T-Bay

And it’s easy to forget that few bands manage the personal aspects well over time. If AC was a massive overpowering personality they may have split years ago. I love their early stuff and I don’t see any issue with his playing at all, it works where it is. I think he probably realised quite early that he was on to something a bit special and has kept his head down and enjoyed the ride.

Keep safe Blue

Any Valves or even better valve Nixie tubes would be cool, in fact I think you can get LED fake Nixies now that probably run off low voltage.

24 minutes ago, Rich said:

Not really an issue unless the OP's going to be skiing, which he hasn't mentioned. I know I wouldn't... I like mountaintops, and have never seen the sense in throwing myself off a perfectly good one  

I think you are confusing skiing with basejumping, skiing involves wearing appallingly awful clothing that even a kids TV presenter would refuse, whilst sliding into snow cannons at high speed on two fence slats, or even worse, the one planked brigade……..

(But joking aside, skiing is an awesome sport)

Another positive here, excellent service and incredibly helpful in every way.

You can’t beat a decent gig where the sound guys know what they are doing and the crowd and band are up for it. I have seen the odd dodgy gig but most have been great nights. I still get excited by a decent chance to see someone I haven’t seen before, or haven’t seen in years. Always have a few lined up but Offspring and The Hives in October should take some beating. The only thing I don’t like is where touts buy up the tickets and sell them on in a semi legal way. Thankfully most of the bands I go to aren’t big enough to attract that attention.

Thanks everyone. Time isn’t a worry (although the sax I bought a couple of weeks back came in 8 days, 4 of which saw it sat in customs in Coventry). Sadly the seller has gone very quiet so I am hoping it hasn’t been sold.

I have found a nice little gem I am interested in importing from the states. The seller has priced up shipping with USPS and it’s £125. Not a deal breaker if it has to be but I was wondering if anyone has any experience with other carriers who may be less expensive. The neck will come off and it will be well boxed. I guess approx 1m x 60cm x 30cm max and probably between 10-15kg but could creep over depending on packing.

5 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Will I bring total humiliation on myself by sharing this?

It came with ten reeds, all the ones I've tried seem to sound different.

It says to choose the best reed, how should I test them? I've been dipping them in water then trying to play high and low notes*.

 

*I can sort of play penny whistle and recorder, my hope is that this won't be much different aside from the blowing bit...

I guess best will come down to which is easiest to play in tune and which one you like the sound of. The search for the perfect reed is like the search for the perfect bass!

23 minutes ago, StickyDBRmf said:

What's the connection with saxes and bassists? I played the trombone! I mean, I could be loud and obnoxious without an amp, I get that. But at least I already read bass clef. And I'm not TRYING to be cheeky, just wondering...

We are just cool it seems 😎😁

10 minutes ago, ProfJames said:

I need to go back to my pal's lockup again as I am missing a box with mpcs and bass pedals, etc.  So not yet.  However, woud recommend that you contact Dawkes woodwind in Maidenhead as they have a professor of sax and mouthpieces (true!) who is based there.  Great advice, good people I think his name is Prof Anton Weinberg....give them a call.......I will still look but I am not sure when I can get there t check...reliant on a pal...

No problem, thanks mate. There are a couple of types available from the states so might give one of them a try. The tenor one is good enough for me to check leaks etc but is about a semitones out over the full range.

On 12/10/2020 at 20:36, ProfJames said:

Will check.  I had a Martin C Melody and it came with the original mouthpiece............not sure if I still have it but if it is there you will be welcome to it.  Going to check at the weekend so will let you know.  If not you should go onto www.cafesaxophone.com excellent site for sax players, loads of help is offered - it is the sax equivalent of Basschat

Hi mate, did you have any luck on the mouthpiece? The sax arrived today and I am totally smitten. The pads are nowhere near as bad as expected. I tried my tenor mouthpiece and got a tune out of it but intonation was out. It needs a couple of new springs and a damn good service but I may be able to save the pads with a good feed. That would be useful as I can’t find a uk supplier of white/ cream leather ones.

I have only just stopped shaking my head after watching it the first time. They some good stuff on there but sometimes over restore stuff, sadly they did that and more and removed everything great about it.

53 minutes ago, ProfJames said:

Will check.  I had a Martin C Melody and it came with the original mouthpiece............not sure if I still have it but if it is there you will be welcome to it.  Going to check at the weekend so will let you know.  If not you should go onto www.cafesaxophone.com excellent site for sax players, loads of help is offered - it is the sax equivalent of Basschat

Thanks! That would be fantastic!

1 hour ago, ProfJames said:

I must have 30 odd mouthpieces I need to sell or get rid of, will shout you if I find a spare Yamaha.......no charge

Don’t suppose there are any C melody ones in there? (Guessing not)

That is gross. I hate to think what the reeds are like.

Just bought this one to my add to my Tenor and Alto. It’s a 1925 Martin C melody. It needs a repad but otherwise very nice. Should be with me in a couple of weeks from the states.

I have zero issue with a tribute, however the ‘fashion’ for slowing a song down to the point of tedium and putting warbling vocals as a tribute is deeply irritating. But any song like that is generally irritating.

2 minutes ago, Nail Soup said:

Interesting test but.............. you've got a piano at work!?!

Yup, three in fact, including a mini grand, and guitars, bass’s, keyboards, amps, PA etc etc. One of the few benefits of working there at the mo. We have a decent staff band with lead and rhythm guitar, bass, drums, keyboard and even a horn section on a good day.

Had a chance to do some very basic tests on this today with a few people at work. Using a recently tuned piano we tested people to see if the could recognise two notes played at the same time as being an octave apart or not. 100% of people tested (6) could do this every time without hesitation. Next we tried two notes one after another with a small gap and the person had to say if they were an octave apart or not. Very varied results, professional musician was 100% every time, one part time musician was right nearly every time, the other part time musician (me) was right about 80% of the time, other three were around 50% right. It was noticeable that it was easier when the second note was higher than the first, all agreed on this. We then tested our captive musician and he was 100% correct even when three octaves apart and a 30 second gap between first and second note. An interesting lunch hour!

I wonder if the innate aspect is the ability to sense a doubling/ halving in frequency. From the way nerve impulses are generated in the ear, and built in timing function in our brains it’s possible that we can determine such changes. That said I work with special needs kids who can’t tell if a note is higher or lower than the one before, even with some fairly big intervals. What would be interesting would be to see if people can perceive such intervals visually, for example, the speed a dot moves across a screen.

On 24/09/2020 at 18:58, solo4652 said:

In the latest edition of The Psychologist - the magazine of the British Psychological Society - is a short article in the research section that discusses whether pitch perception is a universal human phenomenon. I'll try to paraphrase it:

"In Western music, the octave system is mathematically based - move up an octave, and a given note doubles in frequency. Perhaps Western music has come to use this system because it relates to the way sound waves physically stimulate the cochlea in the inner ear. In other words, there's something biologically fundamental, and universal, about the way we perceive pitch. But, is this true for non-Western music?

In 2019, a team from the Max Planck institute revealed that a remote group of people living in the Bolivian rainforest doesn't process pitch in this way. The Bolivians don't perceive similarities between two notes an octave apart.

This work adds to other research, notably in vision and smell, revealing that, while all humans possess the same hardware, culture influences our sensory perceptions."

I thought that was rather interesting.

 

Any chance of a,link,to the article? (If available online obviously). It is an area that has fascinated me for many years. There are many aspects beyond simple pitch recognition , for example why do so many people find repeated pentatonic phrases so enjoyable? Why do we love some music and hate other? 

22 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Cripes, there are a couple of positive responses but overwhelmingly negative.

I think it’s an age thing to some degree, in the 70s and 80s most school music teachers were classically trained so not necessarily open to the sorts of music that would suit a bass guitar. If the same question were asked on a forum for members or orchestra’s maybe the response would be more positive. My music teacher didn’t believe anything written after ww2 and mostly anything after 1850 was worth listening to. Being involved with teaching kids music through a charity I am pleased to say music in schools is very different now.

7 minutes ago, Skybone said:

The years of playing recorder in Primary were forgotten once you left Primary.

When we were given the option of recorder, those that didn’t want to could play football or run around outside, strangely recorder wasn't that popular which may have been the idea.

I can read music, although far too slowly to play by, other than that it was a complete waste. Uninterested teacher who didn’t think what I like was even music (punk, heavy rock, alternative), only interested in classical music, 20 tossers out of a class of 30, no practical. It could have been so much better.