meterman

I’ve tried playing left-handed but it’s too weird for me. Didn’t feel natural at all. I’m not ambidextrous or talented enough to get away with it. Might be different for you though?

It also might depend on what style of playing you want to do. But if you’re right handed then maybe start playing right handed and see how it works out for you. I never use my left pinky finger when playing bass (I’m right handed) as it’s very ‘clunky’ and tends to lock in a straight position if I try to use it, or if I reach for a note with it, it might lock and go to a wrong note or stick to my ring finger. I can’t rely on it to go where I want it to, so I don’t use it. My left hand technique looks weird but I make it work for me, I use 3 fingers and sometimes my thumb for root notes. You wouldn’t guess from hearing recordings as they sound alright. But my mates call my playing style “the mitt” because it looks like I have no finger interdependence. Skinny bass necks and short scale basses work better for me. This is my playing from 20 years ago without using my pinky, it’s only an old funk vamp and I’m not Jaco Pastorius or anything but don’t let that put you off 😂 Definitely give it a go, you never know. You might love playing and be amazing.

Superb 👏😂

The singer from Family? Don’t know a lot about them to be honest. Did he wear a straw hat often then?

I’ve rarely stayed in one place long enough to get around to hanging basses and guitars up. Only did it once and that was because the floor space was taken up with a Fender Rhodes, a Hammond organ and a vibraphone... Will probably hang things up again in the future, I think our recent house move might prove to be a bit longer term.

I love Chic, and disco in general, but I think Nile Rodgers is off the mark a bit here. Yes, don’t be snobby about music (including inverted musical snobbery) but don’t kid yourself that the top 40 is the be all and end all of you need to aim for. Brushy One String and his lo-fi beat-up guitar playing hits me a damn sight harder than any of the autotuned filler that clogs up the charts at the moment. Well, in France anyway. Your country may vary, etc...

Thank you, and pretty close to the mark influence wise. Our other big faves were early A Certain Ratio, and Can and the early US post punk scene, things like Liquid Liquid or ESG. All the records that got sampled for early hip hop records basically. And yeah, the 45 had to be an edit as a 5” single can only fit 2 minutes per side. The album version will be nearer 6 minutes. With more Minimoog. And Mellotron. And more percussion breaks. 👍

Oh I would have loved to have seen that period of Genesis. Acoustic guitars, that sounds good to me. I love other acoustic stuff from that era like Pentangle, Incredible String Band, Tim Buckley, Joni Mitchell... Oddly enough I enjoy the 80’s incarnation of Genesis if I hear it on the radio but never really got them otherwise. Will give them a go after Yes 👍

The vinyl sold out within 4 hours 👍 Next time we’ll get more pressed.

I just released a single this week (vinyl and everything!) where the bass and drums are in 7/4, the percussion is in 3/4 and 5/4 and there’s a solo Minimoog passage. Prog might not be too far off for me!

The psychedelic funk collective I play in released our 1st 45rpm vinyl this week. We did a limited edition of 5” clear vinyl lathe cuts plus digital downloads for the non-physical-format folks. The lathe cuts sold out in a few hours. I was expecting them to take weeks to shift as we’re only a studio concern and have zero live following. Next time tho we will press more physical copies 😎 The little 5” lathe cuts turned out to be a winner. I thought we’d be saddled with unsold copies forever 😂 https://dimerecordsfrance.bandcamp.com/album/pool-phase-hashisch-scene Hope the next ones go okay too. Btw, nobody seemed to mind that we used a cassette 4-track to make a record with. Or a cheapo Squier Jazz bass. If we can do it, anyone can! 😎

I’m going to give Yes a full go this weekend. In chronological order too. I love OG British psychedelic music so I reckon their 1st album might be a good starting point. My “way in” if you like. If I can “get” Yes, then Genesis and Gentle Giant and stuff like that might be accessible to me. Would love to “get” Prog and I am determined to overcome my caveman tendencies when it comes to music. FWIW I’ve always loved the artwork on their albums, and I know the musicians are amazing. Hoping I can unlock the music and finally fully enjoy the kind of 20 minute epic side-long musical odysseys that have been off- limits to me so far. Wish me luck, prog lovers 😎

Nice! I almost went for a Comp stripe Mustang myself, they look great 👍

Ha, challenge accepted! When I get time to do it I’ll post it up in the recording forum. I already recorded a ska version of “Behind My Camel” by The Police, and a King Tubby / Augustus Pablo inspired take on “Fools Gold” by the Stone Roses. Daft instrumental ska versions of unlikely hit records is my bag, baby 😂

If Yes had recorded “Owner Of A Lonely Heart” in a Sound Dimension-esque ska style I’d have been all over it like hair on a gorilla. Well, a sweaty gorilla. In Asda pyjamas. Might have to power up the 4-track and do it myself.

It might only be “Roundabout” that I like? Might have to do an Open University prog degree and try them again 👍

I’ve tried a few times to get into Yes. My mates dad was in them and he was always saying “you really need to hear the early stuff” but I just never got it at all. I do generally struggle with prog though. Some of the Pink Floyd records I do like. The Syd Barrett era, and just after. But things like early Genesis, VDGG, King Crimson, ELP, Rush... I think I’m just too ‘caveman’ to get it.

For 30+ years I’ve practiced unplugged and either working out my own lines, or playing along to the hi-fi on low volume. Very rare that I plug into an amp to practice. Bass isn’t my main instrument and I don’t need everyone to hear my bad timing and constant mistakes. I save that for gigs 😂

Woah, memory jog! The bass player in one of my school bands had one, around 1983-84. It sounded fairly P-like, much stronger than the MIJ Ric copy he’d had before it. We were only 15 so anything that didn’t come from Woolworths was ‘proper’ to us. Pics if you get it!

I only knew him from his cuts in the late 70’s on punk or new wave records. Only found out later he’d not only done cuts for Apple, but Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin, T.Rex, The Who, Faces, Toots & The Maytals, Genesis, Serge Gainsbourg, etc. What a career!

No problem! We definitely took a DAT tape of the finished mix to Porky’s and he definitely did the mastering, and as far as I can recall, the cut too. But thinking about it now, it’s possible he might have sent the master off to be cut elsewhere? The 1980’s / early 90’s are a bit hazy for me, to be fair. I’d ask our label manager but I haven’t seen or heard from him since 1998. Or our royalty statements 🤔😂

Totally!

As far as I remember George ‘Porky’ Peckham would engrave “A Porky Prime Cut” on your record if you attended the mastering session and he liked the music or if you weren’t totally up yourself. Otherwise, if the record label just sent a courier round with the master tape you might only get “Porky’s” engraved in the runout groove. That’s what I was told anyway. I think if you attended the cut, and got on with him, he might ask if you wanted any messages engraved in the runout groove too. We had part of a song lyric in ours, but we shouldn’t have got something a bit funnier really. There’s a record by The Monochrome Set that had “we’re still not going to pay you, Morris” engraved in the runout, presumably as a riposte to Morris Windsor who’d played with them briefly? Loved finding stuff like that on records. Don’t know who did that one though.

Porky! He cut my first album in 1993, and it was such a ‘hot’ cut (needles in the red) that it came back a bit distorted on the top end, a bit sibilant. The bass sounded pretty beefy but the high end was super trebly, like an early Stereolab 45 or something. I attended the cut and do remember he was brilliant craic, but I never heard the actual record until 18 months after it came out. All I had to go on was a pre-master cassette of the album mix. Was quite surprised when I heard it on vinyl for the first time. It does have “A Porky Prime Cut” engraved in the runout groove though, just like ‘proper’ bands records did back in ye ooooolden days, so I don’t mind 😂

The guy who masters my stuff reckons mastering for a vinyl release is usually the most time consuming for him, whether it’s a 7”, 12” or even a 5” release. But he says CDs are easier and that prepping for streaming is the quickest for him to do. I’m guessing the kind of music he’s working with has some bearing on it too?