Count Bassy

[quote name='MananaMan' post='240268' date='Jul 15 2008, 06:18 PM']Why are songs by famous people automatically better than songs by someone you've never heard?[/quote] It may seem to contradict what I've said previously, but I don't believe that they nessecarily are. I've got quite a collection of obscure CDs as well! But: Most famous song writers & bands are famous because they have written a few good songs (and in many cases a load of crap ones as well). I.e. the good song makes them famous rather than them being famous making the song good!! Also, it is quite possible to write a cracking song and not become famous! Also, it is quite possible to be famous based on past achievments and still write crap (eg McCartney) [quote name='MananaMan' post='240268' date='Jul 15 2008, 06:18 PM']At the end of the day, I think I really mean to attack the cult of celebrity rather than anything else. People in cover bands - if you could get the same money playing songs that you or a member of your current cover band had written (and that you had more of a personal engagement with), wouldn't you rather do that?[/quote] On the cult of celebrity question I'd agree whole heartedly, especially these days when people expect instant success via the X factor or some such, without having to put in the hard graft that people used to. On the second point, yes I would prefer to be playing our own stuff, and I'm sure that most people would. Unfortunately none of us in the band have any talent in that direction, so given the choice of playing covers, or not at all, then I'd go for the covers. Taking it further, and as I said in an earlier post, for lots of us ameteurs the buzz of playing to an audience would probably be enough in itself, and the payment is a bonus. As I said in my first post professional musicians suffer from the fact that what they do for a living other people do for a hobby, so the market is inevitably distorted by that, especially at the pub gig level. I do feel for pro's suffering from that situation, but what can you do (unless you're the government or the Mafia)? I just had the thought: Do professional actors complain about about ameteur dramatics people in the same way? its a similar sort of situation.

You Englisch: you think ve germans know f*** nothing, but ve know f*** all!

[quote name='MananaMan' post='239403' date='Jul 14 2008, 06:45 PM']If these things didn't exist then the public would still hanker after live music, and they'd be happy to go and investigate whatever is out there. Or maybe I'm just an optimist.[/quote] Or just a dreamer! Whilst in your dream, why not have radio stations banned from playing any records over 3 months old so that all the amazing new acts that are around can get the air play they want without any fear of competion or having to prove themselves!. Seriously though, in the real world things aren't going to change. A large proportion of the gig/pub going public are more than happy to hear songs they know performed live. It's no good burying your head in the sand and insist that they are all wrong, and that they should be listening to new unknown bands performing material which can be largely crap. The songs that are popular on the covers circuit are popular for a reason! They are good songs which have stood the test of time, which people like to hear! If an originals band is any good in what they do, and in promoting themselves, then they will break through and be deservedly successful. If on the other hand they cannot tempt people away from a night in the pub watching a good covers band, then they probably don't deserve success however good they think they are. You dream of a situation where the field is left open for originals bands. I could equally dream (but I don't) of a situation where crap originals bands are drowned at birth to save us all from having to hear them. My hypothetical dream won't happen, neither will yours. We all need to accept the reality of the world, and make the best we can of it. All IMHO of course, and no offence intended. Spleen vented.

Paris Texas - Ry Cooder Sweet Talker - Richard Thompson

The problem seems to arise from the fact that music (& I suppose performing arts in general) is one of the few areas that is a profession to some while is a great hobby to others. The pro needs to work for a decent fee to eram a living, and I can understand them occassionally getting frustrated when they see themselves being undercut by ameteurs. As several have said however there is a big difference between a pro and an ametuer, so how often are the pro and the ameteur truley in direct competion? I suppose the argument is that the ameteur bands going out for low fees generally drags the whole market down. On the other hand, most ameteurs beyond a certain age have no illusions of ever becoming a pro, but many still want to feel the buzz of performing to an audience. These are not pro's and cannot command a professional level fee. For many of these people the choice is to go out cheap or not to go out at all, and they shouldn't really be criticised for choosing the former. Even those ametuers wanting to become pro's have to start somewhere, and I'm sure many of the pros have done cheap gigs when they were trying to get established.

I've got one of the Fender floor pedal type units and its great. Seems very tough , with a big bright unambiguous display, which I can even read when stood up, even without my glasses. Mutes the output while tuning, or not, according to which socket you use. Seems to tune down to a B with no problem. Only problems: You actually have to stamp on it quite hard to turn it on/off. If you leave it on and with the input connected it sits and eats batteries, buts thats really down to operator error. Also have a Korg AT-12 analogue unit with a real moving needle. Also excellent, and probably a better tuner, will generate a pitch and allows none concert pitch tuning etc, but not really up to stage use.

IIRC: If you have a valve amplifier with an output transformer then you get the most efficient power transfer from the transformer to the speaker when the output impedance of the transformer is the same as the impedance of the speaker. So although lowering speaker impedance increases the internal power of the amp more of rtaht power is lost in the amp output stages, so you don't get double the power at the speaker. Mind you its about 30 years since I studied this.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='223680' date='Jun 21 2008, 04:57 PM']Were it not so we could use 0.4 ohm speakers. That would be a very good thing as far as the efficiency of the speakers is concerned, but would require an entire retool of the amp/speaker relationship from low voltage high current to high voltage low current.[/quote] The other way round surely?

Out of interest, do you notice, in the first pic, how far he's pulled that A string over in the act of plucking it! He must be one hard player. No letting the amp to the work for him!

Well yes, the wood is lovely, but I don't like the shape at all. However it does lead me to ask what exactly, of practical use, do you get in a 16K bass that you would not get in a 1K (or even less) bass?

[quote name='Jase' post='226354' date='Jun 24 2008, 11:56 PM']I've used one on a Jazz, no trouble with the clips, apart from when I put it in the case, tuck it in before you close the lid Oh! and they're very smooth too...so smooth you can do this.. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqh6_QPhTvE&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqh6_QPhTvE...feature=related[/url][/quote] Now try that with the cable plugged in!

A shameless bump to try and get some more opinions. The reviews on the web are so diverse that it makes me wonder if the cases went through a spec change at some point. For example one person describes the lining as thin and scratchy 'Like it was sprayed on', and another describes it as 'soft and plush'. In the meantime, thanks for your comments Mothra.

Well, I'm amazed. I was expecting a good slapping for my heretic tendencies! I can't believe that my thoughts we're that compelling that there was nothing to add, so I guess thay must have been really really stoopid (sic). Come on, someone either put me right or argue with me. Clive

Mustang Sally, Pickup the Peices, Can't get enough, et al are popular for a reason. They are good songs/tunes. They may not be overly clever or complicated, but people enjoy hearing them, which at the end of the day is (IMHO) what music is about ! To bring in another food (well, drink) analogy. You sometimes come across these beer festivals that specialise in wierd and obscure (and often stupidly strong) beers. When you try these beers it's all to clear why they remain obscure!. Mustang Sally is a GreeneKing IPA or London Pride type tune. Many original tunes fall into the old Peculiar/Santas Knob class of tune. Very interesting, but not actually drunk that much. Having said that more power to those people creating originals, that's where tomorrow's classics will come from. If an original song writer is very lucky he might even come up with something as popular as Mustang Sally himself! (although they might then slag it off for being too popular)!!

I am a fan of 32" scale basses, although the general consensus seems that they don't have the same tone as a 34" scale, and that 35" is better again. Anyway: I've just bought a second hand Ibanez GWB35 - a 34" scale 5 string (I would have gone for 32" again except 5 string lined fretless 32" scale basses don't seem to exist within my budget). Anyway this is my first 5 string and I've found myself playing it up around the 5th fret, i.e. if I want to play in E I'm 'basing' it around the B string at the 5th fret rather than the open E string, dropping down the B string for the low notes as required (bear in mind that this is my first 5 string experience and I'm still finding my way) Anyway, what this is leading up to is that I find the E produced at the 5th fret of the B string is perfectly acceptable, a slightly different tone to the open E, but acceptable. So, if I were to use the same gauge strings shouldn't I be able to build a 26.5" scale bass (i.e. 3/4 of 34") tuned E to C, with perfectly acceptable results? String tensions would be exactly the same as in the 5 string (wouldn't they?), and the tone on the E string would be similar to a B string fretted at the 5th (i.e. acceptable). I suppose that what I'm really getting around to that if a 34" scale 4 string bass, drop tuned to a D on the Estring, still produces an acceptable E tone at the second fret, then why shouldn't a 32" scale bass, using the same string gauge produce an equally acceptable E on the open string? This seems logical to me, but is contrary to what most people here seem to say. Just my thoughts, interested in yours.

I've just bought a second hand Ibanez GWB35 (which I'll expand on in a different thread), and I'm thinking of buying a hard case for it. (It came with a gig bag which is great for carrying around, but I prefer a hard case when its stacked in the back of a van with the PA & stuff) Anyway, Ibanez do a suitable case, the MB100C, internally tailored to the Ibanez shape ( I hate sloppy fitting cases), and they don't seem too expensive (£60 - 65 - less than a tank of diesel). I've looked at a a few user reveiws on the net, and they vary from brilliant to complete crap, although there does seem to be a consensus that they don't have must space for extras. Anyway, I'd have far more confidence in any bass chatter's comments, so if you've got one let me know what you think. Thanks in advance chaps (& Chappesses)

Rather late in the day, but Dell notebooks are known for this. There is a problem in the power adaptors that only have the live and neutral connections, ie no earth. With a multimter I can measure 100Vac on the metal parts of the laptop relative to earth! Thankfully its a high resistance so not actually dangerous (so dell Say), but its bloody irritating. Try Googling 'Dell notebook shock' and you'll get pages of hits. Of course Dell insist that is not a problem and that all notebooks have this 'feature'. Strangley no other makes seem to have pages on the web dedicated to it. Of course it might be something else. Run your laptop on batteries and see if the problem goes. If it is the laptop, and its a dell, then give them a call and bollock them!

Tell me about it. Grrrrr. We only do the occasional gig, so when we get one we need plenty of practise to knock everything into shape. We were due to be playing the 5th July in the local pub, and consequently were due to be rehearsing last night and this afternoon (this would have been the last practise before the gig). Last night rang the drummer and the singer up at about 7.30 asking where they were. Apparently they were in the local pub (1/2 mile away, but 'Didn't feel in the mood'. Guitarist tried to ring the drummer this morning about todays practise to be told that he'd gone out and it wasn't known when he'd back! Tis complicated by the fact that the drummer is the guitarists brother, but even the guitarist has had enough of it. This isn't the first time he's messed us about, but I'm determined that it will be the last. Anyway I'm hoping that myself the keys/sax and the guitarists can find another drummer (we have someone in mind), and another singer from somewhere, and get a new band together. It rather hinges on whether the guitarist is up for it, obviously a more difficult decision for him as it's his brother. The sad thing is that I quite like both the drummer and the singer, and they are both very good at what they do, but as band members they are just a pain. So, my thoughts for you would be knock it on the head and move on! However I'm very pissed off at the moment, so I wouldn't take any notice of me. I jus wanted to vent my speen a bit and this thread seemed a good place to do it.

[quote name='Mr Randall' post='221238' date='Jun 18 2008, 11:11 AM']71 fretted Precision[/quote] Hey man, that's almost like 6 octaves!

Sorry I should have put several winking/grinning things with that 'high fallutin' comment. No offence meant in anyway Bilbo!

Agreed! But to take the analogy further, if your used to eating in Michelin 5 start restaurants (i.e. high 'fallutin' creative jazz music) then Macdonalds and Burger King (i.e. cover bands) must be about the same, and both a bitter disspointment. If your used to eating in MacDonalds then discovering Burger King is a small step in the right direction!

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='221110' date='Jun 18 2008, 09:02 AM']VERSION's BANDS??? to suggest that this merits a higher level of creativitiy is like saying Burger King is a classier repost than MacDonald's.[/quote] But it is !!!

[quote name='Jase' post='220849' date='Jun 17 2008, 07:03 PM']Cor, we're starting to split hairs here....cover bands, version bands????? same thing aren't they? [/quote] Well yes, in that they both do songs that have been written/made famous by other people, but no in that one tries to sound like the original and the other doesn't. Broadly speaking its all covers but, in the context of this thread, one means that you learn to copy a bass line exactly (possibly to the exclusion of creativity), and the other doesn't (possibly to of exclusion of accuracy, but with room for some creativity). I'm not making any judgement as to their relative merits here. I'd quite happily play in either, or indeed in an originals band (if only I had the talent). Clive

[quote name='gilmour' post='220779' date='Jun 17 2008, 05:35 PM']I'm surprised that people feel iplaying cover limits or inhibits their creativity. By learning more and more songs you'll increase your 'lick library' and give yourself more chops/styles/ideas to draw on when creating your own. In fact I find the exact opposite, when I'm only playing original stuff I settle into a style and everything sounds the same[/quote] Same here to some extent. As you say playing a cover forces you into doing something that you might not otherwise have thought of. If trying to make things up I too have a (bad) habit of falling back on tried and tested stuff. Having said that the 'covers' band that I am in tends to do 'versions' rather than 'covers'. (My definition of the difference being a cover band tries to sound like the original, reproducing the same bass lines and guitar solos etc, whereas a 'versions' band takes the song and does its own thing with it.) So, to some extent you get the best of both worlds. With our band some songs come out slightly different to the original (eg alright now), others quite quite different (eg superstition) I suppose you could argue that doing versions instead of straight covers is a good excuse when you can't actually play the original correctly!

I guess it depend on your motivation. If you enjoy tinkering and upgrading, and enjoy the results, and learn something in the process, then why not spend a bit of money doing it?. After all most people spend money on their 'hobbies' without any thought of getting their money back. Again, if you've got a bass you're particularly fond of, but want to tweak it rather than trade it in, then why not? If you can't afford the bass you want at the moment, but can afford a different bridge etc, then why not. BUT, ultimatel, as others have said, this will not be a cheap way to get a good bass, and (assuming you've paid the going rate for the various bits) you're not going to get your money back. As long as you realise this befor you start then OK.