Dankology

I saw the Weather Station at Gorilla in Manchester a few months back - was gutted as it had been "upgraded" from a smaller venue and the last time I'd been to Gorilla the sound had been underwhelming. 

But it was absolutely spectacular. I was making a sneaky audience recording and even that sounds pretty magnificent. I caught the soundman at the end as I had to ask if he was the band's own engineer - nope, just a chap who knew his craft and knew his venue. He looked genuinely touched when I said how good it sounded. 

There are still some very talented people out there. That said, I rarely go anywhere that holds more than a couple of hundred people so my perspective might be skewed.

I am so sorely tempted... Holding out for a walnut 4003S at the right price though. No doubt this is one I'll regret passing on.

I have to say there are some great photos popping up on here.

8 hours ago, mr zed said:

 I believe we’re both playing on the same bill with our respective bands on Sunday 26th June in Blackburn. I’ll bring the Ric along if you like for you to try it out.

That would be fantastic if it isn't any trouble - definitely don't want to impose on you.

I will, of course, be paying very close attention to your height:bass ratio on stage now that I know we are essentially the same height.

3 minutes ago, Franticsmurf said:

I think it might be down to a wide angle lens used on some of the shots, which exaggerates the neck and headstock. 

 

So you're saying I should lie down near the side of the stage?

See, that looks fine to me... (@BigRedX)

I have this horror of looking like John B Sparks in the Milk & Alcohol video. I'm probably overthinking things.

At probably not quite 5'7" I'm occasionally a little conscious of my height. Especially as basses tend to accentuate human shortness...

I've recently developed an unexpected hankering for a Ric but have always assumed that they were slightly longer scale than my usual Fenders and might look a little ungainly. I now realize that they are actually of a touch shorter scale - so am getting round to the idea of splurging for one.

But am I alone in this awareness of my short-arsedness? I'd also really like a semi-acoustic but whenever I look at a Jack Casady I suspect I'm going to look like a child who's stolen an adult's instrument.

It probably doesn't help that many of the bassists I saw when first going to gigs were disproprtionately lanky (Manics, Suede, Pulp) - although at least I could see them from the stalls... 

Very much looking forward to this...

Our links are:

https://deadtenantmusic.bandcamp.com/releases

https://www.facebook.com/deadtenant

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY7V9JqYMH-J96j-zBGwdyg

[The grammar pedant in me feels I should point out that the title of this thread would more properly be "Basschatters' upcoming gigs"]

Only our third gig but we've got a load of new stuff to debut - please pop down to the Horse and Bamboo in Waterfoot if you happen to be local.

Previous free live EP here: https://deadtenantmusic.bandcamp.com/releases

Rehearsal recording of one of the new songs (apologies for massive inbedded video):

If you have osteoarthritis in your joints this is due to wear and tear on the articular surfaces - ie the lovely smooth padding is wearing away. There is very little you can do about this - what's worn is worn, what's gone is gone. 

The pain of arthritis is made worse by the inflammation that results from it and the odd patterns of use in the affected joints and nearby joints that the pain causes.

The key to reducing or slowing progression is controlling the pain so that you can continue using the joints as normally as possible. There will be times when you need to up the dose when things flare - possibly for a few weeks at a time. Ibuprofen is a good starting point here (but no more than the absolute maximum of 600mg three times per day!) but it is not ideal for long term use for a number of reasons. You could try some Codeine (available over the counter as a weak does of 8mg in combination with Paracetamol) but it isn't amazing for this sort of pain, causes most people constipation and the body also soon builds a tolerance to its pain relieving powers.

Without wanting to second guess a fellow GP's thinking process, I think I'd want to be sure this was actually osteoarthritis: you are young for this and I am always slightly suspicious of small joints being the first issue (rather than hips and knees, say). A couple of simple blood tests will give the pointer here - if there are signs of inflammatory disease you will do well to seek the opinion of a rheumatologist; if the bloods are essentially normal, I would want you seen at a musculoskeletal service so that the physios can pin down the affected joints and contributing factors and start you on some physical therapy to reduce progression and maintain function.

[The photo posted above is very much in keeping with osteoarthritis btw: the swellings at the knuckles look to be Heberden's nodes which are a classic feature of wear and tear arthritis. Keith Richards has had some phenomenal ones for at least a couple of decades - doesn't seem to stop him...]

Hope that helps a little. As a 43 year old with a strong family history of OA and the increasing rumblings of it myself, I'm fairly certain my musical endeavors are helping keep it at bay.

Team Rossendale checking availability...

I may be wrong but I think Fun Loving Criminals started as the sort of B team band in a bar they all worked in.

Completely irrelevant to your issue but I wanted to say that the Japanese 72 thinline is one of my permanent Ebay searches... Do you happen to have any thoughts on it versus the more common Mex versions?

2 hours ago, Ricky Rioli said:

 

When Keith Moon died, his replacement was in the band a couple of months later. If this was wrong and disrespectful, Entwistle was part of it, and so got done unto as he did.

 

More generally, I've never enjoyed the sight of people thinking that they get to tell musicians when they're allowed to play and what they should play, eg wanting to ban Brian May playing music he created just because they feel it encroaches on their absurd veneration. Being scandalised does fill up the gaps in a life, I suppose, and subjects are always needed to satiate the thirst to be opinionated.

What an odd point of view.

I wouldn't presume for one moment to tell the members of the Who what they should and should not do in terms of respect for each other - I think all four members individually spoke of how terrible were as human beings and the record would suggest none of them enjoyed each other's company very much.

But from an audience member's point of view, pretending that a unique musician and presence can just be depped in order to keep the promoters and insurers happy is distasteful. The fact that many ticketholders didn't care (or possibly even notice) is no doubt the reason this sort of thing can happen and could probably account for any number of other issues in modern rock commerce. 

And that does not speak of a "thirst to be opinionated": it is a (fairly nuanced) expression of an opinion - something that a discussion board such as this requires, the alternative presumably being limiting members to the posting of lists of incontrovertible facts.

3 minutes ago, SteveK said:

To be fair, that response isn't unique to the music business.

FWIW I tend to agree with the "American gentleman".

Many thousands of people would have been adversely affected financially had the tour been cancelled. PT had to consider hundreds of peoples livelihoods (some of whom could have suffered serious financial problems), not to mention the many hundreds of thousands of punters who would have been out of pocket after paying for flights, hotels etc to see the show.

I'm pretty sure JE wouldn't have wanted The who to cancel.

I think if I'd paid whatever ridiculous ticket price was and then was given the option of seeing the band without an absolutely crucial element or just taking the hit, I'd be mightily annoyed. 

I think I'd agree with Rich that much of what is wrong with modern rock commerce is encapsulated here: a whole machine whirling around a "unique" artistic endeavour (ie compare the venue sizes the Who members play/played as solo acts) but the momentum of the machine means that the artists themselves have to be instantly replaceable.

The idea of Who fan for whom Entwistle or Moon are replaceable utterly baffles me but there must be enough of them around. So the money men are correct. Without being right.

I'm currently trying a similar experiment and picked up a selection pack of felt, leather and possibly lino plectrums on Ebay for about £5.

I can't say that I've really got on with any of them yet in terms if feel although they have tamed some of the sharp attack. Create a lit of dust/fibres too.

I seem to have the same attitude to humour in music as I do in life: I much prefer listening to someone whose wit and intelligence shines through rather than someone reciting jokes, desperate to amuse.

Stuff like Tom Waits, the Fall, Leonard Cohen, the Hold Steady and Arctic Monkeys could never be mistaken for comedy acts but I reckon the humour bleeds into a lot of what they do. Having said that, a lot of my favourite stuff can be entirely humourless (Joy Division, Van Morrison)...

I'm just trying to visualize the Venn diagram of people who I find funny, smart and have similar taste in music to me - it looks more like a series of tightly concentric circles 🙃

On 10/03/2022 at 15:49, BigRedX said:

BTW have you looked at the Revelation version of the Bass VI? This has three P90 soapbar style pickups and a slightly wider neck than the Squier. It also has more conventional Stratocaster style pickup switching. 

 

I've found that for what I do the middle and the bridge pickups are the most useful - the middle for "bass guitar" sounds and the bridge for the more "guitar" -like parts. The Eastwood only has one pickup but it sits between these two positions and therefore is a suitable compromise.

The Revelation was the first thing I Googled when I started losing the will to live several hours into messing with the Squier. They seem to be out of stock in most places but I'm thinking it could provide a model for a possible custom build. Triple P90s do look a bit crammed though. But I too seem to favour the middle position on the Squire (sometimes with the neck switched in too) so I've got a bit of thinking and mocking up to do here.

Rehearsed with the Squire VI last night and things went reasonably well but definitely had some slightly grizzly notes on the low E.

@BigRedX Things have got a little better today with incremental truss rod adjustments - I think there was still way too much relief and this was influencing the tuning issue. I can't quantify how out they were but certainly enough for my not-excellent ears to pick up on. It's still not perfect but I can just about play octaves now without cringing. I've still got way more buzz than I'd like but you're quite right - the overall situation is now siginficantly improved. I think the nut could definitely do with a proper seeing to too. I'm definitely not seeking perfection here - I have at least a couple of instruments (a mando and a guitar) that I'm happy to tune differently depending on which key I'm in.

The saddles' positions relative to each other do look properly odd though.

I was hoping to pick your brain regarding my theoretical custom build. In my head it's looking very much like the Elvis Costello Jazzmaster https://flickr.com/photos/mediawench/4096773922/in/set-72157594485374924 (maybe with a slightly scaled down body size) but almost certainly without the whammy bar and with more orthodox circuitry. I've always been a fan of P90s on guitars and was considering two of these rather than the three Jaguar-style ones. I am a fairly heavy handed player at times and I'm intrigued by what you were saying about your Hooky 6-string - ideally I'd be wanting something that functions as an extended-range bass rather than an extended range guitar, if that makes sense. Not for six grand though...

Tonight's update...

I followed @BigRedX's instructions re starting from scratch and initially setting the saddle height at 15mm.

I needed to put in a shim of two layers of a plastic RAC membership card going up to the lowest neck screws in order to keep a straight line from neck to saddles.

I then raised the bridge up a further 2mm and tuned up.

The low E is in tune when played open, at the 12th fret harmonic and when fretted at the 12th fret. But every note from 1st to 11th fret is sharp - this gradually settles towards the octave and is sort of OK beyond there.

The A and D strings are similarly affected but to a lesser extent - ie the A's intonation is right from the 10th fret up, the D from the 7th.

Perhaps I need to let tonight's adjustments settle overnight but I've not got a great feeling here. I did contact my luthier but have to admit that I jumped pretty much straight to asking about a custom build...

3 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

What part of the country are you in @Dankology ?

 

There's a permanent thread at the top of the Repairs section here of Basschatters round the country who can offer help to other Basschatters.   

 

It wouldn't take long for someone experienced to diagnose the issue...and I'm always bothered when a majorly high action is put down to truss rod (and yours is a majorly high action).  Agreed, the rod may well be not adjusted correctly but, as @BigRedX says, this starts as a neck angle problem and, generally, that is easily fixed.

I'm literally minutes away from a fabulous luthier (the guys who do these: https://reverb.com/uk/item/7274703-very-rare-brian-eastwood-bender-distortocaster ) but my pointless male pride means I want to have done as much as I possibly can myself before I send the flare up.

10 minutes ago, Daz39 said:

If all the sage advice fails then you can always resort to a hammer and some shouting.

I was nearly there last night, let me tell you.

@BigRedX Thank you for the very comprehensive guidance - I'm very grateful to everyone that has offered their expertise here.

I'm hoping to set some time aside this evening to start bottoming this out properly. I'm a bit gutted if I'm honest - the Squire had sat unused for months until recently and has now become absolutely essential to about half a dozen new songs.

Will report back!

Thanks for that. I've admitted defeat for this evening but I'm going to try everything suggested so far tomorrow and see how far I get.

Re the nut, it seems to have the proper slant towards the bridge but there's also a left/right slant and the slot itself isn't wide enough to let the string get to the deepest point.

I think the low E slot is cut slightly wrong - the bottom of the slot is little slanted so the string doesn't sit quite as low as it might. Will try and file it down...

I thought I was reducing the relief by tightening the truss rod but met significant resistance. Or should it need a good bit of effort to tighten it up? I am truly out of my depth here.