uncle psychosis

So, let me see if I get this straight. I buy a bass on ebay, for a steal---the seller doesn't know what they've got, bad pictures, silly auction times, local collection only, whatever. Two weeks later I get made redundant. In that situation I should turn round to my wife and say "yes dear, I know we have to pay the mortgage and feed our child, and that that bass is worth £400 more than I paid for it any day of the week, but I can't sell it for its true market value because that wouldn't be cool" . Right you are. The simple fact is that very few of us know very little about the personal circumstances of anyone else on this site. Is Poster A "flipping" a bass purely for profit, or is he trying to raise funds in a hurry to go and see his sick grandmother in Australia? Has he just been made unemployed? Does his band need the capital to release an EP? Maybe they are a poor student and the extra cash will pay for them to eat for six months. Not everyone who trades on this site can afford to just give stuff away for cheap, as much as they might like to. Honestly, this is just as silly as the people who get upset at offers. If someone is selling something and you don't like their pricing, walk away. If you think someone is consistently flipping stuff purely for profit then maybe, maybe have a word with a mod---their site, their rules. I'll say something, though---in the current climate I'd be seriously impressed if anyone is able to consistently buy and sell stuff and actually make any real money on it. Bargains are available to everyone, its a bad time to be selling *anything*.

Really fast neck, plays like buttah.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1360325839' post='1968600'] I prefer the feeler posts ................'not sure if i want to sell this but'..........??????? [/quote] That one is a massive red flag to me. It suggests that the seller may well change their mind once you've agreed a deal. Either sell, or don't.

The key to improving is methodical practice and repetition. If I'm trying to learn something new then I try and spend a few minutes (or longer) on it everytime I practice. If you get stuck then there's no point getting frustrated---that doesn't help---just move on and come back to it another time. Doing one or two minutes of something every day before moving on is better than spending a frustrated hour on it once a week.

It will help if you give us an idea of your budget. Delay pedals in particular can get expensive very quickly!

I'd have to agree. The production on a lot of the Weather Report stuff has not aged well.

[quote name='Bobby K' timestamp='1360282219' post='1968197'] I've never been sure but this was the only reason I could ever come up with for Andy's F# tuning, so it's good to hear somebody else say it I first learnt the songs in normal tuning, but later re-learnt it in F# tuning - it's actually much easier to play that way, so it made total sense. It should be noted though, that not all of the songs were played that way. There's a lot of stuff in standard tuning too (but the older stuff is predominantly F#) [/quote] Well, How Soon is Now and that version of "What Difference Does It Make" are definitely played with either a capo on 2 or in F#, and I'm sure there are many others too. Also, if any of you are interested in the Smiths I cannot recommend the book "Songs that Saved Your Life" by Simon Goddard highly enough. Its basically a song-by-song analysis of the Smiths, with a focus on how/when the song was written, where the lyrical content comes from, any studio tricks they used, obvious influences etc. Here's an extract from the bit on "How Soon Is Now": [i][color=#000000][font=Arial]"The compelling effect in question was achieved without the aid of samplers or digital simulators, but manually on traditional analogue equipment. The first step involved taking a basic rhythm guitar part, which had been recorded as a 'dry' DI (direct-input) take without any effects. Porter was already in the habit of taping a safety DI guitar track for every Smiths recording in case needed to alter or manipulate the sound at a later point in the mixing process. The song's texture was further enhanced by Porter's employment of noise gates and the same dry guitar track fed through a quarter note delay signal. 'I had all these combinations which were pretty much all the same guitar but through various faders', says Porter, 'each with slightly different sounds on. It was a combination of all these things'.[/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Arial]This dry guitar pattern was next relayed to four Fender Twin Reverb amplifiers, each with its own vibrato tremolo switch. As Marr's plain rhythm was played back through the speakers, Porter and Marr controlled the vibrato on one pair of amplifiers apiece to create the swampy, shuddering texture required. Whenever their tremolo slipped out of sync, the recording was stopped, the tape spun back and recommenced, sometimes recording in bursts of only ten seconds at a time."[/font][/color][/i]

[quote name='Bobby K' timestamp='1360271926' post='1967980'] Did you notice he played in F# Lemoncello (each string up a whole step) - I've never really got to the bottom of why he did that..... [/quote] Jonny Marr played a lot of Smiths songs with a capo on the 2nd fret (or he tuned his guitar up). I imagine it was easier for Andy Rourke to have the open strings in the same place. This is one of my favourite Smiths songs, and its also one of my favourite bass lines to play (the guitar part is also brilliant fun) [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTBkML3iUNo[/media]

Personally speaking, I wouldn't care about whether or not a label was "major". I'd care about the terms of the deal.

[quote name='Elvis Valentine' timestamp='1360156426' post='1965710'] Hey ho gentle folk, Bit of a newbie question, i was wondering when using a multi effects unit is it best to have it go into your amp eq'd flat (the amp i mean) and then make the noises you want eq'd in the box? Like specifficly for example the zoom b9u which acts as a sort of [b]poweramp[/b] right? [/quote] Its a preamp, isn't it? A common way of using these things for this purpose is to plug them straight into the FX Return of the amp you're using---this bypasses the amp's own preamp section and lets you use your multifx as a preamp.

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1360149907' post='1965533'] I have bought and sold a lot on here. My feedback was a hot topic a while back. Sad, eh? I have only had two minor irritations during transactions, both as a buyer. I always pay immediately, never mess about. One seller made up some cock and bull story about the post office holding on to the package for a week before it sent it out (which was repeated to the next buyer, I noticed). Another seller kept radio silence for a week or so - I PMd about the whereabouts of the item and he said he had been too busy to get in touch - some people have such busy lives! However he had found the time to post a picture of himself in the 'post pictures of yourself' thread and also a video of his band in a similar thing. I guess different people have different priorities. But the overwhelming majority of dealings have been a pleasure. [/quote] This kind of thing is also very annoying. If I know I'm going to have a busy week or two, then I don't list things for sale---if its listed, then its because I will have the time to post it. If I don't get it posted for some reason, then I let the buyer know immediately.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1360145107' post='1965429'] I suppose, what I`m after really is a kind of Mike Dirnt type sound from my current set-up, where it`s warmed up slightly, but will have some gain on it when I hit the strings harder, much like a valve-amp really. I`m sure the DHA would do this at a lower gain setting, plus, would be nice to buy British as well. I`ve seen the Hartke VXL clips and not overkeen on it. So far it`s between the DHA and the Aggie - and I like both, aaaarrrggghhh! [/quote] Well, the DHA is, essentially, just a valve amp in pedal form, so it sounds like it might do what you want. One thing that I did find irritating about the DHA was the appearance. Not because I didn't like the finish---I did---but because it [i]looks[/i] like a homebrew job every time I used it live I'd have to spend five minutes convincing the venue's sound engineer that it wasn't going to blow up his PA / amp / whatever. It got to be a little tedious, in all honesty. If I were you I'd probably decide by watching the classifieds and seeing which one turns up first

I owned the very same pedal that hamfist demoed (I bought it from him). I thought it sounded very nice but I only really used it as a clean preamp, occasionally I'd add a bit of hair and it sounded pretty good to my ears. I sold it because it was just total overkill for what I needed, and I wanted something that didn't need a power supply. If you're not looking to colour the sound too much maybe you want something with a clean blend? I use a Hartke Bass Attack now, again mostly as a clean preamp but the clean blend feature is really useful for maintaining the characteristics of your bass.

Good work. I've owned three Vintage guitars/basses---one of them was very nice indeed (ask McNach about that one...) and the other two were solid, decent budget instruments. My main issue with them is the name---"vintage" is a horrible name to google when looking for guitar gear! Not sure I could ever be an endorsee of anything, though. I don't think I could keep a straight face when asked to do that moody "this is my bass and I rock hard" publicity shot

[quote name='guido21' timestamp='1360124072' post='1965217'] After all the helpful comments I'm afraid I need to throw a spanner in the works.... I've stumbled upon a Squier vintage modified P bass, any thoughts compared to the Yammys? [/quote] Those are pretty popular in these parts and would certainly be a more than decent bass. Modern Squiers (especially the slightly higher end models) are very good indeed. Personally, I'd probably still pluck for a Yamaha, but given that both the basses I own are Yammys I'm probably a bit biased. If someone gave me a VM Squier I'd be very happy indeed

[quote name='Inti' timestamp='1360110025' post='1965126'] Stop it right here and this may well be the last time I post outside the sell buy section. I had NEVER any problem with people not liking what I do. The problem began when people refused to respect my view of art not being entertainment. If you failed to notices that, well that says a lot about your reading comprehension and about your participation in his thread. [/quote] Why should anyone respect your views when you've repeatedly called many of the players on this site "clowns" and even "whores"? You don't seem to have any respect for us, why should we give it to you?

[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1360109729' post='1965123'] Oh, I think it's perfectly understandable to dislike something without being jealous of it. And thinking that all criticism is just jealously is nuts. BUT...there are people will love to hate and give them the opportunity to do it behind a computer screen without consequence and they'll take it. And sometimes, the better the poster is than them, the bigger they feel by attacking it. Again, not always -- but sometimes. At any rate, I was clear that wasn't the case here. No one was bashing the OP. There were a few comments regarding the music choice and that got him in a snit. [/quote] I agree with you. Storming off in a huff because a couple of strangers on the internet said "good chops, but not my cup of tea" is quite impressive, really.

[quote name='Inti' timestamp='1360108087' post='1965099'] I asked for this thread o be deleted. I really don't feel like sharing anything with you right now, not after being criticized by people like uncle psychosis and after hearing his band. It gives quite a good picture of the kind of people who likes talking about art as entertainment. [/quote] Please quote the post where I criticised you.

[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1360106798' post='1965073'] It's interesting -- a lot of times on forums when someone post music people will knock it for petty reasons. In most cases they just resent someone else doing something so they have to put it down out of resentment, jealousy or who knows what.. Then they hide behind the "only being honest" or "if you can't take criticism don't post" sayings. They're more interested in being part of a clique than actually learning, sharing and evaluating. But that wasn't the case here at all. Everyone was quite complementary. And in return, the OP has been snarky, condescending and belligerent. Good thing he doesn't care about pleasing people or anyone critiquing to his music, because with that attitude he won't have that worry.' [/quote] I never understood the "you're just jealous" argument (it comes up a lot when discussing people like John Mayer). It just doesn't make sense---I love all sorts of bands that are a million times more talented, richer, more critically acclaimed, and better looking than I will [i]ever[/i] be, but yeah, they're absolutely right, I don't like the youtube video of some random dude playing in his bedroom because I'm jealous

I don't really have a problem with people who express an interest and then back out---[i]so long as they tell you.[/i] Good communications is by far the most important ingredient in trading here. Admittedly, people saying "I'll take it, how do you want paying" who then disappear are a bit annoying, but I've only encountered that once, thankfully.

[quote name='Inti' timestamp='1360105998' post='1965058'] I think it's very sad you're posting here just out of resentment from other threads with nothing constructive to say. [/quote]

[quote name='Inti' timestamp='1360104705' post='1965024'] There's quite a difference between music made for the sake of creation and the one made for entertainment. [/quote] I think its very sad that you think there needs to be a distinction.

I'd definitely send the gig bag back!