing bass and realised it does precisely the job I need it to do. 

I nearly broke today - but I didn’t!

8 hours ago, tegs07 said:

Yep. Remember when St Werbergs, Montpellier, Southville etc were cheap rent? Same with Kemptown, areas around The Level in Brighton or Camden Town or Nottinghill in London??

 

Same pattern throughout the country. 

 

I’d obviously read about gentrification and how it erases existing communities and replaces them, now I’m seeing it first hand - and it’s pretty crazy here.

It’s the paradox of it, too. People (like me) came here because living costs were low, there was always a party going on, and the city was full of artists and interesting people.

Now it’s becoming one massive middle class paradise. On one hand, I still love it, and on the other feel a bit sad.
 

Of course, that’s an indulgence as I’ve massively benefitted from the process of gentrification (and obviously played my part).

I’m lucky to live in a city like Bristol where live music is everywhere. The costs of living here are insane. 
 

To illustrate, the cost to rent a single room in a shared house on my street (£600) is equivalent to a mortgage payment when we bought the 4 bed house (in 2013).

Couple massive demand from students and young professionals with a buoyant BTL sector and you get a housing crisis - which is what Bristol is experiencing at the moment. 
 

Yet they’re still out there doing it and I’m massively impressed.

From the young people I meet doing gigs and who I play with, music isn’t ever going to be a full time career. Arguably they’re much more commercially savvy and less egotistical than (from what I’ve heard) musicians were in the 70s and 80s. And if my mates are playing in a band, I’ll still go (don’t like lager)
 

To the young music makers: I salute you!

9 hours ago, knirirr said:

 

Interesting. As a British scientist myself, I'm pleased that this meme didn't exist when I last had to visit Russia. 

To be fair, memes are a joke and one I can’t imagine any scientist would find this one funny. 

2 x capos.

i have this one (which is metal but looks like wood) and a plastic one.

I’m getting rid of lots of stuff and you can have it (if you want).

I’ll add more later but we start with this JLS keyboard stand.

Collection only in Bristol.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_scientists_(meme)

3 hours ago, Beedster said:

 

Ah, c'est la via, nothing more than the cycle of life Jack 👍

If you don’t use something, why keep it?

I realised when I sold the Bryant that it depressed me having it. Good for you Chris!

13 minutes ago, walshy said:

Yup I can do that easily enough and my courier can arrange delivery too. Fire me a DM if I can help or ring Tim direct 07873 401907 and tell him I gave you his number

Tim is a thoroughly lovely chap, I have used his services a few times and it has always been a pleasure.

4 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

I want one. Have done for years…

 

The wallet always says no when they (rarely) come up.

I've played one, but only once. It was(as youd expect) a beauty, although the neck got some getting used to!

Of course, if the OP wants an electric bass, you can get a strap for the WAV and NS basses and play those like a normal electric bass. Use a good enough pre-amp and the results aren't bad!

You're actually describing the Takamine TB10. This is essentially a crossover instrument (an EB with a DB radius) that you can play as an upright bass and as an electric one. They're not cheap, but they are cool. 

https://www.takamine.com/TB10

I don't think they're made anymore, and are expensive if you can find one.

Any offers for this?

I need it gone.

14 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

I hope you got that?! And for that price - I’d suggest it doesn’t even count!!!

It’s a 30 minute drive away, so I’ve not messaged him. Looks cool though!

I’ve not bought a guitar this year. Always wanted to get one of these back after having one when I was 15.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/740651201325905/?ref=category_feed

Love these. Sold mine (naturally) but they were superb.