Dankology

I played one briefly while sounding out fretless options a couple of years ago. It made me look (even more) like a midget. It did not sound significantly nicer than the Crafter that I ultimately picked up - for a similar price secondhand to what the FEB was new.

We're now onto Volume 9 of these weekly compilations of live and otherwise exclusive tracks in support of independent Manchester music venues. I'm particularly thrilled with this one as it features a live track from the Meat Puppets, one of my favourite bands of all time. All the previous volumes remain available on Bandcamp, where you can stream all 90 tracks collected thus far before considering dropping some money into the pot... https://lockdownlive.bandcamp.com/album/lockdown-live-volume-9 We've put some of the more, er, difficult to categorise music on this one so might not be to all tastes. If that's the case, jump to Volume 7 where we put some of our favourite singer songwriters 🐵

I was a bit dubious about that Stooges box when it first came out (15 years ago?) but eventually picked one up - and it is phenomenal. I'm not sure every band or album would stand up to the scrutiny but hearing the Stooges drill those songs over and over, honing them into the familiar versions is thrilling, intoxicating stuff. I have a fair few boxsets, most compiled along much more sensible lines but there aren't many I listen to more often than the Funhouse one. Bit surprised to see the lack of enthusiasm for demos and outtakes here - the musician in me loves the insight into others bands' processes.

Dunno if it helps but I sold a guitar a couple of years ago to a vague friend - it was my first new guitar, had it since I was 19 etc etc but just never really used it. And after 20 years it was essentially taking room up that could be taken over by a bass... It now gets gigged regularly and every so often I see it on stage, either in real life or on Facebook photos. It's a nice feeling knowing it's finally doing the job it was meant to do

I dunno. If this was someone saying "I really fancy getting into vinyl" for the first time, I'd be advocating either going in large so that you actually get the benefit of the format or just going for streaming so that you get better value for money (and likely better quality playback too.) For the OP, it sounds like there is already a record collection waiting to be played and which may well be in decent nick, in which case I reckon a mid-table solution is called for: enough to make all the faffing around of vinyl worthwhile without making it sound crap and/or knackering the records. £500 is more than enough to do this if you're willing to go second hand - my ultra stingy setup worked out something like £300: Project Debut 3 £150 s/h, Teac amp £60 s/h and recently replaced speakers from Mission £90 new. If space consideratons or aesthetics call for an all-in-one then it might be worth bearing in mind that many of these (including, the Teac, I believe) come from exactly the same manufacturer with the only variation being minor cosmetics and the price if you go for one with a more recognizable badge. I think the benefit of revisiting an old collection is that you occasionally pull out the forgotten gem that you wouldn't have downloaded or streamed otherwise, plus you may also be lucky enough to have realtives' collections bestowed upon you as it becomes known that you're into records. My collection has now absobed that of my parents, my partner's parents and her uncle - inherited some amazing stuff and some fairly awful ones too. It's all good...

I'd just be a bit wary of two things: one would be getting the vinyl bug and then soon wanting to upgrade from something that would have very little re-sale value; the other is the risk of wrecking a nice record collection with a cheap tonearm/stylus set up. Although that would be faithful to the old Dansette tradition 🐵 Have been looking at this quite recently for my brother, who sounds to be in a very similar situation. He seems to be edging towards the Audio Technica turntable which connects via bluetooth to wireless (powered) speakers. Although I believe these just send the summed mono signal to both speakers rather than true stereo.

Project Debut 3 for me - picked mine up second hand years ago and it's been great - simple, sounds good and looks good.

I haven't but I'll try and get a message to them- thank you very much!

Excellent outcome - well played: conflict resolved, moral high ground maintained, pride maintained by forcing a compromise... 20 quid very well spent, I'd say.

Volume 3 is out today and features exclusive live tracks from: Emmas (previously Bird) Black Honey LIINES The Red Stains The Seamonsters Hamell On Trial Peter Perrett (the Only Ones) The Distractions Thugs On Wolves Joan the Wad -the last of these is my own band £5 gains you access to all of this fine music as well as the sense of wellbeing that only comes from supporting some of the country's most fertile small venues. https://lockdownlive.bandcamp.com/album/lockdown-live-volume-3

My father in law had something similar happen with a model train he sold: a high value item that was working perfectly prior to sale (he actually filmed it steaming - just to keep the memory of it, train-fiend that he is). Shortly after the sale he got a message asking for a partial refund as the steam action was not working. After careful consideration we decided to ask for the item to be returned - this would have cost us the return postage as well as a full refund and risked the customer sending back a different item. Predictably enough, it was suddently found to be working properly and the request dropped. I've used Ebay for 20 years with almost no issues whatsoever but there is clearly a growing trend for buyer's remorse leading to a request for a parital refund on spurious grounds. Ebay and PayPal are not your friends in this and will inevitably decide against you. I would advise the course of action we took - effectively a calling of the bluff but, as I say, it's not without its own risks. Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

That's the one - a very fine venue...

Volume 2 came out today and features live and/or exclusive tracks from: Stefan Melbourne (We Were Strangers) Piney Gir Damon & Naomi (Galaxie 500) Charlotte Carpenter Blue Rose Code Chloe Èleanor Jones Angel Snow Amy Studt Lyla Foy Audrey's Dance Please have a look, consider spending the £5 minimum donation and sharing the link with anyone that loves grassroots live music. https://lockdownlive.bandcamp.com/album/lockdown-live-volume-2

Apologies if this counts as an illegal advert - please delete if so. I'm involved with a series of fundraising compilations on Bandcamp to raise money for five small Manchester venues that are under threat of permanent closure due to the Covid-19 restrictions. The venues are the Castle, the Eagle Inn, Gullivers, Night People and the Rose and Monkey - I suspect I won't be the only person here to have played a few of these places and/or to have seen many gigs in them. Each weekly compilation features 10 exclusive tracks many from our favourite local acts and several from touring artists. A lot of them have been recorded live in the very venues we are supporting. The first compilation came out last Friday and is available here: https://lockdownlive.bandcamp.com/album/lockdown-live-volume-1 ...for a minimum donation of £5. The next installment goes live this coming Friday. Please dig deep and share the link far and wide: small venues are the lifeblood of new music - and if we lose them now, you can be certain that they will be gone forever.

I think you may have to wait for this to grow out in its own time... If you were desperate I guess someone trained in minor surgery could numb the finger and cut the old nail off but you'd have some very tender exposed flesh there for a good long while. Plus I'm not sure where you'd find someone to operate on it in the present climate. Maybe an opportunity to develop dexterity in a lesser used digit?

I've had a fretless Crafter for a couple of years and it definitely needs to be amplified, even when playing with a single small bodied acoustic guitar and unamplified vocals. It does tend to sound not massively different to an electric if you're not careful though. When recording, I sometimes combine the direct output with a mic somewhere near the bottom of the neck - gives a nice, more natural sound but I guess it would be problematic to recreate this live. Maybe a small DPA mic mounted on the body...

The Associates are a sorely under-appreciated band IMHO. Really like Billy Mackenzie's Beyond the Sun lp too.

My girlfriend's dad passed all his LPs onto us a few years ago. He seemed to have a few odd European pressings of Beatles stuff, presumably picked up on holidays so I never thought much of the odd looking Led Zep I with the wrong coloured sleeve until I looked it up: https://www.discogs.com/Led-Zeppelin-Led-Zeppelin/release/1218217 I think it's the rarer variant due to some combination of publishing credits and matrix numbers. He had no idea and had bought it from record shop in Moston of all places at the time of release. It actually cleaned up quite nicely but the cover has seen too many parties to claim the really big money.

This: exactly this. The vultures are always circling and once our small venues are gone they won't be coming back. Certainly not in their original, unique, characterful buildings.

Inspired by these snippets I bought two of Deke's books direct from Mickey - and I'm savouring every word. One of my happiest purchases ever - and as someone with a fairly vast library of rock books I can't quite understand why I didn't come across them before.

I'm hardly a fan but I thoroughly enjoyed the film Gibbons and Frank Beard were particularly good value for money - particularly the latter's refreshingly honest take on hard drugs.

Excellent call! I thought I was the only one who remembered them... Funnily enough I found an old mini-album/maxi-single of theirs that I'd entirely forgotten about in a box last week. I suppose you could argue the semantics of "underrated" vs "forgotten about/ignored" if you were being picky.

I've really enjoyed reading these excerpts - which book are they from? Or if they're from several - where best to start? This last chunk led me to read up on Johnny Kidd - I'd always read that he'd died in Radcliffe but I hadn't realized that his car crash was actually in Bolton, just moments from my childhood home and within sight of my aunty and uncle's house.

If this whole country isn't on shutdown by then, please consider coming seeing my band at Retro Bar... I'll link to our last single below but we're hard at work on our next one and this gig should serve as a launch night if all goes to plan. Tickets are available here: https://fatso.ma/T4ZM but I've got a wodge of satisfyingly 1990s-looking paper tickets here if you prefer. Facebook event page is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/858578724566086/ Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joanthewadmusic/ Our Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5rtswctt-Lqzb6G9Nd5ybA Last single: