uncle psychosis

[quote name='timmo' timestamp='1427142542' post='2726431'] Something else I have learned today. Now I see the point of capos. Thanks for that [/quote] Thats not the really main point of capos. The purpose of a capo is to change the pitch of the open strings. This is particularly useful for guitarists who want to change the key of a song but still be able to use chord shapes that make use of open strings. They are less common amongst bassists (I've never seen a bass player use one) but they can be useful as a way of trying out what a shorter scale bass feels like to play as EssentialTension suggests.

Never bought from them but I have been aware of them for a very long time. Richard runs a forum that I was part of for a long time. He used to run "Regents Guitars" but I think they, err, went bust. Richard himself seems to be quite an interesting character---very passionate and wears his heart on his sleeve, can come across a bit confrontational as a result. He used to do some very generous giveaways at Christmas on his forum. That said, he has a very public committment to deliver quality instruments and I've never heard of anyone complain about the service they received from him as a customer. He seems to have a very high threshold for QC (he used to detail on the forum instruments he had rejected!) and will only stock brands he personally believes in and likes (he dumped Gordon Smith with a rather public and extremely scathing blog post slating their QC). It used to be the case that all of the guitars they sold came with a free setup (to the buyers specification). Suspect they still do, it was a big part of his sales spiel. If they had something I wanted at the right price I'd be happy to order from them but I'd maybe phone them to discuss it first (I don't know what their stock levels etc are like and frankly the website used to be rubbish, maybe its better now).

It's interesting to see what seems to be "normal" in different parts of the UK. In Edinburgh and Glasgow I've never encountered a practice room that *didn't* provide PA and mics, guitar amps, bass amp, and drum kit (minus cymbals). The drummer brings his own cymbals (and maybe his own snare), I take my bass/pedals , guitarist takes his guitar/pedals. No one has to pay extra to hire anything. If either myself or the guitarist are feeling really keen we could take our own amps but the ones in the practice rooms here are all fairly decent and tonal nuance isn't too important to us. Practice is always split equally.

No doubt this will be seen as an "argumentative" comment by some but the idea that this place is particularly aggressive strikes me as quite amusing. I can only imagine that the people who have that impression aren't on too many other forums? This place is incredibly friendly in comparison to almost anywhere else online! As for the regulars leaving, I've been away on holiday so no idea who we're talking about but it always happens on every forum I've ever been on (quite a few now). There's only so long you can discuss the same topics with the same people. Priorities change, lifestyles change. I myself have grown tired of forums and left them after thousands of posts and years of membership. Let's face it, all of us have drifted away from real life friends so why would Internet friends be any different?

[quote name='Cameronj279' timestamp='1425992605' post='2713125'] yup. heard a few people who went to get pickups changed and they've replaced the likes of £100 pickups with £40 ones etc. [/quote] I have heard that story but not about Jimmy Moon (who has an oustanding reputation as far as I'm aware). There is another luthier/repairer in Glasgow whose first name is Jimmy and whose name I was given in relation to horror stories but I'm not going to risk getting BC into trouble by posting his full name.

Lozz - when you distort a sound it gets naturally compressed. It's pay off the reason why people tend not to compress high gain sounds - they don't need to!

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1425906854' post='2712004'] How have we done since 2000? Here's a direct quote from one of the sites you linked to: '[font=Verdana][size=2]The new millennium saw a sea change in many countries fortunes with more and more entrants from the former Soviet Union leading to a massive issue with neighbour and diaspora voting, most shamelessly in those countries and those of the former Yugoslavia, that threatened the very future of the event. The power base in Eurovision most definitely moved to the East and South of the continent and to a select bunch of countries within that region.'[/size][/font] [/quote] Things might have changed but not because "everyone hates us" which is the point I was responding to.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1425901203' post='2711901'] People in other European countries simply have no sense of humour [/quote] What a magnificently enlightened attitude.

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1425839915' post='2711333'] that said, we could put in the greatest composition the world had ever heard and we still wouldn't win as the rest if Europe hate us! [/quote] This is a myth that gets trotted out every year and its just not true. The UK has won the bloomin' thing 5 times and came second fifteen times. On the "all-time" rankings we're near the top (if not actually at the top) depending on how you measure it. [url="http://www.nulpoints.net/rankings.htm"]http://www.nulpoints.net/rankings.htm[/url] [url="http://www.eurovisionhouse.nl/rankingat.php"]http://www.eurovisionhouse.nl/rankingat.php[/url] [url="http://www.eschome.net/databaseoutput122.php"]http://www.eschome.net/databaseoutput122.php[/url] We don't win because we don't try to. Things like the Norton/Wogan piss take comments are known to the other countries (last year the main coverage made a point of embarassing Norton live on air). If we stopped treating the entire thing like a joke and being really snide about the other entrants we'd be able to win it.

I'm fairly sure you can buy clones/build your own kits of the Power Boost circuit and I think it would probably be easy to modify them to make them bass friendly (although if you like the sound as is why change anything?)

The behringer bdi21 is basically a clone of the sansamp at a fraction of the price. I also really like the hartke bass attack. On a slightly different note, the zoom b3 is excellent fun for headphone practice.

Cris I used to have a TRB and I think I changed the battery once in the three years I owned it. You should be getting much better battery life! As for the question - I have to echo the advice of "at that budget, play everything you can". Good luck!

My current gripe about playing with other people is that the kind of tone you need to cut through in a rock band isn't really a tone that I like. Grr.

The Mooer phaser is really good. Its basically an exact clone of the MXR one anyway.

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1425322540' post='2706224'] I just think the attention's based on their gimmick, not the somewhat dated & unremarkable music they play. [/quote] For me this is the crux of it. I heard them before I knew it was just a drummer and a bass player and was thoroughly underwhelmed. Knowing that he gets those sounds through a bass made them more interesting for about as long as it took me to find out what his gear setup was. Now my opinion on them is "cool gear, completely forgettable songs". Still, life would be boring if we all liked the same stuff.

[quote name='dadofsix' timestamp='1424660171' post='2698899'] Small children can make any relationship rocky, at times. Without knowing more of your situation, I can only generalize. Forgive me if I offend in any way. Look, from your perspective, you're working hard, doing what you love, and getting paid to do it. From her perspective, you're out having fun WITH ADULTS, while she's trapped at home with two teeny weenies with all the responsibilities of a single mother when you're away. I'm not saying that it's fair that she's feeling this way but, when push comes to shove, I'm guessing she's feeling trapped in her situation without you there. Deep down, I don't think she wants you to change. What I DO think she wants is for you to recognize her sacrifice, for you to find appropriate and genuine ways of showing her how much you appreciate that sacrifice, for you to support her willingly and happily when she needs time to herself, or when she needs time with you. Marriage is hard work, to be sure. But it is infinitely easier if both partners feel that the other is pulling their weight in the responsibilities department. She's already had time to build up resentment. It will take time for that resentment to cool -- but it will. One last thing before I end this missive, never forget that she's the one who is answering your children's question: "Where is daddy tonight?" Do you want them to hear their mother tell them that: "Daddy is off working hard for us. He really wishes he could be here with us now but he can't, so make him feel extra special when you see him tomorrow." OR, do you want them to hear: "Your father is off with his friends having fun. He doesn't have any time for us." Daughters and sons learn from their father what it means to be the "man of the house." Just what are they learning from you? Make her feel appreciated. Go more than the extra mile in sacrificing your free time so she can remember what it's like being an adult without having children grabbing at her leg or feeling that she needs to immediately respond to a whiney voice. You married this woman knowing what was expected of you. You brought children into this world knowing how much would be demanded of you. I'm not saying you shouldn't pursue your dream. What I am saying is that you should do everything you can to show her how much you appreciate what she is sacrificing of her own dreams while you pursue yours. Best of luck to you and your family. <><Peace [/quote] This. This. This. Great post.

£70 for ten year old modelling technology when you can get a Zoom B3 for about £100 seems like a false economy to me. Fair enough if you really need the rack form factor or the midi functionality but in terms of raw sounds I think you can do a lot better.

[quote name='Ancient Mariner' timestamp='1424861395' post='2701191'] Yes, that's what I recall too, and agree about the price to a degree - they might have got away with £35-£40 but not £45-£60. Which is curious, because we'd happily spend a lot more on a pedal from someone else that sounds good, and if these don't sound good to us then why are we using them? You've got me wondering now if I should try to shoehorn the Jekyll and Hyde back on my board. [/quote] The Mooers I've tried have all *sounded* alright, my negativity towards the pricing is more based on ethics and a question over their quality. At £50 you can generally (there are exceptions) buy a second hand version of whatever it is they've ripped off. For instance, unless you're desperate for board space I'd rather buy a real RAT than their copy, especially because I know the Proco Pedal is bombproof whilst the longevity of these Mooers is still to be determined. Similarly, I'd rather buy a real Boss DS-1 or SD-1 or whatever it is than get the Mooer version. Some of the Mooer pedals are great buys, but lots of them aren't attractive enough to me to warrant buying them over the "real thing" for similar money. Buying them second hand they become more of a realistic prospect but *someone* out there must be buying them new.

[quote name='Ancient Mariner' timestamp='1424806823' post='2700706'] I had a Shimverb and an Ensemble chorus a couple of years back when they first appeared: the reverb side of the shimverb was good, though with high frequency artifacts, but the shimmer could be really off key. [/quote] The problem with the shimmer is that for some reason they set the pitch to a fifth and not an octave. So chordal stuff would sound pretty nasty pretty quickly.

I tend to think that at their original price of £28 or whatever it was the Mooers were a good buy but at full price (£50-60?) they're too expensive for me---that price range has a lot of other options.

The thread title made me think of this...

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1424034738' post='2691883'] I'd rather be caught w*****g than listening to Pink Floyd [/quote] Someone I know (and have no reason to disbelieve) told me once that they had met a young lady down the student union and were in the happy situation of going back to her place to continue the evening. Upon getting back to her student digs, they discovered that literally the only album she owned was Dark Side of The Moon. Being a sensible chap he realised what a horrid mistake he was in the process of making, made his excuses, and left

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1423934673' post='2690575'] Oh well! [/quote] It would be OK if you were gentle, but if you get too excited it wouldn't end well.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1423951798' post='2690907'] It may be perfect then, I have my pedals sat on a small table so's I can adjust the settings on the fly. I sit down to play, not very rock n roll I guess [/quote] Thats what I use mine for. Absolutely great for that, the angle is just right.