MartinB

Does that disqualify the thousands of ska revival bands with pun names like "The Ex-Ska-Vators"? 😆 This goes on a lot in the surf scene too.

The bridge section (around two minutes) always gives me trouble. In my head I know it's straightforward - two shapes moving between two strings. But my fingers refuse to cooperate! 😆

Time for a set of catgut strings

In addition to the Joyo American Sound already mentioned, the Joyo Ultimate Drive is a cheap-but-good Fulltone OCD clone. Also worth a look (and frequently on sale for ~£40), the TC Electronic MojoMojo:

Bear in mind that although a song may not go below E in its original key, your singer may sound better singing it in a different key. When I was doing covers, I think there was only one song we played that would have originally required a 5 string - but I still ended up using the Eb and D a lot on songs that we'd transposed down a bit. Though I will say that the low B, C and Db very rarely got any use!

This song came out a decade ago today, and she's released a remix to celebrate: She was only 13, and the amount of stinky poo she got (including death threats) was crazy. It's to her credit that she came out of it with sense of humour intact.

It's amazing to me that Brokencyde genuinely came up with their own schtick. It seems so much like a transparent attempt to appeal to all kinds of teenagers at once, thought up by a bunch of A&R men 💰 This Vice article points out that there are a number of terrible-but-hyped recent acts with a similar sound. So maybe they were just ahead of their time! 🤣

The terrible-but-enthusiastic cover bands are funny, but I reckon the groups that really qualify are the ones who released utter rubbish despite having record company money behind them. A lot of different people must've been involved, and apparently not one of them stood up and said, "Hang on a minute... this is terrible!". Presenting: Vanilla The rumour at the time was that this was a prank by Chris Morris 😆

Zero-Mod do a Bongo one that needs no drilling, but it's a special order and $40! 😬 I wonder if there's a helpful Basschat-er with a 3D printer who might assist... 🤔

Good stuff! I like the idea of phrasing things as a question-and-answer.

The red one's nice. Does the non-reverse shape affect the balance much, or not really? The strap button still looks a fair distance from the 12th fret.

Direct sales by talking directly to a band member and then sending them money via PayPal is fine. Buying from a recognised e-commerce platform (Shopify, Big Cartel, Bandcamp, etc.) is fine. It's the middle ground of home-made looking websites that I wouldn't touch with a bargepole. No way am I entering my credit card details into some cobbled-together PHP monstrosity! 😆

According to the manual: You almost certainly wouldn't do any harm by running it in "GUITAR" mode though. You might get some clipping/distortion if the signal is too loud, in which case you'd either turn down the output on the Sansamp, or reduce the Tascam input's "TRIM" control.

I don't know about the cabs etc, but I've got an Elf head, and it's great. Like any amp, it's perfect for some gigs, and poorly suited to others. I wish they'd called it a Peavey Elf though. It doesn't particularly bother me that Peavey are using the Trace Elliot brand for not-very-Trace-y things, but it clearly riles up a certain demographic - every discussion about the Elf seems to get sidetracked into grumbling about that instead! 😆

☝️ This! Short clips with timestamps please, so that we can easily flick between them. Having a comparison clip of basic mass-market roundwounds (Rotosound, Ernie Ball) would also give a useful idea of how much of the "voice" of the bass and amp we're hearing vs. the strings.

You can get replacements direct from Audio Technica: https://www.audio-technica.com/en-gb/headphones/accessories/replacement-earpads-eartips/atpt-m50xpadbk They're out of stock at the moment, but if you use the contact form they should be able to tell you when they'll be available - it worked for me!

Completely ignoring the rhythmic and melodic aspects for a second... The lowest pitch is important for how our brains make sense of chords. If a guitarist plays the notes C-E-G-A and the bassist plays a C, then it'll sound like a C6 overall, because the C is lowest. But if the bassist plays an A, the harmony will sound like an Am7. The same four notes are being played, but our brains use the lowest one to give the others context. And since the bassist* is usually playing a lower pitch than the guitarist, they're generally in charge. You could have a whole song where the "chord" played by the guitar never changes, but the harmony still goes through a sequence of chords because that's what the bassline makes us hear. It's a big simplification - melody is important too - but that's the basic idea. * Or pianist's left hand, or organist's feet, etc. - whoever's got the lowest notes, wins!

The Skatalites

😮 Can't believe I missed this! I'm having a listen now - it's cracking stuff. Thanks!

The silver looks a bit too bluey-greeny to me. But the copper is gorgeous! 🤤

My favourite album release of 2020 was In Search Of The Lost City Of The Monkey God by The Sorcerers: https://sorcerers.bandcamp.com/album/in-search-of-the-lost-city-of-the-monkey-god https://open.spotify.com/album/2kGJhogMhGMyRiubKx0rlt?si=ZuD4ppoyThWpFwPjRVKbUw It's like a retro jazzy library music soundtrack for a forgotten b-movie, with some lovely tight bass-and-drum grooves. Honourable mentions: stoner/doom Mellified Man by Warrior Pope (Mr Foxen of this parish) https://warriorpope.bandcamp.com/album/mellified-man https://open.spotify.com/album/0dYnZqVsDRLD9PlrLY9og6?si=VbZn4Zk2SGiCoLzE55YBmw Crushingly heavy, tuneful and concise. Viscerals by Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs https://pigspigspigspigspigspigspigs.bandcamp.com/album/viscerals https://open.spotify.com/album/15CVkItclaGrn0xLr16Qw0?si=dOHw9DDjSzKFS6n_CjnQOg Big Sabbathy riffs. Disappointed to have missed them live a couple of times - they're apparently really good. Honourable mentions: surf/instro The Celestial Sounds Of The Space Agency by The Space Agency https://thespaceagency.bandcamp.com/album/the-celestial-sounds-of-the-space-agency Long-awaited collection of vintagey twang and fuzzy psych. And they're also lovely people! 😄 Sunworshipper by The Spiratones https://thespiratones.bandcamp.com/album/sunworshipper Melodic, catchy surf, garage and spy stuff. Hoping to make it up to Ulverston to gig with these lads once things get a bit closer to normal 🤞 Honourable mentions: indie Every Bad by Porridge Radio https://porridgeradio.bandcamp.com/album/every-bad https://open.spotify.com/album/4DN3XbB33kHTJA7HhI0RFI?si=ah4hqgk_SK-mvNW_Fr7Uvg Marmite! I can't decide whether they're interestingly raw and honest, or insufferably arty and bigheaded 🤔 All Or Nothing by Shopping https://shoppingfc.bandcamp.com/album/all-or-nothing https://open.spotify.com/album/3jgAzjCrL8Xf9gXmIyMeQq?si=XiSJFTMxSYiZlj-W6pvULQ I can't resist a bit of wiry post-punk, and this lot do it really well.

Love it!

I had a dig around for info on the Sonic IR, as it looks like a challenger to the current smallest/simplest/cheapest IR box (Nux Mini Studio, ~£55). One thing I found on an old Aliexpress listing is that the total internal memory is 236 KB, which may or may not be a problem depending on the size/number of files you want to use.