Munurmunuh

After I had done my music degree at university, I did three years postgraduate performance study at music college (very classical; nothing to do with bass playing). In our first week, the department's deputy head said to us, avoid the coffee shop discussions about technique — excellent advice that we were all too foolish to take.

The idea that there is one set place for the thumb requires the idea that the relationship between a thumb and the rest of its hand is always the same. My fingers are medium length at best, but the thumb seems to have come from a different set of gauges. Except when playing a neck with a very deep profile (eg a BB424) my left thumb has to be allowed to wander around, keeping itself out of trouble as best it can. If I park my right thumb on the pickup in the classic prissy white boy style, my first two finger scarcely reach the E string, let alone the rest. So either I have to walk away from bass playing, or the uptight notions of bass playing taught by the Neasden University of Music (formerly World Of Carpets Brent) can do one.

I don't even know what the most I have actually paid is — I didn't dare add up the bits and do the currency conversions etc, I just shut my eyes and coughed up, as and when

So I know for the 2023 thread, would receiving a bass that I've already ordered and fully paid for (and really ought to be here by now) be permitted?

I like TalkBass. Amongst the vast membership are many people who are eager to share their knowledge generously. Naturally there are a lot of 'nanas there too, but their ignore function works phenomenally well, Winston Smith would have admired how well it vanishes people and every trace of their content from your universe. I also like that they don't pretend that their rules and enforcement aren't quite severe. A free market of forums exist, offering different styles. They have a clear identity, and stick to it admirably.

Nice fresh Candy Apple Red and a mint guard to go with that lovely bit of endlessly smooth maple On the other hand, from the outside world's pov, there's not much wrong with the appearance as it is, especially with our eyes used to the current fashion of belting the living daylights out of brand new instruments.

When I memorise a long piece of music, by the time it's all gone in I've really lost track of what the notes are, it's all just muscle memory. The mind is a strange and wonderful thing.

Thumb mutes the E string, except when I'm playing it, gently resting on the body of the bass, alongside the pickup. The two smaller fingers apparently mute the A and D strings when required, though I never told them to, and they go to pieces if I try watching them, it's all a mystery to me. I presume this is thanks to the same bit of my unconscious that moves my right foot up and down on the sustain pedal when I'm playing the piano.

Elderly Man Who’s Outlived Wife By 8 Years Must Not Have Loved Her Very Much Noting that the 81-year-old is still in relatively good health to this day, sources reported Monday that elderly man Jonathan Eckman, who has outlived his wife by eight years now, must not have loved her very much. “If he didn’t die the day after his wife, or later that year on their wedding anniversary, then he probably didn’t really care about her at all,” said local acquaintance Dana Ridgely, who added that the least Eckman could have done if he, in fact, cherished and adored the woman he spent 50 years of his life alongside, was die within a few weeks of her. “He vows to be with her forever, he raises three kids with her, and he spends nearly every moment with her for decades, but he doesn’t even pass away moments after she does, still holding her hand? He must have been cheating on her or something.” Sources added that unless Eckman dies 10 years to the day after his wife’s passing, it was almost guaranteed that he never even loved her to begin with and their marriage was one big lie.

Which bassist will she choose?

My knackered shoulder is very anti-BBs at the moment. I have a nice daydream of getting a 1024 and paying someone to totally reshape / chamber the body, knock a good pound and a half off it. Because I miss the neck. I have a more sensible daydream of getting a TRBX204 — which, unlike the 304/504/604, is a PJ that has an unlaminated neck with BBx34 specs: 40mm nut, and a deep profile — ripping out the preamp, replacing the pickups with vintage-style SDs, and stringing with LaBellas. And you've just prompted a third daydream: reversing the pickup on my SB-1.

All the BB400S's I'm seeing as I Google it are fretless. Edit. Ahahaha as soon as I post that I start seeing plenty of fretted ones, so scrub that. But what's the S doing in the name? (For the BB-VIs it meant 32" scale length iirc, but presumably that's not the case here?)

The heaviest I've managed to find a reference to is this, not far off: "Found a nice American Standard P-bass neck made in 1995 that feels and plays great, but weighs a ton because of the tuners. Functionally high quality, but huge and heavy, 123g each"

Once this number had sunk in ( 😯 ) I did the rest of the sums. 4 × ultralight at 55g each = 220g. That 220g plus the 360g reduction = 580g previously .... so the fitted tuners were 145g each! Blimey 😳 Is that 145g going to be the typical weight of a tuner on Squier and MIJ p-basses? [As for the metric / imperial insanity: I think of things like tuners in g, whole basses in lb, nut widths in ⅛", neck depths in mm.... 😬 The conversion tool on my phone's calculator gets through a lot of work]

Oh yes, so it is

Now I've finished interacting with this is it possible to shoo it away?

I would be interested to hear the answer to this, too. I tried DTFs on my G&L, which has a spilt MFD, a pickup with a very strong personality. I found that the La Bellas were nonetheless the dominant partner in the resultant sound — like the strings were the core of the tone and the MFD just a filter. (A good sound but not what I wanted) So I'm curious to know which takes the upper hand when DTFs are put on a Stingray.

After a quick and breezy conversation on Monday, I bought a couple of sets of Rotosounds from Dan, and they arrived safe and well today 👍

The endless chaos of The White Album suited me very well when I was 14 and 15. Revolver I find too good, too varied for me to actually enjoy listening to it all in one go. I pity anyone whose ears are so jaded that they can't find satisfaction in Rubber Soul. For The Benefit Of Mr Kite is the only good track on Sgt Pepper. Never trust anyone whose favourite album is Abbey Road. John Lennon's performance of Rock & Roll Music forgives him everything and anything. A lot of their songs become more interesting once you forget about the idea that great artists = good people, eg latching onto the mean spirit running through Paperback Writer gives it a lot more depth, having the defiance of I Am The Walrus pointed out unlocked the song for me (tho' knowing Liam Gallagher's rendition of it should have made me realise that already) Going through the collections of early B-sides etc to pick out individual songs is well worth the effort. But despite having all these, and far too many other thoughts, no, the Beatles never had any chance of being my favourite, they're just a constant presence.

That doesn't answer my question of who made that decision, but the fact you skipped on to defending the decision indicates which direction the answer lies in. You've got a singer who is making a success of singing songs he wants to sing, and you're now wondering why he's not delighted that you're trying to oblige him to sing new stuff? Since you don't like the singer or his songs, why not just leave, and find a singer to play with who is more to your taste? You don't seem to doing a good job of manoeuvring this one into becoming what you want.

Who decided this, and when?

......

What a lovely bit of writing, I enjoyed that very much 😊

NNNNo