Dankology

Has anyone got any strap recommendations?

I don't fancy adding a button at the heel but the traditional Hofner looks a bit too traditional to me and I'm not keen on that weird D clip arrangement at the bottom end... Are there any nice third party ones out there?

21 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

Recognise that it's a different beast and needs to be played differently and you may well end up a happy bunny.

 

I like the sound of this. I'll persevere...

I think I might not like it.

I often feel this way about new basses though.

Having melted areas of finish in the past and with a nitro-finished bass incoming, I'm looking for recommendations for stands appropriate for home and stage use.

(Which is to say low-profile for the living room and near-idiot-proof for gigs)

2 hours ago, Doctor J said:

Since birth, you've been programmed to think that consuming goods is the path to happiness and contentment. It isn't, of course, but every advertisement you're subjected to is telling you that life will be better with more stuff in your life. If it wasn't a bass, you'd be looking at cars, mobile phones, TVs, washing detergent, meat or whatever. 
 

When you feel the irrational urge to buy more stuff, try to understand what it is you're unsatisfied with which is causing this feeling of needing to buy something which you already know won't kill the craving.

 

Play more, buy less.

It seems very bass (or guitar) specific for me: I still own my very first car, while my daily driver is fallng apart at the seams; I've just had to be bullied into replacing my phone as it hasn't been charging properly for over a year... In almost every other way I seem to have an unerring policy of buying carefully and holding onto stuff until it's absolutely worn out. I do seem to buy a lot of meat though.

I think musical instruments tick a lot of boxes for even the non-pathological consumer: pretty, infinite variation in terms of appearance, real or imagined tonal differences, investement/heirloom potential etc... No doubt frivolous consumers of every bent could make similar justifications....

I bought a new bass this week, it hasn't even arrived yet... And yet as soon as I log in to Basschat, I find I've navigated straight to basses for sale.

Surely this is not the behaviour of a sane man.

46 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

 

I have that very book too. The complete scores book was the bible to me though - gave me the foundations in bass too.

And the Revolution 9 transcription is a thing of wonder.

Where did you get that strap from - I know someone who would love one of those...

I can't really help re a tutor book. I taught myself to play from tab and non-tab books from the library as a youngster - including some dreadful ones that didn't really acknowledge how the guitar is used in modern (ie post-1940s) music. The Usbourne Learn To Play Guitar was improbably good though - might be completely appropriate for an 8 year old if you can find a reasonable copy.

A complete aside - have you come across the Beatles Guitar Techniques book? Chunks of about 60 songs tabbed out far more effectively and accurately than the rather staid Complete Scores book. (Which I love btw - just find it frustrating that it doesn't really pay attention to correct voicings and postitioning).

I meant to repoly to this thread a few days ago.

A few months back, during a period of absolute gig famine, we booked a Thursday night at a small bar in a small town about half an hour away - given our semi-rural location this may as well have been an intercontinental flight away in terms of getting our usual audience out but we figured a gig was a gig and we might gain a new fan or two.

The date finally came up last week but two of the three of us were full of colds, including our drummer/singer who has changed jobs this year and now has a long daily communte and no longer has the flexibility of self-employment. Needless to say, there was a great deal of negativity as we piled a slightly reduced set of gear into one vehicle and set off down the windy, unlit country roads.

BUT IT WAS ACE. The bar has built up a regular Thursday night crowd for original music, the staff were friendly, the sound was as good as we might have reasonably expected, the audience was engaged, appreciative and even tried singing along in places. We got £150 (not to be sniffed at considering some of the fees we've had recently), a load of nice comments, videos on the venue's social media and two further gigs - one of which is at a small multi-venue "festival" that we've wanted to get into for a couple of years.

Which is a long way of saying that what might appear to be a less than sparkling gig might turn out to be reinvigorating or door-opening or both. And it turns out that there are lively original music scenes in the most unlikely of places.

I'm in!

https://officialmeatpuppetsmerchandise.bigcartel.com/product/meat-puppets-live-manchester-2019

Not sure if I appear as such but I was involved in the audio recording of this as well as running one of 5 or 6 video cameras.

I mixed several of the songs (following highly detailed guidance from the band!) but the tracks used on the LP were completely remixed and I was credited solely as a photographer 😶 I did edit the videos that appeared online and can occasionally catch a glimpse of myself filming - my inner 15 year old who fell in love with the band on Nirvana Unplugged remains unashamedly thrilled at this.

If anyone is around Rossendale tomorrow (Friday) night, my band Dead Tenant is supporting what seems to be a rather fabulous French band called the Wow Signal at the Whip & Kitten in Rawtenstall.

https://thewowsignalband.bandcamp.com/album/the-wow-signal

https://deadtenantmusic.bandcamp.com

https://deadtenantmusic.com

And all for free, no less.

On Thursday we played a free show at a local gallery where our guitarist has exhibited in his day job as a professional artist. He's been getting into multimedia and projections in particular so this night was promoted as "Sound and Vision" and featured ourselves alongside another local band as well as what turned out to be seven separate projectors.

The room was great for the projections with masses of tall, bare walls but the sound was predictably affected. We had a good turnout which made the laborious set-up worthwhile (ever tried negotiating a menu that is both upside down and beamed onto a wall several metres away?)

Obligatory self promotion links:

https://deadtenantmusic.com/

https://www.facebook.com/deadtenant

https://soundcloud.com/dead-tenant/sets/dead-tenant-live-demo

Bit gutted that the current media blitz on this means that my chances of getting a "cavern" spec German Hofner at a bargain price are going to be minimal for a while.

But that's very selfish of me - I do hope it finds its way back to him. I can't imagine it will though: surely it has spent the last few decades in the hands of "private" traders/collectors...

9 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

Whatever is being used on that track is fine 'as is'. If that's with the 'megaphone' effect, keep it. Sorry for the confusion; it would have been more clear if we had one track with, another without. 

That would be very sensible but risks drawing you into the vortex of uncertainty I now find myself in.

To be fair, the fact that an outsider hasn't immediately said that it sounds odd or gimmicky is very helpful indeed.

Unless you have terrible taste, of course.

4 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

It's fine as it is; there's enough character in the voice to carry it, right through to the end. It needs no gadget megaphone. 

Now you've confused me... the effect is on both verses at the moment - are you saying it's fine as-is, or that the vocal would be fine without them? 😆

...but there's not much footfall there, plus this is really a request for advice rather than a proud unveilling.

My band is working on some tracks at the moment, recording and mixing ourselves at home. This particular song has been through a few mixes and we've got a bit stuck with the vocal sound. The singer is very keen to have a distorted, almost megaphone effect throughout the verses while the guitarist is not so keen. I sit somewhere in the middle - I think it might work as an effect on a single verse or half of each verse.

Please have listen and let me know your thoughts - we've likely lost all perspective here. (Also, we're hoping to replace the rather formless guitar passages in the intro and prior to the second verse with something a bit more melodic and definite.)

What about his own cover of One Too Many Mornings recorded live with (most of) The Band in 1966:

Also the Bunnymen did a great cover of It's All Over... very much I the style of Them.

We use the XR18 too - for rehearsals, recording and occasionally for gigs if we have to bring our own mixer.

We probably aren't using even a fraction of its functionality but it's a great piece of gear and it broke my longstanding fear of digital mixers.

Mine is white with a garish faux tortoise shell scratchplate. Was thinking white on white might look quite classy but slightly wary of falling down a rabbit hole of slightly incompatible aftermarket plates.

I also pondered stripping it completely and getting it finished like Elvis Costello's Jazzmaster but the paint looks to be about an inch thick and I bet the wood beneath is not pretty.

So you're saying I can buy one that not only sets up easily but is purple...

I think mine is an older model but it needed the Newtone strings, a Staytrem bridge, a lot of truss rod tweaking and a significant neck shim before it would intonate properly and not choke out in various places.

I've heard of a lot of variation - from VIs that played and tuned right out of the box to ones that needed a bit of DIY hackery all the way through to ones that needed the deeper bridge for intonation. 

Mine was a cheap impulse purchase (and it appears the Staytrem was cheaper then too) but it has gone from being little more than a toy to a gigging instrument. 

If you can achieve that for less cash I'm thrilled but I think there may be some dogs out there that require more significant work.

I'm sure I read in Guitar World that they were the best selling bass last year.

I've got one of these and love it. Always gets lots of nice comments after gigs too.

Great price too - GLWS, not that you'll need it...

2 hours ago, MichaelDean said:

Don't suppose it was a silver Korg Toneworks pedal? 

Sounds like the same one - got it for my 21st birthday and thought it was amazing. 

8 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

I have some nice guitars and a great modelling amp, but If I was demoted from bass to guitar in a band I'd push so hard against it, any metaphorical bridges would be in cinders.

I completely get that but the band has been going since before I was born so I'm very much a junior employee here. In truth I think the move reflects a kindness that hasn't been afforded the other members of the line-up so I'm taking it in the spirit it was offered. While also anticipating a further sideways move out of the band in the none too distant future - hence not wanting to splurge on a Helix.