EssentialTension

[quote name='peteb' timestamp='1453932803' post='2964490'] ... rock music ... just doesn't have the stranglehold of popular (youth) culture that it did when I was a teenager ... [/quote] I understand what you're saying there and I don't of course dispute if it was like that for you but I have to say I never when I was a teenager/twenties in the 60s and 70s did it feel like only rock mattered. Rock was one thing but I was always also into blues, country, soul, ska, reggae, folk, jazz, ... just music really. And there was always plenty of rock I really did not like and still don't.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1453929715' post='2964432'] I'm not moaning about it. Merely stating a fact. By the way our band leader, lead guitar and front person is 29 year old female. Also no one in our band is old. Blue [/quote] She's a 20 something who likes rock? Shocking. You'll be old in someone's eyes. I certainly am.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1453928702' post='2964416'] We still attract and have a loyal following of the 60+ demographic. When the 20 somethings wonder into one of our shows they leave immediately. [/quote] It sounds to me that they leave 'cos you are a bunch of old gits. They are looking for young people to shag later on. It's not the music, it's you. [quote name='blue' timestamp='1453928702' post='2964416'] That's fine, we're lucky, we don't need their business. [/quote] So why do you keep moaning about them leaving?

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1453928116' post='2964408'] I'm not going to seek the advice of a 21 year old on the future of rock and roll being played live in clubs. [/quote] Blue, if you'd been in charge in the late 1950s and had the same attitude to 21 year olds as you do now, then Rock and Roll would never have got started. We'd still be listening to Perry Como. [quote name='blue' timestamp='1453928116' post='2964408'] I'm not sure rock and roll is even relevant to most 21 year olds. [/quote] Lots of young people are into rock, classic and otherwise. Maybe it's different in your world but that's how it is in the UK. However, the thing is, young people are not only into rock they are into all sorts of music. They are, in my experience, very open-minded about music.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1453927725' post='2964400'] Music [b]always[/b] involves money and other people. [b]Unless[/b] your strictly a bedroom player. Blue [/quote] So, not always, just sometimes.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1453927415' post='2964396'] ... younger people as a rule have little interest in rock and roll at the local bar/pub level. [/quote] That's a wise move on their part.

[quote name='GrammeFriday' timestamp='1453916914' post='2964227'] Photobomb: [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photobombing"]https://en.wikipedia...ki/Photobombing[/url] DB = double bass. [/quote] [quote name='GrammeFriday' timestamp='1453917389' post='2964234'] Or if you prefer the OED: [url="http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/photobomb"]http://www.oxforddic...glish/photobomb[/url] [/quote] I can't see it myself but if you say so.

[quote name='Marvin' timestamp='1453919245' post='2964269'] Love it. It'd be interesting to see a bass made of cardboard given the amount of tension. [/quote] Surely, the total tension on a six-string guitar neck is substantially more than the tension on a four string bass neck?

Eventually I must.

I know one guy who always plays a five string but other than him I can't remembr when I last saw a fiver at a gig.

[quote name='colgraff' timestamp='1453913953' post='2964181'] Actually, if you are 20, 30, 40 or 50 you don't get a go at all because the options specify 'between'. Having said that, for those more pedantic than me, and there are some (maybe), a person who is 30 and one day would go in the 30 - 40 category because they are older than 30. [/quote] Correct, so it's even worse than I thought.

Verdi's [i]La Traviata[/i] at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on Saturday 30th.

Better statistical groups on the 2013 model.

... or 2014 figures [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/226298-what-is-the-average-age-of-bcers"]http://basschat.co.u...ge-age-of-bcers[/url] [b] How old are you[/b][list=1] [*]between 10-20 (9 votes [5.39%]) [*]between 20-30 (23 votes [13.77%]) [*]between 30-40 (31 votes [18.56%]) [*]between 40-50 (43 votes [25.75%]) [*]between 50-60 (47 votes [28.14%]) [*]older than Methsahla (14 votes [8.38%]) [/list] Notice that if you are 20, or 30, or 40. or 50 you have two goes at it.

[quote name='GrammeFriday' timestamp='1453904233' post='2964029'] Great photobomb from the DB, there! [/quote] I have no idea what that means.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1453902698' post='2964002'] DJs and discos have been supposedly killing live music since at least the mid 70s. They can't be doing a very good job. [/quote] They said the same thing about wax cylinders.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1453888742' post='2963740'] And yet another thread about how there's no more gigs and that they are mostly crap and that it's all too much effort. What a load of bollocks! There are plenty of great paying gigs available provided that: 1. Your band is entertaining 2. Your band is prepared to put in the effort to go and get them I was going to write a whole load more explaining the above, but TBH if you need it explaining, you are probably never going to get it. My band is out there doing songs we wrote ourselves playing paying gigs pretty much every weekend because we are entertaining and because between the various members of the band we put in 20-30 hours a week promoting the band to get the gigs that we want. And that's what is required if you want gigs that pay and have a decent audience in attendance. Besides nowadays if you want to make money out of music, gigging is the product which has value because it can't be copied, and even a good video of a show is no where near the same as actually being there. It's not like the past where bands toured to promote sales of their album and it was acknowledged that touring lost money but that was outweighed by increased record sales as a result of people seeing the band live. Today when a digital copy of your music, no matter how obscure your band is, can be easily found for free on-line, the recording (and video) is now the promotional device to get people to come to the gig where ticket and merchandise sales are money makers. [/quote] Correct.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1453852399' post='2963556'] 1. Many bass players don't gig. [color=#ff0000]Well, some bass players don't gig but in fact many bass players do gig.[/color] 2. Gigging is not as popular as it once was. [color=#ff0000]You'd need some proper statistical evidence for this from outside of Basschat but in my experience gigging is as popular as it ever was, even among younger musicians. It's never been so easy to be in a band with quality equipment and a range of instrumentation and talented players. If I wasn't satisfied with my life then I would have to be envious of young musicians.[/color] 3. Many feel it's not worth it. [color=#ff0000]And many feel it is worth it. Perhaps you meant 'some' not 'many'.[/color] 4. Good gigging opportunities are drying up, especially in the UK. [color=#ff0000]It's true that some gigs of certain kinds have reduced in numbers but, again in my experience, people who want to gig are quite capable of running their own shows if needs be. It's how ET junior got into promoting as well as playing. I think, as well, that the opportunities for gigging are different in different places. A friend who lived in Leighton Buzzard had very minimal opportunities to gig. But here in Brighton with two sixth-form colleges, an FE college, two universities, hundreds and hundreds of foreign exchange students, and loads of middle class hippies and rude boys ... lots of gigs.[/color] 5. Playing bass has become a solo at home hobby for many. [color=#ff0000]Again, I think you must mean 'some' not 'many' - but why would that even matter?[/color] 6. Bass players are no longer will to put in the effort to gig. [color=#ff0000]Well, 'some' maybe but even then it may not be about effort at all. It may be other commitments, other interests, time constraints, geographical constraint, etc. etc.[/color] [/quote] [color=#ff0000]I am 64 and still gigging (on and off) with two bands. I reckon I have maybe ten years more gigging in me. I'd still gig then if I was fit enough and had a roadie. But music is just one of my hobbies. I have hinterland. I have other interests. I have family. I have NOT spent my life dissatisfied and wishing I was a professional musician.[/color]

I'm using La Bella 760FS Deep Talking Flats on a fretless Takamine B10.

I can hear why Jamerson might be suspected but I'd bet it's Ciccone who was also a very good player.

[quote name='Rick's Fine '52' timestamp='1453667288' post='2961620'] So, in summary, some basses have dead spots, and some don't. [/quote] And who would have thought it?

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1453658717' post='2961496'] ... a dead spot to some extent - where one or two notes ... have slightly lesser sustain than the surrounding notes ... [/quote] Hardly sounds worth worrying about then. [quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1453658717' post='2961496'] ... So I find the "Well, [i]my[/i] Fenders never have dead spots" response of some posters entertaining ... [/quote] Not as entertaining as 'Well, [i]all [/i]Fenders [i]always[/i] have dead spots'.

[quote name='ubit' timestamp='1450526338' post='2933591'] Old flats= dead spots New rounds= musical bliss [/quote] Not at all in my experience.

[quote name='Rick's Fine '52' timestamp='1453654670' post='2961439'] I've never had a Fender with a deadspot ... [/quote] Neither have I. Everytime I read a thread like this I have to go and check and everytime ... no dead spot.

[quote name='Cameronj279' timestamp='1453647620' post='2961342'] How many people here actively seek out new music? [/quote] I'm searching for new music the whole time. I don't mean only newly made music; I mean music I haven't heard before. It could be from 2016 or from 1925. It would drive me nuts always to be hearing the same stuff over and over again. It's because I have heard the new stuff that I can still enjoy listening to the old stuff.